Latest / Karl and Crew / Giving Mobility, Sharing Christ with Joni Eareckson Tada & Finding Hope at the End of the Road with Phil Kwiatkowski

Transcript

Giving Mobility, Sharing Christ with Joni Eareckson Tada & Finding Hope at the End of the Road with Phil Kwiatkowski · Karl and Crew

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  S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
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  S1: and crew. Come as you are an experienced guide, overcome
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  S1: what seems impossible and live as you never imagined delivering
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  S1: the truth daily.
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  S2: If it were possible to have every worldly gain available.
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  S2: And you're forfeiting your soul. There's no amount of gain
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  S2: that would make it worth it.
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  S3: Our own way never ever works. Because it's apart from
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  S3: the life source, which is God.
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  S4: For me, growing up, love was always conditional and can
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  S4: be taken from you. Christ's love can't. And he went
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  S4: to the cross with my mind and my heart that night.
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  S1: Now, from the call of Hope Studios, this is Carl
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  S1: and Crew Conduit. That's what we want you to be.
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  S1: And that's the joy. That's the jazz of the stuff
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  S1: of being a Jesus follower. Guys.
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  S3: Amen.
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  S2: Conduit.
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  S1: Yeah, man. Gotta be a conduit.
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  S3: Let it flow through you. We're not just a cul
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  S3: de sac. We don't. We don't get it all. And
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  S3: then just keep it. We receive it from the Lord
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  S3: and we move it on to show other people his love.
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  S1: Yeah, man. Speaking of conduit, um, they're ripping up more
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  S1: pipe in my neighborhood than you can imagine. And my bride,
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  S1: she's like, uh, good thing they pulled up that pipe.
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  S1: Isn't that like fire? You know, hydrant mains? And I said,
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  S1: I think it is. She goes, I was walking past
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  S1: a pile of scrap metal that they had pulled out
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  S1: of there. And it's like holes in the pipe.
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  S3: Oh, no.
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  S1: So all that pressurized water was up against earth?
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  S3: Yeah. Not so great.
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  S1: Yeah. So it's kind of a good thing that they
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  S1: pulled it up. You know what I mean?
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  S2: But in the meantime, you feel like you're living in
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  S2: a construction zone.
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  S1: Yeah, it's an interesting thing. And thankfully they stop about
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  S1: a block from us because we got hit pretty hard
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  S1: with that pipe redo here a couple of years ago.
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  S1: But man, oh man, it reminds me of living in
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  S1: Alaska because I didn't realize this until I moved out
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  S1: of Alaska, but I thought there was always a haze
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  S1: of dust when a car drove by. Always, always some
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  S1: dirt that was stirred up because I was raised on
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  S1: dirt roads, guys. I mean O'Malley road. Some of the
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  S1: main arteries in Anchorage, Alaska, were paved, but most were
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  S1: dirt roads. Isn't that funny? We did an interview last week.
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  S1: I had a conversation with the Three Musketeers here, and, uh. Boy,
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  S1: we come from different backgrounds.
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  S5: Very much so.
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  S1: I mean, isn't that isn't it something?
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  S3: Sometimes all different walks of life, different little things that
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  S3: have gone on in our lives that led us all
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  S3: to this same spot?
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  S1: Yeah, it's really cool. What's the funniest thing about your background?
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  S1: Super di. The the that still kind of tickles you.
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  S1: It's like some and one rule you can't go Greek
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  S1: statues or.
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  S5: Oh, okay. Garage barbecues. People did have that, you know
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  S5: what I'm saying? Yeah. Um, so besides that, the funniest.
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  S1: Yeah. Crazy little thing as a kid. Crazy little thing.
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  S1: I got to know a new one from all you guys.
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  S1: Come on. All right, you think about it.
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  S5: Who's got something? But let me think.
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  S1: Who's got one?
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  S5: I'm sure Jonathan would have one.
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  S3: Yeah, I mean, I got one. I grew up with
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  S3: three older brothers. So you know, my my experience. Well,
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  S3: it's kind of the fun thing about where I'm at
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  S3: with life now because, you know, I, when I tell
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  S3: people that me and my wife are, you know, about
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  S3: to have our second girl coming up in just a
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  S3: couple of weeks here.
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  S1: Oh my goodness.
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  S3: She's about ready.
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  S1: To go. She's ready to go.
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  S3: Yeah. No doubt. But people are like, oh man, you're outnumbered.
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  S3: And I was like, well, you know what? I grew
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  S3: up with three older brothers in my house. And when
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  S3: your brother, who's six years older than you turned 16,
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  S3: so I'm ten and he gets boxing gloves for his
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  S3: birthday and decides that he's going to test him out
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  S3: with the ten year old. Uh, I'm okay with having
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  S3: a house full of girls. It doesn't bother me as
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  S3: much as, uh, as much as you would think. And
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  S3: so I, I loved growing up with all my brothers,
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  S3: but it was a completely different environment. And I was
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  S3: just a little kid, you know, my, my brother, one
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  S3: of my brothers was off to college before I turned ten.
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  S3: And so I just was, you know, I was excited
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  S3: to be around them. But our house was pretty crazy
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  S3: in terms of some of the stuff that that we'd
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  S3: get into. I mean, I remember.
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  S1: Only imagine, dude.
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  S3: I remember my parents went out of town and, uh,
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  S3: my grandparents came to watch us for a week, which,
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  S3: you know, was, oh, that's always a scary proposition with
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  S3: four boys in the house. And so my, my brothers, uh,
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  S3: decided that they were going to hitch an old tricycle
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  S3: like a big metal John Deere tricycle. Yeah. To the
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  S3: back of a pickup truck. And they were gonna skid
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  S3: it around the neighborhood on the back of a pickup truck. And,
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  S3: and my, my grandma was like, are you sure you
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  S3: should be doing this? And my brothers were like, oh yeah,
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  S3: mom and Dad let us do this all the time.
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  S3: And so they put on one of my dad's motorcycle
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  S3: helmets and put on a leather jacket, and they drove
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  S3: as fast as they could around the neighborhood, being towed
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  S3: with this tricycle on the back of a pickup truck.
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  S3: And so that's kind of the house I grew up in.
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  S3: And it was a lot of fun.
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  S5: Oh, that's.
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  S1: So.
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  S5: Great. Yeah.
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  S1: How many times did you Pyle. Uh couch cushions and
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  S1: pillows in a pile and do that thing.
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  S3: I know not so much. See our stuff was not
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  S3: uh my brother. Uh I can tell this now because
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  S3: it's all fine. My brother tased me when I was
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  S3: a kid. Um and he'd, he'd shoot me with an
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  S3: airsoft gun and like this, that was the kind of
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  S3: stuff we'd get into. It was not like. I don't
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  S3: think pillows and couch cushions were. It was dangerous enough.
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  S1: It wasn't dangerous enough.
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  S3: Yeah, it wasn't dangerous enough. My mom said when I
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  S3: was an infant because I was the youngest. Uh, she
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  S3: walked out into the other room to do some laundry
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  S3: When she came back, my three brothers were in a line,
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  S3: taking turns jumping over me. They had laid me as
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  S3: an infant down on the ground and were taking turns
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  S3: jumping over me, and she came into the room. Thankfully,
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  S3: when it was the two year old's turn to have
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  S3: his his try. Oh boy. And, uh. And so she
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  S3: came in and she stopped that mess before. Before my
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  S3: brother closest to me and age got his turn.
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  S1: You need to thank your mom.
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  S3: She literally saved my life.
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  S2: A two year old.
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  S1: Okay, so let me set up super. Uh, no. Not super.
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  S1: Let me set up, uh, Ali. So Ali and I
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  S1: say this from time to time because I like to
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  S1: brag on my team. So Ali was your future Miss
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  S1: America sister? Ah, yeah. Did she jump over you and
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  S1: drag you around the neighborhood? And so Ali's big sis
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  S1: was Miss America. Here she is, Miss America. And the
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  S1: funny thing.
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  S2: About the timing is that they just crowned a new
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  S2: Miss America here over the weekend.
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  S5: Oh they.
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  S2: Did. So every time there's a new Miss America, Miss
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  S2: America makes the news. And so yes, the fun. One
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  S2: of the fun facts is that my sister won Miss
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  S2: America back in the early 2000, which was. I mean,
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  S2: you talk about something that kind of changes everybody in
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  S2: the family's life because from that point forward, it's like
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  S2: everything that happens, that's the reference point, 100 mark.
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  S1: Yeah.
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  S5: You wear your crown to Christmas, you wear your crown
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  S5: to Thanksgiving.
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  S2: You know? And so it's funny because my parents have
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  S2: lots of pictures up at our house, the, the house
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  S2: that they moved to, I should say they moved because
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  S2: her stuff outgrew their old house. So they moved to
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  S2: a different house. But the biggest picture they have on
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  S2: the wall and they would have to admit it is
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  S2: a picture of her doing her opera aria, her winning
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  S2: opera in her red dress, with her arms out, with
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  S2: a flourish in her hair and her makeup. Beautifully done.
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  S2: That's the biggest picture in the house. All of the
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  S2: rest of us kind of pale in comparison. Just kidding.
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  S1: No, but your mom knew this was going to happen.
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  S2: She did.
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  S1: She is so wild.
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  S2: It was wild. We were the big pageant back in
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  S2: the day when it was still. It was out in
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  S2: Atlantic City and it was a huge, huge. I mean,
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  S2: the whole week is devoted to it. And there's parades
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  S2: and there's preliminary nights. And she at one point she said,
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  S2: Erica's going to win this thing. We just have to
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  S2: be prepared. The Lord had shown her that Erica was
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  S2: going to win. And I'm like, wow, what? Really? And
• 8:27
  S2: so the week's going on. And so the point of
• 8:30
  S2: the competition comes where they start to narrow it down.
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  S2: This is where all the girls are holding hands, and
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  S2: they're waiting for their name to be called. And they
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  S2: go from 51, I think was I think they had
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  S2: Puerto Rico or D.C. or 51 or 52, and they
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  S2: narrow it down to 15. And so they're calling out
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  S2: the names. They're calling out Washington, D.C., and Maryland and Virginia,
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  S2: they're calling out all these states, and Illinois had not
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  S2: been called yet. And so I'm like, mom, she's like,
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  S2: just wait. Just wait. I'm like, mom. And sure enough,
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  S2: I think number 12 called out of 15 was.
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  S1: That is unnerving.
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  S2: Illinois. And so you stand there and each, each elimination
• 9:12
  S2: gets progressively more intense because you're in this. I mean,
• 9:16
  S2: most people are watching at home on TV, but when
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  S2: you're in the convention hall, it's I mean, it is intense.
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  S2: You can feel it. So they go from 15 to
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  S2: 10 and then they go to five, and then they
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  S2: do the final questions. And then they start fourth runner
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  S2: up and third runner up. And by the time they
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  S2: got to two girls standing there, it was Illinois and Alabama.
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  S2: And I'm thinking, no way is this really going to happen.
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  S5: That's my sister.
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  S2: So they're standing.
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  S1: There. You're going against big hair. I mean, it's tough, man.
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  S2: Well, it was Atlantic City. So by that point in
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  S2: the week, everybody had.
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  S5: Big.
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  S2: Hair.
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  S1: With.
• 9:48
  S2: The humidity. They're standing there facing each other. And then
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  S2: they say, and you're the your new Miss America is 000.
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  S1: I'm living it right now. I can barely take it.
• 9:57
  S2: And then they say, Miss Illinois. And so you see
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  S2: on the old clips that are still out there somewhere,
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  S2: they show her and her mouth drops open and she
• 10:07
  S2: puts her hand to her face, and they put the
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  S2: crown on, and then they pan up to the stands.
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  S2: And you see my me and my sister standing there.
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  S2: I have my mouth open. My younger sister grabs me
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  S2: by the waist and then she just drops out of frame.
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  S2: She didn't faint, but she was just like, oh, and
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  S2: she just drops it. So you see her kind of disappear,
• 10:27
  S2: and then you see people around us pointing dramatically, like,
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  S2: this is the family. I'm like, this is insane. So
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  S2: that was a pretty life.
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  S1: Okay, so that's different about your upbringing a little bit.
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  S1: You got the yeah, we didn't have that. Wow. Oh
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  S1: my goodness. All right. Super.
• 10:45
  S5: I don't know if I shared this on air, but
• 10:47
  S5: I think I've shared it before. One thing that they
• 10:49
  S5: just popped into my brain was I got to be
• 10:51
  S5: on the Bozo show.
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  S2: What? I love that show.
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  S3: You told me that years ago.
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  S1: I heard that many years ago.
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  S5: Yeah, but I don't know if it was on air.
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  S5: But anyways, um. Yeah, I think it was seven. Either
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  S5: 6 or 7. And my aunt had bought tickets years ago.
• 11:06
  S5: There's like nine of us cousins at that time, but
• 11:08
  S5: there wasn't nine at the time. She just bought tickets
• 11:10
  S5: because you almost had to buy tickets two years in advance.
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  S2: Oh, it was so hard to get on that show.
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  S5: Bozo show. So I made the cut. Yay! By the
• 11:17
  S5: time the tickets came to be, I made the cut.
• 11:19
  S5: So we went to the Bozo Show, got a real
• 11:21
  S5: precious tour of WGN back at the time. Got to
• 11:24
  S5: see the Romper Room studio. The Ray Rayner studio and
• 11:28
  S5: all that good stuff. And then, of course, it was
• 11:31
  S5: the Bozo Show and got to watch that and be
• 11:33
  S5: part of that and be in the audience. And then
• 11:35
  S5: all of a sudden, Mr. Ned at the time it
• 11:36
  S5: was Mr. Ned who was the host when we saw
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  S5: the show and, uh, came over and sat in the audience.
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  S5: I'm thinking, what's going on? First I thought I did
• 11:43
  S5: something wrong because he's walking towards me, you know what
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  S5: I mean? And then he sat down, put me on
• 11:47
  S5: his lap. And I put my other cousin, my female cousin,
• 11:50
  S5: but she just clammed up like she almost started to bawl,
• 11:53
  S5: so he had to put her back down.
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  S2: She's not ready.
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  S5: And I'm walking away, not realizing what's happening. Like I'm
• 12:00
  S5: on TV, but I'm not. And so I got to say, folks,
• 12:04
  S5: here's Bullwinkle.
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  S1: Oh my goodness.
• 12:09
  S5: That is a classic phrase, folks. Here's Bullwinkle. I got
• 12:12
  S5: to say that.
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  S2: That is amazing. I mean, that show was iconic. I
• 12:16
  S2: just was looking it up. It ran here on WGN,
• 12:19
  S2: which is a Chicago station from 1960 to 2001. Oh, wow. Yes,
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  S2: it had a, I remember the, the, the throwing the
• 12:27
  S2: balls into the buckets, trying to get the grand prize,
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  S2: the grand.
• 12:30
  S5: Prize.
• 12:30
  S2: Game. That's what it was. Yeah.
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  S3: That's awesome.
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  S1: Wow.
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  S5: So that's, that's a memory that I'm like, who.
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  S3: Now was Bozo a national show because I know WGN
• 12:39
  S3: is a local station. Was it local or was it national?
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  S1: No, it was national.
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  S3: Okay.
• 12:43
  S5: Because it was g n so a lot of areas.
• 12:45
  S3: Oh, a lot of areas covered.
• 12:47
  S5: A lot of areas covered g n, so Bosa was
• 12:50
  S5: still covered.
• 12:51
  S1: There you have it sports fans. That's your team.
• 12:54
  S5: I'm a star from Bozo.
• 12:57
  S2: No autographs please. That's right.
• 12:59
  S1: Jonathan's getting jumped over by his brother. That's right. See
• 13:02
  S1: I told you it's different. All right. Coming up here
• 13:05
  S1: in a moment. This whole week we're going to tackle.
• 13:07
  S1: Where's your hope? What if I told you sometimes dreams
• 13:10
  S1: have to die. Got a story for you? Coming up.
• 13:13
  S1: It's a good story. Hang on.
• 13:15
  S6: She was trying to earn her way to God. But
• 13:17
  S6: God showed her. She didn't have to. Ali is in
• 13:21
  S6: the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
• 13:25
  S1: Carl and crew helping you take your next step with Jesus. Well,
• 13:28
  S1: this whole week we're going to focus on where is
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  S1: our hope? You know, if we're going to stay tracking
• 13:33
  S1: with our hope, I'll go to Titus two, 11 and 12.
• 13:36
  S1: Sometimes we have to renounce ungodliness, worldly passions, and then
• 13:42
  S1: that's kind of what you throw off. And then you
• 13:45
  S1: put on live, self-controlled, godly lives in this present age.
• 13:50
  S1: It's an interesting I mean, if you could boil down
• 13:54
  S1: hope and stay on track with your hope placed in God,
• 13:57
  S1: sometimes there's things you got to throw off, and sometimes
• 14:00
  S1: there's things you got to put down or put on.
• 14:04
  S1: And then thirdly, I want to tell you about something
• 14:06
  S1: you got to put down. And this is a really
• 14:09
  S1: cool one for me. Really cool. I hadn't told my
• 14:11
  S1: team this yet. Um, so I'll get to hear it
• 14:16
  S1: together here. I have had a dream and I've thought
• 14:23
  S1: about it. I've prayed about it. And I had an
• 14:26
  S1: early morning about probably three weeks ago now, when the
• 14:31
  S1: Lord clearly spoke to me and said, you got to
• 14:34
  S1: set this dream down. And it's a hard one to
• 14:38
  S1: set down. If it wasn't for the fact that there
• 14:42
  S1: is a greater hope for me, and the greater hope
• 14:45
  S1: is simply what God's called me to, what God's called
• 14:50
  S1: me to. Dreams are cool things, and. But you've got
• 14:57
  S1: to have some time alone with the Lord to make
• 14:59
  S1: sure that this is a dream that you're to pursue.
• 15:02
  S1: Fair enough guys. Fair enough.
• 15:04
  S2: Fair enough.
• 15:05
  S3: Can't just come from you.
• 15:06
  S1: I really had a dream that I was going to
• 15:10
  S1: go back for my 50th anniversary of the Iditarod Trail
• 15:14
  S1: race in two winters and go run the Iditarod.
• 15:17
  S7: Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:18
  S1: So back in 1979, when I was 18, went 1100
• 15:22
  S1: miles across the state of Alaska, 21 days, eight hours,
• 15:25
  S1: 12 minutes, 32 seconds. It took me to complete that race.
• 15:29
  S1: Prepared for it for two years. And that's part of
• 15:32
  S1: the story. Prepared for it for two years. Mhm. So
• 15:35
  S1: things have changed. Obviously, I don't have a dog team,
• 15:37
  S1: but I have a good friend who does. His name
• 15:41
  S1: is Mitch Seavey. And when I went up and picked
• 15:45
  S1: up my little puppy Blaise, who's nearing a year old now, guys.
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  S2: Yeah.
• 15:48
  S1: That's right.
• 15:49
  S5: Is that a new picture?
• 15:50
  S1: Yeah. He's a he's a blessing. When I went up,
• 15:56
  S1: I'm walking with Mitch through his dog lot and we're
• 15:59
  S1: having good conversations and oh my goodness. He upped the ante.
• 16:05
  S1: So he hadn't seen me in a long time. And
• 16:08
  S1: he's big on making sure that whoever gets on the
• 16:11
  S1: runners of the sled is physically fit enough to be
• 16:15
  S1: able to handle the team, right? Honestly, because these are
• 16:18
  S1: premier dogs that they put a lot of time into
• 16:22
  S1: breeding them and caring for them. Well, Mitch and I
• 16:26
  S1: spent time together and when I got back home, he
• 16:30
  S1: let me know. He said, hey, I want you to
• 16:32
  S1: know something. I don't know if I told you guys this.
• 16:36
  S1: He said, uh, if you want to go to Nome
• 16:39
  S1: in two years, I'm going to give you my A team,
• 16:43
  S1: My best team. And he said, I want you to
• 16:46
  S1: know something, Carl. This team is going to be able
• 16:50
  S1: to take you into the top ten for sure.
• 16:53
  S7: Wow.
• 16:54
  S1: Now it's a lot of dog care. It's a I've
• 16:57
  S1: got to be in tip top shape. I mean, I've
• 17:00
  S1: got to have the right equipment and I was going
• 17:02
  S1: to need to spend. I said, boil it down. How
• 17:04
  S1: much time do I need with the team I knew
• 17:06
  S1: I need. You got to have team team time to
• 17:09
  S1: bond with them. And I'm not talking. Just be around them.
• 17:11
  S1: You got to take them on long camping trips like 100, 200,
• 17:16
  S1: sometimes 300 mile trips that you take them on before
• 17:20
  S1: the before the race.
• 17:21
  S3: So they know you well.
• 17:22
  S1: So they know me well, I know them. Yeah. Leaders
• 17:26
  S1: got to know my voice. We've got to bond. You know,
• 17:28
  S1: I got to lay out straw and sleep with them.
• 17:32
  S1: When we stop for like six hours on one of
• 17:34
  S1: these training trips. And I've got to get my sleeping
• 17:36
  S1: bag out on the straw. If it's 20 below zero,
• 17:40
  S1: you get your sleeping bag out on the straw and
• 17:42
  S1: you crash with them. Well, it it was a tough one,
• 17:47
  S1: but I have great joy in this. I was up
• 17:50
  S1: one early morning because he had said three months. It's
• 17:55
  S1: what you got to have. You got to have three
• 17:56
  S1: months up here. I thought, I can do this, I
• 17:59
  S1: can do this. And I'm up. One early morning and
• 18:02
  S1: it was I mean, I heard the voice of God
• 18:05
  S1: as clear as day. And it was a gentle voice
• 18:08
  S1: and it was just a word to me. And the
• 18:11
  S1: Lord said, that dream is going to have to die.
• 18:17
  S1: You got to put that one to bed, Carl.
• 18:19
  S3: That was a hard one to hear, wasn't it?
• 18:21
  S1: Yeah, it was hard. I actually had a little tear
• 18:24
  S1: in my eye.
• 18:25
  S3: I don't blame.
• 18:26
  S7: You.
• 18:27
  S1: Because I thought about this for, oh, I don't know,
• 18:30
  S1: off and on for 20 years.
• 18:31
  S3: You say you've told us many times about your dream
• 18:34
  S3: for it.
• 18:34
  S1: Yeah. And I had some crazy plans and wear a
• 18:38
  S1: GoPro and get a lot of footage from the race.
• 18:41
  S1: And it was the Lord said, I've got something so
• 18:45
  S1: much more for you. And I thought I heard, but
• 18:49
  S1: it might have been my own voice that during the
• 18:51
  S1: millennial reign, you can run it a few times if
• 18:53
  S1: you wanted to.
• 18:55
  S7: Well, I think that was my voice.
• 18:59
  S1: But it's, uh, it's a cool thing. And that that
• 19:04
  S1: dream officially has been put to bed and I have
• 19:08
  S1: some joy around that.
• 19:10
  S2: That's that's tough, though, because it's. I'm sorry. It's not
• 19:12
  S2: like there was anything wrong about that. That's not a
• 19:15
  S2: bad dream. It was exciting. It was you know, it
• 19:17
  S2: was a good thing. It was a exciting thing.
• 19:21
  S7: Yeah.
• 19:21
  S2: But it wasn't a God thing for right now.
• 19:23
  S7: Yeah.
• 19:24
  S1: And therein lies the point. Uh, Ali, you nailed it.
• 19:27
  S1: It isn't a bad dream. And, uh, was was it
• 19:35
  S1: something that God could have redeemed and used in a
• 19:38
  S1: big way? Yeah. So I'm excited to see why God
• 19:42
  S1: had me give that up. Isn't that something.
• 19:46
  S3: That's really cool? And I, I love the fact that
• 19:49
  S3: as we're talking about hope that you can look at
• 19:52
  S3: that something you really wanted and it's okay to be
• 19:55
  S3: sad about the loss of that, but then to also say, no,
• 19:59
  S3: I have, I have joy because if God's not leading
• 20:02
  S3: me towards that, he must be leading me towards something different.
• 20:06
  S3: And it's obviously greater for me to experience that than
• 20:10
  S3: my initial dream.
• 20:11
  S5: Yeah, that's that's that's it closes one door, opens another.
• 20:15
  S7: Yeah.
• 20:16
  S1: So there it goes, man.
• 20:18
  S3: Yeah.
• 20:19
  S1: Bye bye. I did a run. And what really made
• 20:22
  S1: it tougher was he was giving me his A team.
• 20:25
  S7: Yeah. I'm like oh yeah.
• 20:26
  S3: An experience.
• 20:27
  S7: Because he.
• 20:28
  S1: Has three teams. He's got a B and C team.
• 20:30
  S7: Yeah.
• 20:31
  S1: But he was so fired up. He said I'm giving
• 20:34
  S1: you the A team. And I'm like, oh, I mean
• 20:37
  S1: that sealed the deal.
• 20:39
  S7: It was set.
• 20:39
  S2: Up for you to walk into such a great, you know,
• 20:42
  S2: great situation.
• 20:43
  S1: Oh, kind of athletes that no joking guys. Truth be told,
• 20:48
  S1: in 79, my best dog. His name was Ben. Um.
• 20:54
  S2: Ben?
• 20:55
  S7: Yeah, he.
• 20:55
  S2: I think you've ever told us about Ben.
• 20:57
  S7: Never heard of Ben. That's a new name.
• 20:58
  S1: He was an up and coming dog. He really wasn't
• 21:00
  S1: the best in my team that year. But he became
• 21:04
  S1: the best.
• 21:04
  S7: He actually.
• 21:05
  S1: Well, he won the Iditarod with a guy named Rick Swenson.
• 21:08
  S7: Two years.
• 21:09
  S1: Later. So he. And for him to be in that team.
• 21:13
  S1: And I knew he had the stuff, man, but he
• 21:16
  S1: was just growing into his own. And he had a
• 21:19
  S1: couple more years to really get maxed out. But he
• 21:21
  S1: was a super athlete. I don't talk a lot about
• 21:24
  S1: Ben because he was just a faithful dude, mid team,
• 21:27
  S1: but he was long legged and could scoot. But yeah,
• 21:33
  S1: so that team that a team would have. Absolutely. It
• 21:42
  S1: would have been a ride. It would have been a.
• 21:44
  S3: Ride for sure. I mean, you can't even say once
• 21:46
  S3: in a lifetime, because that's an experience that the vast
• 21:48
  S3: majority of people would never get. Yeah.
• 21:50
  S1: So yeah. And, and the tough thing too, is that, uh,
• 21:54
  S1: Blaze's mom and dad probably would be in that team.
• 21:58
  S3: Oh, wow.
• 21:58
  S5: Oh, really?
• 21:59
  S1: Yeah.
• 22:00
  S5: Okay. Yeah.
• 22:01
  S1: Blaze wouldn't have been right, because Mitch told me that,
• 22:05
  S1: you know, the only way blaze could make the team was.
• 22:09
  S1: I'd have to give him up for a year and
• 22:11
  S1: send him to Alaska. Oh. Because he's so far. Yeah.
• 22:15
  S1: It takes so much training. It takes so much training.
• 22:18
  S1: Even if he was harness broken and he's pulling my
• 22:21
  S1: granddaughter around the neighborhood. You know, that ain't that ain't
• 22:24
  S1: a level of training. It just ain't that that's like
• 22:29
  S1: five K versus marathon, you know?
• 22:31
  S2: Yeah.
• 22:32
  S1: So it's, it's a cool thing. And I just just
• 22:37
  S1: want to pitch you a question. Boom. Crew. Is there
• 22:43
  S1: something that is a good dream, a noble dream? And.
• 22:51
  S1: This isn't even for you to respond to on air.
• 22:53
  S1: I just want you to think about it. Is there
• 22:56
  S1: something that you've been dreaming about that isn't sinful? In fact,
• 23:02
  S1: it's noble and good and could be highly redeemed for
• 23:09
  S1: the glory of God. And sometimes life has those kind
• 23:16
  S1: of decisions where it's like, shoot, I thought this was good.
• 23:22
  S3: Mhm.
• 23:23
  S1: And if you listen closely to the voice of God,
• 23:26
  S1: he's going, you probably had to lay that one down.
• 23:33
  S1: Still makes me sad.
• 23:35
  S2: Yeah.
• 23:36
  S3: And that's okay.
• 23:37
  S2: And I think it's a good thing. It's good to
• 23:38
  S2: wrestle with that, honestly, because I think some people have
• 23:42
  S2: been given sort of a prosperity gospel version of this
• 23:45
  S2: of like something I give up for God. Like I
• 23:47
  S2: give up 100 and I get a thousand. It's like,
• 23:50
  S2: that's not like God's not promising that you get, well,
• 23:53
  S2: you don't get to run the Iditarod in the 50th,
• 23:55
  S2: but you're going to get a brand new car like.
• 23:57
  S1: It's a new car.
• 23:59
  S2: It can get kind of weird when we start, like
• 24:02
  S2: talking about doors closing and God and it being a
• 24:05
  S2: guarantee that in a worldly sense that we get something
• 24:08
  S2: that is obviously better and spiritually better for sure, but materially,
• 24:15
  S2: materially or prosperity wise, I think we have to be
• 24:18
  S2: really careful.
• 24:19
  S1: Yeah. And I'll be this bold. The bigger yes for
• 24:22
  S1: me is to stay in a track that God has
• 24:26
  S1: me in with regard to my calling. And to be
• 24:30
  S1: honest with you, when you really pursue a calling, there's
• 24:34
  S1: going to be many adversaries there, most definitely. First Corinthians 169.
• 24:39
  S1: There there will be if you're measuring opportunities based on
• 24:45
  S1: the absence of adversity, you're probably not listening close enough
• 24:50
  S1: to the voice of God.
• 24:51
  S3: Mhm.
• 24:53
  S1: So what is it? And I'm not saying every dream
• 24:58
  S1: you have has to be set down. God will give
• 25:00
  S1: you plenty that you pick up. But sometimes somebody's listening
• 25:04
  S1: right now is at a Y on the road, and
• 25:06
  S1: the Holy Spirit's speaking to you. And that's a cool thing.
• 25:10
  S1: Hang on. More with Karl and Cruise straight ahead.
• 25:14
  S6: Walking closer to Jesus every day. You're listening to Karl
• 25:18
  S6: and Crew.
• 25:18
  S8: Boy, have we got a treat right now. Boom. Crew.
• 25:22
  S8: I gotta tell you, I was just telling Johnny Erickson. Todd,
• 25:25
  S8: I said, you know, when I was a little guy.
• 25:28
  S1: Not too little. I'm just like a little brother to her.
• 25:30
  S1: That's all I am. But when I was a little
• 25:32
  S1: guy in church up in Alaska. I remember hearing my
• 25:35
  S1: dad mom talk about Johnny and they said, oh boy,
• 25:40
  S1: this girl, she has got a testimony. Oh my goodness.
• 25:44
  S1: And I heard that constantly. And Johnny Erickson Tada became
• 25:49
  S1: for my dad and mom, a real hero of the faith,
• 25:53
  S1: a real hero of the faith, real inspiration. And my
• 25:56
  S1: dad was great for saying, oh, the grace of God
• 26:00
  S1: is flowing through that young lady. And I'm so grateful
• 26:04
  S1: that she's with us today. It's amazing how life goes by. Johnny,
• 26:07
  S1: what's going on? What's happening to time here, sister?
• 26:10
  S9: Well, Carl, I'm so excited to be with you this morning.
• 26:13
  S9: And of course, your crew and all our listeners tuning in.
• 26:17
  S9: And I am thrilled that I am here to talk
• 26:20
  S9: about a wonderful partnership with Moody Radio and Johnny and
• 26:23
  S9: Friends Wheels for the World Outreach.
• 26:26
  S1: Yeah, what a tremendous effort. Give it to us. In
• 26:29
  S1: a nutshell, you're really using these wheels as a vehicle
• 26:34
  S1: of the gospel and the love of Jesus. Right, Johnny?
• 26:37
  S9: Exactly. Because, Carl, when I broke my neck coming up
• 26:41
  S9: on 60 years ago. Wow. Can't believe it. But when
• 26:44
  S9: I broke my neck and became a quadriplegic, when I
• 26:48
  S9: began to get my spiritual act together and understand what
• 26:52
  S9: it meant to live with Christ as my Lord and Savior,
• 26:57
  S9: all I wanted to do was to get that gospel
• 26:59
  S9: out to other people with disabilities. 1.3 billion people with
• 27:05
  S9: disabilities like me all around the world, most of whom
• 27:09
  S9: do not have the gift of mobility and who have
• 27:11
  S9: never heard the name of Jesus. And so I'm thinking
• 27:14
  S9: to myself, gee, how can we get the gospel to
• 27:17
  S9: those folks? And of course, if they need wheelchairs, why
• 27:21
  S9: not take wheelchairs and also take Bibles in their language
• 27:25
  S9: and also gospel bracelets, and also disability ministry training for
• 27:30
  S9: their churches so that these people understand that, well, cerebral
• 27:34
  S9: palsy is not a curse from a local witch doctor.
• 27:36
  S1: Yes.
• 27:37
  S9: People with cerebral palsy are made in the image of God. Yes.
• 27:41
  S9: So we tell the truth through wheels for the world.
• 27:44
  S9: Our program through which we distribute wheelchairs and Bibles and
• 27:49
  S9: the good news of Jesus Christ. And it's all because
• 27:51
  S9: I broke my neck, I think, when I broke my neck,
• 27:54
  S9: when I drove off that raft.
• 27:56
  S1: Yeah.
• 27:57
  S9: Of course. God's heart hurt for that 17 year old girl.
• 28:02
  S9: But God's heart was already hurting for the millions and
• 28:06
  S9: millions of other people with disabilities around the world who
• 28:11
  S9: had yet to hear the gospel. His biggest plan was
• 28:13
  S9: to get me involved in reaching them for Christ.
• 28:16
  S1: No question about it. Johnny Erickson taught again, my guest here,
• 28:19
  S1: and we're going to have a link for you in
• 28:20
  S1: just a moment, because I'm going to ask every one
• 28:23
  S1: of you, every one of you listening to just give
• 28:25
  S1: us some space to the Holy Spirit to work. We
• 28:29
  S1: are going to believe God for something mighty, something beyond
• 28:32
  S1: what we can ask or even imagine. Because that's. That's
• 28:35
  S1: how we need to live. Uh, Johnny, you know, as
• 28:38
  S1: I go around the world, I've been all over the world.
• 28:40
  S1: The reality of disability and the demonic notion that it's
• 28:45
  S1: attached to a curse is horrific. And the discarding of
• 28:50
  S1: disabled people in some regions around the world is disheartening,
• 28:56
  S1: if not utterly despicable. So what do you say? Do
• 29:00
  S1: you see hope springing up in these people's lives when
• 29:04
  S1: they see a tool, a device, something that's going to
• 29:08
  S1: give them more mobility or help? It must be tremendous
• 29:11
  S1: to witness.
• 29:12
  S9: Oh, absolutely. In fact, we just got back from Rwanda
• 29:17
  S9: and also Thailand. And in Thailand we delivered our 250,000th
• 29:23
  S9: wheelchair to a little girl named nada, born with cerebral palsy.
• 29:29
  S9: and she shares a single room apartment with her mommy
• 29:32
  S9: named MIM, and a couple of siblings. Nada does nothing
• 29:37
  S9: but pull herself along the dirt floor on her forearms, and, uh,
• 29:42
  S9: mom often has to carry her at age 11 because
• 29:46
  S9: nada has no ability. But when we came to Thailand,
• 29:51
  S9: we gave our 250,000th wheelchair to her, and this was fascinating.
• 29:56
  S9: You see, because Thailand is primarily a Buddhist country, her mother, MIM,
• 30:01
  S9: thought that her daughter's disability was a result of something
• 30:06
  S9: awful that she had done in a previous life. Can
• 30:09
  S9: you believe that? We sat down with her at a
• 30:12
  S9: picnic table and we shared the gospel. How MIM was
• 30:18
  S9: not a curse from some previous life that MIM and
• 30:23
  S9: her daughter were made in the image of Jesus. That little,
• 30:27
  S9: little Nadal was a gift to him. And so we
• 30:31
  S9: gave the good news of Jesus Christ. And they were
• 30:33
  S9: fascinated with the Bible in their own language, and that
• 30:39
  S9: made it come alive to see God's word, God's word
• 30:42
  S9: to this mother and her little daughter, Nadal, who had
• 30:46
  S9: the biggest smile when she opened her heart to Christ
• 30:49
  S9: and when she opened her heart to receive that wheelchair.
• 30:53
  S9: So this is a common way that we distribute wheelchairs
• 30:56
  S9: and we're going to be in Indonesia soon Nepal, Guatemala, Mozambique,
• 31:03
  S9: the Philippines. As I said, we just got back from Rwanda.
• 31:07
  S9: We have outreaches in nearly 90 countries. And I'm so
• 31:11
  S9: excited that this this is really getting the gospel out
• 31:15
  S9: to people who are, as you said, ignored, kicked aside,
• 31:20
  S9: often drowned at birth or left out in the jungle
• 31:24
  S9: at birth because of a disability and the thought of
• 31:26
  S9: a curse. So we tell the truth through God's Word,
• 31:30
  S9: and we give hope in Jesus Christ.
• 31:32
  S1: I gotta tell you, Johnny, Johnny and friends has had
• 31:36
  S1: immense impact for the gospel for years. But I feel
• 31:41
  S1: like with what I'm seeing on YouTube shorts and reels and,
• 31:45
  S1: and hearing by way of people just talking about what
• 31:49
  S1: God's doing through your ministry, I feel like you guys
• 31:51
  S1: are just hitting your stride. Young lady.
• 31:56
  S9: Well, I think we are. And even though I'm coming
• 32:00
  S9: up on my. Oh, I can't believe it.
• 32:02
  S1: Carl, don't say it.
• 32:03
  S9: I'm going to be seven. When did that happen?
• 32:07
  S1: I don't know.
• 32:08
  S9: But even though I'm getting older, I'm so much more energized,
• 32:12
  S9: so much more excited because I sense that time is short. Yes,
• 32:16
  S9: the days are evil. Life is but a fleeting wisp
• 32:20
  S9: of vapor. A smoke that disappears. And I don't want
• 32:23
  S9: to waste my suffering. I want to steward my age
• 32:27
  S9: and my suffering well. And so every morning when I
• 32:31
  S9: get up, I say, Jesus, I can't do this. I'm old,
• 32:34
  S9: I'm hurting. I've got chronic pain, but I can do
• 32:37
  S9: all things through you as you strengthen me. Isn't that right?
• 32:40
  S1: Oh, you know what, Johnny? I got to tell you.
• 32:43
  S1: You know, what's amazing is I think God is in
• 32:45
  S1: the business of by grace, enabling us to be positioned
• 32:52
  S1: in a point of need. And he will do whatever
• 32:55
  S1: it takes lovingly to position us there so that we
• 32:59
  S1: can cling to him all the more.
• 33:02
  S9: And I think that's what God's done in my life.
• 33:04
  S9: He has allowed the affliction so that I might depend
• 33:08
  S9: on him, rely on him, cleave to him. And as
• 33:12
  S9: you said, lean on him even harder. Yeah. Every day
• 33:16
  S9: I want God to press me up against his breast
• 33:19
  S9: so I can hear the heartbeat of the Savior, for
• 33:22
  S9: his will for my life that day. And today it's
• 33:25
  S9: all about encouraging our moody listeners and letting them know
• 33:29
  S9: how they can get involved.
• 33:30
  S1: Boy, have we got something for you, boom crew. This
• 33:33
  S1: is thrilling. So I want you to think about this
• 33:35
  S1: manual wheelchairs not electrified because there's challenges with that around
• 33:39
  S1: the globe, but manual wheelchairs, crutches, canes, wheelchair parts, you
• 33:45
  S1: just think about that. Those categories. I'm thinking manual wheelchairs, crutches, canes,
• 33:51
  S1: wheelchair parts. There are so many of us in the West,
• 33:56
  S1: in Chattanooga, in the Cleveland area, Grand Rapids, Tampa, Chicago, Indy,
• 34:02
  S1: listening right now and other parts. And we're going to
• 34:04
  S1: tell you how you can connect. Even if you aren't
• 34:06
  S1: in one of those larger cities, you can be a
• 34:09
  S1: part of this incredible effort, wheels for the world. And
• 34:13
  S1: it's just as thrilling as a collection. Date Saturday, September 12th,
• 34:19
  S1: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.. That's just I just imagine
• 34:22
  S1: what that's going to be like at these cities, Johnny.
• 34:25
  S9: Exactly. Because we need wheelchairs. And the ones you things
• 34:28
  S9: you mentioned wheelchairs, the chair parts, canes and crutches. They
• 34:33
  S9: are desperately needed among both elderly disabled people and children
• 34:39
  S9: with disabilities, adults. And so on Saturday, September the 12th,
• 34:44
  S9: only from nine in the morning to one in the afternoon,
• 34:47
  S9: we are going to ask our listeners to come and
• 34:51
  S9: bring their wheelchairs and bring the mobility equipment that we
• 34:55
  S9: can then restore and make it like new. Then ship
• 35:00
  S9: overseas to developing nations where this equipment is needed most.
• 35:05
  S9: And as you said, the cities where we're going to
• 35:08
  S9: be having these, uh, insight collections or in Cleveland, the
• 35:12
  S9: Cleveland area, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Tampa area, and lots of
• 35:17
  S9: other communities and deliver the gospel.
• 35:20
  S1: Oh, yeah. And that's the most beautiful thing about Johnny
• 35:23
  S1: and friends is guys, they aren't just giving something as
• 35:26
  S1: a tool as hope. It's inextricably linked to the hope
• 35:30
  S1: that's found in Jesus and Boom crew. You live for this?
• 35:33
  S1: So I got a crazy idea. What if people wanted
• 35:36
  S1: to go down to a medical supply house and buy
• 35:39
  S1: 1 or 2 or a dozen? Would that be cool? Johnny?
• 35:42
  S9: I think that would be awesome. That would be fabulous.
• 35:46
  S9: But you know, sometimes you can go to a thrift store. Yes.
• 35:49
  S9: For a Goodwill or Salvation Army. I mean, lots of
• 35:53
  S9: these places have used mobility equipment, or you may have
• 35:58
  S9: an old wheelchair in your garage or in your attic.
• 36:01
  S9: It's been collecting dust. Well, if it's usable and if
• 36:05
  S9: it's a manual wheelchair, again, we can't take power equipment
• 36:09
  S9: because of problems with power supply in developing nations. Please
• 36:15
  S9: get involved. Donate that equipment to Johnny and Friends and
• 36:19
  S9: our wheels for the world outreach because it is a
• 36:22
  S9: way of giving the gospel. It opens people's hearts. When
• 36:26
  S9: we give a wheelchair to someone like Neda in Thailand
• 36:30
  S9: and her mother MIM, watching on. It communicates, God knows you.
• 36:36
  S9: God loves you. God hasn't forgotten you. God understands your need.
• 36:40
  S9: And here is your need for your physical challenges. But
• 36:44
  S9: we've got a way to fill your spiritual emptiness also,
• 36:48
  S9: and that is through Jesus Christ our Lord. And it's
• 36:51
  S9: a great way to open people's hearts to the good news.
• 36:54
  S1: Amen. You know, I gotta tell you, boom crew, this
• 36:57
  S1: is one of the most tangible, palpable moments of love.
• 37:01
  S1: Hundreds of thousands of people will have ever encountered. Just
• 37:05
  S1: think about that. Just think about you taking an hour
• 37:09
  S1: of time to find that wheelchair by one, by a dozen,
• 37:12
  S1: by 20. Some of you have the means to get
• 37:14
  S1: 100 of these things and haul them down there in
• 37:17
  S1: a van. And I'm not kidding you. We've got those
• 37:19
  S1: kind of people here, Johnny, that have that kind of heart.
• 37:21
  S9: We need generous folks to participate with us. You've traveled overseas, Karl,
• 37:27
  S9: and you understand even when there is a a church
• 37:32
  S9: in a community, often the family is too ashamed to
• 37:35
  S9: let their disabled child out of the house. And so
• 37:38
  S9: that child is stuck in bed in some back room,
• 37:42
  S9: perhaps on a dirt floor, and he never gets a
• 37:45
  S9: chance to see the light of day. Because of the
• 37:47
  S9: social stigma and the fear of being looked upon as
• 37:52
  S9: cursed by the animist spirits, as it were. So we
• 37:55
  S9: want to destroy those lies.
• 37:57
  S1: Yes.
• 37:58
  S9: And we want to shine the hope and the truth
• 38:01
  S9: of Jesus Christ that everyone is made in the image
• 38:04
  S9: of God.
• 38:05
  S1: I'll tell you what. We're going to be boom crew.
• 38:07
  S1: We are going to be the church and the gates
• 38:09
  S1: of hell will not prevail against it. This is a
• 38:12
  S1: forward movement, forward movement, literally wheels of hope. We're moving
• 38:17
  S1: forward with the gospel. So here's what I want you
• 38:19
  S1: to do. boom crew, whether you're in Chattanooga, Cleveland, Grand Rapids, Tampa, Chicago, Indy,
• 38:25
  S1: or a smaller burg, here's what you need to know.
• 38:27
  S1: We've got a link here that will show collection sites.
• 38:31
  S1: All you got to do is plug in your zip code.
• 38:33
  S1: It'll put you onto collection sites nearby because God has
• 38:38
  S1: given traction to Johnny and friends. I feel like there's
• 38:41
  S1: cross metaphors everywhere here to Johnny and friends in ways
• 38:44
  S1: that are just amazing across this globe. So I want
• 38:48
  S1: you to be a part of this. It's as simple
• 38:50
  S1: as this. Just text the word chair right now to
• 38:53
  S1: 805 557898. Text the word chair to 805 557898. All
• 39:04
  S1: the details are embedded in this link. All I ask
• 39:07
  S1: is that you spend just a moment, say, Spirit of God,
• 39:10
  S1: what would you have me do? Text chair to 805 557898. Johnny,
• 39:17
  S1: could I pray over this ministry before I let you go?
• 39:20
  S9: Oh, I wish you would, sir. And please pray with
• 39:23
  S9: the heart of Jesus, for he has a heart according to,
• 39:27
  S9: let's say. Oh what? Psalm 82. Defend the cause of
• 39:31
  S9: the weak. Be a voice for the voiceless. So please
• 39:34
  S9: pray in that regard.
• 39:36
  S1: Oh father, you are the voice of the voiceless. You
• 39:39
  S1: are the righteous one. You will equal all scales. That
• 39:44
  S1: day will come and it's coming soon. Lord, it's almost
• 39:47
  S1: like we can hear the approaching hoof beats of the apocalypse.
• 39:50
  S1: And we praise you that as we are here in
• 39:52
  S1: this time, you have called us into the great work
• 39:56
  S1: of the gospel. I pray a blessing over Johnny and friends.
• 40:00
  S1: I pray a blessing over Johnny herself. I'm asking that
• 40:03
  S1: your spirit, oh God, would move in such power in
• 40:07
  S1: this event, that many people who don't even know you
• 40:12
  S1: would feel called to you. Many people that see what's
• 40:15
  S1: happening would say, who is your leader and that they
• 40:18
  S1: would find Jesus. And as these wheelchairs land in the
• 40:24
  S1: preordained places that you knew before the foundations of time
• 40:28
  S1: they were going to land. O God, may hope spring up.
• 40:32
  S1: May the gospel go out and may many surrender their
• 40:35
  S1: lives totally to you. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
• 40:40
  S9: Oh, Carl, what a vibrant, energetic, dynamic, hope filled prayer.
• 40:45
  S9: And I hope our listeners were participating in that.
• 40:48
  S1: Oh they are. They are. Johnny Erickson taught everybody. Thanks
• 40:51
  S1: for being with me, Johnny.
• 40:53
  S6: He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then
• 40:56
  S6: he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl
• 41:01
  S6: and crew on Moody Radio.
• 41:03
  S1: Well, we got a man on the front lines. If
• 41:05
  S1: we're talking hope and finding hope in God. Oftentimes the
• 41:11
  S1: presenting issue is not the issue, but the issue really
• 41:16
  S1: is finding hope in God, cutting through the layers of
• 41:19
  S1: pain and. Phil Kwiatkoski at Pacific Garden Mission, who. Sometimes
• 41:25
  S1: it must feel like an exhausting task to encourage people
• 41:30
  S1: and counsel them to put their hope in God. Phil.
• 41:33
  S10: Oh, when you see the situations that some of these
• 41:36
  S10: folks come to us in, it is absolutely heartbreaking.
• 41:40
  S2: Phil Kwiatkoski is president of the Pacific Garden Mission. It
• 41:43
  S2: is the country's oldest continuously operating gospel rescue mission. It's
• 41:48
  S2: right here in Chicago. They're doing tremendous work saving and
• 41:52
  S2: restoring the lives of homeless and hurting men, women and children.
• 41:55
  S2: By the time people come through your doors, Phil, most
• 41:59
  S2: of them maybe, if not all of them are feeling
• 42:03
  S2: pretty hopeless. Is that accurate?
• 42:05
  S10: Oh, that is accurate when you think about it, because
• 42:08
  S10: this for many is a last resort. If you or
• 42:10
  S10: I had a hurting child or a relative, I'd. I'd
• 42:13
  S10: open up my home, of course. But by the time
• 42:15
  S10: you've walked through these doors, every door has been shut.
• 42:19
  S10: And so this for many, they tell me this is
• 42:21
  S10: my last resort.
• 42:23
  S1: You know, the interesting thing here, Phil, is that everybody's
• 42:27
  S1: putting their hope in something or someone. Everyone. Yeah. The
• 42:33
  S1: uniqueness about Pacific Garden Mission is you find people that
• 42:37
  S1: have put their hope in a bottle, in a pill,
• 42:42
  S1: in a needle, predominantly those three groups of some sort. Now,
• 42:47
  S1: here's the danger with this, is that you start thinking, oh,
• 42:51
  S1: those people. But the reality is, anyone that is not
• 42:55
  S1: placing their hope in God, it may not manifest with
• 43:00
  S1: such degrees of pain affliction, but it is destructive all
• 43:08
  S1: the same. Phil.
• 43:09
  S10: Absolutely. And the issue with the addiction is people don't
• 43:13
  S10: know how to process the pain. So many have been
• 43:16
  S10: abused as children. They've had issues in their home and
• 43:19
  S10: they don't know how to process what has happened to them.
• 43:22
  S10: And the narcotics or drugs just numb the pain. And
• 43:25
  S10: when they come here again, it's out of desperation. But
• 43:29
  S10: another thing is there's a lot of folks that come
• 43:31
  S10: here out of just we have a guy right now.
• 43:33
  S10: His name is Jason. In May of 2025, he was
• 43:37
  S10: walking across the pedestrian bridge over Lakeshore Drive. And he fell,
• 43:42
  S10: cracked his skull, fractured his ribs, broke his femur. So
• 43:46
  S10: he wakes up in a hospital. He was going to work.
• 43:48
  S10: And so he's in the hospital. And the doctor said,
• 43:50
  S10: you're lucky to be alive. You will probably never walk again.
• 43:54
  S10: Now he's in a wheelchair. So when his care was over,
• 43:57
  S10: they tell him to leave the hospital. He had nowhere
• 44:00
  S10: to go. Imagine being out on the streets, sitting in
• 44:04
  S10: a wheelchair. And he's a devout atheist, having nowhere to go,
• 44:07
  S10: navigating life now, basically as a paralytic out on the streets.
• 44:12
  S10: So he comes to the mission. When he hears the gospel,
• 44:15
  S10: his heart starts to warm. We hook him up with
• 44:18
  S10: Lawndale Medical Clinic because they operate out of the mission,
• 44:21
  S10: and they begin therapy on him. And just a few
• 44:24
  S10: months ago, I saw him stand up out of the
• 44:27
  S10: wheelchair and take a few steps, and now on his wheelchair.
• 44:31
  S10: And I saw it this week in the hallway. He
• 44:33
  S10: has a little sign where a license plate is on
• 44:35
  S10: his wheelchair that says, Jesus. And I see Jason every day.
• 44:41
  S10: And I thought, here's a guy who was an atheist.
• 44:43
  S10: Can you imagine being paralyzed in a wheelchair, facing a
• 44:48
  S10: winter on the streets of Chicago? And his exact words were,
• 44:52
  S10: Pacific Garden Mission was my last resort. But now Jason
• 44:57
  S10: is still here today and I see him almost every day.
• 44:59
  S10: He's taking a few steps and I always say, Jason,
• 45:02
  S10: you're going to run one day. But what that person
• 45:05
  S10: needed more than anything, he needed hope. And he got
• 45:08
  S10: hope through the gospel, but also hope through the fact
• 45:12
  S10: that his physical condition may be able to change.
• 45:16
  S2: Phil, you always have so many stories because just day
• 45:20
  S2: after day you are seeing lives begin to have hope restored. People.
• 45:25
  S2: I mean, it's, it's it's never like the extreme makeover
• 45:28
  S2: like you see on TV, you know, where you in
• 45:30
  S2: a 30 minute episode, you, you see the shack that
• 45:33
  S2: all of a sudden is a mansion. But talk a
• 45:36
  S2: little bit about the work that happens, your staff day
• 45:39
  S2: by day, really intentionally leveraging the gospel, leveraging resources and
• 45:45
  S2: treatment to try to restore hope to people who've lost it.
• 45:48
  S10: Well, the key to the staff, you have to have
• 45:51
  S10: a staff that has a passion to do what we're doing.
• 45:54
  S10: It's not a job. It's a ministry. And when we
• 45:56
  S10: have people where this is their passion, it makes a difference.
• 46:00
  S10: We had a young girl by the name of Janet,
• 46:02
  S10: I think she was 18, and she dropped out of
• 46:05
  S10: school because she didn't achieve A's. So she knew she
• 46:08
  S10: disappointed her father. So she wanted to go ahead and
• 46:11
  S10: she texted her dad and said, dad, I'm dropping out
• 46:14
  S10: of school. I'm going to leave. And so she just disappeared.
• 46:17
  S10: The dad frantically walked to our door and said, I
• 46:20
  S10: have no idea where my daughter is. I just want
• 46:23
  S10: my daughter to come back to me. I don't care
• 46:26
  S10: what happened. And so she was talking to one of
• 46:28
  S10: our staff members, and the staff member didn't say, well,
• 46:31
  S10: too bad, I'll pray for you. Good luck. The staff
• 46:33
  S10: member said, you know, I'm going to go look in
• 46:35
  S10: our day room where the women are seated, and I'm
• 46:37
  S10: going to see if I find a young girl there.
• 46:39
  S10: She walks in the day room and there was a
• 46:40
  S10: young girl that fit the description that the father said,
• 46:44
  S10: and she said, our worker said, is your name Janet?
• 46:46
  S10: And she says, yes. She said, I want to tell
• 46:49
  S10: you right now your dad is waiting outside looking for you.
• 46:52
  S10: So we call the father in. And they had a
• 46:55
  S10: tearful embrace. It was heartwarming. And the father whispered that
• 46:59
  S10: she was forgiven. Everything is okay. I want you to
• 47:02
  S10: be safe. Just come back home. And so they were
• 47:06
  S10: reunited right here at the mission. And they embraced. And
• 47:08
  S10: he took her home. But it was a staff member
• 47:11
  S10: that had the wherewithal to see a grieving father at
• 47:14
  S10: the doorway, not just to say, well, we'll pray for you.
• 47:17
  S10: We hope you find her. Say, I'm going to look
• 47:19
  S10: into this for you. And it's sitting in our thing
• 47:21
  S10: was an 18 year old girl who desperately needed to
• 47:24
  S10: be reconciled to a father, and that father walked down
• 47:28
  S10: the hallway and the embrace was unimaginable. So these are
• 47:31
  S10: the stories I see daily. And you have to have
• 47:34
  S10: a staff with that passion to see lives change.
• 47:38
  S1: Phil Kukowski. I don't get my breath taken away very often,
• 47:42
  S1: but this is breathtaking. This is amazing work you're doing.
• 47:45
  S1: You know, Ali said this, it's all linked to the gospel,
• 47:48
  S1: this hope that you give. Do you see different seasons
• 47:52
  S1: where the gospel is? There's a movement of the spirit.
• 47:55
  S1: And then other times when you're kicking against the gates
• 47:58
  S1: of hell, you must see these cycles, even in this ministry,
• 48:01
  S1: to thousands of people every day.
• 48:04
  S10: You see both. You'll see there's times of great opposition.
• 48:08
  S10: Because one thing as a Christian ministry, our job is
• 48:11
  S10: to preach the gospel. Our residents have to sit in
• 48:14
  S10: our chapel service. That's what we. That's how you pay rent.
• 48:17
  S10: So you want to pay rent. You sit in our
• 48:18
  S10: chapel service.
• 48:19
  S1: Plop your tail down and listen, buddy.
• 48:23
  S10: That's your rent. And sometimes you'll have opposition. People don't
• 48:26
  S10: want to do it, but to see those that listen
• 48:29
  S10: and to see lives changed and families restored and marriages
• 48:33
  S10: put back together, it's absolutely stunning. You know, real quick,
• 48:38
  S10: we had a guy that called us, his wife threw
• 48:41
  S10: him out because he had cataracts and he was legally blind.
• 48:44
  S10: He had nowhere to go. He's in South Carolina blind.
• 48:47
  S10: So he calls the mission. He somehow he heard of
• 48:49
  S10: the mission. He calls us, and I want to come here.
• 48:51
  S10: We're saying, well, we have a blind guy and, you know,
• 48:54
  S10: and and they say, you know what? Just bring them in.
• 48:56
  S10: So the guy comes here. He is bitter at life,
• 48:59
  S10: bitter at his wife. He's blind, he's navigating life. And
• 49:02
  S10: when he comes here, he got his luggage stolen at
• 49:05
  S10: the bus station. So now he could can barely navigate
• 49:09
  S10: getting down Canal Street as luggage is stolen. But he
• 49:13
  S10: comes in here and meets people that love him and
• 49:15
  S10: pray for him. And then we also hooked him up
• 49:17
  S10: with a Lawndale medical clinic, and they did the cataract surgery.
• 49:22
  S10: And today, right now, as I sit, he's in our
• 49:24
  S10: day room and he can completely see because they removed
• 49:28
  S10: the cataracts, he said, I couldn't believe that this happened.
• 49:32
  S10: And now he's testifying to the grace of God. He
• 49:35
  S10: can see this is like, you know, a story from
• 49:37
  S10: the Gospels. I was blind, but now I see it's
• 49:40
  S10: all I know. But here's a man in South Carolina
• 49:43
  S10: who gets put out, who's blind. His wife doesn't want
• 49:46
  S10: him anymore. He's bitter. His luggage is stolen, walks through
• 49:49
  S10: our door, and now he can completely see. And again,
• 49:52
  S10: I praise God for the workers, for the medical team
• 49:55
  S10: that works with us. But those stories, when you talk
• 49:58
  S10: to these people and look them in the face and
• 50:00
  S10: hear them, I love what I do and I love
• 50:03
  S10: this place, and I love what God is doing in
• 50:05
  S10: the lives of men and women.
• 50:06
  S2: It's incredible. Phil, you gave us a couple gospel stories.
• 50:09
  S2: You gave us a prodigal daughter being restored to her father,
• 50:13
  S2: blinded eyes, being able to see. I mean, yeah, powerful,
• 50:17
  S2: powerful ministry happening at Pacific Garden Mission text garden. If
• 50:21
  S2: you want more on this ministry, just text garden to
• 50:24
  S2: 805 557898. One little note unshackled. The radio program is
• 50:31
  S2: linked to Pacific Garden Mission, so you may be familiar
• 50:33
  S2: with that as well. Text garden to 805 557898.
• 50:39
  S1: You know, I want to say one thing to you, Phil,
• 50:41
  S1: on behalf of everyone in the boom crew. I love you,
• 50:44
  S1: we love you. You are so inspirational. You're in the
• 50:48
  S1: trenches doing the work of God. You're using your spiritual
• 50:51
  S1: gifts in powerful ways, and you're offering hope to a
• 50:54
  S1: world that desperately needs it. And on behalf of all
• 50:58
  S1: of us, we love you, brother. Thank you for what
• 51:00
  S1: you do.
• 51:01
  S11: We love the partnership.
• 51:02
  S10: And we feel the same way. Thank you. Thank you
• 51:05
  S10: Carl and crew. We love you guys. Thank you.