Dustin and Darren

On the Hazy Path Podcast, host Dustin chats with guest Darren Bailey. Darren shares his dramatic conversion from staunch atheism to Christianity. After nearly dying abroad and surviving via a Muslim’s help, he felt perpetually "dangling" until God saved him. The pivotal moment occurred when his uncle Gene died; seeing Gene’s spirit leave triggered an undeniable realization of God’s reality. Previously hostile to faith—even planning to sell Bible pages—Darren surrendered completely. Within 36 hours, he boldly confessed Jesus to a colleague who had mocked science for years, transforming their relationship and sparking Darren’s new life as a believer and author of *Slow Enough to See*. Cool. All right, so this is where we put all those, let's see, all of those podcasts that have been done about recording sound and doing podcasts with your friends and all that. Make sure you're prepared. Preparation is the key. It's the key. People won't know you're reading it from a script. Well, I got some good news, Dustin. We don't have a script, man. And we haven't prepared anything. Ad lib. This is ad lib. Ad lib. And it gets better. It's your podcast, not mine. So when you're ready, go ahead. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Hazy Path Podcast. I'm sitting here with an amazing guy, Darren Bailey. Met him on a sabbatical through Church of the King. He's got an incredible story and I'd love for him to share it. Darren, if you were to give the audience a five-minute overview of your life, what would that look like? Five-minute overview of my life? Yeah. I was asked to do that the other day in front of an ENT guy, and he's like, can you give me a summary of exactly what's going on? So I really did. I started sharing with him. I'm like, and he just went on for like 60 seconds. And there was this lady, unbeknownst to me, right behind fixing one of the pieces of equipment back there. She stuck her head around the corner and she's like, wait, that all just came out of your mouth in 60 seconds? So yeah, I can give you a 60-second summary if you want. Cool, let's do it. It's been awesome. It's been crazy. I've had an amazing childhood. I was brought up in England. I'm from England originally. Moved to Canada after traveling around the world for almost 12 months. During that trip, almost died half a dozen times. One of those near-death experiences, actually, I was saved by a Muslim as my feet were dangling off the edge of a waterfall that was dropping 100 feet. And so that incident basically sums up my life. I've been dangling from danger my whole life, hoping to be saved by someone, and eventually God saved me. Yeah, how did he save you? That is a great question. I was at the office just around the corner, actually. I got a call from my wife. She says, Uncle Gene just passed away. And I said, okay, was there anything you need me to do about that? I mean, what an answer is that? What kind of answer is that, by the way? Not the best one. Not the best, but before she could answer it, actually, there was something that interrupted my mind. Now I know it to be the Holy Spirit. But it was basically, Darren, you need to be there. And before Tracy could answer or respond to what I just said, as quickly as I could, I jumped in the truck and headed that way. I was there in 30 minutes. The minute I opened, the door opened right there for me. This hospice lady opened the door. I was like, hi. She's like, hi. She said, you look big and strong. Would you help me move the body? I was like, wow, this is quite the intro. So as I walked in the bedroom, that's when it all really went down. I had been an atheist for 45 years, something like that. Pretty staunch one at that. And the minute I walked in the room, I noticed one thing in particular, and that was Gene, who was lying there motionless. Of course, he'd passed away about an hour before. He was missing something that occurred to me as something that was important. It was his spirit, man. And his soul had left the body. And I could see it for the first time ever. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. My legs turned to concrete. And this lady started sounding like a Charlie Brown show. Womp womp. Exactly. And all the time she was saying, grab his legs, I'll grab the head, let's straighten him up and cover him up. I couldn't move. Someone else came in and did that. They walked out. My wife walked in and she said, what's up? I said, I can't find Gene. Where's Gene? He's missing. And it was then that really, I didn't hear God verbally, but in my bodily person, it was like I heard, Gene's not there. He's with me. And at that very moment, I knew God was real. What do you think? Someone that doesn't know God would look at that and think of that event as something insignificant. What did that message that you received from God, what did that do for you? Well, number one, the message, anyone that thinks that is insignificant, they don't know Christ. They don't have a relationship with him. They may even be an atheist. They may be a non-believer, someone that's really just not all the way in. Because when you meet Christ for the first time and you meet God and he starts to open up the world for you, you never saw before, everything changes. Yes, it does. So whereas before I could walk into any building place and I could say, you know, within 30 minutes, I'd know every single bit about that business, about the people working in there. Somehow I would know immediately about people, about processes, and about things. And what I found was when I met God, he introduced me to something called the kingdom of God. And I remember saying out loud to my wife in that moment, I was like, wow, I think I've met someone smarter than me. And what I love about this is I'll never know it all. And that was the biggest draw for me, was the fact I'd never know it all. And I've been searching ever since in the kingdom of God, with God, with the Holy Spirit. And there's nothing better than it on planet Earth. And so that's what I would say to that. Prior to this event taking place, were you searching? Were you seeking? No, I was doing the opposite. I was covering up. I was trying to drag people away from this thing called faith. I was always aggravated at my brother-in-law, who's a pastor, trying to talk to me about God, invite me to church. I just about told him where he could go. My wife had been drawn away from her faith that she grew up with as a child. I was even working on my father-in-law. I had pretty much everyone positioned exactly where I needed them for them all to be away from this nonsense, or what I called nonsense back then. You know, a week before giving my life to Christ, I was in England. And I went over to see my parents, but while I was there, I found this Bible from the 1880s. And when I found it, I looked at it and I was like, I'm an atheist, right? I'm like, this would be great. I'm going to cut all the pages out because it was fully illustrated and sell them on eBay for $10 a page and make a fortune. And if it works, I'll go back and get more Bibles. And I came back to the States, and a week later, I guess God was like, okay, boys, it's time to send in the rescue party. This guy's about to start cutting up the Word of God. Let's get in there before he does it. And that was really, and now I'm an avid Bible collector. So my oldest Bible is 1753. And I love the Word. I love Bibles. It's amazing how God works. Did you, what was the first step for you after this event takes place? What did you do? How did you start fostering that relationship? I wanted it. I desired it. See, what a lot of people don't know, and I was writing about this this morning in chapter six of my book, which is coming out hopefully soon. What's it called? It's called Slow Enough to See. All right. Anyways, an unfinished battle under the shadow of the Almighty. Unfinished because we won't know whether I'm living or dying by the time I finish writing that, which I'm perfectly fine with. I think there are lessons to be learned from being slow enough to see, and I want to share them. But some of the first things that happened were out of my control, which is completely in line with how God works. Typically, he doesn't ask you what you'd like to do. Typically, he has an agenda, things that benefit you and absolutely the kingdom and others, puts those things into motion. So within 36 hours, the building right behind this one, I walked in there as the owner, as the boss, not sure what was about to transpire. And what transpired was amazing because this guy, his name's Ryan, who had been walking past my office for the last five years, we had recently concluded that the moon wasn't real, that it was a satellite system. We hadn't sort of decided it was made of cheese or anything, but it was definitely someone spying on us. Anyway, he'd walk by my office and say the moon's not real. He did that for five years. Well, that morning he walked past. The moon's not real! And he started walking out the door. And with that, I had a choice to make. Was I going to say, that's right, Ryan, see you later? Or was I going to say, hey Ryan, actually the moon is real, man. I need you to come in here and sit down with me. That's exactly what I did. So in response, I said, the moon is real. And he's like, wait, what? And he stuck his head around the corner. I could hear his feet skidding on the tile, actually. And he walked in. I said, take a seat a second. And this guy, me, who he'd known for five years leading up to that staunch atheist non-believer, confessed his life to Jesus right in front of this guy. Turned him on his head and went to East Thinking. And he couldn't believe it, but he respected it and he loved it. And he was in this room probably about two months ago telling me how that moment changed his life forever. And he's now a very loyal follower of Jesus. And he puts it down to the very moment. So in my book, his section is called From the Moon to the Sun. S-O-N, Son of God. From the moon to the sun. It's funny how looking back now, I can see how God was working prior to me even knowing the Lord. But you can either, no matter what, God's will is going to be enacted. You can either have it enacted upon you or you can be an active participant in the way that it's unfolding. What did the conversation look like whenever you were sitting down with this gentleman after five years of you being a staunch atheist that this is the real deal? Well, one of the benefits about an atheist is the fact that when they make their minds up, it's all in. I'm telling you, it's all in. And that was the first thing I said to my brother-in-law when I come down from being up in what I call the gods, right there at Church of the King. He said, wait, I said, I'm all in, man. I'm all in. So when I sat down with Ryan, I'm all in. And so something happens when you go all in. I think all in equals passion. All in equals you'll put everything on the line for what you believe. And maybe deep down inside, somewhere tucked away, right next to the linen in my bag, was this consideration that God might be real. Maybe it was always revving in the background. Maybe it was revving right there at the starting gate, at the checkered flag. Actually, I think that's at the end of the race. But there's a flag that goes on at the front. That one. The green? Yeah, the green light. And so when I'm all in, I think the engine had already been revving for quite a while. So I spoke to Ryan about believing in Jesus. By the way, I knew nothing. Those are the best salespeople, by the way. I used to sell life insurance in Canada. I was really good at it. I knew nothing, but I made the most sales in the first month because I was foolish, clueless, and full of passion. And so Ryan was kind of captivated, I think, in the passion I suddenly had for something. And as business leaders and even people in life, influence is a very powerful ingredient. It creates chemistry inside of others. And I have influence over Ryan. I have influence over all my employees, not just because I cut their paychecks. That's not why. They might think that's why, but it's not why. It's because I love and I care about them. And they know that. And so when I started speaking Jesus over his life and what had happened, he was all in. Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. We can carry on or... Let's do it, yeah. Absolutely. Okay, I'm glad I came prepared. Yeah, me too. So it sounds to me like for you, it was like when Paul's on the road to Damascus and he's blinded, and then he has to go and get the scales removed from his eyes. Like the scales were removed from your eyes at that point. Because that's how it was for me as well. Because I was talking about this with my buddy the other day. I would make fun of him because he was following the Lord. I would make fun of him because he's going to church and make fun of him because he had this relationship with this, what I thought to be like maybe, I don't know, I thought God existed, I just didn't know that he was a personal God that loves you and knows you and wants to be in relationship with you. And when I had the experience that I had, it was, your life is just different after that. And it's funny because God knows you, the Lord knows you so intimately that he knows exactly what he needs to do to get your attention. For you, it was Gene. For me, it was a totally different experience. I was out on a, I'll give you the two-minute version because it leads into something cool that happened the other day. So I worked in corporate America, and I'm sorry, audience, if you've heard this ten times. I was working in corporate America since I graduated college. I was doing really well, making a bunch of money, but I was really unfulfilled. And I was going, you know, I'd work at a job and then I would do really well there and then I'd be looking for the next step up the ladder and it wouldn't materialize, so I'd go to the next and go to the next and go to the next, same scenario every time. So I'm like, you know what, you know what's going to fulfill me? I'm going to start my own business. I was working at a startup and I had talked to the CEO, the VP, the COO about climbing the ladder and it wasn't going to materialize there, or at least in the short term it wasn't. They wound up raising a Series B immediately after I left, so they hired a bunch of people. Anyway, so I left to start my landscaping company and quickly realized that, man, this is hard, hard. And I went from making a lot of money to making no money and working way harder. And I was failing at being a business owner, I was failing at being a dad, failing at being a husband, failing at being a son, failing at being a friend. And I was like, I can't do this on my own. I was talking to my buddy, the same buddy I used to make fun of for following the Lord, and I was describing what I felt like at the time. And I was like, I'm in this boat and there's a bunch of holes in the boat and I'm sticking my fingers in the holes, I'm sticking my toes in the holes, but I'm running out of digits and there's still more holes that need to be filled. He's like, dude, you just described a sinking ship. I was like, yeah, that's exactly what it felt like. So my wife, thank God, just so happened to be like, I want to go to church. So we go to Church of the King on Saturday and Pastor Steve's talking about Paul's letter to the Galatians, how it's faith in Jesus Christ that saves you, it's not your works. And I loved it. I was like, man, this was great. And I run a lot, so I go on my normal run on Sunday morning and I'm on this run and I just got walloped by the most intense feeling of love that I've ever experienced in my life. Like the way you love your kids, but you're not giving the love, you're being loved. And it was that times like a million. It was so much so that I had to ask him to stop because my body just couldn't handle what was coming in. So I'm like, I had this experience, I'm bawling, crying. I go inside, my wife is like, what in the world is going on right now? And I was all in ever since that moment. But I say that to tell a cool story. So my wife and I are at the point where we want to get involved in the church and start donating our time and helping grow the kingdom. So we're going to Next Steps and we had a couple weeks ago, Step One. So we go into Step One, we're sitting at the table, all the people, you know, you sit at a table with probably six, seven people. And the leader there asks someone to share their testimony. So I just shared my testimony, exactly what I just told you. And this guy at the end of the table starts crying. And you know, we just finished the meeting and I go and talk to him after and he's like, he tells me that his wife just left him like weeks before, that he was feeling so unloved and he was out on a run the other day and he had the exact same experience that I described when I was sharing my testimony. This was his first day at Church of the King. The friend that he was supposed to go with wound up not coming. He just happens to wander into Next Steps because he, you know, just might as well go do this. Just happens to sit at our table and I just happen to share my testimony. And I say that because God puts these insane pieces together that you could never possibly in a million years construct on your own. And he knows exactly what to do at all the time. And I was at a, I've been intentional about my faith, but you always have these doubts creep into the back of your, well, I do at least, here and there. But I was like, I needed something. And that was exactly what I needed to just get me right back in it. Wow. Nothing better than preaching to yourself. You know, and really speaking a good testimony or speaking your salvation story. Boy, it does something really good on the inside. Stones of remembrance. I'll tell you this, you know what happened to you, I could see as you were saying that, almost butted in, but I'm glad I didn't, it was a great story. But it's like, you know, I think in life we sometimes go about before we become, before we understand what's really going on, that there is a God. It's like we create this thing called Eden in our own worlds. It's like, this is my perfect life. You know, God forbid you have the white picket fence, who wants that? But anyway, you create this perfect Eden and you start living there. But what you did is you actually cast yourself out from your own Eden by starting your own business. And you went, you actually went to till the ground, like in Genesis, to actually, you went from Eden, which you had created, into the book of Genesis, tilling the ground, and then you wondered why the wheels came off. So it's like, that's the best thing. Quite literally too, with the landscaping business. Exactly, that's what I mean. It's just like the perfect segue right there. Yeah, and I, man, I would never, had I never made that decision, I probably wouldn't be sitting at this table with you right now. Just trying to think, you know, as we finish up, what are the most important things for people to know. You know, like, as I'm slow enough to see in my life, as I'm going through stage four nasopharyngeal... choriocarcinoma. We're just talking about how I was given six months to live. Here I am, twelve months later, thriving. Feel like I'm doing great. Got the most peace a man could have. I haven't lost one night of sleep because of it. Feel great because I'm under the covering of God. Yep. You know, what is it that people need to know? What they need to know. You know, it can be very distracting sometimes watching a preacher preach, by the way, or hear someone talk about God like it's, you know, like I always said, the King James or something like that. I think people, and I've certainly done this, I want to have the real God, the real version, but I want to have a relationship with Him in a way that means that I can actually interact in my life practically with that same God. Because that way now He can, I can allow Him to manage me and help me in situations that are intrinsically in my entire life. You know, not just when I'm at church or not just when I'm here or there, but everywhere. I think that's the secret sauce. If we can, if we can find a way to have a relationship that allows God to find His way into all the areas of our lives effortlessly, regardless of what the preacher says on stage, or what we read, or even what we hear on a podcast, that is something that should work for everybody. And I think a lot of rejection from people that come about having a faith is because they haven't found the way to have God in their lives that just makes sense for them. And there's nothing, like, the way that God makes sense for us is, is important. And God's adaptable. You know, we think we're adaptable. Well, God can adapt to the way that we need to receive Him too. Yep. What do you think about that? I think the most, if anyone listening is going to get one thing out of this, it's that the Lord knows you way better than you know yourself. The Lord knows every, every thought that you've got, every fiber of your being. He knew you before you were born. And He knows exactly how to get in touch with you and all you have to do is ask Him. He's always knocking at the door, you just have to open it and say, come on in. Right. I'm trying to think of prior to my experience. I was just so involved in myself and my own ambition with it. I was making up my own life. I was making up this thing out of thin air that I wanted my life to be and not realizing that everybody's born with this God-sized hole inside of their heart that no matter what you have, money, cars, clothes, nothing, nothing is going to fill that void except the Lord. You were made that way, intentional. Because you can never, you will never reach your full potential without having a relationship with God. And it's like, I kind of look at it as like investing in compound interest. The earlier you can have established this relationship with the Lord, the farther you can go in life, the more you can do with, under His wing. Have you ever had an eternal perspective? What do you mean by that? So it's like, you know how we look to God to help us in the here and now, even up to the young age of like 90 or 100. We're like, man, what can He do for me here? Right. But I've noticed in my time that I've been given, which I've been maximizing by the way, given my diagnosis and everything, is that now I'm focused on what that might mean eternally in heaven. I've been doing that a lot. So it's like, okay, if I participate in this right now, if I do all these podcasts I was doing and do this, that, and the other, how does that help me in heaven? You know, I've been doing more of that and caring less about how this behooves me in this world and what it might mean in that one. Yeah. And because, you know why? Because when I go over the threshold, which I believe by the way won't be a threshold, it'll be just like I'm taking another step. But when I do that, when I meet Jesus, I don't want Him to look or feel like a stranger. Yeah. And I don't think He will. But you imagine that thought. I don't think a lot of people are thinking past today or tomorrow. I don't think so either. Yeah, no. I don't think they're looking into that realm of heaven and what that might look like. But it's just this idea that Jesus is a stranger. Talks in the Bible like, you know, you prophesied in My name, you did this in My name, but I never knew you. Never knew you. And so, wow, that's a powerful comment from the lips of Jesus. And I certainly, you know, everyone wants to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. But what about, I knew you. And I know you. How about that? And so we got to be careful, I think, what we do in this world because it pales in comparison to those things that God wants us to do to accompany us really in terms of treasure into heaven. So for you, what sort of things are you implementing that you, I don't even know the best way to put that, to make sure that when this is all over, that Jesus says, I knew you. I know you. Like I reflect on everything with God. Everything. I pray about everything afterwards. When I'm lying in the hyperbaric chamber or when I'm lying in a sauna dome and I'm lying there with nothing to do, I'm on my back, I'm thinking and praying. I'm asking the Lord to direct my steps. When I'm speaking to other people, I'm like, how can I help them? I'm really, I haven't thought about myself a great deal since I've been going through this. I'm finishing well. As Darren Bailey, that's me, right? I'm a good starter and I'm a creator. Well, creators aren't always good finishers. So what things has my wife, Tracy, been asking me to do all these years that I've never gotten to? What about my son that I've often heard say, hey dad, as in dad, I'm right here. What am I doing to be his friend and guide and mentor? What about my daughter who's in LSU right now? Am I leaving her with the footprints of a good father? The thumbprints of a good father? Am I leaving her with that notion? Am I directing her to know God in the way that I know she might understand one day who He is? She does now, by the way. But I'm saying like, there's so much we can do for one another. And I'm not doing it for treasure in heaven. I'm doing it because I now know it's the right thing to do to attend to other people's needs quite honestly more than we attend to our own. And I feel like I'm passing through this world. I really do. I've had a lot of references to how Paul might have felt in the Bible. I'm not even anything close to Apostle Paul. But there's been a lot of, you know, to live is Christ, to die is gain, for example. That means a lot to me. Now, to be passing through this world. I'm passing through, Dustin. This isn't it. And so what am I going to do in my short time here? It's not about me getting the credit. It's about me doing the works of Christ through me. And so I'm just trying to focus on those things. We've got this weird, especially in the US, there's this, whenever you mention the term legacy, you think wealth. You're leaving wealth for your kids. But it's not a real legacy. The legacy is changing your family line, showing, bringing everyone into a relationship with the Lord, with showing them how to walk with the Lord. That's the legacy. That's the lasting legacy. And it sounds like you're, that's your focus now. Well, I'll share something in the book. I've discovered gold in the ground. And I had this dream one night and I was flying in this dream and next thing you know I'm walking around a corner of a building, looked exactly like, by the way, Church of the King on St. Charles Avenue, I think it was. And as I turned the corner, there were these three beggars. And I looked at one and he looked at me, said, hey, you want to pray? I said, sure. So we knelt down and started praying. And as I opened my eyes, I looked down, there was a crack in the ground. And I was like, wow. I put my hand in the ground and I lifted out what were gold leaf and nuggets. I was like, wow, there's gold in the ground. And put my hand in again and suddenly they came out again, but this time they had value on it. And those values I believe represented population. A thousand, ten thousand, and a hundred thousand. And I was like, Lord, we have to redeem this. And He's like, the redemption is in the people. The gold you see and the gold I seek is redemption in the lives of people. And that's what He was showing me in that moment. Do you feel like one of your gifts is the ability to interpret dreams? Only when God allows me to. Interpretation of dreams, maybe. I had two dreams recently that usually my dreams, I'll dream and then it's gone. I've had a few actually since I started walking with the Lord. One was I met the devil in a dream. And that was an interesting one. I haven't actually shared this one at all. I'm like, I'm riding My mini skid steer, and this guy walks up. He looks just like who's the actor in Sling Blade? Tommy Lee, right? Anyway, a guy that looks like Tommy Lee walks up. Just glad he didn't look like me. I know, seriously, scary. You know, didn't look exactly like him, but kind of like him. Tats on both arms. He's wearing like jeans. He's got the sleeves rolled up. And he comes up to me with a smile to shake my hand, and I instantly knew who he was. I was like, I don't want anything to do with you. And then the dream kind of ended there. But that's one that stuck with me, and I never remember dreams. But the other day, I had a dream, and I'm driving in the car. I'm driving through, and my head is Boshen, but it looks nothing like Boshen. I'm driving down this road, and it's on this bayou. It almost is like a more tropical setting. There's raised homes on this side, and there's a cul-de-sac in front of me. And the cul-de-sac is lined with avocado trees. And so I go in the cul-de-sac, and I take the left, and I see somebody that I know, and she's pushing her kids in the stroller. And I say, hey, I'm going to drive past, and that's where it ended. And then I had another dream recently where I'm sharing my testimony with a customer. And I remember it vividly. I'm in their house. It's not really the house that they live in. It's just a house in my head. It's almost in like old Mandeville or something like that, chain link fence. I'm trying to do a bunch of work. And I wind up sharing my testimony to him. And it was just odd because I never remember dreams. Some pretty vivid dreams. Yeah, super vivid, super vivid. Supplements might be a little strong. Maybe so. It's the folic acid. But the first dream is interesting, shaking hands with the devil. You never did that, though, right? Never did that, no. But obviously, you've thought about this too. It just talks about temptation, obedience. I think is really what's being shown there. Now I know this, God doesn't speak in riddles. And typically, when you wake up in the morning and you remember a dream, it's typically because, for me anyway, that he wants me to remember that dream. I write them down, by the way. I have almost a thousand notes since 2013 of different events. So you should be mindful of that. Maybe there's a business deal that comes about. And maybe God was showing you that you don't have to shake hands with something that doesn't work well for both of us, Dustin, in this kingdom that you're now a part of. God's provision comes in various ways, and he's still going to provide for you. So that's just a good thing to think about there. Yeah, totally. Another interesting, too, there's a verse, or I think it's Jesus talking about, you know, if you, I don't even know exactly how it goes, but if you subvert the devil, he'll flee from you or something like that. Means you resist the devil, yeah. And he ran away from me. The goofiest run I've ever seen in my life, by the way. Feet turned way out. It was just the goofiest run. It was crazy. And the other thing, too, that was really interesting, because he didn't look like the devil in the dream. No, no. But you knew him to be that. He looked like a handsome, kind of like suave guy. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, just like me. I feel like he just keeps, Dustin keeps describing me. But I'm kidding. But no, the devil's not that stupid, right? So he's not going to go around looking like the devil. Yeah. He's going to go around looking like every man on the street, every woman on the street. Just regular. Yeah. He's going to gradually kind of nudge you in the wrong direction. Yep. Rarely does he make you do a roundabout turn. Yep. So the fact you didn't shake his hands and you recognized that maybe the spirit was bad, that bodes well for you in business and in life. Yeah. God may be taking you into a leadership role in your life where you're going to be, you know, showing the younger generation and even those of similar age around you how to represent yourself and God well in the world. And God may be promoting you in this moment and saying, Dustin, you're ready for this. I want you to know the way you ushered the devil away just shows me that your commitment to me is 100%, but also that you're capable. You're now a capable man of God, even deciphering evil things. So, yeah, just some things to think about. It is some things to think about. Before we end this, I want to, so people have a background of how we met, because I think it's important for context. I think your story is. Dustin was one of the beggars on the side of the building. We weren't going to talk about this. He brought it up. I can honestly say, Darren, I love you. I have never met a guy like you. Well, one, the cool thing about going on sabbatical is, since I'm so new to this, I've only been a little over a year into my walk with the Lord, and it's like there are guys that are just way light years, a million years beyond where I'm at in my walk currently. So when we were on sabbatical, I got to meet guys that are, and it's kind of the, you know, you are the sum of the five folks that you hang around with. So it was a cool opportunity for me to hang out with guys that have this relationship with Jesus that I desperately want mine to be as strong as theirs. And your story is incredible. And Darren was on day 25 of a 28-day water-only fast. As you mentioned, you've got stage four nasopharyngeal carcinoma. You've got a great memory, buddy. Yeah, thank you. Call it Naso 2.0, because this is the second time. That sounds good. And this is the second time you've had it. You went conventional treatment the first time, and now you're going homeopathic this time. Correct. And it's interesting to me because my dad is also battling with prostate cancer. And we actually considered, you went to Hope for Cancer in Mexico. We were looking at that for him at the time. He wound up, he decided to go conventional. But I just think it's absolutely fascinating because folks out there don't even know that a homeopathic approach is even possible. And a lot of the times, not to get too medical or steer the conversation in that way, because, yeah, but sometimes it's the treatment that kills the patient and not the cancer itself. But I say that to say, it's like your faith in the Lord has, it's like, I didn't know you before, but it seems like it's grown immensely since you've had this diagnosis. And then just the strength that he's given you to do this fast, all of it, the whole package. It was like, for me to see, it was incredible. Wow. Thanks for saying that. Yeah, it's my pleasure. I want to say a few things about you, but I also want to share the reason why I am this way. Within the first 12 months of my new faith, God gave me a vision. It was in the kitchen at home, downloaded it in about five seconds. And I stopped my wife in her tracks, and I said, oh my gosh, God's just given me a vision. And I think it's important. Can I share it? She's like, sure, what could happen in five seconds? This should be quick. And it was quick, but in this vision, I was stood in a row of people at night, and we were all looking up at a very specific angle at something amazing happening in the sky. We were in this giant field, and as I looked left and right, there were millions of people, millions. And everyone was looking up at exactly the same angle at this amazing spectacle in the sky. And with that, I turned around in this vision, and I started walking away from where everyone was, bumping shoulders with people, but as people were still coming to see this amazing thing happening in the sky. And in one moment in this vision, I look up, and God looks down at me, and we both know that we've done something amazing together. It's been 12 years since that vision, and I always wondered what it would be. There have been things so close to that, so close. It's like been a touch and go, you know, when a guy's learning to fly a plane, he does these touch and goes, doesn't quite land on the runway. But I believe God and I, we've landed on the runway. And I believe the incredible thing that people were looking at in the sky that day was his glory, brought on because of someone's obedience. One of my biggest desires ever since has been, Lord, let's do something amazing together. That's awesome. Because that's what I live for, Dustin. When I was with my ENT and he said, Darren, you have cancer again, I looked at him and said, oh, that's great, man. I said, one second. And I looked up, just like in the vision, I believe God looked down. Lord, here we go. Looks like we get to do something amazing together. And it truly is. And I've been just focused on just doing that ever since. It's like it's the biggest jackpot for me. I actually believe I'm so well protected. As I write in the book about, I feel like I'm covered under the shadow of the Almighty, the safest place to be. I have no fear of death. Death, where is your sting? I have no fear of what cancer can do to me. I've been saying all along, you know, it can take my sight, which it's tried to, you've seen it. Mhm. Can take my hearing, well, it's doing its best there. It can even take away my voice, but it can take never take away my spirit and my devotion to God. And what I love about this opportunity isn't just to evangelize, but it's also to give people hope as they transverse through cancer. Mhm. It's not a happy place to be. There might be smiles on my face, and I do smile through a lot of it, but there's also a lot of pain involved. But it's worth it because God's getting the glory, and I get to do very intimate personal work with Him, unlike many other people. Mhm. Um, so that's how I would just, I would share that with you. That's why you might sense my intimacy levels are quite high. Yeah. With God. Doesn't mean make me any more righteous, we're all righteous because of Jesus Christ, every one of us in the same regard. But I do, I do know Him more than I did, and I want to, and I want to know Him when I go to heaven, like I mentioned earlier. Mm. You have, I wanted to share about a little bit about you. Please. Because, uh, you have an amazing capacity for information. It's almost for me, it's like your capacity level has increased. When was it, when did you give your life to Christ again? Uh, September 21st, 2025. That's so, so recent. It is so recent. So it's like, it's like a similar thing for me when, when God moved the switch from off to on. It's like your capacity level also was supernaturally increased, the bandwidth. Yep. And, um, it's like all of a sudden you became a sponge. You know, you talk about Pharaoh's heart being hardened. Um, you know, I didn't believe your heart was ever hardened to, to God maybe, but certainly not to people. Mhm. But I believe your bandwidth and your capacity for you to hold more information and the correct information has heightened tremendously. Mhm. And I see that in you. I see someone really hungry for knowledge, information about God, so you can go ahead and help others. Mhm. And that's the, the perfect combination. It's like the conduit, His favor can open up through you now. Yeah. Isn't that, doesn't that just feel right? Like, is there anything better? It's like you always wondered what piece was missing in the jigsaw puzzle, whether the dog might have eaten it when it fell on the floor. Well, it's just that God hadn't given it to you yet. Yeah. But now you have it. Yeah. The piece is in place. I, I told my buddy, uh, right after it happened, you know, a few days after it, when I had time to like process, I was like, why didn't you tell me about this before? It's like a superpower. This is the closest thing that we have to a superpower. And he was like, you know, I, I, I was trying to tell you. You weren't listening. About like how it was hard. And you know what I'm, I'm really, there are millions of smart people out here, but there are very few people with wisdom. And I, I want to learn from people that have wisdom. And if I can absorb some of that wisdom, I would love to be able to share that with everyone else. I love that. Because there is, everyone's got their truth and this and that. There isn't your truth, there's the truth. Period. Right, I agree. I agree. It's been a fun, fun conversation. Yeah. Maybe that's a good way to end it. Uh, you mind if I pray our way out of here? I would love that. Father, thank you for this time today. Thank you for Darren. Thank you that we get to share our testimonies and, and I pray, Lord, that people can hear this and receive this message and know that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. He is the real deal. He is the Lord. He is our God. He is right there, knocking at the door constantly, just waiting for you to open it and let Him into your life. Lord, I pray that You provide Darren with supernatural healing. Heal his body, every fiber of his being. Heal this man so that he can continue to expand Your kingdom and, and be a good and faithful servant to You, Lord. I pray in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you, my friend. No, Darren, thank you. That was awesome. Love it.