Mountains 4 Medicine

Hey, this is Jim Graham from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore relationship instead of religion every week. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. A daily program powered by the Truth Network, where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host.

So why would a man mount a bicycle and ride it for 518 miles, not on the Blue Ridge Parkway, not through the redlands in the forest of Yosemite on the West Coast, not across Jersey up and down the coast in Malibu, but across Uganda, where they have wildlife and elephants and snakes and big old apes and all kinds of crazy stuff going on, a lot of unrest. Well, he's doing it, and he's not just any man, he's a man of God who loves the Lord, he's an engineer, he's a businessman, he's a gospel patron, and God has called him to do this, and he's also brave enough to come on the airwaves of Truth Talk Live. So, John Davenport, step on up, put that mic right on your chin, come on up here. Tell us, who is John Davenport? Introduce yourself to all our wonderful, austere listeners of this program. Well, John Davenport is a business owner, but more than that, someone who loves the Lord, and one of the key things that I'm about, really, and my wife, is about supporting the work of God at this season of our life. That's what we're about. We're about souls, and we're about touching lives. Well, I've known you for multiple decades. In every context I've known you from, we've been in the car together on the ministry track, we've been in cars in different lanes, going different directions, but on the same track, but your name pops up, whether it's Love Out Loud, Winston-Salem, Outreach, Ministry, Kingdom, helping the folks that are helpless and hopeless with the gospel, Christian movies, and now this Uganda thing, and I thought, wow, if anyone, of all people, would be involved, it's John Davenport.

But you're putting your cycle where your mouth is. Yes, that's correct. So, what we're experiencing right now is a convergence of something I've been passionate about, which is giving, and one of the things I really enjoy over the last eight years, which is cycling, those two things have come together, and with this ride that we're going to do in Uganda, we're going to be able to do both, bringing attention to the need and to enjoy this ride as well, if you want to call it riding 518 miles in Uganda, in the heat, enjoyable. It's something, and he's committed to the cause, and it's through Sports Outreach International, we've got one of their team members here, one of their VPs is in the studio with us, Dan Navarez, who, he's one of the greatest kleptomaniac thefts in the history of the game of baseball. He holds all kinds of records for stealing bases, right?

That's right. Dan Navarez, but how encouraging is it for you to meet this guy, and to see his passion, and the beautiful thing is he's named it after his wife, this medical center. Yes, and there's a story behind that, and kind of a long story, but the bottom line is she's had illness for the last, say, let's, ten years, and when they came to me with this clinic, they said, hey, we want to name this after you, and I said, look, I'm not that guy, I don't want stuff named after me, there's nothing we've built that's named after me. Well, how about we name it after your wife?

And I said, well, let's try that. I mentioned it to her, and when I mentioned it to her, she was very sick. I mean, like, my wife struggled to live, okay? And when we mentioned this to her, she didn't really even feel like she'd ever be able to see it built.

But, fast forward a year into 2023, we actually were able to set foot at the opening. Dan was there with me, my wife was there, and she got to see the clinic named after her. Praise the Lord. So you were there, Dan, you've seen this whole thing kind of happen, haven't you? Yeah, so Robert and I go back about three years, and three and a half years, and as you know, Robert Katende, movie, The Queen of Katwe, chess ministry, amazing. Yeah, sports outreach, you do all this stuff, chess ministry, sports, camps, baseball, soccer, reaching kids with sports for the gospel, pretty amazing. We've had you on before on the show.

In fact, you supported us with about a hundred chess sets that are right now in Uganda, Kenya. Praise the Lord. We're all over the world right now, so I thank you, Stu, for that, because that was an amazing, and we've led hundreds of kids to Christ as a result, so thank God. I know you and I are an evangelist.

No, amen. And so, but it's this medical thing, I mean, of all things, sports outreach is doing medical missions. Yeah, so Robert loves, you know, people, and he saw this tremendous need, within a 25 mile radius, there's no medical care, people just die. And he said, we've got to build a medical center, and so I said, well, I've got a gentleman that I think we need to introduce you to, Robert.

So Robert and John and I met at a hotel right here in Winston. We were doing a chess tournament. How about that? Right, with your chess sets that you donated, Stu, okay? Look, he's making me sound smart. I can donate them, I can't play a lick.

I'm on the basketball court, and I'm not doing that game, you know, so, but anyway. So that was amazing. Praise the Lord. And that combination right there just knitted us all together.

Yeah, it just came together. By the way, I've got to give some shout-outs, because Courtney's listening to this show for the first time ever. Thank you, Courtney, from Bossy Beulah's Chicken.

You've got to go there, over on Hawthorne, or right where Hawthorne kind of meets First Street in Winston. Wonderful partners of the Truth Network, and delicious, but the whole team there, Melo, the chaplain, I'm giving him a shout-out to, he's listening. Pastor Skip is listening, we saw him at coffee afterward, and Courtney's listening, and she's putting a magnet on her car for the Truth Network, which is so cool.

And let me tell you who else is listening. Will Gray, and a bunch of other ballers, and they're all tagged on my Instagram. And these guys, we had a little game, I'm not going to tell you who won, but little Stu had to step up his game. Your team won.

I had to step up my game, and I tag all them in this thing, it's on my IG, just go to Stu Epperson, and you follow me there, make sure you see it. But I got, oh my, let's see, Quincy, Jordan, shout-out to all these guys, to David, and of course their dad's Monte, who's a legendary basketball player. So they're now listening, they're downloading the Truth app, and they're hearing the word, and they're wondering why would a successful business guy, like we all want to grow up to be like Jon Davenport. You know, he's got a solid family, loves the Lord, wife loves the Lord, great kids, and God's blessed him.

But what is he doing going to Uganda, riding his bike to raise money to save lives over there? It's pretty amazing, Jon, you know, 20 years ago, if you saw your present self, what would you know? Well, yeah, I never would have thought that God would have used us like this. But the story coming out of 9-11, and being unemployed, and being blessed with the opportunity to start a business, God made it very clear when I started the business, this isn't just a business, this is something that's going to do kingdom work. So your success is going to be the success of others.

There are people that are in other parts of the world, and here, that have ministries that they're called to do, but they don't have the way to pay for it. And what I'm going to do is bless you so you can pay for it. I love it. We've got to take a break. We'll come back. If you have a question of Jon or Dan about sports outreach, about this brilliant ministry in Uganda, what God's doing, we'll fill in some of the blanks on that. We'll tell you some miraculous stories of what's happened through this, and we'll take your calls right here on Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Everson.

Don't touch that dial. We've got a whole bunch of truth coming at you right after this. Hang on.

Okay, I had to make a quick equipment change. I'm Stu Everson. This is Truth Talk Live. It's an honor to have you with us. It's an honor to be on the air. It's an honor to talk to—what we do is we tell the stories. We tell the stories of men and women of God. My kids are listening.

They're trying to call me, but I'm telling them, hey, turn on the radio and listen to Pops, and I'll call you during the break. It's an honor to be able to share the good news of what Christ has done through so many people like you, through the listener that just sent me an email today. Look at that.

Would you just look at that right there? A guy surrendered a full-time ministry from listening to the Truth Network. So here in the sermons, somehow he found it. He turned on the radio.

God used those messages to encourage him toward preaching, and he preached his first sermon not too long ago. He sent us an email to say, thank you for what you do. You all have been so gracious. I had to make an equipment change. I had to put some sliders on.

Now, how am I allowed as the host of this show to wear these sliders? Well, because my friend, Mike Lindell, from MyPillow, you've heard of those guys? Well, they got kicked out of the big box stores. They've been censored. No longer in America can you say, well, you'd say, it's my opinion. I'm not mad at you for not being pro-life. I'm just pro-life. Well, they cut you off. Facebook, whatever, they get rid of you.

And so he's been censored, and so he depends on people like you to support him, just like we depend on Truth Network, and he's been a partner of Truth Network for some time. And so they sent me these sliders. They're super comfortable. But I'm thankful. Aren't you thankful for a good night's sleep? And so I literally got, just back on vacation, I stuffed my pillow. They have the travel size ones, which I have a few of too, but I took my big one, and I'm glad I did because the pillows at the hotel at the vacation were hard as rocks.

So I had to take my pillow, and I'm thankful for a good night's sleep. If you've never connected with them, all the information is at their website, which is MyPillow.com. All the information, if you're a phone person and you want to call them, I'll give you the little 800 number they've actually given us. You can call this number.

It's 800-871-1419. And they've given us a promo code, so that way people know that you're Truth Talk Live listeners, and you support all the stations that carry us and what we're doing. And the promo code is THANKFUL. I like that.

Don't you like that? Because I am very thankful for a good night's sleep, and thank you to my friends at MyPillow.com. They have all these things available. Sheets, they have pillows, they have these sliders I'm wearing right now. So guys, don't judge me.

Every baller has to have sliders. So MyPillow.com, thank you so much, Mike and the team there, and for supporting Christian Radio. And thank you, John Davenport, for, you know, you've been a friend, partner, sponsor of us and other things we've been involved with for decades. We've been in Bible studies together. Your sweet wife has helped a lot of folks get out of debt. She has a great testimony. I mean, with her counseling, and I was blown away the first time I met with her. I mean, I knew you. I'm like, wait a second.

This is the star right here. No offense, but she's a giant of the faith, and she's battled with her health and all. And so God just kind of brought you together, and you've known Dan for some time too, I know. How'd y'all meet?

Tell us that real quick as we're listening. Gosh, Dan and I met at church. That's a good place. Gosh, 20, like 23, 24 years ago. It's been a couple decades plus. Yeah, it's been a long time ago, yep. We attended the same church.

How about that? And it's just been a friendship, and the Lord's brought you together. And we've just, our lives continue to cross.

I love it. I mean, because you meet people, and you just, something happens. Right. And it becomes more than, I just met you for this. Now we continue to talk over the years, and we've shared a lot of experiences, and now we've actually traveled to Africa together.

I tell you what, you go to Africa with someone, any of those places, you've gone to particularly, you bond. Yeah. I mean, you guys are like real friends.

Like, you're in the trenches, friends. Yeah. And to see people, I mean, literally, maybe not a common cold, but someone gets strep throat, or someone gets something that we would diagnose and take some medicine, and here you go, and you're better in America.

But you can get a minor disease there and die. Yes. And so there are entire population blocks, particularly where you put this medical clinic, the Nyah-Davenport Medical Clinic. Yes. You know, where people now, you're saving lives.

How does it feel about that? And there's an express gospel witness too, right, Dan? 100 percent. So we are excited because within a 25-mile radius, 25 miles, think about that, okay, that goes all the way up to the border of Virginia.

I mean, it goes all the way south. No medical care anywhere. Yeah. So no hospital, no place for folks in Uganda. They just die, like you said. And they could die in childbirth. They could die giving birth to a child, any kind of thing.

But now, not the case. Yeah, and the thing that struck me when we opened it, you know, we think about an ambulance or driving to the ER. The opening day, there were about 200 people there waiting when we opened it. Yeah, 265. 265.

There weren't any cars. What that meant is they either walked or someone had to bring them. Into that kind of condition. So when you say 25 miles, 25 miles for us is a quick drive in the car. I've got to share this one, John.

I've got to share this one. It's a journey. It's like a biblical journey.

When he talks about Jesus went to Bethsaida, okay, where they walked all day. We met, one of the people that came in were carried several miles. He carried a guy that for six months ago was very healthy and had gotten down to 110 pounds. And he carried, he couldn't walk anymore, and he literally carried him several miles to get to the clinic.

And I'll never forget that. How do you get doctors? Because, you know, I understand that in Africa as a continent, what I've heard from medical missionary statistics is there's only one surgeon per one million people.

And the doctors are like heads of state over there. So this is why it's so very important we're trying to do now. We need to raise, so John, and he won't share this, but I can share it. John and his company gave over $200,000 to build the medical center, okay, and to be able to start to fund it. That meant the doctors, nurses, et cetera. But now we need to buy more equipment. We need to fund those staff members, doctors and nurses, continuing for the next couple of years, which is why we need to raise another $200,000 for the next two years, which will completely sustain the medical center. So that'll sustain it. Is there a goal to get it self-sustaining or fully supported by the people, by the churches over there?

Or how does that work? So ultimately that's where we want to take it. We want to get it where it's self-supported, but we've got to get it going. And one of the things that we discovered pretty quickly, and you alluded to this, is when we go get medical care, first of all, we tend to take it for granted. You can say whatever you want to about the health care system.

The United States is the best in the world. We're spoiled. You get run over by a car. If you have a heart attack right now, there'll be somebody here in five minutes. They'll be doing everything to revive you.

They won't ask you how much money you have. If they need to put you in a helicopter, they're going to do all these wonderful things for you. Well, what we're discovering is that when you show up there, okay, you're going to need this medicine. Well, okay, so does that mean I pay what little bit I have to rent and eat? Or do I pay for the medicine? So what we're trying to do is get that because the problem is it almost becomes cost prohibitive to even go to the doctor. Right.

And so there are charges that they have for some of the medications and there's a scale based on need and all that. So, yes, ultimately you want to be able to generate income from that, but you've got to get some traction to begin with. So that's what this is designed to do, is to get it going and basically give it a boost like we would here with a business. Right. Yeah. And hopefully the marketplace people and the church will rise up. Is there a good church community there? A good faith community getting around this thing?

Yes, there are. And that's why they're even supporting like even if it's a dollar or two dollars or three dollars to pay for something, they are paying for something. Okay. And we're actually engaging the local business community there. So there's an arm here that we're reaching out to raise, but we're also reaching out to the folks, the businesses that are there because ultimately it is their clinic.

Wow. And yeah, and that's interesting because, you know, you got up today in front of, we had 60 guys at Wednesday in the word of Dario and you shared the very beginning. You had to go to a meeting, but you shared real quick about how to get involved. You got the guys to look and to support this, but that's your key.

People listening right now, getting people engaged, right, to support this thing. That's why you're getting on a bike and riding 518 miles. We're going to learn more about that trek, what's on that trail. I saw you.

It's funny. I went to a bike shop after that to see someone and I saw you there. You saw me there. What a great place for you to be because you're about to ride Uganda.

518 miles. More about that. By the way, listen to us on the app. Some stations will be carrying different programs in the next half hour. This is Truth Talk Live.

I'm Stu Epperson. We'll be right back after this. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com What would inspire, what would inspire a man of God to get on a bike and ride 518 miles across Uganda?

Somewhat of a war-torn, rough, and not just rough, like you can ride across America and not get, you know, not bump into a giraffe or a hippo or get chased by a wild animal. But in Uganda, it's different. And what would possess him to do that to support ministry? And he's a businessman. He's a husband, a father. He loves Jesus. He's in the Truth Talk Live studios right now.

I'm Stu Epperson. Honored to talk to my friend John Davenport and my other friend, Dana Vares, who's part of Sports Outreach, who through your relationship, God kind of introduced Sports Outreach and this opportunity to John. John, what was it like when you saw it? We talk about missions, right? We hear from the missionaries. We see the gripping videos, the flannel graphs, the things when they come to our churches, they come on shows like this. What was it like when your feet, when you first set foot on the soil of Uganda and you saw the desperate need?

Take us there in your heart to our listeners. So I'm going to say the thing that spoke to me the most when I arrived in Uganda wasn't all the different things we saw while we drive through the cities and the congestion and all that. It was the day of the opening of the clinic. And so I happened to get up early because we're on a thousand different times.

Everything's different, right? Time zones. And I was up before daylight and I looked out and I saw that people had already begun to gather for the opening. So we had set some chairs out. And so, like we mentioned earlier in the show, by the time we got ready to open this thing up, we had 260 people waiting for health care in line. And some of those people waited all day to be seen. So that is what immediately impacted me.

Can you imagine waiting all day in a lobby in here, but they were outside under a tent, just to see the doctor? Wow. And we shared on the last segment. And make sure you download this whole podcast and listen. We'll make it available by the time, you know, before the evening is out.

And I'll make sure I send you guys links you can put on your website, use it and abuse it, you know, share with everybody. And listeners, please share this. You mentioned in the last segment, you had a guy carry someone else multiple miles, you know, to carry his friend. I think about those four guys carrying that guy to Jesus.

I mean, how committed. And this is the piece of that that connects to that story from Mark 2 about, you know, this guy who, you know, was literally on his back and Jesus healed him. The commitment of you all to bring Jesus to these people. Dan, share the testimony you shared off about the folks that have been saved even the first day. Yeah, we saw 13 people give their heart to Christ. We prayed for multiple people, even for them to experience healing, for something that happened in their life.

They can go away encouraged. We gave them the Word of God. We shared the Word of God with them. At the end of the day, we're all about sharing Jesus. We want to share it in life, but we also want to share it in the Word. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing comes by the preaching of the words. That's why we're on radio.

Right. So we were excited to see that happen. But that continues to happen now. It's been 11 months now. And we're seeing people get saved time and time and time again.

In fact, I'll share this. Just a week and a half ago, there was this major car accident where typically the people would just die. Five people did die on our tables.

OK. It was that bad of an accident. But several lived because of the Niya Davenport Medical Center, because of the care they got, because we had a doctor on call. We have a doctor 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So there's going to be someone there that they can come and visit.

Which is amazing. And that's why we need folks to help us in terms of sustaining and helping us financially to continue to sustain. And these medical people, they love the Lord.

The ones that are there, they love the Lord. So you're recruiting kind of medical missionaries. They're not just a bunch of money, right? They can make money in other places.

These are local. In fact, here's a great story. Robert Ten Day has been had, you know, as you know, the Queen of Catway movie and the chess ministry he has. He has over 5000 in his program. One of his kids, who's who is 10 years old, graduated the chess academy, went to United States, graduated from Duke University, and now is coming back to Uganda to head up and lead our medical center there.

It's an amazing story. And Robert has about 50 of those that he's been mentoring throughout his career. Yeah, I think it's a real important thing. Listen, everybody needs money. There's nonprofits out there all over the place. You can't turn your TV without seeing some, you know, precious little animal and someone else with a medical issue. But John Davenport, God put it on your heart some time ago to generously give to things like this. But where there's a specific gospel witness, tell me why that's important.

Yeah, because at the end of the day, you know, we were as Westerners and I'm not ashamed to be blessed to be living in the United States. But we think of things almost exclusively from a financial and material perspective. So we think you get saved and you need to have money, you need to have how you need to basically live like us. And the truth of the matter is, you and I and Dan, we're all going to die and they are too.

And if all I've given you is a meal, that's not sufficient, because when you die, if you don't have Christ, you're going to be lost. And if you believe the gospel, if you believe what the Bible says, God's going to make all this right. When you go to these countries, there is no way that those folks are ever going to live like you and I.

It's just not going to happen. And so if we think that our gospel is about making them live like us, then our gospel is wrong. So it's not about wealth and prosperity.

That's correct. And in fact, I heard one pastor say recently to his congregation, he said, everyone in this church right now lives by a better standard of living than kings that lived 200 years ago. The poorest American is wealthier than most any African, or, you know, in these other countries. We have so much. Well, most people around the world, but the truth is, you have to ask yourself, why did God give us that much? Is it because we were that great? Is it because we just deserved it?

No. There's a call. If the Scripture says to him, much is given, much is required.

And because we're sitting on more wealth this generation than any other generation that's ever been on this planet, there are things that God wants to accomplish through this generation, through our finances. It's fun. Fine.

Go to the beach. Have your fun. I enjoy myself, but don't forget that God didn't pour all this out on us just so we can throw it away while other folks don't get the gospel. The gospel. That's the part that's important. That's what can make someone eternally wealthy. That's the pearl of great price. You know, it's interesting, the whole idea of stewardship and the whole idea of God gives to you in order to give through you, and this power of generosity. You know, by the way, the statistics are coming out from all kinds of secular medical institutes and studies and PhDs saying that generous people are healthier people, generous people are happier people, generous people are more grateful people.

There's a gratitude connection to health now and to people living longer lives. But John Davenport, we haven't talked as much about you. What do you do now? You have an engineering firm.

Talk about that. Tell us a little bit about your M.O. when it comes to working stuff.

Well, I do. I own an engineering firm. We've been running it, I think it's been about 22, 23 years now. And we've got operations in three states.

So that's been the vocation that I've been focused on for the greater part of my adult life. But it's not just an engineering firm. It functions in such like a ministry. In fact, if you went to our Web site, you would see that a big part of what we do is ministry. People join our company because they know that it is about ministry. So it's not just about a paycheck. They want to be able to participate.

So they give. We have local things that we do. We do Habitat for Humanity.

We took a few folks and this year we're taking a few folks to Uganda with us. So it's all integrated. So we have our profession. Yeah.

But we also have our passion. And they come together at Davenport. You know, I was at that bike shop today and I was telling the owner of the bike shop who's a believer.

I said, you know, this bike shop is a front. It's a studio. It's like a Hollywood studio.

Track with me on this. I think the Lord gave me this thought. We go in a Hollywood studio. That's not real bread in that little bread case. That's not real milk in that fake fridge.

Those are all facades. But when you go to the movie, when that movie comes out where that was produced in that fake house or in that prop, that studio. I hate to use the word fake, but you know, the movie's like worth it all. Wow. Unbelievable. But the set was, everything is a setup for the movie, right?

For the blockbuster. And that's how your business is. Your business, you are a missionary disguised as an engineer. And I told that to Paul. I said, Paul, shout out to him too.

I said, you are a bike shop owner, a cyclist expert, fitness expert. But you're a missionary disguised as that because people have no idea when they come in here, they're going to get prayed for, they're going to get loved, they're going to get encouraged. They may be an atheist, but they're going to come in to a place that loves them and meets them where they are.

We launder the money. How about that? I'm telling you, I love that thought.

But this is really the end of all things. I mean, you've been successful in entrepreneurialism. You know, you've been at the time, I've seen you. You're rolling and, you know, there have been in our career that's crossed each other. We've tried to hire you like, man, do that for us. I mean, it's just unbelievable with sales. Well, actually, Dad did.

Big Stu, that's right. Entrepreneurism. But Dan Navarrez, at the end of the day, money is just a tool to be used to reach people, right? More on that when we come back. The vast impact that sports outreach is having.

You'll want to hear about this from chess to baseball to medicine, of all things. And we're going to take you on a quick, we're going to do a triptych, like a little triple-A triptych with him, a stride his bike across Uganda. Take us on the trail when we come back, okay?

Don't touch that dial. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Okay, we've got a couple of big seed Christians in the house today on Truth Talk Live.

I'm Stu Everson. These guys are on fire for God, and one of them is going to get on a bike and ride 518 miles. And I'm thinking, you know, that's okay, that's kind of cool.

He's going to go from Hershey, Pennsylvania, you know, down to Sarasota or through, you know, the pretty boardwalk of here and there, Virginia Beach, you know, maybe somewhere like that. But we're talking about Uganda. Yes, we're talking about Uganda. Wait, hey mama, is that an elephant right there? Hey, wait, that's a cheetah. Like, he might be able to outrun me on this bike.

I'm pedaling as fast as I can and he's just past me, you know, chasing that little, you know, antelope right there. So, I mean, this is so encouraging. And by the way, I'm encouraged and thankful for our friends at VynTastic. I gave you the drink, John.

Yes, it's good. This guy's a fitness guru. So he's like, Stu, tell me what's in it. And I said, well, what's in it is a lot of antioxidants, you know, from our friends at MightyMuscadine.com.

What's not in it is, I'm just reading the label, no sugar, no calories, no carbs. See, Nevarez is grabbing it because he likes to work out. He's hitting that Nautilus every day. He's in that gym, you know.

You know, he's fasting from midnight to 6 a.m. every morning, right? So thank you, VynTastic. This is a pick-me-up.

It's all healthy. They call it a cellular health antioxidant beverage. And I'm thankful for our friends at MightyMuscadine.com. The parent company is Le Bleu.

There's my Le Bleu water, you know, pure H2O. But they wanted to educate and they wanted to introduce something that people could drink, consume, that's really good for you, that makes you feel better afterward, and that now even the medical community is getting excited about it. Great, of course. MightyMuscadine.com is their website. All their information is there. And they've given us a promo code as well, so they'll know that you're talking to them and that you know about it, and it's simply truth.

So it's not a bad promo code, is it? Truth or Truth Network, MightyMuscadine.com is their website. All the information is there. They've done scientific studies. $20-plus million has been put in a major medical institution to research the muscadine grape.

That is clinical, you know, you studied, engineering, you got to do your homework, right? Yes, sir, yep. And so I'm grateful for Jerry, Judy, Candy, Brock, Kathy, the whole team out there for committing to health, but health, it's not just sizzle and fizzle, but it's backed up by science. So anyway, thank you so much, MightyMuscadine.com, and thank you for giving us that little promo code, truth. And thank you to our listeners who want to support our wonderful underwriting partners. And also, we want our listeners to live long and be healthy and write big fat checks to ministries like Sports Outreach. Because when the money goes to Sports Outreach, first of all, you're a 501c3, correct? Correct. Which means you're a nonprofit.

Correct. And what happens when money goes to you? When a listener sends $1,000 to Sports Outreach right now to support this guy's bike ride, what happens?

Right, so when we go into any mission field, souls get saved. I'll give you an example. Over the last several years, I've been going to Dominican Republic, and I do baseball camps because I call myself the only pastor that teaches kids how to legally steal. Unreal. You were a base stealer at the time. You set a world record. The only player to ever lead the nation steals Division I two years back to back. No one's ever done it before.

No one ever did it since. He had some wheels on him, didn't he? I still have some wheels.

I'm 65. He can still get after it. I'm not going to try to challenge either one of you to do a foot race or a bike race.

Not for him. But you know what? We've been able to... I've got kids from major leagues, minor leagues, college, Division I. I've got high school kids. Our team last year, just to give you a fun stat, we were first year Cornerstone Christian Academy. We were 15 and 4. We stole 154 bases in 19 games.

So we set a record, a school record. But here's the thing. All of those folks that I just mentioned gave their heart to Christ. Amen.

I mean, at the end of the day, the bottom line for us is seeing kids come to Christ. And now, because of the generosity of folks that are out there listening, we're able to now bring back four. And we had one last year came from the DR to the United States to play on my team. He was a catcher. He's 15 years old, 6 foot, 215. He throws 2.0, and he hit two balls over 390 feet for home runs. Unreal.

I'm bringing now three more. I've got a kid that throws 92 miles an hour. They could be in the major leagues.

They're major leagues. But you don't want that catcher kid. You don't want him catching when you're on first, because he might throw you out.

But I don't think so. Because by the time he even got the ball back, Dan's already sliding into second. I'm already sliding. He's already like, dude. He couldn't throw me out. You're already thumbing your nose at him.

He wasn't going to throw me out. That's too much heat. I can't take that. Wow. But at the end of the day, we're all about the gospel.

Praise the Lord. At the end of the day, we step on the field, sports artists, and then we step off the field. Yeah. You know?

And for me- And sports is a big hook. It's all about that. It's a terrible god. It's a wonderful tool. It's an incredible tool. It's just like money. Yes.

It's an incredible tool. You can be like the rich, young ruler who we taught about today. That's right. Jesus said, one thing you lack, go sell everything. That's right. And he's not telling everyone to go sell everything. That's right.

Because if everyone sold everything, then you couldn't fund this medical clinic. That's right. That's right. And he didn't own so much. And really, he didn't own his possessions.

His possessions possessed him. That's right. Yep. You know?

Right? And I just stood with these guys earlier today, Will and a bunch of these young athletes, and I said, look. I said, at the end of the day, this little ball here, this basketball, it's a great sport and it's a great tool, but you've got to follow Jesus with all your heart, and he doesn't want to be your girlfriend. That's right.

He doesn't want to be your sidekick or your co-pilot. He's Lord of all, and he's Lord of your company. And so therefore, you give. It's not even your company. It's your own Davenport. Well, that's correct.

He's Lord of the company. And then what's happened, you're going to ask me about my salvation experience. I went from, I got saved, quote unquote, when I was young, I grew up in a family where you went to church and so got gospel pretty early. But the thing that really, when things began to change is when I went from the fire insurance, quote unquote, to actually, okay, if I'm saved and he's Lord, then he's Lord over everything.

Wow. And I think that's where a lot of people struggle. I did because, okay, when God says he's Lord over everything, that means everything. And it's been a progress over time to lay different things, different components of my life down. I'm still laying things down, but the business is part of it. My sports are. I mean, I didn't start riding bikes because I was doing outreach.

I did it because it was fun. But what's happened now is that's been laid down. That becomes part of the ministry. Wow.

Right. So my health and my fitness and all those things are part of doing this ministry work. It's not so much just about me.

I enjoy it. God lets me have fun with it, but it's the ministry. He won't say this, but I have never met a man that has a business and is a business leader, but who loves Jesus more than his business in the sense of that he has given all that he has to the gospel. That to me, there are very few folks like that. He looks forward more to not what the business produces, but what the business can do to advance the kingdom and to reach souls for Christ, and he's getting on that bike now.

So tell me how it works. Are you taking your bike over there or are you going to rent a local bike? Yeah, so what we're going to do, and there's seven of us going, including two of my sons, which is going to be an awesome experience to be able to get them involved in the whole mission. I love it.

Yeah, so there's five young men going and two of us older folks that have a lot more experience. How about that? Ni is going to be back here with your prayer cover. He's going to be praying for us. Yeah, we're going to bring the bikes with us and we're going to ride about 100 miles a day. So that's roughly how it works out. So you're starting. We're ending up where? So we're going to start at the medical clinic. And our listeners want to just, you know, shoot over your gun and watch the race. Well, you know, we're going to be posting.

Take some bear spray. We're going to be posting on social media and letting everybody know and vlogging and saying this is how it's going to go. Mostly Facebook, Instagram. All of that. Yeah.

So I'll make sure that I'm tagging you or tag me. We'll be getting all that back, but we'll do about 100 miles a day. And it's a circular route. So we ride up. We believe the clinic is going to be just outside of Kampala. We'll ride through Kampala. We'll ride up to Gulu, which is another major city where the clinic is up there and we'll circle back around. So it's going to be a long ride. So we're going to support you. We're working on that. We're definitely going to send you some money from the Truth Network and we're challenging our listeners to support you. But how does that work? So you, so people just say sponsor me as I ride my bike, you know, just like any kind of, you know, fun, bicycling fundraising where people say, you know, for a cause, but this cause is for reaching souls through medicine. Yeah. And so the good thing about this is everything that we raise is going to go straight to the clinic because our firm has sponsored all the riders and we're paying for getting over there.

So none of this is going to help us get over there at all. That's already been covered. Your hard cost is covered. That's covered. And so now we raise now is going to go straight to the clinic. Yeah.

It's just kind of a fun, creative way to get people listening, especially people that have a understand cycling or people like me that don't cycle a lot. Big Stu cycled a lot. So he'd love this. He'd probably want to ride with you. He could haul man at 80 years old. He was, he was busting my chops. I mean, I couldn't keep up with him. We were riding like, wait, that guy's 80. I'm back here. I'm back here sucking wind. He's way up there.

How's this happening? I remember when I was at the rescue mission and he, I wanted to meet with him and he rides up. He rides his bike down. He would ride to Alki Trade Street. He'd ride to Rolling Hills. He'd ride and go mentor kids and lead Bible studies. He'd say, hey, meet me for lunch. I'd pull up. He'd be on his bike, parking his bike out front in sweltering hot weather, sharing Jesus with gospel tracts coming out everywhere. But you're doing this for a cause to reach souls for Christ. How can people, we're going to support you.

What's the best way for listeners to go online or call to be able to write, you know, just to send some financial support, to sponsor your bike ride, to ultimately raise money for medicine, doctors, medical care for the medical center in Uganda, which will save souls because you're reaching them with the gospel to through that. There it is. So M as in Mary T N S four M E D dot org. So that's mountains for med. Okay.

Mountains for med. W w w dot and Nick, can we put that link on the front of our podcast? Okay. We'll get to, we'll get it spelled out.

You know, St Nick is amazing at posting these things. This will be up in a couple hours or med because we may have to give, give it there too. Cause that's a little, but sports outreach.com.

Can they find it through your big ministry site cam, but this, we actually that's customized specifically for this site and we have our own Facebook page. I love it. Okay. Well, let me just tell you this, put a little hot link on sport outreach.com for that too.

I mean, so the people know they're there. If you go to Facebook, put mountains of medicine in, it's going to mountains for medicine. That's the thing.

John Davenport, mountains for medicine, mountains for medicine and John Davenport, Dan Navarrez. What a blessing. Thank you guys for, for your generosity, for the opportunity to, to, to share the Lord. Well, this is a great, beautiful opportunity. And think about how many more countries we can do this with. You know, I've got close friends and I've been to Sudan right over the border, which is plagued by genocide and other things. We could do something maybe with them, you know, riding across Sudan, you got to have some protection.

Unbelievable. If I go special forces, I'll go do it. I'm riding with John Davenport.

If I'm ever riding anywhere, I'm hitting my giddyup. This guy, God bless you. Love you. Thank you, man. Appreciate you. Download this podcast later and share it with everyone. You know, another program powered by the truth network.