Single Dad Interview

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, friend Henry Flowers here Powerful Living Outreach Ministry. I'm
sitting here with my friend that I've known for a
short time, but he has really become a friend of mine.
Met him at a motorcycle shop looking for some work
to be done on my motorcycle. And this guy just

(00:23):
quickly he was there getting service or at least getting
service on your own bike, and he saw a new
rider because of some of the questions that I was asking,
and he and I.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Became good friends.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Has taken me on several rides here in the Cincinnati
area that have just shown me things and began to
teach me things.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
And we already been wrapping.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
We already warmed up, we got the vocal cords warmed up,
and so in this session here, I just had to
interview him and just get some get some insight and
some wisdom from my friend.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
You'll know him as Motorcycle Check.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
We call it network.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
You can call me anything you want, just to call
me late for dinner.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm always here for dinner.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Some of the best food around in Cincinnati, and I'm
looking forward to some today. I got a Hamburger shop
that I got to go through that somebody told me about.
But one of the things that you told me about,
and I think this is really important because what I've
been talking about recently in my ministry is this idea
of just the power of parenting, the power that we have,
the influence that we have on our children, training them up,

(01:31):
and the way that you go and then you get
to sit back and look and see what they've done
with the training. Some of them are doing well. I
raised five, right, and so with five kids, you got
somebody that's doing great, somebody that I might not be
doing so great, and everything in between. And so this
constant struggle in our minds of what does it look

(01:54):
like to be a parent today and how things might
be different just in general with the advent of technology today.
But I want to talk to motorcycle Chuck today listeners,
because there's some dynamic in the black family that's different
than everybody else. So seventy three percent, seventy three percent

(02:19):
of blacks in this country were raised in a single
parent household. That's a fact. So everybody, if you need
to do your research, just just check the United States Census.
Seventy three percent of Blacks raised in a single parent household.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
And so if you want to start.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Talking about obstacles being put in your way, let's just
talk about that one.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
And here it is.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
This the era that's most not talked about when it
comes to the seventy three percent is the fact that
ninety percent of those seventy three percent of single parent
households in a black community, nine percent of those are
raised by women single mother households.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
That was me. I was raised by a single mom.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Now for my listeners today, and what you get an
opportunity to learn from Chuck is that Chuck represents the
teen percent raised by single moms. Chuck is the tempercent
who was a single dad raising kids three So immediately

(03:26):
jump into this motorcycle, Chuck, when what age were your
children when you became a single dad.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
When I became a single dad, my oldest son, and understanding,
I've got three kids. I've got started with first son,
and then the second happened to be twin. It's a
boy and a girl. So I've got two boys and
a girl. And probably in the it was in the
late nineties. My oldest son was eleven twelve years old

(04:00):
old when my wife and I got divorced, and the
twins were four or five and initially thought that they
were gonna go with their mother, and we the five
of us sat down at the table, kitchen table, which
is where a lot of discussions happened in my house.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
At the kitchen table. So you were that found, y'all.
Y'all sit down and you eat this. This is a
dinner table where you're eating or a table. This is
a dinner table.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
And we finally explained to the kids that it's not
working out between your mom and I. Okay, and you
know your mom, I'm going to go find a place
and I want to make sure that it's big enough
to accommodate you also when you all come and stay

(04:49):
spend time with me, and my older son immediately says, well, Dad,
I'm going with you.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
And I'm like, well, we'll have to see what.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
The court's say. He was like, I don't care what now.
I understand he's eleven, twelve years old.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
I don't care.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
I don't understand. I don't care what the courts say.
I'm going to live with you and my wife. At
the time, I think that kind of irritated her, got
under her skin, and she said, she said, if he
wants to go with you so bad, maybe he should
live with you. And my twins are sitting there right
at the table, and my younger son was like, I'm

(05:28):
going with the boys. And my daughter said, you guys
aren't leaving me, so I'm.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Going with you.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
So I turned and looked at her, and I'm like, well,
it's a parent.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
They all want to stay with me. I said, just
maybe you just leave. So she did. She like, you know,
and I have to admit.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Being a single dad with three small kids it was
very one. I had never experienced that and never experienced
of being a dad before.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
But now of a sudden, you're a single dad in
this all by yourself.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
And fortunately for me, I had some skills that I
picked up from my own parents if if and what
I mean by that was with my dad. Now, understand,
I came from a two parent family. I came from

(06:27):
a two parent family. What about you? No, she came
from a single parent raised by her mother. You know,
I came from a two parent family. And understand my
parents were probably and I love talking about them because
you don't hear a lot of these stories. My dad,
If I may just talk about them for a bit.

(06:49):
My dad was from Georgia. My mother was from low
town called Early Brand South Carolina. Okay, you know, Early
Brand South Carolina was just a crossroads with a little
side that says early Branch, Early Branch a new.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Town in South Carolina almost every days.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
But my dad had some friends who says, you know,
let's go make some money. And they went over to
South Carolina to help pick watermelons, because you know, you
pick watermelons with the wagon, you pick them up, throw
them up there and stuff like that. And he got
to be friends with some of these workers and they

(07:33):
invited my dad to their house in Early Brands.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
And that's when my dad saw their sister. And who
is that, Well, that's our sister. Now understand, my mother
comes from a family of nine boys. She's the youngest.
She's a girl, and she's the girl. She's a girl.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
And they called her.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
That's daddy's little blossom.

Speaker 5 (08:01):
So that was her nickname, blossom and your dads are
and my dad saw and something started, something started.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know. And he lived over in Georgia, had to
come over, however, he could get over and spend time
and stuff like that. It was about four hours drive
to Hey it was probably two hours or something like that,
you know, and however he got over there. But anyway,
back in the day, as if any of your listeners know,
on oh the color purple, Yeah, you know, a girl

(08:34):
ChIL ain't safe in a house full of men, which
is how my grandfather took it. So he sends my
mother away to school, a boarding school when she became
a school age. Didn't get her out of the house
and all this craziness. But anyway, time rolls on December seventh,
nineteen forty one. It's a Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and

(08:55):
my dad comes back home from squirrel hunting at Sunday morning.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
Everybody's crying. So my dad was like, what's going on.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
He goes and signs up the next day to go
into the navy, you know, on that Monday morning, he
goes and signs up to fight for this country. And
he goes in the Navy. Of course, going into the navy.
Back then, for African American men, the only thing that.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
You're good to do is to be a cook.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
He was a cook, okay, a.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Few of potatoes, whatever, And I have photos of him
serving officers on the ship, you know, stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
But anyway, he could cook. He was the best cook
I ever know.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
But anyway, he stayed in the Navy for a couple
of terms. He wound up getting injured on a ship.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
Sank all this stuff.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Stayed in the water for I don't know how many days.
He wound up with pneumonia, jungle roight, pleurisy, and tuberculosis.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
So they found a hospital for him and he wound
up to VA Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. Stayed in the
hospital two years, had two years. My mother packed her
bag of course, packed her little suitcase and she came
and sat with him in that hospital at the foot

(10:17):
of his bed for that period of time to help
nursing him back to help. So they get when he
gets discharged from the hospital, they only got enough money
between the two of them to catch a bus.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
To Cincinnati because they wanted to go back south.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
But they only had enough money to get to the
Cincinnati And this is how we won in Cincinnati. But anyway,
lost doory short. There were things that I got from
living in a two parent family. You know, my dad
only went to the sixth grade. My mom did go
to boarding school and graduated and stuff like that. But

(10:52):
my siblings today we laugh at the skills that we
picked up from each parent.

Speaker 6 (11:00):
My dad was if you're gonna do something, do it right. Discipline,
being on time. Actually, you know, if you were on time,
he thought you were late. You're got to get there
five or ten minutes early.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Now, how many years did he eliminated?

Speaker 2 (11:18):
About nine years? So you think these because then do something,
do it right?

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Be early?

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Is being on time? Are these are the saying that
he was from military experience?

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Oh yeah, oh yeah. And then my uncle my You know,
as African Americans, we have a lot of.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
Cousins. We have a lot of family, but they're not
by blood.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
You know, your parents happened to be good friends and
when the family's comings, okay, so they call them, it's
my cousin. You know. I called him fake cousins, you know,
and stuff like that. So my dad met a gentleman
while he was in the hospital, and we called him
Uncle Baldi, you know, because he was from Cincinnati. And

(12:04):
in fact, he just got awarded the Congressional Gold Medal
of Honor a couple months ago because he was a
part of the first African American group of men that
went in the Marines back in the forties forty two,
and through President Obama, they got this group of African

(12:25):
Americans because there were no marines. African Americans were not
allowed to fight in the US Marine Corps into the forties,
and he was in the first group. So I drove
up to Michigan to attend that ceremony where they awarded
his family his Congressional Gold Medal that was put.

Speaker 4 (12:45):
In place by President Obama.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
But anyway, so he's a military man. He was in
the Marine Corps and you know, actually just lived up
in I don't know if you're familiar with hazel Wood,
which is a black section of blue Ash. Loved his family,
loved his kids. We did a lot of things together.
But I hated to spend the night because he was

(13:08):
very disciplined because when you talk to him and answer him,
it was yes, sir or no, sir. You know, check
your bed was the bed made, all those things they
picked up from the military, you know. And he always
kept that tight haircut. So we called him Uncle Baldy,
you know. But anyway, oh yeah, the discipline, uh, and discipline.

(13:34):
When I talk about discipline that I picked up from
my dad and covers.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
A lot of categories discipline.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
You know. My dad was always one you do what
you have to do today in order to get to
a point where you can do what you want to
do later, you know, and he.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
Says that will follow.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
If you follow that in life, it will, it will,
it will sit well with.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
You, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
So you do those things you you you you go
to work, you know, you do those mundane things that
you really don't like to do, but you do them
because they won't always be there. My mother, on the
other hand, nurturing, caring, and in fact, we laughed because

(14:17):
most mothers cook, My mother never had to cook because
my dad cooked. He would get up and make us
breakfast every morning before school. One of the things that
we laugh, my siblings and I laugh about today is
that my father only had a sixth grade education. However,
we get our report cards and he'd look over those

(14:40):
half glasses and he was he'd look at you, look back.
You know, you can do.

Speaker 4 (14:44):
Better than this. Excuse me, I gotta see I passed.
I don't have to take it again.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Now you can do better than this, you know. Next
time to come here, I want to see some a's
and d's, Okay, you know, come back, got a's and b's.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
You can do better than this.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
In his mind, you should be making a's and you
should be working hard to make a's. However, if you
worked hard but you didn't make an A, that was
okay with him.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
But you worked hard, so you.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Wanted to check your effort.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Oh yeah, and he wanted to do something well, not.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Only checking your effort, he had an expectation from us. Okay,
you know, like I said, when I say an expectation,
My older brother who's now retired, became a pharmacist, my sister,
my moms became a nurse, and my sister took up
nursing profession profession and after about a year after graduating

(15:46):
from the University of Cincinnati, and my sister didn't like
the fact of you know, when she got a job
at University hospital, didn't like the fact that people telling
her what to do when she thought there could be
a better way. So she goes back to well, she
gets a master's degree in neggor nursing, and then she's
working on a PhD. And she ultimately becomes a professor

(16:06):
at the School of Nursing at Christ's Hospital.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Wow, that's how I cut and run.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
Here I am, you know, kind of the wild one
of the bunch.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
Didn't really know what I wanted to do other than
make some money. So we had an electrician come to
our house and I'm following this guy around pulling wires
and how much money do you make? And he told
me something back in the early seventies that blew me
out of the water because when I started working my

(16:41):
first job out of while I was in hospital, I
was only making ninety five cents an hour, which I
thought was a big money until I heard this electrician.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
I hold on, you don't do that. No, y'all listen,
I don't let him do that.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Rewind it back because in the day, it's society.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
My folks out demand and memo, ways be fifteen. Now
you made how much.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
Ninety five cents an hour?

Speaker 3 (17:10):
Then I got my first raise and it went to
a dollar five So I'm over a dollar.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
You can't tell me, you know, dollars.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
So anyway, it was one of those things that I,
after following this electrician around who was making back then
something in the teens, that's what I wanted to do.
So I wound up going to Cincinnati State the major
in the electrical design because in doing research you find

(17:39):
out that they were taking people out of two year
schools to go into the electricians apprentice program.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
So that's where I want to go.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
So I wound up following that route. One thing led
to another, got a scholarship in while State.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Electrical engineering. That's how it started at CG and E,
and you know, so forth so on.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
But going back to the single dad thing, those skills, knowledges,
the skills and knowledge that I picked up from my parents.
And here again I always referred back to my siblings.
We talk about our parents as if they were still around,

(18:27):
because my mother as well as my father taught you things.
Taught you how to fold your clothes, taught you how
to believe it or not. Vacuum of floor, ye, you know.
And my kids laugh at me today. Of course they've
picked up a lot of the same habits because you
don't vacuum going forward. You vacuum backing up because you

(18:50):
don't want.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Footprints in the carpet. Okay, you know, So.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
My kids laugh at me today. It was like, oh,
Dad's been in here, look at it. They call them carrots, you.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Know, and stuff like that. Well, we clean out of
the room.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Exactly, and how we fold clothes. My mother being a nurse,
you know how you put that corner when you make
up the bed, you know you you do that corner,
and how you fold your towels, how just all those things.
So anyway, because that was how I grew up being
a single dad, That's how I taught my kids because

(19:30):
that's what I knew. So anyway, the one interesting thing
about the educational piece with my older son, and I
will never forget this. I don't even care whether alzheimer sits,
and I won't forget it. You know, we stopped at
a Wendy's store and I would always my kids would
always when they would bring their grades home, you know,

(19:55):
and like my son, well with all of them, why
is this not an A?

Speaker 4 (20:01):
What is it that we need to do?

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Because I'll help you do in order to get an
A the next time. You know, my expectation with you
is that you'll get a's.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
You know, if you.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Get something less than an A, but you worked hard,
I'm okay with that as long as you've put out
the work. You know, you can't argue with that. Not
everybody gets everything. And I had a little thing going
with my kids that for every A that you get,
I'll give you five dollars. All right, dollar hard, you know.
And I got twins and they take the same classes,

(20:36):
and but occasionally there would be a B or a C.
But they worked hard, and they were like, so, am
I gonna get four dollars for a B and three
dollars for a C. I'm like, no, you don't get anything.
You get five dollars for an A anything unless.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
You get nothing. Oh, how right is that?

Speaker 3 (20:56):
How fair is that?

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Well, listen, I'm making the rules, you know, so as
far as I'm concerned, it's fair.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
So there were those discussions when they were growing up
through grade school.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
So let me teach these young folks. All right, Now,
that's the original golden rule. Okay, right, there is the
golden rule.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
And the man says you get five dollars for ay.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
And nothing else for anything less his rules.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
So that comes back to the original golden rule, that says,
he who has the gold makes the rules.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
So why do you give my house?

Speaker 3 (21:34):
Exactly?

Speaker 4 (21:35):
My end ain't in my father right in my roof,
but these my rules. But let me tell you the
interesting thing. Now, my son is in.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
My older son is in the tenth or eleventh grade,
and we're sitting in the family room and we're watching
something on TV, and I'm like, you know everything going right?
You know you need me to help you within No, no,
if I get it. So anyway, we just happened to

(22:03):
go to Windy's not too far from here, picking up
something on the way home, and I asked my son
while we're waiting at the drive and drive through the window,
what's your grades to look like this year? He was like,
I'm sure whatever they are, it's not going to be
good enough for you.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
Oops.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
I'm like, what did you The woman handed me the food,
I threw the bag in the back and I pulled
over to a parking spot.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
Now, no, he was in the tenth or eleventh grade.
She's starting to smell himself. Yes, as the old people
would say.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
So anyway, I pulled over into the parking spot, turned
the car off, and let me tell you.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
The reason why I'm so hard on you.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
And I have an expectation of you making a's is
that because I believe you can do it. I said.
But I'll tell you what, I'll never ask you about
your grades again.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
So anyway, we had our little discussion going home.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
He gets his report card or grade cheat one day
and I'm sitting at home and he comes and flaunts
down next to me, like, what's the matter with you?
I just found out I'm gonna get a B in
whatever class.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
You know, I could have I could have made an A.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
And for me, what that led me to believe that
he has gone from making grades based on my expectation
to expectations of himself.

Speaker 7 (23:34):
So yeah, I love this as a powerful principle that
you're uncovering here is that when there's a standard, a
high standard set for people, especially for your children, they
may not find the hard work that it takes to

(23:55):
meet the standard, and they may even resent the standard itself.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
But because you've kept a standard for that long, over
the course of time, even when you suppose.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
To release him to his own ideas, the standard was
already in bed exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
And he even said, I could have worked hard, I
could have made it A in that class, you know.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
And my thought was, now you have an expectation of yourself.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
And another thing too, like I said, my dad only
went to the sixth grade, so it wasn't like there
was a lot of book smarts associated with him, but
there was a lot of.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
Common sense things. Now my mother, on the other.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Hand, went to a boarding school, when to college, became
a nurse, all of those things, and the one fundamental
thing that my mother instilled in us. We're in the
library right now, and books you need to read, you

(25:10):
need to read. And my feeling is And I even
had friends today we talk about books or whatever, and I,
you know, and in fact, I just told somebody the
other day, if I pick up a book, I think
I might want to read it. If it's if it
doesn't have any pictures in it, I don't want it
cause I'm s I I need to be able to

(25:30):
visualize in my head.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
And when my kids were growing up, I enrolled each
one of them in you know, s some book club.
We got a book every six weeks. And I still
have those books today, and my oldest son is forty
one years old, but I'm keeping those books. And the
reason why I'm keeping those books is because I wanted

(25:57):
to make one for him to it if he wants them.
They're still at my house. But the interesting thing is
is that I made reading.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
Fun, you know.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
And what I mean by that, I'd sit there at
night before we'd go to bed, and we'd get a book,
but instead of just reading it to him, kind of
halfway acting it out, you know, so I'm grabbing it,
you know, choking while I'm trying to read this book
because it's a story about you know, these animals doing whatever.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
And and he's.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Laughing and whatever. And we get done and the book
might only been ten twelve pages or something, big letters
and pictures. And read it again, Dad, Okay, we go
through it again. You reading it and he got him
and and and he's laughing.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
Read it again.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
I'm like, look, you gotta go to bed. I'm not
reading this anymore, you know. And it was interesting, and
that's easy to do with one kid, but when now,
when the twins came along and really spend that amount
of time and do that. But it.

Speaker 4 (27:04):
Made books available.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Now. The interesting thing today, my son is forty one
years old. At the beginning of every year, he posts
online on Facebook or some of these social media the
books that he's chosen to read this year. And I mean,
there's a stack of books and I'm looking at these
books and I'm like, it's way over my head, you know,

(27:29):
because I have one book that my son wanted me
to read. I still have it today on my bookshelf
at home, and it's called The Elegant Universe. But I
think it was Bob Green, some astrophysicist guy who wrote
this book. And my son was like, Oh, you gotta
read this, you gotta read this book. You know, this

(27:50):
kind of explains life and everything and open up when
I got through about the first seven pages, and I'm
going like, and he was in the seventh grade when
he read that book. So, but being a single parent.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
There was a lot of things I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
I didn't know. I I only knew what I knew
based on coming out of a two parent family home.
And what I mean by that. Every day my kids
would go to school, they'd come home, they changed their clothes,
those clothes went into the.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
Laundry, dirty clothes, you know whatever.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
So at the end of the week and we'd get
home Friday, always ordered a pizza or something like that,
or pizza dinner, okay, and then I spent the next
several hours doing laundry, folding clothes, pressing their pants, hanging
them up. I'd do that til three four o'clock in
the morning, and I did it religiously because that's what

(28:51):
I knew, you know. But they were too young to
do their own clothes, you know, stuff like that. And
if you know me being orderly, and a lot of
people are like, chuck your OCD because when I hang
my shirts up, they're on spaced. The way I fold

(29:14):
my clothes, they're all the same.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
So I did that with my kids.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
And being a single parent, you know, my feeling was
my kids didn't ask to come here, they didn't ask
to be in this situation.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
They wanted to live with me.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
So I needed to do things that I didn't want
to didn't want to do because it was my responsibility,
you know. So you know, my mother was like, you
don't go out and make no baby and not take
care of a baby. You know, it takes two people.
You need to be make sure that if that happens

(29:56):
to you. And my mother was more that type of
mother was, I don't be bringing no babies here.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
So there was a sense of responsibility.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
Absolutely that she said, if you brought a child into
this world, you're taking.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Care of that's a great responsibility.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yeah, you owe it to that child to do it,
to do the best you can, exactly.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
So I didn't know any different. So I was doing those.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Things week in and week out, year after year. And
you know who helped me, the single.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
Mothers that I worked with, And they.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Were like, you know, it was kind of funny because
we'd be sitting there eating lunch and some of the
women in the office and you know, I'm telling them like,
oh man, I probably got like twelve loads.

Speaker 8 (30:41):
Of laundry tonight, twelve loads of laundry. You know, why
would you have twelve loads of laundry? So I explained
the kids and stuff like that, changes the linen on
their beds every week, do all of that.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
And stuff like that, and they were like, fuck, stop,
you make those kids. Do they take a bath every night? Yes,
you don't have to change that linen every week. Okay,
if you're taking the bath, they go to bed clean, right, Yes,
you don't have to change that linen every night. When
they come home from school, they take those clothes off

(31:14):
and they've only worn them one time, right, then hang
those clothes or fold them back up.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
To the laundry.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
You you cook dinner every night, when you get home
from work.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
You know, and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Mm hmm. Get your crop pot, Throw this stuff in
the crop pot in the morning and put it on low.
When you get home and the kids get home, it's
ready to eat, you know type of thing.

Speaker 4 (31:47):
So learning those.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Things from a lot of single mothers that I have
worked with, I'm like, wow, you know, this is cleared
up a lot of you know, freed up.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
A lot of time.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Yeah, because they taught you.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
They taught you things that you didn't know, and they
were willing to share their experience with you. Yes, and
so it's an extension, really an extended family.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Oh, your part of the community.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
I had people, I had next door neighbors. My kids
went to school around the corner. But because of the
job I had, I had to.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
Be worked like a six point thirty in the morning,
seven o'clock.

Speaker 9 (32:35):
You know.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
Interesting thing is all three of my kids had alarm clocks.
When your alarm clock goes off, there's an expectation that
I had of you when that clock goes off, that
you're gonna get up, You're gonna wash up, brush your teeth,
put your clothes on, dress yourself, the whole works, and

(32:57):
be downstairs because when already hits comes around, we're rolling
out the door, and I would drop them off at
a woman who absolutely helped me with the kids. She
lived around the corner from the school. She was like,
just bring your kids to my house. So I would
take them to her house, drop them off. I'd take

(33:19):
my older son, because he was older. I'd take him
to like an early daycare program at the school that
he went to, you know, and then I'd drive on
to work, and then at the end of the day
i'd stop and pick him up from the after school program.
I stopped and picked them up from the woman.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
Who says, I got your kids.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
And in fact, when the school would call me because
one of the kids was sick, actually I had a
relationship with.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
The school office that the school would call.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Nancy, who was the woman that she was like, I'll
go get your kids. I'll go get the kids, you know,
and stuff like that. So I had a community of
women around me that helped me be a single dad,
you know, because there was a lot of stuff that
I just didn't know.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
So I want to jump in and and and just
coming on his part from our listeners, I I don't know,
you guys, are getting it. I got a really strong
group of followers here. This is all highlighting the power
of having mentors in your life and being willing to
learn from somebody who may know some things that you
don't know, and being humble enough to actually take advice

(34:27):
and implom.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
That absolutely those kinds of things.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Now that that's that's.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
Another and in it.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Another trade that I picked up from my father.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
In particular, you.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Said mentors, And I don't want this to sound wrong.
My dad says, if you meet somebody and you become
friends with that person, but they don't offer you anything,
there's nothing that you can get from them that helps
you you grow, then why are you in a friendship

(35:02):
with them? And I'm not saying using somebody, because hopefully
they're getting something from you. So if there's not this
exchange in a relationship, I don't care whether men or
women or whatever. If you're not getting anything from them,
why being in that relationship?

Speaker 1 (35:19):
See that's beautiful because in our ministry we talk about this,
this idea of powerful relationships. Powerful living always springs forth
out the powerful relationships and these relationships that are powerful
off the ones where there it's give and take and
the ability to constantly do inventory.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yes on these relationships.

Speaker 10 (35:40):
What's this person bringing to the table in this particular relationship?

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Why am I bringing into the relationship? And then you
talk about the power of saying you know what, yeah,
this person you out.

Speaker 10 (35:52):
Yeah, I'm just I've just discovered and chosen that you're
not contributing and you're actually taking away and pulling from
me alms like a parasite.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
So exactly, you gotta go yeah. And and and let
me throw that back to the time when I was
in college. I'm in Ohio State University, only black guy
in engineering classes and stuff like that. And for the
life of me, I can't. I can't make degrees. I

(36:22):
can't make degrees, you know. And and in fact, I
went to Ohio State on a scholarship, and I'm on
this scholarship and you had to maintain like a two
point five GPA. Okay, my first and this is the
honest God's true, my first quarter, because Ohio State was

(36:44):
on quarters back then. I'm taking three classes. Ohio State
doesn't give f's Okay.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
A B C D and e okay, I'm gonna ease
a little bit. I'm from Detroit.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
Exactly, got two e's in a d.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
My first quarter in Ohio State, I had like a
point six point yeah, I had a point five or
somewhere GPA that first.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
Quarter, you know, and I'm all like, oh man, wow.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
And the one thing my father told me is that,
you know, if you flunk out of college, you can't
come back here, mean into the house. Correct, So there's
an incentive that you got to do something because I
can't go back home.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Another little quick story about my dad, nicest loved my
dad to death, loved him to death, greatest dad that
you could probably ask for it. But I feared my dad.
I wasn't scared of him, Okay, I feared him. There's
a differences different because my dad won.

Speaker 4 (37:50):
If he told you something, he wasn't repeating it, okay.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
And when my older brother went to Ohio State. Do
i't understand this is in sixty eight. When my older
brother went, it was a family fair because he was
one of the first. He was the first to go
to college.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
So we all went up.

Speaker 4 (38:06):
There, your oldest brother, my oldest brother, okay, dropped him
off and Lincoln Tower, you know, taking.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
Pictures and all that stuff. Six years later, or actually
eight years later here I ain't going to Ohio State.
It wasn't a big deal because my sister was already
in college and stuff like that. She's older than I
am putting my dad, I'll take you up there.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
So my dad. I had a foot locker and three Duffel.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Bags of stuff. Okay.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
We pulled into the parking lot at Morl Tower behind
the Ohio Stadium, which is where my room was. Okay,
my dad, all these people moving stuff in, you know.
And my dad pulls up not into a parking spot,
but along the sidewalk, pops the trunk on his deuce
in quarter, gets out, sets my bag and my foot

(38:55):
locker down shape, shake my hand.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
I was like, good luck, I'm helping.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
Hold up. You're gonna help me take my stuff up
because I was on the nineteenth.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Floor on the nineteenth floor and he dropped me off
at the car at the curb with your stuff on
the curve and I'm like, I need to get my
stuff up to the Maryland.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
He was like, you'll figure out how to get it
up there. And he was like, got back in the
car and I'm standing and he drives off. Okay. I'm like,
ain't just nothing. So I moved my stuff about one
hundred yards, go back and get the rest of one
hundred yards all the way up to the building and
stuff like that, you know, exactly. I didn't want to

(39:33):
white ticket so I could keep my eye on it
before we left to go to Ohio State. We're on
the porch and my mom's sitting there on the porch
and my dad says, oh, by the way, give me
your door key. I thought he was joking my door key.
He was like, yeah, you need to understand, when you
come back here, you knock on the door and we'll

(39:53):
look out the window and decide whether we'll let you
in or not. So I'm thinking he's joking, and I'm like, mom,
you know, and she was like that you're dead. So
I'm standing there and I'm giving him my door key.
But here again, it's an incentive that I just can't
necessarily fall back at home as an act.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
He's trying to let you know, we expect you to
move forward, exactly.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
Person, you can get out of here and fly, you know,
and you ain't flying back here. Now. What I ultimately understood,
my mother told me, yeah, that if you had fallen
flat on your face. There was no way we're gonna
let you stay on your face.

Speaker 4 (40:36):
You know.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
But here again I go back to setting expectations, expectations
that with my with my children, stuff like that. Relationships,
there's expectations of a give and take. You know, if
we're both not getting anything out of this relationship of value,

(40:58):
why be in it?

Speaker 4 (40:59):
And and that goes forward to me, like I said, my.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
First year to Ohio State, I struggled because I didn't
have the basics to go into a electrical engineering uh
baccal laureate program.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
And so it was a guy from Greece.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
I can't even remember the guy's name that I befriended,
and he was like, you know what, y'all, y y,
you're trying. I'm the only black guy in the class.
So it's not like anybody's warming up to me. And
this is back in the seventies, Okay, it's not like
anybody's warming up to me. So I just go in there,
sit down, take my nose, go home and try to study.

(41:42):
And this guy from Greece, he was like, you know,
you're not in this by yourself. He was like, what
I want you to do? Can you go into these classes?
Look around, okay, look around for what he says, Pick
out who you think is the smartest guy in the class,
and you go befriend that guy.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
Okay. You know I'm like, yeah, right, anymry, I'm telling
you what. And I told 'em my, I can talk
my kids this. I I walk in one.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
Electrical power systems class and I see this guy and
I had other classes with him, and I'm go and
introduce myself and and became friends with the guy. And
it was a difficult class and and we're s we
got a test coming up, and this guy says, I'll
tell you what. He says, I want you to we

(42:35):
got a test tomorrow. I want you to go home
and go to bed, and then you come to the
frat house cause he lived in a frat house.

Speaker 4 (42:47):
At eleven o'clock tonight. Come to the frat house. And
I'm thinking, what you know. I go to the frat
house at eleven o'clock that night.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
We go into the basement of the frat house and
there's fire cabinets surrounding his whole basement area. And he
goes over to the Jordan. He pulls out this big
folder of the class that we were taking and here's
all the past tests because this guy's father went through
the program, his grandfather went through Ohio statem all were

(43:20):
members of this fraternity. Okay, he finds the professor and
he's got the professor's leading the test that he's given
over the years. And we sit there all night long
and work through these problems and we got the answers
as well. So it was funny about six o'clock that
morning and we're drinking Coca cola, you know, we're drinking

(43:43):
cokes and or whatever, trying to now go go go
back to your dorm, take a shower, and I'm meeting.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
A class eight o'clock.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
So okay, I get there and.

Speaker 4 (43:56):
Professor passes up, pass the test out, and I don't
want to.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
I've already done this.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
I've already done it.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
You know.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
I'm looking around and see how hard other people, you know,
and I went from a point six GPA I graduated
were like a three point five or something like that.

Speaker 4 (44:21):
Because I would go.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
And befriend people, you know, and I don't know what
they were getting from the other in friendship, you know,
because it wasn't like but they.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Had access to stuff that I didn't have.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
You know, they had resources that I didn't have because
neither one of my parents had gone to Ohio State
or knew anything about how to do things like that,
you know. So taking that particular example, I told my
son he's going to Saint As. I'm like, who do

(44:57):
you eat lunch with? He's like, well, all of us
black guys up there, and we got two tables in
the cafeteria. And I'm like that's fine, I said, but
does anybody have any access that you don't have at
that table?

Speaker 4 (45:12):
And he's like no.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
I said, well get away from that table and go
sit with some other people and stuff like that, you know.
And he did that in college too, And when he
did it in college undergrad it was funny because his
first year he calls me up, do I have to
come home for Christmas? No, He's like, I got a

(45:36):
friend who's inviting me to go to Hawaii with him
him and his family. Well, David, what's it gonna cost me?
And it was like they're paying for everything and I'm like, hey,
have at it. That was easy. So relationships, understanding, discipline,

(45:56):
Paul of those things rolled into one.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
So let me jump in because I want to tell
you the things that I've gleaned from listening to you
and just this conversation. And for my listeners, you guys
can really understand now why.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
I like to sit back and then listen to mosited
check as you can go.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
But this is wealth, this is wisdom, and I've talked
to you guys many times about the power.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Of how to come in towards in your life. It
is willing to sit at somebody's feet. That's one of
the things.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
That I think did me very well in growing up
in the ministry.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Is that I was never to the point where I
thought I knew it.

Speaker 10 (46:34):
I wanted to learn because I don't have any of
those things extortrens. Yeah, and so for me, I knew
that I was in a deficit and I wanted to learn.
So when I got up one of my pastors, they
did most of the talking and I shut up and
I learned and I listened, and I.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Want to apply these things.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
So in sitting here listening to you, just in this
conversation and just I just kind of highlighted four things
that I've learned from you about being thrown into single parenting.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
And I want to go back because I got a
question I want to ask you.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
But these are the four things that I've pulled out
that for all of the people who might be a
powerful living ministries single moms.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
I got some people now that I'm discipling and working with.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
I got a lot of the baggage, you know, a
lot of boundaries to your.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Obstacles that you've got to overcome, some.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Guards and these kind of things. And so the four
things that I'm seeing that you grabbed hold of, and
I think it could be a huge benefit when it
comes to being a single parent.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
There's a commitment to working hard. They be willing to
work hard when it comes to your children. I'm realizing
the power of setting expectations.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Set expectations, high expectations for your children.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
And if they fall short even though they've worked hard,
let them know it's okay.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Yes, So love them through the process of overcoming the
obstacles to.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Meet the high expectations and just love them through it.
What we call failure no sustain us. Failure as long
as you can.

Speaker 5 (48:07):
Give them and keep trying exacts what I believe right exactly,
So setting the high expectations.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
What else so stood out to me is that you
talk about your dad and this term that.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
We use be your word. So I tell somebody, if
I say.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
I'm gonna be somewhere at ten o'clock, the moment I
know at ten o'clock is no longer possible, I'm contacting
you and I'm saying, hey, I told you ten o'clock.
I want to recreate something here, this tapness happened. Would
ten thirty work for you? And if you say yes,
when I show up at ten thirty, I'm no longer

(48:44):
laid correct because I recreated the possibility.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Even even reset that expectation.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
That's called being your word, and so what that means
and how the translate the differ between being your word
and keeping your word.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
Just understand I always try to let people know not
playing on words.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
It's that I want to have a life that's such
high integrity that if ten o'clock came and Henry was
a no call, no show because of your relationship with me,
you know I'm dead.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
That's called beating your word. My word will not fail
unless my life has failed. There you go, and everybody
can live to that standard.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Chunk, And just to throw something in there, I had
an experience one time with an individual, and he was like,
this is the winter time. I'm gonna beat your house
at seven o'clock because I want to actually get me
involved in something. I'll beat your house at seven o'clock.
And for me, seven o'clock, like I said, means six

(49:46):
fifty five or something like that. So anyway, seven o'clock
comes and goes, he doesn't show up.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
This is the winter time. Finally, about seven thirty seven
forty somewhere around there, knock at the door.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
Ding dong, ding dong, and it's ten degrees outside and
snow it ding dong.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
Knocking at the door.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
I'm like, I was prepared to open that door at
seven o'clock, you know, cause that's when you should have
been here or before. And he stood out there for
about ten or fifteen minutes knocking him, you know, because
he knew I was home.

Speaker 4 (50:16):
Because though stay out there, I let him stay out there,
you know.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Well, they finally go and open the door, and he's like, man,
oh man, you you went open at the door. And
I'm like, well, you said you were gonna be here
at seven o'clock. You know you're forty minutes later.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
You never all you never.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Forty forty minutes from hold On forty minutes.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Now, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
But when I was and and I hate to say,
wanted him to trying to teach him a lesson. I
wanted him to understand how important when you tell somebody something,
how important that is to be your word, your word, man,
respect someone's time exactly, being your word, respect somebody's time,
and having respect for you.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
All those things are important. So those are the three things.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
And then the fourth one that I'm seeing here is
the power of learning from others. Oh yeah, you know
those ladies at your job, they changed your life because
it's possible you were on.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
The way to running yourself racket.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
I would have to take care of kids exactly exactly.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
They change your life.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
They let you know what's okay as opposed to what
you thought you had to do, and it probably made
a huge impact.

Speaker 9 (51:31):
On you.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
On that point.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
I've got a nephew, my sister's older son. Uh. He's
an engineer. He works for Bowey. He's out in Seattle, Washington.
And my sister was like, Chuck, can you talk to Chris.
He is absolutely struggling. He is absolutely going through hell.
Working well. He works for ge, but he's out of

(51:58):
Booney in their plank because Boweing heads ge engineers there
and he was put to lead a team of people
on some engine design installation or whatever on Boeing airplanes,
And so he called me up, uncle child, you know, man,

(52:19):
these people and blah blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
I can't are not getting along with him kind of When.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Talking to him, I found out that he believed that
he needed to be the smartest person on the team.
He needed to know everything. And I'm like, Chris, wait
a minute. You got put into this job to lead
this team of people, and some of these people have
been there ten years, fifteen years or whatever.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
You're not the smartest.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Person on the team. And utilize those people and acknowledge
what they know and let them know that you acknowledge
what they know and that you're you're making decisions based on.

Speaker 4 (52:58):
Their input because of their expertise of being.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
On this project or whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
And I don't know how long it was after me, Yeah,
uncle Chuck, is you You don't have to be the
smartest person in the room, or you don't have to
be the smartest.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
Person on the team. You don't have to know everything.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
And I'm like, that it's not a hard lesson, you know,
but I think at times we are, particularly in some
situations like that, for whatever reason, feel that you have
to show how smart you are, and you don't.

Speaker 4 (53:32):
You don't.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
So what's standing out to me?

Speaker 11 (53:35):
And I love that because so what I'm hearing is
nobody loves to know it all, exactly, but I think
everybody can respect somebody who wants to learn as much
as they can.

Speaker 4 (53:48):
Yeah, And it's a huge difference exactly.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
And then my sister had called me and says, you
could you talk to him?

Speaker 4 (53:55):
Could you talk to him? And I'm make sure him
call me, you know. So he called me from Seattle, you.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Know, and we talked and and and and and an
another important thing too, as it relates to I go
back to my older son, because he's he's had some
difficult life decisions. You know, you wanted to be a
fighter pilot. I may have told you that he's in

(54:22):
the Air Force. He's in pilot training school. And then
all of a sudden, the Air Force makes the gives
him the opportunity to make a decision about flying or
going on to school. And he called me a dad,

(54:44):
you got a few minutes we'll hold on a minute,
let me get something to drink, let me give some snacks,
because I know it's gonna be gonna have a two
or three hour conversations. And we've had many con life conversations.
And the interesting thing is I never have told old
my kids what I think they ought to do. I'll

(55:05):
give you my opinion and tell you things that I
think you have to look.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
At and understand.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Okay, but you make your own decision because you have.

Speaker 4 (55:14):
To live with it, not me, you know.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
So my son has this decision to make the the
Air Force put in front of him. We talked two
or three nights in a row, a couple hours each night,
and we get off the phone. About a week or
so later. I wound up talking to him and I'm like,
what did you decide to do? Because I didn't give

(55:40):
him tell him what I think he ought to do.
Because we had talked about if you're in the military,
different president's you know, elections, how they may impact the
military budget, how these things could affect.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
Your career and stuff like that. Well, I never thought
of that. I didn't look at that.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
I never even thought of how a presidential administration could
impact you. Know, some presidents throw money into military and
some take it away.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
You know, you have to consider all of these things.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
So I was trying to just expanding his feel of
vision of these things that I think would help him
make the appropriate decision. Now, he wanted to be a
fighter pilot ever since he was a little kid, but
he also wanted to be a research scientist. Okay, and
he got selected as a fighter pilot. And here again

(56:35):
we talk about relationships with people, and to give an
example with my older son in particular, he wanted to
be a fighter pilot. He goes into the Air Force,
well this was even before he got officially inducted, you
know or sworn in or whatever. Wanted to be a
fighter pilot. Goes to Lackland Air Force Base as a

(56:59):
part of ro TC and do all this stuff. Come
to find out he's three as of an inch too
short in his sitting.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Height and that doesn't matter.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
Yeah, yeah, you know, he's three in sun.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
I'm like, you couldn't have tightened your cheeks up to
just raise yourself up.

Speaker 4 (57:16):
But he's because of what he learned. He's like, well,
I got a friend.

Speaker 3 (57:19):
Of mine guy that he met and become real good
friends with and his dad works at the Pentagon. I'm
gonna call him, so he called him. The next thing,
you know, he calls me up. I'm in Cincinnati. He's
in North Carolina. Dad, I need to be in Columbus, Mississippi,
day after tomorrow. Can you come down and pick me
up and take me over to Mississippi.

Speaker 4 (57:41):
Columbus, Mississippi.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
I left home that night, drove through the night, got
down to the school, picked him up, drove through the day,
got a hotel room, got him into Columbus, Mississippi. That
next morning. We're on the base. If you've never been
to Columbus, Mississippi, it's hotter than South Carolina.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
They let me on the base.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
I got my van, you know, because here I am
a single parent. I got a soccer van that I'm driving,
you know, And I parking a.

Speaker 4 (58:12):
Lot outside this administration building. I'm not allowed in. I've
got to wait.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
There's not a shade tree around in temperature is like
almost one hundred degrees. So I'm sitting outside the van
in the shady side, just moving around.

Speaker 4 (58:27):
He goes in with his paperwork, comes back out. Two guys.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
They disappear, they come back, They go back into the building.
About an hour later he comes out.

Speaker 9 (58:36):
And if you know your kids, if you've taught your kids,
in my opinion, and I tell people this, I tell
people this, and they tell me I'm full of crap,
because I'm, like I told him, I believe how to
think and how to reason and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
So give him a set of circumstances. I can almost
tell you what his decision is going to be. So
he comes out skipping knowing your kids. Based on how
he's kind of walking, I knew what the decision was.
They waved at three he's of an inch being too short,
and allowed him to be going.

Speaker 4 (59:07):
To pilot training. Yeah, and then, like I said.

Speaker 3 (59:11):
A year later, he's gonna front it with this decision
that he's got to make. You've got some skills. We'd
like to see you on to school. If you stay
in pilot training, you always twelve years total, twelve years
gonna teach you three years how to fly one f
twenty two. And he's got yeah, and he got yeah,

(59:33):
you know stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
So I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
We talked about those things for two or three nights
in a row, and he decides to take the research
to do the research, and I'm like, you could fly later,
you know, but you're not always going to get this opportunity.
And they send him back to school and he's got
these degrees and stuff like that.

Speaker 7 (59:57):
You know.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
Oh, you know, he's over in London, living in London.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
That's great.

Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
Military pays for everything.

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
It's just unbelievable, you know, the opportunities, you know, and
all my kids have had opportunities and stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Like that, so that's great.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Well, listen, folks, this is credit to the hard work
if you're willing to put in hard work and to
trust God for resources and wisdom. Yes, when it comes
to raising your children, you see that there's not only
is there hope for you to be able to do
well in a single parent household, but you can excel,

(01:00:41):
Yes you can.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
You listen, you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Can do better than what many people would say is
a statistical probability for a single parent.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
You could do better than that because there are.

Speaker 10 (01:00:54):
Resources around you that you grab a hold of that
can help you. And this is what I'm talking about
when it comes to powerful living, about the church being
the church.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
See, when people grab a hold of the community and
we have one thing in common, we have all things
in common, and that's the power of community. So I
want to rewind just a bit and touch on something
that obviously you can share as much as you want
to share or as little as you want to share

(01:01:25):
it because this may be a little sensitive, but I
want to rewind. Because your children, the twins and your
oldest son sat at the table with you and your wife,
and they chose you over their mother gets tell us

(01:01:46):
about how that made her feel and her experience.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
Like I said, my wife came from a single parent
family and in raising our kids, well, let me let
me go back a little further. When we were talking
about getting married, I always knew that I wanted.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
At least a couple of kids.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
I you know, my dad was this only child, and
in fact, my dad was raised by a single mother,
you know, which which is interesting. But I think where
my dad picked up a lot of his things about
living came out of the military.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
You know, the.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
Discipline, the doing things that you don't want to do, you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
Know, doing things that you think don't mean exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
You know, what you do is you gonna peel a potato,
peel it to the best of your ability, you know, type.

Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
Of thing and.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
So anyway, it's kind of interesting. I think that's where
my dad picked up and I got it. And then
my wife at the time comes out of a single parent.
Now understand, I say my wife at the time, or
I refer to her as my children's mother. I'll never
call him my ex because that's that's such a negative

(01:03:13):
comic connotation. That's such a negative comic connotation. So anyway,
we struggled in our relationship as a married couple because
she was like, you're too hard on the kids, You're
too hard on him. You expect, you know, And now

(01:03:35):
I understand I expected a lot out of my kids.
But we also had a lot of fun because I'll
never forget when I would come home for work pretty
much at the same time every day, my son and
oldest son he was, he was the only child at
the time. He'd be standing there at the front door

(01:03:55):
and he see me pull into the driveway and he'd
take off and run in the house and he would hide,
you know, and it was a game for me to
come find him, you know.

Speaker 12 (01:04:06):
So he's behind the curtains or in the closet amongst
the coats, and I'd open up the closet door and
I'm like, I don't see David in here anywhere, and
stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
But he's laughing because he's got the coats pulled. And
I shut the door and he boomed. He kicked the door,
and I'm like, what was that?

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
And I snatched that door back open, and there's nobody
in here. Or next day it would be behind the
curtains or whatever, or we would wrestle stuff like that.
Even when he was a small toddler, and this is
one of the things I really think benefited him. I

(01:04:44):
would take him everywhere. We'd be somewhere. Getting dirty is
a part of kid's life growing up. So we'd be
sitting out there in the dirt or whatever, and I
we'd be digging from worms and.

Speaker 4 (01:04:54):
He's got worms and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
So over time he became very curious about what's in
the soil, worms, snakes, animals, how things work, and uh.

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
But like I said, she would tell me, you act
like their friend, you know. I'm like, what do you
mean by that? You know you're supposed to be their parent,
you know, I don't. I don't wait a minute, you
can you confuse me?

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Some of mixed signals to send you to.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Your right, you know, and even her mother would be
on my case because at times her mother and sister
would be over in one thing.

Speaker 4 (01:05:36):
My kids needed to be respectful. That's your respectful, respectful.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
For all man, it's absolutely you know. And I remember
one time my disciplinement verbally my son. I think I
sent him to his room or something like that, you know,
because of something he said or did or whatever. And
my sister in law at the time was like, you

(01:06:01):
know what, you just too hard, you know, how to
call them two for one kids on you?

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
Oh boy?

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
And my thought was, well, is there a two four
to one adults, because if you do that in my house,
I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna tell you the same thing,
whatever it was, you know. So they just felt I
was too hard on the kids, you know, and would
do things that was dangerous for kids because my son,

(01:06:30):
I'd be out cutting the grass with the lawnmower and
he wants to be out there to help, so I
let him hold on it at middle bar and I
got the top bar and we're walking.

Speaker 4 (01:06:38):
And then when he finally.

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
Got to an age like twelve or thirteen, he's cutting
the grass on his own yeah, you know, and my
mother in law at the time was like, you know,
you just allow those kids to do too much, you know,
And I said, I only allow them to do what
I think they're capable of doing, and stuff like that.
And it just got to point where and I really

(01:07:02):
felt bad for because over time, the kids and I
had a relationship that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
I enjoyed and I still enjoyed to this day.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
I'm at home one time and I really felt bad,
and my wife at the time said, she asked my
oldest David, David, do you want to go to the
store with me?

Speaker 4 (01:07:27):
No, well, I'll buy you some candy.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
You know, if you go to the store with me,
if I want candy, I'll ask my dad to.

Speaker 4 (01:07:34):
Get me candy, and I'm going.

Speaker 3 (01:07:38):
So it wasn't like I think the way she was
brought up, her job was to clean them, keep them clean,
and then send them out to play, not really establishing
any kind of relationship beyond that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
So so you think that was a deficit of hers
where she just wasn't necessarily relationship builder, and she.

Speaker 4 (01:08:01):
Didn't have that kind of relationship with her mother.

Speaker 3 (01:08:03):
My mother was my best friend, you know, because my mother,
I called my mother two three, four times a day
and get home. And at the time, she watched Dynasty.
I watched Dynasty, she watched Dallas. We be on the
phone with each other.

Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
Oh you think dor you know type of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
Or the program would go off.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:08:22):
So my mother and I were real close.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
I mean we were just and your wife at the time.
You think her situation was the opposite.

Speaker 4 (01:08:30):
Yeah, it was the opposite.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
Okay, it was the opposite. And that Oh yeah, it
makes a difference.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
I was shared with people, and I.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
Wrote my book and I talked about my upbringing and
raised by single mom.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
But for me, when I.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
Especially when I'm listening to you talk about your dad
in that relationship and how you raised your children and
the things that you used to do.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
With your children.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Brother, listen, I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm fifty
one yearyears old. My heart still mourns and yearns for
those things.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
Yeah, man, I don't have any My daddy used to
always stories.

Speaker 3 (01:09:12):
I have none, and I can't relate to not having
that email and stuff like that. And in fact, one
of my good friends was one of those single parent
women that worked at the company and we're still good
friends today. And she was like, you know what your
you're different? What are you different in what way?

Speaker 5 (01:09:34):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:09:35):
Because I never wanted to be a statistic and she
was like, you were fortunate enough to have both parents
in your home, and it just I just never thought
about it because never really talked about anything like that
with anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
And so.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
Another thing too here. I am sixty eight years old
and ride motorcycles with a lot of people. And one
of the things that you see with motorcycle people particularly
is they drink alcohol.

Speaker 4 (01:10:09):
I don't drink.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
I don't drink.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
I don't like it. My parents never drink. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
My dad smoked a cigar. You know, that was pretty
much about it. You know, I take it back. Maybe
for Thanksgiving he would have had one of those what
do you call those fruitcakes that had some alcohol soaked
in it, Yeah, like round fruitcake or whatever it is,
which I thought was nasty. Neither one of them they

(01:10:39):
were both religious. We had to go to church, and
it was interesting when we got to be teenagers, me
and my brother and sister. My dad was like, I
don't care what you do, but you're going to church.
You can come in seven o on a Sunday morning.

(01:11:01):
But you know, we leave at such and such a
time and you better be ready. And we got to
the point where, like and if you ain't ready.

Speaker 4 (01:11:09):
When I get to church and get my car park,
you better be coming.

Speaker 3 (01:11:12):
Through the door. And we hid challenges with my parents
and with church growing up because my argument now, my
parents from the South, everybody always got dressed up to
go to church on Sunday.

Speaker 4 (01:11:25):
You put on your Sunday best. Why I got to
wear a tie? Is God going to not like me
because I got don't have a tie on.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
So we kind of got rid of the tie, you know,
type of thing. We got rid of the jacket.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
Stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (01:11:40):
You push the boundaries and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:44):
But that's just how they were. Interesting story about my son,
my older son in particular, and he goes to college
at a time when finally the Internet is available, and

(01:12:05):
as a parent, I can look and see what his
records indicate.

Speaker 4 (01:12:09):
And I like to bring.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
Religion into it because religion is one of those things.
It is all encompassing from the standpoint of how you
approach it, you know. And what I mean by that
is I'm looking at my son's record now we grew
up as Baptist because we even went to church when
I have, you know, and I look through my son's

(01:12:33):
records and he's got down agnostic. I don't know what
agnostic mean. I got to go to the dictionary look
it up, you.

Speaker 13 (01:12:40):
Know, yes, And I'm on the phone. I'm sitting there
in my dass finally give me some a David. I'm look,
what is this crappy? I see that you put down
for your religion agnostic.

Speaker 4 (01:12:51):
We're Baptists.

Speaker 3 (01:12:53):
And he was like, Dad, why do you believe what
you believe because your parents believed it, and you figure
if it was good enough of your parents, good enough
for you. He's like, well, I don't feel that way.
I'm not saying I don't believe. I just don't know
what to believe, and I'm trying to find.

Speaker 4 (01:13:09):
What I believe in. Okay, how can you argue with that?
I'm like, okay.

Speaker 3 (01:13:15):
And then it changed from agnostic to atheist.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
Okay, there's a difference, and everybody would do well to
look that up.

Speaker 4 (01:13:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, there is certainly a difference.

Speaker 3 (01:13:27):
And I like to tell the story because he's he's
had his I don't know whether it's fact finding or
challenges or whatever as it relates to what he believes in,
because I didn't want to force him into believe in
what I believed. You know, we all need to find

(01:13:50):
our way. So anyway, September eleventh happened when it was
down there in college and he couldn't get away home.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
Thanksgiving comes around.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
I go to pick him up with the other two kids,
and when we go to some friends that live in
a city.

Speaker 4 (01:14:08):
Close by, and.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
A bunch of older people there, and they're talking about
how terrible ninet eleven was flying into the towers and
stuff like that, and he can I say something, and
they were, Oh, we'd like for young children.

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
To participate, you know, we'd like to hear your opinion,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:14:31):
And I'm like, not this one. You don't necessarily want
to hear him exactly exactly. And he says, you know,
there's a lot of people on the face of the
earth that believes that the whole idea about God was
invented by a man.

Speaker 4 (01:14:47):
Because if you found.

Speaker 3 (01:14:48):
Out tomorrow that there's nothing before you and there's nothing
after you, it wouldn't you wouldn't have a reason to live,
you know, And these people were like.

Speaker 4 (01:15:00):
Where did this kid come from? Why'd you bring I'm like,
I told you all exactly. You know, you let him speak,
you know. But he's since.

Speaker 3 (01:15:14):
Left that position and believes in the fact that and
a lot of people don't realize Albert Einstein, Albert Einstein
is one of the smartest.

Speaker 4 (01:15:25):
People that ever lived. Talked about, you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:27):
Know, relative theory and all this stuff the universe and
all of these concepts and you know, about how the universe.

Speaker 4 (01:15:38):
Existed and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (01:15:39):
But in Einstein's last few years, he became somewhat of
a religious person because he believes that there had to
be something greater than what any of us can understand
and brings order to this chaos in the universe.

Speaker 4 (01:15:55):
And that's where my son is now, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
Okay, so he's gone full circle from a particular religion
to not believe, searching what to believe, and then not believing,
to coming back believing. You know. Now you're saying, there's
got to be some kind of order, that there's some
some there's something something that brings order to.

Speaker 4 (01:16:18):
The chaos of the universe, and I'm going on and
he was.

Speaker 3 (01:16:21):
Like that that comprehension is is not something you going
to find through scientific discovery or something like that, you know,
because his his he was taught all for for years
growing up. You know, if somebody's arguing with you or
got a point.

Speaker 4 (01:16:41):
And I prove it, he's a scientist.

Speaker 3 (01:16:44):
He's a scientist.

Speaker 4 (01:16:45):
Show me your data, show me what happens to ca. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 4 (01:16:51):
He's different.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
So let's wrap this up. If you were.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
To just have some final words just for this particular interview,
because lisn't y'all, folks, it is not the last time
that I'm sitting in front of motorcycle, chuck and push record. Okay,
I'm learning and more and more when I get in
front of motorcycle Chuck.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
I mean, just let push record and let it roll.

Speaker 4 (01:17:17):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:17:17):
This is a good.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
Information gleaning and talking about mentors and learning from those
who've gone before us.

Speaker 2 (01:17:23):
And so with your experience, if you were to.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
Have some final thoughts for those that I'll be ministering
to here. Single parents had as many obstacles in their
past as I have had, or possibly more, what would
you give some final thoughts for them to encourage them
to keep them going, to inspire.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
Them to do their best. What would you say, that's
a deep question.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
That's a deep question, you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:55):
Know, because we all have different roads that we've traveled.
We've all had different obstacles, you know, some significant obstacles
for some people and some less than others. But the

(01:18:19):
one thing that I think got me through school, got
me through life to this point was what my mother
used to tell me. Mm And my mother always told
me there is no rest for the weary. My mother
is like, you're gonna come across things and you're gonna

(01:18:42):
look at it and you're gonna be like, you know,
it's just easier to try to go around or try
to go a different way instead of going over. There
is no rest for the weary. Just because you've come
or confronted with a situation.

Speaker 4 (01:19:02):
Be a person, be a man, be yourself, dive head
into it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:07):
You know, face it, face it, you know as don't
run away from it, you know. And in fact, just
tell him. A younger son the other day, he he
had a job and this guy's a biochemist and it
wasn't a good fit with the company that he was.

(01:19:28):
And I told him, I'm like, those things happen in life,
those things happen. You're not the only one who didn't
have a good fit in the company. Let you go
lean into it, you know, figure out what you can
get cause and in fact, learn to lean into discomfort.
Choose it, choose it. Don't run away from it. Yeah,

(01:19:48):
don't run away from it. So, like I said, we
all have different paths. And then also think outside of
your box, think outside of your head, you know, think
outside of your environment because there's a whole world out

(01:20:10):
there and one of the things have some curiosity about
things that you don't know, that you don't.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
Understand, that you have an experience.

Speaker 3 (01:20:24):
Because for me, I'm always I think a model of
mine is what is it that I can learn today
that I didn't know yesterday?

Speaker 4 (01:20:38):
And that's kind of how I approach my life. I'm
always looking for something new.

Speaker 3 (01:20:43):
I'm always looking for As my one friend said, you're
always looking for a way to get over.

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
You know, I'm not.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
It's not getting over because getting over sort of takes
that tone that you're taking advantage.

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
Of something or somebody when you when I gained, and
that's not what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:21:03):
It's just, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:21:07):
If I'm in the woods somewhere and I'm trying to
get to a point, and I'm thinking I'm going in
the right direction, and I find out that I'm nowhere
near where I thought I was gonna be or wanted
to be. Didn't go another way, you know, and and
keep going and stuff like that.

Speaker 9 (01:21:24):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:21:24):
I think one of the things a lot of people
might do is to give up easily, you know, when
when it gets hard, you give up, you know. And
and I could have done that when I was in
college that first year, you know, but here again, like
I said, I had had with the point exactly that

(01:21:47):
was I got to ease and a d you know,
and I didn't even think it registered on the grade card.
So like I said, you know, hm, my mother would all,
you know, being from the South, keep your nose to
the grind stone, you know. And it it it just

(01:22:09):
that nobody ever said life was gonna be easy, m
you know. And in fact, you'll be surprised if you
lean into discomfort. You you instead of going around that wall,
you figure out how to knock it down.

Speaker 4 (01:22:21):
You realize how much you come out stronger on the
other side, you know. So it's those.

Speaker 3 (01:22:26):
Types of things. Just encouragement, don't run away from fear,
you know, And I even sort of take that. And
what's one of the first things you If you're walking
down the street and the dog comes running at you,
what do you do.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
I'm not running, Yeah, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
I don't run. I stand there and and it's funny
because I've been there with my girlfriend and we've been
in situations like that, and immediately I put my arms
up like this, you know, to make myself look bigger.
And you'd be surprised how many times that dog would stop.

Speaker 4 (01:22:55):
You know, and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
So learn how to all of this stuff and put
it to put it to you, put it to good work.

Speaker 11 (01:23:03):
So this is good.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
At Chuck. Y'all heard it here first, and I think
this won't.

Speaker 4 (01:23:11):
Be the last.

Speaker 2 (01:23:13):
But you already know what we're here for. We here
for powerful living, and we am powerful living.

Speaker 1 (01:23:19):
When we embrace powerful living, we embrace what happens.

Speaker 4 (01:23:23):
And embracing powerful powerful living.

Speaker 3 (01:23:29):
For me is always learning, always learning, you know. One
of the things that people laugh at me because here
again trying to my girlfriends, like, let's go to trivia.
There was a group of friends that hers a trivia

(01:23:51):
you know, trivia, and they're asking these trivia questions and.

Speaker 4 (01:23:57):
I don't know that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:58):
I don't you know, I didn't watch that, you know,
because if I want to spend my time in something,
it's either reading, learning something that I didn't know, and
stuff like that. So step outside of your box, you know,

(01:24:18):
find new things. And it doesn't have to always be
on a television. It can be in a library, it
could be you know, a lot of people think, you know,
I spent a lot of time in cemeteries because there's
history and cemeteries. There's a ton of history and cemeteries,
you know, in nature.

Speaker 1 (01:24:38):
That little place you took me to it Indianapolis, like
we went through a time, we went over the bridge and.

Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
All of a sudden we felt like a hundred years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:24:47):
Yeah, exactly, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:24:51):
I'll never forget that.

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
Most like a ride and even understanding you live in
Norwood and understanding the history of Norwood, which is what
I did this past Sunday to understand how his no
would transition from being a sundown town and the struggles
that they've had and where they are today and where
they need to go.

Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
To be sundowntown.

Speaker 3 (01:25:15):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:25:15):
Wow, So yeah, it's good. Oh Man motorcycle check. I
thank you for your time. Everybody here. Thank you for
your listening. If you want to get in contact with.

Speaker 1 (01:25:26):
Motorcycle Chuck, ask some questions for me to ask him,
bring him back again.

Speaker 4 (01:25:31):
I'll do it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:32):
Other than that until we meet again.

Speaker 1 (01:25:34):
Henry Flowers Powerful Living Outreach Ministries.

Speaker 2 (01:25:37):
I ain't going to where I'm coming back.

Speaker 4 (01:25:41):
Hello, Frem.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
Thank you so much for being with us in this
podcast over the airwaves of YouTube or wherever you find
your podcast. Thank you so much for being apart. Make
sure to subscribe, turn on notifications, and feel free to
share this information with anyone who you believe could use

(01:26:02):
a little bit more power in their lives. Speaking of power,
be sure to join us on Sunday mornings as we
gather together in the Cincinnati area at five six one
six Wolfpen, Pleasant Hill Road in Milford, Ohio. We will
be in the upper room at General Dentistry. Ten thirty

(01:26:24):
am on Sunday mornings is when we gather together. We
have an empowerment session immediately after the broadcast. This is
where the true powerful living is put into practice. If
you want to come together and work on something with
me one on one coaching in a group setting, then

(01:26:48):
you want to be a part of the empowerment sessions.
I cannot tell you how many testimonies and how much
transformation has occurred as a result of these empowerment sessions.
You want to be here the church being the church,
people coming in with their stuff, working on it with me,

(01:27:09):
using biblical principles and getting real transformation in real time,
so that we ourselves can be empowered. Then we can
be able to go and empower others. My friend, that
is what powerful living is. So you definitely want to
join us in the empowerment sessions in person, and also

(01:27:30):
you can join us live via zoom and the zoom
information is in the description box. Join us ten thirty
am every Sunday, Eastern Staterard time. Look forward to seeing
you there. Many of you have been asking how you
can give and support Powerful Living ministries. I have a

(01:27:53):
few options for you. I often go and speak to
our young people who are just living in desperate at times.
I'm not really sure if I would want to be
a young person living in these times with these societal
norms that are just banging banging at the door of
their moral houses, and they need help. So the help

(01:28:16):
that I deliver when I go and speak to these
young people are through powerful testimonial speeches, motivational speeches, whatever
you want to call it, but biblical principles and same
things I deliver in the empowerment sessions and in the
podcast is what I deliver when I speak to colleges
and high schools. Now, I often go and speak about
what I wrote in my book, which is titled Board

(01:28:38):
to Death Five Steps to gear up and be about
that life. This is a pulling together of personal stories,
things that I have lived through and how I went
from where I was living on the streets of Detroit,
and how I survived the streets of Detroit and created

(01:28:59):
a life that I love. When I had all of
the obstacles in my way, I had the perfect recipe
to become a statistic How did I overcome?

Speaker 3 (01:29:10):
What did I do well?

Speaker 1 (01:29:12):
Those questions are answered in my book Bored to Death
and five Easy Steps.

Speaker 4 (01:29:18):
I share these.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
Steps with young people and I get transformation, and I
see transformation. Their lives are empowered on a daily basis.
This is powerful living in action when I go and
speak to these young people. Now, how you can come
alongside is a couple of ways. You can obviously give
directly to this ministry. If you want to reach out
to us Powerful Living twenty twenty two at gmail dot com.

(01:29:43):
You can reach out to us directly and just say, hey, Henry,
how can I support your ministry financially? Also, you can
text us or call, but likely a text would be
better at five one three, four zero four seven seven
nine three. Leave us a message and just tell us

(01:30:04):
I'd like to be involved financially. How can I support
your ministry and we'll give back to you there as well. Also,
you can contact us about purchasing copies of my book
so that when I go and speak to the young
people in high school. Sometimes I'll do middle schools, but
most of the time it's high school and college and
those who are usually financially constrained and don't have the

(01:30:27):
opportunity to.

Speaker 3 (01:30:29):
Purchase my book.

Speaker 1 (01:30:30):
If you purchase my book, every book that you purchase
will be an opportunity for me to put another one
copy of my books in the hands of our young people,
and so they can take home the message that I
deliver in person, and they can be empowered and study
and see what I did to create a life that
I love. And therefore they'll be able to see themselves

(01:30:54):
doing it as well. That's Powerful Living and my friend,
that is power forgiving, and I hope you will take
us up on that opportunity. If you have feedback and
you'd like to suggest a shell topic, content ideas, if
you have questions, if I said something that you don't

(01:31:16):
agree with, whatever it is, whatever kind of feedback that
you'd like to give, bring it. You can email us
Powerful Living twenty twenty two at gmail dot com. You
can call us at five poine three or zero for
seven seventy nine three. However you get your information to us,

(01:31:37):
just understand I will respond to you directly. I am
open questions, concerns, show ideas, topics, anything you have in
reference to feedback. You let me know and especially tell
us how this ministry has powerfully impacted your life, and
I will likely share that on a live broadcast. Thank

(01:32:01):
you so much for being a part of this ministry.
I can't wait to see these empowerment sessions pop up
all over the country, all over the world, and all
over the lives of people. Powerful Living is there for
you and me. Thank you, my friends, God bless you.