A Testimony of God’s Faithfulness

Okay, hi everybody. Welcome to Ignite. You probably never have an experience like we're about to give you. This is a podcast like new or the podcast. How many times you have an amazing faith-sharing experience and then be able to months later have both shides of that experience expressed. I mean, is this right? My best friend, Dan, I just, I just got your name. I said, okay, how did I introduce you? I don't know your last name. I have it on my phone, Dan Crackerbrill. But I know your last name is not Crackerbrill. So it's Bathy. Bathy. Okay, Dan Bathy. All right. You understand that. You are at that at a moment. But, you know, the faith-sharing 101 is, and we're probably going to go a little longer with this podcast. It's low warning because it's, it's, there's so much we want to tell you. But, faith-sharing 101 is when, when, when, when, when we are being served by somebody, particularly at a restaurant, and Karen, I do that not all the time, but we certainly do it 75% of the time. Maybe more than that. You, you, you get engaged with the server and you develop a relationship. You can do that quite quickly. And when they've taken that last piece of the order, okay, you want your first fries, crispy or whatever it is. They say, oh, and one more question. We always ask every server, is there anything we can pray for you about? And we get the most interesting responses back. We find more than half the time people have real needs. And we're going to be praying anyway. So if you have a real need, we, we'll be having to pray for you. And, uh, it, let me go back on this one. He's, he even goes back before the God direction steps, okay? Any, any direction steps of everybody. He'll directs all of our steps. That's just us. So, Karen, I go to Springfield, Missouri in January. All right. We're going for George Woods funeral. Dr. George Wood was the former, is the former, uh, General Superintendent of the Assembly of God, a very close personal friend. We arrived at about one o'clock in the afternoon. We're viewing at five o'clock and the funeral is the next day. So we arrive at, what can I get this situation? So before going to the hotel without, well, we're hungry. We might go somewhere to eat. So first thing was, we've been to Springfield a lot. That's mecca for the assembly of God. So we know a lot of restrooms. And we couldn't got anywhere. But we chose the cracker barrel. So number one, God, uh, forced us, you might say, direct to our steps to crack a barrel. We go inside and, uh, you, most of you've been to crack a barrel. You go up in the, in the, in the, in the house, and there says, where would you like to sit? Well, we always say, um, I'd like to go over the window, please. I, I don't know why we just like the window. See, there's no view. You're looking at a parking lot or a freeway, but that way she says, okay. But Karen says, wait a minute. Wait a minute. It's seven degrees outside. I don't want to be cold. And the host says, you know, it's okay. I have a window table with a heater right beside it. So God gets us to the specific table. Got that. Follow this now. So then the server comes up. Her name is Brandy. And, uh, we banter with Brandy and she brings us water. He goes out. We're getting our order together. She cuts back. Takes her order. And we asked her the question. You know, uh, by the way, Brandy is there anything we can pray for you about? And she tears up and she's oh my yes. And she begins to tell this story about how her husband is a trucker. And her best friend is a trucker. And Dan will tell this part of the story at a moment. But the way she explained to me was he was a couple of states out and he received this horrible call a nightmare for any dad that his only daughter, 23 year old daughter, um, was found unconscious in the back of a truck. And, uh, was it terrible straights? And it gets gory that no need to go into all the details of it, but it was not good. And by the time he gets back to her, he's only with her for about 20 minutes and, and she dies. Now, I can tell you folks, this is where telling your life story or having points to your gospel presentation doesn't work. In real life, those, they sound good, but in real life situations, uh, you just let the Holy Spirit speak to you, speak through you. I mean, there's no way we could have been prepared for that, that, uh, comment. I mean, that in the situation she presented us. And I always say, okay, God, just help me and his Holy Spirit always, always, always, you've given me the words in this case. I never give up my phone number, but, uh, I felt prompted to do that. So I said, okay, here's my name and my phone number. And, uh, give it to your friend, Dan. Um, it happens that we lost our daughter several years ago. And there may be something we can say to him to be of encouragement. She said, well, thank you very much. We prayed with her. Prayed for Dan. The next morning, Dan calls. Okay. This is my version. Now we can hear your version to you. My version is because, uh, Mr. McGuire, this is Dan and you spoke of my best friend at the Cracker Barrow yesterday. And let me first tell you, I'm a Christian. Okay. It's first thing you told me was it's your Christian. So I, okay, this is good. Now we can talk. I don't have to worry about that part. Right. Your Christian and distress. And so then he goes on to say, you know, I'm a car guy. And I watched your TV shows for years. Feel like I know you. I mean, we go way back. And then I follow you to social media that I know that you're involved in ministry. And I even know you lost your daughter. And then he says to me, can you possibly understand what it meant to me a few minutes ago when my best friend says you want me to call you? I broke out laughing. I broke out laughing. I said, Dan, I don't need to say word. God, you already know that God is speaking to you. He's right there with it. He's going to walk you through that. And you said, it's true. I, I, I really thought about that. That's true. God's right here. That was, that was the beginning of our, our bonding, right? Just the beginning. And just the beginning. And then we went on and this wonderful conversation, many conversations said, but let me back up a minute now and let you enter in from your view point of up to, up to that point. Can we, can we do that? We can do that. Well, this is Barry McGuire. We got back. Anyway, I was in Texas when I got the phone call. And you live in, I live in humansville, Missouri. Yeah. Yeah. There's only one human'sville city named humansville in the entire United States. Kind of like having a last name, Bathy. It's just not out there. It's not that tight. But it's Bathy from humansville. Okay. I get, I'm in rush hour traffic in Dallas. And if anybody knows rush hour traffic in Dallas, Texas, it's fun. And your home, home load. I got a load on. And I was working for a different company that I am now. And I got this phone call and it was my ex-wife. And she started beating around the bush about Daniel. And I'm like, listen, just tell me, she told me. That was a govern truck, but it went pretty quick. And long story short, I made it to the hospital. I was in no condition, but I made it to the hospital. Mark and Brandy have always been there for my wife and I. When I say best friends, I mean best friends. And so they knew immediately what was going on. And you know, we made it up to the Kansas City hospital up there and all transpired. And I've never felt pain like that before. And I felt a lot of pain in my life. But then the story of you meeting me was behind the scenes. Because you know, we talked about our wives and how they are our rock. They're everything to us. My wife is everything to me. She's so precious. And so there was a lot going on on the scenes behind. And I didn't know about because Brandy would not confront me because it had only been two days since Daniel's passing. And she passed in my arms. So I was this you're holding her. Yes. Yes. Yes. I watched the life pass from her mouth as it happened. And so people who know me know that I'm a really funny laid back individual. People who really know me know not to make me mad. Brandy did not want to make me mad. So she went to Laurie. And she explained the meeting of you to Laurie. Well, Laurie knew who you were. Laurie's car guy. I mean, you know, she married me. Still trying to figure that one out. But long story short, she has a picture of you on her phone. We're sitting on the couch. And she turns the phone to me and says, do you know who this is? I'm like, well, yeah, I know who it is. The, you know, it's Barry McGuire who don't know Barry McGuire. Well, he wants to talk to you. Uh-uh. Why does Barry McGuire want to talk to me? Wow. Who am I? I am nobody. Why? But he lost his daughter. I know. Oh. So then the backstory. Yeah. Okay. Because I'm calling Brandy. Okay. I'm, I'm, I'm gonna find out what's going on. All right. Okay. This I don't know. No, you have no idea. And please plant yourself because the Holy Spirit is going to knock you for a little while. This is how God works. So I call Brandy and Brandy was hesitant. And as you know, she wasn't about to give my phone number out. It just that's the rapport we had. Yes. Yes. And she, I, I respect that immensely. And she chewed on it. Do I tell him? Do I not tell him? Really, really. And one of the Bible verses that you always go back to is Romans age 28. Every conversation. Okay. So Brandy goes to pick her daughter destiny up from school. And she's struggling whether or not to tell me what to do. And that is what her daughter has on her arm when she picks her up from school. Romans 828. What? You probably can't see that. But here's her ours. She's there with a with a felt tip pin. Yeah. She just had put her on there. She just put it on there. Okay. Brandy started bawling and praying immediately. See that that's that's at the heart of what we're talking about right now. Tell my two dads have lost their daughters. You know, most Mary's just don't survive. And they certainly don't have joy. But we know Romans 828. That's that's that's the thing. Look, she called from that. Why did she put that on her arm? What was the what was the prompting of that? We will probably never know. We will probably never know. Brandy is looking for one of those statues at the crackerbarrow. You know how they have the statues at the crackerbarrow to try and present to me to tell me, you know, hey, I hope it works out with Barry. I you know. And she found a she didn't find one that fit the situation. So she got a plaque. A wooden plaque. Okay. When the people threw my daughter into an abandoned van, nobody knew who she was because there was no identification at all. They took her phone. They took everything. They identified my daughter via a feather tattoo on her side. That was unique. That's how they identified my daughter. Brandy didn't know that. Brandy didn't know that Psalms was Danielle's go-to Bible verse. Brandy brought me a plaque with a feather and the Psalms. That's a specific chapter. If you cannot see God's footsteps in this, you are... I don't know. And then to call you and I'm thinking to myself, go back for a sec. How did Brandy become our waitress? Oh Brandy became your waitress because it was slow. Oh wait a minute. Brandy only works at Crack a Barrel one day a week, Thursday. One day. We just have to go in on the one day. No, one day. Look at how God works He sings. I mean, we have lots of stories. And then for her to be your waitress, yeah, they were slow. They sent everybody else the majority of them home. So Brandy had to wait on this. You were stuck with Brandy or Brandy was stuck with you no matter what. Yeah, I don't know what it was going to take you to Chances. So Brandy only works one day a week. Wow. You do not live in Springfield, Missouri. You do not frequent Crack a Barrel in Springfield. So the writings on the wall, it probably been two years since we've been to that Crack a Barrel. I can't say that. But I mean, it's, I'm only hesitant when I don't see the steps. Yeah. But when the steps are presented to you, you can't ignore it. And I've learned that as I've slid down the wall of life, God, God put stuff in my life. He puts people in my life. It's so incredible. I would have never thought in a million years that I'd be sitting next to Barry McGuire looking at myself on the telly over there and not knowing. Only God can do that. It is a sense of humor. I am completely powered. There's a podcast and there's supposed to be short. The longer it goes, the less people watch this. I'm done. So well, no, you're not done. It's just the beginning. Well, we talked and you were not in a good situation that for your first whole call at all. No. No, I could barely breathe without crying. Yeah. Yeah. You were just, just, you know, I did most of the talking. Yeah. And the one thing that you said, I could feel your pain over the phone. The one thing you said, the first phone call was never lose your joy. I'm thinking to myself, what is this guy know? Never lose your joy. I just lost my one and only child. Okay. You were right. Never lose your joy. And, and well, I didn't. I had it on speaker phone because I wanted Karen a part of this. So we could pray together for you and I wanted to hear every word when we got through. She said, you left out something. I said, what's that? She said, anybody going through what he's gone through so wrong has have some anger brewing. Very wise. And she says, and you know our situation, you can't, we've learned, you can't have anger. You can't have joy and anger. I would like to sometimes. We can like, we shouldn't that anger. Boy, it feels so good. But we can't then. Right. A lot of people did bad things there and very easy to have anger towards them. So I called you a few days later. And you answered kind of monotony. And I said, dad, this is very, and you broke out laughing. Do you remember what you said to me? You said within within the last minute, I'm sitting here with Laurie and within the last minute. We've been talking about how you said, never lose your joy. Yeah. Folks, never lose your joy. Never let anything lose your joy. God's in everything. His horror was his Harris, which two dads and lost their daughters. I mean, we've been there. Okay, we're not speaking academically now. We're speaking real life. And whatever this world throws at you, God is it we can't begin to know all the wise and wherefores, but we know God is God and we know He's in control. And if we let anything, if that was a really bad thing, the horrors of all that would be multiplied if that horror became a part of your life for the rest of your life. I wasn't going to allow it. No, you're going to allow it. But God was not going to allow it. He wasn't going to let you go. I'm powerless. But he's got to. But look at what's happened now. Now it's your testimony. It is. Look at the people that and we both have this opportunity now to share how when you go through the storm, I heard this country song the other day. It's actually the country gospel song. Oh, I like country. Oh, I got some country. I'm a beach bum, but I do have some country. Okay. But this gospel song, gospel country song, it said, God is good when it's good. And he's better. What is bad? Wow. In that true. In that true. So, Dad, you can't relive it. That's the whole thing. You can't. What do people say? You just can't make it out. You can't make it out. You just can't make it up. So we're working. We both did the same thing. Okay. We both have our phones. And we both have our our daughter on our phones. Our daughter's on her phones, you know, and I got the cold smiley there and daddy smile there and say, it's happy as you were then. You're a whole lot happier now. Oh, my goodness. I can't imagine how happy you're now. And if you're happy, why should I be unhappy? Exactly. You know, I mean, that would just it doesn't make any sense. I talked with people and they've lost their son or daughter years ago. And it's like it happened yesterday. And they're still tearing up. And you know, I both tear up a lot. I mean, I miss Nicole. Oh, do I miss Nicole? But I miss her. But I'm happy for her because she's there. And we're going to spend eternity on the others for her. And you know, yeah, we end up having a thousand people in Nicole's celebration of life. And and it was a celebration time for her life. And an altar call at the end and people got saved over 11,000 people have watched her celebration life service. You go to YouTube and go to Nicole McGuire's celebration of life service. And people when they watch it, they tell other people to watch it. And now over 11, who goes? Who watches a funeral? That happened three years ago. You know, they're still watching it. But the point is that we need to know that God is there. When when when when it's not good, that he's really there. He's better in the bad times. He is. Ever both tests. Your eyes are open. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And our eyes are open. So I mean, the best thing happens. I get it. I check my messages. And every week or so, there's, well, hey, Mary's down. Check an ant. Boy, I got a story to tell you. And you just you light my life. Every every time you light my life. And I thank God for my new best-fed buddy truck driver from Missouri. Humansville. Humansville. Humansville, Missouri. That that were soulmates now because we got to this together. We're living proof. Just folks just understand. God's always there. He never leaves you for six. He never for six you. He's there, particularly in the bad times. If you're struggling right now and you think nobody knows the troubles I've seen. And that's fine for Barry, but he's off. He's having fun. Dan, he gets to do a live his life, large and driving. How many miles a year have you driven? 93,000 miles? 93,000 miles a year. You are you're a trucker, man. You are. But, but, but you're, you're, you see, that's the other part of my story. Yeah, go ahead. That job that I had. Yeah. They thought that their load was more important than my daughter. Oh, they didn't even want to let you go back home. No. Oh my goodness. Can you believe that? So I took it back. They fired me. I said, thank you very much. And I left. The person I drive for now. We cried and prayed together. My interview lasted three hours because we were busy talking, praying, laughing, sharing the love of Jesus. God. Oh, God. He has the footsteps. You follow the footsteps. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's just people like Derek, the guy I work for, they're God-given. Barry is God-given. You know, I don't take my gift slightly. And, you know, that, that was God saying, you do want to work for these people? You want to work for these people? Yeah. Okay. Bottom line as we sign off here. You have a fight. I thought, look, there's people out there that are hurting badly right now. Very distraught. Having horrible things happen. Your daughter was so wronged. And you only want to think about what she went through. And she died in your arms. You watched her lips turn blue. You went through that. And yet you sit here with the joy of the Lord. How's that possible? A friend of mine who is with Jesus taught me when I was a young man. He used to tell me all the time when I didn't believe in myself. He said, Dan, you're a miracle. Somebody let a candle for you. Don't blow it out. Don't quit five minutes before the miracle happens. Oh, well. And that's how I live my life. And that's all I gotta say. You know, that's how I live. Yeah. What you do. I don't worry. And you join me on this. Everybody we're with. We let our life shine. Yeah. And that's what I got to tell everybody is just don't quit. Yeah. It gives Satan a black eye. I mean, he meant this to get Danny and he meant this to get you. He meant it. But we turn around and we use it for good. We give him a black eye. And now you and I both have a testimony of God's faith when it's like few other people have. And that's pretty cool. That's awesome. I hope you get, you know, a hint of what's going on in the lives of these two guys. We were buddies where our lives are so different. But we were we went to dinner a couple nights ago. We're the same. And it's like, don't let him. You live at a 400 acres in the middle of nowhere. You drive and haul cattle all over the country. And I'm polishing cars that make them shady. And we came and we said, we're exactly the same. You know why? Because when we focus on God and not ourselves, we come closer and closer and closer to God. As we come closer to God, we come closer to each other and we become one. That's what we've experienced here. And that's what he wants for all of us when we when we honor him, we love him. We just do everything we can to bring ourselves closer to him and and live our lives for his purpose to bring everybody we can and closer to him every day. It's so simple, but it's profound and we're living proof of that. Thank you, Dan. They've embraced them. It was a miracle, even that you're here. We're we're going to be doing these podcasts anyway today. And you just, hey, he's just, hey, Barry, come with your Phoenix. I think of, you know, we could we get together and we get another miracle. I hadn't thought about that. It's a miracle you and I are here. There's so many we didn't talk about because there's so many. I mean, you know, so anyway, that's all the key to all of it. And the model, the mantra for everything is if you want to have joy in the worst of times as well as the best of times, just move everybody. Take the sum total of your life, the good stuff and particularly the bad stuff. Use it for God's glory and move everybody every day. Close it Jesus. Okay. See you next time.