Brooke: Well, hang on, I think you should back up and say that we took that month off not only to catch up, but just to rest and pray. Talk about, well, share with God what was on our heart. Seek Him for direction and guidance for the podcast, seek friends that have been on the board, or are on the board, guidance from them and just seeking clarity for what to do in the coming year with the ministry and how we should proceed moving forward. Right?

Adam: Yes. We’re trying to get more people to hear the stories. We’ve talked about trying to get on YouTube, shoot videos and so we’re thinking, let’s revisit our previous stories and shoot them on video. Just technically, it makes sense. Some, well, I won’t get into that. But it seems like revisiting stories through video was always on the back of my mind, and that idea rose to the surface again in July. But we thought we’d do it a little differently. We decided that we will try and do something we’re going to call Testimonies Around The Table, which is basically our old stories, some of our most liked, most listened to stories, we will revisit those around a table, have a meal together, and have a testimony be shared and then engage. Have sort of a Q&A or just dialogue with different people and how they respond to it and capture all that on video and put it out there on the old Tube of You.

Brooke:  Yeah, so we’re looking to grow and anytime we’re looking to grow, we need God’s direction and guidance and wisdom and support of others who are also listening to God on our behalf. So that was our purpose for the month of July being off. That was the reason we kind of took a break, as well as just to Sabbath for ourselves to get some rest in as well as spend some time with our boys after a very hard school year. Yeah, and then like Adam said, we got home and discovered less stuff.

Adam: Yeah, so we came back and Wednesday, this is last Wednesday night about 5:30, and you know the first thing we saw was that my car was not in the garage. Our bikes, the boys bike, my bike…Thankfully, Brooke’s 1000 pounds beach cruiser was still in the garage.

Brooke: We’re all glad about that.

Adam: They probably couldn’t lift it. My, all my tools [were gone] then we went into the house and quickly realized that they had been in the entire house and had taken my laptop, which had all the stories recorded on there and didn’t have backups of the stuff that I was currently working on. Camera, lights, all kinds of stuff.

Brooke: Basically all the equipment besides these two mics, and this recorder, basically everything we use to produce the podcast. 

Adam: Yeah, thankfully, we do have the two mics and the zoom. So, you know, we prayed. Probably about 30-45 minutes in, our heads are kind of spinning, we called the police. And we just invited the Lord into it. And really, I don’t understand this, you know. We’d prayed around our house, we had prayed over our house, protection for our house. And so you’re grappling with, ‘How did this happen? Why did this happen?’ And just say, Lord, you know, we pray as a family, Lord, we need you. And our oldest son, like immediately said, was confident that God was with us, and that God was going to do something amazing through this terrible thing happened to us. He had a lot of confidence and you know, that’s super encouraging. That our 16 year old, would be the, the most faith full one, in that moment, the most encouraged one. And so, we dealt with it that night, and, you know, you’re angry, you’re frustrated, you’re [thinking] ‘Why me? What do we do? 

Then also, in the midst of that, I realized I had let our insurance lapse. I had been looking at different policies, and they raised our rates. Texas had a freeze and most insurance companies are raising their rates right now and ours was going to go up $400 for the year. So I had failed to, just to figure out who I wanted to switch to and so we were without insurance. So all that’s coming, you know, hitting me in the face. And…

Brooke: Well, I just want to say, you know…I think, let me interject here and just say that, I’m proud of you for sharing that because I think it’s really vulnerable, and you’re being transparent in doing so. It’s not easy for anyone to admit they made a mistake, but especially a man who is working their tail off to provide and protect their family. So I just want to say, I know that that’s not easy for you to share and I’m proud of you. 

Adam: Well thank you babe.

Brooke: Yeah.

Adam: I had to take ownership of that and at first admit to her that I had not kept up our insurance. And Brooke was obviously upset and I had to ask for forgiveness and apologize. 

So there’s a lot of things coming at you that are trying to discourage and pull you apart and divide you. So we were able to sort through that miraculously and go to bed. The next day we get up  and people start, you know, hearing about it and start reaching out. ‘Hey, can we do a GoFundMe? Can we do this? Can we do that? What can we do?’ And you [we] don’t really want to. I think it’s hard to receive and you sort of wrestle with, I don’t, we don’t want to do a GoFundMe do we? And then at some point that day, we just realized, this is Thursday, we realize we do need help and we should let people know what’s going on. So we did that. We did an Instagram video, Facebook video, and then allowed a friend of ours to share on Facebook.

Brooke: And then just multiple people ended up sharing their own version of that and it really just became a championing of us through several friends, a large community here at home and it was just really sweet and really humbling.

Adam: Yeah, so I think we wanted to share today because, well, one, we don’t have a story. Because the laptop is gone. Two, God is writing a pretty miraculous story through what is happening. Yeah. And it’s actually giving us confidence and encouragement and sort of a, I don’t know, it’s a, it’s a big deal. For me personally, I feel like it’s really solidifying our ministry and the reach that we have, because we had a need. And, people have shown up. It’s just miraculous, I mean, just so many people out of the woodwork, just… A friend of mine has, he gave everything he had. He had $10 left in his bank account, and gave me the rest. We had a friend of a friend give us $1,000 just because. They don’t even know us. People who listen to the podcast, that we don’t know who you are, but they donated! And I think it’s just, it’s hard to put language on. But it’s been incredibly powerful, and really helped me see the Lord in the midst of that. It’s almost like He’s [saying] you don’t have to rely on your wits and you don’t have to rely on your insurance policy. I’m your insurance policy. I’m your protector. I’m your provider. And you know, you just, you say yes to Him, and when you goof up, when you misstep, you take ownership of that, and you remind yourself of who He is and who He says you are and it’s just been remarkable.

Brooke: Yeah, I mean, we’ve just seen the body of Christ serve us and love us and comfort us. And one of my favorite pastors, Tim Ross, spoke several years ago and said, ‘When we share our burdens, we divide them among others who can help carry the burden with us. When we share our joys then our joys are multiplied. And I think that’s just such a good lesson because I think the enemy would have had us not share some of the missteps, some of the errors. And just the, I don’t know, we’re having to be reliant on, we really are having to be reliant on the Lord and His people to move on His behalf. And the enemy doesn’t want us to do that, you know. He wants us to keep everything in the dark and we’ve just seen time and time again, how when the light shines in the darkness, that’s when it is the most brilliant.

Adam: So we’re sharing, I think, just to give you guys some insight into where we are, let you know what we have been working on the podcast, it’s just those episodes were stolen. – We’re doing what we can to get them back. – And to let you know that God’s doing something miraculous through what happened.

Brooke: And He’s doing something miraculous through this podcast. Yeah, it’s really profound and really beautiful. We do have plans to continue this ministry, and we are not going to be stopped because of a hiccup. We’re going to keep going, and we’re going to do more. And keep pushing back the darkness and keep showing people what’s possible when they surrender their life to Christ, and when they say, Yeah, I want more. I want everything that You have to give me and I’m not stopping until I get it.

Adam: That’s good. So if you’ve got questions, you can email us at [email protected] or you can use the Facebook, you can use Insta, the Instagram, whatever. However you want to reach out to us, we’d love to talk to you.

Brooke: And share the hope and the joy that we found in the midst of this wrestling, and in the midst of this chaos. Because really, there’s so many things that the enemy could do with this. But yeah, we’re just not going to be, not going to get down about this. We don’t wish any ill will or have any animosity towards those who did this. We hope they come to know Jesus. And we hope that they are set free from their burdens that would cause them to do this to someone else. We pray that, that is not the case, that they would come to know Jesus, and that they would be set free from a life of crime and hurting others.

Adam: We just want to say thank you, if we haven’t already. Have we said, Thank you?

Brooke: I don’t know, but it could be said again. 

Adam: Thank you. Again, so many people have texted, so many people have called, so many people have messaged us, and so many people have donated, and we just want to say thank you.

Brooke: Huge thank you. 

Adam: Thank you for your faithfulness and just your willingness to give and support us. We are excited for what God’s gonna do through this. And we’re excited, hopefully in September, we will have the first video of Testimonies At The Table. We’re thinking Lee and Camille are going to be the first people. So look forward to that and if you have any thoughts about that, we’d love to hear from you. 

Brooke: If you’re in the area and you want to be a part of that, email us and let us know. 

Adam: So…

Brooke: Thank you for partnering with us on this journey, in this ministry. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for listening. Thank you for encouraging. Anything that you have done in or for this podcast, you are partners with us and we couldn’t do it without you. 

Adam: Amen. Like Alma says, That’s a wrap. 

Brooke: That’s a wrap.