April 30, 2025 • 59 mins
"The hardest part of serving is simply saying yes to going." These words capture the essence of our recent Hurricane Helene disaster relief mission to Western North Carolina, where sixteen men answered the call to help communities devastated beyond recognition. This episode takes you behind the scenes of our week-long journey, where we encountered everything from dangerous hanging trees to homes barely clinging to their foundations.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris Grainger (00:03):
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast
serving Christian men who arehungry to be the leaders God
intends you to be.
I'm your host, chris Granger.
Let's jump in.
All right, fellas, it's meatepisode time.
Let's get right into it, okay?
So Scripture of the Week thisweek is in the book of
Philippians, chapter 2, lookingat verses 3 and 4.
It says, it says, do nothingfrom selfish ambition or conceit
, but in humility, count othersmore significant than yourselves
(00:27):
.
Let each one of you look notonly to his own interests, but
also to the interests of others.
Love those two verses, guys.
Applying those verses can bedifficult.
So, if you need help, go backin your podcast feed to the last
spiritual kickoff episode thatwe just released, or we unpack
(00:48):
that at length to give you someinsights on how you can simplify
and apply that verse, or versesrather, to your life.
And again, if you enjoy those,monday through Friday, within
our line, within us, all the wayyou can get access to this
content, fellas's within theline within us directly the
daily spiritual kickoff episodes.
That's every day, mondaythrough Friday.
(01:08):
That content doesn't goanywhere else.
We don't put it on YouTube, wedon't put it on Instagram or any
of those other channels.
We put it directly there,within our line, within us
community.
It's a great way you can evenengage with me directly, as
we're doing these every day andif you miss them you can't make
the live.
They're always posted so youcan have the ability to binge
(01:29):
them, to view them, to listen,to learn, to be encouraged.
That's what it's all about.
All right, fellas.
So now this episode is going tobe a little bit different.
Obviously, I'm wearing thisbright yellow Lion Within Us
Hurricane Relief shirt.
I just want to unpack for youbriefly.
This is not going to be a verylong episode.
(01:50):
This week, guys, no-transcript,we'll talk about that as well.
(02:15):
When Hurricane Helene slammedand I do mean slammed through it
completely devastated so manyareas of that part of the
country.
I'm based just north of Raleigh.
It's where our farm is at, it'swhere the lion is located.
So this obviously hit home tous and we knew immediately that
(02:39):
we don't know how to help.
But I know I've got to dosomething.
If you remember, if you listento the lion for any amount of
time, back in October of 2024,we took a trip out there.
We had several days lined up ofwork.
It took like 23 guys out there.
We got after it, we saw logs,we served, we helped clean up,
(03:02):
brush, all that stuff.
Most of it was outside typework and leaving that trip, I
knew I had to go back.
I just knew we got to go backbecause there's just too much
work to be done.
So we just got back.
I'm recording this right afterour mission trip.
We just finished this last weekand I'm a little tired, to be
(03:27):
honest, but it was a great trip.
It was a great trip and beforeI go any further, I have to give
a special shout out to my wifeand to my children, and I mean
this in probably not the waythat you're thinking, because
the fact is we live at a farm.
Okay, so we have a.
Probably not in the way thatyou're thinking, because the
fact is we live at a farm.
Okay, so we have a farm here inNorth Carolina.
(03:48):
We take care of horses, there'sa lots of things happen.
We have chickens, we have ducks, we have goose, all this stuff,
right, all this stuff to takecare of a farm.
So it's not as easy for me inparticular just to get up with
my wife.
We have four kids, from twoyears old to 14 years old.
Okay, we have four kids, thefarm, all the all the work to be
(04:11):
that has to be done here.
It's not like I could just packup and just go, because when I
pack up and go, a lot of thelabor force is is gone.
But my wife, throughout theentire process, reassured me
that you know what we have this,we're going to cover this.
We know that you need to dothis because God's calling you
(04:34):
to do this.
We want you to go serve and wewant you to serve with a clear
mind and without any worries orreservations about the home,
about the farm, and it was withthat type of confidence and
backing and just absoluteassurance from her that made the
(04:55):
trip even more successful forme.
I just want to share that and Iwant to share that too.
So if you're a wife that'slistening right now I know lots
of ladies do listen to the LieWithin Us Encourage your guy to
do trips like this.
It means more to him than he'llever probably acknowledge you
(05:18):
Just to have your verbal as wellas just your affirmation and
your support in him doingsomething like this, because for
our trip in particular, we wereasking guys to leave home for a
week.
That's a lot.
And if a wife is constantlypicking at him like, well, I
need you to do this, I need youto do this, I need you to do
(05:38):
this, that guy's just going tosay no.
But if that wife says you knowwhat, I know this is a good
cause, I know you need this.
I think this would be good foryou.
I fully support In fact Iencourage you to do it when you
start changing language likethat to your husband, things
really shift up for her.
So I just really want to sayshout out to my wife, to my
(06:02):
children, for the way theystepped up, particularly my
oldest working in the barn, buteven my middle as she takes care
of the babysitting for thelittles.
I'm just telling you it's sucha big deal to have that support
system, that support networkwithin the home and it would be
completely impossible withoutthem.
So my trip actually started.
(06:22):
I got invited to go to anothermen's event.
We'll talk about that onanother episode for a reason,
but for this event I wasteaching and building confidence
in how you operate chainsawssafely.
Okay, it was a Christianorganization.
I found myself that first nightand I took my Timothy with me.
(06:43):
His name is Trevor.
I took him with me, so he was16 years old.
I've been working with him foryears, loving to death.
So he went with me on the wholetrip from start to beginning,
and we were able to just have alot of good conversation on the
road together and first night weactually slept under the stars
in the back of the truck.
It was kind of cool.
(07:12):
And then we got to see andwitness a pretty scary situation
because there was a gentlemanthere at the conference who had
some heart issues and he hadbasically had a heart attack
right there in the conferenceduring one of the meetings and
you know they had to bring outthe defibrillator and all the
stuff.
The CPR for, you know, probablyseemed like a half hour or more
.
Luckily he was, he was fine,the ambulance took him to the
(07:33):
hospital, no heart damage oranything like that, so so he
pulled through.
But in those moments it wasvery cool to see how an
emergency like that, how mostpeople respond of the world,
which that needed to be done CPR, all those things need to be
done.
But the rest of us because onlyso many people can do CPR at
(07:54):
one time right, the rest of uswere in prayer and actively
worshiping and I thought thatwas just a beautiful reminder
and a moment for us to just seethe power of prayer working
through, just touching that mangreatly.
So the actual work that we did.
(08:15):
Well again, chainsaw 101, justteaching the basics it was great
to see there's so many guys outthere maybe you're one of them,
them right now who's neveroperated a piece of equipment
like that right, so just be ableto go through and have them
come walk in with zeroexperience, from how do you
crank this thing, what does iteven do, to leaving
(08:38):
understanding how you crank itout, where you put the fuel,
where you put the oil, how thechain works, how you sharpen the
chain uh, the same.
You sharpen a chain, the safecutting techniques, all the way
down to they got to buck somelogs.
It was just pretty cool.
I had a bunch of them stackedup and they'd just go through
just cutting logs up and theirconfidence just went through the
roof and we ranged probablyfrom teenagers up to men in
(08:59):
their 60s that were doing this.
So it's just another reminderfor me of the power of getting
guys together and letting usjust do some things right.
And the funny part is there wasa couple guys there who were
arborists.
I mean, this was theirprofession, so obviously they
didn't come through, but theywere just the most encouraging,
(09:20):
because we're not professionalarborists.
We do this as part, as a partof what we try, I feel like
god's calling us to do.
But those guys are soencouraging to the point like we
went to leave the battery inour truck died, completely died,
and so so one of the arboristspulled his truck over.
We were able to get a jump fromhim and he even supported what
(09:41):
we were doing monetarily as weleft.
Just just spoke so much lifeinto me and encouragement into
me that you can't fabricatethose things right.
And so it's just a big shoutout to him, so thankful that he
took the time to care.
And you know what?
That was just something I'llremember forever.
(10:01):
So we got to jump on the truck,got the truck cranked and it was
the auto zone about 20 minutesaway.
So we went there and again, man, god conversations the way God
moves.
And so the guy was helpinginstall the battery in the truck
.
Come to find out he's 43 yearsold.
He has two daughters.
(10:21):
He's trying to point them inthe direction of the Lord.
He's been trying to figurethese things out.
He's working a couple of extrajobs just to make some side
money, just because expenses arereal.
And we just had some really justa truth, a heartfelt
conversation in the parking lotat Advance Auto, around God and
what does it take to pursue Himand how?
(10:41):
For as a father, there'snothing greater we can do to
show our children that we lovegod and that we're pursuing god,
and for them to see that,because there's more calls and
talks again, just another quickexample.
That conversation only happensbecause of this.
It all starts with that youknow what we're gonna go serve
and when you go serve, you canbest, you bet, you can just just
(11:03):
count on it god going to useyou wherever you're at.
And I tell them that simplestuff too.
I was just with my Timothy.
I was showing him how we wouldgo pick up.
We picked up dinner and therewas an elderly couple that were
coming out and I encouraged him,said look, go get the door, go
help them to their car.
And he did that.
And as we were driving, I toldhim.
(11:25):
I said the problem with so muchof what's going on in the world
these days is everybody'swalking around with their heads
down, they're not looking up,they're not looking up, and all
you have to do to findopportunities to serve is simply
look up.
And if you look up you're goingto see them.
I guarantee you you're going tosee those opportunities to
serve when you look around.
You just ask God to show them.
So that's what we did.
(11:46):
I mean we did.
And that windshield time I'mtelling you with, with with him,
I had.
First of all, I had a captiveaudience, you know.
So that helps, but when you'rein a truck or a car or whatever
for multiple hours and hundredsof miles, that's opportunities.
That's exactly how I saw that.
(12:06):
Hours and hundreds of miles,that's opportunities.
That's exactly how I saw thatthere were opportunities for he
and I to connect, to engage, forme to know what's on his heart
more.
We talked about life, we talkedabout baseball, we talked about
girls, all this stuff.
That's on a 16-year-old mind,right, but he felt safe.
I know I did, and I just try tokeep encouraging him to have
those conversations.
(12:26):
So, again, if you don't have aTimothy that you're out there,
that you're mentoring, go find aTimothy.
You're not going to find anygreater type of satisfaction
than when you get a chance tospeak life into another young
man who's growing up and tryingto learn these things.
And look, he's going to learnfrom somewhere.
Let's just say this, he's goingto learn from somewhere.
Well, let's just say this he'sgoing to learn something from
someone.
I want him to learn the rightthings right, and that takes
(12:51):
intentionality.
All right, fellas, we'll take afirst break.
We'll come right back.
We'll keep digging into ourmission trip and sharing some
stories along the way.
When I reflect on the kind ofthings that the men who
participated in our discipleshipmasterminds had in the past, I
am overwhelmed by the quality oftheir comments and commitment
(13:14):
to each other.
Several of the guys commentedthat this was the most
meaningful leadership experiencethey've encountered, and we
even had one man log into adiscipleship mastermind while a
hurricane was hitting his house.
He was that committed andreceived that much from his peer
group that he didn't want tomiss it.
(13:34):
Because of this extraordinarycommitment and because it's a
true gift and pleasure, we madethem a core part of our
community and we hope you mightjoin us.
We sit up men with their ownpeer advisory group of seven
individuals that meet everyother week for 12 weeks.
Each member shares areas theywant to focus on, such as
(14:00):
improving their prayer life,being more intentional with
their wives or maybe shedding afew extra pounds.
Together, we help themstrategize, make commitments,
find accountability and learn.
It's been our experience thatmost guys want a community of
trustworthy men to share theirideas and create support for
(14:21):
each other with, and it's beenour experience that most men
don't either create this forthemselves or seek them out.
So we do this because we wantyou to have that in your life,
and all that is needed to beginwinning is you.
If this sounds interesting,check out our community to see
(14:42):
the dates and times of whenthese different groups meet.
Visit thelionwithinus to startyour free trial of our community
.
To get started today, that'sthelionwithinus, and I would
love to see you lean in and tapinto the power of our
discipleship masterminds.
(15:02):
All right, guys.
So welcome back.
So again.
So that was Friday and Saturdaydoing the chainsaw ministry work
there with that otherorganization.
We got to our actual spot andwe stayed in Unicoi, tennessee,
at Appalachian Christian Camp.
If you ever get a chance to goto Unicoi Tennessee, highly
encourage you to do that andalso check out their Christian
(15:25):
Camp for Appalachian Christiancamp, because they have
wonderful facility setups.
If you have kids, they do a lotof kids programming during the
summer.
Check it out, see if you'reavailable, see what weeks would
work for you and for your family, and highly encourage you to
lean in and look at them movingforward.
So we spent Saturday night inthe dorm there.
(15:45):
We just had a place to staythat night.
Woke up Sunday morning I noticedon my Sunday there's a
beautiful path that goes aroundthe river, around the camp.
I noticed there were a coupletrees down on that path.
So actually a couple of ourguys got up and they were
looking for stuff to do beforechurch.
They went out and they cleanedup those trees.
They cut those trees up rightthere on the camp just to be
(16:08):
able to get them started.
They were itching to get goingright.
So we have church.
We're going to meet at thechurch at 1030 that Sunday
morning so I was able toactually go early that morning
and scope another job whichwe'll be talking about here soon
.
But we all met up at the churchand one of our members, adam
he's a guitar player we walkedin.
The funny part is that theywere like the worship team says,
(16:29):
did any of you guys play guitar?
And so it happens Adam is apretty good guitar player, so he
ended up being part of theworship group that morning,
which is kind of cool.
We made a lot of fun.
We picked Adam, but he was agreat character, played along
with it.
But it was a really cool setupthe way this church was.
I think it was called UnicoiChristian Church I could be
(16:49):
wrong on that, I'm going offmemory on that but they set it
up.
It was a sanctuary that wasused during the hurricane
because they didn't get flooded.
But they set up three pewsfacing each other, three one way
, three the other way, and thenhe had three across the back, so
it kind of made like a little Uand the pastor had just a chair
(17:10):
that he set right in the middleand he had a music stand and
that's what he used to hold hisBible.
I just thought the setup wasjust incredible.
This is the way he had it,because it felt very intimate.
He had a wonderful message onhypocrisy out of Matthew 7.
Just a good time there.
I thought it was interesting.
It was kind of a small groupsetting With our group.
(17:35):
There they may have been 50 or60 people and when he would
preach he would do about askingquestions.
It reminded me so much of how Iteach Sunday school, but in
this setting you were encouragedto speak back to him, so it
wasn't like just a message justgoing out.
You're supposed to sit still.
(17:56):
It was a very engaging messagewhich I thought was just super
encouraging.
Really young pastor as well.
On fire for the Lord.
So it was just a great to do.
We had lunch there at thechurch.
It was a great fellowship.
And then we got to work.
So that was a Sunday afternoon.
We got to work, we split up, wehit it hard.
We had a couple groups go outand clean up some debris and
then my group went to where wewent last time.
(18:18):
If you guys remember the lasttrip I talked, talked about miss
susie she's 81 years old, uh,and we went up to see her and we
got to work.
I'm talking about clearing upso many trees and debris and
underbrush and you know thistime of year you kind of worry
about snakes.
Luckily we didn't see anysnakes or anything like that,
but it was just hours.
It was several hours of hardwork.
(18:40):
I think some of the guys wereeven texted.
They were finishing up, justfinishing up some jobs.
We ended up having every one ofour team members up at Miss
Susie's that afternoon, onSunday afternoon, and just
absolutely did all we could topull her in, to bless her.
She blessed us.
I mean, 81 years old, out thereon the terrain, helping us and
showing us things that shewanted, telling jokes and
(19:01):
stories and just taking pictureswith us on it, telling jokes
and stories and just takingpictures with us.
It was just a wonderful way tokind of get the trip started, to
get them kick-started in asignificant way for those guys,
particularly the newer guys, whohadn't been on a trip with us
before to see what this is allabout.
So that was just a great tripthere to get us started.
We got back to where we weregoing to stay the lodge.
(19:25):
That night we were able tosharpen the saws back up, get
everything ready to rock androll, had a really good just had
some pizza for dinner thatnight, but just good fellowship.
Went up staying in a lodgethere at Appalachian Christian
Camp, which was wonderful, thelodge.
It ended up being great becauseit had a big common room where
we could play games and all thatfun stuff.
That's where we had some fun.
(19:50):
We're going to mention two games.
Okay, the games were just.
They make me laugh justthinking about them.
One of the games was calledQuick Cups.
Quick Cups is you have fivedifferent colored cups and you
have these little cards that popup and you're supposed to
arrange the cups in somewhat ofthe form of the card right.
(20:10):
And one of our guys I'm goingto pick on him right now, we'll
pick on him later he got veryemotional playing this game
because it's somewhat subjectiveto how these cards are set up
and how you're supposed to setyour cups up.
But man, he really got workedup on that one and it was just a
fun time just watching him justgo through the roof.
(20:31):
I forget the name of the othergame, but it was a shape game.
It was shapes and colors and itwas like pattern recognition
game.
I'll try to find the name of itfor you guys to drop it in the
links or something.
The thing is he was unbelievable.
He was like a ninja at thatgame.
But this Quick Cup games thatgot him going.
So fun stuff there, just funmemories, just having a
(20:54):
fellowship.
I'm telling you, fellowshiptime on a mission trip it's not
talked about enough, becausethat's just where you get to
know each other.
You get to just hang out andjust have a good time.
So Monday we had a big job Allhands on deck, all went to one
crew.
You guys remember the last tripI talked about the last day we
(21:14):
went to the area where thehurricane had came through.
But while the hurricane camethrough it actually spun up
three tornadoes on the property,thousands of trees down.
Unbelievable, it was justunreal how this place got hit.
So we were there, unfortunatelyit was, it was raining, it was
wet, it was nasty, it was.
It got to be cold a little bit,uh, and we were slipping all
(21:37):
around.
Uh, they had, they had achipper that they have bought
that hooked to the PTO of theirtractor.
So we set up a chipper crewthat was basically just pushing
limbs and debris through thatand that really just was working
great.
Other than that, we were justall hands on deck trying to not
fall down although one of ourguys did fall down, luckily he
(22:00):
didn't get hurt and just workingthrough, just cutting up that
debris, that debris, justgetting all that stuff moved.
We had a tractor ourselves.
Shout out to wayne for justbeing just a phenomenal tractor
operator.
I've never seen my operatortractor way.
This guy does unreal.
But at about 3 30 it got to bejust raining so hard that we had
(22:22):
been in that rain all day long.
You know how many complaints Iheard?
Zero.
The guys didn't care.
They just said you know whatthe rain's here we're going to
serve anyway, and it's justanother reminder to me of the
power of what can happen.
When men come together for arighteous cause, nothing's going
(22:44):
to stop them.
So that rain was just, it wasjust pounding.
When it got to the point ofbeing a safety hazard, we did
wrap it up, but at that point wewere at the end of the day and
we gave God all the glorysoaking wet from head to toe,
and it's unbelievable how wet wewere.
We did recognize, we found outtoo there was a need for
refrigerators and microwaves andthings like that.
(23:04):
So we were able to go out andprocure some of that stuff.
That evening is when I was ableto go get that stuff done.
So again at the end of the day,though you know, the rain had
stopped.
We were up there, we were outthere sharpening the saws, just
doing all the maintenance work.
Because the way I approachministry you know work like this
in ministry and mission workwhen I get to the job site I
(23:25):
want to start Like no downtime.
So that meant me and a coupleother guys were always there in
the evenings sharpening thesauce and getting the you know,
getting everything refilled oiland fueled up and just making
sure the trailers were packed insuch a way that when we got to
a site we could get to work.
That's what it's all about.
(23:45):
So, again, I had a wonderfulmeal that night.
Our praying pelican leader.
His name was Mark and he usedto be a chef Well, not used to
be, I guess he still is a chef.
So we ate like kings.
It was unreal.
Every meal Mark fixes wasunbelievable.
So shout out to mark mark,you're amazing.
Thank you so much, brother, forthe way you just you loved us,
(24:07):
you encouraged us.
So we had a good dinner thatnight.
That tuesday so that was monday,tuesday we were able to split
up a little bit, okay.
So I sent one group of guysback to this place we just
talked about for Monday and theyrented the chipper all day long
just running that chipperBecause there was guys it's so
much debris had another crew wesent that there was a home on
(24:32):
the river that needed to havenew underpinnings.
So when the water rose itwashed everything out of the
existing underpinning for thehome away, almost took the house
away.
Luckily it didn't, but we putthey had new metal.
So these guys came in they andand got to that job.
There was a couple trees theyhad to cut up as well.
(24:54):
They got that done but I'mtalking about completely
reinstalled a brand newunderpinning under this home.
And I was able to get theretowards the end of the day
because I was on an old jobwhich I talked about in a minute
.
But just to see the look of joyon the homeowner's face because
that that was just working onher, I could just tell that was
(25:15):
just working on her and the waythose guys just leaned in and
did that.
Work, hard work.
You're digging ditches, you'recutting metal with.
We didn't have a ton of tools,they were kind of with 10 snips
and there was just one of our,our of our brothers out there
named mario had a lot ofexperience with that, as well as
wilson.
Those guys just absolutely justcrushed it.
(25:37):
They were really good uhteachers for the other guys who
had never done that type of work.
But when we finished up it wasjust absolutely incredible just
to see one the level ofprofessionalism that we left it
with, but just primarily the joythat it brought to her face.
So, being a couple other guys,we went to another job and we
found most of these jobs outthrough Praying Pelican, who
(26:00):
worked with Rize Irwin, becausethat area got just devastated so
bad.
But come to find out, we wereat the home of a former Lutheran
minister and his messianicJewish wife.
It was an incredible experience.
There were some reallytreacherous trees, really
(26:20):
treacherous trees I'm talkingabout.
Some of these were hanging insome dangerous situations, had
to really be thoughtful on thecuts and how we're going to get
things down.
God was with us the whole way.
Adam was able to repair theirfence around their garden Just
took so much burden off of them.
Joe and I were able to reallyfocus on some some some really
(26:41):
difficult trees that we had toget down.
That was over top of theirdriveway.
That was impacting, impactingsome things with their river
that was running by theirdriveway.
So it was just a really hard.
I'm just going to be honest.
Hard work, great work.
My, my boot got stuck in theCreek, came out, I stepped in
back in the creek with what's mybear socks.
(27:03):
Joe had an extra pair of socks.
I don't know why he had extrapair of socks, but he did right.
With another god moment.
Oh yeah, I forgot our first godmoment.
We were low.
We were running low on bar oilfor the chainsaws.
I was like and I knew sundaylike we had to go buy something.
Local hardware store was closed.
But the guy who were that we'regoing to go see on Monday send
(27:26):
me a text at the blue side, sosuper pumped that you guys are
coming tomorrow, can't wait tosee you.
By the way, we have gallons andgallons and gallons of bar oil.
Guess, whatever you need, it'shere.
So I'm like all right, god,totally get it.
So he hooked us up with that.
So we were again Tuesday.
We're doing those jobs at theLutheran minister's house, his
(27:49):
messianic Jewish wife.
There we were able to get thosetrees done.
But the cool part was and I'llnever forget this they invited
us to lunch.
Normally on trips like this,you make your own lunch.
And we had the lunches made.
You know what?
We're going to take time.
It was an important deal forthem that they serve us and it's
(28:11):
just mind-blowing.
So we had a wonderful lunchwith them that they had fixed.
But the icing on top of the cake, guys, was that the wife prayed
a prayer over us in Hebrew.
After she did it in Hebrew, shedid it in English translation.
(28:31):
But just having that moment ofintimacy with God, right there
on that porch, overlooking themountain, wonderful food,
wonderful fellowships, hard workA lot of the hard work had been
done but we still had a lot ofhard work to do that afternoon.
But just to have that time tobreak bread and I'm sitting
there thinking I'm like aLutheran minister, a Messianic
(28:52):
Jewish wife.
You know a wife we have.
One of our guys is from Ohio,we have me and Adam from North
Carolina.
You know all these different,diverse backgrounds that were
coming together.
This storm brought us togetherin a really meaningful way and
it was just.
It was just, it was incredible.
(29:12):
I will just say it wasincredible.
So we were able to finish thatjob up, take some pictures.
He just kept talking about howGod had moved in his life and
how, again, he had served theLord faithfully for years and
years and years, and how he seenthrough that whole situation,
how God just showed up.
He even told us stories ofwhere he had these ham radios.
(29:34):
During the time of the stormthey were reaching areas on that
ham radio that had never beenreached before.
Like I forget how many milesaway he says they were reaching.
But now he says, sinceeverything's kind of somewhat
cleaned up and getting back tonormal, like you can't reach
(29:55):
that anymore, but for thosecouple weeks where it was dire
straits and emergency, the radioworked.
So when you hear stories likethat, it just gives you
goosebumps.
It just goes to show you youknow God's in control.
He's in control of all of it.
All right, fellas, we're goingto take our last break and come
back and we'll talk about ourlast day.
(30:16):
I find it helps me to have aguide at times when I'm reading
and studying the Bible.
One way that helps me is byusing devotionals to guide not
only what I read but insightsinto the scriptures themselves.
So we were blessed to become anauthor on the YouVersion Bible
app and we saw an immediateopportunity to help others with
(30:38):
devotionals around the areasthat we spend the most time
talking about at the Lion WithinUs.
So if you enjoy the show, youmay enjoy these devos as well.
We have some guys that areusing them as part of their
small groups as well, as they'rea great way to get
conversations going.
So to see the ones that we'vecreated, head over to
thelionwithinus to learn more.
(31:01):
So that's thelionwithinus, toget started with your own men's
devotional today.
All right, guys.
So now we're going through herethrough our trip.
So that Tuesday night we decidedto do a little bonfire, had a
wonderful dinner again, had abonfire that night, had some
(31:23):
cigars.
There may have been a piece ortwo of chocolate cake.
We don't have any picturesthough.
So you know that's just hearsay.
So your guilty pleasure is safewith me, guys.
I'm not going to call outanybody whatsoever on the
chocolate cake.
So you guys listen, they getthis joke.
But Wednesday we went back tothe site where we had worked on
(31:44):
that Monday with the rain andthat Wednesday, boys, I'm here
to tell you, nonstop chainsaws.
The chipper ran literally allday long clearing the land out.
There was one massive tree thatwas in the pond.
It was laid across thisbeautiful little pond right
there in front of their houseand Wilson made a determination
that tree was coming out and hewas locked in.
(32:07):
And he was determined anddoggone it.
He and his crew, mario Trevor,some of those other boys, they
got that doggone tree out.
It was absolutely phenomenal.
At one point he was barefootedin the water up to his chest.
This is cold water here inNorth Carolina, guys.
In the water up to his chest.
This is cold water here inNorth Carolina, guys.
After strapping straps aroundthis big tree, pulling it out
with a tractor.
(32:27):
I'm telling you it wasincredible to see him at work.
But our focus at least the focusthat came to me as we were out
there working because we workedup closer to the house on that
particular day the focus washope.
It was hope I wanted him andhis wife.
My hope was that they couldlook out their window and see a
(32:50):
noticeable difference in whatwas being accomplished before we
showed up.
You know, when you're there,you're living in a situation
where trees are just literallysurrounded by you.
It can be overwhelming.
It can be overwhelming and I'mtelling you, at the end of the
day they could see a noticeabledifference and it brought them
to tears.
(33:11):
At lunch we went to where wewent back in October and where
we cleared off in October lastyear and were able to sit down
and just enjoy that time by theriver.
Just again, the fruit of ourlabor was literally we were
sitting on some of the stumpsthat we had cut up.
That was just really great.
But at the end of the day wewere really late that day I mean
(33:32):
it was 6, 6.30 before we evenstopped cutting chainsaws off.
I mean, that's a long day whenyou're out there.
We were out there early thatmorning, pretty much busting it
all day long.
We prayed over the homeownerand we pray over all of them.
By the way, when you go ontrips like this, you want to
pray over all of them.
That's such an important thingto not just fly by.
(33:55):
But his wife was just inabsolute tears because of the
joy that we were able to bringher, just because somebody cared
, somebody cared, and we wantthem to know that we care and we
want to love on them.
We just want to encourage them.
We just want to let them knowthat they're not forgotten, that
you know what, at the end ofthe day, we're here to serve
(34:16):
each other and that's just abeautiful way.
I mean, the guys were so tired.
They were so tired, yet theywere so full of joy.
I know they were they full ofjoy, I know they were.
They told me as I think throughthis trip and I told them all,
I tried to tell them all severaltimes the hardest part of a
(34:36):
trip like that is saying yes togoing.
It just is.
But doggone it they did.
It was an honor to serve withthose warriors and I'm just
going to give them all a shoutout right now and again.
She'll give first names here,fellas, but I just want to say
thank you from the bottom of myheart to Adam, to Wayne Wilson,
(35:00):
michael Trevor, ted, andrew,keith, eduardo, rod, trey, ben,
mario, chris, joe, and then ourPraying Pelican crew, lonnie and
Mark.
You guys are absolutelyincredible.
(35:23):
The work you did, the way youshowed up, no complaints, no
complaints, zero complaints,nothing.
But what do we need to do next?
That's why trips like that aresuccessful and that's what being
the hands and feet of Christ isall about.
Cool part about Ben I hadn'tseen Ben.
He was a buddy from high school.
(35:43):
I had so many good memories, wejust drifted apart.
It was mostly my fault while wedrifted apart, but we were able
to just kind of come backtogether in a really meaningful
way and I am so thankful forthat time to serve alongside him
.
By the way, he has the coolestchainsaw on the planet, so I was
(36:05):
definitely dealing with a lotof chainsaw envy that week, but
it was so much fun just beingable to see Ben again, just to
hear about his life and hisfamily and just for us to get
reacquainted.
It was just a good time offellowship and again, trips like
this, guys, that's where stufflike that happens.
So that's the kind of a recapof our trip.
A question I want you to thinkabout and I to challenge you
(36:27):
with is what area of servingothers have you been avoiding?
Now, I avoided this for a longtime.
I always thought the missionstuff.
I just write a stroke of check.
Baby, you know, you have yourpray guys, you have your pay
guys and you have your play guys.
I never was a play guy.
I would encourage you lean intoplaying, because if you start
playing at this level and startgetting out there and doing hard
(36:51):
things, getting uncomfortablefor extended periods of time,
god has a way of just workingthrough that.
And I must admit, when I gothome I was ready to be home.
I was tired, I was wore out.
I had a bunch of nicks andbruises and cuts.
That's just part of it.
We have to do hard things.
It's not always going to beeasy in life.
(37:12):
If we do the hard things, if welean into it, that's when God
blesses it, man.
You just got to see it foryourself.
So, again, if you want to knowmore about future trips, things
that we're trying to plan, wereally want to do at least one
of these per year.
Again, for the last couple ofthese have been disaster
(37:32):
recovery type trips.
So we're always willing andopen.
The easiest way to stayconnected with our events is the
lionwithinus slash events.
You can see what we have outthere Now, right now, if you're
listening to this when thiscomes out.
The next event is ourReclaiming the Wild Mediatree.
Again, that's Rubber Beach Road.
That's where we have so muchfun fellowship.
(37:54):
This is the one for fathers aswell as down to five years old.
So we have some father-sonsthat have come to this.
But, fellas, I'm telling youthis is a great way to serve.
But for our next mission trip.
That's where you'll find it,okay.
So, guys, hopefully you enjoyedlistening to this one.
I'll tell you, it wasincredible.
It was cool to see all our guysin these these light yellow
shirts as well.
(38:15):
We're working on a video.
By the time this comes out, wehopefully will have a video just
recapping our trips, so be sureto check that out.
Go to our website.
Be able to see all the lionwithinus.
You'll be able to see all theLionWithEdus.
You'll be able to see all theresources there.
But on Friday I will unpack afew more tips around serving,
the idea of serving, as well asjust try to give you some
(38:36):
encouragement along the way.
So again, shout out to thefolks out there in Western
Carolina.
I will tell you this the spiritof those folks can't be broken,
because when you drive by someof the places, you see the
amount of devastation, theamount of debris Some homes are
(38:59):
just gone, guys and then youhear story after story after
story of just heartbreak.
Yet you see the resolve of thepeople and the way they love
each other, the way they're justhelping each other, but they're
just leaning on them to serveand to just be there for each
other in the time of need.
(39:20):
But God's stuff, man, but God'sstuff and the heart of the
Bible, belt for sure, but stillhad opportunities just to share
what Christ has done for for usthrough the work that we do.
So I'd encourage you to lean in,go check out organizations like
praying Pelican so it's prayingPelican.
(39:42):
Ppmorg is where you can connect.
They're the ones that wecoordinated with and worked our
trip through, so they help youfigure out the logistics, the
food, all the safety, type ofinsurance, all that stuff.
That's what they coordinate andthey bring a huge value to the
(40:02):
table.
So I highly encourage you, ifyou're thinking about, or maybe
if your church is thinking about, mission trips, look at their
organization.
They do a phenomenal job.
I can attest to the two menthat I've mentioned already,
lonnie and Mark, the work thatthey do, the level of
intentionality, the level ofcare, the level of attention to
(40:23):
detail.
You're not going to findanything better.
So ppmorg is where you can findtheir information.
All right, guys, alignwithinus,connect with us over there.
Lots of Bible studies, lots ofresources, our daily SKO, our
community, all the ways, ourmastermind groups, the way that
we're serving others,alignwithinus.
(40:45):
So if you're listening to thison Apple or Spotify.
Give us a review, give us arating.
That stuff helps big time.
Pushes to algorithm.
If you haven't subscribed to usyet on YouTube, please, please,
please, head over to YouTube,click that little bell, be
subscribed to us so we havevideos.
We have videos come out all thetime.
Guys, you'll get that andhopefully be a little encouraged
(41:07):
along the way.
So thank you, guys.
So much For those who supportedthe Lion Within's mission trip
this year.
Thank you.
If you want to continue to be adonor and support, if you like
the things that we're doing, ifyou like the way that we're
trying to serve others,thelionwithinus slash donate is
how you can connect with us andI guarantee you every donation
(41:28):
helps in a more significant waythan you'll ever know.
So I just want to say aheartfelt thank you for all the
donations, all the support andall the encouragement.
All right, guys, have a greatday, get after it.
You know what's coming.
Keep unleashing the lion within.
I don't know about you, but Iused to find Mondays really
(41:50):
rough.
I would find myself trying toreset for work, trying to get my
bearing on the family calendar,trying to find time for my own
spiritual growth and development, and often I found myself
overwhelmed or just flatlyignoring aspects of my life that
I know are meaningful to me.
What I learned was that if Ihad immediate access to
(42:12):
important and impactfulspiritual topics and reflections
to start my week well, afterthe allure of a Sunday sermon
has passed, I would set my wholeweek up to be more meaningful
and for the opportunity to makea true impact.
If you think that getting sucha boost would help your week to
get started on the right foot,we would love for you to sign up
(42:34):
for the Weekly Roar, which isour newsletter that is produced
by the Lion Within Us.
Each week will deliver apowerful reflection and
practical steps to help youapply scripture with clarity and
purpose, all being rooted inlight and truth.
So in just a few minutes, wehope to arm you with insights
(42:56):
for living out biblicalleadership with confidence and
strength, and maybe even have alittle extra bounce in your step
.
If that sounds useful, headover to thelionwithinus slash
ROAR to sign up today,no-transcript.
(49:01):
Finding resources that you cantrust and then implement can be
daunting For me personally, Ithought it was a lost cause and
I decided to take the action,knowing that I wasn't alone.
It was because of this wide gapthat we created our Lion
Withinist community, and theareas that we're helping
Christian men grow areincredible.
For instance, we've built waysfor guys to lean in and grow
(49:25):
through fun events like ourdaily spiritual kickoff, where
you get that much-needed boostdirectly from God's Word, our
Bible studies that always focuson how to discern and apply what
we learn, and even our amazingforum where you can speak your
mind without fear of gettingshut down or judged by the
extreme rules of modern-daysocial media.
On top of all that, we knowthat many men won't help
(49:49):
overcoming issues and becomingstronger in many different areas
.
That's why we created severalmastermind groups where the iron
truly sharpens iron.
Our community is about having agrowth mindset, accountability,
intentionality and transparency.
In other words, just leave fakeyou at home and come to
community just as you are.
(50:09):
I fully believe what we feel.
I see the impact it's making onmen right now and I would love
to have you check it out.
So start your very own 30-dayfree trial today to see how we
can help you be a better leader.
So if you're ready to take thatfirst step, head over to
thelinewithinus and get started.
Your journey begins here.
Visit thelinewithinus and getstarted.
Your journey begins here.
No-transcript.
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast
serving Christian men who arehungry to be the leaders God
intends you to be.
I'm your host, chris Granger.
Let's jump in.
All right, fellas, it's meatepisode time.
Let's get right into it, okay?
So Scripture of the Week thisweek is in the book of
Philippians, chapter 2, lookingat verses 3 and 4.
It says, it says, do nothingfrom selfish ambition or conceit
, but in humility, count othersmore significant than yourselves
(00:27):
.
Let each one of you look notonly to his own interests, but
also to the interests of others.
Love those two verses, guys.
Applying those verses can bedifficult.
So, if you need help, go backin your podcast feed to the last
spiritual kickoff episode thatwe just released, or we unpack
(00:48):
that at length to give you someinsights on how you can simplify
and apply that verse, or versesrather, to your life.
And again, if you enjoy those,monday through Friday, within
our line, within us, all the wayyou can get access to this
content, fellas's within theline within us directly the
daily spiritual kickoff episodes.
That's every day, mondaythrough Friday.
(01:08):
That content doesn't goanywhere else.
We don't put it on YouTube, wedon't put it on Instagram or any
of those other channels.
We put it directly there,within our line, within us
community.
It's a great way you can evenengage with me directly, as
we're doing these every day andif you miss them you can't make
the live.
They're always posted so youcan have the ability to binge
(01:29):
them, to view them, to listen,to learn, to be encouraged.
That's what it's all about.
All right, fellas.
So now this episode is going tobe a little bit different.
Obviously, I'm wearing thisbright yellow Lion Within Us
Hurricane Relief shirt.
I just want to unpack for youbriefly.
This is not going to be a verylong episode.
(01:50):
This week, guys, no-transcript,we'll talk about that as well.
(02:15):
When Hurricane Helene slammedand I do mean slammed through it
completely devastated so manyareas of that part of the
country.
I'm based just north of Raleigh.
It's where our farm is at, it'swhere the lion is located.
So this obviously hit home tous and we knew immediately that
(02:39):
we don't know how to help.
But I know I've got to dosomething.
If you remember, if you listento the lion for any amount of
time, back in October of 2024,we took a trip out there.
We had several days lined up ofwork.
It took like 23 guys out there.
We got after it, we saw logs,we served, we helped clean up,
(03:02):
brush, all that stuff.
Most of it was outside typework and leaving that trip, I
knew I had to go back.
I just knew we got to go backbecause there's just too much
work to be done.
So we just got back.
I'm recording this right afterour mission trip.
We just finished this last weekand I'm a little tired, to be
(03:27):
honest, but it was a great trip.
It was a great trip and beforeI go any further, I have to give
a special shout out to my wifeand to my children, and I mean
this in probably not the waythat you're thinking, because
the fact is we live at a farm.
Okay, so we have a.
Probably not in the way thatyou're thinking, because the
fact is we live at a farm.
Okay, so we have a farm here inNorth Carolina.
(03:48):
We take care of horses, there'sa lots of things happen.
We have chickens, we have ducks, we have goose, all this stuff,
right, all this stuff to takecare of a farm.
So it's not as easy for me inparticular just to get up with
my wife.
We have four kids, from twoyears old to 14 years old.
Okay, we have four kids, thefarm, all the all the work to be
(04:11):
that has to be done here.
It's not like I could just packup and just go, because when I
pack up and go, a lot of thelabor force is is gone.
But my wife, throughout theentire process, reassured me
that you know what we have this,we're going to cover this.
We know that you need to dothis because God's calling you
(04:34):
to do this.
We want you to go serve and wewant you to serve with a clear
mind and without any worries orreservations about the home,
about the farm, and it was withthat type of confidence and
backing and just absoluteassurance from her that made the
(04:55):
trip even more successful forme.
I just want to share that and Iwant to share that too.
So if you're a wife that'slistening right now I know lots
of ladies do listen to the LieWithin Us Encourage your guy to
do trips like this.
It means more to him than he'llever probably acknowledge you
(05:18):
Just to have your verbal as wellas just your affirmation and
your support in him doingsomething like this, because for
our trip in particular, we wereasking guys to leave home for a
week.
That's a lot.
And if a wife is constantlypicking at him like, well, I
need you to do this, I need youto do this, I need you to do
(05:38):
this, that guy's just going tosay no.
But if that wife says you knowwhat, I know this is a good
cause, I know you need this.
I think this would be good foryou.
I fully support In fact Iencourage you to do it when you
start changing language likethat to your husband, things
really shift up for her.
So I just really want to sayshout out to my wife, to my
(06:02):
children, for the way theystepped up, particularly my
oldest working in the barn, buteven my middle as she takes care
of the babysitting for thelittles.
I'm just telling you it's sucha big deal to have that support
system, that support networkwithin the home and it would be
completely impossible withoutthem.
So my trip actually started.
(06:22):
I got invited to go to anothermen's event.
We'll talk about that onanother episode for a reason,
but for this event I wasteaching and building confidence
in how you operate chainsawssafely.
Okay, it was a Christianorganization.
I found myself that first nightand I took my Timothy with me.
(06:43):
His name is Trevor.
I took him with me, so he was16 years old.
I've been working with him foryears, loving to death.
So he went with me on the wholetrip from start to beginning,
and we were able to just have alot of good conversation on the
road together and first night weactually slept under the stars
in the back of the truck.
It was kind of cool.
(07:12):
And then we got to see andwitness a pretty scary situation
because there was a gentlemanthere at the conference who had
some heart issues and he hadbasically had a heart attack
right there in the conferenceduring one of the meetings and
you know they had to bring outthe defibrillator and all the
stuff.
The CPR for, you know, probablyseemed like a half hour or more
.
Luckily he was, he was fine,the ambulance took him to the
(07:33):
hospital, no heart damage oranything like that, so so he
pulled through.
But in those moments it wasvery cool to see how an
emergency like that, how mostpeople respond of the world,
which that needed to be done CPR, all those things need to be
done.
But the rest of us because onlyso many people can do CPR at
(07:54):
one time right, the rest of uswere in prayer and actively
worshiping and I thought thatwas just a beautiful reminder
and a moment for us to just seethe power of prayer working
through, just touching that mangreatly.
So the actual work that we did.
(08:15):
Well again, chainsaw 101, justteaching the basics it was great
to see there's so many guys outthere maybe you're one of them,
them right now who's neveroperated a piece of equipment
like that right, so just be ableto go through and have them
come walk in with zeroexperience, from how do you
crank this thing, what does iteven do, to leaving
(08:38):
understanding how you crank itout, where you put the fuel,
where you put the oil, how thechain works, how you sharpen the
chain uh, the same.
You sharpen a chain, the safecutting techniques, all the way
down to they got to buck somelogs.
It was just pretty cool.
I had a bunch of them stackedup and they'd just go through
just cutting logs up and theirconfidence just went through the
roof and we ranged probablyfrom teenagers up to men in
(08:59):
their 60s that were doing this.
So it's just another reminderfor me of the power of getting
guys together and letting usjust do some things right.
And the funny part is there wasa couple guys there who were
arborists.
I mean, this was theirprofession, so obviously they
didn't come through, but theywere just the most encouraging,
(09:20):
because we're not professionalarborists.
We do this as part, as a partof what we try, I feel like
god's calling us to do.
But those guys are soencouraging to the point like we
went to leave the battery inour truck died, completely died,
and so so one of the arboristspulled his truck over.
We were able to get a jump fromhim and he even supported what
(09:41):
we were doing monetarily as weleft.
Just just spoke so much lifeinto me and encouragement into
me that you can't fabricatethose things right.
And so it's just a big shoutout to him, so thankful that he
took the time to care.
And you know what?
That was just something I'llremember forever.
(10:01):
So we got to jump on the truck,got the truck cranked and it was
the auto zone about 20 minutesaway.
So we went there and again, man, god conversations the way God
moves.
And so the guy was helpinginstall the battery in the truck
.
Come to find out he's 43 yearsold.
He has two daughters.
(10:21):
He's trying to point them inthe direction of the Lord.
He's been trying to figurethese things out.
He's working a couple of extrajobs just to make some side
money, just because expenses arereal.
And we just had some really justa truth, a heartfelt
conversation in the parking lotat Advance Auto, around God and
what does it take to pursue Himand how?
(10:41):
For as a father, there'snothing greater we can do to
show our children that we lovegod and that we're pursuing god,
and for them to see that,because there's more calls and
talks again, just another quickexample.
That conversation only happensbecause of this.
It all starts with that youknow what we're gonna go serve
and when you go serve, you canbest, you bet, you can just just
(11:03):
count on it god going to useyou wherever you're at.
And I tell them that simplestuff too.
I was just with my Timothy.
I was showing him how we wouldgo pick up.
We picked up dinner and therewas an elderly couple that were
coming out and I encouraged him,said look, go get the door, go
help them to their car.
And he did that.
And as we were driving, I toldhim.
(11:25):
I said the problem with so muchof what's going on in the world
these days is everybody'swalking around with their heads
down, they're not looking up,they're not looking up, and all
you have to do to findopportunities to serve is simply
look up.
And if you look up you're goingto see them.
I guarantee you you're going tosee those opportunities to
serve when you look around.
You just ask God to show them.
So that's what we did.
(11:46):
I mean we did.
And that windshield time I'mtelling you with, with with him,
I had.
First of all, I had a captiveaudience, you know.
So that helps, but when you'rein a truck or a car or whatever
for multiple hours and hundredsof miles, that's opportunities.
That's exactly how I saw that.
(12:06):
Hours and hundreds of miles,that's opportunities.
That's exactly how I saw thatthere were opportunities for he
and I to connect, to engage, forme to know what's on his heart
more.
We talked about life, we talkedabout baseball, we talked about
girls, all this stuff.
That's on a 16-year-old mind,right, but he felt safe.
I know I did, and I just try tokeep encouraging him to have
those conversations.
(12:26):
So, again, if you don't have aTimothy that you're out there,
that you're mentoring, go find aTimothy.
You're not going to find anygreater type of satisfaction
than when you get a chance tospeak life into another young
man who's growing up and tryingto learn these things.
And look, he's going to learnfrom somewhere.
Let's just say this, he's goingto learn from somewhere.
Well, let's just say this he'sgoing to learn something from
someone.
I want him to learn the rightthings right, and that takes
(12:51):
intentionality.
All right, fellas, we'll take afirst break.
We'll come right back.
We'll keep digging into ourmission trip and sharing some
stories along the way.
When I reflect on the kind ofthings that the men who
participated in our discipleshipmasterminds had in the past, I
am overwhelmed by the quality oftheir comments and commitment
(13:14):
to each other.
Several of the guys commentedthat this was the most
meaningful leadership experiencethey've encountered, and we
even had one man log into adiscipleship mastermind while a
hurricane was hitting his house.
He was that committed andreceived that much from his peer
group that he didn't want tomiss it.
(13:34):
Because of this extraordinarycommitment and because it's a
true gift and pleasure, we madethem a core part of our
community and we hope you mightjoin us.
We sit up men with their ownpeer advisory group of seven
individuals that meet everyother week for 12 weeks.
Each member shares areas theywant to focus on, such as
(14:00):
improving their prayer life,being more intentional with
their wives or maybe shedding afew extra pounds.
Together, we help themstrategize, make commitments,
find accountability and learn.
It's been our experience thatmost guys want a community of
trustworthy men to share theirideas and create support for
(14:21):
each other with, and it's beenour experience that most men
don't either create this forthemselves or seek them out.
So we do this because we wantyou to have that in your life,
and all that is needed to beginwinning is you.
If this sounds interesting,check out our community to see
(14:42):
the dates and times of whenthese different groups meet.
Visit thelionwithinus to startyour free trial of our community
.
To get started today, that'sthelionwithinus, and I would
love to see you lean in and tapinto the power of our
discipleship masterminds.
(15:02):
All right, guys.
So welcome back.
So again.
So that was Friday and Saturdaydoing the chainsaw ministry work
there with that otherorganization.
We got to our actual spot andwe stayed in Unicoi, tennessee,
at Appalachian Christian Camp.
If you ever get a chance to goto Unicoi Tennessee, highly
encourage you to do that andalso check out their Christian
(15:25):
Camp for Appalachian Christiancamp, because they have
wonderful facility setups.
If you have kids, they do a lotof kids programming during the
summer.
Check it out, see if you'reavailable, see what weeks would
work for you and for your family, and highly encourage you to
lean in and look at them movingforward.
So we spent Saturday night inthe dorm there.
(15:45):
We just had a place to staythat night.
Woke up Sunday morning I noticedon my Sunday there's a
beautiful path that goes aroundthe river, around the camp.
I noticed there were a coupletrees down on that path.
So actually a couple of ourguys got up and they were
looking for stuff to do beforechurch.
They went out and they cleanedup those trees.
They cut those trees up rightthere on the camp just to be
(16:08):
able to get them started.
They were itching to get goingright.
So we have church.
We're going to meet at thechurch at 1030 that Sunday
morning so I was able toactually go early that morning
and scope another job whichwe'll be talking about here soon
.
But we all met up at the churchand one of our members, adam
he's a guitar player we walkedin.
The funny part is that theywere like the worship team says,
(16:29):
did any of you guys play guitar?
And so it happens Adam is apretty good guitar player, so he
ended up being part of theworship group that morning,
which is kind of cool.
We made a lot of fun.
We picked Adam, but he was agreat character, played along
with it.
But it was a really cool setupthe way this church was.
I think it was called UnicoiChristian Church I could be
(16:49):
wrong on that, I'm going offmemory on that but they set it
up.
It was a sanctuary that wasused during the hurricane
because they didn't get flooded.
But they set up three pewsfacing each other, three one way
, three the other way, and thenhe had three across the back, so
it kind of made like a little Uand the pastor had just a chair
(17:10):
that he set right in the middleand he had a music stand and
that's what he used to hold hisBible.
I just thought the setup wasjust incredible.
This is the way he had it,because it felt very intimate.
He had a wonderful message onhypocrisy out of Matthew 7.
Just a good time there.
I thought it was interesting.
It was kind of a small groupsetting With our group.
(17:35):
There they may have been 50 or60 people and when he would
preach he would do about askingquestions.
It reminded me so much of how Iteach Sunday school, but in
this setting you were encouragedto speak back to him, so it
wasn't like just a message justgoing out.
You're supposed to sit still.
(17:56):
It was a very engaging messagewhich I thought was just super
encouraging.
Really young pastor as well.
On fire for the Lord.
So it was just a great to do.
We had lunch there at thechurch.
It was a great fellowship.
And then we got to work.
So that was a Sunday afternoon.
We got to work, we split up, wehit it hard.
We had a couple groups go outand clean up some debris and
then my group went to where wewent last time.
(18:18):
If you guys remember the lasttrip I talked, talked about miss
susie she's 81 years old, uh,and we went up to see her and we
got to work.
I'm talking about clearing upso many trees and debris and
underbrush and you know thistime of year you kind of worry
about snakes.
Luckily we didn't see anysnakes or anything like that,
but it was just hours.
It was several hours of hardwork.
(18:40):
I think some of the guys wereeven texted.
They were finishing up, justfinishing up some jobs.
We ended up having every one ofour team members up at Miss
Susie's that afternoon, onSunday afternoon, and just
absolutely did all we could topull her in, to bless her.
She blessed us.
I mean, 81 years old, out thereon the terrain, helping us and
showing us things that shewanted, telling jokes and
(19:01):
stories and just taking pictureswith us on it, telling jokes
and stories and just takingpictures with us.
It was just a wonderful way tokind of get the trip started, to
get them kick-started in asignificant way for those guys,
particularly the newer guys, whohadn't been on a trip with us
before to see what this is allabout.
So that was just a great tripthere to get us started.
We got back to where we weregoing to stay the lodge.
(19:25):
That night we were able tosharpen the saws back up, get
everything ready to rock androll, had a really good just had
some pizza for dinner thatnight, but just good fellowship.
Went up staying in a lodgethere at Appalachian Christian
Camp, which was wonderful, thelodge.
It ended up being great becauseit had a big common room where
we could play games and all thatfun stuff.
That's where we had some fun.
(19:50):
We're going to mention two games.
Okay, the games were just.
They make me laugh justthinking about them.
One of the games was calledQuick Cups.
Quick Cups is you have fivedifferent colored cups and you
have these little cards that popup and you're supposed to
arrange the cups in somewhat ofthe form of the card right.
(20:10):
And one of our guys I'm goingto pick on him right now, we'll
pick on him later he got veryemotional playing this game
because it's somewhat subjectiveto how these cards are set up
and how you're supposed to setyour cups up.
But man, he really got workedup on that one and it was just a
fun time just watching him justgo through the roof.
(20:31):
I forget the name of the othergame, but it was a shape game.
It was shapes and colors and itwas like pattern recognition
game.
I'll try to find the name of itfor you guys to drop it in the
links or something.
The thing is he was unbelievable.
He was like a ninja at thatgame.
But this Quick Cup games thatgot him going.
So fun stuff there, just funmemories, just having a
(20:54):
fellowship.
I'm telling you, fellowshiptime on a mission trip it's not
talked about enough, becausethat's just where you get to
know each other.
You get to just hang out andjust have a good time.
So Monday we had a big job Allhands on deck, all went to one
crew.
You guys remember the last tripI talked about the last day we
(21:14):
went to the area where thehurricane had came through.
But while the hurricane camethrough it actually spun up
three tornadoes on the property,thousands of trees down.
Unbelievable, it was justunreal how this place got hit.
So we were there, unfortunatelyit was, it was raining, it was
wet, it was nasty, it was.
It got to be cold a little bit,uh, and we were slipping all
(21:37):
around.
Uh, they had, they had achipper that they have bought
that hooked to the PTO of theirtractor.
So we set up a chipper crewthat was basically just pushing
limbs and debris through thatand that really just was working
great.
Other than that, we were justall hands on deck trying to not
fall down although one of ourguys did fall down, luckily he
(22:00):
didn't get hurt and just workingthrough, just cutting up that
debris, that debris, justgetting all that stuff moved.
We had a tractor ourselves.
Shout out to wayne for justbeing just a phenomenal tractor
operator.
I've never seen my operatortractor way.
This guy does unreal.
But at about 3 30 it got to bejust raining so hard that we had
(22:22):
been in that rain all day long.
You know how many complaints Iheard?
Zero.
The guys didn't care.
They just said you know whatthe rain's here we're going to
serve anyway, and it's justanother reminder to me of the
power of what can happen.
When men come together for arighteous cause, nothing's going
(22:44):
to stop them.
So that rain was just, it wasjust pounding.
When it got to the point ofbeing a safety hazard, we did
wrap it up, but at that point wewere at the end of the day and
we gave God all the glorysoaking wet from head to toe,
and it's unbelievable how wet wewere.
We did recognize, we found outtoo there was a need for
refrigerators and microwaves andthings like that.
(23:04):
So we were able to go out andprocure some of that stuff.
That evening is when I was ableto go get that stuff done.
So again at the end of the day,though you know, the rain had
stopped.
We were up there, we were outthere sharpening the saws, just
doing all the maintenance work.
Because the way I approachministry you know work like this
in ministry and mission workwhen I get to the job site I
(23:25):
want to start Like no downtime.
So that meant me and a coupleother guys were always there in
the evenings sharpening thesauce and getting the you know,
getting everything refilled oiland fueled up and just making
sure the trailers were packed insuch a way that when we got to
a site we could get to work.
That's what it's all about.
(23:45):
So, again, I had a wonderfulmeal that night.
Our praying pelican leader.
His name was Mark and he usedto be a chef Well, not used to
be, I guess he still is a chef.
So we ate like kings.
It was unreal.
Every meal Mark fixes wasunbelievable.
So shout out to mark mark,you're amazing.
Thank you so much, brother, forthe way you just you loved us,
(24:07):
you encouraged us.
So we had a good dinner thatnight.
That tuesday so that was monday,tuesday we were able to split
up a little bit, okay.
So I sent one group of guysback to this place we just
talked about for Monday and theyrented the chipper all day long
just running that chipperBecause there was guys it's so
much debris had another crew wesent that there was a home on
(24:32):
the river that needed to havenew underpinnings.
So when the water rose itwashed everything out of the
existing underpinning for thehome away, almost took the house
away.
Luckily it didn't, but we putthey had new metal.
So these guys came in they andand got to that job.
There was a couple trees theyhad to cut up as well.
(24:54):
They got that done but I'mtalking about completely
reinstalled a brand newunderpinning under this home.
And I was able to get theretowards the end of the day
because I was on an old jobwhich I talked about in a minute
.
But just to see the look of joyon the homeowner's face because
that that was just working onher, I could just tell that was
(25:15):
just working on her and the waythose guys just leaned in and
did that.
Work, hard work.
You're digging ditches, you'recutting metal with.
We didn't have a ton of tools,they were kind of with 10 snips
and there was just one of our,our of our brothers out there
named mario had a lot ofexperience with that, as well as
wilson.
Those guys just absolutely justcrushed it.
(25:37):
They were really good uhteachers for the other guys who
had never done that type of work.
But when we finished up it wasjust absolutely incredible just
to see one the level ofprofessionalism that we left it
with, but just primarily the joythat it brought to her face.
So, being a couple other guys,we went to another job and we
found most of these jobs outthrough Praying Pelican, who
(26:00):
worked with Rize Irwin, becausethat area got just devastated so
bad.
But come to find out, we wereat the home of a former Lutheran
minister and his messianicJewish wife.
It was an incredible experience.
There were some reallytreacherous trees, really
(26:20):
treacherous trees I'm talkingabout.
Some of these were hanging insome dangerous situations, had
to really be thoughtful on thecuts and how we're going to get
things down.
God was with us the whole way.
Adam was able to repair theirfence around their garden Just
took so much burden off of them.
Joe and I were able to reallyfocus on some some some really
(26:41):
difficult trees that we had toget down.
That was over top of theirdriveway.
That was impacting, impactingsome things with their river
that was running by theirdriveway.
So it was just a really hard.
I'm just going to be honest.
Hard work, great work.
My, my boot got stuck in theCreek, came out, I stepped in
back in the creek with what's mybear socks.
(27:03):
Joe had an extra pair of socks.
I don't know why he had extrapair of socks, but he did right.
With another god moment.
Oh yeah, I forgot our first godmoment.
We were low.
We were running low on bar oilfor the chainsaws.
I was like and I knew sundaylike we had to go buy something.
Local hardware store was closed.
But the guy who were that we'regoing to go see on Monday send
(27:26):
me a text at the blue side, sosuper pumped that you guys are
coming tomorrow, can't wait tosee you.
By the way, we have gallons andgallons and gallons of bar oil.
Guess, whatever you need, it'shere.
So I'm like all right, god,totally get it.
So he hooked us up with that.
So we were again Tuesday.
We're doing those jobs at theLutheran minister's house, his
(27:49):
messianic Jewish wife.
There we were able to get thosetrees done.
But the cool part was and I'llnever forget this they invited
us to lunch.
Normally on trips like this,you make your own lunch.
And we had the lunches made.
You know what?
We're going to take time.
It was an important deal forthem that they serve us and it's
(28:11):
just mind-blowing.
So we had a wonderful lunchwith them that they had fixed.
But the icing on top of the cake, guys, was that the wife prayed
a prayer over us in Hebrew.
After she did it in Hebrew, shedid it in English translation.
(28:31):
But just having that moment ofintimacy with God, right there
on that porch, overlooking themountain, wonderful food,
wonderful fellowships, hard workA lot of the hard work had been
done but we still had a lot ofhard work to do that afternoon.
But just to have that time tobreak bread and I'm sitting
there thinking I'm like aLutheran minister, a Messianic
(28:52):
Jewish wife.
You know a wife we have.
One of our guys is from Ohio,we have me and Adam from North
Carolina.
You know all these different,diverse backgrounds that were
coming together.
This storm brought us togetherin a really meaningful way and
it was just.
It was just, it was incredible.
(29:12):
I will just say it wasincredible.
So we were able to finish thatjob up, take some pictures.
He just kept talking about howGod had moved in his life and
how, again, he had served theLord faithfully for years and
years and years, and how he seenthrough that whole situation,
how God just showed up.
He even told us stories ofwhere he had these ham radios.
(29:34):
During the time of the stormthey were reaching areas on that
ham radio that had never beenreached before.
Like I forget how many milesaway he says they were reaching.
But now he says, sinceeverything's kind of somewhat
cleaned up and getting back tonormal, like you can't reach
(29:55):
that anymore, but for thosecouple weeks where it was dire
straits and emergency, the radioworked.
So when you hear stories likethat, it just gives you
goosebumps.
It just goes to show you youknow God's in control.
He's in control of all of it.
All right, fellas, we're goingto take our last break and come
back and we'll talk about ourlast day.
(30:16):
I find it helps me to have aguide at times when I'm reading
and studying the Bible.
One way that helps me is byusing devotionals to guide not
only what I read but insightsinto the scriptures themselves.
So we were blessed to become anauthor on the YouVersion Bible
app and we saw an immediateopportunity to help others with
(30:38):
devotionals around the areasthat we spend the most time
talking about at the Lion WithinUs.
So if you enjoy the show, youmay enjoy these devos as well.
We have some guys that areusing them as part of their
small groups as well, as they'rea great way to get
conversations going.
So to see the ones that we'vecreated, head over to
thelionwithinus to learn more.
(31:01):
So that's thelionwithinus, toget started with your own men's
devotional today.
All right, guys.
So now we're going through herethrough our trip.
So that Tuesday night we decidedto do a little bonfire, had a
wonderful dinner again, had abonfire that night, had some
(31:23):
cigars.
There may have been a piece ortwo of chocolate cake.
We don't have any picturesthough.
So you know that's just hearsay.
So your guilty pleasure is safewith me, guys.
I'm not going to call outanybody whatsoever on the
chocolate cake.
So you guys listen, they getthis joke.
But Wednesday we went back tothe site where we had worked on
(31:44):
that Monday with the rain andthat Wednesday, boys, I'm here
to tell you, nonstop chainsaws.
The chipper ran literally allday long clearing the land out.
There was one massive tree thatwas in the pond.
It was laid across thisbeautiful little pond right
there in front of their houseand Wilson made a determination
that tree was coming out and hewas locked in.
(32:07):
And he was determined anddoggone it.
He and his crew, mario Trevor,some of those other boys, they
got that doggone tree out.
It was absolutely phenomenal.
At one point he was barefootedin the water up to his chest.
This is cold water here inNorth Carolina, guys.
In the water up to his chest.
This is cold water here inNorth Carolina, guys.
After strapping straps aroundthis big tree, pulling it out
with a tractor.
(32:27):
I'm telling you it wasincredible to see him at work.
But our focus at least the focusthat came to me as we were out
there working because we workedup closer to the house on that
particular day the focus washope.
It was hope I wanted him andhis wife.
My hope was that they couldlook out their window and see a
(32:50):
noticeable difference in whatwas being accomplished before we
showed up.
You know, when you're there,you're living in a situation
where trees are just literallysurrounded by you.
It can be overwhelming.
It can be overwhelming and I'mtelling you, at the end of the
day they could see a noticeabledifference and it brought them
to tears.
(33:11):
At lunch we went to where wewent back in October and where
we cleared off in October lastyear and were able to sit down
and just enjoy that time by theriver.
Just again, the fruit of ourlabor was literally we were
sitting on some of the stumpsthat we had cut up.
That was just really great.
But at the end of the day wewere really late that day I mean
(33:32):
it was 6, 6.30 before we evenstopped cutting chainsaws off.
I mean, that's a long day whenyou're out there.
We were out there early thatmorning, pretty much busting it
all day long.
We prayed over the homeownerand we pray over all of them.
By the way, when you go ontrips like this, you want to
pray over all of them.
That's such an important thingto not just fly by.
(33:55):
But his wife was just inabsolute tears because of the
joy that we were able to bringher, just because somebody cared
, somebody cared, and we wantthem to know that we care and we
want to love on them.
We just want to encourage them.
We just want to let them knowthat they're not forgotten, that
you know what, at the end ofthe day, we're here to serve
(34:16):
each other and that's just abeautiful way.
I mean, the guys were so tired.
They were so tired, yet theywere so full of joy.
I know they were they full ofjoy, I know they were.
They told me as I think throughthis trip and I told them all,
I tried to tell them all severaltimes the hardest part of a
(34:36):
trip like that is saying yes togoing.
It just is.
But doggone it they did.
It was an honor to serve withthose warriors and I'm just
going to give them all a shoutout right now and again.
She'll give first names here,fellas, but I just want to say
thank you from the bottom of myheart to Adam, to Wayne Wilson,
(35:00):
michael Trevor, ted, andrew,keith, eduardo, rod, trey, ben,
mario, chris, joe, and then ourPraying Pelican crew, lonnie and
Mark.
You guys are absolutelyincredible.
(35:23):
The work you did, the way youshowed up, no complaints, no
complaints, zero complaints,nothing.
But what do we need to do next?
That's why trips like that aresuccessful and that's what being
the hands and feet of Christ isall about.
Cool part about Ben I hadn'tseen Ben.
He was a buddy from high school.
(35:43):
I had so many good memories, wejust drifted apart.
It was mostly my fault while wedrifted apart, but we were able
to just kind of come backtogether in a really meaningful
way and I am so thankful forthat time to serve alongside him
.
By the way, he has the coolestchainsaw on the planet, so I was
(36:05):
definitely dealing with a lotof chainsaw envy that week, but
it was so much fun just beingable to see Ben again, just to
hear about his life and hisfamily and just for us to get
reacquainted.
It was just a good time offellowship and again, trips like
this, guys, that's where stufflike that happens.
So that's the kind of a recapof our trip.
A question I want you to thinkabout and I to challenge you
(36:27):
with is what area of servingothers have you been avoiding?
Now, I avoided this for a longtime.
I always thought the missionstuff.
I just write a stroke of check.
Baby, you know, you have yourpray guys, you have your pay
guys and you have your play guys.
I never was a play guy.
I would encourage you lean intoplaying, because if you start
playing at this level and startgetting out there and doing hard
(36:51):
things, getting uncomfortablefor extended periods of time,
god has a way of just workingthrough that.
And I must admit, when I gothome I was ready to be home.
I was tired, I was wore out.
I had a bunch of nicks andbruises and cuts.
That's just part of it.
We have to do hard things.
It's not always going to beeasy in life.
(37:12):
If we do the hard things, if welean into it, that's when God
blesses it, man.
You just got to see it foryourself.
So, again, if you want to knowmore about future trips, things
that we're trying to plan, wereally want to do at least one
of these per year.
Again, for the last couple ofthese have been disaster
(37:32):
recovery type trips.
So we're always willing andopen.
The easiest way to stayconnected with our events is the
lionwithinus slash events.
You can see what we have outthere Now, right now, if you're
listening to this when thiscomes out.
The next event is ourReclaiming the Wild Mediatree.
Again, that's Rubber Beach Road.
That's where we have so muchfun fellowship.
(37:54):
This is the one for fathers aswell as down to five years old.
So we have some father-sonsthat have come to this.
But, fellas, I'm telling youthis is a great way to serve.
But for our next mission trip.
That's where you'll find it,okay.
So, guys, hopefully you enjoyedlistening to this one.
I'll tell you, it wasincredible.
It was cool to see all our guysin these these light yellow
shirts as well.
(38:15):
We're working on a video.
By the time this comes out, wehopefully will have a video just
recapping our trips, so be sureto check that out.
Go to our website.
Be able to see all the lionwithinus.
You'll be able to see all theLionWithEdus.
You'll be able to see all theresources there.
But on Friday I will unpack afew more tips around serving,
the idea of serving, as well asjust try to give you some
(38:36):
encouragement along the way.
So again, shout out to thefolks out there in Western
Carolina.
I will tell you this the spiritof those folks can't be broken,
because when you drive by someof the places, you see the
amount of devastation, theamount of debris Some homes are
(38:59):
just gone, guys and then youhear story after story after
story of just heartbreak.
Yet you see the resolve of thepeople and the way they love
each other, the way they're justhelping each other, but they're
just leaning on them to serveand to just be there for each
other in the time of need.
(39:20):
But God's stuff, man, but God'sstuff and the heart of the
Bible, belt for sure, but stillhad opportunities just to share
what Christ has done for for usthrough the work that we do.
So I'd encourage you to lean in,go check out organizations like
praying Pelican so it's prayingPelican.
(39:42):
Ppmorg is where you can connect.
They're the ones that wecoordinated with and worked our
trip through, so they help youfigure out the logistics, the
food, all the safety, type ofinsurance, all that stuff.
That's what they coordinate andthey bring a huge value to the
(40:02):
table.
So I highly encourage you, ifyou're thinking about, or maybe
if your church is thinking about, mission trips, look at their
organization.
They do a phenomenal job.
I can attest to the two menthat I've mentioned already,
lonnie and Mark, the work thatthey do, the level of
intentionality, the level ofcare, the level of attention to
(40:23):
detail.
You're not going to findanything better.
So ppmorg is where you can findtheir information.
All right, guys, alignwithinus,connect with us over there.
Lots of Bible studies, lots ofresources, our daily SKO, our
community, all the ways, ourmastermind groups, the way that
we're serving others,alignwithinus.
(40:45):
So if you're listening to thison Apple or Spotify.
Give us a review, give us arating.
That stuff helps big time.
Pushes to algorithm.
If you haven't subscribed to usyet on YouTube, please, please,
please, head over to YouTube,click that little bell, be
subscribed to us so we havevideos.
We have videos come out all thetime.
Guys, you'll get that andhopefully be a little encouraged
(41:07):
along the way.
So thank you, guys.
So much For those who supportedthe Lion Within's mission trip
this year.
Thank you.
If you want to continue to be adonor and support, if you like
the things that we're doing, ifyou like the way that we're
trying to serve others,thelionwithinus slash donate is
how you can connect with us andI guarantee you every donation
(41:28):
helps in a more significant waythan you'll ever know.
So I just want to say aheartfelt thank you for all the
donations, all the support andall the encouragement.
All right, guys, have a greatday, get after it.
You know what's coming.
Keep unleashing the lion within.
I don't know about you, but Iused to find Mondays really
(41:50):
rough.
I would find myself trying toreset for work, trying to get my
bearing on the family calendar,trying to find time for my own
spiritual growth and development, and often I found myself
overwhelmed or just flatlyignoring aspects of my life that
I know are meaningful to me.
What I learned was that if Ihad immediate access to
(42:12):
important and impactfulspiritual topics and reflections
to start my week well, afterthe allure of a Sunday sermon
has passed, I would set my wholeweek up to be more meaningful
and for the opportunity to makea true impact.
If you think that getting sucha boost would help your week to
get started on the right foot,we would love for you to sign up
(42:34):
for the Weekly Roar, which isour newsletter that is produced
by the Lion Within Us.
Each week will deliver apowerful reflection and
practical steps to help youapply scripture with clarity and
purpose, all being rooted inlight and truth.
So in just a few minutes, wehope to arm you with insights
(42:56):
for living out biblicalleadership with confidence and
strength, and maybe even have alittle extra bounce in your step
.
If that sounds useful, headover to thelionwithinus slash
ROAR to sign up today,no-transcript.
(49:01):
Finding resources that you cantrust and then implement can be
daunting For me personally, Ithought it was a lost cause and
I decided to take the action,knowing that I wasn't alone.
It was because of this wide gapthat we created our Lion
Withinist community, and theareas that we're helping
Christian men grow areincredible.
For instance, we've built waysfor guys to lean in and grow
(49:25):
through fun events like ourdaily spiritual kickoff, where
you get that much-needed boostdirectly from God's Word, our
Bible studies that always focuson how to discern and apply what
we learn, and even our amazingforum where you can speak your
mind without fear of gettingshut down or judged by the
extreme rules of modern-daysocial media.
On top of all that, we knowthat many men won't help
(49:49):
overcoming issues and becomingstronger in many different areas
.
That's why we created severalmastermind groups where the iron
truly sharpens iron.
Our community is about having agrowth mindset, accountability,
intentionality and transparency.
In other words, just leave fakeyou at home and come to
community just as you are.
(50:09):
I fully believe what we feel.
I see the impact it's making onmen right now and I would love
to have you check it out.
So start your very own 30-dayfree trial today to see how we
can help you be a better leader.
So if you're ready to take thatfirst step, head over to
thelinewithinus and get started.
Your journey begins here.
Visit thelinewithinus and getstarted.
Your journey begins here.
No-transcript.
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