feels good to receive a warm welcome I’m
a little nervous because I didn’t know
if I was gonna make it out here this
afternoon I was at the mall they had a
power outage and I was stuck on the
escalator for hours I teach criminal
justice most of my background most of my
adult life as you can tell I’m an old
guy I used to play with dinosaurs as a
child and so my observations through my
careers which have included law
enforcement and military and homeland
security these common elements in my
careers have involved problem-solving
critical thinking influencing people to
make right choices influencing my
environment for a better outcome I it
will come as no surprise than if you
know that my hobby also shares many of
those same characteristics I rebuild old
cars on the weekends I invite some of my
students out some some younger men and
women and they come out and they helped
me build rebuild old cars restore these
these Junkers – some state of usability
some functionality and we we enjoy that
a great deal but as you may be aware
there’s there’s problems associated with
restoring old cars now this vehicle that
you see in the picture is an old truck
looks good though it’s not my truck I’ve
never seen this truck but I have a truck
in my in my shop that someday is going
to look like this truck now the the
problem is between my present reality
and my future expectations the problem
is that wilderness between where I am
and where I want to be and this truck is
is my is my mark it’s the prize it’s
what I press towards and that wilderness
is where the monsters live and I never
want to pitch my tent I never want to
camp out in the wilderness I want to
keep moving and pressing on towards
towards that mark that’s my motivation
so there are three things that I’ve
identified as I have as I have traveled
through the wilderness about
problem-solving three principles three
phases that are in common that seem to
be in common no matter what your what
the application is first of all you have
to identify the problem sometimes the
problem is not a problem as much as it
is a series of smaller problems and each
smaller problem has its own its own
challenges and its own processes to be
solved the second P because they teach
you in public speaking that the audience
likes to have three things at all you
know three P’s so process problem
identification the principles that we
apply to solve that problem and then the
third P is the process if you’re going
to have a plan and I’ve heard for years
that you don’t plan to fail you fail to
plan and so in order to solve most any
kind of a problem you have to understand
the problem you have to understand the
underlying principles and you have to
bring to bear some process that applies
those principles to that problem
now this next slide do you see the
problem my friend
my friend Kevin gave me this truck he
said John you can have this old truck if
you just come and get it out of my woods
now he knows that I like old vehicles
but this is like letting an alcoholic
have a sniff of whiskey this is like I
look at this truck and I think no sane
person would want to undertake this I
don’t know if you can see what’s the
left end the right picture
there’s tree not just there’s like three
trees that have all grown together and
there’s this humongous is that even a
word
humongous I’m a college professor I can
make up words if I want to that’s a
humongous tree root and it not only
grows up in the space where there is no
bed between the frame but it actually
has encapsulated it begins to
encapsulate the frame there’s a coil
spring and if you two
cookie dough and put it in your hand and
squeezed it and and the cookie dough
would squeeze out from your fingers
that’s what this tree has done inside
this coil spring this is a problem of
significant magnitude so you’ll notice
also there’s a little tree in front of
the the rear wheel there’s another big
old tree in front of the truck this tree
this truck is not going to move without
some serious wood crafting the tires are
all flat you can’t raise you can’t air
up the tires because you can’t raise up
the truck because the truck is affixed
to the earth Mother Nature has claimed
this truck so I’ve got a couple of young
guys that work with me a Zeke Colby and
hunter tipped and they they they said we
will went out there they came out to
help me remove this truck and we were
talking about the the the arduous task
the daunting task that lies before us
and there’s a ministry that I work at
Bryan College and there’s a ministry
called blazing hope ranch and and the
the young husband and wife that run this
ministry this is for restoring the lives
of young women that have been victims of
sexual assault human trafficking and
those those lives have been claimed very
much like this truck they’ve been
they’ve been abandoned
they’ve been disregarded they’ve been
damaged and there’s a need for
restoration and I’ll talk more about
that in a minute but these guys ikan
hunterson we can we can we’ll donate our
time to fix up this truck and then we’ll
just donate it to the ranch because
every ranch needs a truck and I thought
man as much as much of a challenge as it
as this is that’s that object lesson
that picture is too great for us to pass
up so perhaps in a moment of weakness I
said to myself self we will do this now
the first problem sometimes you have to
get out of the woods sometimes where you
are at where you are in in life in your
in your situation you have to be removed
from that in order to address your your
problem in order to fix your problem we
in order to get this truck out of the
woods
literally we have to cut it loose from
the earth think metaphorically of how
the world the things of the world
sometimes envelope us and we lose sight
of what it is to live we can’t
understand the purpose of life because
we’re fixated on the little the little
things that attaches and connect us to
the world so literally I mean
metaphorically the earth the world we
have to cut this truck loose then we
have to get it to the trailer so that we
can move it to the shop and put it in a
safe place a place where there are
resources to bring to bear to fix that
to fix that truck now the second truck
the second picture shows the truck on a
trailer this is at the end of a
nine-hour day and two chainsaws and
multiple blades and come-alongs and in
winches and Jack’s and the rear wheels
wouldn’t turn I don’t know if you can
see in the in the in the right-hand
picture but the tree trunk is still
there
we got the trunk cut loose you know from
the bottom we got the trees cut loose
from the top but there’s this ginormous
there’s another one of those words this
ginormous tree trunk that’s still
attached it’s wrapped around the drive
shaft and so the wheels don’t turn so
the way that we have to drag it onto the
truck is jack up the rear axle to two
bottle jacks and then using a come-along
jack on the front we winch it forward
until it falls off the jack so it’s
alright and we it took us like an hour
and a half to get it onto the trailer
that way problem solving in small
increments sometimes using the resources
that you have you just do what you can
with what you have as long as you are
making forward motion as long as you are
making progress don’t camp out in the
wilderness and was where the monsters
live so we moved it to a safe place
we removed the trees we were able to air
up tires or put new put in we had to
actually put new different wheels and
tires on and we finally got it to the
safe place now when when we got it in
the shop you see the left picture
there’s we’re joined seek and hunter are
joined by Taylor
and Jack wise and Nick Goss and these
guys all are putting their heads
together the wheels still don’t turn
after we’ve got the tree out out of the
picture the wheels still don’t turn so
there’s multiple places where we could
look as a transmission is it the clutch
is it the driveshaft is it the wheels
themselves and so I will tell you this
YouTube can make experts at anybody
there’s a lot it’s oh these guys are
actually and I’m not used I’m not a high
tech kind of guy so they’re out there in
the shop but they’re all on their little
devices you know and they’re looking up
how to fix some truck like this and they
figured it out so now they’re the wheels
turning in anyway long story short that
was kind of a complex problem and it
took quite a bit of problem-solving an
ingenuity to fix it now the right-hand
picture not so much thinking this is
just brawn sometimes all you need is
just sheer force so these same
aforementioned guys they just picked up
the bed of another truck that we had and
and they just brought it over and they
just set it into place so sometimes your
problem solving is it’s kind of complex
lots of thinking lots of you know
outside resources and sometimes you just
bow your back and you just do it the
beauty though of working with these with
these young men they see the value of
they’re old they’re young guys with old
souls we listen to old 50s rock and roll
music and work on old cars my shop is
decorated in you know 1950s and 60s
decor so they’re really it’s like
totally merged into this hot rod culture
but all the time we’re working on this
there are parallels between what we’re
doing to this truck and what’s happening
at the ranch with you know that where
this truck is going to ultimately find
its home these two pictures show the
left picture is not of the truck but
it’s a process that we are using this is
a problem this this problem is a a
severe impact severe trauma to the back
end of a suburban and it created a big
dent a huge dent and it also there’s a
pin for the latch to a lot to shut the
back doors so the pin is out of
alignment the doors won’t shut right and
it looks ugly and like a lot of our
lives there’s trauma that sometimes
bends us all out of shape it it foils
our best attempts to Mack
some eyes are our joy and so somehow we
need to find a way to get that
depression drawn back into alignment so
that we may be restored to full
functional fellowship and that’s what
we’re after culturally that’s what we’re
after as a family that’s what we’re
after as individuals we want to be in
full functional relationship with with
those around us now the problem with
this particular design is I can’t go on
the backside and just use force to drive
that dent back out because of the
structure of the door so what I have to
do is I have to I have to attach
something to the deepest part of the
damage and then I have to use gentle
pressure to pull it back into place some
of you already see where I’m going with
this I took six penny nails like round
off the point and I spot-welded them to
the deepest part of the depression of
the damaged area you’ll see that I have
a square piece of tubing that’s resting
on the high points which is my standard
that’s where I need to draw the rest of
it back to you have to have a standard
you have to have a reference point you
have to know when the problem is solved
now I also didn’t have high dollar body
shop equipment
I had a carpenter I had had six penny
nails and I had a framing hammer and I
had a piece of square tubing but you
know what sometimes what you have is all
you need so we welded the nails and
through a process of pulling them out to
the standard to the to the high point we
were able to and I won’t show you the
after picture but except for a final
coat of paint that turned out to be a
complete restoration not only was the
dent fixed but the alignment the latch
pin lined back up the door opens and
closes full functionality
problem-solving and I think again how we
apply this to some of our own lives and
some people we know some trauma some
painful things some some traumatic
dynamic force has injured us it’s
deformed us in some way and the way that
we need to be restored is to find some
connection
point that attaches to the deepest part
of our hurt and draws us back gently to
where we need to be and again I’m
thinking about the wrench where these
these women are being ministered to
after having experienced the horrendous
events in their lives that have deformed
and derailed them horses are part of the
ranch ministry horses are a way that
people can connect emotionally when they
know they’re not yet ready to trust
emotionally another human being that
just that touched me at a very deep
level and every time we work on our on
these vehicles I am reminded of those of
those kind of lessons the right hand
picture is a little different this is a
rust thing
accidents happen sometimes caused by
other people rust this is a problem it’s
of our own doing rust is is caused by
our own negligence our own neglect and
sometimes when things are severely
rusted I don’t know if you can see it in
the picture that long kind of piece of
new metal that has been welded in tack
welded in we had to cut out the old
rusty cancerous part sometimes parts of
our lives are so badly damaged that we
have to eliminate the toxicity we have
to eliminate the cancer those of you
with any medical background will
immediately appreciate that analogy and
then we replace that with new solid
foundation stock and then we grind it
and we paint it and we make it pretty
and it’s just as good as new
and there is a Redemption process that
happens in our lives and this is a
lesson that that I’m imparting this is a
lesson I’m learning myself even as I am
teaching this same lesson to to these
young guys and gals that are working
with me the left hand picture just shows
we burned up a bunch of saw blades I
don’t know what kind of wood that was it
grew up in that truck that was some hard
stuff and we went through like six
chainsaw blades and sometimes you have
your high tech answer doesn’t
necessarily work we reduced two axes and
chisels and drills and anything we can
do to turn that mass into nothing but
sawdust sometimes low-tech we finally
did it we finally got it done the right
hand picture this is a this is requires
a little more high-tech a little more
problem-solving
mathematics yes boys and girls sometimes
you will use math in real life sometimes
problem-solving is reduced to simple
mathematics so anyway oh here’s a good
picture sometimes every guy that works
for me on a general as a general base as
their big guys
fully grown as we say in a south and so
sometimes you have to get into tight
places and so our best option here was
to hire the skinny kid from across the
street and he’s right up in there rat
literally inside the truck you know
tightening something that none of us
could get to so it’s a fun thing but
this is this was a an example of
sometimes less is best this is where I’m
at today now we’ve come a long ways from
that from from the woods we’ve come out
of the woods a long ways now the the
truck bed is not painted the truck hood
still needs some work the top of the
trucks you know I mean there’s just a
lot weird we’re not we’re not there yet
but as we traverse through the
wilderness where the monsters live and
the problems need to be solved we’re
working through this solving these
problems one step at a time one piece at
a time labor of love and as we as we get
ready to donate this truck to the
blazing hope ranch we hope that
everything we’ve done here is a perfect
picture of God’s love for us of the
redemption of man restoring each other
to full full faithful functionality full
fellowship because because that’s what
we do thank you guys very much I
appreciate
[Applause]
a little nervous because I didn’t know
if I was gonna make it out here this
afternoon I was at the mall they had a
power outage and I was stuck on the
escalator for hours I teach criminal
justice most of my background most of my
adult life as you can tell I’m an old
guy I used to play with dinosaurs as a
child and so my observations through my
careers which have included law
enforcement and military and homeland
security these common elements in my
careers have involved problem-solving
critical thinking influencing people to
make right choices influencing my
environment for a better outcome I it
will come as no surprise than if you
know that my hobby also shares many of
those same characteristics I rebuild old
cars on the weekends I invite some of my
students out some some younger men and
women and they come out and they helped
me build rebuild old cars restore these
these Junkers – some state of usability
some functionality and we we enjoy that
a great deal but as you may be aware
there’s there’s problems associated with
restoring old cars now this vehicle that
you see in the picture is an old truck
looks good though it’s not my truck I’ve
never seen this truck but I have a truck
in my in my shop that someday is going
to look like this truck now the the
problem is between my present reality
and my future expectations the problem
is that wilderness between where I am
and where I want to be and this truck is
is my is my mark it’s the prize it’s
what I press towards and that wilderness
is where the monsters live and I never
want to pitch my tent I never want to
camp out in the wilderness I want to
keep moving and pressing on towards
towards that mark that’s my motivation
so there are three things that I’ve
identified as I have as I have traveled
through the wilderness about
problem-solving three principles three
phases that are in common that seem to
be in common no matter what your what
the application is first of all you have
to identify the problem sometimes the
problem is not a problem as much as it
is a series of smaller problems and each
smaller problem has its own its own
challenges and its own processes to be
solved the second P because they teach
you in public speaking that the audience
likes to have three things at all you
know three P’s so process problem
identification the principles that we
apply to solve that problem and then the
third P is the process if you’re going
to have a plan and I’ve heard for years
that you don’t plan to fail you fail to
plan and so in order to solve most any
kind of a problem you have to understand
the problem you have to understand the
underlying principles and you have to
bring to bear some process that applies
those principles to that problem
now this next slide do you see the
problem my friend
my friend Kevin gave me this truck he
said John you can have this old truck if
you just come and get it out of my woods
now he knows that I like old vehicles
but this is like letting an alcoholic
have a sniff of whiskey this is like I
look at this truck and I think no sane
person would want to undertake this I
don’t know if you can see what’s the
left end the right picture
there’s tree not just there’s like three
trees that have all grown together and
there’s this humongous is that even a
word
humongous I’m a college professor I can
make up words if I want to that’s a
humongous tree root and it not only
grows up in the space where there is no
bed between the frame but it actually
has encapsulated it begins to
encapsulate the frame there’s a coil
spring and if you two
cookie dough and put it in your hand and
squeezed it and and the cookie dough
would squeeze out from your fingers
that’s what this tree has done inside
this coil spring this is a problem of
significant magnitude so you’ll notice
also there’s a little tree in front of
the the rear wheel there’s another big
old tree in front of the truck this tree
this truck is not going to move without
some serious wood crafting the tires are
all flat you can’t raise you can’t air
up the tires because you can’t raise up
the truck because the truck is affixed
to the earth Mother Nature has claimed
this truck so I’ve got a couple of young
guys that work with me a Zeke Colby and
hunter tipped and they they they said we
will went out there they came out to
help me remove this truck and we were
talking about the the the arduous task
the daunting task that lies before us
and there’s a ministry that I work at
Bryan College and there’s a ministry
called blazing hope ranch and and the
the young husband and wife that run this
ministry this is for restoring the lives
of young women that have been victims of
sexual assault human trafficking and
those those lives have been claimed very
much like this truck they’ve been
they’ve been abandoned
they’ve been disregarded they’ve been
damaged and there’s a need for
restoration and I’ll talk more about
that in a minute but these guys ikan
hunterson we can we can we’ll donate our
time to fix up this truck and then we’ll
just donate it to the ranch because
every ranch needs a truck and I thought
man as much as much of a challenge as it
as this is that’s that object lesson
that picture is too great for us to pass
up so perhaps in a moment of weakness I
said to myself self we will do this now
the first problem sometimes you have to
get out of the woods sometimes where you
are at where you are in in life in your
in your situation you have to be removed
from that in order to address your your
problem in order to fix your problem we
in order to get this truck out of the
woods
literally we have to cut it loose from
the earth think metaphorically of how
the world the things of the world
sometimes envelope us and we lose sight
of what it is to live we can’t
understand the purpose of life because
we’re fixated on the little the little
things that attaches and connect us to
the world so literally I mean
metaphorically the earth the world we
have to cut this truck loose then we
have to get it to the trailer so that we
can move it to the shop and put it in a
safe place a place where there are
resources to bring to bear to fix that
to fix that truck now the second truck
the second picture shows the truck on a
trailer this is at the end of a
nine-hour day and two chainsaws and
multiple blades and come-alongs and in
winches and Jack’s and the rear wheels
wouldn’t turn I don’t know if you can
see in the in the in the right-hand
picture but the tree trunk is still
there
we got the trunk cut loose you know from
the bottom we got the trees cut loose
from the top but there’s this ginormous
there’s another one of those words this
ginormous tree trunk that’s still
attached it’s wrapped around the drive
shaft and so the wheels don’t turn so
the way that we have to drag it onto the
truck is jack up the rear axle to two
bottle jacks and then using a come-along
jack on the front we winch it forward
until it falls off the jack so it’s
alright and we it took us like an hour
and a half to get it onto the trailer
that way problem solving in small
increments sometimes using the resources
that you have you just do what you can
with what you have as long as you are
making forward motion as long as you are
making progress don’t camp out in the
wilderness and was where the monsters
live so we moved it to a safe place
we removed the trees we were able to air
up tires or put new put in we had to
actually put new different wheels and
tires on and we finally got it to the
safe place now when when we got it in
the shop you see the left picture
there’s we’re joined seek and hunter are
joined by Taylor
and Jack wise and Nick Goss and these
guys all are putting their heads
together the wheels still don’t turn
after we’ve got the tree out out of the
picture the wheels still don’t turn so
there’s multiple places where we could
look as a transmission is it the clutch
is it the driveshaft is it the wheels
themselves and so I will tell you this
YouTube can make experts at anybody
there’s a lot it’s oh these guys are
actually and I’m not used I’m not a high
tech kind of guy so they’re out there in
the shop but they’re all on their little
devices you know and they’re looking up
how to fix some truck like this and they
figured it out so now they’re the wheels
turning in anyway long story short that
was kind of a complex problem and it
took quite a bit of problem-solving an
ingenuity to fix it now the right-hand
picture not so much thinking this is
just brawn sometimes all you need is
just sheer force so these same
aforementioned guys they just picked up
the bed of another truck that we had and
and they just brought it over and they
just set it into place so sometimes your
problem solving is it’s kind of complex
lots of thinking lots of you know
outside resources and sometimes you just
bow your back and you just do it the
beauty though of working with these with
these young men they see the value of
they’re old they’re young guys with old
souls we listen to old 50s rock and roll
music and work on old cars my shop is
decorated in you know 1950s and 60s
decor so they’re really it’s like
totally merged into this hot rod culture
but all the time we’re working on this
there are parallels between what we’re
doing to this truck and what’s happening
at the ranch with you know that where
this truck is going to ultimately find
its home these two pictures show the
left picture is not of the truck but
it’s a process that we are using this is
a problem this this problem is a a
severe impact severe trauma to the back
end of a suburban and it created a big
dent a huge dent and it also there’s a
pin for the latch to a lot to shut the
back doors so the pin is out of
alignment the doors won’t shut right and
it looks ugly and like a lot of our
lives there’s trauma that sometimes
bends us all out of shape it it foils
our best attempts to Mack
some eyes are our joy and so somehow we
need to find a way to get that
depression drawn back into alignment so
that we may be restored to full
functional fellowship and that’s what
we’re after culturally that’s what we’re
after as a family that’s what we’re
after as individuals we want to be in
full functional relationship with with
those around us now the problem with
this particular design is I can’t go on
the backside and just use force to drive
that dent back out because of the
structure of the door so what I have to
do is I have to I have to attach
something to the deepest part of the
damage and then I have to use gentle
pressure to pull it back into place some
of you already see where I’m going with
this I took six penny nails like round
off the point and I spot-welded them to
the deepest part of the depression of
the damaged area you’ll see that I have
a square piece of tubing that’s resting
on the high points which is my standard
that’s where I need to draw the rest of
it back to you have to have a standard
you have to have a reference point you
have to know when the problem is solved
now I also didn’t have high dollar body
shop equipment
I had a carpenter I had had six penny
nails and I had a framing hammer and I
had a piece of square tubing but you
know what sometimes what you have is all
you need so we welded the nails and
through a process of pulling them out to
the standard to the to the high point we
were able to and I won’t show you the
after picture but except for a final
coat of paint that turned out to be a
complete restoration not only was the
dent fixed but the alignment the latch
pin lined back up the door opens and
closes full functionality
problem-solving and I think again how we
apply this to some of our own lives and
some people we know some trauma some
painful things some some traumatic
dynamic force has injured us it’s
deformed us in some way and the way that
we need to be restored is to find some
connection
point that attaches to the deepest part
of our hurt and draws us back gently to
where we need to be and again I’m
thinking about the wrench where these
these women are being ministered to
after having experienced the horrendous
events in their lives that have deformed
and derailed them horses are part of the
ranch ministry horses are a way that
people can connect emotionally when they
know they’re not yet ready to trust
emotionally another human being that
just that touched me at a very deep
level and every time we work on our on
these vehicles I am reminded of those of
those kind of lessons the right hand
picture is a little different this is a
rust thing
accidents happen sometimes caused by
other people rust this is a problem it’s
of our own doing rust is is caused by
our own negligence our own neglect and
sometimes when things are severely
rusted I don’t know if you can see it in
the picture that long kind of piece of
new metal that has been welded in tack
welded in we had to cut out the old
rusty cancerous part sometimes parts of
our lives are so badly damaged that we
have to eliminate the toxicity we have
to eliminate the cancer those of you
with any medical background will
immediately appreciate that analogy and
then we replace that with new solid
foundation stock and then we grind it
and we paint it and we make it pretty
and it’s just as good as new
and there is a Redemption process that
happens in our lives and this is a
lesson that that I’m imparting this is a
lesson I’m learning myself even as I am
teaching this same lesson to to these
young guys and gals that are working
with me the left hand picture just shows
we burned up a bunch of saw blades I
don’t know what kind of wood that was it
grew up in that truck that was some hard
stuff and we went through like six
chainsaw blades and sometimes you have
your high tech answer doesn’t
necessarily work we reduced two axes and
chisels and drills and anything we can
do to turn that mass into nothing but
sawdust sometimes low-tech we finally
did it we finally got it done the right
hand picture this is a this is requires
a little more high-tech a little more
problem-solving
mathematics yes boys and girls sometimes
you will use math in real life sometimes
problem-solving is reduced to simple
mathematics so anyway oh here’s a good
picture sometimes every guy that works
for me on a general as a general base as
their big guys
fully grown as we say in a south and so
sometimes you have to get into tight
places and so our best option here was
to hire the skinny kid from across the
street and he’s right up in there rat
literally inside the truck you know
tightening something that none of us
could get to so it’s a fun thing but
this is this was a an example of
sometimes less is best this is where I’m
at today now we’ve come a long ways from
that from from the woods we’ve come out
of the woods a long ways now the the
truck bed is not painted the truck hood
still needs some work the top of the
trucks you know I mean there’s just a
lot weird we’re not we’re not there yet
but as we traverse through the
wilderness where the monsters live and
the problems need to be solved we’re
working through this solving these
problems one step at a time one piece at
a time labor of love and as we as we get
ready to donate this truck to the
blazing hope ranch we hope that
everything we’ve done here is a perfect
picture of God’s love for us of the
redemption of man restoring each other
to full full faithful functionality full
fellowship because because that’s what
we do thank you guys very much I
appreciate
[Applause]
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