Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 296 | Phil's Secret Hiding Place and His Treasure-Hunting Dream

Episode Date: June 18, 2021

Phil dreams that Jase found gold bars on his land and lets Jase and Al in on his secret hiding place. Zach tells the story of how his infant daughter became part of his family. And Jase shares what a blessing his adopted daughter has been to him. https://nrbconvention.org/register/ — Use code UNASHAMED for $25 off an expo-only pass to watch Unashamed LIVE in Grapevine, Texas, on Wednesday, June 23 - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, got a big announcement that we want to add in. Later in the podcast, I'm going to talk about NRB and us doing a live audience recording there of the podcast. It's going to be in Dallas. Earlier, they were, you had to be a part of a conference or you couldn't come. But I think because of pressure from you guys, they've decided to open it up. And so you can get a $25, for $25, you can get a one day pass. And you can get there as early as 11 o'clock at the. at the event and uh but our podcast is at 4 p.m. And so uh, you want to go online. If you want to go,

if you're in the, especially in Dallas area, uh, go online. You'll see there, you know, we'll tell you where to go, uh, NRB, uh, register and then, uh, make sure and get your ticket. And then, uh, if you want to see us live, you'll get the opportunity to see us live. It's going to be a lot of fun. Uh, so we encourage you guys that want to come to check it out and, uh, better get on it pretty quick because I don't know how many spaces are available. So if you really want to come, I would check it out. I am unashamed. What about you?

So we're welcoming our East Coast cousin, the business mind of our our little operation, one Zach Dasher, back into the lair. It's been a little while since you've been down here. It has been. Yeah. You've been doing all your running around and hobnobbing at the sonic. How far is you used to stuff? Is Eustace, the mountain man from you.

He's in the same mountain range you're in. What's his name? Eustace. Is he famous? He's a famous mountain man. He lives off the land in North Carolina. He's in that mountain range. How do you know about it?

It's right after Matt Dillon, that comes on. Mountain men. He's expanding his TV. He cuts logs and lives, lives. You're talking about this. Reality show? Yeah. Oh, okay.

Yeah. We'll get that watching reality shows. Warm Springs filmed it the same ones that film does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We work with them on, uh, well, working with them on another project.

I just wanted to know if you had heard of him or something. I think we can talk about that. Can we talk about that? I don't know. I have lived. Well, somebody. So you're here. Usually when we thank us up, we have to start recording and say, can we talk about that?

I don't know. Where's that? Somebody text. I'm, we're going to film a show. Yeah. Because this is audience driven. This is unashamed nation. It came because of unashamed nation.

They started here. They rose up. They did. And they said, let's make a show about unearthing things that have been lost. So me and Jep and my good friend, Mr. Murray, we're fixed to do this. That's going to happen. We're in, I guess you call it pre-production now. Yeah, we've assembled the team.

We've got the team. We got the band back together. And I feel pretty good about it. Yeah. It's going to be good. So Zach's our mastermind, but that's what Zach's role is, is to, you know, do stuff like that because he's smarter than all the others. Secrets of the earth things that have been buried.

Oh, that's pretty good, Phil. What about secrets of the earth? There you go. That's it. I'm just saying. Phil, I think you might have done it right here today. I want to write that out. I'm simply put, I'm here to help.

Yeah. But everybody is interested. You know why? Because he watches a lot of reality TV that I didn't know about. No, I watched Matt Dillon. We're fully aware of that one. A few of these guys running around out there. I like the Mountain Man.

Yeah, living up out in the Montana, Rocky Mountains and all that. Pretty interesting. We need to get Mountain Man making a guest appearance. Would our Mountain Man be able to be on Mountain Men? No, they're real mountain men. Mountain Men the show is real. I mean, it's like legit. They're there.

They're guys who just... Oh, there. They used, by the way, the same kind of traps that I just got through running yesterday morning, yesterday evening. I ran mine. I think you could be a mountain man if you just moved to the mountains. Kind of a... I'm a flatlander, but I used the same traps they used to catch varmarts. When I spoke yesterday, I put a picture up of you, and I put a picture up of Judge Jephtho Robertson.

Did you know there's a picture in? I didn't know we had a picture. That's my great-grandfather. Great grandpa. And then I had a caption above it. I said, born 100 years too late. And so I talked about you being born in 1946, but you easily could have survived 1846, no problem. And there was your great grandpa who was born around that. Was that the picture on your counter? At the house? No, that's his son. Ewan. I think Ewan was Paul. Is that in that right? Mr. Ewan was my, he's great grandfather. He was my dad. He was my dad's even one further. He was my dad's dad's dad. He was my dad's dad. Right. But it was interesting because Judge Jeptha looked so much like you. His beard was not as big, but he had a beard, same nose. I mean, it was very evident. That was his name, Judge Jeptha? That's who Jephth. That's who Jephth's named after. Really?

Yeah, he got shot on a levee is what Granny told me. He was. Yeah, the feds killed him, which makes sense. Wait, what happened? How does that make sense? It makes sense because the flood comes and it gets upon the levy. The only high ground around there is the levy. Which we talked about high ground. My great grandpa, the water ran the cows, his cows, upon the levy. They came down and they said, get them off the levy. It was federal lamb.

You might hurt the, hurt their levy. Did you read this in a book? No, Granny tells us the story. And then Ma said they did the shootout and feds won. So it was all over cows. And for what? A bunch of cows? More cows?

That's our family history. It does make more sense now. I felt better about him dying from. for that. I thought, well, people's going to go. Go out, fine. And you understand at a deep level the need to get things to higher ground. We covered that on the last podcast, right? He gave his life for that. Yeah. I saw the great flood of 58 when I was born in 46, but there was one in, you know, 29, I think it was. Yep, 29. They were during that one, right along in there somewhere. It's when, because, I mean, these rivers, they, from where we are right here, back up behind us,

it would have been halfway up at hill to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Wow, the whole plane. The whole thing, you'd go by boat from right here to Vicksburg. Yeah. Well, after hearing the secrets of our life, I'm really proud of the grace of God and the power of God that we're still here. After here, that's exactly. We've come a long way.

Gee whiz. There's five shootouts. He just said, hey, I'm just, I mean, you're finding stuff that came off of union soldiers. You know, some of that stuff you're finding, you say, oh, this, the union had these, these. Yeah, I've just found a, what they call a breastplate, and that they would use as a target. I don't know whether they came through after the war to make sure trying to calm things down and they called in the union forces. I don't know that. I could ask old Sandy about it.

He's the professor where we meet at university. He's a historian, and he leans southern, deep southern, you know, the Civil War and all. He's on the South Side. He's your Google for all things of war. It's amazing what you find in the ground. And, you know, I was telling Murray, he was like, I just don't know, you know, what I can bring to this show. I was like, Mary, when you reach your age, you got to remember. most of what you have left is history.

That's right. Because you're, I mean, you're all in on the resurrection. I was like, but we need a history expert. And that, that's who you are.

Yep. Just be yourself. That's the key to that. So I think we actually. Murray has, Murray has many, many skill sets. He really does.

He's a Renaissance man. Yeah. And he buys, and he has a lot of new vehicles. Every time I see him, he's pulling up in a new vehicle. I mean, he almost,

makes vehicles. I mean, he's a... Well, he makes guns. I know that. I should say, he's a big gun guy. I know that. Oh, yeah. He can make guns.

He can fix anything on an automobile. I mean, anything. I think we are to pitch the idea that we just involved, we involved Unashamed Nation in the show. I totally agree. I think we should just say, look, we should have a hotline that says, call us. Kind of like Ghostbusters, but not. Now we're secret busters. I like this name.

I actually have, we have a get-together after this podcast, and I'm going to submit that as the title. And this idea about involving Unashamed Nation. So we have a hotline. We'll get like Si to answer the phone. I don't want to scare you, Jase. I don't want to scare you. But last night.

Oh, no. Last night. You had a dream? I had a dream. Oh, here we go. I had no idea. The dream was, you should. showed up, we found the old fence down there where we, window said there was an old house place.

I remember it. Yeah. I know about where it is. We went back down there to that place, got in there, and as it turns out, Jace, with this metal detector, found gold. Are you kidding me? And a lot of it. I mean, the big bricks, the bricks like this. Will you be, will you be, I guess?

Because now we have to do it. I'm not lying. I had a dream about it last night. Will you make a guest appearance on this show? All you have to do is just stand there and point. I'll just walk by. Okay. We'll do that.

I'm going to make that happen, damn we? Yeah, that is an episode. He had a dream. We go to wherever he dreamed about it. Well, because I had.

Yeah. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me be the voice of reasoning here. He also has dreams about monkeys that attack him. That's true. He has dreams about people that he has to fight. So I don't know that we can like rely.

But, I don't know that this is. reliable. Metal detecting is about the hunt. The reason I'm involved in it is about the hunt. I mean, sometimes I go hunting and guess what? I watch the sunrise and set. And it didn't happen.

The plan. So you're okay if it's a strikeout. Well, you know, you got a swing. You got a swing to be in the game. Most of them will be a strikeout, right? Sadly. You may find the little stuff. Sadly, yes.

However, but when you do have a day, like we had the other day, I found, look, a gold button, not a military thing, but just a gold button from the 1820s. Just, my, that was a feel, right? He gets the sound effects. I dig it up. As soon as I uncovered it, I was like, that's a gold button. I mean, you could just see it. It's been in the ground 200 years and shine like new money.

So now we'll have to see this. I found the rock right there between and. Indian mound or old Indian mound. I know they camped out there because the muscle shells are up on the riverbank. Well, you go due north for about 80 to 100 yards. I saw the tree off the road. I told you about this. And I found a rock knife.

They'd used it as a knife, the Indians. I mean, it's just like a hatchet head. But instead of metal, it was a rock. And I could see where I think a woman, I think a woman, You had held it for a long time, years, year, a hundred year, 200, 300, 300. But I can tell she, that's what they got that meat off of hide. Yeah. Like a coon or a beaver or a deer.

They had a, she had them. I got it on my, right above my fireplace over it in the middle of the road. It looks just like a metal axe, but it's made out of stone. But I can tell it had been used by someone a long, For those of you listening, Dad is doing a motion of the rock cutting away a pelt. That was probably in the 1500s, that rock there that showed up, 1500s and those muscle shells. But Jayce is talking about probably where that old home place is, and there's a couple of more on my neighbors laying there. There's about three home places. Well, I will find them and check them. Well, one of the reasons why is we're on the... That was probably 1700s, or...

early 1800s, maybe, mid-1800s. You think? Oh, it's been a while. So we're on the bluff of a river, which is why you get a lot of that. Right now you couldn't, that's how they got around. You could not tell that it hadn't been anything here except there's some kind of concrete, like a chute going down to the river coming up on the bank. It looked like they would run, they would get cattle down it and get them on a boat

and go on to the Mississippi River. Probably getting them off the levee. Which may be better than getting shot. There's a bottle that looks like this and it's in the earth, except this is like 20 foot. This is a 20 foot circle. It's buried. It comes up like this.

I have no idea what you're talking about right now. This is inside the ground. over there. Where you had the dream where the gold is? About a mile from there. A mile from there, there's another home place. Phil's talking about, we're going to be on an excursion. Well, it's just like this, but this, and you see, plastic gets narrow.

He's holding a water bottle. This was like this buried in the ground, made out of a stone, and it comes up, comes up like a bottle like this, and this part is still sticking out. There's about two foot of it sticking out. about this tall. Well, I'm going to go fine. When you look down in there and it's dark, it's like a big jar, but you could take a ladder, put it in there.

When I took my flashlight, because it was dark, I'll shine down in there. They had a dirt floor, but I don't know whether it was silt. Might have been, you know, but it was made out of, like, almost like, not like concrete, like, what do you call that? Clay, like pottery? Yeah, pottery. It's just like a pottery.

Well, I shine the light down there, and there were, a lot of bones. Oh, my God. And I was saying, I mean, this is turned into a mini-series. This is a whole season. But from what I could tell,

do you remember where this is? For what I could tell, they were all animal bones, but it occurred to me, if you, if I had fallen up, stepped over in there. Your bones would be there.

There's no way to get out of there unless you had a ladder reaching and it's up. I mean, you would have to. When did you discover this? Oh, back when we first moved here, I wronged.

We're talking about 40 years ago. I covered every square inch of all this. How far is it from right here? Hang on, Jason. From right here, I can have you standing beside it in 15 to 20 minutes. Let's take a break. So that should be the show producer. Yeah.

I realized that we went to the wrong people. I've been dealing with these people for a year about ideas. And in 10 minutes, all your ideas are bad. we have a dream there's gold we have some weird pottery if i ever disappear and you don't know what happened to me you're in that hole you find that hole over there you look down in there i will have some kind of ladder going down in there and i'm hiding but it is a good place to hide if if the feds and the fields and i got to find that old jug over this bed if the feds ever get after his cows he's going to the hole he's in all right now i've already given the secret

way and they know now they're somewhere over at the hill now they're going to fight you they'll get in a long line with dogs and they'll track me dick so you think a skirmish broke out they had built this jar to hide in possibly you could comfortably sleep 15 people inside it so I'm carrying miss Kaye with me if she's still around and you're all in your children your grandchildren but that's about it my wife ain't going in that hole I'm going to tell what I'm I'll lay in. I'm going to take my chance. We'll work him in.

I'm taking my chance with the fence. I'm a little bit closer. Bring me a pillow to put on all the dead bones. The problem is something falls over in there. Coyote, I could see the bones and the hair and the coons. When they fall off in that thing, the walls are like this, Jay, slick as they can be. It's just like a big jug. Why have we not gone and discovered this?

I already have. Well, I know. That's what I'm trying to tell you. He's now revealed his secret hiding place. This is big news. Oh, it's big news. This is going to make some episode. I've been around, Phil, my whole life.

I never heard that story. Never heard this story. I've kept it under wraps. Now's the time. Dad says this show is going to be the revelation. So we need to just go look for this and whatever happens. We can't go out there until we got to have a career, a camera career. Well, obviously.

I would bet you. And an ER. Look, here's what I know. I know that humans made it, that thing. Yeah. And I know that they put it in the ground there. I don't know whether they dug a gigantic hole and got down in there and built this thing and then covered it back up. Could have been alien.

I mean, because it's no, no, it's just there. So somebody put it there. And we have no idea what the reason. I'm saying, what do we think the purpose was for? Because it had to have had a purpose. It possibly was a cistern. That's what I was thinking of water. You caught the water off your house and you had a little funnel going to it.

Yeah. And every time of grain, you'd pull, maybe it was for water. Yeah, for a lot of people. Because a lot of people don't realize when we were raised your dad here, the only water we had was water coming off the house. And there was a tank sitting up on a, you know, a structure. And that funnel going from the house. Most third world countries are still like that. Yeah.

Yeah. And it ran down. ran down the, what you call them? Yeah. On the side of your roof. The gutters. The gutter, run down the gutter, and then run over in that tank, and we drank water. Water.

Water tap, we drank water from the rainwater, rainwater. Yeah. That's all we had. It's the ultimate attack. So, you know, it was fine until you crawl up there. We were kids and we looked down in there, and it looked pretty rough down in there. I mean, it was like, not scummy, but. There was...

What's interesting by all this is because we're fine and just... I was surprised that I was... When I saw it, I told Si, I said, I'm just glad to be alive after drinking this. I said, I didn't know it looked like that. He said, I mean, either. So now we know what happened to Sae. Boy, this has been quite... It was either that or running along behind the...

D-D-T right there next to us on cotton. It comes up. DDT falls on everybody inside the rainwater. I'm like, hey, we're drinking DDT. I mean, I'm, it's, so I don't know. So I said they come along and spread it out of the back of a truck and the kids that are all run along behind. Oh, yeah. Running behind it, playing in it.

Look, it's raining. 20 years goes by and they say, this is the most deadly poison you could ever have. It's raining poison. Let's run behind it. It explains a lot. We were talking about during one of the commercials about what your favorite piece of furniture is. And when you think about all we're doing, when we metal detect, We're just finding old things that people lost or wherever people congregated.

So the other night, I was having dinner with Missy and Karina, my Nicaraguan daughter. And for some reason, we came up kind of like what we were doing with that commercial about. What's your favorite furniture? Well, somehow another, it's like we came up with the idea if you were on a deserted island and you could only bring five things, what would you bring? And just off the top of my head, my mind was racing. Well, they started naming the things that they would take. And Missy, like, her first thing was a blanket.

It wasn't just a blanket. And I'm like, that's the first thing. And then she's like, well, beans and rice. What? We've got to eat. And she said, of course, you. I was like, well, don't get me hooked up in it, this year.

She's like, well, that's just understood. So then we had like a 10-minute. But you were number three behind beans and rest of the thing? Well, I think it just occurred to her, oh, I better say Jace. But I thought, well, I thought this was ever man and woman for themselves type of deal. But then Carino was like, well, a journal in like a box of pens. And I was like, what is wrong with you people? And they're like, what do you mean?

I was like, I'm bringing a gun. I thought about it. A knife. The largest spool of monofilament line in the world. And they were like, why would you bring that? I was like, you're not going to live long with a blinking and a journal. Let's just document our short stay here. You're going to live about a week or two at best with that.

But the more we got to talking about it, it's all of, it's really about your role, you know, in a family. it's like I'm going to protect us. Yeah. And Missy was going to make us comfortable. And Corrine is going to document. And she's going to document the whole situation. She's going to document it because she's just taking for granted that we're going to take care of the rent. Because she's like, oh, I'm coming with y'all.

I mean, y'all are two of the people I'm bringing. So I just, I thought it was interesting when you think about the stuff we find and the stuff people lose. The valuable stuff is things that are of, that. people didn't want to lose. Yeah. You know? So it was an interesting conversation. So what would you bring to a deserted island?

Well, you could make you a fire with anything, so. I brought that up too, though. I said what? Because you first you say matches, but what if they get wet or how long are you going to be there? Jay's right. A gun and a knife and some rope string. So you could survive. Rope string, you know.

And something to start a fire maybe with the rock. I use wire to tire those steel traps on catching these coons and stuff. I always got a roll of wire with me, and I'm wiring it to this and that and other in case, you know, I'm going to go to jumping around now forever when you catch them. But it would be stuff like that. Something you could use to cut something or trap something. Well, Missy said enough pen of selling. Actually, if you had five things, that would be one of them.

Medicine wouldn't be bad. So was it, there was just y'all three doing this little game? Oh, we did it, but it went from, we laughed, we cried, we argued. You know, it just like became this consuming, like let's sit down and continue the conversation after the meal because it, I don't know, it just may be. The gun and the knife would be and plenty of ammo. If you had that, you could pretty well survive. And that's pretty much, I mean, most of us carry that with us. You know, even not on a deserve that.

I think I brought it up because it made me think about how, you know, worldly we are, about things we think we need. Just like it, Jay, all these foreigners from Europe coming across the ocean, landing on one of these river systems, New Orleans, be a good place. Yep. Start going up, going up, and they get up in here, Alabama landing. They call that from people who came up here way back, and they would say, we're going for where are you all going?

going west and they'd land up here on the Wastall River. They'd have them a wagon. Somebody was having its supplies, but they would just take off across that thing headed west, you know, angling up. Some of them ended up in Kansas, Nebraska on up, you know. Some of them got all the way over on the West Coast. But you just think about all they had was what they had.

So this is not like a far-fetched picture where you'd never find yourself there. I mean, most of the new ground has already been run over, but you just think about the kind of people went across there and what little they had and they made it. But you're talking about a tough bunch. A lot of them didn't make it. A lot of them didn't make it. Yeah, that's what happened.

We divided the categories. You want to take a break? Yes. There was no concrete, no power lines, no vehicles, I mean, no mechanized anything. I mean, just wagging. I got with wheels on it. They're like, boy, we got us something here.

Proud of them. At least it would roll. We got into five things you need and then five things you want. But the things that we wanted is where all the arguments came because Missy's like, okay, now let's get, let's be realistic, our basic needs, which revolved around food, clothing and the way to make a fire, you know, I'm in a shelter. Food, water shelter. Yeah. Jay's to this day, you can fly over because the Smith's don't. channel did and they pointed their cameras down you can still see some of the ruts are that deep

going out across the midwest out there going up toward the dakotas you can still the argan trail that old argan trail you can look at it right now the the scars are still in the ground where all those wagons came through there and west and leaving ruts waist deep i mean can you imagine Imagine getting stuck. You know, all you have is mules or horses. But the old roadbed on the Argon Trail, you can still get on it. And the earth is still sliced up. So many came around there.

Well, that's where we need to go metal a deck because they left a trail. They left a trail. They probably, I guarantee you, they probably won't let you hunt there. A lot of these places. Oh, a lot of it is, what, federal land. It's a national force. I brought that up in my sermon. is because in Romans 5 where it says we've been given access to God,

the creator of the universe. When you think about the places you don't have access to here, remember that time I did that about the snake island and something that's not. Nothing was recognized by all they had probably to keep them going, in my opinion, was the fear of God as they moved across there. Some of them stopped in great Salt Lake City, you know, the Mormons and all of that, the Joseph Smith story and all of them, you know, that all happened during the Pioneer Day,

they would just come up on a ridge and look down and say, y'all gather up here. I said, I tell you what, who was there in charge, let's call her to wrap and camp out right here. We got plenty of water. And they were probably just looking like, wow. I mean, there's to claim, just say, let's just stay here.

I have a longing to see. that again. I said he was born a hundred years too late. I would like to see another planet, our planets that God would say to us at the resurrection. You remember when all your people come across there and settle the country where you were a member of it? I said, look, I've got several planets you might want to look at. Some of them are slightly bigger than there, but it has the same forces that you saw it on earth. So I'll show it to y'all. That would be heaven to you as the exploration. Put me on the ground there. I don't think that's going to be a problem.

If he can get us out of the ground and say, you can go as far as you want to go. There's some big ones than this, and bigger lakes and more game and all that. But you stay here as long as you want to. You are immortal, see? All right. If you got an imperishable body, that's a game change. I think in my heart, that's what heaven is like. You've always said that.

Whatever fires you have. You've heard me say that all the life. Whatever fires you up, it's just that and it never ends. Yeah. It's a comforting doubt. I believe it's beyond our comprehension. It is. So the Bible attempts to, like the book of Revelation, give you a picture of,

but it uses the only things we know, which are gold and silver. A place without ducks is downright scary. Well, you remember when Smith, right for it. Who would want a place without ducks? Right for Smith went on to be with the Lord. He went through a deep dive into Revelation, and he had come up with this, it looked like to me in a giant apartment complex

that looked like a Borg ship from Star Trek. Yeah. And he had it landing on top of the earth and water was flowing out of it. And we were going to live in the apartment complex. And you're walking on silver and gold. I was like, it was a cube. Yeah, it was a Borg cube.

He had the measurements of it out of revelation. Yeah. And I read, well, all this stuff. And of course, you know, Smith was getting ready to go. but he was getting ready to go home. And I was like, I don't know that I don't know that I want to live there. This doesn't look fun to me.

I was a little too literal. I was thinking the same thing. I was like, I'm a little claustrophobic. It'd be like living in that hole in the ground. I just don't, you know. I just remember, was it 144,000 miles like in diameter wide?

It was a cube that floats. It was like a rocket. A little too literal for me. So when I read that, when I read a book about the Lewis and Clark expedition, which was fascinating to me, you know, because basically after Jefferson brokered the deal, then he just sent that crew out.

But when I read that, the account of that, you know, what they all had to do, I thought dad would have loved to have been on this expedition. I was like, this expedition was made from Phil Roberts. It was just 100 years too late. They got lost on the Great Plains. Yeah. Because they said it was like an ocean,

but it was grass. and as far and they would make circle chytto so they finally had to start putting up stakes yeah and getting the sun just to know which way they were going to know which way they were going is that we got lost in a sea of grass is what they said they would happen they would go through stretches where they had to pick up all their boats and haul them across vast amounts of miles to find another waterway I mean they had scouts out ahead then there were times when they'd run out of food and they were killing buffalo and they were just kind of then they'd got gout because they ate all the meat. It was just a really interesting following the journey.

And really, they only lost one guy, which is pretty incredible along the way. Well, that was going to be my point why I brought up the, what you do on the desert island, is that everybody quickly went to, well, we need to go together. And I think when you think about Ephesians 320, where it says, God can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. I mean, when you kind of analyze that, he can do immeasurably. You can't measure how much more he can do

than you can imagine. That's like something to the 100th power times something to the thousandth power. That's why I say, if you're together and it comes back down to relationships, which is why we focus on that so much because we get that from God. There's a reason he said,

love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, because wherever we're at is really insignificant or what's it going to be like as long as you're together. That's right. And need that community. Let's take another break. So, Zach, I want you to tell since you're here, your and Jill's life has changed dramatically in the last few months. Tell our audience what you've been up to in the story that the new addition to our family. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got a new baby. She is about eight weeks old now. Now, she's more than that.

I didn't even know Jill was pregnant. She never showed. She never showed. Yeah. She did that we adopted this baby. I get confused in the weeks because they did like the way they calculated in the NICU is based on how many weeks they are like if they were, if you were pregnant. Yeah.

So the baby was born. Ruth was born at 27 weeks, two pounds, seven ounces. And they're supposed to go 39. Yeah, 40. It's like, I think 37, maybe full term, but 37 to 40 weeks. Two pounds and seven ounces. Oh, she was, I mean, skin and bones. Yeah.

Her skin was almost translucent because it hadn't been fully developed yet. I mean, it was a little shocking to see her. She looked like a skin squirrel, didn't you? She did. Yeah. Well, I had that same experience from his daughter. What was that when she was born? She was actually one pound 15 ounces.

Oh, wow. And she came at week 29, but she had had some issues. issues because she had a heart problem. And so it took us a while. She got all the way down to a pound 12 after a month in the NICU. And then she had heart surgery. And then she took off after that. Now she's having, you know, she has.

I mean, every time y'all, every time I hear that, which is. It is amazing to what's that woman is there. She grew up to be a phenomenal. She sure did. Uh, inside and out. But I always think because all my mind works is like, when I think about a two pound bass, you know, that's what I'm saying. You're like, a two pound bass is.

It's like a little old, it's like nothing. Just a little nubbing bass. You just chunk back in the water and it take off. I mean, it's just a human, smaller than that. That's what Lisa's dad said the first time he saw her. He said, I caught a bass bigger than her yesterday. You know, there's a three-pound bass. So, yeah, that's what you're paying?

So she's grown. What does she weigh now? She goes to the doctor tomorrow. I'm guessing she's probably about seven and a half pounds now. She's out of the hospital. When she was born, the mother, the biological mother had, like maybe some kind of ruptured uterus or something,

but she was like calling us like, hey, I'm, I think I might be, I'm having cramps. And we're like, me and Jill on the phone with this on Easter. And so we're like, you're in, I'm timed. And every time she says that, I said, you're having contractions. And she was like, you need to go to the doctor now because they can stop, they can stop labor, maybe. And then all of a sudden she's like, oh, my gosh, oh my gosh,

I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding everywhere. And so it had to be terrible for y'all because you're thinking she's losing the baby, right? I mean, well, yeah, and we worry about her too. And so and we're two hours away from in the whole way we met this girl's crazy. That's a longer story. But I mean, God was like totally in this because she didn't know she's going to keep the baby. So she was contemplating terminated in pregnancy and somehow got introduced to us through a mutual friend.

And we ended up on a phone call with her. and she's like, you know, I think the girl told her that we would adopt the baby, but I never told us that. But it was funny because we were like, we were all in already. We'd already been praying about this. And I said, if God puts a baby on our doorstep, then I'm in thinking that that's never going to happen, right? That's like Gideon's fleece, you know. That's right.

Yeah. Yeah, if he lands one on our lap and so then it did, that happened. So we were just like, we're in. And she was like, would you really adopt? my child. We're like, well, yeah. And she said, I'm going to keep, I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, keep this baby. And, and I'm going to, I'm going to bring her, you know, to, to birth. And, uh, we're all crying. She's crying. And so we walked with a mother. We still talked to her. Uh, we walked with her. She's got some stuff going on that's, you know, some difficulties

and things. But, um, we're praying for her too. But, um, but it's just cool to see. So, so she goes the hospital and we get there. And when I get there, the father, because we know the father, biological father too. And so he calls and he's like, they're both dead. Like he tells us this on the phone. And I'm like, he says, let me talk to, he's, he's, Jill, Ms. Jill, can I talk to Zach? And so I'm on the phone with, hey, most of me, I'll tell you man to man.

He's crying. He's like, it's gone horrible. They're both dead. You know, and I'm like, oh, my gosh. And we're like 20 minutes from the hospital. So I pull up to the hospital and I see him out on the curb smoking a cigarette. And they won't let him in the hospital because of COVID and whatever else. And so I parked the car.

I go there. He's just like the chain smoking, crying. And he's a wreck. And I said, let me go inside and figure out what's going on. So then I go and was able to talk to the charge nurse. And she's like, well, I don't know what's going on either. So 15 minutes later, they come out. And they're like, mom's fine.

And the baby is, we just got the baby stabilized, revived her. and got her stabilized. And so y'all can come in as they let us in. And so we went up there, got to see the mother and biological mother. I got to figure out my terms here. It's the first rodeo for us. And then we saw the baby and she's got tubes going in everywhere. And they transported her to a children's hospital in Winston-Salem.

And at first sight, that was overwhelming. Yeah, I was a little like, whoa. I was the same way. I was a lot younger than you, too, but still, it's a lot. overwhelming. It's like how how can this baby make it? That's what I thought. Um, but it was, man, when they get in ICU, though, I mean, what they're able to do now is incredible. Amazing. I mean, I was just like, I think I got babies being born at 22 weeks and, and they're surviving. At 27 weeks, it's like a pretty high survival rate. Now, it's, you know, it's a tough road and it's,

it's difficult. And let me just interject in the whole pro-life argument. This is another, what you're describing is another reason why, you know, that it's not a blob of tissue. No, it's not. It's a child. You see, and you see that in the, I mean, if you go to a NICU, I mean, you see it. Yeah. You see, and even more than just that, even just the way they look, the, like, one of the benefits of skin to skin contact, like, you know, what, Jill's like, oh, we got to do

skin to skin to skin. And I'm like, what is skin to the baby? You know, they got to be next to your skin. And just that whole, even that alone, the medical benefits, and the nurses like, yeah, it's been proven science that when you, when you hold a baby skin to skin, you're transferring, like your good antimicrobial stuff, all your good bacteria's to them. I mean, there's, I mean, they thrive. Babies that are touched, thrive. So it was, you know, we were there every day. We had drive two hours there two hours back, and it was, I mean, it was a grind.

But, um, but, and that was for weeks. I mean, that, that impressed me about you and Jill both was your, not just your commitment to your child, but the idea is that whatever it took, we're going to get this done. Yeah. And be there for her, which is, you know, really what parenting is all about. Let's take another break. Yeah. So we would drive two hours there, two hours back.

And, um, but, um, she was out in like seven eight, seven, eight weeks and she did real well. So now she's, she's a little fat, she's fat, man. She's got a big, um, big. She's a fat seven-pounder. She's a fat seven-pounder. So Joe brought her down here last weekend and stayed at our place. And the baby never was anywhere but in someone's arms. Oh, yeah.

The entire time they were here, it was really funny. And so my little grandson, Doc, who was only five, just fell in love with her. I don't know. It was like those Twilight movies. He imprinted with her, you know. And so he's just like, so he wanted to hold her all the time. And he's asking me now, when are we going to North Carolina? He can't wait to see her again.

So they call her, they call her Ruth, or called her baby, Ruth is what there's kind of what we've been calling, which is already kind of her nickname, I guess. Yeah, it's kind of cool. I mean, I think the neatest part about it, though, is that we're, you know, it would be a lot cleaner, maybe if it was like a closed adoption. And I understand it would be cleaner. But one of the things I love about it is that we do have a relationship with her biological mother and father that I really think one day are going to turn their life around.

And I hope they do. I'd love for what she's grown to be able to meet her biological parents who have turned it around or living for Jesus, has cleaned their life. I mean, to me, that's like the kingdom, it's messy, but there's something beautiful in that messiness. You know what I'm saying? It's kind of, it's been a incredible journey. Well, at some point, we'll tell the whole story.

I mean, there's a lot of parts of it. You just don't want to say right now for a lot of different reasons. But, I mean, there is, God was moving in the whole thing. I love it. And I love the idea. So Lisa and I speak at a lot of pro-life events and on behalf of a lot of pregnancy centers. And one of the things that I always tell every audience I speak to in this kind of area is that, you know, if you're going to, if we're really going to be up front and really talk about abortion, how bad it is, we want to save babies, then you're going to have, since there's millions that have been abortions. you're going to have to have a lot of believers that are willing to do just what you and Jill did.

I mean, in other words, somewhere on the bottom end of this whole situation, you got to people willing to say, okay, we'll take a baby. And, you know, so I encourage people, look, if guys have been putting that on your heart, follow through because you're going to help save children on that part of it. So you can't have a pro-life movement without a pro-adoption movement as well. I mean, they have to go together. So in our family, obviously, has been a lot. Jason,

Willie both have adopted ones that are already grown, but that works too, you know, because they needed that structure and that ability. Because Karina basically is an orphan, right?

She is. And I think some of that is God, who I say, I say this in a lot of different areas of life. I mean, I believe he specializes in orchestrating meetings between people.

I think, you know, he gets his message out about Jesus through us despite our flaws. And I think when your eyes are open to that, you have these chance encounters in life that God set up. Right. I mean, there's just too many things. I've had way too many of those. One of them I was wrong about with, you know, Karina was that we get a call in the middle of the night, which is always, it gets my attention more like. like, kind of like Phil having that dream about the gold. You know, I'm like, wait a minute here.

There could be something to this. Chase is still thinking about that goal. But they're like, you know, my wife, to her credit, she gets a call from our church in the middle of the night saying, there's a girl, an orphan girl stranded in Costa Rica trying to get back to Nicaragua. But there's a civil war that has broken out. but she loves the Lord and has really educated herself. And so they're like, can you take her? If we get her in the U.S., can you help her?

She was going to college. She already had that lined up. Yeah, but there was a time problem here. She had educated herself basically from the Internet because one of the preachers at one of the churches, they kind of mentored her. And it's been real tough on her in a good way. like you can do this you you know the lord will use you and uh so you know me i was proud of my

wife are saying yes but in my mind i'm thinking i mean look we're not going to just help some freeloader i mean you always tend to think because you don't know i met that girl about five minutes into that i thought this girl's an inspiration you just you just can't fake she's one of the sweetest, most, you know, kind and gentle people I've ever met my life. Yeah. I think that's a good point. I think a lot of times when you step into things like this that you hear other people's. I've heard other people's stories and I've not felt as virtuous as them.

I've had like the same, like yours was free letter of mine was I was thinking a couple things I thought. One, when we got to the hospital and that we revived the baby, then I'm like, oh, boy, what have I got into? Well, that's the first thing that's off of my head. But then I was like, you know what? I was like, God, if you call me, if this is what we're doing, then this is what we're doing. And another thing insecurity I had on it is I didn't know, I wasn't really sure how I would respond to a child that wasn't biologically mine.

It's never happened. It's never happened. So I'm like, I mean, Jill's like, oh, it's no question. I'm all in. Well, they're just better at it than we all. They really are. But look, you know what I've learned, Zach? And I mean, I take this advice for whatever it's worth.

it hit me at some point during the last four years that I've had Karina. She's inspired me and helped me way more than I feel like. I've helped her. I'm like, she's a rock. And you got to remember that it's God in us. And she found her relationship with God during her pain and misery and suffering and perseverance. And, you know, I think about that Romans 5 a lot. Is she in contact with her real parents?

No, they're gone. They're gone. They're dead. She's an orphan, yeah. She was raised by a grandmother the last few years, and then she died. So she literally has nobody except. Well, I think her mom, you know, has died, but her dad is M-I-A. Oh, right.

That's what it was. Yeah, then she lost her grandma who basically had raised her. And so all she has is one sister. So, you know, you just, because in your mind, you're like, well, there's no family structure. So where are the problems that I know that caught? I keep looking for this can't be right. This can't be just God rescued this girl, and she's had some people who stepped up in the name of the Lord

that's helped her along the way. I thought the same thing about Phyllis. When Phyllis, the more I've gotten to know her and the more we talk about growing up, the way she did, I realized that the favor of God, the hand of God, protected her all of her childhood. No doubt about it. So that a lot of bad things didn't happen to her.

that one day we would connect. And it was really interesting. So we've had that experience as a family in several different ways, but it was the same with her. I mean, it was just like, when we knew, we knew.

I mean, Zach, you were the first one that reached out. It was like, Jack said, I think this is the real deal. At this point, we haven't even told dad and mom about anything.

Yeah. And I had the same experience. So it is right. I mean, you have to look for God opening those doors of opportunity, but you do have to be willing to walk through. But he does provide you with all the things you're afraid of. Like, I was afraid of. I'm very, I appreciate this. I'm infatuated with this baby.

And I'm definitely as connected with Ruth as my daughter as I was with any of my other kids, which to me is like a supernatural spiritual thing that I can't quite explain. But it's a picture of the gospel, too. We call her the chosen one at the house. I love you. You're the chosen one. But you think about, I mean, Father's Day, I think is next week. By the time this, this releases it would probably be a couple of days after. But I mean, he does that to all of us. He adopts us. I mean, he created us and then he adopts us.

So he goes through that process, which I love that that's mentioned, like in Ephesians and others, that phrase, we're adopted in. Because the idea that our sin is separated. It's like, you're chosen. We want you to, you know, God says, I want you. Well, it really helps you in your relationship with God once you experience this. Because you see, it is different. hard to explain and people who don't do it, they just, you don't know what you don't know. Yeah.

But all these things, even with Karina, that I've seen, it, I have thought hundreds of times about, yeah, this is the way God views me, which is awesome. That's just nice every time our family gets together and that looks like a leak of nations, you know, because we got all these people with different heritage and background and skin color. But I thought about that. We are a rainbow family. If we commit as a family to God and to get Jesus out to the world, why am I shocked that God assembled a team that basically is representative of the world?

We are the United Nations and we didn't really have a strategic plan to do that. Nope. It just happened. And to reiterate one point you made that it's not just that we're ministering or, you know, like there's a reception of blessing that we're receiving. You mentioned that. I mean, I'm like, I'm the one getting the blessing. here. I can't imagine even, even, you know, we're in this three months now, two months.

I'm like, I can imagine my life without maybe Ruth in it. Yeah, baby Ruth, we've got a picture over with the candy bar. Yeah, because the candy bar is about as long as she was. Yeah, we start back at the baby Ruth candy bar at the king's size, and that's about how long she was. Well, now that I'm four years this side of that, but if I'm ever in a situation where I need to get Jesus out in Spanish, I'm like, oh, I have just the weapon. Say hello to my friend, Karina. So my love friend.

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