Recovery & Messages From Heaven

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's word. 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. It's 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. I am so excited about today's show because I know what we got on store for you ahead of time, and God has certainly given me this opportunity to see so many—like, to walk around the National Religious Broadcasters Convention if you're the host of Kingdom Pursuits and see all the amazing people that God has taken their passion and used it to build the kingdom. It's absolutely, absolutely beautiful. So, you know, this show coming off that, I always get an opportunity to bring some of my favorites with me. And so first off, we have Angela Alexandra.

She is Alexander, and she is the author of Miracles in Action. And let me just tell you, being familiar with Miracles in Action and Angela's story, I think at the end of this, you're going to say, oh, yeah, that's Miracles in Action. Welcome, Angela.

It's great to hear you got up early this morning in California. I did, I did. Thank you. It was such a pleasure to meet you, Robbie.

Thank you for having me. I couldn't be more excited to share her story with my audience, with all of my faithful friends that listen. Like, I got to tell you that after I interviewed Angela, first thing I did, I got back to my room, I had to show my wife the book. I had to tell her the story.

Like, oh, wow, what a treat you're going to have when Angela shares that today. And Angela, you were in the military, right? Yes, Air Force.

She was in the Air Force. So along the idea of the Air Force, interestingly, we have with us Alan Brooks, who's with Missionary Air Group. Now, unlike the other two guests, I was familiar with Missionary Air Group from some other connections I have. Alan wasn't at the NRB, but Alan has an amazing ministry here in North Carolina.

Actually, it's one of the places it is, is in North Carolina, but they have resources all over the world. But it's Missionary Air Group. Welcome, Alan. Thank you.

Good to be with you. And Alan, how long have you been with Missionary Air Group? Well, I am just getting in the door. Actually, my wife and I are still doing our fundraising.

We're in the upper 80 percents now. Great. So we've been volunteering to that point, but they were offered us application back in Thanksgiving this past year. So you can imagine if your passion happens to be flying and Jesus, like how lucky do you feel when you get to go do that for a living, right? Amen.

That's right. My career was in aviation for over 40 some years and, of course, ministry during that time, too. But then he chose to pull us into ministry full time. That's what we're excited about.

Alrighty. And next up today, we have with us Pastor Ron Smedley. And I had Pastor Smedley on back last October, but this is my opportunity, right, to get to talk to you here again, because I got to meet Ron in person when I was in Dallas. So welcome, Ron. Good morning, Robbie.

Yes, it was wonderful to be able to meet you face to face. And I'm just honored and pumped to be able to be back on your program here in North Carolina. And so for those who didn't hear it last October, Ron, tell our listeners a little bit about Mission Recovery. Basically, my passion is people are dying every day.

Families are being torn apart. So I'm a former parole officer and been a pastor for 40 years. So God has given me a voice to tell people of the power of transformation that can come from pastors and churches providing Christ-centered recovery. Yeah. And so, wow.

You know, that as a parole officer, you know, I hadn't thought about that role, I think, as much until I met you. That's right. That here are some people that are really at a point in their life where God has done some work, and it's really an opportunity for them to make a choice one way or the other, isn't it?

Yes. And you know, what's sad is that most of them don't feel comfortable walking into the church because they don't feel like the people in church can relate, and they have such shame and guilt. Tragically, sometimes churches put more shame and guilt on them, so they end up feeling worse than they already did. And so one of our passions as a pastor, because I've been a pastor, is to help pastors to come alongside them to begin to develop an environment and a culture of acceptance. You know, you remember what Jesus said about the least of these, and I have seen over and over again that most of them have had deep-rooted hurt in their life, and as we all know, we're all looking for love.

Absolutely. So speaking of miracles, you might have guessed this was coming. No, not riddles, Robbie. Miracles of recovery, miracles of missionary air group, and certainly miracles in action. You didn't know this, Bethann, but I'm on a miracle diet. I want to be on it with you. If I lose any weight, it'll be a miracle.

I am on it. I didn't know. There you go. That's the miracle diet. Anyway, and you may have heard of the miracle of the blind carpenter. No, I have not. This is pretty interesting.

It says he picked up his hammer and saw him. That's good. Oh no, Pastor Ron, watch it.

We'll be here all day. This last one is more me, Bethann, than those two, but just to make sure that there's one in here for those who think things are punny. Here you go. You know what's the difference between dirt and miracle grow? What's the difference, Robbie? Between dirt and miracle grow, you're wondering, aren't you, Pastor Allen? Yes. It's not mulch. Instead of it's not much. You're right. It's not mulch.

It's not mulch. There you go. So you knew that the miracle of Robbie's riddles weren't coming. Well, the miracle is they're over. This short, right?

I didn't stretch it out at all. So that's a miracle. But which miracle in the Bible would you categorize? I like this.

Which miracle in the Bible would you categorize as miracle grow? Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four, eight, six, six, three, four, truth. And so I've got to tell you, well, Bethann, I'm going to tell the prize myself. Do you mind?

I think I'm going to step all over. You've got the prize music. Go ahead. So here you go, fresh from the prize vault, because they just put it there. The actual children's version of miracles in action.

And there's a very specific reason I'll get to in a minute. Why you need the children's version to who calls in today will actually get this book and they're going to want to see what's in the children's version of miracles in action. But there's also a bigger book, too.

But we're giving out that one today. If you call in at eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four. So what miracles in the Bible or which miracles? And by the way, nobody has ever been wrong. So if you want this book, which you do, by the way, I'm going to tell you ahead of time, you're going to want to call eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four, eight, six, six, three, four, truth.

So, Angela, we're going to set this up a little piece at a time. So you were stationed and again, thank you for your service in the Air Force. And this was a particularly tough day that happened for you. You were in Japan when it all started, right? Yes, I was. Yes, I was. So tell our listeners what happened that day in Japan. So I'm in Japan on military duty.

I'm working with a group of people. And Lieutenant Mevechi came up to me and said, Angela, I need to speak with you. Now, Robbie, this is April Fool's weekend. And I just thought it was another joke. And so we just started walking and talking about nothing. And we entered the small office and inside was a man who was introduced as a priest.

And the priest began nervously shaking, holding this paperwork from the Red Cross. And he says, Angela, your family has been in a car accident. And from the looks on their faces, I just knew this was no April Fool's joke. The day before, my husband and four children were driving down the highway in California and a car cut them off. Our truck hit the center divider and upon impact, they were all knocked unconscious. And then our truck went backwards across the highway and fell 25 feet below and landed upside down on top of two other parked vehicles with people inside. Praise God, they were OK.

However, my two eight-year-old son passed instantly at the scene. All right. There's a lot to this story. We're going to find out about it today on Kingdom Pursuit. We thank you, Angela Alexander, her book Miracle in Actions, Pastor Ron Smedley and Alan Brooks with Mission Area Air Group. So much more Kingdom Pursuits.

You don't want to miss it. Believe me. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom, and we are loaded for bear today.

We really, really are. Oh, my goodness. We have Angela Alexander.

She's the author of Miracles in Action and Pastor Ron Smedley with Mission Recovery and Alan Brooks with Mission Area Air Group. Oh, man, there's so much. I don't know. I've got way more that I can get into one show. So excited to have all of this on. And of course, next up, I have Orlando is in in High Point with me, my good friend Orlando. Orlando, you're on Kingdom Pursuits. Good morning.

Good morning, Lord bless. Yes. Yes. I'm excited about Miracle Grow. Miracle Grow. Which miracle in the Bible would you categorize as Miracle Grow? Well, I will call it the miracle of the forgiveness of God and whether it grows or not. Oh, it it it grows.

Believe me, it sure does, because after he forgives you, you forgive others, right? Yeah, you'll find it in Galatians. I think it's five twenty something twenty five.

I think it is a twenty four. But it says no, it's actually when it's around there. But I know that it says that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, long suffering, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. So if the spirit of God grows, if the fruit of the spirit grows in us, that is the greatest miracle. Yeah, wow. And I mean, Orlando, how beautiful, because, yeah, it's like those little seeds, they spring up and the next thing you know, you know, a little love goes a long way. It grows like crazy. Orlando, that's a great answer.

Not necessarily what I was thinking about. Oh, my goodness. You should have heard the answer that we had from the from Alan with Missionary Air Group. His his his answer also blew me away. But Orlando, that is so good. So you get the book. And oh, my goodness, what a book you get. You're going to be so thankful.

Yes. Orlando, God bless. I appreciate you calling in. Have a great day.

You too, sir. So if you're thinking, gee, I want this book, you're going to have to go to Kingdom Pursuits dot com. And there you're going to see miracles in action. You're going to see a link to Angela's website. And believe me when I tell you, order the book, especially.

Well, she has the full edition, but the children's edition has the real a couple of things in it that you are never, ever, ever going to forget. And we're going to get to that in a minute. But want to go back to Alan with Missionary Air Group. And so, Alan, for listeners that haven't heard of Missionary Air Group, what is Missionary Air Group?

Missionary Air Group is a non-denominational Christian organization. And what we do is we train aircraft mechanics to be pilots. So there'll be pilot mechanics to serve God in the mission field. Yeah, in the mission. So and wow, that's some interesting duty, isn't it? Because you're flying in some really wild places.

Yeah. We we minister only to the most remote people. In other words, there's many wonderful missionary organizations with airplanes and they serve all over. But we specialize on just the remote groups. In other words, if you can get to this group of people through trucks or other things, they don't need airplanes to get to them. Then you don't need us. We only go where you have to have an airplane to get to them or to get to them effectively. In other words, taking a canoe down the river for days is not an effective way. So we only go to the remote groups.

And for example? Honduras, Rusrus, Honduras. That's where we have a base there in Honduras. Also in Guatemala, San Francisco, Guatemala.

So we again in Honduras, that's to the Mosquito people that are in the eastern portion. They live out in what they call the reserve. The country made that a national reserve. Thus, they don't have to put infrastructure there. Same thing in Guatemala, up in the mountains, up in the Northern Asia. They don't have to put infrastructure up there.

How do you land a plane in there? Well, the way we got in Rusrus was back the Contra war back in the 80s. Of course, the people fled Nicaragua into Honduras across the Cocoa River. Well, Rusrus village is only five miles from the river. So many of those people fled into the Indian villages all along the river. The Friends of America back then built refugee camps in war-torn areas. So they, I don't know why they picked Rusrus, but they picked this village. They built a hospital there, put in a grass strip. And we're talking out in the middle of anywhere, it's an Indian village. And then, of course, when the war was over, all the people go back home. People leave the hospitals.

You have an abandoned hospital and a runway out in the middle of this Indian village. And here you go, the missionary air group. And so, Pastor Ron, getting back to you with mission recovery, I'm guessing that while you were actually a parole officer, God put this on your heart? Actually, even as a pastor, God really began to burden me with preaching the gospel towards relevant issues. And it kind of gave me the path to deal with stuff that people struggle with every day, anxiety, depression, brokenness, addiction.

And then I went and became a parole officer, and it gave me extensive experience in recovery, all forms of recovery, secular treatment. And so, again, that brings me back to why I have a voice for this, because being involved in secular treatment versus Christ-centered treatment, there's one thing that we can give people that the government and secular treatment can't give them, and that's the transforming power of Jesus Christ. And we're passionate about that, and we make no apologies about it, because we see lives and families healed and lives transformed on a daily basis.

And so we just want to encourage everyone. You can go to recoverysunday.com and find more about what we do. We sponsor one Sunday a year, and then our second goal is to come alongside with churches to help them provide a recovery to people that need it.

Because, you know, Robbie, most people that need treatment can't get it because they have burned all the bridges with their families or have no money, they have no paying source. So imagine what can happen when churches provide recovery. And let me also say, when I say recovery, most people think drugs and alcohol. But if anybody is struggling with any sin pattern for a long period of time and can't get free, and it's affecting other people, they need recovery.

Absolutely. And, again, Recovery Sundays coming up, we're going to get to all that in the next segment, as well as Warren Missionary Air Group. To come back to Angela, you know, you heard, unfortunately, that your two sons had been killed in this horrible accident. You know, one of the miracles, obviously, was that your husband and your two daughters, right, were okay? Yes, they walked away. Miraculously. And then you got on a plane, you had to come back to face this funeral. Oh, my goodness.

Right. And on that plane, about an hour into that flight, I remember this letter my son Maurice written about a month before the car crash. He was eight years old in the third grade. He had a math test. Now, he had to be quiet while his classmates completed their test. And in that quiet time, he wrote this letter to me and my husband. Now, he had never, ever, ever wrote us a letter before. And he went in the house in school that afternoon and he shouted, Mommy, Mommy, Daddy, Daddy, I wrote you on that.

I wrote you on that. I said to the boy, where you going? And he looked up at me with his big brown beautiful eyes and he said, Nowhere, Mommy.

I just love you. And the three of us sat at the foot of our bed and we read his letter aloud. And he not only expressed that he loved us, he explained why he loved us. He wrote three pages and at the end of all three pages, he wrote the words, B-Y dash B-Y, by and by.

We'll see each other again. Not B-Y-E, by and by. And I'm telling you, this letter was written above and beyond his age and grade level. It was talking about stuff he did not even know, the Holy Spirit. It was evidence that the Holy Spirit had given him information to write in this letter to reveal to us.

It is amazing. And the Thursday before the double memorial service, I was praying in my kitchen and I was crying. And I was praying, I prayed, Dear God, thank you so much for Maurice's letter. It is truly the reason I can stand here right now with my mind still intact. But God, I need to know that Roger was okay.

I need to know that he was also visited by the Holy Spirit. God, I need to know that you are in control of this hot mess. And God laid one word on my heart and he said, search. And I said, search? I didn't know, I didn't know what I was searching for.

And I searched my house over three hours that afternoon and did not find anything that I prayed, trusted and believed for. But as only as God can create it, as only as God can orchestrate it, that very evening was open house in my children's elementary school. We went to all their classes. We finally made it to Roger's second grade class.

And I spoke to Mrs. Blassie, his teacher. Two weeks before the car crash, she had given all her second graders all kinds of arts and crafts supplies and said, do something for open house, your parents are coming, with no other instructions. With all their projects and staples on the wall, I took Roger's down. He cut out the shape of a house with closed doors. I opened it up and said, I have a big backyard and a big house. And I said, wait a minute, wait a minute, stop right there, because we actually have the smallest backyard on the block.

And then when I was standing there, I realized when he wrote this two weeks ago, he was in transition mode. He was referring to his heavenly home, where he does have a big backyard and he does have a big house. And then the left hand side of that home description, he cut out a tombstone. And on that tombstone, he wrote three powerful words. He wrote dead, men, joy.

This is an eight year old, eight year old little boy using the word men, but men is a plural noun for all of us. God also had to have him draw a picture of himself beneath those words, because he also wants to have a personal relationship with you. And on the opposite side of that home description, he cut out a second tombstone.

Wow, I hate we got to go to another break. And yes, these pictures and that letter are in this book. And when you see those tombstones on either side of this second one that was done, and you see what's written there, as well as the pictures of the two boys, are like, oh my goodness. There are miracles in action. So we got a lot more coming from Angela and from Pastor Smedley and Alan Brooks.

Stay tuned. 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 today we are just so blessed to have so many wonderful people that God lets us get a chance to hear what he's doing. We have Angela Alexander. She's the author of Miracles in Action. Pastor Ron Smedley with Kingdom Pursuits. We have Angela Alexander. She's the author of Miracles in Action.

Pastor Ron Smedley with Mission Recovery, and there, you know, Mission Sunday, which we're hoping you'll set up with your church or your Sunday school class, and Alan Brooks with Missionary Air Group. And so I need to say that there at kingdompursuits.com, you can order the book Miracles in Action or the children's book. But both books are absolutely amazing. You can get them right there. And you're going to want—you just heard about these letters.

And again, Beth Ann, you got to see them for yourself. It's unbelievable. It really is. I mean, it's got to be so comforting for her. Yes.

Yes. You can see that God had those love letters. But also, they're love letters for us that we know that, you know, this didn't happen by, you know, some— But anyway, that's why you want these books, and to be able to share this story with others, that they'll have that kind of comfort, as Ron Smedley is covering with Missionary Recovery and Missionary Sunday. And Alan Brooks did these remote places all over the world with Missionary Air Group. Let me just say, at kingdompursuits.com, you can connect with all three. Alan Brooks needs support because they're raising support for Missionary Air Group.

Pastor Ron wants your church to get involved with Missionary Sunday. And of course, Alexandra—Angela Alexander—would love, love, love for you to order a book and then, you know, clearly say something on Amazon about how cool it is because it's beyond cool. But I also have with me today my good friend Amy Cabo, the host of The Cure. And Amy, it's time to get happy today on your show, right?

Yes. Today we will be speaking to a happiness and lifestyle expert. Believe it or not, just an expert for everything. We're going to discuss how to improve our level of happiness, providing insight to the benefits of happiness. And it's going to be based on recent academic revelations, using common sense approaches.

And we're going to discuss, you know, the latest academic findings, what groups of people are most unhappy, why is happiness vital to our well-being, and important health benefits of happiness. Right. And you've got Robert Gill's going to be with you, right? Edmond McCormick. And Robert Gill, is he also Robert Gill? I know he has two names. Yes, he's also Robert Gill. See, I have inside information. I get my stuff from Boris directly.

He might actually be Robert Gill. Thank you, Amy. So you guys, this is a live show at one o'clock on the Truth Network, wherever you are.

It's one o'clock Eastern, and you can call in and find out more about that. Thank you so much, Amy. God bless. I appreciate you calling in today. Thank you, Robbie. Have a beautiful day.

You too. And so, Angela, when we left her here, we were right in the middle of the second letter, which was actually sort of a letter that talked about his big, big house. And then on either side are these tombstones, which, you know, when she described that to me before I saw it, it kind of just went over my head. But when you actually see these tombstones, like in writing, oh, my, I mean, the way that this young man drew this picture, it's uncanny.

And you didn't get a chance. You talked about the dead man, Joy, on the left side, but on the right side, what does that one say, Angela? And on the opposite side of the home description, he cut out a second tombstone, and that way he wrote the words dead man jammed and drew a picture of his brother Maurice beneath those words, because Maurice was always dancing, jamming around the house. And I'm telling you, Robbie, I almost fell to my knees in that second grade classroom as I thank God for being so good to me. Because I was earlier that day, I had just prayed to ask God to give me something from Roger to let me know that he was at peace. And this is what he gave me that very evening. And I just repeated in that class over and over again, dead man Joy, dead man jammed. And I said, you know what, my sons are joyfully jamming with Jesus.

Amen. They are joyfully jamming with Jesus. And, you know, Alan had a word, which, by the way, also had a great answer for my riddle, too, which we're going to share if nobody else does. But Alan, share with Angela what you said about, you know, Roger's letter about his big backyard. Yeah, there's a song I remember way back when in the church, it was, he's got a big, speaking of God, he's got a big, big house and a big, big yard where we can play football. So I bet that he heard that song and he said, yeah, that's what I want. You know, I have never heard that before, that song before.

I'm old. And Roger has never heard it before, but a lot of people share that song with me since when I share this testimony. But, you know, I have a big backyard, it just reminds me of Jesus said in John 14, two and three, when he says, in my Father's house, there will be many mansions, there are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you.

So, you know, God, Jesus told us there were mansions. That is so beautiful, Angela. It's just, it's a phenomenal story and there's so much there and so much more that's in our complete book, not just the children's book, but there's another book called Miracles in Action. You can see that there as well at kingdombursuits.com or at Angela's website, which is linked there at kingdombursuits.com. But you've got to get involved in this Mission Recovery Sunday.

So tell us about what's going on with that, Ron. Recovery Sunday is at least the starting place that we ask that churches all over the nation and many are beginning to join us over the last four years, where you just set aside and prepare to tell people who are in all forms of recovery and their affected family members to come, so that you can address the issue of all forms of recovery and pray, join us in an effort to pray. And then once you see the response, we have a 52-week plug-and-play program that when people, the family members and the individuals in recovery respond, you can take it from there, because that's also our passion to come alongside churches and pastors to help them address this issue. And if I might say one thing, our tagline in light of what Angela's story is, we see people in pain every day. And one of the things that we say is, behind every addiction, people are trying to deal with pain. And that is the reason we get out of bed and do these programs, to help people deal with pain. And Jesus said he came to bind up the brokenhearted and to preach good news to those who are hurting, and he's close to the broken. And so I just wanted to, it's so cool that I'm here today hearing Angela's story, because I see people in pain every day that are turning to some substance to deal with the pain, and then they get hooked, and they need freedom. But the real issue is, no matter what the issue, as a parole officer and a pastor, people are trying to avoid pain. And as we know, the healing presence of Jesus is the one who can really heal pain. So please join us, RecoverySunday.com.

We have tools and resources there to help individuals and families. And thank you so much for allowing me to talk about it, Rob. And what is the date on the Recovery Sunday this year? September the 26th. It's always the last Sunday in every September. September is Recovery Month, and we want churches to partner with this nationwide movement. September the 26th, 2021, and then every last September, every last Sunday in September. There you go. September starts with Labor Day, it ends with recovery. There you go. There you go.

September 26th. And so Missionary Air Group, we want to get back. So Roger, have you got a story?

Because obviously, you know, I'm interested, what hooked you like, God, okay, this is what you've got from me? Well, as I was saying, I was in aviation for over 40 years. I was an aircraft mechanic, a flight instructor, charter pilot, international jet pilot, director of aviation department. So I spent most of my life in aviation, but also had a passion, of course, for ministry. All my adult life, I've been teaching Bible and Sunday school, small groups, nursing home, prison, jail. And so just, we were doing both of those things, but I guess for three years or so in my career, flying, I just had this desire, yearning to do more in the ministry side. I enjoyed doing what it was, of course, was doing the volunteer work there at the jail, and it's just so much there that you can do. And God was laying that on my heart, and I just didn't know how to make that work. You know, I know airplanes and cows.

I was a dairyman's son, but how do you do this, Lord? So it was a moving experience. I can see it's coming. And we're going to hear the rest of Allen's story and more out of Angela and Pastor Ron when we come back. One more segment of Kingdom Pursuits.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Well, welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom today. We're so blessed to have with us offer Angela Alexander with her book, Miracles in Action, about her two-year-old, eight-year-old wonderful children that went to be with the Lord, and the story of the miracles that took place in that book, Miracles in Action, as well as Pastor Ron Smedley with Mission Recovery. Again, Mission Recovery Sunday coming up September 26th of this year, but on the last Sunday of every year, they set that up for churches to, you know, kind of find a way to connect because, you know, clearly there's all sorts of ministry around prison, but there's nothing like actually connecting the heart. You know, like, one of the things I would speak to real quick, Pastor Ron, is that if you know somebody personally that got in bad trouble and ended up in jail, like, man, I mean, those are people that ought to be on our own personal list. Like, how can I minister to that person because, you know, that's a personal thing. It's a little different than prison ministry, right, but it's a prison ministry that really gets down at the heart of things, doesn't it?

Yes, sir. We used to say there's a fine line difference between a parolee and a parole officer because they're for the grace of God, go any of us, and we thank God every day for the blessings and privileges we've had to be reared in a Christ-centered home and to be discipled, and many haven't had that, that come from broken homes and hurt, pain, a lot of molestation, abuse, and so hurt people hurt people, and so sometimes out of their hurt, and a lot of people want to judge, and I always say you need to look at what's behind a person's pain rather than looking at their behavior, and I saw that over and over again as a parole officer, and so again we try to get down to helping people experience the healing presence and their brokenness and their hurt and their pain. Yeah, and Christians are not immune, by the way. I'm just saying, you know, you think, well, he went to church and how could he have done that? Let me just tell you that, oh my goodness, that's where I am, I mean, in so many different ways. What an opportunity, you know, to be the hands of feet in Jesus, especially when you know someone, you know, that they feel accepted so much more so when they had a relationship with you before and you got an opportunity to stick with it. You're right.

Go ahead, Alan. Also, like I said, we do volunteer work with Forsyth Prison and Jail, and of course we're shut down now, can't get in right now, but what I learned in doing that was there are a lot of guys that are, the reason they're there, they made one mistake. They, you know, had a friend talk them into try this, right, and then they did, and then before you know it, they are on this road that takes them to a deep dark place, and now here they are in prison, as you know, you get out and they can't, it's like, well, I have no hope now, I've messed up and it's over, but it's not. God, he provides those chances, but they, we have to, we as Christians, we have to be willing to say, yeah, I could have done that too. Praise God I didn't, but I could have. If you know me, I not only made that mistake once, I made it 4,000 times, and God still somehow or another doesn't turn his back on me.

And so we can be the face of Jesus when we don't turn our back on anybody. And the neat thing about Alan, as I know a little bit more of the story, is God closed your door for your regular job, right? And so the next thing you know, you had a necessity, and then he opened the door for Missionary Air Group, and so wow, you've had this opportunity now to share a little bit of that.

Yeah, we'd been praying we'd want to do more in the ministry than in corporate world, and God answered that prayer, he took my job away. But you know, in God, he has, like I say, 40 years aviation, he had to prepare me for what he really wanted me to do, right? So he, as we began to do some voluntary work, found out about Missionary Air Group, and they invited us to come down, my wife and I, to come down, and so we heard about what they were doing, it was amazing what they were doing, and then they began, doors began to open, they needed, you know, like a grass strip to do off-airport runway training, and my dad and I happened to have one down the farm we built, that was my dad's passion, was flying the airplane, so you know, well, can we use it?

Sure, you can use it. So that set up, and the flight instructor had broke his leg, we got into that, and I could do those things, so God just opened doors, and it was great, and we saw this was something he could use us at. And one of the ways he opened the door was to invite Alan here, so you know, they need to raise support, that's part of the way he takes care of his family, but now, you know, he's linking up with Missionary Air Group, and again, you can find all that at Kingdom Pursuits. Angela, what would be one other issue that you, or one thing that you would share with our listeners about your book that might, in just the last few seconds, get them to think about, wow, this story is really powerful because God came for you, right? Yes, he did. You know, I just share with people that we can either search for our miracles or search for your misery. The choice is yours, because whatever you want, wants you. So seek life over yourself, no matter what you're going through, and know that God has included you in his plan.

Yes, he does. And Pastor Ron, last word? I would just tell everyone out there to lean into God. I've seen three-time offenders that no one, their family hadn't wanted nothing to do with them, and be radically changed by the power and the love of Jesus Christ, so there is hope in Jesus. Oh, yes, there is, and there's hope, because you're listening to The Truth Network, which is based on the Bible, and it's all Jesus, right? And so, good news, you've got Encouraging Prayer coming up right now, followed by Masculine Journey starts here now, 12 o'clock, if you're listening to Winston-Salem, then man up with Nikita Kolov. So much truth coming at you on The Truth Network. Thank you so much for listening. Oh, by the way, Miracle Grove, it was Jonah's plant. This is the Truth Network.