Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY230039A
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00:02 ♪ ♪
00:05 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:16 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:27 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:37 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:57 ♪ ♪ 01:07 Hello friends and welcome to 3ABN Today. My name is Ryan Day 01:11 and this is one big giant Day family program. I think. At 01:17 least we're learning that we may be connected or related somehow 01:20 but today on the program we have Dean and Hilda Day from 01:25 Louisiana from the Lake Charles area and my friends you're not 01:27 going to go anywhere because they have a powerful, powerful 01:30 testimony of how the Lord transformed them from one life 01:34 style, living one way, kind of just cruising through life until 01:38 God sent a powerful influence to Dean and Hilda both and they 01:43 learned the truth through 3ABN and now their life's not been 01:45 the same again. And so we're going to learn about all of that 01:48 good stuff. It's a blessing to have you guys. How you doing? 01:50 Fine, thank you. Just fine. 01:52 Praise the Lord, praise the Lord And so we're going to get to 01:55 learn a little bit more about Dean and Hilda throughout this 01:58 program. But before we dive deep into their story and how God has 02:03 transformed their life we're going to be blessed by a special 02:05 special song brought to us by Moses Brown and our good friend 02:10 Tim Parton and they're going to be performing that classic song 02:13 This Little Light of Mine. 02:16 ♪ ♪ 02:30 ♪ This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine ♪ 02:38 ♪ Oh This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine ♪ 02:50 ♪ Oh this little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine ♪ 03:01 ♪ Let it shine, let it shine let it shine ♪ 03:09 ♪ Mmm Everywhere I go I'm gonna let it shine ♪ 03:16 ♪ Everywhere I go church I'm gonna let it shine ♪ 03:27 ♪ Oh everywhere you go you gotta let it shine ♪ 03:34 ♪ Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪ 03:43 ♪ All around your neighborhood You gotta let it shine ♪ 03:50 ♪ All around your neighborhood let this vertical message shine 04:00 ♪ All around your neighborhood you gotta let it shine ♪ 04:07 ♪ Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪ 04:18 ♪ Oh Jesus on the main line Tell Him what you want ♪ 04:27 ♪ Jesus on the main line Tell Him what you want ♪ 04:39 ♪ Oh call him up and tell Him what you want ♪ 04:45 ♪ Oh if you're sick and can't get well ♪ 04:49 ♪ Tell Him what you want ♪ 04:51 ♪ If you sick and can't get well Tell Him what you want ♪ 04:58 ♪ Oh if you sick and can't get well ♪ 05:02 ♪ Tell Him what you want ♪ 05:06 ♪ Oh call Him up and tell Him what you want ♪ 05:11 ♪ If you need the Holy Ghost Tell Him what you want ♪ 05:22 ♪ If you need that Holy Ghost Tell Him what you want ♪ 05:28 ♪ Oh call Him up and tell Him what you want ♪ 05:37 ♪ ♪ 05:39 ♪ Oh when the saints go marching in ♪ 05:50 ♪ Oh Lord I want to be in that number ♪ 05:56 ♪ When the saints go marching in ♪ 06:01 ♪ Oh when they shout around the throne ♪ 06:07 ♪ When they should around the throne ♪ 06:13 ♪ Oh Lord I want to be in that number ♪ 06:19 ♪ When they shout around the throne ♪ 06:25 ♪ Oh when they wear that new white robe ♪ 06:35 ♪ Oh Lord I want to be in that number ♪ 06:41 ♪ When they wear that new white robe ♪ 06:47 ♪ Oh when they walk those streets of gold ♪ 06:51 (spoken) Gonna be there 06:53 ♪ When they walk those streets of gold ♪ 06:59 ♪ Oh Lord I want to be in that number ♪ 07:04 ♪ When they walk those streets of gold ♪ 07:10 ♪ Oh when the saints go marching in ♪ 07:14 ♪ When the saints go marching in ♪ 07:21 ♪ Oh Lord I want to be in that number ♪ 07:27 ♪ When the saints go marching in! ♪ 07:41 Hallelujah 07:47 Aha, Yes that's my kind of music right there. This Little Light 07:50 of Mine, it was medley This Little Light of Mine, 07:53 I think Jesus on 07:54 the Mainline, and then When the Saints Go Marching In. You know 07:58 a lot of people consider those to be children's songs but you 08:01 know what there's a message there even from some of us older 08:04 folk as well. Some of the best songs. Thank you, Brother Moses 08:07 and Tim for that. I could tell Tim was having a great time on 08:11 that music. His fingers were going. I'm sure if you could 08:16 hear his feet were tapping away. But anyway, Praise the Lord for 08:20 that. Dean and Hilda Day. It's such a blessing to have you guys 08:24 here. And we were discussing a little bit behind the scene 08:27 before we actually came to conduct this interview. We don't 08:32 know exactly the connection but we figured somewhere down the 08:35 line we're connected and akin to each other at some point. But 08:39 it's a blessing to have you both Since you're new here, this is 08:42 your first time why don't we start with just a general 08:45 introduction, where you're from, a little bit about yourself. 08:47 I'll start with you Dean. Go ahead. 08:48 Well Dean Day from southwest Louisiana, born and raised down 08:53 there. Moved all over the state of Louisiana. Worked for a major 08:57 insurance company and graduated from LSU (Louisiana State 09:00 University) Go Tigers. 09:05 Yeah LSU. And then Hilda you were telling me just a little 09:07 bit ago that you do have some, a little bit of connection to 09:11 Arkansas where I grew up because your mother grew up not to far 09:14 from Jonesboro, Arkansas in the little small town of Bay so 09:18 there may be a little something there but tell us a little bit 09:21 about where you're from also. 09:22 Well I was raised in southwest Louisiana and I also graduated 09:26 from LSU. 09:28 Ah, LSU alumni. I love it, I love it. So you guys...tell me 09:33 a little bit about...we're going to kind of build up because we 09:36 know that you guys eventually came in contact with 3ABN or at 09:41 least the programming of 3ABN. And there was a mighty change 09:44 and a transformation began to happen because of the 09:48 programming that you were watching there and learning. 09:49 But tell us...let's go back now, let's look at life before you 09:54 learned this new truth that's in the Bible, before you got the 09:59 complete story I guess we could say. Tell us a little bit about 10:01 what life was like for Dean and Hilda before coming into this 10:06 knowledge of the new truth that you've learned and are 10:08 living for. 10:10 So being from South Louisiana everything is a party everything 10:14 about Louisiana come on down we'll have a good time, right? 10:18 That's what they say. 10:20 That's right. So living life in South Louisiana is incredibly 10:25 fun. We have all these natural resources and beauty. Long story 10:30 short here come the parties right behind that. Hilda and I 10:34 were no different. We were, you know, we were King and Queens of 10:38 Mardi Gras crews and it was wonderful. I mean we really 10:43 enjoyed that. 10:46 You don't get more of a party atmosphere than Mardi Gras. I've 10:52 never personally attended Mardi Gras but I have seen clips, I've 10:56 seen video footage. I've even been to New Orleans. I've walked 11:01 the famous Bourbon Street which I've never been there of course 11:03 during Mardi Gras but I've seen and I've been in the atmosphere 11:06 where the heart of that is conducted and I mean some people 11:12 would probably depending on I guess what time and the nature 11:15 of the celebration would probably categorize it as the 11:19 part of all parties. 11:22 Indeed. Nothing like waking up in the morning with a little 11:27 bloody Mary and walking out to the parade route, catching cheap 11:31 beads, drinking all day long. It was no big deal. And then you 11:37 know waking up, go to church on Sunday morning. Put my hours, 11:41 put the time in and I'm good with God. 11:44 I mean when you guys were living in this lifestyle, the partying, 11:46 you know all of that that you were doing at this particular 11:50 point in your life you saw no issue with it. In fact, ah, this 11:55 is a part of life, this is a part of our culture. This is 11:57 just what we do. But what was your...you mentioned going to 12:00 church on Sunday so what was your religious background like 12:03 growing up? 12:05 So I was raised Methodist and my grandfather was a Methodist 12:08 minister and Hilda... 12:11 I was raised in just about every protestant denomination. I went 12:17 to whatever church was closest to the house that I was living 12:20 in. My mom and dad were alcoholics and so we traveled to 12:26 Right whatever church was nearby 12:29 Okay and you know that's interesting because I saw this 12:32 years ago and it's kind of stuck with me and I present this in my 12:34 evangelistic series that one of the most popular reasons that 12:37 people choose a church is exactly that. Whatever church is 12:41 close by that's the church I'm going to attend. And so that was 12:44 that was basically the story for you and your family. But I 12:48 understand...Did your family also have an alcoholic 12:51 background or is that just hers or... 12:53 It was pretty much hers. My folks had gotten themselves 12:57 pretty much straight by the time I was born and raised. I was an 13:02 "old" child, a young man born by older parents. Mother was 41 13:07 years old when I was born. 13:08 Got you. So what was it like growing up in a Methodist home 13:11 in a Methodist upbringing as you got older I'm sure kind of 13:17 engulfed yourself into this party culture was there ever a 13:22 time that the family was like hey you probably shouldn't do 13:25 that, probably shouldn't drink, probably shouldn't be a part of 13:27 that or is it in that religious culture also just acceptable to 13:31 go along with the celebrations of Mardi Gras and the partying 13:35 and all that? 13:36 It's not really talked about a lot. We all know that we do that 13:41 I was talking to my father the other day and he was telling me 13:46 he's 95 years old. He was like you know I have been praying for 13:50 you for a very, very long time So understand that there is a 13:56 remnant that's out there in other churches and other 13:58 denominations. I just totally believe that, somebody needs to 14:06 hear this, that it's not okay. Just not right with God. 14:11 Right, absolutely, absolutely. So growing up in that religious 14:16 background, Methodism, because you said that's what you 14:19 primarily grew up in, Methodism, was the Bible heavily emphasized 14:24 or was it just, you just go to church, try to be as good as you 14:28 can. Like what was it like in your religious experience you 14:34 know growing up in a home of someone who you know was a part 14:37 of that Methodist movement? 14:39 Every Sunday we would go to church and we would do our one 14:42 hour worth of Sunday School time Then we would go into the 14:49 worship service and get our two scriptures for the day and we 14:51 were good. 14:53 All right, okay, so very traditional experience probably. 14:56 Was that similar to yours? Was the Bible emphasized at all in 15:00 your upbringing. Did your parents encourage you to read 15:03 the Bible your family your church or was it something that 15:07 you just kind of go through the motions and you know it's just 15:09 what you do. 15:11 Well the one consistent religious upbringing I had was 15:16 my grandmother, my MooMaw. She was primitive Baptist and so 15:21 that was the one church that I would drift back to and she 15:28 taught me the Bible as best as she could. But the other ones, 15:32 it was so confusing to go from Pentecostal to Baptist to 15:38 Methodist to you know Catholic to whatever but I started 15:46 reading the Bible. I told my mom I remember sitting in the chair 15:49 for church in the fifth grade and told Mama I want to read the 15:54 Bible. She was like well okay go ahead and do it. 15:59 That's amazing. So your story is maybe not exactly the same but 16:02 similar to mine because I grew up primarily Pentecostal but 16:06 then the Lord basically led me out of the Pentecostal church 16:09 and I started going to all these other different churches and 16:13 studying will all these different denominations. So 16:14 at any point in time when you were growing up in that 16:18 experience going from one church to the next did you ever even 16:21 think about maybe some of the differences or inconsistencies 16:25 that you were hearing or experiencing in the church or 16:29 were you just kind of oblivious to it? 16:31 I was kind of oblivious to it. I mean I was very confused by it. 16:34 Right right I got you. 16:36 She reminded me that her Grandmother, they would literally 16:41 take people down to the river and do a true baptism in the 16:43 river and they would do foot washing as well which was 16:48 totally like really different any experience I ever had. 16:52 So in the Methodist church they do any foot washing at all. 16:56 Not that I'm aware of. 16:58 Wow. Then you first-foot washing experience was probably in the 17:01 Adventist church. 17:03 Yes. 17:04 So what was that like for you? 17:06 What was your experience? Did it seem a little weird or were you 17:10 open arms about the experience. 17:11 I think I was pretty open-arms about it because of the words 17:15 that Hilda had told me about her grandmother and the little 17:19 following that we had as well. 17:21 Wow, that's amazing, that's amazing. So you guys were just 17:26 kind of living your life. You're a businessman, you're very very 17:31 successful in the insurance world and making a good living 17:38 probably considered yourself blessed. Obviously, you were 17:43 blessed by God. Probably thought at one time that maybe you were 17:46 doing all that you knew was right and the Lord's blessing me 17:48 And then a series of events unfolded a few years ago which 17:54 I guess a series of weather related events that was very, 17:59 very impactful to the Lake Charles area and the Louisiana 18:03 area. Let's kind of go back because we're leading up to when 18:07 you discovered this new found truth that changed your life. 18:11 Tell us how you got to that point and those weather events 18:16 that unfolded that led to this discovery. 18:19 So yeah, it started with Hurricane Laura and during Laura 18:25 the winds were just incredible. Hilda and I decided to actually 18:33 stay and weather the storm out. You know it's just another 18:36 hurricane. Tell us about this image that popped up. What are 18:38 looking at here. 18:40 Yeah you can see here on the graphics that this was the 18:42 recorded wind speeds by the weather service. It's kind of 18:48 notable to note like 10 miles offshore, you can see one of 18:51 buoys recorded 199 mile-an-hour winds. By the time it got to us 18:56 it kind of lightened down a little bit to 160 mile-an-hour 19:01 winds. 19:02 Just a little bit. Wow 160 miles per hour. It was an experience 19:07 that it makes you really cling to your faith at that point in 19:14 God and like what are we doing here?! 19:17 Right. So was there a mandatory evacuation during this time and 19:21 and you guys decided to stick it out, to ride it out. What's 19:24 going through your...I've always wanted to ask a person from 19:27 Louisiana because I hear that often. You know you guys are no 19:30 stranger to heavy, heavy hurricane-like weather. You know 19:37 us folk up here we hear stories of these people just stayed in 19:40 their home. They just road it out. Like what were they 19:42 thinking? So I just got to ask you when you know that that's 19:46 coming and you know they've already warned you, they've 19:49 already said get out of Dodge, get out of town and you make the 19:54 decision we're going to ride it out. What's going through your 19:55 mind at that moment that brought you to the decision to say, Aah 19:58 let's just see what happens and ride it out. 20:02 So a lot that had to deal with her father. We were caretaking 20:06 for him. He was 85 years old at the time and he just didn't want 20:13 to leave. And so it's kind of hard to push somebody out who's 20:19 dug in their heels, right? 20:21 Yeah you're not going to hog tie him and throw him in the 20:22 vehicle. 20:23 It's not going to happen. We stayed and we had plan A, plan B 20:27 and plan C. Plan A was we just ride it out and watch a nice 20:30 little storm go by. Plan B was there's supposed to be a 20-foot 20:37 tidal surge. So we took the boat to the house and tied the boat 20:40 to the house so that it wouldn't float off in case we needed to 20:43 get in it. 20:44 Jump in the boat and ride it out another way. (Yep) Wow! 20:47 Plan C was wait on the helicopters to come get us, I 20:50 guess. There was no plan C. [chuckles] 20:54 Again this is before kind of your religious awakening. (Yes) 20:57 At this time were the type of folk that would offer up prayers 21:01 and say, God, you know, get us through this? 21:04 That would have been the time with the tree hit the house. 21:08 (Wow) The neighbor's tree hit the house and then... 21:12 Look at that! My goodness. 21:15 She's on Coumadin do we put her in the closet with my motorcycle 21:19 helmet on. 21:20 Is that what we're looking at here? 21:21 That's what we're looking at. That's where the neighbor's tree 21:23 hit the house and it was quite an experience. That's when you 21:29 get on your knees and say okay, God... 21:31 Okay, God if you're up there are you listening? 21:32 Please send your angels here for protection. But I think God 21:37 announced seven days earlier that this might be coming our 21:39 way so we just didn't heed the warnings. 21:42 But you have to understand at this time we think we're right 21:44 with God. We truly think we're right with God. We'd been 21:50 attending Methodist church since we got married and we were youth 21:54 directors in the church. It was just... 22:00 You know not to bring correction or anything but I think in those 22:04 moments when you're living up to all the light that you know 22:06 I think we can say that yeah you were right with God in all that 22:11 you knew to be at the time. 22:12 Yes, we knew that. 22:14 Because I remember a time when my family and I were not...you 22:17 know we didn't know anything about this truth and about the 22:19 Sabbath, the keeping of the Law and all these amazing truths 22:21 that enlightened and enhanced our Christian experience when we 22:24 were living up to all the light that we knew at that time. So 22:27 you guys were just doing your best with the knowledge that you 22:30 had and you're having to ride out this storm. Now Laura has 22:36 happened the aftermath of Laura. Take us from there. 22:38 So then we had a tropical storm come past about maybe a month 22:43 later. The good news in that was I was able to get one of my 22:47 grounded boats off the land. It was only 15 feet up on land 22:52 so we got it off land. We had nine-foot tidal surge during 22:55 little storm. A month or so later Hurricane Delta comes 23:01 along and then after that, we had a freeze. Unprecedented! The 23:06 whole south was under a freeze. All the way down to Brownsville, 23:09 Texas. We had pipes frozen, we had electric lines down... 23:16 And this is a big deal for Louisiana? 23:17 Oh, it's huge. 23:18 Huge. I know that some of our viewers that are watching right 23:21 now, look at that picture! I'm not about making fun at all. 23:27 I'm just saying I have been in Louisiana when there was icy 23:30 weather. Years ago we were conducting an evangelistic 23:33 series in Baton Rouge and the temperatures dipped below 23:36 freezing and they got a little bit of sleet, some ice, which to 23:38 me was nothing because I grew up in Arkansas where we would 23:42 get that every winter. You know in northeastern Arkansas we get 23:46 that every winter and the people of Louisiana about lost their 23:49 minds at this little bit of ice. All of the roads shut down, you 23:52 couldn't travel across the bridges and that's a big thing 23:55 for Louisiana because every so many feet it seems like there's 23:57 a bridge. But for you guys this freezing weather to hit the 24:02 area in the way that it did is extremely a big deal because 24:07 it's very, very rare weather to be that far south in America. 24:14 And that many days. We were four days without power or water. It 24:21 was just a mess. 24:23 Everything shuts down. The governmental buildings shut down 24:25 the roads shut down, everything shuts down because we're just 24:30 not used to driving in it. 24:32 Yeah, your road systems, the crews and all that, they're not 24:37 used to having to deal with that kind of thing. Again my friends 24:40 up north in like Minnesota and Michigan are watching this, hey 24:44 that's nothing. We get like 16 feet of snow and we're okay the 24:47 next day. But for Louisiana it's a very, very big deal. 24:51 We don't even have plane deicers, just not necessary. 24:56 That's amazing. Okay. So you had this hurricane Laura, then you 25:00 have this tropical storm and then Hurricane Delta, my 25:06 goodness, and then the freeze okay... 25:09 And then we had a flood. (Wow man!) The flood covered the 25:12 entire city. We had 17 inches of rain all within a 24-hour period 25:18 I believe it was and then right behind that, we had a tornado. 25:23 So a lot of natural disasters in Lake Charles, Louisiana. 25:28 That's amazing, that's amazing. So then through this God uses 25:35 this very interesting series of events kind of allow the light 25:44 bulb to go out in your mind, go off not out. But allow the light 25:48 bulb to go off in your mind. You said, you were telling me that 25:52 you read the Bible every day or at least a proverb every day 25:56 but you read 25:58 this particular proverb so take us from there. So all of this 26:00 weather is going on, you're reading your Bible. Then 26:03 what happens? 26:05 So I took the 10 commandments and put them up behind my 26:09 computer monitor. That was like I need some inspiration here. 26:14 And I knew that God was going to take us through this. It was 26:21 just a matter of time. We'd been through many hurricanes before 26:23 And so I was reading a Proverb a day and then I think it's in the 26:30 first proverb, I think it's verse seven and it says the fear 26:35 of the Lord is where wisdom begins. It's almost like okay 26:40 if I want to be more wise about God okay maybe I should start 26:44 reading a little bit more than proverbs. 26:46 Right what does it mean to fear him? 26:48 So what did I do? I of course pulled out the old search engine 26:53 on the computer. Okay "fear of God" right? And the first thing 26:58 that pops up is Doug Bachelor Amazing Facts. I'm like well 27:03 this is intriguing. Because as a youth minister, I used to teach 27:07 Revelation. Okay. But as I have now learned my version of the 27:13 Revelation of Jesus Christ is a tad bit different than what the 27:16 Bible actually teaches us. 27:18 Right and this was in the Methodist church. (Yes) okay 27:20 All right. 27:22 And so from there, that led me to 3ABN and at that point they 27:31 were still down in I think Lockport, Louisiana and it had 27:37 been three months since they'd been back to Lake Charles 27:39 because there was literally nothing there, no food, no 27:43 nothing. And when I fin... 27:45 So I'm sorry to interrupt you so you had went away with your 27:48 father to Lockport. 27:50 To my eldest son's house. 27:52 To kind of get away from all of this bad weather that had 27:55 went on. 27:57 There was no electricity and my father was in bad health. 28:00 Okay, so you guys needed obviously, electricity to be able 28:03 to tend his health needs. So you were back in (Lake Charles) Lake 28:07 Charles by yourself for three months trying to ride out all of 28:11 this and I guess for the flooding and all that stuff to 28:15 go down and the power to come back on and... 28:18 Me and six other claims adjusters. 28:20 Oh wow. Okay, so then you're studying your Bible. You come 28:23 in contact with 3ABN and then now you reach out to her. Take 28:26 us from there. 28:28 I said you have got to see this. This is so cool. This is the 28:34 missing piece. It's like...what was your first reaction. 28:40 Well when he first showed me he showed me Amazing Facts with 28:43 Doug Bachelor first. And I was like wow yes that's it. And 28:51 then he showed me 3ABN and it was just an awakening. I was 28:58 like all the things that I had read in the Bible and I accepted 29:02 as truth, I was allowed to accept the Bible as truth and 29:09 not listen to all the things that had been told to me by the 29:15 different denominations. 29:18 That's it, that's it. Right what you're saying. It's all flooding 29:20 back to even my own experience because before I had accepted 29:24 this truth within the culture... Again you and I have a very 29:31 similar background going to all these different churches there 29:32 tends to be a culture that teaches you what to believe 29:36 rather than to study for yourself. And I could say that 29:42 this probably very much even within Methodism as well is that 29:44 you know the pastor, he went to seminary. That's the pastor, 29:48 he's the man of God and whatever he says God you know must be 29:51 what's the truth and you just kind of accept it. There's not 29:55 this heavy emphasis on actually pick up the Bible and study it 29:59 and read it for yourself to learn these things to make sure 30:02 that's what's being taught to you is the truth. And that's the 30:05 same experience that I had. So that's what you were 30:07 experiencing and then you guys find Amazing Facts, 3ABN, and now 30:12 the Bible's starting to make sense to you. Okay what happens 30:17 next? 30:18 So then I say there's got to be one of these churches around 30:22 here that teaches this truth. 30:26 And we find one. You know we Google it again, find one 30:32 that's local and I finally tell Dean, I'm going to church whether 30:36 you're going or not. And we hooked up with a church. And 30:42 then it's a little church but you would not believe even the 30:48 pastor that we've gone several people have come to the church 30:53 through 3ABN and Amazing Facts. 30:55 Praise the Lord, praise the Lord So I just got to ask you guys 30:59 when you're watching 3ABN, Amazing Facts and you're 31:05 studying along for yourself for the first time. You're actually 31:08 reading it, you're studying what were some of these truths. Were 31:11 there any challenging truths to accept in the beginning or did 31:15 it just seem to be easy for you like you just accepted it or 31:18 in the beginning, it was kind of aah-aah I don't know about this 31:20 one but you had to study it. What was your journey like 31:24 learning all of these individual biblical teachings. 31:27 For me, it was easy because I had read it and it was a 31:33 confirmation and so it was like a relief and I was just yes! I 31:40 can believe that. 31:42 Right because you can see it. It's right there. What about you 31:46 Dean. When you're learning all of this stuff what was your 31:48 experience? 31:49 For me, it was the food. 31:51 Now right there. I got to stop you right there. The food, you 31:59 folks at home you have to understand in Louisiana this is 32:03 the epicenter this is the heart of seafood. And I remember 32:07 years ago my very, very first evangelistic series that I ever 32:11 preached was in Lafayette, Louisiana. And I remember, you 32:15 know I had to get to that message where we talked about 32:18 you know what the Bible teaches about you know diet and how God 32:21 has created some meats that are clean for us to eat and there's 32:24 others that animal flesh and animal products that we are 32:28 not to eat because you know it's not clean for us to eat. And I 32:32 remember that even that very night I had some of the locals 32:36 coming in and you could smell the last thing they cooked. This 32:40 was a nightly smell because the culture there loves the crawfish 32:44 Crawfish is huge there, crawfish and lobster and crab and catfish 32:50 and cracklings and shrimp, _ I mean jambalaya. You don't make 32:57 a jambalaya unless it has some type of pork you know. So you're 33:00 talking about like a huge culture that is saturated in the 33:05 delicacies that they consider to be the best of the best or the 33:08 very foods that God says don't eat. Stay away from it. And so I 33:13 just have to ask you when you're learning this truth and you hear 33:18 this message what was your first thoughts when you learned about 33:21 that? 33:24 I just was in total shock. I'm not going to lie because I cook 33:30 a lot for my family and it just meant, well we will just have to 33:34 change I guess. 33:36 Yeah, I love that attitude though. I mean when the Holy 33:38 Spirit's leading you. You know, you may not like it at first. I 33:45 remember for me it was shrimp you know. I could care less 33:46 about the pork and some...but for me, shrimp was a big one 33:49 because I grew up my grandpa owned and ran one of the most 33:56 successful seafood restaurants in southern Missouri and so I 33:59 grew up and went every summer and helping with the restaurant 34:01 and so I grew up on these type of foods, catfish and shrimp and 34:06 clams and all these other things and to me, it was shrimp so I 34:09 totally get...in the beginning when you first hear it its kind 34:11 of Noooo. You almost want to belt out Why God? Why would you 34:16 take that from me. But yet at the end of the day He knows 34:18 what's best, right? And so you're being led by the Holy 34:21 Spirit you're going to have that response. You know yes Lord I 34:25 see what you're saying and I'm going to do my best to bring my 34:27 life in harmony with that. 34:29 As far as what he was cooking I was like we're not supposed to 34:32 have that. And he's like I'm getting it out of the freezer. 34:36 I got to get it out of the freezer, you rebel. Wow man so 34:40 you guys are hearing all of these amazing truths but the 34:43 food, the dietary requirements that God gives us was kind of a 34:48 big challenge at first. What about I mean when you hear about 34:51 the Sabbath though, when you first heard...you know going to 34:54 church on Sunday all your life being in the Methodist church 34:57 you know Pentecostal Church, Baptist Church all the different 35:00 churches you were attending what comes to your mind when you 35:03 learn you know that Saturday is the seventh day and it's the 35:06 true Biblical Sabbath. 35:08 Well I had told you that I started reading the Bible when I 35:11 was in the fifth grade on my own I noticed that the Sabbath was 35:17 on a Saturday. And so when I was in fifth grade I was like but it 35:24 says the Sabbath and the Sabbath is a Saturday. But the churches 35:29 were teaching the Sunday. And so when I finally got that truth 35:39 it was like I was right when I was in the fifth grade! 35:43 Amazing. It is amazing how clear God's word is and I've heard so 35:48 many people tell me a similar story to that one. Oh yeah I 35:51 read this years ago and I thought to myself well why, why 35:54 don't we observe or attend church on Saturday rather than 35:58 Sunday? And then years later they'll learn it again and think 36:02 oh yeah I remember thinking that way back then. 36:04 Exactly. 36:05 Yeah you know I was just the opposite. I never even thought 36:07 about it because the culture I grew up in it was like ay 36:11 Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, who cares? 36:12 Until you learn the truth and you realize well this is what 36:15 God requires and it's never been changed and this is the truth. 36:18 And we need to bring our lives in harmony with that. What about 36:22 you? Being an insurance guy did you have the freedom to change 36:29 you know. I know a lot of business is done on Fridays and 36:33 Saturdays in the insurance business so I didn't know if you 36:36 were retired at this time or if you were still involved in this 36:40 or not. How did that affect your life in making that change from 36:42 Sunday to Saturday? 36:45 So I was supposed to be retired but then I took full-time 36:49 employment with a local university. Isn't God good? All 36:53 of a sudden my work schedule is now Monday through Thursday, 36:58 Friday till noon. 36:59 That is amazing, brother, that's amazing! So when you learn and 37:01 accept this truth it's almost like God began to open doors and 37:05 bless you, to be able to bring your life... 37:07 It's all about trusting in what's right for you and your 37:10 family. And for the partying we talked about earlier, it was 37:15 easy for me to just walk away. Most people say well you know 37:20 don't you crave that? No, I really don't. I just walked away 37:24 That's amazing, wow. 37:25 His partying, that is something for years that has weighed upon 37:32 me and I prayed about it a lot and I cried about it a lot. And 37:43 so when he quit drinking it was just a stop and it was such an 37:50 answer to prayer. 37:52 That's amazing. I actually think we have a couple of pictures 37:55 that kind of shows just how involved you guys were with you 38:00 know the partying and celebration especially during 38:02 Mardi Gras. If we can pull up those images and show what you 38:07 you guys looked like. So what's happening here. What's in this 38:09 picture. 38:11 This is a photo release, a press release showing us as king and 38:14 queen of that particular year. 38:16 That was our first king and queen shot. 38:19 That's amazing and there's another image. Oh my goodness! 38:22 Ha! So what is this? What are we seeing here? 38:24 This is where all of the crews would get together and they 38:28 would parade their kings and queens through their colosseum 38:32 Wow! Man that's amazing! So you guys weren't just attending. You 38:38 were very much involved in even. I guess you were voted. Is this 38:42 something you were voted or you had to meet some kind of 38:44 requirements, how do you get... and again to us at home watching 38:51 this and it's like ah it's nice but in this particular culture 38:53 that's a big deal for you to be selected or to be elevated into 38:59 such an honorary position as Queen and King of Mardi Gras. 39:03 That's a major deal in your community. 39:05 Right. So yes we were nominated to be that and we were very very 39:13 involved in it and thousands of dollars wasted. (Wasted) Just 39:18 wasted. But hey, we had a great time. 39:23 That's amazing, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So you guys 39:26 when you learned this truth you know watching Amazing Facts, 39:30 you're watching 3ABN, you're studying your Bible, you're 39:36 making these decisions to change your life and try to bring your 39:39 life into more of a harmony with what God's will has expressed in 39:44 His word. Did you have any... How did your family, your 39:47 friends...they had to have taken a notice that Dean and Hilda are 39:53 not the same Dean and Hilda and it seems like they've kind of 39:57 jumped on some religious band wagon that's a little different 40:00 So what was the response from your friends and family members 40:02 around you. 40:05 So I told my...we have a little Bible study group. Elder Malcolm 40:10 and his wife Darla and Janice. We all get together on Monday 40:15 It's amazing you brought this fact up. I told them last Monday 40:19 when we were studying Bible, I said I literally have no friends 40:24 left of my prior engagements. They've literally gone their own 40:31 way and that's okay but my Bible study group said we'll be your 40:36 friends. I said okay. I'll accept that. 40:39 That's got to be hard, I mean... and I know that's probably one 40:43 of the most challenging aspects of making a transition from not 40:50 really living for God to trying to live for Him. Trying to bring 40:57 your life into more of a harmony with His will. I find that I've 41:01 given many Bible studies, I've been to many evangelistic series 41:04 I've preached in many evangelistic series and that 41:07 seems to be one of the greatest challenges because when people 41:10 are adopting this truth what comes to my mind is the parable 41:14 of the sower Jesus told; how some people receive that seed, 41:18 that word and at first they're joyed to receive it, they're 41:21 excited about it but then something comes along whether it 41:27 be the devil, whether it be outside influences, whether it 41:29 be the cares of this world or the cares of this life, it 41:32 somehow comes in and seems to choke out the powerful influence 41:37 of that word because of the individual's personal desires or 41:40 their response to the negative pressures that come from outside 41:45 In this case, maybe it's friends, maybe it's family members, and 41:49 to hear you say you know I once had all these friends but I 41:52 don't have them anymore but to continue on that path. That's 41:55 a powerful thing because many people...I've met a lot of 41:59 people that's a very difficult challenging situation to have 42:02 to give up their friends. You know it's hard for people to 42:08 make that adjustment in their life. 42:10 And it's so easy to get back in. (Yes, yes) you know. Getting out 42:15 is the most difficult part. Boy to get back in would be just 42:21 easy. I don't want to do that no more. I realize now and I was 42:29 telling Hilda this last night that it's very important to make 42:35 an eternal decision. And my friends, you need to make that 42:40 decision today. Where are you going to spend your eternity? 42:44 I've made my decision. 42:48 That's amazing, that's amazing. So since you guys have received 42:53 and brought your lives in harmony, I'm sure you're still 42:56 learning but you know from that conversion experience what has 43:03 God led you to do since then? What are you involved in? What 43:08 other avenues has the Lord opened the doors since then. 43:15 I'm trying to bring our small church up into the new 43:20 technology that's available. We have a website. 43:24 Okay, you got a website. So the Lord is using you to help work 43:27 in your local church to bring your church up to technological 43:33 advancements. 43:34 And I would like to be able to help them publish their services 43:37 online. Our church tends to be a little bit elderly so those 43:44 people would at least have the capacity to be in Sabbath 43:49 worship with us. 43:51 Got you, got you. Amen. 43:55 We attend...we went from doing nothing to attending the prayer 44:00 service on Wednesday. We do a Bible study on Monday night. 44:04 We do the Sabbath School. We do Sabbath School with y'all 44:09 throughout the week and then we do Sabbath School on Saturday 44:13 morning. We really enjoy it. And then I found out through 3ABN 44:18 Today about the school of discipleship which I really want 44:21 to go to. 44:23 Yeah, all right. So basically... so you guys are continuing your 44:28 learning and growing experience. And you know you want to attend 44:31 the School of Discipleship, you're helping your local church 44:33 Guys I just want to say at home you know this is powerful to 44:37 hear because some people might look at this, well that's small 44:40 stuff. But it's the smaller things that lead to even greater 44:43 things and I can very much relate to you because I remember 44:47 when I first made the decision to transfer from where I once 44:51 was in the Sunday-keeping church to a Sabbath-keeping church. You 44:55 God will find a way for you to work and to serve in a capacity 44:59 that blesses you and will bless others. He will open up those 45:03 doors and it seems like the Lord is going to be using you guys to 45:06 do that in your local church as well. You know I have to just 45:11 ask when you were...again kind of back to the family and the 45:15 friends in the community. You know being a businessman I'm 45:18 sure you made a lot of connections with people in your 45:22 community. A lot of people that knew you, knew the old Dean and 45:26 how you used to be. What were some of the responses that you 45:29 got from them. You know I'm sure you've received many a party 45:34 invitation, many a Mardi Gras invitation, come over, and let's 45:38 have a beer invitation or whatever. So how do you now 45:42 address those situations when they're presented to you? 45:46 Well it is noticeable and one of our crews has their Mardi Gras 45:53 celebrations on Friday night. And Hilda and I actually were 45:58 founding members of this crew. We started this crew. And this 46:02 was the first year that we did not attend and it was very 46:06 noticeable that we didn't attend So people would ask us and so we 46:10 would just tell them, we're just not going to do that anymore. 46:16 Mm-hmm. Wow, that's amazing. 46:17 We're going to be Sabbath keepers. We're going to follow 46:19 the 10 commandments and we're going to give the testimony of 46:23 Jesus Christ. 46:25 I love that brother. That's powerful, that's powerful. Hilda 46:28 when you...I don't think I ever heard from you on this. So your 46:33 family and friends and people that you knew. When they found 46:35 out that you were making and had made that transition from your 46:40 previous beliefs, your previous lifestyle to what you are now, 46:44 did you receive any negative feedback or was it all positive 46:48 What was your experience with that? 46:50 Mutual growth. I didn't have the type friends that Dean had. 47:00 They just kind of accepted but it's not been necessarily 47:06 positive. My thing is that I feel that I had been taught 47:16 wrong all these years and I think, why was I taught wrong? 47:21 And then I realized it was out of ignorance and it was out of 47:27 ignorance that I taught my children wrong and so I feel so 47:32 bad about doing that. But it's things like 3ABN and Amazing 47:38 Facts that are getting the word out and it's doing it globally, 47:46 it's doing it nationally and for that I'm grateful. 47:50 Amen, amen, praise the Lord. You know I just want to address 47:53 what you just said because you will naturally feel bad when you 47:58 come to that understanding of man I could have known and I 48:02 didn't know. I could have been sharing the truth but I didn't 48:06 know what I was sharing things or maybe influencing others to 48:10 believe things that was not entirely true. But I think there 48:15 is a difference between willful ignorance and just the general 48:21 ignorance of just not knowing. Me and my family were not 48:24 necessarily willfully ignorant in the sense that we were 48:29 rejecting truth. You guys I don't think were rejecting truth 48:31 you didn't know. And I think that's where the truth of James 48:34 chapter 4 verse 17 comes in which says that he that knows to 48:38 do good and does it not to him it is a sin. There's some people 48:42 out there so that they can know the truth. They would know the truth 48:48 and they would actually take the time to study it, they would 48:49 take the time to learn and take the time they can share that 48:52 with others and there's those people that could know that but 48:55 they make the conscious choice to not want to know that. In 48:59 other words, they make the decision to not study, to not 49:03 dig, to not share those things that they know with others for 49:06 whatever reason and I think that's a dangerous thing. But 49:09 there's people like you, people like me, who we were just 49:13 walking kind of in a dark state before not really knowing until 49:18 the light came and when we saw the light then that change came 49:21 and I think that's what's important is when the light 49:23 comes my friends you know walk into the light, walk in the 49:27 light and walk in the light of Christ. You know don't worry 49:30 about your past because again Jesus is a forgiving God, He's a 49:34 forgiving Savior. You know I was contemplating back here on this 49:38 parable of the sower. You know as we were talking before, you 49:42 know we want to be that good ground. You guys clearly 49:49 received that truth, you were ready to receive it and you were 49:51 not going to let anything come between you and the Lord of 49:53 receiving that truth and allowing it to take root in your 49:56 life and to change you. I just want to speak to our viewers at 49:59 home in just these last few minutes. Maybe you have heard 50:04 the truth, maybe you know the truth, or maybe you're hearing 50:07 the truth for the first time today. You know what, at the end 50:09 of the day what really truly matters is how you receive it. 50:12 Will you receive it and will you allow that to take root in your 50:15 life? Or will you allow some outside influence or some 50:19 desire of your own heart to uproot that seed and not allow 50:23 it to grow? I think that's what it comes down to. Allow Jesus 50:27 Christ to water and to bring that seed, that new truth in 50:31 your life to fruition in your life and to grow and change you. 50:35 Dean and Hilda, It has been a privilege and an honor to spend 50:39 this time with you guys. So you guys we're actually going to go 50:42 to an address roll, I think in just a moment, about a minute or 50:45 so that is going to connect people with your church. I think 50:49 it's your local church. Tell us a little bit about your local 50:51 church in the next 30 seconds or so. 50:53 So we are like I said local and we're welcoming. We are building 51:00 back our congregation and we're looking for young members just 51:05 like everybody else, spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. 51:08 Amen, amen. Perhaps there's someone out there that would 51:11 like to you know help support the local ministry there that's 51:15 going on. And the...what is that again, the name of your church? 51:20 Lake Charles. 51:21 Lake Charles almost said, Saint Charles have mercy. Lake Charles 51:26 If there's someone who wants to support that local ministry 51:29 of the Lake Charles Seventh-day Adventist Church. I know you 51:30 said you wanted to make some upgrades in the technology. You 51:34 know they have a community there just like everywhere else that 51:37 needs to be reached and perhaps maybe the Lord has laid it upon 51:40 your heart right now because you're watching this program and 51:44 maybe you want to give, maybe you want to donate, maybe you 51:45 want to learn more about what Dean and Hilda have learned. 51:48 This is how you can do it. 51:49 If you would like more information about the Lake 51:54 Charles Seventh-day Adventist Church you can contact them at 51:57 1537 Country Club Road, Lake Charles, LA 70605 52:11 You can call them at 337-478-8353 52:20 Or you can find them online at LakeCharlesAdventists.org 52:23 You can also email them at info@LakeCharlesAdventists.org |
Revised 2024-01-18