The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - The Powerful Principle of Sowing & Reaping (with Chef John Folse)

Episode Date: March 12, 2021

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is just ask, “How can I help?”. Today, Jeff is joined by Chef John Folse to talk about the woman who raised him, Mary Ferchard, and how her Christ-like witness inspired him to always help others however he can. Ascension is proud to partner with authentically Catholic institutions and organizations committed to spreading the Gospel. Learn more about the sponsor of this episode, Ave Maria University (https://tinyurl.com/yycd3xng) Snippet from the Show “You can never outdo God’s generosity.” Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail] Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show episode 209, the powerful principle of sewing and reaping. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Hey, I want to thank you for joining me. today we're going to talk about a very, very powerful principle. You probably have heard about it from the Bible. It's sewing and reaping. And joining us in just a few minutes is going to be our good friend chef John Falls. We've had him on a couple of other times. And I got to tell you, the ratings went

up. Every time I have him on, the ratings go up. And people really enjoy hearing him. And I'll give him an amazingly adequate introduction in just a couple of minutes. minutes. But I do want to, I want to share with you a couple things just as a way of reminder that Father Mike Schmitz and I are going to be going to Israel in June. And right now we have it on hold, not the trip, but the number of people, because we're going to have to add another bus. And we would like to do that because there's so many people that want to go. But we need to hear from you now if you'll go to my website, jeffcavens.com. And sign up. Then we'll know. for sure. By the way, a lot of people writing in and asking about Bible in a year, asking if it is

still number one in the country. And you know, and on any day it goes up and down, but it typically is in the top five in the country. And again, this speaks of the desire that people have for truth, something they can rely on. And that is God who does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And as always, if you want the show notes, all you got to do is text my name, one word, Jeff Kavens, and you can text it to 33777. Now, you do know about this principle. You've heard it during Mass. You have read it, no doubt, in your devotional time. It's a powerful message that Paul gave to the Galatians when he said in Galatians 6 in verse 7, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Now,

this is certainly a truth, but this is an overarching principle that we see in the Bible, that what we do in our life has a way of coming around. Now, people have other names for this, karma and so forth, and I don't subscribe to all that. I just go to the Word of God, and see these principles that do not waver. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he said, he said, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart,

not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency and all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. Well, I wanted to bring my good friend on to the show today because you know Chef John Falls down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which is where I'm at right now at the time of this recording. In fact, this is where I was a year ago

when the coronavirus broke out, and Emily and I had to go back up north to Minnesota, and one of the last shows we did last year before coronavirus was with chef John Fals. And he's got a list of things that he has accomplished and done that is so long. He's a chef. He runs an amazing food plant, White Oak Event Center in Baton Rouge, one of the three top restaurants in New Orleans, and that is. is revolution and that's in the french quarter if you ever get down there go down there tell

him jeff sent you and i don't know if you'll give you anything but just tell him jeff sent you and uh and that's good enough but but he's done so many things we've talked about him on different shows but the one thing that stands out and most impresses me is that he is a magnanimous man and that means he's got a big heart he gives he has a way of of giving to people in so many different ways and i'd like to talk to him today about this principle of sewing and reaping chef false welcome to the show well jeff it's so great to be with you and so great to have you in baton rouge i look so forward to having you and emily come and stay with us here at white oaker state in fact i even built a bedroom for you i i didn't i hadn't done that for anybody else no i love

love having y'all here thank you you actually did he's not kidding you there's a there is a room built and uh at least while we're here it has our name in front of it i don't know if that changes the minute our car gets on the highway and heads north but i take that sign off that says cave and sweet i take it off but we have a lot of fun when uh we're down here together And, wow, a year has gone by. It's amazing. And what a year it's been, right? What a year it's been.

Who could have possibly thought a year ago when we sat at the table that we'd be through this year of COVID? And in many ways, it's been good for us, you know, reflecting in ways that we've never done before. Our charitable giving being just called upon so often during these times. So I think God always has his purpose, and we always want to be there to assist any way we can. And it's been really a crazy year, but a wonderful year to just tug on your heart string. Sure. You know, it really has been. Yeah, I think that's true with Emily and myself as well.

During this year, there's been so many opportunities to grow spiritually and to grow in our relationships, but also an opportunity to reach out to people who are anxious. they are discouraged, their life has been turned upside down, and there's an opportunity as a disciple of Christ to say something, to him, do something in their life that is of great benefit. And that's what we're talking about today, this principle of sewing and reaping, not just money, but we're going to talk about a number of ways that we can sew and reap. And I do want to get into your background, but before we do that, just generally speaking, what are your thoughts about this idea of sowing and reaping, giving, and seeing that the

Lord does amazing things in your life as a result of it? Well, you know, Jeff, it's so obvious. You know, coming from the swamp floor, as I call it, the swamp floor of Louisiana, where people are so dependent on each other, especially in the early days of colonization. It's a Catholic community here, the French, the Spanish, the Germans, the Italians, all. big Catholic families arriving on the shores of New Orleans here in the 1700s and bringing with them not only that great faith but the realization that they needed each other so much they depended on each other even though they might not have a common language the language of as you mentioned giving and and being there in a time of need was just a basic to their philosophy I mean

And they knew that's what they had to do. And, of course, living in Louisiana and living in the swamps of Louisiana, as we have, everybody was so dependent on each other, sharing of not only your family, but sharing of the food. It's just an incredible place to be. I cannot think of a place I would have rather been born and grew up in because it's really instilled in me the vision of what my life really was going to be about. So, as you know, it's a very special place, and I'm just, I'm glad God plucked me and threw me right here in these swamp lands, you know. Well, I know in hearing your stories that there are so many instances where the whole community came together and they gave of themselves. And as a result, there was a community security in a way.

You know that even the story that you have shared previously on the show about Mary, who took on the responsibility. of all you kids, after your mother died in childhood, she was giving birth to a child, and, of course, she passed away. But then one lady said, I will, using the terms we're talking about today, I will sew into their lives. And you had that kind of a community. But I'm wondering, over these last decades, have you seen that change? In certain aspects, yes, it's definitely a different world we live in today. But in the communities we grew up in, in the communities I grew up in, the need to share, the need to come to one's rescue every single day was just a part of our lives. I mean, we depended on each other so much that it instilled

in us, just a need, a strong desire to step out and help where needed. And I'm so happy, that I grew up in this environment, this Catholic environment, this French-speaking environment, African-American, French, Spanish, German, Italian, all of us living together. And the realization that we could not live successfully without each other. So there was never, never a moment in my youth or in my life that we didn't realize that when there was need in the community, we were going to be a part of it because sooner or later we were going to have that need in our family as well. And also the different cultures that we came to realize that there was no such thing as differences in culture. We all desperately depended on each other's gift of giving

a gift of just giving you that hug and time. I mean hurricanes, the sicknesses when my mother died in childbirth with her ninth child. It wasn't like my dad was here. to raise all of these young children, these babies, along the whole community. Every nationality was on our front porch saying, we're here to help. And the norm was to, in a sense, farm out the kids, you know? Well, in those days, that was our fear because we knew it so well. We understood that in our Catholic community that your godmother and your godfather was there for a reason. When you were baptized and they stood there next to the mom and dad as future guardians of the family if needed, it happened to us. We lived that.

When mom died, the first thing that happened was my godmother came over to the house and told my dad, I'm here to help. That's the role I've chosen through his baptism that I'm going to be here to help. and so so it was always quite evident to us that we desperately depended on each other and we saw no differences in anyone everybody had that same heart i know that you have responded to so many big catastrophes in our country's history i mean we remember katrina especially those down here in the south remember it and when you talk to people about hey be a giver be anonymous, so into other people's lives, especially at the time of need. A lot of people think, well, you know, I don't really have anything that I could do that would really make a difference,

but it really comes down to what can you do, you know? Because so often we take inventory. I'm thinking about the feeding of the 5,000 in the Gospels. You had 5,000 people. They're all hungry. And the disciples said, Jesus, we got a problem here. We got a problem. And that is that all these people are hungry. They're away from home. We need to send that problem away so that they can take care of themselves. And Jesus says, you feed them.

You give them something to eat. And the disciples could have said, well, this isn't exactly my gift, you know. And what do you want us to do? Just drain our bank accounts and feed them. these people one meal. But then he asks that one question. And I want to ask you how this has fit into your life of philanthropy, giving in so many different ways. Jesus says to the disciples with that great need to feed the 5,000 is the backdrop. What do you have? What do you have? And the disciples, of course, came up with a pitiful answer. We have five loaves and two fish,

But yet, that seemed to be enough. Jeff, you know, I don't know when it clearly understood that God was there to supply us anything we needed if only we asked for it. If only we pray it about it. We're in Louisiana. I mean, the catastrophes that happened here, mainly in hurricanes. In fact, we just had two massive hurricanes that just destroyed much of Louisiana this year. And never once that anybody I knew or in my world of cooking or in the restaurant industry or in the distribution industry, I knew of no one who didn't step up immediately to say,

I'm here to help. How can I help? They didn't say, you know, I can. sell you a box of food or I can deliver something but it'll it'll cost it's never even a thought our upbringing our community our faith-filled churches and parishes just immediately know it's an instinct that says we have to help and in the devastation of the hurricanes here is the best example of people coming together without care to make sure that all of our neighbors are taken care of. But that goes all the way back to, I mentioned the death of my mom. It was an African-American woman who had very little, nothing of her own. Her husband was a pig farmer. He butchered animals. She took on odd jobs. But when mom died, she knocked on our door. She didn't say,

you know i can cook or i can do she knocked on our door and says i'm here to help and my dad said what are you here to help what what what what do you mean she says i'm here to help you raise these children wow and my dad says well who are you he didn't even know here's this african-american saint sent by god to our little cajian cabin mom being buried dad eight children, babies, twins, two years old. She's there. I'm here to help. Amazing. And those words, I'm here to help resonate in my life every single day because she's spoken first. And she sewed into your family. She sewed into your life. And I know that time doesn't permit us on this particular show, but much of your, of your culinary background,

comes from mary it all it all comes from mary and so much i've six brothers two sisters in my family and all of us every single one of us realized clearly that mary took the role of our mother and instilled in us this gratitude that she gave to us that i'm showing you what you need to do a simple African-American woman, a hog farmer in the neighborhood, who knocked on our door with the greatest when Jesus said, what do we have? And we have four little me. Mary didn't say, what do I have? She knocked on that door and said, I'm here to help. And 20 years later, the last of us graduated from school. And she said, my job is. is done. Wow. And wow. And so I travel the world saying, you know what? It wasn't someone with

millions of dollars. It was a simple woman with a great heart and a gift from God. And that's what we remember as children of that family. It's not what you need. It's what you have to give. And not too long ago, there was a get together. I don't know if you were getting an award or whatever, another award I might add, or what it was, but a couple of people should. showed up and tell us, tell us what happened. It had a huge impact on you. Right. I was, I was being given a major award in New Orleans for the work that we've done in culinary philanthropy, et cetera. And we had a room of about four or five hundred guests from around the world who I had worked with over a lifetime. And I'm on stage telling the story

of Mary that I'm standing before you people who've who's taken jet planes here to New Orleans to come and be a part of this event tonight and I'm thinking I'm thinking to myself that you know on that stage how did I get here and as I'm telling the story of Mary Mary was the reason I'm standing here tonight all of a sudden I noticed two women walking through the audience and head started to turn and I'm saying who are these people they're walking up and without me knowing two of Mary's grandda from Atlanta came in and walked up and I saw them and I said oh my God Mary's here with me tonight the whole room Jeff the whole audience when I explained who these two girls were they were my sisters yeah they were they were Mary's granddaughters and they came from

atlanta to come to be a part of my just wonderful award that night they came on stage we all three broke down and the audience i mean i'm crying now the audience of almost 400 something people were all in tears watching the three of us hug on the table realizing that i'm here because of their grandmother and the gift and what a and my mom i know was the saint in heaven who kept us all together and sent mary to knock on that's amazing and by the way i have a picture if you don't mind i can put that on the show notes of mary a rare one that you've never even seen a jeff i really think i was telling laleigh my wife the other night i said i told about this picture that appeared of mary because remember we had no cameras back then this is 1950 we're living in the swamps of

Louisiana a moon shot to new Orleans just country people trying to survive we had no cameras and all of a sudden just a few days ago after you arrived here we were talking and i got a photograph sent to me by my brother from one of the family members of mary who knew we didn't have a picture and she sent a picture of mary in a gown which obviously was a wedding of one of her daughters probably back in the late 40s or early 50s and you're here I'll show it to you I said and you and I went Mary's grave just last year

we went to see her grave she and her husband because I just paid such homage to her and thank God for the gift she gave but we finally got a picture of Mary and I would love for you to post it because her face will tell you all you need to know I'm going to put that on there. My friends were talking with chef John Falls down here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about the principle, the powerful principle of sewing and reaping.

And Mary Fascia, I hope I have that pronounced. Fascio, yeah, Faschow. It was the beautiful woman of God who gave and sewed into the false family. And so many blessings have come out of it. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Luke 638, give and it will be given to you. Good measure, press down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. It's a principle.

It's not a get-rich principle. It's not one that we use, you know, just to gain a notoriety. It's a principle of the kingdom that we are called. to live by. And by the way, my friends, it is the principle that Jesus lived by. He gave everything. And he has been reaping sons and daughters. The son of God gave up his life for you and me. And it has resulted in eternal life for all of us. We're going to take a break right now. When we come back, I'm going to talk to Chef Fulse about some of the things that he has done over the years where he saw an opportunity to sow into disasters in what happened.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Nestled under the warm Florida sun is a university whose name indicates a vocational call. Ave Maria, which is Latin for Hail Mary, recalls the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary of her future vocation, becoming the mother of God. Enriched by God's grace, Mary freely ascents to this call. This is the model for all students. Come to Ave Maria University, where we offer a liberal arts curriculum buoyed by the sacraments.

This empowers you to clearly see your vocational call, whatever that call might be. Ave Maria University, your vocation, location. Visit avemaria.edu or call 1833 AMU-SWFL. Well, welcome back, and we're talking with Chef John Falls about a principle that I'm I would say really is the principle of his life, at least one of the major principles, and that is the principle of sewing and reaping. What you do to other people, what you do in circumstances, how you handle your finances, how you deal out your time. This is all really important because it has a way of coming back. You know what it reminds me of chef? I don't know if you've ever done this,

but it reminds me of donating blood. You know, you go to these blood donations, and they'll tell you that, okay, we've got your blood, we got the type, and you're in the blood bank now. And if you ever need blood, we want you to know that blood's going to be there for you. But it's kind of like that, but it does come back to us in so many marvelous ways

where we can keep on giving. Over the years, what stands out to you as some of the major opportunities that God has given you, and I'd like to take a couple of those and then look at what was your first move? How did you approach that problem with this principle of, I'm going to sew into this problem? Well, you know, it was really, let's go back to Mary for a minute, because it was Mary who said, you can never, John, outdo God's generosity. It's impossible. And she would tell us that constantly when people would want us to go there's a lady whose husband died and we ought to go cut

her grass as young children oh no mary we don't really want to go work you know you can never outdo god's generosity you go and so we were instilled and that's so early on once i became a restaurateur uh immediately knocks on your door where you know can you do a a little banquet for somebody or can you you know there's a there's a family that's really in need and maybe but we need to do a little fundraise of that. So very early on, back in the early 1970s, I started to understand something very clearly that I just could not outdo God's generosity.

Every time someone knocked on my door, even though I had really nothing at the time, the ability to at least give as much as we could without even thinking about it, just being that wonderful thought instilled in us so many years ago that we needed to share our blessings. So early on in my career, I realized that at the end of the night, there was a little food left over in the kitchen. What do we do with it? And oh, well, let's make a soup out of it or whatever. And we came to understand, well, you know what, maybe we should do something

else with it. Maybe we should go down to that homeless shelter over there. And so little by little, we came to understand that we could not outdo God's generosity. The more we gave, the more we got to give. We never ran short. Hurricanes would come through Louisiana, and people would call upon us, and we never thought for one moment, are we getting paid for this? Or we not, we just went out and took a chance, walked out onto that lamb, and took a chance that we could help in some way, shape, or for him. And we weren't short of disasters in Louisiana. When you take Katrina, for example, when Katrina took place, the whole world was focused on Katrina and it was a disaster, you know, of epic proportion. Go back with us just for a few minutes

and how did you respond? What was your thoughts at that time? Well, Jeff, the thing that really brought it full circle to me was I got a call one day to say that. there was a group of nuns. This is during Katrina, whose convent had been fairly destroyed up in Mississippi, and I'm in Louisiana, and that nobody could get to him. And they had no food there.

So I said, we can get to them. I mean, there's no reason we can't get some saws. And we drove to Mississippi and got up to Chattahua, Mississippi, and got to the school sisters of Notre Dame convict up there. and here was 25 or 30 nuns, many of them infirmed in the hospital there, and we set up shop and started to feed them, and all of a sudden the masses started to show up. And I said, we don't have food for these people. We just don't have enough food.

How are we going to do it? And Jeff, that was in my mind the first miracle that I have experienced. I said, I've got a lot of miracles in my life, but all of a sudden we fed. We fed, we fed, we never ran out of food. Never thinking about where is it coming from. Sounds like the feeding of the 5,000. But anyway, I realized as I left there, reflecting on it, I said, where did that food come from?

Where did these people who were bringing this food to us? And I realized, I said, oh my God, God sent the food. We didn't have to worry, but we just had to be there to cook it. serve it, and he would keep sending it. And from that point, I realized that if someone called upon us not to worry about where the money was going to come from, where the food was going to come from, just go ahead and get it together, get what we have, take off and go ahead. And there's plenty of disasters in Louisiana, as you well know. So from that early beginning that God would always provide, as Mary would say, we just decided that, you know what, let's give where people, where

there's a need. Let's not worry about it. Let's just go and do it. And of course, we built a major company of giving. We do a lot of disaster feeding. We do a tremendous amount of feeding to the hungry. We do, of course, as you know, we created the poor man's supper for Bishop out 27 years ago. go in Baton Rouge when Bishop Ott came to me and said, John, let's do a simple cup of soup, a piece of bread, and a glass of water for Lent. And let's see how many people will come and pay something for it that we can give to the needy. The first day with a cup of soup, first year, a cup of soup, a glass of water, a piece of a hard roll. We raised $20,000 for St. Vincent, DePaul. I said, again, where did this come from?

And then I realized right then, don't worry about it. Sure. When you're called upon, do it. God will provide it. And, Jeff, that's been the story of our life. I mean, you know, I've opened my restaurants in Russia. I've been to China. I've been on the great wall.

I've seen the need. And I never once questioned after these early experiences that God had given. given me a call. Feed my people. Feed the hungry. He gave it a restaurant ability. He gave it a food manufacturing division. There's no way in the world John Fawkes could have what he has today feeding the hungry because God encouraged me to do it very early and I'd never ask a second time where is it going to come from. Once you do that and you respond to a calamity to something, a disaster and you work hard at trying to meet the need and a couple of questions one is are you aware that christ Jesus Christ is in you and he is actually doing something through you are you are you aware

of that when that's happening uh Jeff it's so clear to me how we inspire I should say God inspires people through us he puts us in places that we could never be he puts it in puts us in place that we would never think to be it's normally tragedy of some type and people watching us work realize we can do that too we can do it too and if i if i think there's one great gift that god is given to me personally is the awareness we give to others that all things are possible through him we can don't work about where the food's going to. Don't worry about where the dollars are going to come from. People will be inspired to help. And I've really learned that in a big, big way. He taught me that

early on with the generosity of Mary walking into our house to take care of these young babies. She didn't even know her generosity could never be matched. And so every single day, I think, I will never do what Mary did. I can feed the thousands. I can feed it. I can feed it. the homeless. I can go all over the world, which I do. I can never do what she did. Her gift is inspiring and will inspire me and my team every single day because we're only trying to do what she showed us is possible. Well, what a beautiful story in light of what's happening in the world today with race relations. My word, I'm from Minneapolis and the trial for the death of George Floyd It has just begun and to see all of the division that we are experiencing today.

And I'm sure there was division back then in the swamp, you know, and love built a bridge there in a powerful way. The giving, the sewing of Mary's life into yours spoke louder than anything. Well, you know, one other thing, too, Jeff, absolutely. but it was a community effort. You know, when you're in a place where I was in the late 1940s, early 1950s, we came to realize that nobody had anything. The only way we had anything was to collectively be a part of the community. I mean, it wasn't even thought about.

It was just natural. When the neighbor down the way had a little calf and decided that it was time this little bull he was going to slaughter it he called the neighborhood together because we couldn't freeze it we couldn't chill it so we had to divide it up and the next week another family member did it if there was extra chicken somebody would pick them up and pluck them and bring them to the neighbor down the road when you're in a place where nobody has anything but a strong faith and a loving heart, there's nothing that's impossible. Sure.

Nothing's impossible. We had nothing, but we had love. We had nothing, but we had God. We had nothing. We had church. We had nothing, but we had family. All willing to give of each other equally. And just incredible, incredible life we live.

Do you ever worry about being taken advantage of? Never, ever, ever do. think of that. If someone comes into our world who wants to be divisive in any single way, we handle them the same way we handle the person in need. We're not going to judge what's the motive here. It's not, it's not, I'll let God take care of that. And I'll let God take care of that. I've been in places where the box of money was on a table and everybody who came by through a dollar, or 50 cents, whatever end, to get a little piece of something at a charity event, and the box disappeared.

Sure. I never worried about it. I said, Papa, how much do you think was in that box? And, you know, we think, oh, it probably was $150. And we'd walk around and say, our box has disappeared, but we still need $150. And all of a sudden people said, well, here's another. Other people were generous. Yeah.

And Jeff, what came up. out of all of this was the realization that, again, we could never outdo his generosity. He was there for every need. He was there in the greatest of tragedy. He was there in the greatest of, to give us hope. And we came to realize that there was no need to worry. Why do you worry? What are you worried about as Jesus?

I've actually heard people discuss this before, and that is that as human beings in the fallen condition, we are susceptible to worrying and being anxious about our own needs. What am I going to eat? What am I going to wear? Where am I going to live? But the one common denominator that I have seen in people who are confident and they are trusting in God is that they themselves give, and they give well. You know, I think about the scripture in Malachi, Chapter 3, where Malachi speaks and says,

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. Now, I'm not talking about a name it, claim it gospel here, but we're just talking about, you know what? if you are a giver, it's almost like there is a, there is an emotional insurance policy built and you know what? God's going to take care of me. God's faithful. And I've seen that as a common denominator in all those who give. Jeff, you know, one of the greatest events of my life was when I opened my restaurant in the Soviet Union. And when I opened for the Reagan Garbage Off Summit of 88, I went to Russia and realized that this nation, that as a young child, I jumped under my desk

because they may be an atomic bomb that the Russians were sent, you know, Americanism versus communism and all this stuff in the 1950s. And here I am in Russia. And I'm going to do a dinner for Reagan and Garbachev, the two great world leaders. All the world press is there. and I'm walking through the neighborhoods with my guide, the person assigned to me a woman who announced to me as we were walking that I'm Catholic, I'm Catholic, and are you Catholic? I said, yes, I'm Catholic. And she says, we have no churches here. And she says, can we talk about church?

Do you have churches where you are? And I said, yes, we have plenty. I'm in Louisiana. But as we walked around she realized she said you have this great banquet for the presidents of the world here and our people are starving our people are hungry she says how wonderful it be for you to do a dinner like this for our people but it's impossible i said no it's not we're we're here for 10 days we're going to feed some of your people and you know my story when she said can you bring me a bible This is the same woman. And I realized that God sent me to the Soviet Union not to cook for Reagan and Garbachev. It became so clear to me that the greatest honor in my life was walking with this woman into what was a church with tears in her eyes saying,

God is here, even though we see nothing of him here. And she wants a Bible. And I want a Bible. and I'm cooking for the great press of the world the two most important presidents on earth at the time Reagan and Garbachev and I'm walking with this woman of the Soviet Union asking for a Bible, not for food, not for money,

but for a Bible. And I'm happy to say I was able to bring it to her. But then in my own world, I was speaking all over the country, talking about this great role I played in opening the Soviet Union with this and how I cooked for presidents and how I did this. And one day, Jeff kneeling in church, it dawned on me. God did not send me to the Soviet Union to cook for Reagan and Garbachev.

He sent me to the Soviet Union to bring a Bible. That's why I was there. And all of this was lost. and it took me a couple of years to realize sitting up in my bed, oh my God, God sent me there to deliver a Bible. Sowing the word. Oh, yeah. And I just sat up in bed and cried like a baby that I missed that, that I missed it.

Well, you bring up a topic there that is very important to include in this discussion about sewing and reaping. And that is that when we hear about sewing and reaping, Jesus teaches. is the parable of the sower, and the sower sews the word, and the word will not return to God void, but it will accomplish that which he purposes. And so while we can sew food, clothing, time, medical help, we can sow our gifts, our talents, our treasures, all of that, the one thing that we are all called to do is to sow the word of God into our children's lives and into other people's lives. And the final thing I want to ask you,

We're going a little bit over, but this is so important is that, because I want to give you an opportunity to sew into my life in about an hour with a crawfish boil, but tomorrow we're going to go to Nickel State, and we're going to go to, it's Nichols State. Right, right. And you have the only four-year culinary degree in the country, and we're going to go there tomorrow for a lecture that you're going to be giving. And this is kind of out in the middle of nowhere where these people are trained to be executive chefs around the world, around the world. And I know that you're sewing your experience,

your talent, your insights into the culinary world. But how do you sew this principle of sewing and reaping into your students, given it's a state college and you're not there as a theology teacher? But do you incorporate this? Oh my God. They know quickly on opening day because I speak to every one of the students in my opening class as freshmen walking in and I have no issue with the fact regardless of who's in the room I let them know immediately that the good Lord has put me on earth to feed people that's why I'm here and you're here to learn how to do it. That's why you're here. the only four-year college degree, Bachelor of Arts in the United States. Why did God give that to me?

God gave that to me for that simple reason. We are in the business of feeding the hungry. It's not about the great restaurants we're going to open. It's not about the four-star restaurants with the menus that cost $200. It's what we do with our hands that God has given us through the culinary world to feed his people. And I'm starting. standing in that room, I don't care what the religion is. I don't care what the race is. I'm looking at 40 beautiful kids coming into that classroom for the first time. And they're looking at the guy whose namesake is on the building. And what do I talk about first? God has put us here to feed his people. And through our generosity and through our commitment to feed the hungry,

feed disaster. We are following his wishes that we live the gospel every single day. I don't ask what religion you are. And if somebody, and I even say if you're offended by me talking about probably you want to do something else because we are about feeding God's people. We're about feeding the hungry. Oh yes, we're also about making money in a restaurant. But don't, for one minute, think that we're here because just like on just like on the loaves and fishes god didn't put that message in the gospel just for the fun of it no he didn't hey it's been so good to talk to you about this and and i'm looking forward to the next time we can get together and talk about what the kingdom of god in your life and some of the

principles that you have that you have discovered and i must say last year we had a gumbo cookoff and I was absolutely blown away at how gracious you were when you realized I took first place in that cookoff. I am really good at deception like that. I mean, I can keep a straight face when I tell someone who I know I'll break his heart if I tell him that gumbo was really not any good. But it was your first time. I mean, you know, don't be embarrassed about it. Actually, you made a pretty dog on good gumbo. Well, I'm going after your other gumbo title in the Guinness Book of World Records, you do have the largest bowl of gumbo in the world. I'm going after that. I want you to know, look in your rearview mirror because I'm

coming up behind you. You see, that's another gift from God. The world's largest gumbo in Guinness, we serve the knee and hungry. Oh, that's great. Hey, my friend, I want to encourage you as we close this out. I want to encourage you with what Josea said in Josea chapter 10 and verse 12, sow for yourself righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground for its time to seek the Lord until he comes and showers righteousness on you. Where do you go? How do you begin? Plow up that unplowed ground. Break up the followed ground. Begin to do some things that you've never done before. Get outside of yourself and love other people. Give in ways not only that are in your zone, in your wheelhouse, but in any way that you can. As members of the body of

Christ, back in the Bible days, they knew that they were Christians by their love for one another and the way that they served. And they were servants and they came to serve the one who came to serve us. And that's Jesus. So I just pray that some of the principles here that Chef Falls has been talking about would inspire you in your work, in your family, and among your relationships, and that it would assist you in becoming more like Christ in everyday living. Hey, again, if you are interested in going to Israel, you know, I'll put that information in the show notes. It's my website, jeffcavens.com.

And if you are interested, by the way, in going over to Spain and Portugal in October, I'll be doing that with Marcholino di Ambrosio. We're going to Fatima, and you'll have a chance to go on the special walk to St. James and the Camino. And there is a pre-trip extension, and then there is one afterwards that you can take advantage of. But you'll find all that on my website. Let me pray for you, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. it. Amen. Lord, I thank you, I thank you, Lord, for setting the example to us. You are so generous and so giving. You poured it all out. You gave your life for those you love. And Lord, you have said that

you have set an example for us, and we pray that today, this week, even during the final days of COVID-19, that we would be walking in your example, that we would walk in your example and be generous, kind, giving in every way. Open up the doors for us to act like you and to share the life that you have given us with others. I pray, Lord, for all my friends listening today that you would continue to encourage them and to give them a peace that passes all understanding. I love them, and I pray, Lord, that you will guard their hearts. In your name I pray, in Jesus' name, Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. My friend, I love you, and I'll be praying for you this week, and I ask you to continue to pray for me. And let's pray

together that God will continue to do great things in our lives as we walk as modern day disciples. God bless you. Have a great week. Thank you.