transcript

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Speaker 1:
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Speaker 4:
[01:01] I am unashamed. What about you?

Speaker 5:
[01:06] So welcome back to Unashamed. We're excited that I see Missy is in my chair, which is always a blessing, Missy. We're glad Jase is not so alone. We've been in our boxes for a few days because I've been in I'm down here in the southern lair. So it's good to have Missy. It's good to have you on the set.

Speaker 3:
[01:25] Thank you.

Speaker 5:
[01:26] It's always a blessing.

Speaker 6:
[01:27] Missy gave us a very generous and kind invite to a crawfish bowl.

Speaker 3:
[01:33] That you turned down.

Speaker 6:
[01:34] I turned down. It's at Nashville. All of our kids, we have three, Mia, Max and Leila are all graduating the same day.

Speaker 3:
[01:42] I was shocked to hear that you had two kids graduating at the same time, which says a lot about Max because he's graduating a year early from college.

Speaker 6:
[01:53] Three years early.

Speaker 3:
[01:54] That is amazing.

Speaker 4:
[01:56] You know why Zach says that's happening?

Speaker 3:
[02:00] Why?

Speaker 4:
[02:01] It's in his genes. He's just smart.

Speaker 6:
[02:04] Max is very smart. My grandmother said that good genes make geniuses. That's why our granny and Paul were third cousins.

Speaker 3:
[02:15] Yes, we know.

Speaker 6:
[02:18] What does that tell you about the Robertson family?

Speaker 3:
[02:22] I think Mia so enjoyed her years at Lipscomb, and she enjoyed her first semester so much that she talked lately into transferring to Lipscomb, and they were roommates the second part of their freshman year in a single room. Did you see their room at any time? It was tiny. They were head to head, feet to feet, almost. Take your pick. But they were in the smallest room I've ever seen. I said, only family could get away with doing this. There is no way.

Speaker 6:
[02:54] And only for so long. I think Mia eventually...

Speaker 3:
[02:57] Like three months.

Speaker 6:
[02:59] I love Laila. She's got a lot of giftings. I don't know if being a roommate may not be one of her strengths.

Speaker 3:
[03:03] Mia has giftings too, and she's really great at organization, and she doesn't mind helping someone else do it. In fact, when I texted Laila yesterday, I told Mia later, because I never got a text back from Laila, and Mia said, oh, that's my fault. I went over there to help her clean her house, and we were scrubbing her bathtub. I said, okay, I'm just going to leave that there.

Speaker 4:
[03:24] I remember I asked Mia, I said, how is it living with your cousin? And she said, she's messy.

Speaker 3:
[03:33] For Laila's birthday, for Laila's birthday that year, she cleaned out Laila's car as a gift. Like, happy birthday, I'm cleaning your car.

Speaker 6:
[03:42] That is a gift. Well, I bought Laila's car as a gift. And then I saw it six months later, when she came back from college, I was like, whoa, this is what we do with the brand new car. Okay. Well, what's interesting is, her going to Lipscomb, then brought Max in. And so, I didn't realize this. So this is a full circle moment because we have Bart Miller on the podcast from Mercy Me a while back. Now, if I had known this, I would have brought this up. So Bart and a guy named Brown Bannister, who produced a lot of like all of Amy Grant's stuff. He's a big producer in Nashville. Kind of a, I'd say kind of like the godfather of kind of Christian music from a production perspective. They started an incubator label at Lipscomb called Imagine House. And so, that's the group, Missy, that's actually, they brought Layla and Max's band in, and that's who produced this album that they have coming out. So Brownsbit was the producer on that. So it's kind of like, I didn't know the whole story behind that till after we had part on the podcast.

Speaker 3:
[04:48] Yeah, no, she's so enjoyed it. And she loves her church family there too. At Harpeth Hills Church, she worked there. And she just had a really, really great experience and had some really great, deep friendships have been made there.

Speaker 5:
[05:03] And what was her degree in?

Speaker 3:
[05:06] She's graduating in a couple of weeks with a degree in psychology. And she wants to go on to higher education in forensic psychology.

Speaker 4:
[05:15] Yeah, which means that now every time we get together, she will break you down. She's like, okay, guys, I have two questions. Everyone can go around and answer. And she gives the points of the plan. She gives you a plan on how to correct whatever it is that's not working for you. It's so spectacular, because I'm like, the courage of this girl. But it makes sense. I mean, she's quick on her feet.

Speaker 3:
[05:43] And she's quick to say, when we start talking about certain issues with just going on in the family, she's like, mom, mom, this is my specialty. So this is what needs to happen. I'm like, oh boy, here we go.

Speaker 1:
[05:53] Now she's the expert on breaking everybody down and diagnosing them.

Speaker 4:
[05:58] But so far, I will have to say, most of the times, when she gets finished, I think, well, that makes sense. And it's good. What I think we buried the lead here is how we didn't know that they were all graduating.

Speaker 3:
[06:13] I did not know.

Speaker 4:
[06:14] So we plan, Missy plans, a crawfish bowl. And then we invite Zach and Jill and Layla and Max.

Speaker 3:
[06:25] And everybody in your family.

Speaker 4:
[06:26] But they already had plans at this fancy restaurant, which I think...

Speaker 6:
[06:31] Well, because of you, because of you were talking about it.

Speaker 4:
[06:33] I did recommend the restaurant. But as it turned out, it's like, we're eating crawfish out there in the wilderness.

Speaker 3:
[06:41] And Zach said the fancy restaurant. You know, when you give our farmhouse, as y'all probably talked about on here, has not been working lately in the past couple of years, hit by a tornado and then hit by an ice storm. And so nothing makes a contractor move faster than a deadline. And so when your son is the contractor and your daughter is graduating from college, I put the deadline on my son that he has to have this farmhouse done by the time Mia graduates from college because all the family is coming in. So right now we're on schedule. Right now we're on schedule. And he is working really hard with a two-week-old baby at their house. So he's kind of overwhelmed at the moment. But right now we're on target to host kind of an open farmhouse slash crawfish boil the night before Mia graduates. Mia and Layla and Max graduate. So anyway, if y'all don't want to come, it's fine. It's fine.

Speaker 6:
[07:38] No, I want to come, but I've already paid a down payment on this meal because this place that you guys recommended, I heard Jase talking about it. I said, OK, we're going to go all out. I'm not going to say the name of the place. But I said, we're going to go all out. And I called to get the reservation. They're like, you have to put down money to get the reservation. And if you cancel the reservation, you lose the money.

Speaker 4:
[08:00] I did warn you this place is expensive, but I said, it is good.

Speaker 6:
[08:06] We're going to get full-fledged into the steaks. And although we like crawfish too, though.

Speaker 4:
[08:12] But this just goes to prove that it's never over with your kids. And somebody said, you raise your kids, you think you're done. And then you have to raise your parents, and then you get old, and then your kids have to raise you. That's kind of the vicious cycle.

Speaker 3:
[08:26] I think what you told me, Jeff Foxworthy said, was you raise your kids, you have a snack, and then you go and you raise your parents. And I just learned about 10 days ago that my snack is over. So, because my mom fell and broke her hip, and she's been in the hospital and in rehab. So, snack time is over for Missy.

Speaker 4:
[08:49] Yep. Babe, you're doing a wonderful job. And look, she is a trooper.

Speaker 3:
[08:56] Yeah, she's doing really great. She's doing really great.

Speaker 4:
[08:59] She's in the physical therapy stage. She has a smile on her face.

Speaker 3:
[09:04] She does.

Speaker 4:
[09:05] And it's been incredible.

Speaker 3:
[09:08] That was a little off subject, but I was going to throw that in there.

Speaker 5:
[09:11] I think that in between you mentioned, though, is so, you know, when you get to this age, I mean, I hate to use the word middle-age, but that's where we're all at. And I think that is the transitional time. And I guess we're probably at our strongest at this point in terms of what we've learned from the Almighty to then what we can pass on. But it's just a short hop to then when, like Jase said, then we're there, you know? And so, you know, you realize you just have so many, a certain number of days where you're on this earth. So you got to make the most of it. But it is, it is refreshing when you see your kids do well. I mean, I'm proud of all of your kids for what they, who they are and what they're accomplishing for the kingdom.

Speaker 6:
[09:55] So I didn't realize how much my sleep set up mattered until we upgraded to Hedlick's sleep mattresses. Now I'm sleeping deeper and I'm waking up actually rested. And that difference you can feel right away. In fact, guys, I have a watch that tracks my sleep score, and I get probably 98 to 100 on my sleep score every single night now.

Speaker 5:
[10:14] My back tells me that my score is very high as well.

Speaker 4:
[10:18] Two nights ago, I fell asleep on the couch, and I didn't have a sleep score, but I woke up and I realized that was zero.

Speaker 5:
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Speaker 6:
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Speaker 4:
[11:11] Well, then you have these moments that you feel reborn, because was that Revelation 21, 5, God makes everything new. So you have this little newborn creation that we spent five days with, babe. I kind of gave them the short version from the male perspective, which was-

Speaker 3:
[11:34] You have George being born?

Speaker 4:
[11:35] Yeah. But I didn't linger, but because I know you were all in on that process.

Speaker 3:
[11:42] Well, I was a little on edge because with Francis, so that was their third. Francis is 20 months now, and Maris is four, David is three, Francis is 20 months. When Brighton went into labor with Francis, I was in town, I was at our farmhouse, and Reed called and was like, Mom, it's time, it's time, it's time. So I get there and Brighton's in labor, but she gets to the hospital and it stops. And so Brighton was like, Nope, I'm here, we're settled, the kids are taken care of, I'm having this baby. So she just kind of told the nurses, let's just go ahead and induce and let's get it done. And her body, it was harder on Brighton. She realized that. So this time with George, she said, I'm not going to rush it. If I feel the labor, I'm just going to let it play out, you know? And I was thinking, oh, this is making me nervous. Like she's walking around for two weeks at three centimeters with 50% of face. So I thought, okay, she did this with Francis. So everything is okay.

Speaker 4:
[12:47] Well, for all the men, that means she's getting close.

Speaker 3:
[12:49] She's three centimeters dilated, which you're only going 10. So, so then she goes to the OB the next week and she's five centimeters dilated and she's 75% of faced. The woman's in labor and she's walking around town. She's driving. She's got the kids in tow. And I said, Brighton, you're going to have this baby in the bathtub. And she was like, no, no, it's going to be I'm just going to wait it out. This was on Tuesday. And Wednesday morning, she had him and it was a middle of the night. It was a middle of the night. And Reed said at like 1.45, she wakes him up, not because she needed, she was trying to wake him up, but she was moaning in the bathroom in between contractions. And Reed was like, we need to go to the hospital. She's like, no, no, we're fine. So she's packing her toiletries, you know, and then they realized, OK, we probably need to go. Well, Brighton's mom and dad have a house like five minutes away. So Brighton, I mean, Reed calls Brighton's mom.

Speaker 4:
[14:00] At 1.45.

Speaker 3:
[14:01] At some point in the morning, and she doesn't answer. She doesn't have her ringer on. So Reed ends up having to drive over to Ashley's house and bang on the door in the middle of the night, and wake her up, and get her to come over to watch the kids so Reed could take Brighton to the hospital. So short story is they get to the hospital, they get the IV in her, they get the epidural in her, when she's eight centimeters dilated, and she pushes three times, and George is born. So it was very easy delivery. She cut it a little thin in my perspective, but everything turned out to be great. He's seven, five, and beautiful, and perfect, and everybody is doing fantastic, fantastic.

Speaker 4:
[14:45] That's why I said what I gave the version of the story. Now you know why I said, when I heard that story from Brighton, I said, Brighton, you are now a professional. You've gone pro in the baby birthing business.

Speaker 5:
[15:03] Let me ask you guys, so from your perspective, so now this is number four, in terms of when they come, because I've got six, myself, well, seven, Captain and Marion now. But how does that change in you? Is there anything different between number four and number one in the process of that now you have more grandchildren? I mean, how did that change for y'all? Because I know it changed some for me, but I'm curious as to how it changed for y'all.

Speaker 3:
[15:31] It's, I mean, it feels a little overwhelming to me when I look that they've all come from the same parents in four years. That's a lot. And so I pray that they're on my mind a lot in terms of having to handle everything, but Brighton is, she amazes me. She amazes me all the time. Everything is super calm, you know, and she's got kids running around everywhere. And I know that postpartum is emotional, but overall watching them handle four at one time is pretty amazing to me. And I feel like I need to step in and help, but then I don't want to overstep. They'll ask me when they need help. So I'm kind of, you know, in that, I guess waiting area of, because she asked me, what are you doing in April? Like, what's your April plans? I said, it's completely wiped clean. Like I have put everything off so I can be available for you. And because she, you know, we want to balance it with her parents as well. But Reed, a couple of days after we left, I guess we stayed four or five days and we left. And then Reed texted me about, again, stuff for the farmhouse. And then he sent me a picture and he had all three kids with him in the middle of Home Depot at 830 in the morning. And Francis was throwing a fit on the floor. And Maris and David are, you know, running around in the aisle. And I was like, oh, oh God. What's happening here? And he was like, oh yeah, no, it's perfectly fine. It's almost like what would overwhelm me. That's their life with them. And they've, I'm impressed. I'll say this. I'm very impressed with the way that they are handling all of this and the way that they do ask for help and the way that they don't ask for help. Because it is ultimately their responsibility and I'm super impressed with them.

Speaker 5:
[17:24] Well, I always felt like there's a, there's a wonder about the first time, just like it's like your first child. Because for the first time, you're becoming a parent and with Read and Bright, it was that way as well. And then, you're becoming a grandparent. But then as they, as you grow into the family, as you mentioned Missy, it's not that there's a loss of wonder because it's still amazing to have a child and just the process and just what you were saying. But as, as you described in the story with Brighton, there's also a certain amount of just expectation that you already have and you already know. And so you're just kind of building something. But I compare it almost to like, you know, we've all written books. When you write your first book, it's so hard, it's so difficult, you don't know you could do it and you did it and you're so proud that you got it out there. And then you go back and do another one or another project. You still love each project, but they're also different. And how they got there is different, where you were was different. So there's something about that as we grow our families. And of course, Zach's in the mode of having a married child about to have another married child. And so you're in that anticipation of the first, but you know, there's going to be many. And I'm kind of the same way now with the next generation, because we're getting ready for great grandchildren. So it's just, it's amazing the idea of it all. I do experience something different as a patriarch of my clan, once you begin to grow generationally, that you just feel a huge responsibility, I think just for the whole group, that you was the first person.

Speaker 6:
[18:52] I was about to be on the other side, Missy, that he's about to be taking care of.

Speaker 5:
[18:58] I'm getting there, I'm getting very close.

Speaker 6:
[19:00] He's ahead of us.

Speaker 3:
[19:01] Yeah, well, I will remember when Maris was born, they brought, we were at the farm in Tennessee, and they brought her to our house, home from the hospital, on Thanksgiving Day. That was a little bit like, it was almost too much on point. Are you kidding? Our first born is being brought home from the hospital on Thanksgiving Day to our house. It was like the world stopped. The world stopped, our grandchild is born. Nothing else matters in this life at all, but today and this baby. And all of the pictures that we have, of even with Brighton's niece and nephew that aren't even with us anymore. They're just holding Maris and everybody, they're passing her around. And it's just like this delicate little piece of China that Reed was like, did everybody get shots? It's like, Reed, this is post-COVID. Nobody's getting shots. That's it. You're going to have to deal with it. We're all going to be fine.

Speaker 4:
[20:00] Because they're first born, but we're the same way. With him, it was like, oh no.

Speaker 3:
[20:05] Yeah. But now with number four, it's like you're holding number four and dealing with the other three at the same time. And he's just got to grab a hold. It's going to be interesting to watch a little boy look up to his two sisters and his older brother, who is very laid back. His older brother is very laid back, second born. And his two older sisters are the opposite of laid back. So it's going to be super fun to watch the dynamics of all of this playing out and not have any responsibility for it. I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 4:
[20:43] It's super fun from a distance.

Speaker 3:
[20:45] Yes, it is.

Speaker 4:
[20:45] But what I want to say, I think the reason God designed it all this way, I would say, because it's made me reflect on, we've had so many Bible studies, we've had so many people who seemingly fell away and then they come back. And one of the main motivating aspects of that is because they had their kids or they have kids. It makes them stop and think, oh, wow, I mean, even Brighton, when she shared her story, when we were in Nashville.

Speaker 3:
[21:19] On the podcast.

Speaker 4:
[21:20] Yeah, on the podcast. One of her motivating factor for getting into the word, for learning, because she was looking at her kids and she thought, I have responsibility here. And so I just really think it is a vision of the creator God in this precious life. And even when you look at how their body forms, in the womb, and when they can first see light, I mean, it's just a few weeks into the process and their brain shows registered activity. All these things, we realize, God is giving life. There's a reason that from the spiritual aspect, that being born again, it comes from that basis. And the same thing happens, like when you see someone born again, the same thing happens in your faith. It excites you. You know, oh, there's a new one. We got a new one, and there's a newborn. And I just think that was God's internal design for us to have these moments of like, oh, wait, I need to figure out what I'm doing and make some corrections here.

Speaker 3:
[22:33] Yeah, and even with all the chaos happening, all around us with kids and toys and food, and I'm looking at this little bitty bundle who was two weeks early, just laying on Brighton's tummy, just balled up, just like he was just in there, you know, just a few hours before that. And it is like even Brighton and I sitting there watching this in amazement. It's still amazing. I don't care how many babies are born. It's still amazing, that whole process of birth and how the Lord designed very intricately how all of that was supposed to take place. It's beautiful. It's just a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Speaker 5:
[23:21] So Jase, you and Missy have been involved in the pro-life movement, taking care of a child that was in a situation where a mom wasn't sure what to do.

Speaker 4:
[23:29] Yeah, and thank the Lord that she decided to give birth to this little man. And he's become part of our family. And it's just a reminder of how awesome life is, in that we all, at one time, were in our mother's way.

Speaker 5:
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Speaker 6:
[25:41] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[25:41] And so this idea, you think about that, the flesh of God becoming flesh came through birth, even that the first man didn't even get to experience, but Jesus did. And so it really is, I mean, God shows us in his infinite wisdom of even why he became flesh, that part of that is this process we're talking about. So the wonder of that night that we celebrate, you know, all the time, but especially at Christmas time, is the wonder of just what you're explaining it. It's this idea that, you know, life is created and something very special once in a family lineage, obviously, is even more special for us.

Speaker 6:
[26:22] We actually got to experience the other kind of new birth on Wednesday. We had baptisms here down at the Creek in Black Mountain, and we had something happen that I have never had happen before.

Speaker 3:
[26:34] What's that?

Speaker 6:
[26:35] Oh, it's crazy. So we had everybody out there, probably, I don't know, 75 people were all kind of gathered around. What's interesting about this, this is at a Christian conference area. That's what this area is known for. We're down there and we're baptizing people in the river. Two ladies, by the way, were in their late 70s. Their story is pretty amazing. They came to our church because during the Haleen, their house got hit by a mudslide and was completely just disintegrated. They jumped on a mattress. They got swept down the river on a mattress. They're in their 70s. One of them just got out of hip surgery and had a waterproof bandage on. They get buried under a pile of trees and stuff like that, so they're trapped alive under all this mess, and they lived out there on that mattress under this rubble for 48 hours.

Speaker 3:
[27:40] Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 6:
[27:41] It's like a crazy story.

Speaker 3:
[27:42] That's like my mom. She just had hip surgery. If my mom got swept up like that right now.

Speaker 6:
[27:48] Oh, it's crazy.

Speaker 4:
[27:49] If you saw that in the movie, people said, well, that's unrealistic.

Speaker 5:
[27:53] Yeah, that's not even possible.

Speaker 6:
[27:54] It happened, and they weren't believers, and so their story is that they had a radical encounter with Jesus while they were out there praying for deliverance, and they're hilarious, too. They're like sisters, so one of the ladies was telling my brother whenever he was sharing the gospel with him, and she was like, yeah. She's sitting out there. After about two days, she said, I had to pee, and so I was like, whatever, she looked at her sister, she said, I don't mind, but I'm going to have to pee on you because I can't hold it any longer. Her sister said, sweetie, I've been peeing on you for 48 hours. They're absolutely hysterical.

Speaker 5:
[28:40] Nothing says sisterly love like sharing urine.

Speaker 6:
[28:43] It was so funny. But it was funny because Grant was like, it's dangerous down here. We'll help you all get down here. You got to be careful. Don't trip on a rock. They're like, honey, we floated down the swan. No, really, we are good to go. We'll be all right. So we're in the process of baptizing all these people. And all of a sudden you hear this, like a speakerphone. Like I'm talking about like loud. It was the cops and they pulled up and they're like, hey, we like the baptisms, but y'all can't park here and y'all got to get out of here. So they, then the head of the retreat association comes out and literally runs us off. So y'all can't be doing this way, but this is a Christian retreat center. We're baptizing people. People are complaining. People are upset about it. So we've got to figure out a new place to do baptisms because we have been run off from the Christian retreat center in our area, one of the Christian retreat centers in our area. So we're looking for a new baptisms spot.

Speaker 3:
[29:38] Zach, you have a pool.

Speaker 6:
[29:40] We could do it in the pool, but people like the living water. They like the vibe of the creek. You know, I'm like, so...

Speaker 3:
[29:47] Water is water.

Speaker 4:
[29:48] Well, I think people subconsciously... Remember, there was a guy who... I went to this old church, and when I mean old, like the people, I was the youngest person there. But there was a visitor that came who was a younger guy. And I think the Lord worked this out. But anyway, I shared Jesus. There was little or no response, literally. Just crickets. Old kind of conservative. And he come up to me, because we did an imitation song, and he responded, which caused chaos. Because I'm pretty sure no one had responded there in years. And so people were coming to me, I'm the visiting preacher for the day. And they're like, what do we do? I was like, about what? That we have someone who has responded. And I'm like, what do y'all normally do? They say, people don't respond. We don't know. I said, well, I'll talk to him. So he's like, I want to give my life to Jesus, and I want to be baptized. And so I said, well, awesome. Because they had what seemed to be a baptistry. I go back there and look, ain't got no water, it's bone dry.

Speaker 5:
[31:11] There's a sermon in there somewhere, Jase, about some bally of dry bones.

Speaker 4:
[31:16] So I look around at the guy who was seemingly in George, and I'm like, you got a water hose, you know, anywhere, and he's like, I don't know. And so while I'm having that discussion, the fella is watching all this, and he's like, I think I need to go that Mississippi River, which was maybe 30 minutes away. And I was like, well, I'm sure we can get some water. I don't have to drive, because I was thinking, I want to drive 30 minutes the wrong way.

Speaker 3:
[31:42] Pretty sure it was like January or February, too. Oh, yeah. I want to say it was during Duxie's.

Speaker 4:
[31:46] And it was in wintertime, and the Mississippi was way out of his bank. And he said, you don't understand, this was the line subconsciously that I want to introduce. He said, I've done so many things wrong, and I realized Jesus died for them, but I just think the current needs to take that all the way to the Gulf.

Speaker 5:
[32:11] I got a lot of says, I need a big river.

Speaker 6:
[32:13] That's what he was saying.

Speaker 5:
[32:14] That's actually pretty good.

Speaker 4:
[32:16] You know, and I thought about getting into the theology of it all, and I was like, you know what? Let's go do it. And it turned out, this is so, it's kind of like that story you just told. It seems so crazy on what happened next. I'm sure I've shared this at some podcasts before. So we make the drive. And what I found shocking is nobody else from the church wanted to go.

Speaker 6:
[32:44] So I've got a new threat in the neighborhood and it's called the black bearer because they break into people's homes. I have a 45 for my protection. The problem is I don't want my daughter or any of the kids in the house to get access to it. So I want to tell you about our new friends at Stop Box. It's a responsible way to store your gun and you want something that has really quick access if you need it. Jase, you have one right there.

Speaker 4:
[33:06] I do, voila.

Speaker 5:
[33:08] You did that smooth, Jase.

Speaker 6:
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Speaker 4:
[33:57] Just me and him. So we took off and we get there and we, I just, there's, the water was so high, we basically just got up on the levee, went down it and I just parked on the side of the levee. There was a little road there. And so we're fixed to go down this water, into the water. And here comes a truck. And when you, when you know it, it was a group of friends that knew him.

Speaker 3:
[34:29] From his past life.

Speaker 4:
[34:30] From his past life. And they're like, what's going on here? Because they're looking for the boat. We didn't have a boat. We're wading into the Mississippi River that's dangerous. And so I got to share Jesus with them, which they were just stunned. And I'm like, y'all, y'all welcome to join him. But they didn't. But still, we planted, yeah, we planted the seed. But then, then he, but for, just look at it from his perspective. He's like, man, you give your life to the Lord, and he starts working immediately. He's like, that's the best thing ever happened. Because now they know, this is where, this is who I'm going with, with the Lord.

Speaker 5:
[35:09] But Jase, just think about the historical irony of that for you, because that was your experience of once you became a child of God at a pretty young age, that then you wanted to share that with all your friends, which happened over a period of time. And here that was happening in an instant. Which brings me to something interesting in both those stories. Because that, did I hear you right? The people that call the cops were the people at the retreat center?

Speaker 6:
[35:33] It was too different. Yeah, they called the cops, so the cops, yeah, they were at the retreat center. I think they were on a Christian retreat, as a matter of fact.

Speaker 5:
[35:41] Okay, so here's my thought then about both those stories, because this is part of the problem within our, the kingdom of God, is when you're, when you have no expectation and so you've got your bone dry Baptist tree and or when you're at a Christian retreat center, having your retreat and then people show up to baptize people into Christ and the kingdom and you call the cops on them, I'd say somewhere along the line, somebody's not really trusting in the plan. Yeah, somebody has missed it. Somebody's, I mean, I'm not throwing everybody by the bus. I'm just saying you have to live with an expectation that what we're doing, we're supposed to be passing on so we can win the world for Christ. That's kind of what we're here for, right?

Speaker 4:
[36:28] I used to think that too, Al, but I'll tell you, when we had our little house that we talked about on the podcast before, we had so many people showing up there and parking was a nightmare. And we got the cops called on us so many times. And of course, we were young then, and we were like, it's spiritual warfare. No, it's just, basically it's a parking problem.

Speaker 6:
[36:52] We're being persecuted.

Speaker 5:
[36:53] Jase, but Jase, you're talking about something different. These are people that may or may not, believers or not, you're messing in their neighborhood, I get that. That makes more sense to me. But if you're believers, like if you're meeting for the purpose of spiritual strength, and then people are breaking out back, you should have been down there cheering them on, not calling the cops.

Speaker 4:
[37:15] Well, exactly, because that would have been your segue to the cops is they're like, I mean, y'all's parking up here is gonna kill somebody. And it's like, well, that's why they need Jesus. So I tell you.

Speaker 6:
[37:26] It wasn't that big of a deal. Everybody was parked on the side of the road, so they weren't actually blocked. You can still get in and out. We were only there for 30 minutes.

Speaker 3:
[37:34] It's just inconvenient for other people.

Speaker 4:
[37:36] That's a disciple of Jesus' state. But the government says, hey, you're not allowed. We must enforce the law.

Speaker 5:
[37:43] Well, I like that Zach, I like that he framed it with, hey, we're glad you're doing baptisms, but I like that he at least tried to throw y'all a little bump.

Speaker 6:
[37:51] Yeah, it was shocking. We're like, we're glad you're doing baptisms, but you can't park on the side of the road. We're like all jolted because it was super loud. I think he maybe even tapped the siren a little bit, like boo, and then he came over to the speakerphone, and then everyone sat there like, what do we do? Do we move our vehicles or do we finish the baptism? It was like, there was like a-

Speaker 3:
[38:15] So what did you do?

Speaker 6:
[38:16] Do I obey God or do I obey men?

Speaker 4:
[38:18] Yeah, I was going to that passage. I was literally going, I was like, this sounds like an Acts 3 or Acts 4. What is that, 4? We can't help it. You judge for yourselves, but we're not going to shut up about it.

Speaker 5:
[38:33] Did you just speed up the baptisms or what did you do?

Speaker 6:
[38:36] Well, we were almost done. We had like maybe like two or three more. And it was just like, I was like, rapid fire. Let's get them in, get them out, you know, that kind of thing. We'd already- But the problem was the last two we did were the two elderly women. And that took more time. Because it took like three people to get them in the water and then three people to baptize them. And so, just because they were, I said they were set. They were probably in their 80s, honestly. They were older women. I mean, their story though is absolutely-

Speaker 5:
[39:09] That's an amazing story.

Speaker 6:
[39:10] And there's a couple, see what happened is there's a couple, this is so cool. And some of you guys on the Unashamed podcast, the money that you actually gave to our church to rebuild these homes, we raised enough money to rebuild like six homes. And we're not a big church. Like we're like, we're, you know, 300 people. But we probably raised, I don't know, a million bucks or whatever it was. Like our church is like rebuilding these homes. And we have a couple, Oliver and Celestial Balsam, who are like, I call them like our, they're kind of like vagabonds. I joke with them a little bit. They're like hippies. They're awesome people. They used to travel around and follow the grateful dad. And they would do ministry with the dead hats as they would come out, which is their story is still incredible. But they just love on people. So they've been quietly serving our community, rebuilding these homes. They don't get paid to do it either. Like Celestial is just doing it as a full-time job as a ministry. She won't let us pay her or anything. And so all that money is going back in to rebuild these homes. And so they've been walking with these two ladies, they're rebuilding their home. And then there's another young lady that was there that got baptized. And so for me, like I love to see a baptism, like I get so excited about that. But what I get more excited about is what I'm looking at, like an eight month journey, or no, more than that, a year and a half journey that they've been walking with these people, faithfully serving them, embodying the spirit of Christ in their interactions with them. And to see that process play out over a year and a half, it would result in three people just on that particular day coming to put Christ on a baptism. It was like, I mean, it wouldn't dry in the house. I mean, it was, or we were outside, but we were, so we were kind of like, cops kind of killed the vibe a little bit, but it was kind of like, you know what, this is a pretty cool story either way.

Speaker 5:
[41:10] Jase, you've got a couple of poochies and are they both older?

Speaker 4:
[41:15] Oh, it's a complicated story, but they're old.

Speaker 5:
[41:19] What's the hardest part of kind of watching them age?

Speaker 4:
[41:21] You know, they're part of the family. They have their job, which is mainly to bark at anyone who drives up in the yard. But look, there's a reason that they say our pets are our best friends. And so we try to take care of them.

Speaker 5:
[41:38] And look, that's the mission of Rough Greens, is to help them stay around as long as possible. Most of us don't realize our dog's food might be missing some of the live nutrients that they actually need to stay healthy and to stay active. Rough Greens is all natural. It's made right here in the US. You just sprinkle it right on their food. It's got probiotics, enzymes, omega oils, and over 20 live vitamins and minerals to help with digestion, energy, and overall health. Thousands of people are seeing their dogs act more like themselves again, and you could be one of them. We've noticed with our dogs, their coats are shinier. They seem to be happier and healthier when we're using Rough Greens. We want you to try it. Get a free jumpstart trial bag for your dog. You just cover the shipping. Go to roughgreens.com and use the discount code Unashamed. That's ruffgreens.com, discount code Unashamed. Rough Greens, we make any dog food better. We talked a little bit about, we did, Missy, about your mentoring weekend because it kind of connected in. There was a couple that had been traveling through, and they had been married before Justice of the Peas in California, but they wanted to be married in a church with Christians, with believers around. So I did that for them. And they also want to be baptized into Christ, which I did that as well. And in that process, because we did it in Jersey Joe's class, there was a guy in there who was there the weekend of your mentoring weekend, and he had told me, because I told the group there, I said, now this couple, they've just become, you know, they kind of redone their vows with us today, but now they're going to make it official with God, because they're also going to make a vow with him. They're going to live for him. So, they got baptized together in the battershoot, which is really cool. But there's a guy there, and he said his wife had been baptized at your place. The night before. The night before. And he was just so moved by the whole thing. And so I wanted this last segment, you to tell us from your perspective, a little bit about the weekend, because, you know, we started this conversation with children and grandchildren and the idea of teaching them and having a legacy. In a sense, what you're doing with the mentoring of these young women who are in the phase we're talking about of having families and kids and everything you're trying to teach them. Tell a little bit about how that went.

Speaker 3:
[44:00] So this is the fourth weekend that we've done. And they're from ages 22. And this one was 35. We do 22 to 32. But there was a 32 year old that wanted to bring her sister who was 35. So of course, that's fine. And they came. And except for those two sisters, none of these women know each other. And none of them have ever met me. And they just step out on faith and come and register for the weekend. And so the wife of the man that you're talking about, he came and dropped her off at Logtown. And then he had, I think his camper on the back of his truck that he just stayed in while she was retreating with us. But this group was different from the other three in a few different ways. And it's crazy how God brings these certain women together. But there was a couple of things that happened that we realized, okay, this is different. By Saturday night, we realized that most of these girls, these women, grew up in the church. Some type of church environment, growing up going to Sunday school, going every Sunday. Doesn't mean their families were not dysfunctional. It just means they grew up in the church. And I thought, by the time I realized that, I realized I need to change my approach a little bit because this is me. I'm talking to a lot of women like me. And we still need Jesus. Sometimes it's just masked a little bit better. And so I changed a couple of things. But also during that weekend, there was only 11 of them that came. And because Brighton was having a baby, we thought in mid-April, I moved this weekend a little earlier to make sure that I was available for that. So this was a little bit quicker in motion. We had 13, I think, register. And then a couple had to drop out, and it was kind of last minute. So we only ended up with 11, 11 of these young ladies. Five out of these 11 ladies were raising someone else's children. Foster, great niece, adoption. Adoption. A lot of them were just taking in other people's kids. There was one girl who had four foster children and her two biological children. Most of the other ones were taking in family members' children that it was breaking down for some reason. These are ladies in their 20s who are doing this. We realized five out of 11, because one of my friends said, hold on, everybody stop just a second. How many of you are doing this? Five of them raised their hand and thought, this is incredible what's happening here. Another friend of mine said, I think this might be good for you, Missy, since we have done the same thing, raising other people's children. It really helped me listen to them. And of course, me sharing my experience with that really helped them with what they're currently going through. So God was moving in some very different, beautiful ways that weekend. But then Saturday night, usually I surprise them and bring them to my home and I cook for them. We had a crawfish boil and I did crawfish pies. And then that's our Jesus night. And what I mean by that is we have a lot of instruction over the weekend. But none of that matters if you don't know who Jesus is. And if you don't want a relationship with him, and if you don't surrender your life to him, trying to get your life right, it's not going to last very long. And so that Saturday night, we really delve into who Jesus is and what surrendering your life means in terms of how He will change you and change the trajectory of your family. And if you haven't done that, you might need to really pray about it and think about it. I don't ever push them to get baptized. They don't have to respond to me. It's between them and the Lord. But you know, God just moves in ways every time. And I end up with my friends going into the kitchen, cleaning up, not really, because I don't want to pressure them to think, because I think it's the celebrity aspect too, that they think that I'm expecting some kind of a response from them. I am not. Then you make that clear. And so I kind of exit, we're usually outside and I kind of exit the area and go clean or go do something, get busy in the house. And then one by one, here they come, here they come. And I just say, let me hear your heart. Like, where are you right now? And man, you can just, and within 10 seconds, you know, you know that they're ready just to give their life to Christ. And Jase let me baptize.

Speaker 4:
[49:05] I let you, I didn't say all right.

Speaker 3:
[49:06] I know. I was kind of go, he was watching LSU in the bedroom and I was like, okay, we got a couple. And he was like, good, go for it. I was like, oh gosh.

Speaker 4:
[49:15] Well, it's all women. And in the past, I would go out there and baptize them, spend together the whole weekend.

Speaker 3:
[49:21] It's fine now.

Speaker 4:
[49:22] They're from all over the country. And I'm like, it doesn't really matter.

Speaker 3:
[49:28] It doesn't. I'm just used to the man doing it.

Speaker 5:
[49:32] Well, that's the most common, but you guys have correct me if I'm wrong, but you kind of broke that ice because Jase wasn't there or something one time.

Speaker 3:
[49:39] We did.

Speaker 4:
[49:40] And it's like Missy said, we have a weird situation in that we are famous. And so I learned quickly that some people wanted to be baptized by me because they think it's cool to be baptized by Jase and Doug Dinessey. Well, that bothers me. And so I go full scale the other way and try to talk them out of it.

Speaker 3:
[50:02] That's what I've started doing too, because I'm scared of that. I don't want them to have the Instagram moment. That's not what we're doing. And honestly, that's what the whole weekend sets up to be is like the opposite of that. That they are not there. This age group, 22 to 32, this age group, they are, and we've talked about this, they are longing, they are gasping for the Word and for depth and for relationship. So by the time we get Saturday night, all that shallow stuff that you think about, they've come here for all of that, it's not there.

Speaker 4:
[50:39] Yeah, that's gone.

Speaker 3:
[50:40] It's gone.

Speaker 6:
[50:40] Well, it's an intimate gathering. I mean, that's what I love about it, is it's not, I mean, it's not this massive production. This is an intimate gathering, which me and Jill have, I mean, that's kind of what we, I'm like, I want to lean into those types of gatherings more.

Speaker 3:
[50:55] Absolutely. Just takes a lot more time.

Speaker 4:
[51:01] But I will say this, I noticed yesterday, I just ran across this stat. For the first time in decades, the leading group of people attending Christian churches are, I looked it up because I want to make sure, 18 to 34 years old. They're the number one group, not identifying, but meeting on a Sunday morning under the umbrella of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 5:
[51:30] Well, Missy, I'll tell you this, and that's exciting, Jase, there was just, because you don't always know the fruit of what happens once they leave, which you don't have to, right? Because that's a Holy Spirit thing too. But there was one of your young women was, we, Lisa and I, were flying to do an event, I think it was like two days after, and one of them had had some travel issues. And she came over and approached us and told us who she was, that she had spent the weekend with you guys, and then an extra day with your assistant, or the person who runs things for you. And so she was telling me that she is an ER nurse, and, but she had been so moved by Christ even before she came, and now since that point, that she really wanted to expand her nursing into ministry. And so she said, I know you're a pastor, you know, could you give me advice? And so she sat down there with Lisa and I, and we probably talked, you know, 45 minutes before we all took off in our separate directions. But she was so moved by the experience that she understood. It was more than just a new beginning. But now this is a kingdom lifestyle, you know, that she wanted to, of course, my encouragement to her was, I said, well, look, don't think about necessarily just leaving your work. You just got to bring Christ with you wherever you are. Because ER nurses and a lot of first responders, if you're committed to Christ, you have an opportunity a lot of other people don't have, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. So if you figure out a way to do that, and still do what you like to do, to travel and go places, which she does. And then I had some contacts for as well. But the beauty of it is, she took that and saw it as now, I'm out here. I'm off and running for the kingdom. And so I wanted you to know, just from my personal experience of meeting someone, that's what you want from people who then come to Christ. Because it's not just about me, it's about what I can do now for the kingdom.

Speaker 3:
[53:16] Well, and the man that was in the class that morning, his wife was one that was baptized, and they also were raising someone else's child. And she, when I looked at her and I said, you are now going to enter your home, when you get home from this weekend, you're going to walk in your home, and God is living inside of you now. The Holy Spirit is living inside of you. When you cross that threshold into your home with your family, you have God physically with you. And she just was like, it was a physical reaction. Like stress was gone, worry was gone, total peace. It's a beautiful, it's a hard, but beautiful weekend.

Speaker 6:
[54:00] That's why it doesn't really matter as much on who's doing the baptizing. What matters is who are you baptizing them into.

Speaker 3:
[54:07] Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 6:
[54:08] When you baptize someone into Christ, then that is what you're ultimately testifying to, that God is gonna take up his residence in the body of human beings, which is, man, I think about Francis Chan said this one time at an event I was at. He said, what would you do if Mother Mary walked in this room right now, and she was pregnant, and you knew that she had baby Jesus in her womb, how would you treat her? And he said, I'm not proposing any kind of Catholicism. Everybody calm down. But just how would you treat her? Would you treat her with reverence? Would you treat her if she was housing the living God inside of her womb? Of course, you start to imagine that you're like, yeah, you would be like, let me grab the chair for you. He's like, well, you realize you house the Holy Spirit. So God is living in you.

Speaker 3:
[54:55] That's right.

Speaker 6:
[54:56] So how should we treat one another? It was such an interesting example. I've never thought like of how special Mother Mary was for carrying Jesus. We carry the Holy Spirit, as believers, what does that say about us?

Speaker 5:
[55:09] Which is the beauty of what we do. Well, thank you, Missy. It's always good to have you on the podcast. Keep doing it. Keep doing what you're doing for the kingdom and blessing those grandchildren as well. So it's always a pleasure having you. We'll see you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed Podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.