Testimony from Bill and Debra Mockabee

-Salvation Army this is Sarah Nelson and I'm Bernie Dick, thanks for joining us and welcome to the wonderful words of life. Happy Labor Day. Sarah yeah happy labor now.

This day you know what this means.

This day marks something very like important we stop drilling all that but we stop wearing whites so I don't know if that that role. I totally imply that you are but feel that that's out.

Traditionally I think that's what that the rule is, well, I don't know for listeners. See my picture. I'm not what you'd call efficient. I'm a fairly simple guy were lots of blue you know simple I would know the difference between white and not wearing white.

Except that I tend to always get some kind of sauce on my shirt wearing white, that's that pretty much that's bound to happen if you got a white shirt on right so fall is coming for sure today we're going to give Terry and Donna the week off as we get to share beautiful testimony of parenthood from two people that we love so much, Bill and Deborah McAbee.

I think we both get to say they were our bosses yes not too terribly long ago.

But there also friends other people that we've been in the trenches with you as it relates to work in the Salvation Army, but to the people who have an authentic yeah they've shared life with us.

I have a lot of respect for them more so Deborah, well that's true from their both great. I think all of us probably have Bill McAbee stories and we could go on and on about those. But, you know, one of the things you know since you mentioned he was our boss. One of the things I loved so much about him was just how engaged he was with the people he led make you remember him just walking around and talking and just being very real and forthcoming about his own life. So we love the Maccabees and were were so excited that working to hear from them through this interview I hope you enjoy their story as they share several powerful pieces of advice to the parents out there are first born, you know, if you drop BuSpar you will sterilize it. You know all that. If he grunts you run into the room. Second, when comes you drop a pacifier you rinse it off because you drop his shirt and shove it back to his art. Luckily, currently the divisional commander for the Salvation Army in the great state of Georgia. I'm remarkably and I'm the director of divisional director, women's ministries and officer development for the Georgia division Bill and I've been married. It will be coming all right and we have three boys we have William bail and we have Matthew, who resides with the King of Kings. Now and we have Jeremy lives here in Georgia is our boy's and authors are surely officers, which is interesting just because we didn't raise no note of the celebration.

I think we kind of agreed on that printer early when we storage we will be men of God of God that was in the South. Jeremy Wright yet but is interesting that all three of them ended up falling about our footsteps and licking their own footsteps and that was pretty important to us, but it was interesting to watch that our youngest son was a pilot for Delta Airlines and left very nice career. I was a little bit bummed out about that, proudly coming we got some flight perks with all that cost us out of this appointment. You know they're doing all three boys have done very well. It was part of our family narrative that you gotta do what you do and we will love you and support you. Having that goes without saying weathers part of faith I think is a child if they want off the straight and narrow, so to speak.

We would love them unconditionally, no matter what.

In the paragraph in the story and we tried to assure them of that and I think as a result of that, they made the wrong decision. Discipline was different for all three and I could say to one.

I'm not proud of you and that was just devastating that wishing one would be a lecture one you could put in the room and they would just create all kinds of things. Funny story.

We would take things away from you can't play baseball would take the blood which we would take everything away and in our middle son Matt one I remember one particular time we take away everything he had everything there was nothing left to take away from what he's looking at us like what he going to do now, so we decided in Scripture, the year of Jubilee where everything was forgiven. So we decided we gave them everything back always to start taking it away again so not that he was a strong-willed child. I mean extremely strong-willed and add on attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity. I mean that mesh together so we knew we had to parent him differently than the younger and the eldest is no manual that comes with everything you learn a lot in being people of faith. There is a lot that is given to us by the Holy Spirit who guides and helps direct now looking back at it being cold and watching them now. I think one of the things that I learned and I think that I would say to parents of young children now is that they really did listen, I think they were listening to anything. But now, is it so this is such a warm feeling in different you know when we visit them. You hear them saying some of the same things that we said to them, hear some of the principles of family they did did listen and the investment in them, comes back in the generations. I think listening and they did listen.

The other thing that I look back on now is all the times that we had to say no and they were so ticked off at that now to hear them. They were glad that we held the standard military has been a bit roses for us with our children. We we have gone through some incredibly deep waters so everything wasn't rosy. Everything was wonderful. It all makes sense.

In hindsight faith. Faith doesn't faith is absurd unless you're looking in retrospect. Faith does not make sense right now and if a parent is listening to this and going through what we went through we're witnesses were testimonies in the voice right now is a testimony to the fact that they do here and they do listen well and the important lesson I think in all that was during all of that.

In particular, new like what you're doing and how you're acting that we love you kids are gonna do crazy things and I think if we are there respite. If where there safe. If we are there unconditional love.

How then that will come back in the end to be a salvation piece the great ending to match story is that he was saved. He accepted Christ and he went as far the other ways he did going. He was an extreme, God is an evangelist. He became an evangelist. He was street below had a hard straight people.

He did not have any breaks when it came to helping people and he went to heaven he he was working in the Hurricane Katrina and he had been there for a couple of weeks and was exhausted and that all that work. He went home for three days and he was redeployed back to Texas, where the heat was just just if you remember just awful and he worked 24 seven.

Even when he should've been taking time off he found a group of people, so he works so hard to help people. He became exhausted and dehydrated and had a brain aneurysm and he went to heaven with his boots on. Sounds like a really sad story, but I will tell you when I go to heaven. I hope I got my boots on, because I'm afraid I will be sitting doing a radio talkshow sitting behind a big shot desk, but the mat is a real hero to me. He let a lot of people a lot of people came to Christ as result.

Oh, listen to anger Cali.

I went through all of it. I went through three years of total silence with God. God went absolutely silent. I played the part concerning of solitary man and I played the part acted, but silence. Silence.

And once I got through that valley.

I think firstly got admit you're in the Valley is the valley of the shadow of death, you go there. I think reading in morning is incredibly important. We this is a very joint overgeneralized statement.

We don't allow people to grieve. We don't allow people to mourn.

If you're a person of faith. If you have an effervescent personality of your fun-loving guy in an and I don't know that we ever leave so yet.

We had to be careful that we didn't get out of that step of anger. I was angry for a while. I was angry for a long time and it became a process for me with other people speaking in my life with me have an understanding of what it meant for him to go to heaven. You know that signal acknowledging that I'm in the Valley it's it's defining who I am in that valley. When I get you get out of the valley. I mean there's ways of getting out of the valley. When I get out of that valley. Have I define who God is, in my life. If he if he's the God of everything going great. How was it these, the God of valley.

Certainly, he is in going thing that made no sense at the time I could look back at that now man I wish I had the ability to write to say people the Valley real. You've got to admit, there it's the pain is real. There is an agriculture's no understanding. I stop this is going to sound cliché but I promise you smart cliché. I'd stop asking why start acknowledging why is why anything.

Why am I sitting here right now so why is isn't is important and we should ask that. But the focus has to be on who it's okay to be in the Valley management experiences and how well how I dealt with was alone different.

I was definitely in the Valley not reading Scripture. I just didn't feel like it warned didn't feel like it.

An interesting thing is we got tons of cards. I felt that our mailman and they all had Scripture so although I would not physically open my Bible. There they were in my face and I acknowledge that now that that probably was different. It was a gift from God. But for me I was in the Valley and I had in all this and it hit me. God's okay with me being mad at him and he's okay with me being the Valley that want me to stay here so my we have a sign in our house. Surviving is important that thriving is elegant, we when I think Bill and Deborah McAbee for sharing their story with if you'd like to hear an extended version of our conversation, subscribe to the show where ever you get your podcast or you can visit the Army sound cast.org the Salvation Army's mission doing the most good means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army visit Salvation Army USA.org to offer your support and we would love to hear from you. Email us at radio@uss.salvationarmy.org or call 1-800-229-9965 or write us at PO Box 29972, Atlanta, GA 30359 20 contact us will send you our gift for this series is totally free for listeners like you, one per household, while supplies last. You can also subscribe to our show on iTunes or your favorite podcast store and be sure to give us a rating to search for wonderful words of life follow some social media for the latest episode extended interviews and more. And if you don't have a church home invite you to visit your local Salvation Army worships. Glad to see this is Bernie date inviting you to join us next time.

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