Real Friends Podcast
Real Friends Podcast
Real Friends Interview | Winston Bales
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It is our privilege to introduce a longtime friend of Real Life, Winston Bales, a thirty-eye year member of our church. His deep connection to our current church building, once a bustling hospital where his mother worked, adds a nostalgic touch to our exploration of its rich history.
We take a heartfelt journey through Winston's career transitions—from his daring escapades as a firefighter, to his time working as a paramedic. In a profound discussion on personal growth, Winston opens up about his transformative journey to Christ in 1987, inspired by a compelling sermon that redefined his faith. This episode emphasizes the importance of living life through a biblical lens, advocating for community service and regular Bible reading as pathways to deeper connections with God. Amidst light-hearted conversations about 70s and 80s music, favorite foods, and rapid-fire questions, we celebrate the joy of lasting friendships and shared experiences. As we wrap up, expect a hearty laugh over a playful tale about being mistaken for a beach ball!
Thinking about this good life, Cause we know what matters being together Forever friends. Oh oh friends, oh oh friends. Well, hello everybody, thank you so much for tuning in. This is Chris and you are listening to the Real Friends Podcast. I am here with my friend Matthew Riddout. Hello, how you doing?
Speaker 2:Good and, more importantly, we're here with our very special guest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Winston Bells is going to be with us in just a few moments. He is an interesting dude and been here for 38 years at this church.
Speaker 2:Indeed, I've. Independent of how long he's been here, I have. I have questions, strange and wonderful questions for this man. But first a question for you, Pastor Chris. You just got back from sabbatical. Tell me how that was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I was so blessed to have a 40 day sabbatical, and I know that's shocking to people because they think that pastors only work Wednesdays and Sundays, so it's like why do you need a sabbatical? Well, that is not the case. We actually work quite a bit. Really, it's a 24-7 job to be a pastor, and so this is a big thing that the church is really learning. It's really helpful for pastors to have extended times away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and not in terms of a vacation?
Speaker 1:really it's not. No, it's not about going to the beach and just putting your feet up. It's really about taking time to sit at the feet of Jesus and recharge, refresh and just really again develop intense personal time with the Lord. And it was a wonderful experience. We got to visit a lot of different churches something I don't often get to do and learn from other denominations. I went to, I think, four different denominations.
Speaker 2:What was the most surprising experience you had at any of them?
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know that there was anything shocking or very surprising. They're just all very different. I think one of the takeaways I had is that every denomination does something really well. I think that there's something we can learn Every church I went to, except maybe one. I won't mention it, but every church I went to I think I learned something to do, something I could do better and maybe something I don't want to do. I'm so grateful for this church and their willingness to just allow us to take that time, and I'm grateful that we have four other elders, we have a great deacon team who can hold down the fort and we really, in my absence, the church didn't skip a beat.
Speaker 2:So, on a scale of one to a hundred, how disappointed is some part of your brain when you come back and find that everything didn't fall apart after 40 days? Yeah, I'm going to assume it's not 80 or 90, but I'm willing to bet it's one or two. Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's how I try to process that. They say good leaders. If you're a good leader, when you leave, things keep marching forward. If you're a good leader when you leave, things keep marching forward. And so, though, you want to be missed and you want the church, in some capacity, to feel that, and that's a really fleshly prideful thing, but it does speak well, I think, of a pastor when you can leave and you've got great leaders who can hold down the fort, so to speak.
Speaker 2:The end. I didn't have any follow-up for that, Sorry Okay. The end. I didn't have any follow-up for that, sorry Okay. All right, cheesy semi-professional radio segue here talking about your retreat. Why don't we retreat for now from the topic and introduce our guest, Winston Bales?
Speaker 1:Winston, how you doing.
Speaker 3:Doing very well.
Speaker 1:So you are a longtime member of Real Life Community Church.
Speaker 3:Almost 38 years 38 years.
Speaker 1:So did you and Carol help plant this church?
Speaker 3:No, it's oh sorry, that's all right. I think and I'm not 100% sure of this that it was actually founded in 1982.
Speaker 1:I should know the answer to that, but I don't I did not start going until 1986. Okay, so it was still a very fresh church and that's what it was under the name Faith Created.
Speaker 2:As somebody who's only been here a few years, make sure I have that history straight. So it was Faith Created, for a lot longer than I realized and you intended for that entire period with your wife, carol.
Speaker 1:Yes, you might remember if you're listening from a previous episode and and if you are a part of this church, you likely know this, but this church used to be the old Patty A Clay Hospital and you, winston, have a unique connection to the hospital, so your mother used to be a phlebotomist here at the hospital.
Speaker 3:Yes, she did From like 1959 until she retired from the new hospital in 93.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so as a kid, I think I remember you telling me that you used to run around this building, right? Yes, I did.
Speaker 2:And it was larger, I'm going to guess then. I've seen pictures, although I don't know how old was it. Did it have two or even three stories back then?
Speaker 3:The main part of the building was three stories, as best I remember.
Speaker 1:Now, does that include the basement or three stories plus Three stories?
Speaker 3:above ground. Oh wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was shocked. So, you know, I've heard, obviously, from the—they told me as soon as I came to this church, you know, to candidate that this used to be the hospital and things, and so I kind of tried to picture that in my mind and we're sitting right now in the fellowship hall that I understand used to be the emergency room. This and the basement are the only parts left of the original structure, correct? Yes, but I did not picture a multi-story building. But just several months ago, I guess, maybe within the last year, I saw some pictures online and saw that I guess the main doors faced Glendon Is that right? And I saw this massive structure and we actually just did some renovation in the basement here and when we tore out some drywall downstairs we actually saw the markings of an old elevator shaft.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, I thought you were going to say that you found a body.
Speaker 1:No, but I am told that the basement used to be the morgue. Is that true?
Speaker 3:I don't have a clear recollection of that Now. Where my mom worked, the laboratory was in the basement, along with x-ray and the pharmacy, and you know the pharmacy was small, I mean, you know, compared to what they are today, and then the central stores was downstairs.
Speaker 2:I don't want to go too far afield with this and while this doesn't confirm the idea that the morgue was down there, this was pointed out to me and has me a firm believer, and for anybody listening and sending their kids sorry, because that's where our kids' church is, but I think it's a storage room. Right now, way back into the left, in that particular room there seems to be at least the way I mentioned it that room has a larger drain than any other drain, other drain, you would see it's not massive but it's larger and, uh, you know, fluids of any kind, even hard water, over time, you know, on concrete like that will leave, you know. Uh, you know permanent, uh, tracks based on the flow.
Speaker 2:Right, the tracks there are very, very uh the track. There. There's one particular one that's very, very wide, a good five to six inches wide, and that doesn't really follow. If it flooded regularly it wouldn't do that, and if it were just a trickle I don't think it would do that. Somebody told me that that particular room was where they dealt with the cadavers, the things they needed to do so.
Speaker 2:that was in all likelihood from the post-mortem icky sticky Better band name, or from uh the uh post-mortem icky sticky better band name, or an album title post-mortem icky sticky. This is all getting into that, by the way yeah, that's that sounds like our.
Speaker 1:Have you watched parks and rec or no? Yes yeah, so you know chris pat pratt's character, andy. Like he's always coming up with these new band names, that sounds like a great band name for mouse rat I'll, for that's for mouse rat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll take. I'll try to take this as a compliment, whether it's meant to be one or not. Any affiliation I can get with chris pratt. I mean, it's fair, we're just about twins, so I guess it was bound to happen eventually chris pratt, here's a christian uh, yes, I'm.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say from things I've seen that it's a very uh broad kind of definition, maybe even somewhat I don't want to say nominal and maybe liberal, but kind of Andy Beshear style. I'm going to say if that makes sense. But hey, you know what Hollywood West Coast I suppose we'll take what we can get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, winston, we talked about your mother being a phlebotomist. Tell us about your childhood and upbringing. So you've lived in Richmond. Very few people we interview have lived in Richmond their whole life, but you grew up here.
Speaker 3:Yes, I did. My grandparents owned a restaurant. It's called Bales' Restaurant. It's out on Main Street, right before you get to the railroad tracks. Is there still a structure there? It's actually a vacant lot now. Okay, it's. You know. Like I say, right before you get to the railroad crossing, it's on the left You'll see that big vacant lot. It's directly across from the cemetery.
Speaker 2:I know just about where you're talking about. You ever thought about restarting it?
Speaker 3:I've thought about it, but I guess I'm not the business. I'm not the business, I'm not the entrepreneurial type, I guess.
Speaker 1:So what years did they have that restaurant, or when did it? Let's say, when did it close?
Speaker 3:down, closed down in 1971. Okay, you know the reason. I remember that is. My picture was in the paper, along with oh was it. Yeah, it was big news at the time. You know, my showed my grandfather locking the door for the last time. Wow Of course I was there, you know. Of course I got to be there.
Speaker 2:What kind of restaurant was it.
Speaker 3:It was just a regular restaurant, gotcha. You could get just about any kind of food you wanted.
Speaker 1:Just basic American.
Speaker 3:Yeah, basic American. My grandmother was an excellent cook and the lady that helped.
Speaker 1:Her was an excellent cook as well. Now did you help? I know sometimes when families have restaurants, kind of like the Bob's Burgers thing, the kids help.
Speaker 3:Well, not really. I kind of got in trouble once because I went and picked up all the tips. Oh yeah, I guess I was a thief.
Speaker 1:Right, right Now. Winston, you went to college at Eastern Kentucky University, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and what was your degree in Police administration and?
Speaker 1:something that surprised me years ago. It might surprise some of our listeners. You were fireman and you worked in paramedic as well. Yeah, so fireman first.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I started working at Richmond Fire Department in 1987. So I remember the first paycheck I got. It was less than minimum wage on the hour Really. It was $4.63 an hour.
Speaker 1:Oh goodness, I made more of that. At Arby's when I started, I think I made $4.75 or something.
Speaker 3:Oh goodness, I made more of that at Arby's when I started I think I made $4.75 or something. Yeah, but you know, in 1987, carol and I it was just before Carol and I got married I started in May and we got married in October and I got my EMT in 1989 and paramedic in 1996.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you retired from the fire department, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you went on to, and what did you do after that?
Speaker 3:Well, I worked at what's now Baptist Health in Lexington.
Speaker 1:As a paramedic.
Speaker 3:Part of the time. Yeah, I worked in the emergency department for several years and then I worked in patient transport and then I worked at a reception desk before I left to go to UK. Yeah, yeah, so what do you do now? It's called a cardiopulmonary technician.
Speaker 1:That sounds fancy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is, but it's not near as fancy as it sounds. Okay, because basically all you do is you look at a monitor, or actually monitors there's two and you can monitor between the two screens, up to 32 patients at one time. Then you have a computer terminal that you chart on and communicate with the staff with, as well as regular phones and emergency phones, all at your station.
Speaker 2:Okay, so through all of this, from your education through now, you got your degree in police administration. You never actually happened to do any police work, did you?
Speaker 3:No, somewhere along the line.
Speaker 2:I missed that. You know that's all right. I read somewhere a long time ago that some huge percentage of people if they go to college they end up in a career unaffiliated with what they went to. Although you're kind of in the same general line when you're doing police work as you are working for emergency services, first response Does anything ever wild or crazy happen? As a pulmonary technician or if you've got something juicy, your best story as an EMT or as a fireman?
Speaker 3:Well, a funny one that happened to me, and of course, it could only happen to me probably. I like it already. It was Christmas Eve and a house caught fire over on Four Mile, which is not too far from here so far not so hysterical, but go on.
Speaker 3:And there was snow on the ground and you know there was a slight hill and I tried to walk up it so I slipped, fell face forward and of course it would be about the time that the next engine company got there. They said it looked like I was trying to do reverse snow.
Speaker 2:That's great, that's great, all right. So awkward transition number two for you, winston. Since you mentioned Angel, your wife is certainly one of this church, and probably in your wife as well. Tell us about your wife and then some other folks in your family, both those who go here and don't.
Speaker 3:Well, carol's family her grandparents and her father and mother were all raised in New Mexico Now. Her father was career military, so they traveled everywhere career military so they traveled everywhere.
Speaker 2:Uh, she was actually born in germany while they were while he was deployed over in germany, and so she's a spy. Oh wait, no, that's not automatic.
Speaker 3:Well, as west germany as opposed to east germany okay, a little safer, yeah, and they traveled everywhere. One you know, she got to go skiing in Austria. They actually got to tour the Louvre Museum in Paris, among other things, and that was the time she almost got arrested.
Speaker 2:Pause yeah. Arrested yeah. Are you at liberty to share this particular story or would you need some marriage counseling afterwards?
Speaker 3:No, I shouldn't need marriage counseling afterwards, or at least not for this anyway. Her coat brushed against one of the paintings and set the alarm off.
Speaker 2:Oh, is that right? Oh no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could see her being in prison. What are you in for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know where that falls on the totem pole of, like you know who gets beaten up in the prison.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not thinking that would. That would be well go, well for her.
Speaker 2:No, I think that's just kind of off the side. It's not even part of the prison hierarchy flow chart. They just wouldn't know what to do. I'd like to think that that wouldn't be a maximum security thing, but you know I'm not familiar with the French judicial system so I really can't say any more on that. Winston.
Speaker 3:I have nothing to add on that either. So, how did you and Carol meet? I was working as a security guard at Patty at Clay now Baptist Health Richmond and she was a new nurse and it was a relatively small building.
Speaker 1:yeah, was it love at first sight? Apparently not well for me, not for her was for me, I was more of an acquired taste, right yeah, well, she probably had a picture of you on her wall on the fireman calendar, right like she's like. I know you from somewhere.
Speaker 3:If only.
Speaker 1:Oh man. I don't even know where to go from there, Matthew.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean, I know you've done a calendar spread before, although not necessarily quite of the type that you know. You're implying that, winston?
Speaker 1:might have. Yeah, let's clarify that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so suddenly I'm having images of the possibility of a real-life calendar going through my head. Yeah, so suddenly I'm having images of the possibility of a real-life calendar going through my head and, to be honest, I love you all listeners, but I'm trying to banish those images right back out of my head.
Speaker 1:Right, so you met—what year was it again?
Speaker 3:We met 1986 because we both graduated from Eastern in 1985. Okay, and how long did you date? Let's see. We got married in october 87, a little bit over a year and a half. Do you remember your first date? Let's see, I do remember the first date, but I'm trying to remember where we went that didn't matter.
Speaker 2:It's who you were with yeah I was going to say he went to Bale's Restaurant, but it was closed by then Sadly.
Speaker 3:but it would have been nice, I've got to go here.
Speaker 2:I know the chef.
Speaker 3:So you got married what year?
Speaker 1:1987. 1987.
Speaker 3:And you have two wonderful daughters, Three actually Well, Cara, Courtney, Cara and I, yeah that's a good point.
Speaker 1:So Cara's kind of an adopted daughter, yeah, yeah, that's a good point. So Kara is kind of an adopted daughter. Yeah, and two grandbabies. So Carol works for Baptist Lexington. Now what does she do?
Speaker 3:She is a nursing director somewhere in the chain of command, somewhere right in the middle. She has people that answer to her and she's got several people that she answers to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, doesn't she have like 60 nurses who report to her or something like?
Speaker 3:that Something in that somewhere right around there.
Speaker 2:Okay, so back to your three daughters. All of them work or have worked in the medical field, and maybe even right where you are or at Baptist Health as well, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, because Carol worked in food services, correct? Yeah, because Carol worked in food services. Courtney was there as a tech and as a nurse and still is. She works on mother-baby, and Kaylin, you know, was never a tech but she worked in one of the doctor's offices in the medical plaza that's attached to the Baptist campus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Kaylin, she's studying to be a PA is that right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's on her clinical portion and I think she will be done at the end of June of next year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those are like rotations, or am I thinking of the right word?
Speaker 3:She's done an emergency rotation in the emergency department. She absolutely hated it because while she was there, a 12-year-old boy that had been injured in an ATV came in and they're at Ephraim McDowell where she was working and he didn't make it. He passed away.
Speaker 2:I can see where that wouldn't necessarily be everybody's cup of tea.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and now she's getting done with her surgery rotation, which she seems to, from what I understand, really like she got to witness an open heart procedure.
Speaker 2:Oh, too much icky sticky for me. Back to that phrase. I don't think I could do that either.
Speaker 1:So we talked earlier about the pastoring job being kind of 24-7. Especially Carol, her job is 24-7, mainly because when she gets off of work she receives calls from church people throughout the evening. She is like our house nurse and she has helped our people so much. She's always willing to take our calls and give us medical advice and calm us when we're freaking out about some medical emergency. She is just a treasure and I know she has helped. I can't tell you the number of people from our church who have just said Chris. Carol is just such a blessing to our family in so many ways, but particularly with her expertise in the medical field?
Speaker 2:Sure, but we don't want to give a short shrift to Winston. Why don't you tell us about some of the ministries and things that you're involved with?
Speaker 3:Well, I've worked over the years with men's ministry, that's one thing. And then one time I was actually on the worship team.
Speaker 1:Well, that is news to me.
Speaker 2:Oh, I had no idea. So are you an instrumentalist singer both?
Speaker 3:No singer. Well, if you want to call it a singer, you played the bagpipes and you wore a kilt, yeah ah, more images from the calendar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah that was gonna say it's a separate calendar, so so so you were on the worship team and then you were a deacon for many years and you were actually part of the deacon board when I was hired, correct?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, yeah, let's see Another one of the members of the search committee. Brother Howard Roberts is the one he described you. You know, because what he put it is this way God showed him this is who he wanted and described a young middle-aged.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he knew I was either 36 or 37 when I came to the church and whenever the Lord gave him this dream or vision, whatever it was, he said he knew. He just saw the backside of a young man and said he knew he was 37 years old. And so I remember doing a Skype call with the board or the search committee and when I told my age to them, like Howard, had a Pentecostal fit.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so, winston, one of my favorite stories that you tell about that time you all had actually hired, we were. There was another pastor who was going to candidate for the position. You brought him in, yeah, and tell us what happened.
Speaker 3:Well apparently I talked him inadvertently tell us what happened. Well, apparently I talked to him inadvertently right out of it, because normally I'm not real talkative, but for some reason I just got talking and I could not shut up and I mean, this was just regular conversation, regular conversation, just this, that and nothing you know. Bad but. But just, I was talking about the Army Depot, the mall, you name it. We talked about it and apparently I talked to a man right out of coming here.
Speaker 2:So the next time you're feeling worn out, pastor, chris, or anything else and you're wondering oh, how did I end up in this job? Now you know the reason I have.
Speaker 1:Winston to thank or blame or what have you? Yeah, so my understanding is. So was that like a Saturday and he didn't even end up preaching on Sunday, right?
Speaker 3:No, it was actually in the middle of the week, maybe a Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:And after we got done, he and his wife went back to their hotel. And after we got done, he and his wife went back to their hotel. And then that evening he called Brother Treece, who was the head of the search committee, and told him that he did not feel that this was the place he needed to be Sure, and then the rest, as they say, is history.
Speaker 1:So the church flew me out to candidate a few months later and I noticed you didn't say much. Did they warn you? No, I wondered. Why is Winston sitting in the corner over here?
Speaker 3:Well, I guess the Lord shut me up that time.
Speaker 2:Nobody puts Winston in a corner.
Speaker 1:You know the thing I remember most about that weekend. It was very strange in one sense because, first of all, google Maps didn't work. It was very difficult to find this church. You know it sits back in the neighborhood and it's on the address at that time.
Speaker 2:We've since changed our address to the cross street, to Glendon Avenue to help people find it, but as you're approaching from downtown, this isn't a rabbit warren of streets back here it is, but the church sits the other side of the church is on 4th Street and so the address it was a 4th Street address.
Speaker 1:Well, 4th doesn't hit Main, 5th hits Main 3rd, 2nd, 4th Street does not go to Main Street. We just couldn't find it and Google Maps couldn't find it at the time. You know, this was a decade ago and so, yeah, so we had difficulty finding it.
Speaker 2:We finally find the church, finally find the church, and Nikki and I get out of the car and there are no humans here to greet us or in the parking lot, but we are greeted by about two dozen cats. That's more cats than are here today, so apparently some of them have gone up the road to the Methodist church, that's right.
Speaker 1:They converted. Now you know what happened. We actually I mean they were reproducing like rabbits, let's say. I mean there were just more. I mean it just continued. The cat population just continued to grow and grow and I thought, man, they're just going to take over Richmond. And so what we did? We actually called the Humane Society and we had them come out. They wouldn't take the cats, but they would come and spay or neuter them and then they would bring them back. But it did stop at least you know this reproduction. And so finally, we have a manageable, manageable number of cats now.
Speaker 2:So JD Vance reference, you know so. Instead of childless cat ladies, you simply had a lot of childless cats at that point.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:I don't really know what the point of that was, but it reminded me of that.
Speaker 1:So, winston, so we talked about how you and Carol met, and I did not realize this, but you didn't become a Christian until after you met Carol, right, so she was influential in you finding the Lord.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she basically said that if our relationship was going to go forward, I would have to at least consider making Jesus a part of my life.
Speaker 2:Now, you had grown up in the or a church, correct?
Speaker 3:I went to up here on Main Street First Presbyterian Church. It was okay, I mean, it was what it was. You could set your watch. The pastor started. You get your three hymns from 11 to about 11.15, give or take, and he would preach till from 11.15. Well, no, he had to slide the offering in there. I forgot about that, you know. May the Lord have mercy on us.
Speaker 2:We wouldn't know anything about forgetting to take offering around here.
Speaker 3:And from about 20 after 11 until 5 minutes to 12 was how long his sermon lasted and you could set your clock, because it's across the street from what's now the Madison County Hall of Justice and it had the bell would ring and it would ring. You know 12 o'clock, so it'd strike 12 times and he would be headed up the aisle towards the back door so he could greet everybody as they left. And it was that same way every single Sunday for as long as I can remember.
Speaker 1:Is that right? And so Carol. At the time you met, she was part of.
Speaker 3:No, not First Presbyterian. No, no, she was part of faith at the time.
Speaker 1:So you go from a? I assume she wanted you to go to church with her, correct? Yeah at the time. So you go from a I assume she wanted you to go to church with her, correct? So you go from a kind of vanilla Presbyterian church, very liturgical, to a hyper at that time hyper Pentecostal church. Do you remember the first time you came to this church?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I remember. For some reason I don't know why I did instead of walking in the front door of the building, I walked around to the side door and into the sanctuary and Brother Gordon was teaching a Sunday school class and he said welcome to us and have a seat over here, okay, how did you process what was happening in the service Like was this just completely foreign to you?
Speaker 3:Somewhat you know because of the tongues was something I was not grown up with. It was not something I was unfamiliar with, it's just. I mean, I was familiar with the concept because my mother's parents were from southeastern Kentucky. And they went to a holiness church. Oh yeah, so speaking in tongues was something that I had heard, but it wasn't something that I had seen on a regular basis.
Speaker 1:And you didn't get out at noon, no, so were you looking at your watch and going?
Speaker 3:oh no, because we wasn't allowed to, because that day, you know, kids were seen and not heard, and if we were heard we were in trouble.
Speaker 1:There you go, so all right, so you got saved.
Speaker 3:when In 1987. And that was here at this church. It was actually on Spangler Drive. Okay, so yeah, but part of the faith created assembly, it was still faith assembly yes, right.
Speaker 1:And what led you? Do you remember what pushed you, kind of, to that moment of receiving Christ?
Speaker 3:Well, it wasn't a bad thing. Another lady that went to church there at the time because it was one of those things I was wanting to go, but I didn't want to go she tapped me on the shoulder and said the Lord has told me that you know, you're wanting to go down and be saved. Would you like me to walk down into the aisle with you? And she did and went from there.
Speaker 1:Did you feel that tug in your heart?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you just were kind of resisting and the lord used this lady to yeah, wow winston, uh, if you don't mind, I think, to walk us back just a little bit in time, so to speak, from what we were just talking about. You said you started out, you know, in church as a kid, but then it sounds like even as an adult you might have. Would it be fair to say that you labeled yourself now, in retrospect, a cultural or nominal Christian for a certain amount of time?
Speaker 3:Yes, virtually the whole time until here about the last two years or so.
Speaker 2:Okay, talk to me about, if you would about, what that was like, and then what the transition was like to your current relationship with the Lord.
Speaker 3:Well, you know you would. I mean I did what a lot of people do. Well, you know you would, I mean I did what a lot of people do. You come in, you know you stand. When you stand, you sing, you raise your hands. You know you listen to the preacher preach, then you leave, and then it's the next four or five days you just live your life.
Speaker 3:And I would occasionally read the Bible and even rarer yes, still pray when I felt like I needed to or had to. I was in a corner or bind or whatever.
Speaker 1:So, just to clarify, you weren't out living for the world doing crazy stuff.
Speaker 2:It wasn't that—it was really sins of omission it sounds like you know going through the motions to a certain degree, which is very common and understandable.
Speaker 1:You were just not spending time regularly at the feet of.
Speaker 3:Jesus weren't treasuring Him.
Speaker 1:So you felt like the weekend—you know, christianity was kind of the weekend thing and you work and live your life throughout the week.
Speaker 2:So was there a big aha moment that led to the transition towards where you are now, or was it more gradual?
Speaker 3:Well it. There was the aha moment and then gradually after that, there was the group Master's Voice They've been here several times over the years. I think if I remember it was the first time they were here the lead singer and he also preached a message or gave a message, talked about being a casual Christian or being a Christian and not really being saved, and that kind of hit home. It just simply reinforced what had been in the back of my mind for pretty much the previous 30 years or so, because I kept having this feeling and said, well, you're not where you need to, said well, you're not where you need to be, you're not where you need to be, and then you know, I'd go on to get fine for a while and then to be right back. Then I'd hear the same you're not where you need to be.
Speaker 1:and it just finally, and for some reason, when he said that that's when the light bulb kicked on the aha moment that you referred to and from then forward you know it's a day-by-day thing moved from this nominal Sunday-only Christianity or Sunday-Wednesday Christianity to just really live with Paul's word. It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me. I've been crucified with Christ. That's what it is to be a Christian. It's to abide in Him where he is the treasure of our lives, sunday through Saturday, every week. And so how have you cultivated that relationship?
Speaker 3:with him. Well, one thing is Bible reading. It's something I mean I've enjoyed reading in general, but I've started actually reading the Bible seriously, where I might look up, or I might look it up. If the pastor gave a particular scripture reference, I might look it up. It might be in the book. Is it Habakkuk? Or a book I rarely I didn't even know existed for until the pastor made a reference to it?
Speaker 2:one time Amos, isn't he just a cookies guy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, that or a shepherd or something, but anyways, you know I was started in this I'm using. There was a man by the name of Jack Chick. He does does the little comic or comics, but like tracks, tracks. He does the chick tracks with the illustrations and stuff he uses. I've heard him derisively referred to as God's cartoonist, right, but he does some really good things and he had a little book that was a collection of the name of. It was the Next Step for Growing Christians and I got it right after I got saved and I still have the book. I found it and started going back through it. He's a little hardcore about some things, specifically the King James Version or nothing else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've seen those bumper stickers.
Speaker 1:And that's 1611 King James, or whatever it was right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but there's nothing that I've read in the book that's unscriptural. I mean, you know he's, as I said, he has some very hardcore views about certain things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, but you are actually reading through the Bible like you have a plan now, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, a plan that I got from that book I told you about. You read 10 chapters a day. They have this gentleman, a friend of his, that made the plan up. You have 10 lists Like list one is the Gospels Matthew, mark, luke, john and Acts. The second list is the Pentateuch and then it just goes from there. Old Testament, new Testament One list is nothing but Psalms, another nothing but Proverbs, and the tenth list, or the last one, you alternate days on reading 1 Corinthians 13 or Hebrews 11. Okay, and that has helped me because I've read books of the Bible that I had. If I read it all, I had done nothing but skim through.
Speaker 1:Okay. So now, not only are you reading, but do you feel like you're feasting, or let's say this, do you feel like you're delighting in the Word?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I'm praying. More specifically, you know, like Ron Hamm did a thing on prayer one Wednesday night and gave us the model prayer and helped to how to pray it and I really liked the one that you did about the Acts model, yeah, last night. So just real quickly.
Speaker 1:That Acts model of prayer. A-c-t-s is adoration, so you start just adoring God, praising Him for who he is. The second is confession, which is often overlooked in the modern church segment of prayer, and that's very, very important that we confess our sins before the Lord and one to another. Number three is the T, which is thanksgiving, and so you know, just thanking God for very practical things your home, your vehicle, your family, your health, those kinds of things and then obviously, for his spiritual blessings that he gives us. And then, finally, the S is supplication, so making our requests known before the Lord.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, that's a really helpful model of prayer, darrell Bock, and that helps too and then having to be deliberate about it, not just praying when I feel like it, but making a specific try to make a specific time to do it. I work nights so it's hard to do because a lot of you know things. You hear about prayer. You should do it first thing in the morning. Well, I come in from work, I don't feel spiritual or anything else other than sleeping.
Speaker 1:Well, your morning is at a different time than ours.
Speaker 3:But to make it specific, when I can, I try to pray in the mornings, but otherwise I'll do it in the afternoon or evening, whenever I can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so one of the things I've noticed about you as you've grown in the Lord like this is you just take advantage of almost every Bible study that we have here. You're in our men's group. We meet at Chick-fil-A on Friday mornings. You're in Steve Ramlaw's Wednesday night group. You come to my small group on Sunday evenings. I think you'd be in Jan's women's group if they let you in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I often asked if I identified as a woman, could I go? Oh, is that right.
Speaker 2:I want to see the wig that helps make this possible. I'll just go that far. Oh more calendar pages.
Speaker 3:Yep, I'd break the camera probably.
Speaker 2:Being a part of all these ministries and all these groups, you've got a lot of Christian friends. Tell us about the importance of living our lives together and having Christian friends, what that means to you.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, you need somebody you can talk to and give account to you know, because you need to be held accountable, I think, and you just need to have somebody that, if nothing else, be a sounding board, listen to you and they can give you good advice, they can help you find things in Scripture and they can even, knowingly or unknowingly, confirm what God's been telling you. Sure, and that accountability piece is so vital, you know, confirm what God's been telling you, you know so.
Speaker 1:Sure, and that accountability piece is so vital. You know, hebrews says brothers exhort one another daily while it's still called a day, lest you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, fall away from the living God. And so you talked about just going to church Sunday and going through the motions and then living your life, however, during the week. Well, and going through the motions and then living your life, however, during the week. Well, even for solid Christians, a lot of times they gather with the people of God quite authentically on Sundays, but then they don't have a lot of communication with those believers throughout the week. One of the things I love about this church is that for the most part I mean generally speaking we live life together, and so then, when you build those relationships with people, you're able to kind of gain that accountability which is just vital, and we encourage one another, spur one another onto good works, as the scripture says. So, yeah, I'm really grateful that you're so committed in so many different ways.
Speaker 2:And keeping such biblical things in mind sounding board and exhortation and confession and all these things. I used a really, really tricky and less than perfect phrase when I said what does this mean? You know living life together. What does it mean to you? We always want to use the bible, of course you know, as our source for what things should mean to us. So I wanted to backtrack and cover that super briefly. Uh, you mentioned scripture there in your answer. Uh, tell us about your favorite, uh, chapter verse uh, ecclesiastes 3, 1 through 8 is just.
Speaker 3:Basically it describes life and because I mean it's time to be born, time to die, a time for to sow, a time to reap and so on, everything that you do in life I think you're thinking of a classic rock song are we getting ready to say the same thing?
Speaker 2:I shouldn't have beaten you to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah well, unfortunately, hold don't hold it against me.
Speaker 2:I do listen to 70s, 80s music, even now hey, I'm I'm a childhood of the 80s when it comes to music. Those were my formative years and I still, uh think, aesthetically, that the 70s even though it's not what I grew up on, um, particularly late 70s was the greatest portion of rock and roll, maybe other than its genesis.
Speaker 1:But neither here nor there ultimately. So I just want to say I'm so grateful for God's grace that's working in your life, and, you know, sanctification is a process. I think it's important to say, though you've really grown in the Lord. You haven't arrived, I haven't arrived.
Speaker 2:It's a daily sanctification process. I'll be talking about that, god willing, this sunday, actually always progressing towards sanctification and ham-fisted segue once again. Uh, you know, progressing to here, maybe the final big question that we have. Simply, is there anything else that you want to add or talk about while we're here on the podcast, things that are important to you?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, is addition to where I've started reading the word, and praying is actually putting the word in practice. You know like, for example, you know Madison Homes working with homeless people in the winter shelter, and I'd like to find stuff where you know, because it says to you know, help people, like they call them, the soldiers, but in our case would be immigrants. You know, help them, make sure that they get justice.
Speaker 2:All part of the great commandment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, speak up for those that can't speak for themselves, you know, and basically try to actually be a light and not just talk about being a light in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the key to that we've talked about the last several weeks is to abide in Christ, and when we abide in Christ, we will. John 15 says this we will bear spiritual fruit. And so, just as you cultivate that relationship with Jesus in your prayer reading and I think it's great you point out what James says don't be hearers of the word only, but be doers of the word, and that's incredibly important. And so, yeah, again, I just celebrate what the Lord's doing in your life and, yes, I see you have such a servant's heart. You actually you were really committed to our homeless ministry. As a matter of fact, both of you did some all-nighters together, right.
Speaker 2:We all have the ability to be night owls, winston and me. So, yeah, that's something that we're easily able to help with with our schedules and our proclivities or whatever than maybe some other folks who work more traditional nine-to-fives.
Speaker 1:For another awkward transition here. We're about out of time, but so we have you. All our interviewees fill out a kind of a questionnaire to you know what do you want to share that kind of thing before you come on the podcast? There's a question on here. That's what is one thing that may surprise people about you, and I love your answer here.
Speaker 3:Just read that, because I just read that for me uh, that I can both move fast and be serious when I need to be I want to see both those things before we leave you know I have no problem with the serious, because you're pretty stoic some of the time you know, sometimes you know, sometimes you're chatty, and other times you know and other times you're not.
Speaker 2:You seem to have a lot of wisdom when it comes to that. I've never seen you with a need to be fast. Uh, with this with. This most likely manifests itself if some sort of predator were chasing you, or is there any other circumstance that would motivate?
Speaker 3:this. The thing that brought that to my mind is when I was still a firefighter. We were in a structure, fire, and the way fire works it's hot. The hottest air is at the top, at the ceiling level. Well, we were down low, but something happened and everything got switched, so the hottest air was now down where we were, and I came to the realization it's surprising how fast you can move when you think you're on fire.
Speaker 2:Well, I know Pastor Chris just said that he would love to see you move quickly again. I hope it doesn't take that particular circumstance in order to make that happen. Very true.
Speaker 1:Very true, all right, so we've got some to close out our podcast. We like to do what we call rapid-fire questions, and so these are just quick answers to wrap wrap our our time up here. So let's begin.
Speaker 2:Favorite food favorite food yes, okay, question two why polar pop? I always see we have the polar pop cup.
Speaker 3:Tell me about your love of polar pop well, mostly convenience, because circle k is right up the road from where I live, so and it's right on my way to work, so I don't have to go out of my way. It's cheap, you know 69 cents, a great big cut.
Speaker 2:Never, not caffeinated. That's our Winston Favorite television show.
Speaker 3:Star Trek.
Speaker 2:Which one?
Speaker 3:Pretty much any of them. Because I've got the streaming service I can watch all of them.
Speaker 2:Movies or TV which do you like better?
Speaker 3:TV mainly Now I like. The one I kind of like the most right now is called the Lower Decks.
Speaker 2:Is that an animated one? It's the animated one.
Speaker 3:It's really good. I mean it's from a certain point of view. It's more geared towards adults and not children.
Speaker 2:All right, I know that you and your wife in the past have watched non-mainstream or minor league sports live Favorite team or non-mainstream sport that you've watched.
Speaker 3:Well, I like going to the Legends games. You know and used to when Lexington had their hockey team. That was interesting to go at because I never actually knew that much about hockey.
Speaker 1:Do I understand that you two went to a women's soccer game?
Speaker 3:Well, we were.
Speaker 2:No, we made plans to go to either a women's or a men's Lexington SC game, which is going to be easier, by the way, Winston, now that they're building on Athens-Boonesboro. Goodness that the first women's games are just a few weeks away. Is that right and the men's team is transitioning from the third tier to the second tier, starting next year. So, good times in store for us, yeah.
Speaker 3:And then my son-in-law, Josh, is one of the biggest soccer fans I've ever met. Is that right? Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I wear him out. I was sitting next to him at lunch the other day at a Mexican restaurant and he made a diplomatic retreat for me after a while. I couldn't really hold it against him.
Speaker 1:Final question Favorite vacation spot.
Speaker 3:I actually we went down to an area around Orlando. I really like that, not for the fact that Disney and Universal were there Some friends that have been our friends for many years. They were at one time worship leaders here at Faith Created and we met then. We've been friends from that day down to this. They live in that area so we can go down there and enjoy everything that's in the area around Orlando to enjoy. Plus, we can fellowship with them.
Speaker 1:So you're a beach guy more than a mountains guy.
Speaker 3:Not really a beach guy, because I keep saying I don't like the beach, because everybody tries to push me back in when I go.
Speaker 2:That's the lead page on the calendar, right there yeah, so that that's a great note to go out on matthew okay, as I said, uh, that that that's got to be the lead page or the back cover, maybe, of the calendar. That seems like a fine note for us to end on. Thank you so much, winston for uh, you know, for joining us. I hope you enjoyed enjoying us here on the Real Friends Podcast.
Speaker 1:Thinking about this good life, Cause we know what matters being together Forever friends. Oh, oh friends, oh friends.