Caller Struggling to Find A Church During COVID-19

Paula in Oklahoma. Paula, good morning. How are you feeling? Hi, Dan.

Well, tired. Well, I'm not Dan. I'm Peter.

I've talked to you several times and you've given me good advice. You've talked to me several times and you still call me Dan? No, wait!

I'm sorry! Peter! I get you and Dan confused.

I do talk to you quite often, Peter. But I don't even know who Dan is. Who's Dan?

He's on ASL4, too. The financial guy. He talks about you, too. Well, I thought that was Dave. I have a question.

Oh, yeah, it could be Dave. I don't know. Okay, I came out of, you know, homosexual lifestyle. I talked to you a couple of, I don't know, it's been a... I remember you, Paula. I remember you. And your brother was trying to basically blackmail you.

Yes, yes, yes. Okay, and he moved out while he was back in the house, but everything's good, you know, and he's really changing. But my biggest thing is I'm feeling convicted. I just can't seem to find a church. Well, I'll tell you what. You can watch one online until you find one.

I would recommend one. I'll give you one right now that you can watch all their sermons online and you can participate, watch it live. They are doing affiliate memberships all across the country, and I love this church. The Stevens Valley Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Go out to Stevens Valley Church on YouTube.

Pardon me? I just feel so guilty not being in a church, but I go in all by myself, you know, and coming with my background, it's just hard too. Oh, well, how many kids have you had?

Have you ever been married, and then my home and then caring for my mother? No, no, don't worry about that. Well, while you're logging, while you're looking for one, if you want to hear solid biblical teaching, go to Stevens Valley Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and listen to the sermons from my friend Jim Bachman and Heath Cross, and it is solid 100%, and it'll strengthen you until you find a local church, okay? Okay, okay, okay.

Thank you so much. Listen, when you hear this man preach, it will strengthen you that day right then. Okay, Paula? Okay, Jim Bachman? Jim Bachman and Stevens Valley Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and they don't have smoke machines and electric guitars or anything like that, they just get up and preach the gospel.

They just get up and preach the gospel. I buy your book and then I give it to friends and even non-believers and I just pray for them constantly. Well, that is very gracious of you. Do you have, did I send you my CD? Yes, I got your CD.

I just keep buying your books and just give them out. Did I send you Gracie's CD? Yes, I got that one.

You got both of them? You even turned me on to Johnny and Friends. I went and volunteered at the Wounded Warrior. That will bless Johnny. I'll pass that on to Johnny.

That will bless her. You are such a treasure, Paula. Thank you so much. This is a long ways from our first conversation, isn't it?

This is a long ways from our first conversation. My whole family has come a long ways and I just thank you for just, I got goosebumps right now for being so encouraging. Thank you. Well, you have been encouraging to me and to this, everybody's listening today because you are amazing and you are why we do the show and more importantly, you are just such a model of the gospel. This is what the gospel does.

It transforms lives. Paula. I love you and your wife. Thank you. Well, why did you wait so long to call me?

Well, I don't know. I feel like a burden sometimes. I feel like not a burden. Just don't call me Dan, Paula. Just don't call me Dan. Alright, listen. You are welcome to call in anytime you want. You are such a treasure and thank you so much for this. You behave yourself today.

Go out to Stevens Valley Church in Nashville and just listen to the gospel until you find your home church here in Oklahoma. Hey, we got to go. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. Help us do this show. If you like it, go out to Hopeforthecaregiver.com and be a part of what we're doing.

We'll see you next week. This is John Butler and I produce Hope for the Caregiver with Peter Rosenberger. Some of you know the remarkable story of Peter's wife Gracie and recently Peter talked to Gracie about all the wonderful things that have emerged from her difficult journey. Take a listen. Gracie, when you envisioned doing a prosthetic limb outreach, did you ever think that inmates would help you do that?

Not in a million years. When you go to the facility run by CoreCivic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you have helped collect from all over the country that you put out the plea for and they're disassembling. You see all these legs like what you have, your own prosthetic legs. And arms.

And arms. When you see all this what does that do to you? Makes me cry because I see the smiles on their faces and I know what it is to be locked someplace where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out. Of course, being in the hospital so much and so long. And so these men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one band said, something good finally with my hands. Did you know before you became an amputee that parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled?

No. I had no idea. I thought of peg legs. I thought of wooden legs. I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and sea legs and all that. I never thought about that. As you watch these inmates participate in something like this knowing that they're helping other people now walk. They're providing the means for these supplies to get over there.

What does that do to you just on a heart level? I wish I could explain to the world what I see in there and I wish that I could be able to go and say this guy right here, he needs to go to Africa with us. I never not feel that way.

Every time, you know, you always make me have to leave, I don't want to leave them. I feel like I'm at home with them and I feel like that we have a common bond that I would have never expected that only God could put together. Now that you've had an experience with it, what do you think of the faith-based programs that Core Civic offers? I think they're just absolutely awesome and I think every prison out there should have faith-based programs like this because the return rate of the men that are involved in this particular faith-based program and the other ones like it, but I know about this one, is just an amazingly low rate compared to those who don't have them. And I think that that says so much.

That doesn't have anything to do with me. It just has something to do with God using somebody broken to help other broken people. If people want to donate a used prosthetic limb, whether from a loved one who passed away or somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own for them to do. How do they do that? Where do they find it? Oh, please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Thanks Gracie.