September 9, 2025 • 63 mins
In this episode of Faith in the Line of Duty, the host reflects on the journey of my Uncle, Felix Menjivar, a former Marine and Deputy Sheriff, who shares his powerful testimony of faith, resilience, and the importance of community support. The conversation explores Felix's childhood experiences, military service, challenges in law enforcement, and his transformative faith journey. The episode emphasizes the significance of serving others, building healthy relationships, and the unwavering love of God.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Welcome to the final episode of Season 1 of Faith in the Line of Duty.
This episode is special not just because of the story, but because of what God has done tobring it all together.
What started as a small step of obedience has grown into something I could have neverimagined.
When the Lord first placed this ministry on my heart, I didn't know how it would go.
But He has been faithful every single step of the way.
(00:27):
I found myself boarding a plane from Washington D.C.
to Tallahassee,
(00:59):
Throughout this season, I've had the honor of sharing the powerful testimonies of firstresponders and military men and women who have found their strength, peace, and identity
in Jesus Christ, even in the face of danger, trauma, and loss.
(01:21):
something that was more powerful than the beauty of the landscape was the kindness ofpeople.
It reminded me that the body of Christ doesn't just gather in churches, it shows up incommunities and small towns and conversations over coffee.
In this episode, we talk about what it means to serve with integrity, to be refined byGod's grace, and to follow Jesus, even when it means stepping back into the fight.
(01:45):
This isn't just an interview, it's a testimony of redemption, purpose, and the power ofGod's call.
So stay with me as we close this season with a story that reminds us all of Philippianschapter 1 verse 6.
When the Lord begins a good work in you, He will carry it through to completion.
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to the 12th episode of Faith in the Line of Duty.
(02:08):
It's been a great season.
Today I have the honor of introducing my uncle Felix.
So yeah, just so excited to be here.
As you guys can notice, in a coffee shop right now.
So why don't you just tell us a little bit about that.
Well, ah this was a dream uh of my wives and we kind of use a little bit of my backgroundand our love for God.
(02:38):
It's a combination of God, coffee, and guns.
So, as you know, and we name it 50 Cal Coffee and Desserts, uh kind of as a...
uh joke.
you know, my shooting my 50 cal.
(02:58):
So it was just kind of just developed from there.
But it's really aim at blessing people have given them a place where they can come andfeel comfortable, you know, be they can come here and praise, just have a peaceful place.
um And also use
(03:21):
you know, from my background as military, know, Marines and then deputy sheriff for 20years.
The also I did EMS and some volunteer firefighter that I have a real deep connection withthe military veterans myself, obviously, and all the first responders out there who who
just get pounded every day and they don't have they don't they don't seem to get the love.
(03:44):
So this place is that um safe place.
I don't wanna use that word, safe place, a place where they're welcome and they feel thisis where they belong here and that's what this is about.
Awesome.
Yeah.
And first time coming in here, it's just all the stuff, you know, all the guns on thewalls, just how everything is uh faith based.
(04:06):
know, you got prayer cards over there and Bibles on the tables.
It's just it's really cool to see a business that is putting God first um and is alsohonoring the first responders and military.
So that's why I thought it was just a perfect place to do it and hold the podcast.
So, yeah, thank you for what you've done with the business and how you've, you know.
(04:27):
just allowed God to bless people through it.
It's truly, truly been amazing to be able to see it these last couple days.
Well, God has, you know, I didn't know it at first, but God has loved me and blessed me myentire life.
And we're here because of that.
This place is because of his blessings.
(04:50):
So we want to make sure that people have a benefit of that blessing.
We're just passing it on.
We're just the conduits.
uh
such a great attitude.
So yeah, let's let's just take a little dive into your story a little bit.
Just start with your childhood.
What was that like?
(05:10):
So throughout my childhood, I've pretty much moved a lot throughout life.
And not talking little moves, we moved countries.
I was born in El Salvador in 1968, so I'm quite old.
So I lived there until I was about seven years old.
(05:34):
Just as I was starting first grade.
my parents moved to Nicaragua for a job.
basically every move we did was almost because uh my dad got a different job, it kind ofimproved his career.
And lived there in Nicaragua.
um Throughout that time in Nicaragua, that's when the Sandinistas and Somoza, thegovernment, was having the Civil War.
(06:02):
And so I lived through that.
um
We left in 1979 when the Sun is over through the government.
There was basically all the economy crashed.
And how old were you?
But see, 1979, but 11.
Wow.
So about in 68.
So, Well, yeah, I saw the piles of bodies, you know, one side of the guard, the guardwould be on one side of the block.
(06:32):
The Sun needs to be on the other side of the neighborhood in between.
I mean, the houses were like shredded.
It was luckily we lived on the outskirts.
So we weren't our ourselves were not in the middle of the battles.
Well, again, like I said, you know, God has always taken care of me and my family.
(06:54):
don't know.
Do think that's why you have the outlook that you do is you can see how other parts of theworld lived and
I you know
We take this country for granted.
It's not perfect.
No place is.
(07:14):
But when you look at what other people don't have, or the way they have to live, and youlook at the things we get to do here, we can disagree with our government and be
boisterous.
We protest and everything's fine.
You don't disappear.
You don't go into some secret cell and, you know.
(07:37):
It is not perfect, but it is the best place that I've seen.
know, from traveling all over the world, between with as a child in my family and then inthe military.
It's there.
There is no comparison.
So what happened after that?
So in 79, economy collapsed, so my dad lost that job.
(07:59):
He used to work for BMW.
He was in the automotive industry.
so we went back to El Salvador for a couple of months while he was traveling looking foranother job.
We ended up moving to Panama, to the Panama Canal Zone, the free zone on the Atlanticside, the Cedio Colon.
(08:24):
And he got a job with a Russian company that I don't know if you see in the old movies,the cars that look like Fiat's older looking car.
So the Fiat looking ones are Lada's L.A.D.A.s.
And then the other ones are Volgas.
And so they would export those to South America from the Panama Canal.
(08:45):
So he worked for them throughout that.
And I live with.
We live in Panama from 79 to 83.
My parents got divorced.
And my mom took us to San Francisco.
(09:06):
Until that point, I only knew how to speak Spanish.
So at 13, I moved to San Francisco knowing not a word of English.
the one thing I have to say is
The school district in San Francisco, I believe I still have it, is a high school calledNewcomer High.
(09:31):
And all they do is bring people that don't know English, and they do a full immersion forthat first year, whatever grade they're in.
And luckily I was a ninth, so I started high school.
And ah the whole goal is to get you proficient so you can move into a regular high school.
(09:51):
So I did that and my 10th grade, while I was at Newcomer High, they were opening a newacademic high school in San Francisco, so I put in an application.
And as I was ready to transition, they told me, you've been accepted.
(10:17):
So I went to that and so I went to Philip Burton.
academic high school from 10th to 12th grade.
Our class was 37 people.
That's the graduating class.
Today they graduate over 500.
Wow.
So we were the first graduating class of that high school.
long did it take you to become fluent in that language?
(10:39):
ah For me, it took about six months uh to get the transition in my head.
You go from hearing the question, going into your head, translating it, and then makingthe response.
So there's that little lag time that you normally get, but it takes about full immersion.
(11:01):
It takes about six months, and then your brain switches.
You're no longer thinking in your language.
You're thinking in the new language.
So when I...
When I speak Spanish, I think in Spanish.
When I talk to you in English, I don't go back and forth, I just think in English.
And that's the way you want to do it, but it requires uh commitment.
(11:24):
We had people in the high school that, you can do as literal as much as you want.
Because you have your groups of people, you go during lunch and talk to them in yourlanguage, well, guess what?
you're not transitioning.
So there people that spend the entire year there and never learn anything.
(11:44):
Because, you know, I, for whatever reason, know, my TV was in English, all my movies werein English.
The only time I spoke Spanish was to my mom.
Yeah.
So cool.
That's a really cool school.
I'm glad they are still doing that.
Yeah, I hope they are.
haven't double checked, but I do believe they still have it.
Awesome.
(12:05):
So did you join the Marine Corps right out of high school?
Yes.
um During that time, wasn't uh quite didn't know quite what I was going to do.
And the Marine Corps recruiter, I think he showed up at the high school like they usuallydo.
(12:26):
But I ended up actually looking, looking him up and going to the recruiting office.
And somehow I ended up
Joining the Marine Corps right out of high school.
And so why did you choose the Marines over the other branches?
I think he was probably the most, uh he was Johnny on the spot.
(12:50):
actually, I had a friend in that high school.
um So we had a lot of military kids from the bases um in San Francisco.
And one of my friends, his dad was in the Marine Corps and he was.
just going home in the Marines.
(13:12):
So it kind of got that thought in my mind.
So when the recruiter talked to me, that's the way, the when I went.
don't think he, um don't know where he went, because I think they moved before wegraduated.
So we didn't graduate together, but I think he would have been surprised that I actuallyjoined the Marine Corps.
(13:34):
That's cool that he inspired you.
He was one of those like, was, you know, fit, was like, go, go, go, go.
We went to we went on camping trips with a, you know, with this with the school and whenman he we would just go in the woods like.
Yeah.
So what was your job?
ah
31.
(13:55):
So I everything that has wheels I can drive.
And what year did you join?
OK.
Yeah.
So it right around the desert shield.
this is shield, is 90.
90 and into 91.
Gotcha.
And you were deployed out there,
(14:15):
Originally, no, um I wasn't part of the first people.
I was stationed in Altura with the Marine Corps stationed in Altura, the air wing.
And as things start to settle down, start sending more people.
I was single, so I volunteered.
I says, you can send me.
There's people that didn't want to get deployed, but the units had to send X amount ofpeople from each unit.
(14:41):
Right.
So I said, I'll go.
uh
you tell us a little bit about what that was like?
So the first what they know what they did is they climatized you.
So you spend several months.
I to uh Yuma, Arizona.
Actually, yeah, Yuma, Arizona.
And we trained in the desert for about a month getting kind of getting us ready for theheat that we're going to be experiencing and just getting ah then we.
(15:15):
I.
About a month and half later.
I was in country in Saudi Arabia, and I don't know if I'm saying this correctly, I wasmainly stationed at the port of Al Javal, so where all the supplies were coming in by
ship, all the military vessels would come in for to resupply, so I was based out of there,and I would be driving semis, flatbeds, and I would transport anything from
(15:47):
know, palletized, aircraft palletized, you know, stacks of water, ah anything that neededto be moved from the rear to the front, uh small arms, ammunition, 2,000 pound bombs, you
named it, I moved it.
ah So they dubbed it the Baghdad Express.
Man, that's such an important job to have for sure.
uh Man, that's cool.
(16:09):
So looking back at your time in the Marine Corps, what would you say would be your mostmemorable moment?
For me, I would say the day I was at camp, don't know if it was the third or fourth day,because first they do all the admin stuff and they keep you awake for days.
(16:32):
guess it's part of the...
So I'm in the barracks, they have us sitting on the ground and the senior drill instructorcomes in, mean, sharp as hell.
Marches in, very professional.
He goes, my name is such and such, know, during instruction such and such.
I'd be in charge of your overall training.
(16:54):
Very professional.
I'm thinking like, wow, this may be not be that bad, right?
And he's going, and he brings, Marches in the first junior general instructor, introduceshim.
I mean, they're standing at attention.
The second junior general instructor, and they had, we had a third one that was intraining that I had just, you know,
being I guess evaluated to be a full junior drill instructor.
(17:18):
So we had three.
Then he says, then he sends the junior drill instructors back into the DI office andcontinues talking very professional, my expectations are, and we're like, I'm sitting
there, know, front row.
And then he says, junior drill instructors, they're yours.
(17:38):
And is like,
Tasmanian devils just came flying out of that, you know, office kicking, screaming,throwing things.
mean, people were running everywhere.
they were just they just went fricking nuts.
They went from zero to a thousand.
I swear I had an out of body experience.
(18:00):
I visit to this day.
I remember I was sitting here on the ground and I'm standing facing myself.
And I'm looking, what did you just do?
I'm serious.
To this day, I remember seeing myself sitting.
Yeah, we'll never get that that causes your stress levels to go away.
(18:25):
Yeah
I was like, they lulled you into a sense of, this is going to be nice, they'reprofessional.
And then they go nuts.
This is the whole time when they could...
and it doesn't matter what branch we all share that moment of, hey, what did I just getmyself?
Yeah.
Yeah.
One thing I've always wondered is that when you talk to veterans uh in different branchesother than the Marine Corps um and you ask them, you know, what did you do?
(18:55):
You know, they always say, I'm a Marine.
Right.
So um other branches that say, yeah, I served in the Army, the Coast Guard.
the Air Force, you know, and this is what I did.
So is that something that they instill?
So that's it's part of the tradition.
It's always the same as once a Marine, always a Marine.
(19:18):
You're not a former.
You're never.
uh It's always you're always once you once you earn the Eagle, Globe and Anchor.
You're part of that brotherhood.
You will never not be.
That's one of the things that's always been instilled.
It's part of the pride of the Marine Corps is once a Marine, always a Marine.
And if you notice
(19:39):
In an army, you're a soldier.
In an Air Force, you're an airman.
In a Navy, you're a sailor.
In the Marine Corps, in the Marines, you're a Marine.
You are what the branch is.
So I guess we're the smallest branch, but we seem to have the proudest, at least for me,the proudest history.
(20:04):
The name Devil Dog, the, you know.
first to fight.
All those things are from things in history and that's where we get who we are.
That's so cool.
Thank you.
I've always wondered that, so that's good to hear.
never know.
Former Marine.
No, no, no.
Yeah.
And it's not, I mean, it's everybody, you ask.
(20:27):
I heard it any differently, I'd be kind I'd be kind of.
If you hear somebody who says I used to be a Marine, I don't think they probably were.
So what made you get out of the Marine Corps?
Well, originally, I love flying.
think everybody, know, I was stationed in the Marine Corps Station, El Toro, and our motorpool was right next, was right at the flight line.
(20:52):
So jets were taking off.
mean, continuously, they had the C-130 squadron was to, you know, right right after us.
And I wanted to be in an aircraft.
So I did all my swim quals.
I did everything I was going to realist.
And I had
I already had I was going to be uh loadmaster and see 130s.
(21:12):
That was like and then the training officers like, OK, you're all good to go.
But I have some bad news.
The next school seat is a year and a half away.
And you know what happens in the military when you don't have an M.O.S.
You're you do guard duty, mass duty.
uh You're you're you're doing field duty.
(21:35):
You're just basically every little.
crappy job that nobody wants to do.
so I said, mm, nah, I'll get out.
And I almost joined LAPD at that time.
Oh, because they were hiring in the I was right there in, you know, in Orange County.
All those Sanchez just just north of that.
(21:57):
But I somehow I I didn't do it.
Moved to Yakima, Washington, and, know, where my mom had moved to.
And I spent...
um
You know, I got there in 91.
And, you know, my first job was changing tires to Sears.
(22:20):
You know, started, I didn't have, other than...
I did have my class A CDL, but, I had been driving, I said like a side job in themilitary, tour buses in Orange County, but Yakima doesn't have tour, you know, a tour bus
industry.
And I didn't feel, you know, I just didn't feel comfortable driving commercially, youknow, it just didn't cross my mind, although I did have the license.
(22:47):
So I started doing automotive and.
Started at Sears changing tires, changing batteries, moved up, moved up and then learnedeverything I could there.
uh Then I found an actual automotive shop that and that person took me under their wingand showed me uh from and again, just built me up, gave me all that knowledge.
(23:13):
By the time I left that shop, all I was doing is drivability and electronics.
So I no longer was getting dirty.
I mean, I was clean the entire time.
I OK, this car, I was diagnosing and giving it to the next guy.
um in between that, uh the friend that I was driving for tour buses while I was in themilitary calls me.
(23:38):
This is 1994.
says, hey, you want to come drive some buses for me?
He's like, sure, why not?
So I went back to Orange County.
Actually, I was in Fontana, California in Irvine.
And I drove tour buses there for about a year, year and a half.
It was fun.
I mean, I got to go to a lot of shows, a lot of places for free.
(23:59):
know, the driver goes gets comped.
would that year was when the Huskies went to the Rose Bowl.
The University of Washington Huskies went to the Rose Bowl.
And obviously I took USC.
I was driving USC USC, you know, people.
(24:20):
a fraternity to this roast bull.
So I got to be at the roast bull.
And January is when the Super Bowl was at the roast bull.
I got to go to the Super Bowl.
I have I somewhere I have the pin.
Wow.
Yeah, it's like.
It was it was like.
It doesn't happen, but the industry is such, you know.
(24:43):
You is feast or famine, you either working in your butt off or you're not eating.
So it's like, no, this is not for me.
I went back.
And at what point did you get into law enforcement?
So, so I come back in 94, get back into the automotive industry, then realize, okay, oh Iwant to do more.
(25:07):
So I started doing computer aided drafting for a company in Yakima called Irwin Researchand Development.
make the machines that make the plastic products like cups.
These lids are made by machines that I designed.
Maybe not specifically this brand, but the tooling, the machines, that company sells themworldwide.
(25:31):
And so we would make the machine that makes the product.
And then they buy the machines from us.
And I did that.
And while I was doing that, I was sitting on my computer and I see one of my coworkerswalk by in full deputy uniform.
And I said, like, wait a minute.
Why are you?
He's like, yeah, I'm a reserver.
I reserved for the county.
(25:52):
Yacama County Sheriff's Office, have a reserve program.
And I said, really?
So I applied, went to the Reserve Academy, started reserving.
And at that time, I had gone from the design side of the company to the manufacturing sideof the company.
And I working, was the weekend foreman.
(26:13):
So I would work from 3 p.m.
on Friday to 10 p.m.
on Sunday.
You know, 312s.
So I had Monday through Friday free.
So I was reserving.
I mean, I was patrolling more than I was doing full time.
And I had tested for the full time position.
um They called me, said, hey, you're you're number one on our list.
(26:39):
You still interested?
yeah.
So that was April of 98.
I was in the Academy by June.
I graduated in November.
And for, so I started with Yakima County Sheriff's Office.
uh yeah.
I was there until 2000.
Okay.
Yeah.
And we moved I lateral to San Juan County Sheriff's Office in the Puget Sound.
(27:04):
um That's when our kids were starting to get into the school system.
So my wife didn't like it.
And so we chose to move and uh was a good decision for their education.
Not a great decision for my career.
Yeah.
So in your time in law enforcement, can you tell us a little about the different jobs andpositions you had?
(27:30):
So I'm the kind of person that likes to learn a lot.
like I said, I was always being blessed in my opportunities.
While I was at the Sheriff's Office with Yakima, this was the boom of the methamphetaminelabs.
They were popping up everywhere, math was everywhere.
(27:52):
And it still is.
And one of the reasons why Yakima was such a
You know, oh one of the counties that had a lot of labs is because that's a farmingcommunity.
And it's apples, cherries, and all of those things get harvested and go into cold storage.
(28:13):
Well, the commercial refrigerant for those facilities is an hydrosammonia, which is one ofthe key ingredients for making the methamphetamine in the, know, pseudo-phenid reduction
method, or the Nazi method.
There are other methods, but in this method that they use on the street, that's thechemical they need and it's readily available.
(28:38):
And everybody knew that the orange pipes on those facilities wasn't hydrozymonia and theycan't lock them because for safety they have to be able to be shut down in emergencies.
So it was just prevalent.
During that time, who all did you work with?
Was it just your county or was it anyone else?
oh
First I started patrol, obviously.
um Then this position opened up, I applied.
(29:02):
I was able to get it, so I went into detectives.
ah I was two years on the job.
And um went to work with the law enforcement against drugs lead task force, the narcoticstask force, which was a multi-jurisdictional.
We had um officers from different cities in the county.
(29:23):
um Obviously,
The Sheriff's Office had several officers there, including myself.
The State Patrol had several officers, know, troopers there, and they also managed the,one of their sergeants managed the unit.
We had um federal, we had at the time, uh FBI and DEA.
(29:45):
I don't remember if we had ATF, but I know we had those, the first two.
So that gave us jurisdiction to,
go anywhere the investigation took us.
if we had to go follow that guy to California and back or anywhere, we had jurisdiction.
the...
so we could follow them anywhere.
(30:06):
And so for our listeners, can you tell us a little bit about, with it being a federalcase, how that kind of changes the prosecution side of things?
Yeah, the benefit of having a federal prosecutor pick up any of our cases was that theminimum sentencing is way higher.
uh While I was there, the task force was already investigating.
(30:33):
They had been working on a group of people, know, uh a meth lab manufacturing.
And so...
But I was there when the culmination, we did surveillance, uh and we arrested the group.
I believe it was around 25 people altogether.
(30:56):
um And so the guy in charge, the meth cook, um his minimum sentence was life, federally.
It was under manufacturing and conspiracy to manufacture.
So under conspiracy, else will get a minimum, if I understand it was a minimum of 15.
(31:18):
So by going that direction, there's a big stick.
You go state-wide, they might have been out in a couple of months.
Man, talk about deterrence.
Wow.
So I know with getting to know you a little bit, you're really big on training.
uh During your time in law enforcement, what has been your most uh fun uh training thatyou've been able to go through?
(31:46):
Well, as far as fun, uh so after 9-11, uh good, or indifferent, the federal governmentopened up a lot of the training to local agencies, state, county, uh through the uh Center
for Domestic Preparedness, the CDP.
uh Most of it is based in Anniston, Alabama.
(32:10):
uh
And there's a massive training center there.
You do chemical, biological, do mass casualty.
They have a full hospital mock, you where so you can come into mass incident trainings.
You do your part here, you there, and then you come together into a training scenarioswhere everybody's doing their thing.
(32:33):
Could be a train derailment with massive casualties.
You can do a decon.
You could be biological.
They have
Is Aniston at?
uh
And it's in Alabama, it's one of the two, Fort McClellan, it's one of the two places inthe United States where they have live agents, VX, Anthrax, so you get to suit up and go
(32:59):
live with those chemicals and agents.
you learn how to work in that environment and have the confidence that if you're in reallife, you have to go, you know your equipment works, you know you've done it, you know if
you do it properly, your chances of success are pretty good.
um
So, but through all that, I've been to Socorro, New Mexico to the mining school and forthe suicide bomber, they're post blast investigation, you blow up a lot of things.
(33:32):
ah The biggest one we blew up was we put 200 pounds of ammonium nitrate fuel oil in thetrunk of a car.
Talk about.
Boom.
Yeah.
And so, well, you're far away when you blow it, but um that's a massive blast.
(33:53):
But the point is, is people think that once you blow things up, they're gone.
No, everything is there.
It's just tiny.
So you have to know how to approach the scene, what you're seeing that collect, collecteverything and.
Prime example, how do you think that the Oklahoma bombing?
(34:17):
That's a prime example of evidence collection.
They were able to find a vent, you know, a secret part of the vent on that on that.
Yeah, it was there.
And that's suicide, you know, suicide vests and how they how they explode and what whatwhat kind of damage they can do.
How do you respond to a suicide bomber?
(34:37):
All those things, the realities of it, the
I think for me, for the most fun, was blowing things up.
Wow.
Man, that's super cool.
Thanks for sharing that.
That's very neat.
And definitely the first person I've ever heard doing that.
So let's talk about your faith journey a little bit.
(35:02):
So tell us a little bit about how you came to know Jesus.
My daughter.
It's short.
Short part of the story is my daughter.
I was raised Catholic.
Obviously, Latin America is heavy Catholic.
All the private schools are Catholic.
You know, Jesuit or uh actually all the private schools that I went to were Jesuit.
(35:29):
La Salle um is the one I remember the most.
in Latin America, if you want to have a good education,
You can't go to a public school.
You have to go to private school and they're all um managed by Catholics or they'rereligious based.
(35:49):
So I was raised Catholic.
Nuns were my teachers.
So it is true.
They used to have a meter and they were reaching.
You know, I had a couple, but.
I was never really, you know, a believer.
(36:11):
I was just raised around it.
As an adult, I never actually thought about it until my joke used to be that, you know, Idon't go into the church because I might burst into flames.
know, that used to be my saying.
And so I never actually, I felt uncomfortable.
I just didn't believe.
I felt it was hypocritical.
(36:31):
that people do all these bad things outside and they go to church on Sunday and theypretend to be mightier than thou.
So I just couldn't identify with that.
So I did my own thing.
I'm of the belief that if I'm, for me to have a connection with God, I don't need abuilding.
(36:52):
And that was very, very, you know.
That's how I was.
I don't need to be in a brick and mortar building or anywhere for me to reach God.
This is my connection between me and him.
But again, it was not a real connection.
That was my belief.
(37:15):
So I was working as a deputy sheriff in San Juan County at the time.
My daughter was a teenager.
teenagers have their struggles.
And one of her friends brought her to Calvary San Juan.
uh She was she that's her.
That was her friend's church.
So you brought her there.
My daughter started going.
(37:37):
And one weekend that she went to a retreat with with them, came back baptized.
I was I was actually angry because like that's a big decision.
You know, you need to talk to us.
uh But no, I was like and I could see her demeanor.
I could see that.
It was a positive change.
It had been happening as he was going.
(37:58):
So I said, OK.
And one day she said, Dad, I want you to come with me.
I was like, all right.
I'd do anything for my little girl.
uh She as she can testify.
So I went and it was it was kind of a.
A wake up call, because my idea of church was Catholic Church.
(38:21):
You know, all that structure, it's all about you are a sinner, you're a sinner, you're asinner, you know, you repent, you're damned.
And the message in here was, no, it's, you Jesus died for you.
You know, it's yours.
(38:42):
And it was more about praising God and just the love.
that was in that church and how you were welcomed.
didn't matter who you were.
I I was in full uniform.
this was a time, know, this is Washington, was very liberal, very anti-government.
(39:04):
They don't like law enforcement.
And that was one place where I was welcomed.
And it's like, wow.
So I started going.
My daughter moved off island for school.
So at the time, was basically just me at the house.
And I kept going and one day, uh one Sunday, just decided to take Jesus into my heart andgot baptized.
(39:29):
Wow.
And David had taped it, so I sent it to my daughter.
This is your doing!
Wow.
Praise God.
That is so good.
And I think really the difference, know, in Romans 323 says, you know, for all of sinnedand will fall short of the glory of God.
it's not, you know, fallen, you know, with it saying fall, you know, you know, we're stillgoing to continue to sin, you know, but he's right there to meet us where we are.
(39:56):
Yeah.
And I think that's, you know, probably the biggest difference.
So what would you say?
changed in your life after you uh made that decision.
Well.
My personality is one of those where.
(40:19):
I feel like I should be able to do everything myself.
And he was breaking me.
ah
I couldn't, you know, I was separated.
know, my ex wife and I are the best friends.
We raised amazing kids.
But our marriage, you know, little by little, because of things on the job, you know, thesmall community pressures, all sort of things.
(40:48):
And how it was handling the stress of the job, we kind of fell apart.
You know, and it was me just not
communicating, not being able to express myself.
ah And then she also took a job off island, so she was living off island.
So I was by myself.
(41:08):
And little by little, I was just not being able, know, not handling things well.
doing that, just made me realize that I'm not alone.
I can't do it by myself.
not only with the support of the church, but also I have, you know, my Holy Father that islooking after me.
(41:35):
And all this time I'm thinking, you know, I'm taking care of myself, I'm doing this, youknow, complaining why I'm not going in this direction.
And he was just guiding me in on a path.
But it took me a while to realize it, you know, and it started there.
But again, had to take several years more for it to come to fruition.
(41:56):
That's powerful.
So.
What would be some uh advice you would give uh for a healthy marriage?
And the reason I ask that is because, you know, after these last couple of years with youand Aunt Tammy being married, I can tell you to just have a genuine love for each other
(42:18):
the way you, you know, see each other, um the way you guys have excitement.
And it's not just that honeymoon, you know, uh feeling.
So can you just give us like a little roadmap of kind of what a healthy marriage
looks like ah when you're both going after Christ together.
I think that's the key right there.
um We have a common path.
(42:46):
With us, with Tammy and I, it's we came in together at the right time.
I think we always talk to each other and say, why, you know, I wish I had met you sooner.
But the reality is is that we weren't together sooner because we weren't ready for eachother yet.
We had to learn our lessons, especially me.
(43:06):
um When in my prior marriage, I loved my wife.
I would.
You know, even to this day, I I would do anything for her.
We stay in common in contact.
um It's.
But I wasn't able to.
(43:27):
Express it the way she needed me to my way, I express love.
I do things for you.
I do deeds of love.
She wanted affirmation.
She wanted to be told she wanted to.
And.
I just couldn't.
It was like there was a.
choke hold on my voice.
(43:48):
I felt it.
I couldn't express it.
I just wasn't mature enough.
I just didn't have the tools to be able to feed what she needed in that relationship.
And when you don't communicate, there's a lot of misunderstanding.
(44:09):
And we also have to understand where we are creatures of our past.
We bring
luggage and whether we recognize it or not it affects any colors how we see things.
um You know if somebody has had domestic violence in their past and they've traumatized Imight not be violent I might they don't they might be I might not be they might not be in
(44:36):
fear of me attacking them but if I raise my voice their body goes into you know fighterflights you know syndrome.
And adrenaline goes up and they put up defenses and react to certain ways.
I might take it as like offensive, know, why are you doing this?
So they're miscommunication because we don't understand each other's backgrounds.
(44:58):
And that's a lot that happens in every marriage.
We think that everything's going to be fine because we love each other.
Oh, everything's, you know, rainbows and unicorns.
It's not.
That's that first stage.
If you don't work on it and communicate, it goes away.
And then you settle into this, where it's more of a job.
(45:20):
And that's where I think we stumble a lot is.
There is no manual on how.
And life throws things at you every single moment.
Your job, finances, ah kids.
Kids, big stressor.
(45:41):
And everybody wants kids, but they take time.
And if your relationship wasn't strong enough when you started as a husband and wife, yougo into mom and dad mode.
the husband wife part falls apart, you still there because you're driven to take care ofyour young ones or your children.
(46:03):
But when they go, you have nothing in common.
So the key is.
I wish it was a simple recipe, but it's about really listening to your partner and give,give.
(46:24):
We always think like, why do we get in return?
No, just give.
If both partners just care about giving to each other, no matter, you know, withoutthinking, what do I get back?
That's where the blessing comes in.
Yeah, you're supposed to serve each other the more you serve each other.
You serve each other.
And it is amazing because I keep telling my wife, Tammy, like, you know, I'm not a kid.
(46:52):
I can do this.
But she just wants to bless me with everything.
You know, she cooks me breakfast.
You know, I am so spoiled.
It's not even funny.
But it just drives me to love her more and I want to bless her more.
And it's just this.
It's not a competition, but you just want to do it.
Yeah, you know.
(47:12):
And that's the thing is that we just serve each other that.
We can't out give each other and definitely we cannot out give God.
Yeah, you know, as we go throughout life, you know, the Lord has, you know, created in hisword, basically, you know, you know, a road map of kind of what you're talking about to,
(47:36):
you know, how to be a father, you know, how to be, you know, a leader, how to be ahusband.
um So I just think that's just such an encouragement to the people listening that, youknow, hey, like before you start reading your Bible, pray and just ask God to, you know,
you know, use the Holy Spirit to teach you something.
But yeah, like.
It's very practical, you know.
(47:57):
It is.
It, you know, every time it happens to me, I'm still amazed.
I don't know why I'm still amazed, but it always does.
We'd be talking about something and at home, I'm reading the word to my wife that, youknow, that night and we go to church and it's the same topic.
He just is preaching that today.
(48:18):
It's like, we just discussed that this.
And so it's like sometimes the message, you know, you just have to.
um
be open to listening.
I always say, well, I ask God, you know, I talk to him, he's like, I can't hear you, Ican't hear you.
And you just have to be, really be listening.
(48:41):
Because he's talking to you in so many different ways, but you just not recognizing it.
Or you just don't want to hear it because that's not the answer you're looking for.
And I think the biggest thing is to like the biggest way that he talks to us is in hisword, you know, you're not always like you said, you're not always going to have like an
audible hey, you know, moment like that.
(49:02):
So, So looking back at your time in law enforcement, you know, you see law enforcementdriving down the road and, you know, you see him if maybe if you got into an accident or
something like that.
But what are some some things that are kind of unseen that that law enforcement go throughthat not a lot of people know?
about.
(49:23):
I think the harder, one of the things that people don't think about or they don't want tothink about is, first of all, with Fire, EMS, or any other other services, they provide a
service that people want.
know, there's always a positive to the service they get receiving.
(49:43):
You might not end up in a, you know, maybe they can't save the person, maybe something,you know, but in general, you're going from bad to good.
something's not good, they're gonna help you try to resolve and make it better, uh healyou, whatever it is, rescue you.
With law enforcement, we go from bad to worse.
(50:06):
We're always interjected into bad situations.
They don't call us when things are doing well.
They don't need us when things are going well.
So when we get there, things have broken down.
Bad things have happened.
Somebody's done something to somebody,
and victimize them.
So there's nothing good in that environment when we get there.
(50:29):
We see living conditions with children and families and abuse, all those things, they'rejust negative, negative, negative.
um
our communities want us to be, you know, serve them.
(50:50):
And that's what we want to do.
But they don't realize or they don't want to realize that we're exposed to such negativityall the time.
We don't see the good of people and people don't invite us to see the good in people.
So we tend to forget that there is this good and they want us to handle their
(51:12):
most horrible scenario, but they don't want us to do it like machines.
If we go to a scene where bad things have happened and it's horrible scene.
They want us to be able to do our job, but they don't want us to look like we don't care.
That's difficult because we have to function in that environment.
(51:34):
We have to do the job in that environment.
So we have to find some coping mechanism to be able to do it.
And the more you do it, the more jaded you can become.
You have to have some balance in your life.
And a lot of us do not do that.
That was my problem.
I didn't have a balance.
(51:55):
It was either work or nothing.
And that's where faith comes in.
You have to, it allows you to see that there is good.
even at their, people are their worst, they still have goodness in them.
(52:16):
But it's hard to see that.
So we get dark.
And the longer we do the job, depending on the jurisdiction,
ah how your community treats you.
All those things affect you and you just, people don't realize that we are human.
And you beat us down, we're gonna shut down.
(52:43):
We don't want to, but we have to protect ourselves.
We either get out of the job or something happens.
And that's what happened to me is I didn't.
go the full length because I just couldn't handle it anymore.
The West Coast, the way they treat you, everything, everything added up, plus I had nobalance.
(53:04):
So I had to pull the plug early.
Me finding that faith has really changed my life and has allowed me to actually
be the person that I am today and be able to love the way I do because I couldn't do thatbefore.
(53:25):
You know, I would love my own way.
was shut down inside and it just growth overall.
mean, it's.
God put me, you know, put me in a certain path.
I tried to deviate and he allowed me.
I got slapped and decided, you know, and he came back in the path.
It's just, you know, God will let you do things.
(53:48):
He might tell you, you know, that's not a good idea, but.
Okay, you want to do it?
ahead and see what happens.
But he's always watching.
And that's so good.
So let's talk about the coffee shop just a little bit more.
So tell us about the hurricane that came through and kind of the story of how you guyswere able to recover after the hurricane.
(54:08):
So we opened in May of last year, May 17th.
And on August 8th, I believe, uh our beautiful Hurricane Debbie, Debbie does not like thistown, because last Debbie also destroyed it.
uh We had four feet of water in this shop.
So everything was gone.
(54:30):
uh And again, we were blessed.
We had flood insurance, everything worked out.
We were able to replace everything.
um We adapted, realized that, you know, there's certain barrel of materials we shouldn'tuse if we get any kind of water in here.
um So we changed things up.
(54:54):
We did add the gun store.
That was the...
We thought about it before, kind of didn't want to do it.
But when we rebuilt...
We decided to put the gun store right in the middle, which is kind of that closed thatloop, the full theme.
um But yeah, but that also showed us, again, in reinforced uh that belief that there is somuch good in people.
(55:26):
The amount of support that we had, the amount of volunteers that wanted, we actually hadto turn people away because we didn't have things for them to do, that we're bumping into
each other.
But we had a youth church group came in here and helped, you know, clean up and then theywrote scriptures and all the studs inside the walls.
So there's scriptures written all over inside these walls.
(55:48):
um And like I said, it is just...
God has a way to use whatever happens for his plan.
it developed into this and it just keeps flourishing.
(56:08):
Yes, you even had the governor come out during that time,
Yeah, I was surprised because the my wife had pulled a joke on me that Trump had been inthe building, you before the flood.
This is during the elections time.
So and she shows me, she's yeah, yeah, Trump is here.
(56:29):
You so excited.
And she shows me a video of a guy, you know, in a Trump mask.
It's like, ah, you know, fine.
You pull my leg, right?
So fast forward.
We're doing cleanup.
And she says, I just got a text from the governor's office that they want to talk to us.
They want to see if we we come into the shop and he's doing a walkthrough of the damage.
(56:51):
I said, I don't believe you because you pulled my leg last time.
Yeah.
So she shows me the text.
It was their uh press secretary trying to make arrangements, you know, and make sure thatwe were going to be available.
And he did, you know, talk to the county and then he did a couple of walks.
But then he came in here and spent most of time in here and did.
uh
(57:11):
Talked to the press here, did his press, whatever we want to call it.
um So we had all the media in here.
um He talked to us and asked us about the shop and what our plans were, coming back andstuff.
So yeah, we had uh Governor DeSantis in here.
I was like, um I kind of hope that at some point he has time to come back and see, youknow, see the disaster.
(57:41):
He gets to see what you know what God has done with this place and put it back, you know,for the community.
um So I'll keep sending him invitations.
Right.
Yeah, that's neat.
Yeah.
So as we wrap up, I always ask the question, you know, why should someone follow Jesus?
Someone that's that's out there that's kind of teetering that line a little bit.
(58:03):
So what would you say to them?
Well, I'm going to use myself as an example.
Life with that Jesus can be done.
mean, people are trying to do it all the old day in and out.
(58:24):
But why would you want to live such a hard life?
I mean, truly, he's he's telling you.
I love you.
Come to me.
Listen to me.
I have I have plans for you.
I'll take care of you.
Why?
If you have such a loving parent, why would you try to be so um rebellious and try to doit your way, knowing that every time you do it, you get slapped in the face, you know,
(58:55):
because it's just not working.
And he gives you so many different ways to come to him.
You know, we have the word, you know, he's always trying to reach to us and guide us.
you know, and show us what his plan is.
(59:17):
I tried and yeah, I succeeded in my worldly way, ah but it wasn't peaceful.
wasn't enjoyable.
There was no joy.
reaching out to him and truly letting him come into your heart and guide you.
(59:41):
That, to me, has been the change because I realized that
if I follow.
what he's telling me, no matter what it is, uh difficult or easy, the outcome is so muchbetter.
(01:00:01):
mean, my life has, my personal life, my joy, my peace, this I didn't have.
He gave me a wife that, it's a blessing.
and loves me to no end.
(01:00:23):
And I love her the same, you know, I want to bless her and just give all the love andeverything that I, you know, I just want to give, give, give, give.
And.
That's what Jesus does to us.
He wants to give us that love.
(01:00:44):
We just have to accept it.
And why would we fight it?
But we do.
So just listen to that.
And I mean, look at his message.
It's love.
It's forgiveness.
Yes, we're not perfect.
(01:01:06):
We're not going to be
We're always going to be doing something wrong.
But that's unconditional love.
know, the only the only the closest thing that I could show as an example is my love formy kids.
Yeah, they can do all sorts of goofy things, but that's not going to stop me from lovingthem.
(01:01:28):
You you might be upset.
I might I might do some corrective actions, but at the end of the day, I will always lovethem.
And if I just use that as a smallest example, imagine how Jesus loves us.
And that's,
Wow.
Yeah, that's so good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you for sharing that.
(01:01:48):
And like I said, just thank you so much, not only for just being willing to come on thepodcast, but just the way you've been, you know, blessing people, you know, in your
community and, know, the way you just, you know, been a leader and yeah, I'm just veryproud that, you know, you're my uncle and yeah, just I just had a blast.
(01:02:09):
can't thank you.
I am honored, believe me.
People talk about, you you did this, you did that, you're so excited.
It's like, I don't feel that way.
um
I'm so excited.
But yeah, like I said, appreciate you coming on.
Well, thank you for having me.
(01:02:29):
I just I'm glad I mean, it's this.
is my first.
Yeah, thank you.
Thanks again for listening to another episode of Faith in the Line of Duty.
If you're a first responder or in the military and have a story you'd like to share, emailme at faithinthelineofdutyatgmail.com.
You could be a guest on a future episode.
(01:02:51):
To continue the conversation, visit my Facebook and Instagram page.
Thanks again for tuning in and join me next time for another encouraging story of Faith inthe Line of Duty.
Welcome to the final episode of Season 1 of Faith in the Line of Duty.
This episode is special not just because of the story, but because of what God has done tobring it all together.
What started as a small step of obedience has grown into something I could have neverimagined.
When the Lord first placed this ministry on my heart, I didn't know how it would go.
But He has been faithful every single step of the way.
(00:27):
I found myself boarding a plane from Washington D.C.
to Tallahassee,
(00:59):
Throughout this season, I've had the honor of sharing the powerful testimonies of firstresponders and military men and women who have found their strength, peace, and identity
in Jesus Christ, even in the face of danger, trauma, and loss.
(01:21):
something that was more powerful than the beauty of the landscape was the kindness ofpeople.
It reminded me that the body of Christ doesn't just gather in churches, it shows up incommunities and small towns and conversations over coffee.
In this episode, we talk about what it means to serve with integrity, to be refined byGod's grace, and to follow Jesus, even when it means stepping back into the fight.
(01:45):
This isn't just an interview, it's a testimony of redemption, purpose, and the power ofGod's call.
So stay with me as we close this season with a story that reminds us all of Philippianschapter 1 verse 6.
When the Lord begins a good work in you, He will carry it through to completion.
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to the 12th episode of Faith in the Line of Duty.
(02:08):
It's been a great season.
Today I have the honor of introducing my uncle Felix.
So yeah, just so excited to be here.
As you guys can notice, in a coffee shop right now.
So why don't you just tell us a little bit about that.
Well, ah this was a dream uh of my wives and we kind of use a little bit of my backgroundand our love for God.
(02:38):
It's a combination of God, coffee, and guns.
So, as you know, and we name it 50 Cal Coffee and Desserts, uh kind of as a...
uh joke.
you know, my shooting my 50 cal.
(02:58):
So it was just kind of just developed from there.
But it's really aim at blessing people have given them a place where they can come andfeel comfortable, you know, be they can come here and praise, just have a peaceful place.
um And also use
(03:21):
you know, from my background as military, know, Marines and then deputy sheriff for 20years.
The also I did EMS and some volunteer firefighter that I have a real deep connection withthe military veterans myself, obviously, and all the first responders out there who who
just get pounded every day and they don't have they don't they don't seem to get the love.
(03:44):
So this place is that um safe place.
I don't wanna use that word, safe place, a place where they're welcome and they feel thisis where they belong here and that's what this is about.
Awesome.
Yeah.
And first time coming in here, it's just all the stuff, you know, all the guns on thewalls, just how everything is uh faith based.
(04:06):
know, you got prayer cards over there and Bibles on the tables.
It's just it's really cool to see a business that is putting God first um and is alsohonoring the first responders and military.
So that's why I thought it was just a perfect place to do it and hold the podcast.
So, yeah, thank you for what you've done with the business and how you've, you know.
(04:27):
just allowed God to bless people through it.
It's truly, truly been amazing to be able to see it these last couple days.
Well, God has, you know, I didn't know it at first, but God has loved me and blessed me myentire life.
And we're here because of that.
This place is because of his blessings.
(04:50):
So we want to make sure that people have a benefit of that blessing.
We're just passing it on.
We're just the conduits.
uh
such a great attitude.
So yeah, let's let's just take a little dive into your story a little bit.
Just start with your childhood.
What was that like?
(05:10):
So throughout my childhood, I've pretty much moved a lot throughout life.
And not talking little moves, we moved countries.
I was born in El Salvador in 1968, so I'm quite old.
So I lived there until I was about seven years old.
(05:34):
Just as I was starting first grade.
my parents moved to Nicaragua for a job.
basically every move we did was almost because uh my dad got a different job, it kind ofimproved his career.
And lived there in Nicaragua.
um Throughout that time in Nicaragua, that's when the Sandinistas and Somoza, thegovernment, was having the Civil War.
(06:02):
And so I lived through that.
um
We left in 1979 when the Sun is over through the government.
There was basically all the economy crashed.
And how old were you?
But see, 1979, but 11.
Wow.
So about in 68.
So, Well, yeah, I saw the piles of bodies, you know, one side of the guard, the guardwould be on one side of the block.
(06:32):
The Sun needs to be on the other side of the neighborhood in between.
I mean, the houses were like shredded.
It was luckily we lived on the outskirts.
So we weren't our ourselves were not in the middle of the battles.
Well, again, like I said, you know, God has always taken care of me and my family.
(06:54):
don't know.
Do think that's why you have the outlook that you do is you can see how other parts of theworld lived and
I you know
We take this country for granted.
It's not perfect.
No place is.
(07:14):
But when you look at what other people don't have, or the way they have to live, and youlook at the things we get to do here, we can disagree with our government and be
boisterous.
We protest and everything's fine.
You don't disappear.
You don't go into some secret cell and, you know.
(07:37):
It is not perfect, but it is the best place that I've seen.
know, from traveling all over the world, between with as a child in my family and then inthe military.
It's there.
There is no comparison.
So what happened after that?
So in 79, economy collapsed, so my dad lost that job.
(07:59):
He used to work for BMW.
He was in the automotive industry.
so we went back to El Salvador for a couple of months while he was traveling looking foranother job.
We ended up moving to Panama, to the Panama Canal Zone, the free zone on the Atlanticside, the Cedio Colon.
(08:24):
And he got a job with a Russian company that I don't know if you see in the old movies,the cars that look like Fiat's older looking car.
So the Fiat looking ones are Lada's L.A.D.A.s.
And then the other ones are Volgas.
And so they would export those to South America from the Panama Canal.
(08:45):
So he worked for them throughout that.
And I live with.
We live in Panama from 79 to 83.
My parents got divorced.
And my mom took us to San Francisco.
(09:06):
Until that point, I only knew how to speak Spanish.
So at 13, I moved to San Francisco knowing not a word of English.
the one thing I have to say is
The school district in San Francisco, I believe I still have it, is a high school calledNewcomer High.
(09:31):
And all they do is bring people that don't know English, and they do a full immersion forthat first year, whatever grade they're in.
And luckily I was a ninth, so I started high school.
And ah the whole goal is to get you proficient so you can move into a regular high school.
(09:51):
So I did that and my 10th grade, while I was at Newcomer High, they were opening a newacademic high school in San Francisco, so I put in an application.
And as I was ready to transition, they told me, you've been accepted.
(10:17):
So I went to that and so I went to Philip Burton.
academic high school from 10th to 12th grade.
Our class was 37 people.
That's the graduating class.
Today they graduate over 500.
Wow.
So we were the first graduating class of that high school.
long did it take you to become fluent in that language?
(10:39):
ah For me, it took about six months uh to get the transition in my head.
You go from hearing the question, going into your head, translating it, and then makingthe response.
So there's that little lag time that you normally get, but it takes about full immersion.
(11:01):
It takes about six months, and then your brain switches.
You're no longer thinking in your language.
You're thinking in the new language.
So when I...
When I speak Spanish, I think in Spanish.
When I talk to you in English, I don't go back and forth, I just think in English.
And that's the way you want to do it, but it requires uh commitment.
(11:24):
We had people in the high school that, you can do as literal as much as you want.
Because you have your groups of people, you go during lunch and talk to them in yourlanguage, well, guess what?
you're not transitioning.
So there people that spend the entire year there and never learn anything.
(11:44):
Because, you know, I, for whatever reason, know, my TV was in English, all my movies werein English.
The only time I spoke Spanish was to my mom.
Yeah.
So cool.
That's a really cool school.
I'm glad they are still doing that.
Yeah, I hope they are.
haven't double checked, but I do believe they still have it.
Awesome.
(12:05):
So did you join the Marine Corps right out of high school?
Yes.
um During that time, wasn't uh quite didn't know quite what I was going to do.
And the Marine Corps recruiter, I think he showed up at the high school like they usuallydo.
(12:26):
But I ended up actually looking, looking him up and going to the recruiting office.
And somehow I ended up
Joining the Marine Corps right out of high school.
And so why did you choose the Marines over the other branches?
I think he was probably the most, uh he was Johnny on the spot.
(12:50):
actually, I had a friend in that high school.
um So we had a lot of military kids from the bases um in San Francisco.
And one of my friends, his dad was in the Marine Corps and he was.
just going home in the Marines.
(13:12):
So it kind of got that thought in my mind.
So when the recruiter talked to me, that's the way, the when I went.
don't think he, um don't know where he went, because I think they moved before wegraduated.
So we didn't graduate together, but I think he would have been surprised that I actuallyjoined the Marine Corps.
(13:34):
That's cool that he inspired you.
He was one of those like, was, you know, fit, was like, go, go, go, go.
We went to we went on camping trips with a, you know, with this with the school and whenman he we would just go in the woods like.
Yeah.
So what was your job?
ah
31.
(13:55):
So I everything that has wheels I can drive.
And what year did you join?
OK.
Yeah.
So it right around the desert shield.
this is shield, is 90.
90 and into 91.
Gotcha.
And you were deployed out there,
(14:15):
Originally, no, um I wasn't part of the first people.
I was stationed in Altura with the Marine Corps stationed in Altura, the air wing.
And as things start to settle down, start sending more people.
I was single, so I volunteered.
I says, you can send me.
There's people that didn't want to get deployed, but the units had to send X amount ofpeople from each unit.
(14:41):
Right.
So I said, I'll go.
uh
you tell us a little bit about what that was like?
So the first what they know what they did is they climatized you.
So you spend several months.
I to uh Yuma, Arizona.
Actually, yeah, Yuma, Arizona.
And we trained in the desert for about a month getting kind of getting us ready for theheat that we're going to be experiencing and just getting ah then we.
(15:15):
I.
About a month and half later.
I was in country in Saudi Arabia, and I don't know if I'm saying this correctly, I wasmainly stationed at the port of Al Javal, so where all the supplies were coming in by
ship, all the military vessels would come in for to resupply, so I was based out of there,and I would be driving semis, flatbeds, and I would transport anything from
(15:47):
know, palletized, aircraft palletized, you know, stacks of water, ah anything that neededto be moved from the rear to the front, uh small arms, ammunition, 2,000 pound bombs, you
named it, I moved it.
ah So they dubbed it the Baghdad Express.
Man, that's such an important job to have for sure.
uh Man, that's cool.
(16:09):
So looking back at your time in the Marine Corps, what would you say would be your mostmemorable moment?
For me, I would say the day I was at camp, don't know if it was the third or fourth day,because first they do all the admin stuff and they keep you awake for days.
(16:32):
guess it's part of the...
So I'm in the barracks, they have us sitting on the ground and the senior drill instructorcomes in, mean, sharp as hell.
Marches in, very professional.
He goes, my name is such and such, know, during instruction such and such.
I'd be in charge of your overall training.
(16:54):
Very professional.
I'm thinking like, wow, this may be not be that bad, right?
And he's going, and he brings, Marches in the first junior general instructor, introduceshim.
I mean, they're standing at attention.
The second junior general instructor, and they had, we had a third one that was intraining that I had just, you know,
being I guess evaluated to be a full junior drill instructor.
(17:18):
So we had three.
Then he says, then he sends the junior drill instructors back into the DI office andcontinues talking very professional, my expectations are, and we're like, I'm sitting
there, know, front row.
And then he says, junior drill instructors, they're yours.
(17:38):
And is like,
Tasmanian devils just came flying out of that, you know, office kicking, screaming,throwing things.
mean, people were running everywhere.
they were just they just went fricking nuts.
They went from zero to a thousand.
I swear I had an out of body experience.
(18:00):
I visit to this day.
I remember I was sitting here on the ground and I'm standing facing myself.
And I'm looking, what did you just do?
I'm serious.
To this day, I remember seeing myself sitting.
Yeah, we'll never get that that causes your stress levels to go away.
(18:25):
Yeah
I was like, they lulled you into a sense of, this is going to be nice, they'reprofessional.
And then they go nuts.
This is the whole time when they could...
and it doesn't matter what branch we all share that moment of, hey, what did I just getmyself?
Yeah.
Yeah.
One thing I've always wondered is that when you talk to veterans uh in different branchesother than the Marine Corps um and you ask them, you know, what did you do?
(18:55):
You know, they always say, I'm a Marine.
Right.
So um other branches that say, yeah, I served in the Army, the Coast Guard.
the Air Force, you know, and this is what I did.
So is that something that they instill?
So that's it's part of the tradition.
It's always the same as once a Marine, always a Marine.
(19:18):
You're not a former.
You're never.
uh It's always you're always once you once you earn the Eagle, Globe and Anchor.
You're part of that brotherhood.
You will never not be.
That's one of the things that's always been instilled.
It's part of the pride of the Marine Corps is once a Marine, always a Marine.
And if you notice
(19:39):
In an army, you're a soldier.
In an Air Force, you're an airman.
In a Navy, you're a sailor.
In the Marine Corps, in the Marines, you're a Marine.
You are what the branch is.
So I guess we're the smallest branch, but we seem to have the proudest, at least for me,the proudest history.
(20:04):
The name Devil Dog, the, you know.
first to fight.
All those things are from things in history and that's where we get who we are.
That's so cool.
Thank you.
I've always wondered that, so that's good to hear.
never know.
Former Marine.
No, no, no.
Yeah.
And it's not, I mean, it's everybody, you ask.
(20:27):
I heard it any differently, I'd be kind I'd be kind of.
If you hear somebody who says I used to be a Marine, I don't think they probably were.
So what made you get out of the Marine Corps?
Well, originally, I love flying.
think everybody, know, I was stationed in the Marine Corps Station, El Toro, and our motorpool was right next, was right at the flight line.
(20:52):
So jets were taking off.
mean, continuously, they had the C-130 squadron was to, you know, right right after us.
And I wanted to be in an aircraft.
So I did all my swim quals.
I did everything I was going to realist.
And I had
I already had I was going to be uh loadmaster and see 130s.
(21:12):
That was like and then the training officers like, OK, you're all good to go.
But I have some bad news.
The next school seat is a year and a half away.
And you know what happens in the military when you don't have an M.O.S.
You're you do guard duty, mass duty.
uh You're you're you're doing field duty.
(21:35):
You're just basically every little.
crappy job that nobody wants to do.
so I said, mm, nah, I'll get out.
And I almost joined LAPD at that time.
Oh, because they were hiring in the I was right there in, you know, in Orange County.
All those Sanchez just just north of that.
(21:57):
But I somehow I I didn't do it.
Moved to Yakima, Washington, and, know, where my mom had moved to.
And I spent...
um
You know, I got there in 91.
And, you know, my first job was changing tires to Sears.
(22:20):
You know, started, I didn't have, other than...
I did have my class A CDL, but, I had been driving, I said like a side job in themilitary, tour buses in Orange County, but Yakima doesn't have tour, you know, a tour bus
industry.
And I didn't feel, you know, I just didn't feel comfortable driving commercially, youknow, it just didn't cross my mind, although I did have the license.
(22:47):
So I started doing automotive and.
Started at Sears changing tires, changing batteries, moved up, moved up and then learnedeverything I could there.
uh Then I found an actual automotive shop that and that person took me under their wingand showed me uh from and again, just built me up, gave me all that knowledge.
(23:13):
By the time I left that shop, all I was doing is drivability and electronics.
So I no longer was getting dirty.
I mean, I was clean the entire time.
I OK, this car, I was diagnosing and giving it to the next guy.
um in between that, uh the friend that I was driving for tour buses while I was in themilitary calls me.
(23:38):
This is 1994.
says, hey, you want to come drive some buses for me?
He's like, sure, why not?
So I went back to Orange County.
Actually, I was in Fontana, California in Irvine.
And I drove tour buses there for about a year, year and a half.
It was fun.
I mean, I got to go to a lot of shows, a lot of places for free.
(23:59):
know, the driver goes gets comped.
would that year was when the Huskies went to the Rose Bowl.
The University of Washington Huskies went to the Rose Bowl.
And obviously I took USC.
I was driving USC USC, you know, people.
(24:20):
a fraternity to this roast bull.
So I got to be at the roast bull.
And January is when the Super Bowl was at the roast bull.
I got to go to the Super Bowl.
I have I somewhere I have the pin.
Wow.
Yeah, it's like.
It was it was like.
It doesn't happen, but the industry is such, you know.
(24:43):
You is feast or famine, you either working in your butt off or you're not eating.
So it's like, no, this is not for me.
I went back.
And at what point did you get into law enforcement?
So, so I come back in 94, get back into the automotive industry, then realize, okay, oh Iwant to do more.
(25:07):
So I started doing computer aided drafting for a company in Yakima called Irwin Researchand Development.
make the machines that make the plastic products like cups.
These lids are made by machines that I designed.
Maybe not specifically this brand, but the tooling, the machines, that company sells themworldwide.
(25:31):
And so we would make the machine that makes the product.
And then they buy the machines from us.
And I did that.
And while I was doing that, I was sitting on my computer and I see one of my coworkerswalk by in full deputy uniform.
And I said, like, wait a minute.
Why are you?
He's like, yeah, I'm a reserver.
I reserved for the county.
(25:52):
Yacama County Sheriff's Office, have a reserve program.
And I said, really?
So I applied, went to the Reserve Academy, started reserving.
And at that time, I had gone from the design side of the company to the manufacturing sideof the company.
And I working, was the weekend foreman.
(26:13):
So I would work from 3 p.m.
on Friday to 10 p.m.
on Sunday.
You know, 312s.
So I had Monday through Friday free.
So I was reserving.
I mean, I was patrolling more than I was doing full time.
And I had tested for the full time position.
um They called me, said, hey, you're you're number one on our list.
(26:39):
You still interested?
yeah.
So that was April of 98.
I was in the Academy by June.
I graduated in November.
And for, so I started with Yakima County Sheriff's Office.
uh yeah.
I was there until 2000.
Okay.
Yeah.
And we moved I lateral to San Juan County Sheriff's Office in the Puget Sound.
(27:04):
um That's when our kids were starting to get into the school system.
So my wife didn't like it.
And so we chose to move and uh was a good decision for their education.
Not a great decision for my career.
Yeah.
So in your time in law enforcement, can you tell us a little about the different jobs andpositions you had?
(27:30):
So I'm the kind of person that likes to learn a lot.
like I said, I was always being blessed in my opportunities.
While I was at the Sheriff's Office with Yakima, this was the boom of the methamphetaminelabs.
They were popping up everywhere, math was everywhere.
(27:52):
And it still is.
And one of the reasons why Yakima was such a
You know, oh one of the counties that had a lot of labs is because that's a farmingcommunity.
And it's apples, cherries, and all of those things get harvested and go into cold storage.
(28:13):
Well, the commercial refrigerant for those facilities is an hydrosammonia, which is one ofthe key ingredients for making the methamphetamine in the, know, pseudo-phenid reduction
method, or the Nazi method.
There are other methods, but in this method that they use on the street, that's thechemical they need and it's readily available.
(28:38):
And everybody knew that the orange pipes on those facilities wasn't hydrozymonia and theycan't lock them because for safety they have to be able to be shut down in emergencies.
So it was just prevalent.
During that time, who all did you work with?
Was it just your county or was it anyone else?
oh
First I started patrol, obviously.
um Then this position opened up, I applied.
(29:02):
I was able to get it, so I went into detectives.
ah I was two years on the job.
And um went to work with the law enforcement against drugs lead task force, the narcoticstask force, which was a multi-jurisdictional.
We had um officers from different cities in the county.
(29:23):
um Obviously,
The Sheriff's Office had several officers there, including myself.
The State Patrol had several officers, know, troopers there, and they also managed the,one of their sergeants managed the unit.
We had um federal, we had at the time, uh FBI and DEA.
(29:45):
I don't remember if we had ATF, but I know we had those, the first two.
So that gave us jurisdiction to,
go anywhere the investigation took us.
if we had to go follow that guy to California and back or anywhere, we had jurisdiction.
the...
so we could follow them anywhere.
(30:06):
And so for our listeners, can you tell us a little bit about, with it being a federalcase, how that kind of changes the prosecution side of things?
Yeah, the benefit of having a federal prosecutor pick up any of our cases was that theminimum sentencing is way higher.
uh While I was there, the task force was already investigating.
(30:33):
They had been working on a group of people, know, uh a meth lab manufacturing.
And so...
But I was there when the culmination, we did surveillance, uh and we arrested the group.
I believe it was around 25 people altogether.
(30:56):
um And so the guy in charge, the meth cook, um his minimum sentence was life, federally.
It was under manufacturing and conspiracy to manufacture.
So under conspiracy, else will get a minimum, if I understand it was a minimum of 15.
(31:18):
So by going that direction, there's a big stick.
You go state-wide, they might have been out in a couple of months.
Man, talk about deterrence.
Wow.
So I know with getting to know you a little bit, you're really big on training.
uh During your time in law enforcement, what has been your most uh fun uh training thatyou've been able to go through?
(31:46):
Well, as far as fun, uh so after 9-11, uh good, or indifferent, the federal governmentopened up a lot of the training to local agencies, state, county, uh through the uh Center
for Domestic Preparedness, the CDP.
uh Most of it is based in Anniston, Alabama.
(32:10):
uh
And there's a massive training center there.
You do chemical, biological, do mass casualty.
They have a full hospital mock, you where so you can come into mass incident trainings.
You do your part here, you there, and then you come together into a training scenarioswhere everybody's doing their thing.
(32:33):
Could be a train derailment with massive casualties.
You can do a decon.
You could be biological.
They have
Is Aniston at?
uh
And it's in Alabama, it's one of the two, Fort McClellan, it's one of the two places inthe United States where they have live agents, VX, Anthrax, so you get to suit up and go
(32:59):
live with those chemicals and agents.
you learn how to work in that environment and have the confidence that if you're in reallife, you have to go, you know your equipment works, you know you've done it, you know if
you do it properly, your chances of success are pretty good.
um
So, but through all that, I've been to Socorro, New Mexico to the mining school and forthe suicide bomber, they're post blast investigation, you blow up a lot of things.
(33:32):
ah The biggest one we blew up was we put 200 pounds of ammonium nitrate fuel oil in thetrunk of a car.
Talk about.
Boom.
Yeah.
And so, well, you're far away when you blow it, but um that's a massive blast.
(33:53):
But the point is, is people think that once you blow things up, they're gone.
No, everything is there.
It's just tiny.
So you have to know how to approach the scene, what you're seeing that collect, collecteverything and.
Prime example, how do you think that the Oklahoma bombing?
(34:17):
That's a prime example of evidence collection.
They were able to find a vent, you know, a secret part of the vent on that on that.
Yeah, it was there.
And that's suicide, you know, suicide vests and how they how they explode and what whatwhat kind of damage they can do.
How do you respond to a suicide bomber?
(34:37):
All those things, the realities of it, the
I think for me, for the most fun, was blowing things up.
Wow.
Man, that's super cool.
Thanks for sharing that.
That's very neat.
And definitely the first person I've ever heard doing that.
So let's talk about your faith journey a little bit.
(35:02):
So tell us a little bit about how you came to know Jesus.
My daughter.
It's short.
Short part of the story is my daughter.
I was raised Catholic.
Obviously, Latin America is heavy Catholic.
All the private schools are Catholic.
You know, Jesuit or uh actually all the private schools that I went to were Jesuit.
(35:29):
La Salle um is the one I remember the most.
in Latin America, if you want to have a good education,
You can't go to a public school.
You have to go to private school and they're all um managed by Catholics or they'rereligious based.
(35:49):
So I was raised Catholic.
Nuns were my teachers.
So it is true.
They used to have a meter and they were reaching.
You know, I had a couple, but.
I was never really, you know, a believer.
(36:11):
I was just raised around it.
As an adult, I never actually thought about it until my joke used to be that, you know, Idon't go into the church because I might burst into flames.
know, that used to be my saying.
And so I never actually, I felt uncomfortable.
I just didn't believe.
I felt it was hypocritical.
(36:31):
that people do all these bad things outside and they go to church on Sunday and theypretend to be mightier than thou.
So I just couldn't identify with that.
So I did my own thing.
I'm of the belief that if I'm, for me to have a connection with God, I don't need abuilding.
(36:52):
And that was very, very, you know.
That's how I was.
I don't need to be in a brick and mortar building or anywhere for me to reach God.
This is my connection between me and him.
But again, it was not a real connection.
That was my belief.
(37:15):
So I was working as a deputy sheriff in San Juan County at the time.
My daughter was a teenager.
teenagers have their struggles.
And one of her friends brought her to Calvary San Juan.
uh She was she that's her.
That was her friend's church.
So you brought her there.
My daughter started going.
(37:37):
And one weekend that she went to a retreat with with them, came back baptized.
I was I was actually angry because like that's a big decision.
You know, you need to talk to us.
uh But no, I was like and I could see her demeanor.
I could see that.
It was a positive change.
It had been happening as he was going.
(37:58):
So I said, OK.
And one day she said, Dad, I want you to come with me.
I was like, all right.
I'd do anything for my little girl.
uh She as she can testify.
So I went and it was it was kind of a.
A wake up call, because my idea of church was Catholic Church.
(38:21):
You know, all that structure, it's all about you are a sinner, you're a sinner, you're asinner, you know, you repent, you're damned.
And the message in here was, no, it's, you Jesus died for you.
You know, it's yours.
(38:42):
And it was more about praising God and just the love.
that was in that church and how you were welcomed.
didn't matter who you were.
I I was in full uniform.
this was a time, know, this is Washington, was very liberal, very anti-government.
(39:04):
They don't like law enforcement.
And that was one place where I was welcomed.
And it's like, wow.
So I started going.
My daughter moved off island for school.
So at the time, was basically just me at the house.
And I kept going and one day, uh one Sunday, just decided to take Jesus into my heart andgot baptized.
(39:29):
Wow.
And David had taped it, so I sent it to my daughter.
This is your doing!
Wow.
Praise God.
That is so good.
And I think really the difference, know, in Romans 323 says, you know, for all of sinnedand will fall short of the glory of God.
it's not, you know, fallen, you know, with it saying fall, you know, you know, we're stillgoing to continue to sin, you know, but he's right there to meet us where we are.
(39:56):
Yeah.
And I think that's, you know, probably the biggest difference.
So what would you say?
changed in your life after you uh made that decision.
Well.
My personality is one of those where.
(40:19):
I feel like I should be able to do everything myself.
And he was breaking me.
ah
I couldn't, you know, I was separated.
know, my ex wife and I are the best friends.
We raised amazing kids.
But our marriage, you know, little by little, because of things on the job, you know, thesmall community pressures, all sort of things.
(40:48):
And how it was handling the stress of the job, we kind of fell apart.
You know, and it was me just not
communicating, not being able to express myself.
ah And then she also took a job off island, so she was living off island.
So I was by myself.
(41:08):
And little by little, I was just not being able, know, not handling things well.
doing that, just made me realize that I'm not alone.
I can't do it by myself.
not only with the support of the church, but also I have, you know, my Holy Father that islooking after me.
(41:35):
And all this time I'm thinking, you know, I'm taking care of myself, I'm doing this, youknow, complaining why I'm not going in this direction.
And he was just guiding me in on a path.
But it took me a while to realize it, you know, and it started there.
But again, had to take several years more for it to come to fruition.
(41:56):
That's powerful.
So.
What would be some uh advice you would give uh for a healthy marriage?
And the reason I ask that is because, you know, after these last couple of years with youand Aunt Tammy being married, I can tell you to just have a genuine love for each other
(42:18):
the way you, you know, see each other, um the way you guys have excitement.
And it's not just that honeymoon, you know, uh feeling.
So can you just give us like a little roadmap of kind of what a healthy marriage
looks like ah when you're both going after Christ together.
I think that's the key right there.
um We have a common path.
(42:46):
With us, with Tammy and I, it's we came in together at the right time.
I think we always talk to each other and say, why, you know, I wish I had met you sooner.
But the reality is is that we weren't together sooner because we weren't ready for eachother yet.
We had to learn our lessons, especially me.
(43:06):
um When in my prior marriage, I loved my wife.
I would.
You know, even to this day, I I would do anything for her.
We stay in common in contact.
um It's.
But I wasn't able to.
(43:27):
Express it the way she needed me to my way, I express love.
I do things for you.
I do deeds of love.
She wanted affirmation.
She wanted to be told she wanted to.
And.
I just couldn't.
It was like there was a.
choke hold on my voice.
(43:48):
I felt it.
I couldn't express it.
I just wasn't mature enough.
I just didn't have the tools to be able to feed what she needed in that relationship.
And when you don't communicate, there's a lot of misunderstanding.
(44:09):
And we also have to understand where we are creatures of our past.
We bring
luggage and whether we recognize it or not it affects any colors how we see things.
um You know if somebody has had domestic violence in their past and they've traumatized Imight not be violent I might they don't they might be I might not be they might not be in
(44:36):
fear of me attacking them but if I raise my voice their body goes into you know fighterflights you know syndrome.
And adrenaline goes up and they put up defenses and react to certain ways.
I might take it as like offensive, know, why are you doing this?
So they're miscommunication because we don't understand each other's backgrounds.
(44:58):
And that's a lot that happens in every marriage.
We think that everything's going to be fine because we love each other.
Oh, everything's, you know, rainbows and unicorns.
It's not.
That's that first stage.
If you don't work on it and communicate, it goes away.
And then you settle into this, where it's more of a job.
(45:20):
And that's where I think we stumble a lot is.
There is no manual on how.
And life throws things at you every single moment.
Your job, finances, ah kids.
Kids, big stressor.
(45:41):
And everybody wants kids, but they take time.
And if your relationship wasn't strong enough when you started as a husband and wife, yougo into mom and dad mode.
the husband wife part falls apart, you still there because you're driven to take care ofyour young ones or your children.
(46:03):
But when they go, you have nothing in common.
So the key is.
I wish it was a simple recipe, but it's about really listening to your partner and give,give.
(46:24):
We always think like, why do we get in return?
No, just give.
If both partners just care about giving to each other, no matter, you know, withoutthinking, what do I get back?
That's where the blessing comes in.
Yeah, you're supposed to serve each other the more you serve each other.
You serve each other.
And it is amazing because I keep telling my wife, Tammy, like, you know, I'm not a kid.
(46:52):
I can do this.
But she just wants to bless me with everything.
You know, she cooks me breakfast.
You know, I am so spoiled.
It's not even funny.
But it just drives me to love her more and I want to bless her more.
And it's just this.
It's not a competition, but you just want to do it.
Yeah, you know.
(47:12):
And that's the thing is that we just serve each other that.
We can't out give each other and definitely we cannot out give God.
Yeah, you know, as we go throughout life, you know, the Lord has, you know, created in hisword, basically, you know, you know, a road map of kind of what you're talking about to,
(47:36):
you know, how to be a father, you know, how to be, you know, a leader, how to be ahusband.
um So I just think that's just such an encouragement to the people listening that, youknow, hey, like before you start reading your Bible, pray and just ask God to, you know,
you know, use the Holy Spirit to teach you something.
But yeah, like.
It's very practical, you know.
(47:57):
It is.
It, you know, every time it happens to me, I'm still amazed.
I don't know why I'm still amazed, but it always does.
We'd be talking about something and at home, I'm reading the word to my wife that, youknow, that night and we go to church and it's the same topic.
He just is preaching that today.
(48:18):
It's like, we just discussed that this.
And so it's like sometimes the message, you know, you just have to.
um
be open to listening.
I always say, well, I ask God, you know, I talk to him, he's like, I can't hear you, Ican't hear you.
And you just have to be, really be listening.
(48:41):
Because he's talking to you in so many different ways, but you just not recognizing it.
Or you just don't want to hear it because that's not the answer you're looking for.
And I think the biggest thing is to like the biggest way that he talks to us is in hisword, you know, you're not always like you said, you're not always going to have like an
audible hey, you know, moment like that.
(49:02):
So, So looking back at your time in law enforcement, you know, you see law enforcementdriving down the road and, you know, you see him if maybe if you got into an accident or
something like that.
But what are some some things that are kind of unseen that that law enforcement go throughthat not a lot of people know?
about.
(49:23):
I think the harder, one of the things that people don't think about or they don't want tothink about is, first of all, with Fire, EMS, or any other other services, they provide a
service that people want.
know, there's always a positive to the service they get receiving.
(49:43):
You might not end up in a, you know, maybe they can't save the person, maybe something,you know, but in general, you're going from bad to good.
something's not good, they're gonna help you try to resolve and make it better, uh healyou, whatever it is, rescue you.
With law enforcement, we go from bad to worse.
(50:06):
We're always interjected into bad situations.
They don't call us when things are doing well.
They don't need us when things are going well.
So when we get there, things have broken down.
Bad things have happened.
Somebody's done something to somebody,
and victimize them.
So there's nothing good in that environment when we get there.
(50:29):
We see living conditions with children and families and abuse, all those things, they'rejust negative, negative, negative.
um
our communities want us to be, you know, serve them.
(50:50):
And that's what we want to do.
But they don't realize or they don't want to realize that we're exposed to such negativityall the time.
We don't see the good of people and people don't invite us to see the good in people.
So we tend to forget that there is this good and they want us to handle their
(51:12):
most horrible scenario, but they don't want us to do it like machines.
If we go to a scene where bad things have happened and it's horrible scene.
They want us to be able to do our job, but they don't want us to look like we don't care.
That's difficult because we have to function in that environment.
(51:34):
We have to do the job in that environment.
So we have to find some coping mechanism to be able to do it.
And the more you do it, the more jaded you can become.
You have to have some balance in your life.
And a lot of us do not do that.
That was my problem.
I didn't have a balance.
(51:55):
It was either work or nothing.
And that's where faith comes in.
You have to, it allows you to see that there is good.
even at their, people are their worst, they still have goodness in them.
(52:16):
But it's hard to see that.
So we get dark.
And the longer we do the job, depending on the jurisdiction,
ah how your community treats you.
All those things affect you and you just, people don't realize that we are human.
And you beat us down, we're gonna shut down.
(52:43):
We don't want to, but we have to protect ourselves.
We either get out of the job or something happens.
And that's what happened to me is I didn't.
go the full length because I just couldn't handle it anymore.
The West Coast, the way they treat you, everything, everything added up, plus I had nobalance.
(53:04):
So I had to pull the plug early.
Me finding that faith has really changed my life and has allowed me to actually
be the person that I am today and be able to love the way I do because I couldn't do thatbefore.
(53:25):
You know, I would love my own way.
was shut down inside and it just growth overall.
mean, it's.
God put me, you know, put me in a certain path.
I tried to deviate and he allowed me.
I got slapped and decided, you know, and he came back in the path.
It's just, you know, God will let you do things.
(53:48):
He might tell you, you know, that's not a good idea, but.
Okay, you want to do it?
ahead and see what happens.
But he's always watching.
And that's so good.
So let's talk about the coffee shop just a little bit more.
So tell us about the hurricane that came through and kind of the story of how you guyswere able to recover after the hurricane.
(54:08):
So we opened in May of last year, May 17th.
And on August 8th, I believe, uh our beautiful Hurricane Debbie, Debbie does not like thistown, because last Debbie also destroyed it.
uh We had four feet of water in this shop.
So everything was gone.
(54:30):
uh And again, we were blessed.
We had flood insurance, everything worked out.
We were able to replace everything.
um We adapted, realized that, you know, there's certain barrel of materials we shouldn'tuse if we get any kind of water in here.
um So we changed things up.
(54:54):
We did add the gun store.
That was the...
We thought about it before, kind of didn't want to do it.
But when we rebuilt...
We decided to put the gun store right in the middle, which is kind of that closed thatloop, the full theme.
um But yeah, but that also showed us, again, in reinforced uh that belief that there is somuch good in people.
(55:26):
The amount of support that we had, the amount of volunteers that wanted, we actually hadto turn people away because we didn't have things for them to do, that we're bumping into
each other.
But we had a youth church group came in here and helped, you know, clean up and then theywrote scriptures and all the studs inside the walls.
So there's scriptures written all over inside these walls.
(55:48):
um And like I said, it is just...
God has a way to use whatever happens for his plan.
it developed into this and it just keeps flourishing.
(56:08):
Yes, you even had the governor come out during that time,
Yeah, I was surprised because the my wife had pulled a joke on me that Trump had been inthe building, you before the flood.
This is during the elections time.
So and she shows me, she's yeah, yeah, Trump is here.
(56:29):
You so excited.
And she shows me a video of a guy, you know, in a Trump mask.
It's like, ah, you know, fine.
You pull my leg, right?
So fast forward.
We're doing cleanup.
And she says, I just got a text from the governor's office that they want to talk to us.
They want to see if we we come into the shop and he's doing a walkthrough of the damage.
(56:51):
I said, I don't believe you because you pulled my leg last time.
Yeah.
So she shows me the text.
It was their uh press secretary trying to make arrangements, you know, and make sure thatwe were going to be available.
And he did, you know, talk to the county and then he did a couple of walks.
But then he came in here and spent most of time in here and did.
uh
(57:11):
Talked to the press here, did his press, whatever we want to call it.
um So we had all the media in here.
um He talked to us and asked us about the shop and what our plans were, coming back andstuff.
So yeah, we had uh Governor DeSantis in here.
I was like, um I kind of hope that at some point he has time to come back and see, youknow, see the disaster.
(57:41):
He gets to see what you know what God has done with this place and put it back, you know,for the community.
um So I'll keep sending him invitations.
Right.
Yeah, that's neat.
Yeah.
So as we wrap up, I always ask the question, you know, why should someone follow Jesus?
Someone that's that's out there that's kind of teetering that line a little bit.
(58:03):
So what would you say to them?
Well, I'm going to use myself as an example.
Life with that Jesus can be done.
mean, people are trying to do it all the old day in and out.
(58:24):
But why would you want to live such a hard life?
I mean, truly, he's he's telling you.
I love you.
Come to me.
Listen to me.
I have I have plans for you.
I'll take care of you.
Why?
If you have such a loving parent, why would you try to be so um rebellious and try to doit your way, knowing that every time you do it, you get slapped in the face, you know,
(58:55):
because it's just not working.
And he gives you so many different ways to come to him.
You know, we have the word, you know, he's always trying to reach to us and guide us.
you know, and show us what his plan is.
(59:17):
I tried and yeah, I succeeded in my worldly way, ah but it wasn't peaceful.
wasn't enjoyable.
There was no joy.
reaching out to him and truly letting him come into your heart and guide you.
(59:41):
That, to me, has been the change because I realized that
if I follow.
what he's telling me, no matter what it is, uh difficult or easy, the outcome is so muchbetter.
(01:00:01):
mean, my life has, my personal life, my joy, my peace, this I didn't have.
He gave me a wife that, it's a blessing.
and loves me to no end.
(01:00:23):
And I love her the same, you know, I want to bless her and just give all the love andeverything that I, you know, I just want to give, give, give, give.
And.
That's what Jesus does to us.
He wants to give us that love.
(01:00:44):
We just have to accept it.
And why would we fight it?
But we do.
So just listen to that.
And I mean, look at his message.
It's love.
It's forgiveness.
Yes, we're not perfect.
(01:01:06):
We're not going to be
We're always going to be doing something wrong.
But that's unconditional love.
know, the only the only the closest thing that I could show as an example is my love formy kids.
Yeah, they can do all sorts of goofy things, but that's not going to stop me from lovingthem.
(01:01:28):
You you might be upset.
I might I might do some corrective actions, but at the end of the day, I will always lovethem.
And if I just use that as a smallest example, imagine how Jesus loves us.
And that's,
Wow.
Yeah, that's so good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you for sharing that.
(01:01:48):
And like I said, just thank you so much, not only for just being willing to come on thepodcast, but just the way you've been, you know, blessing people, you know, in your
community and, know, the way you just, you know, been a leader and yeah, I'm just veryproud that, you know, you're my uncle and yeah, just I just had a blast.
(01:02:09):
can't thank you.
I am honored, believe me.
People talk about, you you did this, you did that, you're so excited.
It's like, I don't feel that way.
um
I'm so excited.
But yeah, like I said, appreciate you coming on.
Well, thank you for having me.
(01:02:29):
I just I'm glad I mean, it's this.
is my first.
Yeah, thank you.
Thanks again for listening to another episode of Faith in the Line of Duty.
If you're a first responder or in the military and have a story you'd like to share, emailme at faithinthelineofdutyatgmail.com.
You could be a guest on a future episode.
(01:02:51):
To continue the conversation, visit my Facebook and Instagram page.
Thanks again for tuning in and join me next time for another encouraging story of Faith inthe Line of Duty.
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