Episode 70

From Local Churches to Medical Facilities: How to Help in the Opioid Crisis. Part 2 of a Conversation with Rev. Randy Davis from Briannas Hope and the Author of "Recovery Conversations"

Bishop Julius C. Trimble is the Resident Bishop of the Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church.

Bishop Trimble has the personal mission to encourage all people with the love of Jesus Christ to rise to their highest potential. It is his commitment to his personal mission that led Bishop Trimble to create the “To Be Encouraged” Podcast along with co-host Rev.Dr. Brad Miller.

Bishop Trimble says, “I am compelled by Jesus to share with you an encouraging word or two about Jesus, theology, the Bible, the pandemic, the environment, racism, voting rights, human sexuality, and the state of the United Methodist Church.”

To Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble is to be published weekly and is available at www.tobeencouraged.com and all the podcast directories.

https://www.inumc.org/bishop/office-of-the-bishop/

Episode 070:

From Local Churches to Medical Facilities: How to Help in the Opioid Crisis. Part 2 of a conversation with Rev. Randy Davis from Briannas Hope and the author of "Recovery Conversations"

Part 1, Episode 069 is available at this link:

Introduction:

In episode 070 of "To Be Encouraged," Rev. Dr. Brad Miller engages in a powerful discussion with Bishop Julius C. Trimble and guest Randy Davis about their efforts to combat the opioid crisis. With personal experiences and a shared conviction, Davis shares his insights on how people can support and engage with the ministry. In this blog post, we will explore three key takeaway points from their discussion.

1. Partnering with Communities:

The first key takeaway from the conversation is the importance of churches partnering with various substance abuse centers and medical facilities to provide a faith-based process for recovery. Bishop Trimble emphasizes ongoing training for pastors and the role of the church as a place for individuals to find help for their physical, spiritual, and mental needs. By engaging with local communities, churches can offer resources and support, thus becoming an integral part of the recovery process.


Randy Davis highlights the necessity of intentionality from the church. Someone within the congregation must champion the cause and have the passion to see the work through. However, Davis acknowledges the stigma and bias that still exist within many churches and emphasizes the need for overcoming these barriers to create a welcoming environment for those seeking help.


2. Accessing Treatment and Recovery:

The second key takeaway focuses on the challenges of accessing treatment and recovery programs. Davis highlights that while recovery resources are available to everyone in any county, there may not always be a facility in each county. However, through the ABL Better Life program, there are multiple means of accessing resources and guidance online.


One particular concern mentioned by Bishop Trimble in the discussion is the limited access to recovery plans, with only 20% of actively addicted individuals having access to such programs. The conversation delves into the importance of professionally administered medically assisted treatment (MAT), emphasizing the significance of proper care and monitoring by qualified medical professionals. It is essential to strike a balance between effective treatment and avoiding the potential pitfalls of dependency on medication.


3. Making a Difference:

The final key takeaway is the impact that individuals and communities can have in making a difference in the lives of those struggling with addiction. Davis emphasizes the power of choice and the personal responsibility for individuals to make the decision to seek recovery. Alongside professional assistance, support from family, friends, and the community can make the journey towards recovery less painful.


Moreover, both guests stress the need for education and raising awareness within the church community. By sharing stories of success and providing resources for clergy and laypeople alike, churches can play an essential role in fostering an environment of empathy, understanding, and support for those affected by the opioid crisis.


Conclusion:

The conversation between Bishop Julius C. Trimble and Randy Davis in this episode of "To Be Encouraged" sheds light on the opioid crisis and offers insights into how communities, churches, and individuals can have a significant impact in supporting recovery. Through collaboration, intentionality, and education, churches can become beacons of hope for those seeking to break free from the grasp of addiction. By providing resources, understanding, and embracing the power of choice, we can collectively work towards a future where recovery is accessible to all and the quality of life in every community is improved.


Remember, change begins with empathy, understanding, and a willingness to support those in need. Let's spread hope and healing as we tackle one of society's most pressing challenges — the opioid crisis.

For More Information on "A Better Life-Brianna's Hope" Randy Davis' book "Recovery Conversations" and the Podcast "Faith in Your Recover"

got to: https://www.ablbh.org/

Transcript
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Thank you. Thank you, Brad, for pointing that out.

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How can people be supportive of the

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ministry? Well, there are

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several ways to make that happen. Number one, we'd love

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for you. If you have any extra questions, I've not addressed

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comments, questions, fears, doubts, go our

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website@ablbh.org.

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The book that I'm talking about, all the funds from this

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book, this is volume one. Volume two is already in the works

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and we've got plans for volume three. And I'd love to

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go to volume six because we've got some incredible

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stories to be heard. But that book can be

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purchased for 1595 plus tax

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off of

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recoveryconversations.org.

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We've got PayPal other venues

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for donations on our website.

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We've got our

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podcast@ablbh.org,

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and if you have an interest on a chapter in

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your community, we'd love to hear from you. We'd help you

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set that up. It's a simple process. It's a

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minimal cost. You don't pay us anything in our office,

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but there are some incidentals you'll need to cover to take

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care of your meetings. But we'll be there with you. We'll

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help you get folks into treatment. We can resource

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that. We can make a lot of things happen and truly make a

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difference for your people, your community, and the

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quality of life in that community. So it's

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going well and we just want to see it continue to grow,

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continue to reach. It's one of those

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missional projects of a sort that we've been able

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to just turn into a

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God given success. And that pleases me to the

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bottom of my beam. I believe God is pleased too

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as well. Randy, I was listening to the radio actually it

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was earlier today, and they were sharing some

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of the heart wrenching statistics

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about the opioid crisis. How many thousands of people have died

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in the United States due to the opioid crisis? One of

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the things they said that really was a bit disheartening was that

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they found things that are helpful when people are trying to come

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off of opioid addiction. And they mentioned

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several different things that I methadone and

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some other different treatments. But they said only 20% of the people

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who are actively in addiction have

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access some of these recovery

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both treatment plans as well as

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accessing recovery itself. And I know

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recently the Indiana state added some

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additional funds to the mental health

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budget, and myself and a lot of others went down to the state

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House advocating for more funds. Randy,

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we didn't get all that we wanted, but they did increase what

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was previously in the state budget.

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Do you know what I make a reference to in terms of those things that

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have been found to be helpful as people are trying to

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overcome addiction and whether or not there are places you

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said you've helped people get into recovery

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programs. Is that available in all the

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counties or are there places where it's harder or easier than others

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to access help? If you really want to be helped?

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Yes, to all of that. Okay. But I'll try to break it down a

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little bit. It's available

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to everybody in any county, but

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there's not always a facility in every

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county. There are multiple

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means on the Internet. We have resources.

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We can help get you somewhere. We can

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guide indirect. As far as

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the medically assisted treatment that you're referring

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to, there's fear on some

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people's part. There's a great understanding on the

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part of other people. I guess I'm somewhere in the middle.

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Personally, I do not disbelieve in medically

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assisted treatment, but there's a right way for

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that to be done, and it has to be done

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professionally, not through what we used to call the

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pill mill to where you should just go and

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pick the pills up. You need to be under a doctor's

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care, and it needs to be done properly, just like anything.

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Otherwise you turn into abusing

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that drug instead of your old one. And

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there are some that through the medically

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assisted programs, you use them,

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you can become addicted, and they can be harder to come off

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of than the heroin or something else at times. I'm

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not totally versed in this, but I can get you to people who

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are who can help guide you and direct you to what's safe

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and what is working. Well, what

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you did say, and you said it earlier and you've said it more than once

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is that part of this ministry is helping people

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access treatment and recovery if they

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choose to. Obviously, you got to make a choice to want.

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Sometimes people might be living in a community. Maybe they become

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disconnected with their family or they've kind of been

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on an out and so they're in a different community. But if they connect

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with the ABL Better Life program, brianna's hope

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you're able to help resource them in terms

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of their pathway towards recovery. We

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would do our absolute very best.

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I could almost give you the excuses we get many

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times, randy the one that's the most often and the next

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and so on. But, yeah,

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it boils down. You made the choice to use the

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drug. You have to make the choice to

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stop using the drug. It's not just a matter

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of stopping usage. You've got to get your mind

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clean and everything else. So indeed, it's

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process, but it's not nearly as painful as the

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process that got you where you are.

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Amen. Hey, Brad, what questions do you

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have? I kind of got a question for both of you in

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this regard because I'm really interested in how

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it fascinates me how this has spread to so many counties and so

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many communities, even across the different states. And that's an

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awesome thing. And I really see the partnership opportunity for

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local churches to really get engaged with their communities. So I guess for

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Bishop and Randy, as both cordy people, how do you think

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churches can partner with the various

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substance abuse centers and what have you and medical facilities

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to provide something like this, a faith based process

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or some other process to help people get the faith that they need? How can

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we help things like this, help

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churches engage in their community in this great area of need?

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Bishop, why don't you go ahead, please? I think

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part of it is the ongoing training we do for our pastors.

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I know this has come up in our cabinet meeting, so several of our

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superintendents are fairly familiar with Better Life because

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they have churches in their districts that

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are hosting. But as a local pastor, I think

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about brad, you and I went to seminary together. The things that we didn't learn

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in seminary, things that would have been helped, things would have been helpful.

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When I was in Cleveland, Ohio, I had an associate pastor

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who was much more street savvy than I was. And

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he also was a trained social worker, so he had his finger

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on all of the resources that were available in our

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county, in our community that we could direct

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people to. But I think the ongoing education of

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pastors, local pastors, deacons,

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elders, and our laity and

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our churches, because the church should be a place

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where people can find help, whatever their help is they need, and

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that's physical, spiritual, mental

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help as well. So I think part of it is how do we resource

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our pastors? One of the things we like to do on the podcast,

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Brad, is to accentuate and

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magnify these stories so that people,

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they can be repeated other places. So I'm certainly going to be talking

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to Serena, our communications person. And I know we've done stories,

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it's been a while, but there have been stories done in the past about

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A Better Life. But Randy, now I've for

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you. What else? Yeah, because Randy's doing is really hands on in this. So,

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Randy, what have you seen? How is this

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program being translated and spread to other communities through the

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churches? It certainly takes intentionality

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from that church. There has to be someone, just as

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with every mission within the church, who has

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the desire, the passion to see this work.

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There's still an incredible stigma and bias out

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there that we deal with on a daily basis.

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And as much as I hate to say it, it's alive and well within

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many churches. Do we want that person next to

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us that we just read about in the paper a couple of weeks

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ago of going to jail on this kind of a

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charge or that kind of a charge? How much do

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we want to invest in that of our time and our

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energy and our hearts? But I'm still of the belief,

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and I tell nearly every chapter this at their start,

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it's going to take you one success story, and people

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will start to believe. I remember the

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negativity we faced in the beginning, and I

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get it because nobody around was doing anything like

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this, so I'm okay with that. But that

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didn't stop us. Again, tell me

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no. And that's probably the best fire you can put in me.

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That's the best amen you can give me sometime is to say,

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that can't work, because I will try to prove to you can.

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If God's with me, it's going to work. I think one of the great

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things you've done here, Rennie, is you put a face on this. Is there's a

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Brianna in every town, no matter what. It

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could be a big city like Indianapolis, or it could be a small little

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place like Red Key, Indiana, and every place in between, there's a Brianna

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there or a Brian or

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there's. If you put a face on this, I think it's one of the

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brilliant, if you allow me to say, a kind of a marketing play on this

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that you've done here to help give

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that a face to that. And then when that story comes up, because it will

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in every community where they will have that person pop up who

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has a need, and, boy, you're ready to go, then

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there's a lot. Of truth with that. And that was a part of the

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purpose, so people could identify

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you pick up the newspaper, you read of someone, boom.

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You can just transfer that into Brianna's story. And

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there's so much of that going on around us. And as you

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said, every community's had their struggle. I have

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been to two communities in my

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know nine years of this who have told me we

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don't have a problem. Well, to the best of my

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abilities, I kept saying, then why don't you travel

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with me and tell people how you keep from having a

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problem? More so than that, I wanted to say, you need to move

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that rock you've been living under.

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I call that the Cleopatra excuse, the queen of denial kind of a

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thing.

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That society is in as big a denial

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as any addict. Here's my quick story about that out of my

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ministry. Had a big meeting one time about some new

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folks coming to the church who were a little bit rough characters. And this one

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older woman said, I cannot stand people coming to our church with

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tattoos. And then while I'm talking to her at her

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kitchen table, her grandson, about 20 years old,

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who's been out mowing the lawn, comes in without a shirt on, and he has

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this huge eagle tattoo all over his chest.

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And I said, hey, would you ever like your grandson to be in church? He's

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got the tattoo. So you can deny all you

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want to, but the reality of the issues are right there in front of our

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face, and we can no longer deny them in the church or we will not

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be relevant to people who need the Lord.

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Last year we took our group, three or four

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speakers, went to J county High School, Portland,

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Indiana the first question I asked the students

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who were gathered, how many of you

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personally know someone, have a

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family member or are personally involved with

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drugs? And out of the, I don't know,

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1200 students who were there, 1100 hands went up,

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randy, the other hundred just. Probably didn't hit

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a line or out of touch. Yes. No,

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it's a very real thing and it's everywhere. And

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that will be true if we did that from the pulpit on Sunday

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morning. How many

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of our families have not been touched by this? I know that my

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family has alcohol and drug

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addiction and this is real. And

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we are not just in the business of getting people ready

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for heaven. We also should be in the business of

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interrupting some of the hell that people are going through and

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walking with them as they struggle through these.

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And Bishop and Randy is also just in

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practical, pragmatic terms that many churches are really leveraging

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things such as ministry to abuse situations as an

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evangelistic tool because there's so much need there. If you're showing

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the need to people hurting this way, it can lead to growth

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in your church as well. It can't, yeah. And

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to see the change within people when that light comes

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on I don't just mean those struggling with a drug, I mean

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those folks who have never really gotten serious about

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making a difference or getting involved.

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It's been an incredible experience. Well, Randy, one of the things we really want to

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hear from you, the theme of our podcast is to be

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encouraged and we always give Bishop the last word in terms of wrapping

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things up here in a few minutes, but really want to hear a

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story. Now, you've shared with us a few things but a

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story where you've seen either an individual's life

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changed or maybe a group like a class or a church or something

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that's been changed by the mission and ministry that you're involved

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with now and how that can be a point of

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encouragement or inspiration to others.

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Let's hear a great story. I may be a

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little hesitant, not because I don't have them, I'm trying to boil it down

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to one, maybe. Hard to do, but give us

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a story, if you will. Gotcha. I'll go ahead and I

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know I have permission to use this by name because I have a before

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and after picture. His name is Dustin.

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Dustin was a classmate of our youngest son.

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Used to come to our home quite often. I didn't

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know, I didn't recognize he was in a home that

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struggled with alcohol. Dustin,

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as he got older in school and was moving

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on, made some poor choices, got heavily

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into addiction and

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we would keep in contact. He'd show up at

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meetings, he fought his own battles and dealt

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with his own demons. And finally he

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decided he was done. Done with that battle.

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The before picture of when he was first booked into

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jail to the after picture,

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it was more than night or day. I oftentimes hold

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up his before picture and make a comment to

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people. This is not the kind of guy I'd want to meet

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in a dark alley. And then I go ahead and say I don't think I'd

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even want to run into him in a lighted aisle at Walmart.

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But the change Dustin has made, the relationship

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he's come into with God, the way he has

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reconnected with his family, he is now

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a journeyman brickmason. He's making good

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money. The people of the community have got

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nothing but good words for him and they saw him in

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another situation for a long time. So Dustin's

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a prime example along with Monica, who

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is one of our partner expression poster kids

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for recovery and her battle

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with Meth, losing her family, her children over the

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years, her jobs, her home, finally

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getting to that point. She was so proud she finally owned a

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car that had all four doors the same color.

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To see her come into recovery and

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she's now working for IUJ

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Hospital dealing with those who are

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those are those are two biggies.

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That's fantastic. And you take those stories of

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Monica and Dustin and you multiply them over and

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over again, don't you? Absolutely. That's awesome.

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That's been one of the joys of our podcast. Every one of those is a

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victory story in the end.

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What do you think about what you've heard here today from Pastor Randy

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Davis about Brianna's Hope? I'd like to get your kind of your

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reaction, what you feel about it, what is encouraging about it and

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what is inspirational moving forward for other churches and other

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leaders. I think this is an answer

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to prayer. When we talk about breakthrough prayer,

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I think that Brianna's prayer has really had a breakthrough

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effect. So where her loss of life

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has not been a loss in vain. And I give thanks

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to God without apology for Pastor Randy Davis,

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his enthusiasm, his exuberance, his

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contagious positivity that I think

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can be multiplied. And I think we ought to just continue to tell

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and retell stories like this. I may have heard of Monica's story because

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I don't know, is Newcastle one of the places

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where early on it got to start? I may be missing my commitment.

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Yes, it is. I'm sure Monica would have been involved.

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Right. And I was at one of those meetings and I'll never

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forget because I came back, Randy, and told that story. You never think about

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somebody giving thanks for having a car where the doors

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all match. And those of us who used know I

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grew up in the city in Chicago and I knew what that was. If you

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got a car and sometimes the doors didn't always

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match because it was a replacement door. But if the car was

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running that was the first thing. But if you had a car

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where all the doors are matched. That's a step up.

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Step up. That's awesome. Well, Randy, why

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don't you tell us one more time how people can find out more

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about your organization, about your book, about your podcast.

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Because people are going to want to know how to learn more about this. Tell

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us how people can get a hold of you, about your organization, and all those

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things we've mentioned there. Post the book again.

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All right. Our website

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ablbh.org. Our office

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email is

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info@ablbh.org.

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The podcast

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podcast@ablbh.org.

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It is titled Faith in Your Recovery, available on all

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major podcast platforms. Our office

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phone,

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260-766-2006

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and the book can be found on our website. You can

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go there, get information I'll get the angle there in a minute.

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You can go there and get information or go to

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recoveryconversations.org,

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and we'll get one out to you right away. That's

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fantastic. We'll put all those connections on our website at

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tubing. Encouraged.com. The main website,

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though, is Ablbh.org. I assume that stands

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for it stands for a Better Life Brianna's Hope. Is that what that stands for?

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I assume that it does, right? It does. Yeah. So that's

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ablbh.org. So that's where to go.

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Bishop, can you give us any final thoughts and close us with a prayer,

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please? Yeah, well, I got a copy of the book, but I told

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Randy I want an autograph copy, so he's working. On

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getting my word.

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Well, you know, one of the things we like to do is remind people of

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the scriptures that really undergird this podcast.

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First, thessalonians the fifth chapter. For God has

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destined us not for wrath, but for obtaining salvation

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through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,

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so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may

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live with Him. Therefore, sisters and brothers, encourage one

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another and build up each other, as indeed you

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are doing. We have been encouraged by Pastor

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Randy Davis and A Better Life Brianna's Hope. And I

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hope you will support this ministry. It's a

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ministry worth supporting. If we want to save lives,

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we've got to invest in lives. And I give thanks to God

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for Randy Davis, and for the many people who have

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been, as we like to say, up the rough side of the mountain.

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Well, thanks for sharing, Bishop Tremble. And just a reminder,

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our guest today here on To Be Courage, Randy

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Davis from Ablbh.org, and

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here on the To Be Encouraged podcast with Bishop

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Julius C. Tremble, the podcast where we like to offer an

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