Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY230035A
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00:04 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:15 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:25 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:36 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:59 ♪ ♪ 01:06 Hello friends and welcome to 3ABN Today. I'm your host Ryan 01:11 Day. It's a blessing to have all of you as always. You are our 01:14 family, you're our friends from all around the world and we 01:17 wouldn't be here, this ministry wouldn't exist if it wasn't for 01:19 the blessing that God works through you to make this network 01:25 and this ministry a reality. We thank you so much for your 01:28 love, for your prayers and continued support of the Three 01:30 Angels Broadcasting Network. Today we have a very, very 01:34 special program because we're going to be hearing a powerful 01:38 life-changing story, a personal testimony that is going to I 01:42 believe bless millions of people and we're also going to be 01:46 hearing of this individual who we have with us. He's an author, 01:49 he's a preacher, he's a pastor, he's a minister for the Lord. 01:52 We have in the house with us Pastor Keith Trumbo. It's 01:56 always a blessing to have you and I say always a blessing 01:59 because this isn't your first time. It's been a little while 02:01 but you've been here before, right? 02:02 That's correct. I've been on 3ABN once before. 02:04 Uh-huh, praise the Lord. Well it's good to have you. You're 02:07 going to be sharing with us today your personal testimony of 02:10 how God has transformed your life and also how God is using 02:13 you in ministry to bless many, many others across the world. 02:17 But Pastor before we get into your story we are going to be 02:22 blessed by a beautiful musical number that's going to be 02:24 brought to us by my good friends Farrah Barry and Tim Parton and 02:27 they're going to be bringing us the beautiful song, 02:29 Be Still My Soul. 02:32 ♪ ♪ 05:58 Amen. Thank you so much, Farrah and Tim for the blessed music, 06:06 Be Still My Soul. I love that tune. A beautiful song indeed. 06:10 Thank you guys so much for your gifts and for your talents. And 06:12 thank the Lord, Praise God for the gift that He has given you. 06:15 Pastor Keith Trumbo, such a blessing to have you here my 06:19 brother. A pastor from the Georgia-Cumberland Conference 06:22 and you're stationed I guess Knoxville, Tennessee is where 06:25 God has you. 06:26 That's correct, Knoxville, Tennessee. 06:27 All right, praise the Lord. Well you know what, before we get 06:29 right into your story and I know you have a powerful, powerful 06:32 testimony and I'm kind of on the edge of my seat just waiting to 06:35 hear all the details because while I have not heard all of 06:38 your story I'm going to be, along with our listeners today, 06:41 hearing all of it for the first time in its completeness but I 06:44 kind of read some bullet points of how God has led you from 06:47 where you once were to where you now are today and it is just...I 06:51 can't wait. I'm excited to hear it. But tell us a little bit 06:53 about yourself, where you're from, a little bit of your 06:55 background. 06:56 Well I was born and raised in the Midwest in Carthage, 07:00 Missouri. That's just a small town about 100 miles to the 07:03 south of Kansas City, Missouri. But I lived in Kansas City, 07:08 Missouri, also Des Moines, Iowa. After graduation from high 07:13 school primarily lived in the south of Texas, Florida, North 07:19 Carolina and South Carolina, and of course now, Tennessee. 07:25 Mm-mmm. You're a musician. You're going to tell us a little 07:27 bit about your past as a musician. Obviously, you're a 07:30 pastor, a minister, you're an author, which we're going to be 07:33 learning in this program today some books that you can have for 07:39 yourself and be able to share with others. We're going to be 07:40 telling you more about this as we develop the message for today 07:44 But I want to get right into this because I want to take 07:47 every second, every minute that we can to hear the fullness of 07:51 your story because it's just a powerful, powerful testimony. 07:53 So let's begin with your past. Let's start with Pastor Keith 07:59 Trumbo before he was Pastor Keith Trumbo. Let's talk about 08:02 Keith Trumbo the man before Christ. Develop with us and tell 08:06 us a little bit about who you were back then and some of 08:10 your experiences before Christ came into your life. 08:13 Well I became a Christian when I was 27 years old. I became a 08:17 Seventh-day Adventist Christian when I was 27 years old. Before 08:21 that I was nothing. I had zero interest in going to church. I 08:27 had zero interest in praying, I never read the Bible. I read 08:30 John 3:16 in the Bible for the first time when I was 27 years 08:34 old. Never picked up the Bible. You know just had no interest 08:39 I kind of describe my life as driving down the road of life 08:43 with a giant coffee in one hand you know the 32-ounce you know. 08:48 That big coffee. And then a big chocolate doughnut in the other 08:52 driving with my knees and I've got the accelerator all the way 08:56 to the floor because I'm flying down the road of life. But you 09:01 know it was interesting in my experience what I realized is 09:06 that while I was flying down the road of life I was only in first 09:09 gear. And what Jesus helped me understand is when you've got 09:13 the accelerator to the floor, you're in first gear, it sounds 09:17 like you're going somewhere but I found out I was not going 09:21 anywhere. I was going nowhere but the great roar of the engine 09:26 driving down the road of life captured my attention and made 09:30 me feel like I was something. Maybe feel I was a very driven 09:34 individual. Still driven to work for Jesus, you know, driven in 09:42 the right direction. But my life was really focused around music. 09:46 All of my friends were musicians I had a friend that started a 09:52 recording studio in Athens, Georgia, it's still there today. 09:54 My whole life was focused around playing the guitar and when I 10:03 was just 17 years old I had the privilege of playing in a master 10:08 class with a classical guitarist by the name of Christopher 10:13 Parkening. And so that was a great opportunity that kind of 10:16 opened the door for me to get contacts in the music industry 10:21 and look at a career in the music industry playing the 10:25 classical guitar. 10:27 So you said at the age of 17 that happened. At what age did 10:29 you start playing the guitar? 10:31 Oh I started playing the guitar about 12 and I had played the 10:34 piano for several years before that as well. So I had a strong 10:37 music background and... 10:39 Was your background more classical, was it more secular, 10:42 was it...what was your background in terms of style? 10:45 It was interesting because I had been playing the piano, the 10:48 classical music on the piano just like most people you know 10:51 learn and so it just seemed natural to play classical music 10:56 on the guitar. And so I started immediately when I learned how 11:01 to play the guitar with learning how to play classical music to 11:05 read notes and so forth. In fact it was interesting because I 11:09 never learned how to play by ear. You know most guitarists 11:13 and especially musicians you know they've got a great ear 11:16 and they hear something and they can play it. Well I learned how 11:20 to play the guitar and was a musician that always read music 11:25 always reading music. So that was kind of a disadvantage I 11:29 guess in some ways. 11:30 But it can also be an advantage because those people who can't 11:33 play by notation but play by ear sometimes they're limited to be 11:37 able to play styles and in a sophisticated way that is 11:40 notated. (Right) So yeah. 11:42 So I would practice, oh easily six hours a day. If I had a gig 11:47 or something I could be playing the guitar eight hours a day 11:50 easily easy every day. And from having a master class with 11:56 Christopher Parkening I had a series of master classes with 12:00 another well-known guitarist named Pepe Romero and that was 12:03 in Houston, Texas. And that really helped me to solidify 12:09 more of my technique and you know give me more of a direction 12:13 I was studying with a student of Pepe's at that time and you 12:19 know just had some really interesting experiences as a 12:24 musician you know playing for a concert artist like that and 12:29 getting input from him about how to play and how to perform 12:32 and what music to focus on and what technique to focus on. 12:37 Pepe Romero is well renowned for his technique and he passed that 12:45 along to me which I'm very grateful for which I still 12:47 utilize today in practice and in my approach to the guitar. But 12:54 from the master classes that I had I was at the University of 12:58 Missouri in Kansas City, there's a conservatory of music studied 13:01 with a guitarist by the name of Douglas Neidt and then I 13:06 transferred from there to the University of Georgia and 13:08 studied with a man by the name of John Sutherland who had 13:13 studied with Segovia and so it was quite a journey. But as I 13:19 was studying the guitar at the University of Georgia I was also 13:24 playing out in Atlanta, Georgia and pretty soon I was playing 13:28 out guitar more than I was doing school. And so you can imagine 13:32 in my early 20s you know go to Atlanta and play guitar or 13:38 University of Georgia homework and school. You know which was 13:40 more appealing? 13:42 So you're saying playing out. for those of you who may not 13:43 understand that language you were actually outperforming 13:47 live in front of audiences in Atlanta at different gigs that 13:51 you would come upon. 13:52 That's right. Most of what I did would be performing at a 13:57 restaurant or hotels lobbies and so forth. I played at a Hilton 14:05 Hotel for over a year. You know it was things like that. It was 14:09 really just getting...that kind of performance was getting paid 14:14 to practice. You know so it was in the corner just kind of 14:17 providing background music. But I enjoyed it and you could do 14:21 well, you could make some money between teaching and performing 14:26 the classical guitar. I was with a talent agency in Atlanta and 14:30 they kept me busy with a lot of performing opportunities you 14:36 know so I was well on my way. I'd left the University of 14:39 Georgia and just played out in Atlanta. And You know after 14:43 quite a while after a couple of years of just playing classical 14:46 guitar mixing it up with other musicians I got the opportunity 14:51 to play in a fusion band and so I started playing the electric 14:55 guitar, you know a lot of time practicing and playing a jazz 15:00 fusion and had some just incredible experiences playing 15:04 with some really real high caliber musicians. It was a 15:08 really great opportunity. 15:09 So you started playing electric guitar with more of a like a 15:12 classical rock band or what kind of style was this particular 15:15 band? 15:16 It was using classical technique on the guitar playing in a jazz 15:20 fusion. That was the first band that I really was in. I left 15:25 Atlanta and moved to North Carolina where I joined another 15:30 band which was a rock band and I think you might have a picture 15:34 yeah, that's us. That's me with the sunglasses. I actually did 15:41 have hair. I can prove it you know. So. 15:44 Oh man, that's awesome. 15:46 Well basically with that group, we called ourselves New World 15:49 we spent a lot of time...We rented a warehouse and so we 15:53 spent a lot of time just practicing till all hours of the 15:56 morning, you know, a lot of drinking, carrying on and so 15:59 forth, that type of thing, a musicians lifestyle but you know 16:04 we were able to write a lot of songs and record them in our 16:09 warehouse. We got to the point where we wanted to record a demo 16:12 So we went over to my friend's studio in Athens, Georgia and 16:18 recorded a demo and then we started shopping that demo 16:21 around to see if anybody would have an interest. Now at that 16:24 time in the music industry you could actually get a music 16:27 contract. You know, today it's very, very different. So we were 16:31 looking to get a music contract. And so I sent demos and 16:36 information about our group to you know as many places, as many 16:40 places as I could and one music attorney actually returned the 16:46 phone call, gave us a phone call We went to meet with this music 16:49 attorney who was in North Carolina and he had a long list 16:53 of people, professional musicians that he'd worked with 16:55 famous professional musicians that he'd worked with. And he 16:59 said that he could get us a music contract but he wanted to 17:04 rerecord our demo. But you know what even with that kind of an 17:08 opportunity where it was what we were seeking, it was what we 17:11 were wanting to do. That was our goal to get a music contract and 17:14 here somebody's saying hey you know I can help you with that 17:17 goal. Our lives were so chaotic we were not focused enough to be 17:24 able to go and rerecord that demo. We just couldn't get it 17:28 done. In fact, the band broke up soon after that. It's just so 17:34 common you know. It's very common. You know we had the four 17:39 of us. The lead singer especially was very talented but 17:43 he was also very talented at drinking alcohol. It was just a 17:50 something that you know we didn't mind, we were all into 17:54 that same type of a partying scene. But you can't live that 18:00 lifestyle and be focused and get things done. 18:04 Be successful, be yeah driven. 18:05 Now you think you are. You think you got your act together and 18:09 you think that a night partying is just a reward, "reward" so to 18:13 speak for you know for doing a good job. You earned that. You 18:17 deserve a break. You know so. But we just could not keep our 18:21 act together long enough to fulfill that opportunity that 18:26 was given to us. And that's a pretty rare opportunity. It 18:29 really was. (Of course it is, yeah) And that was part of what 18:36 really got my attention about not looking at Christianity. I 18:39 was still absolutely not interested in Christianity. That 18:42 was not something I was looking for. But I kept saying to myself 18:46 there's got to be a better way to live. Now that better way to 18:50 live didn't mean giving up anything I was doing. I was 18:54 absolutely okay with all those things. I wasn't trying to 18:58 change. I was looking for success, money. You know I was 19:03 looking to join another group or just after the band broke up 19:09 I was just kind of in neutral, kind of looking for what's my 19:14 next opportunity. Where am I going to go next, what am I 19:15 going to do? But because I was open that was when I met 19:22 somebody who offered to give me Bible studies. And I tell you 19:26 what it was so wild that I said yes. You know I still remember 19:33 that. I can't hardly believe yes came out of my mouth. But you 19:36 see I had a relationship with the person that asked me. At 19:40 that time after the band broke up I was working for a friend of 19:44 mine who started a manufacturing company in the music industry 19:49 and I was just working sales trying to get his product out 19:51 and so forth. And I also would sell things at a flea market, 19:56 you know guitars I had and other equipment, you know started 20:01 selling it off to make money. And you could do pretty well at 20:05 the flea market in North Carolina at this time you know 20:07 it was okay. So between my part-time job helping my friend 20:11 and the music industry and the flea market that I did well. 20:15 Well this person kept coming by my flea market booth every 20:19 Sunday and he would sit on the tailgate of my pickup truck and 20:22 he would just talk to me. And we became friends and you know it 20:26 was really interesting because at that time you know I was 27 20:30 but he was 57. It's not like somebody who was my same age. 20:34 He was a lot older. But you know what really got my attention was 20:39 that as he sat there he never brought up religion, he never 20:43 brought up talking about the Bible. He just brought up life 20:47 stories about things that he had done, mistakes that he had made 20:50 and he was so transparent and so honest that it was easy for 20:56 a friendship to develop. 20:57 Absolutely. I just have to pause you right there and just 21:01 highlight. I love the direction you're going here and I love 21:03 this aspect of your story because it just goes to prove 21:05 that you know if we're going to witness to someone there's 21:08 people are that are saying well I want to witness to my friend 21:10 I want to share the truth with them but they're completely 21:12 disinterested in spiritual things, they're completely 21:15 disinterested in the Bible, completely disinterested in 21:18 Christianity and religion and Jesus but yet you got to develop 21:22 that relationship because even the stone-cold heart the 21:26 hardest of hearts 21:27 can be softened with a relationship to be brought to a 21:29 point where that person trusts you to give Bible studies. So 21:32 continue on, I just wanted to make that point. 21:33 All right. If he were to sat down and preached to me I'd have 21:36 been like mmm no. (Gain your trust) He gained my trust and he 21:41 didn't know, maybe he didn't you know...I think the Holy 21:44 Spirit was leading him of course but he didn't know the deep pain 21:48 that I was carrying around with me. I wouldn't share that with 21:51 anybody. I wasn't ready to talk about that but when he said 21:56 would you like to come over to my house for dinner and a Bible 22:00 study? And of course, I was still single at that time so hey 22:03 dinner sounded pretty good. A dinner of what he called food of 22:07 the future bloodless chicken. (Laughter) (Okay) So came over 22:13 to his home, met his family and we had our dinner of bloodless 22:18 chicken, vegan/vegetarian meal, and then we had 22:21 our Bible study in 22:22 the living room which is just a filmstrip. Now I have to admit 22:27 that when I first saw this family, I thought that either 22:32 they're on drugs or there's something...that's what my mind 22:36 said okay. They'd got some really good drugs that I need 22:40 okay, or something is very different because you could tell 22:46 the way they oriented their life was very different. I had never 22:53 seen a family working in that kind of capacity. So what was 22:57 normal for them was absolutely not normal for me. That was the 23:02 first time I ever saw it, a family interacting like that. I 23:05 mean the children at that time they were even excited about 23:09 having a Bible study. They were saying hey I get to set up the 23:13 screen, I get to put in the film strip and of course we just 23:17 watched a presentation about Daniel chapter 2. And it was 23:21 interesting because Bible prophecy got my attention 23:24 because as a music major at different universities when 23:29 you're a music major you study music history and when you study 23:35 music history you're going to study the history of the church. 23:39 That's right. I was a music major so I know. It's true. 23:43 I know quite a bit about Catholicism and about Protestant 23:46 reformation and the counter reformation so when Daniel 2 23:50 comes along and kind of builds on the information that I 23:55 already had from studying music years ago, it got my attention. 23:59 It really did. It was interesting. But the thing that 24:04 really was compelling to me was to find out what was ticking in 24:09 these people's lives. Because we would have our Bible study 24:12 mostly on prophecy which had its place but then you know what 24:16 after our Bible study now these poor people, I tell you what, I 24:20 would keep them up until 11:30, 12 o'clock. Now I don't 24:26 recommend today Bible studies going that long but we would sit 24:31 and talk because I was asking them question after question 24:33 after question. Well how do you see this? What do you think 24:38 about this and they just gave their honest transparent answer 24:42 and what they were unfolding to me was a total radical new way 24:48 of thinking that I had never ever been exposed to before. 24:52 But it made a huge impression upon me because I could see that 24:59 they had something that was unique and interesting. I mean 25:06 to kind of summarize, my life before that when I was 23 I had 25:12 what turned out to be a possible malignant melanoma. I had a mole 25:19 removed on my side and the physician that took it off they 25:22 were concerned and wanted to take out more tissue around the 25:26 area to make sure that it wasn't a malignant melanoma. That would 25:30 be you know very deadly, very dangerous especially at that 25:34 point in history. But as the surgeon, just outpatient surgery 25:38 he numbed my side where he was going to take it off. As he was 25:43 standing over me slicing away, I couldn't feel anything but 25:47 it you know was still a little uncomfortable. So he just in 25:51 compassion he reached out, he said, Well how are you doing? 25:55 Are you doing okay? And of course again, total nonchristian 25:59 All I could say was yes I'm doing okay. I'm counting. It 26:05 never occurred to me to pray. I had no scripture that I had 26:09 memorized to come to my mind nothing. The best I could do was 26:13 numbers. That really summarized my approach to life and then 26:18 when I hear these people sharing their testimony over and over 26:23 every week about how they see life and how they view a 26:28 relationship with God which I wasn't sure if He existed or not 26:32 So it was a powerful combination of not only seeing how the Bible 26:38 is real and relevant and how history really shows Jesus' 26:43 story in Bible prophecy. But it was also this couple and their 26:48 family and yeah they were witnessing to me without trying 26:53 to witness. You know there was no speeches that they had 26:58 memorized. They were just living their lives and how they lived 27:03 their lives with... 27:06 That's a powerful point because many people think that 27:09 witnessing is simply sharing Bible scriptures or Bible 27:12 stories or Bible texts or a Bible study, which that has its 27:14 place as you made it clear. You know they shared with you. You 27:17 heard the words but also the lifestyle, their characters, 27:20 there's something about how they carried themselves, how 27:22 they talked, how they lived that got your attention. 27:26 Oh yeah. And you know it was so amazing. Now I look back and I 27:30 say how fortunate it was that I met that person, his name is 27:35 Maurice, at the flea market. And I'm so grateful that he took the 27:39 time and you know long hair, ear ring, the way I dressed, 27:46 Budweiser hat. You know I mean he would not look at me and say 27:50 hey this guy is going to be a pastor one day. You know. No 27:53 way. No way. (That's funny) But I had an experience before I met 27:59 Maurice, before I started studying the Bible which 28:02 really...I think God just intervened within a very 28:06 special way to help me go down a good path instead of what 28:11 could have been a disastrous path. There was a friend of mine 28:15 I actually did have one friend that was a Christian and he 28:19 invited me to go to what he called was a channeler. And I 28:25 had no knowledge of the Bible. I never prayed. I had no 28:29 understanding what that was. 28:30 So when you say a channeler just to clarify this was a spiritist 28:34 or maybe a medium of some kind. Someone that conducts séances. 28:37 They say that they "communicate" with other spirits, maybe dead 28:42 spirits. (That's correct) Channeling dead spirits. 28:44 Now this was the only Christian friend I had. I was a musician 28:49 There's a Christian saying hey why don't you go visit this 28:52 channeler. And because he can give you some great insights 28:56 from these spirits, you know. And so I was open, knew nothing 29:04 about the Bible, you know so I thought sure I'll go. So we went 29:09 and visited with this channeler. Now it was really interesting 29:13 because this person, this woman, she prayed constantly. She was 29:22 very much into health. She constantly was drinking water 29:25 for health and we would talk about health. We talked about 29:29 things that she read in the Bible and then we'd pray. Now 29:33 to me being a total non Christian coming into that and 29:38 seeing well here's somebody who's praying. Here's somebody 29:40 who's reading the Bible. Well is this Christianity? You know so 29:45 since I was open and searching I decided to come back for a 29:53 personal "consultation." Now when I did this it was in the 29:57 fall of the year and I remember very clearly standing on her 29:59 doorstep and it was in the evening, the sun was going down 30:02 and it was casting long shadows against the trees that had no 30:06 leaves on them. Leaves were rustling around the front yard. 30:09 You kind of a coolness crispness in the air. This was in 30:14 Asheville, North Carolina. And she met me at the door, very 30:19 professional way you know with a Bible and we go back into 30:23 her office and she had this little kind of altar looking 30:28 thing. I didn't understand what it was but some candles and 30:31 things going in the corner and we sat down in chairs and she 30:35 took the time to explain to me what she was going to do. She 30:38 was going to help me. Now remember she's got a Bible, 30:40 she's praying through this whole thing. And so she says well what 30:44 we're going to do is I'm going to contact this powerful Indian 30:51 spirit that can give me insights into your life and what 30:55 opportunities you have, about your future and about things 30:58 that may be holding you back at this time. So I thought, well 31:01 hey great, the inside scoop. I'm open and then she said but I 31:07 want to warn you I want to warn you first that once when a 31:12 friend of mine was doing this these demons materialized, these 31:16 little three foot demons materialized and started running 31:19 all around the house and they finally captured them, cornered 31:24 them in the bathroom where they she said escaped down the toilet 31:28 So now this really has my attention. You know what are we 31:33 going to experience here? You know at that time I'm kind of 31:35 adventurous and thinking okay we're praying, we got the Bible 31:39 What a way to get someone's attention, little three foot 31:43 toilet demons running around the house. 31:44 Exactly. So she goes through this process. I'm not going to 31:49 describe the whole process that she went through but she went 31:52 through this process of talking with this spirit and so forth 31:56 and I'm sitting there totally amazed and shocked. And 31:59 afterwards, after about 20 minutes she said well I have 32:04 some news for you, something that I need to tell you. And 32:08 after in talking with this spirit informed me that you are 32:13 possessed by two disincarnates. Now that would be a spirit 32:19 waiting to be reincarnated. And then she paused and said and 32:24 they're female. (Mmm, okay) So about this time it kind of hit 32:29 me and I'm thinking okay so you're saying that I've got two 32:36 women living inside of me that can't really get along or 32:39 something like that. Is that what you're telling me. She says 32:43 yes, but I can help you. You know we can get rid of those spirits. 32:47 Well she did these things and so forth, a practice that I won't 32:53 describe, but she "helped" me, "cured" me so to speak... 32:57 She got rid of the female spirits? 33:00 Right, exactly. You know. But I left that place and I wasn't 33:06 encouraged, I wasn't fulfilled, really I was... 33:11 Probably a little annoyed and also startled and confused. 33:17 Yeah I mean flushing demons down the toilet, being possessed 33:19 by two female 33:21 spirits, now come on. You know I mean I was you know...I just 33:25 wasn't buying it. 33:27 I wasn't. And I think that was really where God was doing 33:31 something special already in my life before I ever met Maurice 33:36 at the flea market. Because being a total non-Christian what 33:41 I got out of that spirit experience the most was that she 33:44 prayed and she read the Bible. So that led me on a path going 33:50 to a channeler who prayed and read the Bible I believe is part 33:55 of what made me open to studying the Bible with Maurice when he 34:00 finally asked. So you never know how God is going to lead but I 34:06 am so thankful that I did not go down that path of spiritualism. 34:09 It would just be torture. I understand fully well today how 34:13 close that is... 34:15 Very serious, very terrifying thing to consider because you're 34:16 talking about evil spirits. You're talking about fallen 34:19 angels that are wanting to manipulate and you know torment 34:23 your life you know in a way that could be very deceptive and 34:26 harmful. Yeah. 34:28 People think that they can control those things. And you 34:30 know even today as a pastor I meet people that think they can 34:34 be in control of those kind of situations. And it is not. Satan 34:38 just sits back and points his wily finger at them and laughs. 34:43 Nooo, you know I've got you hook line and sinker. 34:46 So based on these experiences you had at some point the light 34:51 goes off you have this conversion experience. Tell us 34:53 how that developed. 34:55 Well you know it was amazing because again I was not 35:01 searching for Christianity. Christianity found me. Okay. 35:03 I was searching for success. But because of my studies with 35:10 Maurice and my long conversations with him and his 35:13 wife where they were giving me a totally new perspective about 35:16 how to live, as I prayed and as I began to read the Bible, study 35:23 the Bible I noticed that the things that I used to enjoy I 35:30 didn't enjoy anymore. Now I wasn't trying to change. I was 35:37 perfectly fine with all these things, but something was 35:42 happening deep in my heart to say, there's a better way. That 35:47 it's really not fun going to a party where you're not going to 35:53 remember what happened. I mean really? Is that fun? Satan has 35:56 done a wonderful number especially in young people today 35:59 to give them a false understanding of what real fun 36:05 and adventure is. God has all kind of fun and adventures. And 36:09 God was leading me down a path to say you know, no not this. 36:12 And it was such an interesting experience because I would 36:18 testify this was something that happened TO me. I was not 36:21 looking for that. You know if I was going to be a Christian well 36:25 I could still do all these things. Hey, you know, so what? But God 36:30 changed my desires and that happened to me. Now I believe 36:35 that there was some time in there where I could have gone 36:38 back to my old life. I had to decide. It wasn't like God was 36:42 forcing me this way but He was giving me a clear choice. It was 36:47 still a choice but it was a clear choice. He had something 36:51 better for me and if I would pursue that He would be with me 36:56 and help me understand the plan that He had for my life. So the 37:01 Bible studies continued. Then I remember finding myself at a 37:06 very strange place. Something I never would...camp meeting 37:13 (camp meeting) I went to a camp meeting. Now you have to 37:16 understand from a musician, started Bible studies, studied 37:19 the Bible for a few months and then the western North Carolina 37:26 camp meeting. And I tell you what. It's just...Everybody was 37:31 real excited on Sabbath because there was going to be this guest 37:36 speaker. And I didn't know anything about the guest speaker 37:38 You know. But I just sat in anyway. But it was George 37:42 Vandeman. So I was like well who's that? I don't know who 37:46 that is. So. But it was an interesting introduction into 37:50 the Seventh-day Adventist Church because as I looked around I 37:54 could tell that there was that same type of perspective that I 37:59 had been introduced from Nancy and Maurice. A seriousness about 38:03 the Bible. A desire to follow God's will and all those things 38:07 were completely foreign concepts to me. So I had as time went on 38:12 there just a couple of months later I found myself at another 38:15 strange place and that was a Revelation meeting by Ron 38:19 Halverson. (Ron Halverson) And at the end of those meetings I 38:23 made my decision. I was baptized in the Seventh-day Adventist 38:26 Church and I never regretted that. Have never... 38:31 Amazing brother. The thing I love about your story and you 38:34 repeated this, I caught this, you said it two or three times 38:36 that you...this was not necessarily, well you had a 38:41 choice. It wasn't you searching. It was like God was pulling you 38:43 God was drawing you which was consistent with what the Bible 38:45 says. Because a lot of people say well you know I wish God 38:48 would draw me. I'm just not interested but I wish He would 38:50 just do something about me. Well maybe He is. Maybe you're just 38:52 not responding to that drawing. God doesn't force us, right? 38:55 He doesn't force us to make decisions but the Bible says 38:58 even Jesus said you know no one comes unto Son except the Father 39:01 who sent Me draws him. And so God is drawing you. He's drawing 39:04 you through the work of the Holy Spirit. And that's essentially 39:06 what you were experiencing through these little experiences 39:08 the family with the Bible study, the medium, the channeler, God 39:13 was working in a way to you know let these little light 39:16 bulbs go off along the way that was the Holy Spirit drawing you 39:19 along the way to bring you to this moment where you go to a 39:23 meeting of Ron Halverson, you hear the gospel and give your 39:26 heart to Jesus. 39:27 And the gifts that I experienced the love, joy, peace, goodness, 39:31 kindness, gentleness, patience. I mean it was truly, truly the 39:37 best thing that I had ever experienced in my entire life 39:40 and I was not going to let that opportunity go by. And you know 39:44 there were still learning experiences, you know I still 39:47 had a lot of things to understand and a lot of things 39:50 to grow. But my heart was set. My decision was made up that I 39:55 had discovered something that was very special to me something 40:00 that was real and something that I wanted to spend my life 40:04 knowing more about. So with that decision came a lot of trials 40:10 and challenges. In fact, when I first started keeping the 40:14 Sabbath was the first time in my life where I had financial 40:18 difficulties, you know trouble. I'd never had financial trouble 40:22 I'd always been able to find an income here or there. But with 40:27 keeping the Sabbath I stopped going to the flea markets on the 40:34 weekend and so I didn't sell on Saturday... 40:36 Just happens to be Saturday's the biggest day in flea markets. 40:39 So I'd go on Sunday but I couldn't you know turn over 40:44 enough then to reinvest and then get money to live on. So that 40:49 just really put financial difficulty. I mean I couldn't 40:53 pay my rent. I mean that was how bad the financial difficulty 40:58 was. And interestingly enough at that time I also started to 41:03 return tithe. Even though I couldn't pay my rent I said well 41:07 this doesn't belong to me. And so I'm going to return it to God 41:12 It belongs to Him, it doesn't belong to me and I had had 41:18 enough the life so to speak of stealing, getting things what's 41:23 good for me, you know, greediness and so forth and 41:26 I had found something much better and I wanted to honor 41:32 that. And over the course of time as God taught me better 41:37 principles about how to manage money it wasn't easy. There were 41:40 a lot of struggles and trials. Struggles...The best meal I had 41:44 every week was fellowship meal. I can tell you, the best meal... 41:49 Oh man that sounds really cool brother. I mean I'm sure you 41:52 said it wasn't easy but it's a blessing that God had taken you 41:56 through that... 41:57 I learned valuable lessons. And then after about three or four 42:02 months God started to turn around my financial situation 42:05 I remember one time just out of the blue I went to the mailbox 42:09 received a check for $1000 and that meant everything to me at 42:14 that time. (Of course, of course) I mean God was just 42:16 working in miraculous ways, He was helping me understand more 42:21 about His plan for my life and how to let Him lead instead of 42:25 driving down the road of life with the accelerator to the 42:28 floor in first gear. He was showing me that He had a plan 42:32 for my life. And it wasn't very long, just about a year after I 42:37 was baptized I became a full time literature evangelist in 42:42 Greenville, South Carolina and man I tell you what, I had some 42:46 wonderful experiences in meeting people and you know Bible 42:53 studies and helping people just kind of on the cutting edge. It 42:57 was a wonderful ministry for me at that time. But later God 43:03 would call me into eventually into the ministry. And just four 43:09 years after I was baptized I found myself at another very 43:12 strange place and that was Southern Adventist University 43:15 studying for the ministry. And so I always tell people when 43:21 they're baptized you know hold on. God's got a plan for you and 43:28 it may not be the first year, it may not be the second year but 43:32 almost always five years after you're baptized you're going to 43:38 look back and you're going to say what a powerful God we serve 43:41 What a wonderful thing that He has done in my life. I never 43:46 could have opened these opportunities. He opened the 43:49 doors for me. And to be able to know that we are not alone 43:52 we're not just fighting through this life trying to grab onto 43:57 what we can to be successful that we have a Savior, that 44:01 Jesus died for our sins. So it's interesting in 1 John chapter 1 44:10 verses 5-10, one of my favorite passages it describes us walking 44:16 with Jesus but also admitting our mistakes. So as we're 44:21 walking with Jesus we admitting our mistakes and receiving the 44:26 forgiveness so even our mistakes become opportunities to learn 44:29 more about Jesus. (That's true) It's a total win/win situation. 44:33 (It is, it is) He's got everything covered. If we just 44:37 watch Him, He's got everything covered. 44:39 But sometimes you have to go through those dark valleys those 44:42 dark pits. You know sometimes God allows us not that He 44:46 necessarily causes it although sometimes He can lead us there 44:50 because He's trying to prepare us for something better. Yeah. 44:53 Yeah you know there were many struggles because there were 44:56 many changes. When I became a Christian, a Seventh-day 45:00 Adventist my friends, they were not interested in my newfound 45:06 faith. They just were not. I had to find a whole new group of 45:10 friends which through church was able to get which was a 45:14 wonderful experience. In fact, the friendships that I developed 45:18 through church were much stronger than the friendships 45:20 that I had before. They were based on eternal life and 45:23 spending eternity together, not just on what we can get in the 45:27 moment. 45:29 That's right. Amen. Praise the Lord. So went to seminary or 45:32 went to college for religious studies. (Right) And so was it 45:37 soon after graduating, maybe during or after at some point 45:39 that you became a pastor? So when did that develop? 45:41 Um yeah. I graduated from Southern Adventist University 45:45 and from there went to the Florida Conference and worked 45:51 with them. Just before my senior year at Southern Adventist 45:55 University I got married. I married Anne Thrash who is the 46:02 daughter of Drs. Calvin and Agatha Thrash who started 46:05 Uchee Pines. So now you put all that together and say okay 46:10 within five years if somebody sat down with me the year before 46:15 I was baptized which would have been 89, baptized in 1990, said 46:19 hey guess what Keith, you know what you're going to totally 46:22 change your life and you're going to love it and enjoy it. 46:25 You're going to be studying for the ministry at Southern 46:29 Adventist University and then you're going to marry the 46:32 daughter of Drs. Calvin and Agatha Thrash. Like no way. 46:37 What are you talking about? But God has a plan and of course my 46:43 wife she's a Bible worker and so she's always giving Bible 46:45 studies. She works for the Georgia-Cumberland Conference 46:47 as well as a Bible instructor trainer and so our ministry 46:52 together has been most precious and most valuable. I cherish the 46:57 opportunity to pass along to others what God has done for me. 47:00 Absolutely. And God has used you to do that because there came a 47:04 point at some point when God laid upon your heart to say look 47:07 I taught you things. I've shared with you my heart. You have a 47:11 heart for ministry and you wanted to go share that, you 47:14 want to share that...It's any minister's desire to share what 47:16 God has taught them and so now God leads you to kind of start 47:20 your own ministry or independent ministry of your own in which 47:23 now you are able to through writing, through authorship 47:27 of the gospel and the good news with others. So tell us a little 47:29 about how that ministry developed and a little bit 47:31 about it. 47:32 Well it's interesting because I never considered myself to be a 47:38 writer. And in fact because I transferred around so many 47:42 different times earlier when I was going to universities I 47:46 actually had to take English 101 and 102 three different times 47:51 until I passed it finally with a C at the University of Georgia. 47:56 So writing was not something that I thought of but Jesus had 48:01 that in mind. (That's right) I just had a burden to begin to 48:04 share on a broader level what Jesus had done for me. I began 48:08 writing articles published in the Adventist Review and a 48:12 number of articles in Signs of the Times. They wanted to focus 48:16 my attention on books so that I could have something to pass 48:21 along to others about what I believed was a 48:24 special experience 48:25 that God had in my life. So I wrote two books. The first is 48:28 You Are A Child of the King and that book explains what it means 48:34 to believe by faith. In other words when we believe by faith 48:38 that trust excuse me faith is trust but we need Jesus' help to 48:44 trust in Him. But when we ask for His help, God doesn't ignore 48:47 us, give us a cold shoulder. He gives us the real help we need 48:51 through His gifts. When Jesus gives us His gifts unfortunately 48:57 that can actually cause some tension in our lives because 49:00 there's a difference between His way of thinking and our self- 49:04 centered way of thinking. So we have to choose to follow His way 49:08 of thinking. And that book, You Are A Child of the King is all 49:11 about how we can believe by faith and if we look at the book 49:15 of Revelation, Revelation 14 the three angels' messages we see 49:19 how important it is to have an accurate understanding of the 49:22 gospel because that is the first angel's message, the gospel. So 49:26 it's important to have a clear foundation for what it means to 49:30 believe by faith. So I wrote that book and then the second 49:34 book that I wrote builds on believe by faith. It's called 49:37 Discover the Power of Goodness and Find Your Answers. I was 49:43 going through a period of time where I wanted additional 49:45 answers and exactly how does God lead. But through writing that 49:49 book about believe by faith you are a child of the King I was 49:54 able to write a book that helps people capture how God wants to 49:58 lead us with His goodness, how He can answer the deepest 50:02 questions that we have in our lives. So it's been a joy to 50:05 have those books published through Teach Services. People 50:09 can get more information if they go to KeithTrumboBooks.com 50:12 All right there it is. Let's pull it up on the screen at 50:15 KeithTrumboBooks.com. 50:18 KeithTrumboBooks.com. There's a lot of information and places 50:20 that you can purchase the books of course, TEACHservices.com 50:24 available there as well. I appreciate the folks there 50:27 giving me the opportunity to share this message of what Jesus 50:32 has done for me on a broader level. And of course, I've seen 50:34 it work amazing miracles in people's lives and being a 50:40 pastor I not only get to give away the books but I can teach 50:42 and preach that material that's in those books to help people 50:46 get a clear understanding of how much Jesus loves them and the 50:51 awesome plan that He has for their lives. 50:54 Amen, amen. If I remember we had a graphic I think of it was like 50:58 a diagram or some type of graphic. Here it is right here. 51:01 Explain this to us really quick. 51:02 Believe by faith cycle. This is the cycle that we just live 51:07 constantly. This is what I was introduced to and it really 51:10 changed my life. But faith, faith is really trust but we 51:14 need to ask for Jesus' help to trust in Him. So ask, seek and 51:20 knock as living by faith and as Jesus answers He gives us love, 51:24 joy, peace, goodness, kindness, (two voices) He gives us those 51:28 things but as He gives us those things you know we could never 51:31 come up with these perspectives on our own. So He gives them to 51:35 us so we can experience them but then we have to choose them. 51:38 To believe means to choose to follow. We've kind of morphed 51:42 belief into information but belief is not information. It's 51:47 choosing to follow Jesus' way of thinking and through this cycle 51:51 of asking, which is faith, Him giving us the gifts that we need 51:56 to be able to understand His way of thinking so we can choose to 52:00 follow His way of thinking and belief. As we do that over and 52:02 over and over we can experience more of Jesus' love and peace 52:06 Praise the Lord, praise the Lord 52:08 It's just so simple and it makes perfect sense. 52:12 So that reference again is the website is what is it again? 52:14 KeithTrumboBooks.com and if they want to reach out to you 52:17 what's the email? 52:18 The email is KTrumbo@gccsda.com 52:23 KTrumbo@gccsda.com. My friends you got to get these books. 52:28 You've got to share them. We're going to take a short break and 52:31 don't go anywhere. We're going to be right back in just 52:33 a moment. |
Revised 2023-10-11