Ep 978 | Missy Exposes Dark Forces at Mia Moo Funday & the Emotion Behind a Big ‘Duck Dynasty’ Moment
58:11 Share

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. Jace, I feel some life here today. I mean, we're just having, you and I have been, you know, kind of carrying the torch here. We hadn't had Zach. He's, you know, been doing his thing up in North Carolina. Dad's still down on his back. You guys keep praying for him, but he's having a procedure. And by doing his thing, you mean I've been hauling five-gallon buckets of water in to flush the toilet with.

We know you've been... He says that we can't even complain because Jason and I have been having to do the podcast without you and Dad because we know what you've been going through. So we got you. Where are you at today? Because you look like you're a little...

It's a little darker than normal, but it looks kind of nice. See the guitar behind me? Yes. The Jesus Music guitar. I'm actually at Kingdom Studios, the Kingdom Story. So Andy Irwin. Oh, that's one of the Irwin brothers? One of the Irwin guys. Okay. I said, you guys are coming up tomorrow, Jason Missy, so we'll be –

We're going to break ground tomorrow without you, Al. I am so, so excited to get a podcast off. Thank y'all for stepping up to the plate. I need it. So they let me use their studio. I said, I haven't recorded. I don't have internet in Black Mountain. So we came to Nashville. We're here. Andy was gracious enough to loan me the studio for today. And then tomorrow we'll be at Annie F. Downs' studio with Dallas and the Managingians. That'll be fun.

I'm super excited about them. Yeah, we'll tell you while we're coming. Yes, something new and exciting. I want Missy to bring those cookies, though, when you come, because I haven't had good cookies in a long time. There's a story behind these cookies. Oh, we know. And by the way, we got Missy. I'm sorry we didn't get to Missy. Missy is on as well, because we got a lot to talk about with Mia Moo. Zach, give us an update on...

What's going on in North Carolina? You told us you've seen a lot of Unashamed Nation folks coming in to help. Oh, my goodness. They have come in in droves. I mean, every day, coming with truckloads, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of supplies to hand out to people. Probably the coolest story, there's a bunch of cool stories, but one lady had reached out, I guess about a year and a half, maybe two years ago, and she wanted to be baptized.

And she was from North Carolina, but I was like, you need to find like a local church that would, that can baptize you and disciple you and that you can join and see. So I don't even know where to look. So I helped her find a church in Lincolnton. I think it's Lincolnton, North Carolina. Anyways, called the pastor. See, yeah, I'll meet with her. So he meets with her and, and she gets baptized and her husband and her two children and they all become part of this church.

and just get super plugged in. The pastor called me six months later and was like, I just want to give you an update on the woman you connected me with. And they're like a huge part of our church now. Well, I turn around on Friday and they brought like 12 people up to serve our church with her. And I was like, man, it's like full circle how they were coming to serve us, that church was. So it's been, it has been humbling. Yeah, they've showed up in droves. So Unashamed Nation, you are loved by God.

Me for sure. So thank you guys for helping out. You've been such an encouragement to everybody up in the, in the mountains. I feel like I need to do an impersonation. I feel you ready. I'm ready. Here we go. Keep in mind, uh, whatever your name is.

That you technically can't join the church. The Lord added, hang on, Acts 2 47. And the Lord added to the church daily. Those who are being saved. Yeah.

I mean, give me a break, Dasher. I get it. I mean, let me tell you something about that one, Jace. Ever since he burst forth from my sister's loins. Oh, gosh. Don't resurrect that. I've been vetting that one. I thought I'd clarify that. Because Dad can't be here in honor with some best of philisms. Somebody said that yesterday about Dad because he couldn't teach his class either.

So Jersey Joe had to go solo in the class. And so I went over to kind of encourage Joe, you know, you can do this. And he did great.

that someone said, you know what? I miss so much about Phil's sayings. I said, well, you don't have to worry because we've all heard them our whole lives. These sayings will go on no matter what with them. They will. And to give you the backstory to where we're at this morning, we actually, Al and I, were shocked that Zach was set up. We had no idea. This is how organized we are. So I get a late... Who runs this out, Phil? I get a late night text from...

last night saying, can you get Mia or Missy on the podcast? Because we didn't want to go

Just two of us again. Because I was actually, I told Zach, I said, I was actually thinking about future implications of this moving forward now that it's down to me and Al. Jay said no confidence in me and Al. We did actually pretty well though, Jay. I thought it was a good podcast. Tell us what you think, Unashamed. It's always better when we have more discussion. But, you know, I thought we held our own pretty well. I've missed it. I have missed it. But I was excited that Missy was joining us today.

I was kind of rehearsing my opener for our podcast tomorrow, and I was like, well, Missy's kind of a guest, but she's kind of like everybody's favorite guest. What? Will you come on? Oh, they love you. They love it. You keep me in check. And right, and you make Jason uncomfortable. We love it. Which we all love. We love to see this. I'm having to pause before I say anything, so that on the ride- Oh, like twice before you open your mouth? Is that the deal? I've tried to live my life on a certain movie quote that-

I think is inspiring when it says based on a true story. No, that is not what I, that's not my perception of that. It was a joke. So let me set Missy up while she's here and why she brought all these wonderful looking cookies that I would be scared to actually eat.

Well, because they're like faces. Can we get? Okay. Anyway. So Missy and I. That look is why I like having Missy on the show. If you're watching the podcast today, that look is why. Yeah. I've grown to love that look. We had our 10 year. We had our 10 year. Birthday. Birthday yesterday for the Mia Moo Foundation. Oh, wait a minute. Oh, we're even. We got the props again. Yeah.

We are very excited about that. Oh, super excited. We are. I thought about you guys all weekend. I kept thinking...

Because Jace had been talking about doing it, and so I just kept thinking, man, today they're doing this, tomorrow they're doing that, just kind of knowing how you guys do it. So I've been super excited about it. Yeah, and we actually, other than last night, had no sleep. Well, I guess I got a little more. I mean, you got a little more than me. I slept really hard last night. And we've evolved through this. And just to remind you what we do, our daughter, when she was like eight or nine years old, she was like,

when am I going to tell my story? I mean, that's kind of the birth of this. And just to fast forward version of that story, I was like, well, write it down and we'll see where it is. And she really felt that at an early age that she wanted at some point in her life to help people who were struggling with the same condition that she was and is. And so that

Charity kind of came out of that. And I'm really, I want to ask you about this because I brought this up in a previous podcast and Jace wasn't sure. And now I can't trust my own memory after I couldn't remember Corey being on the podcast last week.

The episode that we did with the whole family, it was cold, we had the wrestlers and all that, and it was centered around Mia's, this letter, wasn't it? I mean, didn't she read the letter? Was that what this was? That was her speech that she started. She wrote herself when she was nine. I thought I remembered that, yeah. So in 2013, she started speaking along when we would be asked to go to speaking engagements and to do that. She wanted to do it as well. So she wrote a speech, and then A&E agreed,

agreed after I told them we should do an episode around Mia. She was having a bone graft surgery in 2014. And they were very apprehensive. They did not want, which I appreciated, they did not want anyone making fun of Mia or Cleft Children. The whole deal was about laughter and fun, and they didn't really know how to incorporate laughter

you know, the humor that we had on Duck Dynasty was something so serious. And I was like, trust me, our fans are going to love this. We can do this. And of course we did. It was amazing. It's one of the top two episodes of the whole series. It's called Stand By Mia. And it was an hour. It was an hour special.

It's never been so cold. It was my favorite. It was really fun and funny, humorous, and very meaningful. We pulled it off. Everybody pulled it off. Yeah, because it was touching. And I want to...

interpret some of what my lovely wife said there she was you're interpreting she was a bulldog on that because i remember her specifically saying you can film this at a distance we're gonna do do this and back off and they really did they they had very little involvement in

a lot of the story being told. Zach, I think it's the only time you were ever on Dynasty. Is that correct? Or were you on some other time? No, that was the only time. And it was painful. It was very, very unusually cold. It was brutal to film it, but all the material was so good. When the guy came out, when the wrestler came out with the Speedos on and everything was purple and he's just like, he's purple. Yeah.

And then Hacksaw Jim Duggan showed up. Oh, my goodness. We didn't know that. The cast didn't know that. I didn't know it. I didn't either. And we were, the visuals of our response, our childhood hero, and he was a little saggy. You know, he wasn't quite like he was in our minds. He was still there. But he was there. And then I think I've told this before, but when there was time for a picture with everybody.

They couldn't find dad and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. So I went up to the house and opened the door and Hacksaw Jim Duggan was down on his knees in front of the alderman in front of dad. Dad was in his chair and he had his Bible open. He was sharing Jesus with Hacksaw Jim Duggan. I thought, man, if I could, you know, I didn't take a picture of it because it was a personal moment. But if the picture in my mind, it was like my whole childhood all in that one moment.

Same living room we used to wrestle and do the moves with. Here's dad sharing with Jim, who is a believer already, but it's amazing.

Yes. Well, so I was going to just say A&E did a great job. And at the very end of the episode, which they had never done this before, so this was a huge honor, the end of the episode, they put up what they call a card, but it's just a screen that said, for more information about cleft lip and palate, go to miamoo.org. And when I found out they were going to do that, it was overwhelming. And I thought, wow.

We have a deadline. We have a deadline and it's March of that year, 2014, to get our website up and going because that will be our biggest fundraiser. And that's really what kicked off. So they put the card up and y'all didn't even have the setup. We knew they were going to do it and we were rushing like crazy to get our 501c3 in order. All of the boxes checked and we pulled it off under Worldwide Foundation and we're

of course, with Johnny Howard, which is Corey's dad, with Randy Kirby, who is an elder at our church. They're on the board along with me and Jace. And so they help us make the decisions

on who gets the funds and for what reason every single month and it's ten years it's amazing because Most charities well all charities are formed out of some compassion for some reason and usually it's something personal a tragedy within a family Which is what happened with us? We said we want to help other families like us and so we started this foundation this charity most charities have fizzled out

by five years. That's usually the full length of a charity because it's a lot of work. And to celebrate 10 years, a 10-year birthday party that we had with hundreds of people the other night, all of these, we probably had 30 of our cleft cuties, what we call them, children who've been helped right there in this picture. And so far, we have helped

financially 179 families in 10 years with over 700 and something thousand dollars, I think. It deserves some more applause. Yeah. Yes. I saw a, when I got back to Nashville at internet, I started doom scrolling on Instagram, but I did see on one of y'all's page, some of the girls at your house doing some worship.

Jayce, you'll be back on the road here. You worried about losing your cell phone coverage as you go along the fruited plains of the U.S.? In the perfect world, it's best to have a service provided and the money you're paying goes to people who think similarly. Yeah, and share your values, right? Exactly. Patriot Mobile is one such entity. They've been America's only Christian conservative wireless provider for the last 10 plus years.

They offer dependable nationwide coverage, giving you the ability to access all three major networks.

As Jay said, you get the coverage that you're used to, and you don't have to fund the left. When you switch to Patriot Mobile, you're letting everyone know you support free speech, religious freedom, sanctity of life. They proudly support the Second Amendment, military veterans, and first responders. And if that isn't enough, they also have 100% U.S.-based customer service that makes switching to Patriot Mobile easy. You can keep your number and your phone, or you can upgrade.

They'll help you find the best deals and a plan that fits your needs. All you got to do is go to PatriotMobile.com slash Phil or call them at 972-PATRIOT. Right now, you get a free month when you use the offer code Phil. Join us. Make the switch to America's only Christian conservative mobile provider, Patriot Mobile, by going to PatriotMobile.com slash Phil, or you can call them at 972-PATRIOT for your free month of service today.

So it's kind of evolved, especially when Mia had this just transformation in her teenage years and part of the growth process of being in Christ. And I went over that a couple of podcasts ago about, I did this illustration that I'd heard from a sermon about our spiritual growth, how it kind of goes in, I guess, the paradigm of our physical growth. And, you know, when you're a baby,

All you do is consume. I mean, it's just feed me, let me have my sleep, I make messes. Change my diaper. Yeah, and this is just the way this goes, you know, and then you become a child and you're looking for certainty and security and then the teenage years, everything's a conflict and challenging, which is normal because teenagers are trying to find their own identity and it's very...

critical for how that goes you as a parent and the teenager but ultimately you know you want to contribute which is an adult and sacrifice and show love and help others and so mia can't you just saw that journey and uh so now she's kind of our leader because she understands all these kids way better than we ever could and so uh

It's been nice. It's also just the same concept as why camp counselors, which Mia's been involved as a counselor too, are so effective with kids because the closer you are to them in age, the more they tend to relate to you. And so not that the hearts you guys have had for is not powerful, but there's something about being in your 20s

And connecting with kids who are teenagers. Well, they all have the same thing in common. They've had multiple surgeries. They've all had speech problems. They've all had just the problems with the issues of them, the way they look at themselves when they look in the mirror. You know, we who have no nothing wrong with the structure of our face as teenagers look in the mirror and didn't like something.

Can you imagine, you know, having everything off balance, off kilter, out of whack, going through surgeries all of the time, healing, swelling, stitches, all of that.

You never like the way you look as a child. Well, not only that, Missy. It's always, you don't know the expectation because, you know, she would go through a certain period of time and look a certain way. And all of a sudden, it's a major surgery comes along. And then she looks totally different. So then you have to readapt the whole thing all over again. So it's just, I mean, it's like nothing else that a teenager especially would go through. Well, one of the things we did is maybe year four or five, we went from,

We used to do the event where we would try to raise money the first night. We would try to raise money the first night, and then we would have a day for the families. But it was just like we were trying to pack too much. It's one of those things if you're trying to do a bunch of things, you do nothing well. And I really think we give Mia credit for that. We just turned the whole weekend into helping these families, and then Mia just started doing a newsletter about

and telling the stories. And that actually raised more money than any project that we tried to do, card games and auctions. We do zero fundraising right now. Right now, we don't do anything except Mia puts out a newsletter at the end of every month. So if you want to see...

If you want the newsletter, which is kind of a behind-the-scenes look at what Mia did for the month, which is always fascinating to people, where is she in her stage of life and what she involved in? So it's kind of just an inside look at her life. But then it's also we pick a child or two of who we've helped. Some are where are they now? Some that we helped a baby 10 years ago, where are they now? So it's kind of just an informative, fun way of looking at Mia Moo and Mia.

All at the same time, and we'll have some highlighted products that we do sell ever so often on our website. But just Mia sending that out with updates of her life.

People write checks and send them in or go online and donate. So if you want to sign up for the newsletter, go to miamu.org and just sign up and you'll get all of this for free. I mean, it does take money. We'll ask if you feel led to give at the end of the year. I say 100%. 100% goes to the families. Yeah, I wanted to talk about that. That's kind of like never say always and never.

But if we're not 100%, it's 99.9% of all of the money. Because the way our charity is set up is our employees to the charity, Missy and I pay, which is our big donation. Right. Because there is an extensive investigation into each child.

which is really the bottleneck in helping people because we don't want scam artists and con people. - There's a lot of fraud that comes in. - Which destroys a lot of charities. You mentioned that earlier. One of the reasons they don't last is because people take advantage of them. - Well, they don't have Bonnie Jones.

Which is my aunt. I call her Bulldog Bonnie. She's sweet, but she's feisty. She's our bulldog with a smile. It's like a dog when he's eating. You don't want to reach in there and try to take out something. So we have that process that Missy and I pay for. And I am convinced that 100% of the people, when the money goes to a family, look, when I say an investigation, we're calling doctors.

We're getting financial statements. Getting releases, signed releases from the families, everything. I actually brought this up. So actually when we do the weekend, the first night, Missy and I have the volunteers at our house. Because look, they're fixed to work their tails off. We had 66 this year. At 66. And that's where you saw the worship, Zach.

And we have a big meal at our house. All the volunteers are there. And it's nothing really extensive other than them having a very good meal. We ate jambalaya. Gimber. Gimber's jambalaya and white beans. Can't beat that. Missy and... Put out the big guns. That's right. Mia brought 15 of her friends from college. 15. Wow. In three different vehicles. And...

That's why I stayed up so late that night, because look, these...

I'll call them kids, but they're college age. They love the Lord. They're very high character. And Mia's transformation in Christ has drawn them to her and her to them. And, uh, and they're, you know, let's change the world type of mindset. And that's why I couldn't go to bed. I mean, we sat around and talked all night about Jesus and all the projects they have going. And some of them were, there was a girl who was, uh,

a kid from a missionary family and she had been in a foreign country for 13 years of her life. Middle East foreign country. Yeah, it was actually Turkey and I was just giving her question after question because all these biblical things

sites are there. And I was like, including Colossus. Yeah. I brought it up. She's like, well, let's just go and I'll be your interpreter. And I was like, well, you know, I was a little nervous about it. You'll be fine. You'll be fine. So I'm actually thinking about it, but it was a wonderful night, which I paid the price the next day. Cause the Mia mood day is very long. It's from, and, and I told this, uh, during our, uh,

session of the Miamou day, I told them that I'm always making the case of making it a couple hours shorter because, I mean, it's from 730 to 730. And it's just crickets every time I say that. Because the families love it. I mean, and it really is well done. Really, what would you cut out? What two hours of that day would you say, you know what, we're just not going to do that? Valid point. Yeah.

And so the day... Love having Missy on the podcast. Now, meanwhile, that Friday night, Miss Bonnie and other volunteers, they take the kids to go do something together fun. They go to Surge, which is like a multi...

activity center and they feed them and they play games with them absolutely creating something like that here is that the golf simulator it's got simulators arcade bowling laser tag see that happened after I left I leave and all the cool stuff comes oh yeah

Drew Brees, the best thing to have in the state of Louisiana. I'm so glad he came to play. And great food. They have great food there. And so the Saturday starts off with the buses arriving out at camp, which we've all, there's a local camp that I believe. In Chioka. Yeah, Camp Chioka. We've talked about before. My parents met there.

And my favorite, I wrote an article for Mia's newsletter because she just asked me, write a little article about your favorite part of the Mia Moo day. Fun day, yeah. Yeah, fun day. And I was like, how do I pick one part? And actually, I picked that because when they arrive on those buses,

We have the 60- Whatever. Yeah, 60-some-odd volunteers. Think of a college football game and your team won in the last second. Zach, you don't have to worry about this. Just imagine. Just imagine this might happen. Yeah.

When they get off those, I mean, there are bells, whistles. We do like a double line, like a tunnel. They have to come through the tunnel, a welcome tunnel. Everyone is cheering and clapping. We have bazookas and clappers and pom-poms and whistles and everything is going off. We're just, the whole time that...

65 on one bus and 66 on the other. So however many that is, they're all getting out. It takes a little bit. It takes a while. Especially the brand new families who have never come before. It's like...

They're deer in the headlights. They don't know what to do. They don't know where to go. And usually emotional. Yeah. Falling. The moms are falling. I was going to say you got a lot of crying. Like what is happening? We've never had this kind of welcome for anything like that in our life. Well, because you got to remember what we're doing and how this has evolved is we've realized that they need to connect to each other. We're providing that on this weekend. And there's a big...

with these families is they feel alone. I mean, this is a rough struggle because they're going to have surgeries throughout the growth process of their child. And after. And after. And then you throw in the emotional components when they are teenagers. And so really we've catered everything we do to realizing where they are in the different stages of the process. And so here's this family who's just gone through

Hell on earth, for lack of a better phrase, with all these surgeries and unknown and misinformation. And it's just putting their lives to the test. They're all in debt. I mean, because it's overwhelming the cost of all the things that they're doing. They're all seeing doctors or somebody in the medical profession every few weeks of their entire life. And so and they feel there's a loneliness that comes with that.

They get off that bus and all of a sudden they're like, we're not alone. We're not alone. And the kids have a little different perspective. They're like, these are my people. Where have y'all been all my life? These people are cheering. And then you have Mia who's gone through the process and she's one of the older ones there. They're like, she seems happy. Out of the three of us, Zach, Jason, me, who do you think has the healthiest liver?

Are you asking me or Jace? Both. I'm asking of the three, either one of you. I do now. Jace, you think it's you? We could go do a 60 yard dash and see. I didn't test your liver, Jace. I don't know that that's going to do it. Uh, one of the, the reason Jace thinks it's him and, uh, and Zach, of course is, is losing weight as well as that. You know, it's sometimes it's the amount of fat. That's why I didn't say it was me. Uh,

Uh, there's something called fatty liver. And I have jokingly said that's usually connected to fatty everything. Uh, the American heart association seriously has said that you're a three and a half times more likely to have heart failure. If you have fatty liver, this affects a hundred million Americans a year.

which puts a lot of people at risk. Zach and I were tested separately from each other, but tested a while back, and our liver enzymes were high. That's because our livers were not healthy, because you throw everything at it. It's kind of your body's filtration system. A sluggish, fatty liver makes us gain weight and lose energy. And our liver has 500 key functions every day that it has to do.

So we found a solution that helped us. It's called Liver Health Formula. It's an all-natural supplement which contains 11 clinically proven botanicals that help recharge and protect your liver. I still take this product. My liver enzymes are good. Working on the fatty everywhere else, but my liver is functioning well. So if you're looking to ignite your fat-burning metabolism, boost your energy, and transform how you look and feel,

Try Liver Health Formula and receive a free bottle of blood sugar formula to reduce sugar cravings when you order today. Try Liver Health Formula by going to GetLiverHelp.com slash Unashamed. That's GetLiverHelp.com slash Unashamed and claim your free bonus gift.

So then we moved to the daily events and our probably most special time. And we have like this year, we had a speech therapist in the medical community volunteer her time to be there and to be a part of the event. So they had a session. Well, it's Mia's surgeon from Dallas. It's his speech therapist. So we know her well. And she gave up her entire weekend to come down and give, who knows, thousands of dollars worth of free time to these families that were

Well, we saw the session that we had that she had with some of the families. Again, another family, it just released a burden off of them, things that they have been told by other doctors and other people in the profession that she said, it just did not sit right with me in my gut that this is what was right for my child. And so Monica, in her expertise, who is a speech therapist, is saying, your children don't need as much as you think they need.

They're going to figure it out. They can't physically pull off the correct language and the correct speech because they're

Their bones aren't in the right place. Their cartilage isn't in the right place. Their teeth aren't in the right place. So be patient with them. Let them be a kid. When you get all the structures worked out, they'll figure it out. And I'm like, you're a speech therapist. You're like talking yourself out of a job. And she said, I want what's best for these kids. And so this is what's best for them. No one goes to kindergarten with a diaper on.

No one's going to graduate high school and not know how to speak. They're going to look at their other classmates, teammates, their parents, their siblings, and figure it out. You don't have to go to class every single day of the week or month or year for speech. It makes them feel like they're not normal. They already know they're not normal. You don't have to remind them all of the time. So there are so many things this year that we missed.

tried to amp up a little bit to help these families because each year that we have this event is another year that we've also lived through it. And we've learned things about our own child and about the profession that she is having to be involved in. And it just helps us relate, be relatable to all these other parents and so and get them the resources that they need. Yeah. So and one of the most special times we have, and it's very difficult for especially the new families,

is Missy and I have about a 90-minute. It keeps getting longer and longer. A 90-minute campfire session. And, of course, we're asked the parents to give up their kids. There was one new family that kept their kid because it's very difficult. They're never away from their kid because their kid has problems, you know. But I was telling Missy, I was like, next year they'll realize, okay, it's okay. And so what is said there, we kind of,

We kind of leave there, but it's a way for everybody to connect. We put them in the sections of their age bracket because it's amazing how they connect to each other just in the course of that 90-minute discussion. And all it is revolving around is...

them sharing their story. But it's so crazy that everybody realized, oh, we pretty much have all the same story and we're going through the same thing. But as it goes to the teenage years, they're learning that, oh, this is what's coming next. Here's the downfalls of that. And here's the hope in that. And it was so crazy because Missy and I also are trying to connect the principles that being in Jesus offers us.

And because a lot of the kids we help, they may not be, you know, Christian people or but we're like, look, the greatest answer to this struggle is Jesus Christ. And but we're doing that in a way that's not confrontational or judgmental. We're just kind of like this is our story. And obviously a lot of people don't.

have that same thought that are there, but it was so crazy. So the, the worst kid we had as far as physical problems, who is actually a teenager, they were over there and I think they'd been there one before, but this time several. It was before we had it out at camp. Okay. So that was the first time they were there. And, uh, you know, I don't know. I gave a little speech about something cause I singled their kid out because he has multiple problems and

And not just the cranial facial when he's had brain surgery, but he also has autism. And if you just bumped into him, you would think and not really connect with him. You'd think, well, he's here. Something's wrong with him, you know, and you know how our world is. They can be mean. They tend to just immediately think he's not a functional human being.

But there's something about this kid, the bright light that he has that is really contagious. You know, I took him fishing, even though I was, I've never tried so hard to catch a fish in my life. But in that section, we actually didn't catch one till later. But it's just something about him that he has every reason in the world to quit.

But he just doesn't. And he actually has a full-time job that we learned at a pharmacy store. And a car dealership. Yeah. And his grandma shared that.

But I'm telling you, because we were kind of all just having our session. And I won't go into the details of what she said, but it was a sermon. And she was obviously a believer in the Lord. And she talked about that boy. I mean, chills went all over my body. And just about how God has worked through their process. And here's this kid that's 19 years.

And all these families are looking at their kid and their problems, but they knew that kid, he's got a ton of problems. And hearing that grandma talk, I mean, it was just inspirational and transformed. I mean, it would transform your view of this and just how you think. And she kind of did it in the name of the Lord, how he's been there. And it was my favorite moment of the weekend. Mm-hmm.

So we did that. And then it just, we do various activities throughout the day. We have a lot of fun. Our goal is to take their minds off of their problems. So even though we have that sharing session with the parents, the kids don't know about it. They just know that we're going to talk. We're having a meeting. And they're doing crafts and they're bouncing in bouncy houses and swinging and playing ping pong. And that's why it's so important to have so many of those volunteers involved.

because they just play. They just play with them, play basketball and do card games. Oh, we do all these dances. Oh, the Energizers are so fun. Everybody loves that. Well, I mean, but it will put you to the test as an older individual. There were moments. So fun. Me and Al would love to be a part of that, watching that. Yeah, I would be a good videographer. We can document it for you, though.

We've got ourselves a merchandise store. One of the best ways to get the word out about what you enjoy doing is to have some merchandise that tells other people what you're like and what you're into. Unashamedmerch.com is what ours is called. It has a special promo code, Unashamed10, which allows you to get 10% off of your order.

So you can get the blind mug. There's love always protect t-shirts, uh, right here. I'm holding in my hands. A, I ride with King Jesus coffee mug with dad's mug on the other side. I would see what I did there. So we'll keep building it. As long as you keep, uh, using them and telling people what you're into blaze media also has some merchandise. There are blaze heritage collection, patriotic collection, uh,

So a lot of good stuff out there. Hats, stickers, mugs, sweaters, tons of stuff. A lot of fun. Head on over to unashamedmerch.com today. Use the promo code unashamed10 for 10% off your order. It's a good deal. unashamedmerch.com. Be sure you use the promo code unashamed10 to get your 10% off. Check them out.

And it's filled with breakfast, lunch, and supper that are all fantastic. And I mean, I'm telling you, we go all out. We hired Gimber this year to put it on. It's our cousin, John. It is amazing. It's the best food that you can put out there. And at lunch, and I want to thank Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A, yes. They really rallied behind this, and I don't know how much stuff they brought, but it was a lot. Mm.

And so I wanted to give them a shout out because the kids love that. But I told Missy, this is like Chick-fil-A on steroids because it wasn't just Chick-fil-A. I mean, Gimber. It's the whole spread. Yeah. It's the whole spread. And you got the jambalaya. And you have the cow. They brought the baby cow out. Oh, they love that. I love what you guys are doing. It really is just a beautiful picture of who God is because I love what you said earlier about how they respond to,

really your ministry is introducing them to community. Yes. And I think then that's really what we talk about in this podcast all the time of the kingdom of heaven being here. What that's about is being present and not being isolated, not being alone, being in community, which is what God is. He's an eternal relationship of Father, Son, Spirit. But Missy, you had said something before the podcast began about

that I always, it's anytime something great, like good happens in the kingdom of heaven, anytime heaven invades earth, it doesn't just like, it's not like the doors just open up and everything goes perfect. I would love to hear kind of some of the spiritual warfare because I think that's, you mentioned that. I'd love to hear. I did.

Yeah, I kind of have a mental list in my mind because I've come to a point in my life where I try not to get stressed out about all that stuff because my faith is so strong that if it's supposed to happen, God is going to make a way. I'm not going to get rattled. I'm not going to get upset. But boy, there are some things that make you think twice like, oh.

I don't really know if this is going to work this year. Maybe God's plan is for this not to happen. But these families are traveling in, sometimes Thursday night. Most of them are getting up Friday morning and loading up their cars, their kids. Some of these people have seven. Some of these people have 10 kids.

They're really sacrificing to get to West Monroe, Louisiana. Oh, from several states. Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee. So we are working not just all year, but mainly this last week of the logistics of, you know, the gift bags that we order things to go. They have to be filled. And Anna comes over and helps Bonnie in our garage and making all of that, you know, go.

which stuff goes with each bag because we want to personalize it for each child of each family. It just gets down to the details.

And your other cousin Lulu, the original Lulu, Leslie, she has donated her time every year and she will not let us ever pay her back for the decor. She decorates the stage when they get off the bus for all of the pictures that we have. She decorates the gym. She decorates every table with the theme that we're having. And she could not be here this year. They were going to be somewhere out of town, she and her husband.

So she gave this job to the girl that has assisted her every year. No problem. She's got this, you know, and I, again, I'm not worried about it at all until Friday evening. I sent Lynn who works, used to work for Kay. She's kind of working for us now. I sent her out there with a bunch of stuff for camp. I said, give this to her, to Audrey. She said, she called me at 430 and said, Audrey's not here. She has the stomach bug. I said, okay.

It's 4.30 on Friday night. Nothing's been done? Absolutely nothing has been done. Well, I've got 65 people going to be at my house in 30 minutes for a dinner that we are giving them in honor of helping us. And I thought, what's happening here? So we got in touch with Lulu. Lulu said, Kenny and I are on our way back tonight. I will be out there at 6 a.m. in the morning.

And she was. By the time I pulled up at 737, because I looked at my clock, thought, please, Lord, it was all done. You would have never thought anything was wrong. That was the first thing that happened. The next day, we all got there. Everything is going fantastic. And Rick, the head of our volunteers, comes to me and says,

What's wrong with Mia? Of course, I'm like, what? What do you mean? And he said, she's in the sound booth and she's crying. I thought, this is not normal. She's our leader. What? She can't be crying over not getting a microphone on. So I beeline it to the sound booth and

Someone had lowered the gate that protects the sound booth from the gym, the flying balls and everything. Someone had lowered that gate and a ball had come in, knocked her personal computer onto the floor, knocked Camp's huge computer onto the floor and cracked both of them. Oh, wow.

And I was like, Mia, this is, we're okay. We can figure this out. And she, in her moment, just boohoo and crying. You don't understand, mom. I have finals. I have two finals on Monday. I need this computer as soon as we finish Miamou Fund tonight. I cannot live my life without this computer and I need it tonight. And I said, still, there's no reason to freak out. We can figure it out. That's not what she wanted to hear. She looked at me and she said,

Give me a minute to cry, mom. This is really important. And then I'll be okay. I was like, okay. I just stood there for a second.

Let her cry it out. You know, I said, okay, are you ready? She's like, yep. She wiped her face. She's a lot like me. And then the first person you call was Papaw Phil to fix that. Yeah, right. She wiped her face and she was ready to go announce the rotations, which is at one o'clock. She's like, do I look like I've been crying? I said, actually, you look amazing. And I said, now, will you let me just handle this? And she said, yes, I'm going to announce the next round of entertainment.

So what I did was I had to take a second, figure out what to do. And Jenna, who is our showrunner for Duck Family Treasure, is a volunteer and her husband is a tech guy.

So I came and got Jenna, who was talking with the family. I was like, I'm so sorry. I need you for a second. She and William took that computer and for the rest of the day handled it. By the time we got finished with Mia Mufunde, Mia had a brand new computer with all of her stuff transferred. Everything worked. It was perfectly fine. No one else besides the Unashamed Nation right now and Mia and William and Jenna knows that that happened. Wow.

I didn't know it happened until she just told it. I actually told Jace, I said, Jenna and William came to our rescue again. And he said, what are you talking about? I said, I'll tell you later. So here's later. The last thing that happened was about one o'clock, 115, right after that happened, I ignored a phone call from my mom because I thought she'll find me. She's out here, you know, I was talking to a family that rang again. Okay, mom, what you need?

Did you not know? A pipe burst in their house while they were at Mamou Funday and flooded their entire house. Oh, no. We saw the pictures. It was, I mean, worse than you think. It's like the ceilings caved in. It's all ruined. But what my dad thought was, well, there were some people out there who are problem fixers.

And so instead of calling someone else, not at Miamou Fun Day, he called one of the main people from Miamou Fun Day who left and went and helped my parents turn off the water, figure out what to do. And, you know, and so I thought even just with distraction, that is this is a huge problem for my parents.

aging, elderly parents. This is a huge problem. But for it to happen at one o'clock in the middle of Miamou Funday, that is nothing but evil. That happened. And so God took that, all of that, and through all of the problems that we could have said, you know what, that's it. Let's just, I gotta, I gotta, I have to leave. That's what Satan wanted me to do. I have to leave and go handle this with my parents. I didn't freak out.

Other people stepped up, went there and still are doing that this morning. So all I kept thinking was, nice try. Let's try. Not going to work. These families are too important. We only have one segment left. So I want to give you.

the what happened to its fulfillment so uh we we go through the rest of the day and mia had this idea of doing this color run at the end of the day because the theme was endurance and it was based on hebrews 12 1 and 2 and we all had shirts that were white shirts and she had a plan with our love with our with our uh theme on it for the year yeah and so uh

So the color run, we had done that in a Duck Dynasty episode. Yeah, I remember it well. Yeah, I hated it. One of the guys wound up in the hospital. Oh, yeah. I hated it. And we had people who, a lot of people who didn't believe in Christ throw in the dust during the day. Yeah, someone.

opened it up to the public thought it would be a great idea to invite the world to come throw powder on us and i hated it we were removing it from our ears for years right are you breathing the powder in i mean well yeah you are so i didn't like with the way these people were throwing it you couldn't help but breathe it in i didn't like this idea horrible

But we did it, and there was like stages. They had signs up of like difficulty and pain. Perseverance. Perseverance. And when you get to the end of the color run, they had this sign that said freedom. It was awesome. But I was thinking color run, we have little kids. They have a lot of difficulties. I was thinking 100 yards. No, it was uphill. We went to the gate and back.

I don't know how far that is, but I'm going to tell you, I took off running like everybody else and halfway through it, I thought, what kind of clever way can I do right now to stop? Because I literally think my calves are going to explode. Yeah.

So I started taking selfie pictures of the race because I thought, yeah, I want to document this. But I really just needed a minute. Back to mine and Zach's videography ideas. That's how we do. See, now you join me now. And so we all get lit up with the colors. And then we come back and we had a little celebration of the happy birthday. And so the next day, what we do is...

Is we do a volunteer service. We call it a poolside service at their hotel because we rent out the hotel for all the families because it takes a whole. It takes two. Does it take two at this time?

And so then I do a little speech about Jesus. It's Sunday. Mia leads worship. Mia leads worship. And one of her friends, Lydia, and you, led worship. But it's real. It's like they didn't even have mics. They just sing. I had a mic because we feel that poolside.

And it's a great story about the hotel manager who the first year that we did this actually came to Jesus. And she was just making sure we were not doing anything that we hadn't agreed upon. She's like, sure, y'all can have a service out here. But she came to Jesus and she was there yesterday, which was awesome.

I mean, we're brothers and sisters over that. I mentioned yesterday when I was preaching that y'all were doing the service yesterday. So I wanted to give just a couple snippets of my sermon because at the end of the day, our podcast here is a Bible study. And this really hit me like a ton of bricks. My opening line, which was a quick icebreaker, and I didn't speak, what, 10 minutes? 15? Mm-hmm.

20?

And my opening line, which I thought was really funny, which not many people laugh because I think you've got to remember. Are you trying to be funny? You know, the only way you're funny is if you're trying not to be funny. Because you're talking about a tough crowd. You've got to remember, they just spent, what's that, 12 hours yesterday. They're exhausted. We're all exhausted. They are completely exhausted. And this actually happened. When I woke up the next morning, and look, I didn't get any sleep because when I got home, LSU was playing Ole Miss. Mm-hmm.

For any of you that saw that game, me and those people that Mia brought, which weren't really LSU fans until the end of the night because I was going crazy. It was overtime win. I texted you after the game. I wasn't sure you'd be awake, but I thought you had to watch that game. I woke up the next morning and I was like, what is wrong with my nose? I blew my nose. And I kid you not, you know how you got to inspect because you're thinking, I feel weird.

I inspected what just came out of my nose, and you know what it was, Al? It was a rainbow.

It was literally, I was like, and then I coughed. And I was looking, I was like, I'm coughing up rainbows. It was kind of weird, disturbing. Did you eat unicorns? Yeah, awesome. Well, it was all the dust from the color. The pictures of the families and the kids covered and all that. It's amazing. They had so much fun. Sorry. That was my cold ovens. But I wanted to read these two passages because look, I think it hit our group like a ton of bricks. And it's,

Because think about endurance. And if you look up the definition of endurance, and you think more of these kids go through, I mean, my daughter. And their families. And their families. But I was just going to use me as an example. She's 21 years old. She's gone through 16 surgeries, multiple other things along the way. Never gone six weeks without seeing a doctor in some capacity. You're talking about endurance, right?

And I looked up the definition of endurance and it says the fact or power, the fact or power of enduring an unpleasant or a difficult process or situation without giving up. And I thought, you know whose idea it was to make the theme endurance? Wasn't any of us. It was Mia's.

Somewhere she had read that definition. And so when you read Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, and here I am on a Sunday morning, it's Volunteer Jesus Day, and most of the families were there. It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured. There's our word, the cross.

And so I did this deal about a lot of times when tragedy happens or bad things happen or there's evil in the world, everybody's like, where's God in this? And it's like, look at Jesus. He sent Jesus here to endure this life, this difficulty. And I want to read Romans 15 real quick because it also packed a punch. And this is Romans 15, verse 2. It says, each of us should...

Please his neighbor for his good, which is what we were doing to build him up and establish in this community. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me, which really resonates with those kids because cleft palate kids get insults their entire childhood. Jesus received insults and he was the greatest human that ever lived. So it connects them to them.

For everything that was written in the past, and now he's talking about scriptures of the Old Testament. Listen to what this says. Teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. You know, the Bible's about Jesus, but...

And we read the Bible and you say there's two other things that come out of that endurance and encouragement. The Bible is about those two things. Then it says, may the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus. So that was the sermon.

Then Missy and Mia and Lydia led us in that song, The Blessing by Carrie Jo. And it's kind of emotional there. And then that's it. Sounds like an awesome weekend. We have little treats, though. Can I share these treats with you? We were blessed by a bakery at the volunteer dinner. Somewhere from Texas. I'll have to get the Unashamed Nation the name of the bakery. But picture cookies. I think they did a really good job. So this is Jace. Here's Willie.

Yeah, Willie's face looks about twice the size of Jason's. Yeah, he looks delicious. I think they did the formation. And then Psy, which I thought was fantastic. That's great. And then they actually had... We're losing your mic, babe. One for me.

I don't think I've ever had a cookie with my face on it. That's when you know you've arrived, Missy. All you've done. I finally arrived. This is it right here. This is the moment. But you see what happened. People were like, well, I can't. I mean, I just can't eat this. Yeah. Well, here's the funny one. Here's the funny one. Is that dad? I don't know. No, that's Phil. This is Phil. He doesn't have a gray beard.

- Yeah, but this- - Phil's a younger- - He has a fatter face. - Yeah, it's a younger- - Is this Phil? Okay, so then this is Phil. And then they just really, really went the extra mile with just some of our themes that we've had for the last couple of years. And then I love this one. There's a story behind every smile.

That's totally true. Who's the company that did this? I'm going to get the information, so we'll put it up for sure. They went over and beyond and fed all the volunteers these, and some of them took them home as souvenirs, you know, so it was really extra mile and special. It just really started the weekend off. Like, this is really personalization, and that's what we want to do with all these families. We want to make them feel very special. They're all together in a community, but each individual child and parent is

they're going through so many things.

besides a cleft. They're having their own life struggles. And so we want to just be there every year for them and encourage them. So again, go to miamoo.org if you'd like to donate. You can even earmark it Funday if you want to just donate to the Funday. But we pay for a lot of these parents for their kids' medical procedures is what we do. We don't give them money. It goes directly to the doctors and the hospitals. Awesome. Well, thank you again, Missy, for coming on and telling us about it. Zach's good.

Good to have you back in the house. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed Podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blazetv.com slash unashamed.