Addiction, Piano Lessons, Yellowstone Geysers, and Netanyahu

This is Peter Rosenberg and I'm so glad that you're listening to this podcast. If you're finding it meaningful, I want to ask you for two things. Would you mind sharing it with someone?

Would you mind telling somebody you know who is struggling as a caregiver about this program and what it can mean for them? We have over 800 episodes, more than 250,000 downloads. The need is massive. I can't do it on my own.

I'm still a full-time caregiver. But I'm putting it out there as best as I can. And I can use your help in sharing it with others. The other thing is, would you consider helping support what we do? If you like what you're hearing, if you're finding it insightful, if you're finding it encouraging, please help us do it more.

We can't do it alone. We ask that you help us. Staydewithhope.com. I'm the caregiver here on American Family Radio.

This is Peter Rosenberg. This is the program for you as a family caregiver. For those of you who are putting yourself every day between a vulnerable loved one and even worse disaster.

You're in the right place. For every chronic impairment, there's always a caregiver. Always. Now, does it mean that the caregiver is doing acute work every single day of every task?

But it means that there's somebody there standing between that person with a chronic impairment and even worse disaster. I was listening to the background of J.D. Vance, Trump's new vice presidential pick, from his story, Hillbilly Elegy. And at 12 years old, having to be in the back of a police car because he called the police on his mother, who was an addict, because she was going to ram the car and just kill them both. And he was horrified. He was terrified. He was 12 years old. And he was able to get the police and they got her arrested. And he's sitting there with the cops just wondering, okay. And the interviewer asked him, you know, how did you feel? He said, I didn't really know how to feel.

I just knew that I was going to live that day. There are a lot of people out there that are dealing with that kind of reality. And I would recommend you to read more of his story and understand it because that's a story that you're going to hear repeated, not just from him. I'm talking about from so many people who are dealing with addiction issues in their family. And you've got children and adults who are just trying to survive, just make sure they don't die that day because their loved one has a chronic impairment. There's always a caregiver. And sometimes that caregiver is 12 years old who calls the police. There's always a caregiver.

You're going to find out more and more about this as the events of the campaign unfold because that story will be told and it's going to resonate with so many people. There are so many people in this audience right now who are dealing with that. And to my knowledge, I'm the only one with any kind of national platform who has equated family members of alcoholics and addicts as caregivers. We keep thinking of caregivers as dealing with somebody in the nursing home.

Let me tell you something. I want to explain to you what a caregiver looks like. It looks like somebody who is trying to take care of a child with special needs. Somebody who is trying to take care of somebody who has had trauma, psychological trauma, abuse. Somebody who has mental health issues. Somebody who is a parent of a child who has been hurt. Somebody who is a parent of a child who is an addict. Family members taking care of alcoholic parents who abused them as a child and now they are needing more help as adults but they are still drinking or they haven't even come to grips with what their addiction and alcoholism cost their family.

Then you throw in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, just aging in general. There are so many different kinds of afflictions but there is always a caregiver. And if you are in a relationship right now with somebody who is an alcoholic, who is an addict, first off thank you for giving me the time. I know your time is precious. Thank you for just hanging out with me today.

I really do appreciate it because I know that you are feeling lonely and isolated and overwhelmed, over matched, over powered. I get that. And I want to clearly point you to safety and first I just want to let you know you are in the right place. What does safety look like?

Well let's start with the basics. Number one is you are not responsible for what another human being puts in their mouth or in their body when it comes to addiction or alcoholism. You are not. That is their choice, not yours. You are not responsible for that.

And you can't fix that. That is way beyond you. That is their journey, not yours. And whether they choose to be sober or not, that is beyond your capabilities. The moment you wrestle with that concept, the healing for you can begin.

The strengthening for you can begin. As long as you feel like this is yours to fix, you are going to have to hide every bottle of alcohol. You are going to have to do this. You are going to have to do this.

No. There are three possible outcomes for somebody with an addiction. Three defined, finite possible outcomes for somebody with addiction. Number one, they will get sobered up. They will get cleaned up. There are only three possible outcomes and number one is they will get cleaned up.

Not by anything that you are going to be able to make happen, but that is one possible path for them. The second one is they will get locked up. The police will come and lock them up. The third one is they will get covered up. They will be buried.

That is it. You either sober up, you will go to jail or you will die. Those are the three possible outcomes for somebody with an addiction. It is not a pretty picture for so many people. This audience is filled with family members who are struggling with this.

I am very glad you are here. Once you understand that the initial step is to understand that this is beyond you. And for those of you who are dealing with somebody with a chronic disease like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, understand that that is beyond you too. We are not able to fix this. Let me just take it out of that for a minute and put it in the trauma related world in my wife's case. Both of her legs are gone. I have no power to change that.

None whatsoever. I can certainly care for her, assist her, help her get more adaptive equipment and things such as that, but that is it. I can't make those legs grow back. You can't make someone get sober. You can't heal somebody from Alzheimer's. Once we understand what our place is in this, that they have a savior and it ain't us. Your loved one, whatever they are dealing with, has a savior. It ain't you.

Gracie has a savior. It ain't me. Look down at your hands.

Do you see nail prints? No? Well then this isn't yours to fix. This is an important place for us as caregivers to come to that understanding. We get this rescue mentality, the thinking that it's all up to us. That is not our responsibility. We do have responsibilities, but that's not it. And as long as we give ourselves permission to play God in this, we're going to frustrate ourselves and them and cause more carnage than we really can imagine because it sets us down a bad pathway. We can learn to be at peace with other people's poor decisions. We may have to buffer ourselves from them so we don't have to be sucked into the consequences of it, but we can learn to be at peace with this. We don't have to like it.

Acceptance is not agreement. I was thinking about J.D. Vance. The kid was 12 years old, sitting in a police car thinking, well I'm not going to die today. And the interview I saw was when he was 32. He had already written Hillbilly Elegy. And I'm going to try to read that book. I honestly didn't know a whole lot about him until Trump picked him.

But I'm going to try to read that. But the interviewer asked him, have you processed all this? This was at 32.

He's 39 now. He said, I think I'm going to be processing this for the rest of my life. For the rest of my life.

And that's a fair statement. The journey for us as caregivers is that many of us will be processing what is happening to us and what has happened to us for a lifetime. That's okay because the Word of God is right there with us, working us through that healing. Healing the broken hearted, binding up the wounded. That's what he came to do.

Let him do that in your life. And that in turn, you can help do that in the lives of others. Comfort one another with the same comfort we have received from the God of all comfort. But if we haven't received it, how can we offer it? So many of you right now are struggling with that.

Today is a great day to start. Trusting him with your heartache. And that is hope for the caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the program for you as a family caregiver.

That is Richard Smallwood, a song called Total Praise. Now let me explain to you why I'm playing this. That's my homework. Now listen to those chords. I'm taking piano lessons. I've been playing since I was five. I majored in music, but I wanted to really up my game. And so I'm taking from this group.

They're so wonderful. And the guy gave me this as my homework the other day. He said, I want you to take this song. Don't download the music.

You don't get to cheat. And he said, you've got to transcribe it out. You've got to learn this song as is, not your interpretation, as is the way it's being done so that you can understand these chords.

And these are very, the terminology we used when I was in Nashville, which is they're real outside. They're not what you expect. And that's why they have this great musical tension that just is infectious with these wonderful songs, these wonderful praise songs, if you play them well.

Because you just can't play just standard dull stuff. And I'm really trying to push myself. And so Gracie's been listening to me plunking out on the piano and trying to get this because it's not as easy as it sounds. And I haven't been to school in, well, I graduated in 86.

So that's been a long time ago. And I haven't had to knuckle down and practice on that level of what they're trying to do. And I'm working on two different paths here. One of them is to play better, but the other is to hear better and to be able to do ear training so I can hear it and then write it down. And I can do that with a lot of simple songs. I remember years ago that I was watching a guitar player, a friend of mine in Nashville who was really, really good. And he would start writing out a chart. He'd hear the song and he'd say, how are you hearing those chords? And I learned how to do that. And you can do that with simple songs and you can do that with some even complex songs. But when you get into this kind of stuff, there's so much movement in the chord structure that your ear is, you know, it feels like your ear is playing Twister.

You know, because your eyes start spinning counterclockwise and you're thinking, okay, and I will get better. Okay, I will get better, but it takes a lot of work and it's working muscles that I haven't worked before. So I'm pushing myself. I practice what I preach here on this program because one of the things I tell my fellow caregivers is, is that we need to push ourselves to educate ourselves, to learn a new skill.

So I'm taking piano lessons and loving it. And I've got the music theory down. I mean, I know what he's doing as far as, I mean, I can, once I could, and my instructor told me that he said, look, you can regurgitate what's on the page. We know that, but now can you hear it without looking at the page and then put it on the page yourself? Can you do that?

Can you replicate that without any kind of music? And they said, we're going to dismantle you and then we're going to rebuild you. I thought, okay, that's kind of, that's kind of, anyway, I didn't mean to go off on that, but that's part of my journey as a caregiver is I'm pushing myself like this.

I've been doing this now for four decades. Why am I pushing myself like this? Because healthy caregivers make better caregivers.

And part of being healthy is to keep pushing your mind and your abilities, learning new things, challenging yourself. By the way, I apologize for the way I sound. It's fire season out here in Montana. So we've got several fires going on in across the state and the smoke just comes down into our valley.

And sometimes it gets the best of you. Last year we were very spoiled. We had a beautiful, really rainy summer.

It was great. And the grass was high and the cows were happy. And this year it's pretty dry. It's so dry out there that the Baptists are sprinkling and the Methodists are using a wet cloth. I mean, it's dry and we need some moisture. Did you see, by the way, speaking about here, did you see where that geyser went off?

It's called the Biscuit Basin there in Yellowstone, which is down in Wyoming, but it's just 90 miles south of us. And that thing blew up and people were out there. I mean, it blew up.

You look at the carnage of it, what it did to the boardwalk and everything else. So I've got fires to the north of me, geysers to the south. Here I am stuck in the middle. And Gracie, I've got to tell you all this. I'm just digressing, but just bear with me because sometimes we just need to have moments like this. Well, maybe we don't. And Gracie would be like, uh-uh, don't you do it.

But I'm going to do it anyway. She has this long-going conversation because Yellowstone sits on a super caldera. It's a massive volcano. And if this thing goes off, you know, it's a global killer. I mean, it's like the force of, I don't know, how many nuclear bombs. Or as Gracie says, and I fuss at her about it, nuclear.

Oh gosh, she's going to really be upset when she hears this show. But that's another conversation. But it's, George Bush used to say that too, nuclear. How could he say condylation when he couldn't say nuclear?

No, I can't say it. Nuclear. But anyway, Yellowstone is this massive volcano. And if it goes off, you know, it's bad news. And the scientists are all, you know, watching that. There's always a conversation you'll see about this.

You can go out and just Google it. And Gracie said, well, we need to have an evacuation plan if this thing goes off. And I'm like, I looked at her, with incredulity, I was like, evacuate to where?

I mean, she's, well, there's caves back here in the mountains behind us. We can go. And I said, baby, it's 90 miles away.

It is the force of I don't know how many nuclear bombs. If that thing goes off, I'm going to sit right here on the deck. And I'm going to say, come on, Jesus. I mean, you know, where are you going to go? Even if you survive the blast, it's going to darken the skies and you won't be able to grow crops.

And I mean, it's a global killer. And she is just determined she's going to find a place of refuge to go from this thing. And I'm like, I'm like, no, let's just, let's just Google to be with the Lord.

And I said, I see you here, there or in the air. This is an ongoing conversation in our house and she's determined she's going to find an escape trajectory to get away from this thing. And I'm like, maybe let's just let's just enjoy the day.

We don't have to really work that hard about it. But when that geyser blew up, it's one of those big, you know, real clear water that people think you could touch it. In fact, some knucklehead just drove their SUV into one of those things last month or maybe this month.

It was just recently. We call them, when they come out here and do things like that, we call them tourons, moron tourists. And they want to come out here and think that Yellowstone is a petting zoo. Bison, we call them high capacity assault cows.

They are there. Don't pet the fluffy cows. You don't, you don't mess with them.

They will hurt you. Elk will hurt you. You know, there are more people killed by moose every year than grizzlies. And my neighbor lives on the other side of the hill over there.

On his trail camp, he caught a picture of a grizzly, a video, because he's got some elk on his property and the grizzly came down and was going to the buffet. And I've had, I've gone out here to the barn and there's moose in there. And you do not want to be standing between, we have the open side of the barn where we stack the hay for the wintertime when the moose was in there. She was making herself at home and she was pregnant. And I had the good sense when I pulled up, I did not pull straight forward to look into it.

I pulled sideways and then kind of peeked around and she came flying out and she would have landed right on the windshield. And then she jumped over the fence there and it was just like, they'll come at you with their hooves. They will hurt you. And people don't realize they're not docile.

You know, we'll have that. Save your desire to pet these creatures when we get to heaven and nature is restored. And we will be able to enjoy nature from a much different vantage point because right now nature is dangerous.

And these animals do not have a sense of decorum when it comes to human beings. And we came home and I watched a, we were getting ready to turn into our driveway here. And we're the last ones on the road before it goes to the National Forest and we're about 6,000 feet up. And I saw what I thought was a deer and it was right there on the side of the road and it jumped up on the fence. I thought it was just going to jump over the fence and it landed on the fence and it turned and looked at me and I thought, that's the oddest looking deer I've ever seen. Well, it wasn't a deer. I mean, it was dark and I had the headlights on it. It was a mountain lion and it was a big one.

A hundred and fifty pounds of murder. And it's right there at the gate of our driveway. We've had them in the barn and you have to be careful out here.

We have them on the property here. And we used to have a lot more elk here but the mountain lions have driven away because there's a big rock formation over to the east of it. And that's where they live. They like living up there in those caves.

So we have to be very careful out here. You see all kinds of critters. We've had a grizzly here on this property.

We've had pretty much everything. My father-in-law assures me that he has seen a wolf on here. They've taken some of the wolves from Yellowstone or someplace and when they get to whatever and they brought them up into this area.

At least I've heard. I don't know. I can't back that up.

I'm not there. But he assures me. We've seen bears of different kinds. I've not seen a grizzly but he has. So it's a different world out here but if you do make a trip out west and go to Yellowstone, don't pet the fluffy cows. And don't touch the geysers because that water is scalding hot.

People have done that. One lady, her dog ran into the geyser and she tried to reach in there and grab it and I think burned most of her arm. Once the dog went in there, it was over.

The dog was gone. You're not going to survive this. It looks like it's a nice pool to jump in and bathe in but it's not. It's extremely hot and there's so much seismic activity. So those are things you might want to keep in mind if you come visit the park or anything outdoors. Nature can be very dangerous out here and it's important to be aware of this. But it was interesting to see that geyser blow up and nobody was hurt which is amazing because I've been around that geyser many times.

We go in the winter times and I like going in the winter better because there's just less crowd. But go take a look at it if you can. It was quite amazing. Anyway, I digressed on the piano lessons and I digressed on the geysers and Gracie's safety evacuation plan in the event that Yellowstone blows up. But I just want you all to know if that does happen, you'll see Yellowstone blowing up right after we do.

But just know that I'll be sitting on the deck saying, Come on Jesus. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver. Hopeforthecaregiver.com Healthy caregivers make better caregivers and I'm taking piano lessons and hopefully this caregiver is going to be a better piano player.

We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is the program for you as a family caregiver. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. You hear me say this all the time and this is the driving force of everything that I do.

How do we stay strong and healthy while caring for someone who is not? Why do we do it? How do we do it?

How do we help others do it? These are all things that we discuss on this program. I want to take your attention off of this particular issue and certainly off of the Yellowstone geysers blowing up.

And I want to spotlight something I saw this week and maybe you did as well. And that was Bibi Netanyahu's speech to Congress. And when I listened to him speak, what I heard was an enormous amount of clarity of what the issue was and what's at stake. And see, this is something I strive for in my own life is that clarity of thought. And history proves that most clarity comes from individuals and nations who are beset with hard things.

Because it strips away all the superfluous and gets down to brass tacks. And here's a couple of quotes that he said that I thought may be meaningful to you all. He said, it's not only the campus protesters who get it wrong, it's also the people who run those campuses. Eighty years after the Holocaust, the presidents of Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and I'm ashamed to say my alma mater, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, couldn't bring themselves to condemn the calls for the genocide of Jews. Remember what they said? They said it depends on the context.

Well, let me give these befuddled academics a little context. And I, boy, you know, there was such a pointiness and a directness to what he said, because they're fighting for their lives on all sides. What happened on October 7th is, you know, proportionately speaking to Israel based on population size, far more devastating than 9-11 was to us. And there's a clarity of thought of what's at stake here for the Jewish people. Suffering does this.

Hard times does this. We as a country have lived in the privilege of two oceans where the encroachment of others has been kept at bay simply because of logistics, because of geography. That's no more, by the way, because of the open southern border and all these millions and millions of people coming in. They're bringing it with them now. We've allowed this into our own home.

We've allowed strangers to come in among us. Scripture talks about this. In fact, you want me to prove it?

I'll prove it. Spend some time in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28. I promise you the Jewish people know this verse and this entire chapter. What Moses is saying, look, if you obey the Lord and obey His commandments, here are the blessings that are going to come. But if you don't, here are the curses that are going to come.

And he lays it out pretty graphically. I won't go into the whole chapter here. There are wiser people than me. But look at this verse here in 43. The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

This is what it says in Deuteronomy, and it's in the context of not obeying the laws of the Lord. And we'll be co-opted by people that we've allowed into the camp, if you will. And I'm not talking about migrants inherently. I'm talking about a philosophy, a world view. And I'm going to have a special guest in the next segment to talk about that world view. But it's about us understanding what's at stake here. If we obey the laws of the Lord, the Lord says, here's what I'm going to do. He's talking to Israel with this. Those promises are extended to the people of God, grafted into this covenant, this promise, through Christ.

If we obey Him and keep His commandments, that's what He says. But if we don't, here's what you can expect. And I don't even know that that list is exhaustive. I think there's even more things. But look at what our country has allowed. Look at what we've done. We've been playing around. You've heard me say this over and over.

I love that song from Keith Green when he says, the world is dying in the dark, and the church can't help because we're asleep in the light. We're fighting over stuff. I was watching one major denomination having a really ugly public fight going on right now. If you go to social media, which social media is like, Twitter is like a cage match for people that want to fight but not get punched. You know, it tends to be kind of, I don't recommend going there very often if that's something you don't have to do.

But you can go out and see and take a temperature of what's going on in the vitriol. And it's in the church. How can the world be expected to be anything different if the church is acting like this? And so, here's Netanyahu on the world stage saying, there are survivals at stake, and he has clarity of thought. Do we have clarity of thought of what's at stake? As believers, as caregivers, I believe that the constant crucible of caregiving forces us to understand what's at stake here and what's important. It may take a while for some, it did for me, to understand this, but four decades of this has helped me understand with great clarity what's at stake. I came back from Denver after this last round of surgery with Gracie, and I recognized that I'm no good to her if I'm fat, broken, miserable. Well, that's clarity of thought. I have to be in the absolute best shape I can be in order to better care for her. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. Healthy nations make better nations. It could not be more simple, at least to me.

And when you have this understanding of what's going on, then that is what guides you in your decision making. And here's another quote from Bibi. For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building. I don't know if you saw the news. So many newscasters won't carry it, but they were just defacing statues, flags, and just causing all kinds of mischief and damage and everything else.

Not that many, but they're here and throughout the city. Well, I have a message for these protesters. When the tyrants of Tehran who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran's useful idiots. That's pretty stark and pretty clear. And he went on to say, this is Netanyahu, it's amazing, absolutely amazing, some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming gays for Gaza.

They might as well hold up signs saying chickens for KFC. You know, hard times breeds clarity. And my goal for myself and fellow caregivers is that we have clarity because we are no stranger to hard times. We are no stranger to having to fight for our survival, emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually.

This is the journey of caregivers. Every day we are faced with these things. We are beset, not in the same way Israel is, and I'm not minimizing or maximizing. I'm just simply drawing a parallel for the concept because I believe that there are teachable moments everywhere. And when you are beset with things, do you have clarity? Do you understand?

Do you understand what you believe and why you believe it? Do you understand what Scripture says? Do you understand those promises that are in Deuteronomy 28? Do you understand those curses that are in Deuteronomy 28?

Do you understand what God is teaching the people through Moses in this? With understanding breeds that confidence and clarity and purpose and that sense of focus that I don't think we as a nation have. For about 12 hours after 9-11, I think we had it.

And I remember seeing all the Congressmen on the Capitol steps singing God Bless America, and we had it for about 12 to 24 hours. And then it was just business as usual with these people. I got to meet George W. Bush a couple of times, and what I saw with him was a clarity of purpose of killing terrorists.

And I understand that. That was the Bush doctrine. We will not negotiate with people who harbor terrorists.

If you're harboring them, you're our enemy. And so there was that clarity of purpose. But we've got to go more. We've got to go deeper.

What is this country about? When Biden spoke the other night from the Oval Office, many had hoped he would explain why he dropped out of the race. Well, we know.

I mean, those of us who watch this stuff know what happened. But I think he owed it to the American people. But they're not going to do it.

They're not going to give you what they owe you because they're all about a different agenda. Do you feel satisfied that he explained why you have a presumptive Democratic nominee who has not won a single primary? Do you feel satisfied about that? And I think these are things that are very troubling in our country because we are aimless in what are we about?

What is our purpose here? And I go back to the guiding purpose I have for me as a caregiver. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. Healthy families make better families. Healthy men make better men and better families. Healthy men and families make better churches. Healthy churches make better communities. Healthy communities make better states. Healthy states make better nations. And a healthy America is better for the world. Are we healthy?

We're $35 trillion in debt. We have abortion. Half the country can't even figure out if it's murder.

And the other half spends a great deal of time, many of them, trying to appease the first half so that they get elected. We're all over the map. We can't figure out. We've got a Supreme Court justice who can't tell you what a man or a woman is without a biologist.

We're all over the map. Do we have clarity? I ask you, do we as a nation have clarity? If not, why not? And if not, what are we going to do about it?

And the only thing I can do is make sure that I have it. And my clarity is this. I have no good to my wife if I'm fat, broken, miserable. The United States has no good to this world if it is fat, broken, miserable. It's something to think about, isn't it? And if we allow everybody just to come in and start taking everything, I mean, I don't allow people to come into my house and start helping themselves to the kitchen. When I take Gracie to the doctor, I don't pick up some stranger along the way and take them to the doctor and say, ignore my wife. Take care of this person.

I don't do that. My responsibility is to Gracie. That is my responsibility. That is my stewardship. I'm not uncompassionate, and I do help other people, but not at Gracie's expense. Do you understand the clarity of purpose that comes with that?

What is your world view? And we're going to talk about that in the next section here. I was part of a program they did at American Family Association about this very thing. So healthy caregivers make better caregivers.

All right. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to have you with us, Hopeforthecaregiver.com. American Family Association invited me to participate in this new curriculum that they developed. It is called Activate, and it's about training people to deal with, and not just individuals, churches and so forth, but to have a biblical world view and to understand what does Scripture teach on all these very difficult issues affecting our society? Do we feel like we're going out unarmed a lot of times?

Because it certainly seems with it on very complex issues like abortion, like capitalism, like so many others that we find ourselves crossways with people on it. And so AFA took this and went very deep into this program, and they graciously allowed me to participate. And I've got Kendra White, who's the writer of this workbook that goes along with this whole video series.

And I guess, Kendra, you oversaw the whole thing. And so I just wanted you to share your heart on this and what prompted this and what people can do to take advantage of this. Yes, thank you so much for giving me the chance to share. And you were an amazing piece of the puzzle when building a biblical worldview. I know your listeners are well equipped because of everything that you share on the show to help deal with others with an accurate theology of suffering.

Our world doesn't know what to do when people are hurting. And that was a big piece of one of our units in this course. So we have a sanctity of human life unit that deals with not just abortion, but how do you deal with end of life issues and when people are suffering. So you answered so many helpful questions in such a compassionate way. So first of all, I want to thank you so much for being one of our esteemed professors in the course.

But yeah, to answer your question, the lie behind Activate. So American Family Radio for years, we've had people writing in saying, hey, I love what you guys talk about on the radio. You all are able to tackle these controversial topics that other people just don't want to touch, but then shed some biblical truth on it and how we can respond in culture. But then these people were saying, hey, I want to do that in my own church, in my own community. And I don't know what are the baby steps that I take to start being light in this dark world. And so we listened.

We heard you. And for a couple of years now, we've been trying to put together this education. It's a very in-depth biblical worldview training course. Now, it's not for everyone. I will say anyone, I would say 18 and older, can learn this and understand it.

But it's going to take you more than a minute. This isn't just one little video you pop on and sit down. It's a series of 18 powerful sessions with 13 different professors. And basically what you do is you go online or you get the DVD set and you watch a video teaching.

You have a workbook that helps you. Sometimes we hear things and it's like drinking from a fire hose. But until you can articulate it in your own words, it doesn't really stick in your brain. So we have these questions to help you kind of make personal these truths that you're learning. And then one of the things I love about this curriculum, there's a third element involved. And that is our accountability challenges and our activity challenges. So what those are not only do require you to listen, to learn and to get this knowledge in your heart. But, you know, scripture says knowledge puffs up, but love builds up if you just have knowledge and you don't do anything with it.

It's not actually, you're not a productive believer. So we have these lists of challenges that require you to kind of get out of your comfort zone. For instance, in our sanctity of human life unit, one of our challenges is that you can go talk to your pastor about, hey, how are you going to address these life issues from the pulpit in a church setting? How can we, how can our church be a refuge to women with an unplanned pregnancy? Another challenge is to go volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center. And the way we kind of set it up, there are some challenges that are required, like certain scripture memory.

Because, you know, if you're if you're going to respond with a biblical worldview, it better be based in the Bible. So what a novel thought. Right. So we've got these passages of scripture that you memorize. Then we have these things that you need to do. And then we have a share category and some of those challenges allow for both introverts and extroverts to kind of pick which challenge fits best with their personality.

But all of them are going to require you to kind of get up and go do something. What are you seeing? I mean, this is brand new.

I mean, I just got my copy of it here. So you guys are just now rolling this out. What are you hoping for?

What are you seeing? Yeah. So kind of the themes that we decided we wanted to tackle were the ones that nobody else was. There's some amazing biblical worldview training out there, but not a ton of people are willing to tackle themes like, you know, marriage and family. And those questions of, you know, how do I explain from a biblical worldview that that marriage is between a man and a woman?

And what are those scriptures to back it up? So we have, you know, a unit that's on that. And we really focused on all the core issues that AFA faces. So sanctity of human life, marriage and family. We have a religious liberty unit. We also have a stewardship unit, you know, really going into there's this push for capitalism in our.

I mean, capitalism is a dirty, sorry, capitalism is a dirty word and socialism is on the rise. And we're seeing that in all of the education. So I didn't realize how rooted the themes of capitalism were in scripture until I did this course, because I'll be honest, I'm one of those people that like, you know, I'm like, well, am I being greedy?

You know, and so just being able to have amazing professors that tackle those topics and can really equip you with this arsenal of things. You know, I think the average believer wants to have good conversations with people and wants to be light in the darkness. But we we get intimidated. We think, like, they're going to ask me a question I don't know the answer to. And so I better just not even start down that road.

Yeah, I hear that and I really don't like that. I think that we as Christians need to be ready at a moment's notice. And I really applaud you guys for doing this, because I've been saying for some time when a team's in trouble in any kind of sports team, you don't come up with a trick play. You go back to the fundamentals. And I don't feel like we as a collective group in the church, here in the American church anyway, have a grasp on the fundamentals.

Right. And the things that you're talking about are fundamentals. And it really doesn't take that much study to be able to have an intelligent conversation with someone. For instance, in our pro-life unit, we have this one minute response to the abortion argument. And we ask people to just memorize this. It's literally you can say it in under 60 seconds. And it's not that hard to memorize. But if you get these words in your head and in your heart, they're in your vocabulary. And you can then put them in your own words when you're in a conversation with somebody. But it just gives you something when that panic, when you have that deer in the headlight moment at Thanksgiving dinner, when your uncle says, well, hi, and something completely off the wall. And you're just like, how do I even respond to this? So it helps you to respond in love, but also in truth in those moments.

We do have one other element I want to make sure I mention before we go. This course. So it's an online course.

But after you complete everything, if you graduate and you complete all the activities, we're going to have a special commissioning ceremony where you'll be given the opportunity to come to our headquarters in Tupelo, Mississippi, meet some of the professors that taught in the course. And we're just going to pray over you. And I mean, you already have been sent out by Jesus Christ. It's not that we're trying to do anything different.

But now that you have had all this knowledge and information, we want to just pray a special blessing over you and connect you to all of the resources at AFA that you might know, might not know already exist so that you can go be a world changer in your own neighborhood. Well, what does Jesus say in Matthew 2018? He didn't say to go out and save everybody. He said, go out and preach the gospel and make disciples.

And we somehow have gotten this a little bit, I don't know, discombobulated in our minds. We're not responsible for results as far as people coming to Christ. We're responsible to go out and be faithful to preach the gospel. And to teach them. And if they don't want to do it, if they don't want to respond to it, that's between them and God.

But we have to look at God and give an account for are we prepared to do this? And you guys are preparing people. I have been hammering on this issue for a long time. It's one of the reasons I do this program because people don't know what to say to a caregiver. And so I said, well, OK, I'll tell you what to say.

Here's the vocabulary and here's what it looks like. And we've been talking about this on this program, just this program for this episode of going into the very uncomfortable places. We don't have to go in there afraid. And you guys have done this. And I'm, Kendra, I'm really honored that you guys let me be a part of this. I question your judgment and let it be a part of it. I really do appreciate it because we're equipping the body of Christ to do what our Savior commanded us to do. And that's how it's done. That's the whole point of this. So thank you. If people want to know more about it, how do they find out?

Where do they go? Yes. So activate.afa.net. You can remember that because we want you to get active. We don't want to be passive followers of Christ. We want you to be active.

So activate.afa.net. Even if this is not the right time for you to start a course like this, we'd love to ask you to just go share the trailer. AFA is literally just releasing this and we know that we might ruffle some feathers in the topics that we think are important. You guys are no strangers to ruffling feathers.

We've ruffled a few in our day for sure. But yeah, we just ask you guys to please go share the trailer with a friend or on your Facebook page. Or with your pastor. Or with your pastor. Get your church involved. We have a lot of churches actually reaching out to us saying we want our whole congregation to have this training. So we do have it set up for individuals and couples to go through or a small group. But if you have a large group that wants to go with it, please contact us. You can do that again through the website and we'll work with you to bring it to your church home. And this is a great way to start.

Just go through the fundamentals and learn how to be able to explain this to others and understand it for ourselves. Kendra, my hat's off to you guys. activate.afa.net. Thank you for being a part of the program today. Thank you for sharing this with us. And I look forward to you having back on to talk about the success that's happening with it.

And we look forward to more things. Thank you so much. And thank you for everything you do on this show. And I hope your listeners come over and see all that you taught in the course.

activate.afa.net. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is hope for the caregiver. We'll see you next time. You've heard me talk about standing with hope over the years. This is the prosthetic limb ministry that Gracie envisioned after losing both of her legs. Part of that outreach is our prosthetic limb recycling program. Did you know that prosthetic limbs can be recycled?

No kidding. There is a correctional facility in Arizona that helps us recycle prosthetic limbs. And this facility is run by a group out of Nashville called CoreCivic.

We met them over 11 years ago. And they stepped in to help us with this recycling program of taking prostheses and you disassemble them. You take the knee, the foot, the pylon, the tube clamps, the adapters, the screws, the liners, the prosthetic socks. All these things we can reuse and inmates help us do it. Before CoreCivic came along, I was sitting on the floor at our house or out in the garage when we lived in Nashville. I had tools everywhere, limbs everywhere, feet, boxes of them and so forth. I was doing all this myself and I'd make the kids help me.

And it got to be too much for me. And so I was very grateful that CoreCivic stepped up and said, Look, we are always looking for faith-based programs that are interesting and that give inmates a sense of satisfaction. And we'd love to be a part of this.

And that's what they're doing. And you can see more about that at StandingWithHope.com slash recycle. So please help us get the word out that we do recycle prosthetic limbs. We do arms as well, but the majority of amputations are lower limb.

And that's where the focus of Standing With Hope is. That's where Gracie's life is with her lower limb prostheses. And she's used some of her own limbs in this outreach that she's recycled. I mean, she's been an amputee for over 30 years. So you go through a lot of legs and parts and other types of materials.

And you can reuse prosthetic socks and liners if they're in good shape. All of this helps give the gift that keeps on walking. And it goes to this prison in Arizona where it's such an extraordinary ministry.

Think with that. Inmates volunteering for this. They want to do it.

And they've had amazing times with it. And I've had very moving conversation with the inmates that work in this program. And you can see, again, all of that at standingwithhope.com slash recycle. They're putting together a big shipment right now for us to ship over. We do this pretty regularly throughout the year as inventory rises and they need it badly in Ghana. So please go out to standingwithhope.com slash recycle and get the word out and help us do more. If you want to offset some of the shipping, you can always go to the giving page and be a part of what we're doing there.

We're purchasing material in Ghana that they have to use that can't be recycled. We're shipping over stuff that can be. And we're doing all of this to lift others up and to point them to Christ. And that's the whole purpose of everything that we do. And that is why Gracie and I continue to be standing with hope. Standingwithhope.com