#232: Pat Bradley: Born For Rescue
Pat Bradley is the Founder of Crisis Aid International, one of the first organizations to show up in “no-go zones” where starvation, disease, and danger are part of everyday life.
He is a committed follower of Jesus who desperately wants to demonstrate the love of Christ in the world.
Links:
https://www.spiritandtruth.life/
EP. 232
Tony: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome to the Reclamation Podcast, where our goal is to help you reclaim good practices for following Jesus. If we haven't met yet, my name is Tony and I'm your host with over a decade in the local church. I care deeply and passionately about helping you connect with Jesus in intentional ways every single week through these interview episodes and monologue episodes.
I'm just trying to put content out in the. To help you move a little bit closer to Jesus. Today's conversation was a fun one. Pat Bradley, born for rescue. Pat Bradley kind of started a, a nonprofit, all about how to help and rescue people. It's incredible. His latest resource, born For Rescue tells some riveting stories about, um, crisis aid, international crisis aid inter.
Is one of the first organizations to show up where [00:01:00] people aren't allowed to be, where starvation, disease and danger are part of everyday life. And more than that, you're just gonna love Pat's heart. He loves the Lord, he loves the mission that God has him in, and I'm so excited for this conversation. If you enjoy it, do me a favor, follow him on socials and, uh, let him know you heard him here on the Reclamation Podcast.
Also, be sure to hit that subscribe button wherever you listen to podcasts. Leave a rating or review on iTunes or Spotify, and obviously the highest compliment you can give us. Share this episode with a friend, maybe somebody who you know, loves to do good in the world. Now, without any further ado, here's my conversation with Pat.
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm excited today to have author, um, c e o and nonprofit leader Pat Bradley. Pat, thank you so much for being here today. Oh,
Pat: thank you, Tony. It's an honor to be here.
Tony: Well, I, I love the mission that God has put [00:02:00] in your life, and I know that you've kind of, uh, been in this world for about 20 years and you've obviously done some other things.
You've, you've led, uh, kind of a diverse life. I'm, I'm curious, you know, to kind of kick us off, how would you describe the calling that God has placed on your life?
Pat: his calling on my life, which is the same calling that most of us have as believers, is simply to demonstrate the love of God to people. Mm-hmm. . And the second part of that, uh, man, that's a great question. I don't, I don't think I've ever been asked that question. So the second part of that would be in Matthew 25, 33 to 40, where.
basically summarizes, says, whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me. Hmm. And so I find that, um, that verse is probably, has more [00:03:00] freedom in it for me than almost anything in the Bible because, um, for years I wondered how, how can I serve God and what's the will of God for my life? And how do I know I'm going to hear from God?
And Jesus just said, Hey man, whatever you do, whatever, whatever you. , those two keywords. Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me. And so it was like, okay, well what's on my heart to do? Hmm. Let me follow, let me just follow my heart. And I realized as I start following my heart, I was in the center of God's will for my life.
And it was all, it was always there. I didn't need this audible word, or I didn't need to be led from God because when I gave my life to Christ, before I even did that, before I was even born, he had me wired and. To do what I do today, and it was just a matter of the freedom of seeing what Jesus said. Hey man, whatever you do, you know, clothe the naked, go to prison, feed the poor, help the widows, all of those things.
[00:04:00] Whatever you do for me, you're doing it for them or for them. You're doing it for me. So I just find so much freedom in that.
Tony: Yeah, I, I love that. Um, and I've had the opportunity to check out this latest resource Born for Rescue, and one of the things that I noticed is that you're really vulnerable about some of your past.
Um, and you. You haven't always, uh, probably lived with so much intimacy with the Lord, right? You, you know, I, I'm curious how, what, what was that moment in your life that shifted and all of a sudden you realize, I need to get right with Jesus, or else this is gonna go downhill real fast. ,
Pat: uh, well, the, the, the full story's in the book, but the short version of it is the, I was, my wife and I were divorced and, uh, I went to the church that she was taking our children to cuz I wanted to see, cause I thought I was a cult [00:05:00] and why we were sitting in church, they had worship and I mean, this was a mega church.
There was like 4,000 people there, and I'd never been into anything like this. Hmm. , I was kind of freaked out anyway. And after worship was, um, I, people like standing up, singing and clapping and raising their hands and I'd never seen nothing like this. So I was like, whoa, this is a cult. And we sat down and um, I got real quiet and then this guy stands up and he starts speaking in what I knew.
For whatever reason, I knew it was tongues. Oh, wow. Yeah. And um, . Now I'm really, my mind's really going tilt. You know, something's really crazy about this. And the pastor said now, and he explained what that was, and he said, now I have the interpretation. And he went through it biblically, like you're supposed to have an interpretation for when somebody stands up like that in a church service.
And so he said that what God is speaking to him was, and this is what I heard, was. . God [00:06:00] was saying, speaking to me, how many times must I call you? Hmm. Now what I gotta tell, I gotta tell you this. As soon as the pastor started to speak this cloud, I like this cloud came over me. And I mean, like, literally I couldn't see, and I f I found myself as insane as this sounds sobbing uncontrollably.
I couldn't stop sobbing. . Half of my brain's going, you have lost your mind. You are insane with this. People are staring at you, you're making a scene. But I mean, literally I couldn't see, and I heard this voice three times. How many times do I have to call you? And I knew instantaneously it was, it was Jesus.
I knew it was God and, and I gave my life to Christ. So that's how I came to the Lord. It was. an interesting experience to say. And then my ex-wife sitting next to me, she thought I totally went crazy. . She . [00:07:00] She's like, what is wrong with you? I'm like, I don't know, but I can't quit crying. . And then we got remarried six months later,
Tony: And How long have you been married?
Since?
Pat: Ooh. I don't wanna tell you to tell you, give you an idea how old. I'm like, um, for like 40 years. That's. been a long time . Yeah.
Tony: Now, before that, um, you're also really candid in the book about wrestling with some of your own demons around drinking. Yes. Oh, it was definitely. Y you know, I, I, I have, I have wrestled with similar demons in my life.
And, um, and I, I'm curious, I'm curious if you could just give a word to someone who feels like they're in a cycle of being trapped by some, you know, maybe by their own life choices, if they th thought about it, but also maybe they just feel like they're in quicksand and the harder that they try to get out the, the more and more deeper they sink.
What. [00:08:00] I don't know. Do you, do you have a word of encouragement for somebody who might be in that season of life?
Pat: Yeah, I do. Um, you know that as in a book, you know, I was an alcoholic and, um, the one thing I learned after I had sobered up and I was volunteering in treatment centers and doing a lot of AA meetings and things, the, the bottom line is this, when you finally hit your bottom or when you get sick and tired of being sick and.
You're ready to do something. And if there's people out there listening today and they can go in the closet and say to themselves out loud, I am so sick of this change is right around the corner, lasting permanent changes around the corner. But we really have to get ourselves to that point where I'm so sick of this, I, I have to change.
And you know, I hear a lot about deliverance and all and all of that, and that's fine and we do need to pray. But from my experie, Those that [00:09:00] reach that point were the ones that were most likely to, to move on and become successful.
Tony: Yeah. One of the things that we say around here a lot is that if you're not dedicated to your disciplines, you'll be destroyed by your distractions.
Pat: Yeah. Yeah. Very good statement.
Tony: Thank you. Thank you. I'm, I'm curious, uh, what does your daily disciplines look like that have kept you one close to God and two sober and three seemingly joyful, um, for these many years since that rock bottom moment?
Pat: Well, I think, um, the number one thing I do is every morning I try to spend a good hour or, or.
Just, you know, and quote our quiet time and yeah, you know, I gotta share and I got my books and I got my Bible and, but you know, it's in that time when I really hear, hear more clearly from God than any other time and it just sets my day up. Um, and it just keeps me in that, um, in uh, that [00:10:00] relationship, that personal relationship that I can just be who I am.
And cuz sometimes in church, um, there's so many distractions, let's just say it, that. That that I can't find myself sitting in a church service and just being able to go, Lord, you know what? This really sucks. I am trying to deal with this on what is happening over there and why is this not working out and I need to get some answers from you today or tomorrow at the latest.
I can't do that in church, but I can do that my quiet time. So that is the single most important thing to me. Is to do that. And some days it's a half an hour, you know? But, um, that, that is for me, it,
Tony: uh, one of the interesting things is, um, you just were like, Hey, sometimes I spend an hour, sometimes I spend an hour and a half, sometimes I spend a half an hour in quiet time.
Um, and also you had this miraculous kind of come to Jesus meeting. Um, I I, how long did it take [00:11:00] you to get to a place where you're. in, in a good rhythm with quiet time where you're spending some really deep time, because I can't imagine you went straight from Sunday morning converting to church to the, you know, Monday I'm gonna spend an hour in the Bible.
Yeah. It, it doesn't work like that for most of us. Yeah. And I think that there's probably somebody listening who's like, man, I want more time with the Lord. I'm wondering if you could give them like one or two steps that you took.
Pat: Well, so when I, when I gave my life to. I think I was like 30 years old. So we were raised, you know, we got remarried and we were trying to raise kids and so, I mean, we were busy with all of that.
And so during that time, I wasn't spending that kind of hour a day. That came much later in my walk. I'd say in the last maybe 10 years of my life, you know, my kids are grown and they're out of the house and they have been. Yeah. So that afforded me the luxury to be able to do that. when I had kids, I'd have to get up at three o'clock in the morning to do that.
And I'm just not that psych . Um, but what I think, what I [00:12:00] wanna encourage people is this, is that we seem to forget a simple little fact. When we give our life to Christ, it's permanent. Yeah. And in Jesus' eyes, it's permanent. And when you are living your life, Raising your children, and then you're going to school meetings and you gotta go to grocery store, husband goes to work, wife goes to work.
I mean, just when you're living your life, you're still living it in Christ because you gave that life to him in totality, and that's how he sees it. And so for the longest time, 15 years, I never grasped that. I never even thought about it that way, but I was at, at the end of the day, is I'm either Christ's or I'm not.
Mm. And so Sure, sure. God knows we have children are ready. I mean, he understands our situation and, and I don't believe he sits there and go, well, they didn't. They didn't have their one hour quiet time this morning, so I'm not blessing him. I didn't think. It doesn't work that way. [00:13:00] We are completely enveloped by his arms of love and strength and hope to carry through every single day and to be an outreach to other people during that day, during our time.
Tony: I love that. I think that that makes a lot of sense. One of the things that's really evident as I dove into this writing a little bit is that your relationship with your wife has grown with your spiritual maturity, which is such a a, it's such a blessing. Um, I I wanted to take a second and, and read the dedication page.
Sure. Uh, I, I learned a long time ago, I, I stole this from a friend of mine, Ryan Hawk. About reading dedication pages because it really gives you an insight to people that's off script. And so I wanted to read the, the dedication page and then give you a, a second to speak to it. It, it's right in a line with what we're already talking about.
It. It reads like this, this book is dedicated to you, Susan. Without your unwavering fifth, this book would not [00:14:00] exist. Your belief in the dream that God gave us has never faded. This dream has only grown over the years. Your belief in God has become the foundation on which helping millions of people rests and continue to help millions more.
Thank you for taking me back because if you did not, there would not have been no dream to believe in. I love you forever. I also dedicate this book to God. Thank you for everything you have given and done for us. So you probably haven't looked at that in a long time. Um, . I'm curious, how would you describe the growth that you've seen with Susan?
Um, since she said yes the second time.
Pat: Okay. I, you know, it's funny, our, the only argument we really have, have had. going on 40 years of being remarried is who took each, like I say, you took me back. She says, [00:15:00] no, you took me back. So we've, yet we've yet to resolve it. ,
Tony: I love
Pat: that. Yeah. Um, well,
you know, early on before the crisis aid days, I mean we were living life. I was a partner in marketing organization. It was a successful company. We were doing very, very well. . And so we just had to, what I wanna say, a typical life to what a lot of people have. But at as time went on, um, and as ministry work started to go and grow, you know, we were doing some crazy things like going to South Sudan, going to Afghanistan, going to North Korea.
We were going places where we're not. , but Susan never Fal or her never worried, or she's like, I know that you are hearing from God. And so I know being in the center of God's will is the most safest place to be. And if that's in Afghanistan, so be it. Mm-hmm. . Uh, but I think, um, [00:16:00] the, the one thing that I always wanted and I, that I work personally towards is I always wanted my wife to be my best.
because I thought I brought a, uh, dimension into the relationship. I mean, husband and wife. Yeah. Um, you know, she's my lover. She's everything. But I also wanted to be my best friend because you, you know, you just adds, I don't know how else to say. It adds a fullness to the relationship that we had. And so frankly, it was a choice.
I just decided, okay, she's gonna be my best friend. I'd made that decision. Now she is . Oh,
Tony: that's be. . Um, I, I would imagine, you know, I, I, you kind of briefly talked about the, the trips that you take, and we're gonna, we're gonna jump into Crisis eight a little bit more here in just a second. But, um, there's, there's some couples listening.
I know for a fact that. Um, are struggling about [00:17:00] this really big God calling that maybe one person has in their relationship and the other person's just not sure what to do. Right? Like, there, there's a lot of, I mean, I, there has to be so much emotion that that parallels sending your. Husband off to do ministry work in South Sudan or Korea or all the different places that you've been Afghanistan and, you know, uh, h how do you guys live into that tension and, and do it well?
Pat: Um, really simply it was, we both believed what we, we both believed that we were hearing from. . Hmm. And we, and I'm just gonna stop it right there cause I don't wanna try to elaborate on it. We just had this confidence we were hearing from God and we just kept taking the next step that was in front of us.
And some were very illogical steps and some were very logical steps, but it was just based on a foundation that [00:18:00] we are hearing from God. God is guiding us in. Let's just keep moving forward. Um, and. Through the nineties, I would take vacation time and do mission trips and I wouldn't take my wife or children cuz we were smuggling bibles in restricted countries.
And it just wasn't a good, wasn't, I didn't feel it was safe for them, but they, they always had that peace and, um, yeah, I, you know, Tony, I'm, I think it Christians, we try to complicate our lives so much. So I really strive to be, strive to be simple as I can possibly be. And. You know, it, it came down to this, if I had given my heart to God, and the Bible says, you know, if we ask and we believe all we're asking, he'll tell us.
He'll give us the wisdom, he'll give us the guidance. And so we were asking the whole time for wisdom and guidance, and I either had to act on that or I had to not act on it and just simply chose, let's act [00:19:00] on it and see what happens. Did it make sense? Yeah, no,
Tony: perfect sense. It's, it's a small step of faithfulness, right?
Like Yeah. Um, in, in my rec in the recovery world, it's, it's one day at a time. Like, Hey, I'm just, exactly, yeah. I'm just gonna do whatever the Lord wants me to do today and then see what happens tomorrow, right? Like, mm-hmm. . Um, I, I think that, that, that makes a lot of sense. Were there any trips that you ever went on that you and Susan didn't have, uh, agreement on?
Pat: There was one time. So I work with a, a friend of mine in South, he was from South Africa, um, from St. Louis, Missouri. So we would meet like in Nairobi and we'd fly up to Kenya and do our, do our work for a week or so, a week or two. And Sue was always positive and, and you know, she dropped me off at Europe, but with this one time she got out of the car and she starts.
and she couldn't stop sobbing. And it was like, okay, now you gotta . I'm like, you're making this scene. Stop this , people are, people are [00:20:00] stopping to look what they're gonna think. I'm abusing you or something. But, um, it, it was weird, you know, and it was, was a trip. We were going to South Sudan and then from there we were going to Afghanistan moves coming home.
Never experienced it. I almost didn't get on that. . Wow. Because I'm like, Lord, what are you speaking to her? To me, what's going on? I don't understand this. But ultimately, I got on a plane, I ended up in, you know, in Nairobi and met my partner and I said, Hey, I gotta tell you what happened to me today. And this has never happened.
And it's never happened since either. It was just that one time. And I explained to him and he looked at me and he was like shocked because the identical same thing happened to him and his wife. they, when she took him to the airport. So we're like, should we just hang out in Nairobi for two weeks and not tell anybody?
Because it was, it was weird. It was really weird. But that was the only time. Was there anything that, that we, who knows what was prevented that we weren't aware of, but we, we never [00:21:00] had any problem .
Tony: Um, now one, one of the things that I noticed as I was doing a little research on crisis, is that, uh, that kind of, the, the words on the website, the rally cry is, is break the cycle, change the tide.
Mm-hmm. , right? Break the cycle, change the tide. I'm wondering if you could give us like a 30,000 view overview of what this ministry is, because it, um, y y you, you're very clear in the book that you're not superhuman, but this feels like a superhuman, uh, kind of mission that you're on, and I'm wondering if you could kinda, uh, give us some perspective.
Pat: Sure. I think what, um, so what we're doing is, is, uh, first of all, we work in areas where no other organizations are working. So right now in East Africa, uh, we're working in places where there's, children are literally starving to death. Today. In today's world, kids are dying cuz they don't have enough food.
Um, rampant human trafficking, orphanages, just, just [00:22:00] horrible problems. So we go into these areas and we set up programs. to a first, our first goal is to save lives. And so anything that needs to be done to save lives and keep people alive. But since, uh, maybe four years ago now, we're shifting to build more of a sustainability and into our programs to where we go in and we look at, for instance, in this one area, for 10 years, we were doing feeding programs and we were struggling to keep people alive, literally.
And, uh, at the death of a four year. , something just kind of set off in my mind. We gotta ask better questions. We're not asking the right questions, Marc. And so what we started to notice was this girl's father had no opportunities. And so in a, like, as an American, we can't understand that. It, we really can't.
We all hold this belief that anybody can lift themselves up and, and it's true, everybody can, but there are places in the world where [00:23:00] people don't have an opportunity. These. people in this region and then is like maybe 10 million people in this region. For the most part. Many of 'em have go back generations living with their family, not having an opportunity, so they're thinking they don't, they wouldn't recognize it if they saw it.
So they keep doing the same thing over and over, trying to be maybe like sus and its farmers are hiring themselves out as a day laborer where they make, make 50 cents in a day if they're lucky on a good day, and they're trying to support a wife and, you know, three or four kids. It's just, and it wasn't working and it doesn't work.
So what we decided to do was to start building in an economic engine into our program. . So where we can hire, hire local workers, create jobs, uh, but set our programs up as demonstrations. So for instance, in this one area, we set up a dairies and it started out with 20 cows. Now we got 50 some odd cows. Uh, we're building our secondary.
our second barn [00:24:00] to expand it. We sell all the milk every day in town and the profits of that go back into our pediatric hospital to help, to help pay for that. But what we've done now is we've created, in this region, with this program, under this model, probably a hundred jobs that we're never there before.
They did not exist. And but the most important thing is we've got demonstration agriculture projects going. and that includes irrigation. So we're demonstrating to them how they can turn their lives around with what they have presently, and then work on teaching them new skills.
Tony: Hey guys, just pausing this conversation with Pat to remind you to sign up for the spirit and true ck the Spirit's True CK puts out two, uh, different newsletters every single week, all about how to help you lead as a spirit led leader.
To learn more, to sign up, go to Spirit and truth, spirit a and d truth.subs.com. Now [00:25:00] let's finish up this conversation with Pat. I would imagine that the work that you do like this all over the world, um, has to feel heavy at times. And, um, you know, empathy, fatigue and, and just burnout is, is real more now than it ever before.
How, how do you and your team, um, stay alive for the mission that God has called you to in this field?
Pat: Um, you know, you said it earlier, one, I mean, one of the things is one day at a time, today. Uh, Jesus said, today's gonna have enough of enough problems of its own. Don't worry about it tomorrow until it gets here.
That's a, you know, that's a big one. Um, secondly, it's, I have to remind myself that today's the best day of my life. And before I get out of bed every morning, that's the first thing I say to myself. And then I ask, God, why are you so good to me? Mm-hmm. so I can start my mental mindset going [00:26:00] in the right direction.
but you know, all I had to say, it's the grace of God, you know? Yeah. If the grace of God wasn't there, we would, we would collapse in about three seconds. Literally. I.
Tony: One of the things that I saw in, in this, uh, this new resource that you've written is a note from your publisher, which I've never seen before, and I, I get a lot of books, um, and I've seen, like I, I've seen small notes from publishers, but your publisher basically wrote a second forward for the book.
Talking about how all the proceeds from the book Born to Res, born for Rescue are gonna go back into the ministry and they're kind of partnering with you and the, the impact that the ministry has had on the, on the publishing, um, company. Can, can you, can you kind of shed some light on that story? Because I think, I think it's a indicative of how contagious this idea about doing something [00:27:00] is for people today.
Pat: Well, I think so. We met, uh, I met the publish. couple years before the book was published. And long story short, we, he came over to, uh, east Africa with us and went on a, what we call a vision trip and experienced our work firsthand. And he said, and this is what he told me, he said, pat, I've been on many mission trips to many countries.
He goes, what we experienced here was a change in my life, like I have never experienced. Hmm. And so, It's so moved him. He's the one that talked us into doing the book because he was with us for a week. Um, now prior to that, they had selected crisis aid as their recipient. So part of the, uh, their net profits go to World Vision and, and the other part comes to crisis aid.
So they support us just because of the work that we're doing. , but I had him come over cuz I wanted him to experience the work. I wanted him to see it and meet the people that his [00:28:00] organization is helping. Um, and so naturally when you're there, you're telling stories about past trips and da da da. And so he's the one that actually convinced me to write the book.
Tony: Yeah. And, and just full, full credit, right? It's, it's I Disciple publishing. Yes. And, and you can, you can check out their website@idisciplepublishing.com. Um, w what was it like for you to write the book? Because obviously you're boots on the ground kind of guy. You, you want to get your hands dirty. I can't imagine the thought of you pouring over words like this for, you know, writing a book can be a very long and tedious process.
What did you learn about yourself in this. ,
Pat: I learned that what you just said was exactly right on the head. You hit the nail on the head. I sat down and tried to write a chapter, and then after like a half a day, I'm like, I'm, this isn't gonna work. . And, and when, when, uh, David was on that trip to, to East Africa that week.
He would say to me several times, you know, you need to write a book. You need to write a book. [00:29:00] You need to write a book. I'm like, David, I told you number one, I don't want to end up with 5,000 books in my basement because I can't sell 'em. Number two, I didn't start this ministry to be a book sailor. I didn't, you know, to sell, have to sell books.
I don't know where to publish. I don't know. I don't wanna deal with marketing or any of that, the business side of it. And, uh, he said, okay, fair enough. And so I went, after he got home, I went down there to visit with them and then, um, He asked me again and I said, David, you know what I said when we were in East Africa, da, da da, da.
And he goes, well, what if I take all of those away from you? What do you mean? What if I take all those excuses away and tell you that we will market it, we will publish it, we will produce it, we'll ship it, we'll inventory it, we'll sell it, and um, take care of everything for. I said, okay, that's all great, but you know, I can't sit there and write a book.
I'm not gonna sit. It'll take me 10 years. He goes, well, I think I got a good ghost writer that would be more than doing great job for you. I'm like, okay, you [00:30:00] dirty rat . Now I got a . So I said, okay. And, uh, so for me, what I did was I sat down for like a day and a half with the writer, John Driver, who's written a, a number of books.
He's a pastor himself and. just told the stories, you know, just told the stories from my heart and what my memory and what we experienced here and there and there. And, uh, John was the guy that kind of put it all together and I thought he did a masterful job because if you could have seen the notes in the note board, and I mean, Tony, we were bouncing from North Korea to Indonesia, to Haiti, back to North Korea.
I, it was just everywhere and, and, uh, so you figured out how to pull it together and it's like following the pages of a pass.
Tony: I'm curious, there's a sediment among some Christians, um, that we need to help the people here in the us mm-hmm. before we go international. Mm-hmm. , um, you know, kind of, we [00:31:00] need to clean up our ER before we go help somebody else's. I'm wondering if you could kind of speak to how you. y you handle that?
Objection. It's, it's not an opinion I hold personally, but I've heard it before. Especially when taking, taking groups on mission trips. Well, kind of what's your thought process or how, how do you respond? Cuz I'm sure an organization as big as yours that's doing as much good as yours comes are under attack.
That's how these things work, right? Mm-hmm. spiritual attack is real. So how, how do you wrestle with that?
Pat: Um, a couple things. One that has happened. And more often than not, it's happened from people, from the church, people that are in the church.
Tony: Almost always. Yeah. Almost always. People from the
Pat: church. And so my response to them is really simple.
Hey, you know what? That's the job by the church, is a church on every corner in America, our poorest, our rich compared to the people that were serving overseas. Mm-hmm. . And secondly, [00:32:00] um, I responded and go, well, we do have programmings in. . We have sex trafficking rescue, we have sex trafficking prevention, and we have a large feeding program here in St.
Louis. So we are working here as well as, uh, overseas.
Tony: I, I'm curious too. I I, and I have a bunch of notes that I don't know if we're gonna get all of 'em or not, but, uh, I'm curious about how you guys wrestled through Covid. I mean, you're, you're an organization that's, relationally driven, which I love because I think that's the way Jesus did it.
I think Jesus was relational. I think, um, Jesus challenges us to be relational and you seem to build relationships where you, where you go places you do acute care, but, but long-term relationships seems to be the kind of the mode that I see from your ministry. Um, how, how did Covid impact you guys and obviously besides the, the obvious ability to get around, What, what did it do to you guys and, and what did it [00:33:00] opportunities presented themselves in that season?
Pat: Well, um, COVID was good for us, frankly. We were, we were considered an essential business, so we were able to keep our doors open. Great. Um, and at the time we were feeding about 400 families a month at our inner city program. But, and it's been, my wife has been running that now. She, 20, 25 years she's been involved with it.
And so we've been doing that for years. Um, we went out, we did a food distribution here in St. Louis like everybody does, where people drive up and you put item in their trunk and you see 'em all over the country. And it dawn on me like, you know, there's no dignity in this for the people. How do they people feel?
How would I feel if I had to come and get food because I can't feed my. , you know, and there were people that are making $150,000 living out in, in, you know, a nice part of the city, and they were in those food lines because they lost their jobs and, and they were about to lose their cars. They were about [00:34:00] to lose their homes.
And, you know, how, how would it make them feel? How would I feel for them coming in? So we came up with an idea about, let's redo this and let's bring in, because science has proven giving makes you feel. So there's a good feeling attached to giving. Let's go on the principle that giving feels good, and let's help them turn around from being recipients to givers, givers of what we've given to them for them to share.
So we did that. We tried that, and we tested it and it went really, really well. Hmm. People, people would drive up in our parking lot. Tony, you could just see the body language. You could just read. the depression and stuff. And so we just had this bag with two cans and put a nice little note on it and said, Hey, if you want, you know, share this with somebody else because there are others in need, even worse than you.
But in. You're valuable. And so we just, we [00:35:00] like respecting the dignity of all people is one of, is one of our core values. So our, we approach it and how do we help people reestablish their dignity? And when we handed those bags and explained what it was for you, literally people sat there and start to cry.
They just broke down. It was like something broken them and they pulled away and they were smiling. We got great reports on it. And so, um, that one we did was like, Hundred 20, 150. And so our team got back to the office and everybody's wound up and excited how cool it was, and it really was. But I'm thinking, you know, we feed 10,000 people every month in East Africa.
That is nothing. You guys are excited about something that is so below what we're doing overseas and what our capacity, ability to do here is they go, what do you wanna do about it? I go, well, let's bump into 4,000. Let's go from 400 a month to 4,000. . Wow. Are you crazy? I go, yeah. They go, [00:36:00] well, where's the money gonna come from?
I said, I know God will bring it in. And three weeks later we started our first distribution and we were doing 4,000 families a month for 18 months. God provided. So that's what we do with Covid. It exploded our inner city , and it was good for us. It was financially the best year we ever had. .
Tony: Wow. Um, you, you have two kids.
Is that. I do. Yeah. Two kids. I, I'm curious. Okay, so your wife's run a, an inner city feeding program. She's basically Mother Teresa. You're like the James Bond of the ministry world. . So, well, . Well, I just, you, you know, I was thinking to myself as you were, as you were talking about your wife and, uh, and you, and you know, you guys have obviously had your struggles.
I'm not saying you're perfect, but. How, how do your kids deal or, or wrestle with the tension of like, man, my mom is Mother Teresa, my dad's the James Bond of, [00:37:00] of the Mission Field World. What, uh, what's been, what's, what's their relationship with the ministry? I would assume it has to be love hate sometimes.
Pat: Yeah. No, I mean, it's, they, you know, . They kind of grew up in it. Grew up in it, you know. Yeah. So as they were young kids, it is just always been a part of our life. Mission trips and stuff, so they don't see as, as Mother Teresa or James Bond. They've seen the other side of us too. .
Tony: Well, let, let me ask you this cuz you, because you got, you obviously have some wisdom here, right?
H how do, I've got three kids, 16, 12, and 10. How do I raise my kids with a posture of, of being on mission? .
Pat: Uh, I think the simplest way to do that is to do it yourself and let them see it. Hmm. Because kids reach an age where they don't listen. And I can tell you from my experience, it probably starts around 12 and it went to about, hmm, mid [00:38:00] twenties.
Tony: Where you didn't gimme any hope. I was hope. I was really hoping you were like 17, 18 .
Pat: Well, once outta high school, things start to change. Things do start to change. But, um, you know, if you're, if you're saying one thing and you're living your life differently, no matter what you say to your children, they're gonna see what you're doing.
Mm. And it's what you're saying will never resonate with them. They have to see it first. That was always my belief. And so we raised our kids that way and you know, praise God, they've turned out really well. They're both married, got families, got good careers, they love God. Um, couldn't ask for more, so That's awesome.
Yeah. And, and also crisis age started Tony, um, because up until. 2000 2002. I was taking two weeks a year and going on a, taking my vacation time and you know, going on mission trips. So Crisis A didn't [00:39:00] start until they were out of the house.
Tony: Oh, okay. So the, I yeah, I see what you're saying. So it kind of shifted in, in different seasons of their life and Yeah.
As that worked out together, um, So I, I know one of the things about my community is that they love to pray and as they pray about this book, um, kind of what, what should they be praying for? Like when you wrote it, like what's the end goal? Um, that we could walk alongside you in prayer. Oh,
Pat: thank you.
That's so, that means so much to me. I wanna see this book be like a, I want, I want this book. Get into a million people's hands, whether we give it to 'em or they buy it or sell. However, I would love to see a million people get it in her hands, because I know the power of a book, and there's a book called God Smuggler.
Have you ever heard of that one? Hmm. It's the story of brother Andrew, who is the founder of a ministry called Open Doors. . [00:40:00] They were the first ones that went back, and this goes back into the sixties, early sixties, where he was actually going behind the iron Kirkman and getting involved with underground churches, and he came out with and informed the world about Christian persecution that none of us knew about.
Wow. Anyway, he wrote a book. It was a very funny story because he didn't wanna write the book. So he did it. He told some stories and to some writers and they did a masterful job. Anyway, uh, the night I got saved, the church had a bookstore in on the incap. There was a book and it said God smuggler, and I was very intrigued by this book.
Title. So I took it home and started reading. I didn't own a Bible. I started reading it and I couldn't put it down. And I finished it the next night and I prayed a simple prayer. I said, God, if you ever want to use me to help those being persecuted at, just make myself available. And that was it. That's all I prayed.
But that came from a book and I couldn't tell tell you today, if [00:41:00] I had not read that book, I'd still be a believer. But crisis A would not. , that book changed something in me and Hmm, I've heard the leadership and, and open doors over the years, say, thousands and thousands of people have made that claim and it's, and it's changed their lives.
It put people in the mission field or just, you know, changed their lives in a positive, immense, demonstrable, measurable way here in America or wherever they live, not just philosophically. It changed my life. So my prayer is when people read this book, The dca, I am nothing, I'm not any special. I'm not superhero.
I don't have any, you know, hidden talents. I'm a guy who totally screwed his life up and threw it down the drain and got picked it up and he used me to, you know, do these great, you know, create crisis aid. But what I want people to, to get is a God can use them, but more importantly, [00:42:00] God wants to use them.
So we spend so much time, God, what's your will for my life? What's your will for my life? What if we spent half of that time convincing ourselves that God wants to use me already where I'm at? And goes back to that, the simplicity of whatever you do for the least of me, these. So I would love for this to, to, for Christians to read this book and get out of the church pew and start doing something.
And becoming the body of Christ that Jesus wants us to become. That's my main goal in this book.
Tony: I love it. I love it. Um, I, I close every podcast by saying, if you wanna follow Jesus, you must be willing to move. And so this feels, uh, uh, perfect. Uh, steal that anytime you want. Um, okay, , I I have one more question for you, but before I ask it, I know that my listeners are gonna want to [00:43:00] connect with you.
Where's the best thing, uh, best place to learn all things about what you're doing and what, uh, what God is doing in and through your ministry.
Pat: It would be our website, crisis aid.org,
Tony: crisis aid.org. Of course, we'll link to that in the show notes, um, and, and get connected there. Uh, you guys have a pretty robust social media presence too on Instagram especially.
Um, okay, so last question. I always love to ask people. It's an advice question, and I'm gonna ask you to go back and give yourself one piece of advice, except I get to name the season of life that you're in. When you give that advice, and I wanted to take you , there's a twist. There's always a twist.
Pat: You, you've asked some original questions.
I am really enjoying.
Tony: Thank you. Uh, okay, pat, so here it is. I want to take you back to the day before you go to check out the cult, um, with your [00:44:00] then ex-wife. If you could pull up a chair in front of that young man. Sit knee, a knee with him. Hold his hand, look him in the eye. What's the one thing that you're gonna tell him?
Pat: That's a good, I mean, several things pop into my head. Um,
I would say this, do you know God has a really special plan for your life? Would you like to learn a little bit more about that?
Yeah. Because at that moment, You could have said to me, well, Jesus went, you know, pray the sins prayer. Jesus wants to save you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You'd have never reached me. My mind was already turned off to the whole Christian message. [00:45:00] But as I think back on it, if someone was sitting across from me and the one thing they could say to get my attention, you know, our, our, our salvation is a heart.
But it starts up here. It has to start up here. And that would be the one thing that would get my attention. Cause I would probably go, what do you mean? Yeah. You know?
Tony: Oh, that's good. That's good. I'm gonna throw in a bonus question cuz I, I'm really curious. Um, I know we never retire from ministry, um, but obviously how we do ministry changes and seasons change.
What's the next season of ministry look like for you?
Pat: Well, for crisis aid right now, I want it to go on for another a hundred years. Okay. Yeah, because the things that we're doing, um, pediatric hospitals, medical work, feeding work, they're all very, very important lifesaving [00:46:00] programs that need to continue on in indefinitely until Jesus comes back.
So I've been spending the last couple of years spending a lot of my thinking and praying time about what's in the next generat. . Hmm. And starting to try to set things up. So like for instance, all of our work in, uh, east Africa, which is, we're, uh, probably 75% of our budget is we've got 18 separate projects running over there.
I have a, a husband and wife team in there, late fifties, mid to early, late fifties. Um, and they run everything and they have been a godsend. They. 15 years. They know my heart. I know their heart. I feel very good that that works in good hands there. So now I've been spending time trying to get, um, you know, getting the office, the administration side of this, not just to work in St.
Louis, but we also run an office. You know, cause a nonprofit is such a bad term as a business manager coming outta the business [00:47:00] world, right? It's like stupid term. I mean, if it's a nonprofit, you're not gonna work, you're not gonna be around. So we have to manage cash. What's the cash flow management thing?
And so it's just getting thing, getting this office set up to continue because all the development work, fundraising comes out of this office and. For instance, we have the highest accreditations you can get from Charity Navigator. They ranked us in the top one half of 1% of nonprofits in America. I mean, you can't get higher than that.
But to get those things, it takes a lot of internal work that you have to do, manage your funds properly, be a hundred percent transparent. And so there's a lot of work that goes into doing this work, not just handing a, you know, I always, I always said, Nope, people wouldn't believe how much work goes into handing out a bag.
if we do it with excellence. Yeah. And so getting this office set up, but, and, and we're probably 75% there, so it's in a really good place. Like if I die now, yeah, tomorrow this [00:48:00] thing would continue. I already know it would the right people in the right place. So for me, going forward would be okay. So I'm really passionate.
crisis aid and what we do in trafficking, rescue and all that stuff. But what I'm is equally passionate about, and sometimes I think maybe I'm even more passionate, is I wanna see the church come out of the church pew and become the body of Christ. I wanna see believers go from boredom to excitement in life because they walking and what God created them to walk.
Mm-hmm. . And when you're doing. , there's an excitement already. B, built in into our DNA because we're following what God wired us to do. And so it is not like I don't have to create the energy to do it. I'm wired to do this. I was created to do this, and so I just have the natural energy and excitement to do it, and I also we're gonna affect the world unless Christians get out of the pew and demonstrate the love of God.
They think that we all have to go out and be able to preach the gospel. . [00:49:00] Well, you know what? I don't preach the gospel. I'm not a, I can't get up there and give a great sermon and you know, get millions to get saved. But what I can do is go out there and demonstrate the God, the love of God, and that's what I have found Tony for where God sends us, that's the most important thing because once we demonstrate it and they see it and grasp it and feel it, their hearts are open.
Yeah, and I've seen it happen with warlords. I've seen it happen with Taliban. I've seen it happen with girls trapped in a red light district. I've seen it happen with pimps. People are dying to know that God loves 'em, but they're never going to hear it. They gotta see it.
Tony: Hmm. So good. Pat, thank you so much for being so generous with your time today And my
Pat: honor.
Thank you.
Tony: I just appreciate your heart for the gospel and how it plays out to build a kingdom of God. So thank you for the work that you're doing, and I just wanna encourage everyone to go pick up a copy of Born For Rescue and Follow Crisis Aid on all their, uh, all their social media [00:50:00] channels, and maybe consider making a financial gift to help, uh, consider to spur on what God is doing in and through this ministry.
So thank you so much. What a blessing it is to hear from Pat and to get to know more and more of his story. I just think he's got such a great, great heart when it comes to serving people. What a great perspective. I really appreciate his vulnerability about his relationship with his wife and how that has grown over the years.
Guys, I'm thankful for you for this connection, for the opportunity you give me to do what I love by putting out podcasts every single. Hey, the best compliment you can give me, share this episode with a friend, share it on social media, tag me if there's anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to let me know.
Remember guys, if you wanna follow Jesus, you must be willing to move.
