Good morning. We're glad you could join us again this morning for the Word for Life Radio Ministry. I'm Pastor Greg Huffman, and with us in the studio are Dr. and Mrs. Les Olala. And we're thrilled to be able to continue the conversation we started last time as we were talking about missions and God's work. and training leaders. And when you consider training leaders, it doesn't just stop when they graduate from college or seminary. It's a lifelong thing. And we were just talking during the break, folks, that the Word for Life radio ministry certainly did not start with me. but started probably 10 years ago, Doc O. At least, yeah. You and Pastor Sam Horn began doing this radio ministry, and so we certainly want to welcome you back to your broadcast, the Word for Life ministry. We had fun just opening the Word and just talking through a passage. It was refreshing for us. And folks, we were also talking during the break about how much fun heaven's going to be when we get together and we'll meet folks whom we have never met. who will say, your testimony, your program, your broadcast changed my life with the Word of God being infused into my heart and mind. And it just kind of reminded me of the song, thank you for giving to the Lord, I'm a life that was changed. And that's one of the things we live for, amen? And I'm 68 years old, and you folks are, of course, younger. That we married when we were four. Yeah, right, okay. But it's my goal to finish strong. You know, I have no clue how long the Lord's going to give me, but however long it is, I want to finish strong. I don't want to just kind of limp across or sit on the side and say, well, we'll let somebody else run this race. No, God has given me this race, just like he's given each one of you. And so I was a senior pastor for 38 years. But then after I left Pillsbury, I thought the Lord would be gracious and send me back south. where there's no snow, and I'll be able to be a senior pastor again. I was 62 at the time, but I started getting one rejection letter after another. You've got a great resume, great family, great education, but you're just not what we're looking for. And I got four or five of those letters, and I thought, well, what are they looking for? Finally, I got a letter saying all that, and then they said, but we're looking for somebody in their middle 40s. Oh! A 60 years experience. Yeah, exactly, you know. But I mean, I wasn't dead, and I still wanted to pastor. They probably thought, you're 62, you're retired 65, you know. We don't want to form a pulpit committee in three more years again. But I thought, I still want to serve the Lord. You know, as long as God gives me breath and energy, I still want to serve the Lord. And I think that's, in essence, what the Lord is allowing me to do now, to be able to be kind of a mentor for some young pastors on staff, and you guys are still faithfully serving the Lord, maybe not quite as fast as you did when you were young, but just faithfully, just place after place after place, and we're thrilled that you are, to me, setting an example of leadership. Well, we realized that we don't own ourselves. Right. You know, if we thought we owned ourselves, I would be on a golf course today. Charlene, you'd be driving the golf cart. Absolutely. Right, right. And laughing at every shot he makes. Absolutely. And I feel like our pace has picked up a lot. because of the number of flights, the overseas flights. Just recently we have been in Palau with the Zimmers, the blessing. We've been down in Pohnpei. We came through Guam where Marty Heron, who has a phenomenal ministry that God has given with a large Christian school there, 100 now in their Bible college training. So we're able to get into there a couple of times a year. I'm getting ready to leave for Zambia. And again, at my age, we'd rather not leave our driveway in our flesh. But when we leave our driveway, we pray, God, let us be a blessing. Let us be a blessing to somebody that we can lift their hands and touch their heart. And so we have, and my wife has been, I mean, 50 years of marriage, never one complaint about anything where circumstance we've been in ministry, never one complaint. It's been four or five complaints, not just one. What a testimony that is, too. But you might want to share your perspective on that, honey, a little bit. Well, while you were talking there, I was thinking about this thing of mentoring. Yes. You know, all of us have been mentored by someone. That's a great point. Either positively or negatively. Yes. And it can be a negative as well as a positive. But I am so thankful for the people in my life that God placed there to mentor me. And now, as we're older, God has placed different ones at different times. in our path, you know, for us to help and to encourage and to teach and to come alongside. So I think this mentoring thing just keeps going and going. So that's, we are in that stage right now where we're, the elder in the place of helping the younger. And you know, we're talking to folks this morning who have that same opportunity to mentor folks, younger people maybe, in their churches, in their families, that just hearing that word may be an encouragement. I know my wife never would have been led to be a pastor's wife, but yet there was one lady, a neighbor lady, that stopped by her home one time on a tobacco farm in North Carolina, and ask if she could take any of the children to Sunday school. the first bus ministry, I guess you could say, you know, and her folks weren't going to church, but they said, well, yeah, Ruth can go. And so she went to Sunday school, and then they had a revival at that little church, and she got saved at that revival. Now, there wasn't much discipleship that went on after that, but she trusted Christ as a little girl, and then later was married, and then 13 months later became a widow, and then just all kinds of grief and not sure, you know, what was going to be happening in her life. And the Lord directed her through a pastor and his wife to go to Tennessee Temple College. And, of course, there I met her, and our lives have been together now for 46 years. But one neighbor lady. And what a blessing it was a couple years ago when my mother-in-law passed away to meet that neighbor lady, and for me to be able to say, thank you for your concern for a little neighbor girl to take her to Sunday school and take her to a revival. That's what you're talking about, Sharon. That's what I'm talking about. And you never know whenever you are one-on-one just talking with people and playing games or whatever, you never know where that person is going to go. And sometimes it ends up that they're in ministry. I can think of several that Les has been involved with in a personal way that have gone on and gone to Bible college and are in ministry today. And it's interesting, we're still getting emails from 45 years ago, from 42 years ago, 39 years ago, within the last week or two, we've gotten emails. And we both came from unsaved homes. And so we know the value of being mentors. We did not have godly parents that nurtured us. We basically raised ourselves, but thank the Lord for a pastor and some laymen who invested in us, driving 20 miles Sunday morning, 20 miles Sunday night, 20 miles. And senior saints, the greatest unused natural resource in the United States is godly senior saints. Would you say that again? The greatest unused natural resource in the United States is godly senior saints. See, I happen to be the senior saint's pastor here. I wanted a plug for our folks. Then we will doubly emphasize that, because take on a teenager as a prayer partner. Take a teenager on. Put that generation gap together by prayer. And then you have no idea how your life will touch someone else. And that's true leadership. Life touching life. Right. And so when we see our lives touching other lives, God begins to mold our hearts together, and we're able to see them begin to pick up the vision and the burden. And I remember leading a young man to the Lord. He came to play softball on our church softball team, and we had a rule that you had to come to church one time a week if you played on our team, you know. And so he came to church, and then I went and visited him the next week and was able to win him to Christ. And then a couple days later, I called him and I said, Dave, what you doing? He said, oh, nothing. Got anything planned in the next couple hours? No. I said, great. Put on a shirt and tie, and I'll pick you up. He said, well, what are we doing? I said, just put on a shirt and tie, and I'll pick you up. Well, where are we going? Just put on a shirt and tie, and I'll pick you up." He said, okay. So I picked him up, and he said, where are we going? I said, just sit and just enjoy the view, you know. And so we made some visits. And while we were visiting, an elderly gentleman trusted Christ as his Savior. And I said, Dave, share with this guy what you just did. a couple days ago, and he said, that guy was so thrilled to watch a man get saved, and then we began to disciple him, and Dave went into the ministry, just by spending time. That touch. Yeah, yeah. As he saw the joy of introducing someone else to Jesus, and making your life count, And that was wisdom on your part, because, you know, I say you have the exposition of the Word, and we hope that will ultimately bring exchange of life values. But exposition has to be backed up by example in the life. by exposure to right people and things, and by experience. And you and your wisdom led that young man to experience the opportunity to be a servant and how God could use him. And then the exchange happened. We wanted to exposit to exchange, but the meat of the sandwich is being an example and exposing them to right things and leading them to experience right things. And that's where the work is, because life touching life. That is the truth. I know we have three boys, and they're all three in the ministry. But my middle son told me a couple years ago, he said, you know, Dad, he said, I struggle with some things that took place when I watched how people treated you as a pastor. And he said, I just really struggled. But he said, I got to thinking, you know, I never saw you get bitter against any of those. Now he said, I got bitter against them, you know, but I never saw you get bitter. And he said, that's what finally drew me out of the bitterness and back to the forgiveness aspect so that I could continue on in my ministry because my bitterness was just really destroying me. And I thought to myself, thank you, Lord. You have no clue, you know, what your kids are watching. And, of course, they see you day in and day out and supper table and everything else, but praise the Lord that that example part is so vitally important. And there are people in our local churches that are watching the folks that are listening to this broadcast this morning. They're watching how they go through life. and how they respond to the hardest times that they ever faced in life. And friends, if that's what you're going through, remember, God will use proper responses. We can't control what people do to us, but we certainly can't control how we respond to it. Somebody put it this way, my response is my responsibility. My response is my responsibility. And so as you guys are training leaders in a brand new way, but maybe a more effective way around the world, thank you for your continuance and your faithfulness in your ministry. And I guess you'll probably do it till Jesus comes or He calls you home. Yeah, and that could be anytime. I mean, we're listening for the trumpet. Amen. But by God's grace, we want to stay faithful. as long as He gives us the wherewithal and obviously the grace to plow through. Amen. Well, thank you so much. God bless you folks for listening to us this morning. We trust you'll have a fantastic day.