Ep 989 | Jase Makes a Fool of Himself for His Foster Kid & Throwing Shade at Immaturity in Grown Men
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Welcome back to Unashamed. Nothing's really changed for us, Jace. We're still where we were five minutes ago. Jace is still selling Tupperware. He still does Tupperware. Is there any deal on those behind you, Jace? Buy one, get one free? Yeah. I told y'all I'm just visiting. I'm not sure what part of this...

The producer, Matty, said, sit there. And I looked behind me and thought. But I know how Cy is, I'm sure, because I do this. He has a childlike spirit. Because this is what I spend a lot of time doing with toddlers, grandkids, and the little man that we get to keep. We build towers like this. And that's the good thing about Cy. He's always had. I'm positive Cy built that.

Now, how they got him to not tear it all down. That's what I was going to say. It's not destroyed, so I don't know how it was destroyed. Yeah, because that's the next step. I mean, you build it. I mean, I did it as a kid. I did it yesterday with a little man. We call it a Mickey castle. For some reason, he likes Mickey Mouse. I didn't get that started. But we'll take all these cups, and we'll build a tower just like that, and then they'll put these little –

They're like little figurines of Donald Duck and all this stuff. And as soon as it's all built, he just goes, wham! And then guess what the next words are?

Let's build the Mickey. I mean, it's like you do the whole process. Now, Zach, you did a sermon illustration one time. I never forgot about your kids. One of them, one of your kids took all this time to build this beautiful Lego village and hours and hours to build it. And then one of your other kids came in and destroyed it in 30 seconds. And your point was it's

It takes a lot more time and energy to build something than to destroy it. Ain't that the truth? That's why I don't have a lot of – I don't get like – if you want to get online and blast everything, I'm like, well, yeah, get in line. It's easy. I mean, you can pick apart anything, but it's difficult. And same thing with church, by the way. You build a church, and it's easy to come in and critique and destroy and deconstruct. It's a lot more difficult –

to construct and criticizing is easy, but then like, what do you actually like? What do you say we do? And I take that approach with my kids all the time when they complain. I'm like, okay, what's your solution?

You know what I mean? What's the solution then? Yeah. I think that's the, that's the harder part, you know, is to find the solution. So yeah, that was a good analogy. I need to resurrect that one. Yeah. I still remember it. Well, part of being a grandparent now is that you, you kind of learn this next stage where, you know, you keep the grandkids and there's really, if this just doesn't go well, you just,

Hey, come pick them up. Yeah, that's going to be nice. So, but we had this little, little man and, uh, somewhere at, at he on his little school preschool project, they visited like the fire trucks and the police cars. Yeah. So now he is obsessed with being a firefighter. And, uh, so my wife got these little outfits and it's got a little fire helmet and you wear the jacket.

But then he gives, it's a whole, I mean, this is embarrassing. I'm being real vulnerable here. Because the first thing he does when he wakes up is he goes, gets that fire helmet, puts it on, puts his jacket, and he's like, I'm a firefighter. But then he gives us the costumes for us to wear. And, of course, my wife did it, and I thought, oh, here we go. So...

He struggled because there's kind of a safari one, which is what I wanted, you know. But he came and handed me a chef hat and some, they got a little spatula. Spatula. Come on, man. Spatula. Spatula. Well, I don't even know. I call it an egg turner, but I was trying to. Yeah. Yeah.

I think Missy corrected me on that too. I was like, hand me that spatula. And she's like, spatula. And I was like, babe, at this point, we're playing a kid game with a two and a half year old. Does it really matter? And so, uh, egg turner. I hadn't heard that one in a while. That's what I call it. Egg turner. And well, Missy's like, well, what if you're not turning eggs? I'm like, but that's what it is. It's an egg turner.

So then she gets the doctor's outfit, which actually is functional. I mean, this whole guard, you know, costs five bucks probably. And you have the stethoscope and, you know, she has the little, and so then, but then he'll change our outfits, but he's always the firefighter. So anyway, I told you all that to say, Missy found this little fire truck. You know how they have the,

The motor operated, you know, little, little toddler can get in. And everyone we bought for our kids lasted about 30 minutes. Yeah. And then it was, you know, you sold it for scraps to somebody else. But now it's been so long technology. I mean, cause Missy bought that. I was like, I cannot believe you bought this. And, uh, she said, well, it's no big deal. And she got the box out. I mean, the thing, Wade,

50 pounds. I mean, so he, this is one that he gets inside of. He gets inside of it. And I thought this was a terrible idea. I was griping the whole time. Cause I said, babe, you know, I'm not good at that. She said, it never occurred to me that you were going to put this together. She said, I'll put it together. She's like, it's 30 minutes.

Well, three hours later, I looked down at the drive shaft on this thing and it's hanging on the floor. And I didn't say a word. And so when she got it all finished, she's like, this thing won't work. And I was like, well, it could be because the drive shaft is dragging the floor. And she was like, oh, I didn't put that on the sides where the wheels could be turned. And so she had to take it apart again.

And what you think, well, why didn't you do it? I could not have done a better job. I'm terrible with this kind of stuff. And we already know we're at peace with that. But I'm really good at looking when something goes wrong and saying...

You need to fix that because that won't work. So that's how we did it. And look, tempers were never raised. You're called a consultant. That's what consultants do. I'm a consultant. That's what it is. Yeah, they come in. They tell you what you're doing wrong. Somebody told me one time, if I could just get access to your entire business, I could critique. I could probably tell you where you are going wrong. I was like.

I know where we're going wrong. I didn't have a problem. The problem is I didn't know how to go right. Yeah. You know, how do we fix it? Yeah. So what, so we got it done and, and I thought he was just going to get in it. And cause I was nervous about it. I was like, this is just a bad idea. You shouldn't, there's a reason two and a half year old shouldn't be driving. Yeah. But then she handed me a remote control and I was like, what is this new development?

He's like, well, he operates it, but you can override it through the remote control, which is why I've been pulling up my thumb sitting here because I've lost all function out of this. Because you were working the remote. That's what happened when he got in it. So so he cranks it up. I mean, look, you push a button and he immediately got all that figured out.

So he pushes the gas pedal and it takes off and he's turning the wheel. But I'm over there on the side and we just did this in the driveway for hours until it went dead. And we just made loop after loop. And I literally could not keep my thumb functional, which is, was disturbing because I now, when I heard that the average age of a,

Video gamer is not 15. It's 35, which is a maturity problem I'm putting out there. No, it is. I mean, we're talking about maturity here. The average gamer is 35 years of age. And you think that's a maturity problem?

Oh, it's a maturity problem. Yeah. Do it to your 15 and then move on. You got responsibilities. Can I tell you something? Like I get this, this, this has potential to make people mad too, but I don't even let them in my house.

I think they're addictive. You think they're addictive? If the average age is 35, yeah, it's addictive. Don't play video. Don't live in the virtual world. Go out and do it in the real world. But that's interesting development, though, on the remote control. I have to say that had I had that little apparatus, because when Max was little, Max is now 19,

But when he was about, I guess about four, we got a little something we like to call Lightning McQueen. Because I had just come out. Cars was like the big, that was the big Disney movie. So we got the same thing. A little something called Lighting McQueen? No, Lightning McQueen. You know what that is? Lightning McQueen. No, I. You don't know. Maybe eight people on the earth who knows what that means. Yeah.

slightly below how many people Jace what I love about Jace the little thing he says the little thing and then it's some obscure reference that's not obscure are you guys kidding me you've never heard of Lightning McQueen oh the producer has actually entered the discussion and said the fourth wall has gone down thank you Matty you're welcome to come at any time Lightning McQueen Lightning McQueen

The only McQueen I know is Steve McQueen, who used to make pretty good movies back in the day. Okay, well, I'm just going to tell you, the audience is definitely going to speak to this, but do you know who Lightning McQueen is? It's a movie. It's a kid's movie, a Disney movie, one of the biggest hits Disney's ever made called Cars.

And it's about this car who, but of course the cars have like a persona and a personality and they talk and all that. Was Larry the cable guy in this? Larry the cable guy was in it. He was the, let me give you a quote. Maturity is not found in Disneyland. So if you're listening and you got offended by the, by the,

uh, the maturity comment about video games, just know that he's also criticizing me as well for watching, uh, card. Was that, which was, I'm beginning to think you're having side tendencies. No, no, no, no, no. Because about five years ago, I heard, so I say there's a little something called Tupperware and it's going to take over the world.

But he was just a few years behind. Well, no, and he became the flagship of that. Well, you know, I think they just filed bankruptcy, by the way. Tupperware, I'm pretty sure. Well, that was my next line. Well, they sold it through parties, like women in the 60s. With the whole thing's gone under. I think Cy killed it.

People don't have parties to sell products anymore. Do you think Si had anything to do with the demise of Tupperware? Yeah, he pushed it over the cliff. I think for a while it was a big rise, and I think Si single-handedly kept it afloat for years. Yeah.

At the end of the day. Well, anyway, anyways, where I was going with my story is that we had a similar vehicle. It was a, it was a lightning McQueen race car that Max would drive. And we lived on one of the busiest highways in West Monroe. That was probably the worst highway for like car wrecks and stuff. And particularly at our turn, but our driveway went down this long Hill that was probably about 300 yards, 200 yards long.

And I'm driving home from work one day and all of a sudden I see Max at about four years old. He comes out of the driveway in his Lightning McQueen and hooks a right. And he's headed down the interstate. I mean, down to the interstate in his Lightning McQueen. So we had to, if I'd have had the remote control, that would have probably kept him safer. Yeah, I was impressed. I mean, I was impressed with this thing other than I can no longer use my thumb.

I'll need a few days of recovery. Because he just, I mean, he knew I was a part of it somehow. It's so weird how kids, even at that age, they know. Because I would stop, and at first he would push the gas, and I'd stop again. Because I'm like, you're literally heading in a place of danger. And I'd stop again, and then I would back it up. And so finally, after about the third time I did that, he looked at me, and he was like,

I want to go that way. So he knew he put it together. He put it together, which I thought was interesting. That's funny. But it just may, it had so many kind of practical implications of what we're studying here. Cause we are, you know, when he makes this statement about his goal is to bring everyone up in maturity and he's already given these, these illustrations of,

the gospel being like a seed being planted and growing. And ultimately, you know, you think about when Jesus talked about the parable of the sower and full maturity in Christ is where you're producing fruit and, and giving. And so, uh, I just thought it was a,

It was a pretty good illustration. Well, you know, it's funny about the idea of fruit and maturity, as you just mentioned, fruit maturity and how fruit is connected to like a plant or a vine. There is a connection, even like how Christ always really connected those two in his teachings and what he was doing when he came to Christ.

essentially overthrow the temple structure and the whole system and implement what we're now a part of, which is Christ said to us that we're the new temple living stones. In Mark 11, he starts off with this before he goes into his triumphal entry. I mentioned this in a previous podcast. He says,

He looks at a fig tree, which is a fruit producing tree that wasn't producing fruit. And he cursed that goes into the temple, overturns all the tables in the temple. And then he this other thing that happens in the very next chapter where he tells this story about.

about a vineyard. And they say, what's the point of a vineyard? Well, a vineyard, the reason why you plant one is so you can get grapes, so you can get fruit and create this new wine. And he talked about this vineyard

that he had loaned out to these guys and the father or this particular owner had loaned this vineyard to these people. And he said, I'm going to come back and I'm going to get a portion of what you create here, a portion of the fruit. So he sends the servant, which represents the prophets. The servants go to get the owner share the fruit and they run him off. Another guy comes back, run him off. Another guy, they kill him. And everybody he sends, they either kill the servant or

Or they run them off. And so finally he says, well, I'm just going to send my son. Surely they'll respect him representing Christ. They send the son and they kill the son. And he says this interesting thing at the end of all that, that I thought was so strange how he connected this vineyard idea, this vine idea with growing fruit, this idea of growing fruit and producing fruit with the structure of the temple. Because he quotes this.

This verse out of Psalms 118 in Mark 12, he says, have you not read the scripture? Basically, this is how the Lord's going to be upset with what you've done. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And they were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. But I just think it's interesting how these two veins in Scripture, one is about fruit production.

and vines and trees and abiding in the vine and all that. That's a consistent theme in Scripture. Fruit, production, and then where does God live? In a temple, and you're the temple. And what Christ does and the Holy Spirit is they bring these two things

things together, that Christ produces the fruit in us when we are connected to him in the temple, which is the vine or the tree. And these two themes are, that's why you can't talk about the temple without talking about the Holy Spirit. That's why you can't talk about fruit without talking about the Holy Spirit, because they're interconnected.

So I think it's safe to say that we kind of all approach our commitment to pro-life in a different way. Zach, you have adopted a child. Jason, you and Missy have fostered a child. Lisa and I do a lot of work raising money for kids.

pro-life organizations. And so I think we're all committed because someone's got to step up and defend the defenseless. Children are a blessing from the Lord. That's what the word says, and we believe it. And that's why we partnered with Preborn, the nation's leader in introducing mothers with unplanned pregnancies to their babies.

Once a mother hears a heartbeat and sees the precious life that's growing inside of her, she's twice as likely to choose life. And let's face it, if we're not step up and help these folks, then who's going to do it? Preborn's network of clinics fights to save the lives of unborn babies, and we join with them.

To date, they've rescued over 300,000 babies. They also provide love, support, and counseling for up to two years for free. So this is a long haul process. One ultrasound is just $28. 140 can help rescue five babies' lives. So let's join together and let's help mothers choose life.

To donate securely, dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250, keyword baby. Or go to preborn.com slash unashamed. That's preborn.com slash unashamed. And at the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5, the action produced through a person's life, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, all those things that come out are fruit.

And they're his fruit. And I always, I always say, you say, well, you know, I'm not good at this or I'm not good at that. Well, the Holy spirit is great at all of it. If you're not good at one of those elements of actionable things you see in Galatians five, it's because you're blocking what the spirit is trying to grow in you. Which is what the, cause, cause what we try to focus on in the church is,

is we try to focus on behavior modification and let's go do these things. But Christ is not interested in modifying our behavior. What he is interested in is transforming our hearts and our condition. And so what happens is we move from like, okay, I have to now be patient. I'm not like producing this in my own life. I actually become the kind of person

The patience is manifested in actually become the kind of person who actually loves. I'm not just treating someone kindly because I have to know. I actually develop genuine love for them. And I don't I'm not I'm not trying to act like I'm joyful and that I'm good with everything when I'm really not to try to conjure it up. I actually am joyful, even intense situations, because the fruit of the spirit is a description of what we become today.

as we live in Christ and stay connected to him. So going back to that Colossians passage that we were in the last episode on, that's the contingency. It's not a contingency in the way of like, if you do this, then God's going to give you a reward and going to do this. It's not, that's not, it's not a quick quote pro. What it is, is, is, is he's saying, if you basically, if you stay connected to the source of,

If I stay near the water fountain, then I'm going to have a place to drink water from. If I don't, then I won't. It's that simple. So the contingency is more of a description of

of where life is. And so obviously if life is only found in Christ, then yeah, I'm only going to have it as, as long as I'm connected to him. And that is, it's not a quid pro pro. It's not a workspace thing that he's promoting there in Colossians. When he gives that caveat, when he says, if it's just describing of the

the condition of what we must be connected to or rather who we must be connected to in order to receive. Well, and it's like Jace brought out the three S's, you know, the suffering, the serving and the struggling, because that's usually when you find out where, what you're lacking in is essentially you think about one of the fruits of the spirit is patience.

I've always struggled with being a patient person for whatever reason. I'm always in the wrong line at the bank or the wrong line at the grocery store. And I'm just like, oh, if I had to pick this line, just instantly going there and being impatient. So you know what the Almighty did to help me learn patience? He gave me a wife.

He gave me two daughters and then he gave me two granddaughters. And so all I had was women in my life for about 30 years. You know what that taught me? I need to be patient. Yeah. You know, I had some struggle. I had some suffering. I had some sitting in the car fuming. And then I learned that, you know what? To be patient, to exhibit this fruit of the spirit in your life makes you a much more pleasant person.

than being an impatient person. Yeah, that's why I brought up that illustration. It's because, I mean, to be honest, you're not going to mature going to Disneyland when everything's fine and rosy and things are going good and it's all in the struggle and the difficulty. You know, somebody said the gift is in the gap.

And between the struggle and the crying out to God, I mean, there's a reason even yesterday at church, they preached on the Beatitudes and it's all doesn't sound appealing.

you know, blessed are those, you know, the, or the poor in spirit and the meek and those who mourn and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and those who are being persecuted. And then when he did the same thing in Luke's version in chapter six, I mean, it gets even worse. Yeah. I mean, blessed are you when you're poor and,

when you're hated, when you're mourning. I mean, you're like, what? But there's a gift in that. I was doing, I read Psalm 63 just in one of my little quiet times. And, you know, David's in the wilderness, his family's in disarray. He's wondering what happened to his kingdom. And in that moment, and I'll read it, it's a very touching moment when you realize you're

You're looking to God's power and sustenance to sustain you. And it's the same reason I told that illustration about overriding what a two and a half year old is doing, because the reason you don't let them have full control is they'll pull out into the interstate and get run over.

But him realizing that I had that power, which it took hours for him to get over the frustration because he, like everybody else, whether it's a physical maturity or spiritual maturity, we want to drive the fire truck. We want to go where we want to go, do what we want to do. And I kind of learned that in those few hours, it's very difficult to let

some other power override you without being frustrated, which is why I think it was a good illustration based on that last verse of Colossians. When he made that statement saying, you know, my goal is to present you fully mature in Christ into this, and I labor struggling with all his energy, which is so powerfully working in me.

I mean, we've been overrode by God's power. And so I did a little dive into that and this Psalm 63, which is where I launched from, but it says, oh God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I mean, he's out in the desert thinking, where did it all go wrong? I was in charge. I have seen you in the sanctuary.

and beheld your power and your glory. And just listen to this statement. I mean, this is where he's just broken. He says, because your love is better than life.

which is quite the statement. I mean, I really reflected on that. It made me think of that verse where it says, while we were powerless and sinners, God demonstrates his love for us while we were sinners. The enemies, yeah. Yeah, while we were enemies, Christ died for us. I believe that's, where's that, Romans 5? Romans 5. Yeah, it says, and I...

And in your name, I will lift up my hands. I will praise you as long as I live. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods. With singing lips, my mouth will praise you. And really that's, you know, gets at what we want. And to find satisfaction on earth really is every human's goal. I mean, everyone is looking for,

to be satisfied. And here, when he's at his worst and relying on God, he realizes that he is my satisfaction. And he goes on, I want to read the whole Psalm. He says, on my bed, I remember you. I think of you through the watches of the night because you are my help. I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me.

They who seek my life will be destroyed. And it's just like everything else. He had met resistance, but he realized not only has God my help, he's my satisfaction. His love is better than life. All these people that are attacking me, he's going to work it out because it says they will go down to the depths of the earth. They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals.

but the king will rejoice in God. So I don't know about the Lightning McQueen, but according to David. It's a little something called Lightning McQueen. He said the king will rejoice in God. All who swear by God's name will praise him while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

And so it made me go on a little power trip about why we should pursue struggling and suffering and why we should share Jesus despite resistance, because it's his power. And through that process,

We grow and Christ is formed in us. I mean, we're willing to take chances and be vulnerable and be vocal about the Lord. And so you come up with all these passages in my effort to wrap up. But it makes you think about that verse that says we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not us. That's, where's that at? 2 Corinthians 4, 7? Yeah.

And even 1 Corinthians 4, 21, it's like the kingdom is not about talk, but it's about power. And even the gospel being presented, the power is in the gospel. That's why he's saying in Colossians 1, 6, all over the world, this gospel is bearing fruit and growing. Well, that realization is why...

that we offer ourselves. We struggle, we suffer, we serve. And I like it because it's struggling with his energy as well. So we've got a guest for the rest of our podcast. It's perfect timing because when you're talking about serving and you're talking about suffering and you're talking about this idea of struggling with his energy, and this is a guy that helps a lot of people in difficult days. So we come back from this break. We'll introduce our guests.

So, Jase, I guess it's safe to say when we can, we like to support businesses that love America and sort of stand for what we stand for. That's the perfect scenario, Al. Doesn't always happen, right? Because sometimes, you know, you're not sure what a company or a corporation believes. One thing we know about our good friends at Patriot Mobile is for the last 10 years, they've been America's only Christian conservative wireless provider.

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Welcome back. We are joined by one of our favorite family members, Edward Graham. Edward, welcome to Unashamed. Thank you.

So the Graham family and the Robertson family go way back, but it's interesting because I asked you off camera if we had ever met, cause I didn't remember meeting you, but then we've done so many different things through the years, either with your dad or with your brothers or, you know, and I see Sissy all the time. We're out doing pro-life stuff. And so we have not met. So it's a, it's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your service. I know you spent, uh,

quite a few years serving our country in the military. And so we appreciate you for that. Well, thank you. I enjoyed my military service. I tell people it was all I was really good at, but then God had called me to come serve in ministry out of nowhere. And so I got out and been working with dad for really about the last six years.

Well, it's a good thing you knew some people who know a little bit about ministry. Yeah, Edward's been nice, but he had the greatest line I've ever heard, Al. When you asked him before we started running, have we ever met? And he said, no, I was busy fighting terrorists. So I don't think...

We didn't cross paths. Unless I went to Afghanistan. You weren't on the terrace watching us. He was at that donut place where you were fighting terrorists. He was eating donuts. So I'm closest in your family probably to Will because we spent the most time together. And he's the oldest and I'm the oldest. And so we lament about our younger siblings and how hard it was to try to raise them and get them right.

But so I sent him a text this morning because you would come on the podcast. And I said, so what's an older brother question?

that I can ask Edward. He said, well, ask him, why did he pull his hair out when he was young and, and which forced him to then have a military haircut. So that, that was the question of your older brother asked me to ask you. I don't, I don't know if it's cause I had a nervous twitch cause of will being an older brother, but it's just my coping mechanism. I sit there and I twirl my hair into knots when I would sit there and think, and I'd be doing homework. I, and so they used to make fun of me, but yeah,

Like I said, when Will stopped growing, I didn't. And then our last fight didn't end well for him. And we've been best friends ever since. But it's Will that actually helped lead me to the Lord and not for the reason why people may think it. I was at a Billy Graham crusade when I was about five years old in California. And Will started teasing me that I was going to go to hell because I wasn't a Christian.

And so I went to mom and told him to set them straight. And mom goes, no, he's right. You're going to hell. So my mom led me to the Lord that day, but it was because of Will's gentle nudging. Your mom is one of my favorite people.

Being in ministry, and I was in full-time ministry too, the conversation that we had with her, Lisa and I, because she reminded me so much of Lisa in the fact that she never had it in her mind to go into ministry and be a pastor's wife and all that. And she says what she thinks, which I love that about her. She is an amazing woman. She is.

She actually reminded me, cause I've met your mother and your father, but they remind me a lot. They've never met a stranger. You know, they can be in the line in a grocery store, carry on a conversation with someone they've never met before. And you would think they're best friends, but that's, that's my mom's strength. Dad's an introvert. So am I, you know, I would say we're high functioning, but we're a mom.

We've married women that helped bring it out of us and, you know, put us in our own and to be uncomfortable, put us out of our comfort zone, which is a good thing. I need that. And that's my mother. My mom's been my, my prayer warrior. She knew when I was misbehaving, when I was off at college at West point, I wasn't living for the Lord. She prayed for me, put me before the Lord. And I'm here today because of a praying mother and a praying wife. So that's why I've been a firm believer of the power of prayer. But,

My mom's incredible. So was my grandmother. There never would have been a Billy Graham had there not been Ruth. We called her Teta, means old lady in Chinese.

But Tete was my favorite. I love that woman. Yeah. There's a lot of, there's a lot of strange similarities here. It's kind of a John the Baptist preparing the, what we're like the wilderness version of your family. Cause I have a brother named Willie and the last fist fight I had now I was older. I was 19 years old and he was 17 and,

And we had a fist fight over who was going to access my parents' oven first. Even though... One of them had a pizza and one of them had toast. I remember that. Yeah, and it was a fist fight that I won...

Yeah. So I was wondering how old y'all were when y'all had this, this, uh, I was in, uh, Will was in seminary. Yeah. And I was a, uh, I think a junior in high school, but I'd started wrestling and, you know, as a senior, actually, I think in high school and I'd gotten big and, uh, Will told me to do something and I was like, I smarted off to him and,

He put up my face and we got in a fight. Now the corner of my eye, my dad was watching the whole time. And so after I whooped up on him, we went downstairs. Mom had thrown the dinner away and said, there's no, you know, y'all aren't eating here.

And so dad looked at me, told me to get in the car. We went and got pizza. Not a word was said. The pizza came and he looked at me and just said, Edward, I think you two are getting too old for that. I love my brother. Well, we're best friends after that. And that's what brothers do. Brothers fight, but we also love each other and we'll fight for each other no matter what and defend each other. But I share that story because my dad let us be boys and he let us grow up and find our own ways and our own path.

but he always brought us to the Lord. He put us on our knees every night for devotions. He'd pray with us in the morning before we went to school. And so, yeah, we made us try to solve our problems the wrong way. But dad let us learn that, but brought it back to scripture always. So he raised us to be men. Yeah. Well, we had a similar deal because my dad said, who won?

I was shocked. And I was actually convicted because we had a new Christian who witnessed the fight, which was embarrassing. And so after it was over, Willie took off and got in the vehicle. And he was like, I'm going to run away from home kind of mentality, which is what he usually did. But then he realized...

this was no longer our home anyway. So, but that new Christian said, well, that was a fine way for two Christian men to act. And when he said that, I just thought, 'cause I was still like, I guess I whooped him, you know, I had the adrenaline of don't mess with me. And when he said that, you know,

at the time as I was, I thought, oh, that was bad. This guy just watched two grown men fight. So it was a stepping stone to maturity. But you know, Willie used to run away, but he always came back at supper. So that part's never changed.

One more thing I want to mention. The 1,000th podcast of the Unashamed podcast is coming up soon. And so we want to hear from you, Unashamed Nation. You can send us a question. You can send us a story, maybe how that podcast has impacted you.

You can tell us that Zach uses too many big words, whatever you want to send us. We want you to drive the 1000th podcast because we would have never gotten there without you. So official Phil Robertson at gmail.com is where you send those stories, questions, whatever you want. You're going to drive us on the 1000th podcast because it's all about you.

So, Edward, I want to talk something about Samaritan's Purse because on the podcast, we have talked a lot about it, obviously with Zach being right there at ground zero. And the first thing I was going to ask you about, because you guys, like back in 2016,

In West Monroe, we had a huge flood in Louisiana, down south and in West Monroe. And Samaritan's Purse was right there on our parking lot as a staging area. So I got to see the operation up close and personal back then and have been a huge supporter of what you guys are doing. But was it different for you? In this case, you guys were right in the middle.

Yeah.

But we had staff members that lost their homes, their cars. Fortunately, we didn't have any staff members that lost their lives. But everything really from Boone, we're kind of in the northwest corner here in Watauga and Ashe County. We're right on the Tennessee-Virginia line. And so everything from here all the way down past Asheville just got decimated. And so these are areas I know well because my family was raised in Montreat, North Carolina, which is right beside Black Mountain where Zach is and

And so these are everything between was our driving route, you know, to get here, you go through Mitchell and Yancey counties and those had just been unbelievably decimated with these beautiful valleys, these green valleys that you're used to seeing. They're no longer, they're like a rock quarry. They're like a Canyon bottom. It's all gone. And the houses, the churches, the businesses that are, they're all wiped out. And so this one's been hard a, because we're not maybe used to storms like that up here. We don't have,

flooding like this and the pound we've had floods but nothing like this and to see your own staff trying to crawl out of it but then that same staff go lead and respond god's given us the best people and i couldn't be more proud of them i'm more excited to work beside them because it's not about doing good work it's about sharing the gospel yeah and they believe that well i want to say something because i'm here on the ground and we've raised money i mean i've been blown away at the unashamed audience how how they've given and we've mentioned you guys every time as well um

and mainly because we know you know your reputation know your family know what you guys have done but I can tell you as being in the epicenter of a lot of what you just talked about

You guys mobilized in a fashion that it was, I mean, those orange shirts were, they descended on Swannanoa where our church is at. And I mean, mucking out homes. I mean, the Beacon Village, that whole area, you could not find a house down there that wasn't flooded with people and orange shirts just doing the hard yard. So, I mean, I just want to tell you, like, I'm very thankful for your presence here.

I mean, it has been very, very meaningful for a lot of people. And the testimony that you guys are leaving here is, I mean, it's life changing. Well, our teams, that's what they do. They mobilize right away. And we got volunteers that come from all over. But this storm was different just because, yeah,

You know, water, when it comes down in Florida or Louisiana, where you are, it'll come in, flood and devastate. And then it goes back. Usually it doesn't take the infrastructure with it necessarily, the roads. And so it knocked out roads and bridges. So people were cut off. So we had to change what we normally use our helicopter for, you know, maybe in the, in the Caribbean for hurricane season, island hopping, or we deploy it in one of our cargo planes to Africa.

We're using here. And when we started using it that Saturday, um, the, the help really, it was a college that was cut off and, and Avery County were feeding the students water and food. NASCAR started sitting there, like the team owners that we know, like, um,

Joe Gibbs Racing and Rick Hendricks sent their helicopters and they started partnering with us. And that grew at least two UH-60s and them old military contacts, they started sending us MH-47s. So we had, I think in two weeks, we flew over about 365 helicopters.

Air missions, that's probably the largest civilian airlift in history. That's tons of needed supplies. It started off with food and water and then any storm transitions. And we transitioned to generators and fuel and heating sources. And I mean, we're just flying them into small churches that we had from our Operation Christmas Child list up in the mountains that helped partner with us. And then the emergency fire stations. It was an unbelievable network. So the team I usually use for international disaster relief that set up our hospitals,

you know, overseas or we have a field hospital anywhere in the world, about 36 hours. We use that apparatus to run this, but we also responded medically. We normally don't do that here. We did during COVID, but we set up a tier one hospital in Avery County. And then we also set up oxygen stations and tents at these hospitals to recharge people's oxygen tanks because they were out of oxygen and

And then we also, we usually can't touch water. They won't let us do water filtration systems here. Now, we have desalinization units that can take salt water and make fresh drinking water for tens and thousands of people. Each system, there are huge systems. We've got one in Swannanoa right now taking water. That's how bad the water situation has been in Swannanoa.

I saw that. And now the need is going down and that's, that's good. Um, but we were providing a lot of drinking water there the first few weeks. We still don't have, you know, at least in black mountain, Swannanoa area. I think the, the, the, we said we have water, but not drinkable water yet. And I don't know the info without what I've been told is, uh,

talking 20 plus miles of water pipes that have been just gone. They're gone. I mean, it's, it's going to be, that's, there's still a need. And the rebuild is a, what are you, I'm about to hijack the interview, the question now, but I'm, I'm just curious, what are you guys recommending in terms of, because you've seen it, it's going to be a major rebuilding process. Infrastructure has been destroyed. I mean, what, what can our audience do to help in that effort?

That's a great question. You know, first of all, I still need people volunteering and that's for the long haul. So I still need, we'll be doing work orders through Christmas. And when I say work orders, that's chainsaw work, mud outs, tarping a roost. We'll be doing that at least through Christmas. We have a lot of work orders to still go through. So I still need volunteers, overnighters and day laborers coming out.

But as you said, rebuild, we normally transition into certain areas if God's given us the resources to do a rebuild. Those are remodeling of homes. Those are building of new homes. Those are mobile home projects, mobile homes, because if you live in a mobile home,

If we built you a stick built building, you'd probably lose it with taxes. So we have to use work with municipalities. A lot of cities and communities will zone out mobile homes after something like this, unfortunately. So how do you put someone back into a home? So we're working through that right now. I've already got the team set up. We're growing that team because this will be our largest rebuild ever. Um,

Our last one had been down in Houston, Texas, where we did over a thousand homes. We're looking way over, we budgeted for over a thousand homes in Western North Carolina. And we're starting that process. But this challenge, you know, in places like down in Texas, usually you're able to rebuild back on the existing lot. In this case,

the land's gone in most of these places. It's like I said, a canyon bottom. So there's no land to build on. So we haven't passed, like I'll just, the day of the storm, I was actually in Mayfield, Kentucky. You remember that tornado came through and destroyed all of Mayfield about three years ago. Well, we just dedicated our last home there. We put 82 homes in Mayfield, Kentucky and,

60 of those were in a plot of land that we bought and we built our own community from the ground up. And so I dedicated the last home in that community, got on the plane and flew back in the rain and landed in the rain, didn't stop raining for about three days. And so Samaritan's Purse, we won't leave until the job's done. This is home. This is personal to my father and I, where you're talking about in Swannanoa, that's his backyard that he grew up in as a kid. We have friends there. We have family there, Black Mountain and

and Swannanoa area still. So my brother Will lives in Asheville. So we'll be working hard, but that rebuild starts here probably, the paperwork and all that after Christmas, after we can get done to the work orders. It's not that we haven't started it already. We're working ahead and got the team moving forward on it. It just takes time with municipalities and getting approvals and paperwork. Corps of Engineers will condemn land and we just have to work through that. But these are free homes, by the way. When we build these, there's no mortgage.

It's a gift from God. We said that we always say it was paid in full with the blood of Christ up on the cross. And so unlike other organizations, when we build these homes and remodel these homes, there's no cost to that. We only work with the underinsured and not insured. And in this case, everybody's underinsured. There's no insurance.

and Western North Carolina for floods. Yeah, no one had it. And I would just tell you, I mean, if you're looking for a place to give, I appreciate the money that's been given to our church and the volunteers. It has been so encouraging and it's been abundant.

but I will say we are a small church and we're not equipped to do it. What, what you guys can do. So if you want to, you really want to help here. I mean, we are telling people Samaritan's purse. Um, thanks. You know, if you're connected with me at all and you're like, I mean, what you guys are doing, I mean, you are equipped to do this. And so, um, let's hope, you know, and I think a lot of people need that. It's encouraging. And it brings that in. Um,

which is, you know, relief work is such a Jesus thing because, you know, Jesus had that same way about him when he was on the earth. And especially for the three years we get to read about in the red letters, he cared about folks. And I think Edward, what's impressed me so much about knowing your family, and I got to meet your grandfather before you crossed over and,

And we had a really interesting talk and he laughed. He said, oh, look, these bearded guys from Louisiana, you know, because Willie was with me when we got to meet him. But what I love about it is the gospel has always been at the forefront. I love what you said. It was paid for on the cross. But the expansion of gifts and talents.

In your family. I mean, just in, and I'm just getting to meet you, but obviously just from hearing you describe what you are doing at Samaritan's Purse, it's obvious that the Lord trained you through your military career to be ready to do exactly what you're doing now. And everything goes for the ultimate, which is the salvation of souls. But at the same time,

To help people who are struggling, to help people who are suffering. And so it's all part of that same process, but getting to heaven is what it's all about. You know, our founder is a guy by the name of Bob Pierce. My dad, he's not the founder of Samaritan's Purse. He took it over from Bob. Bob started World Vision first. Mm-hmm.

But he had some things when he started Samaritan's Purse. He always wanted your heart be pierced and broken by the things that break the heart of Jesus Christ. That's a certain tenderness. And he named it Samaritan's Purse because you don't pass by anybody in the ditch. It doesn't matter their background, who they are. We go to everybody and serve and we want to meet their immediate needs.

But the story of the Good Samaritans, he provided medicine, food, water, transportation. We do all those things at Samaritan's Purse. Provided housing, the inn. That's what we do. But the most important part of that story is

The debt was paid. He paid the innkeeper the debt. That's the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's why we go. And that's what we want the whole world to know, that they're not forsaken during these storms. They're not forgotten. God loves them. Loved them so much, he sent his only son. And so this is the ministry of Samaritan's Purse and the ministry of my grandfather's organization, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association that my father and my brother will run. The purpose isn't any different. The mission's not different.

We just have different tools to do it. My grandfather, my dad, my brother, Will, they can speak in the stadiums to thousands of people at once on TV to thousands of millions.

Samaritan's Purse, so we go after that one person in the ditch that couldn't make it to the stadium. It might have been war, famine, in this case, flood, but we meet them where they are. And that's why we go and we appreciate we're built off the widow's might. And so if we ever lose the trust of the widow, we don't exist anymore. And I think she gives us her might, her $20 a gift a month because she's on a fixed income because she expects us to share the gospel and be bold about it.

I'm not ashamed. That's why I love dad. I've learned a lot from him. You know, he's, I came here to learn grace and mercy from him. Most people don't understand that, you know, how he uses grace. I think cause he was showed grace. He was a wild kid growing up and he had loving parents that forgave him or patient with him. But it's, we've got a lot of work to do in Western North Carolina and we worked as a local church. That's my model. We always worked. I have been asked by a lot of people, how do y'all respond so quick? You

you're beating you know the government in places well we respond quick because the local church knows the need you go with them they get their credit god gets to glory not samaritan's purse yeah and because we're going to leave one day and what does that local church look like after we leave real quick if you want to give or volunteer you can go to samaritanpurse.org we'll put that in the notes the show and i just looked it up it's very easy i actually have a green tab that says give and an orange one that says volunteer so

Yeah. Volunteer is show you how to volunteer. That's I want people praying and volunteering. Absolutely. Well, uh, I didn't even get to get into hunting because the grams are hunters as well. Just like the Robertsons. I think Jason's right. We're, we're the, uh, the back backwards, redneck version more of the Graham family. That's why we love you guys so much. So,

Give everybody our love. And, man, we appreciate so much what you guys are doing. And we're all in Unashamed Nation on doing our part to help you. Thank you very much. You know, we're proud of your family and the ministry and the opportunity you have. Know you're prayed over as well. And if there's anything we do to serve you or your family or your church, you let us know. Thank you, guys. Appreciate you. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed Podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

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