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Friends And Family
Conversations from the studios of God's Way Radio in Miami, FL.
WAYG-LP | 104.7FM
Friends And Family
Shielded by Faith: David and Eric's Journey from Law Enforcement to Spiritual Sanctuary
When David Rutledge stepped into that Christian coffee house years ago, little did he know his life was about to transform. From a non-Christian household to a dedicated career in law enforcement, David's story, shared alongside Eric Hubbard, is a testament to the profound influence of faith. On this episode, we invite you to join us as we uncover their remarkable journeys, where challenges in parenthood and professional aspirations intertwine with the calling of ministry. David and Eric, from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's law enforcement ministry, open their hearts to reveal how faith can not only guide a career but also serve as an anchor in times of personal crisis and communal strife.
Venture with us through the origins of the Rapid Response Team, a ministry conceived in the aftermath of 9/11, and witness how this vision has expanded to offer solace to law enforcement officers amidst chaos. Delving into the unique culture and the often-unseen spiritual needs of those in the line of duty, we explore the slow-burning revival of faith within the ranks. These powerful narratives serve as a beacon, illuminating the potential for transformative change that a strong spiritual foundation can bring to communities nationwide.
You're tuned in to Friends and Family, a God's Way radio exclusive where we introduce you to some amazing people. In John 15, verse 15, jesus says I have called you friends for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. That's our aim that God would be made known to you. Stay with us until the end of our conversation for more information on this program and other unique offerings from God's Way radio.
Joey:Thank you so much for joining us here at God's Way radio. We're here in the studio with some interesting folks. We always try to bring friends, family here of God's Way radio and just introduce you to some amazing people that God has brought our way. So, without further ado, I'll start at my left here, sir, if you want to introduce yourself to our listening family.
David:Okay, my name is David Rutledge and I'm the manager one of the co-managers of the law enforcement ministry for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Joey:Excellent and my friend.
Eric:My name is Eric Hubbard and I am the other co-manager for the law enforcement ministry at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Joey:Excellent. And if you don't know the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, you've been living under a rock. I'm just kidding. You should know them, look them up online. The legacy of Billy Graham and the just impact of that ministry is tremendous. Words cannot really describe it, I think. So we have these gentlemen here and they're here doing some training. I won't get into that in a moment, but I was explaining to them that we love diving into people's testimonies and hearing how God got a hold of their life and the work that God's done in their life. And I know it's hard. It's hard to do briefly. You know I've heard Mr Rudledge David a couple of times, just share parts of his story, and I'm going keep going. This is amazing hearing about the things that God has done. But if you'll try, we'd love to hear how the Lord got a hold of your life.
David:Okay, actually, I was not raised in a Christian home. My parents were not Christian, Took us occasionally to Sunday school, vacation, bible school in the summer, grew up in a rural community about 15 miles east of Richmond, virginia, and so we did, did sort of the Christmas church thing, that kind of thing, and realized when I got 14, 15 years old that something was missing. You know, just realized I needed something else in my life, that there had to be more than what it looked like my future was, and so started attending the church more regularly. They had a new pastor and they had a Saturday night youth group that would meet on Saturday nights and it was really sort of toward the end of the Jesus movement of the sixties and early seventies and we went one Saturday evening and went to a Christian coffee house. Those don't hardly exist.
Joey:Yeah, I was going to say wow.
David:Got in the West End of Richmond and just was really had a good time. They had music that didn't sound like hymns and church music and was really sort of enjoying it. And one of the other youth sat down and went through the base of the Roman road with me and why I needed Christ and prayed and accept the Lord. Knew that was what I needed prayed and accepted the Lord. No lightning bolts or you know. The heavens didn't open or anything, but I had this sense that I had crossed the line, that I'd stepped through a door in into something totally different. And so it's grown from there, went to Morris Hill College there in the mountains of North Carolina and met the Christian college.
David:Yeah, it's a Christian college, small Baptist college in Western North Carolina it's about 20 miles north of Asheville and met my wife there and she was a mountain girl and you can't couldn't dynamite her out of the mountains. So we started dating, got engaged and ended up getting married. And then I began my law enforcement career. Had always sort of known I wanted to be a being officer, had known that since high school.
Joey:Yeah, Now, before we get into that chapter of your life, I want to look at something here just to encourage. You know, so much of this is happening in real time and I may not have had a chance to share those with either of you before, but God's radio is very unique. We have all age groups listening. We have a lot of students that actually listen. So for students or parents of students, 14, 15 years old was the was the age that God got your heart. So God could do it. God could save a teenager.
Joey:Yeah, to hold a teenager, so just wanted to harp on that. What a blessing and an encouragement for any parents listening. But you got into law enforcement.
David:Yeah, it got into law enforcement. Started with the Johnson City Tennessee Police Department. My wife was there at East Tennessee State getting her master's degree Two years there. Then we always knew we wanted to live in Asheville and so I applied, got on with the Asheville Police Department. That was the beginning of 30 year career. With them we have three children. All three are grown in adults and so did my 30 years, including seven of it. I spent supervising, running homicides and major cases. When I retired from there two years later went to work for the rescue mission there in Asheville and spent seven years doing that.
Joey:Working with the guys. Two years of retirement was enough.
David:Yeah, well, in North Carolina, if you do the full 30, the retirement benefits are good enough that you're going to have to go back to work eventually, but not real soon, gotcha, and at the time, my granddaughter and my daughter were living with us, and so I got to spend those two years with her and then went to work for the rescue mission, worked for them seven years working with the guys in the residential drug and alcohol recovery program, realized in spring of 2018 that I was burned out and God, what's the next thing for me? So I took my second retirement and was just really doing it and, through a series of what seemed to be coincidences, got connected up with Billy Graham Rapid Response Team and began serving as a volunteer chaplain. Deployed several times and we deployed a manmade and natural disasters, and this particular, my first deployment in November of 2018 was to Chico, california, for the Paradise Fire. That was your first one, that was my first one, and went in there six days after the fire, a bunch of the specifically to minister to law enforcement Bunch of the deputies and the officers had lost their homes in the fire and just fell in love with it.
David:Yeah, and this is being back around cops again, and this is what I was made to do. So did that begin? Was asked by Billy, the Rapid Response Team, if I would help develop and teach a police chaplain training course. And so began doing. Did that a couple of times, on contract. And then an opening came up to be the manager of the law enforcement ministry and they called and asked me, and I didn't hesitate a second, decided yeah, this is great. You know God, you're just, you are leading me in open doors that I never would have expected to open.
Joey:Yeah, that's amazing.
David:That's what brought me to where I am today. That's what brought you here to.
Joey:Miami. Yep, thank you so much for sharing and you know it's interesting what's happening right now. If you're listening, you're listening to God's Way Radio. We have the privilege of having David Rutledge and Eric Hubbard and Eric Hubbard here with us from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and if you did not catch the beginning of our conversation, you want to listen in the next opportunity you get. There's just such good stuff happening here. You know, a lot of times what happens with me here on this side of the microphone is I don't know a person really well and I get to know them here in the studio. But what's happening with David is because I've attended some of his classes, I know some other stuff that God has done in his life that he hasn't said, and I'm sure there's even more than that that I don't know. But we're going to go and talk to Eric here for a moment. Eric, how did the Lord get a hold of your life?
Eric:Well, it's really interesting. I grew up going to church. My mom used to take my sister and I to church when I was young. My father never went, but my mom would take us and I remember having really fond memories of church. I enjoyed going, I enjoyed, you know, hearing the Bible stories and things like that. So the word of God is really kind of sewn in my heart and the seeds were planted back then. But there came a time I must have been somewhere around maybe 10 or 12 years old when my mom said well, you know, you're old enough now where you can decide if you want to go to church or not. And I thought well, it's Sunday, I have, I don't have school. I can either go to church or I can stay home and ride my bike through the fields and throw dirt clouds at my friends and play baseball in the fields and stuff like that.
Eric:Why would I go to church if I could do that? So, unfortunately, I made the decision to not go to church and it wasn't until years later that the Lord really drew me back, and it's funny how it happened. Here I am, fast forward several years. I've got a. My son was I don't know, maybe he was about 10 at the time and it was really a tough kid to raise and so we were having a lot of issues with my kid and Only child at the time. No, he, at the time he had a. We had a. Our daughter was six months old and he was 10. I actually married into him.
Eric:I met him when he was four or five and really tough upbringing. I tried everything that I knew. Nothing worked, although, since I wasn't going to church and I wasn't a Christian, I didn't have the answers. So I thought you know what my mom used to take me to church. I'm going to take him to church and maybe they can teach him something. Wow, so I didn't go there for me, or so I thought. But that's how the Lord got me into church. So I plugged him into the kids ministry, and that's how I found a church. I just looked for one that was nearby that had a kids ministry. That's all I wanted, and the Lord's like, hey, I can take it from there.
Eric:So I sat in the back pew that day and was just talking to some people Everyone is really friendly and then the pastor started up and it was like everyone disappeared and it was just me and him and he shared the gospel and it was like I just realized I'd been sitting in a dark room my whole life. It was like a light switch went on and I got it and the Holy Spirit just really just opened my eyes and I understood that I needed it was I've heard the gospel messages before. He didn't say anything that I hadn't heard before, but it just clicked. I just understood I need a savior. So I gave my life to the Lord that day in 1999 and I just could not get enough.
Eric:I went home I think I left the church that day with the Bible in hand and I couldn't get. I couldn't get out of it. I stayed up late that night. I got up early the next morning. I kept reading. I was like, look, what's in here. So the Lord just kind of took it from there and it's been a wonderful, a wonderful and wild ride since then. And it was shortly after I accepted the Lord that the Lord put it on my heart to become a law enforcement officer. It was something that.
Eric:I thought about earlier in my life and the Lord really impressed upon me, said now that you're mine, I want you to go serve in law enforcement because I didn't want just another officer, I want someone who's going to serve me.
Eric:So I kind of laughed and argued with him and thankfully he won, which means I won. And I told the Lord you know what, if it's really you, I'm just going to apply to one department one time. And he said, okay, you go do that. And so I'm thinking, you know, I pulled one over on God.
Eric:I'll just go to this and they'll disqualify me and I'll get on with my life, but he kept opening the doors. Opening the doors, I ended up getting hired with the Long Beach Police Department where I spent the next 20 years serving him there. While I was serving as a sworn officer, I also became one of our a few sworn officers on a department that were chaplains also, and it was during this time I was at a conference in another state, a police related conference, where I got up from the meeting and went into a vendor's room where they had a bunch of trinkets and things like that, and I see in the back a big truck, a big Billy Graham Rapid Response Truck.
Joey:And so I got to go check that out.
Eric:Oh, about what year was this? Oh, this was probably six years ago, so around 2015-ish. And so I walked over and said, hey, what are you guys doing here? What are you all about? And so they started telling me about the ministry and how the Rapid Response Team and they they respond to natural natural disasters and manmade disasters and they have a team of law enforcement officers who go on their primary job as to minister to law enforcement. So I'm learning about all this and I'm like why don't I know about this? Everyone should know about this. And so I kind of got plugged in from there and they told me to go back and look at their website. And I did that and I fill out the application to be a chaplain. And one thing led to another. Again, the Lord kept opening the doors and I had the privilege of serving on the Rapid Response Team as a volunteer chaplain.
Eric:For the next six years or so I deployed. My first deployment was in Houston after Hurricane Harvey went through, where I got to my partner and I got to minister, to the police in the area there and some of and their family members. I had several deployments since then, whether it be the shooting, the mass shooting in Las Vegas. There was another shooting at a bar and grill in 1000 Oaks, California, and a few other deployments. And it's just amazing to see what the Lord's doing through that ministry.
Eric:And one day several months ago, I'm sitting at my desk mining my own business, working through my caseload. I was a robbery detective at the time and my partner here, Dave, called me, and what he doesn't know is the Lord called me that day and I had no plans to retire. But he called and said hey, do you know we have a job opening for law enforcement manager, which is what he was doing at the time. Yeah, he said there's. There's just so much work and the ministry is expanding and the Lord is doing so much work.
Eric:And did you know we had another thing? I said no, I didn't. He said do me a favor. Just, we promise me you'll go on the site and you'll read about it, Share it with your wife, and when you guys pray about it, I said I absolutely will do that. And so we, my wife and I read it. When we got home, we prayed about it, and so the Lord called me out of law enforcement and said he had something else for me to do, which was to join the team and be a part of a of this organization to be able to minister law enforcement around the country, and it's been. It's been awesome, that's amazing.
Joey:You know I'm sitting here so humbled because I've gotten to see some of this.
Joey:You weren't there in November when I took the class and now you're here, and so this is really, really exciting for me as well as an observer, and so we're going to jump into a little bit more. You know what? What are we talking about? Rapid response team, billy Graham chaplains. You know there's so much to cover I don't know that that we'll be able to without the help of the Lord. So, guys, let's get into this rapid response team. You know, from what I understand in my training and learning and applying for the program, it really started out as a group of chaplains to minister, to Samaritan's Purse volunteers was kind of its origin.
David:Well, actually, the real origin was Franklin Graham was in New York City right after 9 11. Okay, and and was was God laid a burden on his heart because he saw so many people who were emotionally, mentally, spiritually, traumatized by the events there, who had no one to talk to. And so God birthed this vision in him of a core of crisis, trained chaplains who could deploy at short notice virtually anywhere in the world upon request and and be able to share the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. And so that was the beginning of the rapid response team. It grew the responses to natural disaster. Now we do deploy a lot of times in a natural disaster situation, we basically piggyback Samaritan's Purse. They're going in to minister to spiritual needs, help do cleanup, mud out houses, all of those kind of things, help people recover physically from the disaster, and our job is to provide spiritual care and comfort to those people.
David:In 2014, there was the beginning of sort of a conviction on the leaders of the rapid response team that they needed to be doing more to minister to law enforcement. Okay, god just placed that on their heart, and this was prior to Ferguson and the events in Ferguson, missouri. And so they got together a meeting of leaders of law enforcement in North and South Carolina and basically asked the question what are your needs and how can we better serve law enforcement? And the law enforcement was birthed ministry was birthed out of that. Probably three months after that meeting, ferguson happened and that almost jump started the law enforcement ministry. We had chaplains out there for probably eight weeks and remind us again the incident in Ferguson in.
David:Ferguson where an officer tried to stop Michael Brown. He was suspected of larceny and from a local convenience store and Brown tried to take his weapon, was approaching him in an aggressive manner and the officer shot him and it sparked a lot of sparks, riots and everything else.
David:And some major instance, and we had chaplains there Pretty quickly after that in the middle of it and in our chaplains, when they go into a situation like that, their job is to bring peace and to minister peace, and, and, and we bring Jesus with us everywhere we go, so that sometimes that's why All we do is just be there. Yeah because that brings him into the situation, so to speak. And so they did that and, um, you know, the law enforcement ministry just has taken off from there and expanded hugely.
Joey:Yeah, well, I was going to say the reason I had trouble remembering is because it seemed, it seems that in the last few years probably coinciding with 2014 and this, this inspiration and this meeting and this um birthing, there's been a lot of these kinds of things.
Joey:Yeah, you know, it seems like almost more recently and and you know I'm speaking in very general terms we have all kinds of people that are listening here to God's way radio and, and we just want to talk about what God is doing and the ministry that God is doing, and and all that to say that even in the midst of chaos, turmoil, tragedy, god is working and and we're seeing some of the dots that God is connecting here as we talk with David and Eric.
Joey:So, so that's really amazing and maybe you can talk a little bit about it, either, david or Eric, or, if you guys want to both take turns and jumping in here, you talked about what you do and a little bit of the origins, but maybe you can tell us why you do what you do, why this ministry is important, is essential. Uh, you know, obviously. Uh, using a little bit of sarcasm here in the sense of to get people thinking that are listening. Um, you know, police officers are fine, they go and do their job and and they go home. I mean, what's the big deal? Who wants to comment on that first? Why is it so important?
Eric:I'll jump in there. I will say first of all I mean, the answer as to why is real easy is we love the Lord and we're responding to the call that he's put on our life. Above all else, I mean and you know that goes for all of us who who call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ is we're all ministers, no matter where we are and what situation we're in. We are called to be servants, we're called to be ministers of the gospel and so so that's the, that's the why. But I think, with our background in law enforcement and I don't think I need to tell anybody about the state of what's going on and with law enforcement in the last couple of months, last couple of years there's a critical need there and the need is really in all of society. But I think it's been kind of highlighted in what we've seen in the media.
Eric:What's what's happening with law enforcement and and as much as I don't like a lot of what has happened recently there's something that's really awesome, that has occurred and that people are recognizing that the answer is not found in man. You know, sometimes we think we need to turn to, you know, a certain political leader, a certain leader in a city leader or something like that, and no matter what man comes up with, it's not going to fix the problem. The answer is not found in man. And so we have an opportunity to minister to fellow law enforcement officers who are looking for answers maybe, maybe more than they ever have before. And sometimes, you know, people have been, they've been okay, not realizing that they had this need, but now they're realizing something's got to change. We can't live this way. The society can't keep going in this direction. They're looking for hope.
Eric:Yeah they're looking for answers and we can bring them that in Jesus Christ, we can share the love of the love and the hope that's found in Christ and Christ alone, and that has opened up such tremendous opportunities to be able to minister to the people hurting, and truly that's that we know. That's the answer. You can share hope in crisis.
Joey:Amen, amen.
Eric:That's wonderful.
Joey:Yeah, that's the name of, I guess will be the foundational seminar, the foundational class to a lot of what you do, david, if you want to comment on that same question. But also, eric was getting to something that you've mentioned in both classes that I've attended that slow burning revival happening in law enforcement. So again, if you want to address the previous question, but then talk to us about that revival, you're sure.
David:And one thing again I'll echo Eric, because that's what God's called us to do. And one of the things I guess people sort of realize but don't realize is policing has a very unique culture and officers don't easily trust, don't easily accept outsiders into that culture. And so just a good example here in South Florida there's a mix of different cultures and who best can minister and reach those cultures are people from those cultures. Okay, so for us it's an opportunity to go back to the profession we loved, knew we were called to serve and be God's ambassadors there, because we understand the culture, we understand what it's like to live in that culture. And it really is true we're both retired, but you never stopped being a cop. You just don't. You're part of that culture and you keep that mentality.
David:And when Eric was talking about how you know law enforcement's under attack, there's a lot of problems.
David:Officers are discouraged in a way I don't know that I've ever seen, and I first started in law enforcement in 1980. We were catching a lot of the tail end of the stuff that still existed in the 70s, a lot of transitions in law enforcement In the 90s I went through Rodney King and all that was involved in that and so I've seen this and it is far worse now than I've ever seen it in my career. But along with that, in traveling around the country with this ministry and it began to change probably a couple of years before I retired and there's what I can only describe as a very slow burning, slowly building revival going on among law enforcement. Best, I guess, picture of it is like one of those coal-seemed fires where coal is burning underground and it smolders and it heats and you don't see any sign of it above ground except maybe an occasional whistle of smoke until it breaks out. And when it breaks out it's an inferno. And I think something similar is happening to law enforcement.
Tiffany:When.
David:I first came into it in 1980, very few officers were Christian. If they were, they didn't talk about it. It was relegated to Sundays If they weren't working or sleeping that Sunday, because they were working midnight shifts, that kind of thing, and it just wasn't something. It was no big deal to anybody. And that has changed. Officers are much more open about it and I guess part of our vision for law enforcement in this country and what we feel like God is helping use us to play a small part in, is if you had a fourth to a third to even a half of the officers in this country actively serving Jesus Christ, how does that change our communities? How does that change those departments? How does that change those cities that they're in those counties? It could be transformational for the entire society.
Eric:Yeah.
Joey:You know, as you're listening to God's Way Radio, we're talking to David and Eric from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the co-managers of the Law Enforcement Ministry. Did I?
Eric:get it right, thank you.
Joey:Thank you, Lord. We've been having a great time talking with them about some really, really important issues what God has done in their life, what God is doing through their life and what God is doing around the country and around the world. You know you're talking, David, and again there's so many different ways we can go and so many things that we can talk about. You know, I'll just jump to this note I had written right here the class that's going on right now and maybe you want to give a brief description of the class. We keep referring to the chaplain's training, but it was said, if I heard correctly, that this is one of the highest percentages of law enforcement officers in a class. I mean, it's mostly Leo law enforcement officers in this class, even though it's a chaplain's class, which is, I think, indicative of what you just described as revival. So, to go back to either David or Eric, to just give us a brief, you know a couple sentences on this class that we keep referring to, what we're doing here in Miami this week.
David:Yeah, and it's a class, a 40-hour class to train law enforcement chaplains and you don't have to be an ordained minister to take it. The only requirement is that you be someone who's interested in potentially being a police chaplain. The training we developed we've been teaching it now for about three years. It's changed and grown as we've done, and it basically covers we feel like it's unique in three ways for most chaplain training. The first thing is it is Christ-centered and Biblically-based, and a lot of police chaplain trainings will talk about spirituality and God, but we make no bones that Jesus Christ is the center of it and that the Bible is the basis that we have to build on.
David:The second thing we think makes us unique is it is taught by police officers. All the instructors in it are retired cops and we spend time trying to help the chaplains, especially those that haven't been officers, to understand police culture and how they can build those relationships with the officers to be able to show them Christ's love. And the third thing is we deal with some really heavy-duty subjects. We talk about police suicide and some of the causes, things that are going on in law enforcement that help cause that. We talk about substance abuse and addiction in law enforcement, the impact on families, the high divorce rate, and we talk about secondary trauma and grief traumatization, how, over a 30-year career of seeing bad things happen and people's pain every day.
David:You absorb that, whether you're one or not. So how do chaplains and officers keep themselves healthy and discharge that? And so we feel like those three things make that unique. We've taught it all over the country. We've got a total of 11 of them scheduled around the country this year. That's incredible.
Joey:Yeah, it's a lot.
David:We even had five. We taught five last year during COVID, which was pretty amazing to us. So there's just that growth in it and it does a couple of things. One, it helps people to understand some aspects of law enforcement and being a police chaplain that you don't get in other places. It builds relationships with local police chaplains. And, if I can just take a quick minute, one of our other ministries is our crisis response and what we'll do upon request.
David:When a department has a crisis, a line of duty death and an officer is killed we have an officer involved shooting, mass casualty, a civil disturbance, something that can bring emotional, mental trauma Then, on request, we'll deploy our chaplains free of charge, doesn't cost anything to that department, for as long as they need us to help. Have people taken you up on that? Oh, we probably had 60 deployments in the last three or four years and really and that is not intended to usurp the role of the local chaplains what we see ourselves as like when an officer answers a call and gets back up, we're the backup. To give you an example, we went to Sumter, south Carolina, about a year ago. A deputy was shot and killed in the line of duty. The two chaplains the department had were members of the department and they were very close to that deputy so they're grieving, they're tied up with the family of the deputy and with the memorial arrangements and who's? Through no fault of their own they did not have the bandwidth to deal with the rest of the department and so they requested us.
David:We sent six chaplains, spent six days there with them, did ride-alongs, critical incident debriefs with them, attended roll calls, we spent time. We had one of our female chaplains who was both a reformer police officer and the spouse of a police officer who spent time with the wives. So that's the kind of ministry we carry on there and the chaplains that we send into those situations are retired or active duty officers because cops will talk to cops. So we do that and a lot of what we do in that situation is just ministry of presence. So through the chaplain training we establish those connections with the local chaplains so they know if you get a situation and you need us, you call. And we've got personal relationships with those chaplains and have built that. So there's a lot of advantages to the chaplain training, plus the fact that we are equipping those chaplains from a police perspective to minister, to police officers. That's right.
Eric:And to piggyback a little bit on what Dave said about the class. What's neat is it's not just for people who are current chaplains, but also people who are interested in being chaplains, and you mentioned that there's a high percentage of current law enforcement officers in the class. You don't even have to be interested in being a law enforcement officer If you're a believer in your law enforcement officer and you just want more training and tools in your tool belt to be able to effectively minister to your peers.
Eric:This is a great class for that, even if you don't have any aspirations or you're not going to be an official chaplain at your department. All the training we give is biblical base and it's all very practical stuff that you can use today when you get back and put the uniform on in your back, in your squad room, in your squad car, out on calls. You can use it right away and it's great training.
David:And yes, one thing I just wanted to say if you're interested, if they're interested in that your listeners can go to Billy Graham dot org. And when you get to Billy Graham dot org, you'll see one of the menu choices is for the rapid response team. Click on that and it will take you to the main rapid response team page. Under that you'll see a menu item for the law enforcement ministry. Click on that and there'll be a section on the law enforcement ministry page for when these chaplain schools are going to be being presented and where Excellent.
Joey:Yeah, I actually found it. One of the ways I found that was going to our RT dot Billy Graham dot org.
Joey:That's also a way that's a direct link as well. So BillyGramorg is the simpler one, the shorter one. If you can remember to put RRT in front of it, it'll take you right there. Rrtbillygramorg, I'm glad you mentioned that. I actually had that here in my notes to make sure we did mention it, and I'll probably mention it again toward the end of our time together, so we'll probably just go on a few more minutes here.
Joey:If you've been listening to any part of this conversation, you got to make sure you catch the whole thing. Again, our schedule for these interviews is three times every, not every weekend, but three times on that weekend or this weekend. This is the awkward part of recording an interview here, talking in different tenses, but we air these friends and family full-length interviews Fridays at 7 in the morning, saturdays at 1pm and Sundays at 7pm. So if you're listening to this on a Friday or Saturday, you still have a chance. If you caught us on a Sunday, make sure to call us and get in contact with us. We want to make sure you hear the entire program and we'll do anything we can to make that possible for you.
Joey:Getting back here to a couple different things one of the questions on my mind and I think would be so helpful to anyone listening, is how can the average person help? I know that going to the website you can sign up to get a prayer newsletter or prayer email. That's definitely a big thing. But I'm thinking more so the mom that's listening right now, the student that's listening right now, the gentleman that's working right now? I'm thinking of our listening family. I think of a guy that gets out of work at 3.30, calls us pretty regularly. I think of a mom that goes to the school ministry here. What can they do where they're at right now to help law enforcement in our country?
Eric:Well, there's three things that come to mind right off the bat Pray, pray and pray. Awesome. Pray for your local law enforcement officers, pray for this ministry, as we are seeking to come alongside law enforcement and minister to them, and pray how the Lord would use you. Of course, we all should be praying, but ask the Lord to see how he might stir your heart in terms of getting involved more with your local agency, possibly with this ministry, but most certainly, prayer is a huge aspect and it's one of those valuable tools that we have to be a part of what God is doing.
David:Amen, yeah, and I just echo that. On prayer, that's for the entire Billy Graham organization. That's one of our foundational things is prayer and it's heavily emphasized. We have inter-accessory prayer teams around the country praying specifically for the law enforcement ministry, for the things that are going on. And there's a couple other ways that are part of the law enforcement ministry. They can get involved. For example, one of the things we do is we do appreciation retreats and appreciation dinners. We've held six of those at the Cove and Asheville, the Billy Graham Training Center, three at Horseshoe Bay in Texas. We're looking to do three more next year in the Ohio, indiana area, california and here in Florida. And these are the retreats or the dinners. The retreats, okay, and the retreats are basically four days, three nights, just being able to be with other law enforcement officers in a faith environment. The speakers are all law enforcement or the spouses of law enforcement. Dave, how much do these retreats cost? Zero for the person.
Tiffany:Wow.
David:Yeah, it's totally free and they're at five star resorts.
Joey:That's amazing.
David:I mean, it's something that we feel is God wants us to do.
Joey:Now I want to just jump in there because we also have law enforcement families that listen. Again, I'm thinking of specific families and again a little bit facetious here with my question, to make a point why would I go there instead of the beach, instead of Disney World, instead of on a cruise? What makes I mean, besides that it's free, but that's not a good way to make a decision. You know again, I think you know what I'm getting at. Yeah, what happens at these retreats? Why is this so important?
David:Well, again, it's an opportunity to be, for example, at the Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center. The local sheriff's department provides a security. So you're in a place it's in the mountains of North Carolina, absolutely gorgeous, and you literally can feel the peace of the Holy Spirit when you step on the property.
Joey:And if you're law enforcement listening, or if you're a spouse, you know what he's talking about. You know what it is to not worry about who's outside or where you are.
David:That's a big deal what you're doing, yeah because we, the sheriff's department provides that security and the Holy Spirit provides it. I mean it's pretty awesome. It's a chance to be around other officers who are believers to talk about the issues that are important to you, and our speakers can get pretty raw in terms of talking about what's happened in their lives and how God has met them in their pain or in their difficulties. And great worship the gourmet food. I mean it's just amazing and we build in time for them to spend together as a couple. Awesome, just to do that. It's an amazing. We've had testimony after testimony of how people have come out of that retreat with a renewal of a commitment not just to their marriage but to serve the Lord.
Eric:Yes.
David:How to commitment a new enthusiasm for their, for the profession. So yeah, there's a lot of reasons to do that, other than the fact that it's free.
Tiffany:Yeah.
Eric:And these retreats are open to anybody. You don't have to be a believer to go. In fact, there's people who go who haven't encountered with Jesus while they're there. That's amazing and it really is amazing. The Lord, the Lord, has worked in some powerful ways through these retreats and I will tell you a good friend of mine who went to a retreat we had in Texas just recently and he called me afterwards and he said you know, eric, my marriage is different. Having gone there, I said really tell me about it. He goes. We, we literally did a 180.
Eric:He's like our marriage was okay, it was average. You know it was all right and my friend even says but we were kind of at the point where we were just kind of putting up with each other. We were in love. But if she decided she wanted to leave I probably wouldn't have tried to stop her, and if I decided I wanted to leave she probably wouldn't try to stop me. We were just kind of. You know friends and roommates more than anything. He says, having gone to this retreat, it's a 180. He's like they are both on fire for each other. They're on fire for the Lord. They have this renewed passion to serve together and he said it changed us.
Joey:He was.
Eric:I am so glad that when he says every chance I get I'm telling everybody at work when he comes across someone he's like you got to go to these retreats yeah.
Joey:And and again. If you know, I feel like we're covering so much ground here. To back it up just a minute. We're talking about a law enforcement retreat aimed to help law enforcement officers.
Tiffany:And it turned into a marriage retreat.
Joey:That's right, you know because that's, they're in a sense, one in the same thing. You can't be an effective public servant and defender if you are having problems at home, if your marriage is a wreck, if your kids, if this, that or the third. And that comes back to chaplaincy, the chaplain actually being in the department, the day-to-day ministry, you know, talking to people, getting things off your chest, getting counsel, so again, all these things, how they're so, so interrelated and connected. Man, this, this has been amazing and you know, it's one of those things I think of John, chapter 21. It says if we were to write down everything that Jesus said, and all the books and all the world could contain it. I feel like it's that way with what's going on right now through this ministry, and so we're going to have to come to a close here pretty soon.
Joey:Pretty much closing comments or remarks. Again, that website, to go directly to the page of the rapid response team. You know where they have the law enforcement ministry and everything else is rrtbilligramorg, again, if it's. If you need something even simpler, just billigramorg, Navigate through the menus to find rrt and then law enforcement ministry, rrtbilligramorg. But again, gentlemen, any closing thoughts or remarks, whether it's for the general listening audience, whether it's for law enforcement, listening whatever God puts on your heart.
David:One other thing I'd like to mention real quick, please. Another aspect of our ministry is our family and spouse ministry. That's part of the law enforcement ministry and we're doing two things there. We are have a one day marriage survival seminar that we're going to be putting on, initially for the border patrol, strangely enough, and some of their officers. That will deal with some of the things that law enforcement marriages go through, and then we'll be doing that in various areas around the country. Primarily wherever we're asked to be, we'll do that. The other thing is we're developing a small group study for law enforcement couples, taught by law enforcement couples. That's going to be unique to the pressures law enforcement marriages face and will be available as a resource. That's probably we're probably six months to a year out from that, but that's one of the things that we're going to be doing with that ministry and information on most of this is available on that website for the law enforcement ministry.
Joey:Excellent, yeah, you should definitely sign up, if you can, to the prayer updates, the emails there on the bottom. Again, just so many things we could talk about the. It still blows my mind truly, Even in the day and age that we live in, even in what's going on in our country, that somebody would just want to buy some people dinner and people would protest that I mean that is I don't understand really. I mean, you could buy anybody food in the whole planet, but if you want to buy food for some police officers, apparently it's a problem. It's beyond me. So we got to pray for that night, the people that were there on the email I don't know exactly which group it went out to, it was just RRT, it was a general email. But again, incredible, the need in our country right now. But again, maybe we'll go to Eric now closing remarks and then, Dave, you can close us out.
Eric:Yeah, I would just say, as you've heard, the ministry we're involved in a lot of different areas of ministry toward law enforcement, but at the end of the day, everything we do we're seeking to glorify the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you want to see people growing in their relationship with Him, and certainly those who don't have a relationship with Him, we would like to do what we can to come alongside them and help them to get there where they discover their need for Jesus and all that he may have for them in their lives. It's just an honor to be a part of what God is doing through this ministry and we just thank you for having us on today. It's been a pleasure, Absolutely.
David:Yeah, I want to echo that. Thanks for having us here and giving us the opportunity to talk about it, and I just ask your listeners to pray Pray fervently, because sometimes Eric and I feel like we're just hanging on to.
Tiffany:God's coattails as he does things.
David:The growth is that fast in what we're doing, the opportunities, the doors he's opening, so pray that we'll be able to do the things he wants us to do. That's right.
Joey:Amen. Well listening, family, of God's way of radio. You have a charge, you have homework to pray, not to put pressure or burden on you, but to take our faith seriously. I think it was Samuel, the prophet Samuel, that I would not sin in ceasing to pray for you and family. This is serious. This radio ministry, we're not here to just provide entertainment. We want to give you what God has for you as far as the reach would go, and so what he has for us today is some work, some prayer work, and we should take that seriously.
Joey:So I'm going to say a brief prayer now as we close, and then it's up to you and all of us to continue praying when we end this broadcast. Lord, I just pray right now for Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I pray for the law enforcement ministry and for the rapid response team, and I pray for these managers, for the instructors. Lord, I pray for everyone working behind the scenes. Lord, I pray for every student that has gone through the training, every chaplain, every law enforcement officer I think of a high school teacher in our class this week. Incredible, lord, so many different people. God, we pray for Lord you to work through these men and women as they go out to minister Lord, that they would have your anointing a holy spirit, that they would have your filling your power and your presence. And so we just pray, lord, and I would ask you to remind everyone that hears our voices, lord, that hears this conversation, they remind them to pray as well. We ask you all these things in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Thank you again, both so much.
Tiffany:We hope you enjoyed Friends and Family, unique conversations recorded and produced in our studios, where you get a chance to hear what God is doing in people's lives. Jesus tells us in John 15, verse 15, I have called you friends for all things that I heard from my father I have made known to you. So that's why we love to share these exclusive interviews with you. Our hope is that through their stories God will be made known to you, but you can only find them here on God's Way Radio. Just check godswayradiocom for our full program schedule. Music Plays]