From Prison to Purpose

I mean, I still had the thoughts, you know, the desires of getting high and all that stuff. I knew at that time I was looking at, okay, Jerry, I mean, long time, you know, and how long with prison sentence, but I knew I was like, that's, you know, and I'm like, a lot, I didn't have my idea, I didn't have anything, you know, like I lost the kids, literally what else, you know, what's a house, you know, if I don't have anything.

Early Stages of Recovery

But yeah, he just, I just took the first, well, probably the first nine months, I just, I wasn't talking to anybody, I just stayed off the radar, being, being God all day long every day, read my word, I was at peace, you know, and then, you know, slipped at the beach a few, quite a few nights, you know, they had concrete tunnels, they put in the ground, well, they were doing road work there for a long time, and they had 12 of them lined up by the ocean, so I would sleep in there, you know, just, like, in an eye time, I'd tuck in there and get out the morning and talk about the beach and, you know, watch the sun come up, you know, and it was, that, that didn't fill me, and I, you know, I knew I was trusting God, I had to trust, I had to trust God, yeah, I trust God, my kids, I trust my situation, I knew I was going to face the music eventually, but it was on his time, all the times, like, literally, all the times that even read my name at the beach and nothing came up. I knew God had a head until, until the right time, but I kept asking the Lord to take away, take away my desires, take away this, you know, this and that, and whether, you know, whether taken away, and I was looking at, and taking away from my own, my own freedom, I wasn't really having that, you know, that, having that to do with him really as much as I wanted to be a right standing and everything, but...

Introduction to the Podcast

What's up? What's up? Welcome to another session of rebuilding life after addiction. I'm your co-host, Rob. We got Justin on. We have Herb on. It's going to be a really good show today. I'm so thankful because my mom introduced me to this guy, and I remember when I went to go visit my mom just recently, about a month and a half ago. You know, I was just able to hear his story and his heart and his passion for God's people, but also for those that are coming out of the correctional facility. And so I thought it would be an honor to be able to have him on and share his story and his perspective of life and what he's been through and how God has kind of, you know, kept him throughout all his troubles and uncertainties. And so without further ado, I'd like to welcome my friend and brother in Christ, Herb Ross. Herb, how are you doing today?

Herb's Story of Addiction

I'm blessed, brother, and I appreciate the opportunity here. Yeah, man.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to another call, man. It's been a little bit since we went live, been like 10 days since we got on here and done our last call. I saw our itch and for a lot of give. Oh, I didn't have my mic on again. How do I keep doing that? Anyways, it's been 10 days since we went live, man. I'm excited. And Herb, I read a little bit of your story when you sent over the information, man, and I'm excited to jump into it and hear what the Lord's done in your life. And real quick, before we get into that, though, I just want to give a quick shout-out to Valley Custom Homes for recently coming on to sponsor the podcast. I mean, these guys decided to come in and sponsor the show. And so we appreciate you guys. If you're in the Shenandoah Valley Virginia area, these guys do incredible work. They've been in the business for 30 years and done. They don't do barely any marketing. Everything's been word of mouth. And you know that reputation is the only thing that keeps the business going for 30 years with only word of mouth marketing. So big shout out and thanks to our friends over at Valley Custom Homes for coming alongside and rebuilding, helping us rebuild lives. They're a builder. We rebuild lives after addiction. So men, men, it works. But Chris, the guy that runs that company, he's such a stand-up guy. And I'm just grateful. And so I wanted to jump in and do that shout-out real quick. So, man, Herb, why don't you take a moment, just introduce yourself to the audience, you know, and share a little bit of your backstory. And we'll just, we'll roll from there.

Well, I'm Herb Ross. And I guess I started, the addiction really started with the money and being in a poverty-stricken neighborhood and selling drugs to be able to get forward to things that the kids around me had. And Michael started spoken with me when I was nine. And then I started selling it by like 13. Pretty much anything I could, you know, if I had to, if I had the connections and I had the people that I want to need from the people there around me, I wouldn't make some money. And then I started doing it myself. But in my about 21 is when I really started getting addicted. Yeah, I cut my, come to my Achilles tendon, my tibial nerve, well, I started getting on the pain pills and something in them every day, you know, so then I started finding other ways to do more than while I was getting prescribed. I had a dirty doctor, you know, it was right in me, massive amounts of pills and, you know, I had made them on, you know, the things that, you know, I think I could do to feed that addiction. But a lot of it, I was running from God, running from pain, you know, my childhood and my mother's pain, a lot of rap. But so I ended up with a song of cocaine and I've been with, I hit on my head, looking at them, the 20-year-olds office finally caught up with me. I had a couple of buys, you know, for a few hours of the cocaine here and there. So they came in and looking at 72 years, they were, it's a stacked them, at the baby on the way, you know, at the time and he's 13 now. But so I kind of, they wanted me to give up somebody to, it's, you know, kind of work the system. And so I weighed, so I gave, I gave one guy up, which turned around, they pretty much put a head on my head, $10,000 to hit on the taking me out and the attorney general's office, you know, had it inside me and there to actually got wind of it. And so they had to move me out, move me out there because they felt, you know, responsible. I mean, fear was pretty much going to jail, fighting that addiction in jail, definitely, you know, fighting it on my own, leaving my kids stranded. And so I kind of went against everything I believed in at the time.

The Journey through Addiction

But so we moved to Jacksonville, it paid for us to get a place. I beat on, you know, I didn't have to do any time on that. There was guns and like a lot of different things involved, you know, I felt blessed to get out of that, but I was still died the addiction. So then I, for you know, I started, you know, cooking meth and started doing anything I can do to, you know, trading, you know, just trading up for things. And so we moved into a house that was just haunted, you know, it kind of took over the ex-life, ex-life now, but was under a spiritual attack. She ended up leaving, taking the kids, moving back to Pennsylvania, where I had to hit on my head. So the only way I had to get pretty much was to go back with nothing, lived in a bayonet house for the while still doing what I knew how to do, you know, make ends meet. And then here to the bayonet house fixed it up, made a home, you know, to have a running water that I have, pipes, you know, heat, anything.

I started seeking the Lord then, I needed a new, you know, I've always knew he was there with me of the kid, even though I spent a lot of time alone. I knew he was there with me. I just felt his presence, you know, but I remember I started going this, well, I had to get filled like 10 gallon jugs of water down to crick and, you know, go for the flush the toilet and everything and saving a little bit of money. I fixed it up to be a home, trying to get my boys back, went clean for a little while, trying to, you know, do it for my kids. And then she fought me and beat me in court, took my boys and then, then I went back into a ditch, slipped back into a ditch and, you know, I had a police on me. I had, you know, up there, you missed a $25 payment. They're sending a $50 costable out to collect. If you don't have it, they're taking you right to jail, you know, but I was in and out all the time. I was on the run, always chase it, you know, looking over my shoulder. I, you know, playing cat mouse police.

The Turning Point

I was, by then I was, let's see, it was, it had been 2013, so I'm 45 now. So, yeah, so it went up there. No, and I had a head on my head, but no, I, no one is either that or not see my, see my kids, you know, that went there, but really where the Lord met me at where there was someone to his bar, where I knew pretty much just reckless. I knew there, I knew that's where the, you know, people hung out at and they didn't care, you know, at that point. So I came, so I went to go leave and then they guys stalked me and I knew I knew something was up. I sent them on the phones and making, you know, calls and this and that. So, um, so I had a bicycle and I would get down this bike trail. Um, so when I left the bar, I went down his bike trail where they ambushed me. I mean, they had the one side locked off and the other side blocked. I seen a big light coming out from the back of the truck. Well, yes, I knew that. You know, they were, you know, they were going to strike me off. So I took my bike, went up into the woods, kind of just, uh, that's where I prayed. And I told the Lord, I said, you know, if it's my time to go, I just like, you know, you know, be there with my kids because that's really the only thing that really matters to me. I said, if not, you know, get me out of here. I didn't know how because I knew they had me, yeah, I knew they had me blocked off. You know, the only thing that to the left of me was a big hillside where they were going up that and to the right of me was all woods and then on the other side of the woods with a river. And it was November. It was cold. So that's when, and it's dark. And actually, I know just Lord just took supernaturally. I mean, I was able to see a near trail. I like, we'll just lit up. I went out and like, shut me when the run. I mean, I just like, I just took over and they wouldn't stop and listen, run and stop and listen. And they were listening for me trying to push me through the woods. So I get to the river bank. I take my hoodie off, my phones and my hoodie and got my head because you're almost walk across to the river. So I got in a real quietly. It just leaves all over the ground. So, you know, you could hear somebody started to walk and run or stop. So when I got to, when I got to the water, I got over my chest. I started hyperventilating. You know, from the cold. And then, then that's the last, I started freaking out because I could, then I was having the next day, I know, like, angel of lords took my hand, just pulled me across the river, put me up on this rock. And, you know, and I made up, I made up on top of the hill, went up top of the hill, and I could see across the river, see all my enemies. They were just, they had lights and they were coming through the woods. They had another one as the other end, they were waiting on me. They're going to push me through like a deer. So I went back up around them and I went up and said going down the trail, went up on the road on the hill on the top of the hill, and then I was able to get home that way.

And then, but the main thing when I got, I went to church that Sunday, I was like, I knew, I knew, it was often, you know, lower kept, you know, that saved me supernaturally for a reason. But I went to church and then my, the river and at the church, you'd be like, just starts like, it's three ways to sermon, just staring right at them, right through me. Yeah, they started talking about, you know, like Psalms 18, he talked to me, I made my feet like a deer and said me on high places, you know, he's my refuge, when I cried out, my cried out to him, I'm just, just bawling. He said, you know, I mean, I like, like, you know, and I gave, and from that Sunday to Sunday, it was just, you know, just me, me and God, I would just add questions and I would, you know, I'm ordered. Next Sunday, I go to church, he would just talk, answered all my questions, I had all we, you know, through scripture and then when I met his wife, several, you know, several months later, she said, you know, she's like, well, she's like, she knew I was because he told her about how God would speak to him, you know, and he would throw away his word for that, for that week, you just, God would just speak through him.

Finding Freedom

So I, I mean, I just, you know, I felt this, the connection, the duty, you know, to walk in it, walk in that, I mean, I was still battling in my mind, I still, I mean, I still had the addiction, you know, I wasn't free, but I mean, but, you know, I felt the love, I felt the, the mercy and all the, all the beginning, you know, recipe of, you know, being free. So I started realizing how real his word was, I wanted to learn more, I wanted to know more. So I was still, you know, coping with, you know, addiction, end up, my mother, she went, she was going to pain clinic, she was hooked, she was addicted to at the time, got kicked out of her pain clinic, and then didn't have no other options, but, you know, the heroin. So, and by that time, I was on heroin still, seeking God, though, you know, seeking answers.

But so she, you know, she had suicidal, you know, moments, you know, twice that God brought her back, you know, with her time. She, so the early option was she said, she looked out in front of the train, if she didn't have, find something to kind of forward it, find them on the streets, you know, she couldn't, and she was in a few lot of pain, a lot of back issues. So I introduced her to the heroin, I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want her to, you know, offer self. So, you know, so she had me stopping over three times a day. I didn't want her to OD either. So I, you know, I kept it minimal, just kind of keep her from, you know, being sick and everything. I mean, that ate me up for a long time. One night she, she had me, told me she went more, she was drinking, I said, I'm not giving you any more, you know, I'm not gonna kill you.

So I ended up getting going outside into the cold, in the transportation, I think it was slowing out and finally, her bag, I said, okay, I'm going back in, did it, um, she died. I love to be. I mean, the Lord brought her back, but I mean, she, it was cold, you know, I mean, like that, and then, a mother just said, yep, yeah. Which, you know, that goes way back. Well, it's childhood, you know, but this was, you know, it led me into my next move. You know, I went to the dude has got a soul there when I didn't, I already had cases looking at warrants, you know, that drugs, everything else. And so I already had my mind made up, I was like, I'm going back to Florida, you know, so I was just going to run, you know, before I did it, I went and paid him a visit, and then, so, damn. So when, kind of just, the charge was, you know, overnight, you know, B&E during the overnight accommodation, you know, so pretty much home invasion, but I didn't get it, I didn't get all the way inside. I cut myself, um, I was in a window out, and, um, no, they were home. And so when I cut myself, they, uh, left the drop of blood on the curtain, um, you know, it was a big thing all over on the, you know, on the news and everything else. They, and then so I left, went and hit up in the mountains for a couple of months, I had a friend until I could fare out of way to get to Florida. Got to Florida at that time, I just went with the clothes on my back, you know, I was at, yeah, flew, flew, flew Jacksonville, got, uh, I went home with, um, you know, did the homeless scene for about two years, like, living in a tent, um, at that time, that's when I totally gave up, you know, I said, all right, Lord, you got, you know, you got your way, you know, I mean, I still have, I still have the thoughts, you know, the desires of getting high and all that stuff.

I knew at that time, I was looking at, okay, Jerry, I mean, long time, you know, in how long with prison sentence, but I knew I was like, that's, you know, and I'm like, a lot, I didn't, my idea, I didn't have anything, you know, like I lost the kids, literally, what else, you know, what's the house, you know, if I, if I don't have anything. So, but yeah, he just, I just took the first, well, probably the first nine months, I just, I wasn't talking to anybody, I just stayed off the radar, being, being God all day long every day, rather than reading my word, I was at peace, you know.

Staying Off the Radar

And then, you know, slipped at the beach a few, quite a few nights, you know, they had concrete tunnels, they put in the ground, well, they were doing road work there for a long time, and they had 12 of them lined up by the ocean. So, I would sleep in there, you know, just, like, in an eye time, I'd tuck in there and get out the morning and talk about the beach and, you know, watch the sun come up, you know, and it was, that, that didn't fill me, and I, you know, I knew I was trusting God, I had to trust, I had to trust God. Yeah, I trust God, my kids, I trust my situation. I knew I was going to face the music eventually, but it was on his time, all the times, like, literally, all the times that even my name at the beach and nothing came up. I knew, I knew God had to hit until, until the right time, but I kept asking the Lord to take away, take away my desires, take away this, you know, this and that, and whether, you know, whether taken away, and I was looking at and taken away from my own, my own freedom.

I wasn't really having that, you know, that have not to do with him really as much as I wanted to be, you know, I wanted to walk, you know, a right standing and everything, but...

A Divine Encounter with the Lord

But when I asked the Lord to take it away, because it was, I kept telling myself, I kept holding on to the word, walking, you know, staying on and leaving the scriptures and taking them and applying them, and, you know, second, 15, 10, you know, four through six, you know, taking them thoughts captive, but I got tired of taking the thoughts captive, you know, because there was this kept coming, you know, and then, um, I'll bring it to the beatings of Christ, but, uh, when I told, when I, when I said I had the mind of Christ, and I told, I told the father, I was like, you didn't, this is in my way of my thoughts, but for him, you know, because can't think about him in, in liars of getting high or going back, you know, cooking maps to get somebody to get a hotel room or all those things were like, my knee was, you know, I needed a place and it liked to have a bed, sleep, you know, um, and I know it didn't take much, I could, could go and do it, but that wouldn't mean me going back to, you know, going back to cooking and doing all, and going back to using.

So, uh, yeah, so right then and there he, um, you know, he, I just felt this heat and a joy and a peace and crying and laughing all this came through me all at one time. And I'm ever looking up.

That, that, I'm ever looking up and, uh, there was nobody around that morning, like every morning I was sitting on the beach, you know, joggers would be jogging by or something, but that particular morning there was not, not a soul. There was a, uh, sun, the sun rise came up and it was just, it was beautiful. Why, I can't, I can't even, can't even put it in the words, like, you know, but it was like, the paradise, look at paradise, the way the, the sun was shining up behind it, you know, you could see valleys and you could see just something that you would, you know, like the backdrop of the sun, eliminating around the clouds and the trees. I mean, just, it painted a picture and like, I've never seen, you know, just, I knew it was special, but he, uh, yeah, he burned it, he burned it out, all his ires didn't have the, you know, and I even fell short, I found, I found, you know, a bag that I'm on the ground one time, I was walking, you know, clean, I was clean before this, I found a bag and I ended up doing it.

You know, on the way I did it, I did it, you know, and I felt horrible after that. Um, so after this moment, and I knew, I knew I was truly free when, well, I, I did it again, that the enemy tested me again, I found it, but right, right in the garbage, I felt good, I felt victory, you know, I felt, now I knew like, then there's some free, the victory felt so good. Yeah, I mean, after all that, um, I mean, it played total about 20 years of me in a deck of the sump that I did, you know, like, that was everything, everything else. How are you, how are you now?

Continued Healing and Transformation

45, 45. She started, but how long have you been free? How long has it been since all this? Well, that would have been 2017, I think, exactly. But yeah, let's say, yeah, about the 16, in the 2016 is when I went on the run, you know, started doing it, you know, really, uh, gave it all to go at that time. I think, I think what's amazing is that, like, and her, thank you for, for sharing what you're sharing, but, you know, um, many people don't make it past their mid 20s in addiction, let alone in their late 30s in addiction. And so, all that you've been through, right, um, you said something that really touched me when you said that you would continuously quote second Corinthians 10, 4 through 6, and you were like, man, I'm tired of continuing to take these thoughts captive. I think that's something that's so impactful because I can relate to that when I am wrestling with temptation, whether it be sexual temptation, whatever it may be, right, like the desires of my flesh, often at times, I become so tired, I'm like, uh, but then I'm reminded, like, I'm trying to do this thing in my own strength, right?

Like, I haven't really let go of let God get the glory, right? Because I want this recognition of I'm done this thing, but it's like, you came to a breaking point and you really let God set you free, because you know, as I was hearing you speak, it's almost like a little bit of you wanted to have a part in setting yourself free, but God's like, look, I'm waiting to, like, let me do that for you, you know what I mean? But yeah, that's, that's, that's hard, man, because a lot of people that are listening to this, a lot of people that are viewing our channel or, you know, or if they're not, and they do get the opportunity to watch this, like, it's okay to be tired, right? Like, it's okay, but, you know, don't, don't remain that way, right?

The Journey to Reconciliation

Like, don't settle for the drug, right? Because you said you picked it up once, the second time, what do you do? You threw it away, right? And it's like, man, like, you got to be sick and tired of being sick and tired, and so yeah, that's good, man. Justin, did you have something that you wanted to add? I didn't. Yeah, no, so I'm curious. So what you said, you had these people chasing you down, they were coming after you, you know, trying to take you out. So after you found your freedom, and you know, you began to move forward, like, what, what transpired that they just kind of, after you were laying low for a while, just kind of disappear and forget about it, or how did that get resolved?

I mean, are there still people out there looking for you today? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, the funny thing is, is, um, so whenever, um, so eventually I had to go back, you know, because I had to face the music, but I'll get to that in one second, because that's the whole that's God moves, mildly there, changed my name. Like, actually, whenever the, when they came and picked me up, the, um, I was, well, so the Lord left me after about two years, I went into, to like this, uh, faith-based residential, you know, called Beaches Rescue Recovery Mission, now Jack's Beach.

So I went there, I was already free, you know, I mean, I just, that felt the Lord wanted me to go there. So the Lord went there, um, after about three months, a guy that was there, stepped down, and then Jimbo asked me if I would take over and lead the classes, you know, and, um, kind of ever see, you know, and help disciple. Uh, so the deferred year, and then the over a year, and then the police came in, they found out where I was at, you know, they took me in to do ball. I got a gentleman there, I was ministering to, um, we're playing spades, and he, like, you know, he really took them in, um, well, he was, uh, he started calling me coach.

I don't know, just, so I looked like it looked like a coach, so he started calling me coach. So, um, so I was like, I knew I'm going back to, you know, going back to PA, or I knew I'm getting, I'm probably going to butt heads with this, you know, there, you know, there's a big group, and a lot of people knew, you know, so I went in there and just, and they said, they said, you look familiar, and I asked my name, I said, cooked. I didn't even, you know, my name, my tag was on the thing. Nobody, I mean, it was all God. Everybody, nobody put nothing together. Like, once did I hear anything about my past, like God, I mean, I, and I, as that peace even got into, I knew like, you know, I was going through the, the detectors, you know, they check, you know, check, you know, check you out before you could put you in.

Facing the Music

Um, I just felt this spirit just, you know, speak, I saw voices like, don't worry, you know, I got you. Um, it went through there. God, God, God, me mildly. I only did eight months. Uh, I went to, went to trial. Yeah, I went to trial. So that's a whole another testimony, but yeah, I went to trial. Uh, they dropped the one charge because at my preliminary hearing, um, the guy, you know, it's I had a mask on when I was there and everything. And uh, so my attorney said, well, there's a guy that was at your house here today. And he said, yeah, he pointed to me. He said, well, how do you know it's him? Um, you know, so he caught a line right at the beginning. He knew I was, you know, but yeah, like I was just there.

A problem like he was a victim, you know, and all this and that. So fast forward, when it came time, I did, I was waiting to get a trial, but eight months while I was waiting to get a trial, order to see if they were taking me to trial. Um, all my other warrants, you know, they piled up and it concerted for all my old warrants. It was just drug-related warrants. Um, and then, uh, and then like I got to think I went my last hearing and they were like, yeah, we're going to go to trial. I'm like, all right. I said, well, you know, if that, that's a good one. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm, you know, I'm good with that. It was so much fruit in there in the eight months.

I've seen people repending and people, you know, being thankful that they got caught, you know, we were Bible studies and prayer circled and you know, so many, so many testimony. It was so fruitful and they're like almost didn't care if I got out. You know, yeah, for real. Like it was the end. I loved it. But, uh, God moved her out of the way, put a new judge in and he with a Christian at favor.

God’s Favor in the Courtroom

Um, so first, the prosecuting attorneys, they wanted to fight it. They thought they were going to go ahead and get a trial that night. That day later, I got back to myself. Um, I got to fill my mother. She's like, did they tell you yet? You're going home and tomorrow. What? They just said we were going to trial. I was like, and I guess they changed their mind. So, yes, I got out the next day. I was looking at four to eight years, you know, but, uh, for the, for the charges. So, yeah, so God, I mean, I had a little bit of parole to do. And I got out, you know, um, still don't have a driver license or so. I had to wait to, you know, wait out my time on that.

So they'd be back with my mother, uh, by the way that I got married, a wife now, which actually met her whenever I was in the ministry doing the ministry down, you know, the recovery, um, transition place there. Uh, Jack's beach met her. We would get together and do different, um, you know, the state, state of the community. Stay surrounded by the body and a different, you know, home churches, different churches and stuff and just got, you know, surrounded myself around all the people and that are, you know, um, God put people in my life when I was homeless. He, you know, he made me somebody's assignment, you know, like, yeah, I would pick me up every more. He'd take me, pick me up, you know, or I look back more, I've seen God's hanging in way more than what I thought, you know, down through it, you know, but even all the back of that, and I realized he was using everything I went through. So I could get it once I knew him. I would get understanding of my calling because I'm not sure you got to go through things, you know, to get, to have the compassion with the depth and for, you know, to reach those that are, um, going through it, you know, so a lot of people going through stuff, they don't want to, you haven't been through it too. A lot of them, they don't want to hear you all the way, you know, sometimes. So, um, so I look back, um, when I didn't say it.

Turning Pain into Purpose

Sorry, sorry, no, but you said, God made somebody their assignment. And then you said, this is so key, right? Like this is the beauty of God's hand on our lives, right? He doesn't not use our mistakes, right? He uses that because God is a God of wonders. God is a God that desires to show out and show up, right? And it's like Joseph's situation, right? We, we can look at Joseph's story and see all that Joseph has been through. But yet at the end of the book of Genesis, it says, what the enemy meant for evil, God intended for good. And, um, we, we, we were, we're so caught up in the moment looking at our circumstances and situations, but we have to be like Peter and Bolton off the step outside of the boat, right? We have to walk on water. We have to do things that are often at times difficult and challenging. And, um, you know, it's, it's good that you say this hurt because like even in my own personal story, like looking at my addiction and the things that I've been through, you know, still not knowing my dad today, but like what I had to go through to be reconciled to my mother or to meet my wife, right?

Like if I never went through what I went through, my wife never went through what she went through, I would have never met her, right? Like everything happened at its perfect timing. And so like we, we can't underestimate or we can't undermine, um, God's timing. And I think we do that too often at times. Yeah.

Testimony of Hope and Healing

I read Deuteronomy 8. It was huge for me. Like, when I started reading about Egypt, you know, and I started reading about how the Israelites went, you know, and I brought them through the wilderness and delivered them from Egypt. And, but it'd be a profound thing he said was when I multiplied, you know, it's humbled them to discipline them as a child, as a son, but also to humble them and to, because when he gives them everything else, I mean, it multiplies their gold and their cattle and gives them the promises, you know, that they don't, they don't forget him or think that they did it on their own, you know? And, and, you know, I, right. So, I knew God's brought. I knew God had, you know, rivers of water and their milk and honey. And I knew all that was coming. I knew because he said it was. I knew I was just, you know, I was in my Egypt, you know, I was in my, my slavery of mindset or drugs.

So that was my Egypt. So, I knew where I was at, you know, scripturally, you know, going through, but I, you know, I took the things of the things of history and what they went through and what God spoke, and I knew it was for, it was for me too. So, but yeah, everybody has an Egypt, you know, I mean, for Christ, everybody's, you know, everybody's got an Egypt, you know. So, yeah, it is long. It's cool, man. It's, it's amazing to know, right? Because I'll be very careful of how I share my words, because my mom, she had listened to this. She might catch me by my throat, but no, it's, it's really cool just to know like what your vision is, because that's my mom's vision, to open up a transition home for people. And I know that you guys have talked about that kind of stuff. And so I'm pretty sure that you guys have already spoke about getting connected, and her helping out, along with my dad, my stepdad, Ralph. And so, but yeah, man, it's amazing.

Her, her broth, dude, 45 years old, six years of sobriety, reconciliation with your kids. You have an amazing job. Now you're giving back to people that were once in your position, and to be able to testify about the goodness of God in your life. And so, what great a way to bring hope to a lost person, to a broken people, because no story is ever without purpose, right? Like your story has immense purpose. And so it's amazing to, to know you, to be a brother in Christ with you, and to, who knows, man, I, you know, this is for the, my Florida listeners, I might be back in Florida, I might be working with her, but in their future, I don't know what's going to happen. Well, her, man, I really appreciate you jumping on tonight, man, and on just being open and honest, sharing the deep parts of your story. And you know, that's a, it's a big deal, because people are going to come across this, and, you know, it's going to need hope. It's going to go up on YouTube and rumble, and we'll chop it up, and it'll go over the internet in the next couple of days and weeks and months. And I'm continuing to be famous, Steve.

Yeah. So we can make you hence the famous Tik Toker. Yeah. But man, I'm, I'm so excited to hear about your recovery ministry that you're getting going and your transitional home that you're rolling out, I on, I was scrolling through the internet the other day, man, and I saw that as of 2020, I think the number was 32 million people in the country are addicted to something. And those are 2020 numbers. So that's before all the pandemic madness. So you can only imagine what that number looks like now. And so it just done, man, reinforces, you know, the need to do things like you're doing, do things like, you know, Rob and I are going in hard on this podcast right now. Just trying to inspire some hope for people to change, because my addiction is no joke. And with the fentanyl and everything that's else out there, and we're just here in stories, you know, of people not making it through. And it's, uh, it's heartbreaking, you know, folks are relapsing and overdosing and not getting another shot. And so we're trying to do everything we can to just inspire hope. And when I hear about folks like you, I met a guy and I hear some of the other night that's getting ready to launch a recovery center down there. And it's just like, man, cheering people on as much as we can, because, man, this is a significant problem.

And it's, you know, 15, 20 years ago, when, when I was first coming out, it wasn't really in the church as much. I mean, it was hidden, but now it's just impacted every corner of the, of the country. And, so I, I mean, I encourage you. Thank you for turning your pain into purpose, you know, and being willing to answer the call of God and on. That's a, that's a big deal.

Conclusion

And, uh, on that note, I also want to thank our sponsor of this show one more time, uh, Valley Custom Homes that came on to help us out and bless the show. Thank you guys for pouring in to folks that are struggling, you know, and helping to rebuild their lives. You guys can find them on the internet. And I will link all of their stuff down in the description in the comments. But we appreciate you guys responsible in the show. And on Rob, did you have any part words? Yeah, I actually do.

Pretty emotional and it's, it's weird, but it's not strange. Um, herb, it's still sticking with me. Somebody was called by God to make you their assignment. And so I want to challenge my viewers and the listeners today to listen to God because somebody's your assignment. Um, there are people that you walk by that aren't doing good. You have our own agenda and we don't want to be slowed down. We don't want to miss our destination. But yet sometimes it's slowing down and being five, maybe 10 minutes late because you took the time to help somebody that was broken. And um, I just want to challenge you.

Um, we just recently lost a sister from T.C. alumni and she left two girls behind and um, that's hard, that's hard, right? Because from my perspective, everything was okay. But it wasn't. And so my heart goes out for her and her family. And so I just want you guys just to understand why Justin and I are doing this. We're not doing this because we want to be YouTube or Facebook or social media famous, but we're doing this because one we love one another. We, uh, we want to give hope back to people, but we also want to let people understand the importance of community and that you don't have to be alone and that if you need help, you can reach out.

Um, and we want to be of service to you guys and just to pour into you guys and just to remind you that as Herb said, you have value and the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy what has value. And so um, yeah, I love you guys. Um, thank you so much once again for supporting this page. Continue to like, continue to share, continue to just encourage one another, um, as we post things. And yeah, thank you. Thank you.