This is the Truth Network. Coming to you from an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours, a time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast.
So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. We are talking about, we're back in our foundation series, and we're talking about in the beginning. In our last show, we just talked about the beginning of the ministry and how it got started.
And so we go to our first boot camp. If you're picking up, if you're not, go listen to the old show. I'm not going to recant anything or re-recover, whatever it is. You know, last week you missed this, whatever, the recap. That's what I was trying to think of.
We go to our first boot camp, and we have no clue what we're doing. You know, we've been to a couple boot camps, and we have the little, the, the, the guide on how to run a boot camp. Yeah. Right. And so we kind of know what to do.
Boot camps for dummies. Yeah, it kind of was. It really kind of was. And I did like I did in school. I kind of perused it.
I didn't really read it. You know, it's kind of like the Cliff Notes. Yeah, the Cliff Notes version of, you know, when it's a Cliff Notes version of the book for dummies, you're not getting a whole lot out of it. Right. But we go to our first boot camp and God's grace was there.
And he covered us for the first several boot camps until we kind of figured out a little bit more what we were doing. For sure. I mean, I remember how brutal that was. First of all, we did it in two nights, not three. Right.
We did all 17 talks. Yeah, between the three of us. Yeah. Yeah. And no, Jim did a talk to you.
Oh, yeah, that's right. He did. There were four of us, but that's. Yeah, it was brutal and um It was very Very brutal, but... God rescued us very quickly.
Um gave us some wonderful feedback from that. Most of it didn't sound like please don't ever do that again. No, but we had several guys from that camp that you know, came and said, Hey, can can we start kind of walking together and, you know, uh that sort of thing. And and that was a huge step because in In some ways, it was a little bit of validation that, okay, maybe we did hear God correctly. And, you know, Robby, right before we came on, said that boot camp was in March, that advanced boot camp was in March of 2009, and we did.
Our boot camp in November of 2009, which should have told you, idiots. How fast I move. I mean, let's just go there.
So that should have been. You know, because they came to me, you know, to get my part into the story, right? In the spring of 2009, I met in what used to be the conference room here. was to And he was like, these guys want to advertise this. you know, adventure that they're gonna put on and you know Bootcamp was a strange word to me.
Like, why would you call this boot camp? I mean, like, what's up with that? And. Then they, oh, this isn't, and then they were said, if they told me once, they told me 50 times.
Now, this isn't a retreat. You know, we're not retreating from anything. This is where. This this is going to be different than anything you've ever experienced in your life. I get it, I get it.
I heard that about that. Every retreat you've been to says that, right? And they went over and they gave me these sound bites and all this stuff. And they spent $1,000 to promote it, which was a significant investment to make this happen. I'm like, man.
You know, here we go.
So, I put them on my shows, did everything I could possibly do. And to my knowledge, I guess we got one. One camper that attended based on that. I was like, man, I got to go to this thing. It was like a mercy date.
You know, I don't know what in the world they're doing, but we got to see it. And honestly, it was quite the experience that. Um When I arrived You know, my problem then is not unlike my word for the year for 2026, I wasn't wholehearted. I was supposed to come, it was Friday night, but I didn't come until Saturday after I did my shows. And this thing only went Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so it was more than half over by the time I got there.
And You know, Darren is in his boxer shorts. Oh, hi, Robby. I wasn't outside. Yeah, I wasn't on the shorts. I was in my house.
I was in the place that I was supposed to be in my boxer shorts. But anyway. Anyway, that's all. I don't remember anybody leading me into the house. All I remember is this picture off the guy.
And I'm like, okay, well, and what's this? And they're, you know, and And then I go. And again, since I was right in the middle of it, the very first talk. They had a covenant of silence. And for those who don't know what that means, they have a discussion which probably, based on what it was, might have even been a new name talk.
Um and After the talk... They're like, well, now you need to go out with these questions. And ask God. And see if you hear from God.
Well, for me, at this point in my walk with God. This was Like, really? These guys Talk to God? Like... I've been talking to God for years, but I don't really tell anybody that because They look at me like I'm nuts.
And, you know, some of them throw the Bible at me and they get really mad when I talk about that. You know, I literally pray and sometimes God answers, you know, and. He gives me suggestions on what I should do. And actually, even at that point in my life, God orchestrated every Christian Car Guy show I ever did. And so I didn't do a show without knowing what God had put on my heart to do.
And so when these guys started. Actually Like Validating what it was I thought was really top secret information, like not to be spoken of. I was indefinitely You know, intrigued. And then they showed the movie Deliverance that Defiance. Not Deliverance.
We have never showed Deliverance on a bootcamp. No, Deliverance has never been. Maybe that ties back to Darren and his underwear. Yes. Yeah, there's no correlation there.
It was quite a scar. I'll call it after ours. Anyway. There were no banjos involved. Defiance, whatever it was, it could have been deliverance from myself because I was in such a shock factory.
You've got to realize I work for Truth Broadcasting, and at this point in time, I'm pretty indoctrinated into things that are done at a camp and things that aren't done. And I was honestly. In a legalistic environment that I didn't realize I desperately needed to get out. And so, as I began to see what this was, it was such an invitation into an intimacy with God. that I'd had for some time, but I never could share it.
And so now I had brothers. That we're walking with God like I am walking with God. And then, of course, as I began to read Wild at Heart and hear these things, I have this clip about. Um from John Eldridge and Craig McConnell, which are some of the founders of what was Ransom Heart at the time, the ministries that became Wild at Heart. And how core the idea of literally walking with God is to this message, and why.
It offers its freedom. It's really at the heart of the situation is the intimacy with God. As we have counseled men and women, as we have walked with one another, we've discovered that this is the key. This is core. There's a sense in which you can teach a principle, you can share a story, you can learn a lesson, but that doesn't help you solve all of the dilemmas of your life.
If you learn to walk with God, that's the key. That's the key to life. It's certainly the key to the Christian life. And developing a conversational relationship with God is something that is available to every person wherever they are in their spiritual journey. We're designed for intimacy with God.
We're designed for the sort of give and take that you see people enjoy with him in the Bible. And the Lord said to Moses, then Moses said to the Lord, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord said to David, all those stories are simply pictures of the normal Christian life. But it's been our experience that most people actually don't enjoy that. That they don't know that they can hear the voice of God, or they don't know how to develop that sort of conversational intimacy that really is available with God. I wonder what our paradigm or the glasses we approach Scripture are.
I mean, it's huge. If we approach Scripture with an understanding that the flow, the theme, the thrust, the whole purpose of Scripture is relationship, intimacy with God. That's so different than approaching it as guidebook, truth, morality, doctrine. I mean, relationship requires and speaks of something more than just, you know, what's on the written page here. And without being dramatic, can I just underscore that is maybe the most important thing that we'll say, not just in this conversation, but maybe through the entire ministry of Ransomed Heart.
That idea that this is calling me into an intimacy with God, into relationship with Him. Yeah. You know, there was the hook. It was an invitation into an intimacy with God. to go deeper into what I'd already been experiencing But to find ways to even learn through the scriptures more of You know what Jesus meant in John 5.
You may know in John 5:39, it says, Search the scriptures. They testify to me that. That is me, that this is the experience that you would come to me. And when you look at that opportunity, that invitation. It not only obviously Was amazing to me, but in my ministries, that I'm part of.
to watch Another man. Hear from God. Mike and You can see a lot of things in your life, but when they know they heard this from and they had the experience and it came from God, it didn't come from me, it came from God. It may come through the scriptures, but often it just came like Robby, I heard this, and I watched it. change their life.
in my own brother's life. Right. That that I've seen it that and I'm talking about my My biological brother, but I can't tell you the number of brothers that you see things. That are on the like miracle scale of miracles. Um like the story of Josh, which was a heartbreak of heartbreaks as we had a camper that Herb.
to his name. He heard that he was supposed to restore his family. He heard miraculous things in a very, very, very broken situation. Um young man Unfortunately, within a year and a half of that, Uh his brother threw it up by accident cleaning a gun shot and killed him. And we went to that funeral.
That was hard. And After the funeral was over, the parents You know, what looked like a conversation that you just did not necessarily want to have. ended up being A life-changing conversation for the three of us in that. They were like You guys don't know. What our family would have been.
if Josh hadn't hadn't come to that camp. And he he he reconciled us. And You know, yeah, he only had a year and a half left, but their family, like you say, that like those families that have been touched years and years and years after. You know, we just get a taste of it at times. But it came from Not Not anything I taught, but something that God did.
Yeah. And Um if you remember A, the irony of using a guy, me, who used to teach I was cemetery trained. Yeah. The art of not hearing God, but reading Him straight, you know, from scripture in the raw form. And.
I believe that and I taught that and then I'm the guy. that hears from God and you know, six months later is helping lead a boot camp. um to help other guys start hearing from God. And and if you'll remember That night. Again, this is very comical to me.
But that night I think I threw all of y'all for a loop when I said, you know, I think we need I think we're supposed to Pray over all these guys. Oh, the night of Joshua. You're right. You're exactly right. I'd forgotten that.
And we're supposed to let them stay in here instead of a covenant of silence if they want to, and we will pray over them. Hopefully, hear from God what God has for that person. Right, and this is amazing now that you bring that detail back, and that's huge. For those who don't know, I haven't been to a boot camp, we do a new name talk where we we're actually going to send the guys out to hear their new name. And this was the first time you ever did that.
You said, let's. Let's ask guys if they want us to pray over them. And what we now know was You know, Josh. was crying. And he Didn't stay to get prayed over.
He stayed because he was embarrassed, and so he threw his hood. over his head, mhm, you know, he was wearing a hoodie like I'm wearing right this minute, actually. And he threw it over his head and almost like hid out. And I can remember all of us because, man, this dude must need prayer because he's under his head. Yeah.
And What a thing. And he even went on to explain: you know, what he was crying about was just part of what God had orchestrated all that day. Mm-hmm. Um To live that to see what God did And God used you in a massive way the next morning when He just Very you know casually said, Robby What are you using for bait or something like that? And you said.
What? Just go get my tackle box. Grab anything you want. And he lost it again because His father never let him touch his tackle. You know, that would be nothing that, but I didn't think anything about it.
Go get whatever you need. And You know, God, he referenced that in the letter that he sent after he'd heard his name. You know. It was all miraculous things. You know, God put an exclamation point on the events after that, but we don't.
I mean, I can name lots of people in my church. that heard from God for the first time, that that that that You know, my own wife and lots of other people that once they become aware that this is available. Um And Yes, it has to be, you know, yes, the scriptures are very much involved. And yes, scriptures trump what you hear. But oh my goodness, what's available?
Absolutely. I'm going to move on so the other guys can get in. Great stories, guys. Great memories there. Harold, in the steps of things of who came in, you would have been one of the next person to kind of come in and be involved with the ministry.
And you actually helped lead us to Caraway Bible Camp, which we were there for quite a few years. Not Caraway. Carolina. Carolina. I'm getting them all.
I I don't know. I can't remember. C Carolina Bible Camp.
Well I actually don't remember. When I first got started with this. But it came, uh, oddly enough, This is the masculine journey, but uh my connection started from my feminine journey. My sweetheart and I have now been married for 61 plus years. And she was listening to the Truth Radio and she was hearing Robby and Then she ran into someone that said that there was that Robby did a Thursday morning Bible study at the Brock Center there in Moxville.
Well, I was not interested. They were meeting at the time the meeting was at 7.30. I'm a night owl. I don't get up early. or I don't want to anyway.
So I I booked. I didn't I didn't want to go.
Well, she re she was really wanting to go. But she wouldn't go without me.
So I finally gave in, In my initial introduction to the group was through the Thursday morning meeting there in in Moxville.
Well, as as we were going to that, then she starts hearing about boot camp.
Well, I don't want to go to a boot camp. I don't need that. I'm good. But through her persistence and and asking me, you know, don't you really think it would be a good thing for you to go to boot camp?
So I finally consented that I would go to a boot camp. And as it turned out, I couldn't get away. and get there, so uh I got there late in the evening. Everybody was already going to bed and so forth. where the only bed left was an upper bunk.
with no ladder to get up there. No, I'm I'm five seven at best.
Okay. And I had to try to climb up and get in that bunk. And then, as it turns out, the person in the bunk below me is snoring like a freight train.
So I get up the next morning and I am not real thrilled about what's taking place. But I sat through the rest of the camp. And uh oh, when it ended and I was leaving, I had a whole different attitude about it. And I I then wanted to become more involved. and I I really can't remember.
It's been several years, but uh I wo I wouldn't change it uh for anything. Because uh I came from a very, very conservative background. And I I didn't believe that God would speak to me. Directly. It had to come out of the Bible.
You know, if I can't read it, It ain't true. And uh I see things differently now. Oh. There is a God. And he ain't me.
And there was a time that I was very judgmental. Uh if you needed to know anything, ask me and I'll tell you. Uh but uh I've grown. And I give a lot of credit to the guys that I'm in the room with now. and the fact that I have attended boot camps and I've been around well, we've we've we now meet at 9 a.m.
on Thursday morning. which is much better for me, but But I've been consistent now for s quite a few years with the Thursday morning meeting that Robby conducts. Oh, they're in Marksville.
So uh I would encourage anybody out there to to get involved. You can change If I can change, anybody can change.
Well thank you Harold. Danny, we're going to skip out of order. Andy would technically go next, but he deferred to Danny.
So, Danny, we've got a few minutes left.
Sorry to cut you kind of close, but talk about your time when you kind of came into the ministry. You have about five minutes, so you have some time to talk. Just whatever God's got on your heart, why don't you share that with us?
Well, we were part of a ministry in Asheboro and, um, I had taken a job up in Winston. And I was the director of the ministry and I knew about I'm a little slow from Dev. I knew about six to eight months before we actually decided we were leaving Asheboro? to give uh, you know, to hand the reins off to the ministry. Clearly won't you?
Because I was like the director. I had a title, you know? Yeah. And But in the course of that, we had begun to Dive back into the Wild at Heart stuff. And we were reading Fathered by God by John Eldrick at the time.
And I thought, you know what? It'd be cool if we could find a boot camp. You know, I wonder if somebody does it locally or something. you know, kinda being the guys go. And so We found these guys that did these Boot camps out in Knoxville, North Carolina and I talked to this guy named Robby Dilmore on the phone.
And he said, Well, we do things a little different. And I thought, okay, these are my kind of people. If you do things a little different, I mean. I don't even care what it is. But they said they did the talks live.
In other words, they did their talks, they didn't play the videos. And I thought, well, I like that even better. But so we signed up and we came out to it ended up being up in near Danville, Virginia because it was Yeah. And I think the target moved is several times it ended up being a summer boot camp instead of a spring boot camp. And You know, we came out and, you know, The And I had been That I had read Wild at Heart years ago, you know, several books and, you know, it was kinda like a man on an island for a while 'cause there wasn't nobody else around me doing it.
So, you know, who do you talk about it with? You know what I mean? And so Here we are and we you know, come boot camp and and, you know, get to talking and And a guy named Darren says that uh he says, Hey, I hear you living in King. We're li practically neighbors. I live about a mile from you.
And then I'm gonna be I'm building a house and it'll be a mile on the other side. I'm like I'm surrounded somehow or another. You know, but um, you know, you guys invited me to the radio station, you know, after we got back home and that kinda thing. Yeah. What really was amazing to me was that You know, I left a band of brothers at Asheboro.
And yeah, my heart's longing was for a band of brothers that that we did life together and that kind of thing. And we kind of did most of that in in Asheboro. you know, I mean, I still got dear friends down there at And, you know, Jim Biddy and I have, you know, we've we've been hanging out for quite some time. But the It was literally like God picked me up out of Ashbury. brought me to King And plug me into you guys.
It was literally like just moving a lamp in the house. Unplug the lamp over here and plug it in over there. And The ministry has done so much for my heart because diving into this message. And, you know, there were things that that Needed to be undone. And you know, we talk about shrek around here a lot.
You know, there were plenty of layers on the onion. and there's still plenty left. But, you know, I have found so much freedom And so much, you know, lost a lot of my legalistic self it. I would have told you I didn't have, but I did. and you know, lots of different things and, you know, just, you know, doing life with you guys is awesome.
I mean, you know, the last year has been really tough. Yeah, it's been tough not having you here, Danny, and Um, we miss you greatly, man. We can't wait till you're able to come back to studio with us.
Well, we made good steps today, so we're we're beginning to eat again, so I'm coming, so get ready. Yeah, you got you getting onto some solid food, man. It won't be long you'll be here.
Well, Andy, I know you don't have much time, but sorry we didn't get the part of your story. But you came to a lot of boot camps, and then go ahead and pick up from there and we'll try to see what we can get.
Well, how I found out about boot camp is I really was late to getting to the wild at heart. I knew that I needed it.
Well, it was an intriguing book that I knew a little bit about, but never read. I read it. And then I was it made such an impact on me. And I just happened to be in a Panera Bred in Kernersville, and you guys had posted. an advertisement for the boot camp.
And I think I reached out to Darren and it took me about a year to get the courage to actually go 'cause I was quite the loner at that time. Light life was not good, um, broken family and marriage and all. And But uh I went and um it was It was impactful. I don't think I've missed ones that you've had since then, so that tells you the impact that it made. And it truly has been.
brought healing, a band of brothers, You don't know what you don't know, but when you do know, You know what works, you know what changes your life, and you stick with it.
Well, Andy, and so you've been with the team, gosh, a decade now. Yeah. Right? And so, man, it's been great sharing some of our foundations with you of the beginnings. We're going to continue this series.
We'll pick up with something next week that's different. If you have any questions for us, please just go ahead and reach out to us at our first name at masconejourney.org.
So, Andy at Mascone Journey, Danny at Mascone Journey, so forth. And we'd love to hear from you. This week, let God love on your heart. Let He move you closer to Him and love on somebody else. We'll talk with you next week.
