From Meteorologist to Minister!

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Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. I'm sitting next to my fellow Twin Tower of Media, who's been a meteorologist in media, and he's gone from being a famous weatherman to being a pastor of a church, a missionary, a radio broadcaster, all kinds of things. And I believe one other little thing in your resume that you really tout a lot to Austin Cavanagh is taking a self-defense, how do you call that, class with your fellow Twin Tower?

I think that was Kromaga, right? And our man, Mark Ayers, and Tina Morgan, who is the most impressive woman on the planet, probably, when it comes to her strength and her heart and her faith for the Lord. But yeah, Stu and I enjoyed, with our daughters, learning how to defend ourselves. And man, it was a good time. The fact that we're similar-sized Twin Towers, yeah, we were both beating up on each other. And most of the time, you had to hope our hand on me, but that was good. But yeah, defender of the faith now, for sure.

That's right, yeah. What a story. I want to get into that story, and I want to thank the Lord that we're both walking now, even after those tough combat sessions, right? Where Tina and Mark put us through the steps, and our daughters. That was a lot of fun. And man, Mark's daughter, who's gone on to be with the Lord since then, she put me in a choke hold, and I was out. I was like, wait, where am I?

What's going on? She was such a sweet gal, and you know, she was tougher than most guys, if you didn't know her personally. But Stu, one of the sweetest things I got to experience, before the Lord would take her home to be with him, she was working in the Chavo Salon, which is right there on Country Club. And I don't know what the Lord had done in her life recently, but she had a glow to her, and a smile to her that I had never seen on her. And I told her, I said, Gabs, look at you. You're just irradiating the Lord's love.

This is incredible. And she's like, yeah, I'm happy I'm here working. I'm helping. I'm with my dad helping. And she was happier there helping her dad than I had ever seen her.

You know, skiing barefoot on Blues Lake, doing the self-defense. Yes, riding four-wheelers, finding a gun or whatever it is she did. She enjoyed so many things in life, but she was the happiest I'd ever seen her. And that helped bring me peace when we were so saddened by her life being taken. So it's just a great example of the hope that we have in the Lord, and how we don't need to live in fear of that when it comes, even when it's a shock and a surprise. We live in the hope, and that hope gives us that blessed assurance. It calms us. It affirms the peace of the Lord that He's put in us, because that's what she had that day. And since then, it's given me peace, and I know it's given Mark peace, and his wife peace, and the whole family peace. And this is the time of year where the Prince of Peace, boy, he gets proclaimed like no other time of the year. Just for everyone to know, I'm Stu Everson, this is Truth Talk, and one of my heroes really, and a great friend for many years, Austin Cavanaugh, who many of you in the North Carolina area, and you know, watched him doing the weather as the meteorologist and the big tall weatherman. And he's already been approached here in the restaurant, we're at the Mayflower II Seafood Restaurant, exit 118, rural hall, North Carolina. So any of y'all come by, any of our Utah listeners, or listeners from all over the country, all over the world, we have listeners in India to Truth Talk, you come over to North America, we'll treat you to Mayflower II with Gus. Gus, just say hey to everyone, just say hello everyone in Greece or something, this guy's an amazing, amazing gifted chef, businessman, him and Maria have done a great job here. Hello guys, thank you for coming here today, for showing your help and all your everything you guys give me.

Awesome, that's Gus Hodges, Acostas, and Efharisto. What does Efharisto mean? It means thank you.

I played some basketball over in Greece, so we have someone talk about it, but he brought us out some amazing food, but Austin, let me ask this, who is Austin Cavanaugh? Well, you know, there's a lot of different directions I could take here, but following the Lord's lead, I really would say it's a man that continues to embrace being humbled by this one that we place our hope in, and being continuously, richly rewarded by this relationship that we're called to enter into that God has allowed us to participate in. And through Christ, and the greatest gift that's ever been given, not just a Christmas gift, but it's better than a birthday gift, it's better than a graduation gift, it's the greatest gift that keeps on giving. So, yeah, Austin Cavanaugh is a guy that is glad to embrace that call to give, and it shall be given to you, because I'm giving in response to all he gives. So that moves me to give more. That moves me to live more of this abundant life that Jesus has given, not just a life where we settle and we do our best to try to do God's best.

No, we embrace the abundant life, and that's what I'm learning to do more. Him calling me to be a pastor six years ago, that's when you really realize how much you don't know, and how much God wants to teach you in learning to know Him directly. Because my mentor, my dear pastor Alan Wright, who shares the light here on these same radio airwaves, said one of the sweetest things to me among many of the other things he shared with me in our dear time together. Being mentored by him, not just as my pastor and shepherd, but as my personal mentor in ministry. He said, pastoring is listening. So I am one who is always listening. Listening to his heart so I can have ears to hear others' hearts.

Because everybody has concerns in their hearts, and there's hurts in their heart, there's questions that are yet to be answered, and I'm glad the Lord has me in a position now where I've got the time to do that, both listening and also sharing what I hear that, Lord willing, ends up being helpful to somebody else. From weatherman to pastor, and now before that, take us back to the early days, Austin. Where'd you grow up?

Tell us that. How'd you come to know the Lord? When did you start to hear the tug of Christ on your heart? Yeah, my dad's first job out of law school. He's a Mercer Law graduate down in Jamaica, Georgia.

But his first job out of law school was checking real estate titles for a lawyer in Plymouth, North Carolina called Carl Bailey. Good old Washington County in North Carolina down east. So small town warehouses there now, and they ruled the roost there.

But this was back in the early 70s, I think. I was born there in the late 60s, of course. But we moved to Siler City for a short time.

He got an assistant D.A. position in Burlington, and then Burlington is where I spent a lot of my childhood years up before high school. So it was in Living in Burlington there, a municipal stadium, Memorial Stadium in Burlington where Williams Bulldogs play.

Cummings Cavaliers and Williams used to have big rivalry there, just like Duke Carolina. But one Sunday evening, my parents said, we're going to hear Layton Ford, who I think lived in Lake Norman at the time. Isn't he Billy Graham's brother-in-law or something like that? I think he married Billy Graham's sister, I believe.

I can't remember her name. But Layton Ford was speaking at Burlington Memorial Stadium, and it was a Sunday night. I was eight years old. And he gave a message, and that was a night where, unlike church, I wasn't playing hangman with my brother and tic-tac-toe and checking those watch minutes to see how soon we were going to get the mom's sherry roast in the crock pot there. You know, I was listening, and he had the light of the Lord in him.

He was talking about his son Sandy, I believe, who I think had died or something like that. I do remember that about it, but what I remember is, you know, my heart even warms now for a colonist 45 years ago. When he gave that altar call at the end, for the very first time in my life, not only was I excited to go, but I had some happy tears that were accompanying me in my willingness to go. There was nobody else in my family that felt that, but I did.

And I didn't ask. When he asked, I responded, and I went down, and as they sang that sweet little Just As I Am song, I could remember sitting out in that cool summer night, and I remember how cool it was, but I remember how comforting it was looking up at him and being as close as I was to him, because I could feel the warmth of the Lord in my heart because I was yielding to his drawl. I didn't understand all that then, but, you know, the Lord has since, and being able to recall that, has helped bring all that together on how significant that was.

That's when I asked him into my heart, and I enjoyed that experience so much, Stu, that the next time when I went to my associated Reformed Presbyterian Church, ARP in Burlington, I remember James Stevenson gave an altar call one night. I said, oh, I want to experience that again. So I went down to the same thing again. I did it again. Two times the charm, right? And I went through it.

I didn't tell him. I'd already done it at Leighton Ford's, and I went through the whole thing because I wanted to experience it again. I'm like, oh, this is great. This is great. And then I did it a third time, too, and the third time I did it, you know, ever since I was looking, and he pulled me aside afterwards.

He said, you know, I said, what? You don't need to keep doing this. I'm like, are you kidding me?

This is incredible. I don't ever want to stop doing this. So, yeah, eventually you move forward in your faith. But that's where it started, some unfortunate backsliding.

My senior year in high school started when my parents made the announcement they were going to split. That hurt my heart, and instead of faithfully allowing the Lord the time to heal my heart, Stu, I took matters into my own hands, and I said, I don't like the way this feels. I'm not going to trust in this church stuff for a while because I've gone to church all my life since I have lived, and, wow, I can't believe the Lord allowed this to happen. I was upset at the Lord.

I was disappointed. I was angry, and I allowed that anger to eventually turn into bitterness. And like His good word says, I didn't realize the value of that advice in Hebrews 12 that says not to let a root of bitterness spring up or many will be defiled, and I'm living proof of that truth. He's Austin Kavanagh from weatherman to preacher of God's word, saved at eight years old, and gone on to be someone that many of you in the North Carolina area know is like your favorite weatherman. Now he's a pastor, and I'm sitting with him right now in an interesting place.

I've never done a show from the corner booth of the Mayflower Toot restaurant in rural hall. I'm Stu Epperson, and wherever you are, I'm glad you're with me. You'll love the food here, and thanks to Gus for cooking up some really good food. But thanks to Austin Kavanagh for sharing his story with us, and what a story you have, and you took us through your testimony as a young guy. You kept going forward. You kept loving that feeling of receiving the Lord, and you knew you were in Him, and He was in you, but then things got tough. You talked about dealing with a bitterness, going through a tough split with your parents. So many kids are the victims, and those are the victims, by the way, of divorce.

It's the kids. And so tell us how God got you through. You're a senior in high school.

You're in North Carolina. What happened next? Well, prodigal son years, turning away from the Father, unfortunately, trying to live the worldly way instead of the lordly way, as I like to put that, and wild times at Appalachian, flunking out of school up there after two years of partying and not going to class. But as fun as that may have felt at the time, the longer I did that, Stu, the emptier and more desperate I was becoming inside, and it didn't matter how good any of those experiences were emotionally in a flesh way, whether it's the buzz from alcohol or the thrill of meeting another girl that you never thought you would even have the nerve to talk to, but instead being able to speak pretty smoothly and have her laugh at your jokes and all that stuff because you have that kind of false confidence that alcohol can give you sometimes in calming your nerves. It was never successful in soothing my hurt heart, and that pain never went away because that was always there the next day.

And over time, the only thing that was ever going to resolve that was going to be coming back to the Father. And praise the Lord, there were guys, fraternity brothers like Brad Burrus, who occasionally on Sundays you'd see him in there tying that tiny old bathroom in the dorm, and, Brad, what are you doing, man? We just were out last year. We just went to bed a few hours ago. What are you doing?

I'm hungover, headache. I'm going to church, man. Why don't you go with me? I said, yeah, right.

You're crazy, man. What are you doing going to church? I tried to talk him out of going. But praise the Lord, he talked me into going with him. And I said, yeah, man. I grew up going to church, man. I'll go with you, sure. I did it to prove a point. Don't tell me about church and faith, man.

I know all about church and faith. So I threw my clothes on and went with him. But, man, let me tell you something. I didn't even make it out of a parking lot where I could hear him singing inside where I didn't have a tear coming. And I could just hear in my heart the Lord's loving whisper, welcome home, son.

Welcome home, son. Even, even hungover with a headache on the drive over. That headache turned into a heart healing beginning because I knew right then, despite how bad I'd been, despite the mistakes I'd made, despite having turned away from him, he hadn't turned away from me. I began to realize he hadn't turned away from me. He hadn't given up on me. So there was hope. Weeks after that, even after flunking out of school, I would meet this gal from Lincoln County on a blind date.

We'd go see Dirty Dancing in downtown Boone and share a tub of popcorn. And praise the Lord, just in May 26 of this year, we just celebrated sharing 30 years of marriage together. Congratulations. That was a very instrumental part of healing this hurt heart from a broken marriage by bringing me, the wife that would consummate my marriage and also produce two wonderful children, 1922 Austin, the second Lacey. So, yeah, Lacey, you know, Angela went to class and she was comfortable going to church a lot of Sundays.

So that began to not only heal my hurt heart, but it began to renew my faith and love God's love, his perfect love, which cast out that fear. So, yeah, we got married. Whether some I've loved all my life, grew up watching Frank deal on channel eight, his energy on channel eight. I love that guy. So, man, he loves what he's doing.

Love this corny jokes. I'd love to do whether I got my broadcast a great Appalachian cause after I met Angela, I was able to get back into school, graduate, make good enough grades to get my broadcast degree and got a little job working at Channel 16 in Burlington, which was another religious station in Burlington that wanted to start a local newscast. So I just called him to try to make a demo tape. And the next thing I know, as Lord would have it, not look with Lord. He said, well, we're starting local news cast.

Why don't you come on in? And he gave me a copy of the Times News newspaper in Burlington. And he said, just just read that. And he put me in front of the camera and I went, well, officials in Alameda County arrested Tom Jenkins for cocaine possession.

You know, something like that. I'm reading the news article and he stopped me after about 30 seconds. He said, OK, you're hired, man.

I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? He said, yeah, you got a good set of pipes, man. He said, you got a good set of pipes. I said, I'm hired.

What are you talking about? He said, you said you like weather. I need a weather guy.

I was like, are you kidding me? Really? You see, I need a weather guy. I said, I get to do weather?

Really? So that started my broadcast career in TV. I had done some radio at Appalachian and done some sports casting there and deejayed a little bit on the WSU there.

Ninety point five. So that was the Lord opening that door. And yeah, I started going back to church more frequently. But I'm telling you, Stu, I had been married 11 years before God really completely healed my broken heart. And the part that needed that final seal of not just his approval, but my own approval of the way I felt towards my parents, because I was still harboring hostility towards both of them in some form or fashion. I would blame things on them when things didn't go right in my life. I'd say, well, you know, my parents, man, they just, I've been screwed up ever since then.

It's been really hard to get past that, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Eleven years ago, eleven years into being married, Ansel and I had gone to a retreat in the mountains. Minnie Coleman is the lady's name. Living Waters is the name of her little ministry there.

It's outside of Brevard. A little hideaway place right on a mountain stream, man, and just a real simple, humble, godly ministry she had there. And she's since gone on to be with the Lord. But I went there in a couples conference, and my wife was richly blessed during that weekend. I didn't feel like I was as blessed as she was, and I was kind of disappointed that I didn't get the same kind of blessing.

She did. And on that Sunday night, I'm sitting at home, and I'm getting ready to go to work to do weather the next day. And I'm in the New, I'm in the Old Testament, looking at a passage that's not new to really anybody, whether you've been in the Word or not, the Ten Commandments in Exodus. And all of a sudden, that one commandment, the only one of the ten that comes with a promise. Honor your father and mother. And what will happen to your life when you do that? Boy, was that revelation manifested in my heart and mind.

The Holy Spirit convicted me like I'd never been convicted before. Oh, my goodness, Lord, I'm sorry. I have not been honoring my father and mother.

That's why my life has been on roller coaster, up and down, up and down, up and down. It's not because of their mistake. It's because of my mistake. I haven't been honoring them. Oh, I received that conviction. I couldn't pick up my phone quick enough to call my mother, to call my father, to shed those sweet tears and apologize to them and to proclaim my honor and love for them.

And I'm going to tell you something. My love for them has never been deeper. I feel like that not only saved my life in affirming who I was in Christ, but it saved my marriage. And I know what it meant to both my mother and my father.

They never got back together, which I prayed for for a long time. But the Lord took my father to be home with him just about two years ago. And there, when he was taking his last breaths, was my mom at his bedside reading Psalms.

And me and my wife and my children and my sister getting to enjoy that. You want to talk about Romans 8.28? That's Romans 8.28 right there.

All things working together for the good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. So, yeah, eventually the Lord would move in my heart after that. Not only do I want to go to church every Sunday, Stu, but I wanted to go to every Bible study I could. I couldn't get out of his word.

I wiped the dust off of that Bible my father had given me. And the words from that book have been jumping off those pages ever since. Yeah, yeah. And they're jumping off, and that's Gus. We're at the Mayflower II restaurant in Rural Hall.

Gus and Maria own this restaurant. I've been coming here for many decades, and we just had a great meal. And I'm with my good buddy, my Twin Tower media, who is in the ministry full-time now as a pastor in Dobson, North Carolina, right? And what's the name of the church?

Salem Fork Christian Church. So he's telling his story to all of our Awesome Truth Talk listeners, and what a treat for me to have you on. And we thought, let's just tell everyone.

You're going to tell me anyway. I love to hear these stories of God's work, his grace, from when you were a little guy, and going through that brokenness and God healing the bitterness. But you shocked us all, Austin, when your weather career is soaring at WXI Channel 12 News. Here's Austin Calvinist, meteorologist. I'd hear you on Classic Country. I'd hear you on all these area stations. And we were buddies hanging out in the Word together. And next thing you know, you announce, I'm going to be a pastor in Dobson, North Carolina. Tell everyone what happened real quick. Well, I tell you, once again, Big Stu, my Twin Tower, played a role in that in many different ways. There was a job change that I experienced early in my time there, where they switched my role from being the morning guy and moving me to the weekend slot, which is something I feared and never wanted to have to work, was the weekend shift. No way.

I'll never do that. But guess what? God had already connected me with Stu, where we weren't coming to Mayflower, Gus, but we were going down to Sam Pans on Peter's Creek Parkway, and we were eating some good Chinese food there. There were some businessmen having a lunch in there, and Stu led that. And I got invited. Jeff Watson was there, my dear brother in Christ from Calvary.

And there were some other guys, too. And that's where we connected. And you guys prayed for me during that difficult, hurtful time, where I wanted to quit. I wanted to leave. I wanted to just say, no, I'm going somewhere else.

I don't have to work that shift, and I'll be valued and appreciated. That's a decision they made. They felt like that would be good at the time. Stu and the guys prayed for me. I felt better. I began to. Next thing you know, that shift I worked was opening up opportunities during the week for me to go to some of these conferences like in Greensboro that were occurring on Thursday and Friday, because I was off work Thursday and Friday, like when Dr. Lutzer and the guys came and you sponsored that.

Norm Geisler, all those guys. Next thing you know, that was part of God's plan to begin equipping me. And my faith grew stronger. And the next thing you know, I'm bringing my Bible with me to work.

And I'm reading it during my break times. And it's creating conversation with other believers there at the station. And the next thing you know, we're having church at Channel 12. And you know, some people would poke fun at that. That's all right, man.

A great group over there. But little did I know, I started falling in love with Jesus is what happened then. And it changed how I went to church. It changed how I lived my life outside of church. And realizing really our greatest church is our ability and willingness to faithfully minister.

Gus was talking about this when we were talking earlier. Wherever he has us. Because he's really called us all to be ministers. We're all ministers of this reconciliation. Where Christ is the one that reconciles us to God. He's the one that makes us right with God.

And boy, we get that right, everything else falls in line. And the next thing you know, Allen's asking me to speak at Rinaldo Church on a Sunday in outdoor service we had back in 2002. And after that day when I shared a lot of what I'm sharing with you today, Allen got up and said, Austin, today you became a preacher. No, I thought he was joking. I was like, yeah, not me.

That's somebody else. But then again, in my heart, I thought, Lord, if that's what you want to do, I will. Because the same thing he shared on my heart that day when I was nervous, getting up there and sharing. He said, just share the love with them that I've shared with you. And still, that's what I've been doing ever since. And that started opening up doors to speak at other churches.

Over 100. And as a result, more kept asking. As a result, my pastor Allen said, hey, man, I miss seeing you at church.

What's going on? I hear you're speaking here and here. Praise the Lord.

That's great. You know, I want to mentor you. You need covering. You need prayer covering.

You need good wisdom and get you let's get our theology straight to make sure we got that. So he purchased for me Wayne Grudem's systematic theology book, which was one of the greatest resources that I still turn to every now and then, even in my pastor study. And he would listen to my messages.

We'd get together for several hours each month. And he began to mentor me and disciple me directly. And through his Kerygma ministry where Dudley Hall, who's his mentor, I got to hear Dudley and meet Dudley and connect with Dudley. And boy, he is just a fine spiritual father figure to a lot of folks. And it was through Kerygma ministry that I was ordained as a minister of the gospel.

And that was that was in 2013 and 2012. Excuse me. Little did I know that in 2014 would be when a little country church in the name Salem Fork, which would be one of those that God called me to speak and share with, would ask me and issue that letter of call to be their pastor. Yeah.

God knows best. He sure does, man. And people still ask you on a regular basis what the weather is going to be, including one of the sweet service here at Mayflower restaurant. Right, Austin? Yeah. And I still pray for snow, just like any other snow lover does.

And one of his waitresses did. But Gus, Gus only likes snow when it when it increases us to go order. Right.

When they're home at school and lunch sales go through the roof. So that's good. Right. But yeah, God is good. What's your challenge out there, everyone? Just just on trust in the Lord wherever he has you, whether you're full time in the pulpit like you are now or whether you're behind the camera, you know, calling the weather, whether you're in a restaurant taking care of customers as a server, a waiter, whatever. What's what's what's do you say is the overall theme, your passion when it comes to serving the Lord? That Greek word, mano, abide. Jesus says, abide in me and I in you. Apart from me, you can do nothing but praise the Lord with with him. We can do everything.

Nothing is impossible. So abide. Just enjoy discovering the blessing of abiding in him wherever you are. My dad used to say, bloom where you're planted.

That sounds a lot like abiding, doesn't it? Because he is the vine where the branch and boy being connected is to him is what positions us to be fruitful, to produce his love, his joy, his peace, his goodness, his kindness, his patience, his self-control. And boy, those are some sweet fruits. That's awesome. And you can meet Austin on Facebook. He's got a great page, Austin Cavaness.

We're friends on on Instagram as well. And additionally, you can hear his new radio program. Tell everyone the name of that program. It's on some stations and we're one these days. Get on the Truth Network, Lord willing.

But what's the name of that program for folks that want to check that out? Praise the Lord. He just started that this year, actually, during this virus situation. All about the one. And he continues to expand and provide. And we pray for his continued leading in direction. And the glory is his. The blessings are ours. And he is the one who loves us most. And every ear and heart that hears, they're the ones that recognize and can receive that his love is for them, too. When I think of my friend, Austin Cavaness, who I asked earlier, I put you on the spot at the very beginning. Who is Austin Cavaness? I love that. This whole, you've heard it from his own lips.

All about the one. A great name, a radio program. Heard on some Wilkins radio stations. Heard on Cousin Kelly station up. WPAQ AM 740. The big monster station in one of the original Epperson family stations in the whole country.

That Uncle Ralph and Kelly, all those guys had a part in. And up there at Mount Airy, AM 740. And then coming, you can hear, of course, these things online and digitally.

But check out Austin. We're going to put a picture. He's in his awesome flannel shirt with his beard that's very well sculpted. And we're at Mayflower II Restaurant.

We'll take a picture with Gus in this fabulous food. But thank you for sharing your story, man. Thanks for being an iron sharpener to me, a mentor, a friend, just a godly influence. And thanks for giving all the glory to God, man. Stu, what the Lord continues to do with you, you keep abiding, you keep being available because he keeps making his way through you. So, I love you dearly because of it.

Thank you, man. John O. Abide in Him. John 15. The Vine.