On a Mission From God - Kevin DeVries (podcast) - Justin Barclay

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:23):
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Speaker 2 (00:31):
Get ready to scrap anny.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
It's going to be a heck of a riot. It's
like drinking from a fire hose. Never a dull moment.
But yes, you'll hear the stories you won't hear anywhere else,
and we appreciate you being here with us form today.
I'm justin Barclay. Yeah. Today, my good friend a guest
joining us who died. You don't get to say that

(00:55):
every day. He didn't stay dead. We'll tell you the
story about that. It is quite a story. He's an
explorer who's been all over climbed Mount Everest search for
Noah's Ark, and he continues to move forward on his
mission to share the gospel and make sure people get
to hear it and get invited to the greatest story

(01:17):
of all time. His story is quite incredible as well,
that story about how he died, and like I said,
he didn't stay dead. He's here with us today, so
welcome in for that conversation. My good friend Kevin Devreese
from Grace Explorations. Kevin, good morning. You know this is
I can't think about this because I just think of
you as Kevin, But there is this massive story that

(01:38):
you and I kind of lived went through together at
one point that I think people would be just astonished by.
In fact, I was telling a friend about this the
other day. But it's all part of what God's doing
in your life, and it's really incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah yeah, yeah, you were there.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
He kind of walked me through that whole thing, and
we've journeyed many miles together. So I like to look
at my near death experience as a highly successful failure.
Everything went really wrong and then everything went.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Really right right.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
But when you walk away from those experiences, you know,
and we're part of a growing club. There's a lot
of people with near death experiences or out of body
experiences and they you.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Know, it's kind of weird.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
It's not a survivor's guilt thing, but you're just thinking,
especially like with a cardiac arrest, which is what I had,
there's so few of us that survived that, I mean,
maybe three to six percent because it's all electrical. So
if they can't put a defibrillator on you, you're gone.
So they need to find you and find you quick,
and that happened in my case. But you just kind
of walk away from that feeling like, okay, there's a mission.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Like I actually heard the voice say.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
You know, your time is not here, is not up,
and your mission is not complete. And then you just
kind of try to figure, okay, well, what was so
important that I had to be brought back?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Right? You? Line?

Speaker 3 (02:53):
One hundred people up and three of us get saved,
and so it's almost like the saving Private Ryan, you know,
the character that Damon plays when the other character you
know is basically tell them to make it worth it,
you know, and so he spends his whole life, you know,
trying to, I don't know, somehow make his life matter,

(03:15):
and that's kind of where I'm at. I'm just trying
to do big stuff and make sure that for whatever
reason God brought me back to life, that it's worth it.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, I know it is, And I know that we're
going to talk about something else altogether here different. But
what was that like? Because I was trying to explain
this to a friend of mine the other day. This
guy was kind of in a bad place and we're
talking about faith, and you know, he said, I'm not
sure what happens when I die, And I said, well,

(03:45):
I kind of know. I have a friend who knows
a little something about that. In fact, I was telling
him a little bit about your story. But just want
this through for some of the folks that it may
not be familiar. You're a guy who can't sit still.
So Kevin's out on a run one days.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Run.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
He's a jogger, he's a biker, he's a mountain climbery,
you name it, he's done it. He's out on a
run one day and this is a pretty simple run
and now aut attack right in the middle of it,
and you actually died. How long were you out?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Well, they figured it was up to fifteen minutes. Yeah,
and there's just a lot of poetic parallels to it.
Because I wasn't feeling well, and so I walked through
Casgade Cemetery right there off of Cascade Road, close to
Pine Ridge Elementary School, and saw a person dressed all
in white.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
This is what I'm fully conscious was before the cardiac arrests.
And I thought a lot, that's unusual.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
I wouldn't be digging around in a grave, you know,
with a like a white hazmat suit on, right, And
I just kind of tucked it away, and I thought
that's interesting. But it felt I don't know, if something
just felt a little different. I can't say that it
was angelic at that point, but something my spidery sense
was picking out that maybe something was, something bigger was happening.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
So I memorized a couple of the.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Gravestones, which was good because then it proved I wasn't hallucinating,
you know. When I was able to record it forty
eight hours later, a friend had the foresight to do that.
He's like, man, you got to get this story on
tape like now, because it's the craziest thing I've ever
heard of.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
So I get out of the graveyard.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
I go down the Cascade Road and the next thing
I remember is seeing apparently my dead body laying off
the trail, just at the entrance to Pine Ridge Elementary
School on the Cascade Road. And now I'm soaring up
and over the school, up and over the cemetery, and
then I get placed back in the cemetery. But this time,

(05:32):
this person, this masculine form that's all dressed in white,
is not his back is not to me. He's now
facing me. And there's so much light that is coming
out of this person that it feels like the way
I say it, it just feels like light that darkness has
never touched right, because darkness is just it's an absence
of something. It's not a thing, it's just the absence

(05:52):
of light. It's like the original light, you know, the
light of creation, right where it all came out of
this person.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
And it's not hurt.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
It's not like, oh my gosh, I got to shield
my eyes, you know. It was more of just I
know you, like I know all of you. I'll know
you more than you'll ever know you. But at the
same time, it felt like there was all this love
coming out of this person, and it felt like love
that fear had never felt, which is what perfect love is.
It just drives out that fear. And so I felt illuminated.

(06:22):
I felt like I was known, like I've never known
myself and never will know myself as well, and yet
I felt this tremendous amount of love pouring of this person.
And then I felt that not only was there light
and love, but there was just a life that was
coming out of this person that death cannot defeat and
by his own resurrection. I believe it was the risen Christ.

(06:43):
And there's a lot of reasons for that that we
don't have time to totally dive into. But I believe
that I met the risen Christ and that this person
cannot be defeated and that his death and resurrection is
the template that we all get to follow. So if
that's true, and I believe it is, and I believe
that the direction is true. You know, get guys like

(07:03):
Chuck Colson, who headed up Prison Fellowship, He's like, you know,
there was like a dozen of us that couldn't keep
our story straight for a day or two after Watergate.
He's like, there's there's just no reason to believe that
these guys these original twelve disciples, you know, could have
kept them lie straight for the rest of their life
and then died for that lie. It just doesn't make
any logical sense. So obviously something happened where he reappeared

(07:25):
in corporeal form, in tangible material form, but also had
a sense about him and another dimensional aspect, another worldly
element to him where he could walk through walls at
the same time, but he was also hungry. So a
post the resurrection, he's eating fish, he's fellowshipping with people,
he's appearing to people, he's walking with people, you know,
the road Temais, and they don't even know who he is.
So there's something interdimensional, interstellar if you want to borrow

(07:49):
you know, a great Christopher Nolan movie, Tyler, just something
about the risen Christ that is the template for all
of us. So that's where I placed my hope in
and in my moment, I there was no fear, there
was no hiding. It wasn't a cosmic Santa Claus moment
like oh my gosh, I need to prove how good
I am.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
There was no scales being weighed.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
It was all hinged on the fact that he somehow
knew me, and I knew him and in that matter,
and in that moment, that's all that mattered. So the
chronological clock is clicking right, fifteen minutes is going by,
and there's a whole other story that's happening, a series
of miracles that are there to set me in a
rescue path. But I was in time, outside time. It

(08:31):
didn't matter. It could have been a million years, it
could have been a millennia. But in that moment, this person,
who I believe again was the Risen Christ, because I felt,
first of all that there was a familial connection. I felt, man,
there's some kind of brotherly adoptive thing going on here.
And you know, when we think that through, it's yeah,
we are all adopted beloved sons and daughters of Almighty God.

(08:53):
And so in that sense, we have a familial connection
to the cosmic Christ, to the Risen Christ because we
have the same father. But then as time we're on
and again it could have been an infinity, right. I
didn't have any sense of time because I'm outside of time,
I'm out of my skin suit, I'm in the spiritual realm.
I'm tiptoeing on the threshold of eternity. I just felt

(09:13):
in that moment that yeah, he's more than my brother,
and I felt like, Okay, this is a captain that
you go to war with. And it had that feeling
of Okay, this is who I go into battle with.
This is the kind of man that when he says
follow me, there's some otherworldly frequency to that command that

(09:35):
defies all logic and cause twelve guys to just drop
everything and follow him. I mean, there's something there had
been some kind of resonance, some kind of power. I'm
going to use the word frequency vibration. I think the
highest frequency that we know as humans is authenticity. There
was something so authentic about his life and so pure
and so true that when he told you to do something,

(09:57):
you're just like, okay, yeah, why wouldn't I right, It's
like a Jedi, you know, Okay, yeah, of course I'll
give up everything. I'll die for you. So he had
that kind of feeling like, Okay, if this guy says something,
I'm listening and I'm gonna do what he says. But
then it arched into something even larger, something into a
bigger meta narrative that as Americans, and of course there's

(10:17):
a lot of political energy behind this word but this
idea of a king, right, And I felt like another moment, Yeah,
he's my brother, he's my captain, but this guy's my king,
and as such he deserves my higher allegiance and all
I can do is pledge him my life and give
him everything that I have. And when that happened, as

(10:39):
that's transpiring, he just said to me, and again it's
poetic language because it was late September twenty nineteen. The
leaves were just starting to fall, but as he turned,
the words came to me like a leaf blowing in
the wind, and he just simply said, it's not your time.
Dramatic pause. Your mission is not complete. And then the
next thing I remember was waking up in an ambulance.

(11:00):
Come to find out I was ten minutes vans schedule
because I had killed ten minutes walking around in the
graveyard because I wasn't feeling all that well. The people
that rescued me were all first responders. Two of the
three were all ten minutes behind schedule. They shouldn't have
been on that road, they shouldn't have been there at
that time. So God just was playing cosmic chess, and
he was putting all these pieces together that he had
probably thought of before I was even bolsing and knew

(11:23):
that on September twenty first, twenty nineteen, he'd have to
put the right people in the right place, and they
saved me. And then the paramedic a couple months later
was at the celebration service and there was like three
or four of us that they had rescued. I was like, oh, wow,
these are people you saved this month, and he's like, no,
these are the people we saved this year. We almost
always find you dead. There's only a couple of minutes

(11:45):
you know that we can get to you, and you're
probably pushing fifteen minutes, which is really at the edge
of brain activity. And then he said something I'll never forget.
He said, and even saying the words now it just
gives me the god bumps.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
But he said.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
It was obvious to me and my co driver that
when we picked you up you were straddling two dimensions.
But you went somewhere and I'm using my own words
now those are his words, but you went somewhere and
there's like this glory dust on you. There's like something
on you that you know, you're like an astronaut. For

(12:20):
those fifteen minutes, and so part of you is there
and then another part of you is here, but that
just stuck with him. You're straddling two dimensions, and so
you know, a lot of us don't realize this, but
we're all straddling two dimensions, right We just don't know it.
I mean, there's the veil between eternity and time is thin,
but it has to be there because if we were

(12:41):
to catch a full glimpse of that, I think it
would just we wouldn't have the bandwidth comprehend it. So
the only way we can experience eternity is through the
door of death, which is really that's all it is.
It's a door, and it's to another dimension where you're
not floating around as like a ghost or some apparition,
but you are fully resurrected form like Christ was. And

(13:02):
then you know, if you do all your eschatology in
the Book of Revelation, there's a lot of exciting things
that can happen after that where you're not you never.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Really die, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
It's just that all we have is our skin suit
right now, and so we're so obsessed with that in
small stories and silly stuff.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
That just occupies our life.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
So now I just how I got at the beginning
of this year, I'm like, Okay, I'm fifty seven. I've
got some good energy still in the tank. We've done
some projects since that event happened that reached a lot
of people, mostly through film. But I just want to
stop doing stuff.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
That if you don't help me, it won't happen.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
I want to do stuff that's so big and so
crazy that if you don't help me, and it's your
idea first of all, but if you don't help me,
it's just not going to happen. And he took me
up in that. So I'm involved in another project where
if he doesn't help me, it's not going to happen.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Just so you know. Kevin, like I said, he has
that wild experience. But he has also been involved in documentaries.
Searching for Noah's Ark was what was it called Finding Noah?
Is that the name?

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Film?

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yeah, just we spent like five summers and then they
filmed the last summer of film crew king from Hollywood
and the film went nationwide. It was in like six
hundred SMA theaters through Fathom Pictures and nobody famous, you know,
just a lot of archaeologists and geo engineers and really
really smart people.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
That was my job.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Just keep guys that can't get their shoes on, but
they can read the Rosetta stone, right, So just keep
those guys alive. And Gary Sinez was our narrator, who's
a fantastic guy, big name in you know that media,
Hollywood space, and he lent his voice to it. So
it was a great and then that kind of birth
kind of were you and I first intersected because out
of that film, I did a lot of speaking and

(14:50):
was filling up rooms and people were excited about that.
You know, wow, you're looking for Noah's Ark and what
did you find or what didn't you find? So it
was a big It was a meta narrative, a big,
big story, and all the three major religions share kind
of the same story. They obviously have some nuance to it.
And then all these legends that have popped up, there's
hundreds of them, from Native Americans to Pacific Islanders. I mean,

(15:12):
it's all over the world. So something must have happened
to create a singular story before the age of global technology,
to create that origin point. The ontology ontology of you
know the origin of that story. But that's where you
and I started intersecting, because then people were like, hey,
why don't you start doing something here local and here
in rapids and take the same DNA that fills the

(15:33):
rooms when you go and speak at places and take
that and let's start something here. And so I was like, okay,
I'll do that, but I don't want to do it
in a church because I want it to be a
true outreach. So then you and I connected, and Founders
Brewery was kind of the thing, and the Centennial room
upstairs and people were driving one hundred miles and you know, like, wow,
what is going on? I can't believe it. I was
feeling God's presence while I was having a beer, Like

(15:55):
what I never thought that would happen, like I feel.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
So what people need to know is this is something
called base camp and it was a really cool place
for men to come together and tell their stories. And
you're a big part of that.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
You know.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
We we were on every month and you bring that,
we bring the speaker in and you know, and you
were like, Hey, what's what's got up to it Founder's Brewery,
you know, and so we just I don't know, God
created a safe place for guys to tell really dangerous stories.
And come to find out, I wasn't the only one
that really resonated with that. So it's all stuff you
wouldn't here on Sunday morning, not that there's anything wrong

(16:34):
with that. That has to be more PG. You know,
Christian Radio Friendly. We just told our rated stories that
were tough, really hard stories to hear, but it opened
up other men's hearts and they started cracking their chests open.
And then hundreds of stories were told, and some of
them became books and you know, documentaries of other types.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
But it gave guys the.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Courage to be like, Okay, well I just saw that
guy get up and tell a really tough story. Maybe
I maybe I could tell my story, and then in
the telling of that story, maybe I'll get my sword back.
Maybe this thing that I've been carrying around, my story
that's riddled with shame and it's shattered, it doesn't make
any sense to me because it's stuck in trauma or whatever.
Maybe if I start telling it and start owning it,

(17:15):
it'll no longer own me, and then I'll be able
to offer my strength as a reforge sword back to
the world, and so we helped guys own that. We
created all kinds of video curriculum that lives on Grace Explorations.
You can watch the movie, you can go through a
whole seven part video series. It'll help you retell your story.
And then we got to the point where like, okay,
we've got you know, base camp that blew up and

(17:37):
there was like thirty some odd base camps that were launched.
Ten thousand guys collectively have now come to those and
they continue to this day. And that's fantastic. In every
base camp we launched, you know, we reach a couple
hundred men, and then we did some podcasts and especially
during the shutdown period, and then we did a bunch
of video curriculum and that reached tens of thousands of

(17:57):
people where we're like, okay, again, my clock is ticking
in fifty seven. You know, I probably have a third
of my life left if all goes well, what am
I going to do in this last third? What am
I going to do in this chapter? And so that's
where films came into play. That was in part motivated
by the finding Noah. And then we were like, okay,

(18:17):
let's let's go to Everspace Camp and juxtapose the climb
to Everspace Camp camp and juxtaposed that against the inward journey,
which you might be able to see that on your screen.
The greatest journey is within. And so as we went
up to base camp, which is seventeen five hundred feet
and then climb Kala Guitar, which is in some of
those shots there, all under the shadow of Ama Doblin,

(18:40):
which is like the matter horn of the Himalayas. As
we went up, we were we wanted the viewer to
actually go in. So it's kind of a John Muir
type of thing. You know, you're not in the mountains,
the mountains are in you, or he always would say,
every time I went out, I actually found out I
was going in. And so we just used the Himalayas
as kind of a hike into the interior journey of
the heart and talked about that and what it's like

(19:02):
to journey with men, what it looks like to heal,
and the idea that you know, if you unless we
journey together, we dialone, which is true on extreme expeditions
you have to be reliant on people. And so that
kind of took off and it won dozens of film awards.
It's not a ton of platforms. Now you can find
it just about everywhere YouTube, Amazon, Prime, Hulu, to be Vimy,

(19:25):
all that stuff, and then a bunch of other things.
So we kind of caught a hold of that, and
then we came into this next film, which is The
Naked Soul, and it'll tell this near death story that
I just told you, But the real star of the
story of the film is going to be Shackleton, who
was the greatest explorer that probably ever lived. And his
story of survival bringing twenty eight men, well twenty seven

(19:49):
to twenty eight, including himself, back home from literally death
store that went on for multiple years in Antarctica is
the greatest survival story and exploration history.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
And so we.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Want to tell a part of his story that hasn't
really been told, and that's where, after all this stuff
has happened, his ship got crushed by the ice, so
his men were thrust onto the ice flows for months
at a time, they're drifting on this ice floe they're
trying to make do They haven't touched Terra firma land
for months and months, and then finally they get to
this island called Elephant Island, which is this desolate island

(20:23):
that nobody visits, so they're not in any shipping lanes.
There's no whaling stations nearby, so if they stay there,
they die. So then Shackleton gets the idea of okay,
let's take one of the lifeboats and built it up
a little bit. It's twenty three feet long, and he's
like the nearest station that we know where there's other humans.
It is eight hundred miles away. It's the island of
South Georgia, and that's maybe where we can spring or

(20:45):
rescue for these men because they can't get out of
there on three little lifeboats crossing the Southern Ocean, which
has killed twenty thousand sailors, especially during the Wooden Ship era.
So against all odds, seventeen days later they end up
on Elephant Island after going through forty to sixty foot

(21:05):
waves in a modified lifeboat twenty three feet long that
Captain Worsley only gets like three or four sextant readings.
So it's like if they miss the island, they're going
to be thrust into the Atlantic and never be heard
of again. They'll just find their skeletons on the boat,
so thatck. But as he's crossing over this island. So
they take nine days and they're just trying to recuperate

(21:25):
three of the guys or six of them. Now three
of the guys are so weak and are so invalid
that they can't do anything other than just sit and
wait for someone to rescue him. The boat's all battered up,
so they have to cross over South George Island because
of the storm that happened, they landed on the opposite
of the island, and now they're going into unknown territory.
And for the next thirty six hours they cross you know,

(21:47):
twenty five thirty miles of glaciated terrain, and in the
middle of that space, he had an encounter, which.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Is to get this book here. It's actually called.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Third Man Factor, and it's a very popular book. It
was a bestseller. But this guy chronicled all these episodes
and at the center of it, one of the most
well known stories was his story of Shackleton having a
third man encounter on South Georgia Island, which is an
old story. It goes back to the three Hebrew boys,
you know in the Fiery Furnace in the Book of Daniel,
and they threw these Heber boys and there because they

(22:22):
wouldn't bow down to King nebg Dezer's image and King
Nebic and Nezer's like, hey, I thought we threw three
guys in there. I'm seeing this fourth person looks like
a divine being, like a god, like who is this?
And then they come out of the fire and they
don't even smell like smoke. And so something intervened, something
broke the time space continuum, broke the veil between time
and eternity, and rescue those men. And since then there

(22:45):
have been other occurrences where people have felt such a
strong visceral feeling during times of incredible duress and stress,
where you know they're on the edge, they're on the
ridge of life and death, and somehow this person like
penetrates that time space barrier and invades our space time

(23:06):
continuum and gives them such a feeling of relief that
they actually feel like this persona is a person the
third man factor. And so as he's crossing over the island,
if they fall asleep, they're dead. It was a thirty
six hour push and they're severely dehydrated. All kinds of
things are going on their body. You know, a lot
of these people after the final rescue didn't live long

(23:28):
lives because they had gone through so much stress in
such a compacted short period of time. But during that
he talked with his companions afterwards, Captain Worsley and Tom Crane,
and they all had the same strange sensation that somebody
else was with them with them, And so you see
these stories keep popping up. The last guy that got

(23:49):
out of the South Tower, almost everybody on his floor
and above during nine to eleven perished because that was
the impact zone. He went through two or three floors
of flames, right, so he went against his own intuition,
got out of the building, was rescued, and people were like, hey,
how did you know what to do because everybody else

(24:10):
above you died like you did the exact opposite. And
he's like, well, you know, I just followed this person.
And they're like, ah, that doesn't make sense because we
found you alone. And then he's kind of like, you know,
that's funny you say that, And all these stories say
kind of the same thing. The minute I heard other
human voices, this person left. It was as if their
job was done. Guardian Angel or whatever label you want

(24:34):
to put on it. Divine being disappeared the minute I
was rescued, and so their job was completed.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
And so there's a lot of different angles in this.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
You know, you can look at it from a spiritual angle,
and people look at it from an ancestral language. Right.
A lot of Indigenous people believe that these are their
ancestors that are guiding them. It's an ancestral spirit.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
The people in the.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Cognitive community, you know, are like, wow, your brain is
just there's a lot of scientific language for this, but
you know, essentially what's happening is under great to rest.
Your mind is creating its own hallucination for its own comfort, right,
and so you're just splitting your psyche and this person
becomes like your imaginary guide. And so you have the
cerebral people, you have the ancestral people, you have the

(25:14):
spiritual people.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
I'm in the spiritual camp.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
I'm a follower of Christ, and so I believe my context,
the lens I'm looking through that makes the most sense
and has the most historical veracity, is Yeah, I think
there was guardian angels that came and in some cases,
you know, could have been preincarnated Christ and that happens
throughout the Old Testament. There's a number of occasions where
there's visitations in Old Testament times and stories. So we

(25:40):
want to tell that story and the main goal is
to let people know you're not alone. So when you're
like Corey Temboom, famous Dutch Holocaust survivor that was miraculously
released from her concentration camp where her died days later,

(26:01):
like all the women I can't were executed along with
probably my great aunt. We think that she was at
the same camp Robinsbrook. But she said that you don't
know that God is all you need until God is
all you have. So in my near death experience, I
didn't do anything except almost die. Like God put together

(26:22):
the rescue, he did it. I had nothing to do
with it. There was no way I can control or manipulate,
and neither could I control or manipulate. The narrative that
was happening during that fifteen minute winter, not just the
people that rescued me, but the conversations and the epiphanies
that I was having is beyond my imagination. It was
someone else took over the script and the same thing

(26:44):
happened with Shackleton, the same thing happened with the three
Hebrew Boys. There's times in your life where you know,
if God doesn't come through, it may not have the
ending that you're looking for. But in either case, whether
equals life in my case or death, which again some
days I'm the kind of like, well, why didn't you
take me?

Speaker 2 (27:03):
God?

Speaker 3 (27:05):
I'd rather be there with you. But he didn't open
up himself, he didn't embrace me. He had, he would
have become the gateway. He would have become the gate
to eternity, because we know from the biblical narrative that
no one gets to God except through Christ. And so
he didn't. He turned from me, and obviously it wasn't
my time. But had he embrace me, it would have

(27:26):
been I would not be here, I would be in
the other dimension.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
So we just want to get people comfort. You know,
you're not alone.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
There's a lot of big stuff, crazy stuff going on
every day, there's crazy news going on, but at the
center of that, there's an incredible calmness. In the center
of that calmness we find Christ. And at the center
of Christ we find the heartbeat of God that is
trying to echo into our dimension. You're not alone, you know,
I'm with you. Fear not, right, isn't that the big

(27:54):
words always Jesus interacting with the disciples. Don't be afraid,
fear not, don't be afraid fear not. You know, God
is a good guy.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
He cares for.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
Us, even when we don't see it or it doesn't
play out the way we think it should, He's always there.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
It's incredible. I will tell you that I've been in
those scenarios, not near death or death myself, but you know,
when we went through that with my daughter, she was
born in twenty seven weeks, we had this piece that
you just can't explain any other way other than saying
it's like the Bible says it, peace beyond understanding. It's

(28:35):
just it's hard to convey. And yet that's all you
want to do is share that with people, is share
that that promise, and that's what this film and now
docuseries is set to do. Folks want to be a
part of this. I know there's an opportunity to do that, obviously.

(28:55):
That's a that's another scenario here that you know, people
have been very We've seen, especially since the death of
Charlie Kirk, the assassination attempt and uh. And and unfortunately
that took his life. Uh. Turning point that organization has
really exploded. But not only that Bible salespeople. There's a

(29:16):
there is a hunger in this country. That is is Uh.
I think we're gonna we're going to continue to see
because people just want to see, they want to know
what the truth is and and we're getting we're getting
some of that right now. What's your take on that?

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Yeah, I just think to me it was a Harboringer moment.
You know, it has every once in a while, these
big events happen and you can sense that there's some
kind of hinge, there's a door that's opening, and and
martyrdom is a powerful hinge. And Charlie represented a lot
of you know, the best of us, right, and so
I think when his passing happened, to me, it was

(29:56):
very clear that here's there's there's a there's a.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
It's martyrdom, right.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
And as the church fathers always said, you know, the
churches advanced through the blood of the martyrs, or it
becomes a seed. The church has grown and flourishes from
the seed of the martyr, which is the blood of
the martyr. And so there's something really powerful with that,
and I think, you know, not all of us are
going to experience that. He had a big platform. He
was a courageous young man. He did a lot in

(30:22):
his young life, which to me indicates that whenever you
see those bright, brilliant comets, you know, those meteors that
just flash through the sky, and it's like their life
is compressed. You know, they're doing so much in one
decade that most of us will never do in multiple lifetimes.
You kind of have to keep your eye on that
because it's like, ah, there might be there might be
in our mind right a premature ending. But it may

(30:44):
be that God knows when he's going to pass, which
I believe is true of all of us. He knows
our beginning and our end. The choices are ours in between.
But I think God already knew that, Okay, this is
going to be the way that he exits, and we're
going to make sure that in the time he has,
which was only what thirty one years, which probably is
about the same age as John the Baptist, right, we're

(31:06):
going to compact his life, you know, and make sure
that whatever needs to be said is said in such
a brilliant way and in such a bright way. But yeah,
it was there was something happening. And then it was
incredible to see all these politicians who were like preaching
the gospel. I mean it was I don't think there's
any precedent for that to see people who are in

(31:28):
political office preach the gospel of Jesus Christ with great clearity,
right without a political agenda, just like, hey, this is
and I thought, this is something we need to pay
attention to, because these are the things that open up awakenings,
that open up doors. And I think we're on the
crest of that. And it's probably what explains also the
great rise of evil as well, because they're always together,

(31:49):
you know, those angels and demons, they always dance on
the same pinhead, if you will, right in the same space.
And so I think when you see all the demonic
it's it's also true that you'll also see the end. Yeah,
like you'll see the good. You know.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
It's like evil knows that the days are numbered, the
time is sticking, and so it gets emboldened. But that
also challenges us to become bolder with our faith, to
become bolder with the good that we're doing. And as
you mentioned this is sometimes watching what Charlie was able
to do, and I thought to myself, I've been thinking, gosh,

(32:24):
what am I doing enough? What am I? Look at
everything he accomplished. But yeah, to pray maybe those God
sized prayers to use me in the ways that that
it's only it becomes clear that you were a part
of it. And that's certainly the case with this docu series,
The Naked Soulf. So this is kind of like Angel
has gotten We've seen all of this. Culturally, things are

(32:47):
are really starting to expand and make an impact Charlie
Kirk's of the World, et cetera, and Angel Studios. We've
seen revival happening quite a bit. People are returning to church.
I mean, I've seen attendance and her or just just
just anecdotally that it is up big at churches right now.
But but this is another way for you to get

(33:11):
I guess involved in make an impact here. You're looking
for for folks to help in this mission. Come alongside
and fight to get this story out to people. In fact,
you're leaving pretty soon, aren't you to go?

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yeah, new month, remember ninth will be uh taking off
on a ship on the Southern Ocean, and to give
you an idea of what we're heading into, all the
beds on the boat have straps. Yeah, so that's you
don't see that I cruise ships, you know, right, I've
done tons.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Of those because they used to be in that industry.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
But uh it, we're hoping. I don't want it to
be so calm that we don't have good film footage.
But I don't want to be so rough for so
long that we're just dry heaving, you know, the whole way.
But yeah, it's we're going over the world's most dangerous
ocean to an island that's a thousand miles from civilization.
There's no rescue, you know, we're crossing crevasses and glacier
and so it's you know, we've got to put our

(34:04):
best foot forward and bring the best version of ourselves
and try and mirror what Shackleton went through and juxtappos
different you know, internal ideas with some of the physicality
of the journey. But yeah, we're inviting people now to
partner with us. I mean, Antarctica is not a cheap
place to visit, and this particular type of voyage that
is actually tracing his Footsteps only happens every couple of years,

(34:26):
so it's a very specific voyage that we are looking
to fund. And so it's kind of like a Shackleton thing.
You know, a lot of times he would take off
and he didn't have all of us funds raised and
they came in afterwards or during and so we believe
that this film will reach hunters of that maybe millions
of people, because it's, like you said, it's part of
a docu reality series right now. So it's kind of

(34:47):
like what Bear Girls has done with Into the Wild.
It's about the like parallel that I can think of,
but even more so, he's gotten into his faith as
of late. But most of his stuff was very it
was the physical. You know, how do you stay positive
in difficult situations and how do you handle risk?

Speaker 2 (35:04):
And those are all important things, but we want to
take the.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Physical aspect of it and highlight the spiritual and because that,
to us is the real journey, that's the big journey,
and everything else that we do is built on that.
In fact, I would argue that a lot of the
physical activity that we do is done because we can't
do the internal work. We can't do the hard work
So if you can't internalize and process and heal the pain,
then you pass it on other people or you perform

(35:29):
it through extreme measures, whether it's working out in a
gym for eight hours or and so we want to
be mindful of that that people are. There's two different
journeys going on. Yes, we're going on a physical, exciting,
arduous journey filled with risk for sure, but we also
want to take the viewer inside and look at you know,
when are the times that you feel most salone? And

(35:50):
what do you do in those times? And is God enough?
And as God does even care? Is even here? You know,
those big big questions. So yeah, we're looking for people
help us. We've raised about half of the funds to
film it, and then we need to raise the other half,
which is about forty thousand at this point, and that
will actually allow us to create a trailer and then

(36:13):
raise the next level of funds to actually edit the
film and get it on a ton of different platforms.
But the key is to get the trailer, I think,
to move the needle even forward. But to do that
we have to have a film and we've got to
pay for a film crew to be a part of
this and again, Antarctica is not cheap to go to
and this is almost a month of our time, so
it's a pretty big commitment.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
These are god sized missions and the way that he
comes through, as you mentioned, sometimes in a way that
it's clear that only he can get the credit for it.
And man, wouldn't that be something if that took place
and you could help be a part of it. A
great way to do this. What's the best way if

(36:56):
folks do want to be a part of it. Obviously
we've got some great folks Base Camp alumni probably listening.
By the way, your neighbor Doug says, Hi, he's awesome.
It's funny how many people will pop out. I don't
know where Doug's here today too, so he says, Hi.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
Hey Doug, I see my bike rides by his house.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Next time, he said, come by and pick up a check.
I don't know what, Doug, I don't know what that means.
This is a cool way for us to uh support
something that I do believe guide's moving, and of course
a way to be a part of it. And full disclosure,
I've been a part of this this, you know, with

(37:36):
Grace Explorations and what you guys have been doing for gosh,
I don't know even know now years now, Devin, what
I've seen God do in the move, in every different
phase of it, throughout the little base camp meetings, spreading
throughout the country and first to state of Michigan, but
then even further as the documentary series you know you've

(37:58):
taken people to is really you've taken people to up
on the to Mount Everest, and now you're taking us
all to this this historic voyage. I mean, it's it's
going to be incredible, and yeah, I know people are
gonna want to be a part of it. What's the
best way for them to do that?

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Yeah, So our website it doesn't even have this stuff
on it because it's kind of a side project that's
in process. But at Grace Explorations dot Com is a
great website to view what we have done thus far
that has episode one with the True Summon on it.
But if they want to partner with us, probably the
best way for them.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Is just shoot me an email.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
And although there are giving links that are on the website,
you know at Grace Explorations dot com. But Kevin at
Grace explorations that's poorer with an s Kevin at Grace
Explorations dot com.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
Is probably the best way.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
And then I can send them some specific information like
our latest newsletters, you know, with all kinds of explanations
of how you can partner and itemize costs. You know,
sometimes people are like, hey, I want to pay that
part of the journey, and so there's ways they can
do that, and then just giving them the overarching like, Okay,
where are we.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Going with this?

Speaker 3 (39:07):
This is episode two? What does episode three and four
look like? You know, what are your objectives? What do
you hope to accomplish? Who are you trying to reach?
So we can send them a newsletter link and that'll
explain all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah, I love it. I love what you're doing. I
love that you're obedient to do it. I know this
is like part of who you are. But dude, I
mean sometimes I don't want to leave the house to
go down to the You're going out into the middle
of it, and uh and and I know that's kind
of in your blood. That's the way you were, you
were made. I think he wired you that way. But

(39:42):
to fulfill some some big some big things, and man,
I can't wait to see what's next.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah, you know, and I appreciate you justin you've been
You're on our board of directors and you've been an
integral part. People are like, how did you launch something
that you know impacted all these menu It's like, well,
we had a lot of favor and you were.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
One of them.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
I mean, to be able to get them with radio
and then of course being able to be on on
Beck Show was you know, unbelievable. I mean, how many
million who knows how many people heard that story and
that was all done because of our relationship with you,
and you know, we're very, very grateful for that.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Yeah, I am too. I will tell you, Oh did
we lose I think we lost Kevin. He may have
gotten a phone call, but we'll bring him back in here.
Well where he's going, there is no signal, so better
better get used to it.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah, yeah, am I back?

Speaker 1 (40:36):
You are back. Thank you, Thank you for taking the
time today, Kevin, and I will I will let folks know.
In fact, there are people that have questions. We're going
to let the VIPs and the Freedom Fam. If you're
not a Vita Vip Freedom Fam member, it's just seven
bucks a month until the end of this month, you
can ask questions. You get our secret show prop daily
delivered right to your email, all kinds of great perks.

(40:58):
My audiobook is in there to listen to for free,
and if you sign up for a whole year, you'll
get a month for you plus I'll send you my
signed book Good News, Hoping Encouragement for trying time. So
join in. It's a great way to help support what
we're doing. But those folks VIPs get to ask Kevin
some questions, So just a moment if you're If you're
one of those folks, stand by, we'll be right back

(41:19):
with you. If not, Kevin thinks again, we appreciate you.
We'll be praying for you while you're gone. And if
folks want to keep up the date, maybe you can't
contribute right now, that's fine. You want to maybe stay
in touch and find out what they're doing. Grace Explorations
dot com is the website. Thanks again, and we appreciate
you and just your obedience and all you do to

(41:39):
to continue walking through. We got it. God bless

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On a Mission From God - Kevin DeVries (podcast)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}On a Mission From God - Kevin DeVries (podcast)