The Everyday Apostle
The Everyday Apostle
The Everyday Apostle - EP013 - Billy Desmond
Discover the incredible journey of Billy Desmond, a retired firefighter who found purpose through faith, service, and community. Growing up as one of nine children in a vibrant Catholic family in Miami, Billy's life took a transformative turn after a house fire prompted a move to a new neighborhood. Listen as he shares how his formative years, including his time in Costa Rica and his passion for sports, shaped his outlook and ultimately led him back to Miami for a rewarding career with the Miami-Dade Fire Department.
Explore Billy's spiritual awakening, which began with church visits in college spurred by romantic interests and culminated in a profound realization of God's grace during a fishing trip in the Bahamas. Billy's encounter with Christian role models and his experience at an Emmaus retreat were pivotal in aligning his purpose with his faith. From a lost career in real estate to finding his calling as a firefighter, Billy's story illustrates the powerful intersection of faith and service, highlighting how he used his beliefs to make meaningful connections with colleagues and help those facing personal challenges.
Welcome to the Everyday Apostle, where ordinary lives meet extraordinary faith. Join our host, Kendall Peterson, as we explore how everyday men and women bring the gospel to life wherever they live, work and play. Let's dive into it right now, Right now.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to episode 13 of the Everyday Apostle podcast. It's a thrill to be able to bring these inspiring stories of people trying to live their faith in their everyday life, in their jobs, in their school, wherever they happen to be. Thank you for all of the messages of hope, the messages of gratitude and especially for the prayers that have helped to sustain this podcast. Today's episode of the Everyday Apostle is brought to you by Fugoid International.
Speaker 2:Did you know that success isn't random, follows a formula. Every successful organization does seven things. Well Now, fugoid calls these the essential elements and, from strategy and growth to leadership and culture, helps both for-profit and nonprofit organizations achieve lasting success by mastering these core principles. If you're ready to align your business with purpose and lead with impact, visit Fugoidcom to learn more. That's Fugoid F-U-G-O-I-Dcom. Now let's dive into today's show. Today, I have the privilege of introducing a very, very special guest whom I have known the entirety of my walk with Christ. Literally, this man was present and partially responsible for my conversion almost 18 years ago Billy Desmond. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thanks for having me on. I'm excited.
Speaker 2:Me too. All right, so I'm going to read your bio, because I can't do it justice on my own, so I'm going to go ahead and read it. Today's guest is someone who lives life with passion, defends what he loves and believes deeply in God's will, even when the road gets tough. Born and raised right here in Miami, florida, billy comes from a big, beautiful family. He's one of nine children, with seven sisters and one brother, raised by his loving parents, james and Mary Lou Desmond, in a strong, faithful community. Billy's journey has been nothing short of inspiring certainly the part that I know. That is true. He's a proud graduate of Christopher Columbus High School and Florida State University. After college, billy spent nearly a decade in Costa Rica, working in real estate and development, but his calling to serve brought him back home, where he spent 18 years as a firefighter and paramedic with Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue. Now recently retired, billy is enjoying life with his wife, anna, and their two boys, dawson and Connor, intensely driven by God's will and a passion for life. Billy's story is one of faith, family and service, and I am so excited to share his journey with you today.
Speaker 2:On the Everyday Apostle Billy. Welcome to the show. Thank you, kendall, you make me sound like a superstar. You are a superstar in my book. So in the bio it says you grew up in Miami. What part of Miami were you guys in?
Speaker 3:We grew up in Perrine it was literally off 102nd Avenue and like 160th Street and when I was one years old, my brother burned our house down, which moved us into the coral reef estates which is Palmetto Bay as we know it today.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you went uptown after the fire.
Speaker 3:We went west of the highway to east of the highway. We went uptown.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So at the time of the fire. So if I remember correctly and please forgive me, but you are the youngest of nine I am number eight.
Speaker 3:I have a little sister. It went three girls a boy. My brother started praying for more boys. My dad got. My mom got three more girls, then me and then my sister Kelly.
Speaker 2:Okay, so when the fire took place and you guys moved, was it all?
Speaker 3:1969? And obviously back then the fire department response times wasn't what it is today and my brother apparently was playing with matches in the bathroom and burned the house down. So we moved our family just east of US one, literally, probably as a crow flies, maybe a mile.
Speaker 2:That's incredible to think about. To move a family that large and to go through all of that it must have been fairly traumatic to the family for sure.
Speaker 3:I think, uh, not all of the family was there at the time, but it was a moment where, you know, mom and dad took over and kind of rallied the troops, because I was just born, my sister wasn't born yet and the rest were in maybe teenage, you know, 9, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old. So I was too young to realize it, but the stories that they tell is quite traumatic and a very pivotal point in their lives for sure.
Speaker 2:I can imagine, Prior to Columbus. Where did you go to elementary school? I went to Holy.
Speaker 3:Rosary Okay. Yeah, it's Catholic education from kindergarten through eighth at Holy Rosary, and then, obviously, as you mentioned Columbus and loved Holy Rosary. It was the parine of all schools and the only competing school was Parine Elementary at that time, but really enjoyed it there and that's where my family took, or my dad, and mom and dad took us to church every Sunday.
Speaker 2:It was Holy Rosary, okay my dad, mom and dad took us to church every Sunday with Holy Rosary. Okay, was that, was that before? They was that at the time that they had built the new building, or was that before? That was before Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was before the new building came in, probably when I was like in sixth or seventh grade. Yeah, and yeah it was. I really enjoyed it because back then we were my family's big a part of athletics. They had traveling basketball teams, softball teams, baseball teams. They had track teams back then where we've competed against savings in Kevin st Augustine. So I, I mean I really enjoyed that that upbringing. For sure it brought me to where I am today, obviously with that foundation that brought me back many years later.
Speaker 2:So what were your sports?
Speaker 3:sports in school I played them all. I grew up with a lot of athletes in my family, but I played basketball, baseball and football. My heart was baseball. Unfortunately, in high school I shattered my elbow playing football and was unable to throw a baseball again in the manner that you needed to excel right, right.
Speaker 2:So did you recover from the elbow injury?
Speaker 3:I did yeah, they told me I would never throw a ball again. I had shattered my right elbow, which was my throwing arm, had multiple pins and wires put into it. It was about 10 months of therapy realized I couldn't throw a baseball because it was a different delivery from a football. My brother was an incredible quarterback in high school. I kind of fell in suit because of his success. They put me in the position as a 10th grader, was successful and then went on to play college for a few years at Austin, peay and then Alabama. I had a little initial stint at Alabama which led me to Florida State.
Speaker 2:Very nice, so you had mentioned that. You know you guys went to Mass every Sunday and that was a family thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was an altar boy. I was an altar boy from as young as I can remember, from probably I guess probably third or fourth grade, when you can stand up and obey and do the right thing. Through eighth grade my parents were a faith-based foundation. It was Jesus and Catholicism 101 every day and, as you can imagine, as I grew up, my father raising nine, particularly seven, girls when I woke up every day he was gone. So he was on his knees at church, didn't realize the value of that until later in life, but always asked at seven in the morning where's dad? My mom would say you know where he's at, he's in church. And every Sunday we went, we didn't miss and we went as our beautiful, well-dressed sat in the same pew, same place, you know, and worship God at the Holy Rosary.
Speaker 2:So what was that like for you? Because sometimes, growing up with that intensity of faith in a family and all of that, sometimes you think it's stupid and sometimes people just fall in line.
Speaker 3:I was and still am a person of I'm like a soldier. I respected my father. I understood it. Did I like so much being an altar boy? No, because it was a lot of obedience. You had to do a lot of things. You got to get there early for church, but I never saw it as a huge task. I really didn't. I didn't fight my parents that much. I don't remember that. I just knew when it was time for me to serve in that manner. I did because I wanted to honor my dad and respect my mother, but I didn't see it much as a task or something that I fretted about at all.
Speaker 2:Okay. Did you have a personal relationship with Christ at the time, or was that still?
Speaker 3:No, I don't. I don't think I connected. I thought it was like going to school you went, you obeyed, you did what you had to do and there was no connection. I was kind of a freestyle young man. I wanted to do and say, and almost a FOMO, I wanted to be a part of everything I did. So I really said no. I didn't say no to a lot of people and sure as heck didn't say no to my parents. So, um, no, there was no strong connection. There wasn't really.
Speaker 2:So I know you now right and I know there's a strong connection. So when did that happen?
Speaker 3:Well, I call it trial by trial and error, and that doesn't mean all my trials led to errors. But I tried everything in high school, then in college, which led to losing a scholarship, and ended up at Florida State. I was playing football on scholarship, started to try everything and then at that point, if that didn't work and that was an error, just kept trying every avenue. And then it ended up successfully getting through school, created jobs. I had no lack of energy, I had no lack of willingness to want to work, but me obeying rules wasn't in my cup of tea. So I ended up trying everything, ended up in Costa Rica and, as you can imagine not to get into details, but you can imagine from flesh, physical, finance, relationship, women, there was a stint of drugs and alcohol. I tried it all and I found myself empty.
Speaker 3:Now, those trials that led to successes that the way of the world wanted to see it, I still felt empty. That was finances. I makes a lot of money in Costa Rica. I'd spend it. I just I'd buy a new car. I went through nine cars in 10 years in Costa Rica. I never was happy, all these fleshy things.
Speaker 3:So I trial by error was my rule of thumb and then came back after 9-11, our business ended in Costa Rica and here I stood in front of my mother going, what am I going to do now? And she said well, you know, why don't you go to church? I went and prayed and that's when I ran into George LaBelle and I did RMAs an incredible weekend away, just kind of trying to cultivate where I'm at in my life. And it was at that point I realized that it was a choice that I had to make to trust in something other than my trials, other than the things of the world. And what I found was this huge pouring into my heart and soul that I had never felt through all of those trials and all of those errors or even successes. And that's when I realized well, god has a plan for me, different than just trying to go figure out the world. And that's not about my purpose. My purpose is to serve God and let Him figure all that out for me, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's hard to realize, especially when you're at that age like going through college and your early adulthood, where you feel like you need to take that burden on and you need to make things happen. So if we go back into that time, when you were in college, were you going to Mass at all?
Speaker 3:No, in fact. Well, I played quarterback at Austin Peay and I was Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, for I was only five games because I ended up breaking my foot. I had a great year. So I was dating a bunch of Baptist girls and they were taking me to church. It wasn't Catholic church, but I was going to chase them to a church because, you know, I wanted to date them. So I had an incredible when I think back of where God had me, surrounded by angels that were devout Christians. Her name was I think her name was Kelly Gordon was one. She took me to church. She came to the dorm, took me to church every single Sunday. Didn't have a relationship with this girl, she just was a cute cheerleader that I liked and I liked what she did, and so I followed her to the church.
Speaker 3:Moving forward, ended up in Costa Rica, had guys who Julio Cortez, who I lived with, a famous athlete here in Miami, went to Columbus, um and then played in the NFL. He handed me the Sermon on the Mountain book. I read it three times and still didn't get it. But those were those pivotal moments that I knew something was there for me. I ended up coming home from Costa Rica in the interim of doing my Emmaus in some time I was on a yacht fishing in the Bahamas and I had a lot of Christian men who owned these big boats.
Speaker 3:That's where I started to see I want what they have. Why is it? They have all of what I tried to get and felt empty. But they have this guy named Jesus in their life and they have what I wanted. And they were that different personality. They walk different, they talk different. They treated me incredibly. I couldn't even explain how they because they knew how I acted, but they still treated me with kindness and love and they always kind of infiltrated hey, god's got a plan for you. And that was in the Bahamas, which ended up bringing me back to Miami. And then I did my Emmaus and then I was surrounded by a bunch of men who culminated from a Kelly Gordon to a sermon on the mountain to, obviously, my parents. I got to lay that, lay, that pivotal foundation of my parents in my upbringing, to that. But all of that led up to me understanding the full grace of God at that moment and that's where life just began to take on a whole new direction, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny that St Augustine says right, we're born with a God-shaped grossly paraphrasing St Augustine but born with a God-shaped hole in our hearts and we try and fill it with everything and nothing fits. Nothing fully satisfies until you actually place him there.
Speaker 3:And I promise you, Kendall, I have tried everything and details aren't important, but I've tried it and I remember just feeling so empty at the end of the day. I could not rest my head easily. It was always rough.
Speaker 2:Right, how old were you when you did your mass retreat?
Speaker 3:I was 33. Okay, it's Christ. When he went on to the cross, I was.
Speaker 2:So obviously not getting into details of the retreat, but was that like a big bang moment or was that? Hey, the pieces? Now I see the pieces differently. It was a big bang.
Speaker 3:I realized that my heart and soul belonged to God and my mind was belong to this fleshly world. And that's where the spiritual world just became to become reality to me, that everything I was putting in my mind was not of God. Now, here I found myself on a weekend where I'm pouring myself in my mind of nothing but God, and my heart and soul began to feel connected to him. And then, all of a sudden, I had these talents. I wanted to curb my language, I wanted to stop drinking, I wanted and had all of these power, that power to be able to accomplish those things. And then God started to put all of these incredible souls like yourself into my life. And then he asked me to serve and I said wait a minute, how am I going to serve? He said be yourself, let your testimony be the word of God. And I was like wait a minute. So it was a, it was a big bang. But at that point I realized I'm a man of action, I like to work, I have the energy to do it. I had to make a choice to actually take steps moving forward, and what they were were just delivered to me. They were will you? No, yes, maybe, and I just answered. I said yes, okay.
Speaker 3:So at that point in time, career wise, what were you? What were you doing? I was, I was in a pivot. I came out, I was working, had my real estate license, I was traveling around the country kind of promoting the properties that we had in Costa Rica for the company At the time it was called Digital Capital and I just felt lost.
Speaker 3:I, just here I am, found God, I'm running around trying to sell real estate, but this is, it wasn't my calling. A friend of mine said well, my brother-in-law was a fireman at the time. Why don't you go work for the Miami-Dade Fire Department? I applied and at that point I realized that that's where my ministry is going to really spearhead, because I'm going to be able to go into thousands of homes, whether it was a true emergency or a real 911 emergency. I was able to pour in my faith just by serving, or maybe be able to kind of now I don't want to say pitch, but give a word of God in the moments when, because a lot of the calls, there is no real emergency, and so I felt that was my calling and that was my ministry, that God had delivered to me, so I became a fireman.
Speaker 2:So you thought all of that ahead of time, like this is what I'm going to be able to do with that opportunity.
Speaker 3:Yeah, once I knew when I was in the school and what you do is you do ride-alongs, right, when you're in parent. I was a 34-year-old, 35-year-old, taking classes with kids that are in their 20s and want to become firemen. And you have to do these ride-alongs where you end up jumping on a truck. You're a student and you see what it's like to serve in the community. And that's when I realized that the majority of the calls aren't exceptional emergencies but you can deliver a service. That's like on bended knee and Christ, christ favored Christ's message.
Speaker 3:Christ, I used to do this all the time, but when I realized it wasn't a true message I mean, excuse me, a true 911 call when someone just needed their vital signs checked out you could obviously see we don't have to rush I used to take my gloves off and just ask them can I hold your hand? And that alone had a connection to me. I'm like, wait a minute, there's Christ in me, serving in a way that's probably not gonna cure her problem, but it sure as heck gonna bring the tone quite a bit down. So that's when I started to, as a student, realize oh wow, I can do this and I can serve and I can be Christ-filled in my energy, because it's a hard job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely a hard job, Harder without that right, harder without a faith.
Speaker 3:And I see it all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so do you think that lived up to its expectations? Do you think you were able to do everything you thought you were going to be able to?
Speaker 3:Oh, I think so. Trust me, it's the calls after midnight that are always tough, because initially this County runs a lot of calls. So when you get tired you get weak. But I, kendall, we, in my my days at station six in Homestead, I found myself with another believer on the truck. His name is Harold Atlet.
Speaker 3:We would run calls. To give you an idea, we were on the calls and we found a, a, a veteran or someone who needed some love or needed their house cleaned or their yard cut. We would, we would ask them after the call if they did not need to be transported and say listen, would you mind if we came by and cleaned your house? Would you mind if I cut your, cut your yard, and we would come and we would pray with them and then we'd clean out. And when I tell you we have to put masks on some of these houses and gloves and sleeves, because we're going into a disabled veteran or a woman who's been her husband died three years ago and no one's, she's got no family and her house is like hoarded and we would go deliver a message of firemen just wanting to help outside 911 service. So at that point I knew, and then it evolved to where I mentioned taking off a glove, getting on bended knee, asking the right questions.
Speaker 3:Because when you enter a new house, it's simple. You look for pictures of Jesus, you look for scripture. You have to be a kind of social or environmental awareness and you see, most people have faith somewhere in their life. If called 911, three strangers show up and you realize it's not true. She might just be having a tough moment. That's when you can deliver a message. We're there for 24 hours. Why not spend another 10 minutes with a woman who needs to be loved and that's the only medicine that she's going to get?
Speaker 3:right so that's where my passenger, it was tearful to have to walk away, which I did, and you know I'm very comfortable where god has me today. I'm very comfortable. That's awesome yeah, were.
Speaker 2:I mean, you may have just mentioned them, but like what were some of those that really stick out in your mind as the moment you realized I am really living what God has asked me to do in this environment.
Speaker 3:Well, it was when family members showed back up at the station and I could get emotional because it's tough, because they they showed up, um uh, where we had served their mother, their grandmother, whoever in the household, multiple times, because when someone has a chronic illness, you're there 10, 20, 30 times, particularly if you worked in an area like we worked. I worked in three stations in 18 years, so I was in those territories for years and they would come back to the station and want to give you a hug and tell you how you served their loved one in the toughest times, how you served the family. It wasn't an award, it's just the knock on the door of the fire station. Hey, is Billy Desmond here? No, he's there tomorrow. So they show up the next day and they want to hug me. And then they just want to tell me the story of how ex you know grandma or grandpa passed away or dad or mom, and how we were there 10, 20, 30 times and how we serve them in that manner.
Speaker 3:And I realized you know what? And I told him that's when I said it's only because Christ is in me that I was able to do this, and that's when I realized I'd walk back into that tough job, maybe having a tough day, being given a gift. After a tough individual or tough moment in their life, Someone passed away. So that for me was the kind of culmination I'm like thank you, God, At least I'm doing my best here and in a tough situation, Right.
Speaker 2:So you know there's a lot of talk about firefighters being courageous, right First responders, and you know the whole stereotype firefighters being courageous, right First responders and you know the whole stereotype. In my mind, having the courage to openly share your faith in that environment is commendable and remarkable, because it's difficult and that was really the idea behind this podcast was there are people that are doing that subtly or just openly, and it's not always welcome. It's not always viewed as the right thing to do, especially in a large municipal fire department or a school or a lot of other places. Socially, we're told not to do it right. So first of all, kudos to you and God bless you for having that courage. Thank you. My question is undoubtedly you met with some opposition and we don't need to name names or all of that, but can you share some of that? What I'd love to get out of this is what was some of that opposition and how did you overcome that?
Speaker 3:Well, first opposition was when we were going into people's homes and I could say this, but I'm not going to, we were told we we couldn't go into homes even though we had run a call. It's like there's too much liability. So we were told we couldn't go clean people's homes and serve in the manner that we felt was God wanted us to do. Secondly, when you're at a firehouse and you're spending 24 hours with individuals and you spend a period of time more than six months or a year, most guys tell their story and most guys are struggling and the stronger my faith got, the easier it was to enter into their life because for some reason, guys wanted, they knew I had a faith. They want to come me, tell me their story. Now the rebuttal I had was not the person telling me their story, but was somebody heard that. I gave them a direction like what do you know? How's that working for you? It didn't work for me. I got divorced or I couldn't get off this right. I was doing that and I said, well, it worked for me, and the stronger it works for me, it's easier for me to deliver the message, and that's all I would tell them. I said listen, guys. I can't prove it to you. It's a call of action that has worked for me, like I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 3:You know the word of god is delivered through my testimony. I can quote scripture. I've done plenty of bible studies. But if I deliver my testimony to someone who's probably gone through something similar I've gone through something similar the message is clear. But that it's the. It's the one, the chatter, that people hear. How do you know what are you talking about?
Speaker 3:But so I got it from the department that told me I couldn't clean houses to the guys that were the chatter. But it was not a hard message to deliver. I didn't get a lot of negative feedback because of the strength of my faith. When I was first, you know, like the incipient fire, when I was first getting going, I really didn't know much. I just had this wild, energetic, over-caffeinated story about Jesus in my life and it wasn't real kind of true, north and focused. And as I got better at it over the years it just become an easy delivery because so many people, so many firemen, so many friends came to me with a story that they couldn't overcome, or a moment that relationships, finances, divorce, alcohol, drugs, whatever it was and I gave them my testimony that was delivered through a guy named Jesus who just captured my heart and said true, north is that direction?
Speaker 2:not, that's not that direction. Right again, kudos to you for for having that courage, because some people give up right, and then they don't share it. Um, and I've found a lot. I've found it very similar. It's usually pretty well received. You get, you get a little feedback that you shouldn't, and that's fine. What advice would you give, whether this is to other firefighters or just people in general? Right, we serve in retreats and we have a lot of guys coming out and that trepidation or uncertainty of how do I share the gospel which is our call? Right, christ has asked us to go and make disciples of all nations. Right, when it gets tough, or when you're afraid, or when you don't think you can, what advice would you give to someone?
Speaker 3:Wow, what advice would I give? I can tell you this Faith is a choice right, and faith is believing when it's tough. Yeah, one may say faith is things you can't see, but still believe. I believe faith is when it's tough, when you believe when it's tough. So what I would say is how I connected is try to align yourself with people who are believers. It doesn't mean you have to listen to them all the time, but start to pivot from the influence that's got you into the situation you know and that's tough, because what happens is I normally believe that most people are followers. There's not many people out there leading themselves in the bad situation. It was probably a couple of people that kind of led them. So I would try to find the influence or the influences in your life that tend towards to believe in Jesus or the faith-based.
Speaker 3:You know there's a great guy out there I was reading that too long ago. His name's Christopher Logan. Have you heard about this guy? Apparently, he's the most intelligent person in the whole world. He's got an iq of 210. He used to be the one of the strongest men. Have you heard about him?
Speaker 3:Christopher logan, I believe his name is he, uh, he's got an iq of 210 and someone asked him what would be the advice that you give to someone, the one thing to do, and he said receive god's grace not into your heart. I mean not into your mind, but in your heart and soul, because your mind is connected to the world and your heart and soul is connected to God. So the only way you can do that is trying to, I think, in this world is connect with people who have an influence of, of faith and it might be me, it might be the person down the road but try to go to your local church, um, a retreat, like I kind of rediscovered it, but try to search for that choice that leads you to the influences that lead you to God. Might be easier said than done, but it's possible.
Speaker 2:Love it and I think that's really sound advice. For sure, you know running out of time here, so I want to ask you one more question. So you've had quite a journey to this point. What comes next for Billy Dee?
Speaker 3:I want to. If someone says what do you want to do for the next 20 years? I want to be exhausted in doing what God wants me to do. I want to be. I want to. I want to fall over like that big oak tree that was just exhausted by serving God. I don't know where that leads to me at this point. I've looked at some opportunities. They just weren't heartfelt for me already. Fortunately, I'm in a position where I believe that God had centered me.
Speaker 3:I was injured on the job, as you know, and it was the perfect injury because it was a little finger that part of it was lost.
Speaker 3:It's led me to all these surgeries, but he knew if it was a quick knee jerk I would be right back on the truck running because I worked a lot. The biggest thing that I have against me is working a lot, but if I had to design my next, I want to find something that brings me closer to God in a love affair that I'm exhausted at the end of the day. Now I don't know how that aligns with paying bills and finding a job, but that's all my prayer has been is sitting in silence, and how I've been getting that, kendall, is by praying to God, not only when I want something, but just by talking to God and then listening, because most times we pray to want or pray because there's a need. I want to pray just to have a conversation, and what I've been praying for him is find me a place in this life where I can be exhausted at the end of the day, because I'm serving in your will and your way.
Speaker 2:And if that's your purpose and that's what you want, then it doesn't matter what you do right Because you can achieve that a million different ways. A hundred percent. I love it. Fulfillment.
Speaker 3:Billy it Billy. Thank you so much for joining. I wish we could spend all day here. I'll tell you what we spoke earlier. If we start talking about our faith, we're actually over three hours later and we've got other things to do.
Speaker 2:That's right, man. In recap, I love that you pour it all out Once you led him into your heart, into that God shaped hole you were all in, and I think all in sums you up very well and your advice like surround yourself with people and influences that are going to lead you to God and just be open to what God asks you to do with that. So thank you for that again. Again, I'd like to acknowledge Fugoyd International as a sponsor and our producer, who is normally Rachel. We have a guest producer and, to be honest, we jumped on air and I didn't even catch her name. So what is your name? Danny, danny, danny.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for for making this happen, happen and for filling in last minute with us. If you don't mind, out there, the one thing I could ask you for is prayers that this mission continues, that this podcast continues and that it reaches the ears that we want, and that whatever I say, whatever our guest says, whatever Billy said today is what God wants people to hear. So pray for that and we will be good for all the rest of you. Follow us on my goodness, follow us on YouTube, follow us on Spotify, amazon, apple, wherever podcasts are found and we will catch you at the next episode next week. Have a Merry Christmas and we'll see you in the next episode. God bless.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to the Everyday Apostle. Don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube, on your favorite podcast outlet, and at our website at everydayapostlecom. Until next time, stay blessed.
