Tag: Faith over Fear

Gary Gradley – On Purpose People Perform

Gary is a Purpose Coach and Author.  His experience in corporate training, include being a business coach and trusted advisor for 23 years, working with over 20,000 leaders, employees & individuals throughout Canada, USA & Australia. He became a Trusted Advisor for many corporations. During the 2009 recession, he shifted his Mission & founded ‘On-Purpose People Perform’ to help people discover and act upon their Purpose to make a positive difference in the world.

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Our first week back to Volunteer at the Dream Center

Although intimidating at first, what happens in that old prison is truly God’s Grace on display.  That old prison in Southeast Texas is now a faith-based addictions recovery center called The Dream Center of Southeast Texas.

Since that first trip there in September of 2020, we have been back to volunteer a couple of times.  We have even just stopped to visit when passing through once.

We love volunteering there and love what the organization does.

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Loving the Nomad Life

Many times, throughout our lives, before going full-time, we’ve had conversations with friends talking how they’d love to have a house on the beach or in the mountains or fill in the blank.

The beauty of our nomadic lifestyle is that we can have all of those things and more.

There have been times when we have had our home on a mountain.  There have been times when we have had our home on a beach or within walking distance to the beach.  There have been times when we have had our home in the woods.  There have been times when we have had our home in a desert.  There have been times when we have had our home near a city.  There have been times when we have had our home in the middle of nowhere.  There have been times when we have had our home in the yard or driveway of friends and family.  There have been times when we have had our home on a farm.  There have been times when we have had our home in a minor league baseball stadium parking lot.  There have been times when we have had our home in a rehabilitation center.  There have been times when we have had our home in the middle of a strawberry festival or RV show.  There have been times when we have had our home in a Wal-mart, Cracker Barrel or rest area parking lot.  The list goes on and on.

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Beauty in the Broken

There isn’t one single person on this earth who doesn’t have scars and broken pieces.  Some of those scars may have been self-inflicted.  Some of them may have been caused by other people’s actions.  Some may be easy for others to see and understand.  Most are hidden deep under layers of complexity.  In the end, how we got the scars and how easy they are for others to see really doesn’t matter.  It’s how we heal from them and how we move forward from them that does.

To each other though, we must be more empathetic.

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Kyle Denton – From Rock Bottom to Finding Hope by Giving Back

He recently moved from heading up the warehouse at the Dream Center and overseeing the food panty to a case worker in the office.  Through my person interaction with Kyle, I can see that he has a heart for helping others.  I feel that his recipe for a successful and life-long recovery is to dive headfirst into the ministry of helping others.  Focusing on making other peoples lives better will allow him to move forward successfully in his own journey of recovery.

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Alex Smith – The Journey of Two Mother’s Sons

Alex is the son of my good friend, and fellow full-time RVer, April Crossley.  We met back in September at Henrys Lake State Park in Idaho.  We were able to stay a few days in the same campground as April and her husband, Justin, and Alex and his girlfriend came out to visit them during that same timeframe as well.

During the podcast, Alex and I exchange stories of what it was like when our mothers told us that they were going to be embarking on these crazy journeys.  I was much younger when my mom decided to travel around the country in an old 1967 Plymouth Valiant, but it was interesting to get the perspective of what someone else’s reaction was like when they received the news as well.

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Remember the “Why?”

A question that I often asked my staff when I was running the BIG Vision Foundation was, “What is your ‘Why?’”

I loved hearing their answers.  Why did they get up every morning and come to work?  What was their motivation?  For many years, I had a photograph that hung on the wall of one of our concession stands. In was a picture of some of the kids in our organization with the words, “This is Why” written above the photograph.  That was my reminder every morning as to why I did what I was doing.  I absolutely loved what I was doing back then, so most days I didn’t need a reminder.  However, even the best jobs in the world don’t come without their bad days.  So, when one of those bad days might crop up, it was easy for me to be able to remind myself what all of the early mornings, late nights and 80-plus hour work weeks were for.

Back then, our, “Why” is something that we talked about as a staff almost daily.  Ironically, it isn’t something that I’ve given much thought about since we’ve been on the road.

One of the objectives of this journey was to be able to help tell the stories of the people that we would meet on the road.  One of the things that I loved was hearing my mom tell the stories of the people that she met on her journey.  I found it absolutely amazing that people that she may have only spent a few minutes with as well as those that she may have spent weeks or months with could make such a great impact on her life.  Some of those people she stayed in contact with, others she didn’t, but the impacts were great in either case.  She impacted them as well.  I know this from people who I never met showing up at her memorial service and telling us what she meant to them.

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Blessed

“I am blessed; we are just so blessed.” She said over and over during our visit.

Those words came from Cozy Stover, a parent of one of my former players, Kyle Stover.  I had done a podcast with Kyle back in November when we had the opportunity to visit him and his family in York, PA on our way down to Florida.

This past Thursday, we were able to stop and visit with Kyle’s parents, Rick and Cozy.  As with every other time that I’ve been around Rick and Cozy, it was a wonderful visit.

There was one thing, however, that was a little different about this visit. Rick was in a wheelchair from a stroke that he had suffered several weeks ago.  It was his second stroke in the past year.  The first one, back in August of 2020, was relatively mild.  Back in November, when we were visiting Kyle, he got Rick and Cozy on Facetime with us and you never would have known that he even had a stroke.

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