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Foreign Military Ministry — Paul Bradley and Brian Kleager
36 Plays19 days ago
Cadence has a heart for military communities around the world, including militaries and security forces of other nations.
Originating in the Philippines and the former USSR, Cadence Foreign Military Ministry—led by Paul Bradley and Brian Kleager—has since worked in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Burundi, Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria, and Ukraine.
Paul and Brian discuss the heavy, challenging, yet fruitful ministry of counseling those who have experienced immense grief and trauma.
Learn more about Cadence's ministry to the military: https://cadence.org/
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to In Cadence, where we talk about what it looks like to share the gospel in our lives with the military community. Join us as we talk about what God is doing in the lives of our service members and how we can be a part of it.
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome back to the In Cadence podcast, Hutch. um Welcome into a conversation Hutch and I are having, along with a good friend of ours, Hutch is going to introduce you in a second, but I sure hope the listeners are having half as much fun ah listening to these as we are having making them. Some great guests, a lot of fun, some great conversations. And so we're really enjoying this is fun for us. I hope it's half as fun for everybody
Commitment to Podcasting
00:00:47
Speaker
else.
00:00:47
Speaker
Seriously, it's kind of this peek behind closed doors because these are conversations we have all the time. But we talk about with cadence people, our staff, our communities, the military community. And so it's kind of normal for us in a lot of ways. And we're getting ah people are getting this peek behind the curtain, so to speak. But it's a lot of fun. I'm calling in from Chicago just because I want to be here for this conversation.
Paul Bradley's Journey with Cadence
00:01:11
Speaker
So we're, ah we're making it happen. It's good to be here with you guys. Paul Bradley is joining us today. He is our VP for ah foreign military ministry. He's been with Cadence for a while. Paul's good to have you man.
00:01:25
Speaker
Thanks, man. it It does feel just really normal chatting to you guys because we do it all the time. ah Well, super fun. And we're excited to talk about ah a number of things today. I know you guys have a lot of stories and God's been doing a ton over these last few years, but you've been with Cadence for a while. Can you just give us a little bit of your background and story in ministry and with Cadence?
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've been around with Cadence about 35 years. I was saved by a Navy chaplain and while i was in the Navy Seabees and then um ended up volunteering when I separated at the Rota house where I got baptized. um And so I've been with Cadence off and on for all of those years.
00:02:07
Speaker
And um yeah, started out with youth ministry, but now doing adult ministry, well, foreign ministry and adult ministry now.
Cadence's Shift to Foreign Ministry
00:02:15
Speaker
Awesome. and foreign ministry has been kind of a long progression in cadence, but you're, you guys have really begun to do some trips in Ukraine recently. And that's brought a lot of fruitful, just a lot of outcomes, a lot of relationships that have come out of that. And Tell us a little bit about how, ah you know, Paul, both you and Brian, I'm curious to hear from you too, Brian. What are some of the things that God is doing there? What has motivated and inspired the work that's happening now? And give us a little bit of picture what's going on.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah, so ah honestly, i feel like Brian and I are just kind of slipping in alongside a heart for foreign military that's been around in Caden's for a very long time since before us. You know, um our early days were called lands of Russia, actually. And Dave Meshki was was going over there, um smuggling Bibles and wads of cash to help people, ah to help those those chaplains over there, actually in Russia, who were under a tremendous amount of pressure in those days.
00:03:21
Speaker
And so that that's how that kind of started. And then eventually it it ended up being. starting out to the police and military in the Philippines, because those two units are kind of the same in in a lot of third world countries. There's not a lot of separation. um And then from there, it's it transferred the headquarters of all that effort to Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is central um in the 1040 window area, like a third of the world's population lives in that area.
00:03:51
Speaker
But the heart has been the same right from the beginning. And that is always to um believing that military people are worth pursuing for the
Shared Values in Military Communities
00:04:02
Speaker
for the gospel. And there's a lot of really cool things that are true about our military that we love on the mainstream side of things that Cadence does, which is military people, they get they get sacrifice right away. You don't have to teach them what sacrifice is all about. They get community, right? They get they love community and they understand community. And we really tie into those those pieces.
00:04:25
Speaker
And so when you go to a foreign military, guess what? Those units know those exact same things, the same as our military does. And so when you go in and you say, hey, um we're foreign military, ah you're foreign military, but we're prior military, all of a sudden you have a brotherhood that crosses over language and culture really quickly. And so we're really just trying to take advantage of the truth of that and then finding ways to be helpful um and finding out what their needs are to to join them and come alongside them and in ministry and then share the gospel and our lives as we do that.
00:05:03
Speaker
That's amazing. And, yeah you know, this has been such a significant, although our lot of most majority of our staff, a lot of our work is with
Brian's Transition to Foreign Ministry
00:05:13
Speaker
U.S. military, that this has been around for a long time yeah in our mission. And it ebbs and flows and changes over time as we work in different countries with different militaries. and all that But Brian, tell me a little bit, you're a little bit newer into the mission than Paul. And we've heard some of your background before, but tell us a little bit about how you've become more involved in the foreign side of ministry.
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah, for me, um I've been with Caden's about 20 years. And My wife and I were running a hospitality house over in Germany in Grafenbeir. And during that time, God really laid on our hearts to help get our people involved in ministry and not just to ah Americans, but also to it ended up being to a church and an orphanage in the Czech Republic. And then we started looking um where else we might be able to serve and get, you know, military soldiers and their families serving. And God led us down to East Africa and started working with um chaplains and soldiers in a little country called Burundi. And so in 2011, we started there. And like Paul was saying, I mean,
00:06:23
Speaker
Cadence's kind of philosophy is, hey, our mission is sharing the gospel in our lives. And so when we have opportunities to do that with foreign militaries, I mean, we've got over 70 years of military ministry experience within our organization.
Trauma Training Efforts in Ukraine
00:06:36
Speaker
We got experience, we got expertise, and we can share that with other countries, other chaplains. Like in Brundi, their chaplains don't even go through a chaplain school. you know? And so we can actually come alongside them, help them understand some of the unique aspects of military ministry and help train them in that, teach them, um, and really just come alongside them and form a partnership. And so been doing that in Burundi since 2011 and, eleven and Paul and I, when we both moved back to the States around 2020 and 2021, started um getting more involved in trauma training, both ourselves learning more, but then also looking at ways that we can share that both with our staff and with foreign military chaplains and soldiers.
00:07:20
Speaker
So good. And you you talk about the trauma training that you guys have been going through, and that has applied across the board in the different countries that we're present in, but it's been especially fruitful in Ukraine. So tell us a little bit about what's going on in Ukraine. What are you guys doing over there? What does that ministry look like?
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know Ukraine war has, it's not that old. I mean, it's starting to get old now. It's been like almost four years. But when the war started, Ukraine didn't have a chaplain program.
00:07:53
Speaker
They didn't have chaplains. And so these guys are scrambling to catch up. And part of what they're learning in that process was ah how to prepare how do we prepare ourselves in order to deal with the trauma that's specifically related to war?
00:08:09
Speaker
And it's not just the frontline troops, right? I mean, these, if you're in Ukraine, the cities, Brian and I are, you know, air raid warnings all the time, you know, missiles are coming in at random and and blowing families up. And then, so you've got these guys on the front lines, men and women on the front lines, and then you've got the families back, everyone's being terrorized. And to quote one of the one of the chaplains, they said, the whole country is in trauma.
00:08:34
Speaker
And so the chaplains are scrambling on how to handle not just the current needs with the trauma, but when this war is done, i mean, this is gonna be years of people needing to process that. And so they didn't feel equipped.
00:08:48
Speaker
So a good friend of mine who I was in college with at at the master's university um is charge in charge of a bunch of different seminaries across the world in foreign countries. And he said, hey, what if you,
00:09:02
Speaker
and came and could train some of our pastors slash chaplains in Ukraine at the seminary that we have in Kiev. And Brian and I started talking about that and praying through that and decided that we would put together um a program to to get that. So that was like a three day program of teaching. And we had both pastors and chaplains in that. And that's kind of how we got started.
00:09:27
Speaker
And Brian, as you've done some of your, you're actually working on PhD in this category of trauma care. And I know your time in ah Ukraine has inspired a lot of that. um But what are some of the things that you've been become passionate about ah in your study of the word, um in your study in school, that this has kind of stirred you towards what are you passionate about for our military people um in this topic?
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great question. And I mean, i'll I'll talk about it in the first person, but the reality is it's true for Paul. It's true for a lot of cadence missionaries that um we we care for people.
00:10:09
Speaker
And We hate when their hearts are broken. We hate evil in the world. And as Paul and I have been learning um about a topic, I mean, it's commonly referred to as trauma-informed care.
00:10:24
Speaker
And when when we understand what's going on in our hearts, in our minds, in our bodies related to trauma, the more we understand that, the better care can be provided for the people who are experiencing trauma. And trauma isn't just war-related. And a lot of times war actually is drawing out trauma from childhood or an experience or a set of experiences that a person's gone through previously in their life. And it's just a new trauma has unlocked some old trauma.
00:10:53
Speaker
And so trauma is complicated. um It's deep. It's got a lot of different facets to it. And yet there are some aspects of trauma that, um,
00:11:04
Speaker
that aren't as complicated as we tend to think they are. My initial, ah you know, probably 10 years ago, if someone was dealing with PTSD, my my initial starting point would be, oh, I got to find them a professional.
00:11:18
Speaker
um And I just, that was kind of my starting point. But I've come to realize that there's a lot of things that we as lay people can do um related to trauma that helps with the healing.
00:11:29
Speaker
And Paul and I have been, our imagery that we use over, especially in Ukraine is that ah when it comes to physical injuries, you know ah you got doctors and nurses and hospitals in the rear.
00:11:42
Speaker
And on the front lines, you have medics. And the medics can treat physical injuries up to a certain degree. And they know when they can't treat anymore and they refer them back you know to better care.
Introduction of the DART Framework
00:11:51
Speaker
um Well, when it comes to psychological trauma, we have counselors, psychologists, clinics in the rear and nothing in the front. And so what Paul and I have been looking to do is helping chaplains and soldiers understand trauma so that they can provide care for one another while still on the front lines.
00:12:11
Speaker
And hopefully some of the injuries they have, we talk as much about post-traumatic stress injuries as we do PTSD. So PTSI. And so when these injuries are present, that they can care for one another, hopefully the injury doesn't lead to a disorder.
00:12:27
Speaker
Yeah, i I mean, that's great way of explaining it, Brian. And I i also feel like it's it's like an individual um first aid kit, in a sense, is what we're handing them. And we try to normal, we try to to to condense it down to something they can really learn. So it's just D-A-R-T that we use um and a card.
00:12:46
Speaker
um and it And it gives them the basic information. tools when there's a traumatic experience to go through in order to determine whether or not that's an injury or something greater than that that needs to be addressed. And it really is normalizing it. I mean, this this this stuff's been around for a very long time. It's had a lot of different names over time, you know, um Shell Shock, Soldier's Heart. I mean, there's several others that are in there, but Soldier's tend to like downplay injury, right? Because you don't want to be taken off the front line. They don't want to be move moved away from their buddies who they've just experienced this deep relation relational experience with. So yes, it's difficult and yes, it's hard, but you talk to any soldiers that have gone through something like this together and they are tighter than they will ever, they will be lifelong friends forever and ever because they survived something like this together.
00:13:45
Speaker
And so what Brian and I are trying to talk to these guys with is about mission readiness. This is actually allowing you to stay in the fight. So instead of like shying away from it and not talking about it and just like suppressing it or whatever, no, get it out there because you need to be ready for the next time this happens. And you guys need to support one another because you are the ones who are gonna understand what you've gone through better than anybody else.
00:14:11
Speaker
They weren't there, they didn't see it, but your buddies did. So how can you help each other? That's kind of the posture we're taking with these guys. And the the cool part is we're going into Ukraine and sometimes we've done three day conferences with chaplains and pastors. We've done a one day conference with chaplains and pastors. And the majority of the time, though, we're actually getting 15 to 30 minutes with a group of six to 10 soldiers. And ah We've got some great chaplain relationships in eastern Ukraine. One of our favorites is ah Chaplain Alex. um I could list a whole bunch of names, so I better be careful because then we'll leave some out. But um through these chaplains, they're taking us to their soldiers that are operating on and near the front lines. And so often we are within one to 20 miles of the Russian front line.
00:15:05
Speaker
And meeting with soldiers. And Paul mentioned DART. That's kind of the acronym that we use to shape all of our training. So if we get 15 minutes with guys, well we'll reframe trauma for them, help them understand that what they're going through is they're having a common reaction. There's nothing wrong with them. The abnormal thing is what they saw, what they experienced. Mm And so we reframe it.
00:15:29
Speaker
We help them understand mentally and spiritually, emotionally what they might be feeling. And then we always end it or work in through it, this acronym DART, D-A-R-T. And so the idea that um one the first thing is discuss what happened.
00:15:44
Speaker
Second is acknowledge the hardship, receive care and trust. And then with trust, we we have several layers where we talk about trust in each other, trust in the chaplain and then trust in God. And we we share the gospel and talk about how God views this war and Jesus's role ah in this war. So as I've been saying that, ah Paul, was just thinking about Grinch and Kiwi.
00:16:07
Speaker
yeah I mean, they're kind of a great example of and they weren't even Ukrainian. That's the funny part. Yeah, right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So we're staying at this this church that's in a place called Slovyansk. And ah we they have it's a conference center, so they have rooms and stuff. And that's kind of been our our hub there with Chaplain Alex.
00:16:28
Speaker
And we were just walking through the The open area at the front, the guest you know relations room. And we ran into an American and and ah and a guy from ah New Zealand in there who are volunteers with the Ukrainian army and doing casualty evacuations and some medic kinds of stuff.
00:16:52
Speaker
And they they're like, who are you guys? And then so Brian and I were able to just on a, it was just on a lark, you know, sit down and explain to them why, what we're doing there. And then we started talking about Dart, right, with these guys.
00:17:07
Speaker
And then the cool thing is, okay, this, I have to tell this part. So the cool thing is the American guy, everybody gets kind of a code name over there. um So you don't use real names. So his code name is Grinch and the other guy was Kiwi because he was from New Zealand, obviously. But Grinch actually turned out to be an ex Navy CB and from the same battalion that I was in. So we were like, what is what are the chances? And so we were going back and forth, back and forth.
00:17:34
Speaker
And then we were able to share with them the dart and then share the the the gospel with them also. And I am still in contact with both of those guys. They still reach out and talk. Hey, how are you guys doing? If you need anything, let us know. Hey, man, it's been rough.
00:17:51
Speaker
I'm going through a hard patch. So brian I have had a chance to minister with these guys from that point. This has been like over a year now of back and forth ministering to these guys.
00:18:03
Speaker
A couple of them or one of them even left Ukraine sooner than he had planned um and then reached out to Paul and said, hey, you remember that stuff you're talking about? And know a lot of times that's the case. Like we share it and we don't know how deep it's sinking, but we're planting seeds is there. And he he reached out and said, hey, you remember that stuff you're talking about? ah Could we actually get on video call and talk about it some more? Because now he was experiencing it. He was feeling it.
00:18:29
Speaker
And that's true with even a lot of the soldiers. um When we're out there and we're giving them the DART acronym, we're hey we're we come and we leave. We know that. But this chaplain who brought us here, he keeps coming and staying
Collaboration with Chaplains
00:18:42
Speaker
with you. And so there's oftentimes where Paul and I will share for 15, 20, 30 minutes. Sometimes it's in their barracks. Sometimes it's in ah holes underground where they've built up ah cover over the top of it. We've done it on ah firing ranges where they're training.
00:18:57
Speaker
But we'll share. And then while Paul and I are kind of talking on the side as everything's kind of wrapping up, you know, a couple of the guys will come up to the chaplain. They'll be like, hey, that stuff they're talking about. Can we talk more about it?
00:19:09
Speaker
And all of a sudden the chaplain is like, yeah. So we're opening up doors. And the other cool thing is the chaplains who go with us, they've heard it so many times now that they've really ingrained the principles of it. And so then they can be living those out day in and day out with these guys.
00:19:25
Speaker
Right. And so they can bring us in as the subject matter experts and then and then utilize that connection later on to keep following up with that. oh Sorry. There's so many stories. Right. brian Absolutely. so We're on this range like we had to walk like a mile down to this shooting range on this trail with these chaplains.
00:19:46
Speaker
And this was our first experience with one of the chaplains. And he was so excited about this material. So we shared like two or three different times on the range.
00:19:57
Speaker
And one of the times at the end, um it was a demining class. And there was, i don't know, a dozen soldiers there. um And so we're done with that. And then we're we're walking out.
00:20:10
Speaker
So I go through the dart thing, talk about the gospel at the end. So we're walking away now out of that that training area. And I hear this guy come up behind me. he ye He just yells, Paul. And I thought it was Brian or one of the other guys. But I turn around. It's one of the Ukrainian guys. He has like almost an American accent. And I was like, wait, what?
00:20:30
Speaker
And he comes up and he says, hey, he goes, you're a Christian, aren't you? And I said, yes, I am. and he said, i could tell by the way you are sharing and what you said at the end there. He goes, I'm really interested. Why are you a Christian?
00:20:44
Speaker
And how did you become a Christian? So for a mile, i just started sharing the gospel with this kid and ended up at the end just praying over him. And I said, hey, look, take advantage of your chaplains at the end. So this is the other piece that I wanted to share about the chaplains.
00:21:00
Speaker
This is the heart Cadence has, right? This one of our core values that we we prioritize our relationship with chaplains. And so we're actually doing that in Ukraine. And I love this aspect of it.
00:21:11
Speaker
because they're the ones that can carry on this ministry. We're there for a one and done deal and God can totally use that. And we believe it's worth doing that. But at the same time, we are also supporting the chaplain corps for the for the Ukrainians. So
Gospel's Role in Trauma Zones
00:21:25
Speaker
it's another fun story in there.
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah. And Paul, even as you say that, it it even reminded me of like talking about the power of the gospel. um One of our trips over there, we we went in and um Chaplain Alex took us to what we call the forest people. And it's like three miles behind the the Russian front line is in the woods. And they've um they've basically walked up shelters under. Yeah, they're like Ewoks. They're not literally living up in the trees, but they're living under the trees.
00:21:53
Speaker
They cut down trees. They've dug under the ground and built up barriers. So they're living underground with all this ah cover over the top of them to protect them from drones and artillery and all that.
00:22:05
Speaker
um And so we go out, we meet with them and we had great conversations. We we did the training with them. Great interaction. They tell us about the commander. You was like talking about how, you know, he's having nightmares. He can't sleep.
00:22:19
Speaker
And so we get to process all this with them in the moment. ah And so it was it was really great. We, you know, spent a lot of time walking around. We really connected with that group, probably more so than we have some of the other groups. um So then the following year, we're back there.
00:22:35
Speaker
And we're talking with this guy, Michael, he was one of the guys we'd met with the year before. And I said, Hey, how's the commander doing? Cause i didn't see the commander around. Uh, and I pulled out my ah picture on my phone just to like, you know, clarify. I'm like, Hey, how's the commander doing? And he looked and he goes, Oh, he's dead.
00:22:51
Speaker
I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry. I said, well, what about this guy? Another guy showed him the picture of our training. He goes, yeah, he's dead. And then he pulls out his phone and he shows me a picture of a pickup truck that had been hit by a drone and almost completely destroyed.
00:23:07
Speaker
And Michael had been driving that truck along with the two guys that I talked about. And both of them were killed in that drone strike. And so here everything's coming together in this one conversation. Like, yeah, it's really important to talk about trauma because now Michael's, you know, this is really important for him.
00:23:23
Speaker
But talking about Jesus a year ago was absolutely critical because those two guys are no longer right here. I mean, they've been killed. And so... It's things like that, which are normative for them over there.
00:23:39
Speaker
That's the hard part. We walk into it. And sometimes I think the freshness of our tears, the freshness of our sadness actually brings them a little bit back from their heartedness. Yeah.
00:23:49
Speaker
And helps them to feel some of the pain that that they really need to pain, that they really need to grieve. And they just don't get the opportunities to because it's day in, day out, week in, week out. And now it's becoming year in, year out.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah, Brian, i I mean, I'm tearing up just thinking about it, actually. um Another story, I know this can be a lot of stories, really sorry about that.
00:24:12
Speaker
is ah a buddy of mine, who's American guy, who's a dentist, has come with Brian and I, and he he does teeth. So again, it's practical help for these guys. So he does in the field um fillings and pulls teeth and stuff because these guys, could't maybe they don't have an opportunity to get back out to it. So Shannon and I were at the forest place And um these guys, there was a group of guys that had just come off the front line, line zero, they call it, the night before.
00:24:41
Speaker
And so I, Shannon's doing teeth. I take a ah ah gathering of these guys and start going through dart. And they keep interrupting my my training. And they start talking about like, well, I have I'm talking about symptoms and they're like, I can't sleep.
00:24:57
Speaker
i'm I'm feeling a lot of anger. I'm this I'm that. And so it turns into this like session where they're actually sharing and actually sharing with one another about what they were happening. One of the guys said, I can't stop seeing the faces of my buddies.
00:25:13
Speaker
Because I was in charge of going out and getting the bodies, the dead bodies off the front line area and putting them in body bags and drag. Nobody wanted to do it. So he said, I did it and I had to do it and I can't stop seeing their faces.
00:25:28
Speaker
woof So now I'm tearing up as I'm talking to these guys and I'm and and i'm able to share with them and able to pray with them and bring them together and show them what it looks like to support one another right there in live time as an example.
00:25:47
Speaker
there's it Yeah, so that's just another another hard example, but good, you know the good parts of that too. Yeah, I got one last story. I know our time's winding down, but as you mentioned, ah Shannon and the dentistry work, we actually had a chaplain who had ah a soldier who needed to be looked at. And so arranged for that soldier to come to the church where we were staying late one night because that was the only way we could do it.
Courage and Spiritual Need in War
00:26:16
Speaker
The soldier didn't speak any English and we had no translator that night.
00:26:20
Speaker
And yet through Google translate, while he's getting his teeth worked on, we're talking back and forth through Google translate. um And it was, he, This soldier is battle-hardened soldier in tears, not from the dentistry work, but through the conversation.
00:26:39
Speaker
And i literally I wrote down what he was saying as he was saying it because it was so powerful. And I just pulled it up. He said, my son is growing up without me and my family is growing apart.
00:26:50
Speaker
He said, I'm very tired. i have been at war for many years. Wow. And we kept talking and we prayed for him. And then he said, although we have different languages, i can sense something between us.
00:27:01
Speaker
I've experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit tonight. And so, I mean, we're like all of us, you know, are in tears and we're around him. We're praying for him through Google Translate. um and it's It's just the fact that we keep going and we keep showing up and we keep being present. The chaplains keep saying, thank you for not for forgetting us.
00:27:23
Speaker
Like you're you're a tangible expression of God's love coming over here, which humbles us, obviously. And yet we know that's how God is at work through us, not just through the trauma training, but through the emotional support. Like Paul said, we're still in touch with these guys on a regular basis. Chaplain Alex and I, well, all of us, we're like texting all the time. We got group chats. We're doing video calls together.
00:27:45
Speaker
So it's just helping them to know that they're not forgotten. It's the gospel and our lives, man. it really is. Well, and I mean, I know you guys could tell stories all day. These are such exceptional stories. They feel in some ways out there and far away. And yet, as you're talking, it it is the reminder that, but this is this is who we are.
00:28:08
Speaker
Like, not just as cadence, but as as believers, that the the brokenness in us is this, it points us towards the gospel, towards the need for a savior, towards the need for Jesus. And And so you guys are going courageously. You're stepping out in faith and with wisdom into these places that feel dangerous. They feel far. They feel difficult.
00:28:31
Speaker
And yet the brokenness is also right here at home. The brokenness is in us and our need for a savior is stirred in the brokenness. And in James, when says, confess your sins, pray for one another, like highlight that brokenness and then bring it to Jesus. Yeah. And you guys are doing that. You're courageously going where the brokenness is so that you can shine a spotlight on Jesus.
00:28:54
Speaker
And you're doing that through meeting these practical needs. Like that is sharing the gospel in your life. That is it. That's what we do in our mission, but it's what we do as believers. And I love that. I'm so encouraged by just what you guys are doing, how it's continuing. Yeah.
00:29:11
Speaker
Paul, if you've got time for one more story, you referenced at the very beginning, you talked about the lands of Russia and Dave Meshki, who is our, for those who don't know, he's ah the third president of Cadence back in the 90s and 80s. And then he stepped out and did some ministry in Russia. But you actually came across people that he invested in ah during his time over there. Tell us a little bit about that and how that has come full circle over the decades and what God's doing in that land over there. Yeah, it's Chaplain Vasily, and he was one of Dave Meschke's key guys at the beginning and in those days, um back early, and when he was in actually in Russia.
00:29:52
Speaker
And then it turns out that Chaplain Vasily is actually still around, and now he's a Ukrainian chaplain, and I think he's either one or two, Brian, number one or number two for all Baptist chaplains. yep And so there's a lot there's a ton of them.
00:30:07
Speaker
Well, it find it you know come to find out he actually ah wants to connect with us. So we ended up connecting with, I yeah i reached out to him and his through his wife, who speaks really good English. And here we are, full circle, Dave Meshky days, back connecting with this Ukrainian chaplain that actually ended up setting up a whole day chaplain seminar for us to to go and and participate in and then teach at in one of the bigger cities. And so I'm like, what is happening here? So Brian and I met him the first time.
00:30:42
Speaker
He couldn't believe it. So we had got a chance to pray with him and coin him with an alumni coin. And there's a really cool photo of us together. and I'm going, man, this is just the Lord's faithfulness, full circle back around from the very roots of Cadence's heart for foreign military.
00:31:00
Speaker
It was fun. He pulled out pictures, you know, out of an envelope of him and Dave Meschke, you know, from 20 years ago, maybe 30 years ago. And yeah, it it was a really fun moment for us.
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. Well, and it's, you know, when you step into the broken parts of the world or of people's lives, you have no idea the fruit that the Holy Spirit is going to bear, the work that God is going to do in that person's life, and how that will play out over time. you just You do it in faith. You sow faithfully. You love unconditionally. You share the gospel boldly.
00:31:35
Speaker
And then God does his work. And so to see that come around full circle, like just the reminder to press on to lean into the broken places, and then we just have no idea what
Prayer Requests for Ministry
00:31:45
Speaker
God is going to do. And you guys get the joy and the excitement of of celebrating a little piece of that. That's, I love it.
00:31:52
Speaker
m it's problem I got one last request and I'll just say this, like as people think about this, obviously pray for our friends in Ukraine, pray for the chaplains and all that. And obviously pray for Paul and i that that God would still keep um bearing fruit through us and in us. And then I would also just selfishly, but I mean, y'all get this, ah pray for our families. It's not easy for our wives and kids to send us over to a war zone.
00:32:21
Speaker
And so they carry a lot of emotional ah weight when we're gone. um They pray for us, obviously, a ton. And so if people would pray for them, pray for our families to experience a supernatural peace when we're over there.
00:32:39
Speaker
um That would be a huge gift to us. Amen. We, um ah just a quick aside on that, ah just to emphasize it, it's so significant and we often underestimate the cost on families. In the military and in ministry, we commissioned ah a young gal who's going to the mission field next week. We did that this week, but her parents were in the room. So we didn't only just commission her, but we prayed for the parents, yeah for the grace to release her, to send her, to go be a witness for the gospel and and the tears and the weight. You could just feel it there in the room. We want to walk And this is hard. So thank you to you guys, to your families who are out there listening and ah for going and for being faithful. I know we can tell a lot of stories. We need to get back together and do this again soon. but Yeah. One last prayer request.
00:33:30
Speaker
Yeah, if you don't mind. um So ah in in partnership with the Free Burma Rangers, I'm doing I'm leaving on Sunday and we'll be doing the same kind of trauma training for the ethnic resistance groups in Burma. So, again, same heart, same reasoning for going, same gospel, same practical helps.
00:33:53
Speaker
Yeah. Lord, bless these endeavors. um May your hand be on them. May your word go out boldly. May lives be transformed. May hearts be healed and restored and renewed and rescued and reconciled in Jesus name.
00:34:09
Speaker
Amen. Amen. Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Hutch. Always good to be with you guys.