Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. We are coming live
from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooleen Studios. Any
issues you have with your HVAC system go to Donovan
Jorgensen dot com. Trust me, they've been in my house
a lot, family listeners. This is a company that's very
(00:20):
happy to sponsor Faith in the Zone alongside Brookside Baptist Church,
flying solo this week Pastor Ken Keltner from Brookside Baptist Church.
Hopefully we'll be back in next week or the following
week and certainly miss having him in studio. So as
we get to this show, I want to thank Joe Stanley.
Last week we talked about Warpath Ministries and introduced you
(00:44):
to the job that they're doing and the work they're
doing and they're feeling led to do. And I thank
him a ton because he was very helpful and with
the introduction to our guests for this week, and wanted
to follow up last week's show with this week's show
because I can tell you Brandon Duckworth is doing some
work with war Path Ministries and wanted to introduce you
(01:08):
to our guest for the entire hour today. And trust me,
when I talk about guys that have been guests on
the show, the worst thing they've ever done is steal
a candy bar. And then we had guys like Pastor
Darryl Strawberry and myself that we're doing things we shouldn't
be doing. Brandon Duckworth is in my camp because I
as you listen to his story and where the Lord
(01:32):
has taken him from, I can tell you, and I've
said this a lot, I thought that I needed to
clean myself up and then present myself to the Lord
before he would accept me in his family. And what
I found out in my personal journey was that he
met me in a very dark place in my life.
And I think Brandon might say amen to that. Our
(01:53):
special guest. He's a Tenant, Tennessee guy. He is Brandon Duckworth, Sir,
How you doing today?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I'm doing good? Mind? Have you been doing this morning? Man?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I'm doing good. It's really cold here in the state
of Wisconsin. Just so you know, hey, growing up in Tennessee,
are you like a Valls fan?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Are you?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Are you more of a fan of Vanderbilt? Who? Who's
your Who's your college team that you follow.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I'll be honest with you. Down here in East Tennessee
we bleed orange. I'm a volunteer through and through. I
actually have a dollar that'll be starting the University of
Tennessee at Knox till next year. So we bleed orange
around here.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Go about well, I can tell you a guy I
used to work with who went to school there. He
used to say to me, look, there is nothing. I
don't care who it is. There's nothing like a Saturday
night home game for Tennessee. And I go, come on, man,
you've been to Badger games. You know there's that tailgating.
He said. I'm telling you, Mike, if you want to
(02:55):
know what true college football is, go to a Valls
game on a Saturday nightday afternoons are great, but Charitay
Knights are the place to be. And I think you'd
probably agree with him on that.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yes, sir, it's just the energy of it down here
is very different. We really do. We support our students,
We get behind them. We don't feel like it's just
them out there playing like it's us as well. So
we're really thankful for our team and thankful to be
of alved Hey do.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
You have a an NFL team you follow?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Uh? When it comes to the NFL, I'm definitely more
of a collegiate fan myself, but I stick with Tennessee
all the way. I'd love to see the Titans go.
I'd love to see them get their Super Bowl ring.
They come so close several times, and I'm die hard
Tennessee brother.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Man, that man, been a rough year for you, been
a rough here. Hey, you know there's still just so
there's a little bit of room on the packer bandwagon
if you want to jump out. I got some and
gold I could send your way. A cheese had something
like that. You let me know if you want to
join the team that I followed, because there's just a
little bit of space left on that bandwagon. So come
(04:10):
on where we would we would welcome you with open arms.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I have definitely been accused of being cheesy a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, I can tell you when you weren't. I watched
a couple of times parts here and there. But about
a month ago you spoke at Bethel Baptist Church in
Moretound of Tennessee, and I got to tell you, man,
your your testimony. We're gonna get to it. Second segment
a little shorter version of what I watched on YouTube.
(04:43):
But I can tell you, brother man, you did good
up there. Yeah, you did good. You looked pretty comfortable
behind the pulpit.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I'll tell you all the credit goes to God. Really, Mike,
left of my own will mound de buses. I will
mess up one hundred percent of the time without the
Lord's guidance. I seem to be an idiot. My decision
making skills can be flawed at best. If I lay
down his wheel and try to pick mine back up.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, that hey for you and I Early on in
our life, that didn't work out so well, did it.
You know, I'm one hundred percent Irish, rented and I'm stubborn,
and I kept saying no, no, I got this. And
I grew up in a Catholic school and I'm a
grandfather of six, so that was a really long time ago.
But they would hand the Bible to us as kids
(05:33):
and say, don't worry about what's in it. We'll tell
you what's in it, but this is how you carry it.
And I use this line a lot that I got
from a guy on faith in his own and he said,
I knew Jesus Christ the same way I knew Abraham Lincoln, right.
I knew all the stories. I just had no personal
relationship with him. And what a difference when you when
(05:53):
you finally fall to your knees and say, look, I'm
going to hand it over. And we'll get to that
part of your life in the second segment. Hey, growing
up in Tennessee, you played some high school football, correct.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yes, sir, played for more Sound west Side Trojans Man.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Were you guys? What position did you play?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I played defensive end and tied ends.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, okay, good size kid. Yeah you didn't mind hitting
people back then?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Huh no, sir, I thought that was the best part
of the game.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Man, I love that. I gotta love that. Were you
guys pretty good?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We've actually had some really good players that left and
actually went to Legion and then went on to be
pro out of the exact same school. We had little
Man Stewart. He actually played, he was a ut ball,
done very well for them, and then went on to
play some professional ball as well. They have a really
good program here locally, which I think is hugely important
(06:57):
for the kids to get involved. You know, when I
stop getting involved around my tenth grade year is when
a lot of my problems started arising in my life.
So it's a it's a very important program. I feel.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, I do too, you know, Brandon, and you and
I have had a number of conversations this week and
and and last week. I coached basketball here in this
area for thirty six years. And and I tell people,
and I tell parents, and I tell kids all the
time that I just feel like youth sports and high
school sports are so important, especially if the kid has
(07:35):
a true love for that sport and that team and
that program, because you can utilize that with a really
big stick to say, look, you got to stay in school,
you got to get your homework done. You can't be
messing up here and you can't be messing up there
if you want to continue to be part of this program,
and that that that carrot and stick really work. When
(07:55):
when it's kids that love the.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Sport relotely, it motivates them to give them a reason
to want to do good, and so they're allowed and
they meet the criteria to play the sports. It also,
you know, kids that come from you know, under privileged tones,
or maybe like myself, didn't have a father in the
home like it's I think it's so important that the
(08:19):
coaches know that, hey, you may be the only father
figure that this kid has in his life right now.
So the roles they play are a lot more crucial
than it's played out to be sometimes, if that makes sense, I.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Agree with that a lot our special guests for the
entire hours branded at Duckworth Warpath Ministries. He's evolved with
those guys. And when you get a chance, and I
asked you this last week, I'm getting my In fact,
I'm getting a hoodie being delivered. I just got an email.
It's being delivered today from Warpath Ministries and I thank
them for that. Go to Warpathmistries dot org. Warpathministries dot org.
(08:58):
Hey branded, We've got about to I don't know five
six minutes left in segment one? How did you get
involved with Warpath? And again, I want to thank Joe
Stanley for the introduction to Brandon Duckworth. How did you
get involved with Warpath Ministries.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I got involved met Joe for the first time. Our
paths actually crossed through the app that many of you
guys may know. It's TikTok our pass crossed on there
and we kind of connected on there. Joe was coming
back from out west where he had been for a
few years and trying to get back to his home
state and get planning and get established there. We connected
(09:38):
up there, and then what God did with that was
just amazing, It really was. We got connected up. We
learned about each other first, but Joe had a fire
inside and he wanted to do something good for the
Lord and wanted to you know, we're all in spiritual warfare.
Our verse statement verse for the ministry is a Phesi
(10:02):
in six twelve, and it just you know, we're constantly
in spiritual warfare, and Joe really had a fire inside him.
We also have Jeff on with us, and they collaborated
together to get Moore path clicked off. And if we
struggled at first to find out exactly the path we
(10:24):
wanted to take, but when we got still and quiet
and got away in that prayer closet and really started
talking to God about it, we knew that our mission
was greater than just tackling addiction or you know, domestic
violence or substance abuse disorder that you know, we wanted
(10:45):
to introduce them to a meaningful relationship with Christ. We everybody,
like you said at the beginning, Mike, I grew up
in church as well. We all I knew who Jesus was,
like you said, in the same form as I knew
Abraham Lincoln was. And to a certain extent, all I
(11:06):
was really doing was playing the part I would do,
go to the church every Sunday and singing the choir.
And but what I didn't do was, you know, getting
the word try to develop like I'm not talking to
a myth. It's not a lifestyle, it's not a fath
Like I serve a risen savior, and a relationship with
(11:30):
him is what has elevated my life to the next level.
What seems so complicated to me at first, you know,
trying to develop a relationship with somebody that I can't
necessarily see turned out to be so easy. It really
is just as easy as you know, accepting his forgiveness
(11:54):
and accepting the free gift of salvation. And it's not
I don't get my self to a place of being
only enough to start talking to God, like I'll never
get there. My job is faith and repentance. And then
as I have my faith and repentance grow. The obedience
(12:17):
part of salvation is a product of my faith and repentance,
you know. And it's the same way with Joe and Jail.
We really just wanted to help people and lead them
toward a meaningful encounter with Jesus.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Amen. When we talk about war Path Ministries, and we'll
continue to talk about it, I cannot recommend this enough.
If you go on their website, their purpose statement, and
what I like about this is they're not running from this.
If you want to be involved, you want to help
them continue this ministry, there's a donate tab and I
(12:55):
recommend that you do that. Go to the shop and
do what I did, which was order one of these hoodies.
And when you read their purpose statement, and it starts
with this, Warpath Ministries exist to glorify God by sharing
the gospel, making disciples, and serving our community with love
and compassion. That one line tells you exactly what these
(13:17):
men are trying to accomplish. And I emphasize the word
men because I look, I've said this for a long time.
Our local churches do a great job in youth groups
and in women's groups, and they meet a lot and
then on Father's Day, they get up behind the pulpit
and they point to us and say, hey, you need
to be a better father, you need to get more
(13:37):
involved in the church, and we'll see you next year.
Good luck with that. Well that what these guys are
doing is saying, hey, look through biblical teaching, worship and outreach,
we seek to we seek to equip believers for storehope
and demonstrate the transformative power of Christ in everyday life.
That's what the purpose is of Warpath Ministries. And if
(14:00):
you're wondering why Brandon Duckworth got involved after talking to
Joe Stanley, look when we get to his testimony, you'll
understand the idea of trauma recovery. And that's what these
guys are doing. And it might be just one guy
at a time, one person at a time, which is
so important. And I'm trying to figure out how to
wait to get these guys to get into the state
(14:21):
of Wisconsin because they're doing some things in some different
states in North Carolina and Florida and Tennessee. I want
them in the Midwest. Man, this is something that we
could really help them in our state because there's a
lot of guys like me. You know, twenty some years
ago there was out doing some things we shouldn't be doing. Guys,
(14:41):
we're going to get to a break. The other side
of the break. Our special guest, Brandon Duckworth again from Warpathministries.
Can go to Warpathministries dot Org. Brandy will share his
testimony with us on the other side. This is Faith
in the Zone on Fox Sports nineteen twenty and your
iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone
(15:01):
on Fox Sports nineteen twenty in your iHeart Radio app.
This is Mike McGivern again find Sola this week Pastor
Ken Keltner from Brookside Baptist Church. Hopefully we'll be back
in studio with me next week. We're coming from the
Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios, the largest employee
owned h FAC company in the state of Wisconsin. Our
(15:22):
special guest from Morristown, Tennessee. He is Brandon Duckworth. He
is part of Warpath Ministries again. Go to Warpathministries dot org. Brandon.
Before we get to your testimony, You guys do some
golf outings and I am I am so hooked on
that sport. Here the last year and a half that
(15:43):
I'm telling you I'm gonna join you guys at one
of the golf outings in twenty twenty six, whether it's
in Tennessee and Florida and North Carolina, do you play
in those?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I don't play in them. I have been practicing. I
got to an age now that absolutely I am more
interested in learning in golf. I've got a son that's
very into it. A very hard sport. You know, as
a younger guy, you sit and think of, you know, all,
it's not like football, there's no contact, but really you
(16:18):
talk about a difficult sport of golf. Getting that little
ball to that hole that maybe three four hundred yards
down the fairway there is very, very difficult, and it
absolutely takes some time and some training. And I'm excited
about getting to learn it. It's even funnier because I
(16:40):
get to let my son kind of teach me now,
so kind of the roles are reversed a little bit.
We're in the midst of putting one together here in Tennessee.
It's going to be around April. It's gonna get Patriot
Hills Golf Course in Dandridge, Tennessee, and It's just one
of the ways that we try to to fund the
(17:01):
ministry of you know, doing what we do. It absolutely
takes money about everything in this world does to get
people placed in these recovery homes. Or you know, a
wife in Pennsylvania that might be dealing with a domestic
violence situation with a couple of young kids, need a
(17:23):
place to go to and we bring them from you know,
Pennsylvania down to Tennessee and you know, just help them
get established the follow through in this stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Hey guys, when Brandon talks about that again, people that
listen to Faith in the Zone a lot of times
feel led because of some personal things that have happened
in their life or people that they know. You understand
the importance of war Path Ministries. If you go to
their website, there's a donate pigeon, whether it's ten dollars
or if it's fifty a month. I just ask you
(17:58):
to do the research. Look at what they're trying to accomplish.
Warpathministries dot org. If they have zoom meetings on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Friday, they've got trauma recovery meetings. There's a lot
of things that you can find out and get involved
with and if it's if it's simple as far as
being able to just help them continue this ministry again
(18:21):
Warpathministries dot Org. Brandon, the second segment is our favorite.
This is the segment that we get that by far
the most response on. And if you'd be so kind
to share your testimony, I would appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Absolutely. Mac. I'll tell you what I was a young
guy raised in church. I'd love to be able to
tell you, you know that I had these the worst,
most awful parents in the world. But you know that's
just not true. Now. I didn't have a father in
my life, and I think that plays an important role
later on in my life as I'm trying to struggle
(18:59):
with what a man looks like, how to become a man,
what it means to handle your responsibilities as a man,
and a father in the home. That is so imperative
when we get older. But you know, I had a great,
loving mother. Raised in church. Till I was thirteen. I
got out on my own. The world started knocking and
(19:23):
I opened the door. Mic I let the devil run
in in and everything that he was willing to send
my way. I was willing to try. I thought that
it's not funny by no means, But that age in
my life, like I really I believed I was just
destined to be this screw up, this you know, guy
(19:45):
on drugs, this convicted feeling like I just thought that
was going to be my I thought I was destined
to be that, when really that's not in God's play.
You know, that's not what God had laid out for
me to do. It's just what the devil whispered in
my ear. I spent a lot of time in and
out of jail and being incarcerated. By the time I
(20:08):
was eighteen, you know, it's time to go to big
boy jail. And the decisions that I made in my
life is what led me there. I'm not a person
that will, you know, I take accountability for my own actions.
So the decisions that I made led me there, and
I continued over the next twenty years of making the
(20:31):
same decisions. I see now that a lot of the
things I was going through them was actually God trying
to draw me home. But instead of you know, flourishing
in that and trying to find his purpose for me,
I just left the devil sitting there on my shoulder
and let him, let him continue to direct my life,
(20:56):
and like I said, it led me to incarceration on
several different times. I was thirty five years old before
I went a year of my adult life without being
incarcerated for some reason or another. If I did make
it the whole year without being incarcerated, it was because
I was in jail the whole year. I might not
(21:18):
have caught a new charge that year, but I was
just that's only because I was locked up the entire year,
and I got stuck in this victim state of mind
of Oh woe is me? Woe is mean? All these
things are happening to me. I would cry out to God, Mike,
and God, why are you letting this happen to me?
(21:41):
When really God didn't have nothing to do with it.
I was literally just facing the consequences of my actions.
Pardon me. I spent several years, like I said, doing
that and got out on parole. Had so many any
opportunities that God placed people in my life that if
(22:05):
I would have let them lead and follow me and
listened to direction at that point in time that they
were trying to help me in and trying to lead
me out of the lifestyle that I'd been living. I've
got My first wife passed away in two thousand and seven,
left behind two children, and I would love to tell
(22:27):
you that I was the father they needed and they
spent their life with me, but that's just not true.
They ended up being raised by their grandparents. They got
took from me because you know what, I was an
unfit father. Like I said, I got locked in that
victim state of mind for years. So the way I
(22:51):
spoke about it was so different before recovery because I
just wanted to try to make everybody feel sorry for me.
But the victim in my story is not me. The
victim in my life. The victims in my life have
been my four children, my wife now actually, who I've
(23:11):
been married to for fifteen years. They were the ones
that was left in the wake of destruction that I
was leading behind everywhere I went. September eleven, two weeks
prior to September the eleventh of twenty sixteen, God showed
(23:32):
up at my house two o'clock in the morning. To
be honest with you, I had went to the doctor
that day. I had a pocket full of everything I
needed to continue numbing myself and keeping my head in
the clouds for the next month. But God decided on
that night that he was going to reach through the
clouds and reach through all the walls that I had
(23:55):
put up around my heart and grab a hold of
my heart and introduced me to a level of conviction
that I have never failed in my life. It's amazing
to be sitting there at two o'clock in the morning
and literally why kids in bed, But I am sitting
there squalling my minds out, frying out to God, like
(24:16):
what do you want me to do? I'll do everything.
I'll do anything you need to get me out of
this state that I put myself in, this depression and
thoughts of self harm and suicide and these drugs. Like, Lord,
if you'll just show me the way He had let
me experience the amount of pain that I needed to
(24:39):
experience to finally be ready for that change. And it
was at that time that he used It was funny
because it's a one eight hundred addiction hotline that came
on TV, and that's what God used to speak to me.
It was like clear as day when it came on
(25:00):
TV that morning, and like I said, I'm sitting there
by myself. I call this number two thirty in the morning.
They took some insurance information and told me they would
call me back in a few minutes. She called me
back in a few minutes and she said, Brendon, your
insurance will take care of it. Do you have any
(25:20):
requests as far as where you'd like to go? And
I said, yes, ma'am, I would like to go to
an hallmail facility. And I don't want to know anybody
when I walk in the doors, so I don't want
to be anywhere local here. And she said, okay, we'll
call you back here in just a few minutes. And
a few minutes later she called me back and she
said I was Boca Raton, Florida. Phil. I was like, what,
(25:45):
that's quite away south from Tennessee. But like I said,
I was at a point in my life where I
was willing to try anything to quit feeling the pain
and the anguish that was my life at that time,
and so I agreed to it, said let's go. And
(26:06):
I actually had a job then. I'm an equipment operator
by trade, and I had to let my job know
that I was going to be gone, and I'd give
them a two week notice. And my wife got up
that morning to get the kids, to start getting the
kids ready for school. And by this point she had
become accustomed to me being up all night or being
(26:28):
spun out on mess and the pills and everything that
I was spun out on. And I looked at her
still sitting there crying, and I said, look, I'm getting
ready to go to rehab. I'm going to be gone
for sixty ninety days. And she got so upset with me. Mike,
because in my past, the way I dealt with a
(26:49):
lot of problems when they got like that is I
would run. And at this point in my life, there's
a for sale sign in my yard. They were going
to auction my house off on the Courthouse lawn May
the seventeenth of twenty seventeen, and so there's a poor
sale sign in the lawn. The foreclosure process has already started.
(27:11):
We're getting ready to lose the cars, that everything, My
kids are getting ready to be homeless, and my wife,
because of decisions that I have made, it was really
important to me as a younger guy that I always
wanted to keep my kids have one home because I
was bounced all over as a child, and so That's
(27:32):
really the AHA moment in it for me is you know,
God has shown me that, look, all these things are
getting ready to transpire. If he had that, if in that,
if you don't surrender now and just follow me, And
so that's why I did. And I went on down
(27:53):
to that rehab in boceruson Florida, sit down there for
my you know, sixty days, and got my heads out
of the cloud, got all the stuff out of my system.
For the first time in years, I could feel I
could feel everything I felt, all the shame and all
(28:16):
the guilt and all the consequences that were coming because
of decisions I made. But in that same instance, I
also felt the love of God. As I come out
of my drugs drug induced coma that I had been
in for years, I could feel God tell me well done.
(28:42):
I could feel his arms wrap around my heart. And
just what he was doing is he was saying, good job.
You follow through, you listen to my direction and went
to this rehab. Now, mind you, that's just the first step.
You know what I mean. I've lived years, so it
doesn't God doesn't promise me financial wealth and all this stuff.
(29:07):
He promises me peace, a peace that surpasses all our understanding,
which I hadn't had for years, and I had a
peace in my heart that everything was going to be okay.
So I come on back to Tennessee and my wife was,
you know, she's still upset and crime, we're still getting
(29:30):
ready to lose the house, you know what I mean.
Wells Fargo didn't care that I went to right that
I went to rehabit like you know what I mean.
They all they cared about was their money, which is
not exactly true because you know, I got back from
rehab and I was still working running equipment. I picked
up a second job working at Taco Bell and so
(29:51):
I'm literally working, you know, seventeen eighteen hours a day,
every day, Monday through Friday. But my thinking was still
flawed because my wife would ask me, what are we
going to do? What are we going to do? There's
you know, they're going to sell the house. And I
would say, I've got this. I'm sober now, I got this.
I'm sober now, I know what to do. I'm sober
(30:14):
now I can fix this. And that's when you know,
I've done that. For about four months after I got
back from rehab, and it just the money wasn't coming
fast enough. The reality of it was that I didn't
have it. And that's when God paid me a visit again.
And I'm sitting there in my office and I'm praying
(30:34):
and I'm asking you, know, Lord, I know you didn't
send me to rehabit. I know you haven't sent me
on this journey just so I could get back home
and watch everything be took from me and my family
sober like, I knew that wasn't his will. And he
looked at I was like, I know that you can
fix this. I know that if you'll just show me how,
(30:57):
I can do it. Lord, And that's when he said,
you know, no, No, you can't, Brandon, you can't fix
none of this. Your fixing. This is what brought you
to this situation. But if you'll lay it down and
you'll get it to me, then I can fix it. See.
I had still been running around like I was capable
(31:19):
of doing all these things, when in reality I wasn't.
It was God that was capable. And I prayed fervently, Lord,
what do I do? And you know they don't get
me wrong, I'm not telling you an audible voice of God,
but it was just clear as the day him speaking
to my heart and saying, hell the truth, Brandon, and
(31:44):
I just it was like a revelation to me, Mike,
and so I did. The next morning, I got up
and you know, I asked, he was like, what are
you gonna do? And I'm like, I'm gonna call Wells Fargo.
I do what. We'd been avoiding them, like the plague,
or we'd been avoiding them like the dope man that
you got front from, you know what I mean, it
didn't intend on payinging back, And so I did. I
(32:07):
called well Flargo and got on the phone with the
lady and she said, you mind if I asked what happened?
And I just waid it all out for her. I said, absolutely,
I'll tell you exactly what happened. And I mean, you
could look at our mortgage thing it's and pretty much
see where I had went this plumb off the rail
(32:28):
and quit paying it. And told her, you know, I've
been I let myself get strung out on drugs and
I've been making a horrible decisions. And this has been
a process over the years, but I have went to
rehab and I have I think at that point in time,
I might have had like five thousand dollars saved up
on like a twenty thousand dollars tab. And I explained
(32:50):
to them that I had that money and that I
was working these jobs and if they would just work
with me, that I would absolutely get everything done. And
this is the power of God. This is what God
can do in our lives. They didn't take my money,
they didn't want my money. They took everything that I
(33:11):
owed and they ballooned it on the end of my
mortgage and they started me in zero. So all these
things that I had been fighting and trying to control,
literally all it took was me to say, God, I
don't know what to do. I can't, but you can,
(33:34):
and that you know, it's funny because it's such a
cliche saying the truth will set you free, but it
is that simple. Absolutely. It's humiliating to call your mortgage
company and tell them you've been strung out on drugs
and you went to jail, in prison and all this,
(33:54):
But the reality of it was, it was that simple
for me to just tell the truth and let God intervene.
But I can't let God intervene and keep trying to
sprinkle Brandon in it here and spink and sprinkle a
little bit of my thoughts in it there, Like I
have to give it to God and let him take over.
(34:18):
And that's exactly what he did. Thank God and glory
to God, because it is only because of him. I
live in the exact same house today. Like I said
at the beginning of the segment, I've got a daughter
that's getting ready to start the University of Tennessee College. Mike,
I got my ged in prison. That's a whole different
(34:43):
chapter from my family. If you to ask me pre
rehab and pre surrender, I don't even like using rehab
because rehab is not what fixed me. Surrender is what
fixed it. It was the surrender and actually allowing God
to lead my life that led to the breakthrough. But
(35:08):
you know, these kids, we talk about breaking generational curses,
and absolutely I wholeheartedly believe it. But it's not me
that breaks it. It's God. It's me allowing God to
work through my life. One of the best moments. Go ahead, Mica, no, no,
(35:31):
you know what.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
You go ahead and we'll get you a break after this.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I'll tell you what one of the best most rewarding
moments of my recovery and walk with Christ. We've done
a revival here. Warpath Ministries and Fountain of Hope Ministries
teamed up and we've done a one day revival here
in Morristown, Tennessee, at Cherokee Park on October the Fourth Man,
(35:58):
God showed and showed out. We done it on the Saturday.
It was a Tennessee bye week because they know there
a lot of our ministers and a lot of the
speakers and musicians that we had come we had brought
down to do this with us. Went to church with
(36:20):
me that morning. I go to a very small church,
a little low country church. I lived the way I talked,
and they had went to church with me that morning,
and I got up and just told them thank you
and how much it meant to be able to sew
back into a community that I left so much litter on.
And my daughter goes there, and after the church service
(36:44):
is over, Danny, the pastor always ask if anybody has
anything on their heart that they would like to say. Well,
my seventeen year old daughter speaks up and she said,
you know, I hear all this about my fall there,
and she's heard the stories and like I keep my
kids present with me during my recovery, because you know what,
(37:06):
they were there during my diction, and they were there
during all the bad stuff I was gone doing. Why
would I hide the things I'm trying to do good?
And she says, you know, I heard all these stories
about Dad, and you know, she knows that I was
in prison, and she knows a lot of the bad
things I've done, she said, but all he's ever done
(37:30):
is try to point me towards Christ. Oh man, why
why didn't even stick? Like That's the power of God.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
It's not the power of Brandon.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
It's the power of God. When you said, look, just
tell the truth right that that and we you and
I had this conversation that was that's the best part
for me about being clean and sober. Right, I would
call my wife and say, hey, I'm leaving the tavern
of the bar in a half hour, be home in
forty five ben I was lying Brandon. I knew I
(38:05):
wasn't going to be home in forty five minutes, but
that's what I would continue to do, and hope she
would fall asleep so I could sneak in without her
knowing what time I got home. So when you talk about,
Hey the Lord, let on your heart, just tell the truth,
Tell the truth. I love that. Our special guest he's
Brandon Duckworth. Now you understand why I asked him to
(38:27):
please be a guest on Faith in the Zone because
what he's doing, the work he's doing, and what he's
sharing with Warpath Ministries is just so powerful and it's
just really good stuff. We'll get to a break outther
side of the break I have a few questions for him,
and then that last segment we'll ask him that question
(38:47):
that we ask every one of our guests at the end.
All the uniforms you've ever put on, which one do
you take out of the closet. We'll find out what
the answer is. Again, He's Brandon Duckworth from Warpath Ministry.
This is Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports ninet
twenty and Your iHeart Radio EP. Welcome back to Faith
in the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty and your
(39:09):
iHeart Radio app. Our special guest, he's Brandon Duckworth, war
Path Ministries. Brandon, I got to tell you your testimony
is so powerful and I can feel it like in
my body on some of the things you were going through.
Our backgrounds aren't exact, but they're similar. There are some
similar things that you've been through that I went through.
(39:31):
And I love that when you said, look, I don't
blame anybody but myself. You know, I take the blame
for this stuff because I do as well. And sometimes
at night when you close your eyes and you can't
fall asleep and you start thinking about those days, man,
I think it's a holy spirit just reminding us of
where we came from. And I wonder if you agree
(39:53):
with you?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Amen? Absolutely. You know, you hear a lot of times
people talk, they'll say, you know, drop the shame and
drop the guilt, and don't get me wrong, absolutely, like
we have to get to a point to where we're
not just mentally beating ourselves up no more. But I
hope I never I hope I never forget the feeling
(40:18):
of that guilt and that shame, Mike, because I think
that's so important to not only remind me of where
I come from, but also remind me of where I
don't want to go back.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
I agree one hundred percent. Hey, Brandy, when you get
a chance to talk to men about the mission of
war path ministries and you get to tell me your
background and your story for me. Sometimes it's a little
uncomfortable still to this day, and a little bit embarrassing.
And I'm wondering. There are times that I envy guys
(40:53):
that the worst thing they ever do is steal a
candy bar. Right, the guys that were raised in the church,
they got back ties, They've walked worthy, you know, inside
the locker room, outside of the locker room, in their
entire life. And when I tell them, look, I'm kind
of envious of that, they go, look, I get it,
but I'm a little envious of your background. And I'm like, why,
(41:16):
Like it was painful. I caused so much harm and pain.
And they said, well, you get to talk to people
that won't talk to me. I've never had a cocktail,
I've never done a drug, So you get to talk
to those guys and they won't talk to me because
I don't know what that lifestyle was like. And so
I think the Lord puts us, you know that the
(41:36):
platforms we have, we have to be willing to talk
about and get over, you know, put our big boy
pants on and get through the shame and embarrassment to
be able to help other guys that are going through
the same stuff that we're going through.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Absolutely, you know, there's still there's still a whole lot
of people that are called in that fire. And I
think is as Christian men, once we surrender our life
over and we get the discernment that God gives us
from reading his word and stuff, it's so important for
us to turn around and go back and carry buckets
(42:14):
of water back in to the guy still consumed by
the flames. It's there's a whole group of people that
are the world has written off. They've been labeled as
difficult to deal with, or or troubled teams or troubled
adults that are it's hard to work with. I think
(42:35):
that's not only my purpose, but the purpose of war
Path ministries. Like you said, we get the opportunity to
talk to people, and they talk to people like me
and you might and it doesn't take long for us
to recognize our own Like you, I can talk to you,
and I know that you've lived similar life to me.
(42:58):
I can hear it ye when you and I think
that's our purpose, Like we shouldn't label anybody as not
savable or they're a lost calls, you know, in my hometown,
there would be a lot of people that had me
in that same category. And thank God that there was
(43:19):
somebody like you or like Joe that turned around and
reached their hand back and said, Hey, I don't have
all the answers, but I've been where you are, and
I can show you the person who does have all
the answers a mean to that.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
He is Brandon Duckworth. And guys, you understand why I've
got goosebumps on my arm right now, because mat I
just think it's so important to have guys like Joe
and Brandon out there talking to guys who are lost,
and don't you know they're at night thinking nobody has
lived the life I'm living right now. Boy, there is,
and there are guys that are willing to talk to
(43:59):
you about it and put their arm around you and
guide you into it. Themission statement Warpath Ministries and my
favorite line I think on their website, we strive to
provide a foundation of hope and healing, arming and preparing
believers for spiritual conflict and to march confidently in their
God given purpose. We're going to get to a break
(44:21):
on other side of the break, It's gonna be a
short segment, but we'll ask Brandon Duckworth that question. All
the uniform season you ever put on, which one is
you pull out of the closet to get one more
game with that team? Played a little high school football,
played peewee football in Tennessee. When we'll get his answer
on the other side of the break. This is Faith
in the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty and your
(44:41):
iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
Our special guest Brandon Duckworth from Warpathministries again Warpathministries dot org.
After listening to his testimony in his story, go on
that website and just read up about what they're doing
and buy a sweatshirt or go to the donate page.
(45:04):
And I'm asking you, if you're feeling led, to help
them continue this ministry because again, it's a difficult thing
to do without any money at all, and for people
that believe in what they're trying to accomplish, man, please
give them, you know, give them some help and support. Brandon.
This last segment is a throwaway question a number of
years ago, and I always ask it because it's fun.
(45:26):
It's just a fun way to end the show. All
the uniforms and you were a football player. All the
football uniforms are any sports you played as a kid.
We put those uniforms into closet and you get to
pick one uniform out to get one more game with
that team. What uniform do you pick out? Who do
you play against? And why.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
I'm gonna grab that Crimpson uniform the color of the Trojans,
go back to West High. I felt like there was
so much potential there that never got to that because
I'll say, into the wrong crowd. And so I would
really love to go back and put back on that
Crimson and that Trojan ailment and and leave it all
(46:10):
on the field, you know, give it my all this time,
instead of being worried about where I'm gonna go and
get high after the game, leave it all on the field,
put my heart into it and and and show the
talent that God had really blessed me.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
But man, can you imagine being able to do that
and now to be to be able to walk worthy
in the locker room, you know, with the Trojan helmet,
your your teammates be like what happened to you this week.
What are you talking about? What are you bringing the
King James version into this this locker room for guys saying, Ay, Brandon,
I can't thank you enough. I'm telling you I'm going
(46:50):
to be in touch with you for that April golf
outing in Tennessee, and that's the one I'd like to
come to. I'd like to come to the one in
uh in Tennessee and uh you know, maybe you and
I can can be in the same forsome because we're
not gonna win the tournament, but we certainly will have
a lot of fun. Guys. Here is Brandon Duckworth Warpathministries.
(47:11):
Going to Warpathministries dot org. This is Brandon. Have a
great week.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yes, sir, you as well. Thanks again for the opportunity
you got.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
It, brother, Thank you so much. This is Faith in
the Zone on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeart
Radio app.
Welcome to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. We are coming live
from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooleen Studios. Any
issues you have with your HVAC system go to Donovan
Jorgensen dot com. Trust me, they've been in my house
a lot, family listeners. This is a company that's very
(00:20):
happy to sponsor Faith in the Zone alongside Brookside Baptist Church,
flying solo this week Pastor Ken Keltner from Brookside Baptist Church.
Hopefully we'll be back in next week or the following
week and certainly miss having him in studio. So as
we get to this show, I want to thank Joe Stanley.
Last week we talked about Warpath Ministries and introduced you
(00:44):
to the job that they're doing and the work they're
doing and they're feeling led to do. And I thank
him a ton because he was very helpful and with
the introduction to our guests for this week, and wanted
to follow up last week's show with this week's show
because I can tell you Brandon Duckworth is doing some
work with war Path Ministries and wanted to introduce you
(01:08):
to our guest for the entire hour today. And trust me,
when I talk about guys that have been guests on
the show, the worst thing they've ever done is steal
a candy bar. And then we had guys like Pastor
Darryl Strawberry and myself that we're doing things we shouldn't
be doing. Brandon Duckworth is in my camp because I
as you listen to his story and where the Lord
(01:32):
has taken him from, I can tell you, and I've
said this a lot, I thought that I needed to
clean myself up and then present myself to the Lord
before he would accept me in his family. And what
I found out in my personal journey was that he
met me in a very dark place in my life.
And I think Brandon might say amen to that. Our
(01:53):
special guest. He's a Tenant, Tennessee guy. He is Brandon Duckworth, Sir,
How you doing today?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I'm doing good? Mind? Have you been doing this morning? Man?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I'm doing good. It's really cold here in the state
of Wisconsin. Just so you know, hey, growing up in Tennessee,
are you like a Valls fan?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Are you?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Are you more of a fan of Vanderbilt? Who? Who's
your Who's your college team that you follow.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I'll be honest with you. Down here in East Tennessee
we bleed orange. I'm a volunteer through and through. I
actually have a dollar that'll be starting the University of
Tennessee at Knox till next year. So we bleed orange
around here.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Go about well, I can tell you a guy I
used to work with who went to school there. He
used to say to me, look, there is nothing. I
don't care who it is. There's nothing like a Saturday
night home game for Tennessee. And I go, come on, man,
you've been to Badger games. You know there's that tailgating.
He said. I'm telling you, Mike, if you want to
(02:55):
know what true college football is, go to a Valls
game on a Saturday nightday afternoons are great, but Charitay
Knights are the place to be. And I think you'd
probably agree with him on that.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yes, sir, it's just the energy of it down here
is very different. We really do. We support our students,
We get behind them. We don't feel like it's just
them out there playing like it's us as well. So
we're really thankful for our team and thankful to be
of alved Hey do.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
You have a an NFL team you follow?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Uh? When it comes to the NFL, I'm definitely more
of a collegiate fan myself, but I stick with Tennessee
all the way. I'd love to see the Titans go.
I'd love to see them get their Super Bowl ring.
They come so close several times, and I'm die hard
Tennessee brother.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Man, that man, been a rough year for you, been
a rough here. Hey, you know there's still just so
there's a little bit of room on the packer bandwagon
if you want to jump out. I got some and
gold I could send your way. A cheese had something
like that. You let me know if you want to
join the team that I followed, because there's just a
little bit of space left on that bandwagon. So come
(04:10):
on where we would we would welcome you with open arms.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I have definitely been accused of being cheesy a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, I can tell you when you weren't. I watched
a couple of times parts here and there. But about
a month ago you spoke at Bethel Baptist Church in
Moretound of Tennessee, and I got to tell you, man,
your your testimony. We're gonna get to it. Second segment
a little shorter version of what I watched on YouTube.
(04:43):
But I can tell you, brother man, you did good
up there. Yeah, you did good. You looked pretty comfortable
behind the pulpit.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I'll tell you all the credit goes to God. Really, Mike,
left of my own will mound de buses. I will
mess up one hundred percent of the time without the
Lord's guidance. I seem to be an idiot. My decision
making skills can be flawed at best. If I lay
down his wheel and try to pick mine back up.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, that hey for you and I Early on in
our life, that didn't work out so well, did it.
You know, I'm one hundred percent Irish, rented and I'm stubborn,
and I kept saying no, no, I got this. And
I grew up in a Catholic school and I'm a
grandfather of six, so that was a really long time ago.
But they would hand the Bible to us as kids
(05:33):
and say, don't worry about what's in it. We'll tell
you what's in it, but this is how you carry it.
And I use this line a lot that I got
from a guy on faith in his own and he said,
I knew Jesus Christ the same way I knew Abraham Lincoln, right.
I knew all the stories. I just had no personal
relationship with him. And what a difference when you when
(05:53):
you finally fall to your knees and say, look, I'm
going to hand it over. And we'll get to that
part of your life in the second segment. Hey, growing
up in Tennessee, you played some high school football, correct.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yes, sir, played for more Sound west Side Trojans Man.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Were you guys? What position did you play?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I played defensive end and tied ends.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, okay, good size kid. Yeah you didn't mind hitting
people back then?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Huh no, sir, I thought that was the best part
of the game.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Man, I love that. I gotta love that. Were you
guys pretty good?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We've actually had some really good players that left and
actually went to Legion and then went on to be
pro out of the exact same school. We had little
Man Stewart. He actually played, he was a ut ball,
done very well for them, and then went on to
play some professional ball as well. They have a really
good program here locally, which I think is hugely important
(06:57):
for the kids to get involved. You know, when I
stop getting involved around my tenth grade year is when
a lot of my problems started arising in my life.
So it's a it's a very important program. I feel.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, I do too, you know, Brandon, and you and
I have had a number of conversations this week and
and and last week. I coached basketball here in this
area for thirty six years. And and I tell people,
and I tell parents, and I tell kids all the
time that I just feel like youth sports and high
school sports are so important, especially if the kid has
(07:35):
a true love for that sport and that team and
that program, because you can utilize that with a really
big stick to say, look, you got to stay in school,
you got to get your homework done. You can't be
messing up here and you can't be messing up there
if you want to continue to be part of this program,
and that that that carrot and stick really work. When
(07:55):
when it's kids that love the.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Sport relotely, it motivates them to give them a reason
to want to do good, and so they're allowed and
they meet the criteria to play the sports. It also,
you know, kids that come from you know, under privileged tones,
or maybe like myself, didn't have a father in the
home like it's I think it's so important that the
(08:19):
coaches know that, hey, you may be the only father
figure that this kid has in his life right now.
So the roles they play are a lot more crucial
than it's played out to be sometimes, if that makes sense, I.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Agree with that a lot our special guests for the
entire hours branded at Duckworth Warpath Ministries. He's evolved with
those guys. And when you get a chance, and I
asked you this last week, I'm getting my In fact,
I'm getting a hoodie being delivered. I just got an email.
It's being delivered today from Warpath Ministries and I thank
them for that. Go to Warpathmistries dot org. Warpathministries dot org.
(08:58):
Hey branded, We've got about to I don't know five
six minutes left in segment one? How did you get
involved with Warpath? And again, I want to thank Joe
Stanley for the introduction to Brandon Duckworth. How did you
get involved with Warpath Ministries.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I got involved met Joe for the first time. Our
paths actually crossed through the app that many of you
guys may know. It's TikTok our pass crossed on there
and we kind of connected on there. Joe was coming
back from out west where he had been for a
few years and trying to get back to his home
state and get planning and get established there. We connected
(09:38):
up there, and then what God did with that was
just amazing, It really was. We got connected up. We
learned about each other first, but Joe had a fire
inside and he wanted to do something good for the
Lord and wanted to you know, we're all in spiritual warfare.
Our verse statement verse for the ministry is a Phesi
(10:02):
in six twelve, and it just you know, we're constantly
in spiritual warfare, and Joe really had a fire inside him.
We also have Jeff on with us, and they collaborated
together to get Moore path clicked off. And if we
struggled at first to find out exactly the path we
(10:24):
wanted to take, but when we got still and quiet
and got away in that prayer closet and really started
talking to God about it, we knew that our mission
was greater than just tackling addiction or you know, domestic
violence or substance abuse disorder that you know, we wanted
(10:45):
to introduce them to a meaningful relationship with Christ. We everybody,
like you said at the beginning, Mike, I grew up
in church as well. We all I knew who Jesus was,
like you said, in the same form as I knew
Abraham Lincoln was. And to a certain extent, all I
(11:06):
was really doing was playing the part I would do,
go to the church every Sunday and singing the choir.
And but what I didn't do was, you know, getting
the word try to develop like I'm not talking to
a myth. It's not a lifestyle, it's not a fath
Like I serve a risen savior, and a relationship with
(11:30):
him is what has elevated my life to the next level.
What seems so complicated to me at first, you know,
trying to develop a relationship with somebody that I can't
necessarily see turned out to be so easy. It really
is just as easy as you know, accepting his forgiveness
(11:54):
and accepting the free gift of salvation. And it's not
I don't get my self to a place of being
only enough to start talking to God, like I'll never
get there. My job is faith and repentance. And then
as I have my faith and repentance grow. The obedience
(12:17):
part of salvation is a product of my faith and repentance,
you know. And it's the same way with Joe and Jail.
We really just wanted to help people and lead them
toward a meaningful encounter with Jesus.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Amen. When we talk about war Path Ministries, and we'll
continue to talk about it, I cannot recommend this enough.
If you go on their website, their purpose statement, and
what I like about this is they're not running from this.
If you want to be involved, you want to help
them continue this ministry, there's a donate tab and I
(12:55):
recommend that you do that. Go to the shop and
do what I did, which was order one of these hoodies.
And when you read their purpose statement, and it starts
with this, Warpath Ministries exist to glorify God by sharing
the gospel, making disciples, and serving our community with love
and compassion. That one line tells you exactly what these
(13:17):
men are trying to accomplish. And I emphasize the word
men because I look, I've said this for a long time.
Our local churches do a great job in youth groups
and in women's groups, and they meet a lot and
then on Father's Day, they get up behind the pulpit
and they point to us and say, hey, you need
to be a better father, you need to get more
(13:37):
involved in the church, and we'll see you next year.
Good luck with that. Well that what these guys are
doing is saying, hey, look through biblical teaching, worship and outreach,
we seek to we seek to equip believers for storehope
and demonstrate the transformative power of Christ in everyday life.
That's what the purpose is of Warpath Ministries. And if
(14:00):
you're wondering why Brandon Duckworth got involved after talking to
Joe Stanley, look when we get to his testimony, you'll
understand the idea of trauma recovery. And that's what these
guys are doing. And it might be just one guy
at a time, one person at a time, which is
so important. And I'm trying to figure out how to
wait to get these guys to get into the state
(14:21):
of Wisconsin because they're doing some things in some different
states in North Carolina and Florida and Tennessee. I want
them in the Midwest. Man, this is something that we
could really help them in our state because there's a
lot of guys like me. You know, twenty some years
ago there was out doing some things we shouldn't be doing. Guys,
(14:41):
we're going to get to a break. The other side
of the break. Our special guest, Brandon Duckworth again from Warpathministries.
Can go to Warpathministries dot Org. Brandy will share his
testimony with us on the other side. This is Faith
in the Zone on Fox Sports nineteen twenty and your
iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone
(15:01):
on Fox Sports nineteen twenty in your iHeart Radio app.
This is Mike McGivern again find Sola this week Pastor
Ken Keltner from Brookside Baptist Church. Hopefully we'll be back
in studio with me next week. We're coming from the
Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios, the largest employee
owned h FAC company in the state of Wisconsin. Our
(15:22):
special guest from Morristown, Tennessee. He is Brandon Duckworth. He
is part of Warpath Ministries again. Go to Warpathministries dot org. Brandon.
Before we get to your testimony, You guys do some
golf outings and I am I am so hooked on
that sport. Here the last year and a half that
(15:43):
I'm telling you I'm gonna join you guys at one
of the golf outings in twenty twenty six, whether it's
in Tennessee and Florida and North Carolina, do you play
in those?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I don't play in them. I have been practicing. I
got to an age now that absolutely I am more
interested in learning in golf. I've got a son that's
very into it. A very hard sport. You know, as
a younger guy, you sit and think of, you know, all,
it's not like football, there's no contact, but really you
(16:18):
talk about a difficult sport of golf. Getting that little
ball to that hole that maybe three four hundred yards
down the fairway there is very, very difficult, and it
absolutely takes some time and some training. And I'm excited
about getting to learn it. It's even funnier because I
(16:40):
get to let my son kind of teach me now,
so kind of the roles are reversed a little bit.
We're in the midst of putting one together here in Tennessee.
It's going to be around April. It's gonna get Patriot
Hills Golf Course in Dandridge, Tennessee, and It's just one
of the ways that we try to to fund the
(17:01):
ministry of you know, doing what we do. It absolutely
takes money about everything in this world does to get
people placed in these recovery homes. Or you know, a
wife in Pennsylvania that might be dealing with a domestic
violence situation with a couple of young kids, need a
(17:23):
place to go to and we bring them from you know,
Pennsylvania down to Tennessee and you know, just help them
get established the follow through in this stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Hey guys, when Brandon talks about that again, people that
listen to Faith in the Zone a lot of times
feel led because of some personal things that have happened
in their life or people that they know. You understand
the importance of war Path Ministries. If you go to
their website, there's a donate pigeon, whether it's ten dollars
or if it's fifty a month. I just ask you
(17:58):
to do the research. Look at what they're trying to accomplish.
Warpathministries dot org. If they have zoom meetings on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Friday, they've got trauma recovery meetings. There's a lot
of things that you can find out and get involved
with and if it's if it's simple as far as
being able to just help them continue this ministry again
(18:21):
Warpathministries dot Org. Brandon, the second segment is our favorite.
This is the segment that we get that by far
the most response on. And if you'd be so kind
to share your testimony, I would appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Absolutely. Mac. I'll tell you what I was a young
guy raised in church. I'd love to be able to
tell you, you know that I had these the worst,
most awful parents in the world. But you know that's
just not true. Now. I didn't have a father in
my life, and I think that plays an important role
later on in my life as I'm trying to struggle
(18:59):
with what a man looks like, how to become a man,
what it means to handle your responsibilities as a man,
and a father in the home. That is so imperative
when we get older. But you know, I had a great,
loving mother. Raised in church. Till I was thirteen. I
got out on my own. The world started knocking and
(19:23):
I opened the door. Mic I let the devil run
in in and everything that he was willing to send
my way. I was willing to try. I thought that
it's not funny by no means, But that age in
my life, like I really I believed I was just
destined to be this screw up, this you know, guy
(19:45):
on drugs, this convicted feeling like I just thought that
was going to be my I thought I was destined
to be that, when really that's not in God's play.
You know, that's not what God had laid out for
me to do. It's just what the devil whispered in
my ear. I spent a lot of time in and
out of jail and being incarcerated. By the time I
(20:08):
was eighteen, you know, it's time to go to big
boy jail. And the decisions that I made in my
life is what led me there. I'm not a person
that will, you know, I take accountability for my own actions.
So the decisions that I made led me there, and
I continued over the next twenty years of making the
(20:31):
same decisions. I see now that a lot of the
things I was going through them was actually God trying
to draw me home. But instead of you know, flourishing
in that and trying to find his purpose for me,
I just left the devil sitting there on my shoulder
and let him, let him continue to direct my life,
(20:56):
and like I said, it led me to incarceration on
several different times. I was thirty five years old before
I went a year of my adult life without being
incarcerated for some reason or another. If I did make
it the whole year without being incarcerated, it was because
I was in jail the whole year. I might not
(21:18):
have caught a new charge that year, but I was
just that's only because I was locked up the entire year,
and I got stuck in this victim state of mind
of Oh woe is me? Woe is mean? All these
things are happening to me. I would cry out to God, Mike,
and God, why are you letting this happen to me?
(21:41):
When really God didn't have nothing to do with it.
I was literally just facing the consequences of my actions.
Pardon me. I spent several years, like I said, doing
that and got out on parole. Had so many any
opportunities that God placed people in my life that if
(22:05):
I would have let them lead and follow me and
listened to direction at that point in time that they
were trying to help me in and trying to lead
me out of the lifestyle that I'd been living. I've
got My first wife passed away in two thousand and seven,
left behind two children, and I would love to tell
(22:27):
you that I was the father they needed and they
spent their life with me, but that's just not true.
They ended up being raised by their grandparents. They got
took from me because you know what, I was an
unfit father. Like I said, I got locked in that
victim state of mind for years. So the way I
(22:51):
spoke about it was so different before recovery because I
just wanted to try to make everybody feel sorry for me.
But the victim in my story is not me. The
victim in my life. The victims in my life have
been my four children, my wife now actually, who I've
(23:11):
been married to for fifteen years. They were the ones
that was left in the wake of destruction that I
was leading behind everywhere I went. September eleven, two weeks
prior to September the eleventh of twenty sixteen, God showed
(23:32):
up at my house two o'clock in the morning. To
be honest with you, I had went to the doctor
that day. I had a pocket full of everything I
needed to continue numbing myself and keeping my head in
the clouds for the next month. But God decided on
that night that he was going to reach through the
clouds and reach through all the walls that I had
(23:55):
put up around my heart and grab a hold of
my heart and introduced me to a level of conviction
that I have never failed in my life. It's amazing
to be sitting there at two o'clock in the morning
and literally why kids in bed, But I am sitting
there squalling my minds out, frying out to God, like
(24:16):
what do you want me to do? I'll do everything.
I'll do anything you need to get me out of
this state that I put myself in, this depression and
thoughts of self harm and suicide and these drugs. Like, Lord,
if you'll just show me the way He had let
me experience the amount of pain that I needed to
(24:39):
experience to finally be ready for that change. And it
was at that time that he used It was funny
because it's a one eight hundred addiction hotline that came
on TV, and that's what God used to speak to me.
It was like clear as day when it came on
(25:00):
TV that morning, and like I said, I'm sitting there
by myself. I call this number two thirty in the morning.
They took some insurance information and told me they would
call me back in a few minutes. She called me
back in a few minutes and she said, Brendon, your
insurance will take care of it. Do you have any
(25:20):
requests as far as where you'd like to go? And
I said, yes, ma'am, I would like to go to
an hallmail facility. And I don't want to know anybody
when I walk in the doors, so I don't want
to be anywhere local here. And she said, okay, we'll
call you back here in just a few minutes. And
a few minutes later she called me back and she
said I was Boca Raton, Florida. Phil. I was like, what,
(25:45):
that's quite away south from Tennessee. But like I said,
I was at a point in my life where I
was willing to try anything to quit feeling the pain
and the anguish that was my life at that time,
and so I agreed to it, said let's go. And
(26:06):
I actually had a job then. I'm an equipment operator
by trade, and I had to let my job know
that I was going to be gone, and I'd give
them a two week notice. And my wife got up
that morning to get the kids, to start getting the
kids ready for school. And by this point she had
become accustomed to me being up all night or being
(26:28):
spun out on mess and the pills and everything that
I was spun out on. And I looked at her
still sitting there crying, and I said, look, I'm getting
ready to go to rehab. I'm going to be gone
for sixty ninety days. And she got so upset with me. Mike,
because in my past, the way I dealt with a
(26:49):
lot of problems when they got like that is I
would run. And at this point in my life, there's
a for sale sign in my yard. They were going
to auction my house off on the Courthouse lawn May
the seventeenth of twenty seventeen, and so there's a poor
sale sign in the lawn. The foreclosure process has already started.
(27:11):
We're getting ready to lose the cars, that everything, My
kids are getting ready to be homeless, and my wife,
because of decisions that I have made, it was really
important to me as a younger guy that I always
wanted to keep my kids have one home because I
was bounced all over as a child, and so That's
(27:32):
really the AHA moment in it for me is you know,
God has shown me that, look, all these things are
getting ready to transpire. If he had that, if in that,
if you don't surrender now and just follow me, And
so that's why I did. And I went on down
(27:53):
to that rehab in boceruson Florida, sit down there for
my you know, sixty days, and got my heads out
of the cloud, got all the stuff out of my system.
For the first time in years, I could feel I
could feel everything I felt, all the shame and all
(28:16):
the guilt and all the consequences that were coming because
of decisions I made. But in that same instance, I
also felt the love of God. As I come out
of my drugs drug induced coma that I had been
in for years, I could feel God tell me well done.
(28:42):
I could feel his arms wrap around my heart. And
just what he was doing is he was saying, good job.
You follow through, you listen to my direction and went
to this rehab. Now, mind you, that's just the first step.
You know what I mean. I've lived years, so it
doesn't God doesn't promise me financial wealth and all this stuff.
(29:07):
He promises me peace, a peace that surpasses all our understanding,
which I hadn't had for years, and I had a
peace in my heart that everything was going to be okay.
So I come on back to Tennessee and my wife was,
you know, she's still upset and crime, we're still getting
(29:30):
ready to lose the house, you know what I mean.
Wells Fargo didn't care that I went to right that
I went to rehabit like you know what I mean.
They all they cared about was their money, which is
not exactly true because you know, I got back from
rehab and I was still working running equipment. I picked
up a second job working at Taco Bell and so
(29:51):
I'm literally working, you know, seventeen eighteen hours a day,
every day, Monday through Friday. But my thinking was still
flawed because my wife would ask me, what are we
going to do? What are we going to do? There's
you know, they're going to sell the house. And I
would say, I've got this. I'm sober now, I got this.
I'm sober now, I know what to do. I'm sober
(30:14):
now I can fix this. And that's when you know,
I've done that. For about four months after I got
back from rehab, and it just the money wasn't coming
fast enough. The reality of it was that I didn't
have it. And that's when God paid me a visit again.
And I'm sitting there in my office and I'm praying
(30:34):
and I'm asking you, know, Lord, I know you didn't
send me to rehabit. I know you haven't sent me
on this journey just so I could get back home
and watch everything be took from me and my family
sober like, I knew that wasn't his will. And he
looked at I was like, I know that you can
fix this. I know that if you'll just show me how,
(30:57):
I can do it. Lord, And that's when he said,
you know, no, No, you can't, Brandon, you can't fix
none of this. Your fixing. This is what brought you
to this situation. But if you'll lay it down and
you'll get it to me, then I can fix it. See.
I had still been running around like I was capable
(31:19):
of doing all these things, when in reality I wasn't.
It was God that was capable. And I prayed fervently, Lord,
what do I do? And you know they don't get
me wrong, I'm not telling you an audible voice of God,
but it was just clear as the day him speaking
to my heart and saying, hell the truth, Brandon, and
(31:44):
I just it was like a revelation to me, Mike,
and so I did. The next morning, I got up
and you know, I asked, he was like, what are
you gonna do? And I'm like, I'm gonna call Wells Fargo.
I do what. We'd been avoiding them, like the plague,
or we'd been avoiding them like the dope man that
you got front from, you know what I mean, it
didn't intend on payinging back, And so I did. I
(32:07):
called well Flargo and got on the phone with the
lady and she said, you mind if I asked what happened?
And I just waid it all out for her. I said, absolutely,
I'll tell you exactly what happened. And I mean, you
could look at our mortgage thing it's and pretty much
see where I had went this plumb off the rail
(32:28):
and quit paying it. And told her, you know, I've
been I let myself get strung out on drugs and
I've been making a horrible decisions. And this has been
a process over the years, but I have went to
rehab and I have I think at that point in time,
I might have had like five thousand dollars saved up
on like a twenty thousand dollars tab. And I explained
(32:50):
to them that I had that money and that I
was working these jobs and if they would just work
with me, that I would absolutely get everything done. And
this is the power of God. This is what God
can do in our lives. They didn't take my money,
they didn't want my money. They took everything that I
(33:11):
owed and they ballooned it on the end of my
mortgage and they started me in zero. So all these
things that I had been fighting and trying to control,
literally all it took was me to say, God, I
don't know what to do. I can't, but you can,
(33:34):
and that you know, it's funny because it's such a
cliche saying the truth will set you free, but it
is that simple. Absolutely. It's humiliating to call your mortgage
company and tell them you've been strung out on drugs
and you went to jail, in prison and all this,
(33:54):
But the reality of it was, it was that simple
for me to just tell the truth and let God intervene.
But I can't let God intervene and keep trying to
sprinkle Brandon in it here and spink and sprinkle a
little bit of my thoughts in it there, Like I
have to give it to God and let him take over.
(34:18):
And that's exactly what he did. Thank God and glory
to God, because it is only because of him. I
live in the exact same house today. Like I said
at the beginning of the segment, I've got a daughter
that's getting ready to start the University of Tennessee College. Mike,
I got my ged in prison. That's a whole different
(34:43):
chapter from my family. If you to ask me pre
rehab and pre surrender, I don't even like using rehab
because rehab is not what fixed me. Surrender is what
fixed it. It was the surrender and actually allowing God
to lead my life that led to the breakthrough. But
(35:08):
you know, these kids, we talk about breaking generational curses,
and absolutely I wholeheartedly believe it. But it's not me
that breaks it. It's God. It's me allowing God to
work through my life. One of the best moments. Go ahead, Mica, no, no,
(35:31):
you know what.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
You go ahead and we'll get you a break after this.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I'll tell you what one of the best most rewarding
moments of my recovery and walk with Christ. We've done
a revival here. Warpath Ministries and Fountain of Hope Ministries
teamed up and we've done a one day revival here
in Morristown, Tennessee, at Cherokee Park on October the Fourth Man,
(35:58):
God showed and showed out. We done it on the Saturday.
It was a Tennessee bye week because they know there
a lot of our ministers and a lot of the
speakers and musicians that we had come we had brought
down to do this with us. Went to church with
(36:20):
me that morning. I go to a very small church,
a little low country church. I lived the way I talked,
and they had went to church with me that morning,
and I got up and just told them thank you
and how much it meant to be able to sew
back into a community that I left so much litter on.
And my daughter goes there, and after the church service
(36:44):
is over, Danny, the pastor always ask if anybody has
anything on their heart that they would like to say. Well,
my seventeen year old daughter speaks up and she said,
you know, I hear all this about my fall there,
and she's heard the stories and like I keep my
kids present with me during my recovery, because you know what,
(37:06):
they were there during my diction, and they were there
during all the bad stuff I was gone doing. Why
would I hide the things I'm trying to do good?
And she says, you know, I heard all these stories
about Dad, and you know, she knows that I was
in prison, and she knows a lot of the bad
things I've done, she said, but all he's ever done
(37:30):
is try to point me towards Christ. Oh man, why
why didn't even stick? Like That's the power of God.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
It's not the power of Brandon.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
It's the power of God. When you said, look, just
tell the truth right that that and we you and
I had this conversation that was that's the best part
for me about being clean and sober. Right, I would
call my wife and say, hey, I'm leaving the tavern
of the bar in a half hour, be home in
forty five ben I was lying Brandon. I knew I
(38:05):
wasn't going to be home in forty five minutes, but
that's what I would continue to do, and hope she
would fall asleep so I could sneak in without her
knowing what time I got home. So when you talk about,
Hey the Lord, let on your heart, just tell the truth,
Tell the truth. I love that. Our special guest he's
Brandon Duckworth. Now you understand why I asked him to
(38:27):
please be a guest on Faith in the Zone because
what he's doing, the work he's doing, and what he's
sharing with Warpath Ministries is just so powerful and it's
just really good stuff. We'll get to a break outther
side of the break I have a few questions for him,
and then that last segment we'll ask him that question
(38:47):
that we ask every one of our guests at the end.
All the uniforms you've ever put on, which one do
you take out of the closet. We'll find out what
the answer is. Again, He's Brandon Duckworth from Warpath Ministry.
This is Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports ninet
twenty and Your iHeart Radio EP. Welcome back to Faith
in the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty and your
(39:09):
iHeart Radio app. Our special guest, he's Brandon Duckworth, war
Path Ministries. Brandon, I got to tell you your testimony
is so powerful and I can feel it like in
my body on some of the things you were going through.
Our backgrounds aren't exact, but they're similar. There are some
similar things that you've been through that I went through.
(39:31):
And I love that when you said, look, I don't
blame anybody but myself. You know, I take the blame
for this stuff because I do as well. And sometimes
at night when you close your eyes and you can't
fall asleep and you start thinking about those days, man,
I think it's a holy spirit just reminding us of
where we came from. And I wonder if you agree
(39:53):
with you?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Amen? Absolutely. You know, you hear a lot of times
people talk, they'll say, you know, drop the shame and
drop the guilt, and don't get me wrong, absolutely, like
we have to get to a point to where we're
not just mentally beating ourselves up no more. But I
hope I never I hope I never forget the feeling
(40:18):
of that guilt and that shame, Mike, because I think
that's so important to not only remind me of where
I come from, but also remind me of where I
don't want to go back.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
I agree one hundred percent. Hey, Brandy, when you get
a chance to talk to men about the mission of
war path ministries and you get to tell me your
background and your story for me. Sometimes it's a little
uncomfortable still to this day, and a little bit embarrassing.
And I'm wondering. There are times that I envy guys
(40:53):
that the worst thing they ever do is steal a
candy bar. Right, the guys that were raised in the church,
they got back ties, They've walked worthy, you know, inside
the locker room, outside of the locker room, in their
entire life. And when I tell them, look, I'm kind
of envious of that, they go, look, I get it,
but I'm a little envious of your background. And I'm like, why,
(41:16):
Like it was painful. I caused so much harm and pain.
And they said, well, you get to talk to people
that won't talk to me. I've never had a cocktail,
I've never done a drug, So you get to talk
to those guys and they won't talk to me because
I don't know what that lifestyle was like. And so
I think the Lord puts us, you know that the
(41:36):
platforms we have, we have to be willing to talk
about and get over, you know, put our big boy
pants on and get through the shame and embarrassment to
be able to help other guys that are going through
the same stuff that we're going through.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Absolutely, you know, there's still there's still a whole lot
of people that are called in that fire. And I
think is as Christian men, once we surrender our life
over and we get the discernment that God gives us
from reading his word and stuff, it's so important for
us to turn around and go back and carry buckets
(42:14):
of water back in to the guy still consumed by
the flames. It's there's a whole group of people that
are the world has written off. They've been labeled as
difficult to deal with, or or troubled teams or troubled
adults that are it's hard to work with. I think
(42:35):
that's not only my purpose, but the purpose of war
Path ministries. Like you said, we get the opportunity to
talk to people, and they talk to people like me
and you might and it doesn't take long for us
to recognize our own Like you, I can talk to you,
and I know that you've lived similar life to me.
(42:58):
I can hear it ye when you and I think
that's our purpose, Like we shouldn't label anybody as not
savable or they're a lost calls, you know, in my hometown,
there would be a lot of people that had me
in that same category. And thank God that there was
(43:19):
somebody like you or like Joe that turned around and
reached their hand back and said, Hey, I don't have
all the answers, but I've been where you are, and
I can show you the person who does have all
the answers a mean to that.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
He is Brandon Duckworth. And guys, you understand why I've
got goosebumps on my arm right now, because mat I
just think it's so important to have guys like Joe
and Brandon out there talking to guys who are lost,
and don't you know they're at night thinking nobody has
lived the life I'm living right now. Boy, there is,
and there are guys that are willing to talk to
(43:59):
you about it and put their arm around you and
guide you into it. Themission statement Warpath Ministries and my
favorite line I think on their website, we strive to
provide a foundation of hope and healing, arming and preparing
believers for spiritual conflict and to march confidently in their
God given purpose. We're going to get to a break
(44:21):
on other side of the break, It's gonna be a
short segment, but we'll ask Brandon Duckworth that question. All
the uniform season you ever put on, which one is
you pull out of the closet to get one more
game with that team? Played a little high school football,
played peewee football in Tennessee. When we'll get his answer
on the other side of the break. This is Faith
in the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty and your
(44:41):
iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
Our special guest Brandon Duckworth from Warpathministries again Warpathministries dot org.
After listening to his testimony in his story, go on
that website and just read up about what they're doing
and buy a sweatshirt or go to the donate page.
(45:04):
And I'm asking you, if you're feeling led, to help
them continue this ministry because again, it's a difficult thing
to do without any money at all, and for people
that believe in what they're trying to accomplish, man, please
give them, you know, give them some help and support. Brandon.
This last segment is a throwaway question a number of
years ago, and I always ask it because it's fun.
(45:26):
It's just a fun way to end the show. All
the uniforms and you were a football player. All the
football uniforms are any sports you played as a kid.
We put those uniforms into closet and you get to
pick one uniform out to get one more game with
that team. What uniform do you pick out? Who do
you play against? And why.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
I'm gonna grab that Crimpson uniform the color of the Trojans,
go back to West High. I felt like there was
so much potential there that never got to that because
I'll say, into the wrong crowd. And so I would
really love to go back and put back on that
Crimson and that Trojan ailment and and leave it all
(46:10):
on the field, you know, give it my all this time,
instead of being worried about where I'm gonna go and
get high after the game, leave it all on the field,
put my heart into it and and and show the
talent that God had really blessed me.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
But man, can you imagine being able to do that
and now to be to be able to walk worthy
in the locker room, you know, with the Trojan helmet,
your your teammates be like what happened to you this week.
What are you talking about? What are you bringing the
King James version into this this locker room for guys saying, Ay, Brandon,
I can't thank you enough. I'm telling you I'm going
(46:50):
to be in touch with you for that April golf
outing in Tennessee, and that's the one I'd like to
come to. I'd like to come to the one in
uh in Tennessee and uh you know, maybe you and
I can can be in the same forsome because we're
not gonna win the tournament, but we certainly will have
a lot of fun. Guys. Here is Brandon Duckworth Warpathministries.
(47:11):
Going to Warpathministries dot org. This is Brandon. Have a
great week.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yes, sir, you as well. Thanks again for the opportunity
you got.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
It, brother, Thank you so much. This is Faith in
the Zone on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeart
Radio app.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.