Ordinary People Extraordinary Things
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Ordinary People Extraordinary Things
84. Forgiveness & Purpose in a Jail Cell with Curtis Fry
What happens when a devout faith is tested by the appeal of nightlife and poor choices? Curtis, our guest on this episode of Ordinary People Extraordinary Things, knows the answer all too well. Growing up in a family deeply rooted in ministry, Curtis carried his strong faith through homeschooling to public high school, proudly wearing the label of "Jesus freak" despite the teasing. Through small decisions, the absence of his accountability partner, and a decision on his 21st birthday that spiraled into a night of chaos, he candidly recounts the hours lost in a haze, only to wake up to missing clothes and an unexpected confrontation with the law resulting in a 2nd degree murder charge.
But Curtis's story is one of redemption and spiritual awakening. Facing the darkness of a jail cell, he discovered forgiveness from God and a renewed purpose. Curtis shares how this pivotal moment transformed his understanding of grace, surrender, and the importance of sharing his journey to inspire others. Curtis's journey serves as a beacon of hope for those struggling with guilt and the fear of unforgiveness. Join us for a powerful testimony of hope, resilience, and the life-altering impact of true faith.
🤝 Connect with Curtis at https://curtisfry.com/
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https://youtu.be/CKLHdSm3ztQ
Curtis’s sister-in-law’s podcast is #50 Special Needs Child with Jayme Kuehl
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Welcome to Ordinary People. Extraordinary Things. I'm here with Curtis. Curtis, thanks for being on.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:And Curtis and I. I actually don't know if we've met or maybe met in passing at a wedding, but our families are very connected so I'm sure we have at some time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I don't like you. I don't remember an exact time, but I'm sure we have at some time, yeah, yeah, I don't like you.
Speaker 1:I don't remember an exact time, but I'm sure we have crossed paths for sure. Yeah, yeah, and your sister-in-law's story is on ordinary people, extraordinary things, and I'll link that in the show notes, if you're like. Well, who is that and what are they talking about? I will link that so you can hear that. But, curtis, if anyone doesn't know who you are, can you give three words or phrases to describe yourself?
Speaker 2:Three words or phrases. I would say number one redeemed a child of God, and I hope that people, when they see me, they can see that I'm on mission for Christ at all times. Yeah, crazy story of how, yeah that God has done that in my life, but absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm excited to talk about that. Could you briefly share your childhood? We're going to kind of talk about that. You said that you're redeemed in a story that changed everything. I think it was when you were 21. Is that right?
Speaker 2:That is correct. Yeah, I think it was when you were 21. Is that right? That is correct. Yeah, yeah. So leading up to my 21st, so I grew up in the church. I grew up at church every Sunday, at church every Wednesday. My parents, actually, at age three and a half, felt God calling them into ministry. When I was three and a half, I'm sorry, felt God calling them into ministry to work with youth, and so my whole life has been in ministry with my family.
Speaker 2:I grew up, like I said, in the church. I was homeschooled from kindergarten through eighth grade. I was a kid and then at that I went to public school, to Wilton High School in Iowa. And I was a kid that I walked into school and I was called the Jesus freak, the Bible beater, the weirdo, so to speak. But I was OK with that.
Speaker 2:My parents did an excellent job of teaching me that my identity is not in what other people say about me. It's not in any one event that happens in my life. My identity is in Christ and so I actually I took that as a compliment walking into the public school and getting ridiculed for my relationship with Christ. So I was, yeah, I grew up. I loved playing sports. I loved being in ministry with my parents as far as being able to be that older brother role model for the guys. My parents started Miracles Can Happen Boys Ranch and that they ran that for about 23, 24 years and that had just here in 2000 I think. It was like 2017, 2018 um ended up um dissolving, so they ran it for quite a while and again, I loved being part of that ministry. Um, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was a part of a group called Young Life. Uh, growing up through high school, young Life is a lot like Fellowship of Christian Athletes. It was part of the core group. We met on Thursday mornings and would have Bible studies and then plan that night's events. And, yeah, I love just being that older brother role model for everyone around me. I was growing up I was I guess you could say a good kid, so to speak Went off to college. I never partied through high school. I went off to college. I love playing sports. I got recruited to play football at St Ambrose in Davenport and I loved football, had no idea what I wanted to do for school. I've always been a hands-on person and knew that I would be in some kind of the construction trade, just didn't know exactly what that was, and I didn't see the point of spending the money for college when I wasn't getting anything out of school and all through college I still, again, never drank.
Speaker 2:I was on the party floor, in the party dorm and Thursday through Saturday, even Sunday night, it was just a big party and I would walk around with my glass of kool-aid and be like fry, what do you got in there? Like just kool-aid. So, um, just never really interest me at that point in my life at all. I had no desire to to do that. Um, yeah, so that was kind of kind of leading up to my, my 21st birthday. Um, a little bit, and I I can share a little bit more a little bit later, directly before my 21st, and kind of my thought process yeah, yeah, why don't you? I started going to parties when I was, you know, at about 20, started going to these parties and at first I had this, this intention of being the designated driver. A lot of the kids that I grew up with went to these parties. So I went and and I was just going to go there making sure no one was doing anything stupid or driving home when they shouldn't have been, and in fact a couple of those parties got busted. And it just so happens that the chief police of my town was also the pastor of my church that I went to, and so when he comes down the line and is asking you know, curtis, why he sees me. He's like Curtis, what are you doing here? Why are you here? And I told him I haven't drank, I am just here making sure no one is doing anything they shouldn't be doing. And, of course, had to have a breathalyzer and all that kind of stuff and I hadn't had a job, but I continued to put myself in that environment over and over again. And my best friend, jameson he went off to Moody Bible Institute to pursue a music ministry degree and I never replaced him with anyone in my life. And I see Jameson, him and I we were accountability partners and I think that is something that we need in our life. We need someone that we can, that will walk beside us, that will carry us when we're weak, that we can speak into, that we can carry when they're weak, just someone to do life with, to help hold us accountable. One way I like to put it is we need someone that's willing to slap us upside the head sometimes when we're making those choices we shouldn't be making. And so I never replaced him with anyone when he went off to college. And so I continued.
Speaker 2:I was doing this on my own power, own willpower, without having that person alongside me in this, and pretty soon that led to well, we're going to go to so-and-so's house and we're going to have their plant, we're playing Xbox all night and they're they're having some drinks. So you know, it's just a small group of friends. I can have a drink, it's not going to hurt anything. Uh, mind you, at this point I am still under age, so it was against the law. I shouldn't, shouldn't have been doing it, but I just continued to. I'm going to say give Satan just a little bit more of a foothold in my life, just a little more going against what I know God desires me to do.
Speaker 2:And that led up to the night of my 21st birthday, where I decided you know what? I've been this good kid my whole life. I deserve one night to just go and and let it out and see what the world has to offer. And so my, the ultimate choice I made that night was was God, you can, you can stay here. I'm going to go and see what's out there. I'll come back and get you, but I just I deserve a night to just go and experience the world. That was kind of the thought process that I had. Um, so I had it planned out. I'm, like I said, I'm from Wilton, iowa, so Iowa City University of Iowa is about three minutes from there, yeah, and it is one of the biggest party schools in the nation. You will go downtown and there is two or three blocks of nothing but nightclubs and bars and a lot of those bars you go into and if you show them your ID on your 21st birthday, you get specials.
Speaker 2:Things like 21 pitchers of beer for twenty one dollars, like they encourage that celebration of your 21st birthday. So I had it all planned out. I was with. I had five friends at the University of Iowa. They had a house. It was within walking distance to all the nightclubs downtown so I'd put up my keys for the night.
Speaker 2:We started drinking at like 7.30 that night at the house, left the house at about 1030, went to the first bar in downtown Iowa City called the Vine, had some wings, had some more drinks. Then my buddy and my buddies and brother lined up five shots in front of me and I took five shots and two girls in the booth next to us. They overheard that it was my 21st birthday. They wanted to help me celebrate. So they each bought a shot and took a shot with me. So in about a 10, 15 minute period, after drinking for three hours, I had seven shots.
Speaker 2:From there I remember going to the first nightclub in downtown Iowa City called Brothers, and I remember walking in and sticking my wrist out to the doorman saying hey, it's only a half hour to my 21st birthday, just give me the 21 year old band and let me celebrate. He said OK, here you go. He put the band in my wrist. I walked in 20 foot inside the door. I have the perfect picture of the inside of this nightclub, but from that 20 foot inside the door I don't remember going anywhere. I don't remember talking to anyone. From that 20 foot inside the door there was. There was just nothing. Until that next morning when I woke up.
Speaker 1:You kind of, is that called blacking out or Until?
Speaker 2:that next morning, when I woke up, you kind of is that called blacking out or yeah, just in a complete blackout, and the way that I had that explained to me was, basically, you can, you can function normally, but there is no like. There's one, there's no memory of it, but two, there's just all of your motor skills work, but the, the thought process going into them, there's just nothing. And so, yeah, that next morning I wake up and I'm I'm exactly where I was supposed to be. One of my friends was home for the rest of the week and had given me permission to stay in his room. So I wake up, I'm in room, but I start looking around and my clothes aren't in there. I have on my underwear and a tank top. My button up shirt that I wore wasn't there my jeans, my socks, my coat none of that was in the room. So I opened up the door to the living room and one of my buddies was heading to class and I was like, hey, do you know? Do you know where my clothes are? Did you guys do something with my clothes? And he just kind of looked at me and smiled he's like you don't remember, like, and I'm like remember what? And he's like dude, we lost you for an hour and a half last night and when we found you you were walking down the middle of the street with those two coats on it points to two coats that are laying on the floor right inside the front door. And he said, yeah, we lost you for an hour and a half. We couldn't find you, and that's how we found you after, after that time, and so I sit down with my, my brother and buddies and they kind of take me through what happened. I told him I remember walking into that first nightclub and they said we ended up going to like five different nightclubs that night. We ended up back at that original Brothers at the end of the night. And then from there there's pictures of me, my brother under one arm, a friend under the other, and they're basically carrying me home walking down the sidewalk Kind of that picture where I think a lot of us have probably seen people where their eyes are open, but there's just no one home, there's just no response. That's what these pictures look like.
Speaker 2:And so they said after that we're walking home. And they said all of a sudden I threw him off me and I took off running. My brother chased me down and did the nice brotherly thing like any older brother would do. He stopped me, he pushed me in a snowdrift and I got back up and took off running again. At that point and he said at that point I was on, I was a half a block away from the house, that we were going to running straight down the sidewalk towards the house. So he went back and met up with everyone else and went the original way that they were going to go back to the house, figuring that I would be there when they got there. And obviously they got there, I wasn't there. So they started calling me. They would maybe get one word each time that they understood that they that they could comprehend coming out of my mouth. Through the through about 30 calls, they figured out that I was in somewhere. They convinced me to come out of wherever I was so they had a better chance of finding me and then, through me, handed my phone to people on the street. They gave those people directions where to send me. That's when they finally find me walking down the middle of the street.
Speaker 2:So they tell me all this and I'm just kind of like, wow, it's a crazy story. I'm okay, I lost my clothes, I lost my wallet. That stuff can be replaced. That's not, you know, that's not the end of the world, I guess. I guess that's a 21st birthday. I guess that's just a normal way to celebrate. It was kind of my thought process. So I go. This was that happened. That was on Wednesday night when I went out this is Thursday now. Thursday I just kind of went through a normal day of shoveling sidewalks at my apartment complex, went over to my sister's and hung out with her and my nieces and nephews had a birthday meal. She cooked a meal for me, went back to my apartment. My brother and I stayed up until about one o'clock. We watched a couple movies, went to bed.
Speaker 2:Then, friday morning, um, I wake up to a knock at my door and this knock was um, it wasn't just a kind of hey, is anyone there? It's knocked, with someone pound on the door. And finally, the third time that they knocked, I realized that I wasn't just dreaming. I need to wake up and answer the door. And finally, the third time that they knocked, I realized that I wasn't just dreaming. I need to wake up and answer the door. And so I went and answered it and here's this six foot eight guy standing at the door and he asked are you Curtis Fry? I said, yes, sir, I am. He said, well, were you? And I was sitting here a few nights ago? I said yeah, I was there celebrating my 21st birthday. And he pulls back his coat and shows me the badge on his hip and he said well, I'm so-and-so with the state police. Would you be willing to go to the police station and answer a few questions? I said, yeah, I can do that, but what's going on? What's this all about? He said, well, they know a little bit more there, let's just wait until we get there.
Speaker 2:So I went and got dressed for the day, I got in my truck and I followed these two police officers. I followed them a half hour to Iowa City to the police station, the whole time just trying to figure out why I needed to go in and answer questions. And so we get to the police station, we walk in and they take me in this room and then they walk out and just kind start asking me to take. Take them through everything that happened from Wednesday leaving Wilton to sitting here right now. Take us, step by step, everything that happened, and the whole time I'm asking what's going on, what is this all about? Why am I here and they just kind of ignore me and keep asking questions and finally, um, after about an hour and a half, they they had left the room and they come back in and they said well, we found your clothes and we found your wallet, um, in the bedroom of this apartment, and there's a man in the bathroom.
Speaker 2:And I said what do you mean? What do you mean? There's a man in the bathroom. And I said what do you mean? What do you mean? There's a man in the bathroom. And they said there was a man dead in the bathroom of this apartment and it was. It was literally like a bomb went off beside me. At that point I know I just like took a huge breath.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh my god, like I'm just listening to this story and I, I can't, I can't even imagine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a feeling that I have never experienced. When you hear the word chaos like that, that was that for me. Like I didn't know what to what to say, I didn't know how to react, I couldn't say anything, like it was just my body started shaking uncontrollably, I started bawling, but that was the point where I turned to, I turned and started praying, like immediately, even though I hadn't had a sincere relationship with him in this, in this, in that time, um, I knew that he would still be there, yeah, so I just started praying and it was. It was just God. God told me what happened so I can tell them the truth. God, show me, show me what I did that night. Show me what happened so I can tell them the truth. God, show me, show me what I did that night. Show me what happened so we can get this all figured out. God, forgive me for whatever I did. Forgive me for what happened. God, you know my heart. You know this isn't something that I would ever intend. Like they're saying that I beat this man to death in his bathroom, and God, you know that's not me.
Speaker 2:And so I was just at that point, just at a complete, a complete loss for what to do, what to say. You know, I didn't know much about the law besides what I've seen in movies. I've never, never even up to that point, had never even I'd been pulled over for speeding but had never actually gotten a ticket for speeding. So I had like no idea at all about the law At that point. I asked for an attorney and about a half hour later the attorney showed up. Police officers come back in the door. They stand me up, turn me around, put handcuffs on me and say Curtis Fry, we're charging you, point. I was just at a complete loss, like it, it wasn't it wasn't me, whatever.
Speaker 2:whatever happened, I didn't know how, how to respond to that. Um, besides just relying on on God to to get me through.
Speaker 1:So what did you ever get your memory back of it Did? Did God ever show you that, or yeah, no.
Speaker 2:So I, I prayed and prayed and prayed, Um, I mean, there's still times that I will still to this day this happened, um man, what is this? What is this? This happened 16 years ago. And there's still times that I will ask God, God, if it's your will, would you show me what happened that night? And I still, to this day, don't have any memory from that time of walking into that first nightclub till that next morning. And I think I think a couple of things. Just, I think that if I, if I, was able to remember that and see what took place that night, I don't know how I could live with that you know, and I think so.
Speaker 2:Maybe it is just a God is is protecting me from that, from that memory, Um, whatever did take place that night, the best explanation that I have um of what happened is the judge. So it went through trial. I spent 15 months in county jail. It went to trial. We did a bench trial, which means there was no jury. It was just the judge that got to decide the verdict. And the judge, after getting in all the evidence, he wrote a story of what he thinks happened, just based on the evidence that was presented, and he believes that my buddy's house was 513 Bowery.
Speaker 2:The apartment that I went into was 513 Van Buren, which was about a half a block away. My apartment in Wilton was 503, apartment number one, which was in the front door, down half-light of stairs, first apartment on the right. This was 513, apartment number one, in the front door, down a half-light of stairs, first apartment on the right. Okay, I went there thinking it was my own place. I didn't have my keys. I broke open the door. I didn't have my keys. I broke open the door Inside. My wallet was laying on the dresser right next to the bed. My jeans were taken off at the foot of the bed.
Speaker 2:Like youwen, for whatever reason, was out and about at this 1.30, 2 o'clock in the morning. He had on a winter coat and rubber boots over his shoes. And he thinks that Mr McEwen came in, tried to wake me up, to let me know I was in the wrong place, Me thinking I was being intruded on, grabbed him, punched him multiple times and then the judge thinks, just based on other evidence within the apartment, that I left at that point and Mr McEwen then followed me out, shut the door and went back to the bathroom where he was trying to take care of himself like a bloody nose. However, when he and he was using the toilet, when he got back up from the toilet he ended up falling between the toilet and shower and couldn't get back up from that point and never, never got back up.
Speaker 1:So that is how old he was. Was he an older man?
Speaker 2:It was. Mr McEwen was 75 years old.
Speaker 2:And so and he had. He had different aides that would come throughout the week and check on him, and they said that he would fall occasionally and struggled getting up even in normal circumstances. So the best way that I have understood this dealt with it in forgiveness, and I can talk about this a little bit later. But had I not made that decision to say, god, I don't need you tonight, I'm going to go and drink, to become drunk, even though it is very clear in scripture do not drink, become drunk, do not be a drunkard. Because I made that choice and I ended up in Mr McEwen's space. No matter how it happened, he ended up dying that night because of my original choice. Had I not been in his space, mr McEwen would not have died that night.
Speaker 2:So after it was about three months in jail that I finally was able to one understand that and ask for God's forgiveness, which I had been asking for just about every night. God forgive me, god forgive me, god forgive me. And it wasn't until three months that it was finally. God was like Curtis I forgave you the first time you asked, and I've been standing here with my arms open saying give your whole life to me. And it was at that point that my prayer changed from God forgive me to okay God, I messed up, I sinned and I know that I'm still going to have consequences for that sin, but I'm in a place that a lot of people can't be. I'm in a place where I can still have an impact for you. So from that point forward, my prayer changed to okay God, here I am, I'm your servant, send me where you want me.
Speaker 2:And I would say at that point was a point where where my whole relationship with God, with God, completely changed. Instead of just believing in God and trying to do the right things, trying to live a good life, that point became a full surrender to me, which is, I think. I think a lot of us struggle to get to a point where we fully surrender every aspect of our life to God, like it's not our own. We were bought with a price. That price was Jesus' blood on the cross and that that point in my life was a very pivotal point for me.
Speaker 2:I like to say I wish I could take back the night of my 21st birthday and what happened to Mr McEwen being in prison, that hardest time that I went through, that darkest dungeon, so to speak. I would never give that time back, because it is through that that God was able to form me and change me to be a man that he desired me to be, not a man that I desired to be, not a man that I desired to be. If you're at a point where you don't feel that you can be forgiven, I want to challenge you to just go and read scripture over and over again. David, a man after God's own heart. How many times did he fall? He fell into sin with Bathsheba.
Speaker 2:Then not only did he do that, but then he had her husband murdered and the front lines, and yet god still was like you are a man after my own heart, david, a man after my own heart, uh, the apostle paul, like. There are so many examples of screwed up people, people in scripture, and I know that if God is willing to call them out of their sin, god, if you're at a point where you're like, yeah, but God couldn't, he's not, if you're wrestling with that at all, god is calling you out of that. And so I just want to encourage you don't think that you have done anything worse than any person in the Bible. Myself, obviously, I know that God has redeemed me and given me a second chance.
Speaker 1:Is that why you're not afraid to tell your story?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I think, and actually I don't even call it my story, it is God's story. Through my life and even while I was in, while I was in jail, I was like okay, God, I do not want this to be wasted.
Speaker 1:This time.
Speaker 2:I'm spending. Not a single second of it is wasted time. So whatever opportunity you give me to speak your name, I'm going to walk through that door, I'm going to share, whether it's one person or 500 people. And God has continued to open the door. And I think that we are called, we are called as believers, to give an answer for the hope that we have in Christ. I forget exactly that scripture reference. But what is that hope that we have? And that hope is the fact that we have been redeemed by Jesus' blood and we have that hope of eternal life, being able to spend with him for eternity. And so that is, I think, that God is very clear about. Like your life is not your own, and you need to be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have.
Speaker 1:That's good. How long were you in jail and prison? Or I'm just going to lump it into one how long?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so 15 months in county jail and then two and a half years in prison. So you kind of ask about like consequences. What were the consequences, possibly? And so the second degree murder. It actually carries a 50 year sentence with a 35 year mandatory, and that is what I was facing walking in and the judge ended up dropping it down to a 10-year manslaughter charge, which doesn't have a mandatory. So in Iowa prisons are overpopulated. It got cut in half and so I had a five-year sentence. So I spent basically four and a half years of that in jail, prison and in a halfway house.
Speaker 1:And did you? I'm sure that's a story in itself. I don't think we can get to that today, but maybe another time. But can you briefly say like, were you able to use that time and talk to people that most of us will never talk to?
Speaker 2:one story. There's a guy that I got along with really good. I met. We came into Fort Dodge prison at about the same time and we seemed to hit it off. We played sports together in prison.
Speaker 2:You can play sports so we lifted weights, played sports together, and I would go to the church service on Monday nights and say, hey, you want to, you want to come along? No, come on, fry, you know me. You know I don't do that God thing and I just go about my normal routine. And then about once a month I would ask him hey, you want to come with I'm going. No, come on, man, you know me. Well, I got transferred to Rockwell City.
Speaker 2:About three weeks later he got transferred to Rockwell City and he walked in that first time and he saw me standing out there when he came in and kind of the normal thing to do was walk around the whole facility on the one path that goes around the whole thing and just kind of catch up if someone, one of your buddies, comes, comes.
Speaker 2:And we didn't even get a quarter of the way around and he said, curtis, I bet this is my, this is my third time in prison and something needs to change and I know that I need what you have and I know what that is and that's God he said.
Speaker 2:So I want you to start helping me understand what this whole God thing is and I want you, I want to go to church and I want to learn about this, and so we did. We talked about it. I was able to. We were able to have little Bible studies. We had a church that came in from the outside it just so happened that it was from his hometown that he grew up in came in to put on a worship service, and that night Adam gave his life to Christ, that night in the worship service, and so it was just a good example of being able to just walk out and just live who Christ was. Even if people don't want to hear, at some point you have an impact on them, whether they want to hear it or not. And Adam didn't want to hear it for the longest time, but, um, eventually God got his heart.
Speaker 2:So oh, that's so beautiful, yeah there's quite a lot of stories, of different stories like that, um and not only not only for me, but um a couple of the other guys in there that was able to to witness too.
Speaker 1:So I love We'll have to have you back on. I see you have a choices t-shirt on. Is that? What is that? Yes?
Speaker 2:choices. So actually before I, while I was still in jail, even youth pastors had asked my dad if he would come and speak at at youth, at their youth group, and just talk about the choice that I made that night, and so my mom actually came up with this acronym, so CHOICES stands for Choosing Him Over. I Changes Every Situation and it is just a constant reminder. When I go and speak, I hand out bracelets that have choices on them, and it's just that constant reminder that every choice we make can have a huge impact, either negative or positive, and so the choices you're making are they having a positive impact, or do you maybe need to think about changing some of those choices you're making?
Speaker 1:Right. Oh, my goodness, my goodness, curtis, this has been truly amazing. I've written down so many notes of things that really just touched my heart, and a couple of things were just small decisions, like you said. Like a small decision and then you kind of, and then all of a sudden you're somewhere. You don't want to be or never thought you would be or intended to be, and I think that's really, that's really powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It is a. It's a constant um. It's a constant like surrendering, like my life is not my own Um. So what I am doing today is it glorifying God, and I think it's just having that constant view of who we're living for. And if you don't have that constant view, that constant reminder, you can easily get sidetracked and start choosing some things that are against what God would desire you to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, we have just like a minute and a half left. I like to end my mind with a couple questions, but I think I'm just going to pick one for you. What are you grateful for?
Speaker 2:What am I grateful for? Well, first of all, I am grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, because if that did not take place, I wouldn't be able to sit here in front of you today and be the man that I am. So that, first of all, is first and foremost and two, just going through what I went through it made me really appreciate the things that are in my life, because everything got taken away for a while. I didn't have those my family beside me, I didn't have my friends to do life with. So I really going through that allowed me to not to understand that friendships, family, are not something to just take for granted.
Speaker 2:So I'm very thankful that God was able to teach me that as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you, Curtis. Curtis, thanks for everybody for listening and remember that your story is his glory, kind of just like you said, curtis amen, amen absolutely.