Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 27, 2016 | Judge Tommy Webb - Making A Difference

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November 27, 2016 | Judge Tommy Webb - Making A Difference · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was terrific.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love that worship.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's good to see you.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have a great Thanksgiving?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have turkey?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Dressing?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Did you eat the dressing?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: How about gravy?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: The best part of Thanksgiving is the gravy.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: My arteries are so happy today.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you here.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love hearing people's stories.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I go on the road a lot.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Love to ask people sitting next to me on a plane or other places to tell me about themselves, and I want to know about their childhood.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know where they grew up, their kind of home and their school, and so forth.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I've never heard an uninteresting story in my life.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I love stories.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And earlier this year I heard a story that was remarkable.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was unique.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was unforgettable.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked for a time when I could uh get this individual to come and share, come on up, Tommy, to share his story with you.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I uh asked uh Judge Webb if there was a way, because he's done so many things, been so many places in his life, if there was a good way uh to introduce him, what was the best way to introduce him without you know listing things?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, just introduce me as a great guy.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome, a great guy, Judge Tommy Webb.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jim.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles with you, or if you follow along on the screen behind me, I would like to read this morning from Psalm 36, beginning with verse 5.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's an Irish prayer that goes like this May those who love us love us.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And those that don't love us, may God turn their hearts.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And if he doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we will know them by their limping.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm 36 begin with verse 5.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies, your righteousness like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: O Lord, you preserve both man and beast.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: How priceless is your unfailing love.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: How priceless is your unfailing love.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadows of your wings.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: They feast on the abundance of your house.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: You give them drink from your river of delights.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: For with you is the fountain of life.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: In your light, we see light.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: John Maxwell said, your candle loses nothing when it lights another.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Your candle loses nothing when it lights another.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: The psalmist said it so beautifully.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: In your light, we see light.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for your love, your faithfulness, your righteousness, your justice.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: But as the psalmist said, how priceless is your unfailing love.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And this morning, we thank you for that love.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we have come to worship you because you're worthy of our worship.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Help us this morning, Father, just to set aside the things of this afternoon and this week to come.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: And just allow this time to be a time that we open our hearts and allow you to speak to us.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: We pray this in the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're probably wondering who's this young, handsome, intelligent, humble person that's going to speak to you this morning.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was born sometime in 1951, 1952, or 1953.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, ladies, that's just called long labor.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: I have no idea when I was born.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was a war child from the streets of Korea.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: My mother was an alcoholic and a prostitute.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: The seven years I lived with my mother, I cannot remember her being sober one day.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up in a little village called Miyadi Myongdong.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: How many of you know where that's at?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you know Korea, you know Northern Korea's communist Korea, then the DMZ divides north from South Korea and South Korea's democratic Korea.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: If you go about 60 miles south of the DMZ, you'll come to a large city by the name of Seoul Korea, which is the capital of South Korea.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: In the 1950s, if you go about 10 miles north of Seoul, Korea on a side of a hill, there was a little village called Miyadi in the Providence of Myongdong.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Miadi, Myongdong.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And at the base of the hill, there was a United Nations Marine Base.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Our village consisted of women and children, if you get the picture.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I remember many nights going to my home.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: When I say home, I'm talking about a little shack on the side of a hill.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I could hear the laughter of my mother and the Marine or Marines, but I was not welcome in my own home.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: During the spring and summer evenings, the children of the village, we'd play late into the night, and then we'd find a bush or a tree, and we'd huddle underneath that.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then we'd fall asleep, and the next morning we'd go to our respective homes.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: But that part of Korea would get so cold during the winter time that the rice patties would freeze over.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And on those cold winter nights that we had no place to go, we would go out to the rice patties because the Marines who patrolled the rice patties had taken 50-gallon barrels, put them on the corners of the rice patties, filled them with oil, and they would light those barrels so while they patrolled, they would have a place to warm themselves.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we would go out to the rice patties and we'd huddle around those barrels, and that's where we would sleep.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: But some Marines, and having been in the Marine Corps myself from 1970 to 1974, I understand why some Marines would not let the children sleep around those barrels.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because when you're patrolling at night and you're approaching a glowing barrel, you have no idea who's sitting or lying around those barrels.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: So some Marines, for their own safety, would not let the children sleep around those barrels.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And when that would occur, we would get up and we'd walk back toward our village.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: But as we walked, every time we saw big Dempsey Dumps trash container about six feet long, about four feet wide, about so high, we would stop and we would look in those trash containers.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And when we found one that was full of garbage, we would crawl into those trash containers and push the garbage to the side.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: We'd huddle together, pull the garbage around us, and that's where we'd sleep on those cold nights along with the rats that infested those trash containers.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember times climbing in those trash containers and find the cold steel body of children who had not survived the night or the nights before.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: When I was about six or seven years of age, my mother said to me, In Sioux, that's my Korean name, Pak In Siou.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And she gave me a little pouch.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, if you fill this pouch up with tobacco, I will give you something to eat.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I was so excited because that's the first time I ever remember my mother saying that she would give me something to eat.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: I took that pouch and I ran down to the Marine station and I followed the Marines who smoked the cigarettes, and when they throw their cigarette butts down, I'd run over and I'd pick up those cigarette butts, and I love to follow the Marines who smoked the non-filter cigarettes, because I could always get more tobacco from their cigarette butts than the ones who smoke the filter cigarettes.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I would take the paper of that cigarette butt and tear it into tiny, tiny, tiny little pieces and put it into that pouch, hoping that my mother in her drunken state would not realize that I had mixed the paper with the tobacco.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: In November of 1958, I woke up one morning, I said, there's gotta be more to life than this.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that morning I just started walking, and I don't know to this day why I traveled south, but I started walking south, and by that evening I had reached the edge of Seoul Korea, and it was getting cold.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: I had to find shelter, and luckily I found a train station on the northern part of Seoul Korea, and that became my home for the next three days because it provided shelter from the cold and also provided food.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: The way it provided food was most of the people who traveled on trains in those days would be traveling and be gone all day, so they would carry their food with them.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I look at the people in that train station and find someone who isn't paying that close attention to their sack of food.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd run and I'd grab their sack of food, and while I was running, I'd reach in and I'd grab a handful of food, and then I'd drop the sack of food, and I'd keep on running through the train station, and the person following me would stop chasing me to gather their food, and I would escape into the crowd.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Life was great for three days.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: On the third day, I was running with a fist full of food and I ran smack into a police officer.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: He picked me up and he put me on a bench up against the wall, and he said, You sit right there.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: I sat there for probably about an hour, and then this woman came, and really all I can remember about this woman was that she had white hair.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: But she came and she sat next to me.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: She put her arms around me and gave me a hug and a piece of candy.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I sat there and I ate the piece of candy.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: After I finished eating the candy, the police officer said to me, Do you want to go with her?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you want to go with me?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't stupid.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I'll go with her.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: And she took me to the Holt Orphanage there in Seoul, Korea.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: When I got to the Holt Orphanage, the doctor looked at my teeth and gave me a birth year.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Then they gave me a calendar and I picked out the date and the month, and that became my birthday.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: I got to pick out my own birthday.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now, one of the things they ministered at the orphanage that I thought was a waste of time.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Every morning and every night, we had to brush our teeth.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: I had never brushed my teeth until I went to the orphanage.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's a picture of me sitting in the orphanage on the edge of a bed, and I'm grinning from year to year, and every tooth in my mouth is black because I never brushed my teeth.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: One night I'm brushing my teeth and I'm saying to myself, this is really stupid.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is a waste of time.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: These suckers are never gonna turn white.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: I can't believe they're making me do this.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: But as I was brushing my teeth, I went, this crest tastes pretty good.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it does.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I stuck the tube of toothpaste in my pants, went to bed that night, and when they turned the lights off, I took that tube of toothpaste and I ate all the toothpaste that was in that tube to help the hunger pains that I felt in my stomach.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't too long after that the kids at the orphanage were so excited.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: They said, Abuji is coming today.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Abuji in the Korean language means father.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Meant nothing to me, never had a father.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: But then the children said, When Abuji comes, talking about Harry Holt, the founder of the orphanage, when he comes, he always brings us presents.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I got excited.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: No one had ever given me a present in my life, and I could not wait until this person came so that I could have a present.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's the noon meal, and I'm sitting in front of my bowl of rice soup, and I know it's rice soup because we had rice soup for breakfast, rice soup for lunch, and rice soup for supper.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting in front of my bowl of rice soup when the double doors to the kitchen opened up, and this man walked through those doors who not only had red hair on his head, but he had red hair all over his face.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: I did not know that human beings could have so much hair on their face.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: The Papa Songs had this little squeaky thing that came down like this.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: The Marines had a little mustache, but his whole face was covered with red hair.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: But underneath his arms, he had these two big old bags.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he untied the bags, dumped out the contents, and balls of every size and color started bouncing on that cement floor.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I, like the rest of the kids who could walk, forgot about our bowl of rice soup.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: We jumped up and we ran and dove right in the middle of all those balls because they said, whatever he brings and you get a hold of, that's yours to keep.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: I tried to get two or three balls in my arms, and finally I was able to get a hold of one ball that no one else was able to take away from me.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I went back and I sat in front of my bowl of rice soup, holding on to that ball.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: They taught us at the orphanage that before we ate, we always bowed our head and closed our eyes, and a blessing was given for the food.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I thought back all these years, why didn't I bow my head and close my eyes that day?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's caused this man had so much hair on his on his face.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's caused he'd give me a present.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: But there's one thing that I saw that day that I will never forget.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: I saw a grown man cry.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'd never seen that before.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: As Harry Hole prayed that day.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: He not only prayed for the food, but he prayed that God would provide loving mothers and fathers.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Harry Hole.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: And as he prayed that prayer, the tears came streaming down his cheeks.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I sat there seven years of age, watching this man as he prayed, and as he wept.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: And after he finished praying, I said out loud, Ambo Jay.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: I called him father.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: For the first time in my life, seven years of age.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: I felt within my heart that someone really cared about me.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: I never had that feeling before.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: I feel so fortunate.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because in June of 1959, only six months in the orphanage, I was on a plane coming to the United States.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Most people want to adopt children who are seven or eight months old, not seven or eight years old, a child that grown up their whole life on the streets, but I was on that plane.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: We had over a hundred children on that plane.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Most of them were diaper babies.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was the oldest child on that plane.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: We had three stewardesses and three ladies from the orphanage, six ladies to take care of all those babies and children on that plane.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: When that plane landed in Hawaii and they opened those doors, those six women went screaming off that plane.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: They'd had enough.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: They brought a crew in and cleaned the mess the best they could.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then they shelved those six of them back on the plane, locked the doors, and we flew to Portland, Oregon.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: When we got to Portland, Oregon, one of the ladies took me by the hand, walked me halfway down the steps, and then she stopped and she looked at me and she said, Insue, this is your new Abuji.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: His name was Roy Webb.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: He was a school administrator from the state of Oklahoma.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: And there's three things that I remember about Roy Webb.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: One, he had no hair.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, how can he be my father?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: We might be short, but we have hair.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: The second thing I remember about Roy Webb, he was a big man because he stood over six foot tall, weighed about 235 pounds.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the third thing that I remember about Roy Webb, he had lots of money.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason I knew that, he stood there, he had a suit and a tie on.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And when he saw me standing there, the first thing he did was he took me to the restaurant there at the airport.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because seven years of age, six months in the orphanage, I weighed all of 39 pounds.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: He took me to the restaurant, we're sitting there, and he's trying to say, Tommy, order whatever you want to, and I'll buy it for you.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he knew no Korean.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: The only English words I knew are cowboys and Indians.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus loves me.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's pretty hard to carry on a conversation.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I did have some other English words, but they told me at the orphanage.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you dare.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: You're ahead of me, aren't you?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you dare say those words, or you're going to be in big time trouble.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Those were the words I learned from the Marines.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: So here we are trying to carry on a conversation, not doing very well, when all of a sudden a waitress goes past our table with a platter full of hamburgers and french fries that someone else in the restaurant had ordered.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, when I smelled those hamburger and french fries, they smelled so good.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: My stomach just did a flip-flop.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And without even thinking, I pointed at the platter.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: When I pointed, the waitress stopped, took a plate that had hamburger and french fries on it, and put it in front of me for me to eat.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I said to myself, I love this country.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: My god, this point, and they're bringing the food to you.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is wonderful.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, my hamburger French fries waitress go buy the food someone else ordered.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: I pointed, she put another plate in front of me.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: I pointed it.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: I was just loving this.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Dad said I had four or five plates in front of me, and I ate and ate and ate until I could not eat another bite.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, my little stomach was just sticking way out there, and it's still sticking out there.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Then I did something that embarrassed my father so much.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: When I could not eat another bite of food, I was so stuffed, I stood up and I grabbed a handful of those greasy French fries and I started stuffing them into my pockets.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because the number one rule of survival on the streets is you never, never, never leave food behind.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: If you can't eat all the food, you take that food with you.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: When my father saw me stuffing those greasy french fries into my pockets, he was so embarrassed.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: He started shoving all the plates away from me.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Did not slow me down one bit.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: I dove across the table, grabbed another handful of French fries.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: By this time, the waitresses who've been watching me consume all this food came running over and they had these bags.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they started putting food into these bags.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm watching, and all of a sudden I realize this is how they carry their extra food in this country.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: One of the ladies had filled about one about halfway, and she put it on the edge and started filling up another doggy bag.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so I walked over to the edge of the table, reached into my pockets, got the greasy french fries out, put them into that doggy bag, and then I held it into my arms, hoping that no one would take that food away from me, since those are my French fries.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Dad said there must have been seven or eight of those doggy bags stuffed full of food.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: And by gesturing and different ways, he finally explained to me that all of that food was mine.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: He said, When I finally understood what he was trying to say, a big smile came across my face.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I bent over and I put my little arms around all those bags of food, and I just crushed those bags up against my chest and stood up.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I had a tough time, but I carried all that food through the airport.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: I would not let my dad take one of those bags because that was my food.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: When we got to the motel room that night, Dad said he opened up the door and he said I took a step in, still holding on to my food.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I stopped, looked around that motel room, and then he said, I went over to the corner by the bed and put all the food down, and then I took my jacket off.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I covered the food the best as I could cover that food, not knowing just dad and I would be in that room that night, and I was trying to hide the food the best so I could hide it.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: That evening my father gave me a banana.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: I had never eaten a banana in my life.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: After I finished the banana, I took the banana peeling, I put it in my mouth, and I started chewing on the banana peeling.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Don't do that.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: I said to myself, of all the foods I've in this country, this is the worst.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm chewing on that banana peeling.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: My father sees me and he comes running over.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: He tries to take the banana peeling out of my mouth.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing I can think is trying to take food away from me, so I start stuffing it further into my mouth.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: We just have this little tug of war in that motel room.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now imagine my dad weighing 235 pounds.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: I weigh 30, well, probably about 43 pounds by now.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: He just picked me up by one hand, took me over to the dresser, gave me another banana for me to eat the banana.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: I had to take the peeling out when I took the peeling.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Out, he grabbed it, threw it into the wastebasket, and that's how I learned not to eat the peeling of the banana.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: The next morning we flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: And there I met my mother, Ruth Webb, for the first time.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Very unique woman.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: When she was happy, she was crying.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: When she was sad, she was crying.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And those are the days when she could come out and meet us as we're coming down the steps to the plane.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, as soon as she could reach me, she picked me up and she was hugging me, she was kissing me, she was just boohooing, she was looking at my fingers, making sure they're all there.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: We get home.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: She puts me in the bathtub and she's washing me and she's praying and she's boo-hooing.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And she puts the wash rag down and she starts counting my ribs, which are protruding out.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And she prays this prayer.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, put some meat on these bones.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: I had the privilege of playing on two state championship football teams, played on a Marine Corps football team for two years, and during that time I consumed a lot of food, but I was very active.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: When I got out of the Marine Corps, I still consumed a lot of food, but I wasn't very active.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: About 40 years ago, I went home for Christmas and my mother's in the kitchen preparing Christmas dinner, and I sort of waddled in there.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I looked at my mom and I said, Mom, do you remember that prayer you prayed when I first came over?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: She goes, Yes, I do.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: I said, You can stop praying that prayer.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's been answered sufficiently.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you come to Haskell County, Southwest Kansas, and go to the courthouse and go to the judges' chambers where I was a judge for a near 28 years, beautiful chambers, one whole wall, it's old bookshelves, and I don't know whether you do this or not, but when I read a book, I like to highlight, I like to put statements and questions.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: So therefore, when I revisit that old friend three or four, five years later, I just look at the highlighted portions of things that I've written in there just to see where I am today versus where I was when I first read that story, that book.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: I like to share with you a story that's written by Tony Kampolo in a book that he wrote entitled Who Switched the Price Tags?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: And in it he talks about a school teacher.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: I believe this is a story that each and every one of us should pull off the shelf at least once a year and read this story and ask ourselves this question.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Why do I do what I do?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Why do I do what I do?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a long story, but Tony Kampala writes, I know a school teacher named Miss Thompson every year when she met her new student.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: She would say, Boys and girls, I love you all the same.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: I have no favorites, of course.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: She wasn't being completely truthful.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Teachers do have their favorites, and what is worse, most teachers have students that they just don't like.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Teddy's daughter was a boy that Miss Thompson just did not like.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And for good reason, he just did not seem interested in school.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: There was a dead pan-blank expression on his face, and his eyes had a glassy, unfocused appearance.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: And when she spoke to Teddy, he always answered in monosyllables.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: His clothes were musty, his hair was unkempt, he wasn't an attractive boy, and he certainly wasn't likable.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Whenever she marked Teddy's paper, she got a certain perverse pleasure, putting X's next to the wrong answers.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And when she put the S at the top of the papers, she always did it with a flare.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: She should have known better.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: She had Teddy's records, and she knew more about him than she wanted to admit.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: The records read first grade.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude, but a poor home situation.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Second grade, Teddy could do better.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Mother is seriously ill.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: He receives little help at home.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Third grade.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Teddy is a good boy, but too serious.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: He is a slow learner.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: His mother died this year.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Fourth grade.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Teddy's very slow, but well behaved.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: His father shows no interest.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Christmas came, and the boys and girls, Miss Thompson's class, brought her Christmas presents, and they piled their presents on her desk, and then they crowded around to watch her open them.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: Among the presents, there was one from Teddy's dollard.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: She was surprised they brought her a gippity head.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Teddy's gift was wrapped in brown paper and was held together with Scotch tape.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: And on the paper were written the simple words for Miss Thompson from Teddy.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: When she opened Teddy's present, out fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet with half of the stones missing and a bottle of cheap, cheap perfume.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: All the other boys and girls began to giggle and smirk over Teddy's gift, but Miss Thompson at least had enough sense to immediately silence them by putting on the bracelet and spraying some of the perfume on her wrist and holding her wrist up for the other children to smell.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: She said, doesn't it smell lovely?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the children, taking their cue from their teacher, rarely agreed with their ooze and their oas.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, when school was over and the other children had left, Teddy lingered behind.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: He slowly came over to her desk and said softly, Miss Thompson, Miss Thompson, you smell just like my mother.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: And her bracelet looks so pretty on you too.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you liked my presence.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: When Teddy left, Miss Thompson got down on her knees and asked God to forgive her.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: The next day, when the children came to school, they were welcomed by a new teacher.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Miss Thompson had become a different person.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: She was no longer just a teacher, but she had become an agent of God.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: She was now a person committed to loving her children and doing things for them that would live on after her.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: She helped all the children, but especially the slow ones, and especially Teddy Stallard.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: And by the end of that school year, Teddy showed dramatic improvement.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: He had caught up with most of the students and was even ahead of some.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: She did not hear from Teddy for a long time, but then one day she received a note, and that note read, Dear Miss Thompson, I wanted you to be the first to know I'll be graduating second in my class.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Love.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Teddy started.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then four years later, another note came.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Dear Miss Thompson, they just told me I'll be graduating first in my class.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted you to be the first to know.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: The university has not been easy, but I liked it, love.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Teddy Start.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then four years later, another note came.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Dear Miss Thompson, as of today, I am Theodore Stallard MD.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: How about that?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted you to be the first to know.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm getting married next month, the 27th, to be exact.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're the only family I have now.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Dad died last year.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Love.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Teddy Stallard.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: And Tony Kampolo writes.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: Miss Thompson went to that wedding and sat where Teddy's mother would have sat.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: For she deserved to sit there.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: For she had done something for Teddy.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: That he could never, he could never, never forget.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, ladies and gentlemen, I understand.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: At 64 years of age, the person that I am today is because of choices that I have made.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: I understand that.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I also understand if it enough in those that reached out with a hand of compassion and caring and helped me in my journey of life.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: Reality is I would not even be alive today.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: I am so thankful for Roy and Ruth Webb, who already had two children, chose to open their hearts, their lives, their home to a seven-year-old streetchild.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: I remember my mother was passing away and I was sitting next to her, and I said to my mother, Mom, and all those gray hairs I put on your head, didn't I?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: She looked at me and she said, Yes, Tommy.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then with a smile, she said, But you've been the joy of my life.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful for not only what they did, but who they were.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: My mentors in the journey of life.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful for Harry Holt, who was a successful farmer in Oregon.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when he heard about the children dying in post-war Korea from a missionary, a few weeks later he flew over there.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: And when he saw with his own eyes the children dying in the streets, he came back to the United States and he and his wife made a commitment and he went back to Korea and started the whole orphanage, which has touched the hearts and lives of millions of people throughout the world.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: I am so thankful for my birth mother.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: I never saw her after I left my village.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't understand the situation, circumstances that she was in, but I do know this.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: She's my mother.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I love her.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: I am thankful for the men and women who came and served in the Korean conflict.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: We lost over 50,000 Americans.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: But because of men and women from our great country who are willing to serve, I've had the privilege to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I owe a debt to those men and women.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful for the little white-haired lady who gave me a piece of candy.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: You go, Judge Webb, give us a break.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: All she did was give you a piece of candy.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine what you smell like if you'd had not had a shower or a bath for three or four weeks?
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you one thing, you would be sitting so close to one another.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: I used to ask the question anyone here ever gone three or four weeks without taking a shower or a bath?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I was speaking at a high school in Southeast Kansas, a little sophomore sitting close to the front, and he was so proud of himself.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: He jumped up and goes, I have Judge Webb, I have, I have, three weeks, I have.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the friends running went, ooh! So I stopped asking that question.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to go back with me in your mind.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Travel back in time.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: It is 1958.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine a little train station, northern part of Soul Korea, and up against that wall is a bench, and sitting on that bench is a little Korean boy, six or seven years of age, probably weighing about 30 pounds.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: And understand, the only time that little boy would take a bath is when he would jump into the stream that flowed past his village.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if he jumped in to take a bath in that stream, he would leave his clothes on.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because if he took his clothes off while he was in the river, someone would have taken his clothes, stolen his clothes.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: This is November, and it is so cold the rice patties are starting to freeze over.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: You think a little six or seven-year-old boy would jump into the stream with his clothes on to take a bath when it's that cold?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: No way.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: October, there's frost on the ground, probably not.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: September, maybe.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: In reality, it'd been 60 or 90 days since water had touched the body or the hair of that little Korean boy.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: And in those 60 or 90 days, he not only eaten garbage, he slept in garbage.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine what he must have looked like and what he must have smelt like?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: And yet that little white hair lady came, sat next to that little boy, put her arms around him, and gave him a hug.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: I told you the only thing I can remember about that woman was that she had white hair.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: I remember when she hugged me, how soft she felt when she hugged me.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'd never sensed that before.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: I never felt that before.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: When I was about 25 years of age, a question that came to my mind was this question: would you have sat next to that little boy?
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: And would you have put your arms around him and given him a hug and handed him that piece of candy?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: And at 25 years of age, my response was, no way.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine what that moist boy must have looked like, what he must have smelled like while I was crawling in him, while I was crawling on him?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: No way.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: I would have tossed him a piece of candy and say, follow me, kid.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take you to someone that's gonna help you.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: But the question that haunted me for months and months and months was this question.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: She did it for you.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't you be willing to do it for someone else?
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: After about six or seven months struggling with that question, that issue, I came to the place within my life that I said, Father, if I'm ever given that opportunity, I want to be like that little white-haired lady.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be that person who sits next to that little person, that little boy, that little girl.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I choose to value and love that child by putting my arms around them.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: I believe in part the person that I am today is because the act of kindness that was shown to me by a little white hair lady.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: You'll never know the impact that you have on the lives of those around you when you choose to reach out with a hand of compassion and caring and allow the light that is within you to shine to those around you.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: When I was growing up as a little child in Oklahoma for two years in Kansas for the rest of my childhood years, we used to sing a little song.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: Let it shine, let it shine.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: Hide it under a bushel, no, I'm gonna let it shine.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: Hide it under a bushel, no, I'm gonna let it shine.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: As we leave this time of worship, I want to challenge each and every one of you to allow the light that a God has given to you to let it shine within your home, within your marriage, within your community, workplace, within your church.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean to you to allow your light to shine?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: The psalmist wrote, in your light, we see light.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Share that light and truly make a difference in the lives that you touch.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your faithfulness.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your righteousness.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your unfailing love.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: And help us as we leave this place of worship to be challenged anew, to truly leave with a heart desire to serve.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Not out of duty, but the desire because of the love that you've given to us.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: We prayed this precious name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: And all the people said, Amen, amen.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: God bless you.