Episode Transcript
In regards to the mentors, is there any training or how does one become a mentor and what support do the mentors have? Great question. So if you go to our website, you'll see the tab at the top, become a mentor. It's a simple application. That's kind of the first step that goes to our mentor officer who will reach out to you.
And usually the first thing we ask you to do is, is come to a Tuesday night meeting, community and connection. It's just kind of our way of, we get a lot of calls of people that want to be mentors, we need you to kind of. Put your time out there. Are you willing to come to a Tuesday night meeting? That kind of shows us that you're willing to kind of get in the mud and get going.
So once you come to a Tuesday night meeting, it also gives us an opportunity to meet you in person, get to see your personality. Cause we try to match our vets up with individuals that we know they're going to mesh with and have a good relationship with. Come to a Tuesday night meeting. After that, a video that we have you watch, kind of a generic video on veteran suicide, kind of the symptom things to look for and all that.
Then we have a quarterly training that you attend that we do in house where we go through the history of Barnabas. What Barnabas is about what we expect of our mentors, the meaningful, measurable, manageable goals. We have categories where those goals are set. We set goals in physical, mental, relational, vocational, and also spiritual just helping our mentors know what are we going to talk about every week when I'm meeting with my mentee?
What am I doing? You know, what are we, what discussions are we having? So we help them through that. And then after the training, you tell our mentors, go home and pray about it, go home and really discuss this. Is this something you want to do? It's a three month commitment. That's the minimum we ask that you pour into the veteran at the end of the three months, many times, I would say in most cases, the relationship continues on, but we do off tell our mentors, we don't want to burn you out either.
So at the end of three months, if you need to pass that baton on to another mentor or to, or your mentees ready to go. Then great. So, but about a three month commitment is what we ask of each one of our mentors. Welcome to a new season of the Collective Perspective Podcast. As we dive into the season, we're focusing on the pivotal upcoming election.
Widely considered as one of the most important of our lifetime. Join us on this journey as we navigate through diverse perspectives, dissect key issues and explore the profound impact on our shared future. Get ready for insightful discussions and thought provoking insights. Welcome to the Collective Perspective Podcast Season 3.
Hey everybody. Welcome back to The Collector Perspective. This is Jeff and today I have a full crew here. I have Travis and Jawad. Say what's up fellas. Hey, how you doing? What's up fellas? And we have a special guest, Mr. John Green. Mr. John Green, can you tell us about yourself? Yes, sir. I'm the co founder of Operation Barnabas.
We've been helping veterans here in the Northeast Florida area since 2017. Awesome. Veterans definitely need the help. Uh, can you start by telling us about yourself and your role more specifically at Operation Barnabas? My best friend, a man I consider my brother, he was a MARSOC Marine, served 17 years in the Marine Corps as a sniper, part of the elite group of Raiders, did that for 17 years.
When he returned stateside, his words were, it was like hitting a wall. Having lived in that kind of lifestyle with the, you can imagine the things he had to do and see, and then all of a sudden you're kind of back home coaching t ball in the park. Transition was challenging. He turned to the numbing, the alcohol, turned to the drugs, and actually went AWOL on a Tuesday.
Four of his Marine buddies said, we love you too much to let you do this. So they showed up and said, we have to take you to get some help. We're going to get some help. When Trey told me the story, I always laughed because I said, why'd they send four? And he said, well, they might've had to, you know, it might've gotten physical there and they needed four of them to whip him.
So, but they were that determined to get him some, some help. And they got him to a VA program at which led him to AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, which led him to a local church here in Clay County, Florida. That's where my wife and I were attending at the time. My background was, I was actually a public school principal, athletic director, football coach.
I was planning on being a career educator. That was kind of my vision. And 2017, right about the time, like I said, Trey was coming back, you know, God was kind of orchestrating all these events. Parkland shooting happened. County where I was serving as principal was the first county to sign up for the guardian program.
So I was the first principal in the state of Florida to carry a weapon on a school campus. So that was surreal. created kind of a holy unrest in me that we lived in a kind of world that had to happen, but I did it because I felt like it was the right thing to do to protect my students. Within one year of that, I had a student, 12 years old, commit suicide.
And for me, that was kind of the combination of having to carry a gun on a school campus, losing a child, not a, this was a kid that should be playing with Legos. That just spun me kind of like into we got to do something. We can't just keep doing what we're doing. And I had a holy unrest in my heart to begin.
I'd seen the power of one to one mentoring. I'd seen it work time and time again when a caring human being came into the life of a young person. It changes their lives. It changes their trajectory. So I had kind of this conversation with my wife about, Hey, let's disciple or let's let's mentor the next couple that comes in this church.
Cause I'd seen churches kind of do the same thing where they were like, Hey, good luck out, get in there, you get baptized. And then that was kind of, you never see him again. And I was like, so we said, we're going to mentor the next couple that comes to this church. I had no idea that it was going to be Trey and his wife, Lauren.
Watched him get baptized in a horse trough in our gymnasium. Had no idea that our daughters had already met. They were 10 years old at the time. She came home that afternoon, said, daddy, can I go hang out with this new family, this new girl from North Carolina? I said, I got to meet the parents. Typical 10 year old.
She said, Oh, good. They're on the way. Had no idea that it was the same guy. and lady that had just been baptized in our gym and, uh, open the door. This is the funny part of the story too. I always say, you know, when I opened the door, Trey is, uh, he's, he's tatted up all up and down, had his hat on backwards, shirt ripped, jeans ripped.
And my first, I just human nature as a dad, I'm going, man, I'm not letting my dog go with this guy, much less my 10 year old daughter, man, like this guy's scary looking. Two hours later, God did what only God could do. We were just sitting on the couch, just sharing our lives and our stories and kind of what is going on.
And, I told him, I said, Hey man, if you'll, uh, I'm, I'm getting kind of old. If, if you'll help me keep my body in shape, train me like a Marsoc Marine, I'll train you to be like a, a Marsoc Christian, man. I'll train you how to, and so we would do that. We would do a physical workout and then we would, um, get into the word.
And we did that for years. We just became good friends and eventually brothers. Our families grew together. And that's what birth taught me. Operation Barnabas, the power of a human being coming into the life of another human being, mentoring one to one. And Trey said, I want every veteran first responder.
I want, I want them all to have that same opportunity. And we launched out of there, 501c3, and then, uh, and began Operation Barnabas in 2017. That is awesome. It sounds very, almost serendipitous where He's in your church getting baptized. Next thing you know, that's your daughter's new friend that she just met.
That's pretty cool. Yeah, the girls joke that they're actually the founders of Operation Barnabas. They try to take credit for it. Yeah, let them run with it. Can you tell us about the mission and history Of Operation Barnabas. Really the history is, is that when we first started, we really didn't, we just knew that mentorship worked.
We knew that if we could help these guys get them off the streets, it really was just me and him. We, we really didn't have a plan for mentorship or what that looked like, or, and we had a camper that had been donated. So we would drive around Northeast Florida, find a guy under a bridge behind a building.
We'd pull him out, put him into our camper. In fact, I think the first veteran we ever put into our camper was a JAG attorney. He was behind a church down in Keystone Heights, Florida, and was in a really bad spot and a really bad place. And, uh, we were able to get him into that camper. And so that's kind of, we, we really started kind of with just, we wanted to help.
We knew, and we knew if we could pour into these men. it would make a difference. And so that was the vision was to grow that and to grow the capacity to do that. So we knew after a while of dragging that camper around, we were going to need some help because soon it didn't take long before the, the need grew beyond what he and I could do.
The calls started to come in really not just from Northeast Florida. I mean, we, we've had veterans come from as far as California. Hillsborough County. I mean, they just the calls just it was heartbreaking. And so we knew we needed to grow. We knew we needed to expand. And so we began recruiting other people, veterans, other patriots that would be willing to act as a mentor and speaking to the lab.
And it worked. And, uh, and that's how we got here where are today. So this is, uh, seven years. I think we're up to, last count, we've taken about 200 plus veterans off the streets and made them whole again. We also have a process that we call triage because when you're homeless, obviously there's lots of factors that go into that, how you got into that situation.
And so every one of these men and women are different. We call it triage because there's not just a cookie cutter program where you say, okay, we're going to do this. We're going to do this. Some of them have criminal backgrounds. Some of them have just gotten out of jail or prison. Some of them. and professional skills.
Some of them have struggled with vocational and careers. It's just everyone's different. That's what we do is we look at them as an individual and that's what their mentor does is they look at them as an individual and go, okay, how do we put this person's life back together? And in the beginning, when the economy was a little bit different, We were able to take, if you called me and said, Hey, John, I just saw a guy under the bridge over on 295 within a couple hours, I could have him housed in a hotel under 90 days.
We could have him a reliable car, a job, and then into stable housing, usually like a one bedroom, one bath house and under 90 days, we were cranking it. Those one bedroom, one bath apartments were at partnerships with different groups around the city. They're about 800 bucks affordable. You could get them in there.
Well, that same one bedroom, one bath today is probably about 1500 bucks. Really slowed us down, made our job even more challenging, but we pivoted, we've adapted and we continue to work. And that's kind of what we do is we look at the needs of each person and allow that mentor to set meaningful, uh, what happens with the mentor and the, uh, the veteran is they each week when they meet, they set meaningful, measurable, manageable goal.
Those goals are again, helping them put those pieces back together. If they need more intense counseling, that might be part of the puzzle. Like I said, we just, we call it triage and it works. What would you say that the primary challenge is that a veteran encounters when they get out of the military and are you usually taking in veterans that are Fresh out of the military that didn't have a home to go back to family.
Yeah, so it's shocking, but it's almost universal 100 percent consensus that the transition from military life to civilian life is bad I've not heard one veteran I've ever met that has said that was a great process. The military does it. It was really hard to find a job, personally. That's what Trey said, especially kind of work he was doing.
You're a sniper in the military. You go into a business. What'd you do in the military? I was a sniper. Uh, okay. Yeah. You know, it was, it was challenging. And again, you've done this thing for five years, 10 years, 20 years in some cases. No one's helping you have the, the discussions of what do you want to do next?
What's the next season, you know, of your life going to look like? And that wouldn't happen. A sniper doesn't really have a good transition to the civilian world. It's a little challenging. When I was in high school, the Marines, I love the Marines. When they came to school and did their little recruitment speech to everybody, I was like, yeah, I was all gung ho.
I wanted to be a sniper personally. Cause you know, I'm, I'm a young kid. I'm fit. I'm a good shot. Yeah. All this stuff. I went home and told my dad I was going to join the Marines. And he said, yeah, what do you want to do? I said, I want to be a sniper. He looked me straight in the face and said, now, what are you going to do with that when you get out?
That was the, that was probably the best question he could have asked me at that time as a 17, 18 year old kid. Yeah. I'm thinking, Hey, they make lots of money, but you're not thinking about the mental ramifications of that type of job. I went. The complete opposite way and said, all right, it's harder to save a life than take a life.
And that's why I became a corpsman in the Navy. I agree. When I got out, I could not even get a job at Taco Bell. Cause you're overqualified. Probably. I couldn't get into the hospital system because I didn't have the right licensures and degrees that they required in civilian life. Cause as a corpsman, we can do a lot of stuff.
And some states, I think in California at the time. If you were a corpsman for so many years, you could challenge the LPN board and didn't even need any extra schooling. But I was in Florida and I couldn't do that here. It was very difficult and that's when I decided, you know what, let's just buckle down and go to school and get my nursing degree.
I can agree that we didn't get a lot back then when we got out to be able to help us transition to that civilian life and be, and have meaningful work and get a good job. John, you said In a nutshell said, obviously you help the veterans and you help them get housing, but how, I know it's a lot more detailed than that.
Can you explain that? The process, that's why we, we kind of labeled it triage because it's not a, it said they come to us and no, they, there's so many different factors. They might have fines. They might have. Many of them don't, can't even find their DD 214. I mean, they don't have paperwork. They don't have basic things like a driver's license.
And yeah, it's, it's a challenge and it's a struggle. And so that's, what's so great about the one to one mentorship is each mentor not assigned a case load. They're not working with five, 10 veterans. It's you and me. And we're doing life together and we're going to put this thing back together piece by piece.
So how do you find these gentlemen and ladies? They, right now it's, it's overwhelming. They call our Barnabas line, our phone line. They put in applications online on the website. This is what's fascinating is we get referrals from the VA. And so the joke is, is that the VA with their multi billion dollar budget is calling little Barnabas because they know we're going to get it done and they know we're going to make it happen.
Local VSOs, relatives of veterans. I mean, it comes from every direction and every, and people, some people have asked me like, is it really that big of a veteran homeless veteran problem in Northeast Florida? And I'm like, Absolutely. It is overwhelming. I think the state average in Florida is 7 percent of the population is veteran.
We're 16 percent here in Northeast Florida, 60. We're two, almost two and a half times 16 percent in Northeast Florida. So there is a high concentration of veterans in this area. They, they're coming here. They come to us from all different. Places we have some of the bigger bases also here and you know, and Gainesville's still considered It's borderline northeast florida, but I you'd almost still call it northeast florida We've got a va here in jacksonville and one in st.
Augustine as well. That's a smaller one But yeah, we have actually two in jacksonville one downtown one up by the airport. That's brand new and actually one in middleburg As well on college. I know you said it's obviously made a difference in live You have Someone else besides Trey that your firstborn or your first Transition is always like the most memorable because it was your first.
Has there anybody else that's been like Completely, I mean, or is it just pretty much everybody that enters the program is a success story I wish I could say they were all success stories, but they're not these men and women are battling demons They're battling real deal addictions and pasts and they've many of them Have burned every bridge possible.
I mean, we, we've actually been listed, uh, one of the vets that we lost to a, a, a fentanyl overdose. We were listed as his next of kin. So the sheriff's office called me as the next of kin to come identify his body. It was heartbreaking. I wish we could say we have a hundred percent success rate, but that accurate.
But I will say that of the 200 plus that have actually entered the program and been mentored, there's only two that I know of that we've lost to the opioid or to the, the drug overdose. The other one's the 198. I could, we could be here till next week telling you the amazing transformations, but one that really stands out in my mind is a veteran named Jordan.
He was an army veteran, got out, didn't transition well. Got back into his old neighborhood his old demons and ended up running drugs for the cartel and then ends up getting himself on three Terrorist watch lists so he goes from being a hero to now. He's on three terrorist watch lists Incredible crazy story, but ends up in the Hillsborough County Jail in Hillsborough We have a partnership with Sheriff Chronister and the vet pod down there And we've taken a handful of their vets out of that vet pod to kind of get them out of that Sometimes they need a complete And so taking them from Tampa up here to Jacksonville where they don't know anybody, they don't know any has been successful.
And so we took Jordan out of the Hillsborough County jail. Amazing, miraculous, kind of like you said, just watching God work. I had no idea, but his wife, when I was a principal at a school here in Clay County, she was one of my students. Never met Jordan, didn't know Jordan, didn't know he married a local girl until, until we put the pieces together, but got him out of the jail, got him into our program, got him a mentor.
His mentor actually became one of our mentor, one of our staff members. He's actually our mentor officer now. So it's an incredible story and they ended up becoming best friends like, much like Trey and I do, because a lot of our mentors and mentees, that's what happens is, is they become lifelong friends.
Jordan's being mentored by Tyler, putting his life back together. His marriage was in shambles, obviously because of his decisions. She didn't trust him very well. Got a marriage counseling. We got him into that. And then piece by piece, Tyler helped him put his life back together. And the really cool part about watching it happen is he just purchased a home about a year ago here, right here by your studio.
Actually, he's right here down camp Johnson and the neighborhood back here. When we did the housewarming party, his former youth pastor, was there who joked on a, on a little video that we made that he said, uh, he told Jordan when he was younger, he said, Hey man, you're, you're either going to end up in jail or in, or in the, uh, in the military, he said, I didn't know you were going to be an overachiever and do both, but to see the difference in Jordan's life.
Yeah. Like I said, his, his pastors, his former youth pastor was just amazed. Sheriff Chronister, who is again, this is one of the top five largest law enforcement agencies, and I think in the United States, called Jordan and congratulated him and said, Hey man, well done. Uh, a, just again, a complete 180 life turned around.
And so we love to tell Jordan's story and he tells it better than I can, obviously. But, um, but again, I could tell you that. The JAG attorney that we pulled out that, that first one, he's, he's got a law practice in downtown Jacksonville. Now, successful. Um, we had a nurse, uh, who lost her license, her, her license conventional.
She was a four time suicide survivor. When I met her in the psych ward at the hospital, she told me, she said, a lot of people that commit to try to try multiple attempts at suicide or just are not really trying. She said, I was really trying. Now she's working in the insurance industry and, uh, again, life transformed.
I could sit here all night and tell you story after story after story of these men and women who we had one that came about a few months ago and shared been a part of our program actually for quite a few years now, comes back to our Tuesday night meetings that we have every Tuesday night at 6 30. We call it community and connection.
And I didn't know this part of his story, but he shared with us that. When we called him, he put it in his application and when we called him to get him some help, he said he was about five minutes away. He had already planned. He had sent his wife and daughter away. He had the gun. He had everything planned out.
He had the time picked out and he said it was about three or four minutes before he was going to pull the trigger. We, the phone rang and it was, uh, again, all I could tell you all these stories, man, cause they're just incredible. It's just been cool. Really amazing to watch. God, that's amazing, man.
Definitely. I could sit here all night. It was ignorant for me to think that they're all success stories. I was just like, well, they go in and these guys help them. And I guess maybe I was just being over positive, but in reality, it's not, not the case, but it's pretty close. It sounds like it's, uh, they do a very pretty good job.
Less veterans committed suicide on the regular. So we believe in our hearts that obviously we're faith based. We don't hide who we are. We don't, we know God's working in the lives of every human being. And so that's the biggest piece of the puzzle. But the second biggest piece we believe is that I'm telling you, I've been I preach it from the mountaintop that the Paul Timothy model when one human being comes into the life of another human being and says, I care enough to get in the mud with you.
It's life transforming. It really is. And so we, we believe that that's our kind of our secret sauce. What about the, the guy or the girl that doesn't accept Jesus, but wants to stay in your program? We get that question quite a bit. And especially in today's environment. And we tell people, we're going to help you.
Because you have a DD 214, you serve this country. We had a female Muslim soldier that was in our program and every week she would come to our community and connection and she would say, you know, you're not going to convert me. Right. And I would always look at her and say, you know, I'm not trying to convert you.
Right. And she just kept waiting for that bait and switch. Like, well, you guys are trying. And we kept telling her like, no, we're going to help you because you served this country. We've had LGBTQ soldiers come through our program. And again, that's not on any of our radars. We don't, we're here to help veterans and first responders get their lives whole again.
But we also don't hide who we are either. And we're, we were proud and bold about our faith. And we believe that is a piece of the puzzle. Hey listeners, this is Juwa from the Collective Perspective here, looking to elevate your business with top notch audio, video, and lighting solutions. Meet Jeff Altridge, a seasoned expert in AV technology.
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You can reach Jeff at 904 515 8141 at J A L D R I C H at gcpro. com for further details. What are the biggest challenges Operation Barnabas faces today? The biggest challenge that we face today, like all nonprofits, 501c3s is, is funding the, the, everything has gone up cars. We have a great partnership with Mercy Auto, good friend of mine.
Over the seven years, we've been so blessed to build relationships and partnerships, but stuff's not free. And our program, we teach our veterans that it's a hand up, not a hand out. Model that ourselves too. So when I go to a business, I'm not just asking for a I'm wearing a shirt here. You guys can see that what these shirts were donated, but I told the company, put your logo right there.
We'll boldly put it on there. We want to promote your business too. We love small businesses. We love being able to help you be successful too. I'm not just coming in here asking for free t shirts, but funding is, is always a challenge, of course, because we're limited by what we can do. And I can tell you that the number of applications that we receive on a daily basis, far outweighs what we can do.
So it's, it's heartbreaking to have to say no because you don't have the resources to be able to help. So that's number one challenge. Number two challenges as our country, as our nation, and we see it, of course, you guys talk about it on your podcast, like as we continue to be divided and as the family unit breaks down.
Isolation. I think the CDC just labeled isolation a disease. Now it's causing cancer. It's causing heart disease. It's causing. And that's another thing. These vets talk about a challenge. They get out of the military where they're constantly in community. I mean, when you're on a ship, you're, you're around people 20 and now all of a sudden you're out in an apartment or you're out On your own and you're alone, I would say the number one thing that causes people say, well, how, how do they get to that situation?
How do they spiral? It starts with isolation. They isolate and they get in their heads and they start having thoughts and suicidal thoughts and things and they get frustrated and things and then you start the numbing. So the pills and the, and the drinking and those things, and then you just spiral down from there and you burn bridges and you burn relationships.
It's a challenge to take a human being who has been Burned everything down to the ground. They're all, they're really, they're marriages. They're I'll ask questions like, Hey, what about your mom, your dad, cousin, uncle, none, nothing, just complete isolation. So trying to build back community, that's a challenge.
That is a challenge that we face with the, a lot of the, you know, these individuals and building not just community, but healthy community. That's going to last beyond Barnabas and last beyond that. So those are the two biggest challenges I think we're facing right now. And the drug epidemic is, I think somebody just told me the other day in our local jail, something like almost 75 percent of the jail people, they're, uh, they're in there for drugs.
So the drug thing has just gotten crazy. Would you say, um, isolation is like a by product of depression. It's kind of like the chicken and the egg thing, which one comes first. I'm just a firm believer that. The depression is the symptom of something else. So I would say the isolation starts it and it's because now because you're in your head and you're thinking all and you're thinking thoughts and you're thinking dark things and you're And it's just kind of builds and builds and builds which then leads to the depression which then leads you to go Okay, I need to numb this depression.
Let me find some substance. So the isolation when they get out and they don't have that support They don't have any help is What you're seeing from your perspective, uh, what starts that, that could be the start of that downward spiral. I would say in almost every case that, that I've been a part of. And when I, cause we do, we dig into their story.
We want to know their stories, what led them to this situation. How can I would say in almost every case, it started with that isolation where I just, I pulled away from everything, friends, family burned it. And now I'm alone and I don't have that, that healthy support group and it, and then it spirals. I would be curious to know.
You started in 2017 and then three years later were hit with something that isolated everybody in the country. Did you see a large uptick in applications during that time? That was really when Barnabas, because up to that point, like I said, we were kind of in that trailer phase, me and Trey trying to save the world, man.
We're running around with our hair on fire and 2020 when COVID hit, that's when it got serious. That's when the applications and the need and just the demand got overwhelming. That was actually, you know, the time when we reached out to a local hotel that we were actually looking for board members and donations.
And we met a lady that owned a hotel here in clay County. We actually met her and said, Hey, we need some rooms. We need to be able to get these guys off the street rapidly, rapid rehousing. We called it miss Kathy was our, we still call her our mom. She, uh, she was such a blessing, but the demand was so great during that time, but we were able to get them into the hotel, able to get them off the streets quickly.
So it actually, while demand went up, we were actually able to house more of them and help more of them. I don't know if this is pertinent, but in our first season, didn't we hear, wasn't Barnabas on our radar then and one of the, one of our interviews at that time. They had talked about, I think someone had mentioned Operation Barnabas and they had rooms in a hotel and they were filling it up and they were like, yeah, you just got to give them a call and see if they have room.
And they got it. There's a vetting process. Do you remember that? It's by Elevate Life Church. That sounds very familiar. Oh, Foundation to Freedom. What was it called? Foundation of Freedom, probably like our fifth episode. Oh, okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. Okay. Sorry. My mind just went squirrel for a second. It coincides with what Operation Barnabas is doing and that is getting them off their feet, making them responsible.
They have to pay bills. They live in an apartment that's sponsored. Um, and then it's a transition to, to get them a job, get a car, get a place on their own. And then they're all self sufficient, uh, back into the community. Okay. What are some future goals of the organization? Future goals of the organization is actually expansion.
One of our veterans who was in program who actually works for us now, credible, another credible story, James, he is a purple heart recipient, came into our program, got him actually onto one of our properties, mobile home that we were utilizing, and he and his wife moved in there, got him a mentor, started putting his life back together piece by piece.
And not to interrupt you, but just for people that don't know, a purple heart recipient is someone that was injured in the line of duty. Right. James actually, I think, was eligible for two Purple Hearts. Um, he had actually been in two explosions with an IED. He took one of the Purple Hearts. And again, just an incredible story.
Young guy from South Georgia. Just, again, a hero serving this country. So through our resources and our partnerships, we actually got him into homes for heroes. Obviously they don't, a lot of people demand for that, but if you don't know homes for heroes, but they, they built homes for our veterans had no cost mortgage free, James actually was selected to receive a house in Orlando and August should be completed.
And this was just the power of Barnabas and what God's doing in this. James actually considered like, he kind of kicked around not accepting the house. He didn't want to leave his family here. He didn't want to leave his community that he had built and we had to talk him into it. We had to be like, no, James, that's a, that's a blessing, man.
You got to take that. And so as part of us talking him through that and talking to men that we realized, uh, and again, it's a long story. I don't have time to get into on this, but long story short, like, All of a sudden, all these pieces came together where it was like, well, he can just do Barnabas in Orlando and we can just expand.
And so our board voted to, to, for the first expansion. So we're going to have our first chapter launching in, in, uh, in August when the house is completed and we got to go down. It was really cool. And do a, they call it a notes of love. So before they put the sheet rock and everything up, you can go in there and sign the studs and all the walls and the floors.
And so, uh, so that was really cool. Cause a lot of the partners, uh, the businesses that are going to be supporting us were there and it was, uh, Pulte Homes is, is, is, uh, building the house for them. So they put that on and it's just a really cool program. And so we're excited about that. So expansion is our goals.
I get calls all the time from literally as far away as Hawaii about how can we get a Barnabas started in our town? How can we get a Barnabas started in our state? That would be our dream and our vision is that there's an Operation Barnabas in every city across the nation. It's awesome. I'm not sure if you touched on this or not, but where did the name Barnabas come from?
That's a great question. When Trey and I were trying to figure out a name for this, I have this gigantic, ginormous, four volume set of every name from the Bible, A to Z. And, uh, these are old books. Somebody gave them to me, uh, and I, I kept them, never opened them, never read them, but decided when we were trying to figure out a name, I was like, let's, We want something biblical.
So let's start through, start with a, so I literally start with a couldn't find anything. Couldn't find anything. Got to be and got to Barnabas and Barnabas means son of encouragement. And if you ever meet Trey Fagan, I I've known the man for seven years now. I consider him my best, one of my best friends in the entire world.
He is the son of encouragement. He is the most encouraged. He will text me in the middle of day. I love you, man He's the first man that I grew up without a dad don't have a dad in my life now Didn't really get that male affection male So he was the first man that taught me that it's okay for two guys to say, you know I love you, man.
Yeah, like I love you like it and man It was just powerful to have him tell me that I it was just natural. I knew right then. Oh, yeah, that's you Trey You're the son of encouragement. That's what we do. And that's what Barmas does. We say faith action and encouragement So much inspiration, so little time.
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Visit MixTheoryStudios. com today to learn more. We're in the season of talking about elections and, uh, One of the reasons why I wanted you on, other than a goal of mine, was to talk about what influences veterans. And I understand you're not a veteran yourself, but it's very appreciative of what you've done for our fellow brothers and sisters.
And what's crazy about, you know, if I just wear, uh, I wore my USS Kitty Hawk hat that I bought at the VA the other day. Just in public, the amount of eye contact I got from every veteran. That walk through that place. It's just like a instant connection. You don't even know the person at all whatsoever, but you see that they're a veteran and there's a connection.
You don't even know if they've spent four years or 20 years. There's, there's that connection. I think that's kind of incredible. Well, we're Jackson, my son, you mentioned him, he's actually helping Trey and I kind of put this into a, to a book for him. We're going to call it a Patriot and a soldier. That's kind of going to be our working title.
And you kind of mentioned that, that veterans have that unique. But part of Trey and I's vision as we built Barnabas is, is we realized that there were patriots like myself. So many patriots out there that said, okay, I didn't serve, but I want to serve those who did. Because you guys are heroes. You guys protect from the bad things.
And so, and you've sacrificed your bodies, your mind, your time, your families at times, being away from your family so that I could be with mine. And the least I could do and the least the patriots of this country could do is how do we, you know, how do we support you? And so this, that was, that was also the dream of Barnabas was, is that it would always be a combination of patriots and veterans coming together.
Because my grandfather told me a story. He was a World War II veteran. He flew in the bloody hundredth and Apple TV just made a doc, you know, a show about these guys. And he was one of those guys. He never talked about it, never really told me a lot of stories, but I remember one that he told me, and I don't know where it came from, but he said there was a women's basketball game going on during World War II, and one of the girls got hit and she, one of the bobby pins fell out of her hair.
They stopped the game in the middle of the game and everybody came on the floor and they walked up and down that floor until they found that Bobby pin because that Bobby pin was made of metal and it represented a bomb or a bullet or something that our boys needed to. And it was just this patriots and veterans together, working, serving together.
That's, that's what makes a strong country. And that's why Barnabas is, is, is unique. And yeah, just to hinge upon what he was saying, it's just like you guys are real life heroes, man. actual heroes. I mean, we, we look at the Marvel movies and we look at all of the made up stuff, but you guys actually put your life on the lines for us so that we can sleep peacefully on our pillows and have a way of life.
And I really appreciate and praise God for you guys. You guys are amazing. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It's funny, when you're in there, you don't really think about it that way. It's a love hate relationship, but, for some of us. It's like, I love it, I miss it, I hate it. That's true too, yeah. And, well, you know, your best command was your last command.
You're never happy with where you're at. Where you were was always better, it seemed like, until you moved. How do veteran issues play a role in this election? No, unfortunately you don't hear a lot of that being talked about by either candidate. Obviously hear the stories of the horror stories of the VA and, and just how, and I think the VA, the issue with the VA is it's.
It's like the IRS, when you get that big, you can't move, you can't function. It's, it's a bureaucratic nightmare of paperwork and red tape. And it just, I'll be honest, a lot of the veterans that come into Operation Barnabas, you talk about the love hate relationship, like their hatred towards the VA, man, it's, it's bad.
And that's the good thing about Barnabas is, is we've eliminated that red tape. Like our application is a Google form. It's like 10 questions. We're trying to get past that. So presidential election, no one's talking about how to make the VA or make help us get more efficient, get more smaller, leaner, like it's just expand big, big, big, big, and they're just spending, I would hate to see how much of the billions of dollars that go to the VA actually, how, what would, what is the percentage that actually makes it to the vets that gets to the people that actually need it?
I think we'd be shocked at how little it probably is because of how big that organization has become. Yeah. It would be nice to hear both candidates or somebody's talk about let's do some VA reform. How do we work on that? What does that look like? That's the kind of things that they're seeing every day.
That's probably the biggest issue in a veteran's mind election wise is the VA and how that kind of hard to put into words but the Like we said the transition out of the military into civilian life a lot of so many of them their bodies are broken their their their minds things and stuff and it's like What are we doing for nothing?
We're giving them pills And just saying, here, take your pills and go, man. Do you know why that is, bigger? I was sitting in a car dealership years ago, and I saw a gentleman, he was a Marine, an older Marine, retired, obviously. He explained to me, World War II, it was a lot easier because it took you two months by ship to get back.
Now they fly you across. You don't have that decompression time. So either you're back with your family and stressing and having mental issues, but at a quicker rate. So there is not that, that lag. Yeah, I had a friend, he came from the war. He drove tanks. And he said literally for a year, he couldn't even go to the grocery store.
He said his, it's just his perception of reality was completely not normal. He was like if he, he was literally, he said he was on the edge and if he'd had an argument with somebody, or some really kind of aggressive discussion, The way he would rationalize resolving it would be to shoot the guy. And he said, it was just, He was conditioned to kill.
It was just like, I, he watched humans explode like water balloons. And he said it was, it was really traumatizing to come back to the world and try to reacclimate himself to some, you're talking about PTSD. Yeah. He's in, he had, he couldn't go anywhere for a year. And, and, and I knew this guy. He was really cool.
We grew up together and he went to high school. He was a really kind, nice guy. He just wanted to start his life and join the military. And to see him talk like that, it was like incredible. And that's that self isolation right there. Yeah. I think the VA, with having my own experience lately and trying to navigate it is, there are people out there that are always trying to take advantage of other people.
Whether it be homeless people and these large organizations make all the money, make billion dollars a year for CEO and, uh, all this profit and not a lot of going to the homeless. But just like being in the military, I don't know, Travis was never on a ship, but when you're out the ship for six months, you and you work in medical.
You start making relationships with other people that do other things in the ship. Next thing you know, you got some new dockers, you got some clean overalls, your laundry's always pressed. You do these favors and there's that such of a tight of a community on board of a ship that once you learn that, it applies to everything else in your life.
Get hook up here, hook up here because you know, so and so and this and that. That's that camaraderie, the community. That was a deep explanation. The community that you have, you can go to a friend and say, Hey, I'm good at this and I can help you with this. It's, it's truly a barter system. I think another election issue that I hear a lot of the veterans talk about too, is, is just also how do we can, we've always had difference of opinions from the two parties, but.
I don't see how ever it's not 100 percent unanimous how that we should support our, our military and our first responders. So, you know, when the whole defund police thing started, I was kind of like, what, what are we talking about? These are the men and women that literally keep us safe and protect us.
And when we call nine one one, I've been in some countries on mission trips where. There's no 9 1 1. Nobody's coming if you're in trouble. Nobody's coming. And here we are talking about these people like they're, they're bad people. And I'm like, how do we not support them? Why would, why would either party ever say anything?
Like, how do we get them the best materials? How do we get them the best? Best funding, how do we get, make sure that they are, have all the things they need to be successful so that again, like you said, we can put our heads on that pillow at night knowing that we are in the safest nation on the planet.
Well, there's one thing, there's medical benefits. You can automatically apply and be given medical benefits, but compensation for injuries that happened. So you can get rated. A hundred percent and there's a lot of benefits. And then there's different percentages of pay that you get paid out every month.
In a nutshell, a veteran that is in harm's way or comes through Operation Barnabas, I would imagine that that is a process that you're also helping them get through. And there, I tell you, you know, I said, there's a lot of people that are taking advantage of somebody. Oh, we're on Budsman and we're here.
They just want a percentage of your pay because they they'll find out and fight for it and then get that percentage. And then all of a sudden you're paying them 10%. We actually, that's something that Barnabas is known for now is we have one of our mentors, Blake. He's a U. S. Army veteran and he is doing some miraculous things with the veterans claims.
He has a claim service that he uses. He works on a donation basis, so he's not taking 10%. He's not doing that. He is one of you guys, he's a veteran. And so he knows how to fight for it. And he knows how important it is to do that. He's taken some cases like James, I told you, our purple heart recipient. I think James was rated at 20 percent when he came to our program.
I'm like, how are you 20 percent when you're a purple heart? Like, what, what does that, that doesn't even make sense. And because of Blake's. You know tenacity and just his his understanding of the the process He's got him a hundred percent and I can tell you the majority of vets that we send through That's incredible that part of our service The majority of them get their is there anything else that you'd like to share about operation part of this?
I would like to share that It is an honor and it is truly humbling to hear the stories of the men and women who have earned it, have put their lives on the line, have done the things necessary that most Americans are either not willing or able to do. We're super appreciative. And, uh, for us to be able to pour back into them and help them make their lives whole again.
It's a privilege. And we're just super thankful to have the support of our community, the support of the government, the support of our churches, the support of our businesses. It truly started as a grassroots movement. And we've said, and our board and our leadership have said, we want this to stay. A grassroots movement.
We're just, again, super thankful and humbled to be able to do this. Uh, give us a good plug, closing up here. We appreciate your time. How can people get involved and support your organization? So obviously easiest way, www. operationbarbers. com. The website's there. The stories are there. The everything we do is on that website.
We tell people that call us, and our phone number's on there too. We tell people, if you really want to see Barnabas, if you want to see it firsthand and, and see how God's working, show up on a Tuesday night to one of our community and connection meetings. They take place every Tuesday at 6. 30 PM. We never change the time.
We never change the location. Uh, we say unless there's an act of God, we're going to be there because we are battling isolation. And so we want our veterans and first responders and EMTs and firefighters to know there is a safe place that you can come. On a weekly basis. And there's people there that love you, care about you, and we're willing to listen.
I could sit here and tell you Tuesday night stories. I call them Tuesday night stories all night long. Cause it's, it's incredible what happens on Tuesday nights when these men and women come in here. But we need mentors. We need board members. We need all, you know, mentors is probably the greatest need.
Cause like I said, we're not going to have five to one ratio. It's a one to one ratio. So we're only as big as our, as the, as our mentors. How can someone donate money to your organization? Go straight to the website, right at the top, um, simple tab donate. Now we have a free office. We're trying to keep every.
Administrative costs at the absolute lowest so that we can help these veterans. So yeah, donate now at operationbarbers. com. Hey everybody. Thanks for listening to the collective perspective. Thank you, Travis and Juad and of course, John. I would definitely appreciate everybody's. Perspective and make this a good podcast.
We encourage you out there to have a conversation about what is going on with our veterans. How can we help in your community and your family? We encourage you to strike a conversation and start. Thanks for listening. You're awesome.
