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Welcome to the God's goodness podcast where our mission is to encourage and highlight God's

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goodness and modern day miracles. We are your hosts, Josh and Shelley Hankins. Today we have

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with us a special guest. You've met him before in the podcast. He's been on a few times and this

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time he's going solo. We have Pastor John Kent with us sharing more tales of his mission work

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in Papua New Guinea and we ask for a little grace because we are recording remotely. I am

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getting over a cold and we didn't want to spread that but we still wanted to spread the goodness

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of God and so we're still recording. So bear with us and then there might be dogs. So if you hear

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them just you know life happens but we're still going to get the word out and with that we'll

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have Pastor John open us with an opening prayer. Thank you Josh and Shelley for inviting me on

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again. Let's pray. Oh Lord just so very honored with the privilege of serving you. So honored Lord

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that somehow you see value in us and that you choose us. You want us to matter. Today Lord is we

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talk, may this conversation and whatever stories I tell may they truly bring honor and glory to you.

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Thank you Jesus for hearing our prayer. Amen. Amen. So for our listeners I've always told Pastor

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John he should write a book and I'm not the only one who's told him that and so these are some of

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the tales that might be in a book one day so now we get to hear them firsthand and before the book

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comes out so. Allegedly comes out. Yeah after retirement. So where would you like to start today?

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You know I was thinking as I sat down Josh and Shelley I just really do want to begin with a

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word of scripture that's okay. Oh yes. You know yesterday down in my chair where I study and pray

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and my Bible fell open in my mouth. Just came to this verse and I thought it was very a significant

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verse given some of the things I was pondering and dealing with and but it comes from Ezekiel 37.

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If you are familiar with that chapter it's the chapter of the dry bones. And God chose Ezekiel

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this valley full of bones and he asks if they can live and he's the only one who can live. And then you

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know God sends his spirit he sends the wind you know he prophesies he tells Ezekiel to prophesy over

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the bones and there's a whole bunch of clattering and the bones all come together and and then you

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know eventually sin you are on them but they're still not breathing and then Ezekiel prophesies

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to come and all of a sudden they stood in their feet and lived a mighty army it says. And verses

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13 and 14 as God is speaking to Ezekiel he says this and you shall know that I am the Lord.

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From your graves oh my people and I will put my spirit in you and you shall live. I will place you

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in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken and I will do it.

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I just love that promise you guys that you know in the places whether it's New Guinea or Bridgeville

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or wherever it is in whatever point time in our lives when things seem you know challenging and

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difficult and it feels like it's hopeless how can these bones live you know yet when God sends

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his spirit radical transformation happens and I'm really grateful for that and I'm really grateful

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how that connects to the stories we're going to share today. I couldn't help but be reminded of that

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one song Dry Bones Hear the Word of the Lord live live anyway go on. I always think of the dry bones

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come alive. Yeah the Lauren Daigle song is a great song. I thought I'd begin with a story we had

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been in New Guinea among the Iwam people for a year or two I suppose and we got this message that came

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out of the jungle from a place called Ipemol. The message came and it said please come to see us.

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We want to learn about God you're teaching the Iwam. And so you know a little time went by

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apparently you know the transformational work and God was doing among the Iwam and began to

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trickle the news and began to trickle into the far deeper jungle even deeper than we were.

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So a little time went by and another message came and so one Friday morning I get up.

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I took a friend one of my friends as a guide and we began to make our way toward this people. Now

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you know what's interesting is that this tribal group was a semi-nomadic hunter gatherer people

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whereas the Iwam were a river based people with permanent dwellings the Ipemol people

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were people that just roamed the jungle eating rats bats bugs snakes and it moved it moved they ate

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it. Wow but they wanted to hear about Jesus. Yeah they they'd heard they'd heard about what we were

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doing and news of God's transformational work in the Iwam and trickled it back there and so I had

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never contacted this tribe I didn't know anything about them and only later did I find out I was

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the first westerner to actually make contact with this tribe. But I get up on a Friday morning I grabbed

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a little bit of food and we took off and you know up to this point in time among the Iwam

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there was always food to eat somewhere even if it was something I didn't like there was something to

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eat right and so I ate a little breakfast that morning and then we took off and we went down

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the river in our 15-foot dingy and turned into a tributary and we made our way for several hours in

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that until the swathe actually closed in so tight that we couldn't go forward anymore and just about

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that place you know we found this little log canoe so we got out and we climbed into the canoe we

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began paddling and by the way men in New Guinea have to stand up in their log canoe paddle only

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women sit down so that's a whole skill set in its own. I had to look. Do you know why? Is there a

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belief system behind that or is it just? It's just a cultural practice men stand it probably I'm

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going to guess I never really explored that Josh but I'm going to guess that in more violent times

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that a man standing had a far better chance of seeing something a little farther out than if he

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was sitting so but honestly I don't know the detailed answer to that question all I know is

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that women always sat men always stood and anyway a challenging challenging skill to learn I provided

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hours of entertainment to the e-wall when I was learning how to paddle a little narrow canoe

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standing I did a lot of swimming so anyway you know we paddled for a number of hours and then

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finally got to where we couldn't do that and we began to walk and you know what you have to put

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in your mind here is we're not looking for a permanent village we're looking for signs of human

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movement right we're looking for a footprint a trail anything that would indicate that people

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have been here so would they carry fire with them too when you mentioned before with the e-wall and

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that fire was yeah not impossible to make but if they had one going they would do the best they

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couldn't preserve it absolutely yeah absolutely because without matches for lighters getting

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the spark going is really challenging especially in a wet environment so they would do everything

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they could to protect you know a fire or a burning ember so yeah but the general stick so you're

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not really you can't really look for smoke or even much snow unless you're really really close

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but so you know we're kind of making our way my helper knows kind of the direction we're going but

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you know that these people would just move into an area they would eat everything around that area

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out and then they would move on and so we were gone all day hours and hours and hours and finally

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about five thirty six o'clock just before sundown we step into this clearing and on the other side

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of the clearing our group of the epamo people and they took one look at me you guys and they ran in

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sheer terror into the jungle they had no idea that i was the thing they sent for

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they'd never seen anything like me and they literally thought i was an evil spirit wow

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it took my helper about 20 30 minutes to convince them that i was the thing that they sent for

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me and by the way their language was different also they didn't speak they had a different language

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from the e-wom my helper knew in a little bit oh wow then there's a trade language that that you

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know most tribes in new guinean but this tribe did not know it very well at all because they had

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very little contact with even other tribal groups and so you know they're living about as remotely

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as you're going to find anywhere on planet earth they finally received the idea that i'm the thing

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they sent for and so they take us to their little makeshift village and there's these little sticks

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you know an inch or two and diameter and you know stilted houses on these little sticks you know

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four five feet off the ground and so we climbed up in the into the hut and put up our mosquito nets

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and came back down i at least assuming that they would give us some food but they did not

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and we've been all day long without a single bite of food and we're not you know sitting twiddling

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our thumbs you know we're you know on the boat and then rowing and then hiking or not rowing but

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paddling and then hiking and under the heat and the of the equatorial sun and yeah man it was man

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they didn't offer a single bite of food so we went to bed that night really hungry and got up the next

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day and again i i kind of expected we'd get some food but they didn't offer me a single bite of food

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maybe still wondering if i was a spirit maybe they thought spirits didn't need

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but the truth be told though i did not see a single person put food in their mouth that entire

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weekend now they may have been going out and pulling grubs out of the ground or eating something that i

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did not see but i didn't see anybody put food in their mouth and they're just very skinny

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they're survivors they're roaming and just eating what is available in a given moment and so right

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you know just just on the edge of of survival and so we spent that first day with you know

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beginning trying to establish relationship trying to communicate we began our first attempts at

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at trying to communicate the idea of a god a christian god a god that's full of love and

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compassion toward people rather than spirits that have to be manipulated and appeased continually

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it was a challenging day as we sat there sometimes just looking at one another and trying our best

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to communicate and so we spent the first day with them and then got up sunday morning and i spent

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till about 10 o'clock with them you know we continued to very simplistic ways seek to communicate

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to them about god and finally about 10 o'clock in the morning we decided to begin to reverse the

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trek well this is the third day without food and so now we begin this trek back hours and hours

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through the jungle and we finally get to the canoe well we got in the canoe we padded for several

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hours we finally got to the boat late afternoon only to find that the entire river swamp level

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has dropped two feet over the weekend and so instead of being able to use the outboard motor i had to

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crawl into the swamp and push the boat and i just want to tell you guys that took about no

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other two hours and i want to tell you that by the time i got into the boat i was so weak we were so

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weak from a hunger it was terrible and i looked at the time well i didn't have to look at watch i

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don't even know if i had one but you know i knew there was no way we were getting a home where we

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were going to have to spend another night in the jungle but we got the outboard fired up and started

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down the river and we come into e-wam territory and there's a village coming up that you know i

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know that village i know that leader and i know he'll give us a place to eat you know some i mean a

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place to stay i'm already thinking about food right in my story right and so as we near the

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village this crazy thing happened it was the first time i'd ever seen it there were these bugs i call

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them like a mayfly they had a body probably an inch and a half or two inches long and a wing spread

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probably two inches or so wide but their entire life was lived in the water and in the space of two

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or three hours these things would hatch they would hatch they'd come to the surface they'd start flying

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they'd begin breeding laying eggs and dying all by the literally the millions it was literally

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josh and shelly like we were on the boat you know sliding over the surface of the water

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but literally like going through a snowstorm a blizzard of white flying breeding laying eggs

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and dying bugs that's gross and you know they're flying like three feet off the surface of the

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water from surface level right up to three feet they're just you know it's just like going through a

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mass cloud of these things and we're going down the river through these things and i'm just astounded

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by it and as we get near the village all of a sudden the ladies there's a bunch of ladies out there

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and their little log canoes and they've got their canoes and turned semi perpendicular to the flow

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of the water and these bugs are coming down and heaping up against the sides of the canoe and

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then they're scooping these bugs into bark baskets that they have in their in their canoes and as we

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go by there i say to myself what in the world are they doing with those lunch you know where this

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is going i was wondering why you wouldn't open your mouth in the snow star if you're that hungry

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maybe i should have thought of that josh but yeah so we were right around them got down to the

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village you know and the village leader came down and he sees me and i said hey you know can we stay

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here tonight you know that we've been in the deep bush here for several days he said oh yeah no

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problem no problem you can stay at my height and then i said to him listen you know do you have any

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food for us to eat we've been three days without a bite of food and he said no problem no problem

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just come on so we go up to the house put up our mosquito nets and i sit down and pretty soon you

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guys they bring in these green leaf packages all wrapped up and they throw them on the fire and they

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begin to cook and i am sitting there salivating like a mad dog and for some reason i have no idea

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what's in those bags and after a little bit you know that they say they're done and then they plop one

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in front of me and i reached out and i rip it open i am so hungry and i look at this mush of ten

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thousand steamed bugs and i look at those bugs and i look at the man and i look at the bugs he

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was so happy to give it to you i'm sure oh he was and i look at the man and i said surely you must

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have something in this house besides bugs and he looked at me like i was nuts he stopped in the

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rackers and he pulled down a cold black fish that looked like it had been up there for six months

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and he laid it down beside the bugs correct i want to tell you it was hard you're like how hungry am i

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this reminds me of wendy lost and she's like when you're hungry you'll eat it you'll eat anything

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monkey balls anything i don't know about all that i think i don't know about i think there's a

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there's a healthy respect to hunger that we can have i know i definitely would have been hungry

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not having eaten from fasting for 40 days i can i can tell you that what's one more day

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well is it it's different if it's like an optional like i chose the fast but if it's like an

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a forced fast a forced fast it's a little different but all the while i'm still leaning on god's

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strength to get me through it anyway man i guys i looked down i ate that fish head

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pli bowls of works and i thought you for dessert oh my gosh so gross i wonder how they know like oh

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yep this is done these are done now that was quite the experience but that's actually just

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the springboard or the ramp into the epimo people you know so eventually the next morning i get home

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and when i get home you know for some weeks there was a a guy there that i met by the name of bop

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you know he just seemed very interested in i'm just i'm wrestling with the idea of how do i reach

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a semi-nomadic people who don't settle in a single place how do i reach people that just

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roam and you don't know where they're at all the time and and and so a few weeks went by maybe even

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a month or two and i'm wrestling with how do we do this praying about it and i took a trip down

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or one of our trips quarterly trips out to town and on the trip i go into a store and this so

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interesting and this always amazed me about new guinea there was this little frontier

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here provincial headquarters of wewack but it had a christian bookstore of all things and i went

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into the christian bookstore in that little town and there on the shelf were two or three tape

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recorders cassette players you know what i mean cassette player but the interesting thing was

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they required no batteries they or electricity they had a little hand crank on and if you spun

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you could you know it had all the little buttons like a regular old cassette player had you know

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an eject a little thing that opened up you know open and put your cassette in close it and they

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hit the play button but nothing happened until you started winding the crank and i looked at that

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and i thought huh you know i could maybe do that i could record bible stories on cassettes and then

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i could take that player back into bop and give it to him and teach him how to use it and maybe

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they could listen to the bible and so that's what i did i bought it i brought it back and then over a

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series of weeks i recorded a long series of bible stories chronologically and i took those those

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cassettes and i color coded them so that they could know which one came next and i took a little

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sheet of paper and they couldn't read or write they'd never been to school or had no education or

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training of any kind but i just put a series of dots on a paper that corresponded with the color of

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the cassette and so after i and i recorded that by the way all in their language or all in the

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trade language that would be and so eventually i got that done and i took my helper and we went back

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and this time i took food with me by the way no doubt i took crackers and ramen

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anyway i went back in and now how long did that take you to record those oh i don't remember you

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know a number of weeks it took me to you know to sit down between everything else i was doing okay

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and you know just recording those cassettes and then when i was done you know later in this to go

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in and so i took my helper and we went back and i sat down with ball and i showed him the cassette

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player and i showed him the cassettes and i showed him the sheet and i showed him all the color codes

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and i sat with him and and i had to actually show him how to turn it he'd never done anything at all

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like that you know like a movement that went round and around and around in his hand and i'll just i'll

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never forget to this day when he pushed the little button and began winding when the voice came out

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of the cassette player just the shock on his eyes to hear my voice coming out of the box

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but you know i saw i took him i took that and left it and then left you know gave put it in his hands

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and returned back to may river to continue on work and then so another week even a couple of months

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went by again time moves slowly and quickly in the jungle but i said i need to go back in i need to go

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i need to go back there and try and find them and see how they're doing and so josh and shelly this

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is always truly astounded me we went back into the jungle and we eventually found them once again

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and the tribal group had decided that they were going to rather than trying to listen to stories

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every day they were going to take one day a week that they would the whole tribe would stop

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and that they would pause on that day and that all they would do would be listen to the bible stories

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sounds like a Sabbath to me it actually was shelly they actually without calendars or time

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or watches they actually chose the seventh day of the week they have no idea and they would just

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take turns winding the crank just winding the crank oh around and around and around and listening to

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the story and god did god just began to transform them from a fear based tribal group living in

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fear and manipulation of spiritual forces toward an understanding a loving response to god and

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somewhere i will never forget i have a picture and this actually happened after we left i went down

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river we moved down river the last two years we were in the country and while we were away

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living in another spot bop was baptized he and several others and i have a picture in him and

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i'll see if i can find it for you and just the joy on his face is and the gleam in his eye

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is just amazing it's amazing to see the difference in his face in his life just from receiving jesus

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and so that's going to springboard us into one more story that's the story of sabian

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his sabian story also intersects with this story so when we first moved to the may river

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we were a novelty and by that i mean blend and i were the novelty right people we were just

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strange and different and uh living among this people but people began to respond and you know

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we've told you the story of ben and what happened out of that story and pretty soon we had you know

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a number of baptisms but there was a man by the name of sabian and his life manel and sabian

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just he was not interested in christianity at all he had no interest in it his father had died

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recently and there was a series of spiritual rituals that they had to go through that took a

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long time you know sometimes it can take a couple of years to fully complete some of these rituals

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and to ensure that the dead you know are as safe as they can be sabian was afraid if he became a

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christian that it would mess with that right that his father might get angry it's his dead father

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might get angry and come back to cause harm if things weren't done correctly and so you know

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i just had a real burden for him i love this man i love his wife but they just they weren't they weren't

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responding then one day sabian's daughter probably two three-year-old daughter got very ill maybe even

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last she's probably around one he got really ill and for the e-wom people they do not allow their

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children to cry because if an infant if a child cries and doesn't stop it risks losing its spirit

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and dying so in their system they do everything possible to keep a child from crying because

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they already have a 50 percent input mortality rate and you're doing everything you can to keep

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your your children alive but their little daughter there i remember now she's less than a

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than a year she got sick and she would not stop crying and she cried through an entire night and

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an entire day and they did all the rituals they knew how to do to pacify her and stop her and

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she just wouldn't stop and went through another night and she just continued into this incessant

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cry and whimpering and filled with fear they came to the end of their rope because their rituals

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clearly weren't working and so they put their little baby their infant into canoe and they started

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paddling up river and they paddled actually right past my house well they went up around the corner

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to the next little village where there was a a young couple by the name of marcus and siaku

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and marcus and siaku were among our very first converts our first group of 10 that gave their

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hearts to jesus and by the way they're still serving that church today all these many years later

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wow safely beating the church there they paddled up to marcus and siaku they brought their

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canoe to rest on the little sandbar in front of marcus and siaku's house and they began to walk

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up the sandbar toward the house and marcus and siaku came down and they asked what was happening

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and sabian told them our daughter won't stop crying and we've done all the rituals and she

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just won't stop and we decided we need to try your god would you pray to your god for our daughter

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and so marcus and siaku got down on their knees they took that little baby into their hands

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and they began to pray and josh and chellie the moment they began to pray that baby stopped crying

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so good the moment they prayed the baby stopped crying

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the moment that just made this huge huge huge impressive sabian

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you know it just made a big impression on him and so pretty soon he began pursuing you know we began

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to you know teaching the bible teaching the stories of the bible teaching about jesus

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and eventually he and his wife were baptized but that experience just deeply embedded in sabian

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the idea that god heard prayer and and he began to be you know he just began to respond to god to be

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faithful to god i think he was one of the first people that ever brought tithe to the church

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he was two years of corn he brought two years of corn and put it on the front bench and said this

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is i'm giving this to god and i remember that day it just didn't brought me to tears just to see him

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do it just to begin thinking about how do i respond to the grace of god in my life and sabian actually

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became very powerful in prayer and several people were healed through his prayers

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hmm and then there was the day that sabian and a bunch of the villagers they went to work in their

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gardens and when i say the word garden you have to think differently than here you know here we have

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these nicely killed plots but for the e-womb it's not done in rows the ground's not plop they actually

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have to go and cut trees down and slash off the jungle the slash all the bush back and burn it and

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and after you know quite some time you know it's a long it's a planned process and after time then

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they have to go and just with a digging stick begin punching holes in the ground to to put their

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cow cow in it's a version of a sweet potato or or bananas or greens or whatever they're going to plant

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and as he's doing that he's out there in the garden and you know there's a bunch of his other you know

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family and villagers of their planning and he gets really discouraged he gets really really

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discouraged because he said you know i don't know why i do this because the pigs all the wild pig

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are just going to come eat this they're just going to come eat it and it's just going to be a waste

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and why should i do this you know just to feed the pig yeah that's a lot of work you know the

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e-womb don't don't pence this and it's a real challenge because if you plant your crops or your

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food down at river level 50 or more of those are going to get flooded out by by rain by floods

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of the river going over the banks and if you put it on the mountain on the old sides then the wild

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animals especially the pigs will come and ravage it and so he's just sitting standing there in the

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middle of his garden just in frustration and then he remembers god he remembers how god has

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been hearing his prayer his prayers and so he just kneels in the middle of his garden and he just

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says lord you know i love you and i'm trying to follow you and here's my garden and if you don't

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intervene most of it's just going to be eaten by the pigs and i don't want that so he said that you

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know i'm just asking you to protect my garden would you protect my garden as a witness to my

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family and friends that you are alive that you are real and he prayed and he committed that garden

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to the lord and he laughed and several months later josh and shelly this has been one of the most

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astounding things while all the other gardens in the region had been ravaged by pigs the same as

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always not one pig even so much as put his footprint inside sabian's garden that's awesome and yeah just

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just an amazing thing and then so to intersect the two stories of the paimo people and sabian

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sabian became our first nihuam missionary because i knew that you know the cassette tapes could only

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go so far you know the people need a living witness to share the gospel they need a living testimony

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you know they need a living word to really help them understand and experience god so sabian and

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his wife became the very first e-wam missionaries that we sent out from the e-wam people to another

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tribal group and they went back to the paimo people and began teaching and sharing and modeling and it

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was because of their work that bop was eventually baptized. That is really really cool. Talk about

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a hedge of protection. I mean talk about you know winning someone right so god answers this man's

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deepest desire through the prayers of believers and you know he challenges god in this right he says

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that nothing that we do works maybe the guy that you pray to has the answer and then the guy that

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they prayed to had the answer and so you know later on he goes and relies on the same knowledge

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that he answered me before he can do it again right so boldly prayed again and saw an answer again

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you know i could see why he became a missionary i can see why he decided that he was going to give

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his life to god because god clearly was giving everything to him that he asked for.

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And for me that's why it links back also to the verse from Ezekiel i will put my spirit with you

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and you will live and i will place my own land and you will know that i am the lord that i have

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spoken and i will do it you know it's such a beautiful god's grace in their lives.

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It all began with eating bugs. Well with turning the bugs down.

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You weren't man enough for the bugs so they gave you level two which was i believe the

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harder challenge i think it would have rather ate the bugs than the black fish they pulled out

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that was black for what reason? They just up there drying it probably been semi-smoked

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somewhere along the way. Yeah nope i'd rather eat the bugs at least they'd be fresh.

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Yeah i want to tell you what brother if you'd have looked at that pile of bugs you might question

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that decision. If i'd have looked at that fish that decision would have been over though i'd have

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been i'd have been in the bugs or i'd have just you know said i'm not hungry and

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suffered a little longer you've met me i'm not going to starve to death.

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Well at the beginning when like the prayer was answered but then not the way we expected it's like

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oh never mind god it's like did i really want that? It's just things might not look how we

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expect them to look like but they'll be good because god had them in mind.

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You know john i want to thank you so much for being so faithful and obedient to the call of

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god in your life so that you have these stories to share with us. Right you have something to show

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so for the little bit that he left you responsible for right and then he keeps giving you stuff to

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be responsible for and you keep crushing it out of the park and which is probably why you'll be 80

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something before you actually retire. I'm really impressed with you leaning into a god what you

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feel god is directing you to even before you knew you had all the pieces that you needed from him

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right you were still a broken man when you started following the call that he had for you

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and you know you and your wife both suffered on that that journey before you had some healing

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and i know that that healing that you had wasn't the end all right that there's still more on the

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journey and uh you're just proof that following what god has for you leads to first of all glory

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for god and second of all personal fulfillment i feel that you both feel very fulfilled in what

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you've done for him and what you're continuing to do for him and i really love your obedience to

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his heart even when you didn't have it sorted out like i wish that would be a takeaway for some people

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is you don't have to have it all sorted out to follow god he's going to iron you out as you go

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through it doesn't have to be a perfect flawless thing in the beginning yeah it's like when you're

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going to work not all the lights will be green but you know just take one at a time absolutely

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you know it's absolutely absolutely god doesn't wait for us to have it all together he doesn't

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wait for us to be perfect he knows he knows our hearts and he knows you know for me i don't know

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what i would have done had i not been called to this it's hard to imagine i'm going to be broken my

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my life would be but it's it's in responding to the leading of god that impressing in that we

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learn the lessons and we grow to be like jesus and i'm so grateful i am so so grateful that he

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doesn't wait for us you know a few years ago i was reflecting on on the body of scripture

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here and you can go back and scripture and moses he killed a guy and god used him

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david committed adultery and killed a guy and god used him and paul killed a bunch of people

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god still saw the value in him and used him and so i've often said to myself i haven't even killed

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anybody yet so maybe god can use me that you know of that i know i'm there you go

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i would hope you would be aware

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but yeah it's just it's an astounding astounding thing you know it's just preached two sermons today

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and so you know this amazing truth is

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us that's the universe god looks down he sees you

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josh and you shelly and he sees me and everybody listening to this podcast he sees us

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and more than seeing us he sees the value in us he loves us for who we are just as we are

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and he just begins investing his heart into our hearts so that we begin to have more and more

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like him but i'm just so grateful for the love of god me too this sanctification thing is definitely

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a process and god's so gentle with us too and he just takes and lets us go at our own peace

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and just takes our hand step by step i love it i'm grateful that god shows us that he loves us

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it's not just some blank hollow words that are written down right that he shows us through the

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things he gives us he shows us through the things he's already given us the details he the comfort

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that he shares like there's so many things that he does to prove that he loves us and that he's

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listening like i don't have to have that he loves me on faith that part i don't need faith for i know

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that he loves me i can rest assured that he loves me that he cherishes me right there's no longer

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faith in my heart for that because that's just true mm-hmm well thank you for another episode with us

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pastor john this is awesome i love your stories and listener if you have been blessed by this or any

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of our episodes we ask that you share it with a friend so they can be encouraged as well and then

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click on that if you know your name and email you'll be able to sign up for that and get it sent

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each week we have a new episode every friday at noon so tune in be encouraged and share it with

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blessed us with a studio so we're going to be getting that set up and your donations help with

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that and there's a link in the about section for that for our fundraising campaign there's options

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to give her that and we would so appreciate that help and with that we'll talk to you next time