Touching the World

This is Darren Kuhn with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day-to-day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it. Share it.

But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolob. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Welcome back to The Man Up Show. Yours truly, your host, the one and only, Nikita Kolob. Hey, once, as I say in the opening, once the Russian nightmare.

Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Hey, I have a question for you as you are tuning in, dialing into The Man Up Show. What are you doing to touch the world? Ponder that for just a moment. What are you doing to touch the world? You're like, Nikita, I can't change the world. Well, maybe you can't change the entire world, but you can change your world.

And then by changing your world, you can touch the rest of the world. Well, with me today, it's a pleasure to have this man of God in the studio with me today. Homer Murdoch, welcome to The Man Up Show. Thank you, Nikita. It is a privilege for me to be here, man.

An honor. I thank you for the opportunity to come. Well, I've been wanting to get you on the show for a while now, and so I'm glad it has worked out.

And I always enjoy, I enjoy all of the interviews, Homer, but certainly when I can sit across from somebody and talk to them face to face, it's even more enjoyable. So our friendship, I was trying to remember, and you may remember, I don't know, I'm thinking it really goes back 15, 20 years at this point. I mean, time just kind of flies. At least that long, yeah. It's when I was at Morganton down there, and you came, yeah, and you did a service for us down there at the church. And yeah, gosh, it's been a good 15 years, yeah. Yeah, or more. And of course, over there, I've done some of the Man Up conferences, some other ministry and stuff, because currently you're not in Morganton, anyway.

No. You're up in the hills, you might say, or the mountains of North Cackalacky, as some people refer to it. So where are you based now? Well, we're in Sparta. Touch the World Ministries is still, our headquarters is still in Todd, North Carolina, where it was when it was established. But I'm living in Sparta, North Carolina, ministering up there, working with a couple of organizations and a small group of people in a church, startup church up there, and just having a ball.

As you know, you've been up there, so you're familiar with the snowy mountains. Gracious, gracious host, as you have been. So you've been pastoring for many, many years. How many years have you been pastoring? Forty-six years, I guess. Forty-six? Forty-six years, yeah. Years. That's almost as old as I am, Homer.

I just want to throw that out there. Isn't that amazing? Well, no, I might have a few more years. Yeah, not many.

Not many. Forty-six years. Wow. Yeah, isn't that amazing. God's good, isn't he?

He is good. And for the listeners out there right now, they're going, all the time. That's right. Oh, yeah. So, always in North Carolina? No, no, God moved us around.

I guess I wasn't steady enough to stay put, you know. He put me, well, one pastored in Charleston, South Carolina, and the rest of the time was in North Carolina. A couple more churches in North Carolina, up in the mountains and then down in the flat country. So, have you, all right, let me throw this out.

So, have you had a favorite place where you have ministered? I'm curious to get this, what you're going to say. You know how I have to respond to that.

I mean, every congregation was my favorite congregation. Great answer. Every single one of them, man, I'm telling you. Yeah. I couldn't pick a better one.

Some of them I could do without, but anyhow, they were all my favorites. Well, that's a great answer, Homer. That's a very, very good answer.

So, well, but in a sense, though, I mean, you know, you could say, I mean, each and every experience is probably unique in and of itself, right? They are. Definitely are. Definitely are. Yeah. And I mean, it's just different ministering in the mountains than in the, what'd you call it, the flatlands or the woods? Oh, good Lord, yeah.

You know, I was thinking about that coming down the road this morning. Every congregation has their own personality. Every area has its own idiosyncrasies that makes it unique. And some of them, you know, some of them it takes a while to get adjusted to, and some of them you never completely adjust to, you know.

But they've all been wonderful experiences, learning experiences, you know, and expands your concept of everything. Now, is it true what I've heard that, you know, because I did one short interim pastoral, pastorship, I don't know what the official term might be. One of those things. Yeah.

I was an interim pastor for a short, brief period of time. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Would you say, or maybe I should say, is it true that, you know, on that note, what you're talking about, I've heard a five-year window or maybe three to five years for the congregation really to kind of adjust to you or embrace you, your vision, ideas. Is that, would you say, like when you think back on all of your experiences in the different churches where you've been, would that hold true? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

Okay. First year, you're trying to figure them out. The second year, they're still trying to figure you out.

The third year, you kind of get both figured out, and you start to begin to mesh a little bit more, anyhow, together better, smoother. I can't think of the right word. Yeah, yeah. Synchronize.

Yeah, more synchronized together. And then four and a fifth year, generally, the ministry, it's been my experience with the exception of one church, one church I pastored for 10 years, and it just grew just tremendously, the one in Morganton. And unbelievable, you know, triple, quadrupled in that period of time.

Exponential growth. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the problem was, I think there, you know, I was walking through one of the new buildings one day, and I thought to myself, man, it just doesn't get any better than this.

You know, I had a good staff, several paid associates, you know, six, seven, eight, nine volunteers that worked every day and had a school. I mean, it was going, and I was just cruising, you know, good, everything. And I think I must have gotten satisfied. Too comfortable? Yeah.

Too comfortable for God? So I walked through, and I said, man, it just doesn't get much better than this. And within six weeks, I was gone.

Really? And there was no problem. They didn't want me to leave. I didn't want to leave in six weeks. God said, well, we'll fix that. So he sent me in a little old church. It was just about dead. Right?

We started all over again. So, you know, God has a sense of humor. He, well, boy, have I found that to be true for sure. And yeah, it's something to say, you know, there's probably others out there in Listening Land that right now are thinking or relating to what you just said. You know, we have a tendency, in fact, you know, your Bible's open in front of you there. We could go all through the Old Testament about how comfortable the Israelites got, right? And I'm reminded, Homer, of is it the eagle that, like, turns up the sticks in the nest to get the babies out of the, hey, time to fly, right? Like you're getting, you know, too comfortable here.

It actually pushes them out. You know, I think we lose our drive, you know, because it would become accustomed to meet every morning with the boys, you know, over coffee and breakfast, you know. But the same six or eight men, you know, of course, we still had the once a week accountability meeting. I've always had that in every church I've pastored where I meet with all the men in the Willing and any men in the town.

We still do up in Sparta, six o'clock every Thursday morning. We meet, pray, accountability, Bible study for one hour, solid, so they know they're through at seven. They can go about their business. But I mean, you get comfortable with your group, I guess, out of 700, 800 people, you've got a group, and that's just not God's plan. He means for me and you to be for everybody, not just my group, you know?

Dr. Darrell Bock Wow. No, that's true. That's good. Let that be an encouragement to somebody listening out there today. And so, and I'd ask you about, you know, did you bring your bride with you today?

And of course, she had other engagements and other commitments, but tell us, you know, tell us about your bride and how long you guys been married and your family as well. We were talking about your son before we came on air. Dr. Darrell Bock Yeah, he's a good friend. And two, you know, I'd like to mention before we go that direction that you served faithfully for three years on the board of this ministry and just had a tremendous influence on it.

And it still goes on today. Dr. Darrell Bock Well, we'll talk, and we're going to get there. We're going to talk about that. But yeah, I just want to listen and just go a little bit more about Homer Murdoch and – Dr. Darrell Bock Well, we were high school sweethearts, me and Barb. Prettiest girl in school. Everybody wanted to go to the dater, you know. And so I couldn't, you know, I was an old country boy, lived up in the sticks and didn't know squatting. She was a city girl.

And so it was quite a challenge. I had to become an athletic hero before she'd even listened to me. Dr. Darrell Bock Or even get her to look at you. Dr. Darrell Bock Oh, I had teeth locked out, arm broke, elbow broke, you know. But finally, you know, yeah, she said she'd date me long story short. We got married, you know, a year after I graduated. I went to KC for a year and to school and then came back.

We got married. And – Dr. Darrell Bock How many years ago? Dr. Darrell Bock Sixty-one. Dr. Darrell Bock Sixty-one. Dr. Darrell Bock Sixty-one. Dr. Darrell Bock Sixty-one. Dr. Darrell Bock Sixty-one. Dr. Darrell Bock Sixty-one. Dr. Darrell Bock Sixty-one. Dr. Darrell Bock That's amazing. Dr. Darrell Bock That's amazing. Dr. Darrell Bock You don't like me to tell you. It is amazing. Oh, good lord. Dr. Darrell Bock What a mile stone. Dr. Darrell Bock Oh.

And what a beautiful, beautiful thing. You know, the older you get – and I would encourage everybody out there that's having problems with their marriage, man, hang in there. Don't let it go. You know, the best is still ahead, you know. Dr. Darrell Bock Fight through it. Dr. Darrell Bock Oh, fight through it, man.

Yeah. Trust God. Dr. Darrell Bock It's worth fighting for, would you say that? Dr. Darrell Bock It is worth fighting for, absolutely.

Dr. Darrell Bock Mm-hmm. We have a couple of kids, we couldn't have children, so we adopted two. Two of the most precious children in the world. I'm just so thankful for both of them. A son and a daughter, and they're both Christians, following the Lord, loving the Lord, good parents, successful, and to me, success is living for Jesus. I don't care what they're doing, living for Jesus is success. Yeah, as a parent, right, when you look at your kids.

I heard it said one time, you know, there's lots of different definitions of success, right? And one response, Homer, one time, was nose prints on the window. Okay, I'm gonna pause right there, and. See, think about that. Nose prints on the window.

And then as the person who was sharing that further explained, if you as a dad pull in the driveway, and your kids are pressed up against the window because they can't wait for you to get home. Process. That's success, that's priceless. Absolutely.

That's success. Last time I went over to Nashville, my little grandson, Shepherd. We get choked up. I know, I know, go with it, man. My little grandson, Shepherd, who's eight, nine.

I've got, I've got 11 grandchildren and more on the way, and so it's hard to keep track of their ages anymore, and birth dates, and all that. Understood. When I walked through the door, he looked over, came charging across the floor, and just leaped into my arms. And my daughter, who was there, and observed, you know, as he embraced me, and hugged me, and I hugged him, and loved on him, and so, so, so, all right. Let's move on.

For, for, for, I need a tissue here or something here. Pull out the pictures of the kids and the grandkids. So, so you got the two, and then, so, well, grandkids then? Two, three, we have three. Okay.

Two girls and a boy. My daughter had two daughters. Okay. And my son had one son. Okay. And I said they gave them, I enjoyed my kids when they were small.

Oh, Lord, I just worshiped the ground and they walked on probably too much. Yeah. And so my son got married and gave me himself back with a little boy. Okay.

Just like him. And my daughter did the same with her, with her two girls. That's amazing. So the daughter had two girls, your son had two boys. Let me ask you just, only because this is kind of close to home as well. My youngest daughter, Colby and her husband Andrew, have just really begun the adoption process. Oh, yes. And, well, so, so obviously, I mean, you have some very fond memories of that whole process.

Oh, yeah. What would you say, if my daughter was listening, my son-in-law was listening, or anyone else who's maybe considering adoption or that may be their only option, what word of advice would you have for that individual, for that person? Number one's pray. Okay. Like every major decision in our life, pray.

Okay. Pray for God's guidance and God's timing. Because if it's God's will for you to adopt a child, that child's gonna be born in God's time, in God's place, and he's gonna coordinate all the particulars to get you together with them. So first thing is pray. Second thing is do not use an adoption agency.

Just do not use them. They're there for the money. Go to the Department of Social Services, tell them you're interested in adopting a child. They know all the kids. They've got kids that no one wants.

They've got, you know? Okay. And then when God puts that child with you through that organization, that's your child. Our daughter, when God put us together with her in answer to our little son's prayer, you know, he was three years old, and he said, I'm gonna pray God give me a baby sister. Matter of fact, one time he said, I'm the reason you're here. If you bother me much more, I'm gonna pray you back where you came from. He was about five years old then, and she had gotten up to about two or three.

She was wearing him to death. But anyhow, then when God gives you that child, when we got our daughter, when we picked up our daughter, did all the paperwork. You know, they'd do all the background checks, you know, and come stay in your house. Walk in your house and say, now don't, just go on about your day just like we're not here. Really? You know, like you're not here.

And then they go through the closets and open drawers. You know, but you're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Kolof here, and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

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Go to www.kolof.net and donate today. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com Anyhow, they told us when we picked up Didi, they said, she's a problem child. And said, now Didi was like five months old. And they said, she is a problem child. And if you have any problem with her, if you can't handle her, we want her protected, you bring her back. Oh, it offended me to no end.

Oh my goodness gracious. I said, look, God gave us that child, just as if it had been born. And I said, whatever problems that baby's got, from now till I die, they're my problems. We will take care of them with the help of God. I never even contacted them.

Of course, they contacted us every three months for a couple of years and one thing or another, until the papers were final. But I told them, I said, that's my baby. I mean, that's my baby.

What a great perspective, Homer. It has to be, man. But that's my advice to any adoptive. And do it. There's so many children out there, man. My heart breaks for kids. You know how I love kids. Who need a parent, a good home, a godly home. Oh, yes, man. Yeah, and I think the reality too is, I'm sure you would agree that, I mean, whether it's a natural born child or one that you adopt, I mean, life is full of problems.

I mean, you're going to have issues and challenges and parenting and whatever else. So, well, and on that note, I do want to talk about and cover Touch the World Ministries because I kind of open up with challenge the listener, what are you doing to touch the world and you mentioned my involvement, being part of the board of directors for a number of years. And so when I think about Touch the World and it says Touching Lives, I mean, through this ministry, Touch the World Ministries, you guys are really touching not only children, certainly a lot of children, but you're doing much more than that. Everything from church planting to Bible colleges, evangelism, crusades, discipleship, medical clinics, champion homes.

Take a minute to talk about champion homes. Well, first let's back up. What gave you the vision for Touch the World Ministries? God.

Okay. I was walking one morning up Little River, up South Fork River there in Todd and I was a pastor there at that time, 1998. I was walking up the river and I was praying and there were two lesbians that lived in a house there and I'd visited them and taken them pies and stuff and loved on them and I was praying for them. And right in front of their house, God clearly spoke to me and he said, I'm going to touch the world with you. Just like that. I mean, just as if I'd heard it in my ears. You know what I'm saying? You know when God clearly speaks?

Yeah. I mean, he wakes you up some morning, he does me and he says, I get up and write it down because I didn't want to miss it. When God says something, you know it. And I said, okay.

You know, just like that. And I kept on walking and praying. In the course of six or eight months, of course, having been in management and industry and in other businesses, I understood putting together an organization and just automatically I just began praying about it. God led me to another man to help me pray and he and I and a couple three more put together a steering committee. Steering committee put together a board of directors, board of directors put together an organization, 501c3, corporate papers through the state, as well as the federal government and IRS, got all that in place about a year and a half, I guess, and established a mission statement based on the scriptures and the logo and all that stuff.

Richard Hendrick down in Law, Mississippi, they put together our label for us and our symbol. And so anyhow, that's how it started. And from that, it just grew. How long ago was that? 1998. 1998.

We were incorporated in 98. Well, there's a parallel there because Cola for Christ Ministries was officially launched in the fall of 1998. Was it really? Yeah. Praise the Lord.

Yeah. Until you said that, I didn't really make that connection, but yeah, I get saved in 1993, but I didn't launch right into ministry. It was a five-year period of discipleship there before the Lord really opened the doors, technically in December of 98 and ever since then. So that's, wow, for you listening out there, so God says, Homer, I'm going to touch the world with you. And that's where the name came from. That's simply what he said, just flat out.

Touch the world ministry. I had no concept of what he was talking about. I had no idea, but I said, okay, because I knew my limits and abilities, but I also knew him.

Yeah. And I knew what he said he would do. He's capable of all things, isn't he?

Good Lord, isn't he, though? Anything and everything. And I know Africa, parts of Europe, Asia. You guys have a broad reach. The Caribbean, yeah, India. Yeah, well, I guess we're on, and Germany now, I guess we're on pretty much every continent. All the continents just about?

We're close to it, right? Yeah, we are. Well, yeah, Vietnam, China.

We don't have an active presence in China at this time. Okay. But we do in some countries that I can't mention. Yeah, sure.

It's on the African continent and some on the European continent that I can't mention because they're closed countries. You understand that. Yeah, no, yeah, for real. So you're listening out there just praying and receiving Touch the World Ministries and these nations that have really closed doors, but they may be closed to us, but they're not closed to the Lord, are they?

They're not, they're not. He can penetrate any country. And he's done it, man. He can overcome any Iron Curtain or any wall, can he? Yeah.

He can do it. So Bible colleges, church planning, medical clinics, of course, discipleship, evangelism, crusades, champion homes, raising champions for Christ. Take just a minute and what's champion homes? Well, it depends on the country that we're working in as to how that is facilitated. Okay. In all the countries that we're working in, in Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, yeah. You're over on the West Coast, Ghana? Yeah, we're out of Ghana. Not good on my geography, but hey.

No, that's all right. But those there we use, our champion homes are actually what in the United States would be classified as orphanages. Okay, okay. But they're homes and they're all Christian-based and everything, and in India, it's the same way. The four homes that we have there, one school that's under construction now there, those are all based as what we in the States would know as orphanages, you know.

Yeah, sure, okay. And we've just finished one home in Kenya, a tremendous facility in memory of my son-in-law that served on our board and he passed away with Lou Gehrig's disease. But in Europe, it's family-based children's home, family-based champion's homes. And we have, God's given us the best people in the world. In our whole history since we started, we've only had to discharge one employee, one fellow, and it was a cultural thing.

His wife, well, it was a cultural thing. But we've got the best people in the world. But in answer to your question, and I get started, you know, I can talk forever on this, but in Europe, it's family-based homes. And our goal, even with the big homes on the African continent, our goal is to make them self-sufficient within five years and them to reproduce themselves in another five years.

Okay, okay. So far, we've graduated a home. When we say graduated, it's become self-sufficient and working on reproduction. We've graduated a home in El Salvador. We've graduated a home in Liberia. We've graduated a home in Kenya. Okay. So we have three that we've graduated. And in Europe, all of our homes, all of our homes are self-sufficient now.

Awesome. We still sponsor children for them. But as far as the funding, some of them, it took a bulldozer, really. Some of them, it took a farming tractor for the dad to go out and plow people's gardens. Some of them, it took stocking with chickens or whatever, you know, we wanted to stock, whatever. Whatever it took in that location to make them to be able to live and take care of six to 12 children, then that's what we provided for them. Okay. And they've become self-sufficient.

Amazing what God has done. So if people want to learn more about Touch the World Ministries, maybe support Touch the World Ministries, where do they go? Like, what's the website? All small case, touchtheworldministries.com, not org, but dot com, touchtheworldministries.com.

Okay. That's where they can get it. Get more information. And they can sponsor a child off of that website. They can see all, they can see some of the countries that we're working in on that website. They can see the board of directors. They can see our people that endorse us, you know, and people that recommend us to support. That's amazing.

That's all on that website, yeah. Mission statement, to take the Christian world to the mission fields of the world, where they will see firsthand the needs of others and become burdened to meet those needs. Yeah, that's our mission statement. What an honor, what a privilege to have you here today, Homer, and to be a part of what you're doing. And I want to encourage listeners out there, I mean, if something was, we covered several different things today. Yes. And maybe something that was said, ministered to you, but 46 years in ministry, going on 61 years in marriage.

The man is still going strong for the kingdom of God, which is amazing. I don't sense retirement is anywhere in your near future, Homer. I'm just going to throw that out there. Someday they'll have a funeral. Yes.

Yeah, that's it. I like that. Someday they'll have a funeral. That will be your official retirement. Either that or the rapture, you know.

And I'm looking for that this year. That's a whole other issue. Oh, yeah, I know. We can have a whole conversation about that alone. Oh, boy, couldn't we, though? Wow. Well, and I want to encourage you, and I want to challenge you as I open the show, what are you doing?

There you go. Really think on this. What are you doing? I mean, Homer's out walking. God says, Homer, I'm going to touch the world with you. Now, you may not hear an audible voice, or maybe God speaks to your heart and by His Holy Spirit but challenges you, or maybe this conversation today with Homer is challenging you right now to consider what you're doing to touch the world. And if the answer's nothing presently, then begin to ask God what you can do to touch the world. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Man Up show. Go out and live a God-filled, God-blessed day.

Amen. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to koloff.net and donate today. If you are enjoying the Man Up show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Hi, Nikita Koloff.

Be sure to check out the Man Up show, now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to morningstartv.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. Nikita Koloff here.

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