Shot down over Europe: The heroic story of Howard Snyder

0:00Welcome aboard and thank you for joining me. I'm Lieutenant Commander Stephen Rogers, United States Navy retired and this program is presented by the Association of the United States Navy, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting US naval and US Coast Guard power and operations as well as the personnel who serve in their families. What you're listening to is Peace Through Strength America's Navy and I am the executive director of the AUSN. The topics addressed on this program reflect only the perspectives presented by the AUSN and for more information on how you can become a supporter of the AUSN please visit our website at www.auesn.org.

1:03Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to switch gears a little bit today instead of giving you a commentary on certain issues that are affecting the United States Navy. We're going to start a bit of a series called the Great American Heroes and these are great American heroes that you probably never heard but indeed real heroes. So right now I'm going to invite as a guest Steve Snyder. Now Steve is president of the 306th Bomb Group Historical Association. He's a board member of the 8th Air Force Historical Society. He's a speaker and he's the author of a book you gotta get folks you gotta get this book it's called Shot Down. It's the true story of pilot Howard Snyder and the crew of the B-17 Susan Ruth. Well Steve welcome to the broadcast today. Thanks a lot I'm glad to be here. Well I'll tell you Steve it's been a challenge to get you right. We've had to switch here in there but folks he's been so gracious and he shared with me and I must admit I'm in the same

2:06book. Haven't been able to get that coffee so I hope you have a cup in front of you. Yeah well yeah I have my water now so I'm good to go. All right good. All right Steve when I'd like you to do is share a little bit about your background and then I want to get into this fascinating story. You know these are these are historical stories that a lot of people of the United States of America are unaware of but particularly young people because his hat was how would your dad? Yes. All right so how old was Howard when he was shot down at this B-17? Well actually at the time he was considered an old guy he was 28 years old. Oh wow yeah I guess at that time it was well let's get started Steve please share with us your background. How in the world did you end up writing a tremendous story? I mean this has got like I said I can't say enough about it so if we could start give us your background and how you ended up where you are now with the book shot down.

3:10Okay well I was born in Pasadena California I lived in Southern California all my life. I graduated from UCLA. I was in the California Army National Guard for six years during the Vietnam war but my unit wasn't called up. I moved down to Seal Beach California which is about 30 miles south of the LA airport in 1972 and I've been here ever since. After college I had some odd jobs and then I went to work for Vision Service Plan VSP for 36 years. VSP is a company that provides a vision care benefit that corporations offer their employees to cover eye exams glasses and contact lenses. It's kind of like vision insurance. For the first 10 years I was regional manager of Southern California and Southern Nevada and then the company went national in 85 and I assumed the position of Vice President of National Accounts and I started traveling all over

4:11the United States called on Fortune 500 companies and then the last 15 years although I lived in Southern California I was Vice President of our Eastern Sales Division which is everything east of the Mississippi so again I was traveling a lot. Then I retired in 2009 and growing up I knew the basics of my dad's war to history. I knew it would be 17 pilot he was stationed in England with the 8th Air Force. His plane was named the Susan Ruth after my older sister. It was one year old at the time that he went overseas. Any full bombing missions over occupied Europe and Germany on February 8 of 1944 his plane was shot down and it was missing an action for seven months but he invaded capture and made it back to England but it wasn't until I retired that I had the time to really delve into my dad's war history and more to tale. My parents had kept a lot of material from four years and there were two items I found that was really significant. One was a diary that

5:12my dad wrote while he was missing an action about his plane being shot down which was absolutely riveting. It's in the book and then the other are all the letters that my dad had written to my mother before he was shot down and he was really candid in these letters. He talked about what bombing missions were like. What life was like on the air base. What life was like in England and London at the time. Escapades of him and his crew and I just became fascinated with this story and I became my passion. I read a book after book about the air world over Europe one on the internet but countless hours doing research downloading declassified military documents. I find found relatives of all the crew members of my dad's and asked them for any information they could give me. Start going to reunions listening to that trans tell their stories. Finally three years into my research I just came to the conclusion that the story was so unique and so compelling that people needed to know about it. So I wrote a book. Yes Steve and it's fascinating and now he

6:16was in the Army Air Force at that time right. Right well actually initially when in the I was a result of the first peace time draft in the fall of 1940 he went into the Army in the spring of 1941 he was stationed at Fort Lewis Washington. So he was actually in the Army for a year and then he got married and my mother got pregnant and so he was concerned how he's going to support his new family. So he decided to volunteer for the Air Force where he could make more money especially if he could make it through pilot training to become an officer. Hey Steve what's fascinating is seven you say seven months MIA. Great how did he survive? Oh gosh well after he bailed out he came down and right at the French Belgium border and his parachute got hung up his own trees he was dangling 20 feet off the ground and couldn't get down but fortunately for him two Belgium men on refranken and

7:17Ramon de Ven came to his rescue before the Germans got there and they helped him down the tree and they spent one night in the their van farmhouse they thought it was too dangerous for him to stay there any longer with German patrols coming the area. So the next night a Belgian customs officer came on a tandem bicycle and did take him to a safer location and after that he was moved from place to place to place how long he stayed in any given location depended on how brave the people were who lived there and how dangers the Belgium underground thought of us for him to stay there he might spend at night might spend six weeks. So he was hidden for quite a few months by quite a few different Belgian people almost being discovered which a lot of those times are covered in the book and then they heard on June 6 of 1944 the allies landed a D-Day and

8:18he decided to get back in the fight so he joined the French Resistance to start sabotaging German convoys so he fought with the French Resistance for a couple months and then finally seven months after he bailed out word came that there were US troops in the village of Trilone France and so he went into the town square and went up with an army major and identified himself they interrogated him and then he got back to England that ended his seven months of MIA. You know you know I'm listening to this story and I'm saying why why don't we really learn about things like this in our early years in school and in high school and even college I mean you know a person like your dad is well part of the greatest generation right my goodness uh absolutely absolutely and and and I'm just you know look I've been around a lot I've spoken to a lot of people but anytime I speak to someone like you I'm just so proud of this country

9:21and uh you know I'm sure you know I mean there are many many people who would love love to hear more about this kind of stuff do you have have any of the crew members survived did you ever get a chance to ever meet or contact some of them well b 17 had a 10 man crew five of them stories ended happily and they got back home but five of them ended tragically and they didn't make it home yeah my dad kept in touch with the crew members that made it fact they would get together now and then come to the house for for dinner and I was just a little kid and I didn't really comprehend you know who they were you know the significance of it but I never really got to talk to of my dad he died in 2007 at age 91 he wasn't the last crew member to die that was in

10:262010 but he was the oldest because he was older than all of his crew of the of the crew the gunners well there were their four officers and typically typically the officers were in their early 20s and then there were six enlisted men and they were pretty much in their teens 18 19 so they were all younger than now my dad but some of them wrote letters and did interviews that were recorded and so I got a lot of information you know documentation from things that they they said remember hey Steve what was your dad's rank is drink well and then over in anglins they pretty much all drank scotch oh no no his rank his rank oh I'll tell you that's a funny one yeah that is oh yeah I don't care what he drank but maybe we'll get down to that at some other time

11:28so what rank the well he when he graduated from pilot training he got his commission as a second lieutenant and then why he was flying combat missions he was promoted to a first lieutenant before he could be promoted to captain he was shot down although after he came back home he was promoted to a captain so the captain was his highest rank that he achieved yeah I'm fascinated over his age you know because you're right you're usually some of these people are 17 18 years old and I'm thinking boy if these 17 and 18 year olds look at your dad they probably said gee what's this old guy doing with us but he really I think he was a role model for them I mean to to go in at that age and to to serve his country leaving his family behind correct correct because he had a wife and a little baby girl Susan and then actually my other sister Nancy was born why he was missing an action so he didn't know whether the baby was a boy or a girl

12:28until he got back to to England but I think you're right you know my dad at 28 he was a much more mature than these other guys you know also you know he was a he had a family you know he was a manager at a clothing store chain in Southern California Desmond's clothing so you know he had responsibility so he was he was pretty mature compared to most these other guys that were either really young or they were single if we have a lot of service members listening to this broadcast as you know we focus in on the Navy and the Coast Guard RC services but we also welcome members of all the armed forces to listen to our broadcast to join our organization and what's important here is that many times in fact I've got to tell you probably most of the time are the members of our armed forces and their families are not hearing news or information like this a lot of its negative a lot of criticism of our armed forces and on and on and on so the

13:33importance of of getting stories like this out is it's very very I tell you beyond beyond any type of importance I could ever share with you because these are real life stories and you know when they they hear this story and there are many probably out on the fleet now we do I do get emails from people who are serving on the ship some somewhere around the world because this broadcast by the way I don't know if I tell you not only is it broadcast live but it is put on the America out loud news website where it's also converted the next day into a podcast and it's pretty much on that website forever you know as a broadcast and a podcast so I'm going to make sure that the people get to see or get to hear this story that weren't able to tune into today's program so but but getting back to the whole incident the whole issue your family with space with I'm wondering and maybe there are a lot of people wondering like I am the faith and the hope of your mom and

14:37family I mean seven months I'm wondering what a lot of people give up thinking well he was killed in action he's never coming home tell me a little bit about that if you can remember okay yeah well as I mentioned my dad was shot down on February 8th 44 and then on February 23rd the families you know mothers wives received telegram was the union telegram from the war department saying that you know your loved one was shot was missing an action and then they got one more a letter from the war department saying he's still missing an action but you know don't give up hope because you know maybe he's a prisoner of a war after my dad when I'm my bet dad bailed out he had no idea what happened to the other nine members of his crew because he came down alone and he was just never connected he didn't know what happened to any of his crew members until he got back to England but after the plane was shot down and the relatives received these letters they started

15:44sending letters between themselves my mother you know being the my dad was the first pilot so he was the commander of the plane and the crew so my mother was kind of looked at as the you know the focal point or the leader of the the wives and the loved the relatives back home and they exchanged all these letters after the plane went down and excerpts from those letters in the book they're they're very moving because they're scared to death they're worried they don't know what happened they're praying they were that the Lord would would take care of him and bring him home safely some of the crew were captured and became prisoners of war and they were able to write back home and so they knew that they were safe and they knew a couple of guys had been killed but another five of them had no idea for heck well my dad and other guy they invaded they weren't together but they were missing an action for seven months but then three other members of the crew

16:44they didn't know what happened to them for a year and a half basically so yeah that a lot a lot of frightful moments here's my mom back in Pasadena, California with one year old Susan and infant Nancy never knowing if she'd ever see her husband again hey Steve we just started an initiative nationwide called Operation Reach Out the Department of War is now involved I met with someone from the White House a couple of weeks ago with regard to Operation Reach Out and what we're doing is working with local governments to hold networking events for military families in their community and as you were sharing with me about the letters going back and forth between the families of crew members we find that we have to get back to that where the military will have a system set up where the families will be able to network together not only in time of peace but in time of war I'm sure as you're telling me this story that at least brought some relief that there

17:48was support out there from other crew members of the importance of having that connection could you emphasize that a little bit I mean because there are people you know we're at war now and there are parents and spouses and relatives in the combat area of operations and some of them have told us that they would like to hear more from other family members that are in the military merely for the sake of having you know that comfort zone there could you speak to that a little bit? Yeah well as far as my dad was concerned and his crew I mean they formed a tight tight group the four officers they were very close because back then the officers kind of did their own thing and the enlisted men did their own thing but once they got in that plane they were a unit every guy had a job to do to get that bomber you know over the target to drop

18:49its bombs and you know bring it back the sole purpose was to drop bombs on the target and so as a crew they were very close and then though I think the family members felt close because of that too and so having that support back home and the letters between the crew and family members was very important I know one of my dad's waste gutters after he had a good buddy on the on the plane who was killed and you know he wrote this long letter to the guy's mother you know telling him about you know stories that they had the fun they had together and you know what a good guy this was and so that that was really important is your dad buried in Arlington? No my dad after he retired my parents moved to Sedona Arizona and the both of them are well they're turned at a columbarium at

19:55Christ Lutheran Church in Sedona actually one member of my dad's crew and his brother who was also was a George Ike he was a co-pilot and his brother was a co-pilot and the eight therefore as he was also shot down and killed both of them are buried at Arlington two of my dad's crew are buried in cemeteries in Europe one in the Netherlands and one in Belgium and then the other guys you know are buried you know kind of in their home hometown wow this is a this is really touching really touching hey Steve could you tell us a little bit about the 306 bomb group historical association and the 8th Air Force Historical Society tell us a little bit about that sure um like I said my dad was in the 306 bomb group it was based at Thurland England which is about 60 miles north of London uh the 306 bomb group their motto was first over Germany because they were

20:58the first bomb group to hit a target in Germany will him was hop in on January 27th of 1943 also they they were the longest serving bomb group in the 8th Air Force uh some of the audience might have seen the 1949 movie 12 o'clock high starting Gregory Peck well that was based on a true story about the 306 bomb group the fictitious bomb group in the in the movie the 918th was derived by multiplying the 306th by three so uh after the war Steve one minute I just wanted to throw up where 12 o'clock high when I was a kid I saw that religiously in the back of white 12 o'clock high you're absolutely right with Gregory Peck brings memories that that's uh one of the uh the best movies about the air roll over Europe wow I didn't know it was based on a true story wow yeah good stuff I'm sorry I threw it through up I just had to reject that because I used to watch that constantly yeah and it's also that that that movie is used uh in about the Air Force Academy you

22:06know to train uh men about go being leaders and so uh it also it's it used in in training and leadership training and corporations as well so I was uh Russell Strong was a navigator in the 306th bomb group uh formed the association in the 70s back then it was just all veterans but as the veterans started to uh pass on you know second generation people like me sons and daughters and nephews and nieces and so forth started joining the uh association and now uh really it's just it's all we only have about four vets that are that are still alive so it's basically the second and third generation organization now which I am president we have annual reunions uh once a year this year it's going to be in San Antonio uh Texas we also have a biennial newsletter magazine that that we send out you know in the main purpose is to remember our veterans or our loved ones

23:12in trying to keep their their their memory alive uh the 8th Air Force is the historical society is very similar uh accept that involved the entire 8th Air Force there were 40 bomb groups and the 8th Air Force in World War II so that's a larger organization we have annual reunions too in a in a magazine again to try to keep the uh memory alive they both have websites with lots of information uh about the organization and the history of the organization combat missions and things like that so uh it's another way that I keep involved and keep busy uh keeping the memory alive uh because it was you know that four or two was 80 years ago and it's fading to people's memories and I'm trying not to let that happen well you know you three times you use that term keeping the memory alive you know I love that that that's that's now burned right in my brain here I'm gonna use that a lot now because that's what this is all about uh together we've got to keep

24:16the memory of these heroes alive uh so that young people today will understand that uh there is a price for freedom and it happens to be the price of the blood spilled by those who have been in combat like your dad I mean absolutely incredible incredible story hey Steve how can we get your book um well if you want to autographed uh copy you can go on my website uh on the homepage there's a little by now but you can pay by credit card most people uh get the book uh on amazon you know like the vast majority of books purchased on amazon it's available as a hardcover book uh softcover book audio book uh ebook and it and in any any format and the main thing I mentioned uh we say the name is shot now to shut down the true story of pilot Howard Snyder in the crew with the B-17 Susan Rooth my tagline is it is our duty to remember and every time I sign a book that's what I sign it is our duty to remember that's great well we're also going to make things a little

25:20little easier for people to order the book uh we're going to get it on the america out loud news website uh and then uh and of course send me the link to where they can go right to you okay and uh and uh I'll tell you we'll talk to you again and uh I don't know how to thank you for sharing this and keeping this memory alive it's probably going to stay alive in my mind and uh hey maybe we'll have you back on again and we'll do a little bit more about uh well your activities and what you're doing now your dad's proud of you my friend why I'm proud of you good stuff well it's uh it's a passion of mine you know he was a great guy we were we were very close until wow it's it's a it's a second career for me it's a hobby and it's what I love to do well what's exciting about our lives and you know I share with people and I read the bible a lot and pray a lot and I know you mentioned prayer when he was uh away there's a scripture that says there are many mansions in my father's house if it was not so I would not tell you I happen to ask someone

26:20well who's in those mansions and that person said your friends your relatives the people you love those mansions are there so I pray and believe that we will be reunited and you'll be reunited with dad at some point in time in the future amen to that so okay there Steve so how about we go for that drink we talked about earlier I'm up for it all right I salute you my friend god bless you and I'll be in touch thank you very much bless you thank you you're welcome you're welcome all right ladies and gentlemen was that not a fascinating story I mean a true real life story about a real life hero uh how would snider boy and right from his son boy god bless them and god bless america all right that's it folks so remember that scripture there are many mansions in my father's house look it up and uh I got news for you the best is yet to come for a lot of people in this country because of heroes like the one we just heard okay god bless you all and god bless the united states of america are you tired of struggling with low energy we get it that's why we created organic energy juice

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29:34sweeteners to learn more just visit bear bar dot com slash out loud only when the government boughs to the people will america become great again for this is melcom out loud here join me in pushing back against censorship my fellow americans right at the top of america out loud dot news are the words many voices one freedom united in the first amendment now is our time my fellow americans america out loud dot news liberty and justice for all well thank you very much ladies and gentlemen for joining me here in america out loud news as i share with you all the time this is the second half hour of an hour broadcast

30:39during the first part of my broadcast certainly i address a lot of political issues military issues secular if you will happening around the world and during this part of the broadcast i look at spiritual issues that's right from a Christian perspective i have to believe in the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob i believe that Jesus christ is god and i'd like to share this during this portion of my broadcast with you uh why because we got a lot of troubles a lot of problems in this world and i would venture to say that many of you listening right now you got a lot of problems a lot of difficulties i mean who doesn't and i've during the course of my lifetime he realized that there's a lot of help out there there is there's therapists the psychologist the sociologist there's ministers this priest there's rabbis all good people and i've said over and over again that god gave these individuals a real gift to do his work as long as they're doing that work on behalf of helping people through very very difficult times so i tell people you if you need to go

31:42this someone like a therapist a psychologist psychiatrist would ever go go especially very Christian go you know i know there are a lot of people that'll say well you know god will handle this and god will handle that well you know what did it ever occur to those people who tell you that that god is leading you leading you to these professionals so don't walk away from any any path to help some uh 25 i think it's verse four says show me thy way oh lord teach me thy path and so you may be in a situation where gee you're looking for help uh there's nowhere else to go and then finally someone comes along and says well i know a psychologist i know a therapist why don't you go talk to them and you may be thinking well especially i know this happens in the Christian community a lot and it shouldn't it's a bad thing when anyone whether it be a minister or anyone who truly knows the word of god uh when they say to you well you know you don't need a doctor you don't need a psychologist

32:45or you need is Jesus Christ now folks listen i'm all four worshiping and depending on Jesus Christ for everything that i need and i do and i've learned that the way Jesus Christ delivers on many of his promises well i should say on all of his promises unless you know he decides to have some miraculous thing happen in your life and that's happened to people but for the most part he'll send the other people he will he'll send the other people who will be able to put you in a direction that will help you so please keep that in mind but don't say no to anybody that's willing to give you help because i got to tell you unless you know that person is sending you down a path that you shouldn't go you pray about it and then you think about it and then you do what you think is best for you not what a minister says a pastor a priest says not what anybody says not even what i say all right you think about things you pray about things and you know what you'll find out that

33:49maybe that person that that is sharing with you that you need to get some therapy from someone to really help you you know maybe that person was sent from God yeah i it's happened to me people have sent me you know people have come to me for help and i've said well i know some good people that could help you and i recommended therapists or somebody now keep that in mind all right that's very important that you know that now look what i'm about to share with you i learned from researching the bible all right there's a lot of research in the bible in commentaries in history bookstoring biblical times and i've got to tell you every every area of the bible does have an answer to many of the questions we have and i got to tell you i found a lot that i'm going to share with you from a gateway bible the gateway and bible hub on the worldwide web as well as other other biblical publications so what i'm saying is we i'm about to share with you didn't come out of my

34:50brain all right uh it originally came out of a lot of these other sources and then i was able to kind of connect some dots and put things together where i could summarize what they've shared on the worldwide web or in some of their publications with you i believe in credit should go where credit is due well let's put it this way i'll give all the credit to God Almighty all of it to him well anyway people often ask this question of me and i bet you you have the same question why do bad things happen to good people i believe there's a book written with that title so the question again why do bad things happen to good people in the middle of life storms whether they're financial whether they're health related whether they're job related or something else in your life they may also ask why me god why me and early on in my life i used to ask that question i'm a good guy i mean why me what i do to hurt anybody why me and throughout my whole

35:52life up until the time i accepted christian to my life and accepted that this was the journey he put me on and accepted the fact that his will be done not mine even through thick and thin i kept on asking that question why me god why me so i used to ask that question a lot there's time when on i found the answer and i didn't find the answer in a theology book or in a psychology book and i didn't find it through any person that i spoke with on the face of the earth including ministers and priests rabbis etc but i found the answer to that question that troubled me a good part of my life in the holy bible the book of life now there are others who will answer that question and use scriptures to support what they are sharing with you and that's good a man once said to me look Steve if you get advice if you get an answer to questions like that

36:56go home open your bible see if it measures up to what the scripture saying if it does you got good advice if it doesn't act you might want to do a little bit more research and thinking about what you were told but i learned that in the book of life the holy bible the best of god's crop the best of his kingdom the best people of his kingdom they went through hell and high water folks in their lifetime that's right the best not the worst but the best now who am i talking about how about this how about i'm talking about the eleven out of the twelve men who left everything they had to follow christ yep his disciples folks they left everything they were the best now one might say well they were the worst when he went to the bottom of the barrel tax collector or fisherman he didn't go to the rich well doesn't that tell you something maybe the rich aren't the best at least in his eyes you don't look at wealth you don't look at success he looks at the heart and he found in the heart of these twelve except for one Judas that they were willing to leave

38:01everything and of course Judas turned his back on christ and we know that's history think about that i'm talking about a king named david how about Solomon and others i'm talking about a woman named Ruth Esther and others these were the best folks poor people hardworking people just like you and me all right going along our way in life but he went to them you know i i often try to share with people who are wealthy and i know i've said this some time ago and i'm just worth saying again that there's a reason why this is scripture that says it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man or one all right i'll add the in the room woman for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven why is that pretty chilling when i say that to some of my very wealthy friends they kind of give me that eye they look sideways not judging them i'm just telling them look it there's a reason why Jesus said that there's a reason why Jesus didn't go to the farrows

39:06to the Egyptian farrows to the leaders of the governments at that time he went to the people if you will that were out on the streets the people working with their hands their knees if he getting dirty and filthy during the course of their workday not to the people that was sitting on the leather chairs with their head leather chairs back then just simply giving out orders huh pretty chilling it now listen if you're wealthy i don't want you to feel bad i don't want you to feel condemned as long as you're right with christ you got no problems because i know a lot of wealthy people who quietly give give a lot to those hard working people but it's something to think about i don't want to get off the track here i want to stay on the theme of why me god why me but these are men and women who dedicated their entire lives to the cause of Jesus christ and i'll tell you what you know what they had in count of common a lot of them both of them if not all of them

40:07had in common at least on my mind that same question when they were facing fiery trials why me god why me now let me ask you this question you think Jesus may have been saying why me god when he was in the garden of get just said to me praying and then he suddenly bloated out uh you know what father if you let this come past for me will you do this you think he was kind of saying why me in another term how about on the cross father why have that forsaken me but your will be done still with that kind of a why me now i don't know but it kind of makes me think that uh it's not uncommon for us to say why me and maybe the reason why Jesus said this was that in his humanity in his human form he knew that at some point in time all of us would ask why me but also he knew that we would know what the end of the story is what the answer to why me would be because he gave it to us

41:09in his word so i found the answer to why me in roman's a 28 and i learned that absolutely without it that that the roman's a 28 no matter what we go through in life talks about that whatever going through in life every circumstance every challenge every valley we walk through good or bad mountain or valley all right to accomplish his purpose not ours but his purpose in our lives uh actually works out well for us i'll tell you folks not our purpose his purpose now one may say well going through a dark valley i mean going through the problems i'm going through my goodness uh god god actually will will will tell me that that's you know going to work out for my betterment yes it is answer me to explain it when i'm going through the valleys even now say man how's this going to work out for me this is trouble these are problems i'm overwhelmed how do i

42:12deal with it but then i go back to roman's a 28 a promise a promise a promise i'm using that word a promise from god all things work together for the good for those who love the Lord die god according to his will all things not 50% of your troubles not 50% of your challenges not 99.9% of the challenges dark times and difficulties that you're facing but all things 100% that includes both good and bad things happening in your life and i got to tell you god does not cause every hardship but he is powerful enough to use every experience that we go through some mistakes that we make the suffering that self inflicted and many times the suffering that just knocks out our door he uses everything to fulfill his purpose and keep in mind folks you know people forget this god didn't make us into robots he gave us which free will he created us which free will he created us

43:20in his his image strokes and you know you want to learn about his image the image of christ he worried he had problems he faced he had challenges he overcame but the fact that a matter is he learned and shared with us talking about christ now that everything we go through everything we go through god is with us he don't want to see us go through painful times he doesn't want to see us suffer you know the book of Jeremiah i think it's in the the 30-dayer chapter i can be wrong but you know it's sometimes it's difficult for me to remember all of these scriptures but i know i know the book they're in so the book of Jeremiah there's a scripture that says that i have come not to harm you but to prosper you that that doesn't necessarily mean 100% materialistically prosper you but to prosper you in a way that you will get closer and closer and closer to Jesus Christ to god the Father to the Holy Spirit to god almighty folks all three

44:25wrapped up in one right that's how we prosper and once we prosper to the point that we will fully undoubtedly uncompromisingly have enough faith and trust in god almighty then watch then watch look listen as you walk through the storms and meet the challenges in life think about that again look at the life of joe you all of you have read the bible you know what happened to joe had it made had it all a good man an honorable man a faithful man boom all of sudden the roof caved in on him lost his job lost his family lost his cattle lost everything and each and every one each and every one of the people he had happened to run into at that time we're encouraging him not to get closer to god but pretty much say well you know you might want to want to ease up on the god business and uh just face it this is what's happened time to move on joe even his wife even his wife

45:29kind of went down that road but you know joe said consistently though he slay me yet I will serve him he was saying though this happens to me and god doesn't show up at the gate to help me I'm still going to serve him wow would a testimony of faith and trust in god and I've got to tell you same thing happened when Joseph was sold to pharaoh when Daniel ended up in an all kinds of trouble right in the lion's den all right but guess what they did they never gave up on christ because there was a reason there was a reason why joe went through what he went through Joseph went through what he went through Daniel went through what he went through and I look at Joseph as one of the most amazing things where his brother sold them they got rid of them they sold a pharaoh pharaoh decides after meeting Joseph and maybe having a few talks with him and so making the governor the governor of Egypt that was god's will sure Joseph got in trouble over false accusations from pharaoh's wife

46:35gets put in prison all the sudden one thing leads to the next there's some guy near the jail cell that's talking to Joseph Joseph remembers that well you know what there are things that I could do to help out the pharaoh maybe god will intervene god into means before you know it pharaoh is making Joseph the governor and then as a famine comes guess what Israel the Jewish population is taking care of because gets gets who's in charge of the food the grain in Egypt Joseph and pharaoh said go go feed your people just come back but feed your people yeah look it up folks it's great these stories of the bible are not for us to sit back and think of them as boy this is great entertainment this is great fiction this is life this is reality all of these people I just shared with you and many many more in the midst of suffering overcame their challenges by maintaining uncompromising

47:39trust in faith in god and look I'm gonna tell you it's tough to get there uh uh uh even now times look I go through tough times that all the faith and trust I have in god I got at the end of today say look I'm sorry that you know I'm kind of really concerned about this moving forward and Jesus Christ must be you know on that throne saying state what are you talking about did I not come through for you not 99.9% at a time but a hundred percent of the time did I not make promises to you that I kept and you know what I feel kind of miserable when when I that's conviction from the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit by the way and I've said this over and over again he lives within us now how that's done I don't know it's not for me to know it's for me to have enough faith and trust which I do I finally got to a point where I do and I got to tell you folks I don't worry anymore that once in a while I may slip and get concerned about things that's okay but I don't worry to the degree that I'm going to question my faith or I wouldn't want god to question my faith in him nope ain't going

48:43to happen and you know what comes my way comes my way I just do what I got to do to survive but within the framework of God's law and within the framework of what I've learned in that Bible and I've gone through even even recently some pretty tough times folks but delivered from every single one of them you talk about Psalm 23 well I had to look at that a few times you remind me of guess who's with you in that valley and I'm challenging you listening to the broadcast now no matter what you're going through guess who is with you in that valley that you are presently walking in now we've got to understand this all right we've got to understand that that you know God will work with us Romans 828 says all things work together for the good now what about the words work together all right how do you think about some this is brilliant whoever explained that this

49:46way is brilliant this didn't come from me I didn't originate what I'm about to share with you this was from somebody else who I don't know but I think it was great work together what does it mean in the context of Romans 828 well it's like ingredients in a recipe right in a recipe that may not taste good by themselves all right but God blends all of our experiences over time to bring about something good think about that so you got a recipe where maybe this ingredient doesn't taste good oh terrible that's terrible but then you blend them all together all right you didn't like them separately now there's your tough times right yeah you don't like this tough time and at tough time but you put everything together and all of a sudden those experiences that you're going through those challenges that you are meeting day in and day out maybe week by week over time something good's going to come out of it and I've learned that in my life hey man I went through hell

50:51and a high water many times and again I even meet some of the challenges today with the things I'm about then and I think God what's going on here yeah what's going on and then I'm reminded well remember a couple of years ago they asked Steve Rogers when you went through hell and high water and you were really questioning why this God why that and then you find out a year or two later that thank God you went through thank God either Lord thy God you know allowed this to happen in your life were you burned no I wasn't were you destroyed no I wasn't are you still here yes I am you didn't believe it back then because you were going through the fire I put you in the oven of problems and difficulties knowing you'd come out of it you didn't know but I knew because I allowed things to happen in your life not for your will there Steve Rogers but for my will and folks once we realize that everything we're going through and then I'll tell you it's tough

51:53I know it's tough because I tell you what I see you know I go through some things and I'll tell you what I try to wonder why I do I mean do I gotta go through this haven't I not proven myself and you know Satan's alive and well think about that it's gonna challenge you like you challenge Job and all these fellows and these ladies I just talked you about in Biblical times you know the true test of faith is not when you're on the mountain it's when you're in the valley whoa man I don't like being in the valley but I get it and you know I've learned I've learned to totally depend on Christ that's it totally depend on him for a week you get into a long discussion about this but you see I'll share with you I don't have all the answers to the questions that you you haven't even I have but I know he does that's why tell people read your Bible daily really you don't have to spend hours how about this how about three minutes open the Psalms every day I read a Psalm every day I'll read a scripture every day I'll somehow some way pick up the Bible and

52:55boil see something there that wow this really applies to me this is an answer to what I'm going through so God you know does it for the good and I believe that the good that you're gonna read is what answered prayer and perhaps more importantly peace of mind you know people you know they pray for think about this they pray for things that you know a lot I don't think they should be praying for but that's their business not mine for example financial troubles okay people are praying for money they're praying to hit the lottery they're praying for this they're praying for that all right maybe maybe you should let God handle it how he's gonna help you through financial and difficult times how about health there are so many people in touch with me who has a family member or themselves they're they're they're incapacitated through to it because of health problems and you know what I think it's a good thing to pray for their recovery because that is God's will to make sure all right that your prayers are answered now what if I was to tell you this that maybe

54:01we're looking at their physical recovery and God is looking at their spiritual recovery and as a result of the spiritual recovery well maybe just maybe what that person went through will have profound spiritual impact on their relatives and friends and anyone who they have come in contact with huh his will not our will I've got you know I've had family members I had a a wonderful nephew believed in in Christ who at the age of 40 something died and you know he spent maybe 10 years of his life in bed wow but he was good he said hey look it you know he got out once in a while he was able to move about you know but the last few months of his life they were pretty tough on him and his family but they kept their chin up and their faith in Christ and I got to tell you something the profound spiritual impact regarding Jesus Christ that he had unbelievable and I really

55:09believe that some lives returned at his weight as general after some of the speakers got up there talked about the faith journey that this guy this nephew of mine walked through proud of him proud of him even impacted me I got to tell you so anyway by faith Noah one warned about things not yet seen well in his fear he built an ark he had to save his family and he did so Hebrews chapter 6 look at that that's known as the faith chapter and I'll close with that and without faith is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him and then you'll go down if you read that that particular scripture verse you'll read a bunch of them with regard to biblical times people who had faith through tough times all right that's the truth to Romans 828 read it and believe it believe it folks

56:11just don't believe me believe God's word that's it all right so you go ahead and you look at that faith journey in Hebrews chapter 6 and remember whatever you're going through well it's in his hands ultimately in his hands we have to have enough faith and trust in him that will be there when we need him and there's another scripture that says I will supply all your needs you see it's all there folks all right that's it God bless you thanks for listening and God bless the United States of America thanks for listening again God bless you and your loved ones