Boot Camp Survivor Stories After Hours

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This is the Truth Network. All right. We are the cats away and so the mice are playing today on the masculine journey. Sam's out and enjoying an awards ceremony that he, I'm sure, should have won. Absolutely. He's an amazing man. But while he's gone, we get to do boot camp survivors. And so we've had so much fun with our friends on from previous boot camps, men that have survived several boot camps.

And this time, we've added another player to the equation, right? And so Danny, we got Tony with us. Yeah, Tony and I go back pre-boot camp. Tony is part of our ministry in Ashboro.

And he was glutton for punishment and followed me to boot camp. So Tony, good to have you. Good to hear from you. It's good to hear from all you guys.

We slip out and play golf every now and then. So, not well. Tony plays well.

I do not. But no comment, Rodney. Tony, tell us what boot camp has done for you.

Okay. Let me go back to my first boot camp, which was the one that was held in July of 2020, up close to Pelham. You know, it was an entirely different experience for me because I was churched very well and, you know, did not know that God sought us in such various ways and through such an assortment of people. And I left that boot camp on Sunday just overjoyed, tears just running down my face, tears just running down my face, you know, just full.

I was full. A year ago, when we had the boot camp in November, I came again to that one. And I know I had learned a little bit about how the boot camp is. And I learned that the guys at the boot camp don't make anything happen.

They just open the door for God to step into your life. And so, you know, through the different sessions that we go through and our covenants of silence, you know, I sought God and I just knew I had a heavy heart that God wanted something specific, but I had no idea what. And all through the boot camp, it seemed like the theme kept pushing me back to family. And then, on the final day, Sunday morning, you know, we had our final set of thoughts and questions. And we went to our code of silence or covenant of silence. And I went in and sat in my car. And I said, God, I don't have a clue where we're going this year. I felt so empty because I knew guys were getting, you know, fulfilled and finding their names and their, you know, their mission for the immediate time being. And I just felt so empty. And then, all of a sudden, my wife started texting me these messages.

And I wished I had saved them, but I've changed phones. And so, I lost what I had. But she, God, through her, just flooded my mind and my heart with, you know, your mission right now, Tony, is your family.

Because I was absent from my family spiritually and emotionally for a lot of years when I worked on the road. And God said, it's time to start restoring some of that. And I left that boot camp once again, fulfilled, tears streaming down my eyes, knowing that God had spoken to my heart. Wow.

Like, wow. Yeah, it was quite an experience, you know. And it might, you know, I know that other guys were getting larger or more epic, what you might call journeys and missions and tasks, but I knew that God had spoken, and that I was right where I needed to be. I'm pretty sure, Tony, that there isn't more, anything more epic than the family that God, you know, graciously has given us to, like, man, he gave us a wife, he gave us kids in some cases.

You know, I don't know of anything more epic than that. You had kind of the same experience, Danny. Yeah. The, uh, cause, you know, having moved from. Ashboro to King and leaving the ministry down there and then leaving it in somebody else's hands and that kind of thing. But, but the ministry became my God, so to speak. And, you know, I had kind of separated, you know, doing the church thing and left my wife behind.

And so this, this whole genre of stuff has, has drilled me back into, you got to love the beauty. Well, you've got to, you know, engage with family and, you know, and, you know, this ministry, I know I give you all guys a hard time, but you know, there's not a moment when I say, Hey, I got to go do this or do that. And it's like a cheering squad. Yeah. We're praying, we're doing this. Well, you know, and I, you know, that our ministry auto flow out of our family. Yeah. Right.

Cause it should be our foundation and undoubtedly the kind of neat thing. And I'm sure that you feel that way, Tony, I'm sure Terry and Ricky feel the same way. Is it actually your family's just getting bigger? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can, it got bigger.

Uh, when I was a part of ministry with Danny and Ash, I got brothers. Yeah. My immediate family is getting bigger too. We just had another granddaughter. All right. Yeah.

My son lives way up in Asheville. So our time of seeing her is a few and far between, but we're headed that way soon. That's spectacular. That really is Tony. That, that makes my day to hear, to hear stories like that. Right. Cause you know, you know, we're there to show that God will show up and, and that's just it. He just does in so many different ways for so many different guys. And, and I love the way you put that at the very beginning that that's exactly what God does. It's God is showing up the way God wants to show up in people's lives on his agenda, not on our agenda. Right.

Trying to do what he's doing, what he's thinking. And you know, that's what, that's what we see time and again, and Ricky, you invite so many different people so many different times, but it seems like they come when God wants them to come, right? Yes.

Yes. That's true. I'm working on some guys right now and I still ain't counting one man out yet, but I've got a new guy coming. Andy Ledford, he's supposed to show up. He's never been before.

He said he's looking forward to it. And a few other people there. And you've got a friend that's struggling with cancer right now and he's probably coming, right? Yep.

Jim Waffler. He's supposed to be coming. Most definite. And yes, he has a cancer and we're going to have to all band together. And yeah. How fun will that be? You know, again, if you're thinking about coming, you know, you're kind of on the fence, man, I mean, we are so excited to see what God's going to do with you and it'll be different than he does it with Danny or it's going to be different than he does it with Rodney or Andy or any of us, right? It's going to be something that he does uniquely.

And sometimes, you know, even takes people ancient of days, you know, that have lived literally centuries. Right? So don't think you're disqualified because you're 103, right? Harold?

I knew something was coming as soon as you started moving that mic. Anytime age comes up. But yeah, it's true. Don't let anybody think they're too old to come.

I'm 81 and I'm coming. And it's, it's something that is not age bound, either on the bottom side or the top side. There's always something there for everybody. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And one of the neat things we got to do, Jim, when we were there in Ohio was right, we got to love on Terry's dad. Indeed.

And that was a very special time. I know Terry went there to help his family and that it's the right place for him to be at the right time. And I suspect he can confirm that, right Terry?

Yes, I can. Definitely. I miss all my friends in North Carolina, that's for sure.

That's for sure. But I will see you all on a couple weekends. I'm really, really looking forward to seeing all you guys and Ricky and everybody. Well, as I was sitting there thinking, you know, Terry, that clearly that's what God had for you, right? And this season was to go back and spend this time with your dad. And let me just tell you that Terry's dad's like a legendary turkey hunter.

Seriously, I'm not kidding. And, you know, he gave me some turkey hunting tips big time and a few deer hunting tips while I was at it. But the real thing that for me was your dad has so much life in his eyes when he starts talking turkey hunting.

I mean, he's going back to when he was 20 or 30 and all that. And there's a lot of life left there. And what a way, you know, we got to see, you know, Terry love on his dad. It was beautiful, right, Jim? It was indeed. And we had a great adventure.

He loves to talk about his great adventures because he did that all his life and he really enjoyed that. You know, so yeah, it was an awesome time. Awesome time. No doubt about it. And one we look forward to repeating. Yeah, right.

There's no doubt about it. So again, you may know this is shameless. We're doing this show in order to invite you, right? Like God might be knocking on your heart and saying, hey, you know, you might be surprised at the mission he has for you.

Like it's part of your identity, something that he's had for you all along. And everybody, you know, I don't know how many men have told me, you know, man, I just know I was meant for more than what's going on here. And so, wow, why not take a Thursday night so you only have to take off Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the weekend before Thanksgiving and invest in God's agenda, right? It's really an opportunity and an opportunity to share your life with us because I can assure you there's, I don't know, eight guys in the studio here with me that want to meet you as bad as I do, that want to share these experiences with you as bad as I do.

I mean, it's an absolute blast. Ricky wanted you to mention the food. Ricky wanted me to mention, so yeah, Randall's another friend where you get to have when you, the guy who's going to make the food, right, Rick? That's right. That's right. If it wasn't for Randall, we'd all go hungry.

Not pertaining to the Lord who wasn't in Christ. It's cooked. He has to put up with us for four days or three days and a piece or whatever it is. But he does some fine cooking and not trying to run the show, but God bless Randall and his wife and the camp and all the men that come. I'm thankful for the 10 men, the leadership.

Means a lot to me. Yeah, and this isn't the kind of camp where you're only allowed to go through the line one time and then you're done eating. Like, if you want to eat, you've come to the right place, right? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, I've seen Big Jim, and if you know Big Jim, there's a reason he got big.

Okay. And you know, when he's on his like sixth hamburger and you're like, really? And I see them all piled up there and they're like, well, if nobody else is going to eat him, Big Jim will take it to the kitchen. That's not a full hamburger. This is one bun with six patties.

But his low country broil and barbecue is to die for. Jim goes first and Jim goes last. Well said. You resemble that remark, right? Yeah. He's got his own spin on the first shall become last. He's like, oh, I can be both. Yeah.

That man can eat. But this is what happens when you're at bootcamp. You get exactly the same thing going on. That's going on right now in the studio with the stories. Cause you get the stories from the guys from the past, the new guys that are there.

They end up blending in so fast and their own stories. And that's what you're there for is like, well, what has God done in your life and what is he currently doing and what's he going to do next? It's wonderful to sit there and just be able to go do that. And like, we're talking about the campfire and then there's all these other times we just kind of get around and laugh and talk and just have a great time. You get to shoot Jim. You know, it's one of my favorite things to do every bootcamp is it's if when you play airsoft, you get to shoot Jim and it's not hard to miss him, right? Not every boot camp you miss the first couple of times I'm getting over and slower. He remembers those well, but I tackled you one time, broke my thumb.

I didn't mean to fall on you. You think that's not true, but it's definitely true. You know, there was, there was some shenanigans where Andy was there to referee the whole thing. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I run the airsoft program.

I probably need to support for the softest one of us. So, but, uh, there's a lot of fun, you know, I think that's part of it. We've done it. We did a show, uh, I guess last time, just on the activities we do and the impact that that has just listening to guys up and going out and having fun. Like you were a kid again, you know, a lot of times we get to, um, just to, uh, sophisticated in our older age.

So that playing has a lot to lot to do with what we're doing. It just, just, you know, just something to do to get out there and have a little bit of an adventure. But what I was going, what was on my heart to share too was I got to thinking about this. When I came to my first bootcamp, I found that Sam, I think it had posted something in a Panera and I just had finished reading wild at heart. And I was looking for something like this and it took me about a year to get the courage to go.

And I was pretty introverted at that time. Robby will tell you, I kind of bumbled. That's all right.

We'll just put some people on hold there. That was Tony. We lost him, but we got corn. We got Jerry.

Go ahead. But anyway, we, um, you know, I just want to encourage guys that if you're listening to the show and you've thought about it and they're like, no, I don't really don't want to, I don't want to know anybody. I didn't know anybody and, uh, I didn't know anybody and I just kept coming back.

Like Rodney was talking about, I don't think I've missed one since then. And it became part of the team and stuff, but it took a while for that. And it took me a while to kind of open up, but I didn't feel like we don't go and you don't get, we don't make you break out into groups and, and do all kinds of weird stuff or whatever. You're just allowed, you spend most of your time with God when, but you have the opportunity at the, uh, at the, uh, bonfire and other things to open up and share with other guys. And when you start hearing other guys share their stories and stuff, it opens your heart up to that very thing. But what I really want to encourage you though, is if you've contemplated this and you felt like, yeah, I just won't mix, uh, mix in or whatever, all these guys have told you how they've came and just kind of mixed in and felt comfortable. We want you to feel comfortable.

It's nothing to be scared of. It's something that it's changed my life, changed all these guys' lives that you hear and it's worth coming to. The, uh, just a quick story about fishing because we do some fishing and there are some avid fishermen. Um, and my first boot camp is a story about Robby is I had his fly rod and my wife bought me cause I had saw a guy when I was a kid fly fishing and I just never took it up.

So she bought me a fly rod. Well, I come down to the lake and I'm like reserved about the fact that this awkward boy was going, cause here's these other guys down here look like a river runs through it or a pond runs through it down there or something. And I'm going, Oh man, I don't want to do this. You know, cause my pose had to come off is what it was. I'll be exposed.

I am going to be drastically exposed when they see this thing. But Robby took time to teach me some things and I won't ever forget the lesson. One thing he said was, cause I told him, I said, well, I've watched some YouTube videos and he said, nobody has ever caught a fish when their fly wasn't in the water. And you know, that's good advice, good advice. But, but the time that, that, you know, somebody takes their own time and I got a thing and then there's the tackle box, you know, the coveted tackle box, but you know, he tied flies all out of his stuff and everything, but, but that's just part of the heart of what happens.

I think is that, you know, you can't dictate those things, but it just, those moments kind of happen in all of our lives. I think so. Thank you, sir. Oh, it's always such a blast. I can't tell you the number of guys I've seen that we caught their first fish at a bootcamp. Like they always wanted to try it.

We're, you know, whatever, like, man, how fun to watch people do that. Jim, these guys were sharing their first boot camp and it occurred to me a little bit ago that my first boot camp was just over 20 years ago, terrible setting. It's Echo Ranch, Alaska, and it didn't last three days. It lasted a week and I had no idea what I was getting into, but a friend said, you have to go to this. And I believed him because he knew what he was talking about, but it, it changed my life in a very significant way. I had always connected with women prior to this because they talk about real stuff. I thought, and most men from my perspective didn't, went up there, met two men that I want to talk about. One was Bill. Now, he's a commercial fisherman in Alaska.

Picture that in your mind. He came out of one of our get-togethers, and this shouldn't scare you off, but he was weeping. I mean, he wasn't just crying.

He was crying his eyes out. And not to talking to him, he shared something very important, very personal. And I realized at that point that, yeah, this is a place where I can really connect with men, and that would make my wife a lot happier because she doesn't like me connecting with women. And it wasn't the kind of connection most of you are probably thinking of, but I just found them to be easier friends to make. And Bill in that moment showed me how great it was to have a friend, and he's still a friend. He was an instant friend then from that boot camp and met another one, Aubrey, an older man, probably older than you, Harold, believe it or not.

And he's still kicking, at least last time I checked. He put him on the boat and then swam. But he was one of the most godly men I've ever run into, and he'd be up at 6 in the morning, which is daylight easily when you're in August in Alaska. And this was southeast Alaska near Juneau, but he would be walking around and singing to himself. I mean, he was singing out loud, but he would be walking around paying attention to nobody but his savior.

And this is the day the Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. And he had a little song he was singing. And seeing that in action, and he ended up on my board when we went back to Alaska, and just a wonderful, godly man. And both of them real men, not the wimps you usually associate with the church goers. So my first boot camp was a big deal. Yeah, sorry. And I'm still in church.

That's not a problem. But those two men had a huge impact on my life out of my very first boot camp, and that hasn't stopped. And in this group, I think Robby and I are pretty close to the same number of boot camps, but I lost count.

Get something great each time. Oh, absolutely. But you know, one of the real men that you get to meet, we will point out again is Ricky Korn. And Ricky Korn has seen some things. But when I think about a real man, like, there's a few people in life that scare me, okay?

I mean, like, I would not, I know some stories, okay? You do not want this guy playing with electricity with you, I'm just saying. However, you know, talk about watching somebody get emotional with God, and truly, you know, coming to that point where David was, you know, shedding all those tears on his pillow. You know, Ricky, you know, even when you were talking today about your friend and the struggles that he's had, I mean, God's emotional, and you get a chance to share that, like that, as a real man, right? Right.

That's right. It'll all surface. It'll all surface. It'll all come out in the wash, so to speak. But yes, I've seen some things in real life, and I know that God's left me and all you other men here once again on this earth for a purpose when I'm here by mistake.

And uh, that's up to each and every individual. Yeah, I've had some encounters pertaining to the Lord, and I know he's brought me a long way in life, and things have changed in my life, and I'm still working on some things in my life, but I'm looking forward to coming to boot camp and seeing each and every one of you, plus the new man. Yeah, and so for me, you know, I met Ricky actually on a mission trip in Jamaica on an airplane.

We sat next to each other. He turned to me in a very scary-looking situation and said, I'm Ricky Corn, and I've seen some things. Little did I know what I would find out in the next, you know, 48 hours that he had, in fact, seen some things. But also, you know, through that shared adventure, he came to boot camp, and man, I have a real friend for life. Let me just tell you that I don't know what might be going on in my life, but if I wanted to phone somebody at two in the morning and say, Ricky, I need you, I need you here now, man, I wouldn't have to even begin to think that that man would be coming down from the mountains, and I would feel pity the fool that would literally be loaded for bear. But you know, that's the deal, man. You know, it is the deal, and I feel that same way about Terry.

I feel that way about everybody in this room. You know, it's really an amazing thing that God puts us together, and it's not necessarily the boot camps that do it, as you pointed out so well, Terry. It's God that does that. It's His agenda, right? Absolutely.

Absolutely. And so pray about it, you know? Seek God's heart. He will speak to you. Yes, He will. He will.

So again, it's masculinejourney.org. We are so grateful for you, Ricky, being with us. Terry, Rob, and of course, Tony are all with us today through this, and Duane.

And Duane. Yeah, how cool was it? And looking forward to having those guys back at boot camp, but you know, it won't be the same if you're not there, and I couldn't mean that more sincerely. Like, think about it.

Pray about it. We would love to see you. MasculineJourneyRadio.org. This is the Truth Network.