Chris Grainger: 1:10

Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I'm your host, chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, fellas, it's meat episode time. Let's get right into it, okay?

Chris Grainger: 1:21

So Scripture of the Week this week is in the book of Philippians, chapter 2, looking at verses 3 and 4. It says, it says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each one of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Love those two verses, guys. Applying those verses can be difficult. So, if you need help, go back in your podcast feed to the last spiritual kickoff episode that we just released, or we unpack that at length to give you some insights on how you can simplify and apply that verse, or verses rather, to your life. And again, if you enjoy those, monday through Friday, within our line, within us, all the way you can get access to this content, fellas's within the line within us directly the daily spiritual kickoff episodes. That's every day, monday through Friday. That content doesn't go anywhere else. We don't put it on YouTube, we don't put it on Instagram or any of those other channels. We put it directly there, within our line, within us community. It's a great way you can even engage with me directly, as we're doing these every day and if you miss them you can't make the live. They're always posted so you can have the ability to binge them, to view them, to listen, to learn, to be encouraged. That's what it's all about. All right, fellas.

Chris Grainger: 2:43

So now this episode is going to be a little bit different. Obviously, I'm wearing this bright yellow Lion Within Us Hurricane Relief shirt. I just want to unpack for you briefly. This is not going to be a very long episode. This week, guys, no-transcript, we'll talk about that as well. When Hurricane Helene slammed and I do mean slammed through it completely devastated so many areas of that part of the country.

Chris Grainger: 3:35

I'm based just north of Raleigh. It's where our farm is at, it's where the lion is located. So this obviously hit home to us and we knew immediately that we don't know how to help. But I know I've got to do something. If you remember, if you listen to the lion for any amount of time, back in October of 2024, we took a trip out there. We had several days lined up of work. It took like 23 guys out there. We got after it, we saw logs, we served, we helped clean up, brush, all that stuff. Most of it was outside type work and leaving that trip, I knew I had to go back. I just knew we got to go back because there's just too much work to be done. So we just got back.

Chris Grainger: 4:25

I'm recording this right after our mission trip. We just finished this last week and I'm a little tired, to be honest, but it was a great trip. It was a great trip and before I go any further, I have to give a special shout out to my wife and to my children, and I mean this in probably not the way that you're thinking, because the fact is we live at a farm. Okay, so we have a. Probably not in the way that you're thinking, because the fact is we live at a farm. Okay, so we have a farm here in North Carolina. We take care of horses, there's a lots of things happen. We have chickens, we have ducks, we have goose, all this stuff, right, all this stuff to take care of a farm.

Chris Grainger: 5:06

So it's not as easy for me in particular just to get up with my wife. We have four kids, from two years old to 14 years old. Okay, we have four kids, the farm, all the all the work to be that has to be done here. It's not like I could just pack up and just go, because when I pack up and go, a lot of the labor force is is gone. But my wife, throughout the entire process, reassured me that you know what we have this, we're going to cover this. We know that you need to do this because God's calling you to do this. We want you to go serve and we want you to serve with a clear mind and without any worries or reservations about the home, about the farm, and it was with that type of confidence and backing and just absolute assurance from her that made the trip even more successful for me. I just want to share that and I want to share that too.

Chris Grainger: 6:08

So if you're a wife that's listening right now I know lots of ladies do listen to the Lie Within Us Encourage your guy to do trips like this. It means more to him than he'll ever probably acknowledge you Just to have your verbal as well as just your affirmation and your support in him doing something like this, because for our trip in particular, we were asking guys to leave home for a week. That's a lot. And if a wife is constantly picking at him like, well, I need you to do this, I need you to do this, I need you to do this, that guy's just going to say no. But if that wife says you know what, I know this is a good cause, I know you need this. I think this would be good for you. I fully support In fact I encourage you to do it when you start changing language like that to your husband, things really shift up for her. So I just really want to say shout out to my wife, to my children, for the way they stepped up, particularly my oldest working in the barn, but even my middle as she takes care of the babysitting for the littles. I'm just telling you it's such a big deal to have that support system, that support network within the home and it would be completely impossible without them.

Chris Grainger: 7:28

So my trip actually started. I got invited to go to another men's event. We'll talk about that on another episode for a reason, but for this event I was teaching and building confidence in how you operate chainsaws safely. Okay, it was a Christian organization. I found myself that first night and I took my Timothy with me. His name is Trevor. I took him with me, so he was 16 years old. I've been working with him for years, loving to death. So he went with me on the whole trip from start to beginning, and we were able to just have a lot of good conversation on the road together and first night we actually slept under the stars in the back of the truck. It was kind of cool.

Chris Grainger: 8:19

And then we got to see and witness a pretty scary situation because there was a gentleman there at the conference who had some heart issues and he had basically had a heart attack right there in the conference during one of the meetings and you know they had to bring out the defibrillator and all the stuff. The CPR for, you know, probably seemed like a half hour or more. Luckily he was, he was fine, the ambulance took him to the hospital, no heart damage or anything like that, so so he pulled through. But in those moments it was very cool to see how an emergency like that, how most people respond of the world, which that needed to be done CPR, all those things need to be done. But the rest of us because only so many people can do CPR at one time right, the rest of us were in prayer and actively worshiping and I thought that was just a beautiful reminder and a moment for us to just see the power of prayer working through, just touching that man greatly.

Chris Grainger: 9:18

So the actual work that we did. Well again, chainsaw 101, just teaching the basics it was great to see there's so many guys out there maybe you're one of them, them right now who's never operated a piece of equipment like that right, so just be able to go through and have them come walk in with zero experience, from how do you crank this thing, what does it even do, to leaving understanding how you crank it out, where you put the fuel, where you put the oil, how the chain works, how you sharpen the chain uh, the same. You sharpen a chain, the safe cutting techniques, all the way down to they got to buck some logs. It was just pretty cool. I had a bunch of them stacked up and they'd just go through just cutting logs up and their confidence just went through the roof and we ranged probably from teenagers up to men in their 60s that were doing this. So it's just another reminder for me of the power of getting guys together and letting us just do some things right.

Chris Grainger: 10:19

And the funny part is there was a couple guys there who were arborists. I mean, this was their profession, so obviously they didn't come through, but they were just the most encouraging, because we're not professional arborists. We do this as part, as a part of what we try, I feel like god's calling us to do. But those guys are so encouraging to the point like we went to leave the battery in our truck died, completely died, and so so one of the arborists pulled his truck over. We were able to get a jump from him and he even supported what we were doing monetarily as we left. Just just spoke so much life into me and encouragement into me that you can't fabricate those things right. And so it's just a big shout out to him, so thankful that he took the time to care. And you know what? That was just something I'll remember forever.

Chris Grainger: 11:08

So we got to jump on the truck, got the truck cranked and it was the auto zone about 20 minutes away. So we went there and again, man, god conversations the way God moves. And so the guy was helping install the battery in the truck. Come to find out he's 43 years old. He has two daughters. He's trying to point them in the direction of the Lord. He's been trying to figure these things out. He's working a couple of extra jobs just to make some side money, just because expenses are real.

Chris Grainger: 11:38

And we just had some really just a truth, a heartfelt conversation in the parking lot at Advance Auto, around God and what does it take to pursue Him and how? For as a father, there's nothing greater we can do to show our children that we love god and that we're pursuing god, and for them to see that, because there's more calls and talks again, just another quick example. That conversation only happens because of this. It all starts with that you know what we're gonna go serve and when you go serve, you can best, you bet, you can just just count on it god going to use you wherever you're at. And I tell them that simple stuff too.

Chris Grainger: 12:16

I was just with my Timothy. I was showing him how we would go pick up. We picked up dinner and there was an elderly couple that were coming out and I encouraged him, said look, go get the door, go help them to their car. And he did that. And as we were driving, I told him. I said the problem with so much of what's going on in the world these days is everybody's walking around with their heads down, they're not looking up, they're not looking up, and all you have to do to find opportunities to serve is simply look up. And if you look up you're going to see them. I guarantee you you're going to see those opportunities to serve when you look around. You just ask God to show them. So that's what we did. I mean we did.

Chris Grainger: 12:59

And that windshield time I'm telling you with, with with him, I had. First of all, I had a captive audience, you know. So that helps, but when you're in a truck or a car or whatever for multiple hours and hundreds of miles, that's opportunities. That's exactly how I saw that. Hours and hundreds of miles, that's opportunities. That's exactly how I saw that there were opportunities for he and I to connect, to engage, for me to know what's on his heart more. We talked about life, we talked about baseball, we talked about girls, all this stuff. That's on a 16-year-old mind, right, but he felt safe. I know I did, and I just try to keep encouraging him to have those conversations.

Chris Grainger: 13:33

So, again, if you don't have a Timothy that you're out there, that you're mentoring, go find a Timothy. You're not going to find any greater type of satisfaction than when you get a chance to speak life into another young man who's growing up and trying to learn these things. And look, he's going to learn from somewhere. Let's just say this, he's going to learn from somewhere. Well, let's just say this he's going to learn something from someone. I want him to learn the right things right, and that takes intentionality. All right, fellas, we'll take a first break. We'll come right back. We'll keep digging into our mission trip and sharing some stories along the way.

Chris Grainger: 14:10

When I reflect on the kind of things that the men who participated in our discipleship masterminds had in the past, I am overwhelmed by the quality of their comments and commitment to each other. Several of the guys commented that this was the most meaningful leadership experience they've encountered, and we even had one man log into a discipleship mastermind while a hurricane was hitting his house. He was that committed and received that much from his peer group that he didn't want to miss it. Because of this extraordinary commitment and because it's a true gift and pleasure, we made them a core part of our community and we hope you might join us. We sit up men with their own peer advisory group of seven individuals that meet every other week for 12 weeks. Each member shares areas they want to focus on, such as improving their prayer life, being more intentional with their wives or maybe shedding a few extra pounds. Together, we help them strategize, make commitments, find accountability and learn. It's been our experience that most guys want a community of trustworthy men to share their ideas and create support for each other with, and it's been our experience that most men don't either create this for themselves or seek them out. So we do this because we want you to have that in your life, and all that is needed to begin winning is you. If this sounds interesting, check out our community to see the dates and times of when these different groups meet. Visit thelionwithinus to start your free trial of our community. To get started today, that's thelionwithinus, and I would love to see you lean in and tap into the power of our discipleship masterminds. All right, guys. So welcome back. So again.

Chris Grainger: 16:15

So that was Friday and Saturday doing the chainsaw ministry work there with that other organization. We got to our actual spot and we stayed in Unicoi, tennessee, at Appalachian Christian Camp. If you ever get a chance to go to Unicoi Tennessee, highly encourage you to do that and also check out their Christian Camp for Appalachian Christian camp, because they have wonderful facility setups. If you have kids, they do a lot of kids programming during the summer. Check it out, see if you're available, see what weeks would work for you and for your family, and highly encourage you to lean in and look at them moving forward. So we spent Saturday night in the dorm there. We just had a place to stay that night.

Chris Grainger: 16:55

Woke up Sunday morning I noticed on my Sunday there's a beautiful path that goes around the river, around the camp. I noticed there were a couple trees down on that path. So actually a couple of our guys got up and they were looking for stuff to do before church. They went out and they cleaned up those trees. They cut those trees up right there on the camp just to be able to get them started. They were itching to get going right. So we have church. We're going to meet at the church at 1030 that Sunday morning so I was able to actually go early that morning and scope another job which we'll be talking about here soon.

Chris Grainger: 17:27

But we all met up at the church and one of our members, adam he's a guitar player we walked in. The funny part is that they were like the worship team says, did any of you guys play guitar? And so it happens Adam is a pretty good guitar player, so he ended up being part of the worship group that morning, which is kind of cool. We made a lot of fun. We picked Adam, but he was a great character, played along with it.

Chris Grainger: 17:49

But it was a really cool setup the way this church was. I think it was called Unicoi Christian Church I could be wrong on that, I'm going off memory on that but they set it up. It was a sanctuary that was used during the hurricane because they didn't get flooded. But they set up three pews facing each other, three one way, three the other way, and then he had three across the back, so it kind of made like a little U and the pastor had just a chair that he set right in the middle and he had a music stand and that's what he used to hold his Bible. I just thought the setup was just incredible. This is the way he had it, because it felt very intimate. He had a wonderful message on hypocrisy out of Matthew 7.

Chris Grainger: 18:35

Just a good time there. I thought it was interesting. It was kind of a small group setting With our group. There they may have been 50 or 60 people and when he would preach he would do about asking questions. It reminded me so much of how I teach Sunday school, but in this setting you were encouraged to speak back to him, so it wasn't like just a message just going out. You're supposed to sit still. It was a very engaging message which I thought was just super encouraging. Really young pastor as well. On fire for the Lord. So it was just a great to do. We had lunch there at the church. It was a great fellowship.

Chris Grainger: 19:15

And then we got to work. So that was a Sunday afternoon. We got to work, we split up, we hit it hard. We had a couple groups go out and clean up some debris and then my group went to where we went last time. If you guys remember the last trip I talked, talked about miss susie she's 81 years old, uh, and we went up to see her and we got to work. I'm talking about clearing up so many trees and debris and underbrush and you know this time of year you kind of worry about snakes. Luckily we didn't see any snakes or anything like that, but it was just hours. It was several hours of hard work. I think some of the guys were even texted. They were finishing up, just finishing up some jobs.

Chris Grainger: 19:51

We ended up having every one of our team members up at Miss Susie's that afternoon, on Sunday afternoon, and just absolutely did all we could to pull her in, to bless her. She blessed us. I mean, 81 years old, out there on the terrain, helping us and showing us things that she wanted, telling jokes and stories and just taking pictures with us on it, telling jokes and stories and just taking pictures with us. It was just a wonderful way to kind of get the trip started, to get them kick-started in a significant way for those guys, particularly the newer guys, who hadn't been on a trip with us before to see what this is all about. So that was just a great trip there to get us started.

Chris Grainger: 20:28

We got back to where we were going to stay the lodge. That night we were able to sharpen the saws back up, get everything ready to rock and roll, had a really good just had some pizza for dinner that night, but just good fellowship. Went up staying in a lodge there at Appalachian Christian Camp, which was wonderful, the lodge. It ended up being great because it had a big common room where we could play games and all that fun stuff. That's where we had some fun.

Chris Grainger: 20:57

We're going to mention two games. Okay, the games were just. They make me laugh just thinking about them. One of the games was called Quick Cups. Quick Cups is you have five different colored cups and you have these little cards that pop up and you're supposed to arrange the cups in somewhat of the form of the card right. And one of our guys I'm going to pick on him right now, we'll pick on him later he got very emotional playing this game because it's somewhat subjective to how these cards are set up and how you're supposed to set your cups up. But man, he really got worked up on that one and it was just a fun time just watching him just go through the roof. I forget the name of the other game, but it was a shape game. It was shapes and colors and it was like pattern recognition game. I'll try to find the name of it for you guys to drop it in the links or something.

Chris Grainger: 21:51

The thing is he was unbelievable. He was like a ninja at that game. But this Quick Cup games that got him going. So fun stuff there, just fun memories, just having a fellowship. I'm telling you, fellowship time on a mission trip it's not talked about enough, because that's just where you get to know each other. You get to just hang out and just have a good time.

Chris Grainger: 22:13

So Monday we had a big job All hands on deck, all went to one crew. You guys remember the last trip I talked about the last day we went to the area where the hurricane had came through. But while the hurricane came through it actually spun up three tornadoes on the property, thousands of trees down. Unbelievable, it was just unreal how this place got hit. So we were there, unfortunately it was, it was raining, it was wet, it was nasty, it was. It got to be cold a little bit, uh, and we were slipping all around. Uh, they had, they had a chipper that they have bought that hooked to the PTO of their tractor. So we set up a chipper crew that was basically just pushing limbs and debris through that and that really just was working great. Other than that, we were just all hands on deck trying to not fall down although one of our guys did fall down, luckily he didn't get hurt and just working through, just cutting up that debris, that debris, just getting all that stuff moved. We had a tractor ourselves. Shout out to wayne for just being just a phenomenal tractor operator. I've never seen my operator tractor way. This guy does unreal.

Chris Grainger: 23:24

But at about 3 30 it got to be just raining so hard that we had been in that rain all day long. You know how many complaints I heard? Zero. The guys didn't care. They just said you know what the rain's here we're going to serve anyway, and it's just another reminder to me of the power of what can happen. When men come together for a righteous cause, nothing's going to stop them. So that rain was just, it was just pounding. When it got to the point of being a safety hazard, we did wrap it up, but at that point we were at the end of the day and we gave God all the glory soaking wet from head to toe, and it's unbelievable how wet we were.

Chris Grainger: 24:07

We did recognize, we found out too there was a need for refrigerators and microwaves and things like that. So we were able to go out and procure some of that stuff. That evening is when I was able to go get that stuff done. So again at the end of the day, though you know, the rain had stopped. We were up there, we were out there sharpening the saws, just doing all the maintenance work. Because the way I approach ministry you know work like this in ministry and mission work when I get to the job site I want to start Like no downtime. So that meant me and a couple other guys were always there in the evenings sharpening the sauce and getting the you know, getting everything refilled oil and fueled up and just making sure the trailers were packed in such a way that when we got to a site we could get to work. That's what it's all about. So, again, I had a wonderful meal that night. Our praying pelican leader. His name was Mark and he used to be a chef Well, not used to be, I guess he still is a chef. So we ate like kings. It was unreal. Every meal Mark fixes was unbelievable. So shout out to mark mark, you're amazing. Thank you so much, brother, for the way you just you loved us, you encouraged us. So we had a good dinner that night.

Chris Grainger: 25:18

That tuesday so that was monday, tuesday we were able to split up a little bit, okay. So I sent one group of guys back to this place we just talked about for Monday and they rented the chipper all day long just running that chipper Because there was guys it's so much debris had another crew we sent that there was a home on the river that needed to have new underpinnings. So when the water rose it washed everything out of the existing underpinning for the home away, almost took the house away. Luckily it didn't, but we put they had new metal. So these guys came in they and and got to that job. There was a couple trees they had to cut up as well. They got that done but I'm talking about completely reinstalled a brand new underpinning under this home. And I was able to get there towards the end of the day because I was on an old job which I talked about in a minute.

Chris Grainger: 26:13

But just to see the look of joy on the homeowner's face because that that was just working on her, I could just tell that was just working on her and the way those guys just leaned in and did that. Work, hard work. You're digging ditches, you're cutting metal with. We didn't have a ton of tools, they were kind of with 10 snips and there was just one of our, our of our brothers out there named mario had a lot of experience with that, as well as wilson. Those guys just absolutely just crushed it. They were really good uh teachers for the other guys who had never done that type of work. But when we finished up it was just absolutely incredible just to see one the level of professionalism that we left it with, but just primarily the joy that it brought to her face.

Chris Grainger: 26:59

So, being a couple other guys, we went to another job and we found most of these jobs out through Praying Pelican, who worked with Rize Irwin, because that area got just devastated so bad. But come to find out, we were at the home of a former Lutheran minister and his messianic Jewish wife. It was an incredible experience. There were some really treacherous trees, really treacherous trees I'm talking about. Some of these were hanging in some dangerous situations, had to really be thoughtful on the cuts and how we're going to get things down. God was with us the whole way. Adam was able to repair their fence around their garden Just took so much burden off of them. Joe and I were able to really focus on some some some really difficult trees that we had to get down. That was over top of their driveway. That was impacting, impacting some things with their river that was running by their driveway. So it was just a really hard. I'm just going to be honest. Hard work, great work.

Chris Grainger: 28:04

My, my boot got stuck in the Creek, came out, I stepped in back in the creek with what's my bear socks. Joe had an extra pair of socks. I don't know why he had extra pair of socks, but he did right. With another god moment. Oh yeah, I forgot our first god moment. We were low. We were running low on bar oil for the chainsaws. I was like and I knew sunday like we had to go buy something. Local hardware store was closed. But the guy who were that we're going to go see on Monday send me a text at the blue side, so super pumped that you guys are coming tomorrow, can't wait to see you. By the way, we have gallons and gallons and gallons of bar oil. Guess, whatever you need, it's here. So I'm like all right, god, totally get it. So he hooked us up with that.

Chris Grainger: 28:50

So we were again Tuesday. We're doing those jobs at the Lutheran minister's house, his messianic Jewish wife. There we were able to get those trees done. But the cool part was and I'll never forget this they invited us to lunch. Normally on trips like this, you make your own lunch. And we had the lunches made. You know what? We're going to take time. It was an important deal for them that they serve us and it's just mind-blowing. So we had a wonderful lunch with them that they had fixed.

Chris Grainger: 29:35

But the icing on top of the cake, guys, was that the wife prayed a prayer over us in Hebrew. After she did it in Hebrew, she did it in English translation. But just having that moment of intimacy with God, right there on that porch, overlooking the mountain, wonderful food, wonderful fellowships, hard work A lot of the hard work had been done but we still had a lot of hard work to do that afternoon. But just to have that time to break bread and I'm sitting there thinking I'm like a Lutheran minister, a Messianic Jewish wife. You know a wife we have. One of our guys is from Ohio, we have me and Adam from North Carolina. You know all these different, diverse backgrounds that were coming together. This storm brought us together in a really meaningful way and it was just. It was just, it was incredible. I will just say it was incredible. So we were able to finish that job up, take some pictures.

Chris Grainger: 30:25

He just kept talking about how God had moved in his life and how, again, he had served the Lord faithfully for years and years and years, and how he seen through that whole situation, how God just showed up. He even told us stories of where he had these ham radios. During the time of the storm they were reaching areas on that ham radio that had never been reached before. Like I forget how many miles away he says they were reaching. But now he says, since everything's kind of somewhat cleaned up and getting back to normal, like you can't reach that anymore, but for those couple weeks where it was dire straits and emergency, the radio worked. So when you hear stories like that, it just gives you goosebumps. It just goes to show you you know God's in control. He's in control of all of it. All right, fellas, we're going to take our last break and come back and we'll talk about our last day.

Chris Grainger: 31:23

I find it helps me to have a guide at times when I'm reading and studying the Bible. One way that helps me is by using devotionals to guide not only what I read but insights into the scriptures themselves. So we were blessed to become an author on the YouVersion Bible app and we saw an immediate opportunity to help others with devotionals around the areas that we spend the most time talking about at the Lion Within Us. So if you enjoy the show, you may enjoy these devos as well. We have some guys that are using them as part of their small groups as well, as they're a great way to get conversations going. So to see the ones that we've created, head over to thelionwithinus to learn more. So that's thelionwithinus, to get started with your own men's devotional today. All right, guys. So now we're going through here through our trip.

Chris Grainger: 32:23

So that Tuesday night we decided to do a little bonfire, had a wonderful dinner again, had a bonfire that night, had some cigars. There may have been a piece or two of chocolate cake. We don't have any pictures though. So you know that's just hearsay. So your guilty pleasure is safe with me, guys. I'm not going to call out anybody whatsoever on the chocolate cake. So you guys listen, they get this joke.

Chris Grainger: 32:46

But Wednesday we went back to the site where we had worked on that Monday with the rain and that Wednesday, boys, I'm here to tell you, nonstop chainsaws. The chipper ran literally all day long clearing the land out. There was one massive tree that was in the pond. It was laid across this beautiful little pond right there in front of their house and Wilson made a determination that tree was coming out and he was locked in. And he was determined and doggone it. He and his crew, mario Trevor, some of those other boys, they got that doggone tree out. It was absolutely phenomenal. At one point he was barefooted in the water up to his chest. This is cold water here in North Carolina, guys. In the water up to his chest. This is cold water here in North Carolina, guys. After strapping straps around this big tree, pulling it out with a tractor. I'm telling you it was incredible to see him at work.

Chris Grainger: 33:38

But our focus at least the focus that came to me as we were out there working because we worked up closer to the house on that particular day the focus was hope. It was hope I wanted him and his wife. My hope was that they could look out their window and see a noticeable difference in what was being accomplished before we showed up. You know, when you're there, you're living in a situation where trees are just literally surrounded by you. It can be overwhelming. It can be overwhelming and I'm telling you, at the end of the day they could see a noticeable difference and it brought them to tears. At lunch we went to where we went back in October and where we cleared off in October last year and were able to sit down and just enjoy that time by the river. Just again, the fruit of our labor was literally we were sitting on some of the stumps that we had cut up. That was just really great. But at the end of the day we were really late that day I mean it was 6, 6.30 before we even stopped cutting chainsaws off. I mean, that's a long day when you're out there.

Chris Grainger: 34:47

We were out there early that morning, pretty much busting it all day long. We prayed over the homeowner and we pray over all of them. By the way, when you go on trips like this, you want to pray over all of them. That's such an important thing to not just fly by. But his wife was just in absolute tears because of the joy that we were able to bring her, just because somebody cared, somebody cared, and we want them to know that we care and we want to love on them. We just want to encourage them. We just want to let them know that they're not forgotten, that you know what, at the end of the day, we're here to serve each other and that's just a beautiful way.

Chris Grainger: 35:25

I mean, the guys were so tired. They were so tired, yet they were so full of joy. I know they were they full of joy, I know they were. They told me as I think through this trip and I told them all, I tried to tell them all several times the hardest part of a trip like that is saying yes to going. It just is. But doggone it they did. It was an honor to serve with those warriors and I'm just going to give them all a shout out right now and again.

Chris Grainger: 35:58

She'll give first names here, fellas, but I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to Adam, to Wayne Wilson, michael Trevor, ted, andrew, keith, eduardo, rod, trey, ben, mario, chris, joe, and then our Praying Pelican crew, lonnie and Mark. You guys are absolutely incredible. The work you did, the way you showed up, no complaints, no complaints, zero complaints, nothing. But what do we need to do next? That's why trips like that are successful and that's what being the hands and feet of Christ is all about.

Chris Grainger: 36:46

Cool part about Ben I hadn't seen Ben. He was a buddy from high school. I had so many good memories, we just drifted apart. It was mostly my fault while we drifted apart, but we were able to just kind of come back together in a really meaningful way and I am so thankful for that time to serve alongside him. By the way, he has the coolest chainsaw on the planet, so I was definitely dealing with a lot of chainsaw envy that week, but it was so much fun just being able to see Ben again, just to hear about his life and his family and just for us to get reacquainted. It was just a good time of fellowship and again, trips like this, guys, that's where stuff like that happens. So that's the kind of a recap of our trip.

Chris Grainger: 37:32

A question I want you to think about and I to challenge you with is what area of serving others have you been avoiding? Now, I avoided this for a long time. I always thought the mission stuff. I just write a stroke of check. Baby, you know, you have your pray guys, you have your pay guys and you have your play guys. I never was a play guy. I would encourage you lean into playing, because if you start playing at this level and start getting out there and doing hard things, getting uncomfortable for extended periods of time, god has a way of just working through that. And I must admit, when I got home I was ready to be home. I was tired, I was wore out. I had a bunch of nicks and bruises and cuts. That's just part of it. We have to do hard things. It's not always going to be easy in life. If we do the hard things, if we lean into it, that's when God blesses it, man. You just got to see it for yourself. So, again, if you want to know more about future trips, things that we're trying to plan, we really want to do at least one of these per year. Again, for the last couple of these have been disaster recovery type trips. So we're always willing and open.

Chris Grainger: 38:44

The easiest way to stay connected with our events is the lionwithinus slash events. You can see what we have out there Now, right now, if you're listening to this when this comes out. The next event is our Reclaiming the Wild Mediatree. Again, that's Rubber Beach Road. That's where we have so much fun fellowship. This is the one for fathers as well as down to five years old. So we have some father-sons that have come to this. But, fellas, I'm telling you this is a great way to serve. But for our next mission trip. That's where you'll find it, okay. So, guys, hopefully you enjoyed listening to this one. I'll tell you, it was incredible. It was cool to see all our guys in these these light yellow shirts as well. We're working on a video. By the time this comes out, we hopefully will have a video just recapping our trips, so be sure to check that out. Go to our website. Be able to see all the lion withinus. You'll be able to see all the LionWithEdus. You'll be able to see all the resources there.

Chris Grainger: 39:37

But on Friday I will unpack a few more tips around serving, the idea of serving, as well as just try to give you some encouragement along the way. So again, shout out to the folks out there in Western Carolina. I will tell you this the spirit of those folks can't be broken, because when you drive by some of the places, you see the amount of devastation, the amount of debris Some homes are just gone, guys and then you hear story after story after story of just heartbreak. Yet you see the resolve of the people and the way they love each other, the way they're just helping each other, but they're just leaning on them to serve and to just be there for each other in the time of need. But God's stuff, man, but God's stuff and the heart of the Bible, belt for sure, but still had opportunities just to share what Christ has done for for us through the work that we do.

Chris Grainger: 40:42

So I'd encourage you to lean in, go check out organizations like praying Pelican so it's praying Pelican. Ppmorg is where you can connect. They're the ones that we coordinated with and worked our trip through, so they help you figure out the logistics, the food, all the safety, type of insurance, all that stuff. That's what they coordinate and they bring a huge value to the table. So I highly encourage you, if you're thinking about, or maybe if your church is thinking about, mission trips, look at their organization. They do a phenomenal job. I can attest to the two men that I've mentioned already, lonnie and Mark, the work that they do, the level of intentionality, the level of care, the level of attention to detail. You're not going to find anything better. So ppmorg is where you can find their information. All right, guys, alignwithinus, connect with us over there. Lots of Bible studies, lots of resources, our daily SKO, our community, all the ways, our mastermind groups, the way that we're serving others, alignwithinus.

Chris Grainger: 41:52

So if you're listening to this on Apple or Spotify. Give us a review, give us a rating. That stuff helps big time. Pushes to algorithm. If you haven't subscribed to us yet on YouTube, please, please, please, head over to YouTube, click that little bell, be subscribed to us so we have videos. We have videos come out all the time. Guys, you'll get that and hopefully be a little encouraged along the way. So thank you, guys. So much For those who supported the Lion Within's mission trip this year. Thank you. If you want to continue to be a donor and support, if you like the things that we're doing, if you like the way that we're trying to serve others, thelionwithinus slash donate is how you can connect with us and I guarantee you every donation helps in a more significant way than you'll ever know. So I just want to say a heartfelt thank you for all the donations, all the support and all the encouragement. All right, guys, have a great day, get after it. You know what's coming. Keep unleashing the lion within.

Chris Grainger: 42:53

I don't know about you, but I used to find Mondays really rough. I would find myself trying to reset for work, trying to get my bearing on the family calendar, trying to find time for my own spiritual growth and development, and often I found myself overwhelmed or just flatly ignoring aspects of my life that I know are meaningful to me. What I learned was that if I had immediate access to important and impactful spiritual topics and reflections to start my week well, after the allure of a Sunday sermon has passed, I would set my whole week up to be more meaningful and for the opportunity to make a true impact. If you think that getting such a boost would help your week to get started on the right foot, we would love for you to sign up for the Weekly Roar, which is our newsletter that is produced by the Lion Within Us. Each week will deliver a powerful reflection and practical steps to help you apply scripture with clarity and purpose, all being rooted in light and truth. So in just a few minutes, we hope to arm you with insights for living out biblical leadership with confidence and strength, and maybe even have a little extra bounce in your step. If that sounds useful, head over to thelionwithinus slash ROAR to sign up today, no-transcript. Finding resources that you can trust and then implement can be daunting For me personally, I thought it was a lost cause and I decided to take the action, knowing that I wasn't alone.

Chris Grainger: 50:20

It was because of this wide gap that we created our Lion Withinist community, and the areas that we're helping Christian men grow are incredible. For instance, we've built ways for guys to lean in and grow through fun events like our daily spiritual kickoff, where you get that much-needed boost directly from God's Word, our Bible studies that always focus on how to discern and apply what we learn, and even our amazing forum where you can speak your mind without fear of getting shut down or judged by the extreme rules of modern-day social media. On top of all that, we know that many men won't help overcoming issues and becoming stronger in many different areas. That's why we created several mastermind groups where the iron truly sharpens iron. Our community is about having a growth mindset, accountability, intentionality and transparency. In other words, just leave fake you at home and come to community just as you are.

Chris Grainger: 51:16

I fully believe what we feel. I see the impact it's making on men right now and I would love to have you check it out. So start your very own 30-day free trial today to see how we can help you be a better leader. So if you're ready to take that first step, head over to thelinewithinus and get started. Your journey begins here. Visit thelinewithinus and get started. Your journey begins here. No-transcript.