Bill Wilson BILL WILSON Part 3 June 28-­‐29, 2014 It’s good to be with you guys. This has been a pretty unusual week, an unusual Future Quest. It felt very good. When you speak outside like I do every week somewhere around the world… I was joking in the first service that I am a “people connoisseur”. I am. That’s true. Or would that be a “connoisseur of people”? I know people pretty well. I enjoy coming here. That’s why I’ve been coming back all these years for a number of reasons. I’m comfortable with you guys. I’m really not comfortable with a lot of people because most people don’t get it. And at this point in my life being the force of nature that I am, you don’t have a lot of sympathy for folks that maybe aren’t quite with the program like I did when I was younger. But not so much anymore. I realize as Albert Camus said, “We are the sum of all of our decisions”. I love being with young folks because they’re just figuring it out. They’re in the process. But when you’re dealing with a 40-­‐50 year old dope, those people need to be slapped. If you’re in your 40s or 50s and you’re still making stupid decisions, I want to step outside with you after the service. We’re going to have a little “come to Jesus” meeting. Because at some point, you need to get the baptism of brains and get the thing figured out. That’s just the introduction. (Speaks about the books and DVDs he was selling at the church and the child sponsorship program) I have had 5 people the last couple of days ask me similar questions. Last night and the first service, I was trying to come at the messages from more of an edification, an encouragement side. So many people have been in so many battles, so many struggles in their life. I really sensed that the Lord was impressing on me to try to take the time I had with you guys in the adult services just to come at life from maybe a different standpoint. But there was one kid from Future Quest, two of the men after the Men’s Breakfast, one person I talked to at the back, asked me “How is it that I can have the kind of faith in my life that I know I can make it to the end?” Basically that same question. The wording was a little bit different but it kept kicking back to the faith side. They’ve heard me tell the story that I had to really live by faith when I was a kid. People had to come and feed me my one meal a day at night because I lived at the church. After the Sunday School Camp was over, they cleaned out a closet. I lived at the church and each night, a different family would bring their leftovers. That was my one meal a day. And I’ve made a statement, I make it quite often, that I lived and have lived by faith, really, since I was 12 years old. So for me, I think I’m qualified to explain how is it that faith comes to you. We talk about it, we tell people they should have faith. When those men were cutting the hole in the roof to lower the paralytic down to Jesus, do you remember what Jesus said? He looks up at the guys cutting the roof and it says when He saw their faith… so faith obviously… it’s the substance of things hoped for, but the Bible says it’s the evidence of things that are not seen. And yet Jesus saw! Hmm. When people look at you, what do they see? I like to ask questions like that. What do people see when they look at you? Do you look like you’ve been chasing parked cars all week? Is that the impression that you give? I’m a great observer of people. I just like watching people. We do visitation in New York, as most of you know. We visit all the kids. And New York is the perfect place to develop faith because you’re knocking on the door and then when someone comes to the door, you have no idea what’s going to happen! It’s just the best place! I’ve had men come to the door with guns. I’ve had drug dealers, “Hey, preacher, you want some smoke or some coke?” I’ve had naked women. That’s always a joy. I’m going, “Nah, I’ll come back later. I’m good.” It’s always an adventure. There’s always something going on. But because of that, it forces you to be able to look at somebody and you’ve got about 5 seconds to look at that person and go, “OK, should I talk about Sunday School? Should I talk about the program? Should I talk about the promotion? Should I ask how the kids are? Should I ask where the kids are? Should I ask where are your clothes?” So the door opens and you go, “Hey! How’s it going?” So that helps you to develop a sense of discernment. So I can look at people… I'm checking out the chicks in the front row here. See, I knew that if you look at somebody long enough, they'll put their head down because they won't get into a staring match with me. So I like to do that just to irritate people. 1 Bill Wilson When the question of faith comes up… Where do you think faith comes from? Is that the kind of Indiana Jones faith? Remember in that movie… I don't know which one it was… remember when he was getting ready to step out over the chasm. I'm assuming you've all seen the movie except for you younger people. Have you guys seen that? (Speaking to one person directly…) You haven’t seen it? What’s wrong with you? You need to go to Blockbuster. (Laughs) Do they even have Blockbuster anymore? Anyways, you all know what I'm saying. Don’t laugh at me. When you talk about faith... like real faith.. I was telling the kids how I’ve laid hands on people, prayed for them. I’ve laid hands on a couple of blind people, prayed for them, they instantly received their sight. You don’t hear me talk about that much. If that were to happen to a lot of guys who are evangelists, they’d milk that thing. They’d build their whole ministry around one or two things. But you hardly ever hear me talk about it because that’s not my priority. I’ve prayed for deaf people, three deaf people, that I can remember. I laid hands on them, prayed for them, and they instantly received their hearing. I’ve prayed for some dumb people (shakes his head and smiles). Zip. So, two out of three. I am not someone who prayed for those particular gifts or that particular anointing. Never have. If somebody would ask me what I do, “Well, I pray for people.” No I don’t. I will, but my primary function in the body of Christ, in my opinion, is driving the Sunday School bus and picking up kids to teach them about Jesus. I started doing that almost 50 years ago. I was very young. I’m still doing it, I’m just doing more of it. But anybody in this room, if you know Christ as your personal Savior, ought to have the faith to be able to walk into a situation, pray for the person and have the faith to believe that they will recover. You should be able to have that kind of faith. So, here is the question… Is that kind of faith reserved for certain kinds of folks? Does that kind of faith fall out of the balcony on certain people like a pigeon and just “ppthh”? Is that what we’re talking about? I sat with Billy Graham years ago. I was just speaking at the same conference that he was and we were sitting back in the green room. You would be shocked, I think, at how ordinary he is. He doesn’t come across as condescending. You know, somebody in that position, you kind of think that they may be a little haughty. Not even close. Not even close. Great guy. That’s why the Lord has blessed him in that ministry. He’s done it right. He’s done it right for a long time. He hasn’t been like a lot of these pinheads you see on Christian TV now which is a bit exhausting. The other day somebody asked me… one of these other guys turned out to be gay that you see on TBN all the time and people were shocked. They said, “Could you believe he was gay?” Hey, I knew the boy walked funny so it wasn’t a shock to me, didn’t surprise me. But apparently it shocked a bunch of other people. So, is great faith, faith for healing, faith that can move mountains, is that reserved for the Billy Graham type people? I think not. I have talked about faith off and on here over the years but in light of these questions over these last couple of days, I want to focus on this. This is my last service I’ll have with you guys until next year. So, to answer those questions, and I hope to encourage you, I want to talk about what I would call… if I was going to put a title on this message, I think I would have to call it “Winning the Unwinnable Battle”. That’s a good title. I just came up with that because it just made sense to me as I was talking to you. Winning an unwinnable battle… how do you develop, muster, acquire… and whatever other synonym you want to use.. how do you get the kind of faith where you can go into hell with a squirt gun and expect to see some results. How does that happen? That’s the question we’ve got 22 minutes to answer. I told the story about a little boy on my bus that didn’t want to go home because the man who was living with his mother had taken a knife and carved his name on his stomach. I picked up the kid two days after it happened, still fresh, still bleeding, and the kid said, “Pastor Bill, I don’t want to go home. Can I go home with you?” We are in the process of buying guns in South Africa to go to Nigeria to try to find at least some of these girls that have been kidnapped by the Muslims there. We’re going to do something! We’re going to get some guns and we’re going to find somebody and we’re going to try to do something. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish. When people see the things I do, the places I go, going to Pakistan, we have to wear bullet proof vests and all that, and they 2 Bill Wilson say, “Man, are you afraid?” Not really. I’ve dealt with Board Members all my life. If you can do that in church, you can pretty much do anything. I’m not saying that to be obnoxious, I’m saying that because I’m not. After you’ve gone through the process… because to develop and become men and women of great faith, very seldom does that kind of influence-­‐affecting faith come just out of the blue. It doesn’t. I’ve watched people. I’ve studied people. I’ve read biographies of all the missionaries. And when you get to the back story of these people, you will find that they were willing to go through a process of development that in turn got them to that place where then they can go, “Yeah, we can go do that.” Have I been trained to do all the crazy stuff that I do? No. Where do you go to get trained to do this? You go to a Bible School? Come on, man. I think Bible School is important but most of those professors got lace on their underwear. They’ve never been in a fight. They’ve never been through tough stuff. They’ve never been out in the field. Getting in a shoot out. Getting stabbed. It doesn’t happen. It’s not good, it’s not bad. It just is what it is. So, you got those guys trying to teach hermeneutics, apologetics? I guess that’s important. But at the end of the day somebody is going to have to say, “I’m taking a stand. Come hell or high water, I’m standing on the Word of God and I’m walking by faith”. Somebody has got to get ahold of some faith and then act on it. Act on it. It’s not about saying “I’m a person of great faith”. OK, then act like it. How to win an unwinnable battle. I don’t have time to read it but write the text down because you’ll need to read it later on. 1 Samuel 17. The proverbial story of David and Goliath. If there was ever a perfect illustration of what I want to communicate to you guys today, it’s this. How does a young man who seems pretty innocuous to the casual observer suddenly conjure up enough faith to walk out onto the field and not only take on an unbeatable foe but he wins an unwinnable battle? He does it. Not only does he have the guts to walk out there but he actually comes out victorious. It’s one thing to go out and say, “What’s up?” It’s another thing to come out on the other side of the thing. That’s what I try to teach the young people that I release to go overseas. You’re going to deal with stuff when you go to a foreign country you’ve never dealt with before. I will help you go through the process but do not go prematurely because if you do, you’re going to get eaten up. They’re going to eat you up. I’ve got three observations I want to give you about how I believe David developed this faith. This little boy with his carved stomach. How do you deal with that. How do you deal with all this other stuff. That’s what the questions were to me. Here’s the answer. Here’s where I think the process begins for faith. Let’s go back before David ever got on the field. What was he doing? He was watching the sheep. I spent one night in Ireland. I just needed to do this because I thought it would make a great illustration so now I finally get to use it because it sounds so stupid if I never get to use it but it will fit here. I thought, you know what? I’m just going to stay out all night on this field and watch the sheep. What was I thinking?? I don’t know. The smell is horrendous for one thing and the sheep are quite boring. They’re quite stupid. Interesting characteristics of sheep. There was probably 100 sheep out there and there was one black one, which I thought was interesting… because there’s always one. So, I came over and sat by him. I felt more comfortable. I really did. It made me laugh. So, I’m hanging out with the one black sheep in the whole crowd. It’s funny, right? So, I’m watching all night. That had to be one of the most boring evenings I’ve ever had. Nothing happening. Nothing exciting. That’s what David spent his time doing for years. Watching the sheep. I’m sure there was some action out there when animals tried to attack, which we see later apparently they did. But he spent a tremendous amount of time prior to this unwinnable battle in preparation. What prepared him from watching sheep. Why was that critical? Here’s your first point… because faith is birthed in solitude. It is nurtured in solitude. That’s why I tell the young people, “Turn off the machines. Turn off the TV. Turn off the radio. Turn off your stupid phone. Turn off the computer. And just shut up.” That’s difficult to do today, isn’t it? Did you see the video of that girl who was texting in the mall? She had headphones on and she was texting and she walks right into a fountain. Head first into the fountain. Man, I wish I could have been there. I would have just held her head. Are you stupid? Head first! Classic! But that’s what life has come to. The machines, headphones. We were on the plane and the flight attendant was talking to one guy who was sitting across the 3 Bill Wilson aisle from me and he’s got his headphones on, those big, giant Bose headphone things. She’s talking to him and he’s not even paying attention to her. Well, I’ve never been one to miss a great opportunity. So, I reached over and snatched the thing (gestures that he’s pulling one side off his ear), I said, “HEY! She’s talking to you!” and I snapped the thing back. I just hate that! It was nurtured in solitude. Terms like “the prayer closet” you don’t hear that talked about anymore, do you? That’s old school stuff. Getting alone with God… you don’t hear that much anymore. That’s old school. Be still and know that He is God. You don’t hear that much anymore. It’s hard to be still in the world we live in, isn’t it? People yelling.. you think it’s bad here, you ought to be in New York. I live on the fourth floor of this one building that’s right there by the street and now in the summer time it’s great because they have these huge speakers that they put in the cars and then they open up the back and this is like 3 am. Come on, man, I gotta get up at 5:00. And you want to just do something but you’re usually outnumbered. It’s a constant drone, a din, noise. Young people, you need to get this… David had the privilege of taking himself out of the mainstream and… quiet. See, there’s an audible voice. There’s a still, small voice. And then there’s a silent voice. How will you ever hear the silent voice of God if you are constantly (gestures texting and listening to music). That silent voice. Every husband in this room understands the silent voice. It would serve you well to make sure you understand the silent voice because if it turns into the audible voice, you will wish you got it when it was the silent voice. Nurtured, birthed in solitude. Turn it off, folks. Have a time. Have a discipline. Listening for things that you can’t hear in the world in which we live. David had that opportunity. But I think it was obvious that not only was his faith to win an unwinnable battle birthed in solitude, but it was strengthened in conflict. That would be my second observation. First is birthed in solitude. Second has got to be strengthened in conflict. And here’s the problem with us. Because we don’t like the conflict. You don’t like it, do you? I don’t like it. Some people think I’m a fight magnet because I get into so many fights. I could just be walking down the street. Maybe it’s because I snap people’s headphones. Maybe I bring it on myself a little bit but I’m not taking all the credit for this. Some guys are chick magnets, other guys are fight magnets. I’m a fight magnet. But I’ve learned with David, and you can look at this historically, as he evolved out of those days of watching the sheep, obviously the battles… what did he say? Remember when Saul questioned him? David shows up. Sees Goliath ranting and raving. David was on his way to lunch. He was bringing lunch to his brothers. That trip to lunch turned out to be a defining moment. You better be careful when you go to lunch today because you never know when your defining moment is going to show up. It doesn’t announce: Today you’re going to have a defining moment. You could just be going to lunch. He’s bringing his brothers lunch. And then he sees the giant. His brothers are scared. Everybody’s scared. David goes to Saul the King and says, “I can beat the giant.” Do you remember what Saul says? He says, “Why do you think you can do that? Why do you think you’re qualified?” Do you remember David’s response? He said, “Well, I fought a lion once. I beat him. I fought a bear. I beat him. So, what’s up?” That’s in the Hebrew. You can’t read it. Only I can read Hebrew. Here’s the hook. In his mind he’s going, “I fought this and I fought this. I’m prepped.” Do you follow the process? Nurtured, birthed in solitude. Strengthened in the conflict. But we don’t like to fight so when the battles come, what do we do? We kind of back out of it. That’s why this thing with the Nigeria thing. People who know me, it doesn’t shock them that I’m involved in this. Why? Because I’m at this point in my life… I’ve gone through the process. I’ve been through enough battles. I’ve done enough stuff all over the world. That now, who better qualified, right? Now I don’t know how far we’re going to get but we’re going to do something. But who better qualified? Because I did not shirk from the battle. But when the battles come to us, we go “Well”, or we pray, “Oh Lord, get me out of this” because you don’t want to fight. I get it. Confrontation is painful, isn’t it? It wears you out. Whether you’re a pastor having to deal with the staff. Whether you’re a pastor having to deal with the people. Whether you’re a parent having to deal with your child. Whether you’re a parent 4 Bill Wilson having to deal with another parent who’s acting like a child. And it goes on and on. So after a while you go, “I don’t want to deal with this.” So we pray, “Lord, get me out of this.” Or you pray, “Oh God, give me strength for the battle.” Have you ever prayed that prayer? I’m going to have to pray for you. Because you don’t get strength for battle. You get strength from the battle. And that was worth you showing up here today. You get strength from the battle. That’s how this works. It’s nice to pray for strength for the battle. That’s a good start. But you’re going to have to go through the process. That’s why when you see some of these folks that have been through so much… I mentioned that Country song yesterday. I love Country music because when you get old it makes sense. It talks about the old guy who has been through everything and now he’s lost his house in a tornado and he tells the reporter, “That ain’t nothin’.” I went through my wife dying, son killed in the war, had this happen, had that happen. Tornado? That ain’t nothin’. Pretty accurate because it speaks about going through the process of difficult things. Not quitting. Not backing up. Not backing away. Not backing out. You following? The process. Birthed in solitude, strengthened in conflict. What could possibly happen to me now at this point in my life that would make me quit? I can’t think of a thing. Busted head. Busted ribs. Busted leg. The list goes on. We just had two fires in the building in the last 6 months. Was that easy? No, it wasn’t. It was a pain in the neck. It was hard. It’s all hard. The devil will continue to throw stuff at you because it’s all designed to get you to quit. That’s all this is, folks. Have you noticed the battles never come at you one at a time. Have you ever noticed that? It’s never just one thing because most of us are tough enough to deal with one thing. If it’s a stupid person, you go, “OK”. Remember Bill Engvall? “Here’s your sign.” Wouldn’t it be nice if stupid people would wear a sign that says, “I’m stupid”? Then you go up to ask them a question (see the sign) and go, “Oh, I’m sorry” and you go on. It’s a great illustration but stupid people don’t wear signs so unfortunately we have to learn. When we found our girl who was raped on visitation, it was right after that we found the staff member dead behind the church and it was right after that I got hit with a brick and I was blind in this eye. So you see the pattern. You see what the devil does—pow, pow, pow. It comes in twos, threes, fours. And it’s designed to wear you out, to wear you down. That’s what it does if you will let it. It will wear you out until you finally say, “I’m done.” And you walk away. I get it. I’ve been there. I get it perfectly. David walks up to Saul and he says, “I fought a lion. Beat him. I fought a bear. Beat him.” You know what’s discouraging? When you think you’ve fought all the giants but they were just bears. And then all of a sudden a lion shows up and then a giant shows up and you’re going “I didn’t sign up for this.” Birthed in solitude, strengthened in conflict, and then last is proven in hopelessness. There at that moment, the defining moment rises up. I don’t know if it was Billy Graham or Michael Keaton, I think it was Michael Keaton who said, “It’s show time!” Remember that movie? You don’t remember that movie. Go to Blockbuster. That becomes the moment when the whole process comes together and now we’ll see what you got. And he faces an unwinnable battle. He chooses not to use Saul’s armor because he had not proved it. He chooses not to go about the battle in the conventional style of warfare. But he takes the slingshot, he takes the five smooth stones, he takes his staff because on his staff the lion and the bear stories were recorded. I preached that message here several years back of the truth of the staff. So he takes slingshot, five stones, the staff as a reminder that God had been with him before. He walks into a battle with extreme faith. Extreme confidence. Extreme power. How do you win an unwinnable battle? You have to be willing to go through a process. My 50 years of doing this tells me that there are folks here today… in a group this size, it’s just numbers, it’s statistics, it’s not me discerning anything… there are some of you that are at one of these three stages. I’m not sure where you are. I don’t know what’s going on in your life. Some of you I’ve talked to on a more personal level in the last couple of days. But where do you go from here? Where do you go from this step? I would encourage you if you want to be men and women of great faith, and I believe all of you want to be… I was encouraged these last couple of days at Future Quest. I was extremely encouraged. That was a good group. It was a great bunch. They were there. They were right there. Great bunch. I believe that young people want to be. 5 Bill Wilson This young man and I (pointing to someone in the crowd) you’re a good young man. I don’t know if he’s just putting us on because he’s at church. How is he? (addressing his parent). Is he OK? He and I have had a couple of good little conversations. He’s a pretty sharp kid. You all did pretty good (addressing his parent again). For young people, this process has got to start early. That’s one of the problems that I see. That’s why this church is so much of a lighthouse in this community because you focus on a generation to be able to get these kids moving in the right direction. I’ve always said it’s better to build a fence at the top of the mountain than to line up the ambulances at the bottom of the mountain. Prevention versus intervention. We need to intervene when somebody gets messed up but how much better is it to prevent a destroyed life in the first place than try to resurrect it later on. That’s what this church stands for. That’s what you’re a part of. And you ought to thank God every day that that is the vision of this house and this leadership. You ought to thank God every day. That’s why you’re here. To teach young people to get alone with God. To spend some time on their face in front of the Lord. To spend some time in the Word. Nurtured, birthed in solitude starting at a young age. I’ve gotta look back. For me even living in that closet at the church when I was a kid, I spent a lot of time, an inordinate amount of time for a 12 year old kid, in the Bible. And that’s why people are a little, I think, surprised sometimes that even some of the messages that I preach and some of the stuff that I know… I have a lot of formal education. I’m finally finishing the PhD. It’s not that big of a deal. I’m just getting it so I can shove it in people’s faces. It hasn’t made me any smarter. It really hasn’t. I’ve got a lot of formal education but my best education has been hours, hours, in the Book. No substitute. Nurtured in solitude, but I can also talk about strengthened in conflict. I understand the conflicts. Many of you know most of them but you don’t know all of them. Every year when I come here, I kind of share a little bit more of my life. Because I want you to know that even though my faith has been nurtured in solitude, it has also been strengthened in conflict. I’m no stranger to conflict. I’m no stranger to the battles. I’ve been through them. And I’m sure there will be more to come in my closing years. But I’ve never run from a battle and I’m certainly not going to start running now because I’ve stepped out and I’ve gone through the process. And I will remain in the process because my gut tells me that as these other countries continue to open their doors to me… I haven’t had some revelation, but my gut tells me, my experience tells me that as governments now invite us to start Sunday Schools in their country, as extremely influential people invite us to come and help the children in their city, in their country… and then this Nigeria thing comes up… you know what I was thinking the minute that happened. Ten years ago, nope. Now, I’m 65, but even at 55 I don’t think I was prepped. I was close but I wasn’t there. But when that happened, I thought, OK, I know the people now. I know the ex-­‐military people now. I have people in places now that even 5 years ago I did not have. Do you get this? If you quit the process, you never get to the purpose that you had to go through the process to get to. We get so consumed with the process that we never get to the purpose. And some people are so consumed with the purpose, they don’t want to go through the process. But you’ve got to go through the process to get to the purpose. And now that’s what’s happening in some of your lives. You are in the process and if you can stay in the process, you’ll get to the purpose. That’s why people miss their purpose. Because they’re overwhelmed by the process and they miss it. Birthed in solitude, strengthened in conflict, proven in hopelessness. I’m going to Lahore, Pakistan. I know somewhat of what I’m walking into when I get there. I’m prepared, aren’t I? I’m prepped. I wasn’t 5 years ago. But I’m prepped because I’ve gone through the process, as painful as it was. I’ve allowed the Holy Ghost to walk me through the process. Who would have ever thought, right? I came out on the 12th floor, 997 Dekalb, Brooklyn. A little boy was sitting out in front of his apartment, crying. Little guy, 6 years old. I sat down and said, “What’s the matter?” He said, “My Mom’s gone and I’m hungry.” I said, “OK, let’s go.” That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? That’s a simple fix. It’s a bad building. I let the rest of my team finish the visitation. In New York you can buy the slices, I guess you can out here, get a slice and a coke. So there’s a little pizza joint around the corner so we get him a slice and a coke. We sit down, I was reading. That 6 Bill Wilson was about 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. I knew the mother had issues. I knew she’s been on drugs. Didn’t know what the story was. We went back at 6:00. She’s still not home. Went back at 8:00, still not home. We took the kid to the church. I was setting up for Sunday school. Went back at 9:00, she’s still not home. Now, what do you do? I’m not going to leave that kid alone in that building. Can’t do it. Won’t do it. I went back to the church. And there’s a guy that goes with me sometimes when I deal with this kind of stuff. So, we’re in the church van sitting on Dekalb Ave, I’m in the driver’s seat, little kid is here, and the guy who’s with me is behind me. It’s now after midnight. The mother’s still not home. Now that kid would have been sitting there from 3:30 that afternoon and now it’s almost 1:00. And here she comes. She’s walking with two guys in between the two buildings. By the time I see her, the kid sees her. It’s his mom so he’s excited. He jumps out of the van, running across the parking lot, gets to her… and you know how sometimes little kids will jump to jump up into your arms…. so as he jumps to jump up into her arms, closed fisted she hits him in the side of the mouth. I watched that kid’s body turn in mid-­‐air, she hit him so hard. So now he’s laying down in the parking lot crying and I walk over and I thought, “OK, here we go.” You gotta play these. That’s where the experience and discernment comes in because you can get into something you don’t want to get into really quick there. I said, “Hey, I’ve fed him, we’ve taken care of him. Everything’s cool.” She’s high. I looked at her eyes and she’s gone. She’s screaming and cursing. I said, “Look, I’ll be around to pick him up on the bus for Sunday School tomorrow.” So, I went to turn to go back to the van and I see her reach down and grab him by the arm and she starts dragging him away, face down in the parking lot. She’s dragging him face down but with his other hand he tried to wave to me. He said, “I love you, Pastor Bill. I’ll see you tomorrow.” What do you do there? Not before. Not after. But when the giant shows up. That’s why we do what we do. That’s what you have supported all these years… is allowing us to be your representative to walk through a process, so that now, whether it’s a kid in the Philippines who’s got gangrene, whether it’s a little boy in Brooklyn who’s being drug face down, whether it’s a little boy in India who’s mother broke his arms and broke his legs right after birth intentionally so she could put him on a street corner as a beggar. I stopped and talked to him and he said, “You’re the only one who saw me.” Thousands of people walking by. Some people see. Some people don’t see, do they? Why is that? Because some of us have chosen to walk through a process that manifests itself into great faith where you can take a stand and make a difference and not run away, and not quit, and not feel sorry for yourself. And then one day the government calls you and says, “Do you have time?” Yeah. I got time. I’ve been prepared. Nurtured in solitude, strengthened in conflict, proven at that moment in time when you think, “I can’t do this anymore.” But I’m still in the battle, aren’t I? Great faith. 7