An Army of Normal Folks - Steve Tybor: When 6 Volunteers Turned Into 60,000 (Pt 2)
Episode Date: October 15, 2024Steveās 70 year-old dad told him that they should grab a couple buddies and respond to Hurricane Katrina. The next thing you know 6 guys turned into 684 volunteers, and 20 disasters later their 60,0...00 volunteers have rebuilt 7,000 homes!Ā Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue now with part two of our conversation with Steve Tiber right after these brief messages
from our generous sponsors.
This election season, the stakes are higher than ever.
I think the choice is clear in this election.
Join me, Charlemagne the God, for We the People,
in audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris,
and you live from Detroit, Michigan,
exclusively on iHeartRadio.
They'll tackle the tough questions,
depressing issues, and the future of our nation.
We may not see eye to eye on every issue,
but America, we are not going back.
Don't miss this powerful conversation
with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Today at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific, on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat station.
We think of Franklin as the doddering dude flying a kite in the rain,
but those experiments are the most important scientific discoveries of the time.
I'm Evan Ratliff.
Last season, we tackled the ingenuity of Elon Musk
with biographer Walter Isaacson.
This time, we're diving into the story
of Benjamin Franklin, another genius who's desperate
to be dusted off from history.
His media empire makes him the most successful
self-made business person in America.
I mean, he was never early to bed
and early to rise type person. He's enormously famous. Women start wearing their hair in what was
called the coiffure a la Franklin and who's more relevant now than ever. The
only other person who could have possibly been the first president would
have been Benjamin Franklin. But he's too old and wants Washington to do it.
Listen to On Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Malcolm Gladwell.
25 years ago, I wrote my first book called The Tipping Point.
All about the moments when an idea or trend
crosses a certain threshold and spreads like wildfire.
I've had a lot of time to think about that book,
and the way I thought about Tipping Points changed. So now I'm releasing the sequel,
Revenge of the Tipping Point, where I return to the subjects of social epidemics
and the dark side of contagious phenomena. You can hear a sneak peek of the audiobook on my podcast,
Revisionist History. Plus, we'll dive into a duo of narrative episodes
about my favorite trial in American history
and a reevaluation of the broken windows theory
I explored in my first book.
Find Revenge of the Tipping Point,
wherever you get your audio books
and listen to Revisionist History
on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from?
And like what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs?
Hi, I'm Eva Longoria.
Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon.
Our podcast Hungry for History is back.
Season two, season two.
Are we recording? Are we good?
Oh, we push record, right?
And this season, we're taking a bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history.
Seeing that the most popular cocktail is the Margarita, followed by the Mojito from Cuba,
and the PiƱuco Lada from Puerto Rico.
So all of these things we think Latin culture.
There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey
that dates back to the ninth century BC.
BC?
I didn't realize how old the hot dog was.
Listen to Hungry for History
as part of the My Kultura podcast network
available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric.
Well, the election is in the home
stretch and I'm exhausted.
But turns out the end is near
right in time for a new season
of my podcast.
Next question.
This podcast is for people like
me who need a little perspective
and insight.
I'm bringing in some FOK's
friends of Katie's,
to help me out, like Ezra Klein, Van Jones,
Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon.
But we're also gonna have some fun,
even though these days fun and politics
seems like an oxymoron.
But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends
like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlemagne the God.
We're gonna take some viewer questions as well.
I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about?
Power to the podcast for the people.
So whether you're obsessed with the news
or just trying to figure out what's going on,
this season of Next Question is for you.
Check out our new season of Next Question with me,
Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
We drove back to Tupelo.
We did all the registration to become a nonprofit, a religious organization.
And in the spring of 2006, we became legit.
People could give money and get a donation for the first trip.
I hope they didn't declare any of that because that wasn't the plan.
I told everyone, please, now remember we're not a nonprofit, so don't declare it on your
taxes.
Now we are.
Now we are.
And so the ministry was launched.
The number eight in the Bible means new beginnings.
And for eight days, we've now done 20 rebuild trips all across the country 20
times for eight days.
The largest trip we ever took was to Harvey Houston.
We brought in 4,692 people.
Alright stop.
How do you find 4,692 people?
How did they hear?
How did they hear?
Well, we started to grow.
You know, you're on Fox News, you're on CNN, the Weather Channel, USAT, that's a big story.
You're on American Family Radio every week.
How are you?
Yes, we are.
For the last six years, we have a show on American Family Radio in the Crawford Broadcasting
System, some of their radio stations, called Hope Rains every Saturday morning.
So word starts getting out and trust is being built.
And we were all a voluntary organization up until five years ago more on that in a minute. But we
took 4,692 people to Houston. We fed them and lodged them in 32 churches. Our feeding
bill to feed those volunteers for eight days was $161,000 just to feed the volunteers.
But check this out. Our budget for that eight days was was 2.1 million dollars and we're in the middle of the
trip okay that 2.1 million if it cost 161,000 to feed them is the rest of it
material mainly materials fuel maybe some rentals t-shirts for the volunteers
and even that number is probably low to a retail number because you're getting donations,
you're getting stuff at cost.
Sure.
Well, we tier some of the things that we bought.
So if it's a 2.1 million impact, it's probably an $8 million impact.
So we did $15.1 million of work is what we completed.
15.
Yeah.
In eight days, 239 sets of kitchen cabinets were laid out,
picked, shipped, purchased, and installed.
Holy smokes.
Crazy, we did like 80 roofs were done.
I mean, it was.
In eight days.
In eight days.
And that's where Fox News caught wind,
and of course, Governor Abbott came down,
and then
this lady who's not a Christian. Did you have the 2.1 million? We did not.
So we raised 1.3 and it's like... So you're 900 short with 4600 people there.
But I have seen God show up for 13 years. This is 2018. We had seen the
ministry grow so much. So I mean I I didn't know how it was going to look.
You literally hauled to Houston $900,000 short with 4,600 people.
823,000 to be exact.
Yeah.
But you know what?
This is Abraham and Isaac.
You know, maybe you're listening, you don't read the Bible.
There's a parable that Abraham goes up a mountain, he's got his son and he's being told
he's gotta sacrifice his son.
And yet God gave him an out.
I didn't know how God was gonna get us out of this,
but I'm thinking, okay, this is not 80,000,
this is not 8,000, this is 820 some thousand dollars.
And we're like on day number three.
So people are bringing money from their churches
and their businesses.
And I knew that number would come down, another 50 grand 50 grand, but I know where all that money was coming
So I heard of I heard that someone said hey this lady wants to meet you. She saw you on TV
She loves that you're gonna lock done. She knows that your faith-based and she's cool with that nice lady Jewish lady
She said she's gonna fly in on her plane. She wants to meet you. Now I've met governors and senators. I've met mayors.
I've seen some serious security.
I've never seen security like this.
And it was Susan Dell of Dell computers.
Michael Dell's wife.
Oh my gosh.
She comes in.
So there's like four cars show up, like, you know, like decked dark car, you know, dark
tinted windows, you know, beautiful cars.
So I'm running out.
I can imagine the scene from Annie when daddy wore,
so I'm running out to greet her,
but that was like the scout team cause she came in the next week with cars.
You're meeting the advanced security guys.
I didn't know. I learned so much. That was wild, but she came out.
She was so sweet. She visited five families all next to each other.
She saw that all five families were having their flooring put in and brand new cabinets installed.
She met the volunteers. We had no staff at the time. I mean, none. So she knew 100% was going to
families in need. And she just said, this is amazing, Steve. She said, this has got to cost a
lot of money. So it will cost about 2.1 million. She's well, where are you at?
And I'm like, thank you Lord. I'm glad you asked I go work like 1.2
3 some some around there were about 800 some thousand dollars short. She was well like you're in the middle of the event
I go I know but I'm I know it's gonna happen. It always does
I just I'm trusting and believing, you know
4600 people would would come here just to have this ministry,
make national news cause we can't pay our debts.
And, um, she wired us the money the next day, the next day,
$823,000.
The next day. Was that the number?
It was her foundation said, we want to be a part of this. And you know,
to this day,
every year they support us because they know we get it done, that we're lean, we're not mean. Now a lot has changed in the
last six years from 2018, but she was just blown away that we could help that many people
with no red tape.
Dell's a Texas company, so she's a Texas woman, right?
She flew in from Austin. Yeah. And Governor Abbott came down. Again, you know, I love, you Google my name. I got my arms around Democrats.
I got my arms around Republicans.
If you want to join us in the fight to help people in need that have nowhere to
turn, um, you know, the political shows for another day. But for me,
if you want to come help, come join.
Something we talk about all the time. Here's a squirrel. I'm chasing up a tree.
No, that's good. Yeah.
Is I don't care how you worship. I don't care who you love. Right. I don't care how you vote. I don't care what you look like. I don't care what you wear in
your head and I don't care what you wear on your feet. If you are going to take
your time and resource
and discipline and passion and employ it in a way
to serve someone who is not as fortunate as you,
I can celebrate you.
Amen, amen.
Period, and here's the thing.
If I do the same thing regardless of how different I am
and these things that we keep dividing ourself,
these categories that we keep dividing ourselves into,
if I'm doing the same thing
and I'm in a different category than you,
you can celebrate me.
And guess what?
If we can celebrate one another
in our service for our communities,
we can then create a foundation
and a basis of respect and mutual understanding.
And that's where it all starts.
And then we can have the conversations about the crap that
matters without looking at one another as enemies or villains
or any of that, just as people.
And when you say, I don't care if you're a Republican or a
Democrat, you don't go in to Houston and go to a house
with your 4600 people. Yeah, how did you vote last year? Sure.
That's what I'm not sure what these cabinets on the wall. And
I guarantee you those people that are desperate and need the
help. They aren't looking whether or not you have one
party sticker or another on your bumper.
It's amazing how all of the stuff that we fabricate
to divide our humanity by when work like what you do
happens, that stuff just doesn't matter anymore.
You know, we've had now 60,000 volunteers
travel the country.
Not every volunteer goes to church.
Not every volunteer is a man or woman of faith. Everyone's invited to serve with a days of hope. We do a little small
worship and devotion time in the morning and at night. It's optional. Most people tend
to stay. Some don't. We're okay with that. We do have a rule that when you serve us,
we don't talk politics. We don't wear a candidate's hat or sticker. We're there to bring hope
to those who have nowhere
to turn. You know, it's simple. You know, if you're a man or woman of faith, even if
you're not, well, I always fall back on this. I love him and I want to love
others. I just want to love people. You know, it took me three planes to get down
here and I was texting my wife. I said, God must have a reason for me to do this
Buffalo to Detroit to Atlanta to Memphis thing today.
And sure enough, I'm in Atlanta.
And, you know, I was talking to a guy and he's going to a funeral.
And then I just wanted to encourage him and love on him.
And just that's why I was delayed.
That's the way I look at it.
Just love people and watch what happens.
And we live in such a divided time.
But when you bring a cup of cold water to someone who's thirsty, when you take a tree
off someone's roof, when you make a plate of food and give something to hungry, a lot
of walls are torn down.
And I love what you said.
It is about respect.
So here we are.
Now, I just got to throw this out.
This is just this thing that was meant to be my dad and I, you I, to rebuild homes is one arm now of a four arm ministry.
It is the one arm that has now helped over 10,000 families
rebuild their homes, like 85, $88 million of work.
And this plan of let's go help somebody in Bay St. Louis
has now become a full-fledged national ministry
with a training center,
a headquarters, $7 million of equipment, 271 volunteer leaders, a national radio
show. Now we still have a small staff. But like right now we're in Pennsylvania,
you and I are doing this. We're in Pennsylvania helping out families with
the floods from Hurricane Debbie. There's 120 people there. Not one staff person,
all volunteers with over two million dollars of equipment
Loving people doing their laundry taking the trees off their house gutting out their homes setting up commercial dehumidifiers and fans
Just looking back at the last 19 years
I'm in awe what he's doing and he's allowed to me be a part of it
Because I'm just one piece of it. But man, it's it's like a front row seat to watch him move time and time again.
We'll be right back. For We The People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris. And you, live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation.
We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back.
Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Today at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific, on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station.
We think of Franklin as the doddering dude flying a kite in the rain, but those experiments are the most important scientific discoveries of the time.
I'm Evan Ratliff. Last season, we tackled the ingenuity of Elon Musk with biographer Walter Isaacson. This time, we're diving into the story of Benjamin Franklin,
another genius who's desperate to be dusted off from history.
His media empire makes him the most successful self-made business person in America.
I mean, he was never early to bed and early to rise type person.
He's enormously famous.
Women start wearing their hair in what was called a coiffure a la Franklin.
And who's more relevant now than ever.
The only other person who could have possibly been the first president would have been Benjamin
Franklin.
But he's too old and wants Washington to do it.
Listen to On Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Malcolm Gladwell. 25 years ago, I wrote my first book called The Tipping Point. All about the moments when an idea or trend
crosses a certain threshold and spreads like wildfire.
I've had a lot of time to think about that book and the way I thought about Tipping Point's changed.
So now I'm releasing the sequel,
Revenge of the Tipping Point, where I return to the subjects of social epidemics and the dark side of contagious
phenomena. You can hear a sneak peek of the audiobook on my podcast, Revisionist History,
plus we'll dive into a duo of narrative episodes about my favorite trial in American history and a reevaluation
of the broken windows theory I explored in my first book.
Find Revenge of the Tipping Point
wherever you get your audio books
and listen to Revisionist History
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from?
And like what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs?
Hi, I'm Eva Longoria.
Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon.
Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back.
Season two, season two.
Are we recording?
Are we good?
Oh, we push record, right?
And this season, we're taking a bigger bite out
of the most delicious food and its history.
Saying that the most popular cocktail is the Margarita,
followed by the Mojito from Cuba
and the PiƱuco Lada from Puerto Rico.
So all of these things we think Latin culture.
There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey
that dates back to the 9th century BC.
BC?
I didn't realize how old the hot dog was.
Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Kultura podcast network,
available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric.
Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question.
This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight.
I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones,
Jen Psaki, Estet Herndon.
But we're also going to have some fun,
even though these days fun and politics
seems like an oxymoron.
But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends
like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlemagne the God.
We're going to take some viewer questions as well.
I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about?
Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure
out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next
Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
The numbers I have so far, not including Pennsylvania, I don't think, is 10,003 families served.
Yeah, 300, yeah.
Okay, 10,300 families.
Sure.
14,980 meals served.
That's a lot of meals.
Yeah, we just started that last year, by the way. It's a brand new arm of the ministry,980 meals served. That's a lot of meals.
Yeah, we just started that last year, by the way. It's a brand new arm of the ministry,
a mass feeding arm.
55,127 volunteers, $83.8 million of work because your dad calls you and says, hey, crap happened
in your state and you need to do something about that. Yeah.
That's profound because your dad, a normal dude.
Sure, oh yeah. An average guy.
He likes to work, he likes to use his hands.
A normal average guy, saw a need and wanted to fill it.
You know what's interesting?
My dad has never sat on the board of Eight Days of Hope.
He's never been a leader, an event leader.
He doesn't raise money.
He doesn't do interviews.
I mean, he's been on TV.
He's been interviewed here and there.
He just wanted to use his hands
because that's his gift.
He's good with his hands.
I'm not.
So I always tell people, can you make food?
Can you do laundry?
Can you hold a piece of drywall against the wall
while the handy woman who knows how to screw it in the walk and put it in? Can you carry shing Can you do laundry? Can you hold a piece of drywall against the wall while the handy woman who knows how to screw it in the wall
can put it in?
Can you carry shingles up a ladder?
Can you pick up people from the airport?
Can you ship materials from the warehouse
that we set up to these sites?
There's something for everybody at Eight Days of Hope.
And that's, everyone's invited.
It's amazing.
You know, we have 271 volunteer leaders. They represent 13 denominations.
And how many states?
They live in 36 states.
That is phenomenal. You know,
we always say around here on an army normal folks that the magic happens when
somebody has a passion and a discipline and it meets an opportunity.
Oh, I love that.
You gotta text that to me, I love that.
That's the magic.
And here's the thing, your father had a discipline.
Yeah, yeah.
He worked with his hands.
Absolutely.
He was passionate about people and he saw an opportunity.
And the beauty of an army of normal folks,
the beauty of your story is,
that's all you need. And that little itty bitty spark hitting the tinder
becomes 10,300 families served, 14,980 meals served,
55,127 volunteers with however many leaders you set
and 30 something stays, $83.8 million dollars of work and growing
Bro, yeah, it is growing. We have four arms. So we have three arms to deal with disasters rapid response
That's what I wanted to get to
And this last one
Connect your last two children. I will I will so thank you. So a rapid response
We go anywhere the next day. So,
Hurricane Ida, we're in New Orleans like 36 hours later.
Do you have any municipalities call you now?
Oh yes.
Do you have people request you? I bet. It's like call those eight days guys.
Yeah, sure, sure. What's crazy is, it's funny you asked that. Two weeks ago, we were in
Pennsylvania, we were debating, do we go to Corning, New York where they had flooding
or this town outside of Womsport where the Little League World Series was at, a town called Westfield.
And we were meeting with a pastor and 300 families in the town, all 300 families, their
homes flooded, every single one.
And the guy says, excuse me, my phone's ringing.
And his sister was calling from Columbus, Mississippi saying, hey, there's an organization
in Tupac called Eight Days of Hope.
You need to call them.
And he dropped the phone.
And he says, well, they're sitting right here in front of me.
And so so a rapid response goes right away. So when there's a tornado flooding, snowstorm, hurricane,
we go within 36 hours after the first responders leave.
We tar proofs, do chainsaw work, take trees off people homes.
We have four nifty lifts that can go 55 feet in the air and take off big trees. We have 15 bobcats that
can do you know commercial work. So rapid response goes right away. That's
what's in Pennsylvania right now. We're just gutting out homes, getting all the
moisture out of the house. You got a big warehouse there now to keep all the stuff. We do. We have a
60,000 square foot warehouse in Tupelo that was donated by a group of donors
all paid for.
We have 100,000 square foot building in Buffalo, New York and we also have a satellite in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa.
This is unbelievable.
Yeah.
This year we were in Northwest Iowa helping with flooding while we're in Pennsylvania
helping out with the disaster while we're working on a safe house for women and children
rescued from trafficking, which we'll talk about in a minute. So, you know, $7 million of equipment, pretty much volunteer led, very small staff, four arms,
but those two arms, so rapid response. And then we come a year later and rebuild homes in eight
days. That's like the Harvey, the Houston story told you. Then two years ago, we started a new arm
after Laplace got hit by Hurricane Ida, Lina hurricane nor liens 30 miles west is Laplace, Louisiana
They had no power for 27 days after hurricane item nor liens got it within like five to seven
So there's a year was it it was in a good question. It's always in August September October. Well, that's it
Yeah, it's people need to realize believe a lot the humidity. Yes
He I mean people can die
after the storm from exposure. And it happens all the time, especially the elderly. They can't get
their insulin or can't get their medicine. So we were there. There was no food because all the
stores, there was no power. And so the pastor said, Hey, you have a feeding unit, which we did. We
had a feeding unit to feed our hundreds of volunteers. He goes, could you pivot? Could you
figure out a way to make maybe 500 or 600 meals and we
could feed the community? I'm like, yeah. So we just started simply. Let's make 500
meals of spaghetti. You know, put a couple of meatballs on there, a little salad, a
piece of bread, piece of cake, and the cars lined up four miles.
Because they could not fit. There was no place to go. You were the only game in town.
And they were all going to the local church.
Everything we do is through a local church.
So we stayed in the background, made the food, and let New Wine Christian Fellowship hand
out these meals to these families.
And I saw car after car, people being prayed for by somebody in their own community.
Not a guy from New York, not a ministry from Tupelo, Mississippi, but they saw the local
church was taking care of them.
And so I'm thinking to myself, why are we not feeding people? not a ministry from Tupelo, Mississippi, but they saw the local church was taking care of them.
And so I'm thinking to myself,
why are we not feeding people?
So I reached out to our donor base and said,
hey, we wanna develop a plan.
We need to raise about $1.1 million,
but we wanna launch a mass feeding arm
that can make 8,000 meals every two hours.
And we would make 8,000 meals a day for eight days.
And God did it. We went out and we raised the 8,000 meals a day for eight days. And God did it.
We went out and we raised the 1.1 million.
We bought all the equipment.
It's been deployed only three times.
You see the 14,000 meals.
And whenever there's a major disaster
where there's a power outage,
we're gonna park beyond a church.
We bring the food with us the first three days.
US Foods brings in a tractor trailer food.
We have 120 cooks that have been trained
how to handle food properly.
They're all volunteers.
We have one staff member that oversees it.
And we deploy and we can make 8,000 meals every single meal.
What do you call that?
So you got rapid response,
the eight days of hope to fix houses.
Rapid response, rebuilding.
This is our mass feeding arm.
Mass feeding.
Yeah, so we have rapid response rebuilding.
So we have some people who've heard about it
these whole four, you know, 10 years,
they want to come help,
but maybe they're 65 and they like to work in the kitchen.
Now they have a chance to serve and use their gifts.
And that's what we're seeing.
And so this mass feeding arm, again,
we bring three days of food with us frozen.
We just, we heat it up and start serving. The US US foods truck comes in we start making the meals and we're there
until we're not needed and here's the other thing that's really unique so I'm
a business guy I love business I love ministry more but when you have a
national ministry there's a lot of business we're going with like 20,000
meals you know even if you can get a meal's cost down to three four dollars a
meal I mean that means you're you means you're stepping out in faith that you can raise $90,000 to feed people in a town that the world is
just learning about. But that's what we've done for 19 years. It's like Houston, right?
In the middle of eight days of hope 15, our 15th rebuilding trip, being short $800,000
on meeting our budget, never been in that situation before, never have since then, and yet God showed up.
Number four.
Yeah.
So my wife and I, at the ripe age of 55 and 54.
Which makes you crazy.
It does make us crazy.
We, you know, we, we, you know, I'd been blessed, you know, I had a good corporate
career, still working by the way and doing eight days is fully as a volunteer,
leading both.
And we decided we had a little room in this house and we heard some sermons about taking
care of the orphans.
And I said, you know, Shermaine, a lot of countries overseas when girls age out and
orphanages, they age out at 14.
I've heard they end up in trafficking.
So I did some homework, did some due diligence.
So long story short, we very quickly get focused
on that we're gonna adopt a girl 10 years of age from Taiwan. So at 14, she'll
be the safe place, excuse me. Didn't know she had a sister. So you don't adopt one
and not adopt the other one. I mean they were biological sisters and so 10 years
ago my wife and I again, nine years ago sisters. And so 10 years ago, my wife and I, again, or nine years ago, we flew to Taiwan
and I started learning a lot about trafficking.
I thought, oh, this is the third world issue.
This is in Thailand, this is in India,
this is in South America somewhere.
But-
It is all those places, but I'm gonna tell you
from the interviews I've done on this show,
it is rampant in the United States.
And that's exactly where I'm going.
So now I'm learning, okay, it happens in Vegas,
it happens in New Orleans, it happens in New York City,
it happens in Erie, Pennsylvania,
it happens in South Haven, Mississippi,
it happens in Wichita, Kansas, it happens in Des Moines, Iowa.
And when I start learning about it
and learning more about it,
and then finding out there's 13,000 animal shelters
in America.
It's not a bad thing. Like everyone loves their pets. 13,000 animal shelters.
There's 600 rooms that a woman or child can go shut the door in a safe
environment and know that nobody's going to turn that door knob.
Only 600 places and some of them are just meant to house somebody for a day or
two. So very quickly, just a correlation. As we take better care of our pets and our children.
And that was my point.
I've nothing I've had a pet for 30 some years because I want to be married and I want my
kids to love me because I'm not a pet guy but I've had a pet for 33 years or 35 years.
When you say the 600 that's in the whole country like I once experienced this in Chicago I
was talking to these prostitutes and there was nowhere to get them in in Chicago.
Yeah.
So you have six.
In Chicago.
Right.
So you have 600 beds across America.
And so we start doing our due diligence.
And so remember at that time we had 50,000 volunteers.
Half of our volunteers are skilled.
They're contractors, handymen, handywomen.
Maybe somebody who's never been a contractor
but they know to do flooring, they know how to paint,
they can set a toilet.
And I thought, wait a minute, we go somewhere to do flooring, they know how to paint, they can set a toilet.
And I thought, wait a minute, we go somewhere once or twice a year for eight days and build
things.
Other times we're just tarping roofs.
All these building people that want to build something like my dad, maybe they're looking
for another way to use their gifts.
And so I did the research, I presented to the board and said, hey, I think God's calling
us to build safe places for women and children rescued from trafficking.
And so our first one was in 2018 or 19. It was Elijah Rising in Houston. We helped Micah and the
team there take two ranches and totally gutted them and renovate them so they can house eight
adult women, including one home that was handicapped accessible. And so we did that for them at no
charge. Then we went to the refuge in Austin, Texas.
Then we went to a place in Tennessee.
Then my friend Frank Reich and Linda,
he was coaching the Colts.
They got it showed them that they were supposed
to come alongside children rescued from trafficking,
not knowing that we were launching a new arm.
So we renovated a 17,000 square foot building
for them in Indianapolis that sits there today.
It's called Not Today, K-N-O-T, Not Today.org.
So we renovated that.
We worked with Tim Tebow in Tennessee.
17,000, how many people could, then that's it?
17,000 square feet.
So that wasn't a place they would live,
they would get counseling.
So some of the places we built, people live,
some are counseling.
So we worked with Tim Tebow in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
We did three in Memphis.
What is Tim Tebow doing in Chattanooga?
So Tim has a ministry he supports called Her Song.
Yeah, absolutely.
And Her Song offers a safe place for women.
And so does counseling after care, helps them,
teaches them financial responsibility,
helps them get their identification back,
get the counseling they need.
We renovate their facility for free as well.
So what do you call this fourth arm?
The traffic pictures?
Safe house ministry.
Safe house ministries.
So we've done now 13 projects,
but the project we just finished just opened six weeks ago. We built a campus a
Campus in Millersburg, Ohio. That's the city they tell the world so I'm not sharing a secret
We built three cottages each cottage can house eight girls. We built an administration building a medical wing
We built a school that's accredited a chapel and we did we we cleared and did all the infrastructure on 30 acres of donated land
It's four and a half million dollars. We built it for free and we built it in 16 weeks
Holy 16 weeks. It's the largest facility in the world
For girls who've been rescued from trafficking between the ages of 14 and 18
We just finished it.
We just cut the ribbon in June and as of this moment while you and I are speaking,
three young ladies are there getting the emotional, physical, and spiritual help they need.
They're going to school. They're getting the medical care. They're getting the counseling.
Their family is getting free counseling and all this at no charge. And so just to be a small part of the healing process, I don't know about you, the thought
of a child being trafficked.
I'm telling you, you don't have to be a woman or man of faith.
You don't have to be, you just have to be human.
I meet people on the plane, they say, oh, I see that logo on your shirt.
What are you doing?
When I get to that, they like that is disgusting the average age of a child trafficked in
America is twelve and a half. Seventeen percent of kids trafficked are trafficked
by a family member. Eighty-one percent of kids trafficked in America is not what I
thought oh illegal immigrants they're American citizens. It's happening
everywhere it's happening in the malls
These it's because these phones and put in pornography to be candid with you these smartphones
You know a young lady, you know, maybe her parents split up one parent home. She's unhappy
She befriends a boy from the next town over but it's not really a boy. It's a grown man
He grooms her he buys her nice things they finally meet, you know, she's the one guy that she can trust
He tricks her. I mean, it's not like the movie taken but there's a lot of grooming and there's a lot of games being played
There's blackmailing going on foster kids do run away a lot of foster kids end up in this as well
We have had a guest
a previous guest
Who that is? Exactly her story. She had a bad situation. She was
looking to get out. She found a guy online. She was going to go do a job and she ended up
a sex slave. She finally got out after the cops came twice and ignored her because the
guy just said, Oh, she's just a drug addict.
Don't pay any attention to her.
You know what she does now?
Very interesting thing is she runs a nonprofit because these guys that traffic these girls
often brand them.
Oh yes.
They tattoo them with their
initials and stuff. Oh we know about it. She helps girls that have gotten out of
trafficking get their tattoos removed so they do not have to look in the mirror and be
reminded of their trauma. Yes so please have your producer send me her
information so we don't publicize this a lot. We do the same thing. So we have a gentleman. We really need to talk to her.
She is phenomenal and she is doing it on her own.
Okay.
So when I was cool, she's got a network of like 60 artists across the country who are
doing it.
She's got a network of 60 tattoo artists that donate their time to help formerly trafficked women
remove the fiscal reminder of their trauma.
You should team up.
Yeah, we have 13 partners and we have one organization in Chicago, it's called Ink
180, and we fly him around to our partners and he'll go in once a quarter and remove tattoos or do
cover-ups and you know you don't want a young lady who's been rescued who's gotten her
ID back you know she's off of the drugs that the trafficker got her hooked on she's turning
her life around she's you know she can she can put a resume together she's ready to take
a step forward and then she looks in the mirror and she sees a number on her neck or she's
a symbol you know on her upper arm, on the upper part of her chest.
And so, you know, to me, that's part of the healing process. And so we've,
yeah, we've been doing that pretty much since day one too, but I'm so
thankful to hear about her. Do you remember Atlanta redemption,
love it. Atlanta redemption. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
You need to give me your contact information. Love to talk to her.
You would not believe how many times over the course of the 15 months that we have had
this show that we have connected different people from different things that have common
interests that end up doing work together. I really do hope you'll reach out to her.
She's phenomenal. Didn't expect to go there. But when you said it, the thing about her is she does this work, but she was that girl. The very story you told was
her story. She sat right here and told me the story and I teared up. I couldn't believe that
people could just be used that way. You know, drugs you sell and they're used and you have to
go make more or get more to sell them again.
A person you can sell time and over and over and again. This is the fastest growing crime in the
world. Five years ago-
Trafficking is?
It is.
I did not know that.
Yeah, it's the fastest. It's the second behind drugs. It was $150 billion industry four years
ago. The latest numbers came out. It's grown to $222 billion. And so it's a worldwide issue.
It's happening everywhere. If you're listening to this today and you think you live in the The latest numbers came out, it's grown to 222 billion. And so it's a worldwide issue.
It's happening everywhere.
If you're listening to this today
and you think you live in the suburb,
I live in a suburb of the city of Buffalo.
A lot of ex-Buffalo bills live there.
It's a little nicer community.
Trafficking happens everywhere.
I don't care where you live.
It does.
And so we have a brochure on our website
at eightdaysofhope.com.
You can download it, it's digital.
Say that slower, cause I don't catch it.
Yeah, no problem.
It's eightdaysofhope.com. You can download it's digital. Say that slower, cause I can't catch it. Yeah, no problem. It's eightdaysofhope.com.
And you just click who we are
and you go to the safe house ministry.
Digitally, we have a brochure that you can share
with others, but we'll even mail you free copies
if you want to give it to your family members.
But every grandparent and parent needs to look
at this brochure because it will even tell you
some of the apps that traffickers are using that your kids might have on your phone. There's an app
that looks like a calculator. It's a way to share private videos with people.
There's so much going on through these smartphones. You know and I love what you
said before we got in the air maybe said it in the beginning. You know I want to
be I want to be a great parent. I want to be a friend but I need to be a parent
more than I'm a friend of my kids and I've always told my kids, even now, I've got a freshman in college, I pay
for her phone. She's 19, very responsible, great kid. But there's times that we'll sit
down and we'll just talk about what's on her phone and how she's using it. We live in a
different world than maybe when you and I grew up and we have to protect our kids.
Let me tell you something. We talked earlier about how you and I grew up.
We would go out and play kickball.
When the sun started coming down, the mothers would stand on the porch, scream your name,
you run home for dinner.
What would your mother have done if while your kids were out playing hide and go seek
in the front lawns and those moms would always walk by the door the window and just peek out they kept watch sure
What if a guy?
pulled up amongst you kids in a white van and
got out of the van and
walked over and tried to
Coerce one of those children in the van,
would she sit in the house and watch TV?
Well, first of all, if there's any baseball bats
laying around, they'd be in somebody's hand.
Secondly, the neighborhood, you took care of each other
and you were aware of each other.
We live in a different world.
That's exactly what any mother would have done,
but here's the thing. Without a doubt.
That's happening every day, virtually now,
and we sit on the couch and ignore it.
It's a good point.
By not looking at what's going on in your kid's phone, by not looking what's
going on on those game console.
Yeah, absolutely.
By not looking at anything that some creep can contact your kid.
You are virtually and in effect doing what a 1970s and 80s mother would have done if
a creep rolled up in a white rape van and you saw kids walk up to it, would you have
gotten off the couch and done something or just sit there and let that happen?
We are doing that today by not minding our children's stuff.
That's our responsibility.
I mean, before we started recording,
we were talking about raising our kids,
and you said, I'm not here to be their friend.
I mean, you're not.
You're the parent.
Be the parent.
I get it.
You're not gonna always be welcomed with open arms,
but that's okay.
Sometimes parenting's tough,
but their minds haven't fully developed,
and they think one way, and they think, and that's what the problem is. That's why these crimes parenting is tough, but their minds haven't fully developed. And they think one way and they think, you know, and that's what the problem is.
That's why these crimes are out of control.
The pornography is going through the roof. It's available everywhere.
And these kids, they stumble on it.
They hit a link thinking it's one thing and it's not,
and it just sucks them right in and it starts developing their mind.
And it doesn't make the kid bad. Cause I'm telling you,
I'm thinking back when I was 13 years old,
if a naked picture rolled across in front of me,
I'm Googling at it.
I'm a 13, 14 year old boy, of course I'm looking at it.
And probably showing it to the other boys
in the neighborhood too,
that you just under covered something.
You became the favorite kid on the block.
Let's go over here by the thing.
I know, they're kids.
It's natural.
So what we have to do is not expect our kids
to run from something that they're not going
to run from.
We have to protect them from it ourselves.
And that is where you end up with a need for a place called Safe House Ministries because
people get balled up.
You know, we've done 13.
We've got number 14 on the docket for next month in Texas.
We're looking at a campus right now in upstate New York to maybe offer care to women who've graduated programs. They've
gone through the healing. Their life is moving forward but they don't have any
cash, they only have a car and we want to give them a chance to maybe relaunch their
journey. So you know I still think there's a lot more coming around the
corner. I love where the ministry is at today. I'm blown away that that God
allows me to be a part of it. I always introduce myself as one of 271 leaders because I'm so thankful that so many
people are passionate about serving those in need and it's contagious. I'm
telling you if you ever come on one of our trips it's free. We provide the food
and lodging. We'll pick you up at the airport. We have all the tools. You don't
have to have any skill sets. On rapid response events you do need to be 16 and
older but everything else any age and
we have kids and families come. But you're going to leave exhausted but your heart's going to be
full and you will never forget those families you met. I mean never. They'll be lifelong friends
because if a stranger shows up at your door and says I'm here to help you fix your house and leaves
eight days later and you look around you get brand brand new cabinets, a brand new roof that has been painted and those guys were from Oklahoma, Mississippi,
New York, those guys from New Jersey, I couldn't understand them, but they were nice too. And
everyone gets changed in that process. And I guarantee you, nobody cares how anybody
votes. That's the, come on. Amen. Amen. It's just true. It breaks all that down. Amen.
We'll be right back. Kamala Harris and you live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues and the future of our nation.
We may not see eye to eye on every issue,
but America, we are not going back.
Don't miss this powerful conversation
with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Today at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific
on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station.
We think of Franklin as the dodging dude flying a kite in the rain,
but those experiments are the most important
scientific discoveries of the time.
I'm Evan Ratliff.
Last season, we tackled the ingenuity of Elon Musk
with biographer Walter Isaacson.
This time, we're diving into the story of Benjamin Franklin,
another genius who's desperate
to be dusted off from history.
His media empire makes him the most successful self-made businessperson in America. I mean,
he was never early to bed and early to rise type person. He's enormously famous. Women
start wearing their hair in what was called a coiffure a la Franklin.
And who's more relevant now than ever. I'm Malcolm Gladwell.
Twenty-five years ago, I wrote my first
book called The Tipping Point, all about the moments when an idea or trend crosses a certain
threshold and spreads like wildfire. I've had a lot of time to think about that book and the way
I thought about tipping points changed. So now I'm releasing the sequel, Revenge of the Tipping
Point, where I return to the subjects of social
epidemics and the dark side of contagious phenomena. You can hear a sneak peek of the audiobook on my
podcast, Revisionist History. Plus, we'll dive into a duo of narrative episodes about my favorite trial
in American history and a reevaluation of the broken windows theory I explored in my first book.
Find Revenge of the Tipping Point wherever you get your audiobooks and listen to Revisionist
History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from?
Like what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs?
Hi, I'm Eva Longoria.
Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon.
Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back.
Season two, season two.
Season two.
Are we recording?
Are we good?
Oh, we push record, right?
And this season, we're taking a bigger bite
out of the most delicious food and its history.
Saying that the most popular cocktail is the Margarita,
followed by the Mojito from Cuba,
and the piƱuculada from Puerto Rico.
So all of these, we thank Latin culture.
There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey
that dates back to the ninth century BC.
BC?
I didn't realize how old the hot dog was.
Listen to Hungry for History
as part of the My Kultura podcast network
available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, everyone, it's Katie Couric.
Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted.
But turns out the end is near right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question.
This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight.
I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones,
Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon.
But we're also going to have some fun, even though these days fun and politics
seems like an oxymoron.
But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends
like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlemagne the God.
We're gonna take some viewer questions as well.
I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about?
Power to the podcast for the people.
So whether you're obsessed with the news or just
trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new
season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever So I've said it twice, I'll say it one more time.
10,300 families served, 14,980 meals served, 55,127 volunteers and $83.8 million of work
and growing.
You have to have.
I don't think there's such a thing as a favorite with the scope of work you've done, but you
have to, I want our listeners to hear
just a story.
Oh my gosh.
You know, just one that's gonna let them really
understand the depth on a personal level.
Let me do two real quick ones,
because I know I wanna be sensitive of time.
Don't worry about time. We were in worry about we were big
We were Bay st. Louis, Mississippi miss Anna Mae
Anna Mae Anna Mae from Bay st. Louis. Oh, yeah boy that fits 84 years young and
Her sister the Katrina the water came in so fast
She lived in a ranch and her son came across the street
Took a knife and start cutting through the drywall to try to get his mom and his aunt up in the rafters.
Oh gosh, he was using a knife to cut the drywall.
The ceiling drywall.
So he just lift her up.
So they could just get above the water.
Yes, hoping that it was high enough.
He couldn't get to his aunt.
He got his mom up in the rafters.
He stayed in the rafters.
Eight feet of water came in, couple hours, eight feet of water went out. He lost his aunt. in the rafters. He stayed in the rafters eight feet of water came in a couple hours
Eight feet of water went out. He lost his aunt. She lost her sister. They lived together
She had no insurance didn't have any flood insurance
84 a widow
One son his lived across the street his house, of course totally destroyed as well and then strangers showed up
And a bunch of
college girls from Michigan came down. What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. College girls from Michigan?
How's that work? So they were part of the 684. They were gonna go skiing in
Colorado for the winter trip, but they said this year let's do something for
somebody else. Are you kidding? Oh no. College kids? Yeah. So they came down. They
said, Steve, we're not very good. We think came down they said Steve we're not very good. We think we can paint but we're not very good. We don't know why we're here.
By the eighth day Miss Annamay had a brand new house and to this day, now Miss Annamay has been gone now for a couple years, but to this day those college girls will send me a thank you note for allowing them to be on a trip that has changed your life forever. Some
of them are married, they have kids, some of them have traveled with us with their
family. Since then their life was changed because of they met Miss Anna May. And
Miss Anna May, 84, young, she just fell in love with these strangers. They became
part of her family. I think a couple years later a couple of them came down
on spring break and and you know they hung out for a day with her. It was really neat
on how strangers came together to do something just so much bigger than what one person can
do. So, Miss Animate, this other story is a traffic in Arman. I'll be careful here.
But I met a lady and she said, thank you. Thank you for building this facility.
She was, I have somewhere I can live now.
And when you work on these things, we are taught as men,
we don't talk to the women.
We don't like not look at, you know, look,
we are very respectful.
If they come and talk to you, you can have a conversation.
But, right, right.
And there's always leadership there for both organizations
But she said mr. Steve. She said you just gave me a brand new bedroom. I
Have my own bathroom. I have a kitchen. I love to make food and she was you don't know this
But literally for three years I was chained to a bed and every night
The door knob would turn multiple times and I knew
what was happening was about to happen and I couldn't do anything and she said you know
I would take myself out of my body and she said I often wondered what it would be like
to be in a bedroom and be able to shut the door and sleep through the night and not hear that door knob turn and she's with tears
and I'm in tears. She says I don't know you, you're just meeting me. I might never
see you again but just know that you and your organization just changed the rest
of my life and my kids' lives and their kids' lives because what you just did is you showed me that you can
trust people and there are good people in the world and that not every man is looking for
something from every female and it made trafficking real to me because she showed me her wrist. She had a scar from where she was handcuffed.
Being chained to the bed or handcuffed.
We're talking in America. This happens in America. Maybe you're listening today, man,
come join us. Maybe you're an electrician, you're a plumber, maybe you're a handywoman,
you're really good with your hands, right? Maybe you've never been a contractor, but
you know how to do flooring or maybe know a little bit about plumbing or maybe could change out
a fan and change out some outlets and go to the website eight days of hope comm
submit your email address come join us and and use your gifts and see what
happens you're gonna meet people like some of these people I described you'll
never forget them my kids have met people they'll never forget and we're a better family for it.
Steve, it is,
I could sit and hear these stories
over and over and over again
because not only is the organization itself born
of a normal guy guy your dad calling you
Yeah, and you getting together and doing some things white collar guy, you know helping rebuild 10,000 homes. How does that work?
It's also the story though a
55,000 127 normal folks who were just volunteering their time and
normal folks who are just volunteering their time and making things better. If you took 55,120, how many people fit in Buffalo football stadium?
Yeah, about 60,000.
Okay.
If you took those 60,000 screaming fans, I bet we could get us nine or 10 categories.
I bet there'd be some gay folks in there.
There'd be some Jews,
some agnostics, maybe a couple of Muslims, some some some Christians, there'd be some black folks
and some white folks and some Asians, some Hispanic. We could easily get, we could take
that stadium, I bet we get us 15 different categories, that our contemporary world says,
easy that our contemporary world says you know you guys just really don't need to get along because the way you think and both you feel and look and love sure
so I think about these fifty five thousand one hundred twenty seven
volunteers that are about enough to fill up Buffalo State yeah I bet if we mix
them if we unmix them in the categories, the world would tell us
that these folks shouldn't be working together.
You know what's interesting is some of these volunteers, we have a missionary program,
30 of these people have of those numbers have sold their homes, bought RVs and wherever
we go, they go with us.
That is phenomenal.
52 weeks a year, nonstop.
I mean right now, 12 of them are in Pennsylvania,
six are down in Tupelo and two are in Ohio and, and you know, some are in Iowa at our Midwest satellite. You know, January,
I made a commitment at that altar.
I'm not perfect. I'm tempted like everybody else, man,
I blow it sometimes,
but I made a promise that I would serve him to the day I die
He rescued me
I'm telling man. I was done
My life was over. I
Didn't want to live anymore, but he met me at my lowest point
and all I had to do laying on my back is just lift up my arms and he picked me up.
And Stephen Charmaine 40 years later was still together and five kids and he allows me to
be a part of something way bigger.
I'm not this smart.
I mean I get it, there's got to be a founder and there's got to be a board and there's
got to be this and that.
I'm one of 55,000 people but I am one.
And until the day I die, I'm gonna do all I can
to see where I can bring any of the gifts
that he's blessed me with to help this organization
to continue to grow, to help people in need,
because that's what this country needs right now.
Folks, we've talked about an army of normal folks
for 14 months.
Steve has built it.
55,127 normal folks and army of them changing lives with a
rapid response, chasing lives, rebuilding homes, changing lives with
mass feeding, and changing lives now with safe house ministries all born from just
a person with a passion and a discipline, seeing a need and wanting to
fill it and look what comes from that work.
And I will bet you, Steve, you will say what every guest has is that as amazing as all
of this is, your life has been enriched 50 times more than anybody you've touched so
far.
Dude, meeting these people that you serve is priceless.
You don't forget.
And I'm a better person for it.
It also makes you much more grateful
for some of the challenges that you go through
that sometimes, maybe not you,
but you're tempted selfishly to think,
oh, my power's out for 20 minutes.
Or I got another flat tire.
Or my tooth has given me a problem. People
lose loved ones in disasters. People lose their homes. They lose their businesses, their
parks, their memories, their keepsakes. Sometimes just because they live in a certain part of
the country and they're living there on that day, no fault of their own, their life gets
turned upside down. Again, if you're listening today, I'd love to invite you to come to Eight Days of Hope.
Go to eightdayshope.com.
Come hang out with us.
Bring your family.
We have two rebuilding trips a year.
All families are included.
Maybe you're a handyman, handywoman, join us as well.
I always ask people to pray for the ministry.
Pray for me.
You know, what we do is hard sometimes, but we're up to it.
There's a lot of people that listen and end up joining up, but there's other people that
have 501c3s that they see synergies. If somebody wants to get in touch with you, how?
Yeah, email me. I'll go ahead and just give out my email address. It's Steve, just like
it sounds, S-T-E-V-E. My last name is Tybur, so it's SteveT at, and you have to spell it
out, 8Days, plural, 8DaysofHope.com. SteveT at 8DaysHope.com. Info at 8DaysHope.com
as well. They'll forward that to me, but if you have any questions, any thoughts, you
know, we didn't cover this, but being a a business guy we have 19 partners and they fund all of our fixed costs every year.
And so from banks and large churches and auto dealers, publicly traded banks, businesses
around the country, they cover so when you donate 100% is passed through.
So maybe you're a business you want to learn more about that all of them are on our website
as well but thanks for having me today man. I'm so that the
three trips the three plane rides wasn't meant to be but it was meant to be that
you and I would hang out today so I'm glad we could do this. I really appreciate
you sticking with it and getting here I appreciate you spend the time and telling
your story and my friend it is an absolute inspiration and candidly it is an absolute.
It is a real story that is metaphorically exactly what we talk about.
And army and normal folks can change this country and can change lives.
And dude, you're headed up an organization doing just that.
And I can't, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you sharing your story.
Well, thank you.
Thanks for having me and invite me again down the road.
Maybe there'll be another arm that we'll share about because yeah,
you know, there's a lot of people that want to use their gifts and we can continue to expand the ministry.
We're open to that as well.
Amen.
Thank you, brother.
And thank you for joining us this week. If Steve Tyber or other guests have inspired you in general or better yet have inspired
you to take action by volunteering with or donating to 8 Days of Hope, they're responding
to hurricanes Helene and Milton right now. As I'm recording this and speaking to you, they're there right now.
So if you're inspired, donate, become involved, or if you're into something else entirely,
please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. You can write me anytime at bill at normal folks dot us and i swear to you i will respond
if you enjoyed this episode share it with friends and on social subscribe to the podcast rate it
review it join the army at normal folks dot us consider becoming a premium member there any and
all of these things will help us grow an army of normal folks.
Thanks to our producer Ironlight Labs and Army member Laurie Weiss who told us
about eight days of hope. I'm Bill Courtney I'll see you next week.
This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election.
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