Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper. You are live from Path. And you're listening to the live from the Path. We're coming from the Pathway Studios here in Junction Proper. It's possibly very lovely to be with you tonight, although I suppose it really depends on what's going on. Maybe you you've recently run out of candy in your house, and you're angry, and I wouldn't wanna be around you. Why do you always say, and you're listening to live from the past? I like to feel like we were we were having a friendly conversation to start. Oh, gotcha. Do you think is it not is it not working? Don't know why I just noticed it today. Continuing the conversation. Yeah. And oh, and we're Yeah. Yeah. Now that we got over those that M and M thing now, and you're listening to Life From The Path. Alright. Hey. Okay. We got a really cool show prepared for you today, and I need you to remember that I always tell you the truth. So sometimes when the show starts, I say, it's gonna be a real dumpster fire. As a matter of fact, if you look back at the show notes and titles, there is one called dumpster fire. And so when the show's gonna be bad, I'll generally tell you the show's gonna be bad, and it's okay to skip it. Tonight, however, I actually think it's gonna be pretty top notch. K? And so here's what we got going on on the show tonight. First, we have a couple special guests in the room. First is my friend, Vanek, from Cambodia, and we're gonna learn he's got a he's got a cool story,

and he's gonna share about you with you the things that God's got him involved in in Cambodia. And we were just talking on the way over here, I think just all kinds of cool stuff. And so hi, Vanek. Hi. Okay. There you go. See, he's ready to go. Yeah. Very great to be here. So I my name is Vanek, and I come from Cambodia. Awesome. So I just been here in the state for two weeks, and very excited to be here. So I hope every listener will feel okay with my pronunciation or my actions. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be good. Yeah. Think you're gonna do fantastic, and frankly,

we talk real fast around here. You might be the most legible dude. Yeah. And so so we're gonna talk to Vinak and and learn more about him in just a second. And also, Cody, enter the McCormick, is is here in studio. Again, it's good to see you, Cody. Yeah. Good to see you too. However, I do have a question. Michael, when I talked to you, I didn't get the dress code, so I felt a little underdressed. Woah. So

I figured I'd put a little tie on here for you. Yeah. See, that's a class act right there, I figured since I never got to do a show with Donald Yeah. That that we bring a little bit with him. Yeah. I think that's totally fair. Hey, man. Here's what I'm gonna tell you right now is these two fellows are classing up the joint. Mike has his boot on the counter. I turned the camera so I wasn't also in your camera just to add to the classiness. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alright. And Dan looks like he just drove by a 20 fourseven fitness

but went nah. I didn't know. Not today. No, not, no. Okay, I tell you what, there is nothing that weighs on me heavier than when I buy a gym membership because it is the least likely thing I'm gonna do. Like I always think this, I should do this. This is good. And then like the first week I think I'm gonna go three, four times this week. I'm like, yes, I nail it. And then week number two shows up and every opportunity I would have to go is eaten up by something completely not gym related. And so, and then it's like two weeks will go by and I haven't gone on at all. And I thought it's not even about wasting the money. It just feels like I made a promise that I will never ever, ever keep. And then I have to look at my own belly as I drive and my winded air as I go up a staircase, and I think, you could have gone to the gym, Mike, but you didn't. The question is for years, years that I have not used in years, and I still every night think, yeah, tomorrow's it. Tomorrow's that day. Fortunately, it's only like 10.95 a month, so I feel like I'm, you know At work, we refer to that as our fat tax. Yeah. Oh. So And every time I think, well, well, no. Just cancel it. Well, then that's that's admitting defeat. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't wanna do that. Because you gotta go in there to cancel it. This is the outside is the the big fat shammy. Was to like, the local high school has a weight room. Yeah. And so we we have a membership there. And, like, it's nothing but teenage boys with the guns out. Always using the machine for old people. Right? They can use the free weights. I can't. I'm a I'm a I'm a tension man. I use the resistance things or whatever. The things on cables. This is me. Yeah. And, like, there's always some guy, and he always purposely sets it to like the highest possible weight setting and then stands there and watches me move it back down. I'm like, go away.

Okay. A guy that I think maybe doesn't have this problem. Vinik. Yeah. Okay. So let let's start with folks who don't know anything about you. Maybe just give a little bit of of your background. So we we already covered your from Cambodia, but, like, maybe maybe let's start with how you met

Jesus. Because I think that starts to inform how people understand the all the things that happened in your life life kind of after that So maybe let's let's maybe a little bit about your childhood and how you met Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit about about my childhood. Actually, I was born in a Buddhist family. Before getting married to my mom, my father was a monk for nine year. And my mother also very active in Buddhist temple,

we call pagoda. But I always have a bad experience with my dad, you know, because he, yeah, drank very often. Every time he go out for zrekmani or like a party or waiting, he always come home and drunk and he always

do bad thing against And I kind of a domestic violence and sometimes I remember one day he come home and, you know, scare me a lot when he asked for my my mom and my two sister. He asked, Where's your mom? Where's your sister? I say, I don't know. Then he used a very long knife that

we used to cut tree to make a food for pig. And then he scare me to like chop over my head like this, you know, to scare me. It was a very bad experience. And when I when we moved to live in a capital city sometime, he also like when he come home at night, carry a like a big jar of water just to chase me behind and and all these bad things, you know, I always promise myself that I will not leave with my father when I grow up or when I have a job to do. Because in Cambodia we normally live as extended family. Yeah. Yeah, because my children take care of their old parents, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. But you have to

did he have to stop being a monk to have a family? I guess I don't under I don't know how it works. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I said, you know, he he was a monk for nine year before he got married. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, okay. So you must be, you know, stop being a monk To do that. So that you can get married. Is that pretty common? Do have to people Yeah, it's common. Makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Do, as a, this is gonna show what I don't know about Buddhism. That, do you have to go to a service or like, do you do things to participate in your community as a Buddhist? Is there like a church service? Yeah. Yeah. No, normally, those who are Buddhist always go to pagoda. Like, they have like a holiday,

like a holiness, like a holiday, and then normally like old people or young people, they always go and offer the food to the monk so that the monk can dedicate the food to their incencer. Yeah, and a lot more practice. And did you, would you participating in those types of things as you were growing up? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Because my family is a Buddhist family, so we have to, yeah, practice this master. Okay. So you moved to the capital city. City. And was he was your dad was this at you specifically or is he kinda like this with your whole family?

With the whole family. Not just me, you know? Yeah. He's terrible when he's drinking. It's just difficult. But you know, my elder sister and my older sister, sometimes they just run away from home whenever they know that, Oh, my dad is Yeah, yeah. And for me, at that time, you know, I was fine and even when I a bit older, I also stay at home most of the time and when I was studying, sometime

he scold or do bad thing against me. Yeah. So to cut it short, how I get to know Yeah. I get to know Christ when I was 15 years old. One day when I was playing football, it is here in the state, say soccer. When I play soccer

at my high school, one of the youth leader come to me and call me, Brother, do you want to play football with my team? You know, the word that he used, brother, really captures my heart at that time. Yeah. Because the way that he speak to me is very polite. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I immediately respond to him, Yes, I play football with your team. Yeah. And then later on, he invited me to go to church. Yeah. Yeah. At that time, I remember that we about to prepare the Christmas celebration

and then I joined a youth group in order to, you know, like perform in a skit for like Christmas celebration. Yeah. Yeah. And then this is how I get to know Yeah. But when I get to know Christ, I see that thing change in my life. I love my father. Why I love my father? Because the Lord, my God, love me. He love me so much. And he command me to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Yeah. And love your neighbor as yourself. And who is your closest neighbor? It's my parents. Yeah. It's my family. Yeah. That's why, you know, he changed me from the inside out. I declare to myself that for sure he is the one true God that saves my life. I love my father.

No condition. It doesn't matter he is drunkard. Yeah. Yeah. But you know when I accept to cry, when my parents know about this, they stop me from going to church. They say, No, you cannot accept to cry. Jesus is a foreigner God, you know. They say, Oh, Jesus is God from another country. They say, Oh, believe in Jesus, you are not allowed to honor your parent or believe in Jesus, you are not allowed to cry or sad when ever your relative pass away and then you only sing a song or something like that, you know, like misunderstanding about cry because It's such an interesting perception though, is that like the belief about Christians is that they don't mourn death, which is kind of true.

It's just such an interesting thing to stick out is that like that you would go, they don't even allow you to properly mourn that someone has passed away. It stood out to me that that's what your mom would think. I mean, it's kinda true. Yeah, because, you know, people like look from outside. They do not understand or can be misunderstand

about Christian faith. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We don't grieve like the rest of those who have no hope. So Right. Someone would hear that and go, oh, what do mean? I want you to grieve for me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And is there is there is there something when you you talk about mourning your parents, like, from a Buddhist perspective, are there particular things that generally happen when someone passes away that she would is worried that you couldn't participate in because of that? Or No. Okay. You know, normally, yeah, we participate in it doesn't matter whether, you know, you are

a Buddhist or Christian. Okay, yeah, yeah. But normally, when people do not understand, they just, you know, like bring up the thing that Yeah. The weird thing. Yeah. That's weird. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So in in that religion, do they is there, like, you you mentioned you do go to the temple and stuff. Is is there moral teaching each week or is it just you go and do like sacrifices and stuff and offerings or is there like teaching with the monks or? No, normally people always go to the pagoda in order to offer something. Like they can offer food or can be money to the monk. Yeah. And I've been at those in Taiwan before. I've

there but I haven't like, I didn't know if there's like teaching that goes on in There's also, there's also teachings. Mhmm. Yeah. And, But it's not just about teaching, it's about practice in Buddhist traditional belief. We need to

bow our head, worship the kind of a status, you know, Buddha status or the monk and then ask the monk to because normally, you know, laypeople do not like dedicate themselves about the food or money or whatever,

but they go to the pagoda in order to ask the monk to do this for. Or sometimes they invite the monk to their home in order to do any ceremony for them. It depends on what kind of ceremony do you want. Yeah. Even though during your wedding or like a funeral or a kind of a blessings ceremony also, you know, can invite monk to your house in order to say a blessing. Yeah, yeah. So your families then teach you that you hand it down to the next generation so you know to go to the monk. Mean, yeah. It means that it is just like a practice that we, like everyone in the family or everyone in community, we follow one another. Okay, I see this practice. And then when I grow up, also practice the same Yeah.

So to your mom and dad, like when you accepted Christ, that's just like, we don't like it or no, no, no, very bad? Because they do not know about Christ, so they, you know, obviously reject. And especially, my dad said, You are the only one son in the family. I expected you to be a monk when Yeah. You finish high Something like that. Because normally for a son

in a family, they at least want their son to be a monk for three months or can be for six months or can be a year. And if you like it, maybe you can be a monk for many year. So does that mean all boys are monks for a little bit? Yes. Okay. It must be. Okay. And also most of the family, when their parent pass away, they be a monk for can be

three day or or seven day. Yeah. It mean that Ethiopia act of a repay, you know, like the great issue Yeah. Yeah. To to their to their parents. I understand. Yep. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. So you you're you're 15. You you meet you meet Jesus. You're introduced to Jesus through the coach. Were you pretty good at soccer? Not really good, but I I I really love soccer. Yeah. I I play all the time. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. And so and then your parents find out, and you said that they stopped you from going to church. They said, we don't you can't go did did they also mean that you couldn't play football anymore to you? No, no. They do not say about that. They just only, you know, stopped me from going to church. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But, you know, I still, you know, I still go to church. But when I was worshiping the Lord and a lot of time, you know, I turned back and I afraid that my parents chase me behind. Yeah, later on they You're disobeying them and going, yeah. Yeah, and later on they stopped me again, so I stopped going to church for one year. Yeah. Later on, my dad know

a youth leader, and he sit down and talk with the youth leader, and then youth leader talk about football. Yeah. And then he said, Oh, I have a son who really loves, you know, And then that youth leader said, Okay, can you send me his photo so that I can fill in application form to add him into my football team. Uh-huh. Yeah. And then he said, Okay. Then he come home and bring my, you know, small

photo and then you do that youth leader. So that youth leader invite me to go to church and then, yeah, and play football with his team. Yeah, then. So this is where I start, like, believe in God. Yep, yeah. I'm here now for sure. But I want to tell you that things change from the inside out. I love my father. Yeah. I honor my parent for sure. Yeah. Do you know what happens next when my mom sees things change like this? She no longer misunderstand

about Christ. Yeah. Sometimes she go to market and then people say the same thing that she said to me. She said, Oh, you don't believe in Jesus. You are not allowed to honor or you are not honor your parents, something like that. And then she jumped in. She said, No, God, my son believe does not do like that. Yeah. My son really honor me and my husband. Yeah. Yeah, you see? And then some people, and sometimes he go back to church, or to the

market, and then people say, You know, you believe in crime, you got a lot of like support and benefit, like Yeah. Because, you know, Christians, we love people and we share love to the needy and we support for sure. So they see like that, maybe, you know, they said, Oh, make maybe she's not making money or food. Yeah, guess. And then my mom chime in, my mom say, No. My son always support the church. Yeah. He go to church, he support the church and he sacrifice his time for the church. Yeah. And later on, you know, she know all my schedule like, Okay,

Tuesday morning I go for prayer morning and Thursday evening I go for cell group meeting. And then Saturday I go for youth fellowship and Sunday for church service. So she know all my schedule and she encourage me. Sometime I wake up, let's see, Oh, son, get up and go to church. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty amazing. Praise God. Because you because, like that whole story about about how you grew up, like that had to make you kinda angry. Right? Like just the whole thing. And then God just comes in and like changes that completely. And it's not like you were asking God to do it. Like, God, you gotta help me do better. He just does and then made that. And like, that's a really, really cool story. Yeah. Yeah. Praise God for this. Yes. So what happens as you

you're you you get you start playing football for the for the youth for the youth leaders team? Yeah. And so what kinda happens from there? How does that get you from there to what you're doing today? Okay. For sure, when I start to go to church, yeah, God changed me from the inside out, like I said. Mhmm. Yeah, from time to time. I see that because I live in a nachy contractions,

like a messy contractions in my area where I live. Yeah. But you know people like a lot of gangster truck addicted. Yeah. So I do not use all this. From time to time, spend time, most of my time, at the church and hang out with friends from church and

share the love of Christ to other people. This is the thing changed in my life. Yeah. So then I see that God called me back to serve other way more than what I do just for the church, but also for my own community as well. So I started up a ministry called Child Development Ministry,

and right now we support over 300 children. Wow. So our reason, we want to see life transformed through education, faith, and community development for the glory of God. And is that a key need? Like you, so you're focusing on childhood education. Maybe help people understand what's it like? Why is this a need that's there? Are there not otherwise schools available or does education stop at a certain point? What are the education needs in the area? Yeah, when you ask about this, let me go back a little bit further. I do not know how many people know about Cambodia. We had gone through a dark period. It's called

Genocide region. The leader, that leader in that region killed nearly 2,000,000 people. Oh, wow. High educated person, teacher, professor,

leader, all killed. Yeah. After Port Port region, we have only about 200 believer. Only about 200 believer. Yeah. And Cambodia start from zero. Most of educated person all gone. Yeah. And was that was that on purpose?

Like he was targeting the higher ups of the society to get rid Yes. Of Yeah. You know, the leader, they targeted all the professor, high educated person. Yeah, like the revolution in China.

Even though you are, you know, for this I don't want to go a little bit deeper to a very, like, the hidden power behind or like a kind of political things. I just want to say that, you know, it destroys. So education also destroys. Yeah. When one generation is already destroyed, it's hard for us to restore the country For sure. So Cambodia just have first general election back in 1993. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. And after 1993,

after the general election, we still have first prime minister and second prime minister. You see? Say yeah. Yeah. This country mean that we still, you know, have like political or internal conflict that we need to for a very long time. Right. Still very young, like Yeah, very young. Of what it's like to work off not someone that's ruling over everyone but through these elections and things. Yeah, so right now, job employment is mostly, only, like,

in a few major capital city. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we have Phnom Penh capital city, Siem Reap Province or Matambon Province. I can mention these three main areas that there are a lot of job employment. Yeah. But beside that, because we have 25

provinces, so a lot of people live in a remote area. Yeah. So when parent move out from home in order to find a job to do, they left the children behind. So they need interventions Yeah. In order to help them. Yeah. Yeah. So our ministry,

we go to the community, we serve the people in the community, especially the needy children. Since the education system is still not really functioning well, we want to partner with the government.

We also partner with the government in order to help. Yeah. Because when the public school is not enough for them, because three to four hour per day is not enough. So our learning center play a very important role in order to support the public school. Yeah. To provide more what we call supplemental program for the student. And then when they come home, we do not want to see them go home and hunger. We provide food for them and at the same time we teach them Bible study

and also, you know, take care for their family, reach out community by have a home visit and also, you know, do a community outreach with the people. This is how we reach out people for Christ through our ministry. Yeah. Boy, that's it's so well, was that like the need is need is there and you talked about kind of the reasons of which it reminded me of the story,

and Vanek and I were talking about this a little bit earlier, Rodney Stark wrote a book called The Rise of Christianity. And like it was actually a very similar story is that in, you know, if you look in first century or second century when a society that just kinda tossed kids away. It's like if they had a girl or they had a baby that they didn't want, they would just set it outside to die from exposure and get to the animals. And it was the Christians who would you know, just go, okay, there's the team of people who goes out every night and just looks for anybody who was like a left a kid out and then goes provides care. And it made me, I thought of that, that early story from Christianity when Vanek was talking about,

you know, I I the parents are in a rough position here. Like, if the work is in the capital city, like, it's it seems unconscionable to leave a kid. But like, I think these these are hard situations for for families. Mhmm. And God is providing a way for us for the the orphan or the folks who can't be who don't have food or whatever to be cared for through the work work that you're doing and through these education centers. Now I guess the question becomes, like, do people know that it's from people who are Christians who are providing these education centers? Yes, they exactly know because we work with the church and we

ask the church to function this. It's not from like any NGO or in Cambodia we have a non governmental organization. So we don't want to show us non governmental organization. It is a church. For sure, it is a ministry of the church. So when exactly they know we are Christian. So when we share like that. But you know, people, sure a lot of people, or I can say majority of people, they don't care whether you are Christian or Buddhist. When you care about them, we soft their heart, soften their heart. Because,

you know, love, there is no uh-huh. Like, it's always like there is no color for love, you Yes, yes. They really open because you really care about them. You care about their children, you care about them personally. Yeah, just like what would say, People don't care how much you know unless they know how much you care. Yeah, yeah, You see? And you care them that much, sure they open door for, you know, like for their heart in order to accept Christ. Yeah. Or similar. They made me think about the about what you were talking about with your mom. Like what she saw was action in your life, something like not just two competing systems of of belief,

but it was something that translated to a change in how you thought or the way that you acted. And in these communities where they may have a perception of what a Christian is or what they believe, but what they see is people being the kind of the hands and feet and providing food. I think you were mentioning too that like because it's through the church, you know, it's one thing to have your church open on a Sunday where people can come in but like this is a building that's being used for practical needs Yes. Through the community. And so again, they get to see things that go out to them and action and those types of things in the community, which helps people understand the words that might be being said on a Yeah. Sunday Yeah. Normally, church in Cambodia, they open door mostly on Sunday or

Saturday. But in our learning center or a church where we operate our ministry, we open door from Monday to Sunday. So from Monday to Saturday, they come to study. Yeah. And we have Khmer study, our language is Khmer, you know, English and mathematics and all this. And then

at the weekend, we have Bible study, and then on Sunday we have worship service. Yeah. So both children and adults, you know, they come and join us. And they really value mystery of the church because the church, like I say, share the love for them and care for them in tangible way. Yeah. Yep. That's very cool. So like if people were interested in helping

like some of the ministry that you do, how would they go about doing that? So far, do not have like any donor agency, but I have a connection of friends Okay. Yeah, who can contact and help. Okay. So, so far, on the way here with Ben, he also asked whether I have any like donor agency or how do I get support. Actually, have my good friend who love Jesus. Yeah. From Singapore,

a group of sales group people who love God. Then they come on board and to support me when they come to see my ministry in that person. Yeah. Yeah. Because the way that we do and really touch their heart, then they come on board to support us as individual. Yeah. But actually they come from a very small groups called a cell group. Yeah. And over here, have very good friend, know, Vicky Ernie. Yeah. And yeah,

Ernie Hoffy. Yeah. Yeah. He support me personally for my family. This is how I survive, you know, like local missionary like me. Rough to provide, you know? You know what, so maybe just to help you guys who are listening from a perspective, like we've had quite a few people come through the show and people who wanted to come on. And generally, like there are people who have, there's like structure. There's a program and like there's places to give and stuff like that. And I I there are so many people out there doing like what Vanek is is doing. Like the people who just think there was a need and they did what the people of Jesus

do. And interestingly enough, like there isn't always like a bunch of infrastructure. Like I think some of the we have a friend in Pakistan who's, you know, helps with like debt slavery and things. And like, it's just, it's him. Yeah. It's not like this organization. Now here's what it doesn't, it doesn't come with deductions. It doesn't come with like some things that you otherwise might give to. But I say all that to say as an encouragement to know that like certainly there's places to give money and time and stuff. Just know that there's all kinds of people doing all kinds of things and it's just to

to the next point, friends, networks of friends or cell groups or like churches or small churches or whatever who like find a need. And like my encouragement to you is like, that's perfectly fine. It's perfectly fine if you find people that God has brought into your path that you can support. It's okay if it doesn't have an infrastructure. Now check it out for sure. Make sure you're dealing with a good situation. But anyway, that's an encouragement to you. So maybe I will also tell you this. If this is something where like you are interested in helping, if you want to use like, to show us the conduit, if you want to reach out to me and then I can get you in contact with the neck, let's do that. I think that sounds good. And so you can get us on the Life From The Path. But see now, this is the time at which I don't wanna call it the complaint line. But it's our the phone number that you can reach the show. The neckline. Yeah. The neckline.

It's (515) 517-0085. Call or text if you wanna leave us a message or just send a text message and say, look, I'd like to I'd be interested in finding ways that I can support Vinak. And like, I'll I'll get you in contact with him and then you guys can kinda take it from there. But just know that it's not a I actually I really like this. This makes me happy. And again, I just wanna give you permission that it doesn't

Yes. Just check it. But but, like, it's okay to just have people of Jesus who have no other people of Jesus who are doing things that Jesus would do. Mhmm. And it's okay to support that. Yeah. And, like, I I I can tell you why I love it. That, like, it does. Like sometimes I'll do my taxes. Right? And I'm like, I've literally not given any money to any five zero one three c companies this year. And I'm like, dang it. But here's what I also didn't do. I didn't pay for the overhead of office buildings. I didn't pay for a bunch of t shirts and logos. Like I think well meaning folks, it still ends up by the time you follow all the rules that even America has to be a nonprofit organization, there is just so much wrapped up into it. And what I love about giving to places like Vanek or even our friend in Pakistan is like, it is just going to a guy and he loves Jesus. So even if he does something wrong with it, that is God's to deal with. Right? Like my job was to be faithful in the thing that God asked me to do. And then it's it's that fella's job to listen to God and have him do good things with it. Right? And like that feels I like this a lot better because it just feels like I know the things are being done honestly. I know they can make

small decisions instead of big decisions, you know, that can go even if you meet a family that's like, yeah, we just gotta do more for this one family. And you're like, go ahead. I love that. I don't wanna be involved in that decision. Please do it. Know? And so like, I I really do love that. I I it's just a very freeing way of giving where I don't my my motivation is not is it gonna be a tax deduction? Yeah. And it takes all kinds, man. There's things that like bigger organizations can do that it's hard it's hard to do for individual people for sure. Like, it it takes it takes all kinds, but it's just okay. It's good. It's okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, let me know. Hit me up at the Life From The Path of a Neckline, (515) 517-0085. Call or text. We'd love if you're interested. Yeah. I'll I'll get you in contact, you guys can chat and do whatever. Yeah. Okay. So exciting. So like, what are you as you think about the work that you're that you're doing and the lives and things that you're able to impact, is there anything or things that you're particularly excited about over the next year or two that you're trying to do or that

you're seeing as fruit from the stuff that you're doing? So far something that I wanna share, We have 20 young people that study in university right now. Oh, wow. Wow. Oh, praise God. Yeah. And praise God for this. Mhmm. Yeah. And then we have nine grade Q8. Oh, nice. Praise God for Yeah. Our first bunch of the

students, university student, they are all female. Wow. Who struggle a lot through poverty. Yeah. Praise God Yeah. That they can can can overcome it and

graduate. Is there Yes. University. Is there opportunity, like, by going to school, are there jobs and things available for them to take advantage of from Yes. Graduating from Yes. Know, when they finish university or when they have opportunity to start that university, for sure they have a job. Whether any small job they will help.

In Cambodia right now, all the students that come to study in Phnom Penh Capital City, I have a job for them. Yeah. Because I have a lot of connection. My good friend who run a company or who run a school, so I ask my friend to take them as Yeah. Their So along the way, they study in university and at the same time they also study like they also work. Yeah. Yeah, because they cannot, you know, just study, you know. They have to work at the same time. So right now we have nine graduate and

three of them come back in order to serve and then they serve as an full time staff for my ministry. I, yeah, to take this time, I also thank to my friend in Colorado Springs who support all the university students. Yeah. Yeah. With the ministry called The Very Last. So you can check his ministry website as well. Yeah. Theverylast.org. His name is Jim Ross.

Jim Ross. Theverylast.org. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. He he support the university student. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Although Here's the here's the trouble. Vanek really got a he he knows, like, some folks in The United States, but he only knows people that live in the cold state. He's the poor guy. Like, we were we had we we were, like, driving in, and it's just unfortunately cold here for him. And it was goes to Colorado and then Iowa and then Washington. Washington state. Oh. Vanik. Come on.

You You got some connections down in Phoenix. Yeah. Yeah. Florida. You know? California. Although, here's Ve neck melts my heart a little because we were talking about someone was asking him, you know, why would you go to Iowa? Is there anything there to see? And he's like, my my friends, good friends are in Iowa. That's why I quit to see him. Like, oh, man. What a great thing to say. Yeah. That's true. Usually people are like, it's really boring there. There's nothing to look at or do. Well, I'm super thank you. I wanna thank you so much, Vanek, for taking time out of your day and hanging out with us and and sharing your story. I'm super always super excited to see, like Vanek knows the same Jesus you know. Yeah. Yes. Vanek's guided by the same spirit that you have. Mhmm. And there are unique opportunities, and I'll restate this just because we have primarily we do have other people who listen to the show outside of this country, but just like primarily American audience. I it's like sometimes you hear stories like this and like,

stirs something within you or there's something and you're like, I just I feel like I could I could do more with my life. And I and there are plenty of places like we live in a different country. We have different issues going on. Like some of the poverty stuff isn't quite the same thing. Some of the government like, I mean, the government's interesting for sure, but like it's not, you know, it's not quite the same things. And so you're stuff that God may lead you to may not look the same as what Vanek is doing and what the folks in Pakistan are doing. But it also doesn't mean that you can't help with those types of things. I'm I'm telling you, we you can make a $100 a lot easier here than you can a lot of places in the world. Yeah. And I was actually, I was hold on. Better switch camera here. Our friend in Sarfraz in Pakistan, we were talking about there's folks that are in debt slavery there and like I kind of have a structure of where my the way my job works. There's certain times a year which like more money becomes available to me. Like just bonus time or stock time or something and I was kind waitin' for that time to come around to help with this next family that was, we're gonna be helping and specifically though it was a family that we had,

were able to help get out of debt slavery. So him and his family got to leave the brickyard where they were forced to make bricks to kind of like, they were under the debt slavery. And so they got free and then we you kinda provide a place to stay and some food for a little bit of time. But like it's not very long. It's like three months. And I we were hoping to be able to get him a donkey cart so that he could do sell produce and stuff in the market. And like a month or two had gone by and like our friend was checking in and he's like, hey, I was wondering, you know, do you think we've got any money for the donkey cart? It was about a month before I thought I'd be able to get some of this bonus money. And it just struck me. I was studying on a Saturday night for church because that's when I do it. Just so everyone knows, study late for the test. It's Saturday night. And I could not focus. And I find that whenever I'm trying to, Dan, I don't know if this happens to you or maybe Mike too, like for youth group or whatever, but, like, when I'm trying to study to go teach something is often when God will not let me go for something that he was I should be doing. Sometimes I probably need to go apologize to somebody. It's generally my wife. I like I Like, there's a repentance in there. And so before he'll let me go gain information that I maybe pass on to someone, I need to deal with something that's going on in my life. And at this particular time, it was

the guy who needed the donkey cart just kept coming up. And then what struck me was is that like what would it feel like to be this man who you've been making bricks your whole life? That's what you know how to do. And so you find, yes, there's freedom in it. Like you get out of the brick factory and now it's you and your wife and your kids, but he actually doesn't know how he's gonna provide for his kids tomorrow. He knows he needs to do it. He doesn't have a ton of like extra skills or whatever. He's not an electrician. He can't just go out and start doing work on the poles. And I just, I've also been like been going through some interesting things at my work. So it was relevant to me to think about like what does it look like to provide for your family? And I just could not shake that like I don't want another day to go by for this man to have to worry about how he might provide for his family. And he just he's not asking for to just give him money. He just can you help get me a donkey and a cart to put some vegetables in so that I can go sell them at the market? And anyway, like it is it just is easier for me to come across I don't remember how much this donkey was. I think it was $500 or something like that. It's not nothing. But like I can make $500

easier in my country to help with that donkey cart than the folks the the neighbors and friends and churches in Pakistan. It's just harder. It's just there's not as much money there. And so anyway, I just say that to say that it's like you hear stories like that and you're gonna wanna go, I should go move there. I'm like, don't know if you should go move there. You know? You can. Maybe. But there's people that love Jesus in Cambodia. But the neck's there. The neck is there. You know what I'm saying? And like he he knows the culture. He knows the people. And, like, sometimes the things that we have a lot of, which in this country, it's money. And so, like, you know what I'm saying? Right. I I think you should go. I think like, I think it's okay to go. I think it's okay to visit and be excited. And Dan, the work that Dan's doing in Zimbabwe and his team's doing Zimbabwe, it's kind of the same thing. You experience it and so you know how to share. Like I'm inspired listening to Vanek and his story. My friend Saar Fresen is inspiring to me. But it also reminds me that like some of the things that the spirit is doing in your life, again, there's unique things in the culture

that like I'm set up for to do here. And there's ideas similar to the ideas of talking between Buddhism and Christianity and helping people see the difference. That work actually, there's American work going on but it's not really Buddhism. It's like people going, I don't think there is a God or if there is one I don't want to listen. Or I think Christians are are crooks and I think they misuse them. Look at how big that church is. I don't think they do anything worth value in the culture. And like people doing the exact same types of things, like meeting people and having it be action and not just saying come to our building, I'm coming to your house or I'm coming to your school. You know, some of the things are markedly the same. But anyway, I just I'm not I want you to be cautious that the first thing you reach for is guilt to go, oh, I should sell all my stuff and go live an impoverished lifestyle. I mean, to be honest with you, the all the things some of the things that I have that allow me to live the life I have is what allows me to keep the job I keep, which generates the money that I have to buy a donkey card in Pakistan or to fight or if to help things like what Vanek is doing. And so just pray just pray on it. You don't have to come up with it on your own. Just pray on it. Let God lead you. But like I will I will say that a lot of times

if reaction to hearing stories like that is guilt, that's actually probably more you than the spirit. I actually think the spirit like will guide you to action which is the same thing that your guilt is trying to get you to do. I just think the spirit's got better ideas than what you came up with. And so just pray on it and be open to God using the thing that is actually easier for you to get than a lot of places in the world, which is your cash. Yeah. And so just be open to it. Yeah. Mhmm. Alright. You're listening to Live From The Path. Thank you. Alright. Vedek's gonna hang out. We got other other stuff that we're gonna be talking about and where he's got thoughts, he's gonna jump in. But anyway, super excited. Thank you, Vennick, so much for sharing. Appreciate it. Welcome. Speaking of other cool stories within our current cultural context, Enter the McCormick. Cody McCormick. So you've met Cody before. You've met Donald before. We had Donald on the program and Cody on the program. And then we had we we talked when when when Donald passed. Yeah. And it was very just hard. Just hard for his family, hard for the community around him because he was just such a dude. Such a unique fellow that just had an impact on all kinds of fun. He was such a dude. That is exactly how I would describe him. But anyway, I I give you that. And there's if you look for

there's a couple of past episodes, one called Into the McCormick and one Into the McCormick two that have Cody and Donald on there. In case you haven't heard those, I just wanna give you a little bit of a backstory. But Cody's here tonight. Here's I like how I Cody's here because he had a he was open. Yeah. Got nothing going on? Nothing going on tonight. And I I think that's awesome. And by the way, that's that's generally true. That's an open invitation to whoever's listening. I believe my text to Mike said, are you cool with a slub driving the ratings down a little bit? Yep. So I'm like, can't get lower than low. Come on in. This is the benefit of an unpopular program. But anyway but here's the good news is that Cody was at was at the Josiah Queen concert last night. Yes, sir. It was here here in the the Des Moines area. And interestingly enough, two massive Christian concerts going on. Josiah Queen was at the Valor Ballroom, and then Winter Jam was in town. Yeah. Have you guys have you have taken in Winter Jam, Mike? Have you gone? I've never gone on purpose. I I also have not been there. But my family has gone before, and Vanek went. He took in he took in the winter jam experience. Like this weekend? Yeah. He went yesterday. Yesterday. Yeah. Okay.

He braved It was nice. The blizzard and oh, so best best of the night, would you say Chris Tomlin fan? Chris Tomlin. Yeah. Jeremy. Jeremy. Jeremy Camp. Oh, just me. Or just yep. I forgot his full name, but That's alright. Rocoso something. That's all I'm I do not but but only Jeremy, who who sings the song When I Meet Jesus? Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm looking him up. And he was there. Okay. Yeah. So lots of did you hear any bands that you or music that you hadn't heard before that you thought, that's good? A lot. A lot. Matthew West was there. Yeah. Matthew West also. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. It was a great experience for me. Good, guys. Okay. Good. Good. Worth the weather. So anyway, big interesting. Two really big concerts going around here in the Moines area for Christian artists. And so, Cody, you're at the Josiah Queen show. Tell me tell me about your experience. Yeah. So a little backstory about about that. So Donald gets really excited one time. This is must be last summer. And he's like, dad, dad, have you heard Josiah Queen? And I'm like, yeah. I think he's on the TikTok. Right? He does that song on TikTok about being Barabbas.

And he's like, yeah. That's it. He's like, he sings this really cool song about being a garden in Manhattan. Mhmm. And I was like, sounds cool, bud. I mean, the the people in this room have experienced The Donald. So, like yeah. He he very persistent about it. So, of course, then it became like, well, let me just put it on on your car. Yeah. So we listened to that thing, you know, it it really hit on the song. Like, it it's a really good song about, you know, I'll just be what god what you need me to be. You need me to be a gardener in Manhattan. That's what I'll be. Yeah. Right? And so Donald's favorite song. We listened to that thing 187

times every time we were in the car, right? So shortly after Donald passed away, in another Total God thing, Josiah Queen announces in West Des Moines at Ballard Ballroom, right? Small venue, as the people around here know, it holds packed in, standing room only about 2,500 people. Yeah. He's doing venues like University of Texas at Austin and Kansas City,

and West Des Moines happens to get sandwiched between Kansas City and Indianapolis. Uh-huh. So he's playing these venues of six, seven, 10,000 people, and then he's gonna come to a standing room only place of 2,500, right? Yeah. Sits out of place as it was, and I'm like, Man, we gotta go to that concert, right? I gotta do it for Donald. This is a sign, right? So, I called my good buddy Mike up and says, Hey, what do think we get a bunch of people together? And we all go there and honor Donald and go to this concert that he would love, right? So we started working on I was like, Hey, let me call and see if I can get ahold of somebody, like, the ticket office or something, and get a group of tickets. You know, I'd never been to Valair, so I didn't quite know what to expect.

I was like, Let's get a group of tickets, you know, and then we can just figure out the money, everybody can pay me and whatever. But we'll have all the tickets, make it a little frictionless, right? So I just did a little Googling. I found a production manager or his manager, and I sent him a quick email and was like, Hey, I want to buy 50 tickets. I'm not asking for free tickets, nothing. Just want to buy them. But I want to make it easy for everybody and do this. So he sends back, and he's like, Hey, you know, it's all handled by the box office.

And in this, I had explained why we were gonna do this, and I had sent the program folio from Donald's funeral along with the email that I sent, right, just to kind of explain it. And he's like, Yeah, the box office handles that. Let me see if I can dig up a number or somebody you can call to do that. And then he's like, By the way, I'm gonna forward all of this on to the team, and just, we're gonna be praying for you in this difficult time, right? So this is back in September when they announced the concert. It ended up falling through on the ticket office. They're like standing room only, you're just gonna have to buy them through normal channels. We ended up working it out where we were able to buy enough tickets to kind of feed the community that needed them and do that, and everybody kind of bought their own tickets. So this sold back in September, so we're buying these tickets a long time ago. Concert was obviously last night, March 15. So we go back and forth, we're getting excited for it. I actually was a little on the anxious side coming yesterday. Know, seeing some of the people that Donald interacted with just didn't know what that was gonna be feeling wise and that, and it ended up being fantastic, right? And me and my wife prayed about it a little bit and just

all those things. Me and Mike, obviously, we've talked about it a bunch, but we go to the concert, and he's going through it all and hit the first part of his show. Like, he puts on a good show. He really does. He hypes up the crowd, and everybody's hopping and jumping and doing his his things, he gets everybody going. And then he does a little sit down, he gathers the the band around on the on the stage, and he says, you know,

that somebody sent an email to the production manager and just gave a little bit of a story about Donald, about how he passed away in the car accident, and, yeah, and then just took the took the time to pray over our family, like, there on stage Wow. Out in front of everybody. Right? So incredible moment considering the conversation was had six months ago. Yeah, right. Right, because you had, you said, you had no idea. Like they didn't say, Hey, he's gonna say a thing or No, whatever like no, he was just like, Hey, we'll see what we can come up with.

You know, it was one of those, there there's no expectation of anything or or things like that. Know? Because it's about impossible to get ahold of an artist anymore. Yeah. Right? Because they're they're like, there's so many, like, Instagram fronts and PR machines and whatever. Yeah. That, like, the odds that the guy, you know, acts Gets the message. Gets message. You're like, I had to try, but, you know, it wasn't ever gonna work. Yeah. And we knew that. I mean, that was our feeling. But we were all gonna be there to be in the presence of, a, to be in the presence of Lourdes, see a great show, and just all be together as a community in support of Donald, right, Donner? But to have him stop the concert not stop, but build an end to the concert, because he obviously said that and then dedicated the songwriter to Donald and did that, it was an incredible moment to have that. So, yeah. It was That's pretty neat.

Here's the reason, I actually was gonna type it up a message to send to them like they'll never get it. I kinda almost bailed on it, right? I got an email. Yeah, there we go. But what they don't know is my car was packed with kids who were friends with Donald but Donald was the garden in Manhattan for them. So there's a lot of the reason that Donald loved that song. If you ever listened to it, it's basically like, I will go where you plant me. Right? I will be the water where it's dry. You know what I'm saying? Like I will go into places that don't look like that's where you belong. And Donald felt that way. I'll be the road sign when you've lost your way. That's right. And so like Donald felt that way and most of his friends, most of his friends didn't love and follow Jesus. And Donald's like, Well, is this where God has me at? I

will be faithful in that. Right? And so what Josiah Queen doesn't know is my car was full of Donald's friends who they don't love Jesus. The only time they saw Jesus was Jesus reflected through Donald. And so, like, they just agreed to go to the concert because Donald would have wanted to go. Mhmm. Right? And so, like, even on the way there, we stopped at the Casey's and, like, I bought Donald a cream soda. Yeah. It sits in my car right now. Like, everyone else was getting drinks. I'm like, it feels wrong not to have get old Donald a cream soda because that's what he would have. You know what I'm saying? But like, and the reason that we bought it is because his friends that were in the car knew.

Like they saw that cream soda and they knew what it was for. Right? And so like, it was just super cool because they got to see the thing that Donald was trying to show them or wanted to reflect into their life. And like, it wasn't just one dimensional, but it was coming from just Donald. Right? So then we go to this concert and like this traveling artist stops the show, prays over the family, mentions Donald's name, and then Jesus is praised all night. Right? All night. And then and then someone gives up and just goes through acts three and of the and of all the things that God has in plan for us that we wouldn't normally have seen. And it could not have been better for God to put them in a situation where they had a great time. They got to remember their friend, you know, and they got to see their friend honored by like a traveling cool artist guy. The hottest guy in that that realm of Christian In that genre. Right? And and on top of the fact that, like and and and on top of that, the things that were coming out of his mouth were all in service to how good God is. Mhmm.

To how good God is and, like, and and where actual joy is found and and how you become a guardian in Manhattan, not based on how hard you try, but like how much you're willing to hand over so God can change it. And so like, it was just like the conversations I got to have on the car ride home, which was at 20 miles an hour because it was a blizzard. And it took us probably an hour and a half to get home because they closed all the roads. But I couldn't asked for the time. Right? If I had said, God, I really wanna have conversations after this show, but it's only a forty five minute drive, God's like, I'll give you an hour and a half. I'll send a blizzard and they'll shut all the roads down there. Or it was Donald making fun of us for all standing outside. So yeah, it was just very, very cool. And it was very cool

that a traveling Christian artist would look down, like Josiah Queen would look down and go, if it was a secular artist, he's like, This is my show, people paid to come see me. I'm sorry about the situation you're in, but you know what I'm saying? Like we're not gonna stop this concert for that. And like people who love Jesus just act differently. They just act differently. So like it was very That ties in with Vennette like a lot of them from Vennette's story. Exactly. Like the actions show that we're just we're just different. And it's and it's merely we're different because of the presence of the holy spirit. We don't try harder to be different. We just are. And, like, there's parts of it that are just not in your control because, like, there's a there's a holy spirit living in you, and it's going to dictate the way that you love, and you love deeper than most people. And you catch like, you have empathy for more people. And your heart goes, man, I gotta I gotta have less of me and more of that of others. And like, you wouldn't come to that decision on your own because it doesn't make any sense. Right. Right? But the holy spirit will go, you can be less of you, more of others because I got you. And I will keep an eye on you. I got this thing covered. Right? And so like, yeah, it was super, super cool. A very cool thing. There was one last bit about that is, Mike and I haven't shared this with you, but last night, as I was talking after the show with his

we were waiting to see if maybe Josiah had come back out. I wanted to shake his hand and thank him for that fantastic tribute and just praying over us, right? And he had already gone off to his bus all those things and cleaned up. So his stage manager came out and talked to me for a few moments.

And one thing how I can know that they are authentic in this is Caleb was his name, and he told me, he said, you know, Josiah gathered the whole crowd around, and they watched his funeral online. What? What's your They they looked it up and watched his funeral. Really?

Yeah. And said that it was just incredible to watch in the music selections that we had. Obviously, Mike performing you performing a song, and then Correct. Manhattan, and then we had a song from Crowder in that. And so just he was like the music selections he had and the things that people said about him, he's like was just it it it was a testament to who he was. Yeah. So, you know, that that authenticity of that guy doesn't know me. That's the stage manager coming out and saying like, he gathered his whole crew around. Wow. And they watched the funeral, like after it, because it was, you know, livestreamed, so then there was a recording of it and all of that stuff. Yeah. That's wild. Incredible, right? Yeah. Anyway, that's mean, overall, like, just it's just so cool to meet authentic folks that like, and they're hard to meet in the music industry. They're just hard to meet. And like,

it it just overall, it was just couldn't have been a better way for God to just basically give this big old hug. Yeah. You know, that says, I know you're going through it. I got your boy. I'm gonna surround you with people who love you, and I'm gonna make my name great in the occasion that you chose Yeah. To celebrate the life that your son had. Absolutely. Just awesome all around, you know? Mhmm. It was very, very cool. Yeah. And if just that one story brings one person to him, right, that it's worth it's worth the wait. Right? Yeah. I got coffee with at least two coming. I'll tell you that as a result of that concert. So Yeah. For sure. So, yeah, I guess that's that's the the the story of that. Story. Yeah. An awesome Yeah. And like and here's the again, the theme

there's a theme running through this is that, like, there's a lot you you could look at it and go, look, there's a lot of awesome people. And that's true. And the thread is is that an awesome God does awesome things Yeah. Through faithful people. Yeah. Yeah. And so there it's just so it's so cool to look at. Because because interestingly enough, if you think about like, Josiah Queen has a particular talent. I went for I signed up for the the text notifications from the Josiah Queen team, like, whatever, two years ago or so. I I literally have never heard a full song by this man. Dude. Dude, they're good. Yeah. I'm so bad at listening to this stuff. Come on, man. These are classics. Okay. So except for Donald's funeral. So I heard it then. Was that that's the one. And but anyway, out of the blue after I because some people were talking about it. So I signed up for it. Then I got like a happy birthday text. Yeah. And I showed it to my kids, and they're like, what? You're friends with Josiah Queen? Of course. They're like, this the radio show is low rent, but it gives the impression that maybe,

just maybe, you might know this man. And so I played that off for like a few weeks at least. I got away with it. Yeah. But anyway, I I just it's like the thread here is is that like there are there are boundless numbers of the hands and feet of Jesus working in all countries, in all situations with different talents and with like and God using every one of those things. And like I'm just telling you, you will not exhaust the number of people when you're walking with Jesus You'll go, holy cats. What a cool dude. What an awesome lady. Because the thread is God does awesome things through very normal people. Josiah Queen is a normal dude. Yeah. He's a normal dude who likes struggles and loves and like tries his best and like will sometimes fail and sometimes just do but like he's he's a normal guy just like the guys in this room who just want to do the things that Jesus is drawing them into. Like you will not exhaust that pot if you're out there doing just being part of the things that Jesus is doing. Yeah. It was yeah. It was cool. Okay. Alright. Sweet. Mike, I don't know. What do you wanna do? You wanna do you wanna just do some advice here? Yeah. Alright. Let's do some advice. Yeah. Here we go. Okay. Well, hold on. I gotta put on my glasses. Hold on. Vanek is at his best when real late at night, and so I think he's ready to give up. Well, it's like like noon over there, isn't it? Is it? Okay. Yeah. It's like 10:30. 10:30. Twelve hours. Yeah. Twelve hour

difference. So Oh, okay. You gotten used to it? Like, you've been here a few weeks. Do you feel like you've got finally got settled in? Yeah. Yeah. Totally now. Okay. What is this? What's that? Hold on. My phone it it it got rid of it for me. Two check. Two Okay. Okay. Well, I'm coming back to it. Hey. While you're looking for that, another thing Vanek told me on the way in here, he's he runs. Like and the longest the longest run, would you say 64 kilometers? Yeah. 64. Okay. So we're getting coffee or whatever. And I I say he we mentioned it, and he says, I run a long way. And I'm like, I'm expecting him to say something like Five blocks. 10 kilometers or 20 kilometers or something like this. And he says 64, and I don't know if he saw it on my face,

but I was flabbergasted at this amount of running. And so, yeah, long, long, long run. And he's running you're running the London Marathon Next month. Next month. Next month. Yeah. Now but it's virtual, So, like, you can sign up to run this thing and not be in London, but you just run the distance at, like, wherever you're from. Right? 64. Yeah. You're doing Drive your car real slow. What do you what do you mind? There's one other thing, though, man. Like, after we were talking afterwards, he 64 kilometers of hill hill run. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Is worse. Just like flat ground. It's on the mountain. It hits trail, and then we run into the jungle and up to the mountains. I find this disgusting. If you do that, you do the You know, I I spent eleven hour and twenty three minute. Right now. I can't sit on the couch for that long. The conversion rate is like 40 miles, I think we looked up, right? Yeah, 40 miles. 40 miles?

Yeah. That's what do you think about for that long? Yeah. When when I run for sure, I see that this is one of the way that God helped me to overcome my heart disease. I have Wolff Parkinson Vai. I do not know you know about. Normally doctor always say Wolff Parkinson

Vai. Okay. It is a kind of a heart disease that very low, very low heart rate. Okay, yeah. Yeah. So my heart sometimes, you know, very abnormal. Mhmm. But I wanna overcome it instead of taking the medicine. Stop out and run. He runs the mountain. I love this. Wow. Yeah. Alright. I find it less disgusting now. I've told that story. Wow. That's super amazing. Yeah. Yeah. 40 mile. 64 kilometers. It's a lot. That's a lot. I'm just saying I expected a I was gonna be impressed with a much lower number, Vernack. Like, you could have said, like, 10 kilometers and were like, wow. Look at him getting that. Maybe we should get you a donkey that, like, rides around with water so you can just have a donkey running next to you all the time. Yeah.

So please pray for me next year, January, I will run 100 kilometer. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Holy butt. This is the ultra they call ultra trail. Yeah. Yeah. It's in Cambodia? In Cambodia. Okay. Is there a lot I mean, how many people are running this thing? Is it with Last year oh, this year, we have almost 3,000 people run. Wow. Wow. Yeah, for the trail. But for the, half marathon

Yeah. We have over 100, oh, 4,000 people run. Man. Yeah. I just Is this willpower? Do they just build are people more I think Cambodians are more robust. This is what I'm saying. They are healthier and more willing to get out. Yeah. Yeah. We don't I borrowed five k once. Yeah. I watched somebody run a five k one time. Yeah. Wore me out. Alright. Alright. Here we go. Here's the questions. Ready? Okay. Question. Dear life from the path, I was in a relationship with John for two years. Because he had nowhere to go, he continued living with me for six months after I ended the relationship. Mhmm. John has burned every bridge he's ever had, including his parents and his brother. He is an emotionally and verbally abusive alcoholic.

Okay. John's brother, we'll call him Jerry, I and I have now fallen for each other. Oh, no. Oh, dear. We oh, boy. We grew up together and have been friends our entire lives. We have discussed that if it weren't for this issue, we would marry. My problem is Jerry is sure his mother will disapprove. He says he would end our relationship if they found out about us, and she is against it. We are almost 50 years old. I believe we could, quotes, be just friends to the outside world, including Jerry's parents, and keep our private lives to ourselves for now. He is not concerned about what John would think. We have both experienced this type of connection only once before in our lives. How do we tell our friends, family, and most importantly, his parents? Okay. I'm gonna re I'm just gonna restate. You tell me whether I'm understanding it right. This lady who I'm gonna call Martha. Okay. Martha dates John for six years? Five years. Five years. Mhmm. Breaks up with him, but he stays living in her house for another six months. Yes. K? In the meantime because he got nowhere else to go because he's burned all the bridges. He doesn't have anybody to stay with or anything. Okay? In the meantime,

she wants to be in a long term relationship with his brother, Jerry. Yeah. She wants to marry Jerry. She wants to get married to Jerry. Neither of them care what John thinks. Yeah. But they're worried about getting married because they think his parents, which have to be 80, like, what they think about the relationship. Yes. This is the concern. And wants to know again, no one cares. Like, it's not what do I tell John? No one cares about John. They wanna know how do I get the parents and or the people around us to be okay with the relationship with Jerry. Yeah. This is wild situation. Yeah. I got one clarification question. Okay. Are we still in the six months or, like, the six months yesterday? Or so is John still living there? No.

Continued with an endpoint. Okay. So there's an end. He's gone. So it's fine. Okay. Yeah. John John's out in the streets. That was my first thing is I'm, get rid of John. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Okay. So John's already he's he's wherever John's Abusive, burn, briggy. Yeah. Gone. He's got so you know, he's just a distraction in the story. Yeah. Why are we even talking about him? Well, maybe because she's trying to marry his brother. Well, maybe he did. Oh, yeah. But still So is that the way the parents are mad? Yeah. Otherwise, I Because he should she should've married John. Would they allowed would they accepted Martha if she wanted to marry John? It says John, the original guy John, was an emotionally and verbally abusive. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So why do the parents care? I I'm I'm a we're just gonna stop right here. Hold on.

I thought this was a 12 year old writing this. Yeah. If the parents cared or Jerry cared, they would have stepped in while she was being emotionally and verbally abused. Yes. Yeah. Right? So if either one of these parties was concerned for this woman, they would have said, my son John is abusive to you. You need to break up with him. You can live with us until you can get John out of your house. Yeah. So, like, because it goes down to action, not words. So, like, if either one of those characters, either the parents or this Jerry character cared enough about this lady in the first place, they'd they'd have helped facilitate

John getting out of there. Yeah. And they did not facilitate that. They didn't say, hey. I'm sorry that John is being mean to you and talking to you poorly. I will he will live with me, Jerry, so he will not burden your house anymore. Yeah. They left this reprobate of a man to live at this woman's house for six months. Yeah. So saying all that, I don't give two rips what the parents or Jerry has to say. Yeah. She she needs to understand that she does not make good choices with men. Agreed. Right. Alright? And so don't trust yourself, and you're writing us for advice. Would find yourself a nice church and find some Christian friends and have them evaluate the situation, and they will tell you that this new guy also is probably not a good decision. Yeah. Yes. Stop caring

what the parents think, to And Mike's I would not consider that you found the love of your eternal life with Jerry, also to Mike's point, because Jerry seemed to have not cared until you were available. This is what great butterflies. This is what everyone thinks when you start a new relationship. You're like, I've never felt this way before. Yeah. What you have forgotten is the other times you did feel that way Yeah. When you got in a relationship with somebody and you're like, I've never felt this way before. Your feelings are very untrustworthy. Right? It's when you like when you're super hungry and you make a really bad decision. I know. Or you're in pain and you make a really bad decision. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, every bad decision you have ever made is attached to a feeling that you have. The endorphins are flying Yes. Until he starts calling your names. I'm not saying that, like, the holy spirit in you and God did not give you a mechanism to feel things, things, but he also gave you a community to be able to bounce some of the things off of. Like when it comes to what relationship you're in, long term decisions, being in in a relationship with a abuser of sorts. Your community should have sussed that out for you. It should have helped filter it down and said, you know what? Let's get you out of here. And then we'll get the the police involved to get John out the house. Right? But like, because you don't have a community, all you have is your feelings and your feelings led you to marry or led you to be in a relationship with John in the first place. Yeah. And then to stay in that relationship. So like to to all these fellows are saying, it's very important to have a community around you that loves you and they love Jesus more than they love you because then they will be willing to say hard things to you and not worry that you don't like them. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Yep. Secular says this is Secular's advice. You and Jerry are nearly 50 years old. Quotes we shouldn't make any announcements to anyone. Jerry needs to be adult enough to summon up the courage to tell his mama that he has fallen in love with you and plans to make you his wife. If he can't bring himself to do that, your relationship will eventually wither. Personally, I think it's time for you to take a step back so you won't be writing me about this problem a year or two or five from now. You deserve better treatment than this. You know? That's mostly in line. Yeah. Kind of. Like, at the end of the day, though, I you don't deserve better treatment because you've acted better. You make you make bad decisions. Yeah. You deserve better treatment because you are a reflection of god into the world. Right? Yeah. And so, like, everyone deserves better treatment than you're getting. Yeah. You're just adding to the problem by making bad decisions. Yeah. Okay. Ready? Second one. Yep. Dear life from the path, I have a daughter who resides in another state and has had self confidence issues since she was young. Her first marriage ended when she found out her husband was having affairs. Her second husband appears to be controlling but gives her stability, which she does lack.

When I visit them, he's rude and condescending, which I have tried to ignore as he is her choice. Over the last twenty years, he has become increasingly controlling and rude to the point that I no longer want to visit them. While I miss my daughter, I know she is aware and will do nothing about his behavior. We talk on the phone, but only on speaker when he is present. Now here's the problem. Do I leave a sizable inheritance to her, which I know he will control? While I don't want her to feel I am punishing her for her choice in a husband, it makes me feel like I would be rewarding him for his rude behavior. Oh.

Is that's the only child? Did not say. Didn't say. Say. Didn't say. I think you do. I mean, you leave it. Yeah. Vanneck, they got they got a bunch of money she wants to leave to her daughter, but she's worried the controlling husband's gonna misuse it. What do you think? What do you think she should do? I think it's hard for me to to answer in this time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's hard. Because, you know, a lot of time people ask questions and sometimes it seems like something's high behind the question is not clearly because sometimes we do not know clearly the background behind the that we need to. For me, I don't want to just throw the answer without

knowing the root behind that can help to, you know, like, if she feel itchy, we must know that the itchy in the we we we scratch her in the right spot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna use that. Yeah. I'm using that one, Vanek. We gotta make sure that if she's itchy, we're scratching in the right spot. I'm a I love that. All we wanted to do was give out terrible advice, and Vanek is full of wisdom and says, I don't know about this. Yeah. This is not a good idea. Actually, it's so it is pretty common,

like, to to your point, that people tell the story that they wanna tell. Right? Yeah. So, like, we have a limited amount of information. And one of the key question that we often run into is, what are you not saying? Mhmm. Like, what's the other information that would have helped? Because like you you know that you're not getting a full story. Even well intentioned people don't generally actually tell you the full amount of stuff. Not even if they're not trying to be deceitful, you're not getting a full picture. And so like, it is very hard with limited set of facts to try to give out information. Actually, sometimes I really want to, like people ask, I really want to answer for sure. Yeah. But it is very helpful if someone who asks really want to have the real answer for

life from the path can be, you know, like personal message. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And find out more. Or we can advise her to, or the one who asked this question can contact with a local pastor or someone who we recommend her to meet personally and clearly ask about what is going on on right now or if

she wants clearly an answer, then we can recommend all this kind of, know, like, to do. So I think something that I share like this, think it can be an answer to the question as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, a step she need to take in order to handle Yes. All this kind of Yeah, right. It's grayer than it sounds. It needs more information for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Okay. So hold on. So overall, if you had to give some safe advice

that I was pretty general, I would say, but cover some ground. What would your advice be? So ours would be well, what's the main question? You can answer this question without answering her question. Right? It's like, if if you have money when you're about to to pass away and you know it and you decide where that money goes afterwards, does how people treated you in life, how your kids treated you in life, like, does that go into the decision making process on whether you give them money or not? I I would say yes. So, like, it's it's my money.

And the question is is, like, what do I want if what what does my money facilitate into the world? If it facilitates goodness and blessing into the lives of my family, my children, or my friends or something like that, and that's how I wanna use the money, great. The question is is that like if you leave that money to this woman and the controlling or ne'er do well husband is going to use it that way, is that actually gonna produce blessing for my child? Yeah. And if the answer is no, that is an unfortunate situation that she's in, but I I I'm not going to just by expectation

direct money to a place of which it's not going to do good or provide blessing. And so I would say that I I I would probably find alternative means to make sure that my money, if I have any resources or anything that I was going to leave, that it does what I would do or what I would want done with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You could think of it this way too. Like, let's say that, like, you were faced with the same situation, but, like, one of your kids had an active drug problem. Right? You wouldn't just give them No. No. Thousands of dollars knowing that they're just gonna buy drugs with it because they're actively addicted with drugs. You wouldn't do that because you love them. Not because you're mad at them or not because you're disappointed. You still love them for all the right ways. Right? But giving them amount of money, that amount of money is not good for them right now. And so like this is kind of the same thing. Right? Yep. Okay. So Secular says, this is something you should discuss with your financial adviser. You do not have to reward her husband. You may be able to set up a trust for your daughter in which she receives a certain amount of money every month until her death. After that, the remainder of your estate might be left to to a cause or charity of your choice. Yeah. At the end of the day, this wasn't a logistics problem. Yeah. That's not what she was asking. It's a heart problem. Yeah. And, basically, the guy's like, man, I don't I don't want to I don't wanna just give my money when I die to my daughter,

and her husband's just gonna take it and never let her use it to do good things. He's gonna do whatever he wants with it. I think that's an okay caution to have. And to the next point, you need some community. You need a local pastor to talk to you, some community of people that love you and care about you that can help you kinda deal with the little decisions that go into the big decision. Yeah. Yep. How would you like to see him sit down with his daughter and have a conversation and just say, hey. Here's my concern. And, I mean, he dad dad is approaching this relationship with a skewed I mean, he's already like, this is my baby, and and this this guy's mean maybe he's not nearly as meany as he thinks. May he might be. Yeah. It's been it has been twenty years, though. They've been married a long time. I mean, that's a long time. That's that's what I was thinking. It's like, that's twenty years. Maybe your daughter's terrible with money, and he's controlling because she's just real bad at it. Yeah. And and maybe she really if she just likes being controlled. Yeah. Some people don't know what to do with themselves. Right. Which reinforces the next point that, like, we got a picture of the situation Yeah. That, like, no one says, oh, by the way, I'm dominating. And when you hear my husband being rude, it's because, frankly, I caused all kinds of troubles, and then I complained about it to you. And you don't know that until you can see the whole Right. Yeah. Mhmm. If we jump in the car and I tell my wife, hey. We're going to go to McDonald's for supper. Yeah. And she's like and and her dad's in the back seat. He'd be like, man, that guy's kinda demanding. Well, he doesn't know I've had 40,000 conversations of, what do you wanna have for supper? I'm like, oh, yeah. You know? It's like, Until I finally say, Okay, we're going to McDonald's. Dan speaks to the common man. We've all been there, friend. I was going to say a little hooty toot to your place. I thought, Let's just keep it McDonald's. I'm just saying he doesn't know the full story, but maybe a conversation of saying, this is where I'm concerned. You can we talk this out? Like, I I don't wanna ruin you guys, and I don't wanna just give it to my daughter, and then that causes strain on a relationship.

And and just see where that goes. You know, the thing is is like this is a young man's mistake that I made multiple times where people would tell me a story, and I would get all fired up about it and go to talk to a guy. And then I listened to his side of the story, and I couldn't have had more air come out of my balloon. Yeah. I'm like, I know better than to listen to people when they tell me this sob story. You know? And so like, I I do that much less than I did when I was younger. But man, people used to just get me just wind me up like a toy. And I'd go charging in there and I'll be like, I'll tell you what's right. They'll be like, did they tell you this, this, and this? You're like, oh, no. No. They left all that stuff out. Yeah. Yeah. It it is you know what? It's difficult. I think the the the more times you interact with people and the older you get, you start to recognize is that, like, your motivations are right. You're like, I care about people, and I'm injustice. Mhmm. And I do think the truth can set people free. And so let's just Yeah. See if we can't square this away. And then you walk into there, and you realize you're rarely dealing with a real black and white situation. It is just a pool full of gray stuff. Mhmm. And like, you've heard this encouragement from from me multiple times on the show, even on the real hot button stuff. I'm just telling you that whatever you believe except for Jesus and even in the stream of religion, like people are just gray. They're just weird. And they hold two views at the same time that you're like, how could someone possibly believe those two things together? But they do. And which makes them more complicated, and it means whatever you think about them is probably too basic.

And people's personal lives are always weird, and their emotions are ganked up, and their relationships and backgrounds. Like, just there's all kinds of things that go into it. And so just be patient. Slow down a little. I mean, certainly interact with injustice when you see it. But like, just know that there there tends to be things are just a little bit grayer, grayish in the world. Alright. You're listening to Live From The Path. Thank you so much for hanging out with us tonight. I really do appreciate it. Boy, what a fun show. Vinak, thanks so much for giving us your time and your story, dude. We loved

appreciate it. And remember, you hook hit us up on the live from the Path of a Neckline, (515) 517-0085. Call or text if you wanna find a way to connect with him for whatever reason. Whatever. Well, you you just wanna talk to him. You just wanna say hello. You wanna get hairstyling tips. You know, you're trying to run farther. Like, whatever. He just yeah. He'll talk to you. Also, Cody, what a cool story. Thanks so much for coming in. That goes in Absolutely. Your wife for being out of town, which freed up this situation. Yeah. Yeah. And he bad need ratings go down. Hold on. Hold on. You left that part out. You made it sound like you're half of the information. Told you what you needed to know. I got wound up like a toy again. I'm like, I gotta stir the ice of Cody to come in. Turns out you got nothing burning. What's going on tonight? He he was born. He thought there might be pizza rolls. Something like that. Actually, the real story was I wanted to stop and get Chipotle on the way. Yeah. No. No. Any excuse to get out. Alright, man. Hey. We appreciate you hanging out with us on the show. Hit us up with some feedback, and I we'll probably I think I'm out next week. We'll see what the other weeks follow. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will hand to the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Past. Fair.