Liz talks with Stephanie Davis, national program director of The Miracle League, about how tragedy in her own family led her to The Miracle League. An organization which serves about 50,000 children and some adults in 320 local Miracle Leagues in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, allows children with disabilities to play baseball “no matter their ability.” Each child is partnered with a “buddy” who helps them by pushing a wheelchair up a baseline or swinging a bat to hit a ball. “Our members help other members, and this often enables them to give the love of Jesus in the wider world.” “I try my best to show the love of Jesus to everyone I serve. I feel like this is the calling that God has given me.”
There is something about playing the game that lights up a person’s eyes. But for children and adults facing serious physical and mental disabilities that opportunity can often be difficult to achieve. Baseball diamonds weren’t exactly designed with wheelchairs and crutches in mind.
The Miracle League removes the barriers that keep children with mental and physical disabilities off the baseball field and lets them experience the joy of America’s favorite pastime. Since the main barriers for these adults arise from the natural grass fields used in conventional leagues, Miracle League teams play on a custom-designed, rubberized turf field that accommodates wheelchairs and other assertive devices while helping to prevent injuries.
But it’s more than playing a game. The Miracle League is about making new friends, building self-esteem and being treated just like other athletes. To help the athletes, the Miracle League uses a “buddy” system – pairing each player with an able-bodied peer. The result is a bond that cannot be described. The Miracle League serves children and adults who suffer from any physical or mental disabilities, which causes them to be excluded, whether intentionally or not, from conventional Baseball leagues.
The first Miracle League field opened in Conyers, Georgia in April 2000. Word spread and by 2002, fields opened in South Carolina, Alabama, West Virginia, Illinois, and California. There are presently 350 plus Miracle League Organizations across the country including Puerto Rico and Canada, while serving 450,000 plus children and adults.
The Miracle League has an aggressive plan to help local communities build Miracle League complexes around the globe.
Our players may not be able to run the bases or hit the ball as well as some of their peers, but they have an equal amount of love and determination to play baseball. We want to help them achieve that dream.
In this captivating episode, Liz Franzel sits down with Nick Vujicic, a motivational speaker and founder of Nick V Ministries, to explore the profound impact of human trafficking in America. With his personal triumph over physical and mental obstacles as a backdrop, Nick calls upon listeners to recognize and combat the insidious issue of modern slavery. Discover how you can contribute to protecting vulnerable communities as we reveal the frightening truth behind the statistics, and learn tangible steps you can take to make a difference.
This is Liz Franzel with Crawford Media Group, and today we are privileged to have Nick Vujicic with us today. He is the founder and CEO of Nick V Ministries, renowned speaker around the world and best-selling author. This month is National Human Trafficking Month, and we'll be talking about his mission to end this horrific crime against humanity. Nick, it's an honor to have you here with us today.
SPEAKER 01 :
Liz, thank you so much for having me on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Nick, you have such an amazing testimony and for our listeners that might not know, you were born with no arms or legs and you have overcome what some would say are impossible circumstances, but we know that all things are possible with God and you are a testament to that. Can you tell us a little bit about your story and how you overcame incredible challenges?
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, thank you so much for asking. I am so blessed at 42 years of age to be able to always let everyone know that first and foremost, having no limbs sounds pretty difficult. But I always tell people that it's not about the physical difficulties as much as the disabilities of the heart and the mind. And for me, you know, people could look at me at school and judge me or decide if they interact with me, isolate themselves from me or even bully me. And I think it was around age six that I knew that I was different than everyone else. And for the first time, I thought, well, that might be an issue. I was raised in a beautiful, loving home, went to church every week. My dad was a pastor, and I was asked by many people, why were you born this way? I did not know why. My brother and sister were born with limbs. People then asked me, what do you want to be when you grow up? I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I really felt like I was a burden to my parents. I had ups and downs at school as any student, but obviously had a lot of unwanted attention and definitely fears about my future. The Bible says that God has a hope, plan, and future, and I didn't understand if that verse would really be for me ever. I thought I'd be a burden to everyone around me, never get married, never be happy, never have children, never even get a job. And so I premeditated and planned a suicide attempt at age 10. I attempted in my bathtub and tried to drown myself because all I could see were broken pieces. And by the grace of God, I was stopped by one thought, imagining my parents at my grave wishing they could have done something more. And I didn't want to leave them with that pain. And I just am so glad I decided to stay by His grace. Age 15, I read John chapter 9, a man was born blind. No one knew why he was born that way. And Jesus was asked, why was he born with his disability? And I very much, as you can imagine, related to that story. The blind man gets the fingers of Jesus that are sticky and icky from the mud, and then he sees. And the blind man didn't ask any questions. And I realized, God, if you had a plan for a blind man, And you have a plan for me. And the blind man didn't ask for your plan, but he trusted you. And so, God, today I trust you with my greatest disability of death, of sin, that both you conquered on the cross, Jesus. And so I gave my life to Jesus at 15. At 17, I became vice president of my high school. I did a speech. And the janitor pulled me aside later, and he said, God's going to use you to go around the world. and share your story. And I actually said, I have no story. I don't know what you're talking about. And by the grace of God, started ministry at age 19. I've now gone to 84 countries, met 34 presidents and prime ministers. A billion people in China know who I am, and a billion people in India know who I am. And then out of the story, obviously not preaching, preaching. But then outside of those two closed countries, We've been in many others preaching the gospel to 10% of the whole world.
SPEAKER 02 :
That is absolutely an amazing testimony and I thank you for sharing that. I know who you are and that's why it's such a privilege to be able to talk with you today and I'm so thrilled that we can share you with our listeners. Today we are talking about human trafficking because this month is National Human Trafficking. You know, it's getting more attention but it's still not really being acknowledged a lot by the media. Give us some insight on what it is and how this even happens.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, look, there's so many different things that I needed to learn. I really want people to go to nickveeministries.org, find out the champions for the Brokenhearted series, click on human trafficking. For two years, we've been actually interviewing experts in different fields, including human trafficking, to really understand where this really is in our own backyard and For about two decades, everyone thought that this was more of an international problem. But more so, people are realizing it's actually happening in our own schools, in front of our own children. They don't need to be as violent kidnapping people for sex slavery in our own backyard. They just get lured in from social media, actually, by peers of their school now. People don't understand that a lot of media attention is not really going down to the root issue. People don't still know that there are $100 million worth of lobbying money for bills to pass continually pornographic material in our country. People don't understand that 67% of all teenagers are actually producing sexual images of themselves on their cell phones. People don't understand that one in three girls by age 17 have been raped in America. One out of five boys by age 17 raped in America. What's devious of all these things and other things that, I mean, it's very dark, very heavy to also understand the CPS and foster care system. I have had many friends in the foster care, incredible opportunity to help these children. and they ask these three siblings who are two, four, and six, hey, let's take a photo together as a family. And one of them says, okay, and comes back naked. And so there's a ton, ton, ton of foster kids waiting to go into a loving, protected home. There's a lot of corruption in our country, a lot of fragmented systems between county to county, and it's pretty disgusting as we learn these things. But What's most devious is no one who actually is being trafficked will say that they're being trafficked because they don't think they're being trafficked because they actually get brainwashed. And so what's crazy is, well, that's just what we do. This is who we are. And this is my new circle. It's unbelievable. And this is actually infiltrated to coaches, teachers and even parents in America.
SPEAKER 02 :
When you say infiltrated, what do you mean by that?
SPEAKER 01 :
Actually, softball coaches, basketball coaches, teachers of different tutorials, and even parents actually being part of the pimping and sexual acts. And more of that is going to be revealed here in America. Yaku Boyens is the tip of the spearhead of this issue. And as a church, you know, as a Christian... We need to go to what we really—I mean, no one's really talking about this in the church at all. No one's really bringing this in in education. Louisiana's done a great job in bringing education for adoption and helping unexpected pregnancies with teenagers to know about adoption on just the precipice. It's the first of its kind. It really needs to be mandated. That needs to be mandated. What also needs to be mandated is the real danger to parents as well to warn what human trafficking really is, to know the signs of your own child going through that. But what's crazy is this. There are surveys out there that say that one in five men who go to church on a weekly basis are actually addicted to pornography. And we're not talking about pornography. We're not talking about, you know, just to Gen Z to keep your pants on. to understand the sexualization of a generation. And when we now look at, I mean, even Christian schools, go to the football little team there and hear their conversations. And if you overhear some conversations, you'll actually probably hear someone asking their peers, how many trophies do you have? And that actually means how many girls have you slept with? And so the whole way that the enemy has come in and infiltrated and sexualized and debilitated our young people and attacking them without any buffer because they're on their phone seven hours straight a day. And this is now, this is real. And there is a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do. And I think the church needs to be aware of it. educate their schools, every charter school, every Christian school, every public school, every home, but also in the church to start talking about this as, hey, how many foster kids can we get out of that risk?
SPEAKER 02 :
You had mentioned some of the training you do. What are some of the signs that we can look for that would kind of alert us to something that's off?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, look, it's really peer-to-peer and really isolation and even some emojis. If you actually do some audits on your teenagers, as far as I'm concerned, everyone has their own house rules. But there are expert curriculum and signs of the types of emojis that pimps use, how they go trolling. You know, they're meeting people that they've never met before or they're being coerced in the school. There are signs of isolation. There are signs of even eye contact when they're lying. And just to have an atmosphere at home of saying, don't do this, don't do that, don't meet strangers, to actually sit down and have discussions with your family about what this really is. It is absolutely not surprising to me that 330,000 children are missing, with 3 million that have come over the border completely missing. But even before the border crisis that we have had in recent years, there's hundreds of thousands of people. In DFW alone, there are estimated 400. I'm from Dallas-Fort Worth. estimated 400 active slaves being pimped every single night in Dallas. And it's really interesting to know that those clienteles are normally people who earn more than $150,000, who have two children, and who are aged between 45 and 55 years of age. And you just would never believe that those are the people that are having sex with minors, And so even Native Americans, people don't understand right now, Native Americans are seen as exotic. And so we've been to Native American reservations, and they're taking, the Mexican cartels in Montana are taking daily children and women. And because of the jurisdictions, guess what? The federal government still has not been able to stop this kidnapping right in front of their eyes. And as soon as they get off the reservation, they actually can get away with it. It's happening on a daily basis. Tons of missing kids from Native Americans. People have no clue what's really going on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, that is tragic news. And such, you know, the statistics are so, so huge. We're visiting with Nick Vujicic, founder and CEO of Nick V Ministries. renowned speaker and best-selling author, and we've been talking about the work his ministry is doing to help end human trafficking. Nick, would you tell our listeners where they can go to find out more about your ministries and actually get involved in this tragic crime against humanity?
SPEAKER 01 :
Please, thank you very much. nickveenministries.org is where you go. Go click the tab of Champions for the Brokenhearted. you will see then 12 topics that we've chosen, and one of them that we deep dive into is human trafficking. We have been doing that intentionally for two years. Check out Jacob Boyan's ministry. Check out A21, Christine Kane. Check out other people out there that we have shown free resources for all churches, all families, and teenagers alike to just Help them understand we need to address this. We need to address this now and do all that we can and not rest until it's done.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. Thank you for bringing this to light, Nick, and so much for joining us today.
Liz talks with Judge Phil Ginn, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES) about how Christians must take the opportunity to pray and preach the gospel. With Christians no longer targeted by the USDOJ, and with greater recognition of free speech for all Americans, this is a key moment in US history to pray and preach the gospel.
"Now is the time; America is the place for a renewed effort to reach those who are seeking. SES is calling the church and other parachurch groups to 'make the best use of this time because the days are evil as Paul says in Ephesians 5,'" commented Ginn. Learn more about Southern Evangelical Seminary by CLICKING HERE.
00:00:00 Introduction of Judge Phil Ginn and Southern Evangelical Seminary
00:00:39 Background of Southern Evangelical Seminary
This is Liz Franzell with Crawford Media Group, and today our guest is Judge Phil Ginn, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary. Today we'll be talking about this being the perfect opportunity to share the gospel. Welcome to our program, Judge Phil.
SPEAKER 03 :
Judge Phil Ginn It's so great to be with you. I'm a mountain boy myself from North Carolina. We're not as high as the mountains in Colorado, but we've got some snow here already.
SPEAKER 01 :
I don't know what your definition of snow is, but we'll go with that.
SPEAKER 03 :
We've got about seven or eight inches.
SPEAKER 01 :
Tell us about Southern Evangelical Seminary before we get into our discussion.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, Liz would be happy to. Southern Evangelical Seminary, we commonly call it SES for short, was founded by Dr. Norm Geisler and Dr. Ross Rhodes about 32 years ago. And it's really based in the evangelism through the use of What I will call philosophy, that may be a bad word, but also apologetics. But it's really trying to help people. I tell folks we've been a friend of the skeptics since we were formed, because we believe that Christianity makes sense, that it's the most logical belief system, and certainly... We're not trying to downplay the role of the Holy Spirit, but we're trying to answer the tough questions that some people have in regard to their faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
So is that on an online platform that you basically?
SPEAKER 03 :
It is. Yes, ma'am. We have several students who currently are enrolled from Colorado in that area. We have them from seven different countries right now, I think, from Alaska, from Hawaii. And our online platform is a little bit different. We don't do so many of the old canned lectures. We've got a lot of access to our professors. We've got full-time professors who have been teaching for years and years and years and who are just solid, good teachers and live out the gospel themselves.
SPEAKER 01 :
That sounds like a really good ministry. So today, we are talking about this being the perfect opportunity to share the gospel. What are you seeing statistically, and why do you think this might be a good time to pluck the low-lying fruit, so to speak?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I don't know that it's even low-lying fruit, Liz. Anecdotally, we're seeing glimpses of the Holy Spirit at work all over the country. Just for instance... I don't know if you or any of your listeners watched the NCAA National Football Championships between Indiana and Ohio State. Jesus was mentioned more times in that football contest on the airing of it, sometimes more than he's spoken in a lot of pulpits in America. And player after player named the name of Jesus. the broadcasters were named in the name of Jesus. The coaches were named in the name of Jesus. In fact, if you go back to the beginning of the year, the Ohio State football team actually led a revival on the Ohio State campus where hundreds of students were baptized at the really lead of the Ohio State football team. You go over Clemson, close to us. Appalachian State University is close to us. All over the country, particularly with young people, we're hearing of sporadic, perhaps, revivals, but revivals nonetheless that are breaking out that people are coming to know the Lord. Franklin Graham is a good friend of mine. We talk about it, that people are yearning in America. They don't know all the time what they're seeking, but they are seeking. for something more than what they have. And I think it's very important because we've got what they're seeking, and it's time for us to tell the story. If you go back to statistics, George Barna and some of his work out there in your state of Colorado shows us that actually purchases of Bibles are up 21%. where the rest of books' sales are down 1%. So people are buying their Bibles. We're also hearing and seeing that particularly young people, Generation Z, I guess. I get all the alphabets mixed up. But I think it's Generation Z, the ones that would be in college now, I guess, of that age. They're actually reading their Bibles. They're picking up their Bibles, and they're reading them. And it's a lot like Philippois with Ethiopian eunuch. They may not understand what they're reading, and they need help in knowing what they're reading.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, that's good. You know, we are now under a new administration, and President Trump spoke about bringing God back into the forefront. Do you think that will have an impact on society?
SPEAKER 03 :
Let me tell you what impact it does have, I think. It gives us the opportunity. at least for two years, maybe four years. Those two years of the midterm election. And this could all fall apart in two years. But at least for the time being, we have free reign to proclaim the gospel. Unlike anything we've seen in the last four years, maybe anything unlike what we've seen in the last 20 years or more in America. I just see the spirit moving. I see the opportunities arising for us to do something about that. Liz, I'll have to share with you my only concern about this is I don't know if the church in America is in a position to really lead out in the revival.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, you know, I was thinking, people are not always comfortable or even know how to share the gospel. You know, they might think when they hear that, you've got to go stand on a street corner holding a sign up, you know, John 3, 16, and, you know, just track people down. What practical ways can they do that?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, let me tell you, I think this is where SES comes in. I'm going to be self-serving here for just a minute, because we have been long looking and yearning for this opportunity. And it seems like that history, the spirit, everything is coming together at a time just when SES is preparing to lead out. And we are. We want to be the champion of the church. When I say the church is not ready... What's happened in America is the American church has tried to replenish itself. We don't bring people in to make them better Christians. We bring them in to make them church members and to assimilate them into a group. And we're not doing what the Great Commission tells us to do. I've argued with the folks at my church a lot. We're really good at getting people wet. We're not very good at drying them off.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you know, what comes to mind is the woman at the well, how she had however long minute conversation with Jesus and immediately ran back home and was an instant disciple.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you know, you're exactly right, Liz, and that's the point. The Great Commission does not say go out and evangelize. I'm not trying to downplay that because I think that needs to be done. But what it does say is go out and make disciples. And that requires a personal relationship. It's not a kamikaze type approach that a lot of people take. I don't want to downplay that because there are people who come to the Lord that way, and so that's great. But what I'm talking about and what we're planning at SES is to have people being involved in the lives of folks that they are discipling. And in turn, those disciples will go out and disciple more people. You're exactly right, Liz, the woman at the well did. And so we've decided to come outside of our walls. We're not going to build it and hope people come to it. We're going to go outside of our walls because we have the ability to do that with our online presence. And so we've got a new program that we have developed under our Truth That Matters banner. that basically will train people how to disciple using apologetics and using reason and using the Spirit to reach out to 10, 12 people, and hopefully that's going to have the multiplication effect. And we're going to take that into a church. Look, Barna's own research will show that less than 5% of the churches in America have an effective discipleship program. Less than 5%. What if we can seed every true Christian church in America with disciple makers? What difference that would make? So that's what we're doing. We're now looking at 80 churches who are beginning to join hands with us in this, and we will have the first training programs out by the end of February. It will be fully up and running in April. We're building a community of disciple-makers that I hope will be much like Facebook and all the rest of that. In addition to that, Liz, we're going to have helps for people so that if you are... talking to your child and what better person to disciple than your child or a sibling or something like that. But if you run in and they ask you a tough question and you should say, well, I don't know the answer, but let's look at that together. And so we're going to have in this paradigm that we're creating, we're going to have answers to those questions. We're going to go from everything like, what about UFOs? You know, I'm going to deal with the UFOs, and we already got that out there. Practical things like how to study your Bible.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, it doesn't necessarily have to be students, right, that go out.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is for lay people.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, it could be your neighbor. It could be the person at the grocery store that you go to their line every time.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is going to be really a help. There's other things out there. I don't think anybody's doing it quite like we are because we're going back through the churches. We're going into the churches and asking the churches to allow us to help them in developing their discipleship program within their church. And we're going to go in there with true apologetic reasoning to help folks make sense i i came to this position late in life i actually am the first graduate of ses to serve as a president and i came to ses to take one course to better understand my face and ended up graduating with a doctor of ministry program because i got suckered into it um I just loved it so much. And the reason that I loved it, I'm one of these people that I wanted my brain to wrap around what my heart wanted to believe. And that's what we're offering through SES.
SPEAKER 01 :
We're visiting with Judge Phil Ginn, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, and we've been talking about why this might be the best time to share the gospel with those around you. Judge Phil, where can our listeners go to learn more about your online platforms, one of them being Truth That Matters and the other one, Virtual Faith Link?
SPEAKER 03 :
SES.edu will take you to the whole program. I've got weekly op-eds that I usually write as well as we've got podcasts developing. Our professors are doing podcasts. So we can tie you in to everything that's coming down the pike. SES.edu.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, it sounds like you make it pretty easy for somebody just to jump online and learn a little bit, even if it's just to, you know, go out and say hello and God bless you to somebody.
SPEAKER 03 :
Eight hours, Liz, eight hours when we get this program fully functioning, which will be in March or early April. Eight hours will give you the basic training that you need to do, need to utilize for discipleship. Eight hours. That's not bad. All done in your home. in your pajamas, whatever. You don't have to get out and go through the snow to get anywhere. You can do this at home and be ready to engage your neighbors. And we actually have two more levels that you can go through for a total of a 24-hour program. And that's literal hours. It's not semester hours or anything else. It's literally 24 hours. can prepare you to be a super disciple maker for the Lord.
SPEAKER 01 :
Judge Phil, thank you so much for sharing about SES today and thank you for joining us.
Author and former pastor Mark Rutland delivers a comedic guide to embracing perpetual youth amidst the challenges of aging with his new book “Keep on Keeping on.” This book serves as both a celebration and a humorous rebellion against the inevitable decline that comes with time. With laughter as a tool, he navigates the complexities of aging, offering readers a relatable and spirited perspective on life’s later chapters.
00:00:00 Introduction to Dr. Mark Rutland and His New Book
This is Liz Frenzel with Crawford Media Group, and today our guest is Dr. Mark Rutland, who has served as a senior pastor, former president of ORU, and now travels nationally and internationally sharing the gospel, along with being a New York Times bestselling author. We'll be talking about his new book titled Keep On Keepin' On, How to Die Young as Old as Possible. Welcome to our program, Dr. Rutland.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you. I'm delighted to be with you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, my intro covered probably only half of what you do. But for the sake of time, let's talk about how you came about writing this witty commentary about aging gracefully, which, by the way, is your 20th book.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, it is my 20th. It's a complete departure, as Monty Python says now, for something entirely different. The previous 19 are pretty serious books, The Life and Leadership of King David, The a book on the 23rd Psalm. This book is a humorous book. It's very funny. It's a book about aging gracefully. I've got concerns that a lot of people in the older ages, they just get older and mean-spirited and difficult and joyless. And I decided, you know, a merry heart doeth good like medicine. So I say to all those people, buy this book and take your medicine like a big boy.
SPEAKER 01 :
I like that. I was flipping through some of your book and it does have some witty things. But you know what? One thing I kind of gleaned on is that aging, one of the things you said was aging gives more of your time. Explain a little bit about that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. I mean, the things that used to devour the margins in our lives, jobs and extra things, a lot of those things begin to disappear, so it can give us extra time to do things with. Now, that can work both ways, Liz. Sometimes it makes people bored and can't panker us, and they wind up and they downsize their homes, and you've got two people that used to work for a living. Now they're in a closer space. You've got two ball bearings rolling around in a small socket with no lubrication, and it can cause friction. But the good thing is you have time to do things, to enjoy life. And part of the reason I wrote this book is to say to seniors, this is not the worst time of your life. This can be the best time of your life.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know what you were saying about how they get cantankerous and bored, and I think that's a key word is being bored probably puts a lot of people in a bad mood.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, it does, and it's totally unnecessary. There are all the kind of things that we say we want to do our whole lives, all the hobbies and the golf and everything else, but the problem is you come to a place What else do I do? How often can I do that? I can't play golf 24-7 for the last 20 years of my life. So I urge people, get involved in things, volunteer things, have fun. This should be one of the funnest and funniest times of our lives. I urge people, keep on laughing. Keep on finding what's funny. There's funny things in every phase of life, and... Old age or even aging from 50 up, I'm not just talking about being 80 or 90. From 45, 50 on, your body changes, your life changes, your marriage changes, your relationships change. And if you let it make you bored and mean and angry, it will ruin some of the greatest times of your life. But if you'll keep on laughing, keep on being grateful, keep on rejoicing, this can be one of the greatest times of your life.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, another thing that you had said is to turn every moment into an opportunity for ministry. So what's a good way to do that since some might not be comfortable with it?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, yes, I think anybody would be comfortable with it if they broadened the definition for ministry. So if they think of ministry as, you know, standing on a street corner with a John 316 sign, they might not be comfortable with that. But ministering to people. I'm going to tell you something, Liz. The older I get, the more young people are attracted to me. It's not worked at all like I thought. My son pastors a large church in Cartersville, Georgia, and my wife and I attend there. I love to hang around the lobby, and I greet people when I'm not traveling, preaching myself or teaching, and greet people, and I joke around with the teenagers. His youth pastor quit, and the teenagers ask him to make me the youth pastor.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I think that, you know, that has to do with you and your personality and the fact that you do exude humor. And I think people glom onto that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, people want joy and they want vitality and life and generosity. I think that as people get older, sometimes they clamp down on life. They quit giving as much. They quit praising as much. They're not as generous with their compliments or even just with life. And I say keep on giving. Keep on being generous. And keep on with your compliments. Be more extravagant, not less extravagant.
SPEAKER 01 :
So outside of standing on a street corner with a John 316 sign, what are some good practical ways to make tangible Christlike contributions to our communities and families?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, one way is volunteering and things. There are people, many people that are listening to this right now. You still have vitality and youth and energy. You're healthy. and you're not bogged down with a nine-to-five job. There are children that can be tutored, and there are places where you can volunteer time, food services, things for the poor that you can do, and bring joy to it. If you do it joyfully, people will be attracted to you and through you to Christ. By ministering, I just mean minister the presence of Christ. and do it in every kind of way. Volunteer your church. Use the last energy that you've got more enthusiastically. Don't dole out your seconds. You don't know how many seconds you've got. Spend them wildly in the service of the King. Have joy.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, I think also that has something to do with our physical abilities. So when you stay active, I think that you have more energy and that you do enjoy life more, therefore giving us a little more joy. And, you know, when we say ministry, that does kind of have a stigma to it. But I think that could be as easy as, you know, just like you said, the youth are drawn to you. If you're out somewhere, I don't know, if you're skiing, if you're out golfing, whatever you might be doing, and you just have a joyful demeanor about you, people are drawn to that. And I think that could even bring up the question, how are you so joyful, right? And that's a good cue to say, well... Let me tell you about God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Sure, you're exactly right. People are drawn to people that are joyful and happy. Look, I live in the real world. As you get older, stuff that didn't hurt, hurts. And stuff that used to work, doesn't. And that's part of this whole process. But if you can laugh at it and go on, do what you can do and do it joyfully... Look, what I always say to people is when you're at a clinic or something and that nurse is coming towards you with a hypodermic, I suggest not being mean to her.
SPEAKER 01 :
That's good advice.
SPEAKER 02 :
Treat her with a smile and maybe she'll treat you with a smile.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, what did give you the inspiration to write this book? I love the last part of the title where, Die Young as Old as Possible.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I hear people all the time say, oh, he died so young. I want to, when I die, if it's 87 or 97 or 107, I want people to say he seemed young right to the end. He seemed young. vital and joyful and fun and funny right up to the end of things, but I want that to be as old as possible. I want to die young. I want to die joyful and laughing. I'd like to be enjoying my life right to the end of my last breath before I go into heaven.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right. And I think part of that is having the relationship you have with God. He's hilarious. I have some of the funniest conversations with them, you know, and he's not old and he's not grumpy. And I think some people may have grown up in a church and were taught that and really didn't get to know the funny side of him. What do you say about that?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, I agree with that. And I think a lot of people as they age, A sin overtakes them that they did not struggle with that much when they were younger, and it's self-pity. And they begin to feel sorry for themselves, and they inflict that on other people around them, and they want God to get down and wallow in it with them. They want a God who says, poor baby, you're old and you've got arthritis. Instead, they have to understand that God is saying... that he wants us to have the joy unspeakable and full of glory right to the end, right in our whole lives. It doesn't mean that I don't have arthritis. It doesn't mean I'm not aging. It doesn't mean any of those things. It means that I cannot allow them to steal my joy. The Bible says the joy of the Lord is our strength. If we take that seriously, which we must, then anything that steals my joy steals my strength. And it's therefore the enemy of God in my life.
SPEAKER 01 :
And I think, too, the more active we are, whether we have aches and pains or not, those actually seem to be less because you're moving around. Your mind is not focused on the pain or whatever ailment you're going through. And I think just that in itself puts a pep in your step, don't you?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, exactly. Stay active, stay moving, stay laughing. That's the reason this book comes with one double-your-money-back guarantee. If you don't laugh even once reading this book, we'll double your money back, and the checks go in the mail the day after the rapture. If you're home to get yours, that tells you something.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right. That's true. That is so true.
SPEAKER 02 :
The book really is not just... self-help advice. It actually is to say, here's something funny. Laugh at this. Some of the funniest things in the world have happened in church. I've been a minister for more than 50 years, and I've seen some outrageously funny things happen in church. And I tell about a funeral in this book. If you can read that story and not laugh, I defy it. It's one of the funniest things that happened to me in my whole life, and it was the first funeral that I ever preached when I was 22 years old.
SPEAKER 01 :
We're visiting with Dr. Mark Rutland, and we've been talking about his new book titled Keep On Keeping On, How to Die Young as Old as Possible. Dr. Rutland, where can our listeners go to learn more about your ministry? Because you do so much more than what we've even touched on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you. They can go to Global Servants, which is the ministry my wife and I founded 40 years ago, learn about our girls' homes in Southeast Asia and West Africa, and the National Institute of Christian Leadership, which I teach. Or they can go to DrMarkRutland.com. But the most comprehensive look will be at Global Servants.
SPEAKER 01 :
And where can they get this witty book of yours?
SPEAKER 02 :
They can get that wherever they buy excellent books. of course, at Amazon and also at Global Servants and Dr. Mark Rutland. And I hope that they will and that they will inflict the book on some of their friends as well.
SPEAKER 01 :
And I encourage all of our listeners to go out and get this book and just start putting some more joy in your life. Dr. Rutland, thank you so much for joining us today.
Tim and Joy Downs have co-authored two books on conflict resolution in marriage: Fight Fair and One of Us Must be Crazy and I’m Pretty Sure It’s You. Tim is also a corporate speaker, communication trainer, and co-host of the weekly Communication Guys podcast, which can be heard on Spotify & Apple Podcasts. The Downs are graduates of Indiana University, where Joy received a degree in Journalism and Tim received a degree in Fine Arts. The Downs have three grown children.
Hey, it's Mike Treen with Crawford Media Group and 670 KLTT. Today I'm joined by Tim and Joy Downs. We're talking about A Weekend to Remember coming to the Colorado area. And Tim and Joy, thanks for taking the time with us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you're welcome. It's our privilege.
SPEAKER 03 :
Glad to be with you. So we have A Weekend to Remember coming to the Broadmoor, Colorado Springs area. Within our KLTT listening audience, a ton of people down in Colorado Springs, Pueblo, up to the Denver area that would love to go. It's February 28th through March 2nd. And I want to start. Tim and Joy, give us a little info on you two and the work you've done with Family Life and outside of Family Life, too, if it's relevant.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, it's been our privilege to speak at Weekend to Remember Getaways for 40 years now. We like to tell people we started when we were just children, but that's not exactly true.
SPEAKER 02 :
It's pretty close.
SPEAKER 01 :
But it's a wonderful group. It's grown exponentially over the years. Now more than a million and a half couples have attended the Weekend to Remember Getaway. So we now have conferences we do in 75 locations all over the United States. Amazing.
SPEAKER 02 :
We're often paired with, or most of the time paired with, another couple. And so we're kind of the oldies. for the most part. And we're often paired with a younger couple. So we kind of do the spectrum of marriage. So that's kind of fun. That's fun for us.
SPEAKER 03 :
Tim and Joy, if someone hasn't been to a weekend, remember, what's that like? What's the experience like for the person that's a first time attendee?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I think it's a surprise for people to realize these conferences are large. These are not just small group get-togethers. In fact, the conference at the Broadmoor will have more than 1,000 people attending. And the beauty of that is you can get lost there. You can make the weekend about just the two of you. You're not meeting in a small group with other couples. You get a chance to just make the weekend about yourself. So it's always a nice hotel. There is no nicer hotel than the Broadmoor. I would say anywhere in the United States is our favorite property. And the conference itself is excellent. The material is wonderful. We've been doing these conferences, Family Life has, for close to 50 years. And it's fine-tuned, and it's an outstanding experience.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. They keep updating the material. They add more videos and clips and graphics and things. So that makes it fun and up-to-date, too.
SPEAKER 03 :
Joy, what would you say is a very compelling reason Perhaps something that people have even told you, hey, I really came because this happened in my life or this happened in my marriage.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I think people come for all different reasons. We've had couples come and they say this is our last-ditch effort. If we don't get help here, you know, we're done. We have the divorce papers drawn up. And by the end of the weekend, they come back to us and say we have hope. We see what we've been doing wrong, and this is a starting point for us to change. And then we have other couples that have been married just for a month, and they're deeply in love, and they want to just invest in their marriage. And we feel like it's just a wonderful reason to come and get away, because in marriage we do nothing. We tell this in our conference, but we drift toward isolation. You know, the distractions that we have, The busyness that we have, whether we have children or they're grown, we have grandkids, work, all those things take us away from each other. And so we say, if you're not working toward actively building into your marriage, you're going to drift toward isolation. But you can come together and you can have that connection. And we call that oneness again. And it just gives couples a chance to look at each other. To actually, you know, take down their screens, talk to each other and say, you know, who are you and what's important to you? And it really helps couples get on the same page again.
SPEAKER 03 :
We're speaking with Tim and Joy Downs. We're talking about Family Life's Weekend to Remember. That's coming to the Broadmoor, Colorado Springs. February 28th through March 2nd. And as Tim said, it's a beautiful place. If you've never been to the Broadmoor, it is such a great place to get away with your spouse and have a chance to have a weekend to remember. And Tim, I'm going to ask you, what are some of the things that our listeners can expect to hear at a weekend to remember?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, we try to cover the gamut. We talk about the nature of marriage, as Joy was saying, about the fact that it's something you need to work at if you want an excellent marriage. It's a strange thing, Mike, but we expect to have to work to advance our careers or education or to stay physically fit, but we don't expect to have to work on marriage. But if you want an outstanding marriage, it does require some work. So we'll talk about the nature of marriage, and we also talk about a simple game plan for achieving oneness. We talk about improving your communication skills. We talk about how to resolve conflict, how to fight fair. We talk about improving sexual intimacy in marriage. So, boy, we cover a range of topics over the weekend. And I think an important thing to say, Mike, is it isn't just about speakers talking to the audience. We carve out a lot of time for the couples to be able to get together and talk just to each other here. And that's why we like to call it a weekend remember getaway. It's a romantic getaway.
SPEAKER 03 :
Joy, do you think a lot of times it's hard for couples to actually sit down and talk and have that time together?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Yes. I mean, Tim and I have that trouble, too. I just think, you know, whatever stresses you have coming into your marriage, you could have a good marriage, but you could have other stressors come in or whatever. you know, children that are going astray, you know, just all kinds of different problems. And so it's hard to carve out the time, first of all, to talk and then just to know even how to begin to talk, which is really helpful to go to Weekend to Remember because we give you some things to talk about. We give you kind of springboards of projects to do and to talk about the things that we've just been mentioning in the session, you know, whether it be about conflict or whether it be about communication and so you don't have to just sit there like bumps on a log and think i don't even know how to start this we give you kind of prompts to help you uh talk about the things that are hard yeah and the websites weekend to remember i want to mention that a couple different times in this interview pretty simple weekend to remember.com there's a special hundred dollar off um
SPEAKER 03 :
Discount for KLTT listeners. Use that code getaway. So like a getaway, getaway to save $100 off the regular price for a couple's registration, which is pretty fabulous, right? It is.
SPEAKER 01 :
It's a good deal. And again, for a fabulous getaway at an outstanding hotel.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, it's so pretty down there. And Joy, you talked about some of this already. What if somebody's already attended a Weekend to Remember event?
SPEAKER 02 :
spouse uh two spouses and and they look at each other and say ah you know we've already been to a couple what do you say to that person yeah well we do have people that come back and what they tell us is you know the material sounds so different because we're at a different point in our marriage or we have different things going on in our marriage and they will probably have different speakers at the weekend to remember that they attend because We try to switch up the speakers. There are 50 different speaker couples that travel all around the country. And so it's likely that if you came to one getaway, you will hear different speakers at another getaway. And we all kind of just make the material our own. We tell our own illustrations and stories. And so you will hear a pretty different conference. The material, the outline is much the same, but, um, Our stories and everything are different, and it will hit you differently compared to the conference that you attended before.
SPEAKER 01 :
And we've had couples tell us they come every year on their anniversary just to use it as a kind of a tune-up. So apparently it does sound different each time, just like Joyce said. Yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think you hit on it. It's a different season. And as you go through these seasons, those questions hit a little differently or the things you need to talk about. Right. So do you find yourself ministering that weekend to remember sometimes?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that's our hope in whatever form that takes. We hope that we're an encouragement. And hope is the big word there. We really want to give couples hope. We do believe that there is hope because God can be with us and show us things about ourselves and things about our spouse or about our children that we might not normally see. and we can have the hope that he's with us. And a lot of couples come away thinking, I didn't know that before, or I had forgotten about that, and now we know we have God's power. So what else would you say, honey?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, we would say God has given us a very simple and very profound game plan to make marriage work. We think God invented marriage, so his original design is the most effective one there's ever been. We try to tell people that we are all inherently spiritual beings. And sometimes the problem is we're trying to conduct a marriage, leaving the spiritual dimension out. And once you wake up to that, you suddenly realize, like Joy was saying, you've got another power source that really will help to work towards the oneness that we all want.
SPEAKER 03 :
We're speaking with Tim and Joy Downs, and we're talking about the Weekend to Remember. Sorry, Joy. Walked on you there. It's at the Broadmoor. Beautiful place. We've talked about that. Tim and Joy have been there, so they know. February 28th through March 2nd, Tim and Joy will be speaking there, and the website is weekendtoremember.com. Use the code GETAWAY to save $100 off the regular price for a couple's registration. And Tim and Joy, we have just enough time, I think, to talk about each of you giving your favorite part of Weekend to Remember.
SPEAKER 01 :
I think my favorite part of it is simply looking out at a thousand people in the audience, just sitting two by two, nudging each other, laughing together and talking when we give them a project or give them a break to see people interacting. working through something that they needed to talk about, and just enjoying the beauty of the area and the chance to get away. That's why we keep using that word. Mike, that's why the coupon code is getaway, because the secret is when are you going to do this on your own at home with the distraction of life? Come and get together with us and get away and just have a wonderful, romantic weekend.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Uh, for me, I would think, I think, uh, Mike, that just looking out into the audience and there are many children represented with these couples as well. And so to see those couples unite again and think their legacy could be changed. And often we hear about that at the end of the conference, that they are going to make God at the center of their marriage and their family. And so we know that legacies can be changed and children can have parents that stay together. And they all see a model of marriage that they can have in their own marriage. And so that's exciting for us. We hear about that at the end of the weekend. And so that motivates us each time. And I will say, too, we're speaking with another couple, the Perrys, Mike and Wendy. And you will love them if you come. They're a great couple and so much fun to hear.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, Tim and Joy, we're blessed to know that you two are involved here. for a long time with Weekend to Remember that you've been sowing into these husbands and wives, you know, these families, really, to the kids, have generational, really generational communication improved and different things in the marriage that are now going to be imparted on kids. And some of the kids that you guys have talked to the parents, well, now the kids are learning from Weekend to Remember. So pretty amazing stuff. Yeah, it's weekend to remember dot com. Easy website to get to. The dates are February 28th through March 2nd at the Broadmoor. Use the code getaway to save one hundred dollars off a regular price couples registration. So family life is graciously agreed to that discount that gives you one hundred bucks off. That's a lot. And Tim and Joy, we can't wait to hear what couples tell us after they come.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, well, thanks.
SPEAKER 01 :
We can't wait to be there to see the Broadmoor again and to see all the outstanding people that we'll have in the audience.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. We always love to meet the couples and talk with them. It's a great, great conference, and we love it. Love to be there at the getaway.
SPEAKER 03 :
So good. Well, KLTT listeners, you make sure and hunt down Tim and Joy and tell them you heard it on KLTT and perhaps I'll even hear about your stories. So Tim and Joy, thanks so much. WeekendtoRemember.com and February 20th to March 2nd. Be there.
