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Dick Foth on Stories I Love To Tell: That give us hope, Help us do hard things, and Bring us back together again
Episode 1611st December 2024 • The Clarity Podcast • Aaron Santmyire
00:00:00 00:49:16

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Our friend Dick Foth joins us on the podcast to share about his new project that will inspire, challenge and encourage you.

dickfoth.com

Stories I Love to Tell

Takeaways:

  • Dick Foth emphasizes the importance of storytelling in sharing hope and building connections.
  • Engaging younger generations requires creating safe spaces for open dialogue and storytelling.
  • Storytelling can help combat feelings of anxiety and hopelessness prevalent in today's society.
  • The power of personal stories lies in their ability to resonate with listeners' experiences.
  • Creating a welcoming atmosphere allows people to feel safe in sharing their own narratives.

Transcripts

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Hey there and welcome back to the Clarity podcast.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

This podcast is all about providing clarity, insight and encouragement for life and mission.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And my name is Aaron Sannemeyer and I get to be your host.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Today we have the phenomenal opportunity to have with us on the podcast for a full length episode, Dick Foth.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Many of you know Dick and I do a session called Backchannel with Foth and that's where listeners send in questions.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I get to spend some time time with Dick as I ask the questions and always are full of wisdom and insight.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

But he's been working on a project, you know, him and I were, we started talking 18 months, 24 months ago and he was sharing about writing another book and he'll share a little bit about the story behind this and then I got to listen to some of the first recording of what you're going to hear about today.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It's stories I love to tell.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

They give us hope and help us do hard things and bring us back together again.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Dick Foth is by far one of the best storytellers that I know.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

He's someone that you'll hear in the podcast.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

He makes you safe to be able to hear stories.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think in the world we live in today, sometimes we hear stories, we don't know if they're true.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

We don't know what the intention of the person is telling the story.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

But Dick, he makes you feel safe.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think it's his tone of voice, I think it's his character.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think he has high level of trust that he's built over these years.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so you're able to listen to the stories because you know, as he tells the stories, he means them for your good.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

He wants you to grow.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

He's going to challenge you.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

He has a way of inspiring and encouraging.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It's a gift and a blessing.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so we get to sit down, I get to sit down with him and ask him some questions about this project, the journey he's been on about it and then obviously at the end we'll talk about how you can access the book.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I plan on giving this book to many people, especially people that have time to listen when they're driving and other places.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think these are phenomenal stories.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think parents having the opportunity to listen to them first and then be able to share them with their kids if they feel that they're age appropriate for however they old they are.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

But just a blessing to have Dick back on the podcast.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Well, there's no time better than now to get started.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So here we go.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Greetings and welcome back to the Clarity podcast.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So excited to be doing a full episode with our friend Dick Foth.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Normally, we have him on for Back Channel with Foth, but today we're going to get to spend extended time with him and talking about the project that he's working on.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Dick, welcome back to the podcast.

Dick Foth:

My Joy.

Dick Foth:

Aaron, always, always a hoot, as it says in the Bible.

Dick Foth:

Oh, I don't, I'm not sure it says that.

Dick Foth:

I think it says something about the joy of the Lord.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

There you go.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

We'll get beyond question one and question two today.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Normally I start with question one, question two, and then move us on, but today we're gonna, we're gonna spend some time, some time together.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Dick, for maybe there continues to be people that listen into the podcast for the first time as I look at it on the computer.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So if some of the people that are listening to this is the first episode they've listened to and they haven't listened to Back Channel with both yet.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Could you share just a little bit about yourself before we start talking about this, the audiobook that you've been working on?

Dick Foth:

Well, I'll give you the one minute snapshot.

Dick Foth:

Sure.

Dick Foth:

I was born in March of:

Dick Foth:

I'm on my 83rd trip around the sun, which means I'm, as they say, long in the tooth there in West Virginia.

Dick Foth:

But I went to college, met my wife, married 61 years ago, and we have four adult children, all in their 50s, and 12 grandchildren from 33 to 8, and five great grandchildren.

Dick Foth:

I tell people, when you're, when you become a grandparent, you start feeling immortal because you're going past the next, you know, generation.

Dick Foth:

But when you're a great grandparent, you're just officially old.

Dick Foth:

And Ruth and I have had the privilege over the years of spending 14 years in Illinois, part in grad school, part as church planter, 15 or 14 years as college president.

Dick Foth:

California, 15 years as sort of Aaron and her to other people's Moses in D.C.

Dick Foth:

and then the last 16 years here in Northern Colorado teaching things and speaking and that sort of thing.

Dick Foth:

And that's who we are.

Dick Foth:

And we love what you're about, Aaron.

Dick Foth:

And so that's how we got into this mess, right?

Dick Foth:

It is, it is.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I remember standing, I standing in my front yard asking you to work with me and serve together on this with Back Channel, with Foth.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I was standing in my front yard in Madagascar at night, and I remember you asking me some questions.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And I said, well, and basically, you were asking, why me?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And I said, well, you're my first choice.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So I prayed about this and you're my first choice.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So that's why I'm asking you.

Dick Foth:

So.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And here we are almost five years later.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So it's, it's been a joy and it's been, it's been fun.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It's been fun.

Dick Foth:

Well, it's, it's, it's pressure to be a first choice.

Dick Foth:

I've had the privilege of being second choice two or three times.

Dick Foth:

You know, people need to have that experience.

Dick Foth:

It's a good deal.

Dick Foth:

Oh, man.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

For sure, for sure.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So, Dick, you've written books, You've, you've written.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

You're a phenomenal communicator.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

This.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Could you share just a little bit about kind of the genesis story of.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Because you and I have talked in the years past and you were thinking about working on a project and then, you know, in personal communication there was a shift from, you know, writing a book to doing something different.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Can you share about that?

Dick Foth:

Sure.

Dick Foth:

Well, you know how it is to be an author.

Dick Foth:

You know, there aren't very many rich authors.

Dick Foth:

Right.

Dick Foth:

95% of all authors sell less than 5,000 copies.

Dick Foth:

Right.

Dick Foth:

Including surprise winners, by the way.

Dick Foth:

But the thing is, Ruth and I had done a couple of books and we were asked, do you have another book in you?

Dick Foth:

And so we were working on our projects and we were just slogging and about a year and a half ago, we did a zoom call with a couple of our few of our family members who are what we'd like to call creatives.

Dick Foth:

And I just said, I'm stuck, you know.

Dick Foth:

And after the conversation, our son in law, Van, who lives in Eugene, Oregon, said, pop, here's the deal.

Dick Foth:

You know, you're a decent writer, people read stuff, but that's not your sweet spot.

Dick Foth:

Your sweet spot is speaking.

Dick Foth:

And within that, your sweet spot is storytelling.

Dick Foth:

I think he said, you need to consider doing an audiobook with a live audience.

Dick Foth:

Sort of like a stand up comedian would, where you just stand up and tell stories for an hour and have the live audience.

Dick Foth:

So we said, okay, well that, yeah.

Dick Foth:

And that appealed to me for whatever reason, as it turns out, it's harder than writing a book, but it's way more fun from my perspective.

Dick Foth:

It's way more fun.

Dick Foth:

And so we did a beta test, what we would call a test thing.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

In Washington D.C.

Dick Foth:

at a local place there with friends, last October a year ago.

Dick Foth:

And this is crazy.

Dick Foth:

Told stories for an hour and 40 minutes.

Dick Foth:

Wow.

Dick Foth:

I mean, you Know, people were bringing out their sleeping bags just to.

Dick Foth:

But the response was really strong and good.

Dick Foth:

And so we did it again here in Colorado with students from Colorado State University back in March.

Dick Foth:

And this past Monday, we did it again at University of Virginia with several hundred university students.

Dick Foth:

Wow.

Dick Foth:

And for whatever reason, it feels like inside of me that it's gaining momentum and direction and that sort of thing.

Dick Foth:

So that was the genesis of it, and that's where we are.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So I got a few questions off.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Off of that, and then we'll.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And then we'll shift towards the momentum and what's going on with the momentum inside of you?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So you shared that.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Is that you shared about it?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It seems to be that it's in with younger people, or at least people than in university.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Is that, Is that just a.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Is that a generation that you're trying to impact with, with these stories?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Or could you share about that?

Dick Foth:

Sure.

Dick Foth:

I.

Dick Foth:

I have always loved that generation.

Dick Foth:

I think it may have started when, when I graduated high school.

Dick Foth:

ed in Oakland, California, in:

Dick Foth:

And 38 of our class of 400 some went to Cal Berkeley, okay, 10, 10 miles away.

Dick Foth:

One reason we went there is that tuition for state universities in California at that time was free.

Dick Foth:

So I'm.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

There you go.

Dick Foth:

There you go.

Dick Foth:

But I'm a church kid at Cal Berkeley, and I find out it's not church.

Dick Foth:

And I was having my own struggles.

Dick Foth:

I was saying, well, what about.

Dick Foth:

I don't know.

Dick Foth:

I was raised with the God thing, but I'm not sure it's.

Dick Foth:

And I came to a fresh dimension in that time.

Dick Foth:

And later on, when I sensed I was supposed to be in pastoral work, which I didn't want to do because I'd been a stutterer from age five up into my 20s, and, you know, sermons or messages would get very long when you have a stutterer for a pastor.

Dick Foth:

And I just.

Dick Foth:

I just said, if I ever have to pastor, I'd much rather go to the jungle or something, but if I could pastor, you know, I want to pastor in a campus time.

Dick Foth:

niversity of illinois back in:

Dick Foth:

64, or, excuse me, 66.

Dick Foth:

I was 24 years old.

Dick Foth:

And there was something about that connection that has never left.

Dick Foth:

And so we, Ruth and I kind of joke about our people groups.

Dick Foth:

Her people group are preschoolers.

Dick Foth:

That's her group.

Dick Foth:

And I.

Dick Foth:

I say, you know, preschoolers walk by me like I'm a piece of furniture.

Dick Foth:

She has this gift.

Dick Foth:

She gets on the floor.

Dick Foth:

She does puzzles with them.

Dick Foth:

She is patient, she, you know, all that, you know, and I'm none of those things.

Dick Foth:

I university students.

Dick Foth:

I just love engaging them.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

And what's crazy for me, Aaron, is that on Monday night when I was there at the University of Virginia, it, it felt the same.

Dick Foth:

And we're responsive and so anyway, when you ask me, is that the piece.

Dick Foth:

When I started this last year, Van said why don't you just stand up and tell stories to whomever comes?

Dick Foth:

Which we did.

Dick Foth:

And the cross section there was, you know, all across the spectrum.

Dick Foth:

Abortions in D.C.

Dick Foth:

but anyway, that's the, that's the sort of short version of.

Dick Foth:

Is, is this focused on university students?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Yeah.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And then you shared that this was a lot harder than writing a book.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

In what ways is this a lot harder?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And the challenges as you've moved into a different medium, but still communicating with passion and faith and hope.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

What are some ways it's been more challenging?

Dick Foth:

Well, I asked Van, for example, how do I do this without a script in front of me and have it feel spontaneous?

Dick Foth:

I mean, how do.

Dick Foth:

I don't know how standup comedians stand up for.

Dick Foth:

Maybe they got it on the screen, maybe they're reading a teleprompter, but I didn't have access to that.

Dick Foth:

And my son in law who's a musician said, well, you know James Taylor, that singer, songwriter, when he does his gig, he just sits in a chair and he puts a cardboard piece with some song titles on the floor.

Dick Foth:

Why don't you do that?

Dick Foth:

So I just cut a cardboard box apart and just put sort of words that would lead me to the next thing.

Dick Foth:

And we, and we did it that way.

Dick Foth:

So first of all I had to learn a different MO okay bit of operation.

Dick Foth:

I, I needed to be able to focus enough at my years, you know, I'm an 82 year old.

Dick Foth:

Focus enough to maintain the train of thought because it's very easy for me, as Ruth would tell you, to say a word and go off on a rabbit trail, you know, sort of.

Dick Foth:

Sort of like the dog use a different metaphor.

Dick Foth:

It says squirrel.

Dick Foth:

Right.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

So.

Dick Foth:

And they, and the truth is you almost have to write a book to do an audiobook.

Dick Foth:

And I got to, I fleshed out this idea actually by listening to a book that the author Malcolm Gladwell produced a couple three years ago.

Dick Foth:

First was an audiobook, it's called the Bomber Mafia and it has to do with World War II.

Dick Foth:

But that became an inspiration for me.

Dick Foth:

So it's harder in the sense that once we did the evening, then we came back in and said, well, we don't need an hour and 40 minutes of whatever it is.

Dick Foth:

So we got to choose the stories.

Dick Foth:

And then we have a little team that works on this scattered across the country.

Dick Foth:

And they said, you know, we weren't there that evening, but it would give us a help in listening to it if we had context for each of the stories.

Dick Foth:

So you end up doing a little prologue, epilogue for each of.

Dick Foth:

At least we have.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

And you.

Dick Foth:

We wanted to have some music segues and in certain cases wanted to have some sound effects and to help enhance that listening experience.

Dick Foth:

And so then I go through and look at the transcript and by the way, you can, you know, Van took this hour and 40 minute transcript and here comes AI and you can go from audio to transcript in five minutes.

Dick Foth:

It's crazy, you know, so AI is, AI is going to be.

Dick Foth:

It's like fire and water and warm you.

Dick Foth:

It can warm you, keep you alive or it can kill you, you know, so that's the whole debate going on.

Dick Foth:

Right, sure.

Dick Foth:

So having to go through the transcript and then do edits and you know, I think when I talk, well, I'm just, this is fine, you know, but you know, I do ums.

Dick Foth:

I don't finish sentences.

Dick Foth:

I don't.

Dick Foth:

And anyway, that's, that's part of the work.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Yeah.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so, so you started once and now you're, you're doing it several times now.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Are you telling, how do you, how do you decide what stories to tell?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I mean, because I've gotten to listen to it and it's, it's, it's, it's excellent.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so you've shared that with me.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

But it, see, it feels spontaneous, like you're doing it with spontaneity.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

But the stories are all inter, intertwined, they weave together.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So how are you picking the stor.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Somebody's listening in, they're saying, well, he's standing up.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So what kind of stories are you sharing, Nick?

Dick Foth:

Well, first of all, the theme is stories.

Dick Foth:

The big sort of gray speckled screen that has the big word stories on it.

Dick Foth:

Because the track that this is running in on the story tracks, I mean, you have whole industries, Bollywood, Hollywood, built on story.

Dick Foth:

You have companies that if they can't tell their stories, you know, my friend Batterson says he quotes John Quincy Adams in the foreword of the book.

Dick Foth:

He said, John Quincy Adams says he who, he who tells the best story wins.

Dick Foth:

Right.

Dick Foth:

And so, and people just don't have stories.

Dick Foth:

They are stories.

Dick Foth:

It's the only place in your life you don't have to compete because you're unique out of 8.3 billion people.

Dick Foth:

Aaron Sant Meyer STORY I didn't come from West Virginia.

Dick Foth:

I didn't, you know, I read your stuff and I say, dear Lord, it's, it's great that he's still alive, you know, but so, so part of this is that that my little team, which includes a couple of family members, are saying as part of these evenings, you have to tell part of your, your story.

Dick Foth:

And you know this in small groups.

Dick Foth:

If you lead a small group.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

Small groups will go as deep as you go as the leader.

Dick Foth:

If you are vulnerable, tell a piece of yours, then.

Dick Foth:

That's how that works.

Dick Foth:

So part of it is my story.

Dick Foth:

The other part is that in D.C.

Dick Foth:

on the, on this one that's coming out hopefully in a few weeks on Audible, I just said, you know, the theme that has captured me for all these years, since I was at the University of Illinois, is the kingdom of God.

Dick Foth:

Jesus came saying, turn around, here's the kingdom right in Mark.

Dick Foth:

They turn around and it's nothing like what they thought they were expecting.

Dick Foth:

You know, here's a car.

Dick Foth:

He's got some slivers in his hands and stuff like that.

Dick Foth:

And he's young, you know, what's all that about?

Dick Foth:

So if the kingdom is the rule of God in my life, how is that represented?

Dick Foth:

And so in that particular one, I took two themes.

Dick Foth:

I took child, which I love as a reference for the kingdom, and I took friend.

Dick Foth:

And so the first half of the evening was.

Dick Foth:

The first part of the evening was child, second part was friend.

Dick Foth:

And in the middle then we had this thought that maybe Mark Batter should come up and just toss out some words, because my son in law, van.

Dick Foth:

And again, my son in law is the culprit in this.

Dick Foth:

He, he, he just, he says, pop you like a jukebox.

Dick Foth:

And, and you have to be a certain age to know what a jukebox is.

Dick Foth:

Yeah, but the, but you know, in the jukebox, you put it in a quarter and the, in the 44rpm, whatever, 45 drops down and Elvis Presley singing Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog.

Dick Foth:

Yeah, and he said, but all we have to do with you is say a word and you got a story.

Dick Foth:

Anyway.

Dick Foth:

So the middle part was about that.

Dick Foth:

So that's how we chose, we chose the stories on the basis of those themes about children and then about friend.

Dick Foth:

And the last part, the friend part, was particular to our time in Washington, D.C.

Dick Foth:

because we had a Washington, D.C.

Dick Foth:

audience.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so, Dick, are these personal stories that you've been involved in and experience?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Are these things that you've heard or read about how these stories, or is it a amalgam of all those different type of stories?

Dick Foth:

Almost all of them are personal stories.

Dick Foth:

So even though there might be some stories that are not my own, I would have met or had experience with the storyteller.

Dick Foth:

So, for example, I tell a story about a friend that you no doubt either knew or heard about by the name of Charles Greenaway.

Dick Foth:

Charles Greenaway was for years in Africa, but he was brought up in the Great Depression in the coal fields of Pennsylvania.

Dick Foth:

And he had a tagline that he always used.

Dick Foth:

He said, charles, how you doing?

Dick Foth:

He said, you know, I'm good.

Dick Foth:

But he said, I'm going to make it.

Dick Foth:

Not going to look like much when I get there, folks, but I'm going to make it.

Dick Foth:

And one day I said, where did you get that tagline?

Dick Foth:

And he told me his backstory, how his daddy died during the Depression and he thought he was going to go to an orphanage and all this kind of stuff.

Dick Foth:

And so the person.

Dick Foth:

I might tell somebody else's story, but somewhere along the line, I.

Dick Foth:

I link with it and.

Dick Foth:

And again, people are telling me it's that piece that you link with.

Dick Foth:

Yeah, it's the power, for example.

Dick Foth:

Can I just share an example of.

Dick Foth:

Yeah, that's excellent.

Dick Foth:

I have a favorite story, and it comes from a book called Once Upon a the Miracle of North Platte, Nebraska.

Dick Foth:

It happened during World War II.

Dick Foth:

And the long and the short of it is that some.

Dick Foth:

Some young women in North Platte, once the war started, troop trains started coming through, and they said, we want to provide food for the.

Dick Foth:

For the service people, servicemen.

Dick Foth:

And the army said, we will let each train stop for 10 minutes.

Dick Foth:

And it's a spectacular story, right?

Dick Foth:

And they and 16 million service personnel went overseas during the war.

Dick Foth:

Six million of them stopped in North Platte, Nebraska, for 10 minutes, and they were fed all of this kind of thing.

Dick Foth:

And it changed lives.

Dick Foth:

It was crazy.

Dick Foth:

And so years later, I'm telling this story, and I tell it at the 60th anniversary of a group called Youth for Christ Campus Life.

Dick Foth:

And I tell the story about what happened.

Dick Foth:

These guys would run in here, would be girls that looked like their cousins and their sisters and women that look like their moms and their aunts, and they'd get fresh pie and hot coffee and cold milk and donuts and.

Dick Foth:

And then run out Again, as somebody would say, we're 18, 19 years old, getting on a train, going to God knows where, not knowing, ever come back alive.

Dick Foth:

But for 10 minutes in the middle of the night, somebody was kind to us.

Dick Foth:

Anyway, I tell this story, and the next morning a young woman comes up and she just says, my name is Jennifer.

Dick Foth:

I'm from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, a staffer with Campus Life.

Dick Foth:

I was thinking of my grandpa who served in the Navy during World War II in South Pacific.

Dick Foth:

And I called my mom and said, mom, do you think.

Dick Foth:

Do you think Grandpa went through North Platte?

Dick Foth:

She said, I don't know, honey, but why don't you call him?

Dick Foth:

But you know how he is.

Dick Foth:

She said, My grandpa's 93 and he's in a nursing facility.

Dick Foth:

Sometimes he doesn't know where he is or who he is.

Dick Foth:

But I called him last night and he recognized me.

Dick Foth:

And I said, grandpa, I have a question.

Dick Foth:

Does the name North Platinum Nebraska mean anything to you?

Dick Foth:

And instantly he was lucid and said, absolutely it does.

Dick Foth:

That's the plane where I jumped off the train and ran in there.

Dick Foth:

And they had fresh donuts and cold milk and they shine my shoes.

Dick Foth:

I will never forget North Platte, Nebraska.

Dick Foth:

Wow.

Dick Foth:

That piece where I had an experience with a granddaughter.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

That connects to the story.

Dick Foth:

That seems to be the thing that makes them work best.

Dick Foth:

Oh, the freestanding story of North Platte is a powerful story, but those other little pieces connect.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So, Dick, you're, you're, you know, you're a few years older than me, but at the same time, you're, you're, you're.

Dick Foth:

You'Re living, you are.

Dick Foth:

You are younger than all my children.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

But you're living at it.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

You're living at a speed to hear these stories and make those connections.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

How have you learned?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

You know, you've talked on back channel about questions you ask people, but you're also, you're also listening to people's stories and then.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And connecting.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So is that something that comes natural to you?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And how are you doing that in this process?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Does that, does that make sense?

Dick Foth:

Yeah, I think it must come naturally.

Dick Foth:

Some people can do numbers.

Dick Foth:

Some people, like, think in a linear fashion.

Dick Foth:

I speak to engineers, and they're always solving problems.

Dick Foth:

Mechanical engineer, electrical engine.

Dick Foth:

Right.

Dick Foth:

And I talk to poets, and they're thinking esoteric thoughts about the beauty of the rose and all that kind of stuff.

Dick Foth:

I think Ruth would say, I think this is correct.

Dick Foth:

If you have a word to describe me, it would be curious.

Dick Foth:

And my curiosity leads me to questions so many Questions of people, sometimes that Ruth usually interjects.

Dick Foth:

You really don't have to answer all this.

Dick Foth:

And you've heard me talk about this.

Dick Foth:

Is that along the way somewhere?

Dick Foth:

Well, I think it was at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.

Dick Foth:

I'd spoken in their chapter, this is 30 years ago.

Dick Foth:

And afterwards they said their group of students want to meet and chat.

Dick Foth:

So we sat out on the lawn in front of the library, and somebody said, what kind of books do you read and who are some authors you like?

Dick Foth:

And I named them.

Dick Foth:

And it just dawned on me spontaneously.

Dick Foth:

I said, actually, I have two libraries.

Dick Foth:

This library here, Vosco Library that we're sitting in front of, those are stories and books and information with tree skin on them.

Dick Foth:

They're wrapped in trees.

Dick Foth:

If you do a paper, that's called secondary reference material, right?

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

If you interviewed somebody, that would be called a primary.

Dick Foth:

That's a secondary resource.

Dick Foth:

If you interviewed somebody, it's primary resource.

Dick Foth:

And I said, so I have a library, and it's sitting next to you.

Dick Foth:

It's got human skin on it.

Dick Foth:

And that book, when you read it, that's a walking book.

Dick Foth:

When you read that book, the way you read it, the way you turn the pages, is by asking questions.

Dick Foth:

And every person's story has two parts.

Dick Foth:

It's got the diary, the calendar of events, that, and then the journal part.

Dick Foth:

And the journal part is my interpretation of feelings about that.

Dick Foth:

And so that was a moment in time that changed things for me.

Dick Foth:

And so when you say your natural storyteller.

Dick Foth:

I don't know if I'm a natural storyteller.

Dick Foth:

I think I'm a natural question asker.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Okay.

Dick Foth:

And.

Dick Foth:

And that turns into sharing other people's stories and often my connection.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so, Dick, one of the things I had mentioned to you just today or a few days ago, and then I had in when I got to listen to the first one that you did, and Heather and I watched it and we listened to it together.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And then I said, I think one of the.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

You tell powerful stories, but I think that the.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And the connections are powerful.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think it's also the gifting that you have to be able to make people feel safe and welcome and invited in as you tell the stories.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Because we live in a world today where there are stories told and you don't.

Dick Foth:

It's.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It's almost like you don't know if you can trust the person or what they're.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So how have you learned?

Dick Foth:

You.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

You tell stories and honestly, I think it's your tone of voice.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think it's your presence.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think it's your gifting that you have.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So I don't think, you know that we're all going to have that gifting at the same time.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think there's a lot to be learned from you because many of the people that are listening into this podcast are missionaries that are serving around the world, and they're sharing the message of Jesus Christ or they're sharing other personal testimonies, and they're inviting people in.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So you said when I asked you the other day.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So I've not thought a whole lot about that, but I've given you 48 hours.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So what are your thoughts on that?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

On how.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

On how do you.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

How are you.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Because you do.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

You make people feel when you.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

When you speak or you preach, you make people feel safe and welcomed in to hear the message that you're sharing.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And that's an un.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It's uncommon in the world we live in today.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so any.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Any thoughts on that?

Dick Foth:

You know, that's a challenging question, and my easy answer is, I have no clue.

Dick Foth:

Just.

Dick Foth:

I don't know.

Dick Foth:

Except that I think we invite people in when we just are ourselves.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Okay.

Dick Foth:

We were with somebody a couple of years ago, my son and I, and the person came in and talked a little bit, and he left.

Dick Foth:

And my son was in his early 50s now, and he's very direct.

Dick Foth:

You know, like, if we were in D.C.

Dick Foth:

together, I'd be at the State Department, he'd be at the Pentagon.

Dick Foth:

He's just direct.

Dick Foth:

And this guy walked out, and Chris said he's not comfortable in his own skin.

Dick Foth:

And I think when I became comfortable in my own skin and said, this is who I am.

Dick Foth:

I am not LE Grant.

Dick Foth:

I am not Aaron Santomire.

Dick Foth:

I don't have a PhD in help lepers.

Dick Foth:

I don't.

Dick Foth:

You know, I.

Dick Foth:

I'm not that.

Dick Foth:

When I became that, especially being raised in my background, I was brought up in a revivalistic background, you know, Pentecostal roots and all this kind of stuff.

Dick Foth:

Folks who are listening, if you need.

Dick Foth:

As sort of a frame of reference and what.

Dick Foth:

And I was trying to emulate what I had heard, and I wasn't that guy.

Dick Foth:

And I had this thought one time, and when.

Dick Foth:

When I was in my younger years in those 20s, a thing called relational theology showed up, and it was promoted, if I can put it that way, or espoused by people like Bruce Larson and Lloyd Ogilvy and people that I really admired, you know, and they remain what we call mainline denominational and it helped me to understand because I understood I could have relationship with God, but I didn't see how that fit with relationship with people.

Dick Foth:

And I had a certain prototype for how people spoke.

Dick Foth:

Okay.

Dick Foth:

And I, and I sort of came to this thought one day, if I'm brought up in a, in a high church kind of environment, from a church person, you know, possibly God sounds like this.

Dick Foth:

You're brought up in my environment, say bless God.

Dick Foth:

Like this.

Dick Foth:

And came to conclusion, said, I wonder if there's a chance that you could just sound like this.

Dick Foth:

Yeah, I mean, just like this.

Dick Foth:

And that was a freeing moment for me.

Dick Foth:

And so that's, and I've had other people recently just saying you feel, you help people feel safe.

Dick Foth:

And I, I don't, I don't know, I don't know why.

Dick Foth:

I do know, I do know this, that when you, when, when you're not trying to shove something down people's throats, but you're inviting them into either a conversation or an experience, it's a different tone.

Dick Foth:

So this last Monday night, so we're talking five, five nights ago, I am speaking at Old Cobble Hall.

Dick Foth:

I'm doing this story thing at Old Cobble hall at the campus of the University of Virginia, famous because Thomas Jefferson designed it.

Dick Foth:

And this is a place where political leaders have come and spoken.

Dick Foth:

You know, got the Martin Luther King's and Jimmy Carter and all that.

Dick Foth:

And, but it's a performance arena, a performance space for about 700 folks.

Dick Foth:

And I just introduced myself to them by saying, you know, I'm old, I've been, you know, 83 times around the sun.

Dick Foth:

And you heard me say this, and I just, I just didn't travel from Colorado here.

Dick Foth:

I, I've traveled 47 billion plus miles.

Dick Foth:

If you do the math.

Dick Foth:

One trip around the sun is 584 million miles and at 14 pounds per square inch of atmospheric pressure.

Dick Foth:

And I used to look like you.

Dick Foth:

I was sleep, dark hair, and now I look like I got hit by a truck.

Dick Foth:

And I just, I just came to bring you hope, you know.

Dick Foth:

You know, folks kind of chuckle.

Dick Foth:

I said, but let's do this.

Dick Foth:

I have an hour with you.

Dick Foth:

Let's just, let's just.

Dick Foth:

If you would allow me to be your surrogate grandpa for one hour.

Dick Foth:

I had never said that before.

Dick Foth:

I didn't have that on the cardboard things on the floor.

Dick Foth:

I just said it.

Dick Foth:

And the leaders of the group afterwards said that sentence changed the temperature in the room.

Dick Foth:

So I think, I guess I'm learning this, you know, very Few people want to stand up on a stage in front of 300 plus people and of any kind and talk to them.

Dick Foth:

You know, it's greatest second fear after death in this country when they do studies public speaking.

Dick Foth:

And I never thought I would because I was stutterer all those years.

Dick Foth:

But I think when you present yourself as a friend or as somebody who wants to initiate a conversation or a track of thinking and you're not screaming at him and you're not using big words, you know, try to stay with Teutonic monosyllables.

Dick Foth:

You know, I read the Gettysburg Address scores of times off the wall of the Lincoln Memorial.

Dick Foth:

Chiseled in there two and a half minutes.

Dick Foth:

272 words.

Dick Foth:

And most of them are short.

Dick Foth:

And I think I take that as a template for speaking in a lot of ways.

Dick Foth:

Anyway, I'm, I'm starting to ramble story.

Dick Foth:

No, you're not.

Dick Foth:

No, you're not.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It's.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

You're, you're, you're.

Dick Foth:

You're.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I asked you a question and you're, you're answering the question I ask.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I, I do think it is.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think you hit on it, that idea of surrogate.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

You said grandpa.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I also it.

Dick Foth:

Serve your grandpa for an hour.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

For an hour.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

For an hour.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

But I think when your people are around you, you become their friend.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And I think that's, that's.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And I've, you know, we've, we've had, we've had meals together and we spent a lot of time on, on Zoom.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

But I think that's another, that's another quality that you bring into this.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And as I got to listen to the first, the first one you did, it was like sitting down with a friend or a grandpa and getting wisdom and being challenged, being enc.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

The connections you make.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I mean, it's, I'm not trying to be, you know, we're Pentecostals, but, but when you tell the stories and you make the connections, it honestly gives you this.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It's, it's fascinating.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I mean, it brings you in, you're drawn in, but you can feel that there's transformation going on inside of you.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so at least for me, that's when I listen to it and Heather and I did.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So you said there's this growing excitement inside of you after just coming off this one in Virginia.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Can you talk, can you share about that?

Dick Foth:

Yeah, I think, you know, and th.

Dick Foth:

Those who are listening to this, you know, some, some of them would be maybe in their 50s or maybe even in their 60s, but probably none of them.

Dick Foth:

Well, maybe, maybe some would be in their 80s.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

And I have a friend, Wayne Tess, who started a thing called Royal Family Kids Camp, this tremendous movement that work foster kids.

Dick Foth:

And whenever he sees me, throws his arm around me, says both, here we are in the decade of death.

Dick Foth:

Because I can say I'm in my early 80s or I'm just into my 80s or I can say I'm in my ninth decade of life.

Dick Foth:

That sounds a lot older.

Dick Foth:

Wow.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It does, it does.

Dick Foth:

I think the thing that struck me was that when I started to tell stories and I'm, I am their grandfather.

Dick Foth:

Right, Okay.

Dick Foth:

I mean age wise, you have 18 year olds listening to an 82 year old and I'm saying, why, why would they do that?

Dick Foth:

I mean, I like telling stories.

Dick Foth:

I like telling stories.

Dick Foth:

I enjoy that because I think stories put flesh on truth.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

I'm not too much.

Dick Foth:

I mean I read fiction, you know, because sometimes fiction isn't quite as strong as truth, but it's still, you know, I like that.

Dick Foth:

Right.

Dick Foth:

But when you tell a true story that has a, especially a positive outcome, we don't need any more negative outcome stories, you know, you're going to become what you look at or listen to.

Dick Foth:

I don't know, it's a little bit fresh for me, Aaron.

Dick Foth:

I think it isn't just me saying, well both, you still got it.

Dick Foth:

No, I don't think it's that.

Dick Foth:

I think we live in a time of such great anxiety that to have somebody who's older say, you know, it's going to be all right.

Dick Foth:

It's a bit like my folks generation.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

my mom was built, was born in:

Dick Foth:

And you know, I tell the story of asking a Young Man About 10 years ago, a university student, so give me a word that characterizes your generation.

Dick Foth:

And this is 10 years ago.

Dick Foth:

And he instantly said, overwhelmed.

Dick Foth:

I said, what?

Dick Foth:

By what?

Dick Foth:

My parents generation was overwhelmed.

Dick Foth:

They had two world wars at the Great Depression, they had the flu pandemic, that all this stuff.

Dick Foth:

What are you overwhelmed by?

Dick Foth:

And he said, information.

Dick Foth:

I said, well, I get that at that time 10 years ago, information was doubling every two years.

Dick Foth:

Now with AI, it's doubling every two hours.

Dick Foth:

Right.

Dick Foth:

So it's overwhelming.

Dick Foth:

I said, yeah, but you're connected, you know, you get.

Dick Foth:

And back then young people were on Facebook.

Dick Foth:

Now only, geez, Facebook.

Dick Foth:

And I said, yeah, you're connected.

Dick Foth:

He said, I am connected with a dozen, two dozen people, whatever.

Dick Foth:

But he said, my challenge is I don't know how to start a conversation.

Dick Foth:

If you can't start a conversation, you don't have a culture, you can't start a conversation.

Dick Foth:

You don't have friendships.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

And I don't think he.

Dick Foth:

Well, I hope, I don't think he meant it literally in the sense of I don't have any friends.

Dick Foth:

But in a time, social media, as the president, I think of Bard College said social media in these days is an accelerant to a fire.

Dick Foth:

And kids go on social media, get connected, and what they find is one more place to compete.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

It's one thing for me to be sitting in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Dick Foth:

Let's choose another town.

Dick Foth:

Or maybe.

Dick Foth:

Well, maybe they have soccer in Pascagoula, you know, and he's a soccer player and he's competing with his county and with the state.

Dick Foth:

When you go on social media, you're competing with Mumbai and Edinburgh.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

That's true.

Dick Foth:

What does that do to a 14 year old?

Dick Foth:

And so that piece for me, coming back to your question is I think it gives me an urgency about sharing stories that bring us hope.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

Because young people today can't see through the forest.

Dick Foth:

Many of them.

Dick Foth:

I have a book right here on my desk that I'm showing to you on the screen that says it's by Jonathan Haidt, who's a Jewish man, a professor called the Anxious Generation.

Dick Foth:

How the Great Rewriting of childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental illness.

Dick Foth:

And it's true, you know, whether, whether it's depression, suicide, whatever it is, it's huge.

Dick Foth:

And it's quite apart from drugs, Fentanyl and all that stuff.

Dick Foth:

Apart from that, you know, the sense of hopelessness among younger people depending on what they're reading.

Dick Foth:

And 87% of them get all their news or information off their phones and, and people are tracking you with algorithms and they're feeding you stuff that, that, that you can't handle and it's too much.

Dick Foth:

Anyway.

Dick Foth:

I think that's the piece in me.

Dick Foth:

Yeah.

Dick Foth:

That.

Dick Foth:

That feels not even like a shot of adrenaline.

Dick Foth:

It feels like a, like a fire that's starting to grow.

Dick Foth:

That, that some voices, some older voices need to be speaking without judgment, but with hope into a generation that doesn't know oftentimes where true north is.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Yeah, no, it's a good word.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And I think that.

Dick Foth:

That make any sense to you?

Dick Foth:

Just makes.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It makes 100 sense.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And I think it shares your, your passion behind it.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And I would.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

It resonates with me also because like I said, I've gotten to to listen to the first one.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I, I think that sense of hope and that you're right is, and I would say it's Dick.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I would say it's not just 18 year olds that are anxious.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I would say 48 year olds and 58 year olds.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so I don't think it's, I think that's just the current culture that we're in.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so I think that goes across that spectrum.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think it gives not only hope that you know that, how these things are interconnected, but us also having someone who's lived through a lot of challenges to say, you know what, it is possible, it's possible to maintain my faith and I can trust in God and I can end up, you know, I can end up in a place where I'm investing in other people.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And so you've move, moved into that mentor role and where you're, you're, you're speaking that, that hope in.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I got one, one or two more questions for you and then I'm going to ask you to pray for us.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

So hope what people listening in you they want.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think this is a phenomenal thing at timing coming out because I think we're going into the colder at least in the US Side colder, US season, it'll be around, it's around Christmas time, around the holiday season.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think it's an excellent listen being that and family.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And I think it also will help people as they're engaging with families be able to, as I asked earlier on, they're able to be listen to their family stories.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

The people they're around, they'll be able to be more curious and hear their stories and then be able to give them opportunities to sit back and see as you intertwine stories, how their stories are intertwined with others, which I think gives them opportunities for that too.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Anything else you want, you, you desire.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

When people listen in, they, they have hope, they can trust you.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

They, they feel welcomed in, they're invited in.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Anything else you would, you would want.

Dick Foth:

As people listen in, listening into the audiobook, the audiobooks, I think that, I think the challenge today around the world, I mean we've got, we've got horrific conflicts going on in places that are obvious like Gaza and Ukraine and Lebanon and so forth.

Dick Foth:

But I think, I think to be able to encourage people that there is a place and a person in whom we can put our hope that goes beyond this moment.

Dick Foth:

You know, as a friend of mine says, in God's, in God's eyes, whether it's 53 years or 5,000.

Dick Foth:

It's, it's that much.

Dick Foth:

Right.

Dick Foth:

And my deal, my deal about following Jesus is that he comes along and says both.

Dick Foth:

Here's the deal.

Dick Foth:

You're focused on life with a small L and death with a big D.

Dick Foth:

And you're scared about trying to live life.

Dick Foth:

I'd like to give you life with a capital L and D with a small D.

Dick Foth:

That's a good word.

Dick Foth:

Let's reverse that, right?

Dick Foth:

Yes.

Dick Foth:

And let me, Can I just tell one quick story?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Yes.

Dick Foth:

So, so my, my, my friend, my, my friend Bob Goff that, that some would know in, in terms of their, in, in terms of their reading.

Dick Foth:

You know, Bob Goff is, Do you, do you know that name at all?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I do, I do, yeah.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Love does.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

I think it's Love does.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

And he's.

Dick Foth:

Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Dick Foth:

And it, but by the way, the noise you might have heard in the background, friends, is that Ruth, my wife, is in the room, she got a call, she just stepped out.

Dick Foth:

So I like her in the room.

Dick Foth:

That's a good deal.

Dick Foth:

So Bob on 9, 11, that they had younger children and they lived in San Diego.

Dick Foth:

And he said, we didn't have a TV and because if big stuff happens, we don't want talking heads talking to our kids.

Dick Foth:

So we went home and sat down and we said, okay, this terrible thing has happened and what can we do?

Dick Foth:

Because it's involved all these countries, many countries in the world and so forth.

Dick Foth:

And these three kids, I think they were 7, 9 and 11.

Dick Foth:

The little one said, well, maybe since this is about leaders in countries, maybe we could invite them over for dinner.

Dick Foth:

Could we invite them for dinner?

Dick Foth:

Okay.

Dick Foth:

And, but if we can't invite them for dinner, maybe we could go to their place and have dinner.

Dick Foth:

Said, okay.

Dick Foth:

And the, and the, the oldest, the girl I think was 11, she was in video stuff.

Dick Foth:

She said, and I'd like to be able to video whatever happens, I'd like to be able to.

Dick Foth:

And then I think it was a nine year old boy who's kind of pastoral.

Dick Foth:

He said, I have a question I would like to ask these leaders.

Dick Foth:

Where do you place your hope?

Dick Foth:

Thinking man?

Dick Foth:

I wasn't thinking that when I was nine.

Dick Foth:

And so what happened is Bob, Bob is a trial attorney, brilliant guy.

Dick Foth:

And he said, we went and downloaded the contact information for Almost all the 200 countries in the world.

Dick Foth:

Off, I think he said, off the CIA website or something.

Dick Foth:

And he said, and we sent letters to all these people and we got 26 responses.

Dick Foth:

And I told the kids, when we get Responses, we'll go wherever it is.

Dick Foth:

And so they did this.

Dick Foth:

And I won't tell you the end.

Dick Foth:

Anyway, it was tremendous.

Dick Foth:

You can imagine a tremendous experience.

Dick Foth:

But, but that question for a leader is, where do you place your hope?

Dick Foth:

And what, what my dream would be is to say there is a place we can put our hope that goes beyond just your, your few years.

Dick Foth:

You know, I tell people, you know, one of these days you'll hear folks die.

Dick Foth:

Don't you believe it?

Dick Foth:

I mean, my body fell off.

Dick Foth:

I'm tired of this body.

Dick Foth:

Apparently it's tired of me.

Dick Foth:

And, but apparently I get a new one in my reading the book and it says, you get a new.

Dick Foth:

So I'm saying, okay, let's go there.

Dick Foth:

But that peace, if it is, if it is touched by the spirit, and I pray that it would be, that it gives a spark of life.

Dick Foth:

And I'd like to believe, and I've not used this illustration, this metaphor before, but I believe that generationally there is just, you know, millions of piles of dry tinder around.

Dick Foth:

And when you bring hope, it's a, it's a spark to have a positive conflagration.

Dick Foth:

If I could put it that.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Good word, Dick.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Will you pray for us?

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Will you pray for us today that this.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

We'll put links in the show, notes for how people can access the audiobook.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Anything else you want to share about how they can access the audio book, and then, then maybe then pray for us?

Dick Foth:

Sure.

Dick Foth:

Well, this, this is all new to me.

Dick Foth:

I've never done audio book before, so I'm counting on, on, on my, my younger, your younger team members.

Dick Foth:

So the easiest way to access this would be to go to dickfoth.com it's just a website.

Dick Foth:

And there they can put their email in and when the book is released on Audible in a few weeks or whenever it'll pop up and, and, and then they can decide whether they want to do anything.

Dick Foth:

So that's the easiest, easiest way.

Dick Foth:

But thank you, Aaron, for doing this.

Dick Foth:

I, you know, it's, it's, it's.

Dick Foth:

We're just in the process of completing it, so I haven't done a lot of conversations like this, but you, of course, were friends and you've asked me a lot of questions and I've asked you a lot over the years, so this makes it easy.

Dick Foth:

I love it.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Good deal.

Aaron Sannemeyer:

Will you pray for us?

Dick Foth:

Right?

Dick Foth:

I will.

Dick Foth:

Lord, thank you for Aaron, for Heather, for their family, thank you for the folks listening around the globe.

Dick Foth:

Thank you that you walked into our lives and found us, as my friend says, when we least expect it and least deserve it.

Dick Foth:

Thank you.

Dick Foth:

That you are the God who brings life and that eternal.

Dick Foth:

And we, we relish that.

Dick Foth:

We want to abide in that.

Dick Foth:

And we're just going to say for generations, for these younger generations in particular, who for the last decades have not had to go to an authority figure for information that go to their phones or go to their devices, help us impact them by caring enough to ask a question, caring enough to let them be our teachers in some ways.

Dick Foth:

And I just stand on tiptoe with my friends, listening to see what it is that you're going to do next.

Dick Foth:

In Jesus name we pray.

Dick Foth:

Amen.

Dick Foth:

Amen.

Dick Foth:

Sa.

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