How To Get A Blessing From God

Hey everybody, stay tuned because, uh, if you want to have your life changed, this is going to do it. You might think, by the way, that you're living on the edge for Christ. We're going to ask you to open up your heart and mind and take in what we were about to bring to you. It's going to blow your mind.

So, we're sitting down right now with two people that I would say probably, um, a couple of months ago, an assistant of mine said, "You've got to see this." And it was a video that, uh, he showed me, and it was, uh, Rocky Coyle speaking to either a, a podcast group or no group at all, but he was addressing the camera about his life's experience with he and his wife Debbie on adoption. And that immediately grabbed my attention because, um, adoption is part of our life as well, in, in my household. And so Rocky and Debbie, it's great to have you with us right now. It's an honor to have you, and, um, hopefully you guys are okay settling in. You just come out from the East Coast and you're a three-hour difference, but, um, it's been great.

We're going to abuse you for a little bit. So, that's all right. We're glad to be here. We're glad to have you. So, a little bit of background so our audience knows who you guys are and, um, how, how you, how you came about. Of course, you got to talk about some baseball, of course. But to lay the foundation, um, how'd you guys meet and your relationship with the Lord? And then we'll dive into really the, the, the heavy lifting of this program, and that is this topic of adoption. So, who are you guys?

Okay, Dad, why don't you start where we met?

So, we met at the University of Arizona. Go Wildcats. And, uh, and, uh, we met and married within nine months, and which, you know, wait, if you know, you know. Yeah. There you go. Okay. So, um, so we met and married in nine months, our junior year. Um, and then we were going to wait several years to have children. Two months later, I'm pregnant. I'm like, so that was the beginning of God going, "You thought that you were in charge? Let me explain to you how this works."

That's right.

So, uh, anyway, so we had Josh, and Josh is 43 now. We have also a 37-year-old biological daughter, and then the, the five adopted. But, uh, so that, that began my journey with Rocky. I am, um, from New Jersey. My husband and I landed in New Jersey by third grade. My parents were from Indiana in the military. My dad was so, uh, grew up in New Jersey in a small Southern Baptist church where, um, where I came to know the Lord. And, uh, but my husband always tells me, he goes, "You don't sound like you're from Jersey, but you have the attitude." So, I know this. Yes. So I go, "Well, I can't deny that." So, uh, but, but being, being married with Rock has been an adventure. Uh, being a baseball wife was a very interesting season, and we met a lot of really interesting people. Got to go to a lot of really neat places. And so it's been, it's been good. 44 years and we're married and and hanging in there.

So, for me, um, I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and I grew up in a large family. We, my dad was a coach. He played basketball at the University of Arizona. All my brothers are over six. I got my mom's height and her looks, hopefully, but, um, because I was shorter, but so, um, but I, three-sport letterman. My dad was a coach. Amazing, amazing guy. He was, uh, the oldest living member of the University of Arizona basketball program, and just, he just passed away, uh, what about a year and a half ago now? Almost two years ago.

Wow.

And so he was an amazing, amazing man. And, uh, I came to faith through my dad was a coach. Uh, we weren't, we weren't Christians, and through Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Fellowship of Christian Athletes is the reason my whole family knows Jesus Christ. My dad in his 40s, um, he, you know, he gave his life to the Lord, and then he started sharing the gospel, you know, the Romans Road. Absolutely. And I had never heard. I didn't understand. I thought I was a good guy, you know, I was raised, uh, Roman Catholic, you know, kind of, but, uh, I just thought, you know, hey, if you do good things, you do those types of things. But my dad shared with me about what it meant to be a sinner. And, oh, Dad, you know, I, um, you know, I'll be okay, and, you know, I'm a good guy. And then, uh, I was playing basketball. I was a guard, obviously, but I played basketball, baseball, and football. And I was, I was going up for a shot, and I, I broke my hand. And for the first time in my life, I wasn't in control of my life.

Ah.

The doctor said that, um, you might not play sports again. And it was that bad of a, I smashed it really bad. It was a bone that they said could, you know, possibly affect your career. And I really had a desire to play baseball, you know, uh, but I was playing football. And so I was in high school. I'm like, you know, we won the state championship in football. I'm a running back. It was all that stuff. It was all about, you know, you're the guy on campus. And then all of a sudden, I was a nobody. And then so even though I didn't know how to pray, and I didn't know how to, um, understand the word of God and all that, but my dad had shared those scriptures with me, and I saw the change in my father. It wasn't that he became perfect. I just saw a brokenness in him.

And, um, I was in that doctor's office and I said, "Uh, Lord Jesus, you know, if you're real, come into my heart." And, you know, my life has never been the same. He transformed me. Is that right? And I didn't always understand, but there was that small voice within me that later on I understood through adoption, all that. But I just knew that he was real. And people go, "How do you know God's real?" I go, "He, you know, he changed my life." And the real thing, the foundation of it really was my father. Ever since I was a little boy, he was a Golden Gloves boxer. He was a, he was a basketball player. He was a man's man. But even as a little boy, my dad, the first time I was in Little League, you know, we, I started playing. If you ever saw the movie Sandlot, of course. Yeah, that movie is my favorite. But our, absolutely share that with you. You know what I mean? So, absolutely. So, I, um, you know, I had a field like that growing up, and I was the ninth boy born into my neighborhood, and they made a team. They were waiting for you. So, I was in, I was this, I was in a diaper, pretty much, you know, I started playing outfield. So, you know, maybe that's home plate. Exactly. So, um, and then my dad played with me. So, by the time I played Little League, I was like a star. Yeah. So, but I'm one of these guys that always wants everybody like you and everything. And, you know, so, but kids kind of started envying because I would be hitting home runs all the time. So, really for most people to listen, the foundation of my life of being a dad, and the foundation helped me later with adoption. My dad, um, I was playing that Little League game, and the whole year I couldn't get out. They didn't get me out. I'm up to bat, and I foul-tipped two strikes. Kid caught it. I'm out. Strike three. My first strikeout. Well, I handled it fine. But when I went back to the dugout, my team was cheering that I got out. You know, like, yay, he finally got out. And like, I'm, That's weird. It, I'm like, what is that? Jeel? I didn't, later on, I figured maybe it was the parents of my own kids, or teammates were cheering, and they were mobbing the pitcher. Yeah. We finally feel better about ourselves. Exact. It was like it was, and so I didn't, it wasn't that I failed, cuz my dad taught me that's a part of life. Yeah, that's right. Sure. But, but when I saw my buddies happy that I failed, I, I, at seven, I cried. My dad saw it, and cuz everybody's like in your face, you know. And so I went home, and, and for anybody listening as a dad, or anybody, and really in my heart, my dad's, I was in my room. My, my real name is Rock, R-K-K, but, uh, which later on, you know, Peter the Rock, you know, that's actually your legal name. That's my real name, Rock. Yeah. So, so my dad sat me down, and he always used to put me in his lap and look me in the eyes. And, uh, in high school, I did like that, but that's another story. But, yeah, but he said, um, he said, "What are you crying about?" And I said, "Dad, I failed you. I'm so sorry." You know, and he said, "Uh, look at me." He said, "Let me tell you something, Rock. Before you start this thing called life." He goes, "I don't care if you get four hits in a game. I don't care if you're an All-American. I don't even care if you play pro ball one day." He said, "You look at me." He goes, "I love you because you're my son." Boom. And so people say, "Why'd you play so good the rest of your life?" I said, "Because I had no fear." There you go. And so that was the foundation. And then later on, when I'm 18, and he tells me about Jesus, and I see that there's the foundation. So that's how that's my foundation of all that. And I, and, you know, you don't forget that. And then later on, when I left pro baseball to go into the ministry, my dad called me, and he said, "All these people like you're crazy. Why are you leaving? This is the peak of your career. This is what you..." And I didn't understand a calling because I wasn't raised in church, but I knew that he was doing something with me. I didn't think I was smart enough. I had, you know, I probably had learning disabilities, all that stuff. I was the last guy I thought in my head that I could possibly do this. And, um, I called my dad, and he told me, he said, "Hey," he said, "Do you remember when you were a little boy when you struck out?" And I said, "Yeah, I think I remember that." Yeah. He said, "I'm as proud today as I was then." Wow. For you to go and do what God called you to do. Wow. So, you were fathered by an excellent example. I know. And that's why I love kids nowadays because I know everybody doesn't get that. So, I try to be where I can be, you know, in a, in a role. And he's used me a lot for that. My, my ministry hasn't been on the front with everybody else. Mine has been in the, in the, you know, on the fields, in the backgrounds where the hurt is, in the trenches where the wars are actually won. That's why it's amazing that we're here because I'm like, I was actually praying a prayer after, well, my cousin was in, he's the guy that got released in the Taliban released the American, um, it was recently just got released, and, uh, I was praying for him, and I was saying, "God, if in this day and age we're living, and if you need me, I said, I'm down this dirt road doing lessons and raising these girls. I know there's a message of hope for people." And I said, "Please open the doors if you want me to." And then three days later, your people called me. And I was like, "Okay." God's amazing. So that's kind of our, that's kind of our story. That's kind of where, who I am. And, uh, you know, we're just servants, you know, we're just, we just said yes, that's all.

Is it a joy? Isn't it a joy? You know, um, I was sharing the Lord with someone not too long ago, and I had mentioned to them, they were very, for months, they had been thinking this through. It wasn't like in a momentary, "Will you accept Jesus?" This was a methodical process. And when I had mentioned to this individual, I said, "It's like this. It's like Jesus becomes our master, and we become his slave, but in that is true liberty and freedom." And that was a stumbling block because this guy was taking it seriously. He said, "Wait, did you say slave?" And I said, "Yeah." And he goes, "I can't do that." Well, I appreciated his honesty. Yeah. He said, "I can't do that." And I go, "Well, okay, but you do have two sons, don't you? Teenage sons." And he was, "Yeah, what does that have to do with anything?" And I said, "What would you do for your sons?" And he said, "I'd do anything for them." Now, I got to tell you, I don't think this sharp on the spot, but it was the Holy Spirit. Cuz I was impressed later. And I, I said, I, I said, "Well, uh, who brought them into the world but you and your wife?" "Oh, that's true. Who pays the, who pays for their food and the roof?" "Well, I do." "Okay. But yet you're willing to die for them?" "Absolutely. Drop of a hat." And I said, "Are you not a slave?" He said, "No." Amen. I said, "Let me, let me ask you again. Are you not a slave to your sons?" That's right. And he, you could see him get hit. And he, That's right. A week later, he accepted the Lord. But.

So, Debbie, what, what about you? What, how, what was your upbringing?

So, um, I became a believer, went to a nice, like I said, little small Southern Baptist church in New Jersey. There are no big Southern Baptist churches in New Jersey. You're Jewish or Catholic. Jewish or Catholic. But, um, so, uh, became a Christian at nine. Didn't, I'm sure I did not totally understand the whole kitten kaboodle, but I got that I needed Jesus, that he loved me. And, um, my parents got divorced when I was in eighth grade. So, changes the trajectory of your life. Um, my mom did a great job of of keeping us there, keeping us in church, and, uh, and my brother and I, um, know Jesus because my mother took us there, or whatever. But, uh, and then from there, I had been going to a school in New Jersey, broke up with the guy, and went, I just wanted to go do something else. And so I went out and, um, went out to the University of Arizona, and I knew this is where I supposed to. Well, I had my, my mom had a best friend that lived in Phoenix. Okay. And so I looked at Arizona State and Arizona in Tucson, and came home, went, still went back to school, applied, got in, and went, "Okay, I'm, I'm out of here." And never, never let went back. I just, Wow. I, I don't make a good, I may sound like it sometimes, but I don't make a good Jersey girl. So, uh, that's, It's too, I'm, I'm, I'm much more. California, Arizona is influenced by California. It's just got that nice slower vibe, and it's too hot to get all dressed up. In New Jersey, you dress up to go to the grocery store for people. That is true. Huh. That's, So I'm like, I'm a better westerner than than that.

Interesting. So, did you guys meet at, uh, ASU?

At U of A. Oh, UFA. Sorry. If you say ASU, that's like, Sorry. We'll edit that. We'll edit that. That's a devil. Yeah. That's a devil. Or Wildcats. Yeah, Wildcats. Is that, is that where you? We did. We, uh, we had a class together, and, um, the first day of class, I, I took, I had to take a non-majors class because I'm elementary ed. She was PE, full PE teacher, and they cl, they go over sometimes. Well, so I had to take this one non-major class, and this other guy who was with me from, from the, was there with, and 20 minutes into class, and Rocky comes in 20 minutes late. And what was worse is the teacher goes, "Hey, Terry," his dad, he had been his dad's coach, "Hey, Terry, are you in this class?" And I go, "Oh my gosh." So Rocky's like wanting to hide under the desk, but, uh, that, that was his first entrance into my life, late. Should have been a sign of things to come. That's right. Just saying. Uh, but that, that started it, and, um, we actually really got together through Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I was attending that, and so was he, and, um, there was a guy, Rocky tells the story better, but there's this Gus, Gus, what is it? Big African-American kid. He's a football player, and she was looking, I mean, I, you know, I thought she was out of my league, you know, cuz, you know, that's always a good like, you're on the right path. That's when you're relaxed because you're like, I just, I got to have a shot at this girl, so I'm just going to be nice. Yeah. But she was there all the time, and I'd saw her on campus. I saw her on campus a few times. But this big dude, one of the football players, we had been kind of talking to each other, and he just grabbed us both and he pushed us like close together and he said, "You guys would make a great couple." And I actually saw her blush. I think this chick digs me a little bit, you know, or something. And that's how it started. You know, it was all real, everything was like really, you know, we got married at the Newman Center on campus, all that stuff. And, wow, you know, one of our teachers did the wedding, and, and so, you know, and so that's how we got married, and and then started, you know, pro ball, and, you know, poor Deb was in every, from Utica to all the different towns we that we we were in. But, um, but when her, tell about recent, you know, how Deb, our, uh, that your dad, you know, came back into your.

Yes. So, well, yeah. Very fun. Um, my dad came back. Well, he was never like gone. My dad flew for American Airlines, so he, I was used to my dad being gone. Yeah. And he could be gone for stretches, and it just, you're, you're a teenager, and normal for whatever. Doesn't everybody do that? That's right. So, um, but when I, uh, my dad had moved to North Carolina, and we were living in Alabama, and, um, he said, "Hey, Rock, you know, there's a church here that's looking for a youth pastor. My church. Are you interested?" And so Rocky goes, "Yes." So he applied for the job, and so to let my dad and I come back together, and my brother, who's actually living in LA, he got a job also. He worked for Siemens and in LA. Of course. Sure. And, and he wanted to re. So this was an opportunity for, Debbie, a hole in Debbie's heart. Yeah. To be you. So we moved to where her dad was so she could reconnect with her dad. Her brother came from California. Wow. We bought, and I bought property, um, next to each other. So, we've been together for 30 years raising our kids. Really fun. How great. And then about six or seven years ago, my dad and his wife wanted to scale down and said, "If, if that house ever comes on the other side of you available." So now my, my dad lives here. This is like a Monopoly game. It's like crazy. It's crazy. I'll take Park Avenue. All this dysfunction, all this dysfunction from across the world, you. And then my son Josh, when he, Josh actually when he grew up, said, "I will never come back to Hillsboro." That's North Carolina. In Hillsboro. Yeah. In North Carolina. I, I'm going out west because that's where I'm the happiest." So they did. They went to, uh, Vancouver, Washington, lived there for several years. But then God's funny, and they had an unexpected blessing of a baby boy that they thought they were done having children, and just really wanted to come back. So they came back, and, you know, he's, he ends up in, we live in a cul-de-sac, and he bought the house that went up for sale on the cul-de-sac. So it's my dad, Rock, and I, my brother, and now my son, and my oldest son, and in the city is going to rename the street. Yeah. My daughter, who's foil lane. Yeah, that's right. My daughter, who is a, our daughter, 37-year-old, our biological daughter, she's a dry humor girl. She goes, "You guys now have a cult." It's a cul-de-sac, you know, she calls it. Got it. And she goes, "I'm not going to live in the cul-de-sac." You know, she's single, lives by herself. So, the coil cul-de-sac. So, this dysfunction, it was, it's cool to see her dad, you know, for me it was huge, cuz I, you know, as her husband, I saw the huge hole in her dad, and he became a Christian. Wow. They're believers. And so they're believers. And here's the, This isn't funny, but, now her mom lived in New Jersey. Her husband died, and she moved by us. And then unfortunately, she had a terrible fall. And now we have all the girls. And her mom lives with us now. And it's, The other day I was driving out of the driveway, and I look up, and there's Deb. She adopted your parents. Yeah. We, so we have another girl. Dude, I, I, That's why it's good to talk to you because I need some men in my life. You know what I mean? No, but it's just, But she, um, it's like I want to go in the backyard and beat my chest. Just say yes. Eat some dirt. Say, say yes to the dress. I can only handle so long, you know. So, but anyway, uh, the, uh, I look outside, and there's Debbie's mom, her dad, and his wife, and they're sitting around talking about, you know, the Lord and stuff. So, wow. So, it's like I go, "God, you're an amazing, uh, person." Yeah. My testimony probably is more, um, I really believe that in restoration. It may take years, but I, I, I believe in that God's desire, even in the worst of the worst, is restoration. And when it is, it's very sweet. It's not perfect. No. It's not. And it doesn't take away the mess, but restoration with him is amazing. So grateful for you saying that because, yes, I so agree with that. That when Paul says in Second Corinthians five, that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation because we have been reconciled to Christ through him. Amen. That the natural Christian action, you don't have to be Billy Graham, you don't have to be, the natural Christian spirit-led act is to go about making reconciliation among friends and family or whoever. And that is just such a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And you're right, it's not perfect. It's messy. But the thing is, as imperfect, imperfect as we are, that ministry of reconciliation is a divine call, and it's upon every Christian. Nobody can be watching this program right now and say, "Well, that's the call for Debbie." That, no, no, no. If you claim to know Jesus, right? Then the words that you use, the actions that you take are all wrapped up with a bow of reconciliation. And that matters. If you go to a restaurant, or if you're with family, if it's Christmas, or you're at a Dodger game, you know people are watching. You bear the name of Christ. And what's the whole point? I've been redeemed. Amen. He has reconciled me. And so my mission, all of our mission in life is, well, Paul told Timothy, "Do the work of an evangelist." We're not all evangelists, but we are to do the work of an evangelist, which, which I absolutely love. This is a good point for us to pivot and, and please let me say this. You, you guys are probably so well-schooled in this, but I'm thinking, I, we want to talk about adoption. We want to talk about, um, your experience because it's such a great example. And yet, at the same time, please do, do me a favor and, and weave in your natural-born children so I can know them too. Yes. Because, amen, uh, those that are watching right now, there's going to be those who only have adopted child or children, or they have natural and adopted children. Um, and before I turn you loose, I'll say this one final thing. We have an adopted granddaughter. Um, and my, my daughter, uh, when they adopted her, I mean, they were there. They cut the cord. Oh, wow. Wow. That's so cool. Oh, wow. It was amazing. Amen. In fact, that arrangement was made while the young mother was pregnant. Oh, wow. That said, what was amazing is people will say to us today, she's now, she's, I think she's going to be 16 like in a week or two. People will say to us, "Oh, what a nice family." And boy, uh, is that your granddaughter? She looks just like you guys. And we're like, "Going, 'Oh, yeah. Hey, we don't even remember that she was adopted.'" People will remind us. Does that make sense to you? It's like, wait, oh yeah, yeah, she was adopted. It's like, but it comes down to who adopted who. Because again, going back to that slavery of love, it's that, uh, you know, we'll die for her. Yes. And so for me, as believers, for us, yes, we forget. We weren't, we weren't exactly, yes. We were born again into the family of God, but being born again into the family of God, not born again, yes, that comes from adoption. Book of Romans tells us that God adopts us. Right? So, here's what, here's the, here's the push. Tell us about your remarkable, awesome adoption calling by God and the ministry that you have.

It's really powerful. I mean, sometimes I look back and I'm amazed because God's so amazing. Anybody who's listening, if you just learned his voice from when that first time he spoke to you, and when he tells you to do something, it might be scary. It might look hard, but when you, when you follow and you're obedient, it, the results of it are unbelievable. It's so powerful. Don't be afraid and just step and do it. And for us, it was like that, you know, because we, it was un, you know, first of all, our children, Josh, my son Josh, who's 43, he's, uh, that's our natural, he was our firstborn. And he's been, he actually, part of him coming to North Carolina back again was he wanted to be a big brother to my, to his. It's almost chokes me up because that's, you know, he wanted, and he's, he's like that. He gives him a hard time, and he loves them, and, you know, that's what big brothers do. And that's what, dude, they, they, he gives hard times. Yeah. One of my daughters says, I, she was, she goes, "That's all he does. He just teases." And I go, "That's only, you only have one. It's one is enough. One is enough. Someday you're going to miss it." And he's like that. He's a man of character. He's a man of integrity. And I remember one of the reasons I left pro, professional baseball. I was playing, and we were playing the Tigers, and Debbie, um, they, they try to catch up to you when you're in pro ball. You know, it's really hard on families. And Joshua was just about ready to start kindergarten. Oh, and he, you know, I was his guy, you know, of course. And so I'm going to, going to the salad bar to get something, and I was walking away, and he's screaming, "Daddy, are you leaving again?" And he was holding on to my coat or to my, uh, pants, my Levi's. And I just turned around and looked at him, and I was like, and that's when God started working in my heart. One of the reasons I left baseball was I needed to be his dad, you know? And so, um, I didn't know it was going to choke me up like that, but he's, uh, so I remember seeing his face, and I was like, "Wow." And I was playing a sport that everybody was telling, "You're great." And so, and, and I know it's maybe not for everybody what happened, but, um, God started working in my heart. And he was beginning with the ministry part, but it was about really being a dad. And, uh, so next spring training, you know, I went in, and I, you know, I got my release, and I started, came back, and a guy offered a, a place at an inner-city church in Alabama, and I started helping him and working towards, you know, knowing more about how to be a pastor. I didn't know I was going to be a minister, but, but anyway, so Josh started kindergarten. So, just to kind of go through it quick, you know, I was with him at his Little League games. I was with him at everything. And so I take him, he gets a scholarship for baseball to NC State years later. And Josh is a man of few words, but they're powerful words. He's not like me. I'm more outgoing. It's a wise man. Yeah, he's like that. And so I'm walking out. You don't, you don't do things as a man to go later, "Hey, we, as men, men of God, we do it. We just do it because that's what God calls us to do. We don't want accolades. We're not looking for people to." And so he was, he was, uh, in the dorm room, and I'm leaving him in his dorm room, and I'm walking out. Oh no. He goes, "Hey, Dad," he said, "I know what you did." He goes, "Thanks." Wow. For being my dad. Wow. So he, I'm driving down 40 like, like, ball, it's raining inside. No. Now, was it, was it easy? Did the enemy mock me when the A's won the World Series, and they were my friends, and the Blue Jays won it through two teams I played for, and I'm watching everybody on national television, and I'm emptying garbage cans in a church in the inner city? The enemy's saying, you know, you're a failure. Wow. He did. The accuser of the brethren. He comes right after you. But yet, I was in the big leagues. I was, You see, because, and men that are listening, people are listening. It's worth laying it down as a man. Wow. It's worth laying it down. That's all I say. You know, you don't get that. Even now, I down this little dirt road, a little shed, I do heading, go home at night to my girls and my family. And you pay the price, but you, It's worth it. It's worth it all. You pay the price, but God's dividends. You're a rich man. You're a rich, You're a rich, uh, family. So that's the relationship with Josh. And then you can talk about Rachel, too. You know,

Rachel's a little fireball. Came in as a fireball. Um, she's a lot of fun. She is, uh, she's nothing like Josh. She is more like Rocky, and just, uh, people person. She's a hair stylist. That's why I look good because of Rachel. That's right. Thanks, Ra. Good job, Ra. Um, and, uh, but she is, she's a defender like Rocky. There was, uh, she was playing basketball in seventh grade, and she's short. She's 5'1 on a good day, but she's strong. And, uh, Rocky and there was an, they were coaching the middle school basketball team. The coach had a special needs daughter who, uh, just, you know, was going to be five her whole life, but she loved Rachel, and Rachel was really good to her. And, and then when they went to high school, uh, little Lena was being picked on by some of these big kids in, in the high school. And Rachel, 5'1, goes, thumping up in people's chests and goes, "Do not ever." Right on. "Ever. If you do, I will take you out." It's righteousness, by the way. But, but that's Rachel. That, and so Rachel, even with the girls, you know, she's allowed to, to talk trash about the girls, but don't you talk trash about the girls. Only I get to do that, you know. So, she's very loyal like that. I love it. Yeah. So, she's, she's a fighter, and she's, uh, we went through a lot of medical issues with her that God worked through. It was a miracle. You know, she almost died of a blood clot and a bleed in the brain. She survived. What age was that? 16. They had just played for the state championship in volleyball, and, uh, they said she was going to die. You know, I held her in my arms and almost lost her, and God got, God healed. She, well, they don't, they, they know now that she has Crohn's disease, and that causes blood clots, and she had gotten a virus, got dehydrated, but we didn't know that then, so we just thought she had a virus. And they kept saying, "When did she hit her head?" Never. But she's, that's been a very hard journey. That's been a long hard journey for Rachel, but I think, you know, you talked about, just to kind of segue into the adoption pieces of it, there were things that God was doing to prepare us that I, I could not have adopted these girls when I was 20s, in my 20s. I needed to know the normal progression of what child development looked like, and I had Josh and Rachel for that. And then because of Rachel's medical issues, um, I, we didn't, we don't have a ton of medical issues with the girls, but there's enough that I needed to, I need to know what they're talking about and go through. We have Duke, Duke and UNCC, great, these two huge world-renowned hospitals. And so it's been really, and again, I don't have tons of experience, but just, I need them every now and then to do some, uh, things with some of the girls. And so that was, I, I learned a lot about navigating some of these things, and, and also trauma. So that, that brought trauma into Rachel's life, and, uh, sort of changed the trajectory from her of what she was going to have to end up working through of almost dying at 16 and not wanting to look at it and blah, blah. So with the girls also being older adoptive, they, they remember where they come from. They remember China. They remember India. And there's just things to work through. You know, one of them remembers, uh, you know, walking the streets of India for three days on her own, the monkeys, and, you know, that's trauma. That's scary. That's like, "Never, I'm never going to let that happen to myself again" type of thing. And, and yet God spared her for that, you know, from some really bad things. So, I think that Josh and Rachel, I had to have them, and I, I kind of had to grow up myself. And then I think also, even spiritually, I think there were things that I was doing. I was attending Bible study fellowship. I attended pre, I became a pres Bible study teacher. There were things spiritually because, um, you know, I tell, I've told the girls many a time, "Yeah, I, I've given you all the tools. I've taught you how to make your bed. I've taught you how to do dishes, to cook, blah, blah, blah. I've t, but, but I also taught you about Jesus because, you know what? That's the only thing that when it matters, that's the only thing that matters because, yeah, I make your life comfortable here on earth, but I'm, I'm not here just to spend time with you here. That's right. I'd like to spend time with you in heaven forever." Most importantly, huh? She taught him the word, that K. Arthur precept me. Absolutely fantastic. Yeah, she, Debbie was, uh, disciplined in that with with our kids. And, um, that, that's the foundation of that. So, isn't that so true? It's, And then our fifth, you know, when we go to adopt now. So, so she does it. Oh, yes. So, as we go through this, so adoption number one, how did it happen?

So, it has a long story. So, Rachel is, um, in, Rachel was a junior in high school, and, and Josh is already, um, out of the house and married, and, and I was, uh, thinking to myself, "What am I going to be when I grow up now? Rachel's gone." And I could be a PE teacher if I wanted to be. I'm like, "Nah, I'm not going to do that." So praying, praying for two years. And in the midst of it, I was working for Hallmark, and as, and, um, Did you say Hallmark or Walmart? Hallmark. The cards. The cards. I was working in Hallmark. Wow. And, uh, just part-time, and there was a woman that I had, uh, knew, and she walks in with a little boy and in a stroller, and he is Latino, and she says, "I said," she's not, "and she's not," and, uh, he calls her mommy. So I said, "What is this?" And so she tells me the story, and, and she goes, "I'll call you later." So while she's talking to me, and, and I don't have a ton of these experiences, I just have very few. I hear God say, "After praying for two and a half years, what am I supposed to do with myself?" I hear God say, "Pay attention because this is what I have for you." And I go, "Okay." Yeah. By the way, he doesn't have to say that very often in our lives. And that's probably a good thing. When you hear that, there's a reason why. So, one mission enough can consume your entire life. Yes. So, I, So, Rocky's of course working at night. He's teaching batting lessons, and, and I am not a night person. So, I go to bed. So, in the morning, we're hanging out, and I said, "Hey, Rocky." I told him what happened, you know, with with this friend, and I said, "Rocky," I go, "What would you think of adopting?" And he goes, "This is too weird. Just yesterday, I was thinking to myself, I would love to adopt. Debbie will never go for it." So, because we're almost 50 now. Our kids are gone. We're 49 when we start this process. And Rock needs two seconds. Debbie needs two years because that's who I am. I need a plan. I'm not a spur-of-the-moment person. I've married that same person. We're like, I mean, yeah, I can say, "Let's go." Lisa will say, "We need to pray about it." And after we're done praying, we need to plan it, and then pray again. That's right. So we, so we ended up doing so, so that was, so then I'm now, I'm, I'm all in, and I'm doing whatever I can, and, and God pretty quickly shut down domestic for us. We, we did look at the foster care, and I'm like, "No, I just didn't, you know, you know when God's leading, and that wasn't it." And so Rachel, who's now a freshman at NC State, she goes, "Mom, have you ever thought about, uh, uh, international, going to India?" This is you. Oh, Rachel, no. Spirit of God. Too far. Too far. And I don't know anything. I don't know the language. None of that. Love the food. Yes. But that's, Oh, you know, 10 different. The furthest place you could be in the world. Well, we, because we're old, we didn't fit into a lot of places. And so India was perfect for us. Wow. And so we ended up in India, but that was a real problem for Rocky because Rocky didn't want to go to India. That was all the terrorist stuff in India, you know, far away in the, for, you know, in your head as a, as a person. Yeah. I was like, "God, I, we can't go here. I, I work with these kids here and, you know, in America." And, and so that I got, I, It's hard to admit as a man, but you're going, "Man, I don't want to go all the way over there, you know, in, in your flesh." Isn't that amazing? He was a pill. It's more than in your flesh, which isn't like me normally. And I was like, "Why am I like, why am I acting this way?" Yeah. You know, cuz I, "Why can't we go here?" You know, cuz you're thinking to yourself, long flight, and you know those, you know those, Yeah. God, I'm willing to follow you anywhere. Just make it comfortable. Easier. Easier. Right? Can you, can you just, Can I watch the Dodgers from there? I'm just kidding. So, we, so we launched through the process, and, um, and the, the lady sends me six little girls, and, and I just knew, I knew, I knew Swati. Swati was, was the one. And before she knew it, I looked at the picture, and I looked through all of them, and I said, "This girl right here." Really? She had been burned. I, it's hard for me to talk, but burned and left to die on the side of the road. How old? They don't know, but she was like 13 pounds. They say she was two. I think she was closer to four. Yeah. Because of all the neglect. But she, uh, later on, we found out she saw her mother murdered. And, um, she was just left. She had scabies, lice, was left on the side like nothing. You know what's tragic about what you're saying is I've had friends that have done mission work in India. Yeah. And it's hard for Westerners to believe, but what you're saying is not uncommon. No. Right. You pull up in a cab, they're around. Americans, Californians don't even want to think about this. Yeah. No, it's everywhere. You pull up in a car, they're coming up to your car and knocking, the little, little tiny ones for something, for water, for food, for something. Yes. So, so then I, we saw the picture, and then, you know, God started working in my heart, cuz I'm like, I'm open. I said, "Lord, just do whatever." But you need to tell the story, cuz he, he, you weren't that open. Yeah. And so Rocky had, um, his little beat-up 4Runner, and he had put the picture up on the 4Runner, and he's on the visor, and he's, and he's going with, I mean, he's, he's, we're on our way to doing this, but, you can see he's like this. So then, finish this, because it's, Yeah, she's right. I mean, it's hard to admit as a man. I mean, in front of everybody. Hi. But, uh, it was, it, you know, God was working in my heart to do it. And I was driving down the road, and his, the spirit of God was so strong. And I just said, I had to pull over, and I just flipped that visor. And I was looking at her picture. Wow. I said, I said, "If she needs a dad, you, I'll be her daddy."

And God. It's that will. Yeah. You know, you, the changing of the will right there. Say yes. And then I was like, I'll go to the I don't care where I go. There you go. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. Yes. You know, you can you can detonate a nuclear bomb somewhere in the planet. Yeah. And it can't change the will of a man, the will of a woman. Can't happen. Doesn't have that power. No. Oh, it's a devastating power. It's a devastating power. But it's powerless against the changing of a man's will. Only God can be that. Yes. Nuclear agent in our soul. Yep. It's amazing. Yeah.

So that that's that's where it started. And then so then it was and let me tell you something folks that are listening even when we came here the amount of warfare for us to get here I I already know what that is cuz I've been in ministry. I mean, I've been a follower of Jesus and God has always called me to have, you know, to speak truth, but the warfare, the amount of warfare for us to I know you do, but we hear this, but I'm telling you to get here was like even getting here today, I already knew how to get here and it I went a wrong way, you know, and I was like, what this? Then I got on your campus and I couldn't get out of the that other camp or that the other church campus because they had it all blocked. But anyway, but so the warfare twilights for the warfare to go get her was was unbelievable. It was I can't imagine it. So it it should have been like a year and a half and it was two and a half years and we we ran into everything from a strike in the city was shut the government agencies down. Bribery in the government. It was just it was but she is a gem. So yes, she is Leah. We So her name is Swati. We we give you we keep your country name although although none of the girls know what their biological names were. I mean their yeah biological mom's names but we keep your country name and then we get give you whatever we feel like God is is saying. So because I already had a Rachel I named her Leah. I felt like that was just from the given. I had Leah. So Josh Rachel and and and Leah and and Rachel uh love each other there. There's always Rachel has always had a special connection with Leah and uh and has tried to make her pretty and when she came over Leah liked to be a girl. Of course. And with the hair styling Rachel would mess with her but uh it it was really sweet and yeah when we went there we finally got to go we had to make two trips that province it's against the law to just get them in one trip. So go bro I'm telling you something man it sounds like something California would do. So yeah exactly. So every province has a different laws like here you know like states. So we this but it was so difficult. So we fly all the way to India. We're our first time we're already kind of you know intimidated not you know just kind of what what's going on. Here's these where these if almost 50-year-old we're running around India and if you ever been to India if you haven't there's something to that. We go, we're going through this area and we find this orphanage and it's, you know, they I know they're doing the best they can, but kids don't have shoes, scabies, lice, they're sleeping on the floor. They have these little mats and uh so anyway, they bring her um they bring her out and you know, you're praying all this time and those of you that are listen, you know, watching the, you know, the power of it, what God does, they bring her from around the corner. This is what we've been praying for forever. And she was just this, you know, scarred and just this tore apart and and I, you know, I'm a ball player. I'm a Christian. And I felt like this big. That's right. I just looked at her and I heard the Lord speak and say, "This is the kingdom of God." That's right. Where you are. Yep. Where the broken and the hurting are. Yeah. And this was you before you knew me. That's right. Oh, so good. You You were broken and scarred. You had no hope. That's right. And um I just looked in her I had to lift her little face up. Mhm. Cuz she was like felt like nothing. No, no reason for her to look up. Right? And I just looked at her. So you're my little girl. And then the hardest thing, man, was we had to leave her to go back here. And I knew she was getting a brute a. Did they communicate to her that? Did they somehow said they're going to come back? We don't know what they would could tell her because they said so many we found out. She Yeah, that was that was a bad day. That was a bad day. But the day we left, man, was a bad. Remember how I didn't want to go there? Yeah, I got it. I got it. And then I didn't want to leave. Mhm. And then I wanted to come back right away. You wept all the way back states. And then you're hearing babies crying on the plane and I'm going, I didn't get And you knew you were as a protector of that's my girl. I did not want to leave her there. And that was in my life of all the things besides death of people I've loved, that was one of the hardest days of my life. And I I don't share that a lot. Just the emptiness and the hurt of having to fly 16 hours back and leave that little girl. And then in hell. In hell. Yes. And so we came back and then it was even longer. The paper it was supposed to be 6 weeks and it was 6 months. Mhm. So we finally fought and then and then when we got there even in India again it still was a fight. They didn't want to give her up. So it is there's more to the story but it's like we finally got her and then tell them about we got on the plane get on the airplane at um. We have her at night. All the flights out of uh India were at night. So it's 2:00 a.m. in the morning and we sit there and we finally have her. We're we're going to leave Delhi. We're going to fly home. And she's sitting in the middle of us and um all of a sudden the captain gets on and says you know this is really unusual but fog has settled in on the area and this woman sitting next to me is Indian and she goes there's no fog in January this is what I looked honey you are sitting next to me. You're with us. Let me tell you why there's. Tell you how much I understand that. And so Rocky I looked at each other and Rocky grabs my hand he goes in the name of Jesus remove the fog and we were in the air in 20 minutes. So I know I got so but. And then I got sick on the way home. So it was brutal. So I was like. Well Satan went from the fog. He was so sick. The fog didn't work. I'LL TRY THE FLOW. Leah Leah was filling his water bottle with Indian water. And I had told him I go don't touch my water bottle. No. It's like a zoo inside that bottle. Oh, he was so sick. So sick. Mugs. So that's how we that was our first and and also people when when folks are adopting, we are crying to people back in America. Pray. Mhm. We're in the middle of warfare. Oh, yeah. You know, you know, it's like I mean, we're we it's a life or death here, you know, and they're thinking, "Oh, they're having warfare. Their hard drives seized up by the power cord's not working." Yeah. No. No. I'm trying to pay this guy to release her, you know, and bribe him to get her out of there. You know, we we've always called it a ransom. We have to hurry up. I can't believe we're running a long time. No. No. I'm sorry. This could go on for hours. But you talk about we actually uh I've been to uh Russia over 20 times and I learned from the first trip there regarding uh church planting. I mean, it's it's sad, but you know this. You literally have to keep a certain amount of money in your pocket. Yes. For bribery in those countries where they come to you and say, "Well, I could let you guys use this stage for your service tonight, but I would have to have $20 and you got to go like this." And it's like, and I remember having a ethically I had a hard time with that. Yes. Until the Lord just smacked me and said, "Jack, you're grumbling over 20 bucks that number one I gave you for this trip. It's my money, Jack. And I am not going to let 20 bucks stand in the way of reaching hundreds of Russians right now." That's right. So, so I'm going to clarify this really I'm going to clarify this really quickly in case anybody's adopting from India and India sees this and gets really mad. We We did not pay any extra money. That was there somebody asking for extra money? Yes. We we neverice we. Yeah. I I want to say this was all done on the up and up and that we did not know extra money. Went well at least not not that that we knew of not from us. I just want to clarify that in case somebody sees that in India. And I want to clarify that my situation in Russia was completely illegal. It turned there was mafia charging us to meet on those streets. Oh yeah. They were. And it turned out that the Russian police department got involved and they actually helped us get the mafia off of our back because of what they were extorting us. But that said, with the time remaining, we have like 10 minutes. I know that's that's almost sinful go through you. That's that's. That was one that was the first one. And then when we got back um we uh Sevita, who's the one we shared with you, Sevita was the next one. She was in Delhi. Sev Leah was in um southern part of India. She was in um Hyderrobod. So now you're up on top. So Sevita um I saw her picture online um at the site. And I said, "Debbie, this looks like" and she goes, "No way she's still there. She's so beautiful." We called um they said, "She's available." And um so we then we started right after we got back, we started another process to go get Sevita in Delhi. And so uh we raised you know we came back started raising the money doing the paperwork. Debbie is amazing. She's a superstar. Paperwork and labor and hard work that to get all that stuff done. Don't let it overwhelm you, man. It's worth the fight. So, then we fought and we went back to get her uh probably a year later, right? Not no not even a year. Well, literally a year. Yeah. And then we did we did the Chinese girls. We have three from China. One of the first ones who's on the video with Rocky, Chi-Chi. Chi-chi is um Chi-Chi and Sevita are the only ones that we have kept their uh country names. Chi-Chi is Chi-Chi. She is not Tabitha. She is a Chi-Chi. Her name was uh Lingchi. They gave him the first name when whoever came in that year. They gave him a last name. Then we took that off and her name was Chi. She's hilarious. But she came first and and she. There are so many stories about Chi-Chi. She's uh she was when we adopted her. The funny story real quick. We can do it. Mark Funny story. I I had to go do paperwork with with whatever. And so Rocky had her they had gone to the pool, came back from the pool, and u it was a kitchenet thing. First of all, in the pool, she dove in the pool in the deep end. She tried to drown. She jumped in and I was walking and I go, "Do you know how to swim?" She just wanted to swim. She's nine. She's got She's nine and she thinks she's knows. I mean, people think she can swim. Yeah. And she and I look and she's in the bottom of the pool and I'm around water my whole life and I go, "Dear Lord, I'm going to drown my daughter. Right. Just so I dove in and I get her up and she comes up. She's laughing. I go, "Don't she doesn't know Chinese." I go and then I get her out and she jumped in again. Oh gosh. So, and so then I grabbed the floaties and I put them on her arm. I said, "No, no, no." But Rocky was taking her and flipping flipping her. And so she's just a gamer. So then we go upstairs and everybody has to hear this because I go upstairs. Debbie's doing paperwork. I'm getting she's in her suit and I'm in the kitchen little area and I HEAR WA YA YA WOO WAH AND I turn around she's got two of the biggest knives from the kitchen and she's going and she knew how to do it and I was like oh my goodness we we adopted a ninja a ninja. You're the security. She had her legs like and I went. You know good job and then she flips the knives and grabs the handles and she hands them to Now you do it. And she has and she has um she only has stump on this hand and she only has three fingers on this hand. She was doing it with, you know, a little stump hand. That's my excuse. I go, "How do you do that? I couldn't do that." So that's how that was Chi-Chi, you know. So we got her and then the little girl who um was who was Chi-Chi was found on the streets in a box. In China. In China wrapped in a little pink blanket on the in the. How long ago was this? Uh she is almost 21, 21. So So they saw her defects and they just abandoned her. Really? And then she had her umbilical cord still attached when they found her. And then Abigail, they found the other little girl who had been in the same bed with her since they brought them in as infants. They found her at a train station in a in a little box. So they they grew up together. So when we got Chi-Chi, they brought Abigail out to have lunch with us. Normally you don't go back to the orphanage and they invited us back and they said that nobody ever adopts children this age and so they were thankful and then when they brought us to have the lunchon they brought her out and I told Debbie I mean Chi had been screaming for two days and Debbie I think this is our next one and Debbie's going are you out of your mind you know it's like. I leaned over he goes Debbie Debbie I think this is the next little girl we're supposed to adopt and there's a screamer which is probably an angel spoken her so that she would get your attention. I just told Rock, I go I go, "We haven't finished with this adoption officially. I need you to eat your lunch. I don't even talk to me." But so then it was my turn to listen to God and have to go and and I had to I go, we went right back, got Abigail. First, she wasn't up for adoption because we saw her. They put her up for adoption. They said she was married. She wasn't in the system. That's what their words were. And that and she was dumb and nobody would want her and blah blah blah. And I said, "We want her." So we went back, got her. So I know we have a little bit of time, but then when we got back, we were done. We were done adopting four kids, all the hard work, and we had a party. Everybody who has supported it, we had them there. So we're sitting around the table eating, and they're talking in Chinese. And then the one of the daughters was talking about this other little girl there in China who we I had seen her. I saw her. She has a big w she had a big wine stain red mark on her face and nobody they said that she's nobody would want her. No one's going to want her. Yeah. And so anyway, we found out she had um she used to hide her food and she would um uh keep people from hurting the other two little girl. They at night she would hide her food and come feed them. And they told us at the table and I was like, so we're in the bathroom, our only place we have privacy and I'm getting a shower and in the shower, I'm telling you what happened was I was sitting there and I knew God was saying to do it, but I was so tired after four and I was it was this moment. I've never had it happen since or four. I heard God's voice and and I said, "Lord, I I don't know if I could do this again." And this warmth just came over me. It was a piece that I. Yep. And he just said, "It's going to be okay. Just do it." Yeah. And Debbie was getting her makeup and stuff on or whatever, working, and she said, "You heard him at the table." And I I was like, "Yeah." She said, "We got to have to go get her." And that's how we and we found out. The bad thing was that Debbie Debbie you you tell you called the um the. We had we only had four months to get her out and she was going to age out. And it takes a year and a half to get each each of the kids but but everybody um every everybody did it quicker. China agreed to do it to expedite it and the American we did. So. They said it's not impossible that you have to. And we prayed said God we got her. And raised the money. God actually created the problem and put it on Facebook. That's a great point. So Lord, you got this is your gig. And so our congressman, we didn't even know, you know, he went for it and helped put a person on us. Everything that happened, you know, and all this stuff and. I love it. And then all of a sudden, boom. Um, they call us and all the money came in. You know, we're, you know, youth minister, you know, it's like. Every kid's 60 thou, you know, but but we're debtree on it. God, it was all God took care of it. You know, 40,000 kid. Yeah. But with but anyway, so. Um, but God, you know, if anybody who's desiring to adopt, if he puts it on your heart, if it's his will, it's his bill, he will take care. Right on. He will he will provide. People walk up, guys would walk up when we needed it quick and they 20,000, 30 thou are you 10,000. There's also an agency in Texas that doesn't look like you're taking from the government that you can donate money in a family's name and then they pay your fees and you and you get a tax write off. And anybody who's out there, if you know people who are adopting privately without anybody knowing, you stick if you have financial stuff, you go bless them because it takes so much pressure off because people are fighting for these kids and that's the hardest thing, you know. People just don't acknowledge it and see it, you know, but they're, you know, that's just. But we're grateful, man. We, you know, I the other day I was just praying to the Lord. I said, "We have just a heart of gratitude. We're so thank people always come up and said, "You guys are such here." I said, "Whoa, whoa. The only thing I deserved was hell." That's right. You and me both. I That's all I know that everything that h that God put this on our heart that it's him. It's his power. He needs to be glorified because people always try to tell adopted people. Oh, or missionaries. Oh, there's a special place ahead of every. No. I said, Debbie and I are just we're saved by grace. Amen. And we just love Jesus. But boy, the results of it when we look at those girls when my little girl who couldn't Seevita was malnourished when she couldn't hardly walk to the mailbox when we got her. I looked at her run up those steps at Liberty University that one building that has the steps and I pulled up and saw her run up and wave at me. Oh man, it's worth it all when you see them come to Jesus and you see the power of God. That's what people you don't you know, we're the ones blessed, not them. That's always the case when we obey him. That's what I got to tell folks. The slavery, it's worth it all. The slavery to Jesus is the ultimate freedom. Yes. Amen. That's exactly right. You know, pe so many people, they may not say it this way, but what they're really saying is, well, you know, Christianity, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's not really working for me. Mhm. Well, the problem is is that you've still allowed yourself to exist rather than surrendering to him. Uh, he knows nothing about spectator, right? Christianity. No, it's and and the joy you guys are just personifications of Jesus said, "If you give up your life, you'll find it." Yes. This this divine sanctified contradiction. Give up your life, you're going to find what it really means to be life. While you guys have been sharing, several thoughts came to my mind where clearly one of God's names is way maker. Yes. And he did that for you guys. And he's doing it for you guys. And before that thought was how God honored his word. You know, Psalm 138 says, and this is a heavy. It's hard. I don't even know if I understand this. In Psalm 138, God says, "I has I have honored my word above my own name." That's hard for me to handle because I know that the that the Lord and the word and that encapsulates his name and he's inseparable from himself. That's impossible. He can't be separated. But when you realize that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that there's no other name Jesus among men given given whereby we must be saved. Jesus is that name. And then God announces in his word, but I've esteemed my word above my own name. Now, glory be to God, the word of God, and the name of God is Jesus. That said, Amos 3:3 says, "How can two walk together unless they're in agreement?" And I don't think humans can be in agreement without God. Now, somebody might say, "Well, we're not Christians and we've had a marriage for I'm not knocking that." But we're looking at the two of you who lived not a life to get the house at the beach or the Porsche, the garage, or the plane at the airport. Not knocking that. But if that's Listen, you guys are examples of kingdom first. Yes. Kingdom first. And when that happens, that is against everything Satan stands for. He hates you. He hates God. He hates everything about your witness and story. And so he causes the fog or the flu to pop up. He just has to do something. You know, he Satan never has a good day if you think about it because there are people just like you who have yielded their frail lives to an almighty God. Amen. And the result of your faithfulness is these kids are walking around planet earth and they cannot no matter what they say, they cannot deny that God has intervened in their lives no matter what journey. Right. That's right. It's absolutely awesome. Really quick. Where can people find out more about you guys? How do they connect? Well, uh, you know, so, uh, I have a little website, uh, forlife, inc. So little forlife.org.org. forlife. For-life.org. And it it's no little website, by the way. It's very well done. Oh, good. Yeah, we tried to it. Our original one got hijacked by the Russians, of course. And so they tried to take that. We resembled that. They wanted like 50,000. I said, "Not me. We'll just make it four- life." So, yeah. And then on there, it has um, you know, obviously I do my little camps and uh my main thing is I do camps, mentor kids, and then uh I've been praying for more of an opportunity for us to share what God's done, you know, and so they can go there and it has a a support thing or whatever, you know. We don't We're a small nonprofit. It's real small. And we just uh, you know, that's I've been really praying at a point where I don't have to do the lessons. I think that should change you guys. I think that should change. Um, they shouldn't be a small nonprofit with what they're doing. So I mean, you guys should definitely go to for-life.org. Go check out that website and see what they're doing. And your ministry should be very big. Because this is pure kingdom stuff and it's incredible. Uh, we want we want to see you guys explode, whatever that means. Let God define it. Yeah. But um, yeah, what a testimony and I know you guys have so much more to say. We should probably do this again sometime. But do it. We just we love you and appreciate you having us here. It's an honor. Oh, well, hopefully this is a start of a of a new and long relationship. We'd love to see that happen. Thank you so much. It's great to have you. God bless you, Debbie. Thank you so much. Amen. Amen. Hey everybody, listen up. Uh, we actually wound up breaking a rule uh to bring you what we're about to bring you. So in sitting down with uh Rocky Coyle, uh, the conversation was wonderful, but it didn't talk about enough not enough of what we needed to discuss. And so on uh on the other side, we sat down and um breaking the rule means this. Um, I had him sit down with a bunch of men from our church, which I normally do, but this time we recorded it and we're going to let you in on that. Uh, it's going to be insightful. It's going to be powerful. And if it it's if it's a blessing to you, if it really touches your heart, um, I would love for you to to share it with other people. So, um, let's dive into this. I think you're going to find it fascinating. I am, uh, blown away with what God can do in people's lives. Amen. Not only those in whom you know he rescues like us, but then he turns right around and he uses us to rescue others. And the economy of God is exactly that way. No wonder why he told the demoniac in Gera when he cast the legion of swine out of that demon-possessed man when he said, "Jesus, allow me to follow you." you. And Jesus said, "No, no, you're not going to do that. I want you to go home from where you came from, which is the decapus." And he said, "I I want you to go and tell people what good things God has done for you." And that is the economy of God. Um, Augustine said that when we preach the gospel, if you have to use words, then use words. In other words, use your life first. That is absolutely awesome. So Rocky Coyle, who you're going to meet this evening, uh, had his career in professional baseball. He'll talk maybe a little bit about that. Um, but I'm I'm gonna have him dive right into the deep stuff that we need to hear because he and his wife Debbie, their life story is incredible. Tonight, it'll just be Rocky and I out here for now, but we're hoping that in the future, uh, God opens up a door where we can connect and experience the miraculous work of God more and more. I also want to encourage you, you're going to hear a lot tonight about adoption. And um, I have to I have to tell you Rocky's not invited though regarding us promoting adoption. When I saw and I heard Rocky exhibit a life that's yielded to Jesus. That's why he's here before you guys. Excuse me, ladies. I'm so programmed to say the guy's y'all here right now because this guy for me encapsulates so much of what we want to achieve. And it's it's amazing. It just so happens God used adoption in his life in a powerful way. Adoption was the tool that God used in his life to make him a rescuer. And We're going to learn a lot tonight. Um, we're going to have a table talk this evening, so listen carefully. Um, but his career, you can look at that in detail later on. U, but he was a man accomplished in his own right. He'll share a little bit about that, but I want to get into the the life-changing deep stuff. And so, Father, I pray that this evening, though there's not many of us in here tonight, we know that later on this will be broadcast and we hope that it reaches millions of people because it is certainly true that wherever the concept and the idea and the option for adoption is present, we know that abortion decreases. We know that when adoption is elevated, uh, more babies are born rather than terminated. And Lord, I pray that this influence that Rocky and Debbie have had on Lisa and I translates into real active ministry in the state of California to present an alternative to this bloodthirsty state that is bent on abortion. And God, we pray for your your we pray that you'd have freedom tonight to move in our midst. And so we ask it, Lord, now in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen. So I want you to give a warm welcome to Rocky Coyle. Okay, Rocky, I want you to dive in. Uh, these people are going to be shocked tonight about how little I talk because we need to hear from you. But who are you, brother? Who are you and what what's God doing? Well, God is uh doing some great things. Thank First of all, thank you. The people here have been so loving and kind to my wife and I. You can sense the spirit of God and and it's just powerful and it's it's an honor to be here. I for me I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Yeah, you got an Arizona person there. So, I was raised in a sports family. My dad was a coach and my dad was a basketball player. I tried to tell everybody they're laughing, but my brothers are all six feet and I'm 5'7. So, you know, I got my mom's height and her looks. You know, that's about all I got. But but my dad's athletic ability. So I was raised in a sports family and we um basically with with my dad was a coach and so we was around sports. So anybody see the movie? I was sharing this on the podcast. Anybody see the movie um Sandlot? Do anybody you guys love the Sandlot? Well, I grew up in in a neighborhood where I was born and I was the ninth boy born into my neighborhood. So, I was out there playing in diapers and was playing baseball from when I was a little guy. And so, when I started playing little league, I was better than everybody else. So, my and also my dad was coaching me and my dad was always teaching and and a lot of kids today don't have a good father and I was very fortunate to have a great father, but he was a man's man. He was a he was a boxer. He played basketball. He was the oldest living he just passed away and um he was the oldest living member of the University of Arizona basketball and so he was a really good player and if you look his stats up he was good. I didn't know how good he was so I looked up his stats. So by the time I started playing little league I was already kind of like a legend. And so when you're playing little league against kids that were younger than you it was it was insane. I every time I got up it seemed like I hit a home run. Everybody was trying to get and I have one of those names, Rocky, that everybody kind of like, hey, Rocky's up, you know, hey Rock. My real name is Rock. Rock Joseph, but uh but later on I realized Peter was the rock. You know, my dad didn't know it at the time. So, you know, my roots were this were sports and and those things. So when I was playing my my last little league game, I was up to bat and I had two strikes and the guy pitched the ball and I foul tipped it and the catcher caught it. Well, I got out and I handled it fine. My dad was one of these guys. Have you ever been to little league games or travel ball? Parents never show themselves very good, do they? You know, so it's like, but my dad was this big strong guy. He would always stand way down the left field line and just stand there with his arms like this and he would not interfere. And so he saw the whole thing happen. Well, the bad thing was I I was only like seven or eight years old. I didn't understand that people were like envious of you for doing things. I was just a little guy and I wanted to make everybody happy all the time. And I go back to the dugout and my own teammates are cheering that I got out. My own teammates. And I was like, why are they cheering that I got out? Then they were mobbing the pitcher that he got me out because I was getting home runs all the time. So they're mobbing the pitcher and we were winning 11 to nothing and they're mobbing the pitcher cuz he struck me out. And then the parents of my own teammates were cheering that I got out. So I'm like 8 years old and I'm not sad because I got out. I was getting a taste the way the world is sometimes. And so I started crying. Not because I got out, because I I was confused. My dad's and you the men that are in here. I want you to hear this because this is so powerful. I'm 66 now. This is so powerful for you guys to hear this because it can make the difference in a young man's life or a young lady if if you just have girls. And my dad saw it all happen. I rode my bike home and he came in the back room and he sat me on his lap. And I hated him looking at me eyes when I was in high school, but that's another story. But um he always made me look at him in the eyes and he said, "What are you crying about, son?" And I said, "Dad, I'm sorry I failed you in front of everyone. Um, I'm embarrassed and I'm sorry that in front of everybody I did that." And he looked at me and he said, "Let me tell you something, Rock Joseph." He goes, "I want you to hear this before you start this thing called life." He goes, "I don't care if you get four hits in a game." He goes, "I don't care if you're an all-American." He goes, "I don't even care if you're you play pro ball." He said, 'You look at me and you never forget this. And men, you need to hear this because we can speak life or death into our into our pe the people that are around us and it makes a huge impact. And this world, these little ones are looking for men who will speak life into them. Amen. This this generation is crying out for truth and life. And I was as a little boy. And my dad said said that to me. He goes, "I don't care if you get four hits, if you're an all-American. I don't care if you play." He goes, "I want you to listen to me. Listen to me close rock." And he leaned towards me and he said, "I love you because you're my son." He said, "You just do your best and be the best you can be." And that's what he said to me. And it was powerful for a young man. And I, you know, all these kids nowadays, their parents are yelling, "Get your, you can't do you know, they're screaming and they're so they're judging them. And my dad wanted me to do well. He saw it wasn't fair, but he was trying to teach to and you know what I'll tell you, when you put that in a young man's heart, he becomes a warrior. There you go. He becomes a warrior. And that's what I had no fear to ever fail again. The funny thing was I went on to be an all-American and I went on to be a pro, but that had nothing to do with it. And that's and that so my life started in athletics and those things and then uh there was another movement of my father a little later that that you know about my faith and things like that too. So um so that they know who you are real brief. You know how we spent a lot of time on the podcast we spent a lot of on that. We don't need to do that now because what we're No, that was my fault. Yeah. What we're going to do, we're going to blend, by the way, we're going to blend what we experience here tonight on on uh video and we're going to uh put the podcast in up front and then put this in behind it and make sure that we release that out because people need to hear what he's about to say. Um so, we're going to skip all of that part. We're going to go to um the the ministry, knowingly or unknowingly, there was the ministry that God was bringing you and Debbie into. That would soon uh change your life and the trajectory of both your lives. Yep. Forever and other people's lives. Where where can you start on that? Well, we Debbie and I were going into our 50s. We had raised a family. We have a son who's 43 and our daughter's 36. Debbie and I have been married 44 years. So, the real hero I was telling everybody else is my wife Debbie. She is amazing. We uh we have a birthday on the same day, by the way, same year. Except I always look older. She never gets old, you know. So, but we were Debbie was looking, you know, Debbie was a PE teacher. She and she was working at Hallmark and and what happened was God started working in her heart about being about adopting. And then this lady came into Hallmark and she talked to her and then she the lady had adopted a little child and the Lord was telling her you need to listen closely then and for Debbie it you know it takes Debbie and I are complete opposites by anybody who's married and you're complete opposite that's Debbie and I and uh so it's it's a powerful thing. So God started working in Debbie's heart and then she came to me and said what about adoption? So in our fifth just about almost 50 years old, Debbie and I started in in the adoption and we we cited we looked uh, you know, around uh, you know, close to home but then our daughter came to us and said what about India and we found a little girl on line uh or with uh the agency sent us a picture of our our first little girl uh Swati and she had been burned and she was burned and left to die and she was uh 13 pounds when they had found her and and uh they showed that picture of her and we decided that uh this was our girl right here. This was the girl we're going to do. But for me, for all you guys out there, at first I was saying, "There's no way I'm going to do this. Go all the way to India and do all these things." And God started really working in my heart. And I had put her picture like you saw on the video. He really started working in my heart. And God started uh really convicting me to to really hear his voice. And I put her picture on my above my truck and one day on the way to work I flipped it down. I said, "Lord, if she needs a daddy, I'll be her daddy." And that's really where it started for me. And it was a powerful powerful thing to see what God had. The adoption story is an amazing thing for us and and what God was doing in my life. How long is that? Sorry. How No, that's great. I want you to keep going, but how many years ago was that? It was about 14 years ago. And 14, 15, Deb, I can't remember. Debbie's better on time, but it was about 15 years ago about now. So, it was it was 15 years ago. So, we started with with one and so we go there. We finally get to go and when you go to India, some provinces are different than others. And so, we went to um we go to Hyderabbad and you have to go twice. Their laws say you have to go to court and then you have to leave and then go back and get her. So, a guy who didn't want to go at first to go get her because I was kind of like, "Oh, man. It's 16-hour flight." The Lord took us to the furthest place you could go on an airplane to India and China, you know. I'm like, "Direct 16 hours, you know." And so, we we go there and Debbie and I are here. We, you know, these we're in our 50s. We're going down through uh India and we get to the orphanage and it's it's hot. The there's kids don't have shoes and there's all the there's no they they sleep on the ground and and you're watching and and you see all the poverty and you see the the brokenness and you know so often you feel like you really know Jesus and you think you know him. I was a ball player. I was I had been a youth minister. I thought I really knew Jesus. And um they brought her around the corner. This little girl and uh I just looked at her and she had her head down and something with I always do with my girls because they're always they were pushed down so much in their life. They have their head down and men you need to do this with your little ones. I lifted her chin up and I looked at her in the eyes. And as I looked at her, I heard the Lord speak to my heart and my pride and what I thought I was. And he said, "Hey, this is my kingdom. This is my heart." That's right. It's the king. This is It's the least. It's the least. And oh, Rocky, by the way, guess what? That was you before you knew me. You were scarred and broken and you had no hope. It was the gospel right in front of my eyes in the India. And I'm not saying everybody has to go ad do. I don't it's but if you hear the call of God, whatever it is, maybe it's somebody in a store or or maybe it's at the nursing home or wherever God calls you, if it's that or whatever it is, if you hear his voice and you obey him, this is something I was learning. And you obey him and you follow.

Through, God pours out his spirit and his blessing, and it's powerful. Even though it can be hard, and you know, you don't always understand, but if He's in it, you win it. If He's a part of it, God will provide. And I got to experience that by trusting God and obeying Him. And it's not that Debbie and I are perfect. No, we're—I'm a sinner saved by grace, the grace of God. And what Pastor was talking about today, that spirit that's in you, when it comes out, you do great things for God.

Amen. I mean, and it's, you know, it's not you. You see God's power come out, and you see lives changed, and you see Him work in ways that are exceedingly and abundantly above anything you could ever ask or hope for. When you're obedient to God, even if it costs you everything, it's worth it. And I saw that when I looked into her eyes, I saw the face of Christ. And I also saw my depravity and that I don't have it together, but I know He does. And so that was the start of it.

And the guy who didn't want to go to India, Debbie and I got to spend time with her, and then they took her away from us. And I knew what they were—what she was going through some tough times. We had to leave. And I tell you what, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life to leave her behind and have to go back. They said it would be six weeks, and it was six months before we could go back and get her. And we finally got her. And you know, and it was for you that are praying for people, the church, the warfare that's out there. What we were crying out for was our people to pray. When you know people are doing things, the power of God and the power of prayer is so important. And if you don't want to adopt, if you're blessed financially, people that are in that, you know, secretly bless, you know, just bless them to help them along because, you know, God's doing great things through that.

But that's what the Lord was showing me and gave me a heart for the broken. And I had already been working with kids my whole life. When I left professional baseball, God called me into ministry. And I'm the last guy in the world that was ever supposed to be a minister. You guys would think, you know, I was just—I got saved through Fellowship of Christian Athletes in high school. And it was—I had a teacher, Mr. Hughes. He was my English teacher before I knew Jesus. He—I was in class cutting up in class in English class, college comp. And I was supposed to be doing something, and I was cutting up, and he was a really good guy. Came to all of our events. In the middle of class, he goes, "Hey, Coyle." He said, "You'd be a good minister, preacher." And I looked at him and I go—and all my friends start laughing because, believe me, I wasn't a preacher at that point. And he said, "Yeah." He goes, "You would be a great preacher, Rocky." And he was speaking into my life way back there in high school.

Thirty years later, my high school coach died. And I went back to do the funeral after I had become a minister. And I'm in the middle of the funeral. And I look out, and there's Mr. Hughes sitting there out in the audience. And he's sitting there like this. Oh, that's great. And I was looking at him in the middle of the funeral like this, and he goes, "I told you." And I said, "I know." And so, you know, you saw—but that was another thing where he was speaking into my life, and I didn't even know it. That's so true. So, they'll—through so faith and following Jesus after baseball. I was a youth minister for 25 years. And one of the reasons for you, everybody who's listening, when I was going around to different cities and, you know, I got to play with Mark McGwire. Mark McGwire—I say they played with me, but, you know, when I was with the A's, I hit third, Conco hit fourth, and McGwire hit fifth. Number three hitter was the best hitter, by the way. I just wanted to say that.

Also, I'd be in the outfield. I'd be in the outfield, and people would be going, "Look, it's an Oompa Loompa in the outfield," and they would say, "Follow the yellow brick road." You know, people from the stands, I heard it all being short. And so when you're on deck with McGwire and Conco, it's like you look like their little brother, you know. But anyway, they—you know, so, but when I played baseball, what God was preparing was, as I followed Jesus and I was—every place I went, God would have me speak at little places. And I started hearing the cries of this generation. "My mommy and daddy broke up. My mom's a drug addict." And the cries of these kids over and over again for truth and for someone to love them. And I started hearing that in my heart, and I didn't know what it meant to be a calling on your life to be a minister. And then God started working in me. And when I left baseball, I went in and asked for my release, and God called me from baseball into the ministry. And everybody said, "You're crazy, man, to leave baseball and to do all this."

Listen, one of the reasons why, and I had shared this before, my son Joshua was just ready to start kindergarten, and Debbie and him caught up to me in baseball, and they caught up in this town, and we were at a restaurant eating. And I was going to the salad bar, and my son goes, "Daddy." And he grabs my pocket of my pants. He goes, "Daddy, you leaving again, Daddy? Don't go. Don't go, Daddy, please." And I just looked at him, and God was really speaking to my heart. Said, "You don't need to leave your son anymore." So, one of the reasons I was called into ministry, but I wanted to have a relationship with my boy. He's 43 now, and he asks me to go to coffee every week because we have a relationship, and he knows Jesus.

But when I took him to college, and, you know, I was dropping him off, he's real—you know, man, few words. And I was dropping him off to play baseball at NC State University. He said, "Daddy," or he said, "I was walking out." He goes, "Hey, Dad." He goes, "I know what you did, man. Thanks. But all the money in the world, guys, and families, all that stuff that's going to pass away, none of that stuff matters." None of it. Those riches and things that, you know, they're gone. But following Jesus has been the greatest experience of my life. That's the most important thing.

And that dad, that dad that I told you about, my father Terry, he gave his life to Jesus in his 40s. And he came to me again, just like when I was a little boy. He said, "Rocky, if you died today, do you know where you go?" And I—I'm going to go to heaven and all this stuff. But he did the Romans Road with me. And I heard for the first time that I was a sinner. And my dad, in his 40s, through Fellowship of Christian Athletes, gave his life to Christ. And that was the foundation that I had a father not only that loved me there, but then he told me about Jesus. And my whole—my sister became a missionary, and I became a pastor. All my brothers and sisters know Jesus. They're serving the Lord. And so we're—and man, if you want to hear something awesome, this wasn't—people say awesome, but my dad passed away recently, and all the family was there. All the generations know Jesus because my dad came to Christ and stood for Christ and lived for Christ. And all these generations. And my dad, I heard at the end of his life, would give 90% of his money to ministries and all these things. And he was an encourager and a discipler.

So, he goes—he's—when he's dying, he's breathing his last, and you guys need to hear this because all these things that we get busy with. My dad was taking—he was—he was at that point where he wasn't moving, he was just breathing, and hospice had him, and all the family was around. And we had the video playing of my mom and dad's wedding, and all of us kids growing up, and all the siblings were—and the grandchildren were around his bed. And he was like—and all of a sudden, he hadn't moved for two or three days. And he leaned up and he fell back, and he—it was his last breath. And I looked—we looked up, and a tear came out of his eyes. And my little brother jumped on his chest and goes, "Go, Dad. Go, go, Dad." And he took the tear and wiped it on all of the kids. A tear came out of his eyes. It was almost like he was leaning to the finish line at the end of his life. And then I stood up. I stood up like this, and I—I don't know why we did this, but I stood up and I started clapping. Standing ovation for the greatest man of God I ever knew. And everybody stood up and cheered. And I was sitting there going, "People looked at this, we think we're crazy, but as believers, that's the blessed hope."

Yeah. Amen. Sorry, I didn't mean to start preaching, but that's—you go. You go. But that's what—Amen. If you want what really is truth, it's not in the fame and the fortune and all these things. It's in that little orphanage where you see the face of God, whether it's a store clerk that is thinking about killing themselves, and you come in and speak life to them. That we have the power of God in us, and we can change lives just by being just the ordinary folks that we are. But we're extraordinary for Jesus Christ, and that's just the way it is.

Amen. That's awesome. I love it. Um, moving. So, I don't know how much you want to share. Um, I mean, you want to be discreet, I'm sure, but these young ladies that God brought into you and Debbie's life, these weren't little Hollywood starlets. These were—you mentioned, we saw in the video today that two of the Chinese little girls were found in boxes to be disposed of because—yes. I would imagine China's policy, plus remember there's no God in China, so life's very low-valued. But then you also, if I remember the video correct, the two Indian girls, they had been abused or—if you guys think of any, you know, it's like everything you read about is probably happening. You know, and the first one, Leah, we knew. I shared with you. She had been burned and left to die. And she—folks, by the way, she just got back from her second missionary trip with YWAM. She's sharing the gospel all over the world. That little girl, the first one. And she's a dynamo. I take—you take her to the airport. Her backpack was three times bigger than her, and she's like, "Bye, Dad." And I'm like, "Yeah." Oh, wow. Because you've seen her from the beginning.

And then Sevita. Oh my goodness. Sevita is a dynamo. She was four, and her—she was abandoned at four, and she said, "Daddy, I looked for my mommy for two days, and I couldn't find her." So she was abandoned, and then someone helped her get food, and then a crazy person—she ended up having her throat cut, and she almost died. She survived. She just recently—she graduated from Liberty University in one year, and she finished. She went to junior college for a little bit, but she finished in a year, then she got her master's in seven months. I tell people she gets her brains from me, of course. But she's one of the greatest apologists I've ever met. She is—Frank, watch out, because she is like—I know Frank was just here, but she's an amazing, amazing woman. Just to watch her and see what she's done. Beautiful young lady.

Then Chi-Chi. Chi-Chi is our stylista, man. She is—when I first met her, she could talk English a little bit. She goes, "Daddy, I get cell phone, put it here, and I walk like this, you know?" And I'm like, "What?" You know, now she's an aesthetician, and she loves Jesus. And if you watch the video online, it talks about her salvation, the full video. But Chi-Chi was—Chi-Chi was—they found her with her umbilical cord still attached in a box with a little pink blanket. And I remember one day she asked me, she goes, "Daddy, do you think they still have that pink blanket?" And I said, "No, I don't think so." But just to see what God's done in her life is a powerful thing.

Then Abigail. Chi-Chi—Chi-Chi was our third. And what—what Chi-Chi and the next little girl, Abigail, they were both found in the box, like Pastor was saying. And when they were brought in, they slept in the same bed their whole lives, from when they were babies all the way up throughout their lives. So when we went to get Chi-Chi, we got her. They brought her. To explain, it's like if we live in North Carolina, Raleigh is the capital. When what they do is they bring the child from whatever province or state they're in. Like if you were in Carolina, if I was in Carolina, they'd bring the child from whatever area it was. If it was in California, they'd fly him all the way to Raleigh, wherever they were. So, they brought her to the capital. We did our business with the Chinese, and then we got invited back to the orphanage, which usually doesn't happen. So, we go there, and while Debbie and I are there, they have this big luncheon. Nobody had ever adopted kids their age from that orphanage. We were the first ones. And people had shirts on that said, "We will never forget you because we adopted these girls."

Rocky, why? What age is that? They were like six, seven, eight. You know, the old—considered too old. Yeah. Too old. It's considered too old. So, it's just—most people want babies, and nobody wants the older children. Especially women. Girls are really hard. A lot of times they steal kids out of the orphanage and they use them for what you guys hear on TV about. So, there's a lot of abuse in there. So when—when I went, when Debbie and I went there, they had the luncheon, and they brought her best friend out, Abigail. And the funny thing was, Chi-Chi had been screaming for two days because they told her if she wasn't good, that they would—the new people would eat her like for dinner. So she was afraid of us, and she had never seen blond-haired, blue-eyed people. She thought everybody in America was—I go, "No, we are a wonderful country. You'll love it here."

And so, they bring in Abigail Ling Young Feay. She was right next to me. And this girl, Chi-Chi, had been screaming for two days. I look at Debbie, my wife's from Jersey. She doesn't mess around. And I said, "Hey, I think God, we ought to adopt this other girl." And Debbie goes, "Have you heard this girl screaming for two days, and you want to adopt another one already?" You know, and we were just, you know, going back and forth. And God moved in her heart, and we went after Abigail. We a year later, we go after her, and we get Abigail. And when we got done, it was four kids in four years, and Debbie and I were exhausted. We were like, "Yay! Okay, God, no more." And this is how funny God is, Pastor. It's like, so we're done. And Debbie is the hero. I told these guys earlier, my wife deserves the major award. You hear in a Christmas story, she deserves the major award. The paperwork, the homeschooling, the trauma, the specialists, the counselors, all the stuff that came with it. My wife is a champion. Believe me, she is the one that did what—she's an amazing, amazing lady.

So, we get done, and God is so powerful, you guys, how He does things. You don't see it coming. We didn't see the four adoptions coming. I wasn't looking at that. Debbie and I were antiquing together. Our kids were gone. We're like, "Let's go to Disneyland. Let's go to Disney World." We were having so much fun. And then God said, "I want you to adopt." And next thing you know, I'm buying a Sienna van. I go, "A van? Oh my goodness. Another van? Got to be kidding me." So, we get done with the four, and we're—and we're around the table, and the Chinese are talking to each other in Chinese, and the United Nations at your table. Oh, I know, man. Maybe Africa next. You know, that's what we were talking about. So, we're around the table, and we had taken the paperwork, thrown away. We had a party at the church. Everybody came, all the people that supported us, all the people that financially gave to us and everything. We celebrated. We had videos. We had their scrapbooks of each kid out there.

We get home that week or so, and they're around—the Chinese are around. And we had seen this other girl when we were at the orphanage. And she had a wine stain on her face, big red one. And they told me nobody would want her because she's so ugly. Um, that was their words. And that she's not—she's cursed because of her face. And she was so sweet. And the Chinese girls were talking, and they're translating back and forth, and we—Debbie and I hear that Anwen, her name was Anwen, she used to sneak food because a lot of times their food would be stolen from them by the workers, and they couldn't eat. And so she would steal her—she would keep her food and go and give it to them at night and take care of them, and she would protect them from the older kids. And they said that at the table, and I was like, "Oh no, why did you have to say that?"

So, and the only place Debbie and I have any alone time is we're in the—we're in the bathroom because—so I'm—and I'm going to tell you something. The power of God, how He does things. When you walk with Him, it's kind of an exciting adventure sometimes because you don't know what's going to happen, but it's cool when you go on the ride and you're going, "Wow." All the way from leaving baseball, becoming a pastor, going to adopt at 50, you know, you don't know. So, I'm in—get in the shower. Debbie's putting makeup on and stuff. And this hasn't happened since, but I was in there, and I knew God was telling me to go adopt that girl. But we were so tired. And the financial stuff you're trying to raise to do it is just overwhelming. And I was talking to the Lord. I said, "Lord, do you really want—do I—your voice, I hear it." And there was a warmth. It wasn't the water. It was the Holy Spirit that came over me through my body, and it was warm. And I said—and it was—He said in my spirit, He said, "Don't be afraid. It's okay. I know you're tired. It's okay." And it was His presence like I'd never felt.

And then Debbie's from Jersey, and she's at the window, at the mirror, going, "Did you hear that at the table?" She goes, "We got to go get those kids, don't we? That girl?" I go, "Yeah." You know. So, but the incredible thing was, when you go to adopt, it's—it's hard to do in a year, raising the money, paperwork. So, we call, and they go, "Hey, you know, this little girl, you know, we probably can't come get her, right, because we're too old." And the lady goes, "No, no, you're not too old." I go, "Okay." And we said, "Uh, well, you know, it's probably—" And she goes, "Are you guys interested in that little girl?" And the agency knows us. And so they checked it out. They call us back and they said, "Hey, she—you can adopt her. I got good news and bad news. You can adopt her, but the good news is you can do it. The bad news is that she turns 14 in three or four months. And in China, you can't adopt them when they're 14." She's real little, so I didn't think she was that old. And Debbie and I prayed, and we decided to go for it. Let's go for it. Let's raise the money.

And so we just started going, and people started—out of nowhere, "Here's $20,000. Here's $10,000. Here's $5,000." Our congressman, our senator got a person on, and we started cramming. Debbie knew how to do the paperwork, and we're just going for it. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Man, it started coming. The money came in. One guy, you know, one guy gave me—he's not even a Christian, he gave me $5,000 for every kid. He gave $25,000 total. He's an Italian guy. And he was like, "Oh, yo, why didn't you tell me you were having another kid?" And he goes, "I got a five for you." At first, I thought he said five bucks. And he walks up, he gave me five grand. I said, "Whoa." And so he did. Another guy gave me $10,000. So the money comes in.

And all of a sudden, they call us and say, "Come." And we go. And the guy's stamping this—our stuff in China. And he says, "Oo, you barely make it, man." And I said, "Yeah." And I said, "Stamp that thing quick." And we get there, and what I don't tell you is when the last little girl left, that little girl that took care of them, she was holding our one of our daughters, and she was weeping when she was leaving because all of her friends were gone. Oh. And we have video of her weeping. And a picture I took, turned around and took of all the kids up there, and her little face was up there watching her leave. And you know what she said to me when she could talk? She goes, "Daddy, I couldn't believe that you came back to get me." And she goes, "My face, you know." I said, "Your face is beautiful." And see, dads, we—our kids need to hear that. Just like my dad spoke into my life, our little girls—I always wear a certain cologne because I know the smell of my mom and dad. My dad was Old Spice, you know. I loved his Old Spice, you know, but I would hug him. My mom's was—Debbie knows it, but I—but I always when I grab my girls, I just hold them right here, and I just tell them how much I love them and how much I believe in them.

And, you know, the last 14, 15 years, it's been—you know, I didn't know what God wanted me to do. And He just told me, He said, "I want you to be a father to these girls, to the broken, and I want you to love them and tell them how proud you are of them and how much you love them." And so, I've just poured my life into just looking into them and telling them and doing stupid dad jokes and everything, even though they don't understand them. And, you know, they're the only ones that listen. So, Debbie just shakes her head and says, "Please." And so, you know, in a nutshell, that's kind of like—but through it all, Jesus and His Spirit have been there through it all, through the hard times and the good times. And when I'm driving with them, it's been a blessing. People always try to come up to Christians, whether you're missionaries or you're adopting, "Oh, you deserve a special place in heaven." And they're—Oh, that God has a special—you know where I deserved? I deserved hell. Yeah. It was only by God's grace and His mercy.

And when you follow Him, whether—when I was in the locker rooms and I was the only believer, and everybody's cussing and chasing girls and doing all this stuff, when you stand for Jesus and you hold fast, whether He's telling you to go to India, or whether He's telling you to go right across the street, or to stand in like that brother today that was in political realms, that we stand for Christ, and He will bless you and honor you, and He'll take care of all your needs. And He's done that.

Yeah. Absolutely. I'm curious. Um, do we happen to have—do we have the video? Not the one we showed today, the short, the edited one. But do we have the other one? I wonder if Matt can hear me if he's around. There was one that I saw. I thought there was one that was about seven minutes long, but I think you know of one that's even longer than that, right? Well, that one you showed today was just—they just cut it. Well, that one's been edited down, but—um, the one that I saw, I'd love to know if we can have it. In 10 minutes, we can have it. Okay. I think it'd be great for all. Are we going along the right lines of what you wanted as far as the things I'm sharing there? I had no idea what I wanted. Okay. I know. That's what I love about him. I was just standing back there and I go, "Is there anything we're talking?" He goes, "It's Jack. You can't just just go out there." I said, "All right." Yeah. Yeah. You—there's something on the video that they'll see in a moment, which is why I asked about the video. One of the things that really won my heart over was one of your girls said something about that she was not a believer. Yes. Gigi. And I don't want to—I don't want to steal the thunder. She says a particular word that is very important for men to hear. Yes. To hear. I think you already—you're figuring it out. I'll elaborate on it after they probably watch it, probably. So, there's a word, and you'll hear it. I'm not going to say it. You'll see it in the video that every one of you men, I don't care if you're single or you're married, that word has got to be resurrected in your vocabulary when it comes to not only just other people in your life, but any women in your life, no matter what age, no matter where they're at. They could be—it could be your mom. It could be that young lady that you are interested in. There's a word that she uses about her dad that, to me, just—I had not heard it in that context before, and I just said, "That is perfect." So, in a moment, you'll hear that. So, keep going.

And the person that the little girl—he's well, she's a young woman, is Chi-Chi. She was—the reason she was abandoned was she was—she only has three fingers on one hand and she has a stump here. And so she was abused really bad and made fun of, and she was angry and didn't trust, and there was so much anger inside of her, which I totally understand why. And you know, you're not heroes when you adopt them, and you're not sitting there hoping they fulfill something in your life. God just called us to love them and to represent Christ and just pour our lives into them. And even when they were coming with stuff that wasn't what we—you know, that was fun to hear, we just loved them. And that's the key that we were doing for Chi-Chi because I don't want to say too much because of what he's going to show. But Chi-Chi is an amazing young lady.

You were sharing earlier today that—um, I forget her name. Your first one about the book of James. Oh, second one. Sevita. Sevita is the one that wants to be an apologist. So, we go into a nursing home. We used to take the girls. That's a great ministry. If you ever guys want to take your kids somewhere, don't take them to Knott's Berry Farm or something like that, take them to a nursing home every week. We took our girls every week to a nursing home, and those people need to be loved on. Yes. They said when we would pull up in our van, people thought we were a school, of course. And the girls would get out, and the lady who ran it said when they saw us get out of the van, all the elderly cheered, "Yay, they're here!" And we would just minister to them. And Sevita, I tell her, I go, "Hey, I need you to read James 1 for me." And she goes, "Okay." And so I'm getting ready, and we share a little message to them about the Lord. Sevita gets up and does James 1. Just standing there in front of them. She did James chapter 1. Look up James 1, chapter 1. From memory. Out of memory. She didn't look at it. There was no Bible. She's like, you know, and I'm like watching her, and she got done, and all the old people are going, "Woohoo! Yay! That was so—" Then she looks at me and she goes, "Daddy, you want me to do James chapter 2?"

And then Chi-Chi, who you're about to see, I'll share this. Debbie and I got her. She, you know, she's fiery, and her—and her feet were kind of deformed a little bit too, so she couldn't—her flip-flops would be, and she's running. We take her to the pool. Debbie and I got—got the hotel. We take her to the pool. I'm walking out with Debbie to the pool. "Hey, I got my little girl with me." So, we're walking out there. We're walking out to the pool, and I'm like, "I'm a daddy again. This is great." And all of a sudden, I hear splash, and I turn, and she's a fireball, and she—I look, and she's at the bottom of the pool. And I said, "I'm going to—my girl's going to—she's going to drown the first second I have her." And I just dove in, you know, because I grew up in Arizona, I know swimming. You can't—you know. So, I go and get her up out of the bottom, and I lift her up, and she's like—and I'm like—and I can't speak Mandarin, and I'm going, "No, you can't jump in the pool." You know, and I put her on the side. I get back out, and I take two steps. Zoom, right back in again. And I pull her out. And there's a little kid who wasn't swimming, and he had those pool floaties, and I stuck them on her arm, and I was like, "Don't do that anymore."

So, we get done swimming, and we go upstairs, and Debbie had to go do paperwork. So, I have—now it's just me and Chi-Chi, and she's in her little suit, and I go, "Hey, just a minute. Daddy, you go change, you know, and I'm trying to talk." I turn my back for one second, and I turn—I hear "Ya you," and I turn around, and she had gotten up on the kitchen thing, and you know those two—you know those big kitchen knives, the big long one? She's going like this. And I looked and I said, "I adopted a ninja warrior." My gosh. Or a great cook. Yeah. And I go, "I didn't know what to do because I thought, 'What's happening here?'" And I just looked at her, and I started clapping. And she goes, "Ha." And then she flips them. She's got a stump hand and three fingers. She flips the blades to the handle, catches them, and hands it to me. Hands it to me, and she goes—and I went, "Okay." I went, "Whoo, you." And then I—and I go, "You go in the room and change, you know, go in there." She went in there, and I took all the knives and I hid them, you know, and I said I didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night like, you know. So, that's a true story, man. It's unbelievable. And that's Chi-Chi, and that's who you're going to see in the story, you know, in this part.

Ready? Okay. Can we dim the sanctuary lights? Hi, I'm Rocky Coyle. I was a professional baseball player. Was called into the ministry. I was a youth pastor for 25 years. Debbie and I were just about in our 50s, empty nesters. Debbie was really looking for what to do with her life. And she came to me, said, "What would you think about adoption?" My daughter said, "Have you ever thought about India?" I was like, "Do you want me to go to India?" There was a special needs child there that had been burned and left to die on the side of the road. And her name was Swati Leah. I had fear in my heart to go to another country to go get this little kid. And, you know, the Lord started working in my heart. I put her picture in my truck, and I had—I literally pulled over on the side of the road, and I flipped down the visor, and I saw her face. I go, "Lord, if she needs a dad, I'll be her dad."

We get to this orphanage. There's 145 children, no air conditioning, it's hot. They're sleeping on the floors. I walk in there, and I used to think I really knew God when Leah walked around the corner, and she kind of had her head down, and she looked up at me, and, you know, I heard the Lord say, you know, "This is my kingdom. This is what I'm about. And oh, by the way, Rocky, that was you before you knew me. You were scarred, you were broken, and you had no hope." Here I wasn't—you know, far away from home and everything, and yet that's where God's heart was. And I knew it was for the least.

So, then we went and got Sevita in Delhi. Her mom told her to sit down in the middle of Delhi. She never came back to get her. And Sevita said, "I looked for my mommy for two days, and I couldn't find her." I can't imagine a four-year-old in Delhi looking for their mommy. My daughter-in-law said, "What about China?" Saw this little girl on the internet, and she was dancing with these older girls, and she was so feisty. Had some handicaps. I said, "Debbie, I think this is our next one." They found Chi-Chi wrapped in a blanket in a box on the side of the road, and Abigail, they found her in a box at the train station wrapped in a towel, and they brought them in together. So they had been sleeping in the same bed their whole lives, and so I said, "She needs to come home too with us." You know, we got home, raised the money again, and went back and got Abigail. But we got back from that trip. We're at the breakfast table, and they're talking in Chinese, and then—and then she goes, "Anwen," which is Allison. She used to defend us from older children, and she would hide her food and feed us at night when we didn't have enough food. "Lord, do you want me to go get this little girl? You know, we're so tired. You know, the thought of to do that again." And Debbie and I had already gotten rid of all our papers. You know, four kids. Everybody thought we were crazy anyway. But all of a sudden, there was this peace, and I don't know how to explain it, but it came over me like Him saying, "It's going to be okay. Just obey me. I'll take care of it." At the same time, Debbie goes, "I think we have to go get her." And I said, "Yeah."

Some days I'm walking around the house thinking, "Where'd all these girls come from?" You know. Chi-Chi was found with her umbilical cord still attached. And so she was in an orphanage her whole life. She was abused in every way that you can imagine. I was angry with God because of the abuse I've been through. I still remember the stuff that happened to me, and I was blaming God for everything. Debbie and I together were praying for her salvation. And I remember her coming to us and saying, you know, "If I don't accept Jesus, will you still love me?" But Debbie and I both said, "We love you, whether you ever give your heart to Jesus or not." I told my parents, like, "When I grow up, I want to do nothing with Jesus." Hours and hours Debbie and I would spend with her talking, and she would always come at it like, try to freak you out, like she'd start cussing. "I hate God. Blankety blank." We still love you. We still love you. And one day she just came up to me and she said, "Dad, I want to go to work with you." And Fridays, you know, I teach hitting lessons, and then she would drive with me, and I'd always take her to dinner. So on Fridays, we had this date night. And over time, we started developing a relationship. It was really—it was a turning point. One day I was going to work, and Chi-Chi said, "I want to pray to ask Jesus in my heart." So she did. Out of nowhere, you know, when I went out to my vehicle, I literally fell on my knees in the grass and thanked God. I made a lot of mistakes in my life. My dad, he still pursued me, and every day he would look into my eyes and said, "I love you." And that's why I want to follow Jesus because that's what Jesus does.

The Lord said, "I wanted you to be a dad to these girls. I want you to love them. It's like I loved you." This is all—it was all the Lord. Debbie and I were—we raised our kids. We were antiquing. We were having fun. It was all Jesus. And I've seen miracles in these girls. Each of them have their own story how God delivered them, and they all know Jesus now. You know, that's the cool thing is that all these girls will be with me in heaven. Just this year, I was able to drop Sevita off at Liberty University and saw her walk up the steps to go to college. Leah, you guys see her greet me. She has a heart for missions. Chi's still searching. You see her working in the coffee bar. You know, she's taking a few classes in Outlands. So, you know, I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds it. And I've learned that I'm going to go where He sends me. So, good. Yep. So, the word is pursue. My dad pursued me. Yes. I'm wondering tonight how many of these guys and gals here tonight could have avoided either unnecessary suffering or still could change that if they were pursued or they tonight decide to be a pursuer. To think about their children being targeted by love. That really impacted me when I first heard that the first time where my father, my dad pursued me. You wouldn't give up. What a wise word it was when she said to her rejection of Jesus, "If what if I don't ever become a Christian, will you still love me?" You do know what she was crying out for, right? I'm not too sure if Jesus had anything to do about it in her mind at that moment. She was actually saying, "I love the love that you give to me, Dad. I'm just wondering if it's conditional on this faith thing." Right? Jesus just happened to be the name and the one that was orchestrating the entire thing. But she was actually saying, "Do you really love me?" Because kids are like that. You know, they may or may not express it, but they're like that. Did you know that men are like that too? Women are like that too, where they want to hear that love expressed from you to them organically, with nothing attached, no conditions. And that can only be passed down by experience. Then, of course, thank God, the Lord intervenes in our lives and breaks those chains and cycles. But for those of us who have opportunity, do you have anyone in your life that you can leave here tonight when this is over and be able to say in yourself, "I'm going to target"? Maybe it's a nephew or a niece. Or maybe it's your—like you guys said, the empty nesters, your kids are gone. It's never too late to start pursuing them again. You need to think about that because 2 Corinthians 5 tells us that the Lord has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Yes. Every Christian has the ministry of reconciliation. The Holy Spirit in us will see to it. We go around and patch up dams that have been broken. That's what He does in us. You don't have to fly to Hong Kong or India. You can start to work on a relationship that you know in your life is frayed. It's worn thin or broken. You know, someone's got to do it. God says that He gives grace to the humble, right? But He resists the proud. That's okay because usually in a bone of contention, an atmosphere of contention, both are pushing on each other. Whoever decides to humble themselves, they relax. So if they're both pushing, there's no success. But when one humbles, both of them fall before the feet of God. It only takes one to make things right. God will honor that.

So, yeah, the—another thing I wanted to share that was important about that story of her coming to Jesus, and this is hard for us as men is to admit we're wrong or that when we have correction towards us. So, here's my daughter who hadn't accepted Christ before that. But you saw her when I led her to Jesus. We were driving down the road one day, and she was going to work with me, and she's a—she doesn't miss anything. She watches everything. She goes, "Hey, Dad, the way you acted today at breakfast, the way you talked to Mom and all of us, I think you were really off base. You were wrong how you—your attitude today." She said that to me driving. I was like, and I almost got defensive. It was close. Like, who do you think you—but I listened, and the Lord's going, "You better—you better be quiet for a second and think this out." And you know what? She was exactly right. She was right. I was wrong. And I stopped myself, and I was driving, and I go, "This could be the difference between her coming to Jesus or not." We think we're prideful. And you know, I'm not going to admit—listen, she was right on. Whether I was a youth minister, when I was a youth minister, I told my youth, I said, "If you ever see me in a mall with anybody but Debbie, another woman, you have every right to come up and ask me who in the world this girl is. Better be my sister or somebody, you know." You know, but Chi-Chi said that to me, and I stopped myself, and I was driving, and she was looking at me, and I said, "Chi, you're exactly right." I go, "Daddy was wrong." I go, "I'm—"

So sorry. Please forgive me. And I said, "Tomorrow when we have breakfast, I'm going to take I'm going to tell everybody at the table that I was wrong and I'm going to ask for forgiveness cuz daddy was daddy was wrong." And I saw her face just go, you know, I think that was part of the foundation.

>> Yep. >> That to be able to see, you know, that I was that I believed in who I said I believed in, too. And she was right. That's part of being a man. It's just like us men. So many times we say our wife she doesn't do this and she doesn't do this and she doesn't do this. I remember early on in my marriage with Deb, God would you know and every one of them probably I could justify my thinking but she could sly say hundred to me too but all the things I said and God says and what if she never does what have I called you to do? This has not contingented on her. He said what have I called you to do? And I knew the word of God said I'm supposed to love her as Christ loved the church. Whether she never responds to things that I think that she should. That's God dealing with her in those. And then my but I I chose to love my wife the way Christ loved the church regardless of anything and everything else that's happening. I'm choosing no matter what. I love her. I committed to her at that altar. I'm going to love her. And that's what I my desire is to love her like Christ loved the church. And I tried to love my dad taught me that. And as a man, I try to do that. My dad did that to my mom. And I wanted to do that to my wife and I wanted to love my girls in the same way. And we have a chance with all these clowns out here that are trying to destroy our little girls and our families that we need men that will stand up and be men of God. Men that are really willing to fight for their kids. And also, guys, admit it when we're wrong and take responsibility. Our kids look at that, say, "My dad's never wrong. I can't ever talk to him because he's never wrong. You know what that shows a sign of strength when you as a man take responsibility those things.

>> So, >> well, you know, the power of that is um and only only this can happen in Christianity.

>> So, if you're here right now and you're uh Muslim and um I mean the closest thing that I've seen and I've actually seen it in Judaism, but it still falls short because there's no Holy Spirit present within them, the Jews. But Hinduism, Buddhism, uh forget it. It's not going to happen. This is the great one of the great things of Christianity is that because our God is a redemptive God, he takes our total disasters and if they're managed right with repentance, they can become the literal catalyst that leads the family or the boss or the employees to Christ. When you say, "Hey you guys, I lost it on the job site yesterday. Didn't think about it. Laid down last night. Couldn't go to sleep. Talked to God about it. God told me, "Don't talk to me until you go back to the job site and talk to the guys and set it right." So guys, I'm here to tell you I was wrong for chewing on you like that and treating you like that. Let me tell you something. You better just get out some Bibles because that's going to bring people to Christ because they're not going to get that anywhere else. And that's why legalism within the church setting is such an abomination. That's why it kills people when they go to churches and it's a rule-based relationship. It's not even a relationship. It's a rule-based association rather than a love-based relationship. And only in Christianity can we say, "Please forgive me. I was wrong." That God uses that as a a profound tool of evangelism because he's a redeeming God. He's redemptive.

>> So, um I want to I want to insert this and I want to see what your wisdom is on this. Um a lot of people it's shocking where we are heavily involved. You being in the ministry um as well that uh we deal with a lot of people young and old that have been sexually abused.

>> It's insane. I did not grow up in a Christian home, but when I heard that people were sexually abused at some point in my life, I was completely shocked. I just thought, "What kind of a freak show is that? How does that happen?" But apparently, not apparently, it is clear after coming up on 36 years of uh professional ministry anyway, that is full-time, I should say, but almost 50 years of being a Christian. I I I'm shocked at how many people have incredible marriage issues or just relationship issues because they were abused as a child. I don't know if you know this or not, but so many people that we talk to that are LGBTQ. Uh I'm going to be close. I can't I won't be exact. Lisa's probably more able to answer this, but the percentile is in the 90s. 90 some odd percent of those who are struggling with LGBTQ issues were sexually abused as a child or interestingly enough um they were never some of them were never touched but they were exposed they were shown extreme uh pornography. It turns out that chemically, biologically, that a child who sees pornography has the same uh damage to the brain area of emotion that an older child has when sexually abused physically. In other words, it doesn't matter if it's on the screen or on the body, the damage is still demonically the same. And the only the only hope if that's you tonight, the only hope for you, and I say only hope like it's not like it's the only hope like sorry, there's nothing else left. The only hope for you is the only hope that has always been for us. And that is the loving saving grace of Jesus and the restorative work that he does in making you a brand new creature uh in a moment's time. Did you know that you can become a virgin tonight with Jesus Christ? Who offers that? Nobody. Nobody offers that but Jesus. He can heal you. And so many marriages are suffering in these days because the believe it or not, the husband is dysfunctionally sexual sexually or the wife. And they've never talked to one another. They never shared with each other that they've carried those scars into their marriage. And they love each other tremendously. But the pain is so powerful, but they've never talked about it. And you need to take it to the cross. You think about these girls, and you not only the girls, but you think about their biological children. The love is the same. We have an adopted granddaughter. I told you this the other day.

>> We have an adopted granddaughter. We never remember she's adopted. We honestly don't. People remind us sometimes it's very fun because we'll be somewhere. Oh, hey. How are you guys? Oh, this is your granddaughter. These are your grandsons. Yeah. Oh, man. They look just like you guys. Oh, that's that's hilarious. They do. But people have to remind us. You want to know why that's true? Because that's what love does. Love erases all those things.

>> Amen. >> Um, I'm kind of uh I'm kind of partial toward being adopted. When I was born, my parents were stuck with me, but send me back. But when you're picked, that's a whole different thing. Pastor, we tell the girls that. We say, what's funny, I'll walk through the mall and they go, "Are these your children?" I lean up to them. I go, "Can't you tell?" We look. I mean, look at I'm I'm Irish, man. Can't you tell? But what we tell our girls, which so powerful because they they are adopted, but I said, "I didn't choose your brother Josh and Rachel or your sister, but I chose you."

>> That's how God does it to us, too. You know, ain't that cool?

>> And that's that's what's that's what And you know, I didn't know what it was going to be like. You know, I got um two Indian daughters and three Chinese. But honest to goodness, when when I'm around them and when I look at them, man, I just they're my daughters and I just love them. If you mess with them, man, man, I'd be fighting like my dad used to fight, man. I'd throw that left right combo on you. And since I'm so short, I just beat your kneecaps to death until you couldn't walk. That's what I would do. You fight for them.

>> That's why God invented guns. Uh anyway, um you guys must have great food in your house.

>> There's no food. Our our girls are like, >> "Come on." Indian food, Chinese food.

>> Hey, when I come home at night, they a lot. How many Indian folks are in here?

>> Come on. >> How many Indian folks?

>> That's it. One. Two.

>> Masala chai. The smell of that in my kitchen. It's beautiful. Debbie making the Indian food. I can always smell it from the cardboard. We're having Indian food tonight. It's good stuff.

>> How come women How come Estee Lauder doesn't have a curry curry uh perfume? It's amazing. And hey, Chinese New Hey, dumplings and all. Oh boy, that's some good stuff. Yeah, it's great. But our girls, it's like >> they they do it kind of quietly, but you look up and it's like it's like piranhas like, you know, it's incredible. It's like and and um also uh our mother-in-law, my mother-in-law fell about seven, eight months ago and she stays with us now, too. And I was telling pastor there's five girls, well six now with my mother-in-law in one bathroom. So I was tell someone said, "You ought to do a reality thing." And I said, "Yeah." Cuz this one part the girls go, "Daddy, our drains not working." And they all have that black hair, you know, that thick hair. And they go, "Daddy, it's your I" It's not my hair. Like I'm blonde. I mean, I'm gray now. Folks, any guy knows this or ladies. I went in with the thing to clean it and I was like, you know, it was like I go, "That's part of being a dad." They're all the girls are like, "Oh, it's a rat." I go, "No, it's your hair. Toothpaste and hair." And I'm like, and I put it in the toilet, you know. But then, you know, that's part of loving on them, you know, clean. They're going, "Daddy, the sink works now." I go, "Yeah, cuz there's not five pounds of hair in there, you know." Anyway, I don't know why we brought that up.

>> Where um are you are you empty nesters yet again?

>> No. Hey, but good thing, folks. This was really cool. Debbie and I got to come here and we haven't been on our own in 15 years. So, we were here and we were in the room just going, "Oh, go to the beach. Go to this." I go, "How about if we just take five minutes and sleep for a little bit, you know?" Yes. But but but so we if we come, you know, Debbie and I tried to adopt two more, but COVID and then um they said we were too old on another one and we lost all we tried to get two more, but when it's done, when they're gone, we'll be empty nesters again. We'll see, you know, we'll give it another shot, but uh it was uh we'll see. Isn't it exciting to see what your children, both adopted and biological, will do uh with their children in the future with the example your dad gave you and now you and Debbie having given to them. I mean, that's just thrilling to think. Of course, life has its dynamics and it's going to have its ups up ups and downs. That's going to happen. But, um, the foundation is strong.

>> Yes. And that's what you know for all of you. One of the reasons I think God brought Debbie and I here, you guys have been so loving. Most people need to be more transparent when you guys have loved on us. A lot of you don't know that, but we felt so welcome here. And so many have maybe come in here tonight and maybe you're hurting your marriages or, you know, school or taking stands for Jesus. Through all of it, I didn't know what I was doing all the time. I didn't understand it, but I knew I knew that Jesus was the king, the king of kings.

>> Whatever you're facing, whatever you're going through, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ever ask or hope or dream about.

>> He's he's a God that does that. And when you follow him, what we got to see was people say, "Well, you did such Debbie and I got to like you saw that picture of Sevita walking up the steps at Liberty." I cried the whole way home because when I brought her home, she was so malnourished she couldn't walk to the mailbox. And now she's walking up the steps at Liberty University and graduating. When you see that, you want to go like this to God.

>> Yeah. >> Thank you, Lord. I because I know I know who did it.

>> And even me coming here, I prayed. I go, "God, I'm tired. I'm I sat outside the bench where I do my hitting where you guys saw in the video. And I said I told pastor this when we were eating. I said, 'Lord, I'm really tired. Um, if you could open up the doors for me to share the story of what Debbie and I did, were a part of. I don't know how to do the internet. I don't know how to do all that. I barely get home at night. Next thing I know, they call me when I'm driving down the street and I I had watched pastor before and I loved him because he took stands for everything I believe in. I'm like, "Yeah, I like that guy. He reminds me of me, you know." And I said, "I love that guy." And the guy then Matt's like, "Yeah, I'm from uh, you know, Chino." I said, "Cal, what? Who's this? It was like 3 days after I prayed that they invite me out here to share the this stuff and I'm like, wow. But I just I just want to love on you guys to tell you how precious you are in God's sight, everybody. And if you're in pain, if you're going through hurt, God, there's hope. Just keep hanging in there, man. My dad used to always say, when just keep answering the bell when that bell rings, he was a boxer. He goes, just get up in the name of Jesus and and keep following him. Keep being faithful. to trust him and dream big dreams. You young people, God has a destiny for you, something incredible. And you're not too old. We're in our 50s and we we able to see the power of God work like we never believed. And it's God that does it. He's the one that's glorified. He's the one that's lifted up. He's the one that that that caused it all to happen. And and I could tell you stories till tomorrow, you know, and tell them about how great God is, how he provided the money. Real quick, pastor, this one was the first adoption. I had taken some money and I had set it aside to even tell Debbie. I had saved enough money and I had saved almost $10,000 of on just money in a sock. Don't go into my house and rob. There's no more socks filled with it. So, but I put it in there. I didn't even know how much it was. And our first bill came for our adoption. First do kid. And you know, you're a youth minister. you know, you make the big bucks at youth and work. But um but anyway, so I had saved this money doing hitting lessons, you know, and the first bill came and it was 10,000 and I had it and I go, "Lord, perfect." And my air conditioner went out in my house. The guy said it'll be about 10,000. I go out in the backyard and I got to pay on Monday this adoption bill. And I go out I go outside to God. I go, "Lord, it's your idea about this adoption. I I can't. It's summertime. I got no air conditioning." And the guy said, "Your unit's shot." And I got this money. And I said, "So this air conditioned guy comes up, an older guy." And he goes, "I hear you're adopting." He goes, "Yeah." He goes, "I gave my life to Jesus about 3 weeks ago, this amazing Christian walk." And I go, "Yeah." He goes, "That's pretty cool what you're doing." He goes, "Yeah, your unit's shot." And I go, "Is there any way over the weekend you could at least try to fix it a little bit to get it through the summer?" He goes, "I'll try." I went away to do a baseball camp that weekend or up in town and I get back and there's all these Hispanic guys in my yard fixing the, you know, the unit and the the brothers and I'm like, "Hey." I go, "Where are all these guy?" I mean, I got a whole team of brothers here, you know, and they're and they're and there's a brand new unit on my house. And I said, "That guy didn't understand what I said."

>> Oh, no. Yeah. I said, "Now I'm going to have to pay him the 10 grand and it's a brand new big unit, you know." And I'm like, "Oh, no." And I'm like, "Well," I go up to the guy and the guy goes, "Let me tell you something." He said, "Before I knew Jesus, I wouldn't do free visits with my own mom." He goes, "I was a cheap guy. All about me." He goes, "And I was going to charge you, too." He said, "I went to bed last night and I couldn't sleep. And I'm somebody that falls asleep right away." And God spoke to my heart and said, "You know that unit you took off that was brand new that the guy didn't want?" He goes, "I want you to give it to the coils, and I don't want you to charge them."

>> Yeah. >> He put a brand new unit on my house. I couldn't run to pay that 10,000 for that adoption fast enough. And my unit on our house right now, people go, "People don't put brand new units on your house." I go, "Well, talk to my my king about it and talk to me about it." Yeah. So,

>> but there's many more stories like that that that's just one.

>> Uh the willingness to be radical. We've lost that. Um and I I personally believe that it's directly in correlation to uh the faith that once made this nation great. Um America took risks. It was impossible for us, for example, um to take the yoke off of our neck of the British Empire, uh the things that were being imposed upon our freedoms and our liberties. But you may or may not realize that in the revolutionary period uh the most prosperous uh land that England owned in uh in the world was the 13 colonies. Did you know that? Did you know that the 13 colonies funded the entire global British campaign of the empire?

>> 13 colonies. Did you know why New Jersey is called the Garden State? Do you know who named it the Garden State? When General How and Burggoyne when they were they had just conquered Manhattan. They had just taken Fort Washington. They had captured Fort Lee and they were going to go through New Jersey to destroy the United to destroy the colonies by capturing uh the Jersey area and then heading over to ultimately the stop was Philadelphia. And it was the British that went to uh New Jersey. And they're the ones who called it the Garden State. It was technically the Garden of Eden state. That's what they called it. They said, "This is none other than the Garden of Eden." Why do I say all that? Because even the British recognized everything in America was better. Their homes were better than the homes in England. There were officers in the British military, career officers, who did not live as good as the average American farmer. Did you know that we had our own handmade furniture? They had no such thing. They said that you could walk out of a house, any house, you could milk a cow. You could pull up potatoes and you could pull apples off of a tree. And if that wasn't enough, you can walk down to the shore. This is hard to believe. You could walk down to the shore and you could grab lobster that would just be on the shore. Why do I say that? Because everything about America is focused around people taking risk in faith. Our pilgrim fathers took a risk in faith when they came here. God blessed and our founding fathers lived off of those blessings. Our founding fathers and those in the Revolutionary War purchased our freedoms for us. And then shortly after that, the industrial revolution hit. And in some ways it was horrible. America was catapulted to the front of the global line became immediately envy of the world. The United the the 13 colonies were now the United States. They were producing more millionaires than any other geographical spot on the planet.

>> Wow. >> You know what happened? We forgot God. By the 1920s, we forgot God. That's right.

>> We haven't been back there since. It's the young generation of those who are 50 and under. When's the last time you determined I'm going to serve the Lord? I'm going to take a risk. Let me tell you something. Back me up. If if I'm wrong, tell me. If if I'm on it, say so. Every situation in my life from the beginning of meeting Jesus that's worth anything.

>> My stomach was sick. I was nervous. I had diarrhea. My nerves were shot because what God what what I thought God was asking me to do, I didn't know if it was God or Satan. I couldn't figure it out as a young Christian. I didn't know. And it's almost like I'm going to close my eyes and take a step and and hope that God's in this. I am asking you men, especially young men, will you please absolutely become angry and diametrically opposed to ease and comfort. Because if you can learn how to embrace that which is uncomfortable, nobody can stop you.

>> That's right. You understand that there's people who panic because their soup's not hot enough, right? And it's so embarrassing for the for the human race. We can handle a lot more challenges than that. But I'd love to see young men actually terrify themselves by asking another young woman on campus out for a cup of coffee. Did you know that we have young women on campus here telling Lisa and I, will you tell the young men to at least ask us out for a cup of coffee? You know, young men won't do that anymore because they're too afraid of rejection. Have you noticed that Islam and lunatics like the guy that was at the White House yesterday, have you noticed how crazy belief systems never apologize for asking their people to be radical? Never apologize. In fact, they encourage it and people get in line to go be a radical. I'm going to submit to you that that's easy to do because the flesh feeds it. You want to be a radical. Determine tonight that you're going to start loving people like Jesus. Want to be radical? Step out of your comfort zone. Stop living within your own means and let God take you to the edge. Guess what, Lisa and I? Look, we're older now. God's blessed us in many ways. from stock market when I was 18 years old to to books. God's been good to us. Guess what? We don't need it. We've never needed it because we learned at the young age of 21 and 19 when we got married. We literally know how to live. There's something called hamburger helper and I'm not joking. Do you know hot dogs cut up in beans?

>> Oh yeah, >> we love it.

>> We Listen, we can live like that. Just the other night, some sweet people took us out just to bless us. And they took us to this place in Beverly Hills where I think the salad was like 95 bucks. No, I'm not joking. And um Lisa cooks better, but we ate it and it was nice. Don't get me wrong. We've learned how to be a based and we've learned how to abound.

>> Amen. >> But what I want some of you guys to know is you can actually live off of drinking water and eating pork and beans and paying your bills and tithing to tithing to the Lord's work and then O over decades, 47 years of marriage, we look back and it's like we can do anything.

>> We can eat salad with vinegar on it, right?

>> That's all. Or all what do we have? We have salt, pepper, we have lettuce, and olive oil. All right, let's make that work. You know how fun that is? It's called taking a risk, and you can really have a blast. God might be speaking to you tonight. Maybe it is adoption. Maybe God's calling some of you. you should you should do this and you're think I don't know what if it's something else just about done with um a book that's going to be coming out soon and the book is the book is titled uh Manhunt um what every man needs to be and what every woman wants in a man >> and in one of those chapters there's a young man that I know who grew up with this beautiful young girl in the Lord, shared the same schools, everybody could see this happening for decades, just a matter of time. But as he got in his mid-20s, uh he proposed. She said yes. And then he said, "Well, okay. I we need to save up some money though. we need to just save up some money, just saved up some money, but that's never enough. If you're not going to take a risk, it's never enough money to save. And then he said, "We have to get a house before we get married." Really, in Orange County, first of all, in California. Okay. Have you seen the price of outhouses since the homelessness? That's like premium property now if you're trying to buy an outhouse. So they couldn't get married because they had to have a house. Saves up enough money for the appointed down payment. And then he said, "In this world where we live, a million dollars is nothing. So we need we need to save more than that and we then we'll get married." Do you know what eventually happened? He He wound up cutting off the He became so consumed with trying to have it all done before they ever got started that they never got started.

>> Yeah. >> And he said, "You know, I just I just got to keep working on this." And she said, "I got to go."

>> And that woman, that young woman walked away after growing up with this young man with everyone telling them, "You guys are destined, man. This is so God." You know what happened? The love of the world got inside of him. He didn't He didn't trust God. Everything that's great in life starts with a risk.

>> Amen. >> Stop playing it easy. Stop playing it safe.

>> Just stop not trusting God.

>> Get out of the boat.

>> Get out of the boat. That's a good word. Who said that? Lee just said that.

>> Read the book. >> Yeah. Get out of the boat. What a great thing that is, huh?

>> That's a good What a great thing. The disciples think they're going to die. Huge storm in the middle of the night. And Jesus says, Jesus comes walking by. It says he would have he came walking by as if to keep going. He was going to keep going. That's amazing. And they're all crying and screaming. And Peter Peter said, "Lord, if that's you," this is powerful. I think that's brilliant of Peter. If it's Lord, if it's you, notice, "If it's you, tell me to come to you." Okay, that's cool. Number one, if that's smart, but this is what he knows. I know Jesus. This is Peter. I know Jesus. Jesus is the only one who I know is crazy enough to test our faith so that if I say Jesus if it's you tell tell me to step out of the boat because only Jesus would say step and as soon as Peter heard Jesus say come on he knew it was the Lord and he stepped Peter walked on water folks it wasn't until he got his off eyes off of Jesus that he's saying. But isn't it awesome? I'm going to talk to him about that when I see him. What was that like? Think about it. He took a huge risk. Yeah. But you know what I said? If it's you, tell me to step because he's the only one who would say, "Yes, step into the impossible." God's not going to say, "Hey, this is me. brush your teeth. That's not a sign. But if God says, "Do this." And you're terrified. Yeah. That's probably God. Yeah. John 8:12 says, "Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Who follows me will not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." That's the verse that I've always learned that when you follow Jesus, when you give your life to him, his light, it brings life. And that's the most powerful thing that I see that wherever you go, where when you follow Christ, it's the most exciting thing you'll ever exper. It might be hard. It might be difficult. It sure it is. You know, you follow him. He said, "Take up your cross and follow me." It's not, you know, I heard a preacher one time, an old uh video, a guy was preaching at Berkeley, Cal Berkeley, and it was during the Jesus Revolution. I can't remember which minister it was, but he was yelling, you know, all around him, the people WERE YELLING, "GIVE US BARABBUS. GIVE US BARABBUS." And he was trying to share the gospel. And he yelled out to all the young students, and this is 60s lingo, but he said, "Let me tell you something, folks. That ge that groovy JESUS TRIP NEVER DID EXIST. IT'S GOING TO COST YOU EVERYTHING TO FOLLOW HIM.

>> That's right. >> And I remember in the locker rooms the mocking and the laughing and and people making fun. You follow Christ, man. There's a cost to it. But there is a power and there is an excitement about what you see what God does. Watch what Jesus will do. Watch what he'll do. You follow him with all your heart and you'll see the power of God. That's what that light, the light that he talks about goes into darkness and darkness flees. When you walk into a room, the enemy flees because of the power of God. The light that's in you through Jesus Christ. And that's that's what's powerful in locker rooms, in classrooms, in wherever you go, you take the light of Jesus and that's where the power is.

>> And it's clearly going on in professional sports, at least in America. I don't know anything about the UK or or South America, but um you look u in the NFL uh the amount of a genuine Christian display of of players praying and uh boldly talking about Jesus and uh this basketball player who actually there's more than one basketball player, but people are speaking out boldly about the Lord. And I remember in the days of a guy by the name of Tim Tim Tibo who took a knee, you know, he started the whole thing, you know.

>> Yeah. >> What's that guy's name? Uh something pumpernnickel.

>> Kappa Kaepernick. Kaepernick.

>> Kaepernick. >> Oh, that's easy.

>> Colin Kaepernick. Remember he took a knee?

>> Did you know that Tim Tibo took a knee long before he did?

>> He just tried to steal it. Tim Tibo took a knee for Jesus and people got all upset about it and Kaepernick takes a knee for whatever he took a knee for. It wasn't very impactful because I forgot what it's about.

>> But notice you will you will stand or make a statement or take a knee for something. And what we want to encourage you to do is you stand way taller after you take a knee with Jesus and for Jesus. There's just something about him. Never, Pastor Chuck always taught us, you can't you can't outserve God. You can't You can't outgive God. He'll never I love this. He He'll never become indebted to you.

>> Isn't that a good word? Jesus will never become indebted to you like, "Oh my goodness, did you see how much they did for me this weekend? I uh I've got to bless them somehow." No. No.

>> No. Before we wrap this up, I want to ask you, and I hope I'm the first one publicly asking this question because it's kind of fun to hear you answer this. Each of these each of these girls by name, where will they be according to your estimation 10, 15 years from right now?

>> Well, the first one we got, Leah, she's already been on two mission trips. She wants to be a she wants to work with the sexually broken and delivering babies in the you know on the mission field to the sexually you know all the sexually abused people but those are girls that are pregnant and sex was >> yes probably you know probably has a lot to do with that but so I see her doing great things on the mission field full-time um I see that and she's already started that Sevita I think Sevita could be a senator Wait, wh why would you >> or something like that? She's do either a great >> something >> something big. She's uh I mean >> she's the one that loves apologetics.

>> Yes. Or working with She's as good as any of those guys that are out there right now. But she really loves to save babies lives. She loves children and um she really wants a husband who loves Jesus. But that's another story. But you know, if you know any good-looking guys out there who love Jesus,

>> you got to go through you got to go through the rock.

>> That's right. You better know how to fight cuz I'll beat your kneecaps up in a hurry. Unless you're short like me. And the our prayer for And then Chi-Chi, she's already an aesthetician. She loves to work uh with, you know, even with her hands, she loves to do um you know, facial. She does that right now. But I look at her, she's had dreams of maybe doing uh stuff with Leah, but I don't know. We'll see about that. But I see great things. She's a She would be a great businesswoman somewhere. I see that. My other two have a little bit more special uh things about them, you know, as far as their um how smart they are in certain areas. But uh Abigail loves animals. So, I see her one day working if uh we hope that she may be getting a ministry or something somewhere where she could uh work with uh people uh or possibly at a ranch or or something like that because she loves animals. She real sweet girl and uh but she has some some limitations as far as in in her mind. So, that's that's a challenge. And then Allison, the last one we got, she works at an uh with a a Christian lady that does hair, and she is the sweetest, kindest uh little little girl, or she not, she's a young woman, but she washes the hair of elderly. Can you imagine her so sweet talking to them? They just love her and she washes their hair and ministers to them. And you know, those are the two that Debbie and I are the most concerned because we we want to make sure they're taken care of because sometimes uh they're both very naive and someone can come along and um the enemy could uh this, you know, I so worry about them if we get too old not around because um they're so sweet and trusting that, you know, I pray that they'll be in situations that, you know, that they'll be able to be able to handle that, be in a safe area. But but all of them are going to do great things. And and Debbie, my wife, has homeschooled them all, English as a second language, and she's prepared them for so long to be successful. They're going to do great things. And you know, a lot of you ladies that have come tonight, a lot of times you're behind the scenes and you're doing things that nobody sits there and applauds, but but man, God in heaven is applauding what you're doing when you're sacrificing and giving. And my wife did that with all of our girls, the paperwork, the the the counseling, this trauma, all the things. So Debbie could even give you more of an insight on that. But I see all of them doing great things and I'm hoping that that's what I see. Most importantly, they're going to they're going to stand before a holy God one day and he's going to say, "Welcome good and faithful servants." And that's the most important thing. We're just super grateful to have you and Debbie here and thank you for uh for picking up our invitation to come and we hope that this is the beginning of a of a relationship friendship.

>> Yes, it >> we'd love to see um I think it'd be great for whatever we can do. Um, it's only natural for me to uh connect u Sevita with Frank Turk if I can text them, get them on the same tech.

>> She would go get she goes, "Are you going to talk to Jack Hoops?" And I go, "Yeah, I already talked to him, man. He's just a normal guy. Get get him to sign an autograph." And and you know, I said, "I will, man. He's just a guy, man. He's no special. Come on."

>> Very true. >> I knew Jose Conco and Mark Magguire, too. So, you know,

>> no, but but that you know, thank you, pastor. You know, I want to say this before I go because you guys don't know this. It's very seldom that you find a man of God who's a leader with the integrity of this guy.

>> And I've been around. I know you know that. And I'm not saying he didn't know I was going to say this. Give me that. Give me that money later. No, I'm just kidding. that down. But the reason that I connected to him was totally not thinking that I was going to be able to God opened that door. But many years ago when I was playing professional baseball, I had a general man a guy was a general manager and he was lost and he didn't know Jesus. And for so long I prayed for this guy. And um I get choked up talking about this, but um he was in New York and he was crying out and he saw his show, his his one of his um preaching and he called the church from New York and somehow his secretaries got him on the phone cuz my friend was suicidal and he took two hours with him on the phone and he led him to Christ and uh and uh you know for me who uh I was praying for this guy to come to Jesus and and I and I said who's this guy man that he most guys wouldn't do that that are at big shots you know you know what I mean but he he loved on my friend and my friend's life was saved because of um because of him loving him so all I did was call the church and I said hey don't I just want to leave a message please give a message to your pastor that I want to thank you for for changing the life of my friend and nobody most time people don't thank you don't say thanks but I just want to say thanks and they got my name then they looked me up and then we ended up here but um I'm just thankful to see in these days we live in a man of God who's standing for truth by the way we'll do that together thank you amazing in a moment um we're going invite you to to meet Jesus.

Um, but we were talking earlier about just the the radical life it is living for Christ and um, so not only is this an amazing moment being with Rocky and you guys, but you know, you want to see, you know, you've seen those movies or magazines or books that say the day in the life of the president, the the day in the life of whatever. And I was thinking this morning knowing that we'd get here tonight, the day in the life of being a Christian. And um so we get to watch and see what God does with people. And we don't have the time and we don't have the capability. I say capability because I don't have the memory space right now to bring to your mind the great things God has done in all kinds of ways. But I was talking about family earlier. We were talking about how just one family in this church for example uh born and raised in this church. The kids the kids were little kids here. Same family produces a a decorated US Marine captain and quite accomplished individual. Same family produces a commander in the US Navy. That man went on to become an graduate in the John Glenn astronaut program getting all excited. US Navy test pilot getting all excited about going to space. And that young man who grew up at this church, he was an Eagle Scout here, gets a phone call from the Department of War and says, "You need to report in. You need to do this. You need to do this and do the other thing because uh the president needs a new pilot and you're going to be the pilot for the president." These are kids that grew up here. Then their baby sister, tenacious student. She'll confess. She said, "I'm not a good student. I just don't stop until I get the answer." Homeschooled here. Went to Liberty University, got her law degree, went off to Regent University, post-graduate degree, scooped up by the Department of Justice, became a prosecutor, and just uh this week uh was brought on board President Trump's legal team at the Department of Justice. This is one family, but that's that family. Amazing. So, yesterday I had a it's been a difficult week to get study time in for things that had to happen. And so, I'm cramming. Got up early yesterday morning. I'm studying for today. And I don't look at my phone. I don't care if the Pope's calling. I'm not going to answer it. I I'm not going to answer it. So, then my home phone's ringing. And then I hear Lisa, she picks it up. Well, I'll tell them. That's what I heard. Well, I'll tell them. So Lisa said, 'You need to you need to call this I'm not going to say the person's name. You need to call this individual. It's urgent. And so so I call and and I just said, "Hello, I'm really busy right now. I'm studying." Well, I'm really busy, too. I've been trying to get a hold of you. So Tulsi Gabbard, she just resigned because her husband, you know, is needs her help. Very, very ill. And so the phone call came to me. Who am I? And well, Mark Wayne Mullen, the Secretary for Homeland Security, so it turns out he watches our shows, he watches our program, watches our services, and watches our podcast. And so again, at this moment, I can't name names, but I had a podcast with someone recently, somebody that you guys would recognize. And um they said, "You you know this person, right?" And I go, "Yeah, well, we need to talk to them immediately." All right. I'm thinking, "This is a weird call. Why would the Department of Homeland Security be calling me to talk to this person?" And well, it was because of the podcast. And with Tulsi Gabbard now stepping down, Trump said, "Trump, you cannot figure Trump. Don't tell me he's born again." He's not born again.

>> I'm telling you right now, >> but he is one weird duck. And so Trump says, "I want a born again Christian female woman at the helm to be director of national intelligence."

>> Wow. >> And and so who you going to call? They called Calvary Chapel Chino Hills because one of our podcasts, Mark Wang took it to Trump and said, "You need to watch this podcast." Trump watched it and said, "I want that person now." This all happened. This happened yesterday in two hours time. And I went right back to studying. You want to know why? In my pajamas. You want to know why? It's being a Christian.

>> Amen. >> It's just being a Christian. You sit there and I get it. You sit there, oh wow, that's crazy. That's not crazy. That's normal. Because you know what? God is radical. And to God, radical is normal. That's >> right. >> And if the Christian church gets to the level, if we crawl out of our hole and get to normal, you know, normal is the first century church. That's just

normal. That's not even exceptional.

We need to get the normal. But make yourself open to what God wants to do. Why don't you let's just pray right now. Okay. Let's just pray.

Yeah. In fact, you know what, Rocky? You pray regarding them being used and then I'll I'll pray for anyone who wants to make a decision.

Let's pray. Lord, we just are so thankful that your presence is here with us tonight. God, I pray for every person that can hear my voice right now. I pray that you would encourage them and strengthen them and ignite a fire in them, Lord. They would burn with like with the oil of the spirit. God, just their lives would you would place things on their heart. Give them opportunities, encourage them in every area of their life. I thank you for each and every one of them. They are special. Each person here is fearfully and wonderfully made by the hand of God. And that's precious. You are precious in the sight of God. So be encouraged today to not grow weary and doing well to keep fighting the good fight to go forward in the name of Jesus.

For marriages, for young people who are who are make trying to make decisions or relationships, jobs, whatever it is, God, there's nothing too difficult for you, God. You are all powerful. So encourage them when they leave here, God, that they would not be the same. that you would transform them in different areas of their life to challenge them no matter what age they are, God, that they are here for such a time as this, that we're called in this time in our in our world. Love on them and encourage them in the name of Jesus. Lord, I pray over each person here. And I'm thankful for the opportunity to be loved by these by this place. continue to bless it, God, and protect them from evil that tries to come. We pray that hedge around this place, God, that God, the name of Jesus would continue just like the billboard to re resonate in this community and across the world. In the name of Jesus, Lord, I pray.

Yes, Lord. And I ask of you, Father, that there'd be inventory taken tonight by each and every one of us that are here. And Lord, that there might be those that are here right now and they have all evening been ruling themselves out of possibilities. They just don't see themselves being used by you. They they don't even see themselves loved by you. And I pray Lord that this evening there would be a whole lot of people that would determine right now to let you love them. That they would give you permission, Lord, to love them. That they might know that they might know what is the reality. Your love is the reality. But they've never let you in. I pray that that would change in their lives tonight. There are those maybe here that they believe that they're too broken. There's too many scars. There's too many marks. And so they have removed themselves from your grace. So they think. And Lord, I pray that you'd communicate to them that the one who is forgiven much is the one that loves much.

Yes. And then there are people here tonight that have been taken advantage of in how Satan has jumped upon their psyche to blame them for their abuse, a dirty trick by a mean enemy. I pray that you'd break the chains that are in their thought life.

Yes. God. That you'd set them free. I pray for men and women who are hooked on pornography, a demonic portal into the world of spiritual bondage that destroys the soul. And I pray Lord God now in Jesus name that they would hate it and that they would love you more now than selfife God that they would stand free. Lord, we pray tonight for those who are hearing what was shared tonight by Rocky. And for them, they have buckets and train loads of regret and remorse because as it were, the summer has passed, the harvest has ended, Jeremiah said, and we're not saved. that tonight, Lord God, that there would be men and women in this place now, el elderly, profoundly grieved by how they didn't do it right. Lord, I pray that you'd manifest your reconciliation power in their life. It can take one phone call with one last breath to say one final time, I was sorry, and I ask you to forgive me. That can change the trajectory of a son or a daughter forever. And then, Father, I pray for those who have never said yes to Jesus.

Right now, while your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, and right now, you're not sure that if you were to die tonight that you'd go to heaven. You don't understand that. You don't even see how that's possible. And yet the Bible is written and it says that these things have been written that you might know that you have eternal life. Why would Rocky and I enjoy that beautiful gift of God in you not? That wouldn't be right. The only thing that keeps you from enjoying that gift of God's salvation is you. And I'm wondering if tonight you're willing to believe

that Jesus Christ according to the Bible did die on the cross. He did rise from the dead from Genesis to Revelation. The Bible is about him.

Yes. And that in his death, his word tells us that he paid our sin debt. All the wrong that we've done against him, against God, the law, all of it was all paid in Jesus. He went there for you so you wouldn't have to go there. He took your judgment. He took hell upon himself so you wouldn't have to go there. And he's inviting you to come into his family. I find it fantastic and wonderful that the book of Romans tells us that we've been adopted by God. Will you allow yourself to be adopted tonight?

Yes. Will you pray, "Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins and come into my life and wash me clean. I want to start my life all over again. I want to be a new person. I don't I don't appreciate. I don't even like who I am. I want to be the person that you made me to be. I don't want to be the person this world has made me to be. I don't want to be the person that others have made me to be. I don't want even want to be the person I've made me to be." Yes.

I'm asking you, Lord God, to make me the person you've made me to be. And I want to take my first risk with you, Jesus. I want to step out. I want to receive you.

Yes, God. And I want to be filled with your Holy Spirit. I want to have a new life. Friend, if that's you right now tonight, you can just tell God that in your own words, and you can say, "Amen" at the end. But faithful is he who has called you.

Yes. If he's put that on your heart tonight, it's because he's been calling you to do that. Lord, we pray that you'd bless Rocky and Debbie and the entire clan and all of their doings, the education, the work, the hobbies. And Father, we pray that as they've been a mom and a dad to these kids, I pray that the two of them would be the catalysts for a whole lot of other people in America,

if not the world, to be moms and dads, too. that from these two would come many more through us, through us all in Jesus name. And all God's people said,

amen. I almost fell asleep doing that. It's been a long day. You guys give it up for Rocky. And this is awesome. God bless you guys. Have a great night. Thank you.