E14 Randy Johnson - When Your "Yes" is on the Table

Greg Scott: Well, Randy, thanks for coming on today to 315 Voices. Welcome to the podcast.

Randy Johnson: Greg, it's great to be with you. Thanks for the honor and privilege of sharing a little bit of time with you today.

Greg Scott: Well, the privilege is mine after I did a little research into God's pit crew, which Randy and his wife, Terri, started 27 years ago. And we're going to get into that certainly later on. I know you're going to be blessed by today's conversation. But Randy, just to give a little bit of background, talk a little bit about maybe growing up for a little bit and how your faith story is intertwined with that.

Randy Johnson: Well, I grew up in a little small town called Freeze, Virginia, which is spelt F-R-I-E-S. So it's spelt fries, but pronounced Freeze. ⁓ My wife, first time I took her up there, she said, man, they have to pipe sunshine in up here. Is it so far back in the woods? But I love where I grew up, very small town that sit on the new river, just a beautiful community and raised by fantastic parents. was, was taken to church and, know, and in church as, as a child gave my heart to the Lord as a child. But probably as we'll get into later, you'll hear I fell far from that, uh, for a period of time in my life. lost my mom when she was 42 years old to cancer. one of the most devastating things in my life I had one brother that was six years older than me that we lost ⁓ about four years ago now. But just a ⁓ great upbringing and came up as a racing with my brother. He ⁓ owned his own mechanic shop and built ⁓ ran race cars. And so I grew around that with him and my dad was a plumber and electrician so I kind of grew up hauling tools from the truck for them to work with but as soon as I graduated high school I left Freeze and moved on out, started driving a truck over the road for a living and did that for the next 14 or 15 years. But it was great times. remember my older brother, you know, of course, older brothers always want to just push the younger brother out of the way. They're just, they're just trouble. He would send me to the truck for wire stretchers and pipe stretchers and anything he could to try to get me out of his hair for a while. So yeah, yes sir.

Greg Scott: Sure. Yeah, blinker fluid is hard to find, Randy, I'll be honest. You also described, having to overcome some things as an adult, as you got married. There were some things that the enemy put in your life that distracted you a little bit. You had some addictions to overcome. Talk about that a little bit.

Randy Johnson: my teenage, late teenage years and early 20s, I got messed up in some things I'm not very proud of now and drinking pretty heavy and drugs But yeah, I just made a lot, a lot of mistakes there. Married the first time before I was 20 years old and unfortunately divorced a year and a half later.

Greg Scott: Hello and welcome to 315 Voices. I'm your host, Greg Scott. 1 Peter 315 reminds us to always be prepared to give an account when someone asks for the reason for the hope that's in us. And today's guest is Randy Johnson. No, not that one, But you're going to want to listen to how God's call on what could be described as a normal guy living a normal life has produced some not-so-normal results in advancing the gospel. The number of people and communities impacted by his company, God's Pit Crew, are impressive standing by themselves. But I know you're going want to hear about how it's all about following the direction in his life and not about just building a business.

Randy Johnson: my later ⁓ 20s, was 28 or 29, I ⁓ felt like I had messed everything I could mess ⁓

Greg Scott: If you don't want to be convicted about your role in advancing God's Kingdom, then I'd log off now and just wait on the next episode. But if you want to be blown away by a servant's heart and what humility and success looks like, then I'm so glad you've joined us today for our conversation with Randy Johnson.

Randy Johnson: You know, my mom passed away while I was really messed up, which I hate that, know, dearly I wish she could see, you know, the difference now and what God's done in my life. But I finally got down on my living room floor one Sunday night, about midnight, all by myself. And I just begged God to forgive me for all the wrongs I'd done. And, ⁓ I asked him to save my life I asked him ironically enough to send me somebody that would help me get my life straight because I knew that I was not capable of doing it in my own fleshly strength. wasn't too long after that. I mean, there's a lot of story to it, but it wasn't too long after that.

Greg Scott: And I hope you enjoyed our time today with Randy as much as I did. While I sometimes think that those who built their own success, even in worthy corners of life, are still driven to make the next dollar, Randy is a clear example of someone who not only wants to reach everyone he can for the gospel, he's looking for ways to do it better and better, and is only fueled by the charge the Lord put into him so many years ago. I know that you've no doubt been

Randy Johnson: I had the privilege of meeting Terry, the lady I'm married to now and have been for over 30 years. she let me know right off the bat, if you're going to hang out with me, you're going to go to church. And so my desire to hang out with her overcame my desires, you know, for anything else. She got me back in church and just setting under the word, you know.

Greg Scott: inspired to ask the Lord just how he can use you just through hearing Randy's story. So share the link out to today's episode on all of your social media platforms. Subscribe to our YouTube channel or anywhere you get your podcast downloads and then tell someone you know about your favorite 315 Voices episode in order to encourage and inspire them. And then join us again when someone else will be prepared to give the reason for the hope that's within them on the next episode of 315 Voices.

Randy Johnson: Sunday after Sunday, Wednesday after Wednesday. after two years ⁓ of dating and getting my life straight, Terry and I got married and been married ever since. You know, it's just amazing what God's done with our lives since ⁓ that commitment again.

Greg Scott: not lost on me with you and the way you describe that of how God led you to pray the exact right thing for your life. Sometimes when you get in a ditch, you think there's probably a way to get out, but I can't do it on my own, I don't know what I'm doing. The enemy likes to tell us, well, if you just lay in that ditch, that's probably easier. And God gave you the right prayer, which was, okay, first off, forgive me, and second, I'm going to need somebody to keep me. I need a yokemate to keep me out of this ditch. What a wonderful prayer and what a wonderful result of that prayer for you.

Randy Johnson: I actually even that night gave God a description of what I wanted this lady to look that I wanted him to send my way to help me get my life straight. And if I held up my wife's picture and that image that was in my head, they are identical. ⁓ And when I finally totally surrendered that to Him, that's when things began to change.

Greg Scott: you said, okay, and I've got a physical while you're at it. ⁓ God, if you don't mind. I think wonderful. listen, after a few years there, though, you of sit in church and you and...

Randy Johnson: Yeah.

Greg Scott: you're faithful and growing in your faith I love the way you described as I sit under the Word that ⁓ he starts to stir your heart a little bit where you go wait a minute my really shouldn't be just sitting here so talk about ⁓ the prayer next that you pray there that really led this this second half of your

Randy Johnson: Yeah, you know, say now I was a professional bench warmer for a number of years in church. But now I'll preface that by saying that's one of the most important things we can do as a Christian is to be in church and to be fed the word and ⁓ to and to learn and to grow in our faith. So I'm not diminishing that at all. you're right, as I said under the word, I just began to have a desire to do more. You know, I thought there's got to be more to this Christian walk than just attending church. I wanted to be involved. I wanted to do something. My heart desired to be engaged. But my flesh just continuously told me, Randy, you're not smart enough. You don't know the Bible well enough. You're petrified to get up and speak in front of people. You don't have this gift. You don't have that talent. I let my flesh convince me that ⁓ attending is all I could do. And one Sunday night in early 1999, after service, I just went to the altar, got on my knees and simply said, Lord, here I am. If you can use me, use me. There was no thunder, no lightning. The earth didn't shake. I got up from the altar that night, not knowing if anything was any different than it had ever been before. Went back to doing what I knew to do at the time. ran a small business where we sold truck accessories and enclosed trailers and storage buildings and carports for a living. My wife was an interior designer. She worked for a company that sold carpet and wallpaper and paint and flooring. I got up to go to work one morning about three or four weeks after being in the altar and turned on the TV to get ready to go to work. And there was footage of this horrific tornado that had hit in Oklahoma and more Oklahoma and Oklahoma City in May of 99. And as soon as I saw the footage, it was not an audible voice, but as clear as could be something in my gut said, Randy, you can help those people. And so I changed the channel real quick to try to get away from it. The next channel I changed to was more footage of this storm. And that voice just kept ringing out, you can help these people. So for about two days, I wrestled with God and I'm like, Lord, I'm a small business owner in Danville, Virginia. What on earth could I do that would possibly make a difference? in Oklahoma. These people are halfway across the country. Anything we tried to do would be so minimal, it wouldn't matter, it wouldn't make an impact. at the end the second day, I'm sitting ⁓ behind the sales at the lot and I'm looking out the showroom window at this long line of brand new enclosed trailers. And I finally said, okay, God, here's what we'll do, as if I could tell him what plan was, said, Lord, we'll take that 20 foot trailer out there somehow, some way. We'll fill it full of product and me and Terry and two of our kids will take a week's vacation and we'll take it to Oklahoma to help the victims. So I got home that evening to tell Terry the plan. I thought she was going to be so excited that I'd finally decided to do something. And I told her the plan and she looked at me like, We're gonna do what? You know, how far is it out there? And I saw a long ways. Well, how much gas is it gonna take? I said a whole lot. Well, we don't have the money to buy that gas. Where are we gonna get stuff to, you know, fill a 20 foot trailer full of product? My goodness, that's a lot of stuff. And I just said, Terry, I don't know the answer to your questions, but I know for once in my life, God called us to do this. So let's just try. And so we, we set out to fill that 20 foot trailer full ended up filling up two 48 foot trailers full that I had to borrow from racing buddies of mine So, you know, we learned a valuable lesson in that God ⁓ He just needs our availability. He's just looking for who will say, Lord, I am. If you can use me, use me. And then be bold enough to step out and do what he's challenged us to do.

Greg Scott: And I love that you use the phrase from Isaiah when God said, who am going to send? Isaiah went, I'm right here, just send me. you already had that in your heart. then God provided you a different way to serve.

Randy Johnson: Yeah.

Greg Scott: I don't know what the three weeks between the altar visit ⁓ and the morning news ⁓ were like for you in your faith walk going, ⁓ still I'm just waiting. How did that play out? guess kind of give me a glimpse into your mind for that two or three weeks going, I really want to serve. just have no idea what you want me to do.

Randy Johnson: You know, I think God gave me a piece that probably I didn't understand until maybe even recently after being in the altar that night of, okay, I'm just gonna wait on you, God. But I just felt something different and felt a peace. I think about, you know, things moving forward that I hadn't felt previous to that.

Greg Scott: love all of that and how you describe that. I think your peace came from God didn't want you to serve on that night at the altar. He just wanted your yes ⁓ night. ⁓ the peace came from accomplishing His will. His will in your life for that night was to just say yes. ⁓ can see where a lot of us and a lot of our listeners say, okay, well you did that. How does helping this one set of people in one isolated disaster move from what I did in a moment to what I've done now for the last 27 years?

Randy Johnson: We came home with a great sense of gratitude and thankfulness that God allowed us to be a part that. But we went back work, you know, we, we honestly, I thought that was a once in a lifetime experience. It probably will never happen again. I went back to putting bed liners in trucks and and hitches on and my wife went back to selling carpet and paint wallpaper. And several months later in the fall of 99, Hurricane Floyd hit the North Carolina coast. Devastating flooding all along the East coast of North Carolina. ⁓ ⁓ even like to tell you that ⁓ that hit, my first thought was, ⁓ we'll respond, but it wasn't. But it's neat how God uses people. I think he puts people in our path to challenge us, to grow us. So ⁓ was working and a gentleman came in ⁓ day to buy some product, ⁓ maybe three or four days after the storm had hit. And while I was filling out his paperwork, he was like, Randy, did you see all the flooding in North Carolina? And I said, Yeah, man, it's awful. And he looked at me dead in the eye and he said, were you going to do anything about it? I well, ⁓ I thought about it. And he's like, well, you went halfway across the country earlier this year to help folks. These are our neighbors. Why wouldn't you help them? And ⁓ so did we knew to do. We collected supplies. We filled trailers. We contacted a church in Greenville, North Carolina that agreed to accept the product. And we took it to them. We unloaded the trailers, told Pastor Kevin, was his name. I told Kevin, I said, Pastor, I appreciate you distributing this product for us and making sure the people that need it get it. We're on our way back home. See you later. And he was like, Randy, why don't you hang out with me for a while and let me show you some of the damage and introduce you to some of the people affected. So we went around with him and we visited several houses, horrific devastation. Everything people owned just gutted out and piled up in the yard. But about the fourth or fifth house we got to, we had to park actually out on the roadway on the shoulder. We couldn't get in the driveway because there was one of those, what I thought at the time, one of those big piles of trash. in the driveway. mean, this mound was six feet high and probably 10 or 12 foot long and covered the whole width of the driveway. And we started walking down the driveway and Pastor Kevin came up to me said, this is Brother Bess's house. He's 82 years old. He lost his wife not too long before the storm. He got about seven foot of water in the house. The church has come and gutted it out. sleeping in the basement of one of our church members houses at night. He's nobody that we know of, ⁓ no no relatives. And so as we rounded that corner, I realized that this not a of trash at all, but this was what this 82 year old man had worked his whole life to accumulate.

Greg Scott: It was everything.

Randy Johnson: It was everything. And so when we rounded the pile, Brother Bess was sitting on the carport of the little wood frame gutted outhouse. He was sitting in a metal folding chair, had his hands propped up on his cane. And Kevin said, because this is home. It's all he knows. I told you, he built this house with his own hands. Him and his wife had lived here for nearly 50 years. And so he comes here at daylight and he sits here until dark. Then he goes and sleeps in the basement of one of the church members houses. So we met Brother Bass. We went in and looked at the house. But my old flesh kicked in. I told Pastor Kevin, I'm like, and I'd really like to be back home by supper time. Do you mind taking us back to the church now? ⁓ And I went out on the front and I was waiting for everybody to come so we could leave. And I heard the screen door creak open ⁓ and I turned to look and it Brother Bess. And he looked at me and he said, son, would you mind coming back in the house and praying with me before you leave? And so we went back in the house and we gathered in a circle and we're holding hands. And Brother Bess was the one who led the prayer. And he started talking about what an incredible, wonderful, faithful, mighty God we serve. and I'm ashamed to admit it now, but my thought was, ⁓ man, you're crazy. The thing you have ever worked for is laying in a pile in your front yard, your wife and best friends gone, you got nobody, you got no place to live. How on earth can you praise

Greg Scott: Hmm.

Randy Johnson: And during that prayer, that same voice came back in my gut and just said, Randy, we can fix this for Brother Bess. So we left and I fought my tears back all the way home. long story short, we drove back and forth to Greenville, North Carolina for, I don't know, 14, 15 weeks. every weekend and we rebuilt Brother Bass's house. Now I know beyond a shadow of doubt that was God's plan. Brother kept saying, Randy, I just want to spend more Christmas in my house. And we moved him in in early December, ⁓ On the way home after him back his ⁓ redone house, one of the volunteers that was with me Randy, why don't we just do this forever? Does this have to be our last mission? So we came home and formally organized what's now known of as God's Pit And we did that because an 82-year-old man who in my mind had ⁓ reason to have faith in God gave us the faith to believe that we could do what God had called us to

Greg Scott: I get lots of challenges and nuggets just out of that story. But I tell you what I want to point out is it kind of lines up with what we're trying to do on 315 Voices. We want to hear your story because your story may inspire someone else in the faith. But if you read 1 Peter 3, 15 and 16, It says you're given your story because there was something that somebody saw in you. said be ready to give an account for the hope that's in you. And you saw something in Mr. Bess that you had. I know Jesus. I love Jesus. But that's the kind of faith I want. ⁓ And what a testimony he left and what a legacy he left just in the encounter you. ⁓ And ⁓ was your first gifted structure and correct my number but I think I found now over a hundred ⁓ rebuilt buildings and gifted building structures homes through God's pit screw. Is that correct?

Randy Johnson: Yeah, we're actually at 131 as of last week and that's 131 new or completely rebuilt structures that we've done for families.

Greg Scott: and for people that want me to do the math for you, that's five per year since you started this in 1999 and you just told me you only did one in 1999. in the last 25 plus years, that's six per year from just through the connections that God, that he started with one man walking in your, and let me tell you what my flesh would have done there, Randy, when you looked at me and said, what are you gonna do about it? I don't know, I'll follow you. What are you doing about it? You know, what we want to do is turn it back around when God gave you a challenge through Him that you accepted. What now has... how has that taken you? So God's Pit Crew, for those of you joining us today, we've got Randy Johnson. Randy and his wife, Terri, as you just heard, started God's Pit Crew in 1999, early 2000. As an organization, the numbers are staggering. You now have over 2000 volunteers a year.

Randy Johnson: the Yes.

Greg Scott: that go through God's Pit Crew. We'll learn a little bit about what a blessing bucket is here in a minute, but you give out over 30,000 of those per year. That's got to blow your mind just hearing that out loud. And you've responded to over 200 disasters worldwide in the last 25 years. But how has God built the mission and vision now of just what is the vision of God's Pit Crew?

Randy Johnson: you know, as most people do, I'm sure when you go through years of doing things, you learn valuable lessons. And one of the valuable lessons we had to learn is not to try to take things into our own hands, but to make sure we're following what God would have us to do. So a number of years ago, we became laser focused on the four different aspects of God's pit crew. easy to get caught up and you see a need and you think you got to be the one to fill that need when you're not the one really called to fill that need. So we had to get really laser focused on four different aspects of the ministry ⁓ that we have. Three of the four are disaster related, that's our blessing bucket program, our immediate response program and our rebuilding program. All those are disaster leaf work. We also do regional distribution. So regionally, about a 200 mile radius of our hometown, ⁓ distribute product to other nonprofits But goal moving forward is to stay very focused on those four things, not to get sidetracked by ⁓ things. We trust and believe that God's called other people to do all the other many things and needs that there are. We want to help more people. We don't want more equipment and bigger buildings just to say, know, look at us. we're trying to ask that question with every decision we make, this us make a significant impact for those affected by natural disaster or through our regional distribution program ⁓ in a bigger and better and more impactful way? It's not been too many years ago. We had one team that could be in one place at one time. Now we have the capacity to be in two to three. We could pretty easily or comfortably now be in three different locations at once. Same thing with our rebuilding team. know, there was a time not too long ago, we did one house at a time. Following the storms in 21 in Kentucky, we actually built three houses simultaneously in 21 days, start to finish. that's what we're trying to do is grow our capacity to be able to be there for more people and make a difference in more people's lives. I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. ⁓ I'm not even looking at retirement or talking about retirement. But if something does happen to myself or Terry or both of us, we want to make sure that God's pick crew's in good hands, it's solid, and that it'll just continue with God's help and direction right on. ⁓ started off with a pickup truck and a trailer and today, to God be the glory, and I'm bragging on him, just him, ⁓ we have almost 140 pieces equipment now. Tractor trailers. duallys, shower trailers, lifts, skid steers, excavators. we have semis that are nothing but chainsaws and climbing gear and safety gear. We have ⁓ semis that nothing but tools to rebuild houses. ⁓ We own square foot of warehouse ⁓ that is packed with product all the time that we get ⁓ to give to others to help them. ⁓

Greg Scott: Mm-hmm.

Randy Johnson: The challenge, and it's a good challenge, just to make sure we stay in His will and that we're doing what He would have us to do and that we're always careful to make sure He gets all the glory and all the honor for

Greg Scott: Well, and those things were evident, which is what led us to being connected with one another. told you before we came ⁓ on, of mine that lives now in North Carolina had shared a story of yours. And when I dove it was evident that... In fact, I had to dig to find your name. It had nothing to do with Randy. It had nothing to do with Terry. It was about what God's allowed this ministry to do. So tell just just for our curiosity, we both use the phrase blessing bucket. ⁓ What all goes into a blessing bucket and how are those utilized?

Randy Johnson: See ya. So we developed a blessing bucket a number of years ago. We saw a great thing being given out in disasters and what most people would call a cleaning bucket, which is very needed and does a great thing. But we thought, about the people who are displaced and they lose all their personal hygiene items? And if they're in a shelter, in a motel, or living with family, but a tornado has wiped their house completely off its foundation. There's nothing left. So we developed a bucket that has 30 items in them, mostly personal hygiene items, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, a brush, a comb, bar of soap. There's a first aid kit in every one. There's bottles of water, there's canned food. had a lady following Hurricane who was upper middle-class lady owned her own business, business destroyed, house destroyed, lay her head on my shoulder and weep like a baby over a toothbrush. because you just couldn't find one anywhere. So the items, while they may seem minimal to most of us, and we take for granted every day, you know, when you just don't have them and can't get access to them, they're worth their weight in gold. And so there's a Bible in every single one. That's the first thing people will find when they open the buckets on the very top. There's a bath towel, a washcloth. There is a devotional book in every one and there's a handwritten note of encouragement from one of our volunteers in every single bucket that goes out. We also have what's called a play pail as well, which is a little bit smaller version of the blessing bucket made for children. So it also has the personal hygiene, but it includes a coloring book and stuffed animal and some things like that. So I think the play pail is about to overtake the blessing buckets they've become so popular, And just one of the greatest joys ⁓ around here when we have these assemblies to assemble buckets. Sometimes there can be between 200 and 300 people in our facility working the assembly lines. And man, it's just such an incredible spirit of the Lord when that takes place.

Greg Scott: 30,000 a year with a handwritten note ⁓ that takes it to a different level for me.

Randy Johnson: a lot of ⁓ being written. it's pretty

Greg Scott: Now, where do your, are most of your volunteers that go out, is that something that's within arm's reach of you regionally?

Randy Johnson: If you had asked me that question 10 years ago, I'd said yes, but not anymore. Thank the Lord. ⁓ We have volunteers from all over the US, Canada. ⁓ We had a volunteer from Africa in Western North Carolina a few weeks ago working. The team, we had a big team ⁓ in following the ice storms recently, just a few months ago. There was 150 volunteers from 20 different states that worked that disaster. So we've got people from all over that are coming and being a part.

Greg Scott: unbelievable. And I bet every once in a while, Randy, ⁓ be in a quiet moment or in your daily devotion or maybe sitting on your porch swing, you go, you got to be kidding me ⁓ this is where the Lord has taken this. And now your prayer is the prayer of J-Bez. God extend my reach, extend my territory because I can't. help enough people because there's a gospel message to it. So talk more a little bit about not just that Bible on the top of the blessing bucket, but what does a community or a church community agree to by receiving assistance from your organization?

Randy Johnson: Well, Greg, we try to be careful. I hope I can state my heart here and people understand. We try to be careful to go in and beat people over the head with a Bible to help them. ⁓ first question in the midst of these disasters is not, I pray for you, but how can I help you? And somewhere in the helping, they always ask. Why would you do this? Would you mind praying for me? Our immediate response team has little wooden crosses that one of the volunteers have made. Every single person they help receives one of those and they pray with them they are finished with the job at the very least. We send a letter back ⁓ to the people that we help ⁓ within 30 or 45 days once we've pulled out of a community. We give them a list of some churches in the area. I mean, so we do everything we can to push people the gospel. without shoving it down their throat. And when I say that, I you to hear my heart. ⁓ You know, sometimes, ⁓ well, I've just seen I've experienced it. I've been on sites where everything is just destroyed. People have nothing left, like a brother best. If that's a non-believer and I go in and the first thing I say to them is, can I pray for you? ⁓ I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, where's the God you're talking about in all this mess? But if we go in first and we show them where the God is in all that mess, if we show them the love of Christ tangibly, without strings attached, it almost always, always opens the door to a good solid opportunity to witness and minister to people

Greg Scott: just reminds me of the old saying, preach the gospel always ⁓ sometimes use words. ⁓ Just with the way that you interact ⁓ really, ⁓ in a disaster, whether it be what you're describing, natural disaster, maybe it's a loss in a family or whatever someone is going through that's major.

Randy Johnson: Yes.

Greg Scott: your radar of who is genuine around you is on high alert you know we can smell a rat ⁓ pretty quickly ⁓ because seen too of them and I don't want to know your agenda I just I do need a little help and if you're in that situation you described that lady in Louisiana that's probably never had to ask for help at least in a long time and when you get to a point where you say I need some help and that is the first thing you need and that's I think you've you got God has gifted you and your organization with the ability to go down the road the right way.

Randy Johnson: Well, thank you. mean, I know there's probably differing opinions on it and I feel like we've all got to follow, you know, our heart and what God puts on our heart. Obviously, we don't hide our faith. It's written in bold ⁓ all over the side of these semis feel like we're very effective in ministering the gospel ⁓ running people off right off the bat. Before you get an opportunity to really show them who God is ⁓ just trying to tell them who he is.

Greg Scott: how far has God allowed God's pit crew to go and serve in a disaster away from it? Again, if you're just picking up with Randy and I in our conversation, God's pit crew is a disaster relief faith-based organization based out of the state of Virginia. So you're as far on the East Coast as you can get. How far have you gone, Randy?

Randy Johnson: Oregon is probably the furthest distance. We were in a couple of the California wildfires. We were in one of the wildfires in Oregon. We've been in Idaho. I would say the bulk of our work is Midwest back, ⁓ Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, that's where most of, you know, ⁓ tornado activity and kind of stuff is. But we've been in 15 other countries too, mainly shipping product after disasters. But had a team in Jamaica just a months back after the hurricane there, we went back and ⁓ helped to a number of houses, ship blessing buckets over there and distributed them. We've sent stuff to Japan, ⁓ the Philippines, Nepal, We've done a lot of work in Haiti. Bahamas, we've done a lot of work in the so wherever leads us to go, ⁓ our typical mode response international ⁓ is with product will help, ⁓ but we are teams as well when it will work out. I can honestly tell you almost every day of the week that I walk in the doors of this building. I'm like, Lord, I don't know where this came from except. I mean, I know where it came from, but it's just hard to comprehend he has done, especially what he has done with just simple people like us.

Greg Scott: speaking of going back, you earlier said something, I'll just touch on it again, where we often get talked out of what God has planned for us ⁓ by little whispers of the enemy, that you don't have the knowledge, people know your past, ⁓ lots different excuses that we tell ourselves of why we can't serve in there.

Randy Johnson: I'm so convinced God has a plan and a purpose for every single life. And it's not to play second string. now not everybody ⁓ is to pastor a church, not everybody's to start a disaster relief ministry, but there is a plan and a purpose. ⁓ ⁓ we just need to not let... any device of the enemy convince us otherwise.

Greg Scott: Paul says very clearly, how is someone going to hear about Christ unless somebody tells them? And how is somebody going tell them unless they're sent? And so, God sends us and which part of that process you're a part of, I don't know. But you're right, we're all called. In fact, Paul got upset in another letter in the New Testament where he says, you suckers ought to be... on meat by now and you're still sitting around drinking milk and not growing in your faith and you ought to be teaching others by now and growing and moving and I go back to earlier where you said you know was a professional benchwarmer sitting in a pew but God was using that to grow your faith to where you could serve and serve in the right way and with the right heart and man I'm so thankful for crossing paths with you and getting to hear some of that story today.

Randy Johnson: We're good. You too, we'll have to invite you to come out sometime to one of these home reveals or bills and be a part of one of them. We'd love to have you.

Greg Scott: I would love to do that anytime. So fast forward 50 years ⁓ and Brandy Johnson is, you probably got a plaque of you, your hat on and somewhere up on ⁓ in one of those warehouses. But what do you want your to sound and look like?

Randy Johnson: You know, I think, Greg, I just want people to say that we served well, that we loved God and we followed his will for our lives, and that we did the best we could to serve You know, the reason you had a hard time finding my name is pretty intentional. we don't want to be about that. We want ⁓ to be God and His kingdom and growing His kingdom and bringing as many to His kingdom as we can.

Greg Scott: You say it like it's a small goal. But I think it's our goal in the faith is to hear those words from the Father one day, is you did good. With what I gave you to do, you did good. So, Randy, all of our guests go through a challenge. And our 315 challenge is one of our listeners' favorite part of the podcast. So the three, give me the three books outside of scripture.

Randy Johnson: Well done. Yeah. Okay.

Greg Scott: that have impacted your life.

Randy Johnson: the books, a couple of books especially that have impacted me, ⁓ one is a book by Rick Dunham and the title of it is, If God Will Provide, Why We Have To Ask For The Money? I always struggled with raising funds to do what we do. ⁓ That book opened my eyes to how incredible it is that we give people the opportunity to sow into the kingdom and to sow in to great work and to give them something solid to be a part of. So that book really changed my life. I'm reading a book now called Mission Drift. You asked about succession. That is one of the books that I've been reading lately by Peter Greer. It just talks about how organizations started off with solid Christian values ⁓ a solid purpose. And over the years, they just drifted. So in succession, that's something ⁓ we're trying to put things in place to make sure that our mission doesn't drift.

Greg Scott: Our one in the 315 challenge ⁓ is who is one most, I use the word famous ⁓ or recognizable person if you picked up the phone and called them or text them, they would answer or they would at least call you back.

Randy Johnson: Yeah, you may be surprised, but probably in my phone would be Ward Burke. NASCAR driver, Burkin. Ward lives about 30 miles from us and has been a friend for a number of years and ⁓ done a right many things to help us promote God's Pit Crew and ⁓ answers my call if I call. So, yeah.

Greg Scott: Yeah. There you go. great one to have. And with your racing background, that's no surprise that that's where your answer went to. So the five in the 315 challenge, I always say this on every episode, but it's tough. ⁓ If had five minutes, not a day, not even a lunch, but it fits the challenge. If you had five minutes with anyone in history, who would you choose to spend that time with?

Randy Johnson: hands down. I'd love to have just five minutes with her again because she died. She died with her son messed up on drugs and alcohol and running every direction the right one. So ⁓ I'd just love have five minutes with her.

Greg Scott: where you describe both your parents as faithful believers. And so what a joy for her one day to be reunited with you. But what a great answer to the five is, and I don't blame you a bit, to where can people find you is usually my next question, social media wise, email, whatever. But I'm going to give a second part to that for you. ⁓ is how can people help? We get hundreds of listeners to every podcast right now and if some of them are stirred to, that's the kind of organization I can get behind in a quick, fast, hurry. Blessing buckets, volunteers maybe even if you're in their area or within a drive to where they can help. So talk about that for a little bit and where people can find you also.

Randy Johnson: So of course you find us on the web at God's Pit Crew.org. ⁓ God's Pit Crew all social media platforms. You know, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, lots of great videos of some of the house rebuilds and stuff on YouTube with God's Pit Crew. ⁓ So you can certainly find all there. My email address is really simple. It's just randy at godspicru.org, So you can, you reach out to me personally you, if you so choose to. We wrote a book as well ⁓ called The Answer is Yes. And that book is written with the intent to encourage ⁓ people that God's got a plan and a purpose for their life. You can get that book on Amazon or any Barnes and Noble by searching the title or calling our office or sending me an email and we can mail you a copy. far as what people can do, mean, volunteer with Doesn't matter where you are, no matter what your gifts or talents or abilities are, we can find a place. you here with God's Pit Crew if it's on our immediate response team. Cutting trees, moving debris, tarping roofs, mucking out flooded houses. We have all kinds of chainsaw training courses. We teach people how to run equipment and saws safely. ⁓ rebuilding team, which goes in and builds these new homes and puts furniture in them. there's always exciting stuff happening there. Our blessing bucket team assembles buckets here on regular basis at our facility in Virginia, but we also have a mobile events trailer where we go out to other locations and assemble buckets. So that's something if a church or a company out there wants to think about. If you sponsor a thousand blessing buckets, we'll bring the whole event to you with two semis and our leadership team. to help put on a big event at your church, right? We have several companies that do it as a team building exercise. You can get to assemble your own blessing buckets that go into disasters. And of course, if people wanna give financially, we need that. We can't keep operating without that. You can go to godspitcrew.org. Just click the donate now button. ⁓ lots of different ways. We always love for people to here and do tours at our facility. If anybody's interested in bringing a church group or just a few people, can arrange that too.

Greg Scott: I'll tell you ⁓ Randy, ⁓ you only following God's call on your life but God has equipped you ⁓ with ⁓ leadership ability ⁓ and ⁓ you said laser focus and I think it's perfect because... you could very easily 27 years later go, boys, y'all take this because I think I did my part and don't see you doing that anytime soon.

Randy Johnson: No, I don't believe God's done with us yet and until he is, we're here. know, we're trying to raise up a generation below us. So if we're not here, it's good to go. But we intend to be here. There's a lot of work yet to be done.

Greg Scott: Randy, I certainly appreciate the yes to coming on 315 Voices, to being a part of our conversation today. The honor has completely been mine.

Randy Johnson: Well, thank you, Greg. It's been an honor to be with you.