GLO Podcast
Welcome to the GLO Podcast
''Gods Little One'' is a non-profit organization. Our podcast is dedicated to sharing stories about our mission. And the work that we do in the mountains of Honduras. it is our intention to inspire, uplift, & encourage others to join and support our efforts. And to send out the call '' Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel'' (Mark 16:15.
GLO Podcast
Adventures and Mishaps in Missions with Richard Swinnnea and Jonathan Schmid part 1
If you hav want questions. Let us know and maybe they will show up on a future podcast.
Picture this: navigating the treacherous, winding roads of Honduras, heart pounding as you narrowly escape the edge of a cliff. That's just a slice of the adventure Richard Swinnea and Jonathan Schmid embarked on during their missions work. From toeing the line between chaos and compassion at toy drives to the relentless heat of construction sites, this episode of the God's Little One Podcast promises tales of dedication and the incredible heartwarming gratitude of the people they serve.
Prepare to be entertained by the hilarious travel mishaps that accompany serious mission work. Richard and Jonathan recount their unintended airport adventures, including a near-miss with security involving a pistol and a subsequent fine that's no laughing matter. Add to that a tale about trying to board a plane with a hammer, and you'll find yourself chuckling at the unpredictability of travel. These stories remind us of the human side of mission work—filled with unexpected turns and lots of laughter.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the God's Little One Podcast. I'm your host, Kent, and today we have got this is the second time doing this, but we've got two people we're talking to at once. We are talking to Richard Sweeney and Jonathan Schmid. They're both deacons at House of Prayer in Oakdale, Louisiana, and it's good to have you all on today.
Speaker 2:Good to be here. Good to be here. Good to be here, Kent.
Speaker 1:So I've been trying to do this podcast for a little while now, but we're finally able to do it. So the first thing I want to talk about is how did you both get involved with missions work?
Speaker 2:Go ahead, Rich.
Speaker 3:Well, you know my dad. He did it for years and years. We used to go, when I was a kid, to Mexico and I quit going and he started his Honduras stuff and once he went he always wanted me to go, but I never went until he passed away and that's when I got involved with it.
Speaker 2:Johnny, what about you? I started going I'm not sure when the first trip I took was maybe like 2012, I think, something like that, 2000,. Yeah, I'm not sure, but just was interested in going and they had a building project going on, building the Glow Center, and so I wanted to go down there and see what it was about and help on that as much as I could, and that's what we did, man. So I've been to Honduras, I think six times, and it's been a while since I've been back, but it grabs your heart when you go, so it's pretty awesome, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was y'all's first trip going?
Speaker 3:My first trip going was when we was, when we right after dad died. It was I don't know how long it was, but that was when we got the piece of property and I wanted to go over there and see about where they was going to put it and kind of get some plans of what was going on. So that was been what.
Speaker 1:12, 13 years ago been a little while yeah johnny, what about you?
Speaker 2:um, uh, like I said, the first time I think I went was probably 2011, 2012, and the building was already underway. Uh, they laid the foundation, had the walls up, yeah, and we were going to actually start on the framing ah rough framing yeah and that was. That was quite a trip. There's a pretty good group actually that went several churches and, uh, it's probably the hardest I've ever worked anywhere. Uh, it was. It was hot, richard, I think. Was it july, june or july, I don't I know it was and it was we come home we look like lobster.
Speaker 2:I mean we was cooked. I've got pictures. I'll try to get to you Kent somewhere of us moving those beams I don't know Luis said they weighed probably close to 900 pounds and getting them up on the building and getting them across there for the ridge and the supports.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like 10 or 12 of us packing it at one time and then you had that one big old tall giant of a guy over there yeah, yeah, me and that guy were in the front and we were the tallest the only tall honduran in honduras that's one thing about the people in honduras.
Speaker 1:They're very short, so it is very rare to find a tall Honduran. Yeah, and he was tall yeah he was big. So the main focus of this podcast is going to be on the Glow Center and the building process and stuff. We've already talked a little bit about that. But before we get into that I want to talk about two other things. First one I want to talk about is you've both been to a feeding station, so talk about your experiences with a feeding station.
Speaker 2:Go ahead, john, my first experience going to a feeding station. The thing that's neat about missions is the response that you see from the locals and it just really the gratefulness of people there, I think, is what people find so attractive and what really draws at them. Uh, because they're extremely grateful. I was. I was surprised at how organized everything was, how organized the kids were. Um, the pastors, really they it's. It has to be an organized function or it's just going to be chaos. Right, but seeing the kids and learning what the kids look like like, being able to tell which ones are emaciated and which ones are really hungry and they're lacking in nutrients, and stuff like that, you can really start to learn. And what's really neat is going back. Once a church has been in a program for a while, you can actually go back and you can see the impact that the food program is having, the nutrients in the food, and you can see the effect firsthand that it's having on the children there and that's pretty powerful.
Speaker 3:Yeah what about you? Yeah, well, the uh. The thing is that you take for granted here, right is, you know you eat and you have food. Yeah, you throw away so much. Yeah, well, there with them kids. They'll get a bowl of food, they'll eat part of it and they would save the rest and bring it home to their kid, their brothers or sisters that couldn't come right yeah, and that was just, you know, an awesome deal you see, because in america, with everybody's so almost selfish, because they get their food, they ain't sharing it with nobody, especially me.
Speaker 3:I don't like sharing my food except shelly you know shelly would take it from yeah but uh, but yeah, and so you go over there and it's like you know they they could eat it all. Yeah, and they will want it all, but just because they know their brother or sister or family member at home couldn't come, they save it, or they save it for later. We eat what we want to eat and whatever we don't. Normally most people are going to throw it out or they're going to say they're going to use it for next meal, but they don't. So that was the coolest.
Speaker 1:I've never personally got to see a feeding station but I've seen the pictures and videos and stuff. I actually got to talk to Brother Joey on a podcast the one we did and he talked about that getting to see the before and after of the feeding program. How cool it is.
Speaker 3:You can tell by the hair. You can tell Because the hair would be stringy and almost looks like it's dry, dry. But when they get on that food and they're eating that, then their hair gets a little more greasy, and you can just tell the difference. Right, the look of them yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 1:The other thing, uh, that I wanted to talk about before we get into the glow center and I'll ask y'all if I miss anything but is about the toy drives. I've seen both y'all on a toy drive, or I know both of you've been on toy drive and johnny, I've seen both of y'all on a toy drive, or I know both of you have been on a toy drive. And Johnny, I've seen you with a box just go out there and just fling the toys out there. So I want y'all both to talk about y'all's experiences with toy drives, anything interesting about y'all seeing them.
Speaker 3:I'm usually just a driver. I'm a rider and driver when it comes to the toy driving, that't know that is something else.
Speaker 2:We gotta talk, we gotta I never did a driver and everybody else is a survivor. Yeah, I never got into it.
Speaker 3:I never got into harley passing the toys yeah I'm usually just there and I'm from point yeah the toy drive, is it?
Speaker 2:it is pretty fun. Uh, I had a black. I've only been on one, uh, and I got to go with, I got to go with your, with your grandma, sister betty, yeah, and we, we always joke back and forth because she's always worried I mean, there'll be. It looks like that whole glow center is full to the ceiling, yeah, of boxes and stuff from all these churches that we've gathered up, and she's, immediately as soon as she gets there, oh there ain't enough toys, there ain't enough toys. There's no way we got enough toys and he's already looking at each other.
Speaker 2:We're like we're like dude, there's plenty, you know, and so I would give her a hard time because these kids would come in and she's like, oh, they just get, they get one soccer ball, or they get one backpack, yeah, or, or, you know, and I'd be like I'd be slipping them an extra backpack behind her back, or you know some extra clothing, and she's like, brother Jonathan, you can't do that.
Speaker 1:We ain't going to have enough and we left.
Speaker 2:I remember that one trip we left and there was enough toys to pass out and I think I bet we had probably 200 soccer balls left over in that room and it's a lot of fun seeing them kids do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know kicking a soccer ball, because I mean their eyes. It's amazing. Their eyes literally just light up over a $5 soccer ball.
Speaker 3:Right, you know, you give them, you know it's pretty incredible. You give them anything yeah, Like even the grown-. You give them anything yeah, Like even the grown-ups. Mm-hmm. You give them a hat that you know almost looks wore out, or a jacket that you know and you think they get a backpack, a string backpack, and they just enjoy it. Yeah, you know they like it because they just don't. There's nothing there.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you remember but we went on. My first trip I went on was a medical trip and we gave Brother Domingo, the pastor of the one church, we gave him glasses and he was loving it and it don't take much to make them happy because they don't have much.
Speaker 3:So when you can give them.
Speaker 1:I went on a toy drive with Harvest Time. I ain't been to where all we did was toy drives, but that was a toy drive. I did go on that one. That was good one uh, and it's good.
Speaker 2:It's pretty neat too with the kids coming to. With the kids. The one I went on, the kids actually came to the glow center like the, if I remember right, the mayors of the town yeah yeah, pay to bus them in.
Speaker 2:And that one bus I want to say I think had 100,. I want to say I think it was like 180 kids on one bus when they pull in. I mean they just kept coming out of there. It looked like a clown car. I mean these kids just piling out of there, man, and still again the organization there because you get 180 kids. It could be pure chaos.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:To me all the ones.
Speaker 2:But they get them lined up and Go ahead. They get them all lined up, you know, really by age and male and female, boy and girl, yeah, and they get them all lined up and that makes it a whole lot easier when they're coming through to get them a toy. It's just a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, to me that was my favorite one to do Was when they went to Was at the Glow Center, Right yeah, because you go to that churches and you go out. But you know the glow center was built, yeah, the whole thing in mind was to use it, to use it for stuff like this and for so long it wasn't used for nothing like that. You know, we went, stayed, yeah, and we lived in it when we was there, right, yeah, but for as the kids come in or the preachers come in and stuff like that, and when they do that, just like the time that me and you met when we had the conference.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, we went to the conference and they all came.
Speaker 3:We did church services, you know that was what it was meant in the beginning for Right yeah. I remember, and so it was so cool because it really hit home with me. Yeah, because of all the work and stuff we did on it, that, because of all the work and stuff we did on it, that's what it was, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, that's what it was built for.
Speaker 3:That was the purpose of it, Because it was a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to that point.
Speaker 1:It was definitely a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
Speaker 3:I think I peeled 24 layers of skin off after that trip me and Jonathan went on Because of the diesel fuel and the oil they put on the post to preserve it. Well, it was hot and that stuff's all over your hands. You would wipe your face and it would just when we come back. Everybody was peeling and busted. It was crazy.
Speaker 1:I remember hearing about that. It was bad.
Speaker 3:We was like lobsters, it was crazy. Yeah, but we worked we built a whole building in a week. Oh, my word it was crazy. It was a lot of work.
Speaker 1:I remember seeing the pictures and they didn't do forest like over there.
Speaker 3:They didn't do valleys and stuff like that, and so we had to build all that?
Speaker 1:yeah, because they didn't know what to do, right? Yeah, they didn't know it was.
Speaker 3:It was a lot of.
Speaker 1:It was a lot of work yeah, I got two stories that just came to my mind I want to talk about. I want got one I want to talk about you driving, and then I got one I want to talk about johnny with you. I remember a story. I don't know if you remember. If you don't remember we won't talk about it, but I remember there's a story. This little boy, he had on like a pink shirt and not the best of clothes and you gave him clothes. Talk about that. He made him take the shirt off.
Speaker 2:Do you remember that? I'm not sure what, I'm not sure what was it? Yeah, you tell him he had that pink shirt on.
Speaker 3:He was like dude, you don't wear pink. And you took the shirt off and give him like a sports shirt or something. I can't remember what shirt it was. Yeah, he came in and he was a little boy at the golf center.
Speaker 2:He was wearing a pink shirt and I said no, no, no, no, no, no. We don't promote that around here, let's get something. Yeah, let's get something on. Let's get you some manly clothes.
Speaker 3:We was running them kids through that building like cattle. Oh yeah, they ran them through, we were running them, kids, through that building like cattle.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it was.
Speaker 3:Oh my, oh yeah, they'd run them through the front door out the side door fast as they could.
Speaker 1:That's one thing about them, toy drives. When you do it, it's complete chaos. Until you get it done, it's just zero to 60. You go and you do it, but then you go outside and the kids is all sitting around playing yeah, and it's pretty neat yeah, the other story that I wanted to talk about was when you drove off the mountain oh when we was coming home.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got to talk about it that was like, because we used to leave it like crazy time yeah because it's a long drive from oh yeah, it's a very long, but the roads. Now I think it's all concrete all the way up just about.
Speaker 1:It's getting better and better as we go and so uh, yeah, we was coming home.
Speaker 3:That was brother joel sneed and I mean uh donnie sneed and uh joey was riding in the back of the truck like in the bed yeah, yeah and they were standing up and we come.
Speaker 3:We left it like I think it was like 1, 30 or 2 in the morning because we had to get back to the airport, yeah, and so we're coming down that mountain and I'm flying I mean, all I lived in is some mountains and it's gravel Right, yeah and we come around, one of them curves and the road ran out from under me. The road was no more.
Speaker 2:It took a hard left, left and I went straight.
Speaker 3:But no, we slid right off to the edge of that mountain and it was.
Speaker 1:It could have been bad yeah, which we had some close calls you know, yeah, but they drive, like you know oh, they drive like crazy over there so you just gotta fit in the driving kills me. I remember we went up there one time and there was a truck that just about hit us and we just started driving like maniacs I remember that time we that we passed that 18 wheeler and that red dog I'm almost hitting.
Speaker 3:Tell me about it, oh wow he was moving, son, and that little truck, oh my what I remember I would that was the closest I ever. Oh, my word, when you talk about that yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was saying my, I mean, that was it. I said well, lord, you brought me to hunger.
Speaker 1:Yeah jesus, take my life for the. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get my life for the mission I remember we went up there and uh, it was me, you and dre and we was driving. I had my feet pushed against the floor so hard.
Speaker 3:We was just turning in and out. I don't know if you should tell all these people that they may not want to go back, if you ever go to honduras.
Speaker 1:You want this. You want my dad to drive you because he's, he's gonna, he's gonna give you the funnest drive. Oh, my word, I was so what was it, richard?
Speaker 2:what was it? When we were coming back, I was driving, uh, we were driving down the mountain and we went around the way to go around the lake and you were flying down that road. We were flying down that road and Brother Luis was like praying for his truck. I was driving his truck.
Speaker 3:Poor you driving that poor truck.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, dude, that thing didn't have no power. It felt like all the bolts were falling out from under it. And he's back there, worried about me hurting his truck because we're going so fast. And I said, dude, you can't hurt this truck, are you?
Speaker 3:kidding me? Yeah, and he's still driving it. Yeah, ain't, nobody hurts it he still drives that thing. He's crazy, crazy. Yeah, I remember when me and remember when me and you went up there, uh, we, we flew out. You talk about a trip. We flew. We got there, got a rental truck, drove up the mountains all the way to the building we painted yeah, I want to prime the entire building yeah primed the entire building.
Speaker 3:Yeah, primed it, turned around and painted it two different colors. And what was there? Three days and we come back home.
Speaker 2:A total of three days. A total of three days. We flew in on a Monday.
Speaker 3:Trying driving coming.
Speaker 1:Y'all basically were up there for one day Y'all got up there. Basically. Did it the one day and came back.
Speaker 2:Flew in on a Monday.
Speaker 3:Flew in on a Monday and come home on a Thursday and Brother Luis was like well I got all of this for y'all to do Paint and take y'all and finish it when you come back. Well, we did it in one day basically.
Speaker 2:And inside it. Yeah, and all of us painted the whole inside too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 1:What's funny about that trip was, johnny, you did time-lapse videos of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what that video was no, when us driving back down, the video is you've got to see the video I actually wanted to see.
Speaker 1:Johnny, if you're good with this, if you could, when you get back, airdrop that video to me, and I want to post it on the Facebook, if you're good with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because that was a pretty good video. It was really cool.
Speaker 1:It was like driving and if you look at that, you kind of get an idea what the traffic, yeah, and the painting yeah, because you did one on the paint. He did both. Yeah, I did. Yeah, yeah, I did. It was pretty cool, yeah. So for those who, uh, if you want to see that video or that, that that time lapse of them doing all that stuff, it is, it's really cool. I really like it, it's funny and, uh, we'll be putting that on the facebook, uh, once we do this.
Speaker 3:You can almost do it in a short. We'll have it on Facebook.
Speaker 1:We'll have it on Facebook and we'll have it on YouTube At least one of those. You'll be able to find it somewhere. I didn't know if you had that posted on YouTube whenever you were doing your stuff.
Speaker 2:It's downloaded on my real popular YouTube page. I've got 18 followers. I think 16 of them are bots 10 of them are your wife. I'm waiting for my ship to come in from YouTube.
Speaker 1:He's waiting for his 10 cents.
Speaker 2:I don't think that's going to happen.
Speaker 1:We'll definitely either on youtube or facebook or both. We'll have a way for y'all to watch that, so definitely go out there and look at it, richard.
Speaker 2:Richard, was that the trip where, uh, I got in trouble in houston? Yes, I think you didn't I think it was so, oh so let me tell what happened.
Speaker 2:So this is this, is this is some advice to people. Um, they kind of frown when you bring it. I don't know if most people that travel know this, but they kind of frown on you when you bring a pistol in your backpack. And so, not to be too lengthy, I I had just got back from a trip to california and it took my pistol with me and I had my backpack with me on that trip. Well, I didn't know. I mean, I could swore I emptied my bag, somehow.
Speaker 2:This thing got tucked up in an area that was kind of was just caught up in there. Yeah, we get to the airport that morning and, uh, I throw my backpack on going through security, throw it on the belt and like it's not coming out the other side, and so I can tell they're looking at something. And the lady looks at me and and I'm standing there, you know like, hey, what's going on? And she looks at me and she shuts her line down, moves everybody over to another line, and she looks at me. She's like is there something you need to tell me? And I'm like I don't think so. She's like, well, do you have anything in here? You shouldn. If something's in there, it's completely on accident. Long story short.
Speaker 2:I watched her count. I said can you tell me what's there? She said, no, I can't tell you. They had some other people coming. Long story short, I watched her count on the screen. She counts to. I think it was 13. I said, oh, my goodness, that's my pistol. I had a full clip in it and it was my Glock 40 cal. And I said, yeah, that's exactly what it is. It's in a holster. So they brought it out, they called TSA and they called a police officer, pulled my pistol out of my bag, pulled me to the side. I had to do a bunch of paperwork. Pulled my pistol out of my bag, pulled me to the side. I had to do a bunch of paperwork, pulled me to the side. Well, the police officer, to my surprise, said hey, if your truck is here, he said I'll drive you to your truck and let you put this back in your vehicle. And I was just blown away because I thought I was going to lose my pistol.
Speaker 2:You about to go to jail. I think what saved me is, at the time I had my concealed carry permit, which I showed them, and so, anyways, he took me and no joke, kent, he's running about 60, 65 miles an hour through the terminals, going through there, driving to the truck and coming back. So I got out, put the pistol in richard's truck and we're driving back, and actually this is the thing that scared me the most is he took me to a completely separate terminal, one that didn't have any line, and I never went back through security again. He let me like. He walked me in and said, hey, this guy's already cleared, he's good to go. Yeah, and it kind of scared me because if you get a rogue cop, uh, you don't know who he could let in there with, with whatever I mean I could have just as easily put that pistol right back in on my person and carried it into the airport and never went through security again yeah and and you know I thought I was in a clear.
Speaker 2:Six months later I got a letter from PSA and had to pay a public a civil penalty. Yeah, I think it ended up costing me about $1,500. But, yeah, I don't recommend trying to bring a pistol on the plane. Yeah, it's not the greatest idea, yeah, which Richard tried to bring a hammer on the plane one time, and I'll let him tell that story tell that.
Speaker 3:That's funny. That's my east wing. Yeah, we was working over there as usual. That's pretty. Usually if we go over there, that's what I'm doing yeah, I was doing yeah and uh. So we was coming back and I can't remember I think I left that hammer the last, the time before. But uh, so I said I'm bringing this back, so I put it in my backpack. I said I'll put it in my bag when I get home yeah to the room yeah, never even thought about it again.
Speaker 3:Get to the airport, go through the airport, go to go through the check, go through the check in. And they pulled the hammer out by the rubber end of them and said, uh, let's get going, oh man, because that expensive east wing hammer.
Speaker 2:Really I remember that guy looking at you and just holding that hammer out and saying really really.
Speaker 3:I guess you know you can't have a knife. Yeah, I guess a hammer don't work. Why not a blunt instrument?
Speaker 1:I'll tell you you got, we got some crazy stories from in air force.
Speaker 3:I remember we was going my first trip I think I get pulled over every time I go in oh yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:That's something funny. We always someone always gets pulled, usually always gets pulled over through TSA. Pulled to the side Always gets pulled to the side, and it's most of the time you Yep.
Speaker 3:I guess I just got that face, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:I'd love to go, johnny, and see what. No, pete, but I remember you and me went on my first trip and the plane was late flying in. Remember when I left you in the airport.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:What was you like? 10, 11? Probably like 10 or 12.
Speaker 3:I think he was 11. I don't even know.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it was my first trip. We was late getting to the airport.
Speaker 3:No, we weren't late. We took the wrong, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:We got to Houston, I think.
Speaker 3:No, it was in Dallas. Okay, dallas, wasn't it Dallas?
Speaker 1:It was somewhere in Texas, because we flew out of New Orleans. Yeah, then we flew to New Orleans and we well, we had got through security and everything, and he had his backpack and put his backpack down on a bench, had my keys in it, had his keys in it and everything, and somehow we was looking for our gate, I think, and we thought it was at some terminal. So we went and got on this train thing.
Speaker 3:We were already running late.
Speaker 1:Already running late, rode to the terminal and then we remembered he forgot his backpack back at security. So we had to get back on the thing, go all the way back. We got the backpack, got back on the thing, went back to that thing. Turns out they had changed the gate on us to a whole different number or a whole different letter, so we had to go get back on the thing, go to another one. He's sprinting running down the airport. It's at night, hardly anybody's around. I'm a 10, 11-year-old boy and he turns around the corner and I can't even find him.
Speaker 3:I'm freaking out and turns out we missed our flight.
Speaker 1:Oh, he was upset, he was crying, I was so upset it was funny, and we missed our flight, so they ended up having to rebook us. We ended up getting home and I think the same time we got back to our truck and we had a flat tire.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we had a flat tire. Same time we got back to our truck and we had a flat tire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what a night. That was like.
Speaker 3:That was like one or two in the morning we got oh, it was miserable, it was rough and they had.
Speaker 1:We had to get them to come bring a yeah, I think we were supposed to beat uncle danny by a lot and then we ended up being there not that much time before, but uh so uh. I want to now start talking about the building, the Glow Center. So the first thing I want to talk about you two did a lot working on the Glow Center. The first thing I want to talk about, before we talk about the building, was how the idea came about, Because Brother Daniel, your dad started had the idea. So explain the whole circumstances around that and what his plan for it was. You kind of did earlier, but explain that more.
Speaker 3:Well before I ever went. He had his vision of where it started from, and I know you had other podcasts talk about all that. But he wanted to build something over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And he was planning on it, and so he had a napkin with the drawing of it. It was shaped in the drawing of a cross, so that's what it's supposed to look like. Well, it was yeah, because he had it where the front went out a little bit further than the wings, and the wings was actually straight across, so it looked like a cross.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, we kind of changed it out a little bit further than the wings, and the wings was actually straight across, so it looked like a cross. Yeah Well, we kind of changed it up a little bit.
Speaker 1:It now kind of looks like an arrow. It kind of looks like a T-shirt. It kind of looks like a T-shirt now. It just needs a head on it.
Speaker 3:But anyway. So he started that I can't hardly build nothing square or straight. It's easier for me to build round walls like at the church or round bars like at the coffee shop. But anyway, so we started that. And it's a funny story because when I first went over there after we got the property and we started laying it out, uh-huh well, I laid it out, had strings run everywhere it looks like, look like a maze out there yeah, and laid it all out, chalked it out, was ready to.
Speaker 3:I was like, all right, it's good to go. I mean, we spent hours. I was there for like 12 hours one day, uh-huh, marking this thing out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'm used to building stuff in the States. Right, yeah, so it's a little different, A little different, yeah, and over there you know you're building with adobe and not block or not wood. So adobes are 16 inches thick. They have 16 by 16 pad of dirt. Explain how they make that. They take straw and clay and they mix it in and they've got little forms and they are 16 inches by 16 inches and they're about what Jonathan three inches, four inches thick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably so, about four inches.
Speaker 3:And so I laid this whole thing out to scale for wood, right, wood's three inches, yeah, and stud walls is not 16 inches thick, right. So we had it all laid out and I stepped back and, oh, dude, I was so sick I said, son, you'll never get, I told mom. And then I said we have made a mistake. So I had the rooms. They would have been like a four by four room, yeah, and because, yeah, I didn't count the factory in of the 16 inches.
Speaker 3:So you start on the outside wall. Well, the middle wall is a 16 yeah, the next wall 16 yeah so it throws your eight or ten foot eight, eight by eight or ten by ten room, yeah, down to a six by six, so instead of making like a.
Speaker 1:You know it's like a prison.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now, instead of making three rooms, you're making three, three bathroom stalls yeah, no, you got one bunk you can stick in there, and so we had to tear it all down and start back over. It was a nightmare and uh, and so then they had to restring it, so we made it bigger, you know yeah and then we kind of put it on that arrow, just to keep it where you know.
Speaker 1:Keep it similar, just whatever yeah.
Speaker 3:And so, but yeah, that was that on that you know, it's a beautiful building and it took a long time because they had their guys come in and dig the footings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and y'all came for like the building part of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I helped them pour footings.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I went when they poured the footings, right, yeah.
Speaker 3:And then, Jonathan, did you go when we done some of the adobes or no, you didn't get to go.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't get there until you got there, when they started working on the roof.
Speaker 3:Huh, yeah, we went, I went back and helped them do adobes on some of the walls, which was neat because I never did it, because you put a, they put stone in the fittings, yeah, and then they put a little cement in it, yeah, and then they add every so often they add rebar standing up because they use it for strength, right. And then the adobes they put a layer of mud, just water and dirt, yeah, and then they put a layer of Adobe Right, and then they put another layer of mud and they put Adobe. So it's just like doing brick but it's all in dirt and mud.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing how sturdy it is. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Brother Wilson. He had never messed with that kind of stuff. He didn't work that kind of stuff. We liked to kill him. That week it was funny because we was putting the Dobies on the back wall. It was a lot of work because them things are heavy. They're heavier than a cinder block because they're the biggest they are.
Speaker 1:I remember y'all had one guy y'all had come was Brother Cody King, his first and last trip. First and last never again.
Speaker 3:You never get him out of Turkey Creek he went up there explain what happened go ahead, johnny explain what happened. Yeah, that was funny yeah, he, but he was going over there and he done good it was hot. He went when we put all that up, didn't he? But we was going over there, yeah, and he'd done good it was hot. That was one of them. He went when we put all that up, didn't he the peeling stage?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he went when we did all the decking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so we headed.
Speaker 3:We worked, you know five six days, whatever it was 12, 14 hours a day, or sometimes 16 hours a day, and we was killed when we're coming back home. We get on the plane and we get in the air. We ain't in the air, what 15, 20 minutes? And all of a sudden comes over the intercom.
Speaker 2:We've been having to make an emergency landing there's uh and that's all they said.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so here we make emergency landing and we land in cancun yeah honduras and mexico was playing soccer or football yeah and uh, and they wouldn't let us off the plane. Yeah, we was on what? Three or four hours we was on that plane. Yeah, three hours and hot. Yeah, no air conditioning In the middle of.
Speaker 2:June, July, whatever it was.
Speaker 3:And hey, that broke old Cody King from going back and on.
Speaker 1:Didn't the engine shut?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it had an engine problem or something. Yeah, the engine failure.
Speaker 2:What was funny about that is when we all checked in at the airport, ken, it gives you an option if you want to upgrade your ticket to an exit row or whatever. Well, I did tell them guys, and there was a first-class seat that was available, and I think I upgraded to first-class, I don't know, it was like $36 or something. Well, I never told Danny and Richard and them. So when you go to board first, class gets to board first. So I just go walking in. Well, I just go strolling by them. Guys. Danny's like what are you doing? I said bud, I'm first class bro. He said you dirty dog. And so I get in there there and I'm kicked back.
Speaker 3:You know he didn't get benefited yeah, leg room.
Speaker 2:You know I've already got my drink and everything, because they treat you like royalty. Well, I ended up having to get. I ended up sitting next to a drunk and this sucker I don't know he was. I think he had families all over the world.
Speaker 1:He talked nonstop.
Speaker 2:And the more he would drink, the more he would cut. And then, you know, like Dad said, the planes started going down or losing elevation. It wasn't going down, just dropping elevation, because they were going to land. Yeah, and this guy I was stuck next to him and it ended up being a miserable time. That's what happened. Oh, and then which made us late we get to houston.
Speaker 1:You know, we land in houston yeah, then we have to go to lafayette yeah, and we were.
Speaker 2:I mean, we were hauling you get around there. We come around on saturday and we come around to customs and there's about 800 people in line and only two lines open you know, since we've been going, I haven't seen it that many people. Yeah, it as it was, I think it's because they brought they brought in all those digital yeah check machines where you kind of check yourself in. Yeah, that's what we did last time. It's crazy.
Speaker 3:We used an app last time when we come around that corner. I mean we, we just knew we had it oh they come around that corner it was was like two days later, I think we got to there, yeah actually that trip, richard.
Speaker 2:That was before I lived in Louisiana and I was flying back to Tulsa.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you did.
Speaker 2:And I ended up missing flights and I got into Tulsa at like midnight and then caught a flight to XNA and it was crazy because my flight from Tulsa to XNA. I think there was only eight people on that plane.
Speaker 3:Yeah, me and Cody wound up having to call his move our plane from Alexandria to Lafayette Right, and so we got in Lafayette at like 1, 2 o'clock in the morning. Then we had to drive from. His wife met us there and drove us. That was a.
Speaker 2:That was a 24-hour day because we'd got up at 2 in the morning to come off the mountain.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's before we started staying at the hotel. Them kind of trips ain't for the faint of heart. You've got to have a little grit ain't for the faint of heart.
Speaker 1:You gotta, you gotta have a little grit. Yeah, you, you gotta, you gotta, really, really have a little unction behind you. Yeah, well, we still got a lot more to talk about. So what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and cut off right here and we're going to do a part two to this podcast and we'll talk more about the building and stuff and just some more fun stories. But this podcast we still got a lot to talk about, so we're going to cut it off into two parts. So those who are listening keep listening. Our next podcast will be the second part of this podcast, so definitely be listening for that podcast. But I'd like to thank my guests, brother Richard Sweeney and Brother Jonathan Schmidt, for being here with me. God bless you all and you all have a good day.
Speaker 1:Ecclesiastes 9.10 says. This verse is talking about whenever we're doing something, to do it for God, whether that's got to do with doing missions work, whether that's got to do with getting ready to preach, whether that's got to do with your missions work, whether that's got to do with getting ready to preach, whether that's got to do with your job or just chores around the house. God told us to do everything we do to the best of our ability for Him. As Christians, our lives are supposed to reflect God. That involves our attitude, our work ethic. A bad attitude is not going to reflect Christ. A bad work ethic isn't going to be appealing to a lost person.
Speaker 1:We are living for God, we are serving God and our lives have to reflect God. He said do it with all your might. When you're having a bad day, choose to have a good day. Be as positive as you can. When you're trying to work, work as hard as you can, because it's for God. We are trying to show God through our lives and, like I said, if we have a bad attitude, that's not showing Christ. Even when we're going through a hard time, even when we're facing trials, we can still have joy because of who we serve. When it comes to work or doing your chores, if we're lazy, if we don't put our whole effort into it, we're not portraying Christ. He said to do it with all your might. We have to work as hard as we can, with all of our heart. We have to let our work ethic show Christ. We have to let how we do our job, how we do our chores, we have to let it portray Christ. So, no matter what you're facing, remember that in anything, do it with all your might, whether that has to do with having a good attitude, whether that has to do with your work ethic. If we want to portray God in our lives, we have to do His ministry. We have to do our everyday work. We have to choose to have a good attitude with all of our might.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope you enjoyed the fourth episode of the God's Little One podcast. I know this is our first two-parter. I'll be honest with you. Whenever we first started, I had no intentions of doing a two-parter. I didn't even know if this would be a normal length of a podcast. But here we are. We are doing a two-part for this podcast, so be listening the next one. It will be coming out. That will be our next podcast. So definitely keep listening. Definitely keep watching for that one. If you want to know when that one will be out, go watch on our Facebook page. I will be posting when that podcast comes out, so go on there and look. Yeah, this has been some really good podcasts these last two. Like I said, we recorded the second part the same day. Once we got done with the first one, we recorded the second one. So I hope you enjoy that one. Like I said, be watching for it. It will be coming out not next Monday, but the next Monday, so be watching for it.
Speaker 1:Well, anyway, thank you for listening to this episode of the God's Little One podcast. I do have one thing I want to say. We're wanting to do on this podcast, a Q&A, basically, to where you guys who are listening send us in your questions and we'll sit down me, brother, danny, I don't know who else we'll have on there and we'll just answer questions for the whole podcast. We're going to do it once we get enough questions. So I really ask if y'all have got any questions, please send them through Facebook, comment on the YouTube channel. However you want to do, call us. However you want to do it, send in your questions because we really want to do this. So we're just waiting on y'all's questions. So, yeah, anyway, thank you for listening to this episode of the God's Little One podcast. If you'd like to call or text us, our phone number is 318-491-1772. If you'd like to mail us anything, our PO box is PO Box 904, oakdale, louisiana, 71463. Anything you can give would greatly be appreciated. Thank you for listening and y'all have a good day.