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Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY220006A
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00:02 As you're well aware we're living in unprecedented times. 00:05 Join us now for today's special program. 00:09 ♪ ♪ 00:12 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:23 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:34 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:44 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 01:05 ♪ ♪ 01:15 Hello friends and welcome to another edition of 3ABN Today. 01:18 And let me tell you something. Don't think this is just your 01:21 average, normal 3ABN Today okay because I'm on fire, I'm excited 01:24 about what's going to be happening today during this hour 01:27 So if you have friends, family members, coworkers, brothers, 01:32 sisters, anybody, enemies. Get them all together right now 01:34 because you're going to want to watch what we have during this 01:37 hour. I've had some time to spend with our guests just prior 01:41 to this interview right now and I am just, I'm so excited. 01:44 I wish we had two and three hours to talk about what we're 01:47 going to be talking about today. But we have Gideon Rescue 01:50 Company in the house. How you guys doing? 01:54 Good (multiple voices) 01:56 I spent a little time with these brothers and sisters. They are 01:57 on fire for the Lord. I'm on fire for what they're doing for 02:00 the Lord and I promise you you're not going to want to miss 02:03 what's happening and what they're doing and what God is 02:04 using them to do and how you also may be able to participate 02:08 with them in what they're doing for the cause of God. We're 02:11 going to have some pictures and videos and all types of exciting 02:14 things and talking about what God is doing through Gideon 02:16 Rescue Co. But before we get right into this interview we 02:22 have a special number that's coming to us by the group 02:23 Message of Mercy and they're going to be bringing us the 02:28 ♪ He leadeth me Oh, blessed thought ♪ 02:38 ♪ O words with heavenly comfort fraught ♪ 02:45 ♪ Whate're I do, Where're I be ♪ 02:53 ♪ Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me ♪ 03:02 ♪ He leadeth me, He leadeth me ♪ 03:08 ♪ By His own hand he leadeth me ♪ 03:14 ♪ His faithful follower I would be ♪ 03:22 ♪ For by His hand He leadeth me ♪ 03:28 ♪ Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom ♪ 03:36 ♪ Sometime where Eden's bowers bloom ♪ 03:42 ♪ By waters still o'er troubled sea ♪ 03:50 ♪ Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me ♪ 03:58 ♪ Lord I would clasp thy hand in mine ♪ 04:04 ♪ Nor ever murmur nor repine ♪ 04:11 ♪ Content whatever lot I see ♪ 04:18 ♪ 'Tis God's hand that leadeth me ♪ 04:27 ♪ And when my task on earth is done ♪ 04:32 ♪ When by thy grace the victory's won ♪ 04:39 ♪ Even death's cold wave I will not flee ♪ 04:46 ♪ Still 'tis God through Jordan leadeth me ♪ 04:53 ♪ He leadeth me, He leadeth me ♪ 04:58 ♪ By His own hand He leadeth me ♪ 05:07 ♪ His faithful foll'wer I would be ♪ 05:12 ♪ For by His hand He leadeth me ♪ 05:46 Wow, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, for by His hand He leadeth 05:50 me. I love that song. Thank you ladies for that beautiful music. 05:53 And now we come to the point why we're here. To talk to Gideon 05:58 Rescue Company. Let's get on with the introductions because 06:01 you guys, 06:02 it's been a couple of years since you've been here. But we have 06:05 Brock Meyer. How you doing Brock 06:07 I'm doing well. 06:08 All right. Praise the Lord. We're going to 06:09 come back in just a moment and talk about what each of your do 06:11 But I'm just kind of going down here. We have Brock Meyer 06:13 We have Dana Connell and then we also have Wils Teal. Wils 06:22 Teal. I love that name. And then we also have Miss Meredith Poole 06:25 It's a blessing to have each of you but last but not least we 06:29 have to introduce Minnie. We got Minnie with his food. Oh there 06:35 she is. It's a she, right? It's a she. Okay I want to make sure 06:37 we're correct on that. So just real quick, what does Minnie do? 06:39 Minnie is a search and rescue canine that goes out in 06:45 disasters and looks for missing or lost people, or even deceased 06:49 people if necessary. 06:51 Wow, praise the Lord for Minnie. Wow. Praise God. So you know 06:55 what there may be someone watching at home right now 06:57 that's never, ever heard of Gideon Rescue Company. 07:01 Brock, what is Gideon Rescue Company? 07:03 What do you guys do. Tell us a little bit 07:04 about the history and how it came about and all that. 07:06 We got our start back in college I took the degree 07:11 International Rescue and Relief from Union College. And from 07:14 that degree program we decided to carry forward that mission 07:16 endeavor to actually start a ministry and say we want this to 07:21 be a full commitment throughout all of our lives and invite 07:23 anybody who wanted to join that as well. And we're a disaster 07:27 response company but perhaps a disaster response company of a 07:28 little bit of a different nature because we recognize that not 07:32 only are the physical needs most important but there's even 07:35 a more important need and that is the spiritual need. And so we 07:39 are a gospel ministry reaching people in times of disaster 07:44 through the practical means that God gives us. 07:46 Right. That is so awesome. But there's probably someone right 07:48 now, I know I would probably think of this: Well wait a 07:51 second. The government has agencies. You know we have 07:55 different you know organizations for the government that does 07:58 this type of stuff so why do you guys go out and do this if you 08:01 already have that. What's the purpose that kind of sets you 08:03 apart from those agencies? 08:06 It's an excellent question and what really sets us apart is 08:10 that there are other organizations out there 08:11 that are much better equipped, much better organized in terms 08:14 of what they can handle on the humanitarian front. You have the 08:18 Red Cross, you have Samaritan's Purse, you have FEMA task force 08:21 teams here in the United States but what these other teams 08:25 especially the government teams the secular teams, what they 08:28 don't provide is that spiritual hope and the context for why 08:33 we're seeing these disasters occurring. They do their job and 08:37 they're very excellent with what they do, the professionals in 08:39 the highest sense, but in terms of giving people context for why 08:44 are we seeing these things and giving people hope to anchor 08:46 them in difficult times that's something that is not in their 08:50 job set or their skills. 08:51 I'm sure you get that question a lot in the line of work, why, 08:53 why does this happen? Why do these disasters come upon us? 08:57 Why does...I'm sure some people kind of you know who are caught 09:00 up in these things shake the fist at God and say Lord why 09:03 why did you allow this to happen So how do you respond to a 09:06 question like that? 09:07 What's also a developmental question in Gideon Rescue 09:10 itself, right? And the question sort of went like this. If we 09:13 know these things are going to be happening from God's word 09:16 what are we doing about it? 09:19 That's right. Absolutely. 09:21 Yeah and when people ask that question why, they're looking 09:26 for context. And oftentimes the you know the narrative is that 09:29 they have a misunderstanding that God is responsible for 09:32 these disasters. But the more that we respond and the more 09:35 stories that we encounter the more that we see the hand of God 09:38 at work, we can say absolutely that God is not responsible for 09:44 these disasters but that He allows them to happen because 09:46 He's so desperate. He wants to save as many as possible. So we 09:49 see the mercy of God, we see the hand of God but you also see the 09:53 judgment of God. You know like we're living in the judgment 09:56 hour. So this is a solemn time for all humanity to recognize 09:59 that there are things that we must understand in our 10:01 relationship with God because Jesus is coming soon. And so 10:05 because we have coming King what does that mean in terms of the 10:09 weight that it has on our lives and how we're living the lives. 10:11 So specifically what do you do for Gideon Rescue. Do you all 10:15 do the same thing or do you have specific jobs that you do 10:19 individually. How does that work? 10:21 We do have different jobs and different roles. I'm a member 10:25 of Gideon Rescue Company and you know Dana here has been a real 10:29 blessing in helping us just make incredible connections in the 10:32 community post-disaster and so we've called her our clincher. 10:35 She comes in a lot of times and really works with people and 10:39 solidifies those relationships those connections that we've had 10:41 She also attended Union College so I've know her for a time. And 10:47 Wils is a contractor by trade but he's also trained as a swift 10:51 water rescue technician as well as a boat rescue operator as 10:56 well as a canine search and rescue handler... 10:59 And I know how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 11:03 Oh, you knew it. He had it on his face. You just look like some 11:06 bread and some peanut butter guy. 11:09 And then Meredith as well. She's one of our search and rescue 11:12 handlers but she performs many roles and many tasks, no pun 11:17 intended for Minnie but she's a blessing to have on the team 11:19 as well. 11:21 Amen, amen. Praise God, praise God. You know what you guys do 11:25 is dangerous and it seems risky. So just kind of talk about that 11:29 I mean because I mean you're going on these disaster scenes 11:33 and who knows what kind of situation you're going to run 11:35 into. Talk about some of the disasters, some of the risks, 11:37 some of the dangers that you've run into on the job because I 11:41 know if I'm watching this at home I'm wondering you know... 11:43 Talk a little bit about that. Give us details about what do 11:46 you guys deal with, you know, on the job when you're actually 11:49 on-site and you're getting your hands dirty and you're in there 11:54 working with people or working in a, you know, post-disaster 11:57 situation. 11:58 So risk is inherent to what we do. Risk is inherent to anything 12:03 you do. But it is especially multiplied in the disaster scene 12:07 for sure. This is why training is important. This is why 12:10 situational awareness is important. But at the same time 12:14 what did God risk in coming to this planet? Everything. 12:19 What did the apostles risk in sharing the gospel message 12:22 with the world? 12:24 Everything. And so risk is not a limiter for us. It is something 12:29 that we're aware of and that we try to manage as best as 12:32 possible. But at the end of the day, yes, there is risk involved 12:35 The helicopter upon which we're riding could crash, you know. 12:38 The chainsaw which you are wielding could cut through your 12:40 leg. You know. But these are risks that we're willing to take 12:44 onto ourselves so that others can live. But it's not also as 12:51 risky as sometimes you think. Because there are many 12:53 opportunities to serve in the disaster zone. You don't have to 12:57 just be the ultimate search and rescue dog handler. You have an 13:02 opportunity if you can hand somebody a cup of cold water 13:04 in Jesus' name then it's an incredible way to be able to 13:08 minister the gospel. And so there are many roles that can be 13:13 fulfilled with much less degrees of risk. 13:15 I mean certainly, it's a romantic thing to go there and be in the 13:19 midst of all the chaos with the wind swirling and trees falling 13:22 and you know floods swelling in the river, you know, in the 13:28 street so to speak. But ultimately we get there at the 13:30 point of aftermath where, yeah, there is some electrical line 13:34 that potentially could be in the water. We do train for those 13:39 types of things. But a lot of times are you ready, are you 13:42 willing to go and minister to the people that you meet. So 13:48 Gideon rescue is more like a fast response team right? But 13:54 the most important part of it is to have people continue to come 14:00 and minister to the people that are hurting. They need stamina 14:04 to get through the next six months, right? And they're not 14:07 going to get through the next six months if the Lord doesn't 14:11 come before then without spiritual help. 14:15 Sure, sure, absolutely. That's amazing. So I'm going to put, if 14:18 it's okay, I'm going to put Dana on the spot here. Dana you kind 14:21 of briefly mentioned what you do but what's it like for you in 14:24 what you do for Gideon Rescue and how God uses you through 14:27 Gideon Rescue? 14:28 Yeah, it's a great question. I'm still figuring this out so 14:31 Mayfield, Kentucky was my second response. My first response was 14:35 in Iowa with the derecho that came through that and the 14:39 hurricane that took out 10 million acres worth of crops, 14:40 brought down trees. But I was 10 days late arriving. 14:43 I couldn't make it there for 10 days and by then they were gone. 14:46 And there was another person flying in as a volunteer because 14:50 these volunteer just hear and want to come. And what I was 14:53 was assisting on the ground for that was the city leaders were 14:56 wanting people to go door to door and check in on their 14:59 citizens because you're in the midst of COVID, you're in the 15:02 of an epidemic or a higher number of suicides in that area 15:07 and especially with these crops and farmers years in a row just 15:10 struggling so I was like literature evangelist skills 15:15 to the rescue. Like I can make a survey I can check in on the 15:18 mental health of these citizens. I can offer my pastoral 15:21 skills and sit 15:23 there and do counseling, I can sit there and do Bible studies 15:26 in need be. But I was there facilitating other groups that 15:29 kept coming in connected with the Adventist Church. High 15:32 schools, different ministries. I was expecting to be there for 10 15:36 days myself but I ended up being there for nine months, two weeks 15:40 incremental at a time and I'm not done there yet. But I've 15:44 been doing Bible work and Bible studies and checking in on 15:48 people in the area so it's also grown me because I'm alone. 15:50 There's no church, there's nobody else around there so I've 15:55 been being stretched in my faith and my courage. Go knock on 15:58 those doors, go visit those farmers. So it's been beautiful 16:02 to check in on people and then follow up. In Kentucky, you know 16:06 I landed a few days later but again it's been more managing 16:09 the other volunteers that come in, but helping with debris 16:13 clean up and using my pastoral skills also to visit people who 16:16 had been survivors of the candle factory that was destroyed and 16:22 ministering to some of them and then can you go help this person 16:23 Hey, call this person. So being able to facilitate that, keeping 16:29 in touch with some of the people whose properties we did help who 16:32 were suicidal. There was one individual who was suicidal. So 16:36 God did amazing things to bring hope into his life through 16:38 disaster relief and debris clean up and through other students 16:42 singing Amazing Grace to him. And so I'm still in contact with 16:45 him. Our team is in contact with him. And I don't feel like I'm 16:48 done there. I have a real burden for grief ministry now in that 16:53 area. People have gone through trauma and gone through these 16:56 losses of loved ones in the various capacity. So I'm still 16:59 figuring out what can I do there while God has me on a pause in 17:02 Iowa because when I was going to head out back in July it was 17:05 like, wait. So He's had me do a lot of other things. And so I'm 17:08 just waiting. Okay, God. I go where He sends me, what He's 17:11 telling me to do. So it's just always fluid and moving. 17:14 So you sound like the jack of all trades over there. As you're 17:16 going through all of that I'm thinking Uh, the multiple part 17:19 series of everything you just mentioned. It's interesting in 17:22 what you were talking will come to my mind is Ministry of 17:25 Healing, p. 143, Christ's method alone will bring true success. 17:30 And that's exactly what you guys are doing is that you are 17:33 mingling with these people. You're ministering, you're 17:36 sympathizing with them and ministering to their needs. 17:38 You're gaining their confidence hopefully in the point that 17:43 through all of these, they will see the Jesus in you. They will 17:44 see what the Holy Spirit is doing through you guys and they 17:46 will desire to have what you have. That's powerful. 17:49 There's one more risk in the risk of experiencing a miracle 17:53 while you're there. 17:54 Oh wow. Of course, of course. And I'm sure you guys have seen 17:58 a lot of those. 18:01 That's the beauty because one of my neighbors when she heard 18:03 that I was going out to respond to Mayfield, she was like, wow 18:07 that must be such a sad work that you do. I'm like, you get 18:11 to see the collision of the horrific and the miraculous 18:15 You get to see the heart and the hands and the feet of God 18:18 running into the darkness and into the pain and to the tragedy 18:21 And that's what we get to see is the movement of God and 18:25 people seeing that. I just want to share real quick like even 18:28 one story in a neighborhood that was devastated, wealthy 18:31 neighborhood. The foundation of the house was here and across 18:35 the street is his home in pieces in rubble. And he told me when 18:39 he was sharing a bit of his story, he said we heard that 18:44 tornado coming and I said to my wife, they were in a closet in 18:47 the middle of their home. He's like, I hear it coming and the 18:51 next thing I said, it's here. And the next thing I knew we 18:53 were being launched from our home at 300 some miles an hour 18:57 and I looked across the street and there's a row of trees. And 19:00 I said, you mean to tell me that you were thrown from your home 19:02 at over 300 miles an hour and you missed every single one of 19:05 those trees and you landed safely and all you did was break 19:08 a few ribs. That was God! His wife's in the hospital with a 19:12 brain bleed. We were praying for her. We were praying and just 19:14 way we were able to help on that property and minister. But there 19:16 were people that didn't survive who were thrown 300 miles an 19:19 hour. But just so many stories of survival and of great loss 19:24 but of also seeing the hand of God and people recognizing that 19:28 angels must have been covering us because everything else in 19:30 our home is gone but we're alive and our child did not make a 19:34 noise throughout the whole thing 19:35 Amen, amen. That's powerful because as I'm hearing you all 19:40 say you know what you're doing and what this powerful ministry 19:42 Gideon Rescue Company does, you know I've been on scenes like 19:46 this. I've lived...I grew up in northeastern Arkansas where we 19:49 got tornadoes every year. I mean it's just a thing. But if you 19:54 want to see a time when people are really humble, open and 19:59 receptive to the word of God, to the speaking of the Holy Spirit, 20:03 it's when they're humbled in a situation like that, where their 20:06 life has been turned upside down in moments, in a day. They had 20:09 everything in one moment before and now they don't. Now they're 20:13 confused, they're asking questions, why, why has this 20:15 happened to me? But then you guys show up and you provide 20:18 answers because you show that God's still here and even in the 20:21 darkness he's still there. It's so exciting. Meredith you know 20:24 I want to ask you the same question because in all the line 20:28 of work that you do and all the experience that you have you 20:30 know-how was it for you working in this line of work, doing what 20:33 you do. You know what has God done for you? What have you 20:36 learned and what is it specifically that you do that 20:38 reaches people in this way? 20:42 Wow. Ah. The Lord has brought me a long way in the word of faith 20:48 you know. We at Gideon, we step out in faith. Not only do we 20:52 ask God do you 20:53 want us to even go to this disaster. You know we rely on 20:57 Him for everything. If we actually go, when we go, where 21:03 we go, who we need to be with. He's definitely...because 21:08 sometimes we don't know where we're going to stay, what we're 21:10 going to eat, what we're going to, you know nothing. So we 21:14 definitely depend on God and to me, I think that is huge 21:17 importance. He's taught me that we actually provide the hope, 21:23 the hope that people need t o hang on and...You know anybody 21:27 can do this. You don't need a skill set. You don't need to 21:30 have certifications like most of us have. Like Brock said you 21:34 just need to give water. You need to pray with somebody. If 21:36 you can pray with somebody you can do this. You know this is 21:39 just having a willing heart to give love to somebody in time of 21:43 need. You know and we go out with the dogs, we were able to 21:50 minister in Kentucky this last time with the dogs, our first 21:53 time actually getting to use the dogs. So God gave us this 21:57 opening wedge and I say we were with some FEMA people and some 22:04 other handlers and they asked well, who sent you? The state 22:08 sent me. Who sent you? And I said, God. 22:11 I can imagine the look on their faces. 22:14 Yeah, they kind of like just brushed me off like oh okay but 22:17 I hope that stuck in their mind. 22:19 Of course, of course, praise the Lord. You know you touched on 22:23 something there. Maybe Brock you can elaborate on this. There's 22:27 probably someone watching right now that says you know this is 22:29 awesome. I would love to do and participate in something like 22:32 this so who can do what you do? Who can participate in what you 22:36 guys do? 22:37 The harvest is great and the laborers are few. That's my 22:40 answer. And you know it really truly is as Meredith said is 22:45 that anybody can do what we do. We're nobody unique, nobody's 22:49 special other than that God has called us and put this burden on 22:51 our heart that there is a harvest field in disaster 22:54 response that is untapped. And when we say that the laborers 22:58 are few we literally mean that. The laborers are few that 23:02 understand this concept, you know the concept that time 23:04 is ticking, that time 23:05 is of the essence and we don't have much time left as a planet 23:10 corporately that now is the time to be moving and working and 23:14 laboring for God in reaching souls for this time. And so if 23:18 you have a burden, if God puts it on your heart and says be a 23:21 part in any way, training is easy. You know not too long 23:24 before this Meredith and Wils did not have any training in dog 23:29 handling. But God opened the door opened the opportunity for 23:32 them to do it and now they are full-fledged canine handlers. 23:35 Training is not difficult. What is difficult is finding a heart 23:39 and mind that is surrendered, willing to be moved by God and 23:43 used by God. So we don't actually recruit you know in 23:46 our ministry we don't try to find people. Our prayer is Lord 23:50 send us people. And so we allow God to hand pick the team just 23:53 like he did for Gideon. 23:54 And the beautiful part of it is that there's just so many 23:58 volunteers that come whatever their gift and skill set is. 24:01 It's just their heart is to volunteer and so even connected 24:03 with you. What are we doing? Well, do you have a chainsaw? 24:06 You can cut down the tree. If you can't cut down a tree you 24:08 can help clean up debris. If you can't help clean up debris which 24:12 most people can or use a rake, use your hands. Or talk to the 24:17 person on site. You can give literature, you can pray, you 24:21 can be at PODs, the points of distribution where all the 24:23 donations are coming in, where survivors and victims' come and 24:26 get nonperishables... 24:29 I want to tell a story of how we've seen time and time again 24:31 just like Dana's describing how God has tailored the mission to 24:35 the responder, right? Corrie's dad, his love language every 24:40 year was to give flashlights as gifts to family, to friends and 24:45 that was what he did. He'd find a really unique flashlight, 24:47 something really cool and that was what he loved to do. 24:49 Bizarre, weird, but loved it. That was...he found joy in it. 24:54 When they volunteered to come on was that Fultondale, Alabama? 24:58 No that was Cookeville, Tennessee. 25:00 Cookeville, Tennessee. They were at a point of distribution and 25:05 his dad and his mom and his father-in-law show up to come 25:09 and help. In the supplies that they were to hand out were just 25:15 boxes of flashlights and Corrie's dad got to pass out 25:21 flashlights. 25:22 Amen, amen, there's so much you can do. Like oh my goodness give 25:26 me a box of flashlights and how many object lessons I can use 25:30 for that. Here's you a light but there's an even greater Light. 25:32 Jesus Christ (Multiple voices) introduce you to. That's all 25:37 right. Praise the Lord. Folks, a flashlight can open up a door 25:41 for you to witness to someone of the gospel. 25:43 Praise the Lord. Praise God. You know, post-disaster you're 25:48 showing up on the scene. You might have actually touched on 25:51 this a little bit already, but maybe you can elaborate on the 25:54 greatest need when you go into a community or you go into a 25:57 place what are some of the greatest needs that you see you 25:59 know in a situation like that whatever the case may be, 26:01 tornado, hurricane, earthquake fire whatever type of scenario 26:06 you walk into. 26:08 So as humans, we're well aware of the hierarchy of needs. You 26:12 know, we need food, we need water, we need shelter. These 26:13 are things that keep us stable in life. But actually, there's a 26:17 greater need than just those basic needs. Because you can 26:21 live I mean weeks without food, you can go a few days without 26:25 water. You can even hold your breath for a few minutes. The 26:29 moment you give up hope the moment you're done. And we know 26:32 this. And so in any survival situation that is the greatest 26:36 need that you have in a survival moment is to hang onto hope. 26:39 And so it's no different. Disaster's just on a larger 26:43 scale. Now an entire community is faced with the question, in 26:47 what do they hope? And so we have an opportunity to provide 26:50 them with hope. Like if God has given us this hope, we have this 26:54 hope that burns within our hearts, right? That Jesus is 26:57 coming soon then why would we hold back in giving people the 27:01 greatest need that they have in a community? And so honestly the 27:04 answer is very simple. The greatest need that we have in 27:07 post disaster is hope. 27:09 And that...Honestly, I wasn't expecting that answer for a 27:12 moment but it makes perfect sense, it makes perfect sense. 27:14 In a situation like that people losing homes, losing family 27:18 members, going through the most horrific experiences a person 27:22 could possibly imagine. It's so easy to lose hope. 27:25 It's so overwhelming. When you show up in a disaster zone and 27:28 you are confronted with what looks like Hiroshima and 27:31 Nagasaki, like where, do you start? Where do you begin? 27:35 And then the questions come to your mind...Physically what I am 27:39 doing is this really making a difference? Right? And even if 27:42 you had an army you know of tractors and people and all 27:46 these things, still it would take you years to put these 27:49 communities back together again. But here's the real issue is 27:52 that if you connect people with Jesus then post disaster when 27:57 they're struggling through the aftermath of the disaster, 28:00 they're in shell shock immediately afterward. 28:01 But the many months and years that it takes to try to put your 28:05 life back together who's going to be there to hold them. We can 28:08 only be there for a couple of weeks maybe. Maybe we can spend 28:11 some extra time if we keep people in the field, right? 28:14 for months afterward to try to work with people but at 28:16 the same time who is ultimately going to be able to carry them 28:18 through that difficulty? 28:20 We watched that physically happen in Belle Plaine when we 28:22 first got there. I mean, one farmer, in particular, Dana 28:26 had a chance to work with, our farmer at our school in Ardmore 28:30 he got a chance to work with this guy one on one. I remember 28:35 Brock talking to this guy and he was about catatonic. He was just 28:37 blown away by what had transpired in a matter of hours 28:43 to his property, locked him in, devastated his crop, he was just 28:49 and as we were speaking to him something sparked in him 28:53 about a farmer, right? That was the first spark, a little 28:58 synaptic fire and somehow our farmer, God connected our farmer 29:00 with him and we told him we're going to come back. We're going 29:04 come back. We're going to bring fuel so you don't have to worry 29:08 about the electricity and the pump. And it took a while for 29:10 that to dawn on him as we were looking for containers to put 29:13 fuel in to bring back to him and suddenly something snapped. 29:16 Because I was watching the whole thing and his shoulders squared 29:20 up and he began to just kind of come to and showed us a couple 29:25 of buckets. The next morning he was waiting for us there at 9 29:29 a.m. And we brought not just us but 27 students from Union 29:34 College, right? And at that point there was a whole 29:38 different body language in him. But then come the questions. 29:42 Why do you do this? Because they were at the point of being 29:47 catatonic and it was the first few moments of that interaction 29:51 to go hey we're here to help. We're here to help. And then to 29:55 have an answer of we came here because of the love of Jesus 29:58 Christ. 29:59 In fact, if we can maybe queue the video for the Union College 30:03 students. I know we have some pictures but if we can skip just 30:05 to the Union College students to start, that would be a good 30:09 place to start in some of these stories that we want to share. 30:11 So this is Union College. This is actually at that farmer's 30:16 house. So you can imagine who's lost everything all of a sudden 30:20 sees 30 young people show up in his yard he's like who are you 30:24 guys and where are you from and why do you care about me? And so 30:28 it's an incredible point to say Brother, God cares for you, 30:32 right? He cares for you. This is why we're here. And so that 30:35 paradigm shift when you see people awaken to the possibility 30:37 that God cares for them and God has not abandoned them, God has 30:41 not caused this disaster it's absolutely incredible. And as we 30:46 we're moving through you know Belle Plaine, Iowa there's 30:48 another picture here that we have of a tree that is on a 30:51 house. And it was just an incredible moment in time 30:56 where you see this incredible massive tree. You can't even see 31:01 the house. And so Wils and I had actually walked to this 31:04 gentleman's house and he was completely handicapped, broken, 31:07 had actually tried to climb up in his tree, fallen out of his 31:09 tree, broken a bunch of bones, was in the hospital, had just 31:12 been released and here's where we meet him in his brokenness. 31:13 And he says, please if you can just get the tree off of my 31:16 house I would be eternally grateful. And if you can't do 31:18 that, if you can just patch my roof because it put a huge hole. 31:22 He said if you can just patch my roof so when it rains it doesn't 31:24 rain on us, I'd be eternally grateful. So this is our mission 31:26 We're like okay we're on it, right. And when we climbed up 31:29 there we assessed it, we've got some skill sets, how to cut 31:32 trees and use some ropes and things, it was impossible, just 31:35 absolutely impossible... 31:36 There was a rope we had to cut off. We couldn't top rope. 31:39 So here we end up patching his roof, we could do that. And 31:43 we're sitting there at the bottom of the house kind of in 31:45 this deflated moment... 31:46 While the tree is still in the house? 31:48 The tree is still in the house. 31:50 You were able to patch it off but it was still... 31:52 We cut the limb off. The tree's still there, but we cut the limb 31:54 off and we patched the hole underneath the tree over us. 31:58 And as we're standing there up walks this gentleman and he just 32:02 says, Do you guys need a crane? And it was like, well of course 32:07 we need a crane. And we have a picture of the crane that shows 32:11 up. It's a million-dollar piece of equipment, it was nothing 32:15 that we could have afforded (multiple voices) and he 32:19 actually said, Okay I want to dedicate this crane for the use 32:22 of the gospel for the next five days. I'm going to work with 32:24 your team. Let's just go through and let's smash trees off of 32:27 houses. And so now we had Union College, we had the crane and 32:30 the kids, the students, when they saw the miracles of God 32:33 right, and there's a lot on the line. It's not just for the 32:36 community but for our young people even our young people in 32:39 our own schools, they struggle with faith. They struggle with 32:42 is God still the same God of the Bible. When you see those 32:46 miracles, when you see Him at work. So we had promised them 32:49 before we even had the crane, we said, Listen guys just wait 32:51 around a minute. God's going to show up in a big way. And then 32:54 we're off praying saying, Lord you got to show up, right? So 32:58 then when you see this crane they're floored. We have a 33:00 testimony of a young lady from Union College and listen to what 33:04 she has to say. (Oh powerful, Yeah) Listen to what she has 33:06 to say. 33:08 Tell me what has been one of your highlights. I know driving 33:13 the crane is a high light but tell me you highlight from this 33:17 trip that meant something to you 33:20 I think see how everybody (noise interference) from especially 33:26 Gideon's like this...God's got it Like it's not us, it's God. And 33:36 like people saw like the first miracle and they were like 33:38 wait, what? And then they saw the second and the third and the 33:42 fourth and the fifth...and just thousands of things that have 33:45 happened that have been crazy. And like it spread like that and 33:49 it multiplied so quickly because that's contagious faith, like 33:51 that's what that was. Like you guys brought something as we had 33:56 the spirit of like excitement and service and like we just 34:00 latched onto that and I've seen people because I work in campus 34:03 ministry at Union so I've like talked to a lot. I work in core 34:07 groups, people connecting in communities because that's where 34:10 you experience God you know. So I've worked with a lot of 34:14 people and I know a lot of these and like not all of them are 34:18 like super tight with God you know. Not all of them like take 34:22 the time every day to spend, spend time with Him. But I've 34:27 seen people like praying. They're like dude let's pray 34:30 about this. Like people that never ever been someone who 34:33 would have said that before. I'm like just seeing how this 34:38 trip and the faith of the people around them has strengthened 34:42 their faith. And now they can go strengthen other people's faith. 34:44 And it just keep growing and spreading. I think that's been 34:47 for sure the coolest thing. 34:51 Oh my goodness! I'm getting on fire watching that video. That 34:56 young lady's just on fire for the Lord. That's powerful to see 35:00 because you get young people involved in something like this 35:02 and you see God show up and show out and show them that I'm still 35:07 here. And now...I have a heart for our young people because our 35:10 young people are drifting. It seems like the devil's just got 35:13 so many distractions for them all over the place but God is 35:16 using Gideon Rescue to reach these young people and at first 35:21 I'm sure for them if probably seems like, Oh it's a job right? 35:24 We got to go clean up this and clean up that and go pick up the 35:27 sticks and go...But you know in the process God is revealing 35:30 Himself to them. That is just amazing. Praise the Lord! 35:34 Praise the Lord. 35:35 And you know in Iowa we quickly realized. We had no idea why we 35:38 were in Iowa. The only reason we actually at first had come to 35:40 Iowa is because my wife follows the social media feed on a lady 35:44 that does a really nice arrangement of her home 35:46 just kind of decoration stuff and she had put out on her feed 35:52 that her town was devastated and there was no help coming. That 35:54 was the only reason that we should maybe show up in Belle 35:56 Plaine. There was no government agency there. We were the only 36:02 response team that ended upcoming into Belle Plaine 36:06 officially. And so here we are with this community. It feels 36:08 like they've been forgotten by the world. This was right in the 36:09 mid-term...I mean this was right in the presidential election, so 36:13 all the news feeds have nothing to do with what's happening in 36:15 Iowa and people feel really forgotten. And so when we show 36:18 up here this town, it was incredible because they actually 36:25 struggle with an epidemic of suicide like what Dana pointed 36:27 out and incredibly heartbreaking stories where you could see that 36:32 devil was just intent on destroying people left and right 36:35 And we came across with the students. In working in the 36:40 community we found this one house in which this gentleman 36:43 had lost not one but two sons to suicide and he was absolutely 36:49 devastated. And we gathered all those Union College students and 36:52 those Union College students sang It Is Well With My Soul on 36:56 his porch and this man and his wife were in tears. They were 37:01 like who are you guys and why are you here and why do you even 37:03 care. Why do you even know that we've had this incredible 37:06 tragedy. And here God has placed us in this moment for this 37:10 family for this reason. And we have a video of his testimony 37:13 sharing his experience. 37:14 Yeah, my name is Scott Jance and these wonderful people showed up 37:24 at my door to help with the storm damage. They heard the 37:31 story of my wife Jane and I losing our son July 30th to 37:34 suicide. That's our second son in three years. And they just 37:43 come out of the woodwork from all over to help us clean this 37:46 mess up and led us to try to continue on with our lives and 37:52 grieve a little bit and we haven't even had time to think 37:54 of it. I don't know what I'd do without them because I know I 37:59 couldn't get this done myself. My friends in town have helped 38:02 everybody has helped us. There's a lot to be said for a small 38:06 community and this world's not all bad for sure and it takes 38:13 everybody coming together to make it better. This has helped 38:16 a ton and I appreciate everything. Thank you very much. 38:19 Wow. That's amazing. In the midst of horror he could still 38:25 say this world's not all that bad. 38:29 Wow! That's hope. 38:30 Say what you just said to me. 38:31 That's hope. He's hanging onto hope. The paradigm is shifting 38:34 for him. The darkest moment where he needs God like never 38:39 before God shows up in a personal way. He says Scott I 38:42 haven't forgotten about you. Scott, I love you. Scott, I love 38:45 so much I've sent an entire team to you to minister to you. Don't 38:49 give up hope. Don't give up hope 38:52 That's right. In the darkest of times, I heard a quote. Can't 38:56 remember specifically where it said but it's in the darkest 38:59 hours that God is there in the darkness more than any other 39:03 place right at times that you don't think He's there. And the 39:06 times it seems that God is silent and He's not responding. 39:08 He's there. And this is proof of it. Proof of it. Powerful. 39:13 It's almost a childlike game for us because we are so giddy when 39:16 we see hope come back in that we just want to experience it again 39:19 and again. So there's a selfish aspect of it. 39:23 A little bit of a good addiction a good addiction. Oh praise the 39:28 Lord. 39:29 I just wanted to comment on that also on two fronts. Because for 39:33 me, growing in faith. Because we who understand Bible prophecy 39:36 know that things are going to continue to spiral in this world 39:39 And so even growing in boldness and declaring that. We spoke 39:43 with one of the leaders of the city and just sharing like you 39:48 know this storm was horrible. But part of it is God's mercy to 39:52 waken you in this community to let you know that He's coming 39:56 soon. And He wants you to understand. He brought us to 40:01 share not only to help now but to help you have an 40:03 understanding of these things to come so that you can be prepared 40:07 for those things. You can prepare your community and your 40:11 families for those things. And it's like, great, I believe that 40:14 Tell me what I need to know. And another thing just of being 40:19 in that community one of the testimonies of a believer and 40:23 she said you know of the team coming in and the college 40:26 students because she's like it's been a long time since our 40:30 community felt that love. We just felt love. And the 40:34 happiness and the joy that these students came and they served 40:37 with us like it's been a long time since we felt this love. 40:41 Praise God, praise God. 40:42 You know we see this in every disaster that we've gone to 40:46 which are many and I know in Lake Charles, we had a point of 40:50 distribution. We had people just rolling up and when we started 40:56 to pray with them they would literally, just break down. It's 40:58 like we said before people don't know how much they needed that 41:03 prayer and how much they needed to realize you know God loves 41:06 you. God's here for you. And He's not left you. He will not 41:10 leave you or forsake you. 41:11 In fact, we have a picture of some soldiers, this picture with 41:14 soldiers right because people ask us a lot, they say well what 41:18 resources do you have, and safety is a big concern. 41:20 If you ask the 41:21 question about risk people say well you're going to dangerous 41:24 positions. Don't you know that you need security with you? 41:25 And what's amazing is that when we need security God provides it 41:30 (Multiple voices) And in this picture you have these soldiers 41:32 who are armed to the teeth right with their weapons. And was the 41:36 beautiful thing about that picture is they actually laid 41:41 down their weapons and they started praying with people 41:44 and handing out Glow tracts and literature and they were in 41:48 tears, in tears, because the hand of God was moving on their 41:51 hearts and they were being ministered to. They said we came 41:55 here for mercenary contract to protect some facility and it 41:58 fell through and now we are with you guys and this is incredible. 42:01 So on all levels, God is interested in reaching 42:04 hearts and minds. And so wherever we've gone around the 42:06 world, even some of these other pictures that we would show God 42:09 has been just moving, moving because these disaster zones are 42:13 ripe for the harvest. (Right of course). 42:15 I remember a story real quick. It was in the south. I wasn't on 42:19 that trip but I remember hearing that Brock was diligent to try 42:25 and help this home. And the people were like no, no, no, we 42:28 don't need your help. But Brock was persistent and he was able 42:31 to help. He was able to take some trees off and I think it 42:34 was the next day when you guys were in the same community and 42:37 this man, the husband, the father of the home came out and 42:41 found you and he said I had a dream last night and God told me 42:46 to stay connected with you because you know him. (Wow!) 42:50 That's right. That's right. 42:52 That's amazing. You know people hear stories like this and think 42:54 ah that's kind of far fetched but this kind of stuff happens 42:56 all the time. The Holy Spirit is at work and what these guys are 43:00 doing, the Gideon Rescue Company is just powerful my 43:03 friends. And this is what ministry is about. This is... 43:07 He just needs willing vessels is all and here's the other side 43:11 that it doesn't just stop there if you have been a victim or a 43:16 patient or someone who's been hurt because when we were in 43:19 Mayfield just recently with the dogs we're working with these 43:22 agencies and these agencies had these nurses, these paramedics, 43:26 these policemen. Their distress is evident for the people and 43:31 what's going on? And for us to bring the dogs through and go 43:34 ahead and verify that there are no remains in the area, that 43:38 there are no missing, that there are no dead was a huge lift off 43:42 their shoulders. And then comes the conversations with some of 43:45 the emergency room people that were there. I've seen the 43:51 emergency room so full and them having questions in their head 43:54 and then them turning to us and asking who are you guys and why 43:57 do you do what you do? We explain to them our whole 44:00 purpose is to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ and 44:03 suddenly there's questions about why these things are happening. 44:05 So it isn't just about the victims. Also, our call is to 44:10 meet people where they're at and give them hope too. 44:14 I have to respond to that point Wils. You're exactly right that 44:18 it's not just about the victims themselves but it's actually 44:21 about the responders and those that are there. There's this 44:23 incredible story that comes to us from Haiti. Our team was in 44:25 Haiti after the earthquake after the earthquake this last year 44:28 and we have a video of a Black Hawk helicopter. I just want to 44:32 show you some of the resources that God pours out for the 44:33 success of the mission, right? The governments of men are 44:38 subject to God when He deems it for His will, right? And so this 44:42 story is incredible because we actually got to ride...our team 44:46 was all placed on this helicopter because of a 44:50 spiritual golden hour moment that we had with Commander 44:51 Shepherd. And we walked into the airport there in Haiti and 44:54 Commander Shepherd is sitting there and he didn't even know 44:57 who we were or what we were about. He just saw our team from 44:59 a distance and said Hey I need to speak to you guys for a 45:02 moment. He pulled us aside and he said listen will you guys 45:06 pray with me. He said I just want to tell you that I've been 45:08 here for a long time with this response already. He was already 45:12 there a week I think on the ground and he said it's been 45:15 really intense and he said I had a really close colleague 45:17 that had a medical emergency, he had a stroke. He said we had to 45:20 Medivac him and send him back to Florida. I just got news that 45:23 he died on the operating table. He said will you pray with me. 45:26 And we said, Man of course. This is why we're here, right? Like 45:31 we just surrounded him and we prayed for him and we lifted him 45:34 up in prayer and he was so encouraged by that, you know. 45:37 We gave him a Great Controversy gave him a Steps to Christ, gave 45:39 some Glow tracts. And he was so encouraged by that. He said okay 45:43 where do you guys need to go. I've got this fleet of 45:46 helicopters out here. You guys let me know where you need to go 45:49 and I will put you on one of these helicopters and send you 45:53 into Haiti a first-class ride directly into ground zero of 45:56 where the earthquake had taken place courtesy of the U.S. Coast 45:59 Guard right there in Haiti. But this is how God works in many 46:04 He's brought in how many multi million-dollar machinery and 46:09 things that we would have never...You know this is all God 46:13 You had no clue that you had access to those things until God 46:17 was like, Oh by the way I got you a pilot right here. 46:18 To be honest, we've stopped trying to be specific with our 46:21 prayers because we don't think big enough is our problem. 46:26 We limit God. 46:28 God if you could...If I could you know. Here I've got it on 46:31 standby. 46:32 But why is God so intent on giving us access in incredible 46:38 ways. It's because He cares about people. Because the clock 46:41 is ticking. He knows that He needs to move His people into 46:43 position into the place where they need to be and immediately 46:47 for the purpose of reaching hearts and minds with the gospel 46:49 Any other pictures we have from Haiti? If we just move through a 46:54 picture of Jessica sitting in the helicopter there after our 46:56 video. She's one of our team members and also a search and 46:59 rescue canine handlers. Here she is so you can see the proof is 47:03 in the pudding. And then as we look forward from this picture 47:06 we were stationed in the hospital. We were able to filter 47:08 water with a solar-powered water machine. We were actually one 47:11 of the only responders that were in that hospital helping to run 47:15 the entire emergency department (Multiple voices) a hospital. 47:19 Yeah, a hospital. Corrie here is treating wounds here. We're 47:22 treating them with hydrotherapy. They had no antibiotics. We had 47:24 to use what we could with hot and cold treatment. And then 47:27 this is a picture of a pastor. He's actually a charismatic 47:32 pastor, like Assemblies of God I think, And when we gave him 47:36 the Glow tracts in French he said is this the word of God? 47:38 I said absolutely. And he said Brother, he said, do you have 47:41 any more of this. And I said yes He said I have five churches 47:43 in my district. He said will you please give me everything you 47:45 have. And we loaded that guy up on his motorcycle with all this 47:48 literature and he said God has brought to Haiti here for me. 47:51 And so you can see like God's hand moving through all of these 47:56 different disasters. And right after Haiti God swept us out of 48:00 Haiti in a... There's a picture I believe of an aircraft here. 48:03 It's a gentleman who is well-to- do. He had his own Leer jet and 48:07 and he completely, for free, picked up our team, flew us back 48:11 into Florida. And of course he got a Great Controversy, he got 48:14 to hear some miracle stories. He was impressed. And then from 48:17 there we were right onto the next disaster because if you 48:19 remember the earthquake in Haiti and then Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc 48:25 right in Louisiana right after that. So we were whisked away 48:27 from our 48:28 Nascar pilot car. He was very gracious. He just "so 48:31 happened" to be in Florida 48:34 he just "so happened" to be there, okay, an hour or so from 48:36 where we inserted back into the country from Haiti. And we 48:39 called him up and we said, Carl where are you at, what are you 48:41 doing. And he said well I'm actually in Florida. And I said 48:45 Oh, guess what, we are too. I said Carl there's a hurricane 48:47 coming into Louisiana. Can you get us there. And he said well 48:49 yeah, let me check the weather. I'll pick you up. And so he 48:52 comes and picks us up in his plane flies us directly into 48:56 Louisiana and, again, more miracle stories than we have 48:58 time to relate here. But it was God's precision in landing us in 49:03 the right place at the right time for the communities that 49:05 needed to hear the gospel. And we even have another video. The 49:08 second helicopter here picking up our team, a double-bladed 49:14 Chinook helicopter. It's on my bucket list. I actually didn't 49:16 personally get to ride in this but we did put our forward 49:18 operating team in the back of this helicopter. There's another 49:20 picture of them sitting in the back getting ready to be 49:26 inserted into Grand Isle, Louisiana which was a devastated 49:28 place. And these guys in the military they were amazing. 49:32 When we walked up I had an impression and I saw that 49:35 helicopter sitting on the ramp and there was just this deep 49:37 impression like go over and talk to these guys. I walked over 49:39 to them. The first thing out of their mouth was, Hey you guys 49:43 our team that we're inserting into Grand Isle? And I said well 49:45 we can be, you know, we're here, right? And we actually weren't 49:51 the team that they were waiting on but because of that first 49:53 initial interaction they were like, hang on. We're going to get 49:55 you on the roster. Like you give us some team members. We'll put 49:57 you on the helicopter and they directly flew our team into 50:00 Grand Isle for the purpose of the gospel. 50:02 That is incredible. Wow. God is just... 50:05 I was on the road at that point in time when all that was 50:09 happening. I was trying to get the boat there as soon as I 50:11 could. Now mind you as Brock is telling the story and we're 50:15 telling you this, what he was describing was unfolding within 50:20 hours of itself, right? His landing this Chinook this... 50:23 right just all for the sake of willingness, right? You got to 50:27 able to stay in step with God because He's ready to move. 50:29 It's amazing, absolutely. Folks this is what the gospel... 50:35 what you're watching here is what it's all about. We're put 50:37 on this planet to serve. We're put on this planet to bring 50:41 glory to God and what better way to do that than to do what you 50:44 guys are doing. This is one aspect of ministry that's 50:46 reaching so many people. You know as you guys were talking, 50:48 telling all these stories and we could probably do another three 50:51 hours of just all the stories you have and I love hearing them 50:54 They're such powerful stories but the passage of Matthew 25 50:57 the latter verses of Matthew 25 is what came to my mind and I'm 51:00 not going to be able to have time enough to read all those 51:03 verses but go read the latter verses of Matthew 25 when Jesus 51:07 says you know what there will be many of those days when we'll 51:09 say Lord when did we clothe you, when did we give you food, when 51:11 did we give you drink, when did we go visit you in prison. When 51:13 did we do all of these things? And he said, Inasmuch as you've 51:17 done this to the least of these you have done it for me. When 51:19 we reach out to other to serve others, to be there for others 51:22 during times of need, we are being a witness to them and that's 51:25 what Gideon Rescue Co. is all about. I'm just so thrilled, 51:30 just excited that you guys have been here with us today. If you 51:33 want to know how to get in contact them or you want to 51:36 just follow them or maybe you just want to reach out to them 51:38 and you want to support them in any kind of way, we're going to 51:41 put up a screen right now, take a moment just put up their 51:44 information where you can stay in contact, follow, or look in 51:48 further to Gideon Rescue Company. 51:51 If you would like to contact or know more about Gideon Rescue 51:54 Company you can do so on the following ways. You can write to 51:57 them at 222 Caddo Creek Rd. Ardmore, OK 73401. You can visit 52:06 their website at GideonRescue.org 52:11 or send them an email at Gideonrescue@protonmail.com 52:23 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2023-03-29