Before I Call: Four Days of Hurricane Michael Relief and Answered Prayer

00:00 If you ever had a child come up to you and try and tell a story, but they're so excited to tell you the story, but they can't get the story straight, well, I have to apologize. Today might be that day. I want to also say it's good to see friends and family here. I've got my brother in town in the back. It's good to see Cheryl Pearls. I haven't seen her for a little while. Good to see you. And then Rachel McKenzie. Yeah, I called you out. And I grew up with Stephen and Michael, and it's good to see them here. Now, I need you guys to do is I need you to elbow them both for not being here more often, okay? All right. If you bow your heads with me, I'll begin with prayer.

00:45 Father God in heaven, I thank you for the blessings that you give us. I thank you for the... I thank you for prayer. I thank you for the answers that you give us to prayer, Father. Whether it be from a dog being found, to someone being healed, to seeing how you lead in our lives every day, Lord. I ask, Father, that you would bless the words that would come out of my mouth, that they would not be tongue twisters, but that they would make sense by the end of the talk, Lord. We ask these things in your name. Amen. So I have one other request. David and Gabriel, if you guys could come up here for a second, just for a second, you will be very grateful that you did. Is Gabe still here?

01:30 Oh, he's in the video room. Okay, Gabe, come up here for a second. There you go. All right, David, Gabe, come over here for a second. Can somebody else cover the video room? Okay. I just need you to sit here for a little bit, okay? All right, so part of my talk today pertains to money. So I need you to hold this for me. I need you to hold this for me. So if I ever tell you during this talk at all that I had to spend money, then I need you to give that back to me. But if I don't, then you get to keep it. Is that fair? Okay, so if you want to go sit down, you can, but I have to have the money back. How much money do you have?

02:19 How much money do you have? All right, so together, how much do you have? You agree? Okay, good. I'm glad our educational system is doing good. All right, all right. So you just have to sit there. That's all. Okay. I know it's embarrassing. I'm up here, too. I just need somebody up here for some moral support. Thanks, guys.

02:39 All right. In the book of Judges, in chapters 6 and 7, it starts to tell a story of Gideon. And the Israelites. The Israelites, they weren't listening to God. They were having a hard time obeying God's command. And so because of that, God allowed the Midianites to basically take over the Israelites. The Israelites were hiding in caves, and every chance they could, they would go out and they would plant, and they would try and reap to be able to support their family. But when the reaping time would come, the Midianites would move in, and they would either destroy or take anything that would be able to benefit them. So the Israelites were weak and had ceased relying on God. So there's no substance left for the sheep, the ox, or the donkey alike.

03:28 Judges 6:8-10 says, "...that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and I brought you forth out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of that oppressed you, and drove them out of the hand of all that oppressed you. And when I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, fear not the God of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice." So this time, God noticed somebody special. He noticed Gideon. He noticed that Gideon would listen to him and have faith in what he had requested that he do.

04:15 So whenever Gideon would go to do what he needed to do to be able to provide for his family, he would go hide in a winepress. And you can just imagine, if Gideon is hiding in a winepress, and somebody is sneaking up behind him and starts a conversation with him, I would be terrified. Because my whole goal is, I'm trying to provide for my family, and I'm doing it in such a way that I don't want to get killed. And so this angel of the Lord comes and starts to talk with Gideon, and says, I have a mission for you. I have a mission for you to go, and I want you to win the hearts of the Israelites to go and attack the Midianites and win. But Gideon's like, nah, you got the wrong guy.

04:55 I can't do this. But if you're serious, then let me go and we prepare a meal for you, and I will offer it to you. And if you're still here, I will know that you're serious. So he does. He goes and he prepares a meal. You're hungry now, aren't you? He goes and he prepares a meal, and he comes back, and the angel of the Lord accepts the offering. With that offering, he disappears, and later in the evening, Gideon hears another request of God. And he says, I want you to go, and I want you to tear down the idols of your town, and I want you to destroy the groves of your town. Well, now God is upping the ante, and Gideon's a little bit more nervous. He agrees to do it, but he still has a side of cowardice in him.

05:42 He wants to go do it at night. So he takes ten servants, and he goes at night, and he destroys the groves, and he destroys the idols, and he takes an ox, and he builds an altar of sacrifice on the ox, and the next morning, all the town people are up in arms. You've destroyed our God, so now we're going to kill you. Well, that sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it? So he gets a little nervous. But his father stands up for him. Don't you love dads? I'm glad that my dad's here.

06:15 He says, And Joash said unto the all that stood against him, Will you plead for Baal? Will ye save him? He that will plead for him, let him be put to death, while it is as yet mourning. This is the people crying for him. But if he be a God, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar. So if he's a God, why didn't he defend himself?

06:40 Because of this scenario, Gideon's name was changed from Gideon to Jerubbaal. And I can't say that very well, so we're going to stick with Gideon. So God had tested Gideon to be able to honor his will twice. The Bible tells us in Luke 16, verse 10, it says that, He that is faithful in the least will also be faithful in the great. Let me rephrase that. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the least is also unjust in much.

07:16 So Gideon, by this time, he had two instances to know that God was on his side. And so he decides that, God is truly on my side. So he starts to gather people behind him to be able to go and fight. But he gets timid still. And he says, God, okay, I just want one more test to know that you're on my side. He said, I'm going to put a fleece on the ground. And with this fleece, I want it to be wet and the ground to be dry. And so he does. And the night goes by and he wakes up and he sees it. But he's like, no, no, no, that could have happened at any point. So let me make it that much more challenging. God, I want to put this so that the ground is wet but the fleece is dry.

07:57 And so God honors his request. And he comes back and the fleece is dry and the ground is wet. So now Gideon is almost 100% sure that this is going to work. So he takes the host of his army that he has that has gathered around him. He's got about 32,000 people. And he's going to go fight an army. And if you look at Spirit of Prophecy and you look at the Bible and you look to see how large this army is, it's not just one culture that he's fighting against. It's multiple cultures. The Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy give the description of the sands of the sea. You couldn't count the camels that they were going to go fight against. Not something that I want to go do. You guys ready? Yeah? You want to do that?

08:39 I don't want to do that. So God again tested Gideon. He said, your army is too big. If you guys take this and you win, then you're going to take the glory for yourself. So God says, tell your people if anybody's afraid that they need to go home. Okay, so I already have a small army and you want me to make it smaller. I don't understand why you're doing this. But I will. So Gideon goes to his troops and he says, if you're scared, go home. 22,000 people walk away. He goes, and he's ready to start again and God says, no, you're still too big. He says, take them to the river. Take them down to the water. If they lap like dogs, send them home. They're not being watchful. They're not ready. So he takes them down to the river and 300 men remain.

09:31 So God says, now you're ready because you know that if you fight this battle, it's going to be not because of you, it will be because of me. All right, you ready to go on a journey? All right, we're going on a journey. All right. All right, so several years ago, I lived in California and I met a gentleman by the name of Brock. Brock and I are very kindred spirits.

09:58 We probably see each other maybe once every two to three years, if that. He'll drive through Nashville, stay at my house, or I'll go to Oklahoma and stay at his house. It's not a very, it's very rare that we see each other. But Brock had started this organization called Gideon Rescue Company. And Gideon Rescue Company is a unique organization that his passion is that he believes that when natural disasters happen, that there is a golden hour. There is a set time when people are open to the gospel when they wouldn't normally have been open to the gospel. And so with this, it's a mission to be able to get to that disaster as fast as possible and to be available to be used by God in whatever way possible.

10:45 Several people within his company are trained for international rescue and relief. I am not. One day, he has tried multiple times to encourage me to say, you need to come with me. You need to come with me. But I have a job. And so when a disaster happens, I can't exactly just leave. But he has been trying to convince me time and time again to be able to make that happen.

11:13 Patriarchs, or excuse me, Prophets and Kings tells us that the time is at hand when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters by sea and by land follow one another in quick succession. How many of you knew that there was a hurricane hitting the Philippines right now? I was there two years ago. I had friends messaging me saying, pray for us. We're about to go through something that's insane.

11:40 There was a, this last week, a tidal wave hit Indonesia. Tsunami. And wiped away 200 people. Apparently, these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature wholly beyond the control of man. But in them all, God's purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which he seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.

12:13 Alright, so, this organization that Brock was working with, he sent an email one day to a flight company. And in response, the flight company sent back to him, said, we would want to partner with you. Our goal is, we want a company that is boots on the ground who is willing to do whatever it takes to be able to help people as long as we can get them the supplies.

12:41 And so, boom, instantly Brock was excited. He's like, this is, I'm all about this. Yes. So basically, what that entails is he has the opportunity whenever there's a natural disaster to be able to get a crew anywhere within the United States and a thousand miles beyond to be able to witness, to be able to share medical supplies, to be able to make things happen.

13:04 But the thing is, we don't have any money. And I'm not here asking you for your money. Don't get me wrong. How much money do you have? 20 bucks? 20 bucks. All right, remember that. All right. So, Brock calls me on October 5 of this year. Friday afternoon. And he says, Chris, I've just put your name down. You're officially signed up to be a part of this team. You are now the logistics coordinator. I'm like, what does the logistics coordinator do? I have no idea. He said, okay, I'm excited. Sure, I'm ready to do this. We had prayer together. Little did I know that within the next week, Hurricane Michael would be hitting the coast of Florida. And about a week later, I get a phone call from Brock, and he says, Chris, you've been called up.

13:59 I'm like, what do you mean? He said, Hurricane Michael has just hit. I can't go on this trip. I need someone I can trust to go on this trip. I say, okay, I'll see what I can work out. So I get back to him and say, yes, I can go. And I want to back up just a little bit. Remember that child that wants to tell you everything, but you can't remember everything? That's me. The organization that we had partnered with, the goal that they had set out was they had recognized that natural disasters are happening more and more frequently and with more intensity. And they also recognize that companies like FEMA, organizations like FEMA, are very much contract-oriented and that their goal is not only to help people, but they would also like to make money in the process.

14:44 And so with that, their goal is we don't want contracts. We don't want anything like that. We just want to go and help with the acknowledgement that more and more natural disasters are happening with more and more intensity. Hurricane Michael hit peak winds of 155 miles an hour as it made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida on October 10, becoming one of the first to do so in the region as a Category 4 hurricane and making landfalls of the strongest storm of the season.

15:12 Brock's goal for us, for me and two other guys going, were to be able to get down to Florida, receive supplies, and be able to set up a point of distribution. So I agreed to do this. Somewhat apprehensive, but I agreed to go. I packed my bags. I put a sleeping bag, a hammock, a bag of trail mix, a bottle of water, some clothes, how much money?

15:39 40 bucks. 40 bucks in my pocket. I used Southwest SkyMiles to be able to board a flight last minute to go to Atlanta, Georgia. When I got to Atlanta, Georgia, I met with my other two teammates who I'd never met, or I'd met one before, but I didn't know who they were. The three of us got together. We had prayer together and then took an Uber to go to a private airfield. When we got to the private airfield, we met up, we met up with someone that I'd never met before and he volunteered his plane, a prop engine plane, to fly the three of us down to Panama City.

16:15 When we took off, he told us something very special. He said, we're about to do something that I've never done before. We're about to fly over downtown Atlanta. This is not allowed. I'm like, what do you mean it's not allowed? He said, you have to be very special people to fly over Atlanta. I'm like, okay. He said, not only are we going to fly over Atlanta, but we're going to fly over Hartsfield Airport. So if you look to your left, you see airplanes taking off. And you look to your right, you see airplanes landing. This only happens. There's a major bubble around major cities. And if you take off one direction and you need to go south, you have to go all the way around before you can get there. But because of the mission that we were on, it enabled us to be able to fly straight through the city, which was a pretty cool thing.

17:07 While we were flying down there, I had a Gideon moment, if you will. Gideon, still after 300 soldiers and seeing how God had worked in his life, still did not want to he still didn't want to not give God the credit, but he was still nervous. So God called him down to the tent of the enemy where he was able to hear one of his enemies tell another colleague that Gideon is coming and there's no way we're going to be able to defend against it. And so him and his servant had heard this and they went back to their army and they said, look, we've already got the victory. God's already given it to us.

17:44 And so from my prayer on this trip as we were flying down there, I'm flying down there with nothing. I have the backpack on my back and a box of GLOW tracts. I got 6,000 GLOW tracts. And I said, God, if this is truly where you would want me to be, if this is truly your hand in this, when we get down there, I want to see a truck. I want to see a truck that I can use to be able to deliver supplies that somewhere you're going to find them for us.

18:12 So again, we landed. We had no idea what we were going to do. God had a plan. And we had, we landed, we stayed at a small airfield down in Panama and we had worship together, just the three of us. And one of the verses that one of the guys that we were working with shared with us, he said, it was Deuteronomy 6, verses 10 through 12. And it says, And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things which thou, you didn't fill, and wells that you didn't dig, and vineyards which you didn't plant, and olive trees, and all of these things.

18:58 Then beware, lest thou forget the Lord which brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. So we had made it down to the three of us initially. We had 6,000 GLOW tracts. We were 30 minutes from a major city. We had no vehicle. We had no real plan. But we had a pocket full of faith. And we had one big God.

19:22 So Corey shared with us, one of the guys on the trip, that he had invited his sister to come along the trip. She had lived a couple hours away. But he hadn't told us that. His sister had grown up Adventist or had influence of Adventism but had married someone who was an Adventist and so had fallen away from the church. They came and when they pulled up, I wasn't expecting it, but it was a truck. It was a very nice truck. And not only was it a truck, but it was a truck with an 18-foot flatbed trailer full of water, full of generators, full of fuel, full of MREs, of people who had donated from their community to be able to provide to help out for this experience.

20:07 And also, not only did their sister and brother-in-law come, but one other guy. So now our team has grown from three people to six people. You guys still want to come on this journey? Okay, just making sure. Later that evening, we were praying. My goal had been, I'm going to connect with the pastor of the Panama City Church. That way we have a home base, per se. But throughout, from when Brock had contacted me all the way until Friday night, there had been no communication. Verizon Towers, that area, had been totally destroyed. So there was no communication with Verizon. I believe the pastor was actually in Canada at a wedding. And so he didn't have cell service period because he was out of the country.

20:52 But so for three or four days, I had used Facebook, Twitter, email, any method of media to communicate with him only to late at night get an email from him and say, hey, I can't help you, but you call this guy. I'm like, okay. It was interesting. Anybody heard the name Jim Ingersoll? Jim Ingersoll, yeah, yeah. I'm like, I know this guy. So I gave Jim a call. And again, I'm going to have to pause right there.

21:24 Earlier that evening, I had received a text message from the company who had orchestrated the flight for us. And they had provided me a couple contacts to try and reach out to. One of them was their company's logistics coordinator. Another one was a gentleman who was the head of CERT. CERT is very similar to FEMA, only they have a larger logistics channel than FEMA does. And so I accidentally called this number thinking it was calling another person and ended up talking to the head of CERT for about a half hour. And in the conversation, he says, do you have room for 20 semi-trucks worth of supplies? There's six of us. Yes. Yes, we do. We do. I don't know how it was going to work, but we do. And from that, reaching out to Jim Ingersoll, he says, Chris, I don't know how or why you called, but I have been beating my head against the wall all day trying to figure out how to get 100 kids from Heritage Academy down to Florida and to be able to serve.

22:32 But because they don't, because I don't have supplies, I didn't want to go down without supplies. I said, Jim, come on down. I've got supplies, but I don't have a logistics channel. So we made plans for them to meet us on Sunday. Granted, this is a four-day trip for me. We're on day one. That night, I had a very hard time sleeping because I was excited for what God had done thus far. Because remember, when I landed, I had 6,000 GLOW tracts and that was it.

23:06 All right. All right, the next morning, we woke up, we had worship together and we shared a little bit with each other. We decided that we were going to split the team up. We were going to take the truck and four of them were going to go into town and try and find the church and share what resources they already had. The other two of us were going to stay at the airport and receive airplanes that were flying in and get the supplies off the airplanes. When we got off, so that was pretty much the day. the other team met up with a gentleman by the name of Nuri. Nuri was a local elder from another church who had connections in every way you could think of. To be able to set up a point of distribution, you have to have specific supplies.

23:53 You have to have porta-potties. You have to have a forklift to unload the truck. You have to have boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And when I presented this to Nuri and said, hey, look, this is what we're here for. This is what we want to do. He said, oh, that's not a problem. I've got a forklift over here. I've got ten porta-potties over at this job site that I can just pull off the job site. I've got, and he just started pulling resources out of anywhere that we were amazed.

24:19 That evening, Saturday evening, we went to, fuel was short and our team was split and so they had found the church, the other four, and they were going to stay at the church and the two of us were just going to sleep on the ground again. As we were closing things down, there was a lot of military activity where we were. And so, one of the Coast Guard approached me and said, you guys are setting up a point of distribution, right? He's like, yeah, actually we are. And he said, well, we have supplies that we don't know what to do with. Do you want them? And just gave us two truckloads of supplies. But the problem is, again, we're just two people. How do we get these two truckloads of supplies to the church to distribute?

25:07 So I stopped him and I said, look, we would love to accept your gift. However, I don't have the resources to be able to move it. And it's 7 o'clock and there's a curfew and we've heard rumors of SWAT team dressing in all black and if you move, you die. So we don't want to go into the city unless we have that option. He said, oh, don't worry about it. We'll give you guys a ride. So a half hour ride into the city, blue lights flashing, two trucks worth of supplies to help us unload it into the church to be able to get set for the next day. I serve a big God. You guys want to go? All right. I'm prefacing this. Be ready.

25:46 So they gave us a ride. We were able to have worship together. The next morning we wake up, we have worship again together as a team. That day, we were going to lose three of our guys again. They were going to go back home with the truck, which means we didn't have transportation. So it's a natural disaster. There's no Uber. There's no Lyft. There's no, you know, whatever other program there is. So how do you get a car to be able to go a half hour back to the airport to continue to do what you said you were going to do?

26:18 Who said it? You pray. So that morning I woke up and I said, God, it was your reason for us to be here. We need to get back to the airport. So it's your call. When you need us there, you'll make it happen. Five minutes later, somebody shows up at the church that we're staying at and says, I'm bored. I need something to do. I said, ma'am, would you give us a ride to the airport? I would love to.

26:42 So we had breakfast and we took off and she took us back to the church. So all throughout the day, you see different helicopters coming and going at this airfield. Some of them are random that you've never, there's a Black Hawk helicopter that just landed who was escorting so-and-so or there's Marine One that's practicing its landing and taking off up and down. And so all throughout the day, you see different forms of security, different forms of people coming and going and practicing different events. And my buddy Brock gets the idea. He's like, somebody important I feel is coming. Somebody very important and you need to get ready. You need to be able to have a copy of The Great Controversy in hand with a nice long message to whoever this book needs to go to. So I'm like, eh, okay, whatever.

27:35 But he was very adamant. Okay. So we went to the church library and we borrowed a copy of The Great Controversy and we wrote in the cover of it and we saved it. Because we didn't know exactly when we would need it but we saved it. That Sunday, while some of us were at the airfield, the group, the church that Nuri had come from had came to the church and organized everything that the Coast Guard had brought so that when later that evening, when Heritage Academy came in, they would be all set and ready to move forward without a turnkey operation, if you will.

28:12 So we finished the day. We get a ride back to the church from Nuri. We bring supplies with us so that we're ready for the next day. And Heritage Academy shows up. So we're able to have worship together. We're able to share the testimony of what has happened thus far. To be able to give kids encouragement that prayer truly works. Because, again, everything that I've just told you, I had 6,000 GLOW tracts and a backpack. And by the end of the second and third day, I'm moving 20 semi-trucks. I've got forklifts. I've got ample supplies of stuff that I didn't do. It wasn't us.

28:52 Monday morning, we wake up. We have worship again together as a team. And I'm told that we have a car waiting for us. I'm like, guys, where did we get a car? He said, well, a church member just donated a car to us that we could get to the airport. I'm like, okay. So we were able to drive to the airport and be there early. We were told to be there early for a purpose. If you made it to the airport after 8 o'clock on Monday, you were not allowed in the airport. Because security would be too tight for you to get into the airport. So we made it into the airport. We actually had a fourth team member join us. He had flown from Indonesia to Chattanooga and come back to be with us.

29:34 He lands and he has a chainsaw in hand, backpack on his back, and a dog. I'm like, why did you bring a dog? This isn't what we're here for. Remember that. So throughout the day, you start seeing special vehicles show up. These special vehicles have names on them like Secret Service, FBI, Border something or the other. And so we had an idea that the president was going to be flying in to where we were. We were told that everybody who was non-essential needed to be into the airport when the president landed.

30:19 But our goal was to be able to get resources in to the people in need. So we were told, you keep doing what you're doing, everybody else needs to go into the airport. When the president flies, wherever he's going to, there is a no-fly zone. The three planes that we were expecting that morning were not obligated to follow that. So while the president's flying in, we have three airplanes that are coming in to be able to provide resources for those who needed it.

30:47 But the trick was that those three airplanes landed right at the same time the president landed and were not allowed to be removed from the, weren't allowed to taxi in. So the president, so we're all waiting for the president to come in to be able to, you know, say hi, Mr. President. But then the Secret Service changed their mind and said, no, everybody has to go into the airport. Say, okay, we'll abide by your rules. So we go in and we had made friends with one of the Secret Service agents even to the point where we were able to share a copy of The Great Controversy with him. He had shared with us that he often spends time in Vice President Pence's house and so that he would be willing to share if he got the opportunity.

31:32 So we all go into the airport. It's not a very, I mean, it's a very small airport. It's probably half the size of the sanctuary. And when we get in there, the Secret Service agent goes over to one of his commanding officers and whispers something in his ear, turns around and points at the four of us and says, you four come with me. Now, it wouldn't be a big deal except for we're walking past the head of FEMA. We're walking past the state governor. We're walking past all of these people who, they have no idea who I am, but I know who they are. We walk outside and we're taken back into the hangar.

32:16 The president comes, he lands, and he gets taken through security or into the city so that he can scope around. Didn't get a chance to meet the man. But during that opportunity, there was a small window of opportunity. I had received a text message from a church that said that they were in need. They didn't have vehicles, they didn't have water, they didn't have power, they spoke Spanish, they didn't have a large community to be able to be reached. So I passed that message along to Nuri. And so he takes a totally different route and his goal is to come to pick up supplies so that he can take them straight to the church. So he arrives in that small window of opportunity between the president leaves and the president comes back.

33:02 But you have a layer of secret service that he has to get through to be able to get there. So once the president leaves, I take out my phone and I have a picture of his truck and I walk up to a secret service agent and I say, I need this truck. If I don't have this truck, I can't do my job. If I can't do my job, your president's going to be mad. So the man walks over and he says something to his mic and he says, okay, go to the main entrance, go get your truck and bring it in. Eight o'clock, security is cut off. Nobody in, nobody out. I walk out to the gate, I get the truck, I bring it in. He's got this monstrosity forklift in the back of the trailer and these three planes have just come up to the hangar and we're loading as fast as we can so we can get as much onto this trailer so that we can get the supplies out to the people who need it.

33:53 The truck leaves and we're requested to change locations. The whole goal of the operation of where we are is that we operate with the airplanes until the trucks can get in. And so about that point, the trucks are starting to roll in so that the supplies are being amply distributed. With the trucks being distributed, so we get requested to move cities. So we split our team up into two different teams. One team flies off to another city, another team that I was on are requested to go and check out the city of Mexico Beach. And then from Mexico Beach, we're requested to go to Port St. Joe to see if the airfield is clear to be able to get supplies flown in. So the request is caravan with the head of CERT. I'm like, okay.

34:44 So we get into a vehicle with a pastor from another denomination and we caravan down to Mexico Beach. And we get to Mexico Beach. The request is, what agency are you with, sir? Well, I'm not with any agency. Then how do you expect to get in? I said, I'm with that man right there. I said, you're fine. You can go through. Okay. So we get to see the damage that's done to Mexico Beach. Mexico Beach really doesn't exist except for one house. One house. This man built this house to withstand twice what FEMA declares is sturdy for a hurricane season.

35:25 As the day progresses, my request is, or my command had been to move on to the next city. The guys that we were traveling with didn't want to take us the rest of the way. Well, one guy reluctantly agreed to drive us for the next half hour to get to that city. But he has a hotel reserved three hours the opposite direction. So he gets us there. He drops us off. It's eight o'clock at night. It's dark. It's me and my buddy Dylan and his dog. And I've never been here before. What do you do? What do you do when you don't know where you're sleeping that night? Good answer. So we prayed about it. And as soon as we finished praying, this old lady walks up behind us and says, do you need a place to stay tonight?

36:13 Sure. So we ended up staying in the Red Cross. They have great cots, by the way. Hot showers. We stayed at the Red Cross and we had made it to the town and our mission was get the airfield cleared. So Dylan had the chainsaw and I was going to help him somehow. The next morning we woke up and we found out that the airfield was fine and that FEMA had already made it to this town, that the National Guard had already made it to this town and the power was actually about to be turned back on. So for what services we offered, we weren't needed anymore. So we texted, which has been most of our communication with the company that arranged our flights and said, hey look, we're no longer needed here. If they're somewhere else, you're welcome to fly us.

37:01 Get us to where you need us to be. So their response was, well we can't get an airplane to you. I said, okay, so how do we get home? We're sending a helicopter to come pick you up, so you need to get to such and such an airfield before it comes. Okay. All right. So we made it to the airfield. Oh, actually we didn't. Let me back up. So we went from where we were staying and we started walking towards FEMA. When we got towards FEMA and there was a security guard there and he stopped us. He says, we need to see your ID. I said, okay. So I pulled out my government issued ID. I figured it would be equivalent in what I needed it to do. He says, no, no, no. We need to see your agency idea.

37:43 What agency are you with? I said, well we're not with any agency. We work for Gideon or we're with Gideon Rescue Company. And so he says, well hold on just a second. He gives my ID back to me. He walks towards his car and his police car and he gets on the radio and about five minutes later I'm surrounded by six to ten officers with their hands on their holsters saying, sir, we need to talk. And at that point I was a little nervous. But remember that dog that we had? He makes friends really well. Because this lady walks around the corner and comes up and sees what's going on. And she had seen our dog the day before and she had come over and she had petted it and she had made friends with our dog.

38:29 And because of that and because the guys serve a great God she came over and she started a conversation with us to see what's going on. Then she went over to the office per se and then came back and said, these guys are fine. Don't worry about them. You guys can land your helicopter in the baseball field. I'm like, okay. Okay. So they left and we left. We actually ended up landing it into the airfield which is a little further away.

38:54 The helicopter brought supplies in and we left them at the city. We took off again and met up with friends of ours. I'm missing some notes here. We left them with friends of ours. We met up with our teammates. We were able to unload a few more airplanes and then the end of my trip was a very luxurious small airplane landed requested that me and one other buddy get on the airplane and then took us back to Nashville where the pilot proceeded to pay for my Uber from Smyrna to Springfield. How much money did I spend? How much money do you have? 40 bucks. Alright, I'm going to add to this story. You ready? While we were in Mexico Beach, the guy that was traveling with us giving us a ride, he looked at my buddy and he said, how much money do you have on you?

40:01 He said, I don't have any money on me. Most people don't travel with cash anymore especially my age and younger. and he's like, you don't have any money. What happens? What if something happens? He says, I'll be alright. He says, no, no, no, no, no. Let me give you some more money. So the guy made money on the mission trip and I'm not saying that happens every time. Okay?

40:25 The crew that came to the crew that came from Heritage Academy, they were given a National Guard unit to watch over them during this time. And if I'm not mistaken, I don't think that we didn't necessarily need those guards, but Hebrews 13:2 says, Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Let's see here.

41:08 Alright, so the kids. These hundred kids made a huge impact on the community around them. The National Guard unit that was with them basically said, wherever these kids go, we're going. They wanted to stay with that unit. People would come back to the pod that they set up just for prayer. They were turning semi-trucks away. So people were still coming through just because they wanted to interact with these kids.

41:38 The 6,000 GLOW tracts that were brought down, they were largely all passed out. Three copies of The Great Controversy were placed into the hands to be able to reach influential people such as the president and potentially vice president. Daniel 2:21 says, And He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and He sets up kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise and the knowledge to them that know understanding.

42:02 It was an experience in serving and practical application on how God answers prayer and how He can use any logistics coordinator to be able to do His bidding. God says that we'll be able to use cities which we did not build, houses full of good things which we did not fill, cisterns which we did not dig, vineyards which we did not plant, and many, many more ample opportunities. One of the biggest things that I'm excited to be alive during this time of Earth's history is that we don't know how God is going to finish the work. But we know that He's going to. And it's going to be in ways that we never would have considered. Simple things.

42:45 Our team had backpacks, GLOW tracts, and a willing spirit to be used by God. Nothing in this trip could be said that it was of our doing. Everything that happened was placed to the glory of God. People need to hear our message of hope because we are in a golden hour. The time is at hand when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters by sea and by land follow one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes of destruction by fire and flood with great loss of life and property. Apparently, these calamities are capricious, outbreaks and disorganized. Unregulated forces of nature wholly beyond the control of man but in which all God's people may be read. They may be among the agencies That's the agency I want to be a part of.

43:41 They may be among the agencies by which he seeks to arouse men and women to sense their danger. When Gideon heard that the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, Get up! The Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hands. And he divided the 300 men into three companies and gave each man a trumpet in one hand and a large jar in the other containing a torch. Would you want to go into battle with a large jar and a torch? That'd be a little fearful, wouldn't it? He said, Watch me and do as I do, Gideon said. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then you are also to blow your trumpets from around the camp and shout, For the Lord and for Gideon.

44:29 Gideon and the 100 men with him reached the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. Just after the changing of the guard, they blew their trumpets and broke their jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew their trumpets and shattered their jars, holding the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands and shouted, A sword for the Lord and for Gideon. These men had nothing that could point to self-glorification. Each Israelite took his position around the camp and the entire Midian army fled. Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim saying, Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah. So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they captured the waters of the Jordan as far as they had said.

45:18 God calls us to let our light shine before us. And He promises us in Isaiah 65:24, Before they call, I will answer. And while they are speaking, I will hear. That we would be the head and not the tail. As we allow God to use us and to let us let our light shine, those around us will join in the evangelist's cry and share with people in that golden hour. Would you join with Gideon's cry? It says, For the Lord and for Gideon. Amen.