Your Platform For Christ

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This is the Truth Network. Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion. Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits. Now live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. Well, good morning. Welcome to Kingdom Pursuits.

I'm certainly not Robbie Dilmore. Robbie is in Alabama with the graduation of his daughter from college this morning, so I am filling in with Kingdom Pursuits for him, and I know they're having a great morning, and I am extremely excited about this morning because in the studio with me, well, one thing on the other side of the glass, I have Christian who has been wonderful this morning. We had Christian Cargile Radio. We got off to a good start after we got on the air, but I don't know what I'd done this morning if he wouldn't have been over there because he certainly conquered and slayed the dragon, that's for sure, but also this morning in the studio with me is Derek Masha-Monday, and Derek is, man, this is my brother right here, and so having him in here is sort of like you're going to get to hear us pull up a chair at the table and just kind of talk a little bit because over the course of many, many years, we go to Pinedale Christian Church together, in Sunday School class together, and I tell you what, I love his heart, and I love his passion for Christ. We're going to talk a little bit about the village in Zimbabwe and also the fund and stuff and kind of the things they need.

One thing is prayer, but there's also monetary things that they can certainly use. We're going to talk a little bit about how you can do that and also how this whole pandemic and all this madness in the world is also affecting the village and also how it affects getting support there, but one of the things I also want to take just a moment to talk to Derek about is his job here in the Winston area. He has a job that sometimes when I talk to Derek, it breaks my heart because I know the situations that he's put into and stuff, and I know that God is working through him in a mighty way, and it just humbles me, and you know what, and it goes back to, I've said this many times on the air, especially on Christian Car Guy Radio, is about, you know what, whatever your platform is, use it for Christ, and if you start telling your story to somebody who doesn't understand that, you can throw all the Bible at them you want to, and they can argue that down, but if you want to break it down and just tell your story what Jesus Christ has done in your life, they can't argue that, and it gives you a great platform to be able to share what Jesus means in your life, and Derek is one of those guys that, I'm gonna tell you what, him and his family mean so much to me, I can't even tell you how much he means, and Donald, his brother, both of them guys are my brothers, and Derek, it's good to have you this morning.

Thank you, thank you. And first thing I want to do is just talk a little bit about what is your occupation, what do you do for a living? What I do for a living is I work with Honor Bridge, and my office is located at Baptist Medical Center, but I do happen to work in all the local hospitals as well, to where I enter into those spaces and work with the care team members, which is the nurses, the doctors, when there's any kind of trauma or tragic situations that happens, and somebody's losing their life, people are losing their loved one, and somebody who is grieving and working with those situations. We're also, most of the time, some of the people end up being organ donors, or some of them being able to help others with a gift of life, and things like that. So that work with Honor Bridge makes a world of difference, and how we just help to minister to these people who are grieving and having such difficult challenges. Yeah, and some of the stories, and I know that Gabriel shared those too much, but it's just, you know, it's just humbling whenever someone's in that situation and stuff, and it gets where in the mornings when I get up and turn the radio on, I'm hearing about a shooting, and someone was killed, or somebody, a terrific automobile accident where someone was killed, and a lot of those come across, I mean, they cross your path.

Yes, yes, definitely. Most of those people are the people that we end up working with, because they are such a tragic situation that happens suddenly, people lose their lives suddenly, and sometimes they are still, to where the organ function is still well, to where they end up becoming organ donors as well in the process. So just working with all those tragic situations becomes very stressful for many people, from care team members, which is medical staff, myself, and everybody else that we work with. Just the coordination and collaboration is huge, and that's where you just feel this presence of the Holy Spirit when you work in those situations, because people are just having such difficult times, and sometimes they have no hope, you know, so you have to show them a glimpse of hope that there's something bigger than what we see in front of us, but Christ Jesus is the solid rock, that when we stand on him and family rooted on him, we get our strength. Yeah, but what do you, and I might ask this question because I know part of the answer, but what do you do to not just prepare yourself, but keep yourself prepared to be able to, because it is hard, I mean, that has to be a difficult job knowing that most of the interaction you have is somebody who's in that type of a crisis. Yeah, most of the times just preparing for that is really just letting the Holy Spirit use me and not be the person who wants to go and educate and teach, but a person who goes and listens.

The listening is the number one thing. You don't listen to say, but you listen to hear, and then you respond to people according to how they are feeling, and then work with them from there, but for myself, you know, I, you know, I'm very good at doing my own self-care as well. Sometimes I talk to people like Brother Jerry Mathis, and sometimes we just chat about these things, and they pray for me as well, and sometimes I just do little things at home that just keeps me out of thinking so much of work as well.

Yeah, and when you sit there, when you think about that and that career and stuff, it is, it's just so important because there's probably a lot of organizations that may try to do something like that, but what makes Derek different and that organization is the fact that, you know what, it is really about Christ is the hope. You know, it's when you're there and you have no hope. That is, we were just talking about a dear friend, and, you know, without hope, how do you face tomorrow? I mean, there's, I just, I really, I really hurt for those people who don't have that.

Yes, very true. You know, we find that these tragic situations bring so much out of us. You know, that's where the rubber meets the road, and we find out that many people who think sometimes they are in Christ, they find out that they are having challenges, that they are not, you know, finding strength in being in Christ, but that's where we tell them that when you are truly grounded in Christ and trusting in Christ and knowing that He is your foundation, then no matter what comes your way, you'll never be moved.

You will be like a tree planted by the riverside where you can get all your strength from, and you'll never faint, and you'll run and never faint as well. Yeah, and this morning also, if anybody has a question for Derek, and when we get into more of the, his mission and stuff and the work being done in the village, you know, if you have a question, just give us a call, and the number is 866. I better make sure I get the right number.

866-348-7884. Again, give us a call if you have a question for Derek, and then, Derek, give a little bit about where'd you grow up and stuff. Where are you from? As you listen to Derek talk, you know it's not south side Winston.

It wasn't for my neck of the woods. That's right. I'm actually from the deep, deep south, so I'm from Zimbabwe. All right, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that when we come back from break, and again, you're listening to Kingdom Pursuits. I'm Jerry Mathis with my guest in the studio, Derek, Masha Monday.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to the Christian car guy. Wowee, I'm here.

I'm backwards here. Wow, welcome back to Kingdom Pursuit. Hopefully, we're not back on Christian car guy.

Gotta miss that one. With me this morning is Derek Masha Monday, a good friend, and he's gonna talk a little bit about his mission, but I got Andrew on the line. We'll go ahead and take that call. Good morning, Andrew. What can we do for you? Oh, Jerry, how are you, man? I'm good.

How are you? Oh, good. Oh, I was going to tell you that I have never heard you before, so I was going to tell you that I was looking for Robbie this morning. Well, you can catch him next week.

He'll be back for sure. Oh, okay. Well, do you know anybody, Tammy? Tammy, his wife? Yes. Yeah. Okay, can you get Tammy on the air for me, because I need to talk to her, because I haven't got a hold of Tammy in a month.

I don't know. Well, Tammy is also traveling with Robbie, and they are out of the state this weekend, so if you just call back next week, he will be back in here and be able to help you out. Yeah, but I do have a little thing to say on the air, like the weather. I can tell you the weather. Okay, give us a quick weather forecast, and then we're going to get back to Derek. How about that? Okay, all right, so here we go.

All right. Mostly sunny with the highs in the mid to upper 80s, southwest winds of 10 miles an hour. Tonight, mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and thunderstorms, lows in the mid to upper 40s, and the southwest winds of 10 miles an hour. Sunday, mostly cloudy with a high of the mid to upper 80s. Sunday night, mostly clear, low in the mid 50s. And Monday, look for mostly sunny skies, then the change from warmer weather up to a high pressure is up the North Carolina coast, all the way from Cincinnati, Ohio into the North Carolina coast. So we are very, very happy to have the weather forecast.

Mostly collages Monday and Tuesday night with a chance of showers and thunderstorms, low in the mid to upper 50s, and highs in the mid to upper 70s. All right, well, Andrew, thank you for that, and I think you got a career in as a meteorologist. And back to Derek, okay, you were just telling us where he said from the deep south, where in the world are we talking about? Yeah, we are talking of Zimbabwe. Of course, you know, many times I tell people that, you know, when I'm here, I also have my brother, Jerry Mathers, and people say, but there's a different last name, and I say, yeah, that's my brother. And so when they see him, then they say, oh, we thought, you know, you were talking of your brother from Zimbabwe. I say, yeah, that's my brother too. So that's how much we are that close with brother Jerry and brother Dale and others in their family. But again, they are really have adopted us as part of the family here as well.

But we are from Zimbabwe, Africa, the southern part of Africa as well. Yep, and when you moved here, well, really what introduced you to Christ? Because I love his story, and I tell you what, if you ever get the opportunity to just hear Derek for a couple hours, just to talk about his life story and being introduced to Christ, and just a snapshot of what that's about, because it is really cool. God's got a pretty cool story with you and your family. Yes, it's amazing that God can be able to pick anyone from any way, you know. He's a God of wonders. He's a God who can make the donkey talk, you know, if he can do that, he can. Oh, did you mean that to me? Yeah, he is an amazing God.

He can, you know, if he can do that, yeah, he can sure do that with me, brother Jerry, and anyone else. So, picking me out of Zimbabwe through a missionary who was sent by part of the Pinedale Christian Church, Church of Christ here in Winston-Salem in the 50s to Zimbabwe, and was able to work with my parents who became Christians. As they became Christians, then we were born to them, and as a result of that, we always, you know, kids will become Christians as well, and that's the reason I'm here today.

It's just miracles after miracles when I reflect on my life, on things that have happened along the way. Yeah, when we talk about that, we talk about that that village, the Mashabunde village, is predominantly Christian and stuff, but me saying that, I also know that surrounding that village and the push in the in that country, and also in a lot of other African countries, is a big movement for the Muslim. It's sort of stepping in there and stuff, and that's why it's just so important as a Christian to make sure we keep our, you know, that influence in there, because that's, you know, it's life or death, basically.

Yes, eternity we're talking. Very true, very true. So we are really grateful even for any persons who do make contributions and help us with small things that we take to the village to assist the kids who don't have pencils or sharpeners or who don't have a book or any little things that they can use for education, things that will show them the love of Christ Jesus, because we also have a look east in the Africa, in African countries, where many of the African countries are looking east, and looking east means having all the Muslims coming down, and they are also coming down in the name of aid and helping out, and as a result of that, they are beginning to influence people in another direction. So we really have to keep solid on Christian values and Christian principles so that all these people that we work with in all these villages, when they are approached, they are never moved from what they believe and from the Christian doctrine that we teach them. Yeah, and why, because I'm going to come back to this a couple of times before we get, if there's any, if God is stirring your heart after hearing Derek talk and stuff, just ask you to go to the website, and I'll make sure I'm right, it's mcdfministry.org, is that correct?

Yes, that's correct. You should be able to go on there and you'll see kind of a, you know, the story and the background and the history and also opportunities to be able to donate and to give and to be able to, you know, help build the kingdom of God over there, and, you know, these are our brothers and sisters. I mean, that's our family over there, and we got that common thread of Jesus Christ. Also, if you go to that website, you'll see some of the awesome stuff that's going on over there.

I mean, with the sporting events, the school stuff, digging for the whales, you know, getting water out of the ground, because that's a big issue over there. Yes, very, very true. Brother Jerry said it very, very powerfully, because those things are things that make the world of difference. You can only be practical with the Gospel. When you can be practical with the Gospel, many people can then say, oh, we love that Jesus that you talk about.

He's a practical Jesus, so that you just don't tell people, go and be well, but we care enough to make sure that we meet your physical needs. As a result, it converts and translates into the spiritual as well, which is what we want for the people that someday when we get to heaven, you know, we can all rejoice together and say this is the journey we have been on, and we all have been redeemed by the blood of Christ Jesus. Yeah, and we sit there and you think, you know, what some of the things that we take for granted here in the United States. I mean, when I go to Jamaica and stuff, one of the things I just noticed is just stuff that I don't even consider to be important makes a huge impact there. And the same thing, if it's Zimbabwe and in the village and stuff, I love looking at when Derek will come back from a trip, and I think I'm going to ask you about, in a moment, you can tell me, I think you all are planning a trip in the next, this calendar year, and I know haven't been able to because the pandemic and stuff, so looking forward to that, but also you see those pictures and the videos and stuff where, you know, just the joy it brings for a child to be able to get his own pencil and a pencil with an eraser on it, and our kids take that for granted. We all take that for granted, but it makes a big difference. It makes an impact.

Very true. You know, to me, as I grew up, everything that happened became miracles, you know. When I was able to get a third of a piece of pencil, when my mom would get a pencil, she would break it into three pieces for me and my brothers so that we would share that pencil. So that became a miracle, you know. When we were able to say, today we are eating a full meal, it was a miracle. When we say today we are going to have something to put on, it was a miracle. So it wasn't anything we took for granted. When we pray, we pray for things we never hope to see, but when we know that Jesus provides and then it becomes real to us, somebody provides a pencil to a kid who never dreamt of having a full pencil on their own, but you send a pencil to these young little boys and girls, then they are going to say it's a miracle. So miracles are everywhere, depending on how you look at miracles. Yeah, you know, and you think just a pencil, but then also say when they do a sporting event, and I don't know how many, tell me a little bit and the numbers. I mean, whenever y'all will do an event at a school, I mean, I've seen the pictures and it looks, as far as you can see, these kids are just coming to be able to, for one thing, to get that and to see that people are loving on them, but more importantly, they're also seeing that it's working through Jesus Christ.

Yes, we can have lots of kids come together, at least 5,000 kids at a time that come together just to play soccer, and then we minister to their hearts and be able to talk about Christ Jesus, the love of Christ Jesus, and how you, American friends, have shared to send soccer balls, send some money that we can be able to provide for them to see the power of Jesus and the love of Christ Jesus. We'll be right back with Derek and you're listening to Kingdom Pursuits. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits.

I'm Jerry Madden with Derek Muster Monday in studio with me. We're talking a little bit about what's the mission in Zimbabwe and, you know, how, you know, the, how important it is, and it's not just there. I mean, anytime we get the opportunity to be able to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to make sure we take advantages of that, and God has certainly put Derek in a unique place. I mean, when you sit there and you look at his story and stuff where it all started with Dr. Pruitt coming into the village and stuff, and then, you know, it was not, Christianity was not, I don't even know if there was even a hint of Christianity at that time, but he came in and it goes back to what we're talking about with Kingdom Pursuit.

What it's about is just, just having our passion. Well, he had a passion to bring people to Christ and when he first stepped foot in that village, that village was his focal point to bring Christ to that village and just look, you know, I don't know if he could have ever imagined the impact of what he was doing would have, you know, years later and stuff because it's a huge impact and really not just in that village, but as I sit there and you see, I think other villages are seeing that and what do they have and why, you know, it's because of Jesus Christ working through that opens doors and opportunities and stuff and as you mentioned, you know, we talked about how many would show up for a school outing. I think also y'all usually at least once a year, well, you have not been able to be, how long has it been since you've been able to make a trip because of the pandemic and then there right before that was sort of the unrest was going on there, political unrest, so it's been a little bit of a gap in time. Yes, yes, it has been over two years that we haven't been able to go, but before then we used to go every year, so this July we are planning another trip to the village and to go and do ministry work there. As brother Jerry alluded to or explained very well, we go and meet with lots of young people in the village that desire to know about Christ and continue to be pumped up about Christ Jesus and the goodness of Christ, so they continue to see all these miracles when we get there with pens and pencils and all the other donations that we carry with us and the gifts that if people contribute towards drilling a water well for us, then we are able to put a water well for them and in some areas that ladies who used to walk five miles, maybe they are walking two miles now and so on, so that makes a world of difference with anything that anybody contributes to what they work. Yeah and you don't think about that, I mean just the water for drinking and that type of stuff, but also that sort of is a game changer as far as growing goes. I mean tell a little bit about that, I mean I see in some of those pictures of those gardens and stuff and that were just dry fields now are green and producing fruit.

Yes, yes, water is life, you know without water we can't do much, so with water we can do a lot. That's why we really emphasize and focus on drilling wells in the villages and the remote parts of Zimbabwe where my village is and many people they walk miles to a source of clean water, otherwise many kids and have a lot of parasites in their stomachs because they drink dirty water from the same places the cows and the wild animals drink from muddy water and as a result many of them get sick and die, but when we drill clean water we can be able to create gardens that many people can have a piece of land for each home so that they can be able to grow vegetables and carrots and tomatoes things that can keep them their bodies nourished as a result of these gardens. Yeah and talk about you know it's not like it is here in the United States if you're on a well drilled you're calling the guys down a few miles away comes in this truck and has all this nice fancy equipment and drills your well and in a day you're done it's a whole different process for in Zimbabwe.

Yes, in Zimbabwe it's a whole different process just being able to drill a well we have to have at least seven thousand dollars to do that U.S. dollars to do that and we have to source this drilling rig from the capital city of Zimbabwe which is about 400 miles away so just to hire him to come down to our village the remote parts of the country they are not that eager to come out there because if their rig breaks down when it's way out in the remote part of the country it's hard to bring it out of those places so it becomes very expensive even just to bring that to the village as well so each time we go we try to we try to drill more than one well so that it's worth bringing the rig to the village and sometimes we may not even catch the water also on that one drill so so we just pray for for for water when when we do drill the area. Yeah and like I said it's expensive I mean it's not cheap it's like everything in the village is just so much more than what you would think of it being here in the United States but man it's uh it's needed there and stuff and and then you go back to usually y'all will do a a soccer footballer I'll say I'm talking U.S. soccer but it's football uh tournament and stuff and seeing some of those pictures of those those kids and stuff who are able to participate in that is again it's just awesome. Yes yes yes we those sports are key to young people when we bring the young people together and uh soccer can bring all kinds of people together and and it brings people from different villages who may have different views different feelings who may not have known Christ Jesus but when we bring them to our village to say we are coming to play soccer or you are coming to play soccer with us but we are going to pray before we play soccer then this brings and introduces Christ to everybody so we continue to focus on how the better ways of bringing Christ the good news of Christ Jesus to every child in every village so we take opportunities and advantages of having soccer balls and having soccer tournaments which is football for us like brother Jerry says. Yeah and you know the thing about the beauty of that is all of a sudden those kids from your village who know Christ and have accepted Christ all of a sudden become missionaries to those villagers that are surrounding that come in for a tournament because they're also excited about what's going on and they're excited about what Jesus is doing and stuff so they're sharing that. Yes many many many villages now are catching on fire because they see the excitement that the kids from our village brings to the tournaments and and to all these events and now they say what is it that we also are missing we are missing something here and at the end of the day they find out that it's Christ Jesus that they are missing once you have them you also will be on that solid rock in which these young people are their foundation is on and built on and the excitement just candles and lights everybody to where everybody just glows with the joy and the peace of knowing Jesus Christ even just the relationships that builds up in these villages that may be different some dark villages that didn't know Christ now coming to know Christ just changes their lives. Yeah and you're able to see some of those pictures you talk about just lights up and I tell you what I am it just puts a smile on my face just thinking about it I'll just think about some of the pictures and stuff that'll see the kids and stuff when they're getting getting ribbons and and and and especially if they are they get a jersey or something I mean man it's just little things that just the smile they have on their faces is just absolutely awesome. Yes it's it's amazing though to many you know people like Miss Myra you know methods who does that so much in our Sunday school class who collects everything that we need the small things bandages things that just don't seem like the matter here but they matter so much there when you see these kids who just need a little bandage for the wound that they have and and many others who do that in the community we thank you and we appreciate all the support we would like to continue to appeal for more support. Yep and when we come back we're going to talk just a moment again about the website and how you can do that and again man it is just an awesome morning this morning listening to Kingdom Pursuits we'll be back in a moment. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com Kingdom Pursuits I'm Jerry Mathis with my brother in Christ Derek and we talked a little bit about the Mushroom Monday Village and also about the about the website to be able to go on I want to make sure we hit that again before we get off before we wrap up the show but it is like I said there's so much need there and as we've kind of mentioned if you've caught the conversation you know that you know it just takes a lot of money to do that and it's doing some awesome work and it's not just in that village it's also the villages and the village people that surround that village they're able to see Christ and stuff and it's sort of all years ago where Dr. Pruitt went in and had a vision to bring Christ to that area of the world and it's definitely producing fruit now and the little kids are even doing that even through soccer and stuff they're able to say share Jesus Christ with others and so if you're letting in and just kind of kind of brings your interests up to want to know more about it and stuff Derek and how would you do that and again if you go to the the website it has a I mean it has a lot of photos and stories and you're able to see what God is doing and also an opportunity to be able to give and I know there's some areas I know through our church and with Myra she does a lot of collecting stuff and everything even the little things you don't even think about you mentioned band-aids or aspirin or you know I know for a couple times we really did a push for sunglasses and sunscreen yes how can we do that and what would be the biggest need right now I know always going to be money for sure yeah definitely you know some of the biggest needs that we have right now is water water water because again once you bring water to people it really brings life to many of the things that look dead it brings life to the dead so you know it's it's really like when Jesus himself you know just brought Lazarus from the dead you know he everybody thought everything was over but when he came into the presence you know he was able to resurrect that situation this is exactly what you would do you know it may seem like it's nothing much that you are doing the contributions but when we get to heaven when the little boys and little girls comes to you Matthew 25 41 and following you know you know I saw you sir you are the one who made me to become a christian you how did I do that you are from Africa or from Zimbabwe how did I ever do that yeah but you know when you send that money to to drill the well now we drink the water we always thank God for your contribution toward the well we thank God for the pencil I wouldn't have gone to school when I got that pencils I then trusted that God really exists and God truly is there because I was praying for a miracle that I'll just get a pencil so these are the things that we need the most soccer balls we need pencils pens we need uh of course you know uh money to drill wells as well so these are very important to us yep and again what was that website uh oh wow I just now gave my paper away it's uh uh hold on a second well I'll come back to that in just a moment and stuff but you know it just makes a huge difference and stuff and and it's you know always will say and I say this continually and Derek's heard me say it probably a million times you know I always want you to make sure you give to your local church but you know what do a little sacrifice every now and then if it may be saying okay this week I may not eat out for the next year one of my meals during the week and I'm gonna take that money and I'm gonna give it to somewhere that's really making an impact for Christ and I just encourage you to do that I just encourage you to do that it may be that you know I know when Taylor was younger my daughter it'd be like some of the things like a ice cream or something every now and then she wouldn't have it she'd save money to be able to to give for something special because it's important it'll support your local church and especially if it's a church that has got to focus on missions I will tell you when I'm looking at churches I'm always just blessed when I say the church has a focus on missions because I know that it's you know that they're reaching out and they're trying to to bring Christ to the to the world out there so if you'd like to get more information on the Mashaman day village on Derek on the ministry there on his I mean brothers and stuff that are are part of the the team and stuff it's all right there it's uh I'll give you the website now it is mcdfministry.org mcdfministry.org and you can find there's a donate button and you think you know what if I can only give five dollars it really isn't worth anything but if a lot of people gave five dollars that every little dollar makes a difference so don't think that and Derek will agree with me here it doesn't necessarily have to be you know you have to feel like I got to do something I got to dig the well but you may be able to give a little bit that's going to help you and your brothers and sisters are going to help dig the well yes yes whatever contribution like brother Jerry uh said you know you give makes a tremendous difference because you are making uh you know you are contributing towards the kingdom building so whatever portion you are able to give you know many of you have done great things uh like we talked about Miss Myra uh we talk about Kathy Joyce someone from you know Tobacoville who is working on trying to raise money for the wells now uh any of the people who would like to jump in and help us to do that would be a tremendous blessing and when we get to heaven that's where we will really see the real blessing as well absolutely and again I'm gonna give you the website again it's mcdfministry.org Derek man it has been a blessing having you here this morning I hope that something said this morning will get you to step out of your comfort zone and just become realize that you are a minister every one of us have a ministry in front of us if we'll just go ahead and accept God's calling all right thank you for listening to Kingdom Pursuits Robbie will be back next week and hope he has a safe trip back to North Carolina God bless you this is the Truth Network