The MOST Important Episode of My Career

Addiction hits families and job sites at the same time, and pretending it is “someone else’s problem” only raises the risk. We talk with Marshall from Loving Hands Ministries about how addiction develops, how it shows up at work, and what real support looks like when safety and accountability still matter. 
• Marshall’s personal story from early exposure to substances to opioid dependency and methadone bondage 
• Why addiction is rooted in pain, history, and physical dependence rather than simple “bad choices” 
• The moment boundaries and consequences finally break through denial 
• Early workplace warning signs like lateness, declining quality, and conflict with feedback 
• How impairment and withdrawal increase safety risk on construction sites and in the field 
• The way addiction erodes trust, morale, scheduling, and project outcomes across a team 
• Common employer mistakes when substance abuse is discovered 
• What employers can do instead: connect to treatment, set firm expectations, and build a bridge back 
• Discipleship versus recovery and why long-term change requires rebuilding purpose 
• How coworkers can approach someone with care while respecting boundaries 
If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? Please consider supporting the Save Our Sons Walk-a-thon because every donation matters. 

Transcript

Welcome And Quick Ways To Support

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by apprentices, installers, technicians, project managers, estimators, designers, IT people, even customers. We are connecting on the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? Those simple little steps help us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage, and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry. Wednesday night, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, what are you doing? You know I do a live stream on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, everywhere I can figure to send a live stream to where you get to ask your favorite RCDD, and you know that's me. Your favorite RCDD questions on installation, design, certification, credentialing. I even do career path questions, but I can hear you now. But chunk, I'm driving my juggle. Relax. Breathe in. Breathe out. I record them and you can watch them at your convenience. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free, would you click on that QR code right there where you can schedule a 15-minute call with me after hours, of course. You can even buy Let's Talk Cabling merchandise.

Why Addiction Matters So Much

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So as I mentioned, this is the most important episode of all the 300 plus episodes, five years of creating content that I've ever done. I'm talking about addiction. See, I've never I've never suffered from addiction, so I can't wax poetic on how somebody becomes addicted. I can't even begin to tell you the battles people fight to get out of addiction. But I got eyes. I've got eyes that have witnessed grandchildren crying because they lost their grandfather. I've witnessed mothers cringing every time the phone rang. Or worse yet, when it didn't ring. I've witnessed firsthand how I watch subject matter experts in our industry fall to addiction, lose their home, and end up living on the streets. And I also have a heart that bleeds and hurts for people living through these pains. So if you've been on social media, you've noticed I started a campaign, a blitz of sorts this past week. I got two more weeks. I've decided to get off and do something to exchange my compassion to make an impact. So I'm doing what's called the SOS walk-a-thon to help support some local uh uh ministry in my area to help people who are suffering from addiction. So I want to welcome to today's show a close friend of mine and the director of development for

Loving Hands Ministries And The Mission

SPEAKER_01 3:31

my mind, just put a blank on me. I'll let him tell you who he works for. Marshall, how are you doing, Marshall?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Good warning and good afternoon, Chuck. Um, I am the director of development of Loving Hands Ministries. Um, we are an 18-month Christ-centered program for men that have addictions, residential. We have three locations. Um in our Dade City office. We're also in Manatee County in Palmetto, and we launched about four years ago in Tatnaal County in a little small town called Reidsville in Georgia, near Vidalia, if you know where the onion place is in there.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

So you know, every time I every time I drive up 75 and I see that that sign, that's the first thing that goes across my mind is the onions.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

First thing. Yeah, funny story. Me and my wife and my children went up to visit the campus a couple years ago. And one of the things that I joked with my kids, I said, hey, honey, uh kids, we're gonna do some really fun stuff while we're up here. We're gonna go to the Vidalia Onion Museum. And there really is one. But we didn't go, but it was it was hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Yeah, you know, people used to eat onions like apples. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I heard something about that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

And I don't know if you've ever done this. I highly recommend it, Marshall. Go down to Plant City during Strawberry Festival, buy strawberry onions. Now they don't taste like strawberries, but they are the most delicious onion you will ever eat in your entire life. Oh, they are fantastic. Now, one of the things I truly love about your about you being what you're doing, Marshall, is you've walked the walk. You can talk the talk. You've been there, you've done it. That's that's why that's why I kind of said in my in my opening, I've never been, I've never suffered from addiction. Addiction comes in, let's make this clear, there it comes in many forms. There's alcoholism, there's chemicals, there's drugs, there's sex, there's gambling, there's a lot of addictions, and they all affect families and friends and peers and and companies. I've never suffered from that. Thank God. Yeah, you know, I've I don't know why. I I've I just never suffered from addiction, but like I said, I've seen it

Marshall’s Road Into Addiction

SPEAKER_01 5:40

in my family, I've seen it in friends, and I've seen it in peers. And I to me it just seems like it's becoming even more prevalent than it was when I was a little kid. But but get back to what you're saying. You know, you've walked the walk. So can you tell us a little bit about your experience and how you got control back of your life?

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Well, um, when I was uh a kid, I was raised by my mother in Tampa, and so single parent home mom, you know, she worked hard all the time, always made sure I had what I needed. But she liked to party, she liked to drink, she liked to smoke. So my whole time growing up, I seen, you know, her smoking weed, I seen her, you know, getting drunk. I remember having to pick my mom up off the floor quite a few times in the house and helping her put the key in the door type deal. You know, as a small kid, I'm talking eight, nine, ten, eleven years old. And uh, but like I said, great mom, she uh passed away about four years ago, she's with the Lord, so I'm very happy about that. But as I was growing up, you know, I've seen a lot of stuff, and I remember just hanging around the wrong people. And I was a teenager smoking pot, liked it. And around the time my mom was stopped trying to want to stop smoking pot, that's when I was wanting to want to start. So it really started with just hanging around the wrong people, ended up experimenting, and um ended up going to the service and the navy. I did more chemicals in the name in the service than I did when I was out. I mean, I was in Japan, I was 19 years old. Who's gonna tell um American soldier that he can't drink in a different country? And so, I mean, all over, you know, Mediterranean cruises, Squam, Singapore, Thailand, you know, the whole thing. So you can just imagine, you know, that stuff. And I remember coming home after getting discharged from the service and coming home and just kind of doing the same thing I was doing before. And I was I was able to function at some some capacity a lot of my life, but then I ended up coming up on some pain pills. I ended up uh taking uh dilatas and methadone, and I remember I was always the person that said I'd never use a needle, but I ended up in my 20s using a needle for the first time, and um that was I was hooked. And for eight years of my life, I ended up taking methadone, the synthetic heroine, what they give people to get off of it. Um, for eight years I went to a nurse at a clinic and they would administer these to me. And so that was bondage, it was horrible. Just, you know, waking up in the morning, that's the first thing that popped in your mind is I gotta go get my drugs because it I couldn't function without them. And um, so that was horrible. And um, but then I came to know Loving Hands Ministries. I ended up visiting a church because I was really just looking for something different. I was looking, I tried A N A, tried cold turkey, I tried being mentored by someone, I tried this, that, and the other, meditation, all these different ways, in which I'm sure they worked for some people, but for me, I I it didn't. So I said, Man, it's a little saying it says, if you need help, go to church. And so I ended up going, and then I um I seen the men of loving hands. We travel all over the state of Florida and Georgia, we share our stories. The men in the ministry staff, they share their stories, um what happens when they go through the program. And so I was sitting there with my mother, and I wasn't trying to go into the ministry at that time. I still thought I had it all together, but it was a where God had shown me that there was a place when everything else was was done, and um, and so that happened pretty quickly. I ended up, um, my mom ended up saying she couldn't help me anymore, and um, so I wasn't fit for the outside. I like air conditioner, I'm not a I can't I'm really not living on the streets type guy. And so this ministry allowed me to come for free, and uh, they didn't ask me for much. And in this process, I came to know God, and God had delivered me from drugs, and he also showed me that I could pay it forward by helping other men and come on on staff and lead other men to freedom through addiction through the power of Jesus Christ, which I believe is the answer.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

You know, you say a couple things there that just absolutely resonated with me. Um, again, I've never been I've never gone through the recovery process, but I have seen people go through the process, and what works for one person doesn't work for the next person. So there's no no cookie cutter kind of thing that well, maybe there's a some a good process, but but what one person's gonna attach to and uh bring into his life and fix is not something somebody else is going to use. And then the second part of that too is you know, is the impact uh to everybody around

When Substances Become Bondage

SPEAKER_01 10:35

you. Um what were some of the warning signs that maybe some of your friends or peers noticed around you before you were willing to acknowledge you had a problem?

SPEAKER_00 10:44

I I just let's say you know, altercations with the police probably was was a sign that um there were some issues. Um there, I I could get as many jobs, I was really good at getting jobs, I couldn't keep one for nothing. And I did get as a 20-year-old, well I was 21 at the time because around it was around September 11th, so um 2001. I ended up getting discharged. Um I got a I didn't get a bad conduct discharge, but I ended up getting an other than honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy, which is pretty much like I wasn't even there. And so these were things that uh were obviously major things that I didn't see like it was it was a problem. Obviously, I made some bad choices, but uh it wasn't there wasn't any type of bells going on at this point, you know. I because I continued on to live my life the way I thought I was doing pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

So when you said, you know, people noticing things around you, it's funny, because again, I've I've dealt with people of addiction, and they they seem to live in their own reality, and you sit there and you you challenge them, they they just don't think that you see it, that you don't know it, or that you're you know, they they then pull the wool of your eyes, but you they they can't, you know. But here's a here's the thing that I the that when I've when I've decided to do this, God laid on my heart to participate in your your ministry this year. And one of the things that you know I was worried about is people will sometimes assume that addiction is just bad choices or somebody from weak character. I happen to know different than that because I've you know again, because the people I've dealt with. But what do you wish more people understood about how addiction develops and keeps people trapped?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Well, everybody has a story. Yeah, like so do mine. So everyone has a story, and then the story, uh everybody has those roots that go down deep and what connect to the hurt that a lot of times it's what causes people to go back, you know, to medicating themselves because of of the pain. A lot of it can be family hurt, okay? A lot of family, family hurt. Um I would say one of the major things is abuse, okay. Um, people that are abused, you know, what are they, what's the term, you know? Um most who are have been abused become abusers, all right? It doesn't fall straight, you know, too far from the tree. I I think a lot of times, like with me, I was hanging around with the wrong people, so peer pressure, but I experimented I experimented experimental mind, and I liked it. Okay, I liked it, and it was way more than what I thought it was. Okay. I I do think, you know, sometimes it can be true that that character and um people being weaker, um, but I think it's because of how someone's for me, I can speak it was because of how I was raised. Okay, it was because how I was raised. My mom was great, but she treated me more like her brother or her, then disciplined me as my as her son. And so what that did is that raised me up to be very immature, very irresponsible, and it created in me um a lot of um negative negative traits. I would say this one of the big misconceptions of people that use drugs for a long period of time or whatever, they people think that it's fun. It's only fun for a small portion of time, I can tell you. After some time, it actually becomes to where it's not fun, it's actually horrible. And it's all about just getting to a place to where they feel okay. Especially when you're dealing with certain drugs like pain

The Turning Point And Getting Help

SPEAKER_00 14:55

pills, the opiates, the fentanyl, Xanax, even alcohol. I mean, if you ever had somebody you know that's drinking alcohol, they have to just drink a beer or take a shot in the morning to keep themselves from shaking to death. And so the biggest one I think is that that they we as an addiction, people that have addiction that we enjoy it. We don't. It's there's hurt, there's things, and then the physical addiction that just kind of strings it along for many years of destruction.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

What was the what was the particular moment that made you realize something had to change? And what made that moment different than previous warnings or consequences you might have suffered in the past?

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Well, like I said, I'm thinking you know, my mom, I think she's a big part of my story. When that mom who enabled me for many, many, many years, who paid my bills, did this, do that, when we've seen that loving hands men, we've seen them sharing their stories. God showed me that door. And when my mom, God gave her the strength to say, Marshall, I'm not buying you. This is how far, I mean, we're talking 2009, 2008. And so somebody like me that really wasn't working too much, I was still able to, my mom was paying for them, but she had a good job. But this is how far we're going back. You're not a smoker, but Newports, okay? Newports, I mean, you could get a character of Newports for like 25 bucks, I think, back then. You're probably 25 bucks for a pack of Newports right now, man. That's just crazy. But when my mom said, I'm not buying you no more Newports, I'm not paying your phone bill, I'm not paying your apartment, I'm not doing this, I'm not picking you up to go to the methanome clinic, I'm not doing all this stuff. When that happened, I felt like I wanted to, really like I wanted to strangle her. I mean, I mean, I'm just not sugarcoating it here. I mean, that's where my mind was, and I'm like, what do you mean? How are you gonna turn your back on me? And then really, I wanted to die. I didn't want to live anymore. But after all those things kind of passed, that was the moment where I knew I needed to do something. Like I said, I wasn't set for the outside. And that's when my mom had already called a ministry, but I said, Mom, do you have the number of that place? And she said, Yeah. And so that's when I started to take the steps to enter Loving Hands Ministries.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

And that's kind of, you know, the pain that I feel because, you know, as a parent, you want to protect your kids, you want to raise your kids, you want to give them everything you need. But with somebody suffering from addiction, there's a point where you have to draw a line, and you can't continue that afterwards because it's this they're not improving. And there's two sides of that coin. Like again, like you said, the the the person suffering addiction has feelings towards that. But also as a parent, well, actually, there's three sides of that. Uh internally, you feel like you're you're a failure as a parent, but externally, you know, you got people looking at you and they say, Well, what you're if you're if your child is suffering from addiction, why aren't you doing more to help? And don't realize you've done what you can. You can only lead a horse to a water, you can't force it to drink. You know, that you you just they've got to make that decision for themselves. So the thing I'd like I truly appreciate about your story is uh you know, it reminds us how you know addiction faces a family and has a history, but you know, the what I really want to talk about in today's show is how it affects the workplace, even when there's nobody willing to talk about it. Right? So um, yeah, I've seen this with my dad. I mean, my dad was an alcoholic. I remember my mom

What People Miss About Addiction

SPEAKER_01 18:40

hiding the liquor bottles in the dryer so he couldn't find it because you he was exactly like you said, he was with the, I think they call it a maintenance alcoholic, I think. Um, where he had to have something in the morning so he wouldn't check. And he was a driver. You can't a DOT, you know, dump truck driver, you can't drive with alcohol in your system. My mom had to hide that from him. And uh so there's some workplace issues here that we need to kind of talk about, not only in safety issues, but you know, performance issues. And I also want to kind of touch base on what's the what's the employer's not gonna say responsibility, but what's their what's their duty in this, right? So if you don't mind, give us some ways that addiction may show up in performance before somebody even realize there's an underlying issue.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Well, obviously the being late and uh you know, and from time to time and stuff like that, but just I would say just the overall uh performance of the actual job, like how do they work? How do they work well? Do they put their fullest um effort into it? Because if you know the person, depending on what the addiction is, you know, the drug, those drugs, they have a they call, they have a voice. And if someone, especially is on opiates and they're having a physical withdrawal, then they're not able to give their full attention to actually their what their job is. Okay, so you will see us start to see a sloppy, almost like a down slope of their work performance. Because what I've seen in my experience is that typically drug addicts are usually good workers. They or alcoholics are usually good workers, so it's usually not hard to see the decline of the work. It it just it just happens. I mean, I think it's gonna happen in the attitude of a person on how they receive criticism, how they talk to people. Um one of the biggest things that I've seen is whenever someone's going through things themselves, the projection, the deflection happens, and when they don't want to deal with their own stuff, that's when I've seen the most critical people in my entire life. The critical spirit, the critical judgment of others to take away the focus on what's going on in someone's life.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

You know, there's many different types of workplaces out there. You know, there's office space, and you're right. So if you have a baseline of somebody, how somebody acts and how they perform before addiction, if you start noticing changes from the baseline, that would be a red flag. Um but if they if they got hired on while they were in the middle of addiction, uh that'd be harder to spot, actually. But in our industry, you know, you know, the low voltage industry, I know you don't know what that means because you're not a low voltage guy, but um, we're construction. We're on construction sites, we're in all we're in customers' businesses, we're crawling ladders, we're going into crawl spaces, we're operating boom lifts, you know, and scaffolding and and stuff that can be you know extremely dangerous, even to the person who's sober. So how do you how how can impairment and withdrawal, maybe like exhaustion or poor judgment, put maybe the The the individual risk, the co-workers at risk, maybe even the customer at risk.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Well, I'm I'm gonna show you my finger, and I'm not doing anything that's vile here, okay? I'm just showing you my finger. All right, look at this thing. And that's my regular one, and this is my so I worked for a um pretty large company out of Tampa years ago, and uh what they did was they traveled most of the time to Hernando County because there's a whole bunch of sinkholes out there, and we would ride out there, and they would set up the points of the pipe, put the pipe up underneath the houses, and then use the hydraulic ram, and then shoot the grout up underneath the houses to settle it out, you know, and keep it from they fill up those spaces and stuff. And so I was one of the grunt workers, and so I'm I was on really heavy medication at that time, and so I was late to work that day. I drove to the site myself in my own vehicle, and I jumped out the car. Boss man was on the job, two or three other of the workers there. I jumped up on the hydraulic ram. It was raining a little bit, didn't even put my gloves on, just jumped on the ram, and the ram, you have to actually keep it from swiveling, and then there's hinges that go in to keep the pipe tight. And then you actually have a sledgehammer that you hit that actually keeps it tight. I mean, I don't it's like a dinosaur type. They probably don't do this anymore, but it was a very old school, it seemed to me. But I jumped up on this thing because the bossman was there, I was late. I was trying to show, okay, well, I'm late, but here I'm ready to work. Didn't put my gloves on, and the hinges came and it fell right on the ram on my finger. And when it went on my finger, I I pulled back. And uh my finger is shorter. They had to do a plastic surgery. I guess the edge of my finger, it shattered the edge of the bone. I guess it was on there. Um, I remember the guy I was passing out, and one of the worker slapped me in the face to keep me from passing out. And so that is not the IT, you know, that's low voltage. This is not, you know, the same thing. But I'm just telling you, I almost lost my finger because

How Addiction Hits The Workplace

SPEAKER_00 24:20

of um, you know, me not being in the right mind, me being messed up on pills, and obviously it could happen um when you're dealing with big boom type of stuff you guys are dealing with. And so it could be it could be super bad, is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Oh, absolutely can be. I mean, workplace accidents are easily to happen as it is anyway. And then when you throw in another factor, you know, where somebody is dealing with the mental, the physical issues associated with physical addiction or addiction, that gets that that just compounds that issue even even worse. But you know, the safety is just one side of that, right? Let's talk about how addiction um can erode trust, um, can affect job morale, or or maybe even the ability to complete projects. How how do you see addiction affecting that?

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Well, I think work is very similar to anything that deals with teams. You know, you're talking sports teams, you know, where they say your only strongest is your weakest link. And so with you on the job, if you're doing something together, if you got four guys and you got one of them that's high on drugs and not doing what they're supposed to be doing, then that can affect everybody in a negative way. And uh, like I said, the morale as well. If somebody on that team is just not feeling it, and they are can bring everybody down, and together it's it's not you know accomplishing what that's supposed to be happening. And that can mess with um, you know, when there's uh the projects, when it's done, uh depending on how good it was, you know, if you're getting it looked at as um, you know, the um the grade of what the job was done and your evaluations, it can affect everybody, you know, as a whole. And so it's just like I said, when you're dealing with the danger stuff and the equipment and low voltage, much I don't care about low voltage. I mean, low voltage probably can shock you. I don't know much about it, but can hurt you. And so um ultimately it can it can wreck a team's morale. Um schedule, I mean, obviously, if you keep doing that um scheduling, you're you're not gonna have jobs. You're gonna have people canceling, canceling jobs. The projects won't be done, won't be done right. And if you can't have the trust of your co-workers, um then you as a boss, man, you just you're full of anxiety

Performance Red Flags Before It’s Obvious

SPEAKER_00 26:55

all the time. You don't know what's going on on the job. And the individual that can't be trusted, um, they're just building a negative portfolio um for you know jobs to come because they're probably not going to have that job much longer.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

100%. And you know, I want to make sure this is abundantly clear. It's not just the people in the field, it's not just the workers who suffer from addiction, it's also the high-performing employees, it's also the managers. And I got this guy's permission to tell his story before I before I before I came out and told this. I put up just out of professional responsibility, I don't want to say what his name is, but there's a guy in our industry, he's a subject matter expert. He's a close friend of mine. He functions on many of the committees that writes the codes, the standards for our industry. I had no idea he had a problem with addiction until I got a phone call one night. He was on the street, got kicked out of his house, it was raining, he had no money to eat, and I had no indication w uh beforehand. So this is not an issue that just helped hurts people in the field. It hurts everybody. It hurts everybody. What let me ask you this, Marshall, what mistakes do you think employers commonly make when they discover that they find out there's a tech uh technician, an employee struggling with substance abuse?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

I think one of the problems that the employers can have is if they have inexperience with uh addiction themselves, then it's just pretty much cutthroat. You know, there's there's no opportunity for recovery. You know, they've never seen it, they never heard it. They uh very rarely do I ever ask someone, but it does happen. I'll ask someone if they've got somebody in their family or know somebody with addiction. And sometimes people say, No, I don't know anything. I'm like, man, where do you live? Where are you? Um so the lack of experience, the lack of encounter in their own family or their own thing can have them to be there where they're um calloused, where they don't they don't have much feeling and they just can people. And uh, and yeah, I mean, I just don't think that's the right thing. I think you gotta be patient with people or at least try to help them, even if if you don't have them keep the job, help them to get some type of recovery and stuff because they probably don't want to keep keep doing um this problem.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

And you hit the nail on the head too, Marshall, because again, I've seen this personally. People who suffer addiction, when you when you when you filter out the issues with addiction, they are some of the hardest workers out there. I mean and they're really good with with people skills and and and like you said, you you were you never had a problem getting a job, you always had a problem keeping the job. And I've seen that personally, as as you and I know, because you know my history, not not my personally, but but the the history that I'm that you helped me get through. Um so why wouldn't an employee employee, an employer, want to not keep one that somebody's gonna work extremely hard? That you know, that you're so you're I I get 100%. So let's let's I want to move the conversation into because so now the you know now the the employer is aware of it. Let's talk about the recovery, let's talk about workplace support, and finally, let's let's talk about the walk-a-thon. Okay. I don't we're not gonna get done with this show without talking about that, right? Um, so I want I want to have a conversation about some awareness so people know how to act. Because that was one of my biggest things is the first time I got exposed to it. I I'm I I always want to see the best in people. I don't automatically assume the worst in people. And I'm not saying you assume the worst with somebody with addiction, but I guess I give people way too many chances. So that kind of opened up a lot of things there, right? So, you know, how did how when once this has been identified, how did this, how does the employer or how do the co-workers move forward with that, right? So when somebody enters a long-term recovery, or I think I think yours actually considered a discipleship program, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 30:58

It is, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Yeah. Maybe if you could touch a little bit on that, what's the difference between long-term to cover your discipleship

Safety Risks And A Hard Lesson

SPEAKER_01 31:05

programs? But um, when somebody enters into that, what areas of the life have to be rebuilt beyond just simply stop using you know whatever their whatever their source of addiction is?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

For sure. Discipleship is different than recovery. Recovery is in discipleship if the word of God, which I believe the Bible, is very important to being followed, okay? And then becoming followers of Jesus. And then Jesus had disciples, and so he said that we're to make disciples of all nations and to continue to carry on the work of the ministry. And so that's we say we're going to make disciples, we're going to have others to make disciples. How's that work? Well, we're an 18-month program, so they spend six to seven hours a day being taught the Bible, no TVs, no newspapers, no magazines, no coffee. Coffee's not the devil. Uh, coffee is not uh TV is not the devil. Those are not, these are just things that we've seen can become distractions in men's lives as they are trying to get out of um addiction, okay? And to really just be transformed, to be changed. And so we separate them from those things and then we put them in a place to where they can be taught and where they can be learn how to walk this thing out, right? And allow the Spirit of God to change them. And so we're long because we believe that it does take a long time for those behaviors and for you know for the heart to truly be changed and for purpose really to be um seen for what it is. Um that's the main thing. Um we might get on to that later, but the main thing that I've seen that for me kept me from going back to drugs for over a decade now is that I have purpose. Purpose is 100%.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

100% purpose is that it's it's it's it's it's lifeblood. It it truly is. Um, so you said that you know one of the worst things an employer can do is just fire them. So what what can employers do to support somebody while still keeping workplace safety and accountability?

SPEAKER_00 33:25

They would be able to help to find some place or be connected with some place, like loving hands, which has happened before, to get recovery. Um, and the thing that's really unique about us is that we don't charge, so it's not like the business or the church or the family has to go out and and pay. Um, they just hey, hey, this is the deal. I mean, I think it's a great agreement, right? We'll hold your job for you. All right, and you gotta go into long-term treatment. We've got this place that's called Loving Hands. Well, I don't have no money on it, it doesn't cost any money, and you go and you gotta finish this program. And and one of the um at our end of our program, we have where they have they have we have different tracks of our ministry, so they can go, and one of them is the vocational track, so they would be able to transition back into their job, and we'd help to transition them back into society. So we would be a resource, we would be a bridge for that. There's many bridges out there, there's there's many bridges, but this would be something because the the work, the um the employer, like you said, like you, you have a great heart, but people that have great hearts get their hearts broken because of the chances, because of okay, you oh yeah, I'm gonna do it this time, I'm gonna do it, and then it doesn't happen. And so employers, you know, there has to be um almost like a zero tolerance. If they see it, then they need to go ahead and move, make the actions, take the steps, but not just to cut somebody dry if they can be connected to some type of ministry or program like loving hands would be uh would be crucial to the recovery of the man. And also you get the you get the employer back, and then he's he's probably better than ever.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Yeah, and and and they realize that the the company cared about him enough to help him s solve this issue that he couldn't solve he or she, I shouldn't say he, uh, because when when as I'm talking, I'm thinking about a certain person in my head. Um, but that person realized this company thought enough of me to invest in me to get me better, to get me healed. That's gonna make an employee's gonna you talk about loyal? Talk about loyal? Oh my gosh. And you know, you you made a statement and it reminded me of something my pastor once told me. He said the price of having a big heart is pain. Yeah, that's that's just he told me that I'm I almost cry right there because again, I was talking to a pastor about an issue going on and just kind of it hit hit 100%. So so so if so I know I know you guys were I mean Living Hands Ministries in the the West Coast of central west coast of Florida and the and the one in uh in Georgia. Um so if for those companies listening outside of that footprint maybe find a discipleship program based in your area to help people you know recover from that because it's gonna make it's gonna make the best. But here's one thing I wanted to ask you, Marshall, because I again the person I talked about earlier was not somebody I worked with on a daily basis. I dealt with m mostly with through family stuff, but how can a co-worker let's say a co-worker realizes that one of the one of their peers there is having an issue, how can that co-worker approach that person that they believe may be struggling without without the air of judgment or being confrontational?

SPEAKER_00 36:58

I I don't know if they're gonna be able to do it without being confrontational, if they're gonna go straight to them. Confrontation has such a negative you know, connotation or

Morale Trust And Employer Mistakes

SPEAKER_00 37:10

perception. Uh confrontation for me is good. Uh I like confrontation because that's how you get answers. So um, but the presentation is important. And so I like to soften somebody up first with some real love. And so what I mean is like, hey Chuck, man, I man, I'm man, it's awesome, man. I'm glad you thank you for being having me on this podcast. Thank you for you know what you and Barbie have, you know, done just been a blessing to loving hands at the church. Man, this yeah, this appreciation. Oh, yeah, okay. And uh, and I wanted to say that I've seen that you know, have you been maybe struggling a little bit? And um, so leading into um that conversation. Because like I said, confrontation is not bad. And um so obviously I like to pray before I go into things like that. And I but I know that what you're thinking, you know, co-worker, we have to be careful about those boundaries that we cross as well, um, because that person could go to the boss man and be like, oh, they're judging me and stuff like that. So uh so I think it's important on what kind of room you have, the access that you have with the individual, and make and also maybe doing it off work hours was probably uh best as well to do that. But if confrontation is not your thing and you don't feel like that's the best, I think reaching out to people that have some history in addiction and things can be an uh can be an avenue to get some wisdom, you know, because there are ways of talking to people about stuff like this without throwing names out there.

unknown 38:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

You don't have to throw names, you don't have to throw where this person is or anything. You can just be very broad and generic in what you need help with, and so getting from wisdom from people that that do it. Like myself, you know, I'm I'm always open. My my cell phone and my email are always there. I give cards away and stuff because apart from doing what I do here with um donor relations and fundraising and training and all that stuff, uh most of all, I'm a minister and I minister to any need really that um that uh God leads me to.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

And I can attest to that because I sent you an email at like 1115 one night because I I was a friend of mine wanted to donate to the program. He's on a project in Africa, and I guess because of that country's restrictions, he couldn't open up the link. So he he said, Chuck, can I sell you the money and then you just pay for it? I just want to get the receipt. And so I you know, I did that, and then I said, Well, I was gonna wait, I was waiting till the next day to when I was gonna see you, but I was like, nah, I'll just I'll forget. I know I know my weaknesses, right? Squirrel. So I was like, I'm just gonna send him an email right

Discipleship Purpose And Real Recovery

SPEAKER_01 40:05

now. That way it's done, I don't have to worry about it. So I sent the email, and then literally, like within 15 minutes, I got that I got a confirmation from my friend. Oh, I got the receipt. I was like, wait a minute, it's it's 11:15 at night. What's he doing here to email's 1115?

SPEAKER_00 40:20

My email is always dinging, and um and so but I am getting ready. Um, I'm not getting ready to, but probably end of this year or early next year, I told my wife the other day that when we go we're going back to the Smoky Mountains and spending some time up there. I told her this time we're going, and my phone thing off.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

Unplug, you do six, seven days. You need to recharge. Yeah. People don't one thing people don't know about understand about ministry is you know that people get involved in ministry because they have a heart for it, they have a passion for it, they have a calling for it. And usually the first victim of a ministry is the direct family. And uh so at some point you do have to unplug. You absolutely do. And I love the fact that you said uh loving hands ministry doesn't charge because I know when we were looking at drug programs, that kept coming up quite often. So you guys don't charge. So the way that you get money is through events like Save Our Sons Walk-A-Thon, which I'm participating in this year. Make sure you go in the description, click on that cue card, and donate to my team. Okay, because I made a goal. I I you know go big. I I go well, yeah. I was gonna say, your wife was on stage talking about it and stuff, and and just like that got laid on my heart, said, get involved this year, Chuck. I said, Okay. What do you want? And he told me, I want $10,000.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

It's like, what? $10,000? Um, I don't know if I can do that. He says, You you're not doing it, I'm doing it. I'm you're just a messenger. I was like, okay. So I started putting it out, and I've I've been plugging now for seven days and I'm making some progress. I ain't done yet. We got two more weeks. The walk is the 15th of next month. So I only have like 20 days, I think now, 21 days, nine. 19 days. Yeah, so I've got 19 days to get to get to my goal. And if I haven't contacted you yet, I will be contacting you. So um, so you you you use this event to fund the Loving Hands Ministry. So let's give us, tell us the audience, what are some of the things that these funds will be used to help those families?

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Well, I mean, it's just I mean, I met the day to the campus here, and we have almost almost four acres. And Palmetto, we got nine acres, and then up in Reitzville, we have uh, I think about nine. And you wouldn't even imagine what the well you would, what the electric bill is. I got my electric bill the other day, it's crazy. Um, and so these funds they go to basic everything. These guys come into our ministry. When I came in, I remember coming in and my clothes, I was smoking those Newports we were talking about, and I lived in a room for rent. All right, and it didn't have it had one window, but it had a air conditioner, a window shaker in that thing. So I was chain smoking in that room. When I came in, my clothes, the white shirts, they were yellow. Okay. I didn't have barely anything. And when they took me to this place we call it the Blessed House here on the property in Dade City, and they go in there, and the men go in there and get shoes, shirts, pants, everything. They get a suit, because we do travel when we go to those churches. And our founder, Pastor Wendell, and Miss Nancy, they were kind of from the old school. And um you used to wear suits to go to church, okay? And still, if every once

Coworker Conversations Without Judgment

SPEAKER_00 44:10

in a while you go to one of them old school Baptist churches, or and they still wearing them suits and everything. Put on the tie. Yeah. I don't wear suits anymore. Um every once in a while I do. But there is something about when you have a guy that come off the street and you he ain't got nothing, and you can go in this room and you get him showered up, get it cleaned up, and you give him everything that he needs. We're talking hygiene. We're talking everything. And they just then they got the suit Sunday morning, they're up there looking all, you know, feeling like really good. But everything, three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We have one cook, one of our guys, the thing's Matthew, right now. He's been with us about eight months. He cooks for all of the men and the staff. That's one of the benefits of being a staff member, too, is you get a free lunch every once in a while. Praise God for that. But everything is taken care of for um these men. I mean, we do special stuff for Christmas time. Our um Miss, um, so Pastor Wendell, Miss Nancy, their oldest daughter. Sorry, Miss Kim, if you're watching this, her most mature daughter, uh, Miss Kim, she has continued to carry on the torch when Pastor and Miss Nancy passed in 16, so she's our president and CEO, and she loves the men of loving hands. You know, now she's got a little I'm gonna get in trouble. She's got a little bit more mature. You know, they used to be brothers, now it's she's the mother, you know, and uh, but we're you know, and so she loves on these guys. Like during Christmas time, we take them to the mall and we give them a choice. We say, Do you want a brand new pair of shoes? We go to rap room, they got the buy one, you get half off. We take them, we say, Do you want a pair of shoes? A brand new pair of shoes, or do you want a suit? We take them to JC Penny and they can pick out a brand new suit. Um, every year we've been doing this for I don't know how many years. Every birthday, we celebrate with them, we get a cake for them, staff gets around them with the men and pray a blessing. This is something that Pastor Wendell used to do with us all the time. He was old school. He used to have us kneel down in front of him, he was a pray over us. And but he was like a father, you know, father to us. And um so everything is very family intentionally oriented, okay? That's one of the major differences is that we are a family atmosphere. Um, that's why it's save our sons, you know, not save our patients. So save our sons, you know. Everybody in this ministry, we associate with that they are they're our family and that we love them. And almost all the men, and we've had over the years, you know, people and they don't like, you know, the environment and stuff like that. Some a lot of people that end up, god guys and end up liking it, they don't like it at first. They will share in their testimony from time to time that say, man, like I this is foreign to me, the amount of care and nurture and love and affection. At first, I was like, Man, this is super weird. This is like, this don't even feel right. But because of Pastor Wendell showering that on me, for me, that's what did it. God did it, but because of what I seen, the sacrifice of Pastor

Save Our Sons Walk-A-Thon And Where Funds Go

SPEAKER_00 47:30

Wendell and Miss Nancy and then Miss Kim, how they loved and how Pastor Wendell ended up being with Jesus in 16, both of them. And you know what? They didn't take the ministry with them. Everything was stayed down here. Obviously, you can't take it with you, but meaning they didn't like try to sell it off. I mean, even the Lincoln that he used to drive around, and everything got donated, everything went right back into the ministry. Everything went back into the ministry. The family got a little bit, this the brother, the sons and the daughter, they got a little bit of money, but all of that stuff went, all of his personal items went right back into the ministry, the legacy of loving hands. And when I seen all that stuff, I was like, man, this guy, this family, they really knew how to love.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

There are some people who just walk a different walk.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

And that's what it did for me. It ignited something in me that was like, man, I wanna, this is what I want to do for my for my life. I wanna, I want to dedicate my life to this mission because I know what it did for me, and I want to see so many more men experience the freedom and have a purpose in a life. Like I I'm home with my family this morning. I'm making eggs and cooking and hanging out on my new house and my table and and spending time with another one of our staff members and stuff when I was a dope addict, and I thought I was gonna be dead at 25, and I'll be 46 next Monday.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

So happy early birthday.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_01 49:00

So let me just go ahead and close this out. Marshall, thank you for coming on. I'll give you an intention to sign up here in a second, but I just want to take a second because I know my industry. I know my industry has a big heart. Because you know, you get our conferences, you know, there's Bixie Cares that's that uh collects money for that stuff that they do. It's usually child-related stuff. And I've seen some of the I've seen some of the effects and the money that's driven. So I know our heart, our industry has a big heart. So I'm calling on you, the person listening right now, I'm calling on for industry partners. I'll be reaching out to manufacturers this week. I've already been reaching out to contractors, consultants, and all this stuff. Please consider supporting the Save Our Sons Walk-a-thon because every donation matters. Yes, every share matters. And more importantly, every prayer matters. And don't be like me. Don't wait until addiction comes knocking on your door, okay? Um, it affects people you love, it affects

Final Ask For Donations And Closing

SPEAKER_01 50:00

your family, it affects work, it affects every and you know, don't wait to that phone call comes home. Mr. Marshall, thank you for coming on the show, buddy. I appreciate you more than words could ever express, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 50:12

Chuck, I appreciate you guys, man. Take care, and you have a great day.