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Jul 19, 2024 · 49 minutes

Paul Hastings, host of “Compelled,” steps into “The Corner.”

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The Hamilton Corner logo above Abraham Hamilton, III on the show's set

Show notes

0:00 - 15:00. 2 Corinthians 5:1-9. Where does pleasing God rank on your priority list? 15:00 - 31:00. Paul Hastings, host of “Compelled,” steps into “The Corner.” 31:00 - 48:00. God is still in the transformation business.

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Transcript

7,738 words, in two-minute parts. Made by machine, so a few words may be off.

0:0048:53

  1. 0:00

    Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite. Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media. And the philosophies of this world. God has called you and me to be his ambassador. Even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment. And now, the Hamilton Corner. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio. What a week it has been. What a week. Goodness gracious. Thank you for tuning in to the program. So much is happening in the world. So many options are available to you as to what you would like to consume, how you would like to receive information. But you've made the decision to hang out here in the corner. we are grateful for you making that decision at this very moment. Many of you, if not most of you are making your transitions from your part-time jobs, where you generate an income to your full-time jobs, where you cultivate an outcome. And as you do so, I want to remind you that what goes on in your house is far more important than what goes on in the White House. I cannot stress that enough. You know, I've just been gripped by the reality that the Lord has revealed to us in is word that he's planted us here. He's planted us in this world to be in it, but not of it. The Lord didn't put his body, his believers, his remnant in the world to be subsumed by the world to where the believer is for all practical purposes indistinguishable from the world around us. The objective here is not for us to just be, I forgot, there was a show that the girl just said, opposite opposite all the time, just to be opposite. We don't take stock of what's happening in the world and just look to be contrary.

  2. 2:06

    It's not to be contrarians, but it's because we've been captured, man. Being the Lord's peculiar people, being set apart is distinct from, separated from, because we are separated unto. The call to be the agioish, the holy people of God. And I use this analogy often. My children in my home know that I'm a tea drinker. I like to drink tea. I drink coffee right now and again, but between the two I prefer tea, I have a particular tumbler that I like to use. Now we store my tumbler with all of the mugs and the cups, but the children and my wife, my whole household, understands that there's one particular tumbler that is separate from the rest of the cups in the house. and it's dedicated, specified, separated unto a particularized usage. That's Daddy's tumbler. My tumbler is set apart from the rest of the cups in the home. I just describe that to give you a picture of what it means to be the holy people of God. The distinction doesn't come because we're just trying to be opposite, opposite. The distinction comes because we are separated from because of the commands that the Lord has given us, the way He's required us to live, And most importantly, because we are dedicated, separated unto him for his causes, for his cause, and for his purposes, and his purpose. And I'm saying that that we intentionally, his primary objective, which has downstream imperatives, that is who we are to be. And I'm gravely concerned that a host of issues, not least among them, is the political climate in our country has and continues to entice some professing believers really to ascribe to the features of worldliness.

  3. 4:13

    It's not only the political climate, sometimes I believe it's because of what we've grown to enjoy in this country. Many have unfortunately been manipulated by our freedoms and our abundance and our prosperity. All of those things are wonderful that are gifts from God, but He doesn't give them to us for us to be consumed by them and to be manipulated by them. He gives them to us so that we can utilize them for His glory. Use the abundant resources that we have and the freedoms that we have historically. Our nation has sent the most missionaries into the world that the world has ever seen. But as a Nigerian pastor, I had the privilege of learning from, as I was growing up, it would come to visit our church in New Orleans, that the nation that has historically sent the most missionaries into the world has now become the mission field. We have to cultivate a proper understanding and approach starting right in our homes. The call for the believers to be salt and light, not for us to be lightly salted. So as you make your move, get into your home, My prayer for you is that today will be a day where the glory of God is made evident in your home. As you set your heart and set your course to worship Him, to where you normalize and standardize the exaltation of the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords right in your home that your family will be known as a family that worships the Lord, because this is your consistent practice. And if this is new to you, let it start today. And if this is something that you've been engaged for quite some time, I know there are many of you who are listening to me, your veterans, at leading your family in worship, having family times of discipleship. My brother who leads his family, my sister who comes along, side her husband to aid, don't get weary and well doing.

  4. 6:17

    I know there's something that will listen to me that you suffer different evidences of brokenness. You may be a single, in a single parent home. Don't get, don't become weary in well doing of you. A single father or your single mother, don't become weary and well doing. But as we see the wickedness, metastasized in our culture, let us ever the more be resolute and living with Joshua proclaimed as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. To the Word of God we go. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1 through 9 is a very simple and direct communication that I want to present this evening. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1 through 9. The Apostle Paul is writing here to the church at Corinth and he writes this for, if, sorry, for we know, for we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, We have a building from God, a house not made with hands. Mm. Eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. In as much as we having put it on will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, our temporal bodies, we've grown being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed. So that with his mortal will be swallowed up by life for some translations they are saying immortality. That what is mortal may be swallowed up by what is immortal. Verse 5, Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us his spirit as a pledge, therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

  5. 8:36

    We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. The Word of God gives us great comfort, great encouragement. one in this passage. So we know this is something that we as believers, we know we are confident of, we can rest in this fact. But we know that if it's earthly tent, our physical bodies, our physical life, our natural life circumstances, our immediate life context, we know that if This earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down. We have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. I often ponder if we really believe this, what our lives look like. If we really believed that no matter what happens here, no matter what happens even to our own physical bodies, we know that we have a building from God. We know we have an eternal level. We know we have an eternal dwelling place. Would we be as fearful, as tepid, as, you know, skulking about like, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. Whispering in corners, yeah, you know we love the Lord.

  6. 10:38

    I think one of the major things that is plaguing professing believers today simply put is the fear of man and to be frank love for this world. That we love the world so much so that we try to curate our lives to be persecution avoidant, which result in the lifestyle of what I described as a practical atheism or at best a practical agnosticism. But we won't deny, well say it this way, the practical atheism is that we live as if there is no God. The practical agnosticism, yeah, we might give an acknowledgement to God's existence, but we live as if he has no true bearing on how we go about living our daily lives. The Apostle Paul goes on to say that the down payment, the down payment that we have on the eternal hope that we have in Christ is the Spirit of God. He's given us the Spirit as a down payment. As the pledge or as Paul told to the Galatians, the earnest of our inheritance. It's like earnest money that you pay on a home transaction. But we are a good courage. We are always of good courage Because we know that while we're here, at home in our body, absent from the Lord, but we walk by faith and not by sight. It's amazing every time I see that portion of scripture. Those who doesn't say that we don't walk. Or we walk, we live, but our lifestyle is not dependent upon nor dictated to us by what we see. It's not that we're blind, we have optical lenses that operate by God's divine providence. Thank you, Lord. the greatest camera, an optical invention the world has ever seen.

  7. 12:46

    But that doesn't govern how we live because we live according to the truth, according to the truth that transcends what we see. And yes, I'd much rather be in a tangible presence of the Lord right now, but I am here now by his divine ordinance. Therefore, verse nine comes into full view. This is our ambition. This is our life's prerogative. This is when you ask, what are you seeking to accomplish in your life? Abe, what is your foremost ambition in your life? This is it. Whether at home, in my physical body now, or absent from my physical body now, my ambition is to be pleasing to him. My ambition is to be pleasing to him. The question I want to ask us this evening is this, where does pleasing God rank on your priority list? Where does pleasing God rank on my priority list? The answer to that question truly determines the scope, the breath, the width, the height, the height and the trajectory of our lives. Where does pleasing God rank on your priority list? My desire is for pleasing God to be my foremost priority. And if that is not your priority, today is a day for recalibration. You're listening to the Hamilton Corner. This is a special program today because when it do something that we've never done before, but you don't wanna miss it, stay with us.

  8. 14:49

    We'll be back right after this break. Pleaseing God! What is it, Rank, on your priority list? You've heard a lot about saving babies on this show. That's because it's important to me personally. And let me just be frank with you. We need to save them. That's why we've partnered with Preborn, the nation's leader, in introducing mothers with unplanned pregnancies to their babies. And once she hears that heartbeat and sees that precious life growing inside of her, she is twice as likely to choose life. Now that's a miracle. But quite honestly, if we don't save them, who will? Preborn receives no government funding, so their work is completely dependent on us. Preborn has rescued over 280,000 babies. And that's not all. They provide love, support, and counseling for up to two years, for free, saving lives and souls. One ultrasound is just $28, or $140 helps to rescue five babies' lives. Abortion doesn't stop, so we can't. Together, you and I can save lives. Just dial pound250 on your cell and say the keyword baby. That's 250 baby. Or go to preborn.com. That's preborn.com. Shining light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the Hamilton Corner. I am elated to have on the program with me a brother in Christ who I have had. known from afar through his work and through an interview he had with my dear friends, William Gaddison, on their program. And then I had the privilege of meeting him in person when we were in Virginia. I am talking about Paul Hastings was first and foremost a brother in Christ. He is a husband. He and his wife have four children. He is an award-winning podcaster, filmmaker, filmmaker, speaker, and entrepreneur.

  9. 16:54

    He is the host of Compelled, a podcast sharing unique stories about God transforming Christians around the world. And I have to tell you, his podcast is phenomenal. The production quality, the content, the Christ's centrality, it is fantastic. It's one that the entire family can enjoy it, enjoy it together. His work has been featured by Dr. James Dobson's family talk, World Magazine, the Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, the Christian Post, and many, many more. Paul Hastings, thank you for joining me here on The Hamilton Corner. Oh, Abraham, it's my joy. Man, I should bring you anytime I talk anywhere. I just should have you always give that introduction. That makes you sound great. Wow. Yes, you should. You should bring me everywhere you go. Yes, yes, yes. That's what you should do. I'm just kidding. Well, I am excited among first and foremost you being on my program, what an honor it is to have you on the show on the show. But also because we have the privilege of debuting a brand new episode of the Compel podcast here today, season eight, episode one, the Rwandan genocide survivor. Would you want to just say something briefly about it before we get right into it? Sure, sure. And so the story you're about to hear, this is an extended preview. We're going to drop the whole episode next Monday, so in a couple of days from now. But this story is about Alex, and he was just a five-year-old boy in Rwanda when the genocide happened back in the 1990s. He tells his story of how Christ met him in his greatest hour of need. I'm Paul Hastings, and thanks to our friends at American Family Radio, you're listening to the exclusive season eight premiere preview of the compiled podcast, where we use gripping immersive storytelling to bring the life Christian testimonies from the Kingdom of God, told by the people compelled to live for him. Today our guest is Alex Sinjamada, who grew up in Rwanda, an African country about the size of Massachusetts, landlocked in the very center of Africa.

  10. 19:08

    As a child in the 1990s, Alex was surrounded by racial tension and anger that eventually boiled over into full-scale violence, now known as the Rwandan genocide. But after being exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, Alex was challenged to do the unthinkable, to forgive the unforgivable. So gather round, lean and join us for another compelling story from the Kingdom of God. My earliest memories that I can remember is me as a little boy running around with my brother in the village playing soccer or climbing mango trees and avocado trees and fighting all the time. We were kids, yeah. It became a time when my mother started to get sick so, so bad. Our mother had HIV AIDS. She was in and out of the hospital. So the best way to be consistent was to stay with our grandmother in the village. So our grandmother and our two uncles in that house, we had two uncles living with us as well. And I loved my uncles and even though we had a little misunderstanding sometimes disagreement as a rookie, we're being kids, they were being adults as well and they always really pointed us the right way. They loved us and no deep inside they loved us. And so our mother getting sick all the time and then one day I remember very specifically being rushed out me and my brother to the hospital in a capital city because she had passed out and they thought she was dead. She was in a coma. So they brought us when she got back from the coma. They came and brought us out to see her and it wasn't too long that after we did that she passed away.

  11. 21:08

    So one of the last memories that I remember of my mom is us playing her to rest. We lived outside of the capital city and so the village surrounded by farms, hills after hills, men, a lot of the men are making bricks for a living. The mothers, the women are doing a lot of the planting crops and the kids, if we're not in school, we were playing soccer literally in the streets because there was not a lot of cars at that time. And part of our village was well. So we would go and get our jerry cans to fetch water. No running water dirt flows. Our house with our grandmother was a house made of mud. They would make hollow sticks around. And then in between the hollow sticks, it would be mud in there to hold it. Or it would be an adobe bricks. And then on the side after that to make sure it's all lined up and it's all smooth. Then they would put a dobby mud mixed with cow dung. The roof was made of iron sheets they call them. So when it rained, if there was a light rain, it would be so soothing. But it would be a heavy rain. It would be miserable because it would be so loud. And of course there were dirt flows. And as a little kid, I remember very specifically, could not afford a mattress. So to get, we grew bananas. My grandmother made a living on making banana beer. When the banana leaves, the big banana leaves are dried up, get a bunch of them, and put them in a specific place, and then put a bed sheet on top, and that becomes the bed. So that was our bed. And that was our house. My grandmother loved to go to church, to the Catholic church. So we went with our grandmother.

  12. 23:09

    Whenever she went on Sunday, we went with her. It was kind of interesting because on another Saturday, she went down the street to a seventh day at the Vantage Church on a Saturday. So we didn't know what kind of faith that she had. So we knew of God because of our grandmother, but my relationship personally with God was my grandmother's, with exactly what I saw my grandmother do. And then when we would go to the Catholic Church, I was always, always very jealous towards the altar boys. I wanted to be an altar boy. And I remember specifically thinking, how come do they get to hold the book and I don't? What makes them so special that they get to hold the book and I don't? Or they wear the gown and I don't? And then I saw the priest and I was thinking, How come he gets to share what he's sharing to do that? And I can't wait, can't I be that? Little did I know in that moment actual God was planning a seed in my life. I'm maybe four or five. I'm thinking I wanna be a priest when I grow up. I was always curious about faith, but I didn't know why. Now, while Alex had a relatively happy childhood, there was a dark undercurrent surrounding him. At the time, Rwanda was comprised of two main ethnic groups, the Hutus and Tutsis. The large majority of the population, about 85%, was Hutu, while just 14% were the Tutsi minority. A tremendous amount of racial unease that existed for decades in the country, and many Tutsis faced routine discrimination and harassment. Some Tutsis eventually fled Rwanda and were living in nearby nations, but other Tutsis, Alex's family had remained. Local militias, mainly composed of Hutu extremists, began springing up all over Rwanda. Of course, Alex didn't fully understand all of this, but by April 1994, even as a five and a half year old boy, he could tell that something was off.

  13. 25:17

    So the first time I understood about what was happening is the matching of the political parties in our village. And as a little kid I remember seeing people being trained. Young men and some women being taught how to carry a weapon. They had made guns, they had made weapons out of wood, and so they would do this matching young men with no shirts running around and singing songs. So I would see this happen in our village, in the soccer field, in our village. And so our Our grandmother knew that something was happening, but we didn't know what it was. So as a little kid for me, I'm seeing all this and I'm trying to put a mind to it. But we are kind of oblivious. We see it happen, but we don't know what's going on. As kids, for us, we never really understand the deep part of how it all started. We just knew that we're part of the Tutsi tribe and the political radies would happen and we see them happen in the schools that do remember some people calling. Like, oh, the Hutu stand up, or the Tutsi stand up. The language in the newspapers, in the television would say, a time will come when we will crush all the cockroaches. This was specifically printed in the newspaper. A time is going to come, those are cockroaches, we're going to crush them someday. Those are tortures, a day is going to come when we're going to cut the trees down. Satan came and built a nest in Rwanda. It was so brutal, hatred was so ingrained in people's lives that a neighbor didn't never saw a neighbor anymore as a human being. And the dehumanization that went on for years and years, people actually believed in that dehumanization. So for me, as a little boy, we wake up on April 7th and we hear noise. And I remember hearing, boom, boom, boom. And wondering what is that?

  14. 27:18

    I counted and I remember specifically getting up to 21. All of a sudden our neighbor rushed out to the house. We were about to get ready, put our stuff together. We're about to go with our grandmother to the garden to attend to our crops. Our neighbor said, hey, the president was killed last night. They're malicious everywhere. They have started to kill all the tutis, so do not leave. You're not gonna make it to the garden. Was the garden away from your house? Yeah, it was about the garden was about maybe maybe 30 to 40 minute walk from our from our house And there's no way we would have made it back So my grandmother always sat and had had this horrific face because she knew this was not going to be an easy time And so she told us immediate to go and hide So we walked up into the hills and hid in our coffee Plantations and who hid for that morning all of us me and my brother and my sister and actually a one of our uncles was with us And it was late afternoon we came back to our house because we didn't hear any commotion in our village we thought oh there's nothing happening so we came back to our house got into the house closed the door and all of a sudden we had footsteps by our house people surrounding our house and we had a knock on the door we didn't go to the door right away and all of a sudden we had someone just kind of kicked the door off. And so when they kicked the door, they yelled at us and said, all of you, get outside, go and lie down. And we thought, my goodness, this is it. So we go, we all lie down, we did what they wanted. And then they said, you kids go back inside the house. So we went back inside the house and we were watching through the window. It was the toughest day. It was rough because these people were not our strangers. these were our neighbours. And it wasn't a gun, it was just literally beating our grandmother to death, which sticks.

  15. 29:25

    We were in such a shark that nothing could even come out of our mouth. And all of a sudden, they left. One of our uncles, who was known to be kind of the troublemaker in a village, they never thought that he was a tootsie, even he kind of left him alone. He's the one who actually came and took grandmother away. It was quite a rough day. We were all in tears later on after the shock was off. But it was one of those that couldn't really process. Our uncle who was known to be the head of the family would be hiding in the house with us. But our other uncle would go out and sometimes bring food for us. and sometimes we would just go to bed without food because we couldn't leave the house. We didn't know where to go, that would be safe. It wasn't too long that a hundred men came looking for our uncle. I remember very specifically, they're yelling at us and where's your uncle, where's your uncle? So we don't know where he is, which is a huge risk for us. And they're searching all over the house, they couldn't find him. When our uncle had them come, he pulled himself on the springs of the bed, so he was hanging. So they were taking their long spears and they were shuffling under the bed to see if there's someone in there. And so as they throw the spear under the bed, he's hanging on the springs, so they couldn't get to him. They couldn't find him, but he was still there. So they eventually left. So then, couple days later, about three days later, three men returned to the house with guns. And they said, he is under the bed, let him get out. We want him, let him get out. And of course, who couldn't lie to them, they knew exactly what they called it out. And he hesitated because he didn't know whether they were bluffing or not. So he hesitated for a little bit and we are looking at them and they take a grenade and they're about to open a grenade to throw into the house, to destroy the house.

  16. 31:26

    And the last words I remember specifically him saying was please don't destroy the house because my kids need a place to leave. So he comes outside, he's wearing his favorite shirt and they asked for his identity card. And his identity card said specifically what trouble he was. Every person who was 18 and older, you had to have an identity card. And that identity card said what trouble you were. And of course, he was a Tutsi. We're right there closing our ears. They shot him, went through the ribs. And he said, you know, I'll just go ahead and shoot me again so I don't feel the pain. And of course, he was still gasping for air. And that's when they finished him off pretty much doing exactly what they did to our grandmother. They literally beat him to death with their sticks that they had. And I can only imagine the sheer pain that he was experiencing because of that. And so for us as a little kid standing there, watching that, that was doing a lot of destroying a lot, me and my brother, my sister very deeply. and years later would rip the consequences of those traumas. When the killers were done, they left the body of the children's uncle on the ground, looted the house, and never looked back. We'll hear more of Alex's story right after this break. Stay with us, you don't wanna miss the rest of this. It's compelled for a reason. A Hamilton Quarter podcast and one-minute commentaries are available at afr.net. back to the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. Welcome back, we are going to continue now with the remaining portions of the season eight episode one, compelled podcast premiere, and we'll continue that right now.

  17. 33:37

    Welcome back to the Compel Podcast. Thanks to our friends at the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio, you're listening to the exclusive season eight premiere preview of Compel. Alex Singemana and his two siblings were in total shock. First their grandmother and now their uncle had been brutally murdered before their very eyes. And they were just kids, ages 10, 5, and 4. What they had witnessed was so horrific that their emotions couldn't even keep up. When their second uncle returned home that evening he found the children's shell shocked and silently carried his brother into the forest to bury him. But all across Rwanda, this same scenario was playing out on a massive scale. Lawlessness had erupted across the countryside, and thousands of tutsis were being killed every day, and there was no sign of it stopping. A few days later, the children's surviving uncle told them that he could no longer protect them, and that they must flee to the capital city of Kigali, where their ant lived, and where there was still some semblance of order. The three children fled on foot. It normally would have been a 90 minute walk took an entire day with the children trying to avoid roving militias, hiding in the grass and being stopped at roadblocks and checkpoints. On more than one occasion, they feared for their lives, but miraculously, they arrived at their aunt's home. We stayed with our aunt, but our aunt and her family were sheltering about 19 people in a small little area. All of us family members from the villages had come to the city to stay with our aunt. Now they wanted to figure out what can we do to provide for these people. How can we feed everyone? So they decided to sell a local beer in our living room. So these malicious, these people in the city would come and we'd get a drink and they're supposed to leave the house. But one day, one of the men managed to sneak into the backyard where all of us were. And he's looking at us and he's getting at us to lie down.

  18. 35:41

    And he went to load his gun. In the process of loading his gun, the magazine fell out of the gun and his bullets fell to the ground. And just, I mean, everywhere, bullets were all over the ground. And he bends over to pick up his bullets to reload his magazine. In the process of doing so, my aunt's husband sees what's happening and so he asked the guy, what are you trying to do with my family? And the guy said, I was just joking with him. I was just playing with him. He was not there to joke around. He was not there to play with us because if his weapon would be loaded instantly, I would not be doing this interview with you. It was such a scary moment that we had in that city. Countless miracles were happening. That was one of them. Another time I remember very specifically me and my brother are playing with mobos. We are sitting on the floor and have our legs crossed together and we're playing mobos between our legs. But all of a sudden we had an explosion somewhere for us to hide away from the noise. We went to put our heads together in the middle to kind of shelter. In the process of doing that, a shrapnel from, it was a bomb that just landed very close by. A shrapnel from the bomb just landed, made it through our heads before in the little gap that was left and it landed in front of us. a huge miracle because that thing was so red that it would literally just go through us call if we landed on our head and we saw it we were scared so we ran. In the middle of the night we would sleep under the bed so that we can have an extra cushion just in case situations like that happen where a bomb goes off, shrapnel has come through the roof. It was obvious that staying at the home was no longer safe. life. The Rwandan military itself was assisting in the genocide and moderate Hutu leaders who didn't agree with the murders were summarily killed by the extremists while gangs were now roving the city looking for men to kill and women to violate. At the same time, a rebel army led by Tutsis who had lived in exile outside of Rwanda for many years and now materialized and was now fighting for control of the government in the northern part of the country, which in In turn, drove the Hutu militias up there down south, right into the capital city of Kigali where Alex and his family were.

  19. 38:09

    As more and more militias entered the city, the situation developed into chaos. And in the midst of gunfire, rockets and grenades, the remaining Tutsi population in the city panicked and began to flee in mass. So the refugees who had come to stop the genocide were chasing out the militias along the way as they chase out the militias, militias are going against killing people around. And so all of us are packing up and leaving because there's really gunshots everywhere. It's getting worse. So we pack up and we're ready. I mean we started to run. And Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills. So we're coming through hills after hills. Now there's this mountain range called Mount Kigali. The city of Kigali downtown sits on a hill where maybe 10 to 15 minute drive from downtown. So where we lived, it was kind of right before the mountain range started. So we run through the valley and then we start to climb the hill. When we climb this Mount Kigali, poor militias are all over here and they're looking at this hill with thousands of people going crossing over. So immediately when our family just made it into the valley, We hear people screaming and wondering what's going on. These militias on this hill had just sent rockets on the hill. A lot of people lost their lives on that hill. Now we get into this valley, we're running everywhere just from all directions. And you're with your whole family? We're whole family, the 19 people. Yeah, we're all running all together. And as we ran, we're hiding the bush, we're hiding an abundant school with thousands of other people. and we would stay there and rest for a few minutes, maybe a night or two. Then all of a sudden it would get worse again and it would run, run, run, run. Just running away from the noise, away from the guns, away from the bombs and as we ran I got to separate from my family for a little bit, me and my brother and then I heard this noise. This noise was so loud. All I could hear was a high-pitched noise It's just coming. It was getting louder and it was getting closer and closer and all of a sudden.

  20. 40:35

    Wow. Now you know why this podcast is called Compelled. Compelling stories like this, Paul, in your team, you all do an amazing and amazing job. And I guess the first thing I want to ask you now, Paul, is what led you to use your gifts and talents to create a podcast like this, to create compelled? Yeah, great question. So I'll set up this way. When I was a kid, I would fall asleep during church all the time, just constantly, which is kind of embarrassing. And that not only just as a kid, but also as a teenager. And then as a young adult, you could imagine when I was trying to date my wife and like I would attend her church and I'd fall asleep during the sermon even though I was trying to I was just very embarrassing and kind of humiliating actually but that was just kind of my I'm not exactly sure why I always did that and it wasn't because I was disengaged with the certain I actually enjoyed what I was learning and wanted to learn more about the Lord and was always wanting to engage but I was always falling asleep but But the weird thing happened that I realized that at any time a pastor began to tell a story in the sermon, it could be any story. It could be a story from the Bible that I knew by heart already. It could be a sermon illustration about the pastor and his lawnmower the prior week. It could be anything, but I would wake up and listen intently to the story. And then as soon as he was done with that and went back to the teaching where I'd fall back and sleep again and struggled with that. And that went on for many decades, actually. And so you could say that I was kind of hardwired for storytelling. And so the stories have just played a huge part of my life. I've always loved hearing testimonies from like, you know, brother Andrew and God Smuggler or Corey Timboum in the hiding place or the cross and the switchblade.

  21. 42:40

    So many great testimonies that I've read as a kid. And so about six years ago, my wife and I, we were at a transition point in my career. We began asking ourselves and praying, asking ourselves, were there other things that God would want us to do besides the current career path I had at the moment? And God, I guess, maybe put on our hearts this idea like, hey, maybe we should just tell stories. And so we began scouring the internet and talking to friends and getting recommendations from other people. And here we are six years later. And one of the things that I enjoy about your podcast, in addition to the amazing production quality. And as I mentioned earlier, this is something that the entire family can enjoy together. I know you have some episodes where you give warnings at the advance, I'm thinking about one with a former drug dealer. But your stories tend to highlight the amazing journeys that people have gone through. And they kind of build to a crescendo that exalt Christ in his transforming power. So how did you come to the place to where you combined your personal inclination towards storytelling and affinity for it to then connecting it to the transform power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's a really great question. You know, I would say it's probably somewhat in relation to the church that we attend actually. We've been at a particular church for the last nine years. We've really enjoyed their teaching and just the emphasis and reminder that when we read the Bible, sometimes there can be this subtle idea like, oh, I'm trying to figure out, who am I? Which character am I in the Bible? Who am I? Like, what's the takeaway for me for me? And really, the Bible should be read as like, no, this is actually an exposition of the power of God. And let us glorify him for how powerful he is. And you know, and so maybe that was one of the takeaways that we've had and carried with us into our podcast as well. So every story that you're going to hear on Compel, it's not necessarily like, Oh, you know, do you identify as the drug You identify as Alex.

  22. 44:46

    I mean, maybe you can. Maybe you can, but maybe not, right? And so what really is the takeaway for every listener, though, is this is the power of God. It does not matter if you were a drug dealer or not. It doesn't matter if you were in the Rwandan genocide or not. What does matter, though, is we all serve the exact same God who is so crazy powerful that he can possess somebody to forgive the unforgivable. And that's really the second half of Alex's story. story. Man, that is so powerful and so true. So in light of that, would you mind just sharing with our audience here? Because I love for our audience to get to know the people that we bring on, just how you came to saving faith in Christ Jesus. Oh, great question. So when I was a kid, I grew up in a household of believers. My parents were, they were both Christians. My mom had grown up to Buddhist, but she became a Christian in college. And then by the time my parents got married and I was born, I had two other siblings. My grandparents also lived next door and they were sold out Christians as well. So I'm surrounded by Christians my whole life. We went to a church faithfully. I was active in a Wanna Bible clubs. At around age six or so, I made a profession of faith. It was mainly rooted in the fear of hell though, and it being separated from my parents. It was not motivated by a love of God at all. But then when I was about 12 or 13, I went to a Bible camp, like a church camp. first time I'd ever been separated from my family overnight. I loved it. It was six nights away from my family. I was just my own person. I could eat all the junk food I wanted to eat, do whatever I felt like. And I just felt so free. But that was also where I began to realize like, you know, we're having Bible study every morning and every evening and morning chapel, evening chapel. And I'm realizing that was the faith that I prescribed was that was that my faith? Or was that my parents faith? And so that's when faith really became real for me. It was probably around 12. So whether I saved at six or 12, only the Lord knows, but I know where I'm headed today. And eager to share that saving faith with other Christians and non-Christians today as well.

  23. 46:52

    Praise God. I also know that you, similar to myself, you are a homeschooled dad. How did you come to the place to where that was the course that the Lord directed you and your wife on as how you wanted to raise and disciple your children? Yeah, it was a pretty illogical conclusion for us. we'd seen kind of the state of education in America Day. I had been homeschooled, my wife had been homeschooled, we had many friends who were homeschooled as well, and we'd seen good examples and bad examples. But we just felt really led by the Lord that we wanted to make sure that we were investing spiritually in our kids, and it seemed as though homeschooling was the best mechanism to do that. Well, I certainly understand that. Agree with that, I did the file with that, and I'm grateful for your opportunities. Did that have any contribution to you developing your creative capacities? It certainly did. It taught me the idea of having to learn on your own and also how to learn when there's no particular instruction book in front of you and just how to be creative on your own. So that's definitely played a big role in the Compelled Podcast. Where can Hamilton Corner listeners find compelled? They could go to CompelledPodcast.com or they can open up their podcast app like Apple Podcasts or Spotify and search for Compelled, and they can hear the full story of Alex and Jamana and the ending of a story right there. We're going to release that this coming Monday, three days from now. Three days from now. Well, folks, you heard it here first. Compelled podcast. I highly, highly, highly recommended to you and your family. Paul, thank you so much for joining me here today. We have got to have you back on the program. Thanks, Abraham. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.

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