A Personal Message from Ann

Speaker 1: 0:09

Welcome to Real Talk. I am Ann, and this week is a little different. Yesterday I did an interview with a man named Dr Don Bartlett, one of the most amazing men that I've ever met, and I've known him for decades. But yesterday, as my guest host, denise Bard and I met with him. I was left with the most blessed heart, but also with a message that I wanted to share with you. We were having difficulty with our technology right now and we're having trouble with him uploading his end. So until we get that figured out or we redo it because he said he's willing to redo it if we need to I mean, this is a new podcasting host hosting site for me. I've never used it before and so you know, hey, we just go with it, since we're not going to be posting it today. I wanted to give a message, just you and me, and I've not done that before, but I really felt burdened and I really felt like I needed to share something with you. So it's just me and you, don. Dr Don Bartlett is a Native American man who was born in the 30s. So he was born with significant disabilities and he was just tossed aside by his father, schools, teachers, peers, and he was made to feel as if he was nothing, because I can't tell you how many people along the road when he was a child tossed him to the side. But one of the hardest messages were the people from the church, and not only when he was a child, but even still today, and you know he's one of the most godly men that I know. But thank God that he had a purpose for his life and he withstood all of that. You know, it's amazing to me that, even with all of the hate and the world and there is a lot of it right now you don't have to look far. There are people like Don and Denise Bard who, like I said you know we've had her on the podcast and I'm also going to include myself who were not treated the way that God intended. Yesterday, as we talked prejudice and racism and hate and overcoming resilience, I was left with one woman who made a difference in his life, one person who believed in him, took him in and gave him a future. Like I said, I don't want to tell his story because I really want to get it up, but this 84 year old man had so many reasons to quit, to give up, and he travels all over the world giving hope, and it took one woman, and the love of his mom as well, and a lot of interventions, I would say, to give him the smallest bit of hope, maybe a hope of a mustard seed, for him to grow to where he is now. Like we often say on this podcast, it just takes 30 seconds to love on somebody, to believe in them. It also takes 30 seconds to beat a person up emotionally and mentally, for them to never believe in themselves again. It takes one comment from a teacher for somebody to smile and say, yes, I can do it, or for them to think that they are on the wrong path to their dreams. But it takes one person, just one, and I can't stress that enough, and not even a lot of time either. I mean, it doesn't take that much time at all. I've had a few of those people in my life and they've really, you know, stuck with me. I can remember them clearly, the people that have changed the trajectory of my life. What makes a man of faith, of a strong faith, leave a church, a political party? Because the hope with those people just aren't there anymore. I mean, where is the hope? The hope is gone and what we see everywhere is judgment and hate. Do you know that Jesus, whether you believe in him or not, was the most leftist person? He was the one who loved and did not judge, and he hung out with the sick and the hurting, and he let one of the hardest women in the Bible, known as the sinful woman from Luke 7, which I wrote a book about, called the Sinful Woman wiper tears with her hair on his feet. I mean, god is love, whether you believe in Jesus as your savior or not. He was a man who loved and put himself last and he placed others before all else. I mean, he was a man who believed in the hurting and the sick and he wanted to help them and he didn't think twice about sitting next to them and not worrying about who was seeing them, him sit with them, and he lived without judgment. You know, I too have been judged within God, fearing people to the point where I love those establishments too. I mean, our faith is not a building, it's not people. But what is wrong with people that you can look at? A child with a cleft lip, no nose, a hole in the top of their roof, unable to eat properly and just toss him aside like he is absolutely nothing. I mean, this man that was told that he would never learn is a doctor because one person gave him hope when my parents were told when I was I think I was in kindergarten that I would probably not graduate the traditional way because I had so many disabilities they didn't really call it autism and you know, I have cognitive disabilities as well At that time I mean this was, you know, a long time ago, but they were significant and they said that I wouldn't probably graduate. But I could have believed that. I could have believed that I wasn't going to go on that traditional path. But then what I did was I got a master's degree and I they were right, I mean, they weren't wrong in the disabilities but because there were some people that believed in me along the way, especially myself I made it. And then some I was different, but I mean not physically different like Dr Don, but I had already had quite a bit of trauma and as a young one and by age 11 had lost my adopted dad and sister. I don't know if anyone could have reached me at that point. I mean it's all timing, I would imagine, but I remember one teacher, mr Belcher, one of the biggest men I'd ever seen. I mean to me as a child he'd look like a giant. There were rumors actually of what he would do with kids if they got in trouble, but I don't think that they were true. In fact I know that they weren't. But it was kind of funny as a child to believe those things. I went back after my dad died. For the first time after my dad had died, I had had Mr Belcher in fifth grade so he made his way over to me. He wasn't my teacher anymore, but he made his way over to me and I'll never forget this because he said I'm sorry. I mean he got down on his level From way up there. He got down on my level and he said I'm sorry and I want to let you know that if you ever need anything you can come to me. I mean it took that one man for me to always remember that. I've always remembered him. I never went to him because I was on the road to not talking to anyone at that time. I mean sixth, seventh, eighth grade or some of the hardest times for kids and that's when we need to love on them the most. But I was going into middle school and I was awkward. I was that teen that was just completely shut down and quiet from loss, trauma and being autistic on top of it. You never know what someone is going through and that's why we have to be really careful when we're dealing with people. I mean my daughter, as she was really traumatized as a young child before we adopted her, and she's only eight and I look at her and I go from uh, what are we going to do? To God, help me, help her. A teacher said to me recently about her you are throwing all these helps her way, but something is missing. And yeah, there really is. I mean, mental health is so rampant today, even with our young ones, and after listening to Dr Don yesterday, I have to say that it always has been. Native Americans are treated awful and they are thrown aside if they are not important. I mean, this is Native American Heritage Month and that was one of the reasons we were having him on for him to tell his story. I mean he was a Cherokee child and the way he was treated was inhumane and it took one white woman, as he says, to believe in him, and I hope it takes one for my daughter, including myself, because I also believe in her. It took a few for me along the way to give me a leg up, but it also took a few not believing in me. I mean, there isn't a person alive right now. Honestly, that doesn't have problems. We all have so much going on that it's amazing we can even function. I think we all need to give each other a little more love and understanding and reach out a hand to the people that you are judging and sit down and Get to know them. Instead. We need a lot more of that. I have a couple challenges. Find one person you are judging in your life, for whatever it is. Make a lunch date, sit down, get to know them and I bet that at least some, if not all, of that judgment goes away. If we all did that, maybe a lot of it would go away, instead of just judge somebody even by something that they're wearing or maybe something that they're doing and we really don't understand. I mean, it makes me think about Peter in the Bible and how he denied Christ three times. Nobody, including Peter at that moment, want to be judged in a moment in time. Nobody does, and I don't think that we and it's not our business to judge anybody for anything that they've done or how they look or anything. I mean you know God called the church to be love. I mean he wanted the church to be like a social worker. I mean that's the way it was supposed to be, like connect needs with resources. But instead it has been turned into a casting, into casting people out who are different, and I know that that happens. I challenge every church and every God-believing person, whatever faith you are, to look inward and not cast that stone, not be the individuals who Jesus talks about as being like a Pharisee, the ones who look at a person in need and only see an annoyance, a person that their need can just be swept under the rug. And we will allow leaders in the church to make assessments I mean to make assessments of their salvation or whatever it is about them. But for the church leaders to make the assessments about them and tell them your pain and hurts are not our burden. Let's love. I mean that's really what we are called to do. Let's all find one person, just one person, if that's what it's to love on that you thought was unlovable and I bet and pray that the world seems a little bit brighter and you just might change a person's life. We're going to be back and I hope with Dr Don and his message very soon, because we need to hear this story. But in the meantime, until we figure it out, I just thought, maybe, that I would do this and bring you a message between just you and me. And it's been real and that's what we do here at Real Talk with Tina and Ann. And to end with, you know, tina hasn't been on the podcast for a little while and we've been having a guest host, denise, and she's been absolutely amazing and she's going to be doing more in the future as Tina takes the break that she needs and, like we always do on Real Talk, we encourage people to be who they are and to be what they need to be, and that's fine if Tina needs to take a little time or some time or a longer amount of time to do what she needs to in order for her to be her best self. And we believe that at Real Talk and we'll continue to support her and to support you and to do whatever we need to be our best selves and we invite you to be on this journey with us and we thank each and every one of our listeners for being with us every single week, because we hear from you and I know that we are making a difference and really nothing that we ever say is for sympathy, for us to get something out of it. My daughter said to me the other day you know well how much money are you making on this. Well, actually, you know, because that's not what it's about. It's about helping people, it's about relationship, it's about being with people and making a difference in people's lives and doing this journey of life together, our life. These days, as we look around and we see what's going on in the world, it's horrific. I mean I don't even want to turn the news on anymore, but these are people's lives that we are seeing on the news. These are real people. These are real times where hate is rampant and it's scary. And I've got three young kids and we want to teach them what love is all about and we want to model that. And the only way that we can model that is to feel it internally and to do it for real, not mask it, not, fake it, not. I mean to be a real, genuine person who looks at the person in front of you and just wants to meet that person where they are. I just saw an interview with Pink the other day and Pink said when they asked her the question so I mean, everything's on the table, we can ask you anything, because we were told that you will answer anything. And she's like, well, how are you supposed to get to know me if I don't answer your questions? And it was basically like if I'm not real with you and you're not real with me, then how can we get to know each other? So I 100% believe in that and we do here at Real Talk with Tina and Anne, and I just want to thank you for listening every single week. Continue to meet us where we are and we'll continue to meet you where you are and hopefully we hear from you soon. If we haven't heard from you yet, drop us a line, go on realtalktinaanncom and we actually have a way for you to communicate with us. There's a microphone in the bottom right corner and you can actually leave us a voicemail that could end up on our podcast, and we also have ways that you can write us. So just subscribe and be a part of our podcast, follow us, be on Facebook and go to Real Talk with Tina and Anne on our page and let us know how you are, because these are tough times, alright. Well, I'm going to leave it at that and God bless you and see you next time.