The Eric Metaxas Show - Jeremy Stahlnecker

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Jeremy Stahlnecker of Mighty Oaks Foundation on the mental health crisis facing our veterans on this Veterans Day.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxus show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m. Investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Metaxis show. Did you ever see the movie The Blob, starring Steve McQueen? The Blood Crudling Prep of The Blub. Well, way back when, Eric had a small part in that film, but they had to cut his scene because the blob was supposed to eat them. but he kept spitting him out. Oh, the whole thing was just a disaster. Anyway, here's the guy who's not always that easy to digest. Eric Pataxon.

Folks, welcome back. It's always a joy to speak to Irish people in general. But when you get two of them, it's unbelievable. I have two friends, the journalists, Phelam McAleer and Anne McEnany, Ann, did I get it right? McElhenny. McElhenny, are you sure, though? And McElhenney

and Phelham McAleer. I love you too, and you're always doing great things. Welcome back. Thanks so much for having us. Phelam, what are you guys up to this time? You guys are really, you're very clever with the things you do. There's a photographic exhibit.

I think we should talk about that. Yeah. So we've covered the, you know, we've covered the, Kermit Gossnell story really since it broke in 2013, 2012. As you know, we made the movie. We wrote the book, which was a New York Times bestseller. We did a play on it.

We did a podcast, a top-rated podcast. But as part of our investigations, we came across the crime scene photograph. Some source gave us all the crime scene photos. Not everybody knows what we're talking about. So briefly tell my audience, who is Kermit Gossnell, because there are people listening today that haven't, they weren't listening six months ago or a year ago when we were talking about this. Well, Carmen Gossanel was, is America's biggest serial killer. He was an abortion doctor in Philadelphia and also was selling opioids, opioid prescriptions. And his clinic was rated by the DEA and the FBI

because he was selling drugs. And they found a murder mill. And he is America's biggest serial killer. He murdered babies born alive. He murdered, he killed several patients. several female patients. He was a monster, but he was allowed to kill in plain sight because he had abortion clinic above the door. And the bodies kept coming out, and the authorities wouldn't look behind that door because he was protected by the sacrament of abortion,

the leftist sacrament of abortion. So we've kind of made it our job as journalists to really show this story for what it is, try and understand what happens, and how it was allowed to happen much more important. So as I say, we've written these books about it. We've written, made a movie about it starring Dean Kaine. But we had these crime scene photographs,

which are show evil and show the banality of evil as well. They show every aspect of his operation from the clocking in, where they have to clock in, the cards wishing people happy birthday, and then there's bits of it that are more explicit. So we thought, you know, the left are always doing, photo exhibitions, about Gaza refugees, about climate change, about, you know, all these, you know, victims, refugees, all these kind of things. This is, there's a big tradition in America of crime scene photos being used as exhibitions, as works of art.

And we thought, let's do this, let's make, let's bring this to people. Because the great thing about crime scene photographs is they're taken, they're taken for evidence in a courtroom, not pro-life, not pro-choice, they're neutral. they were never challenged by either side. They're factual. And people need to see the facts before they make up their mind. Where is the exhibition? So the exhibition is happening in Columbus, Ohio.

And the reason why we're in Ohio is that there have been, since Roe v. Wade was overturned. There have been six ballot initiatives. Three of them were pro-abortion ballot initiatives. Three of them were pro-life. But in every case, the pro-life side lost. So in Ohio on the 7th of November there will be another of these ballot initiatives.

And it's a very, very extreme ballot initiative. It's actually, what it's going to do is going to enshrine in the Constitution of Ohio that you can have an abortion up to nine months. So it's very, very extreme and people are being asked to vote on that. That's why we decided to bring this exhibition first to Ohio where people need to be educated. And, you know, as Phelham said, these photographs, these are unimpeachable. These were shown in a crimes, you know, in a courtroom and no one ever challenged them. Neither side ever challenged the veracity of them.

So, you know, because a lot of times I think the pro-abortion side can say that they feel that photographs are shown have been tampered with, that the pro-life movement have, you know, photoshopped. Well, no one's photoshopped anything here. These are very raw. And as film said, you know, some of them show the banality of the workplace. But further into the exhibition, you know, as you walk in and you make a choice in this exhibition, We've been very careful about that. As you walk through the more extreme photographs,

which are the photographs of the remains of the babies that were discovered on the premises, the night of the raid, 47 bodies were discovered that night and brought to the medical examiner's office and posed and photographed so that doctors could make an evaluation of how they died. We have those photographs, those kind of more explicit photographs,

we have them shrouded in, you know, with a curtain, with a black curtain, also to show reverence for the remains. But people have been very, very moved. I mean, we've just had, somebody came to the exhibition yesterday, an actor who said, if only I knew then what I know now.

And he wept in the room where he was looking at the photographs of the dead babies. Where in Columbus, Ohio, people are interested in seeing this. I know it's only up for another day or so. So what is the, is there a website where people can look this up?

Yes, they can go to evidence, the exhibition.com, evidence the exhibition.com. It's in the short north area of Columbus, Ohio, but the address, the specific address is there. Evidence the exhibition.com. And we would really welcome people to come. We are, as I said,

open until Tuesday, until the day of the vote. People have already started voting, by the way, in Ohio. And it's extraordinary what people can tell themselves. But the lies that are being told by the pro-abortion side need to be answered,

truth. And the truth that this exhibition shows is, you know, is that, you know, the people went to Gosnell. Lots of people went to Gosnell. He ran a very lucrative business. And the people who went there were six and seven and eight and nine months pregnant. So it's real and it happened. And it went on for decades. And Pennsylvania allowed it to go on for decades, despite the bodies piling up, literally the body's piling up and the complaints piling up. And this is what Ohio is welcoming in. This potential is what they're welcoming in. But I also think that the pictures of the babies are extremely powerful. I know, Eric, I believe I've shared some of these photographs with you in the past, so I think you know what we're dealing with here. But they are,

in some ways, I mean, this is going to sound so strange, but they're almost exquisite. They're so perfect and their humanity is undeniable. And I think the left and the pro-abortion side really liked to push this idea of the clump of cells. In fact, the Guardian newspaper, not that long ago, published what turned out to be really a very fraudulent image showing some kind of fluff that they were saying that that's really what an abortion looks like. And it's completely untrue.

So, as I said, these photographs are unimpeachable, and people need to be educated. And we would really like to bring this exhibition around the country next year in 2024. I think there's seven or eight of these ballot measures on the books already. all over the country, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, many, many states where they're going to be asked. And it's a, you know, I've read recently, and I think I agree with it, that the pro-life movement fought very, very hard to overturn Roevy Wade.

But I'm not sure they were ready for the win. Because now when people are being asked to make the decision, when the people get to vote, they're, as I said, six out of six ballot. of so far, including in three conservative states, were lost by the pro-life side. Well, it's an astonishing thing. The election in Ohio, this is November 7th.

You, you know, what is the, what exactly is the ballot initiative if you can explain that to me? In other words, what is, what is this specific one in Ohio? I don't have the wording right on front of me right now. Philom, perhaps you can.

Yeah, it's true. It's true. enshrine reproductive rights into the Constitution that there should be no restrictions on, and basically that there will be no restrictions on abortions, so you can have abortions up to nine months. Okay, so basically that's what it is. And this is going to be on the ballot. This is, again, in Ohio, November 7th. It's an evil joke.

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please go check it out today. That's legacy p.m.investments.com. Hey there, folks. As promised, I have right now, Jeremy Stolniker, who is the co-founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation. Some of you know about Chad Robesho. I was privileged to be honored by the Mighty Oaks Foundation in Houston. I don't know what they were thinking or smoking. But I was a speaker at their gala event some months ago.

they are doing amazing work with veterans. Absolutely amazing, amazing work, Mighty Oaks Foundation. And right now I've got Jeremy Stolenacker as my guest. Jeremy, welcome back. Thanks, Eric. It's great to be with you. Okay, tell my audience who doesn't know about Mighty Oaks Foundation what you guys do. It is next level.

It is so when I was with you, you know, when I hear about it, it's really, it's humbling to those of us when we hear about the work that you're doing with veterans. So talk a little bit about that. A lot of folks know about, you know, many of the veterans issues that we have in the United States. Suicide is a major issue. We say it's reported, not we say, but it's reported that there are more than 20 veteran suicides every single day. And that number is, I mean, it's an epidemic. It's crazy to even think that that's possible.

Jeremy, Jeremy, when I heard. that number. I always do this with my guess. I interrupt and I stop them because what you just said it's almost impossible to take that in. It doesn't seem possible that we have 20 suicides, veterans

committing suicide every day. That does not seem possible. You're telling me this is a real number. So I'll tell you it's not a real number based on recent studies. That's what The DOD has reported. That's what the Veterans Administration has reported.

Duke University, University of Alabama, and the American Warrior Partnership this year published a study that looked at underreporting, things like vehicle accidents and drug overdoses and other areas that would be generally considered suicide but aren't reported that way. If the real numbers were given, it's probably closer to 40 a day. And so we use that number 20 or 22. That's the number we kind of hang on to. but the real number anecdotally we believe this for a long time but now research is starting to support that we probably have 40 44 or more veterans men and women who have served our country taking their lives every single day okay this is again nearly impossible to process this is so sick and so evil that this is happening that people who have served this nation should find themselves in a place

of such hopelessness that they would take their lives this is you want to talk about a stain on this nation that we would allow this, that we would, I mean, again, when I hear this, so Mighty Oaks Foundation, you guys are, you're doing everything you can to combat this. So talk a little bit about that because I want to get the fact that you're running 22 marathons. That's like, that's nuts. That's an amazing thing that you're doing to raise attention, to bring attention to this issue. But what is it that the Mighty Oaks Foundation does? generally speaking. So, you know, we look at numbers like suicide and then we talk about divorces and

broken families and just so many issues that our veterans are dealing with. And a lot of folks have worked to address that. But we understand as Christians that unless you deal with spiritual wounds from a spiritual perspective, everything you do will fall short. And so we have clinical treatments. We have other treatments for our veterans and they fall short. So at Mighty Oaks, we bring men and women. we have a men's program and a women's program to one of our five facilities across the country. We talk about trauma. We talk about post-traumatic stress. We talk about these issues.

Most of the folks who attend our program have some degree of post-traumatic stress. They've experienced combat trauma, trauma related to their service in the law enforcement or fire service. A lot of childhood trauma. They come to us. They're trying to figure that out. We say, this is what it is. This is what it's not. We've experienced this personally.

we know where you are because we've been there, and let us help you learn how to align your life to the life God created you to live. And it seems revolutionary. We try to explain this to folks in the clinical world. They don't get it. We've had more than 5,000 people attend our programs, and we've had thousands and thousands and thousands of men and women

who have found hope, renewed purpose, direction, and have been able to get up and move forward because they're moving into what God created them to be and to do. Well, I want to be clear. I mean, I've said this on this program, but it bears saying again, folks, apart from God, it's going to be very hard to understand why you exist. You're going to go through stuff in life, and that's when you're going to start asking those questions. I was asking those questions when I was 24 because I had the good fortune of running into a brick wall, metaphorically speaking. speaking early in life.

What's it all about? Why am I here? Why am I miserable? Does life have meaning? If you don't have answers to those questions and you've served your country and you come back and now you have marital issues and you have other issues, you need real answers. And there are many people who don't know that there are real answers. There are many, many people that are convinced that there are no good answers to this.

So why wouldn't I take my life? seems logical. And guess what? It is logical. Right. If there is no good answer. If there is no God who loves you, who has a purpose for your life, it makes sense to take your life. And that's why a lot of people are doing it. Maybe they think it's the manly way out. It's the tough way out. I'm going to take my life. But if you know that God is real, which he is, then you understand no. That is absolutely wrong. That is the devil's will for your life. That is not God's will for your life. And when I think of the numbers of people in this country, Jeremy, who don't know what I just said and what you know. And Chad wrote and shown us, we know this is true.

But we live in a secular culture that does not put this idea out there. And that in the drinking water is the idea that, well, you know what? Life is what you make of it. You have to get meaning to your own life, which is just stupid tautologies. These are meaningless statements. But when you are facing evil, when you're facing pain, that's when you ask these questions. And you guys at Mighty Oaks, you step in and you give these people the real answer to the questions they're looking for. We do, and we approach it not from a top-down perspective.

And I think this is where even Christians make a mistake. I'll tell you what you need to know. I'll tell you what you need to understand about God in a relationship with him. We don't approach it that way. We're all men and women who have served. we've been in combat, we've experienced many of the same things that the students who are sitting there in front of us have experienced. And so it's very much, hey, I know where you've been because I was there. I was lost.

I was hopeless. You know, me, Jeremy, I came back from Iraq. I went to work on a church staff. And in the craziest of places, the bottom fell out of my life. I almost got fired from my church job. I almost lost my wife. I almost lost my kids because even though I knew here what we teach, I didn't know it here in my whole. heart. And so I'm able to communicate that to the men and women who are sitting there. Hey,

aligning your life to God, aligning to the purpose for which you were created, the stuff that happened, it's there. The stuff that happened, it's not going to go away. But it does not have to have you bound or chained up anymore. You can move forward in a purposeful way, even grow from your experience, and use it to help others. Well, how long has Mighty Oak's foundation been in existence? I don't remember that. 2011, Chad and his wife, Kathy, founded Mighty Oaks, and we started running programs like this in mid-2012. Can you just briefly tell Chad's story for my audience? Because some people are not familiar with him.

He's amazing. Tell his story. Yeah, so Chad was part of the Special Operations Command and a special unit in Afghanistan. He deployed, I should know this number. I think it was six times back and forth to Afghanistan, and he would be there for several months and come home. Long story short, in the process of that, severe post-traumatic stress disorder came home, walked away from his family, got to the point where he would tell you he was sitting in a closet with the gun, trying to figure out the best time and place to end his life.

And he thought about things like who would find me and those questions that so many talk about. And the process of that is wife Kathy, who's amazing, came back to him, knocked on the door while he was sitting in the closet. He answered the door and she asked him a question, how can you fight for everything else in life? He's a professional mixed martial artist, a champion in mixed martial arts at that time, had served at a very high level in the United States military,

owned a jihitsu gym. He's a black belt and jihitsu. Why would you fight for all of those things and you won't fight for your family? And he says that's when the light came on. He realized he had to. do something different. And the process of time was connected to a man in Kathy's Church who now sits on our board, Steve Tooth, and he helped Chad understand.

You can put the best plan together to move forward, but unless it really relies on or builds on a relationship with God, you're going to fall short. And so that was the, you know, kind of his restoration, his coming to Christ process. And on the other side of that, he said, I felt like I had discovered a cure to cancer and needed to tell. somebody. And so that's where Mighty Oaks was born from that. And it was really just going and knocking on the doors and beating the bushes, trying to get every veteran we knew to come into the

program. And that's how it started. We basically had to beg people to come in. But it's such an amazing story. And I mean, the idea that, well, when we come back, we'll just keep the conversation going. I'm talking Jeremy Stallnecker, who's going to run 22. two consecutive marathons. Did you hear that, ladies and gentlemen? I think you did. We'll be right back. Tell me why Relief Factor is so successful at lowering or eliminating pain. I'm often asked that question. Just the other night I was asked that question. Well, the owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right, designed to heal. And I agree with them. And the doctors who formulated Relief Factor for them selected the four best ingredients, yes, 100 percent drug-free ingredients. and each one of them helps your body deal with inflammation.

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Use promo code Eric for more. specials 800-9783057, 3-057, use promo code Eric or Mypillow.com. Welcome back. I'm talking to Jeremy Stallnecker, who is one of the co-founders of the Mighty Oaks Foundation, which helps veterans who are suffering. And Jeremy, you were just telling the story of Chad Robes Show. I mean, here's a guy whose special forces in Iraq. Can any of us think about what he saw and what he did? He comes back after that, and you hear this story over and over again. And in a weird way, life has no meaning. You've just been, you know, it's like I talked to the man who walked on the moon.

Like, okay, now you come back. Now what comes up to that, right? What happens now? Now comes depression. Now comes, I don't know what I'm going to do. So, so Chad gets involved in mixed martial arts fighting and is a champion, an absolute United States champion in that world. Again, he goes all the way to the top.

And even in the midst of that, no real purpose in life, puts a gun to his head, wants to kill himself. And God miraculously intervenes. And all I can say is Mighty Oaks Foundation is born out of that. You guys have helped thousands and thousands of veterans.

And you're on here because Veterans Day is coming up. So I want to shift to what, What day is Veterans Day this year? It's Saturday, November 11th is, I think it's observed on Monday, but November 11th, Saturday. Okay, so you are doing something amazing to celebrate Veterans Day and to draw attention to the fact that 22, 22 veterans every day, this is the number, every day, kill themselves, take their lives. Folks, we're not making that up. Try to process that.

trying to process the world you're living in in America, that that is a fact, what we just said, 22 veterans a day, and that's on the conservative side, the number, take their lives every single day. That is so wrong and so sick. And you guys at Mighty Oaks are trying to do something about it. So talk about what you have in mind.

Yeah, so I actually started it. In fact, today was day 14. So before we started recording, I finished my 14th marathon. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You today, before this interview, you ran a marathon. I said, I'm going to talk to Eric. I need to have my marathon done.

So we did it this morning. Or I did it this morning, yes. I'm glad you got that out of the way. Honestly, that is just so amazing. You obviously are a runner. Otherwise, you wouldn't even dream about doing something like this. But this is still for anybody who's a runner who understands what it is to run one marathon.

The idea that you decided to do 22 in a row, one each day. So today was number 14. Number 14. The final one will be on Veterans Day, Saturday, November 11th. So every year around Veterans Day, Mike the Fibb's Foundation, we do a promotion of some time, a type of challenge of some type. One of the things we've been successful to do is raising funds

so that the men and women who attend our program don't pay anything. There is no cost to the student. We cover the cost of travel. And that requires a lot of fundraising, obviously. So around Veterans Day, we always talk about, how can we talk about what we do and promote what we do. And so, you know, they say everything sounds like a good idea six months ago. Six months ago, I was running and I was listening to a podcast.

And I heard a guy talk about running 50 marathons and 50 consecutive days. I'm like, I could never do that. I've run some Ultram. And that was not my program, right? No, that was on your program. No, you know why I say that because my friend, I have a friend, Malachi, you know Malachi? So I met Malachi and in fact, he called me after I finished my first one.

And he said 22, it's amazing, you know how positive he is. It's amazing, that's amazing. He did 161, I think, or something crazy. At 153. And that was because of me because I said he was going to quit at 151 for some random reason. I think that the world record was 150 or the, or the theoretical. record and he said, I want to make it real clear, so I'll do 151. I said, well, 153 is the number of fish that were caught when Jesus had cast you net. It's this freaky thing that they said,

and we counted the fish, and the number was 153. I said, it'd be kind of cool to do 153. So I ran, I think his 151st. I ran the farthest I've ever run. I ran 22 miles with him that day. We ran across the George Washington Bridge and whatever. But again, what a joke. I mean, this is me on one day in my life. He did it 150. You're talking about doing 22 marathons. It's just crazy stuff, but it gets people excited. I just want to say, we're just so proud of you that you are doing this for such a beautiful

reason, Jeremy. It's just amazing. Well, I appreciate it. And really, it was to draw attention, as you mentioned, to the problem. But then so that we could pivot because pointing out that there's a problem is fine, but it's not helpful. Really, the goal is to say, and there's a solution. And so not only is there a problem, I can do something big to draw attention to that,

but I want to then point people to the solution. And that's really what we're working towards. And as we get to Veterans Day, it's pivoting off of this thing. Like, it got attention. Now what do we do with it? Well, we have a process and a program that point people to Christ, and we've seen so much healing. And that's the solution.

And obviously, it's a big deal to get people to come to the program and to pay for that whole thing. And obviously, that's why you're raising money for it because you don't want people to have to pay. So what is the program? The program of a legacy program is what we call it. It's five days long. So as I mentioned, a men or women, we have separate programs. We'll come to one of our locations.

And over the course of that week, we just really teach a lot of basic, what we might call in the church world, Christian living kind of things. What does it mean to have character? What does it mean to have discipline? what does it mean to, you know, live a life of purity and value and legacy and how do we leave a legacy? How do we function in the context of our marriage? Basic principles taught from the perspective of what did God create us to do? How did God create us to act in these ways?

Because we bring so much stuff either from the military or from our own experience into this mess that we find ourselves in. And then we try to contextualize it and we can't. So we do our best to say, this is what God created. This is how God designed it. We're going to a break. We will let Jeremy continue that in other sentences. When we come back, he's with the Mighty Oaks Foundation. Talking to Jeremy Stolnecker, a co-founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation,

running 22 consecutive marathons. Today was number 14. By the time we air this, you'll be on like number 18 or 19 or something like. But the point is that November 11th this year is veterans' day and you want to run 22 marathons to highlight the horrible fact that 22 veterans a day on the conservative side, 22 are taking their own lives. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot let this stand. What is the website for Mighty Oaks Foundation? Mighty Oaks Foundation is Mighty Oaks Programs, Mightyoaks Programs.org.

Mightyoaksprograms.org. That is to find out anything you'd like to you about our organization, there's a place to apply for the program there as well. And for those that are interested in supporting this marathon, this marathon of marathons that I'm doing right now, we just set up another website called Mighty Oaks Run. Mighty Oaks Run, and you can support directly what we're doing there. So people who apply or who go to this, these are people that are struggling,

that they've done, they've served their country, and they're not doing very well. Most of the, and things have changed over the years as we've been able to add programs. We'll have this next year 40 weeks of programming. So nearly a thousand students. And as the wars have changed, so has the demographic of our students. But the normal student, if there's a normal one, is someone who has served their country. They've struggled possibly in transition coming out of the military into civilian life.

Maybe they're currently serving in the military, but they're struggling. they've tried the clinical treatments. And they end up with us, not because they're a Christian or because they necessarily even care about faith or God, but because they've tried everything else and nothing has worked. And so they're willing to listen to what we have to say and give it a shot. And often that's, you know, at the behest of a spouse or a family member. But they're with us because they've tried everything else.

Their life is not headed the right direction. Many have attempted suicide. and they need to be able to look at this a different way, and so they end up with us. Well, you know, this is where I want to be like newsflash, ladies and gentlemen, God is real. God really is the answer. It's not just a theory.

That's right. Many of us have tested this theory, and it's real. God is real. And the wounding, the emotional wounding that people have from things they may be seen while serving their country, these are ultimately spiritual things and they can only be cured spiritually. And so if you go to a psychiatrist, the psychiatrist does not have that stuff in his toolbox. It does not exist in his toolbox.

He can do X, Y, and Z. He can do, but he cannot, in many cases, they cannot help you. And if you don't know that there is help available, that there are folks like at the Mighty Oaks Foundation who actually, they know what you're going through and they know how to deal with it, you know, what are you going to do? And that's why, you know, Jeremy, you're telling us that, you know, 22 veterans a day, conservatively estimated take their own lives. It's a totally staggering number. It's hard to comprehend. And the church needs to step up and help. So I really hope people listening to this program. Well, you know, this is not a commercial. We didn't have you wanted to raise funds.

I just wanted to talk to you, but when I hear about this, I think ladies and gentlemen, step up. This is just, it's just amazing. And it's, it's frankly scandalous to me that we would look in a country that would have this many veterans in a position to take their own life. It's just, it's hard to comprehend, but it's real. And obviously, you're drawing attention to it by what you're doing right now. Well, I think to your point, the church needs to step up. the clinical world, the secular world will do what they do. And, you know, billions of dollars have been thrown at this. And a lot of good people have tried to deal with it. But really,

it's the church that has the answer. And so we as Christians need to step up and take responsibility and communicate truth to people who are broken. I have so many pastors and folks in church who say, I would try to help the veterans in my church. I would try to help the veterans in my community. I just don't know how. And I want to grab them and say, you help them the same way you help everyone else. truth is the truth. And applied to the veteran, applied to the young person who's been abused at home, the truth will bring hope and healing and direction. And you need to engage with that. And many are afraid to do it. But that is indeed the answer. I mean, that is how we're going to move forward. I also think that there are a lot of churches that they don't really get the power of

God as a reality. They're talking about concepts. They're talking about philosophical concepts, theological concepts, but the power of God to heal. A lot of churches don't either they don't believe it or they just take a pass. Ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about spiritual realities. We're talking about spiritual wounds that can be healed through prayer, sometimes through deliverance. This is real. This is the reality in which we live, but even many in many evangelical churches, they don't get this stuff. They don't go there. The power of God to heal wounds, to heal spiritual wounds, the power of prayer. This is real.

This is not theory. It's not theology. That's exactly right. There is power. And I would love to bring pastors and I would love to bring church people to the Thursday of our program. We have a five-day program on Thursday. The students are able to give their story, give their testimony. And we see person after person after person stand up and say, I came here without hope.

I attempted to take my life. I had already decided when I came on Monday that it, This didn't work. I'd end my life on Saturday. And I understand who God is. And now I have a relationship with him. And they stand there crying, these men and women who have,

you know, done these incredible feats of bravery and in combat environments. They stand there weeping over what God has done in their life because there is power to deal with brokenness, to deal with hurt, to deal with trauma, if we'll confront those things with the Holy Spirit. and man, I wish people could stand and just listen to that and just watch that happen because God does such an incredible work.

Well, I want to tell people again, Veterans Day is coming up. Folks, step up. This is a beautiful thing. I say this again as well. This video is on Rumble. The Arkmataxis show is on Rumble. Share this video with, people. Send this video to people who have kids who have served, who have themselves served. Share this because there's so many veterans that don't know anything about this and they're dealing with this. They need to hear about the existence of the Mighty Oaks Foundation. They need to know that there's hope in God, that it's real. The website is Mightyoaks Programs.org, Mightyoaks.org. And I mentioned it. Mighty Oaks run. dot org, is that it?

Mightyoaks run.com if they just want to support what I'm doing. Mighty Oaksrun.com. If you want to support this marathon effort, we'll be right back. Folks, I'm thrilled. We're sharing hope on the Erkma, Texas show. I'm talking Jeremy Stolenacker, co-founder Mighty Oaks Foundation. These guys are doing God's work, bringing hope and healing to veterans who are struggling in America.

You've heard it on this program. We've mentioned it many times. The fact is 22 veterans on average per day take their lives. This is unacceptable, utterly unacceptable, a stain on this nation. And this is where the church comes in. And for many of you, that's you. You need to know about Mighty Oaks. You can go to Mighty Oaks Programs.org.

I want to remind people, Jeremy, of what you're doing, that you're running a marathon a day for 22 days to bring attention to this. Veterans Day coming up. It's just a beautiful thing that you're doing. I don't remember what part of the country you're in. I live in California. I'm bouncing around. I'll be in five states before it's all over.

So right now I'm sitting in North Carolina. Oh, my gosh. I didn't realize that. Why did you decide to do it that way? We have the Charlotte Marathon tomorrow. I ran the Marine Corps marathon last weekend. So I'm kind of bouncing from major. event to major event.

I can't even imagine this. Now, do you set a time for yourself? I mean, when you're running 22 marathons, when I was talking to my from Malachi O'Brien, I thought to myself, you want to run as slow as possible because you've got 22 of these summers. This is not like you're setting a personal record. You can't be careful if you're going to last 22 marathons. I can't even imagine.

I'm not racing anybody. Yeah, I'm not racing anybody. So it takes me between five and six hours every day to get them done. done. I ran faster at the Marine Corps marathon last week just because of the excitement of the event. But I try to take it as slow as possible, as deliberate as possible, because tomorrow we get up and do it again. Yeah, five hours is not that slow. I just want to tell people, when you're doing mile after mile for 26.2 miles, I still, you know, I'm, I'm in awe of, of, I mean, what does it feel like for your body? Because, I mean, did you, how did you train for this?

What was your life like before you started doing consecutive marathons? Do you still have needs? left, for example. I do. I've run, over the last few years, I've run several ultramarathons. I ran 100 mile or earlier this year. And so I've kind of been in that cycle.

Yeah, I ran 100 miles in Texas at a great event there. So you can't really train to do multi-day like this, but I just have put on a lot of miles. And my body is beat up. You know, you mentioned Malachi. I don't know how he did as many as he did.

I feel beat up every day, but you just get out. His advice to me, he called me after the first one. He called me on the phone. And he goes, hey, bro, how are you feeling? I'm like, I just got one done. He goes, get up tomorrow. Get out the door.

That's your goal. And then get that first mile done. That's the next goal. And that was kind of his advice. Just keep going. I like when Malachi says that, like, if he's in extreme pain, he says, I go into my pain cave. And I was like, I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't want to have a pain cave to go into, but thank you very much. Look, what you're doing is just beautiful, Jeremy, to draw attention to veterans in general. In this nation, folks, you literally owe your life to these men and women. And we need to have a culture in America of gratitude for those who serve, you know, not just to say thank you to them, but to understand that they need our help in other ways. And the Muddy Oaks Foundation is the greatest example of an organization that really understands how you help people who have these kinds of existential issues. Do I kill myself or not?

Only God can give you the right answer to that and can make you understand why not to do that and to give you hope and a future. And it's just beautiful. So folks, go to Mighty Oaks Programs.org. Mighty Oaks Programs.org. If you want to support Jeremy's effort right now, you can go to Mighty Oaksrun.com. Is it run or runs? Run, just one run, yes. Mightyoaks run.com.

Mighty Oaks run.com. Jeremy, God bless you, my friend. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.