Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Missions in a War Torn Muslim Land with Missionary Brady – Part 2
It is a warning. Welcome to the truth about Muslims podcast, the official podcast of the Zwemer Center For Muslim Studies, where we help to educate you beyond the media. Here are your hosts, Howard and Trevor. Alright. So welcome back to Truth About Muslims podcast.
And again, we are interviewing Brady, and I’m just gonna be really honest. I I’m really, really excited just because I wanna hear stories. I’m a story nut, man. That’s why I like This American Life and all these other podcasts because that’s what I’m all about. I love stories, and I preach, and so I gotta have stories to tell.
And Brady is apparently a wealth of stories, we’ve come to find out. And as if you heard the last podcast, this is obviously part 2, and we we broke into 2 parts because we wanted to give you, the listeners, the joy of enjoying these stories. Like, we are gonna enjoy these stories. And I I haven’t heard all the stories, but, like, this is I’m I’m I’m giddy. Yeah.
Me too. Because you you really do need to go listen to part 1 first because he’s kind of broken down a little bit of what we see when we see the sedan and just shown the complexity of what’s going on there. And so, now, he’s gonna We ended with him talking about how he doesn’t know exactly what’s happened at the the Bible college where he was teaching because he’s been out of the country. And so, we’re gonna pick up with what they were doing in ministry, how they ended up having to leave the country, and sort of what he hopes to see when he comes back. So, Brady, ready for part 2.
Alright. Now, as we start, I just I just have to say I’m gonna be a little shameless here. I’m gonna shamelessly recruit. Do it. Time.
Do it. Okay? This is your this is your platform. I have permission to do that? Absolutely.
Okay. Alright. So as we get started, I just have to say that that, our work specifically in South and South Sudan and Sudan has been one experience after another of watching God show up Mhmm. And do just amazing things. So I that is my recruiting tool is come open to watch God work.
Alright? So I don’t That’s a good recruiting tool. Yeah. I would yeah. I don’t yes.
You don’t have to be, and there’s a line of things that a lot of people wanna list that you have to be in order to come into missions. You don’t. You just have to be available. You have to be willing to grow. You have to be willing to be sensitive to the movement of his holy spirit Mhmm.
And obey. Just do it. Just go and watch him work. It’s fun. Alright.
So share with us some ways in which God is working, some things that would give us a little bit of insight as to how we should really get over there and see more. Oh, man. Okay. Well, let me tell you a story about a trip that I took. It I’m excited.
It makes sense in retrospect. One of those stories where it’s like, what is going on? And then when you look back, you’re like, oh, okay. I see it now. But, so I live in a town called Maylut, and I need to get to another town called Molokol.
That’s 3 hours away. Okay? 3 hours by the only truck that really works in South Sudan is a Toyota Land Cruiser. It’s just it’s solidly made, and we abuse those things. So it’s not a luxury vehicle?
No. No. It’s not. Alright. How long how long is a 3 hour trip in Sedan?
Because 3 hours here, I’m thinking, 300, you know, 200 miles. How far can you go in 3 hours in Sedan? Just so we have some context of what the roads are like. Okay. In kilometers, 120 kilometers.
So you’re maybe looking at I could do the conversion here. I don’t know. Maybe 80 miles. Yeah. Woah.
In 3 hours. Yeah. That’s 3 hard hours of driving. So Explain what a hard hour of driving is like in We don’t have hard hours. We have rest stops.
So give us a hard hour. Okay. So we don’t we don’t have any paved roads, in between that area. So you’re you’re running on tracks. You’re sharing the road with tractors, and tractors have a a way of digging up the road.
And so, oftentimes, you come to points where, you actually you’re high centering all the time. You’re What is high centering? That’s where the ruts are so deep that your wheels when you when you drive, your wheels don’t hit dirt anymore. Like, you bottom out. Yeah.
You’re bottomed out hanging, so your wheels are spinning. No. So you actually have to you use something called a high lift, and you jack up your car, and then push it sideways. No. So that your wheels can actually get back on the ground terra firma.
So it’s not that you’re driving 20 miles an hour the whole time. It’s that you’re having to stop and do, like, 20 minutes worth of work to just even be able to drive. So so on this 3 hour trip, like, how many times would you would you high center? Depends on the skill of the driver. So, like, what?
You got skills, don’t you? Oh, I got skills. Like, 2, 3 times? I remember one time driving. I was trying to teach this lady how to drive.
In Sudan? A missionary. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, okay.
This is a good experience. She should be learning. Well, you have She should be learning. Okay. You have something called U bolts.
U bolts, and they actually hold your axle to your suspension. That’s a good thing to have. It is. And so you drive along, but we’re high centering, hitting these rocks, and they’re snapping the the bolts on the the u bolt screw. Like, it’s the bolt that screws on and holds it together.
That’s bad. Well, yeah, it’s bad. So then we run out of extra u bolts. So the suspension bring extra u bolts with you? My come on.
That’s that’s beginner. That’s that’s that’s a silly question. Master. Okay. You don’t have u bolts in your car?
Or that lift that you were talking about, that jack? Yeah. The high oh, man. Yeah. So anyway, so we’re driving along.
She snaps a bunch of these. We’re we’re tying it together with rope. No. We’re trying to figure out how to keep this axle, yeah, to the suspension. Anyway, so it was terrible.
We’re letting them into town. So, anyway, so if you’re gonna teach someone yeah. Teach them on a tarmac road, not on the not on the dirt road. Tarmac would be like a paved road. Paved road.
That was that was totally my fault, the rabbit trail. Alright. You had this 3 hour 3 hour tour. Gotcha. This is gonna be a 3 part podcast.
Yeah. Just kidding. Alright. So, wait, the first problem here is we don’t own a vehicle. Alright.
So I need to make this trip, but we don’t have a vehicle. So what you do is you just kinda listen around. Go to Hertz or Yeah. Enterprise. You listen around.
If someone’s on their way or traveling through, you just say, hey, can I bomb a ride from you? And so I went to one of our neighbors. He works for a nongovernment organization called an NGO. And so I went to this NGO and I said, hey, do you have a truck that’s going down to a mall call? And he said, actually, yeah.
I need someone to deliver it. I was like, I’m your man. And I know how to drive. Yeah. Just give me some U bolts.
That’s right. Yeah. Back to U bolts. So we have a rule in South Sudan that you never do anything alone. We’re there to make disciples.
If you’re doing something alone, you’re doing it wrong. I thought you meant, like, danger, but go ahead. Yeah. Well, oh, there is that too. Yeah.
No. But you’re you’re talking about, like, if, for instance, I’m building a fence. Yep. I need to find people to build a fence with me. Yep.
Not because you need help, but because you want disciple. Absolutely. Right. Okay. Yeah.
If you think discipleship happens in the classroom, yeah, you’ve got a problem. Listen up academia. Yep. So it needs to happen outside. It needs to happen doing something actually non academic related.
That’s when students begin to talk. Hey. You’re from Africa. So, I had the unfortunate event where a student said, I don’t I’m not trying to be rude, but I’ve learned way more from hanging out at your house than I have in the classroom. Oh.
And I it was like a backhanded compliment, I guess. Yeah. I said Sorry. Am I my intuition. Am I able to tell this story, or what’s going on?
Go for it. Go for it. Sorry. I’m in 80 d moments here. Yeah.
Sorry. Just shows that we’re really comfortable with you, Brady. Keep going. Bring it. I wanna hear it.
Alright. So You mean it’s a snap. That’s right. We’re hopping in this truck. And so I grabbed the maintenance man.
I’m like, hey. Let’s go. And then as we’re pulling out, I look at my 8 year old son, and I say, hey. Why don’t you come along? And he’s all gung ho for it.
So he hops in the truck. So we’re pulling away and the owner, the NGO guy says, oh, yeah. He has this problem overheating. Oh, okay. Alright.
So we go we get this big, Jerry can of water and throw it in the back so that we can fill up the radiator every now and then. So we’re heading down the road. And, I mean, we think bush country here. Think, out of Africa. I mean, think dirt road in the middle of nowhere.
And we see these 2 guys under a tree with a motorcycle. So we stop and ask, you know, what’s going on? And they say, oh, our motorcycle broke down. And this is lion country, you know? You wanna you just don’t leave people on the side of the road.
My head. Okay. My head is about to explode. Okay. You just stopped.
You saw somebody on the side of the road and you just stopped? Oh, absolutely. You don’t you don’t just pass people by. It’s lion country. So Well, yeah.
That that’s the other thing that blew my mind. Okay. So anyway, so we get these guys and we’re like, yeah, motorcycle’s not working. Can’t fix it. So we imagine driving a motorcycle knowing that there’s lions out there.
You know? I I hats off to these guys. They’re, you know, that’s, I saw lions in the zoo and they just sit there. So I just figured it’d be fine. But, but apparently, in real life, they attack.
It’s like that rabbit in front of the greyhound. He’s just like, this is fun. Oh, jeez. I cannot even imagine. You just made me wet my pants a little bit.
Anyway, so okay. So we load these guys in the back of the pickup truck. They get the motorcycle out here and then load these guys up. And we start going well. Sure enough.
The car truck just stops working as it should. It’s just going slower and slower. So we lift up the hood. We pour water in. You know, we we do this over and over.
I mean, we’re 5, 6, 7 hours into our journey, and the car is going just so slow. And this is the 3 hour journey? Yeah. That’s right. Okay.
So I’m trying to figure out you know, I’m trying everything I know how to do to fix on this truck, and it’s just not working. It’s hot, but I have no idea if that’s the problem. Well, we run out of water. So the show wouldn’t be possible without sponsors. And this week’s sponsors are Zweimer Center.
Zweimer Center. The Zweimer Center. The Wamers Center. Zweimer Center. And what does the Zwemer Center do?
Talks about Muslims and and tells them on computers that we love you. Very nice. The Swimmer Center equips the church to reach Muslims. The Swimmer Center has been educating people about reaching Muslims before it was cool. Well, sure enough, the car truck just stops working as it should.
It’s just going slower and slower. So we lift up the hood, we pour water in, you know, we we do this over and over. I mean, we’re 5, 6, 7 hours into our journey, and the car is going just so slow. And this is the 3 hour journey? Yeah.
That’s right. Okay. So I’m trying to figure out, you know, I’m trying everything I know how to do to fix on this truck, and it’s just not working. It’s hot, but I have no idea if that’s the problem. Well, we run out of water.
I mean, we’ve used this whole Gerry can of water. We’ve used our drinking water. You know, we’ve we’ve used all our water and here we are in the middle of the bush. Well, the 2 motorcycle guys are like, oh, yeah. We know we know of a river.
It’s just over there. And so when an African says over there, then you don’t know if that’s like, a week or if it’s wait. Did you just say a week? A couple miles. Yeah.
You just you don’t know how far it is for them to go and come back. Is is it rude is it rude to ask, like, what do you mean what do you mean by over there? Kilometers, please. Yeah. I know.
You know, if you’re not used to measuring life in kilometers, then I suppose that, that’s a hard answer to give. Anyway, so these yeah. Sure. Why don’t you take the jerry can and go? So these guys disappear.
And Like, they’re walking. You have their motorcycle at least. Right? So you know they’re coming back. Oh, that’s a good point.
Yeah. Yeah. I have their motorcycle. So, yeah, they’re coming. They’re coming back.
He’s pulling up the wind. He’s not thinking like an American at all. I just I I know. I am. I’m just right.
We’re like, we have we have their motorcycle. Okay. Keep going. Anyway, so these guys disappear. And good to their word, they come back, but we pour the water in and nothing happens.
I mean, the truck’s just not moving anymore. So we’re we’re getting ready to sleep just in the truck that night. So we’re getting ready kinda That’s so weird. In in the cab, I hope. Well, I’m in the cab.
I feel bad for the guys in the back, you know. But not bad enough to not sleep in the cab. Me and my 8 year old boy are gonna be here in the cab. Holler if you need a nah. Who knows what would happen that night?
But so He just says it so nonchalantly. He is not thinking like an American. Go ahead. So here we are. We’re we’re there.
And then all of a sudden, headlights appear. And they you know, coming from behind us. And so they get closer and closer. Sure enough, this guy pulls up. We explain to him, look.
This is what’s going on. We can’t get the car to run. He comes, jumps out. He’s doing all kinds of things. He sucks out the filter with his mouth.
Like, what? Yeah. I didn’t do that. So he climbs under the car and slices my fuel line that goes from the fuel tank to the engine. Right?
My mouth just dropped out there. Yeah. So he’s sliced the thing in it. Yes. Mine did that too.
And I was like, oh, lord. What just happened? But then he goes in gonna take my gas. Yeah. Yeah.
What’s going on here? He goes into his truck, pulls out this little other piece of tube, and, like, a neurosurgeon splices this line back together again and brings me a section of it. And he’s he has me look in it and it’s just solid blocked. So there is no fuel getting to the engine. That was what was causing it.
Wait. So he cut it cut that part out? Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know how he found it.
I don’t know how he knew that was the issue, but it’s pitch black. And this man shows up and just totally saves us. Yeah. That blows my mind too that he just dries up in the middle of the night or however what it’s it’s after dark. It is dark.
And he stops on this old road on in line country and stops to talk to you. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Then okay. Sorry.
If you remember our first podcast about community, you just don’t leave people alone. Oh, that’s so cool. You have to say hi. You have to see if people need help. So anyway, we get going.
It’s nighttime. And the cities do something where they set a a curfew, where they shut the roads going in and out of cities, just so for security reasons. Would they, like, blockade them, you mean? Absolutely. Okay.
Okay. It’s blockaded, and they have men with guns who who guard that. So we pull up to this checkpoint and, you know, doing the usual negotiations. Who are you? Where are you going?
What do you want? And I, you know, I explained who I am and that I didn’t anticipate the car having so many troubles. And you don’t look Sudanese. Oh, no. Well, no.
No. I I’m not. And so I’m not. Okay. So, you know Brady’s White, just for the audience, just in case you’re wondering.
So this guy, he’s just, nah, it’s not gonna happen. So I go back and I John Cena to Jake the snake. No. Jake the snake’s real old, isn’t he? He’s not Yeah.
WWF. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember WWE now.
Yeah. Back in the old school. I know. He’s w sorry. Go continue.
Tag team where you slap the head. Oh, yeah. It’s his turn. So the maintenance man, remember, he’s with me. Oh, right.
He goes he starts working on him. He’s like, look. This white this white guy, he has no idea who he is. You know, he’s he’s clueless about stuff, so please just let him through, you know, that whole thing. Ignorance.
Yeah. So, anyway, he tries that. Soldier’s like, look, man. You came after dark. I’m not gonna let you through.
Wow. Okay. So holding holding fast. So Wait. Is your son scared at this point?
I’m glad you brought up the son. Yeah. So no. Isaac’s, no. Not at all.
Not at least been. He’s pretty hardcore. So I in fact, you you know, he Yeah. Anyway, we’ll get to that. So Okay.
He’s sitting in the pickup at this point and the soldier walks by, sees this little white face in there and is like, oh, salaam alaikum. My son just answers back, Alaikum Assalam. And they begin chatting. And so, they start In English? Your son’s Arabic is better than yours, isn’t it?
It is. Wait, wait. He’s chatting in Arabic or English? Arabic. Sorry.
That was Arabic. And so I mean, I knew that part, but I just figured that, you know, that’s the greeting and then they would speak in English. No. No. No.
No. This this soldier had no English. And so, you know, he starts chatting, but he’s pretty excited that this 8 year old kid speaks Arabic. So they start chatting back and forth, talking about their favorite foods. And then What?
The soldiers, like, well, so you’re gonna marry a Sudanese. Right? I mean, because an American make can’t make you kiss at an obama you. And so I was Wait. Wait.
I don’t know what that meant. Yeah. You explained that? Kiss what? It’s like kimchi Howard for Koreans.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s like slime and Play Doh. Oh, it’s a food? Yes.
Why did you say kiss then? No. Kissra. Okay. That’s what the food is.
Yeah. Yeah. So how are we just making clothing? I don’t know. So the the she he’s saying that the the American woman couldn’t make this dish.
Right. Okay. Okay. I’m gonna So he he has to marry a Sudanese girl. And and so, you know, they begin talking like that, laughing.
They’re having a good time. Sure enough, the soldier comes back to me. He’s like, look. Your kid has much better Arabic than you. I knew it.
He’s like, the kid can go. You have to stay. You know, we like him. There’s something about Africans. They feel like they they have a right to chew me out for my Arabic.
Woah. They’re really Yeah. Like, your your Arabic’s awful. How long have you been here? You’re you speak like a 4 year old.
Come on. But our language is really easy. Kids know it. Okay? Right.
But they don’t mean it maliciously. Right? No. They’re, like, making fun of you kinda thing? It’s a half serious, half, like, come on, man.
Yeah. Get dragged together. Yeah. Exactly. But he does say this soldier comes over.
He’s like, look, his mom’s gonna be really worried. So why don’t you guys just hop in the car and go? I’m like, oh, yes. Wait. Wait.
Wait. The soldier said that to you? Soldier said that his mom is going to be worried. Well, that the Isaac’s mom might. Right.
Right. Yeah. So he he’s like, lucky you guys need to go. So so we hop in the car and we take off. So I’m lying there in bed that night thinking to myself, god, you’re mean.
Yeah. 3 hour journey. And it’s like 15 hours, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, nothing went right that day.
Right. It was just awful. And I’m thinking, god, come on. Yeah. I was the good Samaritan.
Right? I picked up those 2 motorcycle guys. Right. And what did you get for it? Right.
I wasn’t that terrible? And then he did start reminding me. He’s like, you you don’t actually own a truck, do you? And, who who brought you a truck? And God’s just kinda like, oh, yeah.
I did. And then, oh, yeah. You didn’t know where water was and you ran out of water? Uh-huh. Who brought you 2 guys who didn’t know where water was?
God’s just like, yeah. That was me again. And then who brought you a guy who knew exactly what was wrong with your truck? Yeah. That was me.
And then who got you through the checkpoint? That was your 8 year old son. But Who I formed. That’s right. In his momma’s womb.
Amen. And his brain to speak Arabic. That’s right. So, I mean, that’s the perspective you need to take when you’re doing ministry in Africa is way like, you can complain about all the things that don’t go right, or you can sit there and be marveled at the way that God is there at every step doing something amazing. But but that’s not just ministry in in Africa.
Right? That would be that I mean, when you said that, that rang true for me all the time. I think about, I mean, I get so frustrated at petty things. Like, my wife knows my pet peeve if I lose something in the house. Where are my keys?
Where are my phone? And, like, I’m a I’m a really calm person. I can deal with big crisis and be calm, but I lose my keys, I just lose it. My my kids are like, alright. Stay away from dad because he’s, you know, he’s he lost his keys or he lost his phone or you know?
And it’s just crazy. And and I think that’s a a really good point where how God is present even in the midst of circumstances when things don’t go right. It’s not that God is present when everything’s perfect. Right. Right.
And I think that’s such a human, you know, tendency. Yeah. We so, thinking in terms of having that perspective, where we need to look at where is God working as opposed to where is God not working. What should we see when we think of Sudan? Since we’ve narrowed it from not just thinking of Africa but thinking of Sudan, what we see is, you know, chaos, war, violence.
How should we see it from God’s perspective? That’s a good one. It reminds me of a story. I like it. Yes.
So, we’re sitting there one day, having a picnic. And, we have bees. We have a lot of bees. Like honeybees? You know, killer bees?
Oh. They’re called They’re like African bee killer bees that we see in the movies. They’re called Africanized honeybees. What’s their killer bees? Well, that’s what a killer bee is.
It’s an Africanized honey bee. And a honey bee is calming. The honey bee is very gentle. So you take an African bee, gentle it down, and that’s a killer bee. We have the origin.
We have the African bee. So these guys, you walk by That’s terrible. Yeah. Why does everything in Everest You wanna kill you. Ends.
Yeah. The the roads wanna kill you. The I mean, everybody else wants that’s why everybody helps each other because everything is trying to kill you except for the people. Well, sometimes the people, but, you know, like, you get what I’m No. I’m I’m thinking, like, surviving a day is, wow, God really did something here.
We survived today. Jesus, I’m I’m I’m alive. That’s right. That’s right. So here we are.
We’re we have these bees around, and so the kids know about, you know, stay away from bees. And literally, I can walk by. And if I’m looking at the hive, they’ll come out and buzz me. No. What they’ll do, they’ll come and they just kinda buzz your hair.
What is that? Wait. Wait. What does buzz your hair mean? Well, yeah.
They actually like cute, Trevor. Dive bomb you. But they don’t sting you. No. But that’s their warning.
They’re like, keep moving or else something bad is coming out. So they know they recognize your eyes. That’s crazy. It’s weird. So I I literally, you should see me.
I put my head down and I just walk like, like a total humble Right. They’re kings. Humbled by these bees. They’re kings. That’s what I’m yes.
They rule. They rule our campus. So anyway, so we we have these bees around. We’re having our picnic. My youngest boy is throwing rocks, which is natural.
But he happens to hit one of these trees. No. Oh, yeah. These bees get furious and just light him up. What?
So he comes running towards us bringing all the bees. And we I mean, you just know it. You hear this zzzz and he takes He’s screaming, I’m assuming. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
So you hear a swarm of bees? Yeah. That’s right. Cloud of bees. Everybody just shoots off in crazy directions trying to find shelter.
So he comes, I look at his back and he’s just he’s got a bunch of bees on his back. My wife picks him up, starts, like, football, you know, Heinz Moon. Oh, yeah. I think this. Superhuman strength.
Right. I grabbed him and ran. Running with him. I’m trying to get the bees off, but I don’t know why I did this, but this is what I did. I didn’t wanna use my hands because I didn’t wanna sting my hands.
So I took off my shirt. Nice. Good thinking. Take the shirt off with the swarm of bees. Right.
I like it. That’s okay. Okay. Don’t judge me. No.
It’s too late. No. Just kidding. So I’m here. I’m whacking my son with my shirt.
Right. Trying to get the bees off. Right? My wife is screaming, trying to run as I’m whacking her and my son with my shirt. Aims not all the way on.
That’s right. She puts the boy down. I pick him up. So I have no shirt. I’m football carrying this.
I played rugby. So I was used to this. Mhmm. Right. And so I took off running as fast as I could.
And eventually, I got away from the bees. Actually, a lady said, come hide in my house. And so, we hid in her house. There’s that community. Yeah.
Of course, that would happen. And so Okay. So I’m hiding in her house, and, you know, I don’t it’s the grapevine is very active. So then soon people are all talking, oh, you know, the white people got stung by the bees. And so the white people got stung by the bees.
Don’t they know any better? I know. I know. So we all go and we meet in, it’s actually our faculty lounge which is basically, a screened in porch. So it’s got screen on it Right.
So the bees can’t get us. So we’re hiding in this porch pulling out stingers from my youngest son. Oh, man. Wait. How old is he at this time?
Twenty 6 so he would have been 4 or 5. Oh, my gosh. It’s so young. Okay. Stingers.
And it’s so funny because you can tell who’s been stung because you balloon. You really balloon big. Like, if it stings you on your head, it’ll actually shut your eye because it Wow. Swells so much. Wait.
And your son has multiple on his back? Yeah. We had 7 that we pulled out of him. And so, you know, we’re trying to take care of him. And then who do you see but one of our students?
Andrew Nita is a unique man. He’s from the Mabon tribe. He’s an older he’s probably 50 years old, but he works harder and just is more committed to Christ than I think anybody I’ve ever met. So Andrew Nitza starts walking by outside. We’re like, Andrew, Andrew, there’s bees.
You know, you gotta get inside. And he just kind of waves but ignores us and begins walking towards the tree where the bees are. Oh. Andrew pulls up a chair and sits down underneath the hive. Alright.
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Mhmm. So Andrew Nita starts walking by outside. We’re like, Andrew, Andrew, there’s bees. You know, you gotta get inside. And he just kind of waves but ignores us and begins walking towards the tree where the bees are.
Boom. Andrew pulls up a chair and sits down underneath the hive. And we’re seeing this swarm all around him. And they’re doing the whole, you know, hitting him in the head, trying to get him out of there. You can see this.
Oh, yeah. You can see a swarm of bees. And so they’re doing this to him, but he continues to sit there just calmly, almost like a statue. And so, you know, we’re taking care of Josh. We’re trying to get the swelling down and things like that.
And, about an hour later, I end up finding Andrew Nita and he has some stings on him. Just asking him, Andrew, what were you doing? You know, how is your head? Because he was getting stung. Andrew begins to share with me that, bees often will pour their wrath out on the nearest person.
And so by going and sitting there and actually sacrificing himself, the bees wouldn’t go further than him. They wouldn’t come towards us. They wouldn’t go towards other people in the village. They would only stay with him. And it just this was 2 weeks before Easter.
And I’m thinking to myself, what picture of Christ is more, real than what Andrew did? Andrew did not, you know, throw the rock at the bees. He did not cause them to become angry, but he sacrificed himself to sit down, to take that wrath until the bees calm down and go back to their hive. And that wrath went no further than Andrew. Well, just like Christ did that for us, took the wrath of God so that we don’t have to pay that.
Dude, man, what a what a cool story. So you asked me about faith in Africa. You asked me about what are we seeing? And we’re seeing people like Andrew Nita. People who are living their faith out in radical ways.
They for the sake of Christ, out of love for him, out of service to him, that’s the stories that are coming out of Africa. Can we go to, what happened in Paris, with, the Charlie Hebdo, massacre. And then shortly after that, Boko Haram, you know, attacked in Nigeria. But you just don’t see the coverage that happens in, you know, in the Boko Haram in in Nigeria, that you did with Paris. Paris was, like, huge.
And Boko Haram had killed, what, like, was, like, 2,000? Yeah. 2,000. And and you just didn’t see that much, and people weren’t really talking about it. But Charlie Hebdo was everywhere, internationally even.
So, like, I want just wanted to hear your viewpoint on it, you know, from being on the ground in Africa and that at that region and just to hear what you saw? Mhmm. That’s a really good question. I you know, I you’ll just get my opinion. You’ll get my viewpoints here.
You know, you have journalists reacting to the death of fellow journalists with Charlie Hebdo. Ah. You have a western response to a western crisis, in France. You have in some ways, you have it’s an attack on free speech. And so it’s something that we struggle with here and we identify with freedom to express our views is something we cherish.
And so it almost felt like it was an attack on us, that we need to stand up for this, with the people of Paris, with Charlie Hebdo, as, you know, these terrorists came and and killed those people there. It’s almost tribal, kinda like what you were talking about. We have so many identifying Marx. Yeah. Freedom.
It was an attack on freedom and democracy and That’s right. Western secularization, freedom of speech, all of those things that we identify with as Americans. Whereas these radical terrorists, we have we don’t identify with at all, hardly. Or 2,000 brothers in Christ, which is so bizarre to me. I guess, Brady, that’s what I’m wondering.
Like, why is it that 2,000 people die at the hands of radicals in Nigeria and that we don’t really blink an eye? I mean, you mentioned even in the first episode, first part of this podcast, something like 10,000 have died in the civil war. I mean, and we don’t hear about it. Maybe we don’t wanna hear about it. We don’t look for it.
But I just feel like shouldn’t the church be more aware of the suffering of its brothers and sisters in Africa than we currently are? I think so. It’s it’s hard. Yes. It’s hard because it felt like we could name the issue.
It felt like we knew who were who were the good guys and the bad guys and where they’re coming from and what’s at stake when it’s Paris. But then when we look at Boko Haram in Nigeria, you you ask yourself, who are these people? Right. And what are they doing? And why are they mad?
And why are they killing each other? Right. And you just end up feeling like, boy, I I can’t identify at all with what’s going on, and it’s just more bad news from Africa. And so you just end up tuning it out. You end up being like, well, there it is again.
And I I and so I feel that there’s that fatigue that people get when they hear about Africa. Yeah. There’s a scene in the movie Hotel Rwanda where they’re filming the genocide that’s happening and the guy, Paul, who’s running the hotel walks in and he sees the footage of what they were filming from the slaughtering that was happening in the streets. And, when they see him walk in, they say, no. No.
Shut it off. Shut it off. And he said, no. No. No.
People need to see this. He said, the Western world needs to see what’s happening. That way, people will come in. They will step up and and help us in the situation. And the cameraman turns to him and there’s this moment where he says, I wish that were true but people are gonna watch this and they’re gonna say, wow.
That’s really bad. And then they’re gonna go back to eating their dinner. And that scene in that movie, man, that just stuck with me. It stuck with me. Alright.
Here’s another recruiting moment. And this is where I’m gonna, for a second, just say we need lifers. We need people who are going to absolutely invest everything into coming and serving Christ. The solutions aren’t simple. The the issues aren’t simple.
The coming in and, you know, giving clothes and food and and sandals and aid aid is so destructive. Giving these things Hold on a second, Ray. We gotta we gotta expound on that. What are some of the ways in which you see aid being actually destructive and causing more problems than actually helping? Alright.
Let’s say your your job is you sell shoes. And, you know, what you do is you make and sell shoes. And then all of a sudden, some donor comes in and he provides shoes for the entire county. You know, 50,000, 60,000 shoes who just lost their business. You know, let’s say, you’re a farmer.
You sell your food in the market. Some aid organization comes in, and they’re now offering cheaper. I I mean, they’re giving away food. No one’s gonna buy your crops anymore. You can’t start a business.
Why why do we not think think of that stuff? I’ve never thought about that before. Why would you want to I mean, farming is so hard. Why would you wanna farm when someone’s just gonna provide you food? When someone’s just gonna step up to the plate and actually give it to you for free.
It it it hinders the step forward that people need. So you have countries like Tanzania where the president has actually said, we will not accept any aid. And so he stepped up to that plate, and he said, yeah. Sure. We’re gonna grow slower, but it’s gonna be us growing.
It’s not gonna be this foreign just donations that’s causing us to grow. It’s us actually stepping up to the plate and doing the work and growing ourselves. And what what about finances for, like, government programs and education, all that kind of stuff? Would you consider that still that part of that aid that’s destructive or cut that out too? Boy, now you’re asking some serious policy questions.
Sorry. Maybe you can just be all about Jesus. Right. I don’t know. I just tell people about Jesus.
Yeah. It was just in my head. I was just wondering. No. I there’s massive, okay.
Yes. There is help. The problem is, often, it’s a donation to a government or that ends up being a donation to that man’s mansion or his bank account in another country. Oh. Alright.
So if you’re going to give without accountability, you’ve now just corrupted someone. You’ve not helped him. You’ve corrupted him and sent him down a path of corruption. So it it is hard. Giving aid properly is extremely difficult, and donors have an attention pin span like a squirrel.
Like they’ll give and then they’re on to the next thing. Right. So it’s it’s hard to do aid well. And that’s why I’m asking for lifers. I want people who are gonna come in and actually invest their life.
Because that is what we need. People are gonna dig under the surface issue. People are gonna actually invest themselves into a community so that they’re not simply giving help, but they’re receiving help. That is the healthiest way to give aid is when you are a recipient of aid from the community yourself. Right.
You’re actually living in community. Absolutely. Right. Have there been, by the way, when it comes to the foreign aid, it’s a huge topic. And probably, we shouldn’t have thrown it on Brady, but we had to.
But there’s a book there’s a book, toxic charity, that I think is a helpful resource. And we’ll we’ll add that to the show notes as well. And it just talks about some of the shortcomings of aid. And there’s a couple articles we can put in there too that have been written by some some colleagues on aid. I wanted to ask, what are some of the times where you’ve really felt like you were a recipient from the community?
Is there anything that comes to mind in ways that you’ve received from the community that you were that you went to minister to? That’s good. I, it’s exciting that missions now is not a western thing. My colleagues are Ethiopian, Nigerian, Indian, Filipino. These are men and women who are sent by their churches in these countries as missionaries to serve in Sudan, in South Sudan.
So that’s cool. That’s so cool. And the perspective that they bring to the work, it just mellows and balances us out so well. My first place that I went to in South Sudan actually, it’s, North Sudan is a Blue Nile state, and we found ourselves trapped by a river. So 6 months, 4 months out of the year, it would rain, and this river would grow so big that we couldn’t cross it.
Well, you can cross it. I remember one time Probably shouldn’t cross it. Yeah. I you know, you can swim across it. So I’m I’m watching these guys.
Oh, you’re not talking about a boat. You’re talking about swimming. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Swim across. Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah. I love how Brady’s just like, yeah.
Yeah. I was thinking of fairies. You’re right. I’m totally thinking of fairies. And everyone in that’s listening is thinking of fairies too.
Just wanna say that. Go ahead. Alright. So, you know, I’m watching these guys cross and, you know, you go way upstream because the river’s rushing madly. So then as you’re swimming across, you’re dragged downstream quite far.
So you walked upstream, and then they strip down. And then you hold your clothes with one hand above your head as your other arm is swimming across so that your clothes remain dry. So you’re swimming across a raging river, one handed. Yeah. So I Are there crocodiles?
No. Not in this river. No. Yeah. That’s that would make you wanna swim really fast.
Are there lions? No. Just kidding. Hippos. So so I decided, yeah, sure.
I’ll I’ll give this a try. Well, you’re not thinking like an American. You’re not. This might be a little too much information. No.
No. Please. At the time, I was a boxer man. Oh. So You got down to your skivvies.
Yeah. So I Everywhere you You know, everybody’s down to their skivvies, and I I have my boxers. Well, you know, when you hand wash your clothes, that elastic just I know where this is going. It never tight back up. Yeah.
Right? I’m in the dryer. I jump in this river and I’m committed. I got my clothes committed. And I got my other free arms, you know, going well soon.
The river goes to my, boxers. You’re neither nether regions. Yes. And they’re around my ankles. So, you know, I quickly So now you’re swimming with 1 I mean, without any movement of your legs.
Well, right. It’s it’s more like drifting. It is. Is it that way? You’re drifting.
I’m trying to stay up and keep my clothes above me. My hands, you know, trying to go in the water to, you know, pull up my boxers and then try and swim again. So I’m, like, bobbing up and down. You should see the concern on the people, like, on the side. They’re like, this American doesn’t know how to swim.
This white guy doesn’t know how to swim. I know. But they don’t really know what’s going on underneath the water. Right? Right.
I mean, because it’s very, very turbid, very dirty water. Right. You can’t see through it. Holy cow. I almost drowned that day.
That was awful. Wait. Wait. Can I ask, were your did your clothes remain dry? I can’t remember.
I’m trying to look at the Did you not know? Did you not know? Did the box Did the box did the boxers stay on? The buy it depends on what you define as on. Did I permanently lose the boxers?
No. I I ended up keeping them around my ankles. Alright. But, so okay. So that’s trapped.
That was trial. Okay. River. Okay. So I so there’s this river.
And so we’re thinking to ourselves, man, the community and ourselves were trapped by this river 4 months out of the year. That means we can’t get to the market. We can’t get to the clinic. We can’t get to the roads. We can’t get to the schools on the other side.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. So this is just across, like, the way.
It’s not like like you leaving the city. It’s, like, everything. Like, to get to just normal things that you need every day. Right. Right.
So so we’re stuck on this river. So then friends and I were talking about it, and we’re like, you know what? I’ve watched Indiana Jones. That bridge looks like, you know, that little, like, hand The rope bridge? Yeah.
The rope bridge. Why can’t we build suspension bridge. Yeah. Yeah. Why can’t we build a bridge?
It was a rope bridge. I’m not so okay. It was suspended, but it was a rope bridge. Right. Right.
We have rope. Right? So, it’s like, oh, man. So, I’ve seen goats walk on those kinds of bridges. Yeah.
So, goats? They’re not humans. Okay. Go ahead. They do have way better balance.
Right. So, man, so we we start pursuing this. And pretty soon, I get connected with this group called Bridges to Prosperity. And they’ve done the research that you build a bridge across these rivers and the community flourishes. Because for 4 months, they were stuck.
They were dying literally because they couldn’t get to the clinic. No way. So now you build a bridge and then the community flourishes because they can go back and forth. And so this this excellent organization has done this around the world. And so they offered their plans to me and said, hey, why don’t you take these and build this bridge so they don’t build it for you?
They just give you the blueprints? Oh, yeah. Totally. Oh, yeah. Of course.
You said prosperity. I just assumed they came out and built a bridge for you. No, sir. That’s the other thing I like about them is they it’s solid because they do not work. They don’t do the work for the community.
Okay. They allow the community to build the bridge themselves. That’s kinda counterintuitive, but I get what you’re saying now. So what would be the problem if they if they came out and built the bridge? What would be some of the things that would happen?
Oh, my goodness. So ownership is a huge thing. Who owns that bridge? If no one owns the bridge, then who’s gonna fix it when something Oh. Oh, and, you know, so if someone starts damaging the bridge, whose responsibility is it to Protect it.
Protect it. And so what they found is absolutely, the community is able, with these instructions, to build their own bridge. And they protect it. They own it. They keep it alive.
You know, do the maintenance that needs to happen to it so it stays safe for the community. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Fantastic group.
Alright. So you got blueprints? Got blueprints. So then we start on this 2 year adventure of building this bridge. What?
Yeah. It takes 2 years to build a rope bridge? No. It it shouldn’t. But I I went to bible school Right.
And now I’m building bridge. So 2 years. That’s good, man. That’s good. That is actually good.
I think I think your bible school needs to expand its degree program to bridge Oh, maybe an engineering minor. Okay. And you said weed. I was thinking in my head, was it your missionary team, or was it, like, the community? The community.
Okay. So we had 5 tribes in our community. So the most important thing was to sit down with those leaders and to say, hey, do you want this? And when they said, yes, we want it, then it was, well, then who are you gonna provide to help build this bridge? What what were those conversations like when you said, Do you want this?
I mean, how long did that process take? What were some of the Yeah, describe the conversation. I mean, did you say, Do you want this? And suddenly, one tribal leader stands up and says, what? Okay.
Well, I alright. Set the scene. We’re with communities that have are completely, education hasn’t quite reached there yet. So the actual bridge concept of a bridge, it doesn’t exist. So we actually made one out of brick and string and little pieces of wood to show what the bridge would actually look like.
You’re saying that these people haven’t seen a bridge before? Right. Was there a word in the language even for the bridge? I had to Yeah. We used Arabic.
Kubri is the bridge word. But then to actually show it to them, I had to, you know, actually answer a lot of questions about this is what’s gonna happen. And then the fact that you walk over the water, like this, you know, it it’s hard to think about and to actually put it there. I’ve never thought about the concept of a bridge being foreign to anybody. True.
And that’s so wild. Okay. Keep going. Okay. So Alright.
So get the community together. So when I say we, we’re talking about, at one point we had 90 people who are working on this bridge together. Woah. So, you know, it was yeah. Anyway, so I was very involved.
Sometimes you felt like you weren’t doing any work. You were just, like, helping people not to keep going in this vision of building a bridge. It’s the slower way to go. But in Africa, we have a saying that if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.
I like that. So that’s the idea of, hey, if I can build this bridge with an NGO and some money and I can do it by myself for the community. I’ll get it done 5, 6 months. But if I wanna do it together, if I wanna do it as a community, then it’s gonna take longer. And it did.
It took 2 years, you know, to build this bridge. So here But you could have brought over a short term team and built it probably in 2 weeks in the summer with a short term missions team if you had got these construction guys to come over. I mean, that’s really what we end up seeing a lot of times. Yeah. That’s the methodology.
Right. Right. And I I think it’s flawed. Wow. So that’s what I’m saying.
My recruit is for long term. Anyway, so Lifers. Lifers. So we run into this granite rock. Okay?
This so you have to dig down to make these anchors, and we ran into this granite boulder. And it was, it’s about the size of a large semi truck. It’s just a huge granite stone. And and you guys don’t have like, what kind of equipment are you guys? Like, you don’t have trucks?
You don’t No. So bulldozers and No. No. No. We don’t have anything.
So we’re using Home Depot, rental, jackhammer. I wish. I wish. So I literally just longing in his voice. Yeah.
We’re talking 6 months for this stone, and that is hammer and chisel. That’s trying everything we can do. Get out of here. They chiseled that thing out of there, and it took 6 months. Well, I, you know, I tried everything.
And so I ran into a missionary. He’s like, oh, yeah. You know what you can do? You pour diesel on the rock. Let the diesel soak into the stone and then light it on you pile wood on top of the stone and light it on fire.
Oh, it’s fire. It’ll be like a bomb. You know? The diesel will soak into the middle and then it will burn from the inside. I’m picturing a MacGyver move here.
It’s not a bomb, but it does heat it so much that it cracks. Right. The rock cracks, and they can pull it out in pieces. Kind of a bomb. But you said a semi truck.
This is the size of a semi truck. It was massive. It was absolutely massive. So we’re working on this thing, working on it, and it would crack. I I give them that.
It would crack, but it’d be like in 2 inch, 3 inch layers. No. So I mean, literally, 6 months of finding wood and pouring diesel and trying to It’s not working. Like, I was so discouraged. Is the community still participating?
Yes. But they’re very discouraged too. If, you know, you got a whole wood all this distance and light it on fire and then you get 2 inches off of a semi truck? Any fights breaking out amongst the community? They’re all looking at you like, who is this guy?
I really follow him. Yeah. Are they are they mad at other tribes because some tribes are working harder than others? Like, is it that kind of stuff going on? No.
You do you do have to keep everybody involved and working and things like that. And I I have to admit, I was not good. It was hard. It was hard to keep everybody involved at this point. People get discouraged.
Right. You talk about a bridge, and 2 year well, there’s a year and a half later, there’s no bridge. Like, what’s going on here? I said that would be hard for anybody Right. Sure.
To make it happen. Right. So then so one day, I’m just walking back, to my house, and I’m so discouraged. And I’m walking up the road, and Steven Ademu, who’s a Nigerian, Nigerian missionary, he’s been sent by his church to come and church plant and then to work in education there. He comes up to me and says, Brady, what what’s going on?
And I say, look, Steven, I don’t know about this. I’ve been working on this rock, and I we’ve done everything we know how to do, and we can’t break it. And Steven just looks at me and says, have you prayed about it? I love it. I love it.
That’s good. No. I haven’t prayed about it. I’m very sorry. Don’t Pray about rocks.
Why would I pray about a rock? I know. It just doesn’t enter in. It doesn’t come right from my worldview. Right.
And Steven, like, boom. That’s the first thing he thinks about. Move mountains. So we go down there and we have this prayer session on this rock. And and then we’d light one more fire.
And we we lit it, and then it we spent that night just wondering what’s God done gonna do. Alright. So this show wouldn’t be possible without sponsors. And at this point in the show is where if you wanna partner with us, we would put your ad. So if you wanna be a part of the show, you wanna partner with us, you like what we’re doing, you wanna be on our team, what have you, bringing this show to the world, then email us and let us know.
And and then we’d light one more fire. And we lit it. And then we spent that night just wondering what’s God going to do? Sure enough, we go down the next morning and it has cracked. It is cracked in exactly the dimensions we need in order to build the rest of this And I bet the Nigerian guy was like, yeah.
Duh. Duh. Wait. So how long did you bomb. How long did you work on this stone, this granite, before you meant you you talked to this, this man that told you to pray.
How long was it? I would say 6 months. I would say Oh my gosh. So you you were working for 6 months, and then he comes around and says it, and you’re just like, why didn’t I do that before? Like, god, you’re mean.
Yeah. That’s a good that’s a long lesson. It is. It is. It’s one of those long, long lessons.
But imagine the look on people’s faces when they’ve seen that we’ve prayed over this. Who gets the glory? Right. God got the glory for the building of this bridge. In in this village, they were they were Muslims.
Now we had 2 tribes that were Muslims and then 3 tribes that were Christian. Working together working together, this was massive. So this was a huge, testimony to the Muslims to see. Absolutely. And so the bridge day celebration when we opened the bridge I got it sounds good.
Bridge day. Yeah. I got to sell it. You know, just share about the story and just how it’s the power of God that actually allowed us to accomplish this accomplish this bridge. But it’s also the power of God that actually allowed us to accomplish accomplish this bridge.
But it’s also the power of God that actually allows us to cross over from death to life. Oh, man. John 5 24. Alright? He Jesus Christ allows us to cross from death to life.
He is the bridge. Only him. And to be able to share that with I couldn’t bring together a 1,000 people. Oh, there were a 1,000 people there? Oh, easily.
And that bridge day celebration brought all 5 tribes together to celebrate the opening of their bridge. In fact, we named it Unity Bridge because of that. It brought everyone people together. I think that’s a a good story about how, demonstrating the gospel, indeed, and actually living the gospel, building something, not bringing it in from the outside, not having a team come and build it, but actually getting the community together. I can’t imagine all of the times they were spending together and how God was using that with the Christians and interacting with the Muslims and how God was using that for His glory.
Absolutely. Good stuff. Yep. Yep. Good stuff.
Okay. I’ve gotten a couple practical takeaways. But I want you to get real practical with us. I heard so far, I’ve heard, go with people. Yeah.
Bring somebody along. You know, if you’re going to to do something, bring somebody along. If you’re doing it alone, you’re doing it wrong. Alright. And the other thing that I heard just now loud and clear which is pray.
Oh my goodness. Yes. Yep. And that, you know, I need people to step out in faith because when you step out in faith, who gets the glory? Who’s actually accomplishing things?
Who’s working? It’s God. When you step out, it’s God who gets the glory. It’s God who gets to step in and be the hero. And that’s what we want.
Yeah. Me and Trevor were talking last night about just kinda how humanistic thinking has kinda crept into our our theology as Christians in the West. That was just, like, really about mankind. And, when you really look at the word, scripture, you can’t just help but realize that it’s all about the glory of God. It’s all about God.
And, I mean, that’s just an incredible reminder. I think that it’s just easy to think about our problems, our situation, our benefits, all you know, us, us, us. But then when you start flipping on its head and you see God and the whole goal is to bring glory to God, I think that just makes us deadly healthier, as Christians and really become light, salt and light, because it really isn’t about us. And I love what you’re talking about with the community because I just don’t I I really want to see this, actually, I am seeing it, I think, in in little pockets where there’s this, rising up of of people that want to be more community, minded in the states. Mhmm.
And I think we’re just at the very beginning. I know that God’s probably been working at this for a long time. But as we become more global, I think that’s the thing that kinda sticks to us more and more. We’re starting to see it. I think social media is even a part of that.
Right? Just this desire for community. They don’t even know it. They just they just have that. So, anyway, those are just incredible, I think, incredible points, a takeaway.
You know, this this podcast, you might have thought, you know, well, you know, Brady shared a lot of stories, and we were trying to trying to piece together, you know, Africa and and Sudan and what was kinda going on there. But I I hope that the takeaway for you guys is just this faith that God is moving and that we can be a part of it. And and not just to, you know, just listen to this podcast and just, you know, be at home, just being like, oh, wow. I wish I could have that life. But really, to kinda take up that call that Brady had had mentioned, he wants lifers.
And and I know that he also means, like, not just in the Sudan, but, you know, just as Christians, if we live this way Yes. You know, world Christians, these these guys that, Christians, if we live this way Yes. You know, world Christians, these these guys that that are aren’t thinking about themselves. They’re thinking in terms of community. They’re thinking in terms of the glory of God.
That it would make this incredible impact. Absolutely. As we as we come to a close, we started this session by saying you had to leave the country. Why did you leave? And you’re getting ready to return as I understand it.
What are you hoping to see when you go back? This is, this is hard. I got a letter, yesterday that my director wrote and he said it looks like we’re gonna keep the college closed for a year. And here I am. I leave in 8 days to go back.
What am I doing? What are what are we gonna do? And yet, this whole year, my wife and I have been praying, Lord, what do you want from us? And we’ve just felt his confirming call. You need to go back.
You need to go to these edges. You need to to go where there is no chance for people to get education. My wife and I are educators. So we love that area. We that’s where we wanna be.
And we felt God confirming that call. And yet now I get a letter. They’re gonna keep the college closed. Right. God, what are you what are you doing?
Mhmm. And yet, when I look back and I see the way that God has worked specifically in these direction in these situations, I’m confident. I’m ready. I’m ready to step into the void, not knowing what it’s gonna look like on the other side Right. But totally confident in my God that he has something planned for me, for us, for our family as we go back.
So I I don’t have any answers. South Sudan still is in the middle of a civil war. There’s still conflict between these tribes. That was tough, you know. Do you put your family in that sort of situation?
I remember flying we fly in these little Cessna airplanes. And, one time one of those planes got stuck in the mud as it was taking off. And so didn’t get enough speed and clipped a tree and actually flipped over and crashed with some of our missionaries inside. No one was killed. But I remember thinking about that.
Like, that’s our planes. That’s what we take in. And wondering, you know, God is are you gonna keep us safe? Are you have you called us here really? And so we get on that plane.
And as we’re flying in, I looked down, and there is a rainbow circling the shadow of the plane on the cloud below us. A rainbow. A sign from God to Noah that he was going to preserve him. To preserve humans. And here he is looking down just seeing that rainbow, seeing god say, I’ve gotcha.
I’ve got you in my hands. And being willing to follow him even if it does mean suffering. Even if it does mean he’s gonna use me in ways that maybe I I I didn’t wanna choose that, but I trust him that he’s gonna glorify himself through me. I’m ready for that. I’m ready to take that step.
And it’s a growing experience. I mean, I wasn’t at this step 5 years ago, but, you know, God keeps working on me and keeps growing me. So I go back to a torn apart country, a closed college, a school that is in desperate need of more teachers, students that are ill prepared for college. You know, they’ve got families that are been torn apart by this war. It’s not a great environment to learn in.
And yet, I’m ready. I’m ready to go and see god work. Well, I think listeners are all gonna agree that I’m hoping somehow we can get in touch with you on satellite phone because I know people are gonna be praying for you. Okay. And so those of you that want to pray, you can pray for Brady and his family.
God knows exactly who they are. He knows exactly where they are. All of you need to be praying that, God would have his will in their lives and that they would be used mightily, for the kingdom. I think it’s been really encouraging. Those of you that maybe feel led to respond to that, lifer challenge, contact us at comments attruthaboutmuslims.com.
We will connect you, specifically with, Brady’s mission to connect you with the work they’re doing. Those of you that that feel led to, maybe even support that particular mission and what they’re doing there, let us know, and we’ll make those connections for you. So, Brady, thanks, man. This has been awesome. It’s an honor.
Again, listeners, thank you so much for listening to Truth About Muslims, podcast. ITunes reviews really, really help. I know that I keep harping on that, but, I know that sometimes people forget. And I I listen to a lot of podcasts, and, you know, that’s kinda slips my mind. But, we’re real people and, you know, reviews really help because we wanna get the word out.
We really believe in what we’re doing here. We’ve had incredible feedback. Thank you guys for commenting and responding. And, here shortly, we’re gonna start, responding to people’s comments because now we’re getting so many and and and some questions too that we wanna start, answering those. But thank you so much for listening.
We’re really blessed that we actually get the opportunity to do this for a child. Just pray for us too, just like, I don’t know, Trevor mentioned a couple of podcasts ago. Please, keep us in your prayers, and, yep. Thanks.