[Music]
thank you thank you for having me here
tonight really appreciate it you know
when I was 13 years old I had the most
amazing gift given to me that you could
possibly imagine I was I would add Apple
Creek not far from where we’re sitting
right now and we’re playing pirates we
had two canoes full of kids thirteen
year olds fourteen year olds we would
come at each other and the job was to
jump out of the canoe and try and sink
the other one we had a steel bottom
canoe that of course if you got water
and went to the bottom they had an
aluminum canoe that if you got water in
it it floated well I was 13 I didn’t
know that as about 70 pounds my job was
to stand the canoe and row it away if
when my people jumped out that happened
and I was rolling it away they came at
it they sank it it started to sink the
rope that you tie it to the dock was
tighter on my foot and it pulled me to
the bottom now I was wearing my
lifejacket so I couldn’t go up any
further or go down to untie it and
there’s the boat sank it pulled me down
the gift that I received was the most
amazing gift ever because it was the
gift of death as underwater for about
seven minutes which is a very long time
according the witnesses seven minutes
because at 3 minutes you go unconscious
and at five minutes you begin to suffer
irreversible brain damage because of
lack of oxygen now my mother who was
sitting right here she kept saying that
that explained a lot of things in my
later adolescent years and she can’t
deny it she’s right here she can’t deny
it well I came out during that
experience during those seven minutes
underwater
I had the classical near-death
experience and the end the life after
death experience that when I came out of
it I realized even then that it was the
most amazing thing that had ever
happened to a person because it removed
for me any shadow of a doubt of an
afterlife and of the existence of God I
knew that with absolute certainty
there was an afterlife in the existence
of God just as certain as you are now
that when you leave this auditorium and
walk out this door or this door there’s
going to be a hallway out there and
you’re not going to step off a cliff and
go down and fall thirty feet into the
abyss you’re certain of that yes or no
yes and just as certain as we are that
we’re sitting here in Chicago right now
having this talk this presentation are
we certain of that or are we in Bismarck
University of Mary and how certain are
you of that could is there anything I
could say that could convince you to the
contrary and I’m guessing the answer is
no it’s what that exact same certainty
that I came out having received this
very special gift at 13 years what that
did is that took away all fear and any
shadow of a doubt about the existence of
the afterlife well went through high
school graduated went to college as
freshmen in college we ran in a pack you
know we we we went to movies in a pack
went to restaurants in a pack went to
parties in a pack we went home for the
summer came back the beginning of the
sophomore year at the end of summer and
something horrible had happened all of
my guy friends had gotten girlfriends
and worse yet all of the girls that we
ran with had boyfriends and I wasn’t one
of them it was terrifying you know to be
honest I didn’t know how to make a
college girlfriend so I talked to my
friends and they said go volunteer so I
went to the campus volunteer center and
I looked on all the postings of
volunteer opportunities and I saw one
that had 22 girls signed up and no guys
and it wasn’t a math major but I said
I’ve got a good chance here it was a
crisis line what happened is they gave
us about a 45 second training period and
then they gave us a cellphone I mean
they gave us a phone this is pre cell
phones they gave us a phone and we sat
down and he took these calls that came
in from boys and girls men and women
domestic violence that’s horrible things
happening in the homes that I wasn’t
aware was happening but they said do the
best you can
okay just do it take the calls and that
introduced me into the underbelly of our
society we’re not talking Miami or Los
Angeles or Thailand we’re not we’re
talking Bismarck Dickinson Fargo North
Dakota South Dakota Montana Wisconsin
Minnesota Iowa domestic violence drug
and alcohol addicted families sexual
abuse within the homes kids that run
away and when they run away they’re
subjected to rape the subject is a
survival sex on the streets sex in
exchange for simply a place to stay kids
who are being trapped or tricked into
child pornography and then child
prostitution kids that wanted a way out
but didn’t know how to get out of that
and so as the calls came in and that’s
what we did and we took the calls after
college had great opportunities job
opportunities in the corporate world but
what I did instead was I decided to
follow this underground river of
Runaways that sucks the kids out of the
farms and out of the towns and out of
the cities and into the big metro in
urban areas sometimes the international
markets and where they sell them just
like a commodity and I went to New York
City right out of college
and I did work with child prostitutes
Runaways and street gangs did that for
three years but while I was there I
learned about this horrible civil war
going on down in Central America and the
civil war was happening in El Salvador
Guatemala and Nicaragua is taking about
two hundred and seventy-five thousand
people that had had killed or that it
had murdered or that it disappeared and
hundreds of thousands of kids that were
orphaned and I thought you know I can do
something the first lesson from the
drowning don’t be afraid this second
lesson let yourself try let yourself
experiment experience new things give
yourself permission and even though I
didn’t speak the language and had no
experience and I was very small for my
age I went down there on a six-month
commitment I said I can do this
I think but give yourself permission
give yourself permission to try it give
yourself permission to succeed and give
yourself permission to fail Wayne
Gretzky once said you know you miss a
hundred percent of the shots you don’t
take
likewise you
ale and a hundred percent of the things
that you don’t try give yourself
permission to try it so I got on the
plane went down very young didn’t speak
the language plane landed and as in the
middle of the war zone and they came up
to me and I said you’re the executive
director of this war orphanage and I
didn’t speak a word of Spanish and the
soldiers were yelling at me and pointing
guns at me and tell me to go this way in
this way again give it a try and I said
okay they need the help I can do the
work do it what we did it Mike six
months turned into seven years what we
did is we went on we built orphanages we
built clinics we built rehabilitation
centers we built homes for children that
had lost limbs in the war burn centers
for kids that have been hit by
phosphorous bombs or napalm bombs in El
Salvador and Guatemala
we’d quite often get a telegram or a
telefax or knock at the door from
someone from the US Embassy or the
Archbishop’s office or some other
federal or government agency big
Massacre go up and help the next morning
we had load everything in back of jeeps
medicines food clothing whatever we had
and drive up there unload it and quite
often when we were driving away after
taking after unloading the supplies
women grandmothers who didn’t speak a
word of Spanish would come up to us and
their Mayan languages pushing the kids
through the car windows pleading with us
in keachi or mom or kochak el to take
their kids give them the greatest gift
that they could of love to take their
children to safety one time we were
driving back from a village that we had
just dropped off a lot of medicines and
we were going by the river kaha bone
very big river about the size of the
Missouri River and we saw this very
distressed crowd villagers so we drove
as close as we could and then we parked
we left the kids are in the back of the
Jeep there waiting and my colleague and
I walked down to the riverbed side and
we saw that at a bridge not far up from
us they had pushed a number of bodies
over the bridge and into the river the
people were terrified because these were
their loved ones these were their sons
and their daughters and their brothers
and their sisters and their mothers and
their fathers and they you know they
didn’t want to go out and touch them
because they’re afraid of recriminations
because of the Guatemalan national army
at the same time these were their loved
ones
so they didn’t know what to do I looked
at my colleague and we went in and we
walked into the river you know we were
deciding what we could do and I saw this
one body start to move so I walked over
and I put my left arm under his head my
right arm under his body his young boy
he had been shot a number of times we
lifted him up and he opened his eyes
looked up at me and they continued to
roll back and I knew that he had died on
my arms we didn’t feed the hungry that
day in that alongside the river we did
in the village
we didn’t there we had no more clothing
to give out we didn’t build homes
we didn’t house the homeless what we did
is the best we could that second big
lesson do the best you can
third big lesson first lesson don’t be
afraid second lesson let yourself try
and let yourself let yourself try it let
yourself succeed let yourself fail and
the third lesson do the best you can as
we go through life and bringing this all
in from this experience I had in those
13 years which gave me this strength to
go out and to to do this I mean there’s
not a reason in the world I should have
been doing any of it except for that
drowning experience when I was 13 as we
go through life there’s three things we
can do when a situation demands action
from you you individually the first
thing we can do is this let’s say let’s
say you and I go up and rent the niagara
river’s okay there’s the waterfalls and
it’s beautiful oh my gosh we’d go up and
we’re taking pictures and I’m taking
pictures here and you’re upstream and I
hear this splash and all sudden I look
up and you fallen in the Niagara River
and you’re going towards the fall the
first thing we can do is this we can
stand there and do nothing
freeze up or do a very mild help help
help and what’s going to happen to him
down the river and over the Falls right
in other words ignore it or refuse to
engage even though we know this person
needs our help the second thing we can
do is oh my gosh and jump into the river
swim out to him grab his hand and say
I’ve got you and then what’s going to
happen we’re gonna look each other smile
as we both go down the river and over
the Falls together not a good plan the
third thing we can do is this we can
take off our burden take off her
backpack drop our cellphone
drop our camera run down the river find
a rock to stand on find a tree to hold
on to pick up a branch stand on the rock
and bend out when he floats by he’ll
grab it I can pull them in that will
work in other words unload ourselves not
just in this metaphor but in life unload
ourselves of the things that are
weighing us down and holding us back
utilizing taken inventory of our
resources what do we have around us our
health our finances our family our
friends our education our community our
networks take an inventory of your
resources find a position of strength
and use that position of strength to
help the people who need you as they go
floating by as in the situation that
demands it those are the only three
options I have never found a fourth
option don’t worry what people say about
you the fear of what people say about us
is the number one fear in the world
you’ll read that the fear of public
speaking is the number one fear but
that’s because people are afraid of what
they’ll say about you or the fear of
getting involved but that’s because
people are afraid of what they’ll say
about you don’t be afraid because again
I lost that fear when I was a 13 year
old boy and drowned for seven minutes
not because of the irreversible brain
damage mom but because I learned of the
infinity spectrum of time and what
people say today makes no difference it
makes no difference
they’ll push push push you up on a
pedestal and then when you’re up there
they’ll throw throw throw rocks at you
why I don’t know
but they do okay again
you don’t care because it means nothing
in the big spectrum of time and big
spectrum of time isn’t today tomorrow
this week or next month I’ve had people
tell me I’m wonderful and I people tell
me I’m horrible and mom yes you have
said that okay again don’t worry what
people say because it makes no
difference it’s like going in and
getting a vaccination shot it’s like
going in to get him back summation shot
if I could give you a vaccination that
would cure all of your diseases for the
rest of your life and yet it was it took
just 30 seconds of pain of a sting you
would say absolutely give it to me it’s
the same thing what they say today the
sting is gone tomorrow the good works
that you do however are with you forever
are with you forever don’t be afraid let
that go let that happen people will
praise you and they’ll knock you down
your journey is gonna be different than
mine
okay you’re not going to do the same
thing I’ve done what you’re gonna do is
totally different maybe you’re not going
to go work in war zones maybe you’re not
going to work with child prostitutes or
Runaways or be shot at or caught in
bombings I bet that’s been my journey
your journey is gonna be different your
journey is gonna be fantastic if you
give yourself permission if you let
yourself do it okay over the years I’ve
adopted 17 boys and girls nine boys
eight girls kids different situations
raised them into adulthood in my home
six of them have passed away one of the
kids is who learning all of the kids I
talked to talked to them and I said
dream dream dream dream live your dreams
be your dreams make your dreams happen
don’t be afraid don’t be afraid give
yourself permission to try succeed and
to fail and do what you can all right I
say that again to you right now please
live your dreams don’t be afraid if you
had if you could have tomorrow in the
rest of your life without worrying what
anybody thought about you what would you
do your day starts over every day go to
it thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
you [Music]
thank you thank you for having me here
tonight really appreciate it you know
when I was 13 years old I had the most
amazing gift given to me that you could
possibly imagine I was I would add Apple
Creek not far from where we’re sitting
right now and we’re playing pirates we
had two canoes full of kids thirteen
year olds fourteen year olds we would
come at each other and the job was to
jump out of the canoe and try and sink
the other one we had a steel bottom
canoe that of course if you got water
and went to the bottom they had an
aluminum canoe that if you got water in
it it floated well I was 13 I didn’t
know that as about 70 pounds my job was
to stand the canoe and row it away if
when my people jumped out that happened
and I was rolling it away they came at
it they sank it it started to sink the
rope that you tie it to the dock was
tighter on my foot and it pulled me to
the bottom now I was wearing my
lifejacket so I couldn’t go up any
further or go down to untie it and
there’s the boat sank it pulled me down
the gift that I received was the most
amazing gift ever because it was the
gift of death as underwater for about
seven minutes which is a very long time
according the witnesses seven minutes
because at 3 minutes you go unconscious
and at five minutes you begin to suffer
irreversible brain damage because of
lack of oxygen now my mother who was
sitting right here she kept saying that
that explained a lot of things in my
later adolescent years and she can’t
deny it she’s right here she can’t deny
it well I came out during that
experience during those seven minutes
underwater
I had the classical near-death
experience and the end the life after
death experience that when I came out of
it I realized even then that it was the
most amazing thing that had ever
happened to a person because it removed
for me any shadow of a doubt of an
afterlife and of the existence of God I
knew that with absolute certainty
there was an afterlife in the existence
of God just as certain as you are now
that when you leave this auditorium and
walk out this door or this door there’s
going to be a hallway out there and
you’re not going to step off a cliff and
go down and fall thirty feet into the
abyss you’re certain of that yes or no
yes and just as certain as we are that
we’re sitting here in Chicago right now
having this talk this presentation are
we certain of that or are we in Bismarck
University of Mary and how certain are
you of that could is there anything I
could say that could convince you to the
contrary and I’m guessing the answer is
no it’s what that exact same certainty
that I came out having received this
very special gift at 13 years what that
did is that took away all fear and any
shadow of a doubt about the existence of
the afterlife well went through high
school graduated went to college as
freshmen in college we ran in a pack you
know we we we went to movies in a pack
went to restaurants in a pack went to
parties in a pack we went home for the
summer came back the beginning of the
sophomore year at the end of summer and
something horrible had happened all of
my guy friends had gotten girlfriends
and worse yet all of the girls that we
ran with had boyfriends and I wasn’t one
of them it was terrifying you know to be
honest I didn’t know how to make a
college girlfriend so I talked to my
friends and they said go volunteer so I
went to the campus volunteer center and
I looked on all the postings of
volunteer opportunities and I saw one
that had 22 girls signed up and no guys
and it wasn’t a math major but I said
I’ve got a good chance here it was a
crisis line what happened is they gave
us about a 45 second training period and
then they gave us a cellphone I mean
they gave us a phone this is pre cell
phones they gave us a phone and we sat
down and he took these calls that came
in from boys and girls men and women
domestic violence that’s horrible things
happening in the homes that I wasn’t
aware was happening but they said do the
best you can
okay just do it take the calls and that
introduced me into the underbelly of our
society we’re not talking Miami or Los
Angeles or Thailand we’re not we’re
talking Bismarck Dickinson Fargo North
Dakota South Dakota Montana Wisconsin
Minnesota Iowa domestic violence drug
and alcohol addicted families sexual
abuse within the homes kids that run
away and when they run away they’re
subjected to rape the subject is a
survival sex on the streets sex in
exchange for simply a place to stay kids
who are being trapped or tricked into
child pornography and then child
prostitution kids that wanted a way out
but didn’t know how to get out of that
and so as the calls came in and that’s
what we did and we took the calls after
college had great opportunities job
opportunities in the corporate world but
what I did instead was I decided to
follow this underground river of
Runaways that sucks the kids out of the
farms and out of the towns and out of
the cities and into the big metro in
urban areas sometimes the international
markets and where they sell them just
like a commodity and I went to New York
City right out of college
and I did work with child prostitutes
Runaways and street gangs did that for
three years but while I was there I
learned about this horrible civil war
going on down in Central America and the
civil war was happening in El Salvador
Guatemala and Nicaragua is taking about
two hundred and seventy-five thousand
people that had had killed or that it
had murdered or that it disappeared and
hundreds of thousands of kids that were
orphaned and I thought you know I can do
something the first lesson from the
drowning don’t be afraid this second
lesson let yourself try let yourself
experiment experience new things give
yourself permission and even though I
didn’t speak the language and had no
experience and I was very small for my
age I went down there on a six-month
commitment I said I can do this
I think but give yourself permission
give yourself permission to try it give
yourself permission to succeed and give
yourself permission to fail Wayne
Gretzky once said you know you miss a
hundred percent of the shots you don’t
take
likewise you
ale and a hundred percent of the things
that you don’t try give yourself
permission to try it so I got on the
plane went down very young didn’t speak
the language plane landed and as in the
middle of the war zone and they came up
to me and I said you’re the executive
director of this war orphanage and I
didn’t speak a word of Spanish and the
soldiers were yelling at me and pointing
guns at me and tell me to go this way in
this way again give it a try and I said
okay they need the help I can do the
work do it what we did it Mike six
months turned into seven years what we
did is we went on we built orphanages we
built clinics we built rehabilitation
centers we built homes for children that
had lost limbs in the war burn centers
for kids that have been hit by
phosphorous bombs or napalm bombs in El
Salvador and Guatemala
we’d quite often get a telegram or a
telefax or knock at the door from
someone from the US Embassy or the
Archbishop’s office or some other
federal or government agency big
Massacre go up and help the next morning
we had load everything in back of jeeps
medicines food clothing whatever we had
and drive up there unload it and quite
often when we were driving away after
taking after unloading the supplies
women grandmothers who didn’t speak a
word of Spanish would come up to us and
their Mayan languages pushing the kids
through the car windows pleading with us
in keachi or mom or kochak el to take
their kids give them the greatest gift
that they could of love to take their
children to safety one time we were
driving back from a village that we had
just dropped off a lot of medicines and
we were going by the river kaha bone
very big river about the size of the
Missouri River and we saw this very
distressed crowd villagers so we drove
as close as we could and then we parked
we left the kids are in the back of the
Jeep there waiting and my colleague and
I walked down to the riverbed side and
we saw that at a bridge not far up from
us they had pushed a number of bodies
over the bridge and into the river the
people were terrified because these were
their loved ones these were their sons
and their daughters and their brothers
and their sisters and their mothers and
their fathers and they you know they
didn’t want to go out and touch them
because they’re afraid of recriminations
because of the Guatemalan national army
at the same time these were their loved
ones
so they didn’t know what to do I looked
at my colleague and we went in and we
walked into the river you know we were
deciding what we could do and I saw this
one body start to move so I walked over
and I put my left arm under his head my
right arm under his body his young boy
he had been shot a number of times we
lifted him up and he opened his eyes
looked up at me and they continued to
roll back and I knew that he had died on
my arms we didn’t feed the hungry that
day in that alongside the river we did
in the village
we didn’t there we had no more clothing
to give out we didn’t build homes
we didn’t house the homeless what we did
is the best we could that second big
lesson do the best you can
third big lesson first lesson don’t be
afraid second lesson let yourself try
and let yourself let yourself try it let
yourself succeed let yourself fail and
the third lesson do the best you can as
we go through life and bringing this all
in from this experience I had in those
13 years which gave me this strength to
go out and to to do this I mean there’s
not a reason in the world I should have
been doing any of it except for that
drowning experience when I was 13 as we
go through life there’s three things we
can do when a situation demands action
from you you individually the first
thing we can do is this let’s say let’s
say you and I go up and rent the niagara
river’s okay there’s the waterfalls and
it’s beautiful oh my gosh we’d go up and
we’re taking pictures and I’m taking
pictures here and you’re upstream and I
hear this splash and all sudden I look
up and you fallen in the Niagara River
and you’re going towards the fall the
first thing we can do is this we can
stand there and do nothing
freeze up or do a very mild help help
help and what’s going to happen to him
down the river and over the Falls right
in other words ignore it or refuse to
engage even though we know this person
needs our help the second thing we can
do is oh my gosh and jump into the river
swim out to him grab his hand and say
I’ve got you and then what’s going to
happen we’re gonna look each other smile
as we both go down the river and over
the Falls together not a good plan the
third thing we can do is this we can
take off our burden take off her
backpack drop our cellphone
drop our camera run down the river find
a rock to stand on find a tree to hold
on to pick up a branch stand on the rock
and bend out when he floats by he’ll
grab it I can pull them in that will
work in other words unload ourselves not
just in this metaphor but in life unload
ourselves of the things that are
weighing us down and holding us back
utilizing taken inventory of our
resources what do we have around us our
health our finances our family our
friends our education our community our
networks take an inventory of your
resources find a position of strength
and use that position of strength to
help the people who need you as they go
floating by as in the situation that
demands it those are the only three
options I have never found a fourth
option don’t worry what people say about
you the fear of what people say about us
is the number one fear in the world
you’ll read that the fear of public
speaking is the number one fear but
that’s because people are afraid of what
they’ll say about you or the fear of
getting involved but that’s because
people are afraid of what they’ll say
about you don’t be afraid because again
I lost that fear when I was a 13 year
old boy and drowned for seven minutes
not because of the irreversible brain
damage mom but because I learned of the
infinity spectrum of time and what
people say today makes no difference it
makes no difference
they’ll push push push you up on a
pedestal and then when you’re up there
they’ll throw throw throw rocks at you
why I don’t know
but they do okay again
you don’t care because it means nothing
in the big spectrum of time and big
spectrum of time isn’t today tomorrow
this week or next month I’ve had people
tell me I’m wonderful and I people tell
me I’m horrible and mom yes you have
said that okay again don’t worry what
people say because it makes no
difference it’s like going in and
getting a vaccination shot it’s like
going in to get him back summation shot
if I could give you a vaccination that
would cure all of your diseases for the
rest of your life and yet it was it took
just 30 seconds of pain of a sting you
would say absolutely give it to me it’s
the same thing what they say today the
sting is gone tomorrow the good works
that you do however are with you forever
are with you forever don’t be afraid let
that go let that happen people will
praise you and they’ll knock you down
your journey is gonna be different than
mine
okay you’re not going to do the same
thing I’ve done what you’re gonna do is
totally different maybe you’re not going
to go work in war zones maybe you’re not
going to work with child prostitutes or
Runaways or be shot at or caught in
bombings I bet that’s been my journey
your journey is gonna be different your
journey is gonna be fantastic if you
give yourself permission if you let
yourself do it okay over the years I’ve
adopted 17 boys and girls nine boys
eight girls kids different situations
raised them into adulthood in my home
six of them have passed away one of the
kids is who learning all of the kids I
talked to talked to them and I said
dream dream dream dream live your dreams
be your dreams make your dreams happen
don’t be afraid don’t be afraid give
yourself permission to try succeed and
to fail and do what you can all right I
say that again to you right now please
live your dreams don’t be afraid if you
had if you could have tomorrow in the
rest of your life without worrying what
anybody thought about you what would you
do your day starts over every day go to
it thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
you [Music]
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