July 28, 2025 • 61 mins
Granger welcomes a very special guest, his 13-year-old daughter, London, fresh off their latest short-term mission trip to a remote, unnamed country in Latin America. What begins as a story of gospel proclamation and cultural immersion quickly unfolds into a powerful testimony of faith, hardship, and divine provision.
Together, they recount their challenging trek through rugged mountains, tent camping in the jungle, filtered river water, spiritist encounters, and gospel conversations with villagers who had never heard the name of Jesus. Granger shares the importance of proclaiming—not just presenting—the gospel, and how discipling local missionaries brings lasting impact.
But the story doesn’t end there. On their return home, a once-in-a-lifetime storm derails their journey in dramatic fashion, stranding them in Atlanta with no luggage, no hotel, and no way out. What follows is a chaotic but providential journey involving canceled flights, closed doors, a stranger at a gas station, and an Uber ride that turns into a divine appointment.
This isn’t just an episode about a mission trip. It’s a testimony to the goodness of God—even when everything falls apart.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we started this podcast and I hit record and
you said, oh man, what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Wa? Where are we going?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah? Are you nervous to talk to your own dad?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Kind of?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Okay? Tell me why.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Because on the other podcast, I was just I don't know,
I was super nervous. On the other podcast that we did, the.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Last podcast we did, you were nervous? Well, what did
we talk about on that one?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh? We answered questions? We did? I did two?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah? Do you remember what the questions were.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
A lot of a lot of like I think, girlfriend questions.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
What makes what makes you nervous? Sitting across the table
from me?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, well, I can't see myself anymore? And then but
I like being like this instead of next to you.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah? Do you like this set up? We could look
directly in each other's eyes. So the reason London I
wanted to bring you on. You were about to turn fourteen.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Wait was the last that I was about to turn thirteen? Maybe,
like you just turned thirteen.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Now you're about to turn fourteen. That's crazy. It's crazy
for me. Is it crazy for you? Because it's crazy
for me? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, I'm excited too. But I wanted to bring you
on to talk about this is You and I have
done a couple missions together, short term missions, and both
of them have been to the same country in Central America.
We'll call it Latin America. For safety of the people
the church that we that we serve there. We will
(01:42):
try to not use names or the name of the country.
That's that's protection, not for us, but for them. And
that's this is now what we'll speak of any mission, really,
if it's outside of the US. Sometimes you realize that
sometimes especially an oppressive government, could punish the locals for
(02:11):
things that you and I say. So we won't say
that some countries more than others. But this is the
second time you and I have gone to this particular
country and grown to really love it. Now. One thing
that I go for two reasons, and the main reason
(02:32):
is you. I I love going on these missions with
you because you and I grow pretty close. Yeah, and
you and I grow close, and I get to watch
you learn different cultures and spread your wings and fine
(02:58):
tune your articulation of the Gospel. On this particular trip,
you worked in a kids ministry.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I mean I did last time too, but I did,
like my own this time.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, you had your own presentation of kids ministry. And
each time, because we would travel back, we're basically backpacking,
hiking in mountains and camping in tents, bringing in our
own food. Everything that we carry has to go on
our back or on a mule, but the mules are
(03:34):
not guaranteed. Water that we drink comes out of the streams.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Water is not guaranteed either.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And it's not guaranteed, but it comes out of the
streams and we filter it. And if we want to
take a bath, it's got to be in the creek,
it's got to be in a river. If we want
to eat, it either has to be something you packed
in or a collection of the food that we that
we that we all brought on, you know, from our backpacks.
But we we would go to these different villages and
(04:02):
you would teach her lesson to the children and then
come back to usually come back to me and go
hod I do yeah, and if any changes, and do
you feel like you got better at that over time?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, each one that I did. The first one, I
was so nervous because I didn't write it out and
I didn't really know what I was going to do.
We were on the plane to get there, and we're
all talking about the kids ministry that we're all going
to do, and everyone has had theirs kind of like
planned out, and like one of our girls knew exactly
(04:36):
what she was going to say, like exactly in Spanish
and everything, and I was being translated. So the first
one I was really nervous because I didn't know how
I was going to tie in the gospel. But over
time I got better, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, your confidence grew too, Yeah, and your Spanish improved.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, I would. I didn't use any Spanish except for
my introduction, but.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
But you could. You could understand them, especially the little
children three two and three year olds out really well
by the end of the trip.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
When they when when we were just hanging out with
them and when they were answering my questions, I didn't
have to get their questions that they answered translated.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
But yeah, that's that's a huge improvement. So we were
sent by a church to a church, and it should
work that way. We shouldn't operate ever independently on a
mission field. There's a lot of negative things that can
come from traveling. If you and I decided let's put
(05:40):
some friends together and go to a country and preach
the gospel That would have worked two hundred years ago,
but now it could actually do more damage than it
could help. So we need to be sent by a
church to a church. Yeah, buy a church from the
US to a church in their country. And then my purpose,
(06:01):
besides being with you and watching you and hiking with
you and staying in the tent together with you, besides that,
my purpose is to walk alongside the missionaries that are
local so that they can evangelize and then come back
to me and say what do you think. And we
would have these conversations every day. We would we would
(06:23):
be hiking and they would say, Okay, what happens if
the person says this, We're going into villages that had
never heard the name of Jesus, never heard the gospel,
highly demonized, a lot of spiritists. We'll get to that.
But so then my job is to use the tools
(06:45):
that I've been equipped with in my local church and
here and through the books and the reading and the
experiences that we have access to as Americans. We have
a lot of books and a lot of teachings that
we could we could have our disposal a lot of
countries don't have that, especially this one, because they don't
have power. They literally don't have power. So I would
(07:08):
walk the trail and they would say, okay, well what
happens if they say this and I say you could
say this? They go wow, I never thought of it
that way. And then I could say, by the way,
in that last house, when you said this, be careful
when you say that, to finish it with this instead
of this. One of the things we discussed was the
gospel is a proclamation. Proclamation on this is a big
(07:32):
thing on this last trip with me, because I noticed
that a lot of the missionaries would go to a house,
they would preach the gospel. They would well, we brought
in medicine, which is something else we'll get to. That's
how we got to this country because we brought medicine.
That gave us our free pass into the country from
the government.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, that's basically how we got approved.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That's how we got approved. So we brought medicine, but
we would come in with the gospel with medicine. That's
how we knocked on doors. Do you have anybody sick,
anybody that needs medicine, anybody pregnant, anybody with parasites, any illnesses, headaches, anything,
and that would get us in the conversation, and then
we would tell them the reason we're here. So I
(08:11):
noticed that the guys would they would tell the gospel
and at the end they would say, okay, would you
like to accept Jesus, then let's pray a prayer. Repeat
after me, Jesus, you are my savior. I repent on
my sins, Come into my life. TAKEO you know what.
(08:31):
They would say A number of things, and that happened
early on, and I noticed this happens all over the world,
and it's usually the first thing I want to I
want to redefine for them. So I brought them aside
and I said, I want to tell you guys something.
The Gospel is a proclamation, not a question. And they
were like, what do you mean by this? I was like,
(08:55):
when the Gospel goes out faithfully meaning telling sinners, telling
sinners that Jesus was sent to Earth from the Father
into his own creation, that he created sinless, perfect life,
that he lived fulfilling the law perfectly, went to the
(09:17):
cross to die for sins. Three days later, rose from
the dead, declaring all people believe in him, repent from
their sins, and you will be saved. And then he
tells those that are saved to go therefore into all
the nations, telling people the gospel, teaching them to obey
all that Jesus commanded, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It's a declaration as it
(09:39):
goes out, and then people that respond to it, like
in the Book of Acts, say what shall we do
to be saved? Some do, some don't. But the people
that are interested that the gospel hits them because the
gospel is Paul says the power of God for salvation.
So sometimes when that seed hits fertile, so will they say,
(10:01):
I want to know more. What could I do? We
introduced the Bible At that point, we introduce the local
pasture that they could be connected with the local church
with they could walk along fellow believers and be discipled
by them. As evangelist. In this instance, we don't have
We can't disciple them because we're literally going to the
(10:22):
next village. So we tell them the different things of
how we could plug them in, how we could get
them disciples, get their phone number on WhatsApp for the
local pastor to talk to them. But I was telling
the missionaries this and they were like, they'd never thought
about it, because all they were taught was tell them
the gospel and at the end of the gospel, ask
them if they want to accept Jesus. And they could
(10:43):
do that by repeating a prayer if you just stop
them for a second and say, let's think about this,
like when will that ever make sense? Repeat after me,
and you'll be saved at the end of the repeating.
And and they were they had never really thought about that.
So then, so then when they knew that the power
(11:06):
was not in the repeating of a prayer, but the
power was in the gospel itself, proclaim declared, I come
to this house. I want to tell you the good news,
which is what gospel means. Christ has come, He's been sacrificed,
His sacrifice was worthy accepted. He rose three days later, saying,
(11:27):
all who look to me will be forgiven of their
sins and live with me. Is a co heir of
the kingdom of God. That's the good news. Now, you
could say, do you do you receive this good news?
You could you could ask a question that way, but
you can't say, okay, now if you want this or not,
(11:49):
because it's some at some level who wouldn't say, yeah,
I want that. But faith is obedience, so obedience is faith,
so we don't know that until they're disciples. Any way.
This is one small example of these missionaries are like, oh,
and we walked through the Bible. This is not me
making it up. It's me walking through the Gospels and
the Book of Acts and showing them how this is
(12:10):
played out. Anyway, that was my purpose because they don't
want to. I can evangelize, but it's but I'm going
back to America. What am I? I'm my I'm just
this white guy that says this, you know news. I
want the locals to spread the news. Who you know?
And then and those guys I talk to every day,
do you know I talk to yeah, every day, well
(12:34):
not every day the days that they have power. Some
days they go three days without being able to charge
their phones, and then they get power for a little bit,
comes on, they charge and then they message me and
they say, hey, I want to know about this, and
I'll tell them. They go, they do, yeah, But I
want to get some of them to move to move
here for a little bit too, and live with us.
Me too, so we could truly disciple them. So we
(12:56):
brought medicine. Let's talk about that we brought. We brought
medicine on a on a private plane too, well, the
same plane, but two trips because we came in on
one load and then we filled it with medicines and
food and then when they came and picked us up,
(13:17):
the pilots came and picked us up, they brought another
load in of medicine food that we were able to
give to the church. The church served kind of like
a pharmacy almost where people could come in that village
and get things like neo smorn, band aids, sutures, all
kinds of things that you know that they don't have
(13:38):
access to it. They don't have pharmacies, they don't have
grocery stores. So that got us in that that the
country was. Then the government approved us like why are
you coming, Well, we're Christians, but we're also bringing this
medicine to help your people. And they go, okay, we
won't think about the Christian thing as much as we
think about bringing them medicine.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yah.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So this was it was a miracle. All this was donated,
All this was given to us from the Lord through
human agency. You know, so often the love that the Lord,
the Lord loves his people through other people. Right, Like
so many times when someone's saying, Lord, Lord, be with me,
(14:21):
comfort me, encourage me, and then hey, I just wanted
to come over and just be with you and comfort
you and encourage you from another person. The Lord sends
other people. So so what an awesome thing to be,
as some people say, the hands and feet of Jesus,
to be that answer of a prayer, and that came
(14:45):
in form of a plane that had come to this
country for the first time in decades, this has happened.
This happened all through the generosity of people, through the
love of Christ. Then we we we had this incredible trip.
We had so much hiking and it was exhausting. I
(15:05):
don't know speak to that about what how exhausting it
is sometimes like push to the end of ourselves.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, it gets to the point where you can't even
feel your legs anymore and you're just trekking up the
mountain and you want to cry, but you have no
liquid in you and you're waiting till the next dream.
But yeah, we got down to our last snacks at
one point and a chuck was supposed to pick us up,
and we were so diligional. Yeah, we were so diligional
(15:34):
because we had no food, no water. I don't know
how to say it without saying your name. She one
of the ladies with us. She was like cooking a
bunch of food for us because our bodies need How
do I explain how our bodies like, Like, if they
came here and ate McDonald's, they'd get so sick.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
So us eating not a good example, because anyone would
get sick. I thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Can you hear it ate like a steak or something, Yeah,
they get really sick. So if we it's the same
thing for us. If we eat the stuff there, we'll
get really sick unless it's like cooked, well, especially the
water because.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
There's also no refrigeration on their food.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah. And so since we didn't obviously want to get sick,
we were getting boiled. We were boiling our water and
getting it filtered right. Yeah, and we would use up
one of the ladies, she's so sweet. She used up
all the water we had left though, to make coffee. Yeah,
And so all we had up there was coffee and
(16:38):
like a half faked a half cooked fig so we
couldn't eat that, but we were so delirious and diligent
just waiting for the truck.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So that pig was given to us by one of
the villages and they cooked half of it. Are they
cooked It's like they cooked a little bit of it
in the village and gave it to us.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It was they cooked a little bit, but they only
cooked like a little bit of one side, and they
didn't turn it. I think that only almost said his name.
I think that's what one of the guys told me
was that's what I got from his Spanish, was that
they didn't turn it, and then they gave it to
us for our cooks. I don't want to say cooks,
that's kind of mean, but which is like.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
A great gift for most people.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And it was one of his pigs. It was the
local pastor's pigs that he killed and tried to cook
for us. And then it was just sitting out for
hours until we got home, and he was so frustrated.
He was so like he didn't want to disappoint.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Us, which is fine. That for their stomachs.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, they all ate it.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
A pig in a plastic box that was half cooked
and they took it for all day on the back
of a mule. Yeah, to our final destination where they
tried to roast it for us.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
And we were like he had a bite and he
was like, I don't. It tastes funny. And they all
ate it, all the locals ate it, but we couldn't
eat it.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
So we had go that that night, right, goat instead
of pig, and they all ate it. But it was
a great gift. Yeah, But yeah, our bodies are pushed,
especially at the very beginning. It's always hard to acclimate
from America to there because we're used to like three
meals a day and you know, like totally.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Hydrating, but not in the mountains. We didn't.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, we did in the mountains, and you just don't
get your normal schedule, like you get and you get
so hot and we get in the tent, you and
I and it's like ninety degrees at least inside the tent. Yeah,
and it's steaming, and you can't can't really like open
it up because the mosquitos are you know, you can't
(18:42):
dare pull your anything out because the mosquitoes might get
in the tent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I had the most mosquito bites and ant bites and ever.
And I got one flee this trip. I think last
year I got three. But I had one flee and
a bunch of ant bites and mosquito bites and had
the most out of anybody in the whole trip.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Tell us about the outhouses.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I don't want to talk about it, just kidding, Okay,
So each it seemed like the deeper we got into
the mountains. This is kind of easy to imagine. But
every city we went to, every little town, the outhouses
in the bathroom, the thing got way worse. So we
started out nice toilet, but it could only flush if
(19:25):
we had water, which was rare. Then the next it
was I think it was still a toilet, but couldn't flush,
and it was just it was kind of just like
a big bowl.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Oh yeah, that they brought a bucket of water to
try to flush. Remember that in that first house the
village along.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, but I'm talking about the other one. I'm talking
about the next one where we slipped on the roof
with the mngos.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, that that place, they couldn't flush it unless a
lady brought a big pail of water.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, but that was really nasty. And it smelled really bad.
I think that was the main part for me, was
it smelled really bad and you have it easy. But
and then anyway, and then it got we got to
an outhouse, and then eventually they didn't have anything, and
that was we were only there for like two hours,
(20:12):
but drinking all the water we could, and there was
no bathroom. There was none, like so, yeah, was.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That the time I was went up the mountain and
you stayed.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
No, it was that when we were waiting for the
bush and you were you were talking to the little kids. Yeah,
and we have to like make a wall for each other.
It was. It was so nasty.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
But what about the there were eight of us, by
the way, if people are trying to eight Americans, eight Americans,
what about the ones with the hens?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Oh my goodness. Well, so in the outhouses sometimes they
would the outhouse would double as an outhouse and a
chicken cube. So you try to get to the bathroom
with like four chickens, four hens, a rooster, pigs all
(21:06):
around you, a little curtain and a hole and little
baby chickens, little baby chicks that you would try.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
To like.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Not step one, I guess, but yeah, there'd just be
chickens in there.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
I don't think they're supposed to be double as a
chicken coop. I think because no one has chicken coops there,
the chickens just make it a coop.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, they just take a sure but.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
One time it was a chicken coop and they were like, oh, that's.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
All we have that I did, you remember the one?
I didn't go in any outhouses on this slash trip.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Not there's fleas in there.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I didn't go in single one. The first trip, I
went in several, and that's when I learned about the
hens that would just get in there and just watch
you while you're going the bathroom. But I didn't go
in any I just used the jungle on this last one,
which is much better.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Well, but also I tried to do that and I
got poison moss.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
So you did that's right.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
It was really bad, Like it felt like there was
just needles poking. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So the trip was you think he'll do it again
with me?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Maybe changed? What changed because the first time we took
a trip, I was like, you want to go again?
You're like, we'll see maybe. Well.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I think it's just because I love the people so much.
That I'd go there just to see them again, and
especially the people in the first place that we go to,
because they come with us into the mountains. And I
don't know, I think it was I think this was
a good trip. The hiking was really bad, but it
wasn't as long. It was just hardy. But and also
(22:45):
I know more, and if Lincoln comes, I get to
teach him how to do it, which will probably take
a lot of pressure off of me doing it by
myself besides with you, but you know.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
The will and Lincoln can carry his own way. But
he's I think he's pretty tough, Like I think he'll
be okay, except for the lack of sleep. That's what
he really hurts.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, he gets cranky.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
He gets a little cranky in the food. In the
food he would only be able to eat what he brings.
He wouldn't eat, he wouldn't dare touch something from the locals.
But you you're like immediately like, yes, I want to
go again. Yeah, yeah, I do too, especially with all
the work I've done with a couple of these men,
I got to continue that work. I think about him
every day. I pray about him for them every day.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, I'm not talking about the people that you're talking about,
but in the mountains it gets really heavy with all
the spirit tasts.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Oh, do you want to tell the story? Yeah, So
there was this one house.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Were several stories that tells.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
One this is only one. There's like a bunch of
spirit tast and stuff, but there is this one house
that I want to with just if we split up
into little groups of our team. So it was mere translator.
Can I say the Americans names?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Probably not, We'll just say it.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So anyways, were the.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Girls was on this podcast one time.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Though, who can I say his name?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Okay? So I was with Travis if youond know Travis,
and we went to this one house and right off
the bat, Travis was like, oh, yeah, this is a
spiritual ass and I was like, how do you know?
And he pointed to this little like pole and it
had like a real it looked like a horror movie
gall it was really scary. It was like plush and
it had it was it was homemade, so it was
(24:36):
made from cloth, but it was like made to scare
off the evil spirits. And then we went up to
the porch and there was a lady and her daughter.
We're talking to her daughter. First, there was like a
I on the on the above the door, and so
(24:59):
the daughter was super nice. She was probably maybe like
fifteen sixteen. She's probably maybe fifteen sixteen, and so it
was it was easy to talk to her. And so
then her mom came over and the daughter accepted Jesus.
And so the mom came over and the mom said
(25:21):
that when she went to church, she didn't she doesn't
go to church, and she's a spiritist because whenever she
went to church, she would scream. She would scream and
throw herself on the floor and get nauseous. And then
right when she said that, right when Travis told me
what she was saying, a moth flew by and it
(25:42):
was like a big one. It's like this big and
it looked like you took like craft scissors, like kids
scissors with zigzags, just cut it up and ripped it up.
And then the lady who lived there said, oh, look,
an evil spirit is coming to visit us. She like
kind of backed up to the wall. And I was like, Travis,
(26:02):
what does she mean in evil for? And he was like, oh, yeah,
that's a demon moth. And I just I didn't know
what to do. I was just standing there. But it
gets really heavy.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Sounds really heavy. Yeah, you could feel it. One time
we went to a house and there was a woman
that answered the door, and she she had this headband
that she had made out of vines and all these
leaves in the front of her forehead, and she had
her eyes closed because she was obviously having some kind
(26:33):
of migraine. But there was like all the spiritist things
above her door, and the eyeball like you said, and
like the little tiny idols in her house. And it
was dark and.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Dirty and their dogs are mean.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, there's an interesting connection with Christianity and cleanliness and
nice dogs.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah. The dogs would try to attack me a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
And it's really scary you find a spirituist house. It's dark,
smells bad, the dogs are mean, the cats are malnourished,
and the chickens are like featherless. There is when you
when you have a demonic spirit around you, or if
you're just outside of Christ at all, in those places.
(27:15):
It's more evident in those mountains that there is an
uncleanliness and a darkness that follows you. So this woman
answered the door and she had this We were like
trying to give her tilan a and she was like, no, no, no, no,
these spirits will hurt me, don't hurt me. She couldn't
even open her eyes. So here we stood at the
(27:36):
door offering the love of Jesus. Which is interesting. I'm
going to be preaching John five the Pool of Bethesda,
and it's kind of like this moment in the at
the Pool of Bethesda when Jesus says, do you want
to be healed or do you want to be made well?
And it's amazing how many people go no, and they
(27:58):
shut the door back into their darkness. Saw that time
and again.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It's really sad too, because you're there for a while
and it's just no. Yeah, And it's really sad that
they believe that they'll get hurt.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah. Yeah. The lie from the enemy there is that
if you hear the Gospel, if you take a Bible,
if you hear the good News, the demons will hurt you.
They literally think that, and not only them, but they'll
hurt their family.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah. So they say no, especially their family.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah. So sad.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So I want to talk about the end of the trip.
I think that's a big part of the story. How
he got home. Oh that story. If you're trying to
get a gift for someone that you think has everything,
how about a special video message from me. It's easy
(28:59):
to do. Go to cameo slash granger Smith and you
put in the prompt what you want me to say.
I get that message on my phone. I'll say happy birthday,
happy anniversary, whatever personalized message you want me to say
to whoever you want me to say it to. I
send it to you and you give it to them.
It's pretty cool. Go to cameo dot com slash granger Smith.
(29:22):
It's worth that we need to tell these kind of
stories because it's we need to tell people. We must
tell these kind of stories so that they're not forgotten
and that they're spread. What a better way than a
podcast to do that. So we had prayed so much
on this trip to get the plane. Right before we left.
(29:45):
We were flying from South Carolina because that's where the
plane was donated from the the charter plane. The day
before we left, there was a huge problem. The pilot's
dad died. He went a while. We had trouble the day.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Before we left to get to the country.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yes, so that when that happened and we were able
to get two new pilots. But when that happened, that
messed up our the the entry to the country from
their government. They're like, wait, you changed pilots. No, we
don't approve anymore. So all the time it took us
three months to approve this, the arrival of this private plane,
(30:30):
they canceled it and so we just I remember I
told Travis, I was like, should we look into commercial flights?
And he said, brother, I think that would be unfaithful.
I think that would be doubting God's goodness. I was like, Uh,
you're right. He's like, well, we're going to continue to pray.
(30:52):
We're going to believe that God's going to do what
he said he's going to do or he's not going
to do it, but but either way, he faithful and
we're going to trust him. And I was like, yeah,
that's probably a lesson I needed. And so we went
to bed that night hoping to fly the next day.
We were all there and we woke up the next
(31:14):
day and the country, the government approved it. They had
approved it, so we flew in and then when we landed,
you know, then we were praying for the government to
accept all of our medicines, and they did. And we
kept praying through how the medicines would get to the people,
and that the gospel would go out, that we would
be faithful in the message, that we would be safe,
that the plane would get to come back, because maybe
(31:36):
the plane wasn't going to get to come back, like
maybe they wouldn't approve it to come back and we
would just be stuck there or something. But it did
come back. The Lord delivered, delivered, delivered everything. He answered
every prayer and far beyond what we even asked. And
by that I mean like when the plane came back,
they were able to bring way more medicine, you know,
(31:56):
so way more than we could ever hope for. The
Lord did and we got back and we landed safely
back in South Carolina. Just a beautiful trip. We went
to the airport. We got incredible pizza and wings and
a cold coke zero with ice, you knows, like all
the things we got ice cream. We were just loving
(32:20):
every bite of fresh food and ice cream and a
drink with ice in it, just like, oh, it's so
amazing to feel these the things that can become easily
normal to us a living in the US when you
take it away for eight days and get it again,
(32:41):
it's just it's a novelty. And one of the guys
that was with us on the trip, he was eating
at the table with us in South Carolina, he said,
you know what, in some ways, I think of heaven
as a place where novelty is never lost, meaning everything
is novel all the time, like every food, every sight,
every smell, every sound, loving someone, it's always fresh and amazing.
(33:09):
Being in the presence of the Lord is always novel
and never gets old. I was like, oh, that's a
good way to look at it. As I was eating
this pepperoni pizza that was amazing to my taste buds.
So we were thanking the Lord got we got on
the plane. They went back to where they came from
in America, their church, and we got on our plane
to go back to home for us, and that was
(33:29):
a flight to Atlanta that was going to get us
back to Austin. We landed in Atlanta and we're walking
to our gate and this massive storm comes out of
nowhere and rocks the Atlanta airport.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
It looked like the window when you looked at the windows,
it looked like just waterfalls. It looked like it was
just flooding.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I took a video of it, Yeah, to remember, because
I've never I've traveled for decades, I have seen airport
after airport. There was a time in my life when
I went to Atlanta that airport twice a week. Did
you know that when the music? Because I was flying
Delta and most cities have to hit that airport, So
I was going there on the way to tour and
back home twice a week. Either they are salt Lake.
(34:12):
I had never seen a storm like that. It came
out of nowhere. It wasn't even on the radar, and
it hit Atlanta so hard that like you couldn't even
see out the window. Like you said, the water was
gushing down, and then the lightning started and hal shaking
the whole place, and then the hail on all the airplanes.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
And you know what I heard. I heard that The
reason that you're probably going to say in a minute
that that happened was because the what's it.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Called the tower where like the control tower.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
The control tower got struck by lightning.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
That's what I heard too. Yeah, yeah, So so they had.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
To evacuate everything.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
So all of a sudden, this beautiful trip suddenly has
this chaos at the end, and I'm like, well, lord,
what are you doing. Here's the thing. The next day,
this was on a Friday Saturday in College Station, Texas,
was my grandmother's funeral and I was officiating. I had
(35:12):
actually written the message to preach at the funeral in
those mountains.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Technically it was already that day because it was like
three am.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Well we'll get there, yeah. But I was like, we
would have arrived in plenty of time if we'd got
if that flight had flown on time, it would have
get us to Austin, gotten us to Austin Friday night.
So suddenly things started changing and the flight got delayed,
and they came on the announcements and they said the
(35:43):
planes all got hit by hail. So magnets crews have
to go to each plane and approve that plane. One
crew to approve each plane to fly. The whole airport
is shut down. Every flight. It was absolute chaos. So finally,
after four or five hours, the maintenance crew gets to
(36:05):
our plane. We're supposed to leave it like seven. Now
it's like eleven.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
No, Now it's like two.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
No, like eleven. The first time you keep pushing it back.
The first time is eleven and they came on and
they said canceled. They found something damaged from the hail.
Our flight to Austin was canceled after pushed back five hours.
So then it got rescheduled for us to go to
Indianapolis and then Austin. And the flight to Indianapolis was
(36:33):
at like two thirty in the morning. We changed gates,
get the airport is it's like midnight by now. The
airport is packed, like I've never seen a midnight airport
because no one's going anywhere everywhere. So the people start
sleeping and I'm like, babe, we need to get you
on the ground to sleep, and you're like, I'm not sleeping.
(36:55):
I was like, no, trust me, you have to sleep,
like this might be one of these nights we don't
get into a bed and like I was trying to
get you talked into a neck pillow. They're like, no,
I think I'm fine. I was like, you don't know
what fine is. Like we've been hiking in the mountains
for eight days. I need to get you sleeping in
this airport. So we get to the gate and it's
(37:18):
and all the planes are being held around the whole country,
maybe the world. I guess to not come to Atlanta
until this tower that we learned got struck by lightning
gets back up and running. So that flight to Indianapolis
delayed two forty five, two fifty three am, and we're
(37:38):
waiting by the time three am comes around, canceled in
d Indianapolis, all flights all outgoing flights in the Atlanta
airport canceled. They couldn't get the tower back up and running.
Everyone people are fighting, screaming at the police, screaming at
(37:58):
each other, cursing at God.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Actually best fighting this fighting.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Or sleeping on the ground, that's what's going on.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Running around trying to find something to do like we were.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
So I'm thinking, Lord, what's happening? And it's the first
time I started thinking, was I not faithful on this trip?
Did I not did what I all? The evangelism in
the mountains? All that was that not pleasing in your sight?
(38:35):
Was I in some way unfaithful to deserve this? These
are things I think, These aren't realities. That's not what
the Bible says, but that's what my mind says. Are
you unhappy with me? God? We prayed for a plane
to go to this country that hadn't seen a plane
in fifty years, and we got it. Can I not
(38:59):
have the plane from Atlanta to Austin? Or were those
other people on our trip, the other people that are
now home by now, were they more faithful? Did they
deserve it more than me? I guess they did. I'm
thinking all these thoughts, and I'm like, Okay, I got
to get you. We got to get outside because we
(39:23):
got to get an uber and get to a hotel.
And as I'm going, I'm thinking as we go out there,
I'm thinking, we got to get an uber far from
here because all the hotels right around this airport are
going to be all booked because of all these people
dumping out into the city. So we go out to
the street and it's packed at three thirty in the morning, packed,
(39:46):
And I'm like, we might as well just sit here
on the street. You and I. We've been sitting in
the mountains of this Latin American country with all the
fleas and ticks. We could sit in the street of
Atlanta with everyone else. I remember, I was like, just
lean your back on my back. We'll lean into each
other and try to close your eyes. I'm waiting for
an uber and it's just spinning. You can't find.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Any That was our last resort, just to sleep on
the ground outside, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Sleep on the ground, no bags. In fact, if we
would have had our bags, we actually would have had
a tent and a sleeping bag and a pillow. We
didn't even have our bags. We just had what was
on We just had what was onnest. Yeah. So so
I'm trying to get an uber and I want that
uber to get us far from the city, and then
I want to have a plan where we could get
(40:33):
out back to Austin early that next morning. But then
I started realizing, I don't think this is that flight
to Austin's going to happen. Because Delta kept saying not available, now,
not available, because their app was crashed, their website was crashed,
all the planes stuck, no one could get anyone on
(40:57):
the phone. The line to talk to customer service was people,
eight hundred people. There's no way. So I'm starting I'm
starting to think I don't think we're going to I
don't think we can get out of Atlanta. And I
started worrying, like the funeral Lord, would you have me
miss my own grandmother's funeral. Finally, an uber attaches after
(41:20):
what thirty minutes. Maybe we get in this uber. It's
this guy from like Africa or something. I think he's
from like North Africa. Very rude, and I had I
had a hotel address that was in Marietta, Georgia, which
is about forty minutes north of the airport.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
But he didn't check it first. You didn't know if
there was any rooms.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
I got see, I just wanted to get Let me
get in the car, let's start driving north. Let's get
away from the city. Let's get a hotel, and then
I could regroup. I could figure out. I could stay
up all night and figure out this flight out of Atlanta.
There was like an eight am flight. So we get
in the car driving to Marietta and I called the hotel.
(42:02):
They say, we're sorry, we're all booked. So I pull
up maps. I get one right next to it, click
on it. Sorry, we're all.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Booked in Atlanta anymore.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
We'll get on another one booked, booked, booked. I started
calling everybody booked, and then on my Delta app flight canceled.
I'm like, oh lord, oh lord, what would I do
I have my daughter. I don't know what to do.
I like, we're in a real situation. There's no place
to sleep. The only place really to sleep would be
(42:36):
the floor of the airport. But then Delta rebooked me,
do you know, and they rebooked me Sunday night. This
was Friday. Oh yeah, they booked me to Austin's Sunday night.
I was like, like, I'm not I don't even know.
It's rare in my life. Have I been in a
situation where I didn't know what to do and I
(42:59):
didn't even have options. By now, it's three forty five,
almost four in the morning, and the driver says he
hears me calling hotels. He says, you do not have
room booked. I was like, no, sir, but I'm I'm
going to get one as we drive north. No problem,
I'm going to find someone that has room. Don't worry,
(43:21):
I'll get this figured out. Just keep driving, and he goes,
I can not keep driving if you do not have booked.
I was like, I'm going to get one, and plus
I'll give you a tip. No problem, I'll I'll I'll
pay you extra. I just I need to get my daughter.
We need to get into a room, and he exits
the highway and he goes, I must drop you off.
I must get back to with the money. This is
(43:42):
my living. I must make money at the airport. He
goes to this random gas station and stops at the
front of the gas station in Atlanta, nothing around there,
and says, I said, you're really going to drop us
off here? You're you're going to do this, And he goes,
I have no choice, and I said, you gotta do
(44:04):
what you gotta do. We get out. We go into
this gas station four o'clock in the morning. There's like
three men in there, playing those casino games, vaping, drinking.
I'm like, oh lord, what is happening. We go up.
Remember we went up to the ice cream refrigerator and
(44:26):
you sat on that and I got out my phone.
Do you have any rooms available for tonight?
Speaker 2 (44:31):
No?
Speaker 1 (44:31):
I'm so sorry. Do you have any rooms available for tonight?
So sorry, we're all out? Hello, do you have any
rooms available? Sorry? With no rooms, how many do you
think are called?
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Like? Thirty five? Thirty five in the gas station, not
even in the car, in the.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Car, baby, seventy yeah, I called it. Probably every hotel
in Atlanta that I saw in my map. The owner
of the gas station walks up and goes, she could
not sit on this in my break the refrigerator. We
couldn't even sit down. We couldn't even sit in this
gas station in the middle of Atlanta. I couldn't it,
(45:07):
couldn't even sit down. And my heart was crushed. My
heart was broken. I just said, Lord, what have I done?
What have you? You have totally abandoned me. And I
remember I read the McShane plan. I thought, what's today's reading?
You know that because it was already morning. What's today's reading?
(45:29):
Guess what it was? PS. I'm twenty two. My god,
my god, why have you forsaken me? I was like,
of course, of course that's my reading. That's my answer
from the Lord, and I was I was so broken,
and I got on my phone. I stopped calling hotels,
(45:50):
and I said, how far is Nashville? We looked it up.
It was four hours, four hours, and I said, I'm
gonna try to get it uber to Nashville because I
had it on my heart, just because it was familiar.
I've lived there before. At least I'm in a city
that I know. I don't know this city. I don't
(46:11):
know Chattanooga or Jacksonville, Florida, or Huntsville, Alabama, or any
town in the radius, or Charlotte, North Carolina. These are
all like four hour radius towns. I'm like, I'll go
to Nashville. I caught dials an uber and put Nashville
International Airport on the Uber and he accepts it this
(46:33):
uber right away. I'm like, Okay, that's interesting. Somebody said yes,
And I.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
Remember you looking at me. You were like we were
standing outside waiting and he was like three minutes, two minutes,
this guy's going to cancel, Like does he not know
what he's doing? One minute? Does he not know what
he's doing? And we were just waiting. We were ready
to go back inside, ready for him to cancel.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
And then he pulled up and I stopped you and
know what I do? You prayed, let's pray. What did
I say? I don't even remember? Uh?
Speaker 2 (47:03):
You said, wait? I remember he said, Lord, deliver us,
keep us safe. He said he said something like Lord,
deliver us and keep us safe and deliver us something
with this uber driver and yeah, and he said amen,
(47:24):
because he parked, So we think I think.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
That's what you said, So we opened the door and
this guy's blaring Christian music Brendan.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Lake and it's not even just a Brendon Lake song,
it's graves in the gardens.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah, my god, this is interesting. And he said, I
wasn't expecting you here. I thought you'd be in this neighborhood,
like I wouldn't expect to pick anyone up at this hour.
At the gas station, I'm like, did you I said,
did you see the destination? And he goes, yeah, is
that right? Nashville, Tennessee. It's like, yeah, what do you think?
(48:02):
And he goes, I've never even been to Nashville. I
was like, could you get us there? And he goes,
I mean, I don't know. It's a long way. He goes,
could you do five hundred bucks? No, he said four,
(48:24):
And he goes, could you do five? And I was like, yes, sir.
At this point, I am desperate, like probably would have
said yes to a thousand. Like what else am? I spoke?
I have nothing else. It's the only open door I have.
I said, yes, sir, I can. And then he said,
(48:45):
do you mind if I played Christian music? He said,
do you mind if I play Christian music? I'm trying
to be more open with my faith. And I was like, no,
I'm a pastor. I don't mind. And I said, actually,
we've been praying for this ride, that you that the
(49:08):
Lord will deliver us through this and he.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Said he said, that's strange, and I thought he was
going to leave it at that. I was like, oh,
and he said I did too. I was asking the
Lord to deliver deliver me when I pick up these people.
And then he said and then you said, wow, that's crazy.
And then he said the Lord does provide, and then
(49:32):
you went.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
Yeah, yeah, something about he just said that. I started crying, yeah,
which is rare, like I never do that, but he
said yeah, he said the Lord does provide.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
And then I don't remember anything, just because I fell asleep.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Yeah, I bought a Then we stopped and we got
gas for his car, and I grabbed a I don't
remember that. We stopped at another gas station, got gas,
and I grabbed a blanket from the truck stop and
covered you with that plane.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
And I had a neck pillow too that we got
the airport.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, so you crashed out and I couldn't really sleep.
But then the sun started coming up and I was like, oh,
I looked at all the flights out of Nashville and
there was none. There was There was one at six
pm Saturday, so I was like, okay, I'll get that.
(50:33):
It was on Southwest. I booked that flight, canceled everything
from Delta. It's like, we're gonna miss a funeral. But
I obviously the Lord does different plans. So I waited
for the sun to come up. And when it was,
when we were like thirty minutes from the Nashville airport,
I was like, okay, man, what's your story? And he goes,
(50:55):
what do you mean my story? And I was like, well,
I mean I'm in your car for a reason. You
have no idea where we've been or where we've come from.
But somehow I'm with you. So why am I with you?
And he goes, well, you know, I've got a family
and I'm trying to make ends meet. And I was like,
but spiritually, how are you? He's like, actually not good.
(51:21):
We had played Christian music the whole drive four hours.
He said, not good. I've been I feel really far
from the Lord. And that's why I prayed before you
got in, because I just I feel lost, feel I
feel like I have you know, I'm a Christian, but
I don't feel like I have hope. And my wife
seems to have a better plan than I do. I
thought that I would be an evangelist maybe one day,
(51:44):
but I just feel so far. And I was like,
how's your how's your Bible reading? And he goes, yeah,
that's the thing I don't. I don't read the Bible.
He was in fact, I don't read anything. I don't read.
I don't have time to read. And I said, did
you know you could listen? And you're in a car
like that if you make your living in this car,
(52:04):
did you know you could listen? Like I hadn't thought
about that, Like what app would do that? And I like, well,
there's a bunch. I said, there's one called Dwell dwe
and I looked up and he was already typing it
in the app store. It's like okay, and then what
do I do? So we could start with Matthew one,
have you ever done that? And he's like, no, I
(52:25):
never done it. So I told him the gospel and
gave him the rest of the story, and all the
way up until the airport, I was like, hey, here's
my number. Let me be accountable for you. Obviously I
felt I didn't say I don't think I said it,
but I felt like the Lord led me to this car,
which we still talk by the way, me and him,
but and he's in a heap of trouble, big time spiritually.
(52:52):
I've learned he's in a lot of trouble spiritually. So
I've been pouring in the best I can try to
faithful in that. But you know, we hit the airport
and we went to the desk and I said, could
we be on stand by for your eleven forty five?
And she was super sweet, she was like yeah, yeah, yeah,
which still we'd still miss the funeral. But I just thought, well,
(53:15):
the Lord had other plans. He wanted me in that uber. Yeah.
I didn't sleep, but at least, at least I know
the Lord is faithful and I'm not. He's good and
I'm wicked, but but he somehow has delivered me here.
And so we went. We went into the airport Hilton.
It's connected to the airport, which is always booked, and
(53:36):
we went up to the front desk and I said,
do you have a room And she goes for when
right right now? And she was yes, which will we do?
I was like, that's the first yes I've gotten in
a while. That was the first hotel yes I've gotten
at about seventy. So we went up to the room
and I said, maybe take a bath, relax. We've got
(53:58):
several hours. We can go check in on this eleven
forty five flight if it's if, we can be on standby.
If not, we'll come back here till the six pm flight.
But just relax, try to get some sleep. And then
I knew what I had to do. Call my mom,
your grandma, And I called her and she answered and
I was like, hey, She goes hi. I said I
(54:20):
have some bad news and she goes what And I said,
We're not.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
Going to make it, said we didn't make it.
Speaker 1 (54:27):
We didn't make it, and she said and then she
was like it's okay, and I'll start crying again. I
was like, we did everything we could, literally everything. We're
not going to make it, she said. And she was
following us on Life three sixty, so she knew where
we were at that point because I'd reactivated my location
(54:49):
services in Atlanta. She knew. She was like, it's okay,
it's okay. We'll find someone else. I was like, I wrote,
but I wrote the message. So Tyler or Parker, either
one of those guys is perfectly equipped to lead this ceremony,
to lead the funeral. I've written the whole message. I
could literally text you right now, which I did, and
(55:10):
have Parker, Tyler, you pick one of those guys. All
they have to do is read what I wrote, and
it will guide you through the whole funeral.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
And then all of us are crying, like she's saying
it's okay, it's okay, but she's like bowling her eyes out.
Speaker 1 (55:22):
Yeah, and ty She's on speakerphone. Tyler's in the background,
and he goes, where is he? She said? He said?
She said. He said he's in Nashville. And he goes,
I'm about to text everyone I know in next Nashville
for a flight.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Be praying, he said, for a private jet.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
Yeah, Tyler. So we start praying. We're like, okay, whatever,
you know, start praying. I was like, I'm gonna go
get some coffee. You relax, you get in the bath.
And then Tyler goes, hey, somebody replied, I won't say who,
(56:02):
I'll protect them. Somebody replied, who you used to work with?
And they said they might be able to get you home.
I was like, well that's cool. Where Like he said,
can you be ready at eleven at the airport. I
was like yeah, it was like ten. Yeah, I went
and got you. I was like, let's go get a
(56:23):
quick breakfast. Tyler just said be ready if possible, and
then sure enough, at like ten thirty, he was like, hey,
it's confirmed they have but there's a jet coming. I
was like okay. I still didn't really know, like how
this is going to work, Like, okay, obviously we don't
need bags, we don't nothing, we have nothing. Just okay,
(56:43):
And he said text amber in case you make it
clothes to bring. And we got to the little private
airport and threw a shuttle and the guy said, hey,
two passengers for a college station. I was like really.
He was like yeah, all yours. We'll have you on
(57:07):
the ground in two hours, which would be about one
fifteen the funerals. At two. I was like okay, and
we go and here it comes at taxis at a
little bitty, tiny little jet. Just hold it. He just
has four seats in it. We get in and they're
like already going to eastwood Field College station. Texas. There's
(57:31):
your seatbelts, there's your your little tables. If you any drinks,
the run over here you guys ready, like yes, sir,
all right, take off We land just like they said
in College Station, Texas. At one fifteen, Mom's there with
MAV and Lincoln with a suit for me, address for you.
(57:52):
We go to the little airbnb they had, we throw
it on. We get to the funeral home at one
forty five and I walk in there with one minute
to spare with my Bible and start Minnie's funeral. What
in the world It.
Speaker 2 (58:10):
Was probably the crazy state of my whole life.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
I mean, what in the world. That's the craziest thing ever.
And so many people are praying, the whole other team,
the whole people in our country that we went to,
the Latin American country, and the people we traveled with
there like praying. And one thing Travis said is you know,
I was on the phone with them he said something
impactful because he said he was praying and he said, Lord,
(58:39):
it feels like what you're doing right now is bad.
That's what it feels like to us. This feels bad.
But we know you are good. We know you're good.
So We'll trust in your goodness. I was like, Man,
I said, pretty good prayer. It's so just normal and
(59:00):
like just so basic, but it's a good prayer. What
it feels like, God, is that you're doing something bad,
but your word says you were good. So I'm gonna
trust your word that what you are doing is actually good.
And it wasn't. But ten minutes later I called Travis
and said, you'll never believe what our good God is doing.
(59:24):
A little bit of airplane, it's coming to pick some now.
If one hotel out of the seventy had said yes,
they had a room, we wouldn't have made it. Seventy
if in that flight, if any of the other flights
would have worked, we wouldn't have made it. If that
uber driver wouldn't have picked up, we wouldn't have made it.
If I hadn't had the feeling, the gut feeling to
go to Nashville, we wouldn't have made it. If we
(59:46):
had gone to Huntsville or Chattanooga, or Knoxville or Charlotte,
that's not where the Lord had the plane ready for us.
But he delivered us, and exactly the way he took us,
through the darkest, most depressing gas station with my thirteen
year old daughter in the middle of Atlanta, in the
middle of the night, on no sleep, to make me
(01:00:09):
question everything that I did. And the truth is, nothing
that I did matters because what Christ did is what matters.
And he's the one that makes me good, not anything
that I do. But he brought me through all of that.
For all the reasons, I have no idea one of them.
I know. One reason is to tell it right here,
(01:00:31):
to tell other people, to remind them in their season
of darkness when it feels like there is no other
way that even when it feels like, Lord, you're doing
something bad, we know you are good. So there's that reminder. Crazy.
(01:00:53):
I'm glad you were there to witness it, because if
you weren't there, it would make the story seem impossible. Yeah,
but you saw everything I just said.
Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
If it wasn't sleeping. Yeah, we're trying to.
Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Anything else. We'll end it here. Yeah, until the next
adventure we get to say again.
Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Yeah, love you, love you.
Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Thank you so much for hanging out with me on
this episode of the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate you being here.
If you're listening right now, go ahead and rate today's podcast.
It helps more folks find the show, and if you're
tuning in on the iHeartRadio app, you could actually set
this podcast as one of your presets, which is cool
that way. I'm just one tap away. If you're watching
on YouTube, don't forget to hit like and subscribe so
you don't miss any new episodes. And if you got
(01:01:42):
a question you want answered right here on the show,
just email me podcast at grangersmith dot com. I'd love
to hear from you. Thanks again for being here. We'll
see you next time. Yee
So we started this podcast and I hit record and
you said, oh man, what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Wa? Where are we going?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah? Are you nervous to talk to your own dad?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Kind of?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Okay? Tell me why.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Because on the other podcast, I was just I don't know,
I was super nervous. On the other podcast that we did, the.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Last podcast we did, you were nervous? Well, what did
we talk about on that one?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh? We answered questions? We did? I did two?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah? Do you remember what the questions were.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
A lot of a lot of like I think, girlfriend questions.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
What makes what makes you nervous? Sitting across the table
from me?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, well, I can't see myself anymore? And then but
I like being like this instead of next to you.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah? Do you like this set up? We could look
directly in each other's eyes. So the reason London I
wanted to bring you on. You were about to turn fourteen.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Wait was the last that I was about to turn thirteen? Maybe,
like you just turned thirteen.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Now you're about to turn fourteen. That's crazy. It's crazy
for me. Is it crazy for you? Because it's crazy
for me? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, I'm excited too. But I wanted to bring you
on to talk about this is You and I have
done a couple missions together, short term missions, and both
of them have been to the same country in Central America.
We'll call it Latin America. For safety of the people
the church that we that we serve there. We will
(01:42):
try to not use names or the name of the country.
That's that's protection, not for us, but for them. And
that's this is now what we'll speak of any mission, really,
if it's outside of the US. Sometimes you realize that
sometimes especially an oppressive government, could punish the locals for
(02:11):
things that you and I say. So we won't say
that some countries more than others. But this is the
second time you and I have gone to this particular
country and grown to really love it. Now. One thing
that I go for two reasons, and the main reason
(02:32):
is you. I I love going on these missions with
you because you and I grow pretty close. Yeah, and
you and I grow close, and I get to watch
you learn different cultures and spread your wings and fine
(02:58):
tune your articulation of the Gospel. On this particular trip,
you worked in a kids ministry.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I mean I did last time too, but I did,
like my own this time.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, you had your own presentation of kids ministry. And
each time, because we would travel back, we're basically backpacking,
hiking in mountains and camping in tents, bringing in our
own food. Everything that we carry has to go on
our back or on a mule, but the mules are
(03:34):
not guaranteed. Water that we drink comes out of the streams.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Water is not guaranteed either.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And it's not guaranteed, but it comes out of the
streams and we filter it. And if we want to
take a bath, it's got to be in the creek,
it's got to be in a river. If we want
to eat, it either has to be something you packed
in or a collection of the food that we that
we that we all brought on, you know, from our backpacks.
But we we would go to these different villages and
(04:02):
you would teach her lesson to the children and then
come back to usually come back to me and go
hod I do yeah, and if any changes, and do
you feel like you got better at that over time?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, each one that I did. The first one, I
was so nervous because I didn't write it out and
I didn't really know what I was going to do.
We were on the plane to get there, and we're
all talking about the kids ministry that we're all going
to do, and everyone has had theirs kind of like
planned out, and like one of our girls knew exactly
(04:36):
what she was going to say, like exactly in Spanish
and everything, and I was being translated. So the first
one I was really nervous because I didn't know how
I was going to tie in the gospel. But over
time I got better, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, your confidence grew too, Yeah, and your Spanish improved.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, I would. I didn't use any Spanish except for
my introduction, but.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
But you could. You could understand them, especially the little
children three two and three year olds out really well
by the end of the trip.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
When they when when we were just hanging out with
them and when they were answering my questions, I didn't
have to get their questions that they answered translated.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
But yeah, that's that's a huge improvement. So we were
sent by a church to a church, and it should
work that way. We shouldn't operate ever independently on a
mission field. There's a lot of negative things that can
come from traveling. If you and I decided let's put
(05:40):
some friends together and go to a country and preach
the gospel That would have worked two hundred years ago,
but now it could actually do more damage than it
could help. So we need to be sent by a
church to a church. Yeah, buy a church from the
US to a church in their country. And then my purpose,
(06:01):
besides being with you and watching you and hiking with
you and staying in the tent together with you, besides that,
my purpose is to walk alongside the missionaries that are
local so that they can evangelize and then come back
to me and say what do you think. And we
would have these conversations every day. We would we would
(06:23):
be hiking and they would say, Okay, what happens if
the person says this, We're going into villages that had
never heard the name of Jesus, never heard the gospel,
highly demonized, a lot of spiritists. We'll get to that.
But so then my job is to use the tools
(06:45):
that I've been equipped with in my local church and
here and through the books and the reading and the
experiences that we have access to as Americans. We have
a lot of books and a lot of teachings that
we could we could have our disposal a lot of
countries don't have that, especially this one, because they don't
have power. They literally don't have power. So I would
(07:08):
walk the trail and they would say, okay, well what
happens if they say this and I say you could
say this? They go wow, I never thought of it
that way. And then I could say, by the way,
in that last house, when you said this, be careful
when you say that, to finish it with this instead
of this. One of the things we discussed was the
gospel is a proclamation. Proclamation on this is a big
(07:32):
thing on this last trip with me, because I noticed
that a lot of the missionaries would go to a house,
they would preach the gospel. They would well, we brought
in medicine, which is something else we'll get to. That's
how we got to this country because we brought medicine.
That gave us our free pass into the country from
the government.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, that's basically how we got approved.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That's how we got approved. So we brought medicine, but
we would come in with the gospel with medicine. That's
how we knocked on doors. Do you have anybody sick,
anybody that needs medicine, anybody pregnant, anybody with parasites, any illnesses, headaches, anything,
and that would get us in the conversation, and then
we would tell them the reason we're here. So I
(08:11):
noticed that the guys would they would tell the gospel
and at the end they would say, okay, would you
like to accept Jesus, then let's pray a prayer. Repeat
after me, Jesus, you are my savior. I repent on
my sins, Come into my life. TAKEO you know what.
(08:31):
They would say A number of things, and that happened
early on, and I noticed this happens all over the world,
and it's usually the first thing I want to I
want to redefine for them. So I brought them aside
and I said, I want to tell you guys something.
The Gospel is a proclamation, not a question. And they
were like, what do you mean by this? I was like,
(08:55):
when the Gospel goes out faithfully meaning telling sinners, telling
sinners that Jesus was sent to Earth from the Father
into his own creation, that he created sinless, perfect life,
that he lived fulfilling the law perfectly, went to the
(09:17):
cross to die for sins. Three days later, rose from
the dead, declaring all people believe in him, repent from
their sins, and you will be saved. And then he
tells those that are saved to go therefore into all
the nations, telling people the gospel, teaching them to obey
all that Jesus commanded, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It's a declaration as it
(09:39):
goes out, and then people that respond to it, like
in the Book of Acts, say what shall we do
to be saved? Some do, some don't. But the people
that are interested that the gospel hits them because the
gospel is Paul says the power of God for salvation.
So sometimes when that seed hits fertile, so will they say,
(10:01):
I want to know more. What could I do? We
introduced the Bible At that point, we introduce the local
pasture that they could be connected with the local church
with they could walk along fellow believers and be discipled
by them. As evangelist. In this instance, we don't have
We can't disciple them because we're literally going to the
(10:22):
next village. So we tell them the different things of
how we could plug them in, how we could get
them disciples, get their phone number on WhatsApp for the
local pastor to talk to them. But I was telling
the missionaries this and they were like, they'd never thought
about it, because all they were taught was tell them
the gospel and at the end of the gospel, ask
them if they want to accept Jesus. And they could
(10:43):
do that by repeating a prayer if you just stop
them for a second and say, let's think about this,
like when will that ever make sense? Repeat after me,
and you'll be saved at the end of the repeating.
And and they were they had never really thought about that.
So then, so then when they knew that the power
(11:06):
was not in the repeating of a prayer, but the
power was in the gospel itself, proclaim declared, I come
to this house. I want to tell you the good news,
which is what gospel means. Christ has come, He's been sacrificed,
His sacrifice was worthy accepted. He rose three days later, saying,
(11:27):
all who look to me will be forgiven of their
sins and live with me. Is a co heir of
the kingdom of God. That's the good news. Now, you
could say, do you do you receive this good news?
You could you could ask a question that way, but
you can't say, okay, now if you want this or not,
(11:49):
because it's some at some level who wouldn't say, yeah,
I want that. But faith is obedience, so obedience is faith,
so we don't know that until they're disciples. Any way.
This is one small example of these missionaries are like, oh,
and we walked through the Bible. This is not me
making it up. It's me walking through the Gospels and
the Book of Acts and showing them how this is
(12:10):
played out. Anyway, that was my purpose because they don't
want to. I can evangelize, but it's but I'm going
back to America. What am I? I'm my I'm just
this white guy that says this, you know news. I
want the locals to spread the news. Who you know?
And then and those guys I talk to every day,
do you know I talk to yeah, every day, well
(12:34):
not every day the days that they have power. Some
days they go three days without being able to charge
their phones, and then they get power for a little bit,
comes on, they charge and then they message me and
they say, hey, I want to know about this, and
I'll tell them. They go, they do, yeah, But I
want to get some of them to move to move
here for a little bit too, and live with us.
Me too, so we could truly disciple them. So we
(12:56):
brought medicine. Let's talk about that we brought. We brought
medicine on a on a private plane too, well, the
same plane, but two trips because we came in on
one load and then we filled it with medicines and
food and then when they came and picked us up,
(13:17):
the pilots came and picked us up, they brought another
load in of medicine food that we were able to
give to the church. The church served kind of like
a pharmacy almost where people could come in that village
and get things like neo smorn, band aids, sutures, all
kinds of things that you know that they don't have
(13:38):
access to it. They don't have pharmacies, they don't have
grocery stores. So that got us in that that the
country was. Then the government approved us like why are
you coming, Well, we're Christians, but we're also bringing this
medicine to help your people. And they go, okay, we
won't think about the Christian thing as much as we
think about bringing them medicine.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yah.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So this was it was a miracle. All this was donated,
All this was given to us from the Lord through
human agency. You know, so often the love that the Lord,
the Lord loves his people through other people. Right, Like
so many times when someone's saying, Lord, Lord, be with me,
(14:21):
comfort me, encourage me, and then hey, I just wanted
to come over and just be with you and comfort
you and encourage you from another person. The Lord sends
other people. So so what an awesome thing to be,
as some people say, the hands and feet of Jesus,
to be that answer of a prayer, and that came
(14:45):
in form of a plane that had come to this
country for the first time in decades, this has happened.
This happened all through the generosity of people, through the
love of Christ. Then we we we had this incredible trip.
We had so much hiking and it was exhausting. I
(15:05):
don't know speak to that about what how exhausting it
is sometimes like push to the end of ourselves.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, it gets to the point where you can't even
feel your legs anymore and you're just trekking up the
mountain and you want to cry, but you have no
liquid in you and you're waiting till the next dream.
But yeah, we got down to our last snacks at
one point and a chuck was supposed to pick us up,
and we were so diligional. Yeah, we were so diligional
(15:34):
because we had no food, no water. I don't know
how to say it without saying your name. She one
of the ladies with us. She was like cooking a
bunch of food for us because our bodies need How
do I explain how our bodies like, Like, if they
came here and ate McDonald's, they'd get so sick.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
So us eating not a good example, because anyone would
get sick. I thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Can you hear it ate like a steak or something, Yeah,
they get really sick. So if we it's the same
thing for us. If we eat the stuff there, we'll
get really sick unless it's like cooked, well, especially the
water because.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
There's also no refrigeration on their food.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah. And so since we didn't obviously want to get sick,
we were getting boiled. We were boiling our water and
getting it filtered right. Yeah, and we would use up
one of the ladies, she's so sweet. She used up
all the water we had left though, to make coffee. Yeah,
And so all we had up there was coffee and
(16:38):
like a half faked a half cooked fig so we
couldn't eat that, but we were so delirious and diligent
just waiting for the truck.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So that pig was given to us by one of
the villages and they cooked half of it. Are they
cooked It's like they cooked a little bit of it
in the village and gave it to us.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It was they cooked a little bit, but they only
cooked like a little bit of one side, and they
didn't turn it. I think that only almost said his name.
I think that's what one of the guys told me
was that's what I got from his Spanish, was that
they didn't turn it, and then they gave it to
us for our cooks. I don't want to say cooks,
that's kind of mean, but which is like.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
A great gift for most people.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And it was one of his pigs. It was the
local pastor's pigs that he killed and tried to cook
for us. And then it was just sitting out for
hours until we got home, and he was so frustrated.
He was so like he didn't want to disappoint.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Us, which is fine. That for their stomachs.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, they all ate it.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
A pig in a plastic box that was half cooked
and they took it for all day on the back
of a mule. Yeah, to our final destination where they
tried to roast it for us.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
And we were like he had a bite and he
was like, I don't. It tastes funny. And they all
ate it, all the locals ate it, but we couldn't
eat it.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
So we had go that that night, right, goat instead
of pig, and they all ate it. But it was
a great gift. Yeah, But yeah, our bodies are pushed,
especially at the very beginning. It's always hard to acclimate
from America to there because we're used to like three
meals a day and you know, like totally.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Hydrating, but not in the mountains. We didn't.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, we did in the mountains, and you just don't
get your normal schedule, like you get and you get
so hot and we get in the tent, you and
I and it's like ninety degrees at least inside the tent. Yeah,
and it's steaming, and you can't can't really like open
it up because the mosquitos are you know, you can't
(18:42):
dare pull your anything out because the mosquitoes might get
in the tent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I had the most mosquito bites and ant bites and ever.
And I got one flee this trip. I think last
year I got three. But I had one flee and
a bunch of ant bites and mosquito bites and had
the most out of anybody in the whole trip.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Tell us about the outhouses.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I don't want to talk about it, just kidding, Okay,
So each it seemed like the deeper we got into
the mountains. This is kind of easy to imagine. But
every city we went to, every little town, the outhouses
in the bathroom, the thing got way worse. So we
started out nice toilet, but it could only flush if
(19:25):
we had water, which was rare. Then the next it
was I think it was still a toilet, but couldn't flush,
and it was just it was kind of just like
a big bowl.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Oh yeah, that they brought a bucket of water to
try to flush. Remember that in that first house the
village along.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, but I'm talking about the other one. I'm talking
about the next one where we slipped on the roof
with the mngos.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, that that place, they couldn't flush it unless a
lady brought a big pail of water.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, but that was really nasty. And it smelled really bad.
I think that was the main part for me, was
it smelled really bad and you have it easy. But
and then anyway, and then it got we got to
an outhouse, and then eventually they didn't have anything, and
that was we were only there for like two hours,
(20:12):
but drinking all the water we could, and there was
no bathroom. There was none, like so, yeah, was.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That the time I was went up the mountain and
you stayed.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
No, it was that when we were waiting for the
bush and you were you were talking to the little kids. Yeah,
and we have to like make a wall for each other.
It was. It was so nasty.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
But what about the there were eight of us, by
the way, if people are trying to eight Americans, eight Americans,
what about the ones with the hens?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Oh my goodness. Well, so in the outhouses sometimes they
would the outhouse would double as an outhouse and a
chicken cube. So you try to get to the bathroom
with like four chickens, four hens, a rooster, pigs all
(21:06):
around you, a little curtain and a hole and little
baby chickens, little baby chicks that you would try.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
To like.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Not step one, I guess, but yeah, there'd just be
chickens in there.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
I don't think they're supposed to be double as a
chicken coop. I think because no one has chicken coops there,
the chickens just make it a coop.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, they just take a sure but.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
One time it was a chicken coop and they were like, oh, that's.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
All we have that I did, you remember the one?
I didn't go in any outhouses on this slash trip.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Not there's fleas in there.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I didn't go in single one. The first trip, I
went in several, and that's when I learned about the
hens that would just get in there and just watch
you while you're going the bathroom. But I didn't go
in any I just used the jungle on this last one,
which is much better.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Well, but also I tried to do that and I
got poison moss.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
So you did that's right.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
It was really bad, Like it felt like there was
just needles poking. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So the trip was you think he'll do it again
with me?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Maybe changed? What changed because the first time we took
a trip, I was like, you want to go again?
You're like, we'll see maybe. Well.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I think it's just because I love the people so much.
That I'd go there just to see them again, and
especially the people in the first place that we go to,
because they come with us into the mountains. And I
don't know, I think it was I think this was
a good trip. The hiking was really bad, but it
wasn't as long. It was just hardy. But and also
(22:45):
I know more, and if Lincoln comes, I get to
teach him how to do it, which will probably take
a lot of pressure off of me doing it by
myself besides with you, but you know.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
The will and Lincoln can carry his own way. But
he's I think he's pretty tough, Like I think he'll
be okay, except for the lack of sleep. That's what
he really hurts.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, he gets cranky.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
He gets a little cranky in the food. In the
food he would only be able to eat what he brings.
He wouldn't eat, he wouldn't dare touch something from the locals.
But you you're like immediately like, yes, I want to
go again. Yeah, yeah, I do too, especially with all
the work I've done with a couple of these men,
I got to continue that work. I think about him
every day. I pray about him for them every day.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, I'm not talking about the people that you're talking about,
but in the mountains it gets really heavy with all
the spirit tasts.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Oh, do you want to tell the story? Yeah, So
there was this one house.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Were several stories that tells.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
One this is only one. There's like a bunch of
spirit tast and stuff, but there is this one house
that I want to with just if we split up
into little groups of our team. So it was mere translator.
Can I say the Americans names?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Probably not, We'll just say it.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So anyways, were the.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Girls was on this podcast one time.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Though, who can I say his name?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Okay? So I was with Travis if youond know Travis,
and we went to this one house and right off
the bat, Travis was like, oh, yeah, this is a
spiritual ass and I was like, how do you know?
And he pointed to this little like pole and it
had like a real it looked like a horror movie
gall it was really scary. It was like plush and
it had it was it was homemade, so it was
(24:36):
made from cloth, but it was like made to scare
off the evil spirits. And then we went up to
the porch and there was a lady and her daughter.
We're talking to her daughter. First, there was like a
I on the on the above the door, and so
(24:59):
the daughter was super nice. She was probably maybe like
fifteen sixteen. She's probably maybe fifteen sixteen, and so it
was it was easy to talk to her. And so
then her mom came over and the daughter accepted Jesus.
And so the mom came over and the mom said
(25:21):
that when she went to church, she didn't she doesn't
go to church, and she's a spiritist because whenever she
went to church, she would scream. She would scream and
throw herself on the floor and get nauseous. And then
right when she said that, right when Travis told me
what she was saying, a moth flew by and it
(25:42):
was like a big one. It's like this big and
it looked like you took like craft scissors, like kids
scissors with zigzags, just cut it up and ripped it up.
And then the lady who lived there said, oh, look,
an evil spirit is coming to visit us. She like
kind of backed up to the wall. And I was like, Travis,
(26:02):
what does she mean in evil for? And he was like, oh, yeah,
that's a demon moth. And I just I didn't know
what to do. I was just standing there. But it
gets really heavy.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Sounds really heavy. Yeah, you could feel it. One time
we went to a house and there was a woman
that answered the door, and she she had this headband
that she had made out of vines and all these
leaves in the front of her forehead, and she had
her eyes closed because she was obviously having some kind
(26:33):
of migraine. But there was like all the spiritist things
above her door, and the eyeball like you said, and
like the little tiny idols in her house. And it
was dark and.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Dirty and their dogs are mean.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, there's an interesting connection with Christianity and cleanliness and
nice dogs.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah. The dogs would try to attack me a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
And it's really scary you find a spirituist house. It's dark,
smells bad, the dogs are mean, the cats are malnourished,
and the chickens are like featherless. There is when you
when you have a demonic spirit around you, or if
you're just outside of Christ at all, in those places.
(27:15):
It's more evident in those mountains that there is an
uncleanliness and a darkness that follows you. So this woman
answered the door and she had this We were like
trying to give her tilan a and she was like, no, no, no, no,
these spirits will hurt me, don't hurt me. She couldn't
even open her eyes. So here we stood at the
(27:36):
door offering the love of Jesus. Which is interesting. I'm
going to be preaching John five the Pool of Bethesda,
and it's kind of like this moment in the at
the Pool of Bethesda when Jesus says, do you want
to be healed or do you want to be made well?
And it's amazing how many people go no, and they
(27:58):
shut the door back into their darkness. Saw that time
and again.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It's really sad too, because you're there for a while
and it's just no. Yeah, And it's really sad that
they believe that they'll get hurt.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah. Yeah. The lie from the enemy there is that
if you hear the Gospel, if you take a Bible,
if you hear the good News, the demons will hurt you.
They literally think that, and not only them, but they'll
hurt their family.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah. So they say no, especially their family.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah. So sad.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So I want to talk about the end of the trip.
I think that's a big part of the story. How
he got home. Oh that story. If you're trying to
get a gift for someone that you think has everything,
how about a special video message from me. It's easy
(28:59):
to do. Go to cameo slash granger Smith and you
put in the prompt what you want me to say.
I get that message on my phone. I'll say happy birthday,
happy anniversary, whatever personalized message you want me to say
to whoever you want me to say it to. I
send it to you and you give it to them.
It's pretty cool. Go to cameo dot com slash granger Smith.
(29:22):
It's worth that we need to tell these kind of
stories because it's we need to tell people. We must
tell these kind of stories so that they're not forgotten
and that they're spread. What a better way than a
podcast to do that. So we had prayed so much
on this trip to get the plane. Right before we left.
(29:45):
We were flying from South Carolina because that's where the
plane was donated from the the charter plane. The day
before we left, there was a huge problem. The pilot's
dad died. He went a while. We had trouble the day.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Before we left to get to the country.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yes, so that when that happened and we were able
to get two new pilots. But when that happened, that
messed up our the the entry to the country from
their government. They're like, wait, you changed pilots. No, we
don't approve anymore. So all the time it took us
three months to approve this, the arrival of this private plane,
(30:30):
they canceled it and so we just I remember I
told Travis, I was like, should we look into commercial flights?
And he said, brother, I think that would be unfaithful.
I think that would be doubting God's goodness. I was like, Uh,
you're right. He's like, well, we're going to continue to pray.
(30:52):
We're going to believe that God's going to do what
he said he's going to do or he's not going
to do it, but but either way, he faithful and
we're going to trust him. And I was like, yeah,
that's probably a lesson I needed. And so we went
to bed that night hoping to fly the next day.
We were all there and we woke up the next
(31:14):
day and the country, the government approved it. They had
approved it, so we flew in and then when we landed,
you know, then we were praying for the government to
accept all of our medicines, and they did. And we
kept praying through how the medicines would get to the people,
and that the gospel would go out, that we would
be faithful in the message, that we would be safe,
that the plane would get to come back, because maybe
(31:36):
the plane wasn't going to get to come back, like
maybe they wouldn't approve it to come back and we
would just be stuck there or something. But it did
come back. The Lord delivered, delivered, delivered everything. He answered
every prayer and far beyond what we even asked. And
by that I mean like when the plane came back,
they were able to bring way more medicine, you know,
(31:56):
so way more than we could ever hope for. The
Lord did and we got back and we landed safely
back in South Carolina. Just a beautiful trip. We went
to the airport. We got incredible pizza and wings and
a cold coke zero with ice, you knows, like all
the things we got ice cream. We were just loving
(32:20):
every bite of fresh food and ice cream and a
drink with ice in it, just like, oh, it's so
amazing to feel these the things that can become easily
normal to us a living in the US when you
take it away for eight days and get it again,
(32:41):
it's just it's a novelty. And one of the guys
that was with us on the trip, he was eating
at the table with us in South Carolina, he said,
you know what, in some ways, I think of heaven
as a place where novelty is never lost, meaning everything
is novel all the time, like every food, every sight,
every smell, every sound, loving someone, it's always fresh and amazing.
(33:09):
Being in the presence of the Lord is always novel
and never gets old. I was like, oh, that's a
good way to look at it. As I was eating
this pepperoni pizza that was amazing to my taste buds.
So we were thanking the Lord got we got on
the plane. They went back to where they came from
in America, their church, and we got on our plane
to go back to home for us, and that was
(33:29):
a flight to Atlanta that was going to get us
back to Austin. We landed in Atlanta and we're walking
to our gate and this massive storm comes out of
nowhere and rocks the Atlanta airport.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
It looked like the window when you looked at the windows,
it looked like just waterfalls. It looked like it was
just flooding.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I took a video of it, Yeah, to remember, because
I've never I've traveled for decades, I have seen airport
after airport. There was a time in my life when
I went to Atlanta that airport twice a week. Did
you know that when the music? Because I was flying
Delta and most cities have to hit that airport, So
I was going there on the way to tour and
back home twice a week. Either they are salt Lake.
(34:12):
I had never seen a storm like that. It came
out of nowhere. It wasn't even on the radar, and
it hit Atlanta so hard that like you couldn't even
see out the window. Like you said, the water was
gushing down, and then the lightning started and hal shaking
the whole place, and then the hail on all the airplanes.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
And you know what I heard. I heard that The
reason that you're probably going to say in a minute
that that happened was because the what's it.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Called the tower where like the control tower.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
The control tower got struck by lightning.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
That's what I heard too. Yeah, yeah, So so they had.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
To evacuate everything.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
So all of a sudden, this beautiful trip suddenly has
this chaos at the end, and I'm like, well, lord,
what are you doing. Here's the thing. The next day,
this was on a Friday Saturday in College Station, Texas,
was my grandmother's funeral and I was officiating. I had
(35:12):
actually written the message to preach at the funeral in
those mountains.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Technically it was already that day because it was like
three am.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Well we'll get there, yeah. But I was like, we
would have arrived in plenty of time if we'd got
if that flight had flown on time, it would have
get us to Austin, gotten us to Austin Friday night.
So suddenly things started changing and the flight got delayed,
and they came on the announcements and they said the
(35:43):
planes all got hit by hail. So magnets crews have
to go to each plane and approve that plane. One
crew to approve each plane to fly. The whole airport
is shut down. Every flight. It was absolute chaos. So finally,
after four or five hours, the maintenance crew gets to
(36:05):
our plane. We're supposed to leave it like seven. Now
it's like eleven.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
No, Now it's like two.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
No, like eleven. The first time you keep pushing it back.
The first time is eleven and they came on and
they said canceled. They found something damaged from the hail.
Our flight to Austin was canceled after pushed back five hours.
So then it got rescheduled for us to go to
Indianapolis and then Austin. And the flight to Indianapolis was
(36:33):
at like two thirty in the morning. We changed gates,
get the airport is it's like midnight by now. The
airport is packed, like I've never seen a midnight airport
because no one's going anywhere everywhere. So the people start
sleeping and I'm like, babe, we need to get you
on the ground to sleep, and you're like, I'm not sleeping.
(36:55):
I was like, no, trust me, you have to sleep,
like this might be one of these nights we don't
get into a bed and like I was trying to
get you talked into a neck pillow. They're like, no,
I think I'm fine. I was like, you don't know
what fine is. Like we've been hiking in the mountains
for eight days. I need to get you sleeping in
this airport. So we get to the gate and it's
(37:18):
and all the planes are being held around the whole country,
maybe the world. I guess to not come to Atlanta
until this tower that we learned got struck by lightning
gets back up and running. So that flight to Indianapolis
delayed two forty five, two fifty three am, and we're
(37:38):
waiting by the time three am comes around, canceled in
d Indianapolis, all flights all outgoing flights in the Atlanta
airport canceled. They couldn't get the tower back up and running.
Everyone people are fighting, screaming at the police, screaming at
(37:58):
each other, cursing at God.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Actually best fighting this fighting.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Or sleeping on the ground, that's what's going on.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Running around trying to find something to do like we were.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
So I'm thinking, Lord, what's happening? And it's the first
time I started thinking, was I not faithful on this trip?
Did I not did what I all? The evangelism in
the mountains? All that was that not pleasing in your sight?
(38:35):
Was I in some way unfaithful to deserve this? These
are things I think, These aren't realities. That's not what
the Bible says, but that's what my mind says. Are
you unhappy with me? God? We prayed for a plane
to go to this country that hadn't seen a plane
in fifty years, and we got it. Can I not
(38:59):
have the plane from Atlanta to Austin? Or were those
other people on our trip, the other people that are
now home by now, were they more faithful? Did they
deserve it more than me? I guess they did. I'm
thinking all these thoughts, and I'm like, Okay, I got
to get you. We got to get outside because we
(39:23):
got to get an uber and get to a hotel.
And as I'm going, I'm thinking as we go out there,
I'm thinking, we got to get an uber far from
here because all the hotels right around this airport are
going to be all booked because of all these people
dumping out into the city. So we go out to
the street and it's packed at three thirty in the morning, packed,
(39:46):
And I'm like, we might as well just sit here
on the street. You and I. We've been sitting in
the mountains of this Latin American country with all the
fleas and ticks. We could sit in the street of
Atlanta with everyone else. I remember, I was like, just
lean your back on my back. We'll lean into each
other and try to close your eyes. I'm waiting for
an uber and it's just spinning. You can't find.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Any That was our last resort, just to sleep on
the ground outside, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Sleep on the ground, no bags. In fact, if we
would have had our bags, we actually would have had
a tent and a sleeping bag and a pillow. We
didn't even have our bags. We just had what was
on We just had what was onnest. Yeah. So so
I'm trying to get an uber and I want that
uber to get us far from the city, and then
I want to have a plan where we could get
(40:33):
out back to Austin early that next morning. But then
I started realizing, I don't think this is that flight
to Austin's going to happen. Because Delta kept saying not available, now,
not available, because their app was crashed, their website was crashed,
all the planes stuck, no one could get anyone on
(40:57):
the phone. The line to talk to customer service was people,
eight hundred people. There's no way. So I'm starting I'm
starting to think I don't think we're going to I
don't think we can get out of Atlanta. And I
started worrying, like the funeral Lord, would you have me
miss my own grandmother's funeral. Finally, an uber attaches after
(41:20):
what thirty minutes. Maybe we get in this uber. It's
this guy from like Africa or something. I think he's
from like North Africa. Very rude, and I had I
had a hotel address that was in Marietta, Georgia, which
is about forty minutes north of the airport.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
But he didn't check it first. You didn't know if
there was any rooms.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
I got see, I just wanted to get Let me
get in the car, let's start driving north. Let's get
away from the city. Let's get a hotel, and then
I could regroup. I could figure out. I could stay
up all night and figure out this flight out of Atlanta.
There was like an eight am flight. So we get
in the car driving to Marietta and I called the hotel.
(42:02):
They say, we're sorry, we're all booked. So I pull
up maps. I get one right next to it, click
on it. Sorry, we're all.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Booked in Atlanta anymore.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
We'll get on another one booked, booked, booked. I started
calling everybody booked, and then on my Delta app flight canceled.
I'm like, oh lord, oh lord, what would I do
I have my daughter. I don't know what to do.
I like, we're in a real situation. There's no place
to sleep. The only place really to sleep would be
(42:36):
the floor of the airport. But then Delta rebooked me,
do you know, and they rebooked me Sunday night. This
was Friday. Oh yeah, they booked me to Austin's Sunday night.
I was like, like, I'm not I don't even know.
It's rare in my life. Have I been in a
situation where I didn't know what to do and I
(42:59):
didn't even have options. By now, it's three forty five,
almost four in the morning, and the driver says he
hears me calling hotels. He says, you do not have
room booked. I was like, no, sir, but I'm I'm
going to get one as we drive north. No problem,
I'm going to find someone that has room. Don't worry,
(43:21):
I'll get this figured out. Just keep driving, and he goes,
I can not keep driving if you do not have booked.
I was like, I'm going to get one, and plus
I'll give you a tip. No problem, I'll I'll I'll
pay you extra. I just I need to get my daughter.
We need to get into a room, and he exits
the highway and he goes, I must drop you off.
I must get back to with the money. This is
(43:42):
my living. I must make money at the airport. He
goes to this random gas station and stops at the
front of the gas station in Atlanta, nothing around there,
and says, I said, you're really going to drop us
off here? You're you're going to do this, And he goes,
I have no choice, and I said, you gotta do
(44:04):
what you gotta do. We get out. We go into
this gas station four o'clock in the morning. There's like
three men in there, playing those casino games, vaping, drinking.
I'm like, oh lord, what is happening. We go up.
Remember we went up to the ice cream refrigerator and
(44:26):
you sat on that and I got out my phone.
Do you have any rooms available for tonight?
Speaker 2 (44:31):
No?
Speaker 1 (44:31):
I'm so sorry. Do you have any rooms available for tonight?
So sorry, we're all out? Hello, do you have any
rooms available? Sorry? With no rooms, how many do you
think are called?
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Like? Thirty five? Thirty five in the gas station, not
even in the car, in the.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Car, baby, seventy yeah, I called it. Probably every hotel
in Atlanta that I saw in my map. The owner
of the gas station walks up and goes, she could
not sit on this in my break the refrigerator. We
couldn't even sit down. We couldn't even sit in this
gas station in the middle of Atlanta. I couldn't it,
(45:07):
couldn't even sit down. And my heart was crushed. My
heart was broken. I just said, Lord, what have I done?
What have you? You have totally abandoned me. And I
remember I read the McShane plan. I thought, what's today's reading?
You know that because it was already morning. What's today's reading?
(45:29):
Guess what it was? PS. I'm twenty two. My god,
my god, why have you forsaken me? I was like,
of course, of course that's my reading. That's my answer
from the Lord, and I was I was so broken,
and I got on my phone. I stopped calling hotels,
(45:50):
and I said, how far is Nashville? We looked it up.
It was four hours, four hours, and I said, I'm
gonna try to get it uber to Nashville because I
had it on my heart, just because it was familiar.
I've lived there before. At least I'm in a city
that I know. I don't know this city. I don't
(46:11):
know Chattanooga or Jacksonville, Florida, or Huntsville, Alabama, or any
town in the radius, or Charlotte, North Carolina. These are
all like four hour radius towns. I'm like, I'll go
to Nashville. I caught dials an uber and put Nashville
International Airport on the Uber and he accepts it this
(46:33):
uber right away. I'm like, Okay, that's interesting. Somebody said yes,
And I.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
Remember you looking at me. You were like we were
standing outside waiting and he was like three minutes, two minutes,
this guy's going to cancel, Like does he not know
what he's doing? One minute? Does he not know what
he's doing? And we were just waiting. We were ready
to go back inside, ready for him to cancel.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
And then he pulled up and I stopped you and
know what I do? You prayed, let's pray. What did
I say? I don't even remember? Uh?
Speaker 2 (47:03):
You said, wait? I remember he said, Lord, deliver us,
keep us safe. He said he said something like Lord,
deliver us and keep us safe and deliver us something
with this uber driver and yeah, and he said amen,
(47:24):
because he parked, So we think I think.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
That's what you said, So we opened the door and
this guy's blaring Christian music Brendan.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Lake and it's not even just a Brendon Lake song,
it's graves in the gardens.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah, my god, this is interesting. And he said, I
wasn't expecting you here. I thought you'd be in this neighborhood,
like I wouldn't expect to pick anyone up at this hour.
At the gas station, I'm like, did you I said,
did you see the destination? And he goes, yeah, is
that right? Nashville, Tennessee. It's like, yeah, what do you think?
(48:02):
And he goes, I've never even been to Nashville. I
was like, could you get us there? And he goes,
I mean, I don't know. It's a long way. He goes,
could you do five hundred bucks? No, he said four,
(48:24):
And he goes, could you do five? And I was like, yes, sir.
At this point, I am desperate, like probably would have
said yes to a thousand. Like what else am? I spoke?
I have nothing else. It's the only open door I have.
I said, yes, sir, I can. And then he said,
(48:45):
do you mind if I played Christian music? He said,
do you mind if I play Christian music? I'm trying
to be more open with my faith. And I was like, no,
I'm a pastor. I don't mind. And I said, actually,
we've been praying for this ride, that you that the
(49:08):
Lord will deliver us through this and he.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Said he said, that's strange, and I thought he was
going to leave it at that. I was like, oh,
and he said I did too. I was asking the
Lord to deliver deliver me when I pick up these people.
And then he said and then you said, wow, that's crazy.
And then he said the Lord does provide, and then
(49:32):
you went.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
Yeah, yeah, something about he just said that. I started crying, yeah,
which is rare, like I never do that, but he
said yeah, he said the Lord does provide.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
And then I don't remember anything, just because I fell asleep.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Yeah, I bought a Then we stopped and we got
gas for his car, and I grabbed a I don't
remember that. We stopped at another gas station, got gas,
and I grabbed a blanket from the truck stop and
covered you with that plane.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
And I had a neck pillow too that we got
the airport.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, so you crashed out and I couldn't really sleep.
But then the sun started coming up and I was like, oh,
I looked at all the flights out of Nashville and
there was none. There was There was one at six
pm Saturday, so I was like, okay, I'll get that.
(50:33):
It was on Southwest. I booked that flight, canceled everything
from Delta. It's like, we're gonna miss a funeral. But
I obviously the Lord does different plans. So I waited
for the sun to come up. And when it was,
when we were like thirty minutes from the Nashville airport,
I was like, okay, man, what's your story? And he goes,
(50:55):
what do you mean my story? And I was like, well,
I mean I'm in your car for a reason. You
have no idea where we've been or where we've come from.
But somehow I'm with you. So why am I with you?
And he goes, well, you know, I've got a family
and I'm trying to make ends meet. And I was like,
but spiritually, how are you? He's like, actually not good.
(51:21):
We had played Christian music the whole drive four hours.
He said, not good. I've been I feel really far
from the Lord. And that's why I prayed before you
got in, because I just I feel lost, feel I
feel like I have you know, I'm a Christian, but
I don't feel like I have hope. And my wife
seems to have a better plan than I do. I
thought that I would be an evangelist maybe one day,
(51:44):
but I just feel so far. And I was like,
how's your how's your Bible reading? And he goes, yeah,
that's the thing I don't. I don't read the Bible.
He was in fact, I don't read anything. I don't read.
I don't have time to read. And I said, did
you know you could listen? And you're in a car
like that if you make your living in this car,
(52:04):
did you know you could listen? Like I hadn't thought
about that, Like what app would do that? And I like, well,
there's a bunch. I said, there's one called Dwell dwe
and I looked up and he was already typing it
in the app store. It's like okay, and then what
do I do? So we could start with Matthew one,
have you ever done that? And he's like, no, I
(52:25):
never done it. So I told him the gospel and
gave him the rest of the story, and all the
way up until the airport, I was like, hey, here's
my number. Let me be accountable for you. Obviously I
felt I didn't say I don't think I said it,
but I felt like the Lord led me to this car,
which we still talk by the way, me and him,
but and he's in a heap of trouble, big time spiritually.
(52:52):
I've learned he's in a lot of trouble spiritually. So
I've been pouring in the best I can try to
faithful in that. But you know, we hit the airport
and we went to the desk and I said, could
we be on stand by for your eleven forty five?
And she was super sweet, she was like yeah, yeah, yeah,
which still we'd still miss the funeral. But I just thought, well,
(53:15):
the Lord had other plans. He wanted me in that uber. Yeah.
I didn't sleep, but at least, at least I know
the Lord is faithful and I'm not. He's good and
I'm wicked, but but he somehow has delivered me here.
And so we went. We went into the airport Hilton.
It's connected to the airport, which is always booked, and
(53:36):
we went up to the front desk and I said,
do you have a room And she goes for when
right right now? And she was yes, which will we do?
I was like, that's the first yes I've gotten in
a while. That was the first hotel yes I've gotten
at about seventy. So we went up to the room
and I said, maybe take a bath, relax. We've got
(53:58):
several hours. We can go check in on this eleven
forty five flight if it's if, we can be on standby.
If not, we'll come back here till the six pm flight.
But just relax, try to get some sleep. And then
I knew what I had to do. Call my mom,
your grandma, And I called her and she answered and
I was like, hey, She goes hi. I said I
(54:20):
have some bad news and she goes what And I said,
We're not.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
Going to make it, said we didn't make it.
Speaker 1 (54:27):
We didn't make it, and she said and then she
was like it's okay, and I'll start crying again. I
was like, we did everything we could, literally everything. We're
not going to make it, she said. And she was
following us on Life three sixty, so she knew where
we were at that point because I'd reactivated my location
(54:49):
services in Atlanta. She knew. She was like, it's okay,
it's okay. We'll find someone else. I was like, I wrote,
but I wrote the message. So Tyler or Parker, either
one of those guys is perfectly equipped to lead this ceremony,
to lead the funeral. I've written the whole message. I
could literally text you right now, which I did, and
(55:10):
have Parker, Tyler, you pick one of those guys. All
they have to do is read what I wrote, and
it will guide you through the whole funeral.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
And then all of us are crying, like she's saying
it's okay, it's okay, but she's like bowling her eyes out.
Speaker 1 (55:22):
Yeah, and ty She's on speakerphone. Tyler's in the background,
and he goes, where is he? She said? He said?
She said. He said he's in Nashville. And he goes,
I'm about to text everyone I know in next Nashville
for a flight.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Be praying, he said, for a private jet.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
Yeah, Tyler. So we start praying. We're like, okay, whatever,
you know, start praying. I was like, I'm gonna go
get some coffee. You relax, you get in the bath.
And then Tyler goes, hey, somebody replied, I won't say who,
(56:02):
I'll protect them. Somebody replied, who you used to work with?
And they said they might be able to get you home.
I was like, well that's cool. Where Like he said,
can you be ready at eleven at the airport. I
was like yeah, it was like ten. Yeah, I went
and got you. I was like, let's go get a
(56:23):
quick breakfast. Tyler just said be ready if possible, and
then sure enough, at like ten thirty, he was like, hey,
it's confirmed they have but there's a jet coming. I
was like okay. I still didn't really know, like how
this is going to work, Like, okay, obviously we don't
need bags, we don't nothing, we have nothing. Just okay,
(56:43):
And he said text amber in case you make it
clothes to bring. And we got to the little private
airport and threw a shuttle and the guy said, hey,
two passengers for a college station. I was like really.
He was like yeah, all yours. We'll have you on
(57:07):
the ground in two hours, which would be about one
fifteen the funerals. At two. I was like okay, and
we go and here it comes at taxis at a
little bitty, tiny little jet. Just hold it. He just
has four seats in it. We get in and they're
like already going to eastwood Field College station. Texas. There's
(57:31):
your seatbelts, there's your your little tables. If you any drinks,
the run over here you guys ready, like yes, sir,
all right, take off We land just like they said
in College Station, Texas. At one fifteen, Mom's there with
MAV and Lincoln with a suit for me, address for you.
(57:52):
We go to the little airbnb they had, we throw
it on. We get to the funeral home at one
forty five and I walk in there with one minute
to spare with my Bible and start Minnie's funeral. What
in the world It.
Speaker 2 (58:10):
Was probably the crazy state of my whole life.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
I mean, what in the world. That's the craziest thing ever.
And so many people are praying, the whole other team,
the whole people in our country that we went to,
the Latin American country, and the people we traveled with
there like praying. And one thing Travis said is you know,
I was on the phone with them he said something
impactful because he said he was praying and he said, Lord,
(58:39):
it feels like what you're doing right now is bad.
That's what it feels like to us. This feels bad.
But we know you are good. We know you're good.
So We'll trust in your goodness. I was like, Man,
I said, pretty good prayer. It's so just normal and
(59:00):
like just so basic, but it's a good prayer. What
it feels like, God, is that you're doing something bad,
but your word says you were good. So I'm gonna
trust your word that what you are doing is actually good.
And it wasn't. But ten minutes later I called Travis
and said, you'll never believe what our good God is doing.
(59:24):
A little bit of airplane, it's coming to pick some now.
If one hotel out of the seventy had said yes,
they had a room, we wouldn't have made it. Seventy
if in that flight, if any of the other flights
would have worked, we wouldn't have made it. If that
uber driver wouldn't have picked up, we wouldn't have made it.
If I hadn't had the feeling, the gut feeling to
go to Nashville, we wouldn't have made it. If we
(59:46):
had gone to Huntsville or Chattanooga, or Knoxville or Charlotte,
that's not where the Lord had the plane ready for us.
But he delivered us, and exactly the way he took us,
through the darkest, most depressing gas station with my thirteen
year old daughter in the middle of Atlanta, in the
middle of the night, on no sleep, to make me
(01:00:09):
question everything that I did. And the truth is, nothing
that I did matters because what Christ did is what matters.
And he's the one that makes me good, not anything
that I do. But he brought me through all of that.
For all the reasons, I have no idea one of them.
I know. One reason is to tell it right here,
(01:00:31):
to tell other people, to remind them in their season
of darkness when it feels like there is no other
way that even when it feels like, Lord, you're doing
something bad, we know you are good. So there's that reminder. Crazy.
(01:00:53):
I'm glad you were there to witness it, because if
you weren't there, it would make the story seem impossible. Yeah,
but you saw everything I just said.
Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
If it wasn't sleeping. Yeah, we're trying to.
Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Anything else. We'll end it here. Yeah, until the next
adventure we get to say again.
Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Yeah, love you, love you.
Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Thank you so much for hanging out with me on
this episode of the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate you being here.
If you're listening right now, go ahead and rate today's podcast.
It helps more folks find the show, and if you're
tuning in on the iHeartRadio app, you could actually set
this podcast as one of your presets, which is cool
that way. I'm just one tap away. If you're watching
on YouTube, don't forget to hit like and subscribe so
you don't miss any new episodes. And if you got
(01:01:42):
a question you want answered right here on the show,
just email me podcast at grangersmith dot com. I'd love
to hear from you. Thanks again for being here. We'll
see you next time. Yee
Host
Granger Smith
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