On The Road Again..Carolina Classic

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. . Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion.

Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits. Now live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. This is the Mobile Truth booth today because we're at the Carolina Classic Fair live. And you know who isn't here? You. You're not here.

I haven't met you yet. So you got to come down. We're going to be here at least till noon.

But we got this booth. We're going to be here through clear through tomorrow. I don't know that I'll be here all those hours, but we're going to be here some. So you come on down. But more fun than that, I've got some amazing guests with me today.

First is a new friend I hadn't met. He's an author of the whole Return to Faith series. Like, oh, my goodness, has he written some books and worked with special needs folks and just done some amazing things? I'm told he also wants to be a fighter pilot and launch planes off of jets.

I mean, off of aircraft carriers. That was like a second life. So does Farmer. So welcome, Otis. Well, thank you. Glad to be here.

Thanks for the invitation. And so neat. So when when did your first book come out of? In April of 20.

Right as Covid was breaking out. So that added a few complications. But what what I admire your faith to come out there and actually return to faith. It's a it's a from what I understand, a novel. Yes, it's going to be a seven series book. Each book will be titled Return to Faith and they will have a subtitle for that particular edition. This one is Ground Zero.

Yeah, that's book one. And so I'm guessing that in your own life, was there a Ground Zero? I would say maybe a series of Ground Zeros because there's times we reach points in our life where we realize we need a new direction or we need to fine tune what we're trying to accomplish. Or return to faith. Well, that's my next yes.

I've had several points in my life where my faith was extremely challenged and always find my way back. And so you're in good company. Yeah. I understand Abraham had ten of them. I'm not there yet. I think I've had ten yet.

You haven't led to a hundred yet. So, you know, we got we got more time to go. So next up, we have my good friend, actually, David Braswell, who is with Project Re3's Hope Center. Yeah. And they've been on with us before. They provide food, clothing, shelter in the Kernersville area with the Project Re3 church. And you guys just got off your big food drive.

And yeah, yeah. With sheets, you know, 11 local sheets partnered with us with Project Re3 Hope Center to collect canned goods at 11 of our triad local sheets. And I'm not going to go through all of them, but we just want to extend a thank you out to sheets. We definitely appreciate. That's our second annual food drive with them. And so far, it's looking pretty good.

Looks like we've got quite a bit of food from them. So you may be out there right now thinking, I've got well, I've got some stuff that I want to donate to the Hope Center. Or maybe you need some hope.

Maybe, maybe, maybe you're running low on food or maybe you're running low on something. You know, the Hope Center is there. Where is that in Kernersville? It's actually in Walkertown on Old Hollow Road. If you go right past the sheets in Walkertown down Old Hollow, it's right down on the left. We're open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. or 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Sorry. And we do clothing you can get every week. And then we partner with Second Harvest Food Bank so you can get food once a month from there. That's wonderful. And again, so it should maybe be the Old Hollow Hope Center.

Just saying. I don't know. But anyway, you know, we also want to talk about that we have an epic, live epic story of God going on in Richmond. For those of you in Richmond today, it's coming to the Carpenter Theater October 28th and 29th.

And from what I understand, it's going to be a tremendous theatrical event. It's called The Thorn. And for those of us who love the scriptures, I don't know, David, if you've ever thought about how many places the word thorn comes in. I don't know, Robbie, but you probably know exactly how many. I don't know how many.

I wouldn't give you a number, but I hear some things to just ponder for a moment. OK, well, we know first that Adam got into trouble, shenanigans, right? Yeah.

And there were some thorns involved. Oh, absolutely. Of the curse, right? Yep. Well, did you know that the word Sinai in Hebrew means thorn?

No. Yeah, it does. And so the bush that actually if you look carefully into the Hebrew of all those words around Moses's experience there at the bush and then later at Sinai all has to do with the idea of thorn. Oh, wow. Right. So it was actual thorn bush.

That's that's the way I would read it. OK. Yeah. But that doesn't you know, I but but certainly we know about the crown of thorns. Oh, yeah. And then one of my favorite verses in scriptures really is this in the Song of Solomon, as you might know, David knows me. He knows that that's where it would be found.

Yeah. But it says, Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion and behold your king with a crown that his mother crowned him with on the day of his espousals, on the day of the rejoicing of his heart. What crown was that? Because his mother crowned him with it, which means in Hebrew that that's his family. So what crown did you since you're his family, what crown did you crown him with the crown of thorns?

Correct. See, so we all this is epic because these thorns are very much connected to our own lives, man. It hurt Jesus. Some of the stuff that we did, the shenanigans that we pulled. And this is an epic story. So speaking of epic.

I know it was. Yes, it is time to go. I got to tell you, I've been waiting all day to share this first one. Oh, I can hardly wait to see if anybody can get it. So, Christian, are you with me there in the studio?

I am here. So and we got David all time. He's the expert at these Robbie's riddles.

Sometimes. And then we got the rookie. We got Otis is the rookie. So what do you call an epic cow?

What do you call it? Otis knows. Holy cow. That's good. I like that. It's somewhat funny. Holy cow. That's epic. How about you, David?

Get any idea? I'm lost on this one. Christian, what do you think? I was thinking like Otis thinking. Holy cow. There you go. Well, that's that's really pretty good, but not as good as legendary. That was a good one.

Yeah, it could happen every once in a while. This one's not quite as good, but I still think it's funny. What do you call an epic space opera set during the Russian Revolution? This is a rough an epic space opera set during the Russian Revolution.

You might call it Czar Wars. All right. One last one. See if you guys are warmed up.

All right. And feel free to get Brandon in there, too, if he's in the studio. He's here.

He's here. So what do you call an epic camping trip? It also could be a circus, by the way. An epic circus or epic camping trip. It works both ways.

What would you call that? What do you think, Brandon? An epic campus camping trip.

Hmm. You got me on there, Robbie. I have something to attend. You said circus has got something to attend.

Yeah, it's going to be intense. There you go. You know, so, you know, there you go. And so since we had all this discussion of thorns and we had all this discussion of epic.

Right. So what thorns in the Bible were real sticklers? Which thorns in the Bible were real sticklers? Eight, six, six.

You know, this is not a trick question. Feel free to call in and win because we have. I'm told that Otis might share one of his books with you, but we certainly have prizes in the in the Truth prize vault in the King of Pursuits prize vault.

Which thorns in the Bible were real sticklers? Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four is number to call in and win. And if they can do that, Christian, tell them what they'll win. They're going to win one of the fabulous prizes from our King of Pursuits prize vault or a book from Otis. A book from Otis. Again, his complete series, The Return to Faith, which includes ground zero, new growth and circle of life. And there's a picture of Zimba right here.

No, I'm just kidding. Zimba, that sounds like a combination of some kind of exercise and this is the first three of seven. I'm going to start writing four. So there'll be seven total. Oh, my goodness. That's a lot of writing.

That's perfect. So when we come back, we're going to have your answers to the real sticklers. Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four, a lot more from David. And we're going to get into this return to faith. I'm excited and so glad to have Otis with us today and David. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And you hear those bells in the backward because there's people there winning like stuffed animals as we speak. I see the horses. They're off and they're running up the thing and there's a balloon going to bop.

It's unbelievable. We're here at the Carolina Classic Fair and we're live and we would love to see you out here if you got time to come by and see us. We're in the booth right over here by WXI and right in front of the education building. And we have got two good friends with us.

We got Otis Farmer. He is author of the Return to Faith series and David Braswell, who is with actually sheets, but also Project Re3. You heard the shameless plug you put in for sheets here at the beginning, but he's he's also very much with the Hope Center Project Re3. They give away all sorts of food, clothing for the need of wonderful, you know, place for hope. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Where we do our food, food outreaches every Wednesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. And then our clothing closets open during the same time. And then if you need help outside of that, if you give us a call or reach out to us through our website, Project Re3.org, then we can set up an appointment for you. We are located at 3801 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina, 27284.

It's actually more on the Walker South Walker town side, but it is a Kernersville address. So, yeah, I need to mention that if you go to KingdomPursuits.com today, I posted both Project Re3 and Otis Farmer, where you can go to his website and see all his different projects, like, oh, my goodness, a very prolific author. Like, I'm shocked, like, to put out three books of this magnitude since 2020, that's one a year, I would say. Right at one a year. It's a dedication.

And so you're thinking by 2027, you might have it, you know, might have that project finished. So I know our listeners are curious. I'm very curious. Like, how did God, like, put this on your heart?

How did the whole thing start? Because apparently your profession was not authorism. I was in the furniture industry for a while, most of my adult life. And so now that I'm back in my second childhood, I'm pursuing what God really wants out of my life. But several years ago, he impressed me that I was going to write a story and was going to be returned to faith. But I wasn't ready to write it yet. Okay, well, I have a title, but no storyline.

And it took until 2019 for the Lord to say it's time to start writing. But then it was like, okay, it's going to be a screenplay. Oh, okay, well, I'd love to make a movie. So I wrote the screenplay almost a day after I finished the screenplay. He's like, okay, now take your screenplay and use it as an outline to develop it into a novel that's going to be the first of seven. It's going to take seven books to tell the story.

And I'm like, oh, okay, so now I'm ready. But when I sit down to write, I'm like, well, Lord, here I am. I don't normally begin with an outline anyway, but it was unusual for me to use a screenplay which is in reverse. You write the book, then you write the screenplay.

But he impressed me to write the screenplay and then the first book. And so I never know when I sit down to write where we're going. I'm like, Lord, where are we going? Where are the characters and I going on this particular day of writing?

So it's a very challenging way to write. But again, going back to the faith, I'm putting faith in God. He's going to take me where the story needs to go. And so that's kind of the origin.

Well, you know, it's hilarious about, I shouldn't say hilarious, it's just intriguing to me, is that interestingly in my story, and it's Stu Epperson who owns The Truth Radio Network and all these different stations would tell you that one of the things that he knew about me first off was when I was the Chrysler dealer in Winston-Salem where he called on me selling radio, that God came to me and said, I want you to write a screenplay. Oh, really? And it was called The Shield of Fate. Oh, really? Oh. And it was an amazing story. And like you, he gave me the storyline and he would give me, you know, scene one, you know, act, you know, all that thing. And I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay. So I go get screenwriting software. I study how to write a screenplay, all this stuff. But again, God's giving me the screenplay. Well, I spent about three years writing and all of a sudden I hit a place I can't go any further. He's not telling me the rest of the story. And I get fired.

And for some reason, the main character in this screenplay became injured by his stepmother and he's blind now in the story, but I don't know why or what the reasoning is. And about this time, you know, I go on about four months of silence, not 400 years. And then I get fired from the job that I had at the time.

And I was unemployed for about six months. And sitting out in a tree stand one day, David, you like that? He tells me why my character was blind.

Because it would be the only way that he could save all these people that were in this building when it went dark because he was the one that could get them all out. Oh, okay. And I'll never forget it because I just had no idea. There's got to be a reason and then he just gave me. But since I've experienced that, and then here's the real punchline of the story. So I finished the screenplay and like you, I'm sitting out there looking for agents all over to do the screenplay. And I finally get this person in California that's an agent. And they said, yeah, send us your manuscript. So I send it and this guy calls back about two months later and I never go by Robert Dilmore. So there's a guy when he calls me and says, is this Robert Bruce Dilmore, the author of the Shield of Faith? And I said, yes. And he goes, well, I just got finished reading your manuscript. And I have to tell you that it is the most disturbing piece of literature I have ever read.

Is it all right if I burn it? And I'm like, well, yeah, I mean, of course I had another copy. There's rejection and there's rejection, David. So I'm guessing you don't want to represent me with this movie. But anyway, I'm sorry. I thought you would get a kick out of that because you know exactly how that feels, right? And there is varying degrees of rejection. You're absolutely right. And it's hard to tell sometimes if someone's looking to take a shot at you as a writer or they just don't like, which I've had some, I don't like it because you wrote it, okay?

What did they do to you? They don't have to read it, right? That's right. There's a lot of other. But just your story makes me want to read it because I know that that storyline came from God. And since I do radio and actually every Saturday morning before I do Christian Car Guy show, I ask God, and I can't tell you how many days he's totally blown my mind. And he's always got way better stuff than I would ever dream of in a million years.

Well, that's exactly what I'm hearing. I concur with you, counselor. I look back, not that I'm saying that these stories are wonderful, but when I look back at how God uses these storylines and weaves them into this wonderful tapestry that I'm saying, I didn't write that. There's no way I wrote that.

That didn't come out of my head. That was inspired. And so I give God the credit for everything in the book. He gives me the inspiration for the photography. I use my own photography. Oh, wow. I designed the book.

All right, all right, all right. So what flower is that? It's a pink flower. I can't remember the name of the flower. It was in my neighbor's yard, and I had already chosen a white flower. Here's my question again.

David might even see this one coming. I think it's a rhododendron, I'm not sure. Is it a Rose of Sharon? Well, no, but it could be.

It could be representative of Rose of Sharon. Okay, but that, again, to me, that adds to like, man, why I would want to read this book, because you know that, again, every author is reflecting the gifting God gave him. Every author does that. But some of them are obviously not maybe as dependent, but one time on God is other authors, but I had an opportunity to interview the guys who wrote the movies Fireproof and Courageous. Hendrick, am I saying it right? Yeah, I think so. The Kendrick brothers.

Yeah, the Kendrick brothers. I have a terrible mind that has like a sieve that things just go out of it. But anyway, I asked them, I said, where do you get such amazing ideas for your movies?

And they said, well, Robbie, we like good ideas, but we never go with those. We wait till God gives us the idea. And so, you know, you see what God has done with their stuff.

Well, it's exactly that way. Well, if you look at the cover, the flower itself is a picture of perfection. And then what God pointed out to me later was look around. I was going to go back and use Photoshop and green up the flower, the leaves around it, but leave them as they are because there is the imperfection that we are forced to exist in and around. So every part of that photograph is a part of the circle of life. And as people read the story, they'll understand the circle and then the number of flowers that are creating the circle. That's funny that you mention that.

You're going to like this, David. So I don't know if you've given this much thought, but there's dust underneath your bed. Oh, yeah.

There is. And you don't know whether you're coming or going. LAUGHTER Because to an extent, we're all turning back into dust and it's all gathering right there under your, you know, like, oh, my gosh. And it's the circle of life, right? Because out of that dust, it used to be your skin and this little plant can grow and away you go. So when we come back, somebody has got to call in and tell us which thorns in the Bible were real sticklers. Don't overthink this, OK? There's lots of answers.

Nobody's ever been wrong on Kingdom Pursuits. 866-348-7884, 866-3430. You can get one of these books right here from Otis Farmer. All you got to do is call. We want to know about the sticklers. You're listening to the Truth Network and Truth Network dot com.

Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And we are here at the Carolina Classic Fair, the home of giant turkey legs and Amish donuts and pickled pizza and pickled pickled pizza. Never had that before. You got to get a slice. I picked a package. I mean, it's down in the food area somewhere.

I know we had it last year. It's good. Pickled pizza. Yeah, man. So if you happen to be in Richmond today, you aren't pickled pizza may not be available to you.

Even if you wanted to pick a pack of pickled pizza, you'd be out of luck. But you can go see the thorn. It's coming up October twenty eighth to the twenty ninth. And it is just an epic drama that about God's story.

And it's going to be at the Carpenter Theater there. And so along those lines, I asked this riddle and I'm just shocked. I'm literally shocked that nobody's called in. Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four is the number to call in and tell us which thorns in the Bible were real sticklers, which thorns in the Bible were real sticklers. If you answer that onus wants to get you a whole set of his books. Not one, not two, but all three of the first three of seven.

What an opportunity. All you had to do was tell us about the thorns. Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four.

Now, David, I love the title of this book, Return to Faith. And so I think that's all our stories. Yeah. But I know the listeners because I know your story. Yeah. And those of you who regularly listen to The Masculine Journey probably have heard of our most experienced guest, David, the number one guest. I think I have a permanent seat.

Anyway, I would love for them, you know, because you have a very unique story because you are a pastor's kid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I grew up. My dad still is. I mean, he's retired. He grew up on the eastern coast of North Carolina at a small church at Havelock, I think. Havelock? Yeah.

That's a neat sounding town. He's just, well, he says an interim pastor. I mean, I don't think he's going anywhere, but yeah, grew up all the way. He used to work. He was, I've never said this before, but he used to be like in the upper executive area of the credit cards for Belk's before he became a minister. And then God called him to ministry and, you know, he left that and went and became a minister. So yeah, I grew up as a pastor's kid, which, you know, I'm sure there might be some pastor's kids listening and know how tough that is growing up in the church 24 seven like that. And ultimately that actually steered me out of my faith instead of bringing me closer to it. And for many years, you know, I faked it or posed.

If you listen to the masculine journey or been to any of our boot camps, we talk about the pose. I posed for, you know, the better part of my life as, you know, yeah, I'm this Christian Christian warrior. You know, I know what I'm doing until I didn't know what I was doing. And then, uh, it catches up to you quick. And then as, as your title, your book returning to faith, um, God struck me down in my tracks. Uh, you know, out of the blue, had no idea that it was going to happen like that. I thought, uh, you know, I thought I knew what I was doing in my faith. Um, you know, I thought I was living it correctly and walking with him correctly and definitely wasn't.

And it's been about four years now. Um, my, uh, youngest daughter moved in with me, um, that was a blessing. Um, but at the time looking, whether you're looking at it from the outside or living from the inside, I was, it was a nightmare, um, for me and my wife and, and, you know, we, uh, we got it together and, and, um, you know, ultimately explain a little bit of that. You were previously married, had a daughter. Yeah. So now you're remarried. Yeah. Remarried now. Sorry. And the one daughter came to live, which is always awkward. Yeah. Yeah. It's a Brady Bunch, you know, situation it's, it's, that's, but it's kind of cool, you know, that God kind of had you right where he wanted you.

He did. And, you know, I remember specifically cause, so one Sunday we hadn't been going to church. I hadn't been to church in quite a while unless we were visiting a church, like with my wife's family or, or at my parents' house going to one of my dad's churches. One Sunday I got up and me and my daughter were just at each other's throats. Like she was yelling at me, I was yelling at her and I was like, you know, I don't know what to do. And then instantly hit me. I was like, get dressed. And she's like, where are we going?

It's Sunday morning. I was like, we're going to church. And we did. We went to a church and, uh, you know, I was sitting in, we went to that church, uh, for, for several weeks and I was sitting in there just, um, you know, we had had, uh, to keep her personal side out of it. We'd had some issues and she was away for a moment and I was sitting in the church service, just, you know, very upset, crying, just didn't know what to do and messaged the church and said, I need somebody to talk to, which in turn turned me onto my very good friend, Jim Graham. Um, and again, if you listen to masculine journey, you'll, you'll hear Jim quite a bit. Uh, and so met him, talked to him and then, uh, led me to, uh, the masculine journey radio team.

I ended up coming to a boot camp and, uh, I got to meet you and, and it's been an amazing thing to watch, you know, certainly there were a lot of wounds that came as a result of being a PK and I hadn't even really put together, you know, how people in the church treated your dad. Oh yeah. You know, that's, you know, you love your day, you know, obviously in watching that. And so I, I think that's, it's a fascinating piece of insight and, and just again, the importance of that title of, of return to faith in everybody's life. But the best news that I have right this very minute is we have Penny is in Washington and she has an answer to our riddles.

So Penny, you're on a kingdom pursuits. Good morning. Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to listen to you.

I am so grateful that you're listening. I am an Air Force brat, so I, I'm very interested in Otis's story and, um, the answer I have for you in, um, the Stickler question is found in Genesis three, uh, chapter 17 through 19. It talks about, um, how the, the ground would be cursed because they ate at the fruit and all the days of their lives, both thorns and sistles, it shall grow for you and you shall not eat the plants of the field by the, you shall eat plants of the field by the sweat of your face. You shall eat bread till you return to the ground because from it you were taken and to dust or you are dust and to dust you shall return. That is well, you are completely right and just so that's so wonderful and so you're obviously going to get that, that whole set of books. Oh, I'm excited. I was just thinking this week actually, and then he has his circle of life idea that there's actually his third book that how miraculous ground is, right, that the ground grows all this amazing stuff that we eat or the animals eat and, and how it all turns out that, you know, every, every little speck of dust probably used to be some part of somebody or something or, you know, and all these things are, you know, and, and, and yet, you know, the ultimate recycling. Yes it is. The book two cover, it's a stretch of a forest in West Virginia that looks like it may have burned out.

And so when, when you look at the trees kind of look dark and then you see all the new growth down here, which is regenerating from all that was right from the dust is dust and the dust is because of multiple dusts would be dust is well, Penny, God bless you. Thank you so much for listening. Which Washington do you live in? Oh, that is absolutely wonderful.

I'd love the state of Washington. I've always said, Oh, I absolutely. And I have so many amazing listeners there because for years Christian Car Guy show was on live in Seattle on I'm trying to think of the call letters of the radio station up there, but are you listening on an app, an app or how are you hearing the program? I'm listening on the truth network and on my app for that, but I also can pick you up delayed on a KCIS, I think it is one of those.

Yeah. KCIS. Oh, I love that station. I have so many, you know, since the show isn't live anymore, Sarah Linda hasn't called me in forever. It breaks my heart. So did you ever listen when she would call in?

Always from snow, my home is I think is where she lives in Washington. So when we come back, thank you so much, Benny, you're a winner. We will send those books out to you to Washington. And if you have another answer, somebody else out there listening, and you think you want to talk about the thorniness in the Bible, you call us 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. We'll be right back with so much more live from the Carolina Classic Food.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom. And oh, we have a passion for fairs today, and it's fair weather, my point out here today at the Carolina Classic Fair, we would love to see you. We're out here right in front of the education building, and it's very educational in there. They've got all the different, it is, have you been in there?

Yeah, they have the like quilts and all that stuff, right? Well, the thing that really, here's the exciting part for me, is I've discovered that they actually have people that make sauerkraut. I saw Blue Winter Sauerkraut there, and it wasn't close to my sauerkraut, and I saw the people who won ribbons for pickles, like, man, wait, next year, it's good the Christian car guy's gonna have the sauerkraut entry and the pickle entry, they can't touch my pickles.

Oh, man, I can't wait. But anyway, all that stuff is right there and very cool, and we are, again, joined today by my good friend, David Braswell, who is with Mastin Journey, which the show comes on at 12 o'clock, you may know that, but also is with Project Re3, that church there in Kernersville and their Hope Center, which is so cool that part of the fruit of his return to faith is God gives us all this cool stuff we get to do and take part in. One of the things that David is so industrious in coming up with ways to get food through sheets and all these other different things for the Hope Center, and so we're so glad with that.

We have with us a new friend, a really good friend, in the short time I've known him, I can't believe all the things we have in common, Otis Farmer, and he has written this entire Return to Faith series, which is on its way to be in seven books, but at this point in time, it's three books, Return to Faith, Ground Zero, Return to Faith, The Circle of Life, and Return to Faith, New Growth. But all this stuff is at KingdomPursuits.com, so you can see, you know, his website, Otis's, or you can see Project Re3, whatever you want to do there. But I did want to, since we just have a little short segment here, this one's only about six or seven minutes, and then unfortunately, you know, we've had all the fun we can have for today.

All the shenanigans. Yeah. But part of your journey also, Otis, is that you worked with special needs at some point, so tell me your connection there. Well, my sister-in-law approached me and asked, since I'm an artist also, if I would take over the project, or the program at the Arc and High Point.

And the Arc and High Point for people that don't know what that is? It is, well, it's called the Association of Retarded Citizens, or something like that, and they need to change the name, but anyway, it's for special needs community. And I was a little apprehensive, because I spoke with the gentleman who handled the program before, and he told me, he said, well, Otis, what they're doing now is all you're going to get. And I didn't like that. I just believe that if you give people enough love and encouragement, you can help them get better.

So the day I started, the first day, first class, I was in not necessarily a mild panic, but I was concerned, how was I going to deal with it? Because it was varying degrees of capacity with each person. And you use the same philosophy. You go in and you find out what their strengths are, you build that up. You encourage them.

If that line needs to be a little longer, a little straighter, you just find a way to help them do that. And one thing that I discovered real quick is they're so loving and open. They're non-judgmental. And once you, I'm not going to say win them over, but once you touch their heart, you're a friend for life.

There is no pose involved. What you see is what you get. And you can get all of it if you are open to it, because they'll sense your openness to them. And as soon as they sense that you're open, actually, it's been my experience. So you've worked with the community too.

For about 20 years. And what I would say about it is, number one, the more you're around me, the more you'll realize I'm special needs. In fact, I never met a person that isn't. There's a spectrum out there of special needs. And every single person, but there's so much that you can learn from this community.

It's unbelievable. So I want to just tell this one quick story, which just got in my heart and I think everybody ought to hear. There was a young man by the name of Ryan, and he is the most lovable.

I shouldn't say was. He is one of the most lovable people. I mean, he would hug you. He's everything that you just described.

And he's autistic and he's red headed and he's outgoing and he would hug you just about squeezy to death. And I'd always experienced the loving, wonderful Ryan until one day he decided to throw his mother's keys in the closet. And when he did, it closed and it locked. And so we didn't even see it. It's just like the devil got over him or something.

I shouldn't say that. But anyway, whatever happened, he threw the keys in the closet. He was obviously agitated. And so we had to go find the administrator, somebody to open that particular closet.

We didn't have a key. So they come in and when they open that closet, he went into a rage like I have never seen that he hit that closet so hard, it shook the entire Calvary Baptist Church. I mean, he hit that thing so hard and then he turned and it looked like he was going to grab his mother. And so I stepped in front of him.

At the time, I'm six foot five, 265 pounds. He throws me to the ground like I'm a rag doll, right? But then his mother looks at him and says, does somebody need a hug? And then I watched Ryan fall into his mother's arms and ball like a baby.

He went from, and I'll never, ever, will never, ever see how she had that kind of grace and what happened. So I hate we're out of time, but I thank you so much for listening. Again, go to Kingdom Pursuits to find out more about our three and again, Otis Farmer. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for listening. We've got so much truth coming at you. Encouraging prayer followed by the masculine journey starts here now at 12 o'clock. Even David Braswell at times. Yes, sometimes. This is the truth network.