Latest / Get The Hell Out of Your Life with Ron Meyers / Transformative Trials: A Journey of Faith, Loss, and Spiritual Enlightenment with Mark McCraw

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Transformative Trials: A Journey of Faith, Loss, and Spiritual Enlightenment with Mark McCraw · Get The Hell Out of Your Life with Ron Meyers

• 0:00
  Ron Meyers: A friend for many, many years.
• 0:02
  Ron Meyers: Welcome to the studios, mark.
• 0:03
  Ron Meyers: Thank you, very nice studio.
• 0:05
  Ron Meyers: Well, I wanted to talk with you because you and I have a past.
• 0:09
  Ron Meyers: I mean you and I before Jesus' days and after Jesus' days, and where did we first meet?
• 0:17
  Mark McCraw: Back in 1985.
• 0:18
  Mark McCraw: I moved here to the coast in 84, and we were doing an event with the radio station and I think I met you in your office back in 1985 when you were wearing the starch crisp shirts with nice ties and little suspenders.
• 0:32
  Ron Meyers: Suspenders.
• 0:33
  Ron Meyers: Yeah, I looked important.
• 0:34
  Ron Meyers: That was important in my own mind.
• 0:37
  Ron Meyers: But yes, in our journey, both led us different roads.
• 0:43
  Ron Meyers: How did you meet Jesus?
• 0:46
  Mark McCraw: Uh, both led us different roads.
• 0:48
  Mark McCraw: How did you meet Jesus?
• 0:48
  Mark McCraw: It was July, june or July of 1998 before Hurricane George came, came ashore.
• 0:57
  Mark McCraw: It seemed like everybody I ran into in my just daily travels around the coast, going to the store and whatnot.
• 0:59
  Mark McCraw: It seemed like everybody was telling me about Jesus.
• 1:02
  Mark McCraw: And I thought to myself why are all these people telling me about Jesus?
• 1:06
  Mark McCraw: And then, in August of 98, I found out why that's when my wife at the time was going to file for divorce.
• 1:15
  Mark McCraw: And all of that led to me getting back into a men's group in church.
• 1:22
  Mark McCraw: Even though I wasn't officially going to the church yet, I started going to the men's meetings once a month.
• 1:29
  Mark McCraw: And then in December December 7th 1998 is when I actually walked the aisle and gave my life to Christ.
• 1:37
  Ron Meyers: Wow, you know and you bring up a point that sometimes I encourage people.
• 1:41
  Ron Meyers: If you don't really know about Jesus, just test the waters.
• 1:44
  Ron Meyers: Go to a study group once a month.
• 1:48
  Ron Meyers: Just go check it out, see if we really have little antennas coming out of our head and if we can talk in weird language.
• 1:55
  Ron Meyers: No, we're just normal people like everybody else that wanted to trade in our life of so many nonsensical things that we did in life to a life of peace, purpose and passion.
• 2:15
  Ron Meyers: And now when I met you, you were secular radio.
• 2:16
  Mark McCraw: You've been on like radio all over the state of Mississippi.
• 2:19
  Mark McCraw: Basically, yeah, yeah, yes.
• 2:19
  Mark McCraw: I got started in radio in 1980, back in Hattiesburg, when I was going to USM studying criminal justice, and I decided that radio was what I wanted to do instead of being a police officer getting shot at.
• 2:33
  Ron Meyers: So that's it.
• 2:34
  Ron Meyers: And when I had an opportunity in 2000, and I believe it was one or two or something to become manager of American Family Radio Gulf Coast, I called you and I said, mark, I need you for the morning show and because you're such a godly man and you're such an incredible presence on radio, and you did the journey that's right, it was after Candy Anderson had left WAOY back in the day and you were the journey.
• 3:04
  Mark McCraw: That's right, it was after Candy Anderson had left WAOY back in the day and you were the manager.
• 3:08
  Mark McCraw: You called me and I don't know, it was just.
• 3:11
  Mark McCraw: You know, when you called me and asked me about doing a morning show, I thought, wow, yeah, okay, this would work.
• 3:17
  Ron Meyers: You know, because at the time our pastor at Northwood had gotten us in the habit of reading the one-year Bible on a daily basis and I had already been through the Bible probably five times, cover to cover, and I just realized that there was so much encouragement in the Word of God that it would just benefit anybody, whether Christian or not, and so you and I, I started assembling a team of sharp people and our message was this and I had no experience in Christian radio, but I did have an organization in the production business was to take this station and we call it the light of the Gulf Coast and put it all over the Gulf Coast and just promote Jesus.
• 4:04
  Ron Meyers: And we had fun, didn't we?
• 4:06
  Ron Meyers: We?
• 4:06
  Mark McCraw: did, absolutely, we had fun, you know, in WAOY at that time, because of the placement of the tower and the antenna, we had phone calls from people up in Jackson saying they were picking us up.
• 4:20
  Ron Meyers: Yeah, I know, yeah and only God could do that.
• 4:22
  Ron Meyers: And then of course I know, yeah, only God could do that.
• 4:24
  Ron Meyers: And and then of course, life changes.
• 4:26
  Ron Meyers: But I do want to go back to something because, friends, I want you to get this picture.
• 4:31
  Ron Meyers: When Mark and I first met, he was at a secular radio station and he was an emcee for some of my events that had bikini contest and we were selling lots of beer.
• 4:45
  Ron Meyers: So we were having fun in the world, but at the right time, with God's awesome destiny mind, he took us in separate journeys, took us out of the world and put us in Jesus.
• 4:59
  Ron Meyers: And today we've been friends for many years.
• 5:02
  Ron Meyers: And how many years?
• 5:03
  Ron Meyers: Well, 1998.
• 5:05
  Ron Meyers: I was 1999.
• 5:07
  Ron Meyers: I didn't realize we were that close together of really coming to know Jesus.
• 5:11
  Mark McCraw: It's amazing you know God's timing, how he works things together for our good and for his purpose and his will.
• 5:19
  Ron Meyers: And I'll never forget how we saw it with this.
• 5:22
  Ron Meyers: When we were the station, we had what was called an open door policy.
• 5:26
  Ron Meyers: We wanted people to come by, have coffee, get a prayer, whatever they needed to do, and we had people coming in all the time of just some encouragement and to see the body of Christ in action by just loving people and praying with them.
• 5:42
  Ron Meyers: It was pretty special.
• 5:44
  Mark McCraw: It was.
• 5:45
  Mark McCraw: It was really special.
• 5:46
  Mark McCraw: You know we were talking about you and I getting saved about the same time.
• 5:50
  Mark McCraw: You used to have the Warehouse Church back in.
• 5:55
  Mark McCraw: What was that?
• 5:55
  Mark McCraw: 99 or 2000?
• 5:57
  Ron Meyers: Well, let me give you a little background.
• 5:59
  Ron Meyers: I had the Warehouse Church but, friends, it was not a church, it was a warehouse full of all my props and buildings for my festivals and the beer booths and everything.
• 6:10
  Ron Meyers: Well, when I started following Jesus, I was poor.
• 6:15
  Ron Meyers: I was so poor I couldn't pay attention.
• 6:18
  Ron Meyers: But I was happy and I had to close this warehouse.
• 6:22
  Ron Meyers: Nobody wanted that wood, nobody wanted the two by fours, Nobody wanted the signage the four by eight sheets of plywood.
• 6:30
  Ron Meyers: And I really heard that quiet voice that said build a church.
• 6:34
  Ron Meyers: To make a long story short, because it's all in my book and I'll send it to you if you want one listeners.
• 6:39
  Ron Meyers: Within seven days we had a and then I felt the Lord say go, invite people from Feed my Sheep and the Red Cross and do it on a Tuesday night.
• 6:50
  Ron Meyers: Don't compete with the churches.
• 6:51
  Ron Meyers: And we just started, you know, doing a service with some music and you know maybe three or four people inside the warehouse and it just started growing.
• 7:02
  Ron Meyers: And remember that we would often look up in this warehouse and see rats go across the rafters and if people went to the restroom you could hear what they were doing.
• 7:14
  Mark McCraw: But nobody cared, mark, because we were just looking for an encounter with Jesus Exactly, and I think the people that attended the warehouse church, they were looking for an encounter with Jesus too, because and we've talked about this before that so many of the people who came to the warehouse church probably would never set foot in a regular church because they felt like they would not be welcomed.
• 7:38
  Ron Meyers: You know, and and, and I've always felt that the ministry that God has called me to is outside the four walls, in a warehouse, at the Walmarts, at the gas stations, the radio for podcasts, that people, who's going to hit the people that don't go to church?
• 7:57
  Ron Meyers: We can invite them, but they're not going to come to church.
• 8:00
  Ron Meyers: Maybe at Christmas, maybe at Easter.
• 8:01
  Ron Meyers: So let's go meet them.
• 8:02
  Ron Meyers: Let's find innovative ways to think outside the box to reach a hurting population that really does need Jesus.
• 8:12
  Ron Meyers: They just don't know it because no one's really ever communicated the real Jesus to them.
• 8:18
  Ron Meyers: In my opinion, You're right.
• 8:19
  Mark McCraw: You're right, Exactly right.
• 8:20
  Mark McCraw: You know, and a lot of the people that came to the warehouse church were homeless.
• 8:23
  Mark McCraw: Oh yeah, you know.
• 8:24
  Ron Meyers: I can remember one gentleman, a young guy by the name of.
• 8:25
  Mark McCraw: Robert, you know, and a lot of the people that came to the warehouse church were homeless.
• 8:27
  Mark McCraw: Oh yeah, you know.
• 8:28
  Mark McCraw: I can remember one gentleman, a young guy by the name of Robert, you know, that used to come to the warehouse church.
• 8:32
  Mark McCraw: He would always show up on his bicycle yeah, with no seat, no seat, no seat.
• 8:36
  Mark McCraw: He would ride that bicycle standing up and he would come to the warehouse church on Tuesday nights and he was such a good guy and just talking to him you could see that there was that spark in him.
• 8:47
  Ron Meyers: Yeah, and there were times that one of there was a few people that had to spend the night in the warehouse church or they stayed there and really there wasn't anything in there except the little rats running around.
• 8:59
  Ron Meyers: I said, hey, if you don't mind, you can be the security guard, but we had such a love for people in the community and we would go out often and we'd fire up the grill, have some hot dogs free for the people, some hamburgers, and come and go outside the warehouse, out onto the yard, across the street, and just do something.
• 9:20
  Ron Meyers: And you know, there's something about the freedom in Christ when you don't know any better.
• 9:26
  Ron Meyers: And what I mean is no training, no classes, you just start doing something and talking about Jesus and it just takes a life of its own on?
• 9:39
  Mark McCraw: Yeah, it does.
• 9:40
  Mark McCraw: It's kind of scary to step out in the unknown sometimes.
• 9:45
  Ron Meyers: And then Mark, and then we became good friends with you and I had the pleasure I forgot about this to marry you and your wife Patrice, and tell us a little bit about that beautiful encounter, the marriage, and then what you went through a few years ago.
• 10:08
  Mark McCraw: Yeah, patrice.
• 10:10
  Mark McCraw: I like to say that Patrice is the one in a million woman.
• 10:15
  Mark McCraw: She was one in a million.
• 10:17
  Mark McCraw: I can remember, you know, I used to run sound at the church many years ago and Patrice would come up and talk to me, you know, after the services a lot of times, and then sometimes we would hang out in the parking lot talking until you know just, we were basically the only ones left in the parking lot.
• 10:33
  Mark McCraw: And then one night at Taco Bell, I can remember we were eating after a church service and she was talking about something and I remember thinking to myself you know, I wouldn't mind being married to this woman.
• 10:44
  Mark McCraw: And this was after we had already we had already gone to see a movie and they went to lunch afterwards and I told her.
• 10:50
  Mark McCraw: I said look, you know, I'm not looking for a relationship.
• 10:53
  Mark McCraw: I've just recently become divorced and I don't want to be the guy who comes to church looking for a new wife.
• 10:59
  Mark McCraw: And I remember telling her that day if you want us to be friends and just go have lunch every now and then maybe go to a movie, we can do that, you know.
• 11:07
  Mark McCraw: But I'm just not looking for a serious relationship.
• 11:09
  Mark McCraw: And then the Taco Bell moment happened several months later.
• 11:12
  Mark McCraw: That's a TV commercial.
• 11:15
  Ron Meyers: You might get royalties.
• 11:17
  Mark McCraw: Patrice and I got married on April the 20th in 2001.
• 11:22
  Mark McCraw: And we were together for nearly 20 years.
• 11:27
  Mark McCraw: We tried to have children and couldn't.
• 11:30
  Mark McCraw: She had endometriosis in a very serious way and we decided to adopt, and that's when we adopted.
• 11:37
  Mark McCraw: Grayson was back in 2011 when he was born and we walked with his mother through the pregnancy.
• 11:45
  Mark McCraw: We brought him home from the hospital and she had eight, nine wonderful years with him and I, Wow.
• 11:57
  Mark McCraw: And so in 2014, she was diagnosed with endometrial cancer.
• 12:03
  Mark McCraw: The doctor made the decision to do a total hysterectomy, got that done and within a year she was diagnosed with cancer again, and one thing led to another and it just kept getting worse and worse.
• 12:19
  Mark McCraw: It was like none of the treatments that we tried were working.
• 12:23
  Mark McCraw: You know, sometimes we would get a decent report from the doctor, but it was never exactly what we wanted to hear, and many times, when we came out of the appointments, the song Thy Will Be Done would be playing on the radio.
• 12:38
  Mark McCraw: Wow, and it was just so odd and I mean it got to the point that we would come out of a doctor's appointment with the worst possible news that the cancer had spread to her lungs, it had spread to her lymph nodes.
• 12:53
  Mark McCraw: And every time we got in the car, that song Thy Will Be Done would be playing on the radio.
• 12:59
  Mark McCraw: And it got to the point where we were crying and laughing at the same time.
• 13:04
  Ron Meyers: Wow, Wow, Somebody going through something like that right now.
• 13:10
  Ron Meyers: What would you tell them?
• 13:12
  Ron Meyers: It sounds like you're talking their story.
• 13:17
  Mark McCraw: You got to trust God.
• 13:18
  Mark McCraw: Everything passes through God's hands the good stuff, the bad stuff, everything passes through his hands, and I think that God doesn't cause bad things to happen, but there is a purpose for everything that does happen.
• 13:32
  Mark McCraw: That's what I believe, and I don't know why God would take Patrice out of this world when she had such a huge heart for children, you know.
• 13:43
  Mark McCraw: And now that she finally had a son of her own and passed away with endometrial cancer, the final straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak.
• 13:53
  Mark McCraw: She developed blood clots in her legs and they were talking about amputation, but it would do nothing to address the cancer.
• 14:01
  Mark McCraw: And that was that was it.
• 14:03
  Mark McCraw: That was June of 2020.
• 14:05
  Mark McCraw: She went into hospice and, for someone who might be going through something similar to this, the thing is that the Bible tells us that we can pray and we can ask for whatever we need.
• 14:19
  Mark McCraw: God already knows what we need, but we need to understand that in the end, when all is said and done, god's will is going to be done.
• 14:30
  Ron Meyers: Amen, as you said, that song Thy Will Be Done.
• 14:33
  Mark McCraw: Exactly.
• 14:33
  Mark McCraw: But you know, Ron, through all of this we had been believing for Patrice's healing.
• 14:39
  Mark McCraw: We had been believing that God would heal her.
• 14:41
  Mark McCraw: And even all the time that she was in hospice we were believing, right up until her very last breath, that God was going to heal her.
• 14:43
  Mark McCraw: And even all the time that she was in hospice, you know, we were believing, right up until her very last breath, that God was going to heal her.
• 14:50
  Mark McCraw: And in her passing, you know, I got the revelation that in her passing she received her ultimate healing, that in death we get our ultimate healing.
• 15:03
  Mark McCraw: So healing may not take place here on earth, but it does in death.
• 15:09
  Ron Meyers: Wow, but now you are a wonderful dad, little Grayson.
• 15:17
  Ron Meyers: He has grown up to be a good young man.
• 15:20
  Ron Meyers: How old is he now?
• 15:20
  Mark McCraw: He's 13 years old.
• 15:21
  Mark McCraw: 13 years old and taller than I am.
• 15:24
  Mark McCraw: Of course he likes to tell everybody that he's taller than me because I'm short.
• 15:29
  Ron Meyers: You know I've said sometimes Mark, god knows everything.
• 15:33
  Ron Meyers: He knows the beginning from the end, and he knew one day that Patrice would be gone and you'd be alone.
• 15:41
  Ron Meyers: Have you ever thought that that's why he blessed you so early with Grayson?
• 15:47
  Ron Meyers: Because if you didn't have Grayson right now, it was just you.
• 15:52
  Mark McCraw: Look, you know, I make no bones about it, the first two years after Patrice passed were hard.
• 15:59
  Mark McCraw: They were very difficult.
• 16:00
  Mark McCraw: It was almost like time stopped.
• 16:04
  Mark McCraw: You know, the only thing that kept me going was Grayson and my daughter Savannah.
• 16:09
  Mark McCraw: She's 30 now.
• 16:10
  Mark McCraw: Had it not been for the two of them, I don't know where I'd be.
• 16:14
  Mark McCraw: I just I don't know.
• 16:16
  Mark McCraw: It was just like I was.
• 16:18
  Mark McCraw: You know, when you, when you are a caretaker for someone that you love as deeply as I loved Patrice, you know, and then all of a sudden they pass away, it's almost like, well, what do I do now?
• 16:29
  Mark McCraw: Yeah, what do you do now?
• 16:31
  Mark McCraw: What do I do now?
• 16:32
  Mark McCraw: You know, and and thank goodness that I had Grayson and my daughter Savannah, and you had, something else is a lot of friends.
• 16:40
  Ron Meyers: I mean, everybody loves Mark McCraw.
• 16:43
  Ron Meyers: You're a kind, you're a gentle man.
• 16:45
  Ron Meyers: I mean, mark, you helped me with production, with this podcast, with this radio show.
• 16:51
  Ron Meyers: You still have a job, but I call you coach.
• 16:54
  Ron Meyers: You helped me because you are a brilliant sound man and with production, which you do some things now for iHeartRadio, you're so good and there's a lot of people that were praying for you when you didn't even know them and just like a lot of people listening right now, that sometimes you think you're all alone.
• 17:15
  Ron Meyers: But there are people that love you, they care about you and they're praying for you right now and you may never know about it, but there are people that feel the pains that we go through and they pray for us.
• 17:28
  Ron Meyers: Without calling us.
• 17:30
  Ron Meyers: They say I'm going to pray for Ron today.
• 17:31
  Ron Meyers: I'm going to pray for Mark today, yeah, do you ever feel those prayers?
• 17:34
  Mark McCraw: Oh, I do, I do.
• 17:35
  Mark McCraw: I feel them all the time.
• 17:40
  Ron Meyers: So what's the future?
• 17:40
  Ron Meyers: Like You've got little Grayson 13.
• 17:41
  Ron Meyers: What's he want to do when he grows up?
• 17:43
  Ron Meyers: Be in radio like his daddy.
• 17:45
  Mark McCraw: Oh, I don't know about that.
• 17:48
  Mark McCraw: You know, grayson and I we met with his counselor a few weeks ago.
• 17:52
  Mark McCraw: It was just a, you know, normal, usual meeting with the counselor, just to discuss grades, and you know what's coming up next year.
• 17:59
  Mark McCraw: And she asked him have you thought about what you want to do for a career?
• 18:03
  Mark McCraw: And of course he's only 13 years old, you know, and I've always encouraged him, you know, figure out what you enjoy doing and then try to get a job doing that.
• 18:11
  Mark McCraw: And then it's like you won't ever be going to work every day, you'll just be going to do something you enjoy.
• 18:16
  Mark McCraw: And she mentioned engineering to him and he perked up and said oh, that sounds good.
• 18:21
  Mark McCraw: And when I started thinking about what engineering entails, there are so many different areas that he can go into Software development, computer engineering, you know.
• 18:32
  Mark McCraw: Even radio stations, you know.
• 18:33
  Mark McCraw: Still, radio stations need engineers to maintain the transmitters, you know.
• 18:38
  Ron Meyers: So any number of areas and I know you told him that God has a plan and God has destiny and just to trust in Jesus and it will all fall in place.
• 18:48
  Mark McCraw: Yeah, is it?
• 18:50
  Ron Meyers: that simple, does it just all fall in place, mark?
• 18:52
  Mark McCraw: Well, you know, I got to tell you.
• 18:54
  Mark McCraw: You know I take every opportunity I can to teach him about God and teach him about the Bible, you know.
• 19:02
  Mark McCraw: But I understand that at 13 years old, you know there are other things that have your attention.
• 19:06
  Mark McCraw: Yeah, so I'm trusting God and I'm believing God that he will call Grayson when the time is right.
• 19:13
  Ron Meyers: Amen brother, that's some good parental advice.
• 19:16
  Ron Meyers: Can't push him, can't push him.
• 19:18
  Ron Meyers: Got to love the hell out of them.
• 19:20
  Ron Meyers: Well, mark, before we go, will you pray for the listeners?
• 19:26
  Mark McCraw: Our Father in heaven.
• 19:27
  Mark McCraw: Lord, god, I just thank you for this opportunity to speak to those who are listening to this program.
• 19:32
  Mark McCraw: Father, you know the troubles and the trials they're going through.
• 19:36
  Mark McCraw: You know the challenges of their life.
• 19:38
  Mark McCraw: Dear Lord, I just ask you just to touch them, lord.
• 19:46
  Mark McCraw: Father, call them by name.
• 19:47
  Mark McCraw: Father, god, give them wisdom in all of their situations.
• 19:48
  Mark McCraw: Help them, lord, to see that Jesus is the answer.
• 19:51
  Mark McCraw: Father, that Jesus will help them, will take them by the hand and lead them through the troubles and the trials that they may be going through.
• 20:00
  Mark McCraw: Thank you, god, that your word in Isaiah 41 says that you will help us, for you are our God, and we thank you, father, for everything that you do for us.
• 20:10
  Mark McCraw: Thank you for being our refuge and our strength in times of trouble.
• 20:14
  Mark McCraw: Thank you, god, for everything you do for us.
• 20:17
  Mark McCraw: In Jesus' name, amen.