A SWAT Team Raided Our House! - Billy Ballenger Ministry on Faith Moving Forward Podcast

In this episode of "Faith Moving Forward," we dive into the remarkable journey of Billy Ballenger. From a troubled past marked by bad decisions and incarceration to a life transformed by unwavering faith in God, Billy's story is one of redemption and hope. Join us as we explore how his music and message are touching lives around the world, inspiring listeners to find hope in Jesus Christ. To book Billy or learn more about his ministry visit his website! https://billyballenger.com/

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Episode Transcript

>> Kevin (00:07):
Hello, my name is Kevin, and I'm with my co host,
Beth.

>> Beth (00:10):
Hi.

>> Kevin (00:11):
And you are listening to the Faith moving Forward
podcast.
In Luke 747, Jesus mentions
that those who have been forgiven much, love

(00:32):
much. And our guest today on the podcast
exemplifies this perfectly. Billy Ballinger is a
dynamic musician, speaker and author and has traveled
the world telling people what Jesus has done in his
life.

>> Beth (00:44):
Today's episode is brought to you from the
Russell, a historic east Nashville
church transformed into a, one of a kind
boutique hotel. The Russells mission is to
give back to the Nashville community through their rooms
for Rooms program by donating a
portion of your stay to local organizations
who provide a safe haven for those

(01:07):
experiencing homelessness in the Nashville
community. Visit
russellnashville.com to book
your stay today.

>> Kevin (01:16):
We met Billy at, Morningside in
Branson about 2016 at a service that he was
leading. And we talked with him afterwards, and we
could definitely see and appreciate his heart
for ministry and for helping out other people.

>> Beth (01:31):
Yeah, boy, that service really sticks out in my mind. And
I remember Billy saying that the call of God you felt earlier
in your life, like in your teens or your twenties,
well, it's still there. It never left.
And in Romans 1129, in the amplified Bible,
it says, for God's gifts and his call
are irrevocable. So God really spoke

(01:51):
to us through Billy, preparing us for our new direction.

>> Kevin (01:54):
Yeah, I absolutely did. We once again linked up
with Billy in summer of 2021, while we were
all involved with light the way music festival, and Billy
was one of the performers at the festival, and
we were helping out in the prayer tent, actually.

>> Beth (02:09):
And like Billy always does, he gave his powerful
testimony after a few of his songs and had a
salvation call at the end of his performance where
he directed people to the prayer tent where we were.
The huge response was amazing. And I was
so impressed that Billy himself came over to
the prayer tent that day to pray with some of the people that
had responded.

>> Kevin (02:30):
Yeah, it was amazing. Artists do not
typically do that, so we were impressed. Well,
my friends, that is a glimpse into the heart of
Billy and Jody Ballinger and their ministry. And today,
we are super blessed to have Billy with us.
Billy, thanks for coming on today.

>> Speaker C (02:47):
Hey, guys, thanks for having me. And, I
just, Man, it's been a little while since we've had a chance to
chat, so I'm excited to, be a part of what you guys
are doing. It's exciting. Thank you.

>> Kevin (02:58):
Yeah, that was a lot of fun we had at light. The way I remember that was
a great time.

>> Beth (03:03):
Well, Billy, can you tell us a little bit about your
childhood and how you grew up and to the
point where you met your amazing wife, Jody?

>> Speaker C (03:11):
Yeah, absolutely. like everybody, you know, we've all got a
story. I just, you know, I feel like that
God has just really called me to share mine. And so I appreciate
the opportunity today. You know, when I was. So, I came from
a, ah, situation where I was adopted at age
three. And I didn't find any of
this out until I was ten years old. And I learned

(03:31):
that my mom and my dad was really my
aunt, my uncle, they had adopted me from her
sister and raised me because her sister
just really had some struggles with, there was some personal
struggles there with her and her husband at the
time. And so I was adopted, raised by my
aunt, my uncle. And then right shortly after they informed me of

(03:51):
the adoption, they ended up getting a divorce
at age, when I was age, ten years old. And, for
some reason, as a kid, I love
people, as you know, we've got the fellowship with you guys a few
times. I just love camaraderie and people and
community and for whatever reason,
growing up as a kid, and again, some people have been
through a lot more struggle than I have. But for me, the big

(04:14):
thing was finding community, finding
friends. You know, it seemed like growing
up, we went from school to school. I was in
a different city. I live with this parent or that parent
and, and the step parent, and so I was moving
around quite a bit. But when I get to these schools, just as
a kid, I really struggled to fit in the

(04:34):
school. And then I became that kid
that was always bullied all the time. And, you know, they talk
about kids going through stages of life, you
know, and, hey, everybody's ridiculed and joked around a little
bit. With me, it was like a
math. Like, it was just, I look back now
and go, you know what? After I realize what happened and what

(04:55):
later happened in my life, I see that there was an enemy
working to really destroy my self esteem,
take this person, a big personality, and try to
squelch it and try to make me feel like I didn't have a
voice. And so this went on and
on all the way through elementary school, middle school.
I, ended up, you know, just because of some bad choices,

(05:15):
running away from home, running, away to the
other parent's house, then running away from there,
and then getting on probation. And so by the time I
was 16 years old, I'm being sent
to, thank God, a christian
it was a faith based program in Indiana.
It's called Josiah White's new possibilities.

(05:36):
It's kind of a precursor to getting
sent to juvenile correction prison.
and the court systems would send
you there if you were a
good fit. Right. And it was a co ed
campus. Girls and boys, they probably
had 250 kids there and they had been around

(05:56):
for 150 years.

>> Kevin (05:58):
Wow.

>> Speaker C (05:58):
Helping kids in central Indiana. So I actually
tell you the truth, when the court suggested me going there, my
probation officer talked to me about it. I found out they had
sports and they had activities and all these different things. I was actually
excited about going because for me, I wanted to get
out of my current situation because I was the laughing stock
of the school. You know what I mean? I mean, constantly made fun

(06:18):
of beat up by a girl in the 8th grade in front of
50 people in my school. I mean, what does that do to
your, you know, your self esteem? You know, it just really
was violent. Violent.
Sometimes, different situations like that, for whatever
reason, it just seemed to follow me around.
And, so anyway, I want to point out something. When
I was right about the same time, I learned that my

(06:41):
aunt was really my, mom and my
mom was my aunt was. At the same
time I was attending a baptist church in
Taylorsville, Indiana, the first baptist
church that the church bus would go around the neighborhood,
you know, pick up kids on Sunday morning and take them to church.
I had gotten saved at one of their

(07:01):
little revivals that they did for kids
when I was ten. So I had, yeah, I had accepted
Jesus into my heart. And also for this
broadcast today, I think this has bearing.
This weekend, I'm actually going to be going
back to that church and speaking for the first
time.

>> Kevin (07:20):
the first time. Wow.

>> Speaker C (07:22):
For the first time, I'm super excited about. I'm actually going to
do kind of a, mini concert slash share the
story, right? And just point out that you never
know when you're planting a seed, what can happen, you know?
And. But, anyway, so I end up going to this
juvenile correctional facility and it's like
I said, it's co ed. So I got there and it wasn't long

(07:42):
after that the same kind of struggles began to develop,
somewhat. But there was some, also some
promising things because I was beginning to mature and stuff.
But I joined the choir. They had a choir. We had to go to
chapel, man. We had to go to chapel five days a week.
And you had to march in a line
all the way to chapel. You got students that are

(08:02):
eleven years old all the way up to
1819, years old. You live in different cottages. On
one end of the campuses, girls. On one end of the campuses,
boys. But they had coed
chapel, and you would march
to chapel, and of course, you had the Sunday. So really he was in church
six days a week because you had Sunday morning service, too. But I joined
the choir, and that was coed, which was

(08:24):
awesome. So they
would let you have. You could have a boyfriend, you know? I'm
sorry, you have girlfriend boyfriend relationships there
as long as you were on a. As long as you were on a
certain level. And so a, level of
behavior. So I started, writing, actually, I was
in choir, and this girl, one night during

(08:44):
break, during choir practice, her name is
Jody. She came up to me and,
introduced her. Actually, she introduced herself to me through a friend.
And I always like to tell people that it was her that asked me out
instead of me asking her outfit. Anyway.
No, she just never brings it up.

(09:06):
But she. She sent one of her friends to ask me. And so
next thing you know, we're meeting at this thing they called four
nights where you. You have to be on level four to go.
It's Friday night. It's kind of at the canteen where you can get
cokes and candy and sit around and talk
and. And then we started going together in there. And we
could meet once a week as long as we were on a certain level in the
cafeteria, sitting across from a

(09:29):
table from one another, holding. You could hold hands.
And for six months in that process, we
were both in choir, but we also would meet
every week. And I fell in love with this young lady.
And, But what I didn't know is, you know, I had my
own issues as a kid. You know, like I said,
everybody's got their story, but I had no idea the

(09:49):
background that this beautiful girl had
came from and what she had been through.
And of course, we'd been going to get. I've been there
about 15 months. She'd been there 14 months. She gets
released a month before I do to go back to her county,
a town I've never been to. She's on probation.
She's still underage. She's got to go home now
into that same community. And I just knew from the stories that she was

(10:11):
telling me, all the parties, all the violence, all the stuff,
I knew she was going right back to that, and
I was going to go right back to good old Franklin,
Indiana, where, you know, my little country town.
Or, you know, I'd have some issues, but
nothing like hers. Of course, I was brokenhearted because I was in love with her,
right? But none of my family would take it
seriously enough. And finally, I just ran away

(10:34):
from home again. After being out for a few weeks, I was like, I
can't stay away from her. And I ran away again. And I went
there, found her. I hitchhiked,
bro. Didn't even have a car and didn't, know where I was
going. I hitchhiked her. It took me 3 hours and five
rides to get there. But this is how different her
raising was, the way she was raised, than I was.
When I got to her house, it was nothing for her

(10:57):
mom just to let me go back and visit with
her in her bedroom. I mean, it was just like, my mom would
have strangled me if I'd have done it, if I'd have
brought a girl home, you know, momma would say,
no way is that girl going, you know? And sure enough,
I visited with her on that day. I went back
home, later that evening because I knew that I was still

(11:17):
on probation. But then the next day, I decided to run away for
good. And then I moved in with them, and her mom
let me move in.

>> Kevin (11:25):
Wow.

>> Speaker C (11:25):
And if you know her, and
my wife has written a book about this, I'll mention later, but
it's powerful because she shares her mom's story.
The book is called beautifully unbroken, the prostitute's
daughter. The book is God is so blessed. That
story and a redemption
faith and a love story that's been all

(11:45):
compacted into one book. And it shares my wife's mom's
story, the harsh, hard life she came
through, her dad's story, his prison time,
and then, of course, my wife's juvenile incarceration
and then meeting me and our story.
But, man, here's what happened. Here's what. Here's how
quickly the enemy can work. and, you know, and

(12:05):
I'm not, I'm not trying to say that we should be afraid of him. I'm just saying we should
be wise and with our kids. You know, I
was. I was. I had my issues as a kid. But, man,
when I hit 17 years old, living in that
strange town, Muncie, Indiana, where she was from, I
started to party all the time because she partied all the time.
I was in love with her. And, you know, her mom would

(12:26):
get on our case about the party lifestyle sometimes, but then it
would last a day or two, and then her mom would be cool with us again. You know
what I'm saying? It was like a. She had her own
patterns. And while we love her, there were just
issues there. And. But anyway, long story short,
I started realizing that the kind of people that this
Jody hung out with, these were the kind of kids that used to

(12:46):
chase me home from school. These are the kind of kids that
would beat me up and pick on me from school to school. But now I'm
17 years old, and one day, out in front
of a drug house, we went to go buy some, drugs.
Sitting out in the car, out in front of a drug house. I
had an interaction with a guy that was sitting in
a pickup truck. And before I knew it, I snapped.
And I jumped out of the car, and I ran over to

(13:09):
his truck, and I start having a physical altercation with this
guy. Like, we're fighting.

>> Kevin (13:13):
Yeah.

>> Speaker C (13:13):
And I'm inside of his truck being really violent,
wanting to, like, kill this guy, you know, or
hurting really bad.

>> Beth (13:20):
Right.

>> Speaker C (13:21):
Well, that was the first one. Then it happened
again. Then it happened again. And then I. And
then I liked it. I liked that I
was finally fighting back. And I also liked it
that this community of people
acted like they liked me because of it. See what
I'm saying? Like, I had a community all of a sudden that
accepted me. And remember, these are the ones that

(13:43):
rejected me, chased me, m home to school, made fun of me, picking on me.
I was always a tough kid from school that did that
and all the different schools I was in. So all of a sudden,
I've got some popularity here.

>> Kevin (13:54):
Sure.

>> Speaker C (13:55):
And I started be. I started feeding on it
like it was, man. I was like, that was
my life, you know? And she wanted kind of out of that
violent stuff. She'd get so mad at me,
and then I'd be like, anyway, I
started getting a reputation on the south side of Muncie,
Indiana, for being violent. Everything from

(14:15):
fights that involve guns to pool sticks
to bumper jacks, being beat up by one. I mean,
just all kinds of violent, violent
situations to having the inside of my jawline
ripped open by a guy
standing behind me, stuck his fingers in my mouth
and just ripped my. Inside of my. Down by my

(14:35):
gums open. Oh, yeah. See how bad it was getting?

>> Kevin (14:38):
Wow.

>> Speaker C (14:38):
Here's what I believe. I believe that
somebody or somebody
somewhere had prayed for me
or were praying for me. I just, you
know, if God could just step in and do whatever he wants at any
time in anybody's life without anybody praying, I
believe God's so good, he would just do that for everybody.
But I see. I see in the Bible

(15:00):
now that God has set
it up so that we would pray. We would. What you
call intercede. We would. We would, pray
for. And so that.
So that God would move on their behalf. That had to happen to
me because, man, I came close. I got. I got people just
like you guys probably know, people that were your
age back then, went the wrong path, and they're dead

(15:22):
today. And here I am, alive and still breathing.
So long story short, okay, by the time we're
18, we get married. She's 17, I'm
18. Our daughter is born five months later.
And then before you know it, we're moving around
here. We moved here, we moved there. I'd only hold down a
job for a little while. Just long enough to get enough money to not

(15:42):
pay bills, but party. It was
crazy. I mean, we, you know, college was
nothing. Little baby girl. Yeah,
you gotta imagine me being violent too,
right? And so now, not with her, of course. Now,
there was. That was one thing I will say about
us. We did not like. Jodie points this

(16:03):
out. She said, we were very particular about who
watched her. we were, you know. You know,
and of course, I wasn't. We weren't violent with her or anything like that. It was. That
was. It was different when it came to her. It was like a different
lifestyle. M but everything outside of
that, except for the fact that, you know, let's say we
were smoking marijuana in our living room. Well, we lived in this little

(16:23):
bitty shotgun house one time. This thing's so small. Well, we got a little
nine month old baby sitting in one of those little
chairs with the handle on it, the one you can put in the car seat, or you
can just carry her in. You know, she's in the
same room while we're filling up the room with smoke. So if
we're getting high, she's getting high. You know, I later thought
about that, like, how. How dumb, you

(16:43):
know? I mean, just like, how
irresponsible, you know, and
immature was that? But I'll tell you what happened. My
house become the party house. Now, a lot of
people assume because they'll have me come and speak at celebrate
recovery, or I've done prison ministry,
or because they hear my story, people
assume that I was. I was just in this

(17:04):
hardcore addiction to a drug. I
was not. I was not. I was
like, I was addicted to the people, if that
makes any sense. Yeah, I was addicted to the scene, but I
never actually. Yep, I got addicted to
that. And like I said, she wanted out. But
anyway, it all came to a culmination

(17:24):
on a Monday afternoon at 02:00 p.m. i'd been
involved in some violence on that south side of Muncie. some friends
of mine had stole some, stole some dope, stole
some cash, stole the weapon. Now we're fighting with these
other group of guys, and, the police
needed to crack down, so they raided our house at two
in the afternoon with a squat team,

(17:45):
fully dressed in black from head to toe. Black
ski masks, black twelve gauge pump shotguns.

>> Kevin (17:50):
Wow.

>> Speaker C (17:51):
My little baby girl was there. We had just
finished getting high, and I didn't. Okay, so this
house, I recently on social media, posted a
little tour I did of this house. They
eventually tore it down, but I got in there with a
camera, camera guy with me, a
videographer with me, and did a, and did a
tour of that house. The house didn't even have a shower,

(18:13):
it had a bathtub. And so about right
about that time, I had worked a half a day on a brand new
job that day, and I decided, I'm gonna go take a bath. So I
go in there, and as soon as I get in the water, I
hear all this commotion, all this noise,
doors breaking in.
And I jump up out of the water and put my I blue jean
cut off shorts on. Just about the time I get

(18:36):
them buttoned, that bathroom door comes flying open and there's
this huge dude. It just seemed massive
with this twelve gauge pump shotgun
up against my head, up against the wall. I go and,
you know, and I'm dripping wet. And, you know, and
so basically they had my whole street blocked off.
They were, took me out on the front porch and it was like,
for a movie, it'd be picture perfect because it was

(18:58):
just
the most dreary day, you know,
and stood on the front porch. They arrested
me, they arrested Jody, and they
took our little nine month old baby girl out of her
arms and put her in a police
car and drove away.

>> Kevin (19:16):
Wow.

>> Speaker C (19:17):
They already had a car seat ready, and they drove away. And
ironically, the detective that,
took her with him in the cardinal, because there's, you can
imagine there's police everywhere, right? I mean, there's like
ambulances and there's vans. And they got the whole street
blocked off. In fact, they rated my next door
neighbor while I was on the front porch watching it in
handcuffs. And, yeah, because he, he

(19:39):
was a dealer. Bigger dealer.
Yeah, he was, but he, they just knew he was dealing. They just want to
take him down to. But, okay, I would get stuff from
him, but, it was just crazy. The guy was a
blind guy, but he was a dealer. Is that crazy?

>> Kevin (19:53):
Wow.

>> Speaker C (19:53):
So, yeah, it was. It was. It was really weird. There's some
crazy stories about some of the stuff we do in life. I don't
know, but.

>> Kevin (20:00):
Yeah.

>> Speaker C (20:00):
But anyway, I'll never forget the guy, the
detective. My wife writes about this in her book. When she
got arrested, she was in and out of juvenile
corrections. You know, she needs to come on sometime
and. And be on your show, because there's so many people she can impact
with her story. Because people that meet Jodie are like,
there's no way that was you.

>> Beth (20:19):
We would love.

>> Speaker C (20:19):
No way. You know, she would love that, too. And it would be an
impactful thing that could help a lot of people, because
she's truly just a different person, and
God just redeemed her. But what I'm saying
is, is that. So this detective, he had locked her up as
a juvenile, and he warned her, when she was way
young, and then he also put her in scared straight

(20:40):
programs. You guys ever heard of that program where they'll take kids
to prison and try to scare them out of
getting in trouble? He did that. And then here he is,
the third time showing up at her house when she
is, 18 years old by now with a nine month old
baby, and says, jody, I told you. And
took the nine month old baby out of her arms.

(21:00):
And eight months later, we
got ready to go to trial. But I want to say this real quick.
This is so cool. So, right before we go to
trial, for a period of months, we were trying to get our
daughter back. We went to parenting classes. We tried to
avoid the crowd. We stayed off drugs. I got
a. I stopped drinking alcohol. I didn't do
parties early on. I did it a couple times,

(21:22):
and then they started doing those, asking for urine
samples in the court system. So then I was
like, okay, they're checking everything, and
they're not going to give us our daughter back till we straighten up.
So we moved out of that city and everything. We moved
to Indianapolis. My wife gets a job at a gas station.
She gets another job at McDonald's. And the court orders me

(21:42):
to go to Richmond State Hospital in Indiana for drug
evaluation. So I go there. They're
convinced I'm addicted to some drug, and they weren't going to be
convinced otherwise. And so I was like, okay. So I
cooperated with the program. I was there 36 days. I
get out, go back home. Jody gets
robbed while working at this gas station, and I make
her. I said, you're quitting that job. She actually got robbed,

(22:05):
twice. And I said, you get robbed one more time,
most husbands would be like, you're done. I'm like, one more
time, one more chance,
one more tent. And she got robbed a third time,
man. And then at that one, I said, that's it. And so
we go the next day to pick up her check at that gas station. It's
like what used to be united Oil speedway

(22:28):
now. And so she's there to pick up her check. And while
we're in there, this guy pulls up. Now, this is where God starts
really showing off. This guy pulls up in this pickup
truck, and he says, hey, my vehicle has been
overheating. Can I get some water? You guys got a bucket? I put some
water in. Well, she's standing around. She's standing around waiting on
her check to show up. She's got time. So she gets in some water.

(22:48):
I'm just standing there in the gas station, you know, looking at candy
bars. You know what I mean? So. And then
now, we don't have our daughter right now. The court system had
eventually, from foster care, after about 30 days of foster
care, gave her to my mom, thank God. So
my mom has our daughter, and then we could get
visitation, or we could take her to our house. So

(23:09):
that was what was kind of going on this season of
life, while we were waiting on a trial date where
we're going to be tried for this SWAT team raid and all
that. So, anyway, that's what happened. And
then, we're at the gas station. She gives the guy some
water. He says, my truck's overheating. He comes back in
with the water, and he says, for the bucket. And he goes, I don't know what's
up. My truck's got plenty of water.

(23:31):
It just acted like it was overheating. Now it's
fine. And then he's standing there talking to her for
a minute, and they're talking about her getting. I think they were starting
to have a conversation about, oh, yeah, I got robbed last night,
and this is my life. I, don't work here anymore. I'm just here to pick up my
check. And all of a sudden, because I could be really rude
in those days, you know, because I've been on the street for a little while, and I

(23:52):
just spoke up really firmly, and I said,
jody, I said, we need to go. Let's go.
We got to get out of here. I got to go find a job, because I just got
out of that state hospital. And as soon as I
said, I got to go find a job, this
guy, he goes, you need a job? He said, okay,
I'll hire you right now. I was like, yep, just like that. That
fast? I said, what do you mean? Like, what do you do? He says, I'm a

(24:15):
contractor. Construction. You know how to do any
construction? I said, well, I can dig a
hole.
Obviously, I've been digging a lot of holes for myself.
I can dig a hole. And he's like, okay, that's good enough. I'll show
you what else you need to know. And we started. He starts talking to
us, and now we're all excited. I mean, I've got a
job. She's gonna be picking up her check, and he's being

(24:37):
friendly to us. I'm telling you what, within,
I don't know, what seemed like 30 minutes or so in that
gas station, standing there talking to him. He starts talking
to us about, hey, do you guys.
Easter's coming up. Do you guys go to church anywhere
by any chance? Just like that. And then we were
already primed because we, you know, I had the
background, and when she was a kid, she had accepted the Lord as a little

(24:59):
girl. But we didn't really. We weren't church people,
you know, we didn't. You know, I had accepted Jesus when I
was ten. But if you don't have no. If you don't have no word
or fellowship, you have God's word in your heart for your
mind, and you don't have any fellowship with God or fellowship with other
believers. You're just. You're waiting to be
destroyed by the enemy. You can be a Christian

(25:20):
and still. And I didn't realize that, you know, I just didn't have any power to
fight those different things. Anyway,
so he said, he invites us to church,
and right before then, I can remember, there would be nights that
Jody and I would just, like, lay in bed at night, talk about, hey, you want to
go to church sometimes? Oh, that'd be cool. Let's go to
church. She'd say, what kind of church do you want to go to? And I would
say, I want to go to this one of those churches that have

(25:43):
beautiful woodwork in it and lots of stained
glass windows. And
then I'd be like, then I'd be like, yeah, you know,
and I can dress up. And then we go to church for an
hour because the preacher doesn't preach more than an hour. And then you're
done. And then you shake his hand and you go eat. That was
our. That was our whole idea of

(26:03):
going to church, you know? Well, we were primed and
ready because we've been discussing it, and he had
just given me a job. So now he
starts talking about inviting us to come to easter service
at his church, and then he, you know, then we're
excited. you know, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that'd be cool. All of a sudden, when he saw that the
door was. When he saw the door was open more, then he

(26:26):
says, well, hey, do you guys mind? Are you guys
available tonight? Could my wife and I, like, how
about if we just come over to your house and visit with you guys, hang out, get
to know you a little bit, you know, and talk to you about our church? And
that's what he did. That's what he did. And
did you know that, that I started work with him the next
day? That next night we went to church. They did come

(26:46):
to our house that night. And then the next day, we started going to
church with them. Now, I got to tell you, though, their church
was not the nice woodwork church with the stained glass
windows. When we pulled up at
their church, it was almost like that church was
bouncing off the ground. You could hear the music.
It was loud. So we
go inside this church, we're feeling like needles

(27:09):
are sticking in our body all over, and you're. I'm instantly
thinking, we ain't coming back here. That's it, job or
no job. And sure enough, we're trying to find
that couple where they're at. Well, they're at because we got there a little late.
Everybody's standing up, singing these songs. It's like fast
music. It's not, you know, bringing in the sheaves type
stuff, you know what I mean? And all of a

(27:29):
sudden, this, the. That couple, they were on
the front row, and they had reserved us seats,
and they're, like, waiting for us to come forward and
sit with them. So I'm m like, oh, my gosh. So we
go up and sit next to them, and then the pastor's
wife gets up, and she starts asking the men in the church,
are you really fired up for God? Are you really fired up if

(27:49):
you are? And they're all the men are like, yeah, we
love God. We love Jesus. And I'm just looking around going,
like.

>> Kevin (27:55):
What in the world?

>> Speaker C (27:56):
Nothing. I'm thinking, you know
what you're thinking? You're thinking, I'm not going to be like them. I'm not going to be
an idiot and embarrass myself like that. And
all of a sudden she says, well, if you really. If you men in this church
say you love God, well, then we're going to play that song
again. And I want you to get up out of your
seat and come up on this stage. And when we play

(28:16):
that song again, I want you to dance
before the Lord because you love him so much.
that is the God's honest truth, my friend. And
that is exactly what happened.

>> Beth (28:27):
Wow.

>> Speaker C (28:28):
You are like, you know what? I just. No. I sat right in my
seat and thought, I'm not going up there. No case
whatsoever. And we would lean over to each other
and we would say, we're not. We're not coming
back here again, job or no
job. Well, let me tell you something. Oh. And I can't leave
this out because the listeners will love this. And I didn't make this story

(28:48):
up. In fact, this would make a great music video from Sunday
battle. I don't know, but with. Within that
moat, that portion, when they got up on the stage and
those men danced in that song, the pastor,
her husband was up there, and he,
he got up there and he actually,
he kicks his shoes off, his dress shoes,

(29:09):
and he jumped up on the upright piano and
danced across it.
This. This is his nice
woodworking, stained glass window, church, you know, lights,
weather, and, you know, can you imagine what we're
thinking? But I gotta tell.

>> Kevin (29:25):
Imagine so.

>> Speaker C (29:26):
But then I would keep going to work with him, and then I would ask
questions, and then we ended up being there on Sunday,
and then we ended up being there the next Wednesday. And we kept saying, we're not
coming back, but we kept coming back. and I'm telling you, within about
three weeks, I'm playing the tambourine.
No joke, man. No joke.

>> Kevin (29:46):
Your career started? Yeah.

>> Speaker C (29:48):
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah. And I remember
this black sister, man. She was the one that normally played
that tambourine, and her name was Martha, and Martha was the
sweetest lady. And, you
know, I still remember her, but she, you
know, she was really into playing that tambourine and praising
God, you know, what turns out. So we end up going to

(30:08):
trial. Not just a few weeks later, we go to trial. We never
told anybody in the church except that couple. And their mom and
dad knew that we were going to trial. They knew the
story. We go to trial, we get found
guilty. Our daughter is, She
was at a babysitter during that time. She goes back to my mom's. We get
thrown back in jail. And so this pastor, this church starts
asking, where is that couple at?

(30:31):
We're talking about me and Jody
and, this other couple that witnessed to us, invited us to
church. Their name is Jeff and Diana. And Jeff and Diana said, well,
here's the story. Well, it turns out that
pastor was a Marion County, Indianapolis,
Indiana sheriff's deputy.
What the chances, right? So he,

(30:51):
yeah, I mean, it was a different county, but he was on the sheriff's department.
He goes, they're awaiting, to be sentenced, they're in jail.
He goes, you know what? I want to go and be a character witness for that
couple. See, he's seen something in us.

>> Kevin (31:04):
Wow.

>> Speaker C (31:04):
He's seen something in us. And I almost left this out of, I
do want to say that right before we went to trial, I raised
my hand in an altar call, but I didn't go up.
Jody did and went up. And then the night
before we go to trial, she was baptized in that church.

>> Kevin (31:18):
Really?

>> Speaker C (31:18):
So that, yeah, that all happened. It transpired.
But anyway, so here we are, we go to sentencing.
He shows up, brings his bible up to the
stand. He tells the judge, he says, your honor, in 15
years on the department, he said, I've only done this like three times.
He gets up to be a character witness at our sentence, and he says, you know
what he said, I would give mister Ballinger,

(31:39):
he points to me, he said, I would give mister Ballinger
the keys to my home. Now, he hasn't
known me that long, but he saw something.
Yeah, he saw something in us. I just thought
that was really something. But of course, she threw the book at us
and she still sentenced it. She sentenced me, first offense as
an adult to six years in the Indiana Department of

(31:59):
Corrections. And she sentenced my
wife, same day, she sentenced her to six years in the
Indiana Department of Corrections. So that's, that's how we get to
that point of the story of time that
Jody, that's how we got to that point. And
that, I don't know, I just, it's just
amazing to me that I began to see, see how God was
working in that. And so that's why I feel like somebody somewhere had to be

(32:22):
praying.

>> Kevin (32:23):
Yeah, absolutely.

>> Beth (32:24):
For us, it seems like all these God
appointments that you didn't realize the water for the
radiator for this john. I
mean, what a God appointment that you had no clue what
God was preparing and leading you into this church
and with these beautiful people and.
Yeah, wow.

>> Speaker C (32:43):
And to this day, to this day,
that couple is very close friends of ours.

>> Kevin (32:48):
I was going to ask you about that. And I had a feeling they were still a
part of your life.

>> Speaker C (32:52):
Yeah. And I didn't tell you anything. I might have ran you all out of time,
but, I didn't tell you anything about the prison thing yet, so.

>> Kevin (32:58):
Well, yeah, I'd love to get into that, because I know
when once you got into prison, so you had a taste
and you had rededicated your life, both you and Jody,
at that point. And so prison was
kind of this forced time of silence.
And I think it sounds like you really pressed into the
Lord at that time, didn't you?

>> Speaker C (33:18):
Yeah. Yeah. I can remember the sentencing day because, remember, that
couple had prayed for us, and they were like,
they're believers. Like faith people, like believing that God
moves mountains today, just like he did back then, you know, like God would
answer prayer. They're telling me this, but I knew I was
guilty. I was guilty, and Jody was, too, of the crime that
we had committed. And we were still pleading

(33:38):
not guilty, even though we were guilty, but then asking
God to get us out of it. And we got sentenced.
We got sentenced. but I remember giving a call
and collect from the jail when they took me back to the
jail, and I called and I said, what happened to that
guy? Jeff is his name. I said,
jeff, what do you think happened? He goes, he said, the Lord
showed me this, brother. He said, I believe that

(34:01):
man is going to do everything he can do to get you guys out and
not succeed, but God is going to get you out.
And I don't know, I just hung on to that and hung on to that. And
then I started digging in more,
you know. to me, the Bible was hard to read. It was a
struggle, you know, to read that King James version
Bible and get through one chapter, like

(34:22):
trying to understand it and not knowing where to start.
But I did start. I did start. I tried
and I would pray and I would go to the Bible studies, thank God
for the baptist people. You know, it's not always
baptist people that do it, but those baptist
denominations, I mean, they're christians. I mean, it doesn't
really matter what denomination. They love Jesus. But
the Baptist Mandev, they come and come to the

(34:43):
jail and come to the prisons
and preach Jesus and preach repentance. And I
rededicated my life to the Lord. But
then here's the thing. Jeff and Diana's mom and
dad started visiting me and Jody in a
regular basis. Once we went from the jail to the prison,
they sent us to different prisons around the state of Indiana.
That couple started visiting us, and when they

(35:06):
came into the prison to visit me, they said,
this is what Sandy, Jeff's mom, said to me. She
said, it grieves God's heart that you are
separated from your wife. Now, as soon as she said that, I thought,
that's the greatest news. You know, that's the greatest thing since sliced
bread, because that means God don't want me
incarcerated either. Well, then I started realizing

(35:26):
I repented. I asked God to forgive me. And then
they started pointing out scriptures to me. Second
Corinthians 517, if any man be in Christ, he's a new
creature. Old things have passed away.
All things have become new. I'm thinking, okay, God is on
my side. And then it would say, if any two agree
on earth that's touching, anything they ask of God, he would give it to

(35:46):
them. well, God wants me back with my wife. So we immediately, from the start,
started praying to get out early. But they said.
They made a statement. They said, you're going to have to use your faith in
God and trust him to get you out.
Okay. I'm trying to learn and figure out where do you get that,
athenae, you got to get in your bible. You need to study.
You need to. You need to dig in. And I did. And

(36:07):
so my whole reason for. They brought. They
brought a bible to the prison for me.
And my whole reason for digging into the scriptures,
now, when I say I dug into the scriptures, bro,
I saturated myself with the
scriptures. I dug in. I
would. They told me that scripture in Romans, it
says, faith, comes by hearing and

(36:29):
hearing by the word of God. And so I thought, well, the more of
this word I can get in me, and the quicker
faith is going to be, it's going to. It's all going to happen
faster. So. So I
literally. So I literally would read scriptures, and I
got really good at even the King James version Bible, you know, once you
practice at it for a while, I just got really fast and good at
it. I would read scriptures as fast as I could because

(36:52):
I thought, well, this will help it get into me faster.
And I would do that
and listen to worship music while I was doing it, thinking, I'll
just get it on both sides, you know? And, my
faith did grow. And so I remember
writing my wife letters when I was in prison, to her
prison. And there's a lot of supernatural things we can't cover on
here today. But I would just say this, that God

(37:14):
continued to do supernatural things or
continued to answer prayers along the way, even for
the part about getting to write my wife letters.
And I would write her and I'd say, we're going to get out of here early in
the name of Jesus. And then as I
watched, as my time grew, I
started saying things like, we are out of here

(37:35):
now. We are free in Jesus name,
by faith. We're a family again.
We're holding our little girl. We're going for walks in the park.
We're driving our car around 465 in
Indianapolis. We are a family again. We're free
from prison. M so it went from putting it off to the
future to bringing it into the now. And what I've
learned from the scriptures is, faith is never in the future. It's

(37:57):
always now. Today is the day of salvation,
right?
No, now faith is. And, you know, of course, I had people
saying, well, you know, God's got you in here. You're all fired up with Jesus,
and you're going to Bible study, and you're helping the church grow in
prison. And so I looked at him and said, look, I can
have a prison ministry from the outside. I don't need to
be. I don't need to be an inmate. And, and

(38:18):
I know that's contrary to, how a lot of
people feel. A lot of people feel like, you know, God put me in
prison. I think that. Can God use the prison
experience? He can, and he did.
But he did not cause the SWat raid. He didn't
cause me to break the law. I made those decisions and those
choices. Now, Jodie stuck in deep

(38:39):
with the Lord for the first year. After that, she turned
her back on it. And she'll tell you, she writes about it in her book.
And, she got into some serious, some serious things.
I mean, it's not that she never prayed and things like that, but she was like. She
just gave up. But the Lord. I just stayed in the
word. And I want to point this out for those that are listening here
today. God is not some kind of an ogre. And he's just

(38:59):
over you all the time. And you gotta be mister and misses
perfect. He understands. We're his kids
and we're learning and we're growing.
And my only reason for
seeking God was because
my only reason for seeking him
m I didn't, I didn't hate him
or dislike him, but my real reason was,

(39:20):
is I wanted something. I wanted,
I had a need. I wanted my family. I was in a
hopeless situation. I didn't even know the prison where my
wife was at. I couldn't hold her. And my daughter, you know, I
couldn't see my wife. I couldn't talk to her.
I was heartbroken. I didn't like any
person. I lost my freedom for a certain period of time.

(39:40):
Even though there was hope I would get out later, it was still hurting in that
moment. And that's why I went to God. But in the
process, I kept trying to figure out how to get
faith to work. And I knew it would come by the Bible, so I kept
digging. And when I was digging, I
fell in love with Jesus Christ. That's
what happened.

>> Beth (39:58):
Beautiful, huh?

>> Kevin (39:59):
Yeah.

>> Speaker C (40:00):
My original motive was nothing. I love you so
much, God. You're so awesome. You're so holy. You know, people
say you got to do that first go to God because you love him,
not because you have a need. I mean, come on. In
reality, God is a father.
he made us. He understands that we have
need, and he knows he's the

(40:21):
one that can meet the need, and he actually
wants to meet the need. I think religion
just finds its way to steal from us
and get our thinking all twisted and,
and everything. But anyway, so in my case,
praise God, you know, I stayed in word and I didn't listen
to the naysayers. And so there was a
guy that was six foot five. He was a,

(40:43):
black brother. And his name is Robert Nelson, six
foot five. So we called him Slim. That was his nickname.
Slim had been the most violent guy in the
Indiana state, Michigan City. But he had gotten
born again before I got there. He was pretty
popular for being the preacher of the prison. This m guy
took me under his wing, man, and began to teach me

(41:03):
about God and the holy spirit and things in
prison. And, man, he was my
friend. He's in heaven now. He passed away, but he was my mentor
when I first started in the prison. And he gave me
a scripture one time. He says, I don't know when you're going to need it,
why you're going to need it. But God told me to give you
this scripture. And it's proverbs 21, verse

(41:24):
one. And it says, the king's heart is in the hand of the
Lord. Is in the hand of the Lord. And like the rivers of
water, God will turn it the way he wants it to
go.

>> Kevin (41:33):
Yeah.

>> Speaker C (41:34):
And he gave me that scripture, and I kept that scripture. And so
I went. I was, I was locked up in four different prisons over
the first couple of years. And we started
filing what you call sentence modifications with the
court. We had good behavior I'd only
had one write up in the whole incarceration. Jody didn't
have any. You know, we were trying to do good
behavior, trying to convince the judge we could make it out there and

(41:57):
do good, get our daughter back and all that. So we
hear it was a Thursday night. I never forget
this moment when I got news that I needed to call home.
Emergency phone call. I call home to my mom, and
my mom gives me some bad news. She says, well, we heard
from the court system today, and the judge
told your attorney to let you and Jody know
that, you're not going to get out early. You're going to do all

(42:19):
your time. Stop asking to get
out. Don't even waste the paper, don't waste
the ink. You're going to do all your time.
When my mom said that to me, my spirit started to
go, you know.

>> Kevin (42:32):
Yeah.

>> Speaker C (42:33):
you know what I'm saying? Like, down. But. But at the
same time, out of my heart came these words that
I had heard a preacher say one time in all
my studies in prison. this preacher made this statement.
And then this is in reference to when you're trusting
God, you know, walking by faith for something, you ask God for
something, and now you're in the faith stage where you're

(42:53):
trusting it's going to happen. He said, if you're
willing to stand. Basically, he means, if you're
willing to stand on the word of God only for six
months, like, you've got a limit, like, you're going to stand on for six months. If it don't work,
I'm giving up. That came up out of my heart. And he said, if
you're willing to stand only for six months, you're going to
be there forever. But if you're willing

(43:13):
to stand forever, you're
not going to be there very long. And when
that. And I thought, got to go, mom. And I hung up the
phone, and I knew exactly what I needed to do. So I
went out to the prison track, and I started walking around,
and I started praying to God. And then I started praising
God. And in spite of the judge's bad
news, I just started praising God as if I was

(43:35):
out. I just said, thank you for freeing me.
Thank you for freeing Jody. I didn't pray to the judge.
I prayed to you. And also, father, your word says in
proverbs 21, there's that scripture. See
in proverbs 21 one, the king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord, and like the rivers of water, you will turn it
the way you want it to go. And you know what? That judge's
heart is in your hand, and you will turn it the

(43:57):
way you want it to go. And God, I
know the way you want it to go. See, some people say, well, you
can never know God's will. I knew from the Bible what his will
was. And I said, God, I know the way, the way you want it
to go. You want it to go in
freedom for me and Jody, and the way I know
that is, is because I'm a new creature in Christ, and

(44:18):
old things were passed away, and that means they have got
an innocent man locked up. And, man, I just
started praising God that way. And did you know, the next
night, the Indiana state court of Appeals ordered that
judge to give me a hearing? And less than two
months later, I went back to court.
They took me back to the court in that county from the

(44:38):
prison. They picked Jody up. They actually
picked her up first, and she was in the same vehicle. We actually get to ride
together back to court. And that day,
the judge looked at me on the stand and she said,
me and the prosecutor have been talking, and we have discussed, decided to
suspend the rescue sentence. And we went home.

>> Kevin (44:55):
Wow.

>> Speaker C (44:56):
Just a short time after that. And then, you can
imagine that reunion. And then within
hours, we were taken to my daughter, and I got all that
on film. We were taken to my daughter
together. We got to hold our daughter. And then
less than two months later, we were granted full
custody of our baby girl back, with no strings attached,
no welfare department, no counseling, never to be taken

(45:19):
away again. Never.

>> Kevin (45:22):
My goodness.

>> Beth (45:23):
How old was your baby girl at this point?

>> Speaker C (45:26):
At this point, she was three and a
half. She was three and a half when we got her back.
Now, we had seen her because they
had brought her to the prison. They could bring her to the
visiting room, that kind of a thing.

>> Kevin (45:39):
Sure.

>> Speaker C (45:40):
And then. So, yeah, and then, you
know, about a year after being released from prison, my
son Jared was born and
never, lost my kids again. I never returned to
the party life. Neither did Jody. We never returned
to that lifestyle. And God
has been so, so good to us

(46:01):
since then. And, as he would be
with anybody, as he wants to be for everybody. And
that couple, Jeff and Diana, stayed close friends with
us. And God has been so cool. He's taking our message
around the world, I mean, just multiple times.
And,

>> Kevin (46:16):
Yeah, gosh, what an awesome
in faith and persistence and
really trusting the word. I mean,
I've said this on other podcasts, but I just really
believe it, Billy, that God is willing
to take you as far as you're willing to go,
you know, how much are you willing to trust me,

(46:36):
you know? And that's right. People with
persistence and faith, unwavering faith, is
just amazing what they will accomplish.
Trust in the Lord.

>> Speaker C (46:45):
Yeah. Yes, that's right. And he's
just. He wants. It's his
intent. It is his intent.
Desire.

>> Kevin (46:54):
Yeah.

>> Speaker C (46:54):
To see that the promises that he bought
and paid for through the birth,
the life, the death, burial, resurrection
of Jesus, the promises right
in his word. It's intense desire that
all of his creation comes to have
eternal life and obtains those

(47:14):
promises.

>> Kevin (47:15):
Yep. I love it.

>> Beth (47:16):
You know, I think there's a verse that says
something like, he desires to
show himself strong in
behalf those who believe in
him. And that what you just did
there while you were in prison, walking around the track,
it just felt like you're tugging at his heart.
He, like father God was saying, that was a

(47:39):
pivotal moment to show myself strong in
your behalf, because that's huge.
What, the turnaround?

>> Kevin (47:46):
Yeah. So it is.

>> Speaker C (47:49):
And I just go ahead.

>> Kevin (47:50):
So you got out of prison at that point,
and when did God start dealing
with you that maybe he has
called you to be in ministry?

>> Speaker C (48:00):
I remember one of those walks around the
prison yard where I said to the
Lord, I think you want me to go and
have a ministry of speaking. That's all
I could think about when I look back then.
and that was when I was in prison. So not long
after I got out of prison, somebody invited me to go to

(48:21):
my first places of ministry were nursing homes.
yeah. And can you imagine? Here's this kid
who. I mean, I had a lot of zeal. I
practically crammed the gospel down your throat if you got
near me. And,
you know, so can you imagine going to the
nursing home? And when they let me preach and they said, okay, now,

(48:42):
Billy, now you're going to preach tonight. And I was like, oh, okay. And
I would just unload on those people. And they're just looking at
me and.

>> Kevin (48:49):
you're like, they're not going anywhere.

>> Speaker C (48:51):
So they're not going anywhere. And then I got to
go to. Then I got to go to
prison, you know? And
then, by gosh, after a couple years of being
out, you know, my pastor was starting to use me in the church. I joined
the worship team. music had always played a
part in my life since a little kid. I had a big vision of being

(49:11):
on that big stage since I was seven, you know, and
I've told that story many times, but, but I kept taking
detours and putting that on the shelf and, gosh, it was.
I don't know. After a few years of being out, I was, I
did a lot of speaking. I started pastoring an inner city
church. we basically started at zero
and started an inner city church in a storefront

(49:31):
property. Did that for a couple of years in Indianapolis,
Indiana. And sometimes I would, I started
singing. I'd sing a special. Sing some special
songs and stuff, and somebody would say, you know,
quite often they'd say, man, there's just something there, you
know, have you ever thought about pursuing something
musically? And, you know, I thought
that'd be cool, but I didn't know how, you know, but

(49:53):
I just kept doing that after, man, it was
ten years after I'd been released from prison.
Now I became a worship pastor as well. I did
that. I became. Jody and I both became instructors
with prison fellowship ministries. That's Chuck Colson's
ministry. We did that. and then,
yeah, and then we stepped down from worship pastoring,
and I felt like the Lord wanted me to go into full time

(50:16):
ministry and record music. And that was
ten years after we had been out before that happened,
really. And I think our first year of full
time ministry, we were in 29 churches.
Let me see, 29 prisons and
26, or 29 prison seminars we
did. And 26 churches the first year full

(50:37):
time.

>> Kevin (50:37):
Wow, that's pretty good. First year.

>> Beth (50:39):
That's a lot.

>> Speaker C (50:40):
It did, yeah. And then after about, and then I kept doing
that and kept recording albums and doing it again
and then recording another album, and, gosh, I had
1234 within the first
four years. I had four albums, and, and
then I moved to Branson, Missouri. And so,
really? We lived in Branson. Yep. And so then
we went to Branson, Missouri, lived there a couple times. I'm originally from

(51:03):
Indiana, and we lived in Branson, Missouri,
you know. And so we, we did a, ministry,
continued to do ministry on the road, and then started the concerts. But at
that time, the lord spoke to us and said, take your story.
and this is how I heard it in my head, you know, take
your story through the public schools
and invite kids back, and they will

(51:24):
come. And I knew that meant take your story,
speak at school assemblies, and invite kids
back to concerts, and they will
come.

>> Kevin (51:32):
Sure.

>> Speaker C (51:33):
And so here we are today. We're getting
close to 400,000 students face to
face that we've, that we've spoken to face to face.

>> Beth (51:42):
Are you serious?

>> Speaker C (51:44):
Yes. Public school
and then I start, so what I would do is I would do
these, these campaigns that were speak as many
as anywhere from one to as many as 13
times in four days at public schools during
the day, all secular, you know, you got
the separation of church and state thing.

>> Kevin (52:04):
Yeah.

>> Speaker C (52:04):
So we honored that. And these were public schools
99% of the time, public schools, middle schools, and
high schools and cities around the m Midwest.

>> Kevin (52:12):
That is so cool.

>> Speaker C (52:12):
And then that is, the money would be raised in the
community with an opportunity that I would hold a
concert for free at those high schools, at one
school at the end of the week, and all these other
schools that we visited during the week come there, and that's what happened.
And then. And just like God said, they came, they lined
up outside the schools, and we. At those kind of things that

(52:33):
they come on their own free will. And it was after school hours, I could
present the gospel, and then we'd get
saved, and then, you know, and then we had an
internship for nearly ten years where we worked with students
that were 18 to 24 years of age, and they went on, they went on
tour with us and performed, and we did all that.
We continued to do music and speaking, and then,
gosh, it was, it was, within the last probably

(52:55):
six years or so, the Lord began to shift things a
little bit and took us. I still go to
schools by invitation. It's not the main thrust of our ministry
anymore, but he began to have me focus
with a huge desire in my heart to focus
on the music, and it's always been
music with a message with me.

>> Kevin (53:15):
Yeah.

>> Speaker C (53:16):
So that part is stayed the same. It's just expanded.
So now I get to still go to schools by invitation, or
now I'm on a tv program, or I'm doing a concert at a
festival, or I'm speaking here, Jodie's speaking there. It just
really expanded. I feel like our ministry
has expanded to the whole family.

>> Kevin (53:32):
It really has. Yeah.

>> Speaker C (53:34):
Yeah. You know, and, I just wrote about this recently
on social media about how sometimes when you make a
change like that in your ministry, there's gonna be people
that don't understand. And in our case, it was that way,
too. You know, if you do something for so long, yeah,
everybody sees you as that, you know, like, hey,
how many, you know, you're the guy that reaches the teams. Well, now
I just want to. I just want to be obedient to do what God put

(53:57):
in my heart on the daily right, which
is. And until he changes it, which is
write, record, do the concerts
share Jesus, and, I mean, in almost every
situation we're in, I'm getting to share my faith in
Jesus Christ, do some kind of a concerte
situation. You understand? Sometimes you could be invited or.

(54:17):
Or booked a place somewhere, and you're just to do
this or something different. But, most
of the time, that's what's happening. So I'm getting the
tour and enjoy sharing the
gifting that God's put and he's turned her,
you know, so many wonderful things.

>> Kevin (54:33):
I mean, just part of Winter Jam,
haven't you?

>> Speaker C (54:37):
Yeah. Yes, I was. And that was such an honor to
be part of that. We did 32 cities, on arena
tour with Winter Jam. And now,
gosh, the following year, after winter Jam, my first single
went to the radio, then my second
single went to the radio. And then the funny thing
is, I just. I just released some more Christmas music

(54:58):
a few months back, and I got the most, radio
ads I've had across the board.
I just opened up a. I'd never been in before
through my. The music. But, you know, what's cool is, is that
people want to. Music interests people, right?
So they want to know about it. They want to
know how or how'd you get to hear, how'd you do?

(55:18):
I can't share none of that without giving glory to God.
So, to me, while it's fun, it is just
a heck of a tool to
you in sharing your faith and
living out, you know, what I've seen since I
was a little kid. And. And like I said, I'm going
just in a couple days, I'm going to be back in that church. I

(55:39):
can't wait to get to that church. I want to be such an encouragement to that
church that planted that seed in me in
that fire station when I was a kid. You know, where I
got.

>> Kevin (55:48):
Can't imagine going back there. That would be so exciting and
so. Yeah, surreal. Wow. Crazy.

>> Speaker C (55:54):
Yeah. So it's just. And what I see
for what I see coming up, you know, some people have their
visions laid out. Like, they know they got this. Their two
year plan, the five year plan, you know, the ten year plan. I'm a
little different in that regard. I just want to be obedient with
what he's told me to do now. And when he changes
that, then, Lord, I trust you to help me be obedient

(56:14):
to change it.

>> Kevin (56:15):
Yep.

>> Beth (56:15):
Yep.

>> Kevin (56:16):
That's the way it is. Sometimes it's just step here and step
here and step here, and that's.

>> Speaker C (56:22):
That's exactly what you guys are doing.

>> Kevin (56:23):
Yeah. Right.

>> Beth (56:25):
You know, because of COVID I think in the body of Christ,
there's, a shifting. And what was is not
anymore. And God is calling
people to shift with him.
And I like to say. I like to
picture it, like, leaning into the heartbeat of the Lord and
saying, God, where are you moving now? I don't want to say,
bless my plans, lord. I want to say, what are you doing? And let me be

(56:47):
part of it. And I feel like that's what you're
saying in God, shifting what
he's calling you and Jodi to not just in the
schools like it has been in the past, although you're so
open to that, but to the families. That's
like you're leaning into his heartbeat and saying, God is
saying, okay, it's. You're shifting. I'm doing
something new, and I want you to follow with me. I

(57:10):
love that.

>> Speaker C (57:11):
I heard. I was just in the meeting this morning with, a
pastor. With a pastor. We were talking,
and I said to him something I'd heard another
minister say, very profound thing. He said,
instead of making a plan and asking God to bless
it, he said, find out what the plan is
from God. And it's already blessed.

>> Kevin (57:30):
And I was like, man, right.

>> Speaker C (57:32):
You know, and that really is the best place at
peace, you know? And, I
mean, we just are now kicking off a new tour called
testify to love. And there's some intricate
things I'm about to unfold with that, but I know there's
something there with that the Lord wants me to do. And.
And, more and more doors are opening, and.

>> Kevin (57:53):
Yeah.

>> Speaker C (57:54):
You know, I mean, and I don't say that lightly. I
think doors are opening. I don't mean just. Just because
I'm getting to do things. I'm not saying that that's
spiritual and necessarily as much as the right things
like that God is. I
want him to orchestrate it.

>> Kevin (58:10):
Yep.

>> Speaker C (58:10):
You know, I came. I came out the end of last year going,
you know, I just want to be patient a little bit before I start digging
into booking another tour.
I just want to, you know, so I've been moving a little bit
slow, you know, here we are, march
15, and we just. I was
telling somebody that we've been moving a little bit slower, but
that's okay. I feel like God was saying,

(58:31):
wait, wait, wait. You know, and
because he's got all these kids doing different things,
and, you know. You know what? And if I could
just say this. We did a concert for an
organization in Indiana recently that helped,
individuals that have disabilities. And so we were
hired to come in and be a part of an annual fundraiser for
them. And I played the show that night, and my wife and I were

(58:54):
talking about it. I said, man, it just seemed like everything about that
night was hitting on all cylinders, man. It was just like,
wow. And I said to my wife, I said, do you know why
that went so good? And she looked at me and I said, it's because
we love those people, and those people loved
us. And the Holy Spirit felt welcome
in that place, and that's why

(59:14):
it went so smooth. And it just. I don't know.
And there's nothing better than being exactly
where he wants you to be. So I encourage those that are listening
that we're no different than the next person.
Everybody has, been challenged with adversity
or things that try to, steal your joy or take
your hope away or, or bring problems
or bring issues, but there's nothing better than being in the

(59:37):
right smack dab in the middle of God's will. And if you turn to
him, he will turn the adversity around.

>> Kevin (59:42):
Yep. Amen. Wow, that's exciting.
Everything you've got going on, that's pretty cool.
What's the best way for people to keep up with you
and what you're doing these days?

>> Speaker C (59:52):
Yeah, if they want to. I mean, obviously we're going to be on
that. They would find us on social media. It's by
putting Billy Ballinger in there or Jody Ballinger. But they
can also, our website's the same names,
billyballinger.com or
jodyballinger.com. we do have a not for profit called
break the gray that is the umbrella to our ministry
that we do, look up that they can as well. But, just

(01:00:14):
putting our names in, it'll all pop up. The music will pop
up, testimonies, videos. the website
has our upcoming tour dates on it and where we're going to be.
Okay.

>> Kevin (01:00:24):
and you have a newsletter, right?

>> Speaker C (01:00:26):
Oh, we do. We, they can sign up for the email through the website.
Yes.

>> Kevin (01:00:29):
Perfect.

>> Speaker C (01:00:29):
Okay. There's a place for sign up on there. And, and,
maybe, you know, Jody also has been blessed to be
able to, do some women's meetings and share her story
through that. And, so you'll have to.

>> Beth (01:00:40):
Tell her to get ready, because I think we're going to have to have her
on our podcast. Oh, my God.

>> Speaker C (01:00:46):
He's always ready. If you turn her loose, it's like
yeah, that sounds good. I won't be able
to.

>> Beth (01:00:54):
Would love that.

>> Kevin (01:00:56):
Well, thank you so much, Billy. I'm sure you
realize, but you don't realize how many people you've touched,
including us. You know, I'm sure even that service
when we first met you back in 2016, and there's
just things. I'm sure there's a lot of things in your ministry
like that that you don't even realize are happening in
people's lives that you're ministering to. So we just

(01:01:16):
appreciate it so much.

>> Beth (01:01:17):
Thank you.

>> Kevin (01:01:18):
And really, thank you for coming on with us and telling
your story.

>> Speaker C (01:01:21):
Well, it is a great honor for me,
and, I just am humbled that you guys have me on. Thank you so
much. And I look forward to, seeing you and talking to you
again. God bless you.

>> Beth (01:01:31):
God bless you.

>> Kevin (01:01:33):
Thanks so much for listening to the faith moving Forward
podcast. Please consider
subscribing to our podcasts on Spotify, Apple
podcasts, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you
currently listen to.