This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Insurance may all seem the same on the surface, but having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. As the leading auto and homeowners insurer in the US, State Farm is there, how and where you need them, whether it's in person with a local State Farm agent, on the phone, online, or through their mobile app. Don't take a chance with insurance coverage that may not meet your needs.
And don't settle for insurance that may only be halfway there. Stop living on a prayer and get State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Time for a sofa upgrade? Introducing Anibay sofas, where designer style meets budget-friendly prices.
Anibay brings you the ultimate in furniture innovation with a modular design that allows you to rearrange your space effortlessly. Perfect for both small and large spaces, Anibay is the only machine-washable sofa inside and out. Say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy. Liquids simply slide right off. Designed for custom comfort, our high-resilience foam lets you choose between a sink-in feel or a supportive memory foam blend.
Plus, our pet-friendly, stain-resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years. Don't compromise quality for price. Visit washable sofas.com to upgrade your living space today.
Sofas start at just $699 with no risk returns and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Get up to 60% off, plus free shipping and free returns. Shop now at washable sofas.com. Offers are subject to change. Certain restrictions may apply.
Hello, Malcolm Glaudwell here. We're here in New York City with T-Mobile for Business, recording another episode of Revisionist History about how 5G network slicing strengthens trust and connections across worldwide industries. Slicing can be used for so many different things. We're here with our friends from CNN, from Siemens Energy. The ways that it can be used, frankly, are limitless and are really, really built to think through how T-Mobile can understand the pain points that our customers have, smash those pain points, and help you deliver very specific outcomes.
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high-free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the SP 500.
Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com/slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com/slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing.
Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory Services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures.
Available at public.com/slash disclosures. Uh Uh This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories to show where America is the star and the American people. And you can check out our podcast by subscribing on the iHeartRadio app. or wherever you get your podcasts. Up next, a story from our Faith in Action series.
where we share with you the stories of people of faith. Living it out in the public square. Today's story comes to us from the little town of Knoll, Missouri. where there is a church that has an unexpected amount of immigrants attending. Here's Pastor Josh Manning and his wife Lauren.
with a story. My name is Josh Manning. And Lauren, you wanna... Dive in.
Okay, so yeah, Josh and I have been married nearly 20 years.
So we're coming along. I did 20 years at Walmart. I was an assistant manager, and so you worked crazy hours. I mean, you know. fifteen days in a row at times.
I I remember doing that. Um you know, twelve hour shifts, a lot of those kind of things. He was at Walmart constantly. We lived an hour away from the Walmart in which he worked. And so for a lot of years there, we were, you know, that's all we were doing.
I was bringing home a paycheck, and Lauren was at home. and was never quite fulfilled. I just never had this. feeling that we were doing what God had called us to do, He always said, God has something for us. God's going to do something with us.
And I thought, what does that mean? We have little kids. We had twins, and two years later, I had another baby.
So we had three kids under three. I was 28. Trying to homeschool three kids as they grew, and Josh not being around, and trying to be in church and do the right things. It was a difficult season. We decided through Well, God decided that it was time for us to Do something and follow the Great Commission.
And so at the time, our pastor was, I would consider, a great commission preacher. He was about sending, he was about missions, and I had never really. Truly heard a pastor that was so clear and direct. I don't know, it clicked with us. I think it clicked around the same time, wouldn't you agree, Josh?
Absolutely. It was like, whoa, we were watching him, his preaching. We were watching a young family from our church sell everything they owned and moved to Peru in the jungles. And they'd set up little churches down the Amazon River, and he'd ride this little boat. Down the Amazon River and disciple the pastors there.
And this was a family R age. It just just Blew us away, and when we had gotten to that church, that family had just left, so we didn't even see them and uh. didn't know them, but knew their story 'cause the whole church was talking about it. And that was hugely impactful. The other thing was, Lauren made me go to see David Platt speak.
and I I didn't know anything about this guy. But he was talking about the concept of just going. That is the concept of the gospel. Is you hear the truth and then you go and tell the truth. I mean, that's the basic premise.
And so, It impacted us greatly. And so, those two, and then our faithful teaching of a very good pastor. Those three just really just pushed us in that position. And we didn't know where we were going to go. But we knew that we were going to share the gospel, whatever means that we had, we were going to do so.
As boldly and loudly as what we could possibly do. And we found out there was a church in Knoll, Missouri. That the pastor had left, thrown up his hands in disgust and ran screaming, as many other pastors had there, to be blunt. What the main industry is in the entire county and in that town. is the poultry industry.
And so what happened was, is of course you have these these farmers, small-time farmers that can have chicken houses. But to have workers in a very rural county to be able to work work the plants, that just there isn't any. And so probably about twenty five years ago, 30 years ago in that ballpark. Hispanic population started to move in. And then relatively more recent times, we've started to get refugees from all over the world.
Knoll has an extremely diverse population. There's thirty nations of birth in a town of two thousand people. There's 10 languages that, in my estimation, are large enough to have a church functioning. And so you have a large number of these refugee populations with limited English skills. And so it's a very challenging place to present the gospel.
But in some ways, it's served up for you in a silver platter because you know where to go to catch these people. You know what I'm saying? Boop boop boop.
So I became pastor of a church that had two primary languages, English-speaking, of course, and Ska, Korean. They come from Myanmar, was also called Burma. You may have heard that. They've ha been in civil war for it's like the longest running civil war since World War II. Yeah, they've been in civil war.
When when when we found out they were from Burma, we referred to them at the as the Burmese people. And that is not something you should do because the Burmese government attacks these little Josh can be a different tribes, yeah. Yeah, I come in and attack them.
So, their own country will fight against them.
So, they are very proud to be Karin. and they have a Buddhist background. They have a Christian heritage.
So there's kind of a hodgepodge of religions within the Korean people. Um but they come to our church Groups of them come faithfully and we get to preach the gospel and share Jesus with them. And so not all of the adults necessarily know English in our church, so we We have a translator and he's Not necessarily a Christian, he's I'm not necessarily Buddhist either. He's kind of a mix of different religions. But we use the kids and And as translators for the parents, so we can get to know the parents through the kids.
And God's blessed this beyond our wildest dreams.
Now it's four years later. There are five independent services operating in our building. We have service. You know, all day long from 10 in the morning till nine at night, frequently on Sunday, in five separate languages and attempting to start services in other languages as well. And we still have no idea what we're doing, but God continues to bless it despite our Our idiocy.
And you've been listening to Josh and Lauren Manning heeding the call. and following their heart and following their God. and doing essentially a turnaround. When we come back, more of this remarkable story here. on our American stories.
Lee Habib here, and I'm inviting you to help Our American Stories celebrate this country's 250th birthday coming soon. If you want to help inspire countless others to love America like we do and want to help us bring the inspiring and important stories told here about a good and beautiful country, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to ouramericanstories.com and click the donate button. Any amount helps. Go to ouramericanstories.com and give.
And we return to Our American Stories in Pastor Josh Manning. And his wife Lauren's story of operating a church in the small town of Noel Azora. where many immigrants call home and call his church home. In fact, Josh has five different services in five different languages at his church using interpreters to spread the gospel in the process. But why do these immigrants, especially the Karin people from Myanmar, start attending Knoll Community Baptist Church.
Let's continue with the story.
So, we don't have a whole lot of prior information, but one little segment we do know is that a gentleman that we just love and such a gracious man named Mike Brown, he saw the refugees coming into the town. He saw the changing demographics. He saw the potential and he saw You know what? The nations are coming to us. Let's reach out to the nations.
Let's not sit here in fear and. get to know them and so he went to I think he just randomly went to the Corinne housing if I understand right they were all sleeping on the ground they had no furniture so Mike talked to the people at the church at that time and so let's buy mattresses For every Corinne family. And so the church did. And. They Made a relationship with him and they started going fishing together, they started hanging out.
And little by little, they started populating the church. And then before long a translator was needed because the sermon became bilingual. And so. Our translator Yeimanu stepped up and became the translator. He's also the liaison at Tyson for the Karen people.
So he translates for a living. He's Excellent, excellent at it. And Maineso, the father of my translator Yeh Minu, this guy is just the American dream on steroids.
So Maine So gets captured by the Burmese army. uh him and sev or six other men, seven men total. and he was given the job of walking in front of the army to set off landmines. And so he's captured. Yeemenu is just a baby, if I understand right, at that point.
So he's away from home. He's a long ways away. After about a year there's only him and one other guy left. They were in a tiger pit at night and they overheard that they were going to get executed the next morning, so. My naso gets out of the tiger pit, runs through the jungle, Comes back to the family, they're reunited.
And they are out of there.
So it takes quite a bit of time through very, very rugged terrain. till they arrive in a refugee camp in Thailand. Once they're there You basically have a 500-acre area, or however large it is, kind of fenced off. Amen. On your third offense leaving this area, you were shot on sight.
It was illegal to learn the local language. You had limited opportunity. limited educational opportunities, limited everything. You were just there gathering dust in a handmade hut. At any rate, over time they get to the opportunity to come to the United States and they do so.
So this guy came to the United States in Old Missouri, Midwest. Relatively poor place itself. You got really just one main road going through town. Half the businesses are shuttered. We're we're losing our bank.
Uh we just had to go pick up the safe deposit box from the uh for the church. Yeah, 'cause the bank is even leaving town. And What he has done in this family is extraordinary. His kids are going to college. They have aspirations of being doctors and lawyers and all those kinds of things, and they are smart enough they're going to accomplish it.
He purchased a house. He's going to pay it off in three years after purchase. Put significant bulk down in cash because he saved up enough money to do it.
Now they have trucks and cars and they become U.S. citizens. And they do all these kind of things that you wouldn't hope in your wildest dreams that someone would do coming to the United States. It's just a condition where. The gospel is in action, and every Sunday he's going to bring his family to church.
Now he's a guy that's probably my age or older. Learning the English language is going to be a challenge. And so there's five in which it's preached in every Sunday. Yeah, Spanish, English, Chuk. Marshall Islands, and Corinne.
But there are going to be just like in my service, you're going to have a a one person who speaks a different dialect of Korean that's not preached in. I think Nine Nations of Birth is my record. for our service and we're talking like sixty people. And it's a challenge. Just because even if you you can communicate Even through a child to an adult and back and forth, you miss enough nuances that some of this stuff ends up being.
Confusion. I don't know. You have very different views on how time works. And so my job is kind of like be the central hub and make sure there's not like two services trying to do the same different things in the same spot at the same time. Being flexible.
Yeah, you just have to be insanely flexible. and very comfortable with not knowing what you're doing next week. These Cultures, honestly, I swear they decide five minutes before they're doing it and they organize a hundred people meet in the church building. And you don't know what to expect. I was thinking of Gospel Day.
Yeah.
So we had just been introduced to the Marshall Islands folks.
So we didn't know this group very well, and they'd been there a few weeks. And it was late evening, six, seven, eight, nine. Anyway, we look out. And I think Claire, our daughter, was the first to say, Mom. There is a six foot boat.
Sailboat? Yeah.
I don't know. There's a sailing ship. That is a sailing ship replica. Um being pushed into the gym. We're talking like Christopher Columbus would have written that kind of wooden sailing boat.
Yes, a replica. And they got it inside the gym and they pushed it in. And we were looking at Facebook Live. It's like, what have we allowed? And we're looking at members of the church, and they're all like dancing around this wooden boat.
And we're like, what is happening? And this is like 10, 11 at night. It was late. It is early. It was late.
And the neighbors, I think, oh my goodness, these neighbors are going to shoot us. What is happening? The music is so loud. Didn't know what intarination was happening. Turns out it's called Gospel Day.
and what they do is they celebrate when the missionaries first came to their island, And how they do that is they bring a a replica of the wooden sailing ship that came to their island. They fill it full of Food and toiletries and stuff like that for the needy in their community to pass out. And they dance and sing, and it's the most beautiful, gospel-centric, wonderful thing ever. But what it looks like is if you're the pastor of the church and the parsonage, is you got 100 plus people dancing around the gym playing music really, really loud. at you know up till midnight you know and on a school night you know you know what means you got school the next morning and so that that's that's the type of of life where you have to be very very very very very flexible Very.
One more very. Uh Biggest The thing I've learned is I'm never going back to Yeah. how I worshipped God before. I'm not. Being a follower of Christ means that it permeates every aspect of how you live your life, as you prepare for the next.
The only reason that At the moment of salvation, you're not whisked away to heaven at that moment. is because we have a job to do, and that's to teach others about Christ. we should be busying about with that responsibility. And this dynamic of what we have just here in our backyard. is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done in my life.
just the absolute honor. To be able to preach Christ in this environment is something I've never had before. And I'm not going back to worshiping God where I sit on a pew. At this time on Sunday, And then at the minute that this clock strikes noon, I'm out of there going to the restaurant and I've done my duty for the week. That's not going to be the way we're going to live our life.
It doesn't mean that I'll be. pastor of this church to the day I die, I may very well be that. But whatever we do, we're going to follow Christ in every aspect that we can do. And a great job by Monty Montgomery on the production. By the way, I love the line that Josh said: the nations are coming to us.
Let's not live in fear. Let's get to know and serve these people. Our faith in action story, so many great stories in this great country of people of all faiths. serving their God. Here on Our American Stories.
Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? Wash away your worries with Anibay. Anibay is the only designer sofa that's machine washable inside and out, starting at just $699. Plus, Anibay sofas are pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and feature changeable slip covers and modular pieces. Get up to 60% off site-wide with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Visit washable sofas.com to get yours now. That's washablesofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. At CVS, it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night.
And we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and yeah, healthy snack. At CVS, we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters.
So visit us at cvs.com or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location. Yeah.
Wasn't that delicious?
So good. Your bill, ladies. I got it. No, I got it. Seriously, I insist.
I insist first. Don't be silly. You know, don't be silly. People with the Wells-Fargo Active Cash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases.
Okay. Rock, paper, scissors for it. Rock, paper, scissors. Shoot! No!
The Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card. Visit wellsfargo.com/slash active cash. Terms apply. With Vali from iShares, you get access to both monthly income and growth potential in one simple ETF. It's the best of both worlds.
Discover Bali, iShares Large Cap Premium Income Active ETF. iShares, the market is yours. Visit www.ishares.com to view perspectives for investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information that you should read and consider carefully before investing. Risks include principal loss and the use of derivatives, which could increase risks and volatility. Monthly income is not guaranteed.
Prepared by BlackRock Investments LLC. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Mm-hmm.
