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All right, welcome to the Ocean Water Podcast.

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This is the voice for Indigenous water rights.

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So we'll get into a little bit of that later.

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Today I have with me my good friend Ralph Moore.

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For those of you who don't know Ralph, Ralph is someone that I look up to, someone that

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I admire, someone that I get advice from, like a mentor of mine.

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Ralph is 74 years old.

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Ralph spent four plus decades pastoring and starting churches.

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And he started with a little humble Bible study and all along the way has helped guys

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been very open-handed and helped people take 10 people, 20 people, 30 people, 40 people,

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100 people, whenever they felt led to start new churches.

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And here at this point in his life he can look back and see a network of over 2,400

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documented churches.

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And so Ralph is someone that I just have such a respect for.

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And so I get to spend a little bit of time with you today, Ralph.

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So I just want to give everyone a little bit of a context.

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For our friendship we could probably spend an entire 25 minutes just talking about how

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we met.

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It's hard to believe it was only a year ago.

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Not even, I guess, huh?

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Yeah, but so thanks for your time today, Ralph.

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If you could do all of our listeners a favor, some of them are going to be getting to know

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you for the first time.

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Can you tell everyone where you like to eat in San Diego these days, which is where you

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live?

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Oh, my favorite place to eat anywhere in the world, and I can find it anywhere in the world,

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is McDonald's.

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I'm a total McDonald's freak.

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It's hard to beat two double cheeseburgers and a french fry.

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Oh, my gosh.

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That's exactly what I get all the time.

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That's awesome.

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So what are you doing at this stage of your life, and then how did you get to it?

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Well, actually, I started out a frustrated kid.

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I went to a big church, actually a mega church in Oregon as a kid.

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Saw a lot of hypocrisy, very frustrated, felt I wanted to be an architect, felt God called

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me to be a pastor.

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He didn't like that idea, but I went along with it.

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And I got to a Bible college, and I worked in a small church.

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Started out with four junior high school boys.

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Their names were Jeff, Dan, Dudley, and Jimmy.

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We lost Jimmy within a year.

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I'm still in touch with the other three.

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That was in 1965.

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I believe in long enduring relationships.

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Worked with those kids until they were sophomores in college.

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We started out in a, sitting in a parking lot with no shade from the sun.

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It was September, beastly hot.

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Grew the youth group never to more than 30 kids.

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If I'd pop an event, I'd have maybe 300 show up.

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But made disciples, and that was the only thing that really lasted.

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And then after about seven years, four years while I was in college, three years they paid

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me.

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I planted a church with 12 people.

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And pretty soon we planted another by accident, almost.

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And then we started planting churches.

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And like you said, it's grown to like 2,400.

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I run a little website.

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The address is ralphmoore.net.

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And my goal is to help younger guys along.

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And the way I put it is to help you become a leader you'd want to follow.

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Because we've all been asked to follow leaders that we didn't like or we didn't respect,

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who demanded loyalty.

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They led from position and commanded some kind of authority.

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And we can see through them.

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And so I just want to kind of help guys become somebody that they would want to follow.

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My focus is really on smaller churches and church plants.

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I know that some guy with, you know, I've pastored a couple of churches of a couple

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thousand.

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Some guy with 4,000 isn't going to want to listen to what I have to say.

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I'm looking for the guys of churches of maybe 500 and less, especially new churches like

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yours, because those are the guys that are, they're looking to change.

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They're looking to change the world around them.

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They're not caught up in gathering a big congregation.

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They want to do something that's outward instead of inward.

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And so that's kind of what I'm up to.

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I do a blog, I do a podcast.

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I put up a bunch of sermons from my days in Honolulu, wrote some books.

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I got a bunch of freebie things.

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So I just want to do what I can to help.

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I'm retired.

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I don't really need any money.

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So, you know, I travel around a lot.

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I still raise money and go to third world countries, although the pandemic is kind of

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goofing that up a little bit.

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But I do what I can.

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And you know, the Lord still made me strong.

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And so I want to use it for him.

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So awesome.

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Is there anything that that current Ralph would have told young Ralph?

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Like, is there anything that you wish you'd know when you started out that you didn't

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that you you look back?

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Well, I can look back at the at the big regret that I have.

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And that's that we started all these churches.

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And it's really hard for me to call it a movement.

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We'll call it that.

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It's really hard to call it a network, because when we got started, we were in a denomination.

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And when we planted a church, they pretty much owned it.

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They wanted it that way.

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And you know, as I got older, I knew how to push back.

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But when I was young, I didn't.

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And so we just got part of our DNA was once you're out the door, I'll still meet with

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you for a little while then.

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But somebody else owns you.

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Well, then we begin planting more independent churches.

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We planted Calvary chapels and Baptist churches, even a Methodist church along the way, kind

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of as somebody had a background someplace else, we'd disciple them and then release

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them.

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That's kind of always our thing.

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Make disciples and release them.

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And it never really caught up that we should be networking these people.

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And, you know, in those days, we didn't have the tools we have now.

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When the internet first kind of came on, I started a thing called, I think it was called

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CP forum dotnet.

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And I gathered maybe 500 pastors through that.

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And I would publish things that they wrote a blog thing, really.

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And we didn't have smartphones.

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I mean, that that only happened, what 14 years ago, we didn't have email.

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I used to work in Japan, a lot still do.

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And everybody in Japan before email, before the invention of email, everybody in Japan

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had fax machines in their homes.

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And you know, it's marvelous thing that you can write to somebody and they can be asleep.

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And then when they wake up, they can answer you back.

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I mean, exactly what email is, they had kind of invented via fax machine.

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So I went and bought a fax machine because it would take five days for a letter to get

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to Japan.

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And it was just in like the year 1998, 1995.

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And so, you know, there's all this technology now, which would allow us to really do some

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pretty powerful things in networking.

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And one of the things that I'm finding is the podcast, I'm building a network, partly

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by interviewing guys like you.

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And then, you know, I get to meet your friends or whatever.

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And podcasts have become pretty powerful tool.

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I just put out a little video that isn't online yet.

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It will be probably within a week of how you could, if you're a network leader, maybe of

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five to eight churches, how you can kind of archive information and your thoughts and

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whatever via a podcast.

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And it's very inexpensive.

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And so, you know, my main advice to young Ralph Moore was, hey, stupid, you should network

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people a lot better than you think you should.

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So I'm still learning, you know, getting old, but I'm still learning.

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Yeah, why I appreciate the humor and also just for our listeners, Ralph hasn't slow

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you said you were retired, but you haven't slowed down one bit.

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I know in the next 12 months, you'll be in Russia.

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I know you'll be in England.

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I know you'll be in Japan.

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I know that you take guys with you.

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You and you and Rick Warren need to team up and do some sort of energy seminar.

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I don't even know if that's a thing, but it's really inspiring to watch.

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You start to make a note of people that you want to end up like, and you and Ruby are

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joyful and adventurous and just as happy as ever.

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So thanks for that.

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Well, thank you.

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Yeah.

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So what are you curious about these days?

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Like what interests you?

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Two very different things.

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One is technology.

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Just before we started today, I'm kind of rebuilding my website and I don't really understand

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what I'm doing.

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You know, I understand a lot because I poke around, I learn things, but somehow I just

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managed to delete the whole blog portion of the website.

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I can find the post, but I can't put the page back up.

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So I know where I'm spending my afternoon.

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And honestly, it's kind of fun for me.

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I like the challenge and enjoy.

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You know, it's like every three weeks I'm learning a new piece of software just because

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I'm trying to build out my ways of communicating with people.

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And the other entirely opposite thing is I'm learning to paint with acrylics, you know,

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like oil painting only with acrylics because it dries faster and it fits the lifestyle

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of somebody who travels a lot.

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But yeah, I bought a little book.

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It's got 54.

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You do five inch by five inch paintings and each one is a lesson.

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They're pretty stupid, really.

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I mean, you start out pretty simple.

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But actually, I'm about maybe eight lessons in and I tried to paint a lighthouse.

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There's a lighthouse that I used to go to a lot when I was a kid and I found a picture

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on the internet.

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I'm painting it.

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And it's really cool because as I get older, I know I got to slow down at some point, you

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know, the travels.

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Right now, I can't travel anywhere.

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It's crazy.

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You know, I'm supposed to go to England and Ireland in about two months and I'm not sure

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that it'll be safe.

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And so that's kind of changed my world.

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So I was looking for a hobby because I never my hobbies have been restoring cars and writing

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books and now I guess technology.

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But I wanted a hobby that was no stress but I could obsess because I'm kind of an obsessive

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person.

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And so something I could just go into and go nuts on it.

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But if I had to throw it away, well, no big deal.

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It's a kick.

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I used to surf a hundred years ago.

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I was a surfer.

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No, I wasn't.

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I was never a surfer.

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I just used to surf because I was never any good.

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Pretty much more clumsy.

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So but you know, a number of years ago, I had two friends that drowned of minor heart

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attacks when they're in the water.

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And so the last couple of times I went out, I'd be out there for two hours and catch two

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waves and you know, I travel a lot so I'm never in shape.

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And so I'm all, you know, jelly arms and I can't even lift the board over my head.

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You know, 11 foot board, by the way.

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I get out of the water.

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I can't get the board over my head.

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I have to have somebody carry the board off the beach for me.

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And so I thought, you know, I'm going to have a stroke or a heart attack that wouldn't kill

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me on land, but it will kill me in the water.

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And so I quit.

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I did stand up paddling for a while and got just the point where I was ready to catch

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waves.

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And then the guy was doing it with kind of blue tire and we didn't go out anymore.

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I was still when I was still in Hawaii, but happy to be back in California.

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Love the weather in San Diego and just the vibe of Southern California is just so cool

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for me.

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Miss Hawaii.

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Miss my friends.

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Don't miss the weather.

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Don't miss the humidity.

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But I sure do miss the beauty and I miss all those wonderful people.

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I know so well.

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Well, I know Drew Tedes and I are glad you're here.

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Well, I'm happy, man.

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You know that when I met you, it's like I still only knew a half dozen people in California.

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And so our friendship has blossomed and I have such deep admiration and respect for

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what you're doing.

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And you know, I was at your first Sunday night session in the coffee shop.

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And I heard the vision for all these different countries in the world.

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And you know, the cool thing about surfers is they travel a lot.

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And so I know, you know, place people in what India, Indonesia, a couple places in Latin

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America, Puerto Rico, in a startup church.

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That's amazing vision.

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And I know you're going to get there.

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It's cool.

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Thanks, Ralph.

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I, you know, kind of kind of a good segue.

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You know, what is kind of your your understanding of like the the water situation in the world?

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Well, you know, when I before I met you, actually after I met you, I was praying that the Lord

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would help me find a way to to put some money into, you know, I don't have a lot of money,

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but to put some money into water, because it's such a desperate thing.

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I read a book called The Bottom Billion, and it's about poverty in the world.

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And there's seven billion people in the world.

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And most of the wealth is is in the top three billion.

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I mean, the top billion are are wealthy, wealthy.

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That's us.

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And then the next two billion life is is quite tolerable.

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Most of us could go to to Greece or to some countries in Latin America, Chile and Chile

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and live there.

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But when you get to the bottom billion, there's just no chance for these people.

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And they have no access to the oceans.

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So they they can't get their goods to market.

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But the biggest problem is there's just lack of water.

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And of course, you guys aren't doing anything in countries where there is no access to the

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ocean just because of the nature of what you're doing.

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But I've been praying, Lord, I want to do something about water and help me to do that.

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I've been looking into microloan sites and how you can invest in those people.

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And that's something that might work pretty well alongside of what you guys are doing.

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But so one day I was praying about this and I already was, you know, putting a little

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bit of money into to ocean water.

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And the Lord said, stupid, wake up.

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And so I'm just excited about what you're doing.

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And I know that that that right alongside of water is health, that people without clean

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water get sick and they die younger and they age quicker and they have higher infant mortality.

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And so I'm just excited about what you're doing and then that you're bringing living

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water with you because you're bringing Jesus with you and planting churches.

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And that's kind of what my life's all about is making disciples and planting churches.

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So I see the two link up, I'm pretty excited about that.

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Well, it's it sounds like one of those meaningless cliches that we've heard in church before

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where you hear people say, well, you know, you you know, you meet people at the right

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time and and I don't know what other meaningless cliche I could possibly refer to when I describe

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hugging.

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I was just three days removed from a terrifying decision that I made.

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And it was just a total God thing that you and I have have met really through Drew and

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then developed a genuine friendship, you and Drew and I.

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And and that has just been a total encouragement to me.

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And you're right about about water, about the about it being the bottom billion problem.

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And one of the one of the reasons it's such a problem is people don't understand that

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it's a problem.

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And also, because when we talk about this, this conversation that we're having today

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being a voice for indigenous water rights, what we mean when we say that is there are

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there are little pockets of people all over the world that simply don't have the infrastructure

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whereby they can have their own water.

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And what what we do, for example, in El Salvador is we've put in the system and it provides

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water for 38 families.

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That's about 300 people.

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And and so it's interesting how God will use just something so small.

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One of the things that that I've thought about recently is how everyone's in love with changing

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the whole world, but they're not in love with helping like five people.

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Right.

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And just how backwards that is and how if you actually make it your goal to help five

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people, you'll eventually help a lot of people.

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But if you make it your goal to help a lot of people, you can often help no one.

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So what do you think of this?

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What do you think of desalinization?

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What do you think of that as an idea, as a concept?

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Well, other than San Diego, which is kind of leading the whole United States in terms

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of desalinization, they're desalinizing enough water for almost a million people, I understand.

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And if it can work here in wealthy Southern California, then it certainly ought to work

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in other places.

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And, you know, knowing that you found a way to do it for what under ten thousand dollars

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that it costs to build a plant is just very exciting because people who are listening

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to you and I talk, there are some people who could actually kick in ten thousand bucks

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and go and sponsor one.

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And the cool thing is that what with your connections and Drew, my pastor, you know,

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my I'm going to I'm going to put this I'm going to put your podcast on my podcast.

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I just want to take your recording and put it on my podcast because I you're saying some

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pretty cool things that I want other people to hear it.

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But you know what?

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What our little church, Aloha Church, my pastor, Drew Tevis, I grew up in the church I pastor

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in Honolulu.

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Now he's my pastor.

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And what you guys are doing now, Salvador, seen two startup churches really get out of

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themselves and invest hugely, huge percentage of income and time and whatever in another

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country is just very exciting to me just to be part of it.

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I'm thrilled.

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Well, and that's a good segue.

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The backdrop that I have behind me is is yes, it's a nice photo, but it's also a personal

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photo.

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The guy inside that that tube right there is is Drew and I's good friend.

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His name is some pop.

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Oh, he has no formal, no formal training, no, no massive background.

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And yet right now, El Salvador is there under martial law.

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We have like strong government recommendations for our behavior.

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Thereon if you go out of your property line of your home to the grocery store without

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permission, without a form, we're taking you to jail.

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And right now, our friend Sopapo this week is providing water to all 38 families in Palmes

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and Porto and food.

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Wow.

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And I took I took those photos and Drew and I were literally almost got trapped there

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because of this crisis and changed flights and came home.

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And the last day that we were there, we turned over the keys and all of the responsibility

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to the guy in this photo.

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And then and then COVID-19 hit and Sopapo called me and said, I can't believe all of

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the responsibility that I have.

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And I just and I just laugh and I said, well, brother, welcome to the club.

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Yeah, that's cool.

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Yeah, it is cool.

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And yeah, it's it's it's been just it's interesting to see how you know, God just keeps wanting

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us to sort of take the next step.

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That's kind of been like my a little bit of my journey.

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Do you have anything else that you want to you want to say to myself, to Drew, to anybody?

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You know, who's going to who's going to tune in on this today, Ralph?

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Yeah, I got some advice.

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Keep on keeping on.

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You know, we said back in the day, we'd say keep on trucking for Jesus.

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But I think that relentless pursuit of a purpose, relentless pursuit of a purpose.

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Purpose is the most valuable advice that I can give to anybody.

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It's all about persevering.

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And you know, I can't tell you the number of times I just wanted to quit.

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You know, I went to two different Bible college and seminary and all that.

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And so I don't know how to earn a living other than being a pastor.

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It's probably a very good thing because there have been a lot of times I would have quit,

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but I didn't.

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And I'm so glad that I didn't at this point in life because I can see fruit where where

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I used to think I was staring at a blank wall someplace.

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I saw I now see fruit and just keep on keeping on.

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Keep doing what you're doing and and and follow the path where the Lord leads you.

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Thank you so much, Ralph.

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I think I can say on behalf of everybody who's going to hear this today, wherever this is

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shared, thank you for your time and for the wisdom that you gave to give off to us today.

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And then one more favor, if I could ask you, you've got so much to share.

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Could we do this again in the next few months and do a different set of questions so we

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can keep getting what we can from you?

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Yeah, I'd love it.

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I really love it.

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Thank you so much, Ralph.

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Appreciate it.

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Okay, so a couple things.

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One is, do you have Dropbox?

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Can you send me the recording?

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I do.

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Yeah.

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Good.

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Yeah.