Latest / 10:14 Moondust / Episode 5: Deputy Josh Tuper

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Episode 5: Deputy Josh Tuper · 10:14 Moondust

• Moondust: You ready? I'm I've been ready, man. Alright, man, let's do it. Hey all and welcome to episode five of the 1014 Moondust Podcast. I'm the old gunny and I'm so glad you have chosen to join us for this ride. I'm joined by my good friend and co-host, Justin Daff. Oi, top of the morning, ladies and probably not so gentlemen. Thank you for returning to our shenanigans. We are still not professional biblical scholars, pastors, or theologians, and James still back there, manning our audio and visual, so any mess-ups blame him. yeah. all right, so if you're a returning guest, we want to thank you guys for coming back. and again we hope that God has used us in some way to to touch you and and to hopefully bring you closer to God. And if this is your first time you were joining us, we humbly pray that you Get to take away a little deeper understanding of what Christ can do for you and has done for you through the testimony of some of our brothers and sisters in arms or in this case today we got law enforcement services with before we go any further, let's pray and ask God to bless these efforts. It's on you this this this time, brother. Nah. Dear Heavenly Father, first thank you for this day. Thank we thank you for the day, the breath in our lungs. We give you praise, thanks, honor, glory, every bit of it you deserve. And honestly I'm just at a loss for words. I I I was listening to a service on the way over here and it's it's got me very, very humbled at the presence and the things that you've done for us through your son Jesus Christ. And it's it's through him that we are able to sit here today, share stories, share testimonies. And Father, we take we pray that you take this podcast, carry it to the ends of the earth as you see fit. And that it's used to help at least one more soul be able to reach you to know that there is truth, there is light, and even though this side of the grave may be hard, you are worth it. And the things that you offer to us are worth it. So it's in your Son, Jesus Christ, mighty, holy, and powerful name that we pray, give thanks, honor, and glory. Amen. Amen. Amen. I think we're done. No, I'm just kidding. Alright, so before we get into into today's scripture, we are going to reiterate our mission statement. I think we're gonna do this for every episode, just to remind folks right now. We're here to glorify God through fellowship, storytelling, and studying his word. 1014 Moondust aims to give veterans, first responders, and their families an opportunity to give their testimony, including their service and their journey in faith. So today's scripture comes from the Gospels of Matthew and John. so we're gonna we're gonna dive right in, man. Yeah. This is one of those little things we I we're gonna read what the scripture says on the exegesis and then a little bit of eisegesis and how we can apply it to our own lives. and like a little bit of a theme that I pulled out just from these two little verses. and they came to me I was I think like two or three weeks ago was a bit what when we first when I first said something about it. I was mid watching the sermon and I like had to pause it 'cause I'm like, wait a minute, I gotta write this thought down for this verse and another one 'cause I know there's another one that I could tie into this and then you ended up finding one earlier yeah that we can go back to so we're going back to the beginning in Genesis. Yeah, yeah. So so if you for for our listeners and for our viewers, with with our crazy work schedule, most of our planning is done through text messaging. So We have to remind each other that we put stuff on the XL document. Yeah, yeah, it's great. So most of our planning is is I'm not gonna lie, half of it is just us texting scriptures back and forth to each other and trying to figure out where we're gonna do that was a yeah, so anything was good. Yeah. All right, man. Well I think th this is this is your choice today, so we're gonna let you let you do the reading. so the first one we are gonna read from the Gospel of Matthew. Chapter 26, verse 18, and we're gonna go into 19 a little bit. so this just a little bit of time frame setup. this is Jesus coming in on in into into Jerusalem on the triumphal entry, through the east gate, or right before that, excuse me. They're fixing to go up to Jerusalem. and it is Jesus talking directly to the disciples. And we're gonna start where it says, and he said, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, first off, to a certain man. Yeah. Okay, as a law enforcement officer, I'm like, hey, dispatch can I get a better description? We got something other than And it's some a guy between five six and and six one. Yeah, something a little more accurate. Yeah. Is his skin is somewhere between pink and tan. Yeah. And he's wearing a black shirt. Like I I can't you don't even have that here. So, okay. and say to him, the teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. So the disciples did as Jesus directed them and they prepared the Passover. Now, me, like I I just had a bunch of questions there. And I'm like I probably would have been in the back. If if I was ever allowed to be one of them, I'd be in the back like What's a certain man look like? So I'm talking a lot, man. So this reminds me of a time I was in Afghanistan and we get a bolo. For a orange and white Toyota pickup truck. Look out for a highlight. For anybody that's been in the Middle East, they'll tell you all the trucks are orange and white Toyota pickup trucks. Orange and or gray. Yeah, all of them. Yeah. And so, yeah, like, hey, you're gonna go in there and you're gonna find this guy. Yeah. What guy? Just you this guy. Tan guy with a beard. Yeah. This guy. Okay. I bet he's an Israelite. I bet he's The tan guy with a beard, he might be wearing brown. Yeah. Yeah. but so then but the the the the me the that one little bit of a paragraph, you got that. Like Jesus gave you a little bit of details. Yeah. And like For us, like you give over what is John two five, I think is the next one. So we're gonna skip down to John two five and I'm gonna tie these two together and and everybody should know what this is because there's a lot of talk about this little bit of So this is at the the wedding in Cana. right Jesus has not started his ministry or anything yet. so right after and this is when Mary, his mother, comes to him and says, I might read four too. because it's funny that he had not funny, but he addresses her when she comes to say to him, like she says, they have no wine, and Jesus says, Jesus said to her, Woman. Okay. I ain't never call my mom a woman, but he's the God of He's God of Universe. He can I mean, yeah. What does your what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. And his mother said to the servants, she just like, all right, cool. Hold on, sir. I like to think Mary might be like, hey, don't get too big for your breeches, like mama thing. Yeah. And she's crap, he's he is God. so she goes, she turns to disciples and she says, Whatever he says to you, do it. That's it. Like that's that's it. There's no and for us military and law enforcement folks, like it to me it spoke to me about the the instant obedience to orders that we are taught. Like especially as Marines, I don't know about any of the other branches, I'm gonna do a little bit of trash talking there. I don't know how how instant your obedience is to the orders, but like I don't know. I got punched in the back of the head because my belt was too loose one time. But whatever. I'm just throwing that out there. But the that instant obedience to orders, one thing that it taught me, especially like in that translating over to law enforcement when I was doing SRT SWAT team stuff, was a lot of like in our job we have to make split second decisions in a split second. That's it. And they those split second decisions are immediately going to change people's lives. yeah. In that moment. Nothing else. And a lot of and and quite a few times those split second decisions can mean life or death. Hence incident that we had I did not even plan on this coming up, but like it's incident that our agency had this past week. I mean it's not anything not public news right now, but we had an officer involved shooting where one of our officers was shot. There are quite a few things there that if things weren't handled in that split second that instant ob and then there was not an instant obedience to what the supervisor was saying. and unfortunately a young lady, the suspect, lost her life. I think it's sad that somebody lost their life in the whole ordeal whatsoever. and also very, very, very tragic that our like one of my buddies, Crosby, got hurt. Yeah. Pretty seriously. Not as serious as we thought. Thank thank praise Jesus for that one, but he he was wiggling his toes and stuff the other day. Well at the hospital, so that's good. And he should be walking. They tried to get him to stand too. I think he'll be doing burpees by the end of the week, so. I don't he's not necessarily a burpee guy. He might be he might go for a job. He might be burpees, I don't know. But i if there if i in in a time like that, if there was not an instant obedience to the things that needed to be done, people die. Yeah. People that don't don't need to die. and that could be in combat and if you don't instant if you don't obey the orders or if you don't make a decision. Yeah. Because if the disciples had stood still and just sat there questioning God, how many times how many times I know James is over there at the camera on my ass that's and Tristan's outside with Nora? Like You're like, hey, I need you to do this. Why? Not not just the why, it's the the all market. dude. The In the mornings getting him dressed. man. And like, I'm like, hey man, starting your breakfast. Like, I let you sleep a little bit. So you you do you gotta give it a give and take on the time there. And I'm like, dude, get your stuff. You're like, hey, your dad's telling you to do something. I need you to get dressed. Okay. Man, listen. And then the bagel's still sitting there. Old boy walks past, and I'm like, dude, I will straight up. I I turn TV on just to give him some noise in the morning. And he watches Phineas and Fur. It's a funny little show. Love the plaid post. Don't get me wrong. Very exhaust. But he he'll go and he'll get up and he'll start doing anything that I say and then sidetrack and then like Corporal Daft that very rarely got angry starts to come out and I'm like move so I'll tell you you know it's funny that you brought up the like just do it right yeah so I'd kind of like to point out two things with these scriptures, and really, and then you mentioned earlier we're brief back to Genesis too, right? Mm-hmm. So Genesis. So, you know, Jesus tells his disciples, hey, go into Jerusalem and there's gonna be this this this dude, right? I'm gonna put it in modern Gen X terms, right? hey, you're gonna go and there's gonna be this dude, right? And And you need to tell that tell that guy like, hey man, I'm on the way, get your house ready, because we're gonna come have the Passover dinner with you, which is a huge deal for the Jewish culture, right? Like like Passover is a huge deal in and of itself. But having people over for the Passover, I mean we do the same thing here, right? Like Thanksgiving's coming up, you know, here in a little bit, right? Like have white different. I mean like Well I mean so I mean we're recording this in in and my dining room, right? Like Katie has graced you know, graced us with letting us use her dining room. well I can tell you that after we record our next episode, this room is gonna get a total revamp because we've got to 'cause it's a big deal that we're inviting people in for Thanksgiving. Yeah. Some of the stuff might get put away. Yeah, like yeah, yeah, but we'll we'll get it back up. It's one of the times a year we use the room. Yeah. Yeah. And so So he tells them, like, hey man, go in and we're literally gonna invade your house for the Passover, right? Like the biggest, the biggest sacrifice the biggest event of the Jewish faith is right now, and we're gonna come hang out with you, right? And the disciples are like, Bet. We're on the way, right? Well, then you fast forward, or I guess actually go back in time, right? And John, we're talking about Mary. And and Jesus kind of scolds her, right? Because he's like, hey, look, it's not time for me. It's not time for my ministry to start yet, right? And she never even like, she doesn't argue with him. She doesn't, she just looks at the service and she's like, hey, whatever he tells you to do. Because she had faith that he loved her enough that he was going to make it right. that he was gonna make it work. Whatever it was gonna be. Whatever yeah, no matter what it was. She didn't know that he was going to Like she didn't know that he was gonna turn the water into wine, right? Like she didn't know that. Yeah. And she really like she didn't ask him to do the miracles. She just came out and she's like, hey, we ain't got no wine. Yeah. Like they they ran out. This is gonna embarrass the crap out of Yeah, our family. Yeah. And sh and so he and so she just went with 100% blind faith that whatever he's gonna do. is gonna be awesome. Yeah. and I think sometimes we lose that, right? Like here, I mean I'm in the middle of starting a new job, right? We transition. and a lot of times, man, we like like like we we I I need this to happen now. and it's really hard for us to humble ourselves like Mary, like the disciples, right? we go back to Exodus man or not Exodus. Sorry. That's funny you said that 'cause then it's it that like as you're talking about it, it hits me A little different on the Mary aspect, where and I hadn't even thought about this before, where it's just like she's not she's not getting into an argument with God. She's not down on her knees pleading, you know, I need you to do XYZ. She's not, what can you do for me? She turns to the people who she turns to the people who are part of his ministry that help him, and she just says, Hey, whatever he says, do it, do it immediately. And that's at the beginning of the ministry, and then that translates all the way over. Over to the very last thing. You do like three years later down the road when they're going into Jerusalem for the Passover. Like, hey, we still, whatever he says, do it. I have no idea what's gonna happen, but I know it's gonna be good. Right. I mean you just gotta trust that's what faith is just. So so if you go back to right, so so we'll look in in Genesis. man, I'm Genesis chapter 41. Man, we're going way back, right? Right, so this is the famine, right? So Jacob, sorry, not Jacob, Joseph. Joseph has basically been made ruler of Egypt, right? Not Pharaoh, he's not the actual ruler, he's just the governor, he's the guy that makes all of the decisions, right? and Pharaoh has recognized that that Joseph is blessed by God. which is why I let him out of prison in the first place, and it's how he rose to to where he was, right? Mm-hmm. and so they've got all the plenty, you know, leading up to this, they've got the plenty, but Joseph is telling him, like, you gotta store things away, you gotta store things away. And Pharaoh's like, Hey man, what like that's what we're gonna do. But then, right here in in verse fifty-five, right? And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go into Joseph, what he saith to you, do. So not saying that Joseph is Jesus by any stretch of the imagination, but Pharaoh here had faith that that Joseph was so in touch with God that that no matter what was going to happen, it was going to be taken care of. And not good, bad, or indifferent, just good. Like just good. You know what I mean? and I just think that's cool that we can take that we can take New Testament scripture, go back to Old Testament scripture and just watch how the two relate to each other. I'm gonna brag on my family a little bit. We went to we went to Books a Million here in Aiken yesterday. I ordered James a new a new cover for his Bible. Mm-hmm. What James? Six months ago? Five months ago? Like three. Yeah, it's been a hot minute and this thing's been on backwater forever. and and the company's great. That's who the same company I got my church him my red back hymnal from, right? but things on backdoors. I asked James, I said, Hey man, I said, why don't we go look at like just go see what Booksman has, have one you like, then we'll get that. Well while we were there, I picked up this awesome new study bible and I wasn't gonna get it because it was like it was a little expensive, but that's okay. and my family basically Katie and both the twins were like they basically yelled at me and until I got it. and it's been it's already come in handy. I've had it for like what three days now. And it's already when you first get it, you're like you dive into it. Yeah, I might not get any sleep for the next week because of it. So that's pretty cool. I think we've I think we do you have anything else you want to add to this? I just wanted to take that Take that point. Like at the beginning of this, that was a little bit into what you can carry forward. Like for the people that are watching as the viewers, as you go and you think that the Lord is telling you to do something, pray about it and whatever he tells you to do, whatever he says, do it. First off, start with whatever he says through his word. Yeah. Do it. if you and and I say that and there are some some things in my life that I've I don't like I'm having trouble discerning whether I need to wait on whether whether I'm being told to wait or whether I'm being told that like it's time for you to do XYZ. Like I need you to d to step up in this way and do this, this and this. So and honestly like me stepping up is one of those things that like one I don't know how Two, I don't know if I'm good for it. Three, I'm pretty sure I'm not good for it. And I'm not the best person. I'm not I because I suck. Like honestly. I mean, that's kind of how we got to this table, right? Yeah. God said do. And we just we've just been going with it. And learning on the fly. Yeah. A lot. But Even even hesitation is just it's it's still disobedience if you're being told to do something. Yeah. So I that's my thing. If it if it's there's another scripture that Paul talks about over fraught all the things that are good and lovely and this like those that are good for stuff, like if you pray about it, it's good and it's going to work and it's gonna do it, like do it. And put the results into God's hands. Yeah. Yeah. I just put I can put seeds in the ground. I can break up the ground. I can put seeds in the ground. I can give it all the nutrients in the world. I have no control whether that plant comes out of the ground. Yeah, yeah. That's probably my favorite thing about this conversation with Mary, right? Is that it's not I mean what's crazy, right, is the disciples had had years of I mean, at this point at this point in the ministry, the disciples were so I hate to say it this way, but they were so used to Jesus saying, Go. Yeah. And go you know what I mean? I mean they don't see him sp spit in his hand, mixed dirt. Yeah, like they had seen like mind blowing things, right? But in here in John, right, with this conversation with Mary, like, now she had seen miracles too, right? She was a miracle. I mean her pregnancy with Yeah. I mean, that that's a miracle. But she just I mean She just had faith and assumed, right, that as long as we do what he tells us to do, it's all gonna okay. and I'm not gonna lie, man, so so for me especially, and and you kinda know this, we've talked about this a little bit. When I was younger, man, I lotta angry like suffer a lot of anger, right? And then what I've learned over time is to be more like Mary. Just be like, hey God, what should you mean to do? I'll do it. and it always works out the best. Yeah. All right. I think it's time I think we've had our guest sitting back there awkwardly. I don't know a place where he doesn't sit awkwardly. Well that's and obviously haven't known him for like seven years now. I know somewhere that he's not awkward at and I'll we'll talk about that when it gets on. but since you wanna you wanna go ahead and introduce our guest, man and we'll so today we have a very special guest that has spent His entire adult life and service to his community. Born in Augusta and growing up right here in Aiken County, he currently serves Aiken County Sheriff's Deputy, one of my co-workers and kind of one of my lead-ins to my current job. He also served as a signal support system specialist in the United States Army for a few years. And it is my great, great pleasure to introduce my friend Joshua Tooper. Hey brother. What's up, brother? Alright y we're putting you in the hot seat though. You gotta go to the middle. That's why I thought we're shorts and ties my show. Yeah. That's not good. I got bleach on the side. Yeah, you can. And you can pull pull it over the middle, man. We were hiding it behind that what? You can put the chair in the middle, man. You ain't gotta sit off crooked and crazy. That's weird. We we're trying to We're trying to the chair a little bit, but why you throwing things over there? That's what I do. Yeah. Welcome, man. Welcome. Thank you, thank you. Yeah. we were afraid you weren't we afraid we got to swim as much rain as we've gotten in the last. My brother in law's actually down in Florida right on the beach. Like I sent a man a picture yesterday from the beach with the storm like coming in. Is he surfing? Not yet. Man, we we It's only a category three, we're good. Right. Yeah. I mean we've said that in the past here and it didn't work out to our benefit. Yeah. all right man, so look so well our our returning viewers know we send this questionnaire out to everybody. and so we're gonna start with where's gonna talk? what do you like to be called? Tooper. Tooper. You don't want to call you Josh? No. Well you can. I've recalled too. I don't think I've ever I didn't even know I didn't even know Tooper's first name until like Yeah. I haven't called Tooper since the seventh. I don't have to call you sergeant. No. yeah, congratulations by the way. Yeah, yeah. It was I wasn't expecting it, but Yeah, I mean, that's that's awesome, man. So tell us a little bit about yourself, man. Where you from? where you grew up, that kind of stuff. My name is Joshua Tooper. I I was born in Augusta, moved over here when I was three. I'm sure we'll get to this a little bit later in some of the questions, but My dad was the kind of the reason that we moved over here. So yeah, moved over here, I went to four different elementary schools. just cause of ADD, I was diagnosed with that when I was younger. Mm-hmm. middle school, high school with Midland Valley, living naked and all my life in the North Augusta Valley area. Does that make you officially a valley rat? Yeah, I think it does. Alright, just checking. Just checking. I think the I think the high school that you go to kind of makes you a value. Kind of makes you a valley rat. So for our for our viewers and listeners, here in Aiken County, there's a section that's really kinda middle of the county. Sorry, in the middle of the county where people actually live. There's like a there's like a third of Aiken County where nobody lives, but Well, so what what I've learned is that the Midland Valley stretches on goes to the highway, like that area goes from In between City of Aiken to North Augusta. Yeah, that's It's just that whole strip in between there. Yeah, yeah. So there's a couple little like low sitting lakes that just run off water in there. And about fourteen thirteen, fourteen. How many individual towns are in the valley? that's a lot. Yeah. There's a section on four twenty one where you drive through four towns, but you never leave a town. Yeah. Yeah. There's no dividing line. Yeah. Four post offices on same road within like four miles of each other. Sorry. What I got to say is not with me. So Middle Valley. How was that? It was okay. I had a a teacher that believed in me. So 'cause I from fifth until like I was a bad kid growing up. So when I got into When I first got diagnosed, they put me in what's called self-contained classes or special education classes. Yeah. So I was in like fifth grade doing like third grade work. So when I got to high school, I was in ninth grade doing like seventh grade work. So I had a I answered a the teacher's name is Kathy Burberry. I answered a question a certain way. And she pulled me out to class and she was like, Why are you here? I was like, 'Cause I now I'm in the ninth grade, I'm like 15. I'm supposed to be, I don't understand your question. She like, No, no, why are you in these classes? And I said, 'cause once again, like that that's what I'm supposed to be. Yeah, I mean this is what my schedule says. She said, I don't think you need to be in these classes. And I was like, Okay. And at the time I didn't know that especially out of self contained, I didn't know that they didn't get a high school diploma. Okay. Yeah. And my goal was to go into the army. Mm-hmm. Even at fourteen, my goal was to go into the army. so she was like, Well, let me let me talk to some people, the principal and all that and then she was over my IEP. Yeah. So she she I mean, I'm talking a lot two days. She got back with me and she said, You got two choices. You can fail yourself, restart ninth grade, take regular classes, or you can continue going down the path of going and then when you get done in high school you get a certificate saying that you went to school for a hundred and eighty days for four years. And I was like Whoop Can I think about it? She said, Yeah. You can take however long you need. So I went home and told my parents and they already knew my what my plan was and they were like, You're old enough to make your own decision. Okay. So I felt myself. Wow. So I joined that my parents are the one that signed for me to join the army. You failed yourself so you could succeed. I mean even at fourteen. That's that is a crazy that's that's something that I didn't know. Yeah, I yeah not not not a lot of people. Well I'll tell you, you talk about teachers that teachers that believed in you, right? We have some we do have some educators that that that watch our show. and for the teachers that are out there, I mean I've worked in education, right? These two guys still I mean still do. Yeah. The teachers that care about the kids make such a difference. that you can't I mean, like y you can't even put it into words how much of a difference those teachers make. Yeah. So even like one of my one of our other buddies, one of the guys y you know you know Schmidt. Mm-hmm. Schmidt is so like he's got he's come a lot further than he was this first year. I mean he's a brand new teacher. my gosh, man, he's he I love Schmidt to death. He's one of the goofiest dudes I know. But The kids have now come around to like this is his third, fourth year there, and they have come around to like they might pick on the man 'cause he is goofy beyond get out. Yes. but if it it's it's kind of that thing where like, no, he's our goofy teacher, like nobody else is gonna pick on him. Like I'm pretty sure like there's there's quite a few kids that'd be like, no, like Mr. Schmidt is he he's my teacher. He's the reason I'm Yeah, I will tell you one of the things that that surprised me so much when I started working at high school. Now in the class they frustrate the man, that's probably the reason why he's going ball to the top he's going ball on top. I discovered, and you guys probably attest to this, right? First off, kids can be like the cruelest people on planet. But at the same time Kids will bend over backwards to take care of other people if they need to. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like it's wild to me. Like kind of like you said, hey man, that's that that's my guy to pick on, not your guy. You don't pick on. Yeah. I pick on. It's like having a little brother. That's my little brother. Yeah, yeah. It's funny. It cracks me up. Yeah, man. So alright, so you graduated. So David so you graduated. yeah, yeah. Graduated Friendavley. Friend of Magna Cumulade. I did split up. split ops so I my like I said my parents in my junior year my parents signed because that's I guess I think back then you had to be if you were seventeen your parents had a sign for you. Yeah. So my parents signed for me to join. If I asked what year you graduated in? no. Okay so you graduated yeah after that he said that then like it a long time both young years ago way back in the n so yeah I did split up so between my junior and senior year I went I went to basic and then when I got done with that I did the senior year high school, then I went to AIT. You did on the active duty side? No, it was reserved. Okay. so and then I'm I'm like as soon as graduation, I think, was on like a Wednesday. Yeah, I think. Yeah, Wednesday or Thursday is usually for boot camp or for high school? For high school. Okay. And then that Monday I was gone. but I but I didn't go far, I only went to Fort Gordon. Yeah. Well I mean so But you did you did boot camp here at Fort Jackson, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay. How'd that go just being up in Columbia? somebody you mix, you know, you do you do fire g fire guard and you're supposed to wait a certain amount of time before you, you know, clean the floor with a different chemical. Well somebody mix two chemicals together. my goodness. And I woke up with my pillow covered in blood from my nose. And from then on out Somebody must have guessed even now even still to this day when it gets too hot my nose will bleed. I bet that drill sergeant was so happy. He would check the his name was Drill Sergeant Paige and he would check on me constantly because I'd be I mean we'd be Ruck Martin and I'd be like this. And he's like, What's wrong, probably? I like, you already know. You're good, keep on going. So what was it like? So I don't I don't this is wild to me. So in the Marine Corps, with the Marine Corps has the split option too, but you have to graduate first for the reserves, so but you you graduate, go to boot camp, and then you go to college for a year and then you do your your follow-along training. So the Army lets you do that between your junior and senior year of high school? Yeah. So I don't know if they do it anymore. So what was I'm just curious what that was like being a junior in high school. I mean, basically still a high school student, right? Yeah. And I mean and everybody knew. Yeah, and he brought me in front. youngest person. How many of you were there in that platoon? Like isn't that split up? Yeah. Three. There was me and two other people. That was it. Out of how many? Out of how many were in the platoon? Probably. No, each one of our platoons had between f I wanna say forty-five to fifty. That's two hundred? I'll say two hundred. Yeah, about hundred Yeah, I two hundred. That's wild. So everybody knew. they brought us in front of Yeah, there's a children. I need all of you to watch out for these guys. At reception. You know, they they were like Yeah, they called my name and were like, You seventeen? I was like, Yes to a sorry He was like, Stand over there. And then the went and I had to stay over there. The next one You seventeen, yeah, go stand over there. That's wild. That's fine. Like, I I live boo I turned eighteen at boot camp, but I was already Like I had graduated high school and I mean I was young too, so but like that's crazy to me to go to boot camp, graduate boot camp. Then go back to school. And then go back to school. Like how was that tran like I'm just curious how like that how was that transition? I don't I don't know. I think I just had the the I guess my mentality was already there. I I just Yeah. I knew what I wanted to do and that's what He was an AD D kid, he was used to being a Yoda. He never didn't That's what I did. That's what I was gonna do. Well, I mean, first off I think that that that takes a lot for 'cause you were doing dr you were drilling and your senior year. Well, yeah. Yeah. That's cr that's I even went Spring break, I think. Yeah. Of O nine. I was in f at Fort Gillum in Atlanta doing a extra like it's a s it's a forty hour Singars radio radio radio radio class that we did. so you were basically doing your annual training of spring break. Well, it was like an extra it was just a class they wanted me to go to. So I went with I was assigned to the three forty fifth MI battalion. Yeah. At Fort Gordon, so that's that's right. me me and all the ones that were there all went to the same class. So do you mind if we ask how you went from army to 'cause said you only did two years, so I I know a little bit about 'cause you've kinda mean you kinda thought about it a little bit, how you went from there to getting out of the army. you want to talk about that or Yeah, no, that's fine. 'cause I'm curious as to whether faith played a big role in this. It did. Because you talked about going to having a chaplain this is kind of having a chaplain ask you about a service in boot camp. Hmm? that's what yeah the Yeah. Your your boot camp got or your church got cancelled? yeah, yeah. Yeah. I can't rem God I still can't remember that guy's name. Were you big in the church as kid? I was probably one of the ones that was forced to go. So like I would sleep or play or you know, I wouldn't I wasn't paying attention. Right. but to answer to answer your question, yeah, faith did play a big part of that. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. And I was discharged with a what they call a chapter thirteen discharge, which is I couldn't pass the PT test, mainly the run portion of it. So you know, I don't know how the runes do. Y'all you guys are pretty hardcore. so when I was at the the whole army PT test is completely changed now. Yeah. so when I do you had to do push-ups, sit ups and you had to run two miles. Well I maxed out the push-ups, I would max out the sit-ups and then when it came to Run with basic I passed because it was 50%. So you had to do I did it in like 16 minutes and 15 seconds, and you had 16 minutes and 36 seconds to do it. So when I got the AIT, it goes up to 60%. So now you have 15 minutes and 54 seconds to complete it. And I was around the 16, I got it down to 1605. And that was low, and I've tried I tried 10 different times. And I knew that. that you know, it was my calling there was done. I signed I won't say I signed up. I went to go get checked out by a doctor. they thought that it was some type of psychological thing. Mm 'cause I would get some pain in my right rib. It felt like If I had to describe it, somebody stabbed you with a knife and left it there around the mile and a half mark. About an empty space in there? Mm. Yeah, yeah, right in front of the room. It would it would it was just there and it would never go away. so, you know, I went to go they were gonna hypnotize me. And like get me to The Army was gonna hypnotize this. I had no idea. But that's what that's those were the exact words. Alright, so alright, hold on. Next next guest needs to be an army doctor to figure out Army hypnotizing. Okay. to like make it where I don't think about it. Okay. And I was like, okay. I've never like I'm how how old am I? You could've been like eighteen, I think. So I'm like eighteen. Eighteen and a half? Sure. Like I didn't believe in none of that stuff. So I was like, okay, if you say so. So at AIT, can't drive. 'Cause my AI T is not long enough. You were about to be an experiment on a documentary. Right? So T V my A I T's not long enough, so I don't I'm not allowed to drive. Yeah. so I have to take a taxi everywhere I guess. So s you know, I set the appointment up, got a taxi back. A month later, it was time for me to go to my appointment. I always try to get there fifteen minutes early, just in case something happened. So I go, get a taxi. It's like eight, nine miles away. Yeah, you a Fort Gordon at this point? So I get a taxi, go to the doctor's office. Go to the doctor's office, show my ID, tell who I am, and that I'm here for an aportment. Excuse me. And the doctor or whoever's at the the clerk at the front desk, she looks at me and said, Did you not get the notification? I said, No ma'am. What notification? She said, Y that doctor no longer is at this facility. They're at a different facility outside of Fort Gordon. And I was like, Okay, can you give me the address? So they gave me the address. I looked it up. I was not going to make it on time. so at that point I was like, Okay. Maybe maybe this is a sign. Maybe I'm not supposed 'cause at that point I've already I've already I've already tried to pass seven PT tests. So like I'm like they like I was kept there a while. I helped. when we have foreign nationals come in or foreign military come in. Mm-hmm. because I was done with AIT, I got assigned to drive them around and so I was driving a van, driving them around the base, showing them everything was at. I was in AI so my AIT was Forgot, eighteen weeks. Mm-hmm. So I was in I was stuck I'm I won't say stuck. I was at Fort Gordon for almost like nine months. wow. Because they cause I couldn't like I'm done with AT 'cause at this point you're qualified in your MLS, right? Like and I w I even they even moved me from you have the Yeah, each each platoon has a different base. Yeah. Right. So I have at this point I have already been to every platoon except for A, because that was where NCOs would come in that ch you know, they get a different that would be their new job. So they knew it a lab over so they would do that. So I've been And I still got the shirts. I've been the beat Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo. I've been all of I'm in Delta now. That's that's the that was the final resting place. and they have a a whole bay of nothing with people who have finished AIT or or getting kicked out of the army or whatever. And I have to go into that bay. Absolutely hated it. 'Cause some of those people in there didn't give a crap about anything or anybody. They were ready to get out. I had stuff stolen from me. My really good beret that I worked really hard on got stolen. so yeah. But yeah, no, that was I truly believe that was that was a sign. And I and I think I tried like two more PT tests. because of a certain time that I could run between s sixteen eight and sixteen like fifteen, people who I knew were having a hard time passing the PT test, I would be their pacer. And I'd be like, Hey look, you as long as you stay w like five seconds, five six seconds, maybe ten seconds in front of me, you'll be good. I know I'm not gonna be able to do it. I'll try. This is my ninth time. So I'm gonna push you as hard as I can. But it's not from like lack of like that that's if you're you had to run two miles in that in that time range. Yeah. Yeah. So you're still running an eight minute mile. So that's what so so I'm gonna I'm gonna defend our army counterparts for a minute because when I was a young Marine, I was like, you know, Marines only run three miles and the army only runs two. What I'll tell you what, man, when I was stationed in Fort Sill, I would watch those army cats run their yeah their PT test. No an eight man mile is not a joke. Yeah. Yeah, it's not a joke at all. Like I don't I'm doing it twice. Ever race an eight minute mile. I'm doing it. That's one of the fast guys. You you got better than me. I've I've never been. No, excuse me, I did run I run a seven minute mile one time and I run I ran a twenty one minute flat three mile. And that was the fastest I've ever ran. So I ran well when I was a young ring, I was running a twenty thirty. and then slow down to about a twenty one flat and I did that until I went on recruit duty and then well we we had we had some people and I would and th this is probably the third or fourth time that I tried and I failed. And I you know, I would see these other cats, you know, and they'd be like, twelve minute mile. no, twelve minute two miles. Eleven minute two miles. Like, Hey, teach me. Like I this is what I want to do. Can you help me? Well you run eleven or twelve minutes. booking. They were they were laughing they were laughing the whole ones beyond. Dude, I'd be running I'm telling you man, I said Marines first off, the inner service driver is great, right? Like I love it. Yeah. But at some point you gotta look at the other the other services and be like, that ain't no joke. And unless you're riding a bike. Unless you're riding a bike. That's different story. I mean that's that I mean That's cooking it. Yeah. That is that's cooking it. Yeah. I'm I ran like fifty yards the other day after some seven year olds trying to race one of these seven year olds on a flag football boat. I ran I ran fifty yards down and back like three foot now I was about to die. Hey. A few months ago. We were racing. Smoking. James, are you kicking control of that sound? Because every time your dad talks, it's like am I too close? I don't know, but every time you talk it's like blowing out the red over there. Alright. sound got not done it. We're gonna have another crappy sound. We're gonna back going back to episode one. Listen, they ain't nothing gonna be that bad. That was rough. I feel sorry for So but we might have to redo that one. That might be the the Christmas episode. Yeah. So tell us about I want to hear about this. So you're in boot camp, right? So and you've you've got they canceled church service on a Sunday. I did, yeah. Which is wild to me because I'll be honest, man, that Marine Corps boot camp only stops for one thing. And that's Sunday morning church service. That's it. Like Christmas, nobody cares. And then you didn't go to church service, everybody became two places people were not. Yeah. Not atheists. Yeah. Sunday morning in boot camp and a fox level. Yeah, Fox Loves in Boot Camp. So, like, tell us about that, man. What happened with that? you know, we all You know, they said if you're going to church, go go to the building. So we went to the building and it was probably it was a good amount. That's probably well, out of two hundred you probably have forty five people there. Yeah. And you know, that we waited for like ten, fifteen minutes and the drill sergeant came over and it was like, Hey, the pastors the pastor or the chaplain's not gonna able to make it today. I don't know I don't I don't want to lie and say it was like car troll or something like that. He told us the reason, but I can't remember what it was. and one guy that was I mean, I've I've watched him since reception and spoken to him many a times and he's always in his Bible. he's always writing stuff down, he's always taking notes. And he he went Joe Sartre and started walking away and he was like, Drill Sorrent and he turned around and he's like, Yes, Private? And he said, Can I can I do it? Do what? Can I can I conduct the service? What's your MOS? Chaplain's assistant. well. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Sure. yeah. I think the building's unlocked, so we've been in there and he did we've been there for about forty five minutes. it was good. Talk about a do what he says moment. It's like Yeah man. Yeah, dude that's like that is what scripture we talked about earlier, right? Like God said do and this this young Jordan. He said Beth. He said He said, Hold my communion glass. Hold my communion. I mean he he nailed it. It was good. I th I'm Hold my communion watches. I'm pretty sure most of us stood up at the end and was clapping for him. That's pretty good. Yeah. So we've talked in the past about and we try to ask everybody like, hey, who was the guy or gal like during your service that that that that really affected you, right? And and every single one of us is like, hey man, th there's always that person, right, that you remember from your service that was i I mean, you know, we've talked about, you know, how I kinda stepped away from my faith and stuff like that. And and but there's always the guy that or the gal, you know what I mean, that you remember that like, man, that individual stood up and really I mean I mean he wa he was literally the hands and feet of Jesus. Like that's pretty cool. That is pretty cool. I gotta ask you sorry, do you have something? No, I was gonna say it was definitely probably more than you than might have needed that moment. Yeah. for So I'm gonna leave it, 'cause I didn't get to. I'm behind I'm behind the power. Yeah, man. So Isaiah forty thirty-one. man listen, I got I got a new Bible. It doesn't have the it doesn't have the So is there a specific v translation that you like more than anything or 'cause that's New King that's a New King James 'cause it's easier for me to read 'cause I'm slow. this is the same one as some of the Ruke's okay. Alright, so you got a tattoo right now. I heard the ribbon is horrible. Alright, so we're gonna let you read it, man, and then you talk us through it. Alright. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. So to me and this is that everybody has their own opinion about it. and this is one of the reasons why I got the tattoo. so you know, I said ever I I I believe, like I said, everything happens for a reason. and I believe that God is you know, He knows everybody outcome and knows what you're gonna do before it happens and he guy kinda guides you into the correct path. but as someone like you said who kinda shielded you know, went away. So I didn't come back, until God until I was twenty four. And so and I will say that even at you know, doing the army, doing the high school thing, I started being a flute salt when working at the detention center when I was twenty four. I went through college, was a firefighter. carried a lot on my back. And then I found found this. And f I don't know what happened or what it was, but like once I read that, one I knew that I wanted to get that tattooed on me. And two, it's like everything lifted off of my shoulders. 'Cause if you just believe then everything's gonna be okay. And that's that's I've even I mean even my wife should be like, why aren't you stressed about this? Why aren't you worried about that? Because I'm not. Yeah I had a conversation with a with a guy at work recently and he's like man he's like how do you not like like like why do you not stress about things? I mean I you know you're frustrated about things but like not like and I was like man because at the end of the day Like you said right at the end of the day, like you gotta take care of. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty cool. I'm not gonna lie to you, so it maybe it's just cause I'm old and I have The fact that you pick something from Isaiah makes me very happy. He just sent me the a verse or s a section out of Isaiah fifty was it fifty five? Fifty five I think, yeah. Yeah. It was actually it was a it was a good a good little read. It's it's good, I like it. so you just you mentioned it, you just brought it up and I wanna talk about it over here. So I gotta find it on my notes though. You wanna walk through going like so you went from that to working at a detention center. Yeah. That's where you first started in law enforcement? Yeah, June 20th, 2014. Yeah. Okay. yeah. So actually even before that, I w let's talk about your faith for a second. 'Cause I I do wanna hear like so exp so you got out of the army, right? yep, yeah. Working locally. Yeah, I needed a job and my brother was a foreman over a paint crew out of Augusta. So I started working there and then that was in the end of two thousand ten and signed up to start going to Ach and Tech to get my criminal justice degree. And then I missed well I missed that camaraderie when I was in the military. So I needed something to replace that. So that is why I joined one of the reasons why I joined the fire department. Okay. volunteer fire department or volunteer, yeah. So did all that and then took me a little longer to graduate Achantech 'cause of the way the scheduling was. I had to actually take a I ha I was forced to take a break. Yeah. So it took me two and a half years. Okay. In order to finish it. Yeah, 'cause then I see on here you put so I love it. So one of the questions we asked is when do you when did you really start diving in your faith? And you put first touch by the Holy Ghost in July of twenty thirteen. Yeah man. and then in parentheses say see question below which cracks me up. 'Cause I look down And and we always ask some funny stories, right? And and the your first funny story is ask me about the first time I encountered Jesus. Yeah. So guess what I'm gonna do right now? I'm gonna ask you about the first time you encountered Jesus. because if I understand this timeline right, that's before you got into law enforcement. what was the year? Two thousand thirteen. Yes. Yep, one year before ya. Yeah, I was still in still in the still in doing the classes. so I was well you know, Captain Todd. Yeah. So I used to hang out with him and his family. Yeah. So I was invited to go to a church in Newberry. Okay. Me and my cousin. my cousin was dating one of his nieces. So we we me and him both went. Now I will tell you, on the way up there, I I knew of God Right. I did not believe. So so I go up there and we're you know, with it's a s it's a guest pastor, they're having a revival. and I'm not really paying attention to what what the guy's saying. Me and my cousin are just talking. He's up there preaching, like p it's a Pentecostal church. So he's a he's a And it's revival? Yeah. Is it a tent? No. Okay, all right. And that's in a building. So, you know, he's he's talking, talking, talking, and then he comes down to the floor and he says, If I lock eyes with you, you're gonna get touched by the by the the spirit tonight. And I was like, Okay. That's a little Okay, if you say so, sir. so me and my cousin are just laughing about it and this woman She got touched, you know, by the Holy Ghost and then she's running around the room screaming and me and my cousin looking at each other and go, What in the world is going on over here? This is that your first time on a Pentecostal chart? Yep. Okay. You And I was like, What is going on over here? This is some crazy stuff. you know, and then he just keeps walking around the room, walking around the room. And then he comes to my cousin and he looks at him and then He gets it and I'm like, Man, are you what is going on right now? I said, Do you play with me? He's like, No, no, no, I'm not. I was like, he's like, help me up and I try to help him up. And I can't he I can't help him up because his legs are like he can't stand on his own legs. And then he comes to me and he looks at me and he put his hands on my shoulder put his hand on my shoulder and he said, Not ready yet. I said, All right. Okay. soon. I said, okay. She sa she says so. So he goes back up there and preaches. And then something is going on inside. I'm sorry, I'm probably getting emotional. Something's going on inside me. And he's preaching and then all of a sudden he looks at me. And he says he says, Are you ready? Hadn't said anything. But something told me to just go. So I went up. And I'm standing in the middle of the floor. I mean in the middle of the room. And he hasn't come down, he's not come down, he's just talking to me. And then my whole body starts shaking. Sorry. You're a good man. and then, you know, he starts preaching but some more but by then I can't hear anything and I everybody's coming around me. I just I just remember and there's a p picture of it somewhere, lifting my hands up, I'm crying and then I start y talking in tongues and I don't even know what something with a S. I don't even know what I was saying. And then my legs felt weak and I fell back and I felt so bad for whoever I hit when I fell, because I have no idea who I hit behind me. Yeah, I mean I was just like my cousin, I couldn't help him up. I couldn't stand up. So I was down for probably like ten minutes. Was it was just like what in the world? What just happened? And it the preacher came up to me at the end when I was able to stand back up and he said he said that the devil had a hope of you. And I needed to help you. No God. So after that, you can bet that I believe. Amen. So when all that was going on, what was what was running through your head? Like what was I was like, what you know, at first I was like, what's going on? Like, why am I shaking? Why am I acting this way? You talk about Obedience. You know, just go, just do what he says. And that's that's what was in my head. So he said just get, you know, so told me just go. I just went. I think that What what's amazing, it it no it never stop it never ceased to amaze me, is everybody's testimony is different. But everybody's testimony is the same. Y you know? 'Cause you got y y you got the old devil and we talk about you know I hear all the time if life is easy if life is easy that means that that means and the devil ain't pushing, he ain't fighting you because you ain't fighting him back. Yeah. But the minute you start fighting him back he's gonna fight hard. Yeah. and and it's crazy. Like it's it's like I said we all when you that that first moment, right? Like and it's w w when he fights, he fights hard. but the beautiful thing is you know who always wins. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna get little I'm gonna get a little investigative here. Okay. I know I I wasn't good enough to be an investigator twice. I'm I've been making that joke a lot lately, but so you said that that was the first time that you encountered Jesus. How do you how do you what made you sure that that was that that's where that came from? 'Cause here here's why I'm getting at that. Because a lot of people will see the Pentecostal hyp or the the the c the hyper charismatic Pentecostal running around the room, speaking in tongues, all that stuff, like the common day speaking in tongues versus like a lot of it being gibberish, a lot of it being people forcing it to try and look for something. I have never known super to be a liar about anything. So I easily one of the most Yeah Well, I I think what you're and tell me if I'm wrong, one of th Like d this is what I was trying to get at a minute ago. For you, like, how do you know that that came from Jesus and not Not somewhere else. I'm not saying it was something of the enemy or nothing like that. Or like what makes you so sure? Because I'm just I'm just curious because you're really the first person I've ever like legitimately talked to that has said that they've had a a an experience like that. I've had a lot of s unexplainable supernatural stuff happen in my life. Not nothing like that personal like not nothing like that, but I mean I'm talking about encounters with what people would call what what we refer to as demons, ghosts, all the way back down to stories that my mom and other people would tell me that I did that I don't remember whenever I was a kid. and it all that kind of stuff has always been w weird. So like not saying that it's impossible, but there but there's there's people that are skeptical of it. So and it may just be because I was one of them before it happened. Yeah. So how did you what makes you so sure that it was of the Lord, like in that experience. If I had to say, I would say it was the peace that came over me. Like for someone who went there like you know, knowing but not believing. And then all of a sudden I get this experience and then it's just an abundance of peace. That's that's just how I would explain it. A lot a lot going on when it was going on. I wasn't I wasn't scared. was just calmness. So you got like physical I wanna say abnormalities is what or I'm not gonna say craziness, but physical abnormalities that that are going on and expressing themselves like through your body. But But you're not scared. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's that's wild. So have a curiosity about it. Again, that goes like the The devil's always gonna fight us in a way that the devil's gonna because Jesus knows the hair on our heads, right? I mean he says that in the Bible, he numbers the hair on our head, right? Yeah. But man, the enemy knows this too. Right? And the enemy knows, like, hey, what's gonna like you know, you know, that's why it's like every testimony is different, but every testimony's the same at the same time, right? Because one of the things that I mean a and I I've been to a of different churches. and and we've talked about like, hey, what's right, what's wrong, it d maybe they're all right, y you know, and maybe th that none of are perfect. I would say that that that God knows what we need to overcome Satan. And to overcome sin every time. Right. and what some of us need as humans is some of us need to be tossed on the floor, right? Like for real. Like some of us need that. Yeah. Some of us need to be tossed on the floor and God say you just just just sit there. Just stay there until I tell you to get up. Some of us need that, right? Some of us need, right? I mean some of us need, you know, the music. Some of us get the holy conviction from music, right? Right. Some of us get holy conviction. You just reminded me of another thing that talk about. Yeah, yeah. that music, yeah. So so some of us get holy conviction from I mean, so we went with my family to their church this weekend. just this past weekend. And it's it's one of those good old country mountain yeah Baptist churches, right? and I loved it. Man, I sat in the pew and I got preached to for forty five minutes. Like at one point poor Teddy, my my little guy, right? Looks over and says, Mom, it's too loud. Because the preacher is, I mean, he's coming from Teddy, that's a lie. He is tearing it down. James, am I lying? No. I mean, he's letting it rip, right? And looking back on my past, right? That's what I need. Right? So that's how God tells me, like, hey man. Get back over here where you belong, right? some people need I mean, i you know, like like I hear people about like we'll take I hear people say, well like like I don't like the Catholic Church 'cause it's too rigid and too structured, right? But that's how God talks to some people, right? God understands us way better than we understand ourselves. and I think, dude, first of all, that's I've met a few people in my life that that that's what they've encountered. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not as stubborn as you are, so God didn't need to toss my butt on the ground. That's happened to me twice. Really? Really? So you didn't learn the first time it was right here. That's not. That's the ADD. Yeah, that's what I like the squirrel. Well, I mean, but we all do that, really, right? I mean, I I can't I don't know a living soul, right, who gave their heart to Jesus and then everything was, you know, rainbows and butterflies, right? Like I don't know anybody that's happened to, right? If they did you've done the wrong thing. But yeah, like like like everybody I know like they they struggle with necessarily the Lord's name. Because even even a testimony of peace is is still a testimony to it might be that way for some people, but there's still sin still exists in the world. Yeah, and here's the thing, right? Is is all have you know, all sinned, fall short of the glory of God. the difference is is that we like When I mess up, man, God tells me about it right then. Right? In some way. Like, right then. And I feel that Holy Spirit conviction. and so I don't know a living soul who didn't you know what I mean? That that struggled. you know, I was I was listening to a podcast last week, and they were talking about the sanctification process, right? And the one guy was like, Man He's like I thought I'd be further along than I am He's like He's like I've been a Christian for you know forty years. I thought I'd be further along than I am. and what I wanna tell him is like, Hey man, you're further along than you think you are. Right. Like Like like look at where you came from. You know, look at you know like like I mean we talk in in in the in the email that we send out to to guests to potential guests, right? Talk about we're all blackhearted sinners, right? Every single one of us. and that's just it it takes it takes time and that's sanctification. you know you know how you know when God's done sanctifying you? 'Cause you're looking at it in his face. That's how you know. that's crazy. Isn't that I've heard people like I've heard a couple people do say that as you as you grow through that journey, you're gonna sin less, but you're gonna feel worse about it. every time like and it's the little stuff you're like, man. yeah. Like now, like personally, one it is confession time. the last couple days, especially with the whole thing with Crosby going on, like I find myself at work getting caught up with like letting my mouth run wild. And not just saying cuss words or, you know, like it yeah, that part it it comes along. But I don't I mean it still don't get nowhere near as bad as but I f I feel worse about falling into it so easily. Like it's two or three sentences of me talking to somebody and I'm like But then I gotta step away from it. But and then at the same time, like there's also things like I was I was rather aggravated at my at work yesterday. And I let some stuff fly out of my mouth in in my patrol car talking to Nelson and Nelson and Marshall, because Marsh Marshall came walking up a little bit nowadays. But I also I was rightfully not rightfully, I was a little bit perturbed and angry about some stuff that was going on at the office and also perturbed at the way that some people were talking about certain things. Like there's there's a heart behind it where I'm like and I'm not trying to justify it because the things that I was saying was like I was rude and aggravated. So like you know there's a verse where Paul talks about let n let it it's not just that you can't say the cuss words that exist now. It's let no unwholesome talk come from your mouth. And n none. No unwholesome stuff. Yeah. So like that Even falling so quick like just falling and saying you know, going into those kind of things where I just pop off at the mouth or whatever. I Tuber could probably attest this and you can too, like just a couple years ago, like I really did not care a lot. Also, Lance Corpel Daff was way worse than Corpel Daff and the Corpel Epic Corpel Daff. Yeah. Land Scorpio Daff did Yeah, you're a gunny, but I that didn't matter. Yeah. Well we I had one staff sergeant look at me, he was like, I forget his name. What was that staff sergeant? He he came from the band and then Lap moved over. He asked me on a field op and he was like he yeah, cause you couldn't get promoted. He got promoted to Sergeant or Staff Sergeant. Dude, I Lap moved over. Mm-hmm. he asked me out on a field op one time. He's like, Damn, like we're I was me and my buddy Pierce were laying in the back of a trailer And this is like one, I'm on a field out. This is the fifth anniversary of me and my wife being married and I have yet to be able to spend one anniversary with her. The Marine Court wanted you to have a wife. They'd issued you one. Yeah, cool story. But I'm kidding, man. Yeah, if they wanted me to have a life, they would have issued me. But like he said, he comes up to me, he's like dad he's like He's like, Dad, if I get the feeling you don't like me, I I don't, Staff Sarge. He's like Well dang, tell me how you real feel. I said, alright, I I genuinely cannot stand whenever you come around and want to talk to us about anything ever. Well, you know, you talk about lifting people up. Well, you talk about, you know. That was the tame version of what I said. If you know, it's hard and I fall in this trap too, right? Like it's It's hard to have everything that comes out of my mouth be positive, right? Like that's hard to do. yeah. And I'll be honest, man, what you two guys do for a living, I don't know how you I don't know how anything comes out of your mouth positive. Like, I'd be like, I'd probably leave work every day, like if you would have seen like the house that we had to go to last week and then this past week I'd for the search warrants. I don't even wanna so that's actually something I wanted to get into with so you So you finished school. Mm-hmm. Went to the detention center. Yep, yep. That was loads of fun, I'm sure. It's it was a looking back on it now, it was needed. Okay. So why? Why do you say that? and I put in to go to the roof. Like I graduated on my first I think I graduated in what May and then I put in for the road patrol division at the sheriff's office. And, you know, like a week and a half later I did phone call. Hey. It was the captain that we have now, Captain Todd. he used to be my assistant fire chief when I was in the fire government. He said, Hey, you need a job? I was like What a Koinky do. I just put in for, you know, the work at the sheriff's office on the road. All right, hold on, let me make a phone call. So he made a phone call and he called me back. He said, Hey, they have asked that you come to the work at the jail first. So he was, like a security I think he was second over the jail. At all time? Todd, yeah. Okay. Lieutenant, yeah. He was a lieutenant second in command over the jail. so he was in charge of training and hiring, so Okay. But I was like, yeah, sure. I I mean I didn't think anything of it. And then he he he called me probably a couple days later, though you got a polygraph this day. Okay, do the polygraph. Get done with it and the guy says, I passed and then he said Go to go back to the jail, see Captain, you know, Lieutenant Todd and say these this phrase. I said, Okay. But he but he's told me the phrase, I just don't remember what it was. Like he passed with flying colors or something like that. So I went there and I met with him and he was like he said, How'd you do? And I said, He said I passed with flying colours. He like, All you start next Friday. I said, That's it? Yep. That was That was what you needed to tell me to let me know that you passed. It's like, no interview, no nothing. He was like, I've known you for four years now. No, you're good. It's like okay. So that's when I started working at the jail. But it was needed because I wasn't necessarily social individual until I joined the military like all through high school. I wasn't known as a popular kid. I knew a lot of people in my graduating class, but not a lot of people knew who I was. And I was fine with that. but you don't really have a choice but to come out of your comfort zone when you join the military. You have to do stuff. Yeah, yeah. and even if you go work Road Patrol man, like Yeah, right. You're gonna have to talk people you don't know. So I in you're going through the worst. So for the detention center the first like five to six months, you are a pot officer. So you are in a room with sixty five, seventy people all day, twelve hours a day. The only door you control is the one that lets you into the sally port. You can't control the other door to let to get out. So I am there and I have to deal with different attitudes and talk to people a certain way and learn people's body language and deal with you know, a mentally unstable individual that got arrested for twelve hours a day. on top of feeding them and make sure, you know, at night and make sure they go to sleep when they're supposed to. And it's like it's kinda like I won't say well I will, it's kinda like a daycare. Well you know that's how your drill sergeants felt too, right? I'm sure they do this jacket. I'm sure they do. I gotta feed But I mean we even like we even had the if somebody didn't do what we were supposed to do, we wrote up. You know, like a like a teacher would, you know. so but I did that for two years. So basically you had altern you were you were alternative at the alternative school. Yeah. The alternative school enforcer. Eventually I got moved to different areas. Like I think they put you in the pods to just see if you could handle that s that type of environment. and then I started going to like Central Control, which is where I open all the doors, and then I would go work in intake, which is you know, if somebody gets the rest, they come in, we do the whole intake thing. You're everybody's best friend when you when you the intake officers are always I'm I don't think I've ever seen somebody really be mean to an intake officer. Like the ones that are up behind the the desk. Yeah. Now I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but every time I go in there, they're always like if they're angry, they're never angry with that guy. That guy or girl that's there. They are angry with whatever's going on, whatever they got arrested, but when they come to that person, they're like, Man, can I like can I like use the phone? I gotta call so-and-so, and then like the the guy that's back there, like probably a little sassy sometimes. They'll be like, Like, no, I just can't let you do it, man. Stop asking me. And they'd be like, huh Bro, they that they aggravate me so much over there, like and then they turn around like you there's always one there's always one crazy lady in there that's screaming and that is a different crazy lady. Every time I go in there, she's always locked in a room screaming. Like banging on the door. Yeah. I'm sorry, man. Like women under arrest, like They are a lot worse than dudes sometimes. give me the give me the guys all day long. All day her day. All day every day. Because Well the same girl's gonna be holding it a f for a grudge until the end of the school year. You break up the guys and they're like, All right man, my bad, bro A lot of times. Either that or they go finish handling like at our school they would finish handling it that weekend and that's a lot of calls for road patrol. Yeah. So you she worked in the jail. Yeah, went to the jail went on the road eventually. Yeah, put my letter in to go to the road. I switched because like I knew I wanna do law enforcement. but I didn't necessarily know what I wanted to do in law enforcement. And that's why I say the jail was needed. we had a at the time you could well even now you can still you know, if you're seventeen and you do something violent you can be charged as an adult. So seventeen year old came in, kinda talked to him about what was going on and then after his conversation with me, I was like, you know what? Can't I know what I wanna do. I can't but I can't do it unless I get out. Like I can't be in the jail and do it because by the time they come in here, it's too late. Like this kid came in with he had three life charges. So he's I mean he's still in prison now. so I put my letter in the get transferred to the road, I transferred, graduated the police academy August twentieth of twenty sixteen. And started, you know, working the road. I was the and I'm sure you were too, I was the kind of officer that would if I see kids playing football in a field, I'm stopping. If I see kids playing basketball in a park, I'm stopping. If I ain't got nothing else to do, I'm stopping. just to kind of build that rapport and that connection, 'cause a lot of kids, especially the ones in high school, you know, I won't say a lot. It depends on like what culture or diversity you're from that, you know. You don't look at law enforcement as you know, I wanna h yeah, they wanna help us. Mm, you know. So but that's that's where I kinda was like, I wanna change that. So and then you know, like I said, everything happens for a reason. I think it was either the in it was in November of either twenty nineteen or twenty twenty. I wanna say twenty nineteen. I was called to the captain at the time, road captain called me. He Hey we got these grant positions coming open for SRO and wanna know if he wanted one. And I was like, No, I don't think like I d I didn't think God was pushing me to go that way. so told him no. And then January comes around, he was like, Call me back. He said, Hey, we you know, we we had three and now we only got two. you can either go to this school or you can go to this school. I was like, Well What else? What what what else comes with it? It's like new car. no. A new car? A new car. Did you need a new car? Don't go there. No. Don't go there. No, we didn't know. I do have a great I have a I have a I love the Durango that I got now. Do you know about the Wobbler? Is that the old car? Yeah, he knows about the toys. Yeah yeah. The Wobbler. Do you know why w we know why I call it the Wobbler? Is it the tires? No, his predecessor and I wanted well, I had the help we It was the suspension was bad. Won't call it that. Yeah. And yeah. We picked on him for like days because you could see like the car wobbling when he pulled in the parking lot. We don't have a car in the water. And then his his moving magnolia tree. Well, so it was funny because you drove the other Taurus for a while. Yeah. So the Taurus so when I got rid of the or not when I got rid of when they got rid of that Taurus, they kept it at the county shop just to have spare parts to transfer over to the wobbler. To the wobbler. Yeah. And you know, that's how government officials So I like when I first time I saw that car I was like, dude, that might be the most Marine Corps thing I've ever seen in my life. That's the one that had a duct tape on it. The white duct tape. Yeah, the white duct tape holds the bumper together. Yeah. That's nice. Yeah. And you know why the bumper was cracked? Because it wobbled so much that they cracked the bumper. Anyway, all right, so so they offered you some schools and a new car. That's pretty nice. Yep. So but the I guess the key thing takeaway was I didn't have to work nights anymore. So I told my I told my wife and she was like, You gotta work nights anymore? I was like, nope, she's like take it. Why are you asking me this? Was that w was she training still training dogs and stuff then? Or probably so y'all probably had like a bunch of dogs come in and Yeah. Y'all lived in the other house. I wasn't gonna live in the Southern Lusion, yeah. She was actually training dogs at that was before she started her business. Okay. She was was it? Maybe. I think it was. It was definitely before y'all had bred the cane corsos, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was man breeding cane corsos. Giant dog. He had like nine dogs in his house for a while. Like huge dogs, not so they were his. So just so you know. The price for being on the show is you gotta donate a dog to so we have stopped the picture of y'all. Man, my wife would kill me if I hardly can't force away to this house. Well at one time we had up at sixteen and that was when they had puppies. but it just getting sidetracked it we like to make sure the dogs go to a good home. So we're not seeing that you said that We have we have individuals that have tried to buy dogs from us. We would like we do like we would do like in home inspections. Mm-hmm and if you didn't meet a certain criteria, the answer was no. So I I knew I know one of my old old boss from high school that managed a skating rink that I did, he bred Shibainos. or or not Shibinos, the the Japanese Akitas. He bred Japanese Akitas and he had the same thing. He was had the same thing. He's like, dude, you've got to do that. And especially like you gotta have a contract set up for breeding rights and all that stuff, dude. Like, yeah. I looked at Basset House the other day 'cause I don't want a basset house. You just want do are you trying to wind up on your HOA like Facebook page? Dude, I want to Are you trying to have them in I want a Basset House so bad, but anyway, do you know how expensive a pure blooded basset house is? gosh. Probably like they're probably During the twenty five hundred dollar range. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not spending twenty five hundred doll out of the pound then. So you're married? Yes. I know your two kids. Yes. one of them's fixing a gra he's graduating this year. Yep. He's he's a good kid. Aiden all Olive Olivear or however you say his name. He he got a he got a name change. Yeah. Okay. He said he liked it 'cause it was a French name from a video game that he had had. So he he got a name changed but then got his last name changed to Tupor now, so he is officially a Tupor. Okay. That's cool. sorry I'm telling your story for you. That's that's all good. Yeah. We we I tried to go the route of like officially like adoption, but it's just so much. It costs so much to do that. Which is crazy. Like i I mean, we live in a we live in a world where we live in a world where there's literally thousands of kids. Yeah. That need to be adopted. And and we charge people like I like I I tried to do it I tried to do the the name change myself. And I went to the courthouse and they said that and and I I li I felt bad for the lady 'cause I did laugh in her face. But I asked I said, you know, I'm here to do name change, here's the paperwork and she was like, Okay, let me check and she leaves and goes away and comes back. She said, This isn't my paperwork. And I said, Okay. What paperwork do I need? Not allowed to tell you And I said, I'm sorry And I just started laughing. I said, What do you mean you're not allowed to tell me? So you gotta go through an attorney. Huh? So it it didn't make no sense. Like I'm trying to Do what I'm do what I gotta do and you're telling me it's the wrong paperwork, but you won't tell me the right paperwork because you're not allowed to tell me. Yeah. So I thought that was a little weird. So if you needed the n if you if you want to change somebody's name under the age of 17, it costs $3,000. At least in this county. Okay. Well, at least with this county and that lawyer. Yeah. That's crazy. That's wild. That's just like that's insane. But So your kids are good kids. So why did you so did you take the job with the new car? That time I did. And you know, we talk about being at the right place at the right time and once again everything happens for a reason. I told him, you know, I called him back five minutes later, I said, You know what? I'll take it. It's like okay. What school was that? New Elton. New Elton, all right. So he said he said, All right, I'll put you down for it. We did s rotations. I was off that was Wednesday, so I was off Wednesday, Thursday and I was supposed to work the weekend. Well, I said yes on Wednesday, I got a phone call on Thursday, well before that phone call. he called the ca captain called me seven minutes after I said yes and he was like, I don't know what Like what is this watching over you or what guardian angel you got? But as soon as you said yes and I got off the phone with you two minutes later I had three people call me for those positions and I had to turn two of down. And I was like, Okay, this is this is where I'm supposed to be at. Yeah. so Wednesday I said yes, Thursday I got a phone call from Gaskins, I'm lieutenant at the time. And she was like, Hey, report up here Friday to tomorrow at eight and I was like, So I'm not working the road this week yet? And she was like, Nope, you're going to the school tomorrow at twelve and I was like, okay. So I had to go up there and get a different car and all this other stuff and A do car. No. No car yet. well that's a that's a different story. So yeah. Man. Yeah, they they are in no rush. Like you better get all your paperwork and everything done on time, but when it comes to getting you the equipment to do your job, law enforcement is not in a rush to make sure that it's it's right. Does that sound familiar? Government official. The whole the the Department of War is that way also. So I got a different conversation I need to have with you out out outside of here about something. It's a strange conversation. But So I'll tell you, man, I I see the impact that you have with those kids. I appreciate that. I do. I'm trying my best. we used to laugh when I worked at when I worked at DeBluff. we would laugh 'cause the freshman would show up, right? Yeah. And I'd be like That's a new elephant kid. That's a Jackson kid. yeah, you can yeah, you can tell. That's a new elephant kid. And then some of the new teachers are like, how do you I'm like, I don't just watch. Yeah. Because the new Elton kids are used to having somebody somebody hold them accountable. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. and I've heard Jackson's gotten a lot better. I haven't. This I think this year it was a lot better. But the kids that are there the kids that came from Jackson last year that are there now. And I something with this freshman class that is there. Hey, if you're raising a freshman right now in high school or whatever, do better. They suck. They are horrible. Man. This is the most disrespectful. There has been quite a few times I'm like, man, I'm I am pretty good at telling people where to go get eviction notices, and I'm about to serve one on the spit in your mouth. my dude, I'm using that now. I'm telling somebody that next week. I wonder if I get away with that. People be like they'll look at me and be Daf, if you spake your kid, I'll call trusting it right now. I've kept it this way for a reason. One, 'cause I'm not gonna just needlessly whoop my child all the time. Like that's not like if you are If you are hurting somebody out of anger, because accidents happen. Kids playing around. Little boys gonna be little boys, like bumping into each other, playing football, doing whatever. You might even get angry and both of you might agree to fight. Yeah. Okay. But if you just hole off and hit somebody out of anger, hit yourself out of anger, or break something intentionally out of anger, then we're gonna have a problem. We're probably gonna have an issue. You're probably gonna get your hand hand pop or For Tristan, you get disrespectful with your mom and you don't want to listen. The first time I tell you to watch your mouth, I might I might just pop you in the mouth. And when I say pop you in the mouth, I literally mean I literally mean just the pop. I'm not over here like spinning my kid's head around like this. Like an owl. I think the most I've ever I've ever had to pop him was like, you know, this just like I'd be like, hey, like Get I faced it when he was going. I would flick it. Yeah, the flick. Dude, gosh. He was we were at the dinner table, man, and I gonna have a confession on video about this and it was a hundred percent an accident, but whatever. Y y you ever flick them and it's just a little bit harder than you meant to. No. Well, yes, on this but I'm sorry, man, I didn't But also he was he was going off with his mom and like it Usually I kinda let a man address 'cause I'm like, hey, you need to tell him that he needs to stop. Like if you're not gonna set a boundary then what am I doing enforcing a boundary? Yeah. Also, I'm not gonna let it get too far 'cause that's your mama. I saw what your mama went through to get you here into this world living and breathing. And you mm she's not she was not a so So we're sitting at the dinner table, right? Let me let me do this roof. We're sitting at dinner table, kid he's back mouthing Amanda for something, and he's like three, four And like he's back my and I flick him and be like, Hey, like I right on the chin, that. And like it was usually the chin or the cheek or something like that. Or like top of the head, you do one of them. And I'm like, hey, get your stuff right. And I went and like he was a ma he's at the end of the table. Amanda's here and I'm over here. I'm beside him. And he's saying something to Amanda and like we had a round table at the time, but like It you know, he he said something and I I finally had enough and I went to go like this and when I did he saw my I guess out of his peripherals he saw my hand move and I had already let my finger loose. man I said I felt so bad I was like Tristan and he started crying and stuff like that and he's like guess how many times he that again. Never but I was like so So you say you're not gonna talk to your mother that way and you have something. So I I heard something read I don't know, it's been a few months ago now. but but it was talking about kids, especially raising boys. Right. I know you got a son, I got two sons. You've got one, one, two, two side. One side. well so well so hear me out, right? So one of the things that we've talked about it so but we've talked about it some on this show, right? Like like like right now I have boys, but I'm not raising boys, I'm raising men. Mm-hmm. Right. and this thing I heard it's been a few probably about a year ago now, and I've started applying it. I'm not gonna lie, man, it's it's changed kind of the way I dress things, right? With plug years you don't need those things. Now he can hear this. He knows. This doesn't actually pertain to him. He's out there on this at this point. Now he d he doesn't get this kind of treatment anymore. but so my little guy, like I mean he He's four, right? So he doesn't understand that when he hits people, like it hurts. Like he like you know what I mean? Yeah. and so, but the scene that I heard was like, hey man, like yeah, you're not gonna talk to your mother that way, or you're not gonna hit your mother, you're not gonna do your mother that way. But more importantly, you're not gonna do my wife that way. yeah. Right? and so since I've started taking that approach What I have found, at least with with my little guy, right, 'cause I'll tell him like straight up, like, Hey doll, you ain't you ain't you ain't talking to my wife that way. Right? 'Cause now now I'm not telling him not to talk to to his mom. Right. Now it's But you also start establishing who the the the responsibility of who your wife is. Exactly. And not only that, but then like eventually like I'm gonna have there might be a time come where I'm gonna have to pass this responsibility or I'm gonna leave this responsibility up to you and have to trust you to one help take care of my wife. Not saying she's not Katie's not independent because if Katie come here and tell me that it's some At some point, right? At some point, those boys that were raising to be men, right, are gonna be the man of their own house. Yeah. Right? And it's not a like like that's not a you're not gonna treat your mother that way. I mean 'cause cause you're not, right? You're not gonna treat your mother that way. But but don't want you're gonna look at it from from I'm the man of this house, right? Like you are not gonna treat you're not gonna treat anybody that lives under my roof that way. Especially not my wife. Not my wife, right? I just think that's kind of a good thing to to look at. So I do wanna ask ask you about obviously I think we know that you got into the SRO business 'cause you wanna help kids. Yeah, yeah. It's mainly 'cause of the way that I And you do you do do a good job. You you taught me quite a bit on being a being an SRO and wanting to help kids. I appreciate that. I appreciate your help. How many SROs work for you now? Like a hundred and twelve? yeah, it says now he's my supervisor. Yeah, ten. we just had one just got hired yesterday. So hold on. You say that, but there's a a deviation from the responsibilities of supervisor that has happened, but that's i it's a nature of where the department is right now. So I know you got promoted. Yes. still at no. You're still at the middle school? No. I'm not assigned to a school. I have to go to it's a lot. I have to go so like Monday I'll be at New Ellington because Nelson will be doing something. Yeah. So I have to cover the schools that are out and then I'm also SVU investigator so I get signed cases so I have to work cases as well. on top of over the summer I just became a a dayer instructor. Okay. So now I teach dare. Thursdays and Fridays. Like two hundred kids. Okay. I didn't we were still doing that program. Yeah. Well I'm the first one in twenty years. First one in Aiken County in twenty years. Okay. All right. Cool. That was I almost embarrassed the mess out of our sheriff. Man. at your dare graduation. How? So I had like the sheriff. Yeah, because he was there. He was there. Yeah, okay. He was there. Cause him and Sheriff Lott knows our speaker. Yeah, he was a speaker 'cause him and Sheriff Lott also know each and they did it through Richland County. Yeah. So I I went to use the bathroom before I got there and may or may not have zipped my pants back up. But I then I realized I'm standing in the front row next to the sheriff in one of the pictures when we when they first did and I'm like So I know that they're about to put all this on Facebook and I like when I went to when went into Whataburger, 'cause that's where Tupac wanted to eat for lunch, went into Whataburger right across the road and like I realized my fly is open, so I'm like called a major and I'm like Hey Can you crop that picture in some Sheriff Sawyer, I'm so sorry. My fly was like no, which major was it? Do I know it? Is it Griffin? Griffin. So I had to call him up and like, hey Yeah, him and I are in a Sunday school class together, so that was fun. I was I was like this close. I was so sorry. That's great. Man, so you're like Jack of all trades right now. I'm trying. So I I'll tell you so if anybody that doesn't know, Tuber is a jack of all trades. So hold on. gosh. Sergeant and Sheriff's Department. No. So now SRO supervisor. SR yep. SRO supervisor, Dare instructor. Are you still flying drones for the sheriff's department? Yeah. Don't forget about the investigator spot. Every now and then. yeah. Investigator, flying drones. What else? You don't do the drones as much, but you still do. Yeah. it's mainly 'cause of the drone that I have. Like I don't Yeah. I don't have a a super cool drone. Like my drone is the The Maverick. You don't have dude, all draws are. The Maverick Pro. So it's like some of the other ones we got, like do I think? Yeah. Some of the other ones that they've got with the sheriff's office. Now granted, I don't know what they're gonna do about batteries because you can't run them things for more than thirty minutes and they The ones we got now is at forty five. We just got new ones. that's crazy for being on a six hour track with somebody. Are y'all gonna get y'all should get Pumas? I don't even know that. It's the big airplane. no, they're not. No. Ain't they like $120,000 people? I doubt I know you asked Uncle Sam. I watched a lieutenant lose one one time, it was great. Do you know who found it? A Lance Corp. Well, two Lance Corpels. This is like the greatest thing ever, man. We were at we were doing this crazy thing to test the feasibility of shooting cannons off of a landing craft. Anyway. So we got all these people from the battalion out here, and the intel officer for some reason is out here, I don't know why he used to get out here, but he wants to test, he's gonna test the pool, right. But we're on the intercoastal. And I don't know if you're been on the intercoastal in North Carolina, but the wind I mean it's it's the beach, right? But instead of it being like you know like when you're on the beach you have the inland wind. Yeah. The intercoastal, the wind runs from south to north, usually, right? And it just pushes. It's like thirty thirty mile an hour winds. Twenty five mile an hour, three-mile hour sustained winds, right? I mean it's super windy out here. You're like yelling back and forth to talk to each other so windy, right? Well not that fast, but they're like, it's bad, right? So I tell the young attendant, I'm like, sir, do not put that plume up. Like, it is way too windy. They're like, nah, nah, it'll be good, it'll be good, it'll be good. I'm telling you, sir, don't do that. Nope, it'll be fine. So he launches this thing in the intercoastal, right? And I'm watching it. The Puma is facing south, and you can hear the motor mee, right? But it's going north. Because the wind is blowing so hard that I mean it's staying in the air because there's an you know what I mean? Dude, within a matter of minutes, you can't see it anymore. Like it's gone gone. That is bad. But we still got to feed, so we know it's in the air. Yeah. We just can't see it to get it. And the the the the headwind was so strong that it couldn't Couldn't come back. It couldn't come back. So two Lance Corporals, like one of pulls out Google Maps on his phone, right? And is looking at the the imagery that it's sending back and looking at his phone and figures out where this thing dude, I'm telling you what, man, nineteen year old Lance Corpals are geniuses. yeah. Right. You just gotta teach them y they just you just have a problem directing their young brains. As long as they've got a We've been victims of As long as they got somewhere to go, they're great. So these two cats sit down, they got the computer, and the one guy is like watching the screen and watching his map, and they managed to fly this thing this way. They managed to get it down low enough so that it's basically the trees are blocking some of the wind. And fly it all the way back. It took it like 45 minutes to get back to us because the wind was blowing so hard. But dude seems I think you put them up for like I think they got like a two hour loader time or something like but this thing, I mean, hey I was just like thank you so much for all I like I told you to like you shouldn't put that thing up there. but yeah man so you what we got supervisor, investigator, dare instructor, we're gonna reroute back to his list. All the things that he does. Roll is cool. What are you three D printing these days? So right now, I have been Do you still do pressure washing? I do on the pressure. Okay, so too we have the pressure washing business if you're in Aiken and you need pressure washing. he does a pretty good job from what I understand. He's done a lot house. His real that was our real passion right now is 3D printing. Yeah. so I don't know if you guys seen the new been inside a new Ford Ranger. They have the selector switch for the four wheel drive was like in the middle console. Okay. Well I've been tasked to create a cover that like flips closed. 'cause a lot of people like to take their dogs with and the dogs like to climb over and people will be driving and you know, the old my old Bronco or whatever when I used to have it, you had to put it in park and you put it in four wheel drive, then you can drive. But these, while you're driving, you can push the button and it will change it to four wheel drive. So the dog will jump over the seat, push the button and it will change while they're driving. so the cover latches close so they can't push and there's another another set of selector switches. So I'm pretty much I'm designing two covers that flip close. Is this for the sheriff's department? You're doing this for the sheriff's department for I have somebody California Yeah. I started with someone here local. Yeah. And they're members of like a Ford Ranger Facebook group. It's it's not just that you're three D printing like the little fidget things that my kid has out there. no, I try to try to make functional stuff. Yeah, you're designing something that is functional. Like w so you were designi you design those new body cameras that we got, you were trying to they had you trying to design a since they had the quick release charging thing? yeah. Didn't they try to get you to do the mouse for that? That was just what something that I did 'cause I got I didn't have nowhere In the Durango there's nowhere to like put your camera like it. If I'm charging it I gotta plug it into the laptop and it just sits somewhere. Well I got tired of turning and it would just fall when I wasn't wearing it. like in wearing investigator clothes. Yeah. It'll just go wherever. So I designed a a pressure fitted thing for the magnetic charger that once you put it in this way, it was like locked in, but you had to like if you really wanted it out you could get it out. And I just double sided tape to a piece of metal that was in the car, it was already there, and then you just drop the camera. He did w he and not just has he not just has he gotten into the the three print stuff. So the light things, the lithogram light thing. Lithophane. Or the lithophane. Those things are f freaking awesome, man. Like have you seen those that he was doing? So you wanna talk about those a little bit? You're yeah, you can nerd out on those a little bit more though. Just so you know, that's James's little three D stamp indoors. He's about to go over here and examine it. Yeah, they're gonna James is gonna start y'all gonna start nerding out together here in a minute over three D prank stuff. The only thing I know how to do is when the filament gets Tangle. Tangled. Well whatever it's called in the extruder whip. Yeah, in the extruder when it gets all melted in the extruder. Yeah. so liptophan is like For instance, if we took the picture here and we took a picture of it, you could send it to me, I can make a lithophan of it, and you hold it up. When you look at it, it's it doesn't look like anything, but when you hold it up to the light, the image comes through. So I've done it to where I make frames and then put lights in the back of it, where you can plug it in with a USB. I've had it where it's battery operated. the most recent thing I've done with it is I've made a night light to like, and this is more like like memorial pieces. Yeah. So like when the dog passes or a family member, they'll send me the photo, I'll make it. And it's like You just plug it in, turn it on, as soon as you turn it on the image comes through. And they are. It it's actually like now like with the newer printers and stuff you got this this you can make surprisingly clear. You can make color ones now. Yeah, they're r and so what we need, because as you can see we're using paper towel for a cup holder or for a coaster. We need some coasters that got some. Probably this for you. This we ain't got much yet, but this is for you. That's our only and another thing that I was thinking while I was waiting, if you send me this I can make challenge points. So that's one thing we talked about doing, yeah. So that's cool. we talk about store stuff. I listen, I was I've started a new job and it's super fast. Like we're we're a new new one or like Yeah, new new, like within the last week or two weeks. okay, I didn't know that. Yeah. It's same company, same it's just in a different spot on site. okay, so it's still with the site. Yeah, it's still on site. Yeah. Is it tritium? No. It's in a different spot on site. I mean it's with SRPPF if you know what that is. But I love it. anyway. we're super busy. Like really busy. Not at all. Anyway. So as I was actually I was in class all week last week, so as on one of our breaks I was like Just browsing just browsing the interwebs, which is dangerous because my wife will tell you that I do not know how to window shop. So He sees the window as a not a barrier but a challenge. That's cool. I can see through it. That means it's available. Yeah. So anyway, but yeah, so I was looking at shop stuff that we'll we'll have to talk afterwards about. Yeah. But yeah, that's we definitely need to do that. where are we sitting at timelines right now? Is that an hour? I can't that. Hour fifty one. We are go we just got to get used to do a two hour podcast. We might as well just call two hours. We might well just say we're gonna do a two hour show every time. That one thing I did wanna I did wanna print compliment you on it. Not a lot of people know. But even New Ellington Middle School, when you left there as their SRO, the one thing that apparently you have blessed kids with, and I got my own thing that the kids like me for, or whatever. I don't know if it's just because I know how to talk to their parents or whatever. But they asked me when I first got there was like, are you gonna come and play guitar with us? Are you gonna come and do like You're really good at playing guitar, and then I realized how good you were at playing music and stuff, and it's it's it's really cool to see. I'm gonna get on to you about your y your utilization of AI for your songs, but some of the stuff sounds it sounds okay. I'm not a big fan of AI music. Hey man well not a big fan of A music. Another rabbit hole I dove into the other week because just 'cause you had the time with AI music. But You're s you're like you really are you are really good at playing music and they like you made that song for leaving the school and they put it on their page. Yeah, well and then the sheriff's office put it on their page. Yeah. Whoa. Like I wasn't I wasn't ready for that. Dude, I don't know if you know this or not, but you're a celebrity on this whole end of the county. You know, I actually felt like one the other day when I went to Silver Bluff and I had like Good Lord, so many kids come up to I had kids I didn't even know come up to me. They they hear about they like they hear about you from their siblings and stuff and there's still kids that come through and they're like you've been what, second year you've gone you haven't been at New Wellington? Yeah. Yeah. So like they're still the freshmen were the last group of kids that you had like at all. Yeah. So yeah, so I can't blame you for them. Thanks. They no, they still they do still talk about you. Or like when you were covering the school, it wasn't like they had some a lot of the kids didn't have somebody that they were unfamiliar with. Because now if I'm not at school they freak out. They do. They do. They do. If I'm not there, the other day. really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I don't realize I don't think it's that like I don't think it's that much of a they've been doing that for years. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't do that. Like I'm not gonna lie, if you send your kid to Silverbluff high school, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you a little secret. I trash talk your kids all day long. Yeah, but see, here's the difference, right? And and and you actually talked about it earlier. and we see this in education too, right? Like we saw it in the in in the educational world, we see it at churches, you see it at, you know, veterans' organizations, no matter everywhere you go, right? There's people that are doing the thing, right? No matter what it is, right? Whether it's being an SRO you know, a teacher, podcast, right? There are people that are doing whatever that thing is for their own like edification or whatever you want to call it, right? Which it makes me feel good so I'm doing it. Yeah, or even their own like promotions or their own like you know what I mean? And and we even talked about this when we were when we were when we first talked about this podcast, right? one of things that that I don't even know if you realize like how like deep it hit but I said we we do a lot of our planning through text messages and our schedule, right? but I had sent a message to Daf and it was like, hey man dude I've had like five or six affirmations today saying that that this is what we need to do, right? When first getting started. and then he sent me a mess and you sent me a message back and it said something like like hey are these affirmations Or are they self affirmations, right? yeah. Yeah. I was like, is it and so and some people do that, right? but just because I know I've known the two of you for a few years now, I know that neither of you do what you do professionally for self aspirations. Like I now y you know what I mean? I know that it's genuine, you know, like man, you know, I I had it kind of rough growing up, so I wanna take care of kids, right? Or I grew up in that town. Orangeburg. In the burgh. But I want to do things to take care of kids, right? Just like when we did this, right? Like man, I at first I was like, Man, we're too wide, we're too far away, it's blurry, and then I'm like Eventually I'm like, shut up and record. I'm like, dude. Like like what matters is that we're doing Yeah. Doing it for him, right? We're doing it for kids. We're doing it for But that's the thing, like I I there's it's it's weird, like when we do this stuff, our like just our job and if if I'm wrong and you feel a different way, please correct me too, bro. I love being corrected. It like I don't ever feel like when I do those things, like it feels really weird and awkward like when somebody especially when somebody comes up and says, thank you for your service or whatever. Like Especially like if I'm in uniform, like I'm not gonna lie, there's something sometimes if I'm in uniform, like I'll stop by Walmart or Sandsclave, grab some dog food real quick, 'cause I just happen to be in town, grab it, and then or like I'll stop at Walmart. Yesterday or the other day when we left somewhere, we left one thing out and went in Walmart 'cause it's the only place that has my cold energy drinks of that specific brand that I like and that flavor. in a refrigerator. Everywhere else has got them on the shelves. But I went and grabbed one and ran into like four other police officers there that are off duty. Probably all get the same energy drink. No. But they but like there's like five people that stopped me and they're like, thank you. Like we know we really support you and this, that, and the other. And I feel so awkward because I'm like, it's not. Like I'm not I'm not doing I'm really not doing this for me. Like it's just there's a part of you that feels like this is what I was made to do. Exactly. and I never knew where to place like a and I'm just now realizing this recently, where I never knew where to place like where the Like 'cause people are gonna try and say thank you or give glory to something that you're doing somewhere. And I've always thought it's not me, like I'm just doing a thing. Like to to me, I'm just doing a thing and it makes me it helps me feel good. I'm at peace with what I'm doing most of time. And it's not. So the only thing I can do now is give glory to God for putting me in a position, making the things that have happened easily like making them easy and beyond way beyond my control for all the things that have happened and all this stuff. but the things that are hard and challenging, like thank you for helping me coming over overcoming those challenges. And at the end of the day, now I've what I one thing that I've started doing and started like when I'm talking to people is and or when they want to say thank you for your service in the military or as a law enforcement officer like we brief I started telling people like you're worth it. Mhm. Yeah. And like that's the best way to do it. And like that's one that and i if you really sit there and and you actually mean it, you're like, you're welcome, you're worth it. Yeah. Because well and that's what I I mean I've struggled for years with the whole thank you for your service thing, right? You probably have to. But I wanna tie I wanna tie that part into like If you do anything for the glory of God and somebody says, Thank you for doing this for like you're worth it. Because you are an image bearer of God. You are another image bearer of God. You are worth us sitting down and taking the time and we're complaining about two hours of it being a po long podcast just so you know bad quality. Just so you know, we have officially mind melded because what you just said. Is where I was going with the like you are worth it because you were made in the image of God. Yeah. Like that's that's pretty funny. You are plain and simply you are worth it. You are worth us going through this trouble with like having to not having to, but like going and getting to. I get nah to Nah. I have to. I have to because yeah, I was told to by him. Yes. A and I get that. So our preacher says this all the time, right? He's like, You don't have to come to church, you get to come to church. Right. Well yeah. But so I say I have to I say I have to, I'm gonna push back on Solubic. I say I have to because without it, without him w without Christ, I know what it was before. There is no other option for me now. So yeah, and I would say it's probably both, right? Like I would say both and. Yeah. I have to but also get to. Yeah. I get that. Yeah. What is it? Andor? And slash or not the Andor like the good T V show. No, no, not the Andor. man. One of the only good Star Wars Disney movies that's come out recently. I gotta tell you about what James and I started watching yesterday. That's pretty good. but that has nothing to do with What else do you want to talk about before we try to Yeah before we try to clutch? I'm not trying rush you. what else do you want to talk about? You got any other business opportunities? If you're in Anken County hit up two for Pro Wash. Yeah. I am working on the app, but it's not. What are you not doing? Literally What are you going for your carpentry certifications? No, I would never do that. You did you've done laser printing? Yeah. Laser engraving. You get yeah, laser engraving. the the resin printing. Yeah. You equip with that one. I the resin printer now and I use that. I bought another You ought to know what's that sergeant paid, man. He getting that sergeant pay now, so he Okay. Nope. I am getting the different pay, but I also have a different car. I gotta pay for that 'cause my truck is like yeah, that's right. You did have the truck problems. So flywheel ball flywheel broke on the truck. So flywheels installed. Like the pro washing thing. But see, the pro washing thing comes the that comes in seasons, right? From what you were telling me. Like last yeah, it's only like the end of February until Usually right before school stars. Or right about now. Yeah, right about Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Halloween. Yeah. But and then Lisa Grievan, you've done the guitar stuff, like Yep. Learn how to become a mechanic. You almost were a contractor having to redo that entire shed thing for your or for Erica to have a a sheet shed? No, it was it was a doghouse. It was her it was called the doghouse where she was trained. And he's up in there learning how to be a contractor, slapping up sheetrock and everything to make her an office building for the dogs. yeah, then you had the contractor stuff with your appliances that you had to learn how to do. Yeah. He had he redid his entire what was the old garage area into now being your living room. Like all I know. What are you not doing? Like Yeah. Well my thing is if I can if I can figure out how to do it, then I also save money. And I learn a new skill. Well, there's also something to be said. So we talked about you remember last episode, episode before, it it we talked about working for God. Not working for God, but just working, just doing things. Right. And it goes for anything, right. There's something to be said about When you finish something, anything, right? Yeah. You know, when you finish hanging a drywall, I'm not gonna lie to you, man, I hate drywall. I despise hanging drywall. I know how, I don't like it. It's terrible. But anyway, drywall sucks. I don't like playing drywall and paint. I'll do a anyway. But there's something to be said when you get done with one of those things, right? Yeah. And you look at it and you're like I did that. Man, that's Yep, that's how I felt. We had a the we needed a new roof after the hurricane counter. Mm-hmm. Not the one that's Yeah, no, but not the one that nobody knows how to pronounce it. I thought it was just Isaiah's. I thought it was the But evidently it's not. Anyway. so that developed a leak in the house, so once I got the new roof on, then I had to cut a whole slide. I mean like a whole like from probably they're there out of my bathroom and redo it. Could have been worse, could have been like a dad's house where the tree fell through the roof or that tree. I know, but I'm gonna say that was bad. So I'll tell you I got one more thing that I wanna I wanna ask him about. Yeah. Can we talk about your back surgery or your neck surgery? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like one, that is just thinking about what they did One, it grosses me out. But two, I know you also had some like you mean 'cause you mean you talked then and this was like it was last year, right? 'Cause it was right around the time I so my surgery was January twenty ninth, so between December twenty sixth and January twenty ninth, yeah. Yeah. There was some I had just started like going to church and getting I had just gotten baptized a couple months before that. And like so we had kind of started feeding on each other for like spiritual stuff. And dude, some of the stuff he was talking about, like It was it was pretty wild. It was wild. It was a trip. so if you're t tuning in and you wanna pick up heavy stuff by yourself, don't ask somebody to help you. so I hurt my back in October of last year and picking up like washers and dryers and stuff that I know I needed help with. Did but I did it anyway. I hurt my back. I thought it was just like a pulled muscle. But then, you know, as time went on, I ended up I sometime in October I went to get shots for it and that was fine. And then December twenty sixth, we woke up. At the time we had chickens and we still have chickens, but we had goats and rabbits and all sorts of stuff. So we got up at five thirty. Yes, farmer to the list. That's when we had all the dogs. Yeah. so we had to get up, you know, we gotta feed everybody. we got up at five thirty, the whole everybody did. And then We got done and went back to sleep. I'm a stomach I was a stomach sleeper. I'm not a stomach sleeper anymore. so I laid down and I pulled the pillow further down so that it was more on my chest, so my head is laying over the pillow. Well it extends the neck here. and apparently I had already had a bulging disc that herniated. So I had a herniated disc. I woke up at eight o'clock in agonizing pain. Never experienced this type of pain, ever. So you literally hurt yourself sleeping. Right? I don't know. Sleeping. Get herniated disc from sleeping. yeah, that's a cool story. That makes you old, man. So from December twenty sixth until It was a good three weeks. It was a good Yeah. I wanna say when I finally got the MRI and I finally seen the surgeon, so that was like January fourth, I may have had twenty or thirty hours of sleep that whole time 'cause I could not sleep. So I would pace back and forth, from the living room to the front door all night. Every night. 'Cause it hurt. 'Cause it w yeah, and Because of so like my mom and I asked I asked permission. my mom, and they're good now, she did a lot of narc prescription medication when I was growing up. So she was high a lot. And I seen the way that she was and I did the medicine that they gave me, I did not want to be addicted to those. so I mean even now, like I still have the medication. I may have taken five out of the whole thing. 'Cause I just one I would take and it wouldn't do anything, so there was no point. and so some I don't even remember what it was, but from walking all hours of the night I would eventually like fall asleep on the floor and I guess be in in that stiff position helped but it was only for like an hour. And then I would just walk back and forth again. So at some point, I mean eventually there were days like I think I might be on what part you get to, but there were days where he was texting me and he's like, dude, I don't understand why like he's like I believe, but I don't understand why God would do this to me. What have I done? I i he I got messages on my phone where he's like, What have I done? Like I don't I don't understand what I'm I know there's he's like, I know there's a lesson on this. What is the lesson? Like I don't know. And it was like I I was like, crap man, I'm gonna stop coming into faith. Like I don't know how I don't know what to tell you too much. Yeah, I there was one moment where I fell I fell to the to my knees and I mean like two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning and I was tears in my eyes and I like, Why? Like why why me? Why now? And then I would get up and I'd walk again and a voice came and it was like, crap. I can't remember I can't remember exactly what What I heard. So I know it's on your phone 'cause I told you. Yep. it's it's gonna be it's it's gonna be okay. And it was, I believe, something along the lines of you have to go through this to prepare you for the plan that I have for you. Something something like that. And then from then on it was that was good. like, yeah, I'm in pain, but I'm good. But I get it. I yeah, I get it. Yeah. That's it was and he I remember because he was like, dude, I heard a voice and he was freaked out about it. He was missing I was. I g I was like ultimately freaked out. The first time i I heard you're gonna you know, it's gonna be okay, I was like, What just Who just said that? And I don't know if I was sleep deprived or I mean I know I was, but or I I don't believe I believe it was another spiritual encounter. and then it said, you know, it said the other thing and I like, I let me go check my door. Is somebody in the house? I don't know what's going on. but yeah. Yep, here you go. I found it right here. This is on it was actually on New Year's Day. I saw I asked him, I said, What's the verdict? And he was telling me about it not being anything good. Yeah goes through it. He's like, due to the pain I've only had I'm reading straight from the tape, due to the pain I've only had about twelve hours of sleep in the last four days. The only thing that makes the pain bearable is walking from the front door to the kitchen and back. I did that from about two thirty to five in the morning, or until five this morning. I have been trying to figure out why God has chosen me at this time to go through this and I can't figure it out. I'm not mad or disappointed at his decision. I just I guess I am just confused. I can tell you that I have prayed many times and I have heard a voice say, You're gonna be okay And he's like, That's good enough for me. So I'll tell you, man. So we have somebody that I know that listens to us, who's going through some medical stuff right now. and we say all the time y you know, I've heard this my whole life, right? Sometimes God push you through things to prepare you for other things, right? Sometimes God put lets us go through things to to be a light for somebody else, right? We are mind melding 'cause that's literally what we're gonna run through my head. I've said, dude, five episodes, man, and we're already like But but I have a good friend that I know that listens to this, and I'm not gonna lie, he's been a blessing to me. You've heard me talk about it, I'm not gonna air his medical stuff out there, but he he's somebody that means lot to me. and I will tell you that that probably one of the most upbeat people I've ever met, but recently you can tell it's it's wearing on him. and hopefully he's gonna listen to this podcast and hear what you just said that God's It's gonna be okay. Yeah. God never puts us what is it? God never gives us a challenge that that we can't overcome with him. No. Yeah. Right. With him. that's crazy. So Doc came in and keep that in mind, and then whatever he says, do it. Do it. Yeah. And then Doc came in and whaka and No, they didn't just do that. No, yeah, no. So I had By the way, if you have a herniated disc and you try to do an R I it is I don't the I was an old machine. It was so bad. I was trying so hard, like to just lay still and that hurt though. so bad. So, you know, I went to see the the doctor. He said my had a herniated disc, got a well no, yeah. After the RI. but then I had my surgery. Well, he came back in and he said, you got like five options. I said, Okay, hold on I have sixteen years left before I can retire. I don't need a band-aid. I need this fix. Yeah. Okay, well you only got one option. You gotta have surgery. I said, okay, that's scheduled. So we scheduled it, did the surgery. The next day the doctor came in and he said, we're actually I'm actually glad you had the surgery. I said, Okay. He said, How's your pain, Lou? I said, I'm good. The only thing and even now, the only thing I have is the tip of this finger is known. Yeah. but then it I mean back then it was like all of this. I was in the same pain. And he said that when your disc herniated, they actually shot out with so much force that it fragmented bones in your nerves and I had to spend an extra forty five forty five minutes picking nerve picking little fragments of bone and that's why you you know, all the pain was there and now it's gone. Okay. So they had to so even though it was back here, apparently there's so much muscle and tissues and stuff back here, they actually had to go through my neck. That to go through your neck? Yeah. So they split his neck open, moved everything out of the way to the back to get to his body. And there's a there's something called a cage that they put in so they don't nick the artery. I'm so glad I did not watch any videos before I had surgery. So alright, so I got a question for you. 'Cause I have I have a sleep apnea implant. The same thing that could go through your neck, right? yeah, the actual is pr it's pretty gnarly. is it helping? Is she going yeah. Yeah, I didn't think it would at first, but yeah. Okay. Yeah. but the nerves that they had to attach it to is like way back like basically in her esophagus. And so when they put it in, they have to like basically take the same thing or take all that stuff and like pull it to the side. And dude, my th neck hurts so like I've got a little tiny scar here, right, from that incision. And I got this big massive ugly scar on my chest from the other incision, right? And this one, dude, I was like, that's golden. Like three days later. Dude, my neck hurts so bad for like days. Yeah, it that even the doctor was surprised. I was supposed to be out for two weeks, but I was only out And I was supposed to be out of the Wait wait wait, is that because you're stubborn or because Could have been both. I went to go get my stitches taken out and I was like, Look Doc, like like like I have to go back to work. He's like, Well you tired of sitting at home? I was like, Yep. Like all I do is lay down and walk and lay down and walk. And maybe go outside and do something and then come back inside and lay back down. Like it I c I don't Yeah. Can I just be back on light duty? And he asked me what that consisted of. He was like, yeah, sure. Yeah, you can do that. I don't think people that I I would contend that a good chunk of people understand that mentality, right? Especially people that the veterans that listen to this. I'll tell you who doesn't understand that mentality. What teenagers? Teenagers. Yeah. yeah. Freshman. But yeah, man, like same thing like I had this thing put in. I mean I was at work like five days later. Now I'll work in an office, right? I'm not like but like I just and not because I had some like I didn't have to go back to work. Like my boss was like, Hey man, take a short term and do what you need, right? But dude, like sitting at a house laid up, not able to do stuff is man, that's worse than that might be worse than whatever caused you to have the sickness in the first yard of me. Well I I li and I won't say I guess I'm not really sick a lot of the times, so at the sheriff's office we accumulate sick time, every paycheck we get a certain amount. And since I've been working since twenty fourteen and hardly ever sick, I had like Six hundred and eighty hours. Like I I even donate to a pool. Yeah, they don't they don't do the user lose thing for your sickness? No. No. It just ma it maxes out seven hundred. Okay. So you were close. Yeah, yeah, which got them maneuver six. So I I knew at some point in my career that I needed to save these up because something may happen and I might need to use it and I ended up I think I used like Maybe a hundred and eight hours? Yeah. Yeah, you just didn't think that that that big thing that was gonna happen was you sleeping on a pillow the wrong way. Right? No. Not at all. that that's that's I I I wonder I I didn't know if you'd be okay with talking about that whole thing, 'cause it's that that was one of the times where you you talked to I am I J C I don't care. Stop, I'm not Leave me alone. That's like the third time you've called me today. I know that there's voting coming up. That's my mod's over there somewhere. I don't even know where mine's at. Well I got mine in case Amanda wanna come get Tristan or whatever. But y one personally you've helped me in my i in my faith journey. Even before I I w I started going to church or got saved and I want to say thank you for that. Like I really really appreciate it. 'Cause I notice every time we'd go up to Columbia to pick up some kid from DJ J. or whatever, like you always had some some Christian music on in the background. I'm like, all right, cool. And then like sometimes I noticed you kinda catered your taste to my a little bit more to my heavy metal style. Yeah it was hard, but yeah. Yeah. Which you I mean you you also like Your demonstration like living out the faith that you had was good. I did not know you had as many like spiritual encounters and stuff like that. I did not know the whole Pentecostal speaking in tongues thing. I never knew that about you until a minute ago. But it's been a your story is definitely helping people here locally. you are definitely an example to the kids. and you are an example to a lot of other deputies. So It is very much appreciated. Yeah. That's why I figured getting your s I I when he asked me about a guest, I was like there's some thunder. There's some thunder. I was like, let me see if we can get some long thunder too. get Tuoper on here 'cause it's he's I know he's got some stuff going on. He's he's good on it. Now you don't attend a church yet, are you looking are you looking for one for your family or you just yes. I would like like you said, you've attended a whole bunch of churches. I've attended a whole bunch of churches. and some of you know, normally I I and it's I sh shouldn't say this, but normally it's bad for I mean normally I attend based off of what music's there. 'Cause that's w that I like music, that's what attracts me for. you talk about how some people can, you know, experience God through the music. That's happened to me many a times. So that's that was like the base of where I start looking. but then there's been times where I'll be at the church and like I'm praying while the preacher is preaching, like, is this the path that I should go? Should I do this? And all of a sudden, bam. He star they start talking about it and I'm like, Whoa, that's crazy. So man, one, you're if you're looking for church, man, I I know Dash gonna invite you to to his church, I'll invite you I That's a long drive for him. I'm not even gonna yeah, you live in Dakin, don't you? Yeah, like yeah. Five minutes from here. Yeah, so that's right, you look close. but And I tell people so, you know, I mean I look at the social medias, right, and people are like, hey, like, it cracks me up. Somebody'll put on like one of the local Aiken social media things, right? Like I'm looking for a church. You've probably seen this too, right? And within 30 seconds, everybody and his mother's like, You should go to our church, right? Every once in a while I'll tell you like, hey man, you know, I I I go to Millbrook here in Aiken, right? I'm like, I go to Millbrook, this is what I like about it. Come check us out. If that's where God wants you, that's where God will leave you. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. If that's not where God wants you, that's okay. But also like, where your priorities lie in church? Well, you know, not just talking to you, but like just people in general. If you're looking for a church, mm-hmm, one, get involved in a local body. Yeah. And it is especially like if you're here in the South, like you can't move three street corners without finding a church. No. Like, even out in the country. If there's anything, there's gonna be a church building. It is a seven minute drive from from where we're sitting right now to my church. Right. Yeah. And I pass Seven. One, two, three, four. five churches between before I get to my church. Yeah. It's a seven minute drive. But what I would also a recommend recommendation from me as somebody who did not who never wanted to go in a church building and did not like organize religion we talk about it all a bunch. But get it get involved. Go to a church that is gonna allow you to get involved. Mm-hmm. volunteer and help. and do some serving on that church. One, because that serving is where you get to know people. You get to know the people that are in there. And everybody has their problems. Like I'm not asking you to get the dirt on everybody. I'm asking you to get to know the people that are gonna be in the church. Because when it comes down to it and you're going through like when my brother pass out this is a story I'm gonna tell eventually. When my brother passed away, I found out about it or not him passing away, but I found out about him being hospitalized. bef literally right before we walked in our church service. Before the church service was over, I went to the front pew and I'm down on my knees crying and praying. And one of our deacons, Mr. Jerry, came up. And Mr. Jerry is sweet one of the sweetest old men I've ever met in my life. And he comes up and him and the deacons had already he's like, I don't know what's going on, but whatever you need, because they saw me leave out and answer the phone for something that was going on. And they said, If if you if you need help, whatever you need. I don't know what's going on, but how can we help you? The Degas were offering to drive us to Atlanta to go to the hospital if we needed it. I mean So don't neglect the local church. That is one thing that I am very aggravated at myself for doing for so long. however if you were looking for a church, one sit down and make a list of priorities for what you're gonna what are you looking to get out of church. What does that church need for you? And I say that because if if you are not going to church to find and utilize or to find Christ in your life, then you're starting the entire list off wrong. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. If you're not going there with the intention of finding out how Christ can better your life, and that's not the number one thing at the top of that list. Throw the paper away and until that becomes the top thing, don't even look at the paper. And then the second thing should be now that got now that now that you see how God's how Christ is gonna impact your life, how is your life going to go going to do the Great Commission, right? Gonna spread the the gospel. 'cause one thing I I've been asking to since I've known you One of the thing that I've always admired about you is your ability to your ability to influence like every I don't even think you realize how much you influence the people around you. I don't know. Like whether it be like like the kids at the school, the the other SROs, I mean teachers you interact with, like I I I honestly which is probably favorite thing about like since I met you is that you're just like, Man, I just do what I man, I just gotta do what God told me to do. Yeah. and it it's amazing to me. but you know, we hear all the time we talk about like being involved in a church, right? Is and when we when we talked to Pastor Kevin, right, one of the things we talked about was don't be a consumer, be a contributor. and so that's You can't fill nobody else's cup if yours is empty. Yeah, yeah. and I do and you gotta do both, right? Like as as Katie and I think we talked about it, not might have some other folks, but but like like Katie and I have talked recently about like, hey, like like we're pouring into other people, like we need people to pour into us also. and I think when you talk about the church, right? I'm old school, right? I like the hymns. I like the red back hymnal, right? I like the pastor, like man, dude, that's what I like. And and and I feed off that, but I don't have to have that, right? What I need is the the body of Christ, right? The people. Mm-hmm. and that could be something as simple as you know, something as simple as a text message saying, Hey man, you know, we're praying for you, right? Or or Or something as ridiculous as hey hey man, read the scripture, tell me what you think, right? Yeah. I had a pretty great conversation this morning. Our Legion Post does a breakfast once a month for a fundraiser. and The chaplain of our post was there and then one of the guys that was helping us cook, who's Catholic and we're I was like, Hey guys, like I just let's have a theological discussion just because I wanna see where you're coming from, right? And we talked about tithing and we're not gonna spend the next 'cause dude if we get in that we'll be here for another two hours. But it was nice to have a convers you know what I mean, to have other people like This is Yeah. The internet debate is not the debates in real life. Like No, yeah. And it's one thing though I mean it's it's great to talk about that when I mean, know, I'm not I'm not anti theological conversations on the on the Interledge, right? But I but it means something when a guy that I respect, right? I and even though our opinions aren't the same, we can discuss it and we can especially when it's discussing things from scripture, dis discussing those types of things. I just I I enjoy doing that. and I do I do agree with you and I don't I I think that everybody should be involved in if you're a Christian, you should be involved in some local church. That doesn't necessarily mean the building. Yeah. That means the the body of Christ. I mean You know, my wife and and I hope she listens to this podcast. She told me the other day that she never listens to the whole podcast. Very upset at her. We're about to split it in half. I know. No no three hours now. but no, she told me that she does listen to our chunks that we put out, which is nice. but but she had mentioned the other day that doing a Bible study with some folks in our neighborhood, and she was like, Well they don't go to but they don't go to our church, they go to It is funny because we were just me and Amanda were just talking about doing one on Wednesday night because like our church is full of older people. So we've been talking about like you know, they're trying to figure out how they can get younger people that want to come in. So we're like I asked her, I'm like, do you wanna try and do a Bible study on Wednesday night? Like we just have people come and like eat finger foods. If they got kids or whatever, like we'll have a couple people that we know from the church that are like younger couples around us. That like they might just need help going through something. And that's what those groups are supposed to be for. yeah. Mhm. That's yeah, I told her I was like, man, go. Like, yeah. Like, just 'cause I'm a member of this church doesn't mean that I can't be involved in. Yeah. I think we're what, two and a half hours. I th we should probably wrap this up before that's okay. Before we blow up the internet. You got any closing thoughts? Anything you wanna tell anybody that's listening or plug your three D printing business real quick. Plug it up. You might get like five people to listen to, but. Good life three D print that's an engraving. Okay. Got a Facebook. It's on Facebook, yeah. It's on Facebook. it's the picture is of An address plaque with a Kane Corso face on it. That's right. That was the first thing I laser and grave. Yeah. So Alright. Tuber, I appreciate you meeting. We appreciate you coming. And everybody out there in the Interwebs, we appreciate that that you've joined us today. Lent us your ears. Yeah, we will we got some craziness coming up over the next few weeks, so our next episodes are gonna be a little different, but I think you'll like at least I hope you do. more importantly, we pray that he blesses them. And we pray that he blesses you. And if you haven't found a church, we'll pray I'll add into my I'm a we'll add into our prayers that one country that you your eyes get open to finding a local church where God can lead you. Absolutely. All right guys. Thanks for joining us.