December 8, 2025 • 45 mins
In this episode, Brody gives an honest look at the medical crisis involving Greg Helms, starting with the ministry work that brought Greg and Kilby to Uganda. He then walks through Greg’s sudden collapse, hours of convulsions, an induced coma, and the desperate search for answers.
Brody cuts through the early chaos and misinformation and follows the unexpected path that led to Greg’s emergency evacuation and specialized care at Duke. Through every step, God’s sovereignty has been evident in the provision, timing, and support they received. Greg is recovering, next steps are underway, and Kilby and Greg express deep gratitude for the prayers and encouragement that have helped sustained them in this difficult season.
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Man, we missed last week, but we got a lot to catch
up on and a lot to talk about.
And I'm sorry that we didn't getan episode up, but I think this
one will be uh encouraging andalso very informative.
I want to catch y'all up onwhat's been going on with my
son-in-law, Greg, and mydaughter, Kilby, um and their
family.
It's been a whirlwind for thelast few weeks, last couple of
(00:21):
weeks, and so many of y'all havebeen following along and praying
through Snowbird's social media,through Greg and uh Kilby's
social media.
And I'd like to just kind oftell you the story of the last
few weeks, and we're still rightin the middle of this story, and
so there's a lot still yet thatneeds to be played out.
But just give you an update.
Uh, just tell everyone thankyou.
So many texts and emails andmessages uh on social media
(00:45):
platforms and more than morethan I can maybe respond to.
And so I want to just uhdedicate this episode to not
only updating everybody, but tojust saying thank you for your
support, financial support toget them home, get them the
medical care they needed.
It's definitely been uh a moveof God's sovereignty and also an
incredible encouragement towatch the body of Christ work
(01:07):
and come together.
So, in this episode of No SanityRequired, I'm gonna give you an
update and just rejoice in whatthe Lord's done.
Welcome to No Sanity Required.
SPEAKER_00 (01:21):
Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters,a podcast about the Bible,
culture, and stories from aroundthe globe.
SPEAKER_01 (01:32):
The Friday before Thanksgiving, and I actually uh
I'm gonna have to back up toreally tell this story, but the
Friday before Thanksgiving iswhen everything sort of kicks
off in this story, thisnarrative.
And that's when my son-in-law,Greg Helms, collapsed in a
(01:52):
shopping complex in the capitalcity of Uganda.
And there was a lot ofconfusion, and I'm gonna get
into the details of why I thinkthat was, and uh some uh a
particular social media postthat I think confused a lot of
people, but then also just um uhnot knowing a difficulty
communicating.
Greg and Kilby were nottogether.
(02:14):
We had some snowbird people onthe ground with them, and um, it
was a pretty chaotic time.
But I want to tell the story,but uh, in order to tell the
story and and then give you anupdate on how Greg's doing and
what this week has been like,this last week has been like,
the last seven, eight days, um,let me let me back up.
So to understand what Kilby andGreg do, they minister to people
(02:39):
uh along the border of Ugandaand South Sudan.
Now, a quick geography andhistory lesson.
Sudan and South Sudan are twodifferent countries.
It's not North Sudan and SouthSudan, it's just Sudan and South
Sudan.
And South Sudan has been acountry for I I don't have notes
in front of me, I believe since2011, after uh years and years
(03:02):
and years and generations ofcivil war, there was a split and
South Sudan became a country.
We were actually living inUganda in the first half of
2014, and there had been a lotof South Sudanese refugees that
had come down into Ugandabecause there was so much civil
war going on in South Sudan,even though it was uh just a
(03:25):
couple years old as a country.
Uh there there was alreadyfactions, and a lot of that had
to do with when they establishedthat country, they uh the the
thought was to put leadershipfrom both both uh the two main
fighting factions or parties toput people from each of those
(03:46):
parties in leadership, hopingthat that would unify the
country, and it did seem to fora little while, and then
eventually it led to more civilwar in South Sudan.
And uh, if you're not familiarwith with that, you can you can
go do your own research.
This is not an episode aboutthat, but just understanding the
area that Kilby and Greg areserving, their desire is to be
(04:08):
in South Sudan, but there's beena whole lot of conflict there
for them, uh, and a number ofreasons they can't be there full
time.
The specific people group thatthey have targeted and and
desire to work with in SouthSudan are called the Jormado.
And those those people aredifficult to get to.
(04:29):
Uh, it's not safe to drive avehicle there uh from Uganda.
And so Greg and Kilby havepartnered with another couple
that has sort of mentored them.
Um, Peter and Shauna are theirnames, and and Peter has a
couple of airplanes, and so whatthey do is they fly, they base
out of Uganda, and then they flyand land these airplanes in
(04:52):
these villages among this peoplegroup.
And you got to understand, too,that part of the world, whether
you're in Uganda or the DRC, theCongo or Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan,
or South Sudan, you have youhave different people groups
that to us in the West wouldkind of look the same, but
they're very different.
(05:13):
It's sort of tribal.
And so you've got a lot offactions and tribes and clans,
and I'm trying to use sort ofWestern terminology that would
make this make sense.
And I think maybe the the bestWestern analogy would be Native
Americans, if you study uh U.S.
history, Native American tribesthat some got along, some
(05:33):
didn't.
And so you had tribes that wereenemies of other tribes, and
then that there would be tribesthat would form alliances, and
and then some tribes helped uhforeigners like the French or
the English, uh, or once Americabecame a nation, um, you know,
helped expansion, westwardexpansion.
(05:53):
There there were peaceful tribeslike the Nasperse, uh, the
Cherokee for the most part werewere pretty peaceful.
And um, and then you had tribesthat were more aggressive uh
with with within the NativeAmerican communities and in
against Western expansion.
And so I use that analogy to saythat in East Africa and and
(06:14):
other parts of Africa, as we dowork in West Africa too, with
their snowbird people there, youyou see some people groups are
very uh very open to Westerninfluence and help, and some are
not.
And then um I just listened touh a book recently on um
conflicts in the Horn of Africaand how just, you know, whether
(06:37):
it's in Somalia or Eritrea, Ithink is how you say that,
there's a lot of hostilitytowards Westerners.
And but there's also people thatthey want help from the West.
They want to, they want to growand assimilate as a culture and
a society.
And so Greg and Kilby havetargeted a group of people that
it's not easy to get to, and sothey'll fly in, spend uh they've
(06:58):
spent as many as six weeksconsecutively with these people
in as short a period of time asa day.
You know, they can they can flyup there and it takes about two
or three hours to fly from wherethey live in northern Uganda,
land the plane, and they can doa day of ministry and actually
fly back.
They can't fly at night, there'sno night flying, it's all uh it
all has to be daylight.
(07:19):
Um, I think because of the, youknow, they're landing on dirt
strips and stuff like that.
It's very it's very primitive.
And so Kilby and Greg, whilethey're not able to live among
the Jormado in South Sudan, theyhave settled among the Lugbara
in northern Uganda.
Now, let me give you, I'm gonna,I'm gonna tell you some of the
(07:40):
complexities and complicationsof working in a place like uh
Kilby and Greg work.
Um, the ministry organizationthat Kilby and Greg started off
close, most closely connected tois the IMB, the International
Mission Board.
And and we have partnershipswith the IMB, Snowbird does.
(08:01):
But there's a problem with theway the IMB does some things.
I let me just say I really lovethat organization, and we are
partnered with thatorganization, and I think they
do most things really well.
They do a lot of things.
Nobody does everything right.
You know, you you don't have tolook far to figure out that
Snowbird gets some things wrong.
And so the IMB, something thathas has sort of become a
(08:27):
standard operating for them issince the conflicts in Sudan and
South Sudan, the IMB has reallytargeted Sudanese and South
Sudanese refugees.
So in northern Uganda, there area lot of Sudanese and South
Sudanese refugees, severalmassive refugee camps.
(08:48):
And Kilby and Greg have workedamong those Sudanese and South
Sudanese refugees.
But the IMB really emphasizesworking with refugees.
And so I like I have I have apastor friend whose church was
just over there this year, andthey're in the same village,
same group of villages near thesame city where Kilby and Greg
(09:10):
live, but they were sort ofdedicated to working with
refugees from South Sudan.
Well, what happens then isyou've got massive numbers of
people from other people groupsthat are not targeted by those
missionaries.
So, in other words, in the WestNile region where Kilby and Greg
serve, the main city in thatarea closest to them is called
(09:33):
Arua or Arua City.
And the the people group thatthat is home to are the Lugbara
people of Uganda, Lugbara,L-U-G-B-A-R-A.
The Lugbara people of Uganda, ifthey're educated, anybody who's
educated speaks English becausethat was a British colony.
(09:53):
And so one of the benefits ofdoing ministry there is a lot of
people speak English.
I've been there and taught andpreached and shared, and man,
you don't need a translator inin certain certain situations,
and that's pretty helpful.
But Kilby and Greg in insettling in that area, they
said, well, as much as we wantto work with the Jormado and
(10:15):
other South Sudanese refugees,we're uh we're living in a
community of third-world WestNile Africans called the Lugbara
that no IMB team is targeting,like as a primary people group
target.
And no uh other no other majormissions organizations are.
(10:35):
They're doing some work there.
And there's uh there's a coupleof IMB families, international
mission board families that arethere and pioneers, if you're
familiar with these missionsagencies, you may not be.
But uh another one is pioneers,people that are there doing
work, good people, faithfulpeople.
Um, but a lot of them arefocused on, a lot of them
(10:56):
focused on or targeting Sudaneseand South Sudanese refugees.
So if you could imagine, if Icould contextualize this to
where we're at, in Western NorthCarolina, imagine that you said,
I want to do ministry in WesternNorth Carolina and the southern
Appalachian region of NorthCarolina, but I really want to
(11:17):
focus on the Cherokee people.
Well, in in Western NorthCarolina, there is a there's a
large reservation called thekoala boundary, where a lot of
Cherokee people live.
And then there are pockets ofCherokee land everywhere else,
like in my community here, wehave uh there are pockets of
Cherokee land.
If you go over the snowbirdmountain range to the other
(11:39):
side, the snowbird community ispredominantly Cherokee land.
So imagine that Snowbird said,we want to do local ministry,
but we really want to focus onthe Cherokee.
And to get to the Cherokee, weskipped over three trailer
parks, four housing projects,and we neglected the needs of,
you know, local people whoweren't Cherokee, even though
(12:04):
they're right here in front ofus.
Um that's that's the danger iswhen you just say we're gonna
target this one people group andwe're only gonna target those
that are in refugee status, youend up, if you're not careful,
if you're not careful, you endup neglecting a lot of ministry
opportunities.
So the Lord is is really uhimpressed on Kilby and Greg that
until they can live and befull-time in South Sudan, if
(12:26):
that is ever to be in God's planand if that's ever gonna happen,
that while they're living innorthern Uganda, they want to do
their best to minister to thepeople that are predominantly
inhabiting that region, thatarea, and that's the Lugbara
people.
So they minister among theLugbara.
And what that ministry lookslike is church on Sunday.
They have a church that theyplanted and that Greg pastors
(12:48):
and leads called Mango TreeChurch.
And that's simply because thatchurch started meeting under a
mango tree on some uh rough-madebenches, and uh and then uh they
do Greg does prison ministry,Kilby does a children's
ministry, and they do a lot ofdiscipleship with with young men
(13:09):
and women in that area, and thensome partnerships with other
churches and ministries in thearea who are faithful, and then
also they have a radio ministry.
They're in Arua City, there's anthere's a radio station that
really is the only one in theWest Nile region and really
sends a signal into uh Congo,into South Sudan.
They they reach a large area.
(13:30):
And so they're super busy.
Um and so they're working inthat region, doing God's work,
the work of spreading thegospel, making disciples,
growing and training people, uh,and and uh putting Bibles in
people's hands.
Um they don't do Bibletranslation, but they do Bible
distribution.
And then the radio broadcast uhreaches a lot of people where
(13:51):
sometimes they'll play umsermons from someone like John
Piper or something like that, afaithful preacher.
Uh, and then other times Gregwill preach and share.
And so that's that's sort of thethe 30,000-foot view and scope
of their ministry.
And uh, and so over the lastthree months, there have been
four ladies from Snowbird thathave been living with them.
(14:14):
Um, Gabby, Hannah, I just usefirst names.
Gabby, Hannah, uh, McKenzie, andSophie.
Those four ladies have been uhwho had served at Snowbird la
for the last year or two, andthen had spent this last
semester living with and servingalongside of Greg and Kilby,
being discipled, mentored in inthe mission uh world and
(14:36):
missions.
And so it's been a it's been avery productive and awesome
fall.
And so thankful for the ministryopportunities that were there.
Well, on uh Friday, November the21st, Kilby and Greg were in the
Capitol City where they werepreparing on the 22nd to take
(14:57):
those four young ladies to theairport to send them home after
they had spent three monthsthere.
Those those ladies were going tobe coming home for Thanksgiving
and Christmas.
Their time there was done.
So Kilby and Greg had come tothe Capitol City, which is about
a 10-hour drive from where theylive.
So they live in the northernmostpart of Uganda.
Uh they're kind of they'rethey're kind of north, uh West
(15:19):
Nile is like northwesternUganda, I think is the way, the
way that would geographically umset up.
So northwestern Uganda.
If you're looking at a map, holdup your hand.
Imagine your hand is the countryof Uganda.
They live like up in the in theuh if you're holding up your
right hand, palm out, looking atyour right hand.
Right now, if you just hold uppalm out, right hand, look at
(15:42):
it, your index pointer finger inthat top joint of that would be
like where they live.
And then the capital city isdown at your wrist, the middle
of your wrist.
So I don't know, this is rough,rough.
Just trying to give you apicture.
In other words, they live in apretty remote area.
Uh, if you know missionaries orministries that serve in Uganda,
(16:04):
they probably serve in one ofthe larger cities in the south,
the capital of Kampala, uh uh,Intebi, um, Ginja.
There's several large areas thata ton of ministries serve and
operate that are, I'm notthrowing off, but a little more
comfortable living uhconditions, a little more modern
(16:26):
cities.
It would feel there, there are alot of more Western uh and
modern amenities.
And so up in the northernregions, whether you're in the
area of West Nile or KilbeanGreg, serve with the Lugbara
people or in uh the northeasternside and Karamoja or Kabong,
those are more remote areaswhere people are still living a
(16:46):
little bit, a little bit moreprimitively and just a rougher
area.
And so coming to the city isalways a really enjoyable
experience because you can getsome good food in the Capitol.
There is a shopping mall that'snicer than any mall I've ever
been in in America.
You know, I don't go to manymalls.
Um, very rare that I'm in amall, but I've been in that mall
(17:07):
in Kampala, and it's clearly amall that's set to target
wealthy people.
So you've got the wealthy classthat sort of run the government,
large businesses, and thenWestern uh Western expats that
live in in that in that citythat do international business
or something like that.
And so in and around that mall,you've got nice restaurants, and
(17:28):
it's just one little part of thecity.
So anytime Kilby and Greg cancome to the city, they go and
eat at a favorite restaurant bythat mall, and then they'll
spend some time in that mall.
There's a a couple of um storesin that mall where they can get
some things they need, kind of amini version of a Walmart or
something like that.
And then also uh coffee shop andyou know, good ice cream.
(17:50):
So just kind of treatingyourself and spend three months
uh up in in their home area, andthen about once a quarter, maybe
make it down to the city for arestful weekend.
Um so they had come down to thecity to drop the girls off and
to also get some rest.
And about a month prior, Greghad had a pretty intense bout
(18:10):
with malaria.
Malaria is uh uh primarily, Ibelieve, a mosquito-borne
disease or illness.
And it's, you know, I think theway I would describe malaria,
the symptoms of malaria tosomebody.
Imagine the worst flu you'veever had.
And I've never had the flu, um,but watching, and I've never had
(18:32):
malaria.
But I've treated my wife, youknow, when when Little had
malaria, and I've seen her havethe flu, but only seen her have
the flu one or two times, Ithink, in our 32 years almost of
marriage.
Um, and malaria is like the mostsevere flu you can imagine.
When I see people that havegotten the flu, I hear that
their body hurts, their jointsache, their head hurts, uh, a
(18:56):
fever.
Malaria is like that, and asevere case of malaria is all of
that uh accelerated and likemagnified.
So Greg had had a really roughround of malaria, which is
pretty common living in WestNile, the West Nile region of
Uganda and in South Sudan.
So Greg had had uh malaria.
(19:17):
Kilby, many of you a coupleyears ago were praying with us
for Kilby.
She had contracted a really badcase of malaria in South Sudan,
and they were having difficultygetting out of South Sudan to
get to uh back into Uganda wherethere was a clinic and some
treatment.
South Sudan, by the way, is isfar more primitive than where
they're at in northern Uganda.
(19:38):
And so malaria is tough.
It's rough, and and and Greg hadjust had a round of malaria and
had been super sick and had hadhad healed, but man, they were
they were hurt, they were beatup and worn out.
They were just kind of hurting.
And so they had made a decisionto come stateside for
Thanksgiving and then maybe stayanother week or two.
They were going to spend two tothree weeks here.
(19:59):
They wanted to Be with theirpeople there at Christmas.
But since Thanksgiving is not aUgandan holiday as we celebrate
it, they were going to comehome, spend Thanksgiving week
here with us, and maybe anotherweek or two and then fly back
over for Christmas.
And so they were not typicallyscheduled to be home at this
time as they come home every twoyears.
(20:22):
So they had made a decision tocome home for Thanksgiving.
And so on that Friday, they hadgone to the city, were dropping
the girls off to fly out onSaturday.
They were going to wait tillSunday to fly out.
And that way they could makesure the girls got out of there.
If something happened with thegirls' flight, the Greg and
Kilby would still be in the cityto help them, which ended up
(20:42):
happening.
The girls got their their flightgot delayed from Saturday to
Sunday.
And so Greg and Kilby would havebeen there to help them.
However, uh they were going tothen fly out on Sunday and be
here for a couple weeks.
Well, on Friday, while they'reall in the city, they had they
had separated, split up to sortof run errands and pick up some
things.
(21:03):
And at that time, uh, and I wastalking to Kilby during that
time.
She she and Greg weren'ttogether.
And at some point in there, sheand I had a conversation, just
making some plans because Littledidn't know they were coming
home.
Nobody knew it was going to be abig surprise that they were
coming home for Thanksgiving.
And we were just going to, I wasgoing to go get them from the
airport and walk through thefront door of the house and
(21:24):
surprise Little.
And uh we were real excitedabout that.
So I was talking to Kilby,making some final arrangements
on that Friday morning, November21st.
We hung up, got done talking.
About an hour later, she calledme back and she was frantic.
And what had happened was Greghad collapsed in a public, uh,
in a public market type, like astore, almost like a almost like
(21:48):
a department store or a Walmarttype store, something like that.
Much smaller, but you get thepicture.
He had collapsed and nobody knewwho he was and there was nobody
around and he had goneunconscious and and he started
having convulsions.
And so he was, they they got himinto a local clinic that was
there attached to that mall.
(22:09):
Didn't know what to do with him.
Kilby was was calling for about30 minutes.
She kept calling his phone,couldn't get him, finally got
him.
Uh finally got a nurse thatanswered the phone and she said,
Hey, we've got uh we've got him.
This is where we're at.
Uh, this is what's going on.
And so they ended up, uh, thankthe Lord, uh, a uh faithful
(22:31):
couple, a pioneers missionarycouple um named Carl and Rachel
were there.
They're they're really closefriends with Kilby and Greg, and
they helped get Kilby to thehospital.
They moved Greg to the besthospital in the city to try to
figure out what was going onwith him.
In that little narrow 30-minuteto an hour window of time, a guy
(22:57):
that uh that knows Greg, thatGreg had had some work, had
worked with some several yearsago, um, but hadn't talked to in
a long time, and who I Snowbirdhas had some history with.
This guy was a missionary overthere years ago, and um we
actually uh did some did somethings together, but had had not
(23:18):
had much interaction with them,hadn't had no interaction with
them over the last few years.
That guy is now stateside, andhe, I don't know how he caught
wind of what was going on, buthe posted uh a, he put a social
media post up with a picture ofGreg and Kilby and Alma, had a
picture of Alma, mygranddaughter, put a picture of
(23:39):
them up and uh in a verysensational uh quote or however
you post, I guess is the wordyou use.
I'm not a social media guy.
So a very sensational post aboutuh that Greg had cerebral
malaria, which was deadly, whichit is, but he said Greg had
cerebral malaria.
Well, Greg did not have cerebralmalaria, and at that point we
(24:00):
didn't know what he had, but hehadn't been been diagnosed with
anything.
We didn't know.
He was having convulsions andnot seizures we found out later.
It's it was convulsions, whichis different.
And so um, when when that postwent up, um we I knew what was
going on because I had talkedwith Kilby.
Little and I knew what was goingon, but like my son uh Tucker
(24:22):
didn't know, my daughter Layleedidn't know, Greg's mom didn't
know.
And so then people began callingthem, saying, What's going on
with Greg?
And they're like, What are youtalking about?
Like Laley, my daughter, beforewe could even communicate with
her, because we didn't know whatwas going on, we're trying to
get facts in order.
She gets a call from uh one ofthe snowbird ladies, and and
they're talking, and she said,Man, that's crazy what's going
(24:43):
on with Greg.
And Laley said, What are youtalking about?
And this girl said, Uh, have younot seen the post?
And so that post that the guymade had gone, I mean, it it
went crazy.
It went all over the place, uh,saying that Greg had a deadly
case of cerebral malaria.
And so they just kind of createdsome confusion, some chaos.
Um, and and so we didn't, wedidn't know what was going on,
(25:07):
didn't know what Greg had.
And so he then the next fewdays, when so many of y'all were
praying and and we were we'vebeen posting updates on
Snowbird's social media.
Isa and Austin have been postingthose updates where I'll just
record it on my phone, send itto them, and they'll post it.
And it was uh it was it was veryscary.
Greg was in a coma.
(25:28):
He he spent seven hoursconvulsing, and I saw video of
that, and it's just like he'sunconscious, his eyes are rolled
back, but he's like his hislimbs are stiff and just
thrashing.
Really scary, really scarystuff.
And uh, and so that was onFriday the 21st.
And so they got him sedated, gothim in an induced coma, and
(25:50):
that's where he spent the nextfew days.
Um and so in that time, a lot oftests were run, EEGs, brain
scans, um, MRI, and just tryingto figure out what's going on,
and and and still, to be honest,y'all, we still don't know
exactly what was going on.
Um But I do want to share oneone burden and and point of
(26:13):
prayer that we think is is a isa possibility.
I think Greg's convinced.
I I'm not convinced.
I uh it's I want to be carefulum that we don't you know just
kind of self-diagnose what'sgoing on.
So we're still trying to getGreg in to see the best
specialists that we can now thathe's stateside, and I'll explain
(26:34):
how that happened.
But um there's a fear that maybewhat happened was that Greg was
poisoned by a Lugbara man whohad made a threat on Greg's
life.
He had threatened Greg and acouple of Greg's Lugbara of
Greg's Lug Greg and Kilby'sLugbara friends and partners,
(26:54):
ministry partners there in Arua.
This guy had a couple days, uhjust three or four days before
this, he had threatened theirlives.
He said, I'm gonna kill you.
And poisoning's a real commonpractice.
It's kind of crazy to us in theWest to think, what?
But just, yeah, a little ratpoison, and it's a different
kind of rap poison than we havehere.
It's something that's producedin China that's not allowed in
(27:17):
this country because it's such auh a deadly toxin.
Just a pinch of this powder onyour skin can can send you into
convulsions.
And if you ingest a milligram ofit, it'll kill you.
And so there's a there's aconcern.
Did did maybe did maybe thisthis man who made this threat,
did he maybe poison Greg?
(27:38):
We don't know.
We're still trying to get to thebottom of all that.
Um, but you can prayspecifically for that because if
he did, there could be long-termneurological effects.
And so Greg's doing good.
He he was uh he you know, he wasreally scattered in his brain
once he came out of the comaafter several days, um, and and
(28:00):
which he did after about fivedays.
He he was he was alert andtalking, and and it's funny, you
probably saw he made a few uhsocial media posts that were you
kind of like, man, this doesn'tsound like Greg.
This seems a little off, andit's because he was really
having a hard timecommunicating.
And so he's he's doing muchbetter now.
He's really made progress.
(28:20):
But we were able, by God's graceand strength and power, by the
power of Almighty God, they wereable to fly home um on Monday,
December 1st.
And so a week ago, they flewhome.
We got him home, but it's been adifficult time uh because Greg
was, gosh, he's on he'straveling with a bladder
(28:40):
catheter, um, with some uh someresidual uh physical and bodily
trauma from the convulsions andthe thrashing and you know um
his his body taking a beaten andum and some wounds that were the
result of what had happenedthere.
And um again, by the Lord'sgrace, by his mighty power and
(29:04):
grace, Greg didn't have anybrain injury or uh head injury,
no head trauma.
He didn't like hit his head.
There's some there's some someconcern about brain trauma if if
he indeed was poisoned, ifthere's a toxin, but there's no
cerebral malaria and he didn'thit his head.
So that was God's just favoringgrace.
And so he they flew home Monday,and this is where uh just kind
(29:27):
of wrap wrap up where we're atwith with uh what happened when
they got home Monday, becausethe next few days were just
really wild and just really coolto see the Lord work.
Um but I want to share that andthen give you how you can be
praying moving forward.
So we went to pick them up fromthe airport on Monday, and on
the way to the airport, a boardmember, a snowbird board member
(29:48):
board member called me and hesaid, Hey, I got a really good
friend who's uh who's inadministrative uh management at
Duke Medical, and he I think hecould help Greg and we get him
in to see the infectious diseasespecialists at Duke, which turns
out are some of the most uhproficient, like expert in the
world.
(30:08):
This department, the infectiousdisease department at Duke is
literally world renowned.
So on Monday, now y'all listen,this is this this is the coolest
part of this story to me.
On Monday, this is how Godworks.
We're on our way to the airport,get a get a call from my buddy
who's a board member atSnowbird.
He connects me with this guy.
We had stopped, Little and I hadstopped at a at a uh Walmart uh
(30:32):
just north of Atlanta to buydiapers, some winter clothes,
because they had basically comewith the clothes on their back
and a and an overnight bag.
So let's get some, you know,let's get some uh underwear and
toiletries and diapers for thebaby and some warm clothes for
the baby and um and some snacksand things.
And and uh so we had stopped,we're in a store, and we were
(30:54):
about two hours from needing topick them up, and Duke, Duke
calls me, the the the vicepresident over this department
at Duke called me.
He said, I'm gonna connect youwith uh with a guy who's over
infectious disease.
And uh, and he did, and and Iended up on the phone with that
dude, and we and he said, Canyou have Greg here Wednesday?
This was on Monday evening.
(31:15):
And I said, like 48 hours fromnow, he said, Yeah.
And I said, Yeah, we'll bethere.
And so that was gonna be get himfrom Atlanta back home to
Andrews and then drive toDurham, which for us is about a
six-hour drive um across thestate of North Carolina.
And so we're in the westernmostpart of the state.
Duke is way towards the east.
It's definitely east.
(31:36):
There's uh a pretty gooddistance.
And so, yeah, we'll we'll getup.
Uh he said, if you could havehim here at one o'clock on
Wednesday.
And so Greg's not even off theplane yet, you know, and I'm
like, okay, we're gonna do it,we'll go for it.
And so um picked Greg and Kilbyup from the airport.
Uh they were, as you canimagine, 24 hours of tri or
about 30 hours of travel at thispoint.
(31:58):
Um, and he's been out of a comajust for a couple days at that
point, and man, he's lost 30pounds and it was it was rough.
And so we got him from theairport, got him in the car, got
him in the van.
Uh, we we took a camp van downthere, and that way they could
spread out and sleep on benchseats in that van if they needed
to, and um drove them home.
(32:19):
On the drive home, I rememberedthat Jeff Garner, who is our
transportation director atSnowbird, that's Adam Garner's
dad.
If you're a snowbird person andyou know these names, if not,
Jeff is uh he's over all of ourtransportation, which is a
pretty big department atSnowbird.
Lots of buses, vans, trucks, um,vehicles, boats.
(32:40):
So Jeff's over all that.
He manages all that.
And so Jeff has uh Jeff and hiswife Katura have a uh have a
have are friends with a couple,and the man is a charter pilot.
He he he he charters privateflights.
This guy had a 15-year career asan F-16 fighter pilot.
He went from that into flying uhA-330 Airbuses for Delta, a very
(33:04):
accomplished pilot and who'sflown combat missions.
Uh, he's a combat veteran.
And he now charters, and he hehad been at Snowbird this past
summer just to see the work andto meet us.
And Jeff had introduced me tohim, and he said in that
conversation, if I can ever doanything to help y'all, let me
know.
So I called Jeff and I said, Doyou think Ken could help help
(33:25):
us?
You think he could fly Greg toDurham on Wednesday?
I don't know that he can standup to another, you know, to a 12
hours in a car on Wednesday, sixhours out, six hours back.
Jeff said, let me call him.
And so within, within 10minutes, Jeff called me back,
said, Call Ken.
He's he's good to go.
He's gonna do it.
So that was on Monday night, onlast Wednesday, Ken flew his
(33:49):
twin turboprop, twin engine,Cessna 410, 420.
I forget what the title is areally nice plane.
Landed that thing at the uhAndrews Airport, and uh me and
Greg jumped in with him.
An hour later, he touched down30 minutes outside of Durham and
he had a rental car waiting, andhe dropped us off at the front
door of the Duke Clinic.
(34:10):
Uh, we went in for uh blood workand evaluations.
That's where we were able torule out uh cerebral malaria.
And so what that doctor saidwas, we don't know what has
caused all of this.
And so we just got to keepchipping away at it.
He said, We're kind of out of myarea of expertise now.
I can tell you that your bloodwork's clear.
(34:31):
You did not get uh cerebralmalaria, you have not uh
contracted something like Ebolaor Zika virus or anything like
that.
Um so uh so we'll we will umrefer you to a neurosurgeon.
So next steps for us will be uhto see a neurosurgeon at Duke, a
neurologist, rather, to see aneurologist and get Greg's brain
(34:55):
really evaluated and examined tosee if there's a toxin, maybe if
he was poisoned or if some othervirus.
But um anyway, a lot of a lot ofquestion marks and very few
answers.
Um, but it was crazy.
We spent two hours at Duke,drove back, got an airplane, and
we're home for supper.
That's the way to travel, boysand girls.
I'll tell you that.
Now, that private flying likethat, that was awesome.
(35:17):
That dude, Ken, was the man.
He was awesome.
And that plane was uh it waslike a uh uh six-seater, but it
was like the pilot and co-pilotcould sit up front, but then you
had the four seats in the backthat were like two seats facing
each other and lots of legroom.
And man, it was awesome.
Like the seats reclined.
It was we were we were travelingin style.
(35:39):
Uh we stayed awake the wholeway.
We're we were watching the stateof North Carolina, greatest
state in the union, if you askme.
And uh, and so we were watchingit, we're flying over all the
mountains and taking video andpicking out, oh, look, there's
my cousin's house.
There's there's where my folkslive.
Oh, there's my house.
It was pretty cool.
Um, but anyhow, we uh when weleft uh Duke, that doc said,
(36:03):
hey, you need to go see aurologist because Greg seems to
have a urinary tract infectionfrom where they had had him
catheterized during all of hisuh his coma, you know.
And so um I got a a friend andbrother named Kyle, who's a PA,
uh works at a hospital close toAndrews, down at Union County
Hospital in Blairsville,Georgia.
(36:25):
And he has an intern namedDylan, who's a strong believer
who has a lot of snowbird ties.
And so we flew back onWednesday, we flew out to Durham
and back, and then on Thursdayof last week, we went and saw
Kyle and Dylan, and uh they gotGreg uh taken care of, got the
catheter removed, got himflushed and got some antibiotics
and and have him on his way togood good health.
(36:45):
Uh, and he's gained about fourpounds of that 31 pounds he
lost.
Um, so slowly kind ofrecovering, but he's still very
weak.
And uh the big question mark nowis uh his his neurological
health.
Is his brain okay?
Greg's concerned that he couldbe looking at, you know, if he
was poisoned, one of the effectsof this particular poison that
(37:08):
that these people, the Luke Bar,have access to this rat poison
is uh long-term uh epileptictype um condition.
And so you can pray specificallyfor that.
Pray for Greg's peace of mind.
We had a good conversation onlast Friday just saying, hey
man, um God's not called you tolive in fear.
You you've you've lived yourlife boldly and with courage for
(37:31):
the gospel.
And so um just let's trust thatthe Lord uh let's let's trust
the Lord's in control of this.
And so that's what we're prayingthrough right now.
And you can pray for Greg'sstrength and and uh and and
faith.
And uh he he and Kilby areholding up strong.
And um, so what we need now issome that that last final piece
(37:51):
is some answers to hisneurological health and and
recovery.
The only thing I want to add isthis as a dad, you're proud of
your kid when they hit a homerun or spike a volleyball or
when they make an A, you know,they come home with a 4.0 their
first semester of college or runtouchdowns on ESPN, whatever.
You fill in the blank.
(38:12):
Um proud of my all my kids forthings they've accomplished.
I'm gonna tell you what though,my daughter Kilby, um what she
did in holding their livestogether while Greg was in a
coma, she's she is pregnant.
She's almost five monthspregnant, and she's got an
18-month-old kid, uh, mygranddaughter, who I call Punky,
(38:32):
and uh Alma Ruth, and they werethey were in living in a
third-world chaos with uh nounderstanding of what was going
on with with Papa, with daddyand husband.
Um Alma calls Greg Papa, that'sinstead of dad or daddy, that's
what they say over there.
And so um just crazy, crazytime.
(38:53):
And and Kilby just, man, I'm soproud of her because she was
having to over there you have topay, she she had to pay the
daily hospital bill to keep themin the hospital and um and and
making housing, you know,arrangements for where her and
Alma could stay.
And um anyway, just real proudof my girl and and uh thankful
(39:13):
that they're here.
We got them home and and thatthat's for the for the near
future anyway.
I don't know how long they'll behome.
I would imagine no less than acouple months, um maybe longer,
to see see how recovery comes.
And so Greg's almost back to hishis self.
He's uh like when you talk tohim, you'll you'll you'll maybe
catch some short-term memorystuff that's that's lacking.
(39:36):
But for the most part, he's likelike he and I have spent a lot
of time together over the lastweek, uh flew to Duke together,
drove, you know, drove to thehospital a couple times
together, been to differentdoctors' appointments and um and
then just running errands andtaking care of things.
And he's almost back to hisnormal self.
It's good to see.
I'm just thankful, praising theLord and rejoicing.
Um and the and the I said sayingthat about Kilby was the last
(39:59):
thing.
The last thing I want to say isthis.
The way that y'all ralliedaround our family and have
continued to pray and send wordsof encouragement.
Um, I think about$15,000 havecome in, which is phenomenal
because uh the amount of travel,the insurance deductibles, um,
(40:20):
medical treatment in Uganda.
I think the the Uganda, theUgandan hospital bill was about
three or four thousand dollars.
Um flights home were you knowabout three thousand dollars.
We got him upgraded.
We got them upgraded on one oftheir flights to business class
so he could recline and it was alot more comfortable.
Um, we couldn't get it on theother one, but anyway, that that
(40:41):
that cost about$600 more perperson.
And the money's come in that'sjust helped make this all um so
much more doable and manageable.
And uh Red Oak Church, our homechurch, their sending church has
been phenomenal.
Um, now that they're home, uhthere's been a meal train put
together, somebody's bringingfood every night.
And um, they're, you know, ontop of everything, they're jet,
(41:04):
they were jet lagged all lastweek.
And it's been rough, but uh justreminded the faithfulness of
God's people and remindedthrough all this of the cost of
the gospel, y'all.
Um people say, why would you bea missionary and go to a third
world country?
Well, because we've beencommanded to do that in
scripture.
(41:24):
We may not all physically go,but what I've seen is that
picture of those that aresenders rather than goers have
done their part over the lasttwo weeks, sending money,
sending words of encouragement,using resources like airplanes
and and doctor connections.
And God's people have reallycome together and and and and
rallied around my family and thesnowbird community, and I'm
(41:46):
grateful.
So we'll keep you informed, keepyou posted.
Um close with uh a passage ofscripture.
You know, I said in theThanksgiving episode that
Thanksgiving's my favoriteholiday, and that that that is
true, but this particularThanksgiving was rough, y'all.
Um it was it was a tough, it wasa tough week.
Um But first Thessalonianschapter five, um, Paul writes
(42:11):
this verse beginning in verse16.
Rejoice always, pray constantly,give thanks in everything, for
this is God's will for you inChrist Jesus.
It's a words of encouragement,and in everything we're to give
thanks and we're to rejoice atGod's goodness.
And you know, there's thatthere's a verse in that same
passage that that that talksabout repaying evil for evil,
(42:35):
and you know, it's uh um I Idon't I don't want to wish evil
on anyone, but if Greg waspoisoned, we pray for justice
and that God would remove anyobstacle for ministry to
continue or give them a clearpath forward in a different
direction.
And so um just rejoicing andgiving thanks.
(42:57):
That's been the cry and the songof our hearts over these last uh
couple of weeks and pray thatit'll continue to be.
And ask y'all to keep keeppraying.
And we'll keep keep our hand ofthe plow on this end, you keep
your hand to the plow whereyou're at.
And everybody here is on missionfor the kingdom, and we got work
to do.
If you're a school teacher, ifyou're a nurse, if you're a
truck driver, a mechanic, umwhatever your job is, if you're
(43:21):
in ministry or not, we gotkingdom work to do, y'all.
And uh, and so let's be aboutit.
Let's be, let's be about doingthe work that God's called us to
do.
And remember that the gospel,the gospel costs a lot.
Um people get real consumed andcaught up in in money and
finances.
And do I have enough to retire?
Or can we live comfortably?
(43:42):
Can we build the house we wantto build?
Can we finish out our days onearth in comfort?
Or you know, can I make medicalarrangements for, you know, if I
get dementia, or when when I'mold so that my kids aren't
burdened and strapped?
And I mean, there's a lot thatwe can worry about and fret
about, but sometimes what weneed to do is pause and remember
the cost of the gospel and whywe're here on this earth and
(44:05):
remember Paul's words to theThessalonians.
Rejoice in everything and ineverything give thanks.
This is God's will for us torejoice, to pray without
ceasing, and to give thanks.
This is the will of God for youin Christ Jesus.
So let's do those three thingsthis week and um and let's all
be about the work that God'scalled us to be about.
Thank you for being on thisjourney with us the last couple
(44:26):
of weeks, and uh we'll give you,we'll we'll keep you updated as
as time progresses.
Keep praying, and uh we'll we'llbe in touch and and keep you
guys updated through those uhthose social media updates that
we've been posting.
Anytime there's something topost, we'll keep posting those.
So that's the plan.
Love you guys, appreciate you,and uh we'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_00 (44:48):
Thanks for listening to No Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at swoutfitters.com tosee all of our programming and
resources.
And we'll see you next week onNo Sanity Required.
Man, we missed last week, but we got a lot to catch
up on and a lot to talk about.
And I'm sorry that we didn't getan episode up, but I think this
one will be uh encouraging andalso very informative.
I want to catch y'all up onwhat's been going on with my
son-in-law, Greg, and mydaughter, Kilby, um and their
family.
It's been a whirlwind for thelast few weeks, last couple of
(00:21):
weeks, and so many of y'all havebeen following along and praying
through Snowbird's social media,through Greg and uh Kilby's
social media.
And I'd like to just kind oftell you the story of the last
few weeks, and we're still rightin the middle of this story, and
so there's a lot still yet thatneeds to be played out.
But just give you an update.
Uh, just tell everyone thankyou.
So many texts and emails andmessages uh on social media
(00:45):
platforms and more than morethan I can maybe respond to.
And so I want to just uhdedicate this episode to not
only updating everybody, but tojust saying thank you for your
support, financial support toget them home, get them the
medical care they needed.
It's definitely been uh a moveof God's sovereignty and also an
incredible encouragement towatch the body of Christ work
(01:07):
and come together.
So, in this episode of No SanityRequired, I'm gonna give you an
update and just rejoice in whatthe Lord's done.
Welcome to No Sanity Required.
SPEAKER_00 (01:21):
Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters,a podcast about the Bible,
culture, and stories from aroundthe globe.
SPEAKER_01 (01:32):
The Friday before Thanksgiving, and I actually uh
I'm gonna have to back up toreally tell this story, but the
Friday before Thanksgiving iswhen everything sort of kicks
off in this story, thisnarrative.
And that's when my son-in-law,Greg Helms, collapsed in a
(01:52):
shopping complex in the capitalcity of Uganda.
And there was a lot ofconfusion, and I'm gonna get
into the details of why I thinkthat was, and uh some uh a
particular social media postthat I think confused a lot of
people, but then also just um uhnot knowing a difficulty
communicating.
Greg and Kilby were nottogether.
(02:14):
We had some snowbird people onthe ground with them, and um, it
was a pretty chaotic time.
But I want to tell the story,but uh, in order to tell the
story and and then give you anupdate on how Greg's doing and
what this week has been like,this last week has been like,
the last seven, eight days, um,let me let me back up.
So to understand what Kilby andGreg do, they minister to people
(02:39):
uh along the border of Ugandaand South Sudan.
Now, a quick geography andhistory lesson.
Sudan and South Sudan are twodifferent countries.
It's not North Sudan and SouthSudan, it's just Sudan and South
Sudan.
And South Sudan has been acountry for I I don't have notes
in front of me, I believe since2011, after uh years and years
(03:02):
and years and generations ofcivil war, there was a split and
South Sudan became a country.
We were actually living inUganda in the first half of
2014, and there had been a lotof South Sudanese refugees that
had come down into Ugandabecause there was so much civil
war going on in South Sudan,even though it was uh just a
(03:25):
couple years old as a country.
Uh there there was alreadyfactions, and a lot of that had
to do with when they establishedthat country, they uh the the
thought was to put leadershipfrom both both uh the two main
fighting factions or parties toput people from each of those
(03:46):
parties in leadership, hopingthat that would unify the
country, and it did seem to fora little while, and then
eventually it led to more civilwar in South Sudan.
And uh, if you're not familiarwith with that, you can you can
go do your own research.
This is not an episode aboutthat, but just understanding the
area that Kilby and Greg areserving, their desire is to be
(04:08):
in South Sudan, but there's beena whole lot of conflict there
for them, uh, and a number ofreasons they can't be there full
time.
The specific people group thatthey have targeted and and
desire to work with in SouthSudan are called the Jormado.
And those those people aredifficult to get to.
(04:29):
Uh, it's not safe to drive avehicle there uh from Uganda.
And so Greg and Kilby havepartnered with another couple
that has sort of mentored them.
Um, Peter and Shauna are theirnames, and and Peter has a
couple of airplanes, and so whatthey do is they fly, they base
out of Uganda, and then they flyand land these airplanes in
(04:52):
these villages among this peoplegroup.
And you got to understand, too,that part of the world, whether
you're in Uganda or the DRC, theCongo or Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan,
or South Sudan, you have youhave different people groups
that to us in the West wouldkind of look the same, but
they're very different.
(05:13):
It's sort of tribal.
And so you've got a lot offactions and tribes and clans,
and I'm trying to use sort ofWestern terminology that would
make this make sense.
And I think maybe the the bestWestern analogy would be Native
Americans, if you study uh U.S.
history, Native American tribesthat some got along, some
(05:33):
didn't.
And so you had tribes that wereenemies of other tribes, and
then that there would be tribesthat would form alliances, and
and then some tribes helped uhforeigners like the French or
the English, uh, or once Americabecame a nation, um, you know,
helped expansion, westwardexpansion.
(05:53):
There there were peaceful tribeslike the Nasperse, uh, the
Cherokee for the most part werewere pretty peaceful.
And um, and then you had tribesthat were more aggressive uh
with with within the NativeAmerican communities and in
against Western expansion.
And so I use that analogy to saythat in East Africa and and
(06:14):
other parts of Africa, as we dowork in West Africa too, with
their snowbird people there, youyou see some people groups are
very uh very open to Westerninfluence and help, and some are
not.
And then um I just listened touh a book recently on um
conflicts in the Horn of Africaand how just, you know, whether
(06:37):
it's in Somalia or Eritrea, Ithink is how you say that,
there's a lot of hostilitytowards Westerners.
And but there's also people thatthey want help from the West.
They want to, they want to growand assimilate as a culture and
a society.
And so Greg and Kilby havetargeted a group of people that
it's not easy to get to, and sothey'll fly in, spend uh they've
(06:58):
spent as many as six weeksconsecutively with these people
in as short a period of time asa day.
You know, they can they can flyup there and it takes about two
or three hours to fly from wherethey live in northern Uganda,
land the plane, and they can doa day of ministry and actually
fly back.
They can't fly at night, there'sno night flying, it's all uh it
all has to be daylight.
(07:19):
Um, I think because of the, youknow, they're landing on dirt
strips and stuff like that.
It's very it's very primitive.
And so Kilby and Greg, whilethey're not able to live among
the Jormado in South Sudan, theyhave settled among the Lugbara
in northern Uganda.
Now, let me give you, I'm gonna,I'm gonna tell you some of the
(07:40):
complexities and complicationsof working in a place like uh
Kilby and Greg work.
Um, the ministry organizationthat Kilby and Greg started off
close, most closely connected tois the IMB, the International
Mission Board.
And and we have partnershipswith the IMB, Snowbird does.
(08:01):
But there's a problem with theway the IMB does some things.
I let me just say I really lovethat organization, and we are
partnered with thatorganization, and I think they
do most things really well.
They do a lot of things.
Nobody does everything right.
You know, you you don't have tolook far to figure out that
Snowbird gets some things wrong.
And so the IMB, something thathas has sort of become a
(08:27):
standard operating for them issince the conflicts in Sudan and
South Sudan, the IMB has reallytargeted Sudanese and South
Sudanese refugees.
So in northern Uganda, there area lot of Sudanese and South
Sudanese refugees, severalmassive refugee camps.
(08:48):
And Kilby and Greg have workedamong those Sudanese and South
Sudanese refugees.
But the IMB really emphasizesworking with refugees.
And so I like I have I have apastor friend whose church was
just over there this year, andthey're in the same village,
same group of villages near thesame city where Kilby and Greg
(09:10):
live, but they were sort ofdedicated to working with
refugees from South Sudan.
Well, what happens then isyou've got massive numbers of
people from other people groupsthat are not targeted by those
missionaries.
So, in other words, in the WestNile region where Kilby and Greg
serve, the main city in thatarea closest to them is called
(09:33):
Arua or Arua City.
And the the people group thatthat is home to are the Lugbara
people of Uganda, Lugbara,L-U-G-B-A-R-A.
The Lugbara people of Uganda, ifthey're educated, anybody who's
educated speaks English becausethat was a British colony.
(09:53):
And so one of the benefits ofdoing ministry there is a lot of
people speak English.
I've been there and taught andpreached and shared, and man,
you don't need a translator inin certain certain situations,
and that's pretty helpful.
But Kilby and Greg in insettling in that area, they
said, well, as much as we wantto work with the Jormado and
(10:15):
other South Sudanese refugees,we're uh we're living in a
community of third-world WestNile Africans called the Lugbara
that no IMB team is targeting,like as a primary people group
target.
And no uh other no other majormissions organizations are.
(10:35):
They're doing some work there.
And there's uh there's a coupleof IMB families, international
mission board families that arethere and pioneers, if you're
familiar with these missionsagencies, you may not be.
But uh another one is pioneers,people that are there doing
work, good people, faithfulpeople.
Um, but a lot of them arefocused on, a lot of them
(10:56):
focused on or targeting Sudaneseand South Sudanese refugees.
So if you could imagine, if Icould contextualize this to
where we're at, in Western NorthCarolina, imagine that you said,
I want to do ministry in WesternNorth Carolina and the southern
Appalachian region of NorthCarolina, but I really want to
(11:17):
focus on the Cherokee people.
Well, in in Western NorthCarolina, there is a there's a
large reservation called thekoala boundary, where a lot of
Cherokee people live.
And then there are pockets ofCherokee land everywhere else,
like in my community here, wehave uh there are pockets of
Cherokee land.
If you go over the snowbirdmountain range to the other
(11:39):
side, the snowbird community ispredominantly Cherokee land.
So imagine that Snowbird said,we want to do local ministry,
but we really want to focus onthe Cherokee.
And to get to the Cherokee, weskipped over three trailer
parks, four housing projects,and we neglected the needs of,
you know, local people whoweren't Cherokee, even though
(12:04):
they're right here in front ofus.
Um that's that's the danger iswhen you just say we're gonna
target this one people group andwe're only gonna target those
that are in refugee status, youend up, if you're not careful,
if you're not careful, you endup neglecting a lot of ministry
opportunities.
So the Lord is is really uhimpressed on Kilby and Greg that
until they can live and befull-time in South Sudan, if
(12:26):
that is ever to be in God's planand if that's ever gonna happen,
that while they're living innorthern Uganda, they want to do
their best to minister to thepeople that are predominantly
inhabiting that region, thatarea, and that's the Lugbara
people.
So they minister among theLugbara.
And what that ministry lookslike is church on Sunday.
They have a church that theyplanted and that Greg pastors
(12:48):
and leads called Mango TreeChurch.
And that's simply because thatchurch started meeting under a
mango tree on some uh rough-madebenches, and uh and then uh they
do Greg does prison ministry,Kilby does a children's
ministry, and they do a lot ofdiscipleship with with young men
(13:09):
and women in that area, and thensome partnerships with other
churches and ministries in thearea who are faithful, and then
also they have a radio ministry.
They're in Arua City, there's anthere's a radio station that
really is the only one in theWest Nile region and really
sends a signal into uh Congo,into South Sudan.
They they reach a large area.
(13:30):
And so they're super busy.
Um and so they're working inthat region, doing God's work,
the work of spreading thegospel, making disciples,
growing and training people, uh,and and uh putting Bibles in
people's hands.
Um they don't do Bibletranslation, but they do Bible
distribution.
And then the radio broadcast uhreaches a lot of people where
(13:51):
sometimes they'll play umsermons from someone like John
Piper or something like that, afaithful preacher.
Uh, and then other times Gregwill preach and share.
And so that's that's sort of thethe 30,000-foot view and scope
of their ministry.
And uh, and so over the lastthree months, there have been
four ladies from Snowbird thathave been living with them.
(14:14):
Um, Gabby, Hannah, I just usefirst names.
Gabby, Hannah, uh, McKenzie, andSophie.
Those four ladies have been uhwho had served at Snowbird la
for the last year or two, andthen had spent this last
semester living with and servingalongside of Greg and Kilby,
being discipled, mentored in inthe mission uh world and
(14:36):
missions.
And so it's been a it's been avery productive and awesome
fall.
And so thankful for the ministryopportunities that were there.
Well, on uh Friday, November the21st, Kilby and Greg were in the
Capitol City where they werepreparing on the 22nd to take
(14:57):
those four young ladies to theairport to send them home after
they had spent three monthsthere.
Those those ladies were going tobe coming home for Thanksgiving
and Christmas.
Their time there was done.
So Kilby and Greg had come tothe Capitol City, which is about
a 10-hour drive from where theylive.
So they live in the northernmostpart of Uganda.
Uh they're kind of they'rethey're kind of north, uh West
(15:19):
Nile is like northwesternUganda, I think is the way, the
way that would geographically umset up.
So northwestern Uganda.
If you're looking at a map, holdup your hand.
Imagine your hand is the countryof Uganda.
They live like up in the in theuh if you're holding up your
right hand, palm out, looking atyour right hand.
Right now, if you just hold uppalm out, right hand, look at
(15:42):
it, your index pointer finger inthat top joint of that would be
like where they live.
And then the capital city isdown at your wrist, the middle
of your wrist.
So I don't know, this is rough,rough.
Just trying to give you apicture.
In other words, they live in apretty remote area.
Uh, if you know missionaries orministries that serve in Uganda,
(16:04):
they probably serve in one ofthe larger cities in the south,
the capital of Kampala, uh uh,Intebi, um, Ginja.
There's several large areas thata ton of ministries serve and
operate that are, I'm notthrowing off, but a little more
comfortable living uhconditions, a little more modern
(16:26):
cities.
It would feel there, there are alot of more Western uh and
modern amenities.
And so up in the northernregions, whether you're in the
area of West Nile or KilbeanGreg, serve with the Lugbara
people or in uh the northeasternside and Karamoja or Kabong,
those are more remote areaswhere people are still living a
(16:46):
little bit, a little bit moreprimitively and just a rougher
area.
And so coming to the city isalways a really enjoyable
experience because you can getsome good food in the Capitol.
There is a shopping mall that'snicer than any mall I've ever
been in in America.
You know, I don't go to manymalls.
Um, very rare that I'm in amall, but I've been in that mall
(17:07):
in Kampala, and it's clearly amall that's set to target
wealthy people.
So you've got the wealthy classthat sort of run the government,
large businesses, and thenWestern uh Western expats that
live in in that in that citythat do international business
or something like that.
And so in and around that mall,you've got nice restaurants, and
(17:28):
it's just one little part of thecity.
So anytime Kilby and Greg cancome to the city, they go and
eat at a favorite restaurant bythat mall, and then they'll
spend some time in that mall.
There's a a couple of um storesin that mall where they can get
some things they need, kind of amini version of a Walmart or
something like that.
And then also uh coffee shop andyou know, good ice cream.
(17:50):
So just kind of treatingyourself and spend three months
uh up in in their home area, andthen about once a quarter, maybe
make it down to the city for arestful weekend.
Um so they had come down to thecity to drop the girls off and
to also get some rest.
And about a month prior, Greghad had a pretty intense bout
(18:10):
with malaria.
Malaria is uh uh primarily, Ibelieve, a mosquito-borne
disease or illness.
And it's, you know, I think theway I would describe malaria,
the symptoms of malaria tosomebody.
Imagine the worst flu you'veever had.
And I've never had the flu, um,but watching, and I've never had
(18:32):
malaria.
But I've treated my wife, youknow, when when Little had
malaria, and I've seen her havethe flu, but only seen her have
the flu one or two times, Ithink, in our 32 years almost of
marriage.
Um, and malaria is like the mostsevere flu you can imagine.
When I see people that havegotten the flu, I hear that
their body hurts, their jointsache, their head hurts, uh, a
(18:56):
fever.
Malaria is like that, and asevere case of malaria is all of
that uh accelerated and likemagnified.
So Greg had had a really roughround of malaria, which is
pretty common living in WestNile, the West Nile region of
Uganda and in South Sudan.
So Greg had had uh malaria.
(19:17):
Kilby, many of you a coupleyears ago were praying with us
for Kilby.
She had contracted a really badcase of malaria in South Sudan,
and they were having difficultygetting out of South Sudan to
get to uh back into Uganda wherethere was a clinic and some
treatment.
South Sudan, by the way, is isfar more primitive than where
they're at in northern Uganda.
(19:38):
And so malaria is tough.
It's rough, and and and Greg hadjust had a round of malaria and
had been super sick and had hadhad healed, but man, they were
they were hurt, they were beatup and worn out.
They were just kind of hurting.
And so they had made a decisionto come stateside for
Thanksgiving and then maybe stayanother week or two.
They were going to spend two tothree weeks here.
(19:59):
They wanted to Be with theirpeople there at Christmas.
But since Thanksgiving is not aUgandan holiday as we celebrate
it, they were going to comehome, spend Thanksgiving week
here with us, and maybe anotherweek or two and then fly back
over for Christmas.
And so they were not typicallyscheduled to be home at this
time as they come home every twoyears.
(20:22):
So they had made a decision tocome home for Thanksgiving.
And so on that Friday, they hadgone to the city, were dropping
the girls off to fly out onSaturday.
They were going to wait tillSunday to fly out.
And that way they could makesure the girls got out of there.
If something happened with thegirls' flight, the Greg and
Kilby would still be in the cityto help them, which ended up
(20:42):
happening.
The girls got their their flightgot delayed from Saturday to
Sunday.
And so Greg and Kilby would havebeen there to help them.
However, uh they were going tothen fly out on Sunday and be
here for a couple weeks.
Well, on Friday, while they'reall in the city, they had they
had separated, split up to sortof run errands and pick up some
things.
(21:03):
And at that time, uh, and I wastalking to Kilby during that
time.
She she and Greg weren'ttogether.
And at some point in there, sheand I had a conversation, just
making some plans because Littledidn't know they were coming
home.
Nobody knew it was going to be abig surprise that they were
coming home for Thanksgiving.
And we were just going to, I wasgoing to go get them from the
airport and walk through thefront door of the house and
(21:24):
surprise Little.
And uh we were real excitedabout that.
So I was talking to Kilby,making some final arrangements
on that Friday morning, November21st.
We hung up, got done talking.
About an hour later, she calledme back and she was frantic.
And what had happened was Greghad collapsed in a public, uh,
in a public market type, like astore, almost like a almost like
(21:48):
a department store or a Walmarttype store, something like that.
Much smaller, but you get thepicture.
He had collapsed and nobody knewwho he was and there was nobody
around and he had goneunconscious and and he started
having convulsions.
And so he was, they they got himinto a local clinic that was
there attached to that mall.
(22:09):
Didn't know what to do with him.
Kilby was was calling for about30 minutes.
She kept calling his phone,couldn't get him, finally got
him.
Uh finally got a nurse thatanswered the phone and she said,
Hey, we've got uh we've got him.
This is where we're at.
Uh, this is what's going on.
And so they ended up, uh, thankthe Lord, uh, a uh faithful
(22:31):
couple, a pioneers missionarycouple um named Carl and Rachel
were there.
They're they're really closefriends with Kilby and Greg, and
they helped get Kilby to thehospital.
They moved Greg to the besthospital in the city to try to
figure out what was going onwith him.
In that little narrow 30-minuteto an hour window of time, a guy
(22:57):
that uh that knows Greg, thatGreg had had some work, had
worked with some several yearsago, um, but hadn't talked to in
a long time, and who I Snowbirdhas had some history with.
This guy was a missionary overthere years ago, and um we
actually uh did some did somethings together, but had had not
(23:18):
had much interaction with them,hadn't had no interaction with
them over the last few years.
That guy is now stateside, andhe, I don't know how he caught
wind of what was going on, buthe posted uh a, he put a social
media post up with a picture ofGreg and Kilby and Alma, had a
picture of Alma, mygranddaughter, put a picture of
(23:39):
them up and uh in a verysensational uh quote or however
you post, I guess is the wordyou use.
I'm not a social media guy.
So a very sensational post aboutuh that Greg had cerebral
malaria, which was deadly, whichit is, but he said Greg had
cerebral malaria.
Well, Greg did not have cerebralmalaria, and at that point we
(24:00):
didn't know what he had, but hehadn't been been diagnosed with
anything.
We didn't know.
He was having convulsions andnot seizures we found out later.
It's it was convulsions, whichis different.
And so um, when when that postwent up, um we I knew what was
going on because I had talkedwith Kilby.
Little and I knew what was goingon, but like my son uh Tucker
(24:22):
didn't know, my daughter Layleedidn't know, Greg's mom didn't
know.
And so then people began callingthem, saying, What's going on
with Greg?
And they're like, What are youtalking about?
Like Laley, my daughter, beforewe could even communicate with
her, because we didn't know whatwas going on, we're trying to
get facts in order.
She gets a call from uh one ofthe snowbird ladies, and and
they're talking, and she said,Man, that's crazy what's going
(24:43):
on with Greg.
And Laley said, What are youtalking about?
And this girl said, Uh, have younot seen the post?
And so that post that the guymade had gone, I mean, it it
went crazy.
It went all over the place, uh,saying that Greg had a deadly
case of cerebral malaria.
And so they just kind of createdsome confusion, some chaos.
Um, and and so we didn't, wedidn't know what was going on,
(25:07):
didn't know what Greg had.
And so he then the next fewdays, when so many of y'all were
praying and and we were we'vebeen posting updates on
Snowbird's social media.
Isa and Austin have been postingthose updates where I'll just
record it on my phone, send itto them, and they'll post it.
And it was uh it was it was veryscary.
Greg was in a coma.
(25:28):
He he spent seven hoursconvulsing, and I saw video of
that, and it's just like he'sunconscious, his eyes are rolled
back, but he's like his hislimbs are stiff and just
thrashing.
Really scary, really scarystuff.
And uh, and so that was onFriday the 21st.
And so they got him sedated, gothim in an induced coma, and
(25:50):
that's where he spent the nextfew days.
Um and so in that time, a lot oftests were run, EEGs, brain
scans, um, MRI, and just tryingto figure out what's going on,
and and and still, to be honest,y'all, we still don't know
exactly what was going on.
Um But I do want to share oneone burden and and point of
(26:13):
prayer that we think is is a isa possibility.
I think Greg's convinced.
I I'm not convinced.
I uh it's I want to be carefulum that we don't you know just
kind of self-diagnose what'sgoing on.
So we're still trying to getGreg in to see the best
specialists that we can now thathe's stateside, and I'll explain
(26:34):
how that happened.
But um there's a fear that maybewhat happened was that Greg was
poisoned by a Lugbara man whohad made a threat on Greg's
life.
He had threatened Greg and acouple of Greg's Lugbara of
Greg's Lug Greg and Kilby'sLugbara friends and partners,
(26:54):
ministry partners there in Arua.
This guy had a couple days, uhjust three or four days before
this, he had threatened theirlives.
He said, I'm gonna kill you.
And poisoning's a real commonpractice.
It's kind of crazy to us in theWest to think, what?
But just, yeah, a little ratpoison, and it's a different
kind of rap poison than we havehere.
It's something that's producedin China that's not allowed in
(27:17):
this country because it's such auh a deadly toxin.
Just a pinch of this powder onyour skin can can send you into
convulsions.
And if you ingest a milligram ofit, it'll kill you.
And so there's a there's aconcern.
Did did maybe did maybe thisthis man who made this threat,
did he maybe poison Greg?
(27:38):
We don't know.
We're still trying to get to thebottom of all that.
Um, but you can prayspecifically for that because if
he did, there could be long-termneurological effects.
And so Greg's doing good.
He he was uh he you know, he wasreally scattered in his brain
once he came out of the comaafter several days, um, and and
(28:00):
which he did after about fivedays.
He he was he was alert andtalking, and and it's funny, you
probably saw he made a few uhsocial media posts that were you
kind of like, man, this doesn'tsound like Greg.
This seems a little off, andit's because he was really
having a hard timecommunicating.
And so he's he's doing muchbetter now.
He's really made progress.
(28:20):
But we were able, by God's graceand strength and power, by the
power of Almighty God, they wereable to fly home um on Monday,
December 1st.
And so a week ago, they flewhome.
We got him home, but it's been adifficult time uh because Greg
was, gosh, he's on he'straveling with a bladder
(28:40):
catheter, um, with some uh someresidual uh physical and bodily
trauma from the convulsions andthe thrashing and you know um
his his body taking a beaten andum and some wounds that were the
result of what had happenedthere.
And um again, by the Lord'sgrace, by his mighty power and
(29:04):
grace, Greg didn't have anybrain injury or uh head injury,
no head trauma.
He didn't like hit his head.
There's some there's some someconcern about brain trauma if if
he indeed was poisoned, ifthere's a toxin, but there's no
cerebral malaria and he didn'thit his head.
So that was God's just favoringgrace.
And so he they flew home Monday,and this is where uh just kind
(29:27):
of wrap wrap up where we're atwith with uh what happened when
they got home Monday, becausethe next few days were just
really wild and just really coolto see the Lord work.
Um but I want to share that andthen give you how you can be
praying moving forward.
So we went to pick them up fromthe airport on Monday, and on
the way to the airport, a boardmember, a snowbird board member
(29:48):
board member called me and hesaid, Hey, I got a really good
friend who's uh who's inadministrative uh management at
Duke Medical, and he I think hecould help Greg and we get him
in to see the infectious diseasespecialists at Duke, which turns
out are some of the most uhproficient, like expert in the
world.
(30:08):
This department, the infectiousdisease department at Duke is
literally world renowned.
So on Monday, now y'all listen,this is this this is the coolest
part of this story to me.
On Monday, this is how Godworks.
We're on our way to the airport,get a get a call from my buddy
who's a board member atSnowbird.
He connects me with this guy.
We had stopped, Little and I hadstopped at a at a uh Walmart uh
(30:32):
just north of Atlanta to buydiapers, some winter clothes,
because they had basically comewith the clothes on their back
and a and an overnight bag.
So let's get some, you know,let's get some uh underwear and
toiletries and diapers for thebaby and some warm clothes for
the baby and um and some snacksand things.
And and uh so we had stopped,we're in a store, and we were
(30:54):
about two hours from needing topick them up, and Duke, Duke
calls me, the the the vicepresident over this department
at Duke called me.
He said, I'm gonna connect youwith uh with a guy who's over
infectious disease.
And uh, and he did, and and Iended up on the phone with that
dude, and we and he said, Canyou have Greg here Wednesday?
This was on Monday evening.
(31:15):
And I said, like 48 hours fromnow, he said, Yeah.
And I said, Yeah, we'll bethere.
And so that was gonna be get himfrom Atlanta back home to
Andrews and then drive toDurham, which for us is about a
six-hour drive um across thestate of North Carolina.
And so we're in the westernmostpart of the state.
Duke is way towards the east.
It's definitely east.
(31:36):
There's uh a pretty gooddistance.
And so, yeah, we'll we'll getup.
Uh he said, if you could havehim here at one o'clock on
Wednesday.
And so Greg's not even off theplane yet, you know, and I'm
like, okay, we're gonna do it,we'll go for it.
And so um picked Greg and Kilbyup from the airport.
Uh they were, as you canimagine, 24 hours of tri or
about 30 hours of travel at thispoint.
(31:58):
Um, and he's been out of a comajust for a couple days at that
point, and man, he's lost 30pounds and it was it was rough.
And so we got him from theairport, got him in the car, got
him in the van.
Uh, we we took a camp van downthere, and that way they could
spread out and sleep on benchseats in that van if they needed
to, and um drove them home.
(32:19):
On the drive home, I rememberedthat Jeff Garner, who is our
transportation director atSnowbird, that's Adam Garner's
dad.
If you're a snowbird person andyou know these names, if not,
Jeff is uh he's over all of ourtransportation, which is a
pretty big department atSnowbird.
Lots of buses, vans, trucks, um,vehicles, boats.
(32:40):
So Jeff's over all that.
He manages all that.
And so Jeff has uh Jeff and hiswife Katura have a uh have a
have are friends with a couple,and the man is a charter pilot.
He he he he charters privateflights.
This guy had a 15-year career asan F-16 fighter pilot.
He went from that into flying uhA-330 Airbuses for Delta, a very
(33:04):
accomplished pilot and who'sflown combat missions.
Uh, he's a combat veteran.
And he now charters, and he hehad been at Snowbird this past
summer just to see the work andto meet us.
And Jeff had introduced me tohim, and he said in that
conversation, if I can ever doanything to help y'all, let me
know.
So I called Jeff and I said, Doyou think Ken could help help
(33:25):
us?
You think he could fly Greg toDurham on Wednesday?
I don't know that he can standup to another, you know, to a 12
hours in a car on Wednesday, sixhours out, six hours back.
Jeff said, let me call him.
And so within, within 10minutes, Jeff called me back,
said, Call Ken.
He's he's good to go.
He's gonna do it.
So that was on Monday night, onlast Wednesday, Ken flew his
(33:49):
twin turboprop, twin engine,Cessna 410, 420.
I forget what the title is areally nice plane.
Landed that thing at the uhAndrews Airport, and uh me and
Greg jumped in with him.
An hour later, he touched down30 minutes outside of Durham and
he had a rental car waiting, andhe dropped us off at the front
door of the Duke Clinic.
(34:10):
Uh, we went in for uh blood workand evaluations.
That's where we were able torule out uh cerebral malaria.
And so what that doctor saidwas, we don't know what has
caused all of this.
And so we just got to keepchipping away at it.
He said, We're kind of out of myarea of expertise now.
I can tell you that your bloodwork's clear.
(34:31):
You did not get uh cerebralmalaria, you have not uh
contracted something like Ebolaor Zika virus or anything like
that.
Um so uh so we'll we will umrefer you to a neurosurgeon.
So next steps for us will be uhto see a neurosurgeon at Duke, a
neurologist, rather, to see aneurologist and get Greg's brain
(34:55):
really evaluated and examined tosee if there's a toxin, maybe if
he was poisoned or if some othervirus.
But um anyway, a lot of a lot ofquestion marks and very few
answers.
Um, but it was crazy.
We spent two hours at Duke,drove back, got an airplane, and
we're home for supper.
That's the way to travel, boysand girls.
I'll tell you that.
Now, that private flying likethat, that was awesome.
(35:17):
That dude, Ken, was the man.
He was awesome.
And that plane was uh it waslike a uh uh six-seater, but it
was like the pilot and co-pilotcould sit up front, but then you
had the four seats in the backthat were like two seats facing
each other and lots of legroom.
And man, it was awesome.
Like the seats reclined.
It was we were we were travelingin style.
(35:39):
Uh we stayed awake the wholeway.
We're we were watching the stateof North Carolina, greatest
state in the union, if you askme.
And uh, and so we were watchingit, we're flying over all the
mountains and taking video andpicking out, oh, look, there's
my cousin's house.
There's there's where my folkslive.
Oh, there's my house.
It was pretty cool.
Um, but anyhow, we uh when weleft uh Duke, that doc said,
(36:03):
hey, you need to go see aurologist because Greg seems to
have a urinary tract infectionfrom where they had had him
catheterized during all of hisuh his coma, you know.
And so um I got a a friend andbrother named Kyle, who's a PA,
uh works at a hospital close toAndrews, down at Union County
Hospital in Blairsville,Georgia.
(36:25):
And he has an intern namedDylan, who's a strong believer
who has a lot of snowbird ties.
And so we flew back onWednesday, we flew out to Durham
and back, and then on Thursdayof last week, we went and saw
Kyle and Dylan, and uh they gotGreg uh taken care of, got the
catheter removed, got himflushed and got some antibiotics
and and have him on his way togood good health.
(36:45):
Uh, and he's gained about fourpounds of that 31 pounds he
lost.
Um, so slowly kind ofrecovering, but he's still very
weak.
And uh the big question mark nowis uh his his neurological
health.
Is his brain okay?
Greg's concerned that he couldbe looking at, you know, if he
was poisoned, one of the effectsof this particular poison that
(37:08):
that these people, the Luke Bar,have access to this rat poison
is uh long-term uh epileptictype um condition.
And so you can pray specificallyfor that.
Pray for Greg's peace of mind.
We had a good conversation onlast Friday just saying, hey
man, um God's not called you tolive in fear.
You you've you've lived yourlife boldly and with courage for
(37:31):
the gospel.
And so um just let's trust thatthe Lord uh let's let's trust
the Lord's in control of this.
And so that's what we're prayingthrough right now.
And you can pray for Greg'sstrength and and uh and and
faith.
And uh he he and Kilby areholding up strong.
And um, so what we need now issome that that last final piece
(37:51):
is some answers to hisneurological health and and
recovery.
The only thing I want to add isthis as a dad, you're proud of
your kid when they hit a homerun or spike a volleyball or
when they make an A, you know,they come home with a 4.0 their
first semester of college or runtouchdowns on ESPN, whatever.
You fill in the blank.
(38:12):
Um proud of my all my kids forthings they've accomplished.
I'm gonna tell you what though,my daughter Kilby, um what she
did in holding their livestogether while Greg was in a
coma, she's she is pregnant.
She's almost five monthspregnant, and she's got an
18-month-old kid, uh, mygranddaughter, who I call Punky,
(38:32):
and uh Alma Ruth, and they werethey were in living in a
third-world chaos with uh nounderstanding of what was going
on with with Papa, with daddyand husband.
Um Alma calls Greg Papa, that'sinstead of dad or daddy, that's
what they say over there.
And so um just crazy, crazytime.
(38:53):
And and Kilby just, man, I'm soproud of her because she was
having to over there you have topay, she she had to pay the
daily hospital bill to keep themin the hospital and um and and
making housing, you know,arrangements for where her and
Alma could stay.
And um anyway, just real proudof my girl and and uh thankful
(39:13):
that they're here.
We got them home and and thatthat's for the for the near
future anyway.
I don't know how long they'll behome.
I would imagine no less than acouple months, um maybe longer,
to see see how recovery comes.
And so Greg's almost back to hishis self.
He's uh like when you talk tohim, you'll you'll you'll maybe
catch some short-term memorystuff that's that's lacking.
(39:36):
But for the most part, he's likelike he and I have spent a lot
of time together over the lastweek, uh flew to Duke together,
drove, you know, drove to thehospital a couple times
together, been to differentdoctors' appointments and um and
then just running errands andtaking care of things.
And he's almost back to hisnormal self.
It's good to see.
I'm just thankful, praising theLord and rejoicing.
Um and the and the I said sayingthat about Kilby was the last
(39:59):
thing.
The last thing I want to say isthis.
The way that y'all ralliedaround our family and have
continued to pray and send wordsof encouragement.
Um, I think about$15,000 havecome in, which is phenomenal
because uh the amount of travel,the insurance deductibles, um,
(40:20):
medical treatment in Uganda.
I think the the Uganda, theUgandan hospital bill was about
three or four thousand dollars.
Um flights home were you knowabout three thousand dollars.
We got him upgraded.
We got them upgraded on one oftheir flights to business class
so he could recline and it was alot more comfortable.
Um, we couldn't get it on theother one, but anyway, that that
(40:41):
that cost about$600 more perperson.
And the money's come in that'sjust helped make this all um so
much more doable and manageable.
And uh Red Oak Church, our homechurch, their sending church has
been phenomenal.
Um, now that they're home, uhthere's been a meal train put
together, somebody's bringingfood every night.
And um, they're, you know, ontop of everything, they're jet,
(41:04):
they were jet lagged all lastweek.
And it's been rough, but uh justreminded the faithfulness of
God's people and remindedthrough all this of the cost of
the gospel, y'all.
Um people say, why would you bea missionary and go to a third
world country?
Well, because we've beencommanded to do that in
scripture.
(41:24):
We may not all physically go,but what I've seen is that
picture of those that aresenders rather than goers have
done their part over the lasttwo weeks, sending money,
sending words of encouragement,using resources like airplanes
and and doctor connections.
And God's people have reallycome together and and and and
rallied around my family and thesnowbird community, and I'm
(41:46):
grateful.
So we'll keep you informed, keepyou posted.
Um close with uh a passage ofscripture.
You know, I said in theThanksgiving episode that
Thanksgiving's my favoriteholiday, and that that that is
true, but this particularThanksgiving was rough, y'all.
Um it was it was a tough, it wasa tough week.
Um But first Thessalonianschapter five, um, Paul writes
(42:11):
this verse beginning in verse16.
Rejoice always, pray constantly,give thanks in everything, for
this is God's will for you inChrist Jesus.
It's a words of encouragement,and in everything we're to give
thanks and we're to rejoice atGod's goodness.
And you know, there's thatthere's a verse in that same
passage that that that talksabout repaying evil for evil,
(42:35):
and you know, it's uh um I Idon't I don't want to wish evil
on anyone, but if Greg waspoisoned, we pray for justice
and that God would remove anyobstacle for ministry to
continue or give them a clearpath forward in a different
direction.
And so um just rejoicing andgiving thanks.
(42:57):
That's been the cry and the songof our hearts over these last uh
couple of weeks and pray thatit'll continue to be.
And ask y'all to keep keeppraying.
And we'll keep keep our hand ofthe plow on this end, you keep
your hand to the plow whereyou're at.
And everybody here is on missionfor the kingdom, and we got work
to do.
If you're a school teacher, ifyou're a nurse, if you're a
truck driver, a mechanic, umwhatever your job is, if you're
(43:21):
in ministry or not, we gotkingdom work to do, y'all.
And uh, and so let's be aboutit.
Let's be, let's be about doingthe work that God's called us to
do.
And remember that the gospel,the gospel costs a lot.
Um people get real consumed andcaught up in in money and
finances.
And do I have enough to retire?
Or can we live comfortably?
(43:42):
Can we build the house we wantto build?
Can we finish out our days onearth in comfort?
Or you know, can I make medicalarrangements for, you know, if I
get dementia, or when when I'mold so that my kids aren't
burdened and strapped?
And I mean, there's a lot thatwe can worry about and fret
about, but sometimes what weneed to do is pause and remember
the cost of the gospel and whywe're here on this earth and
(44:05):
remember Paul's words to theThessalonians.
Rejoice in everything and ineverything give thanks.
This is God's will for us torejoice, to pray without
ceasing, and to give thanks.
This is the will of God for youin Christ Jesus.
So let's do those three thingsthis week and um and let's all
be about the work that God'scalled us to be about.
Thank you for being on thisjourney with us the last couple
(44:26):
of weeks, and uh we'll give you,we'll we'll keep you updated as
as time progresses.
Keep praying, and uh we'll we'llbe in touch and and keep you
guys updated through those uhthose social media updates that
we've been posting.
Anytime there's something topost, we'll keep posting those.
So that's the plan.
Love you guys, appreciate you,and uh we'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_00 (44:48):
Thanks for listening to No Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at swoutfitters.com tosee all of our programming and
resources.
And we'll see you next week onNo Sanity Required.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.