 who the sun sets free is free in D and we are so glad that you're joining us on Hope Today on this wonderful Monday and Juneteenth. I'm here with Tom Hollis and Amanda and Tom we're going to talk about some powerful ministry that's happening. We are, you know, we all crave adventure. We do. I mean look at all the superhero movies and the stories that we all loved as kids and as adults. What about adventure with Jesus? What about doing something that is an adventure in ministry and an adventure with our children and grandchildren. We're all thinking about how are the ways that we can see our children and grandchildren come to follow Christ and to seek that adventure. Well Doug and Deb Tunney are going to be with us. Deb has written a book and she is going to be sharing with us about that legacy of faith and what it means to really pass on that truth of Christ into that next generation. Amen. I'm so excited that our family is a recipient of the YWAM ministry that they're a part of and our Caleb that I know I talked about last week that's just growing with God and he's utilizing those skills that he learned from YWAM youth with the mission even in the Air Force and it has been just amazing and beautiful for me as a parent to watch your child and children flourishing in the things of God in this dark world. It's like beautiful to see how like children when they grab hold of the gospel and with Jesus and you know one thing we do want to mention today it is Juneteenth and their celebrations all across the country and here even in Pittsburgh you know Juneteenth is a celebration when the slaves in Texas they found out that they are free so it's a whole principle that you know we are all free we're all one and this together and speaking about being all together I had a wonderful time in the city of Pittsburgh last night there was probably many of you downtown watching and listening to Erica Campbell from Mary Mary so it was awesome at the end of the night last night when people were like worshiping praising Jesus and the kids were like running around and dancing I just love that like I think it's a little taste of heaven we had last night of just worshiping Jesus in the city it was a beautiful night so and I know there's fireworks today and so wherever you are if you're in Alabama and you're in Florida wherever you're watching from we're just so grateful that you are with us today and I just think it's such a joy I love when just seeing the body of Christ come together but especially just this next generation to be set free and on fire for God yes this is really a spiritual principle when you think about Juneteenth the slaves were free they didn't know they were free the the word hadn't reached them in Texas that they were free and this is like a year and a half after the end of the Civil War and they when they finally received that news then there was this hey we're free and you know a lot of times in Christ we don't realize that we're free that we have been set free in Christ and we still have the trappings and the things of the world on us you know if you feel like that today God wants you to know that you are free you're going to hear a lot about what it means to follow Christ but freedom is the beginning of it and if you need that freedom today if you need to know who you are in Christ you can call our prayer line you can get a hold of a prayer partner and have someone pray with you to pray into that walking in that freedom amen it's so good and I'm really excited for this interview that's coming up to even hear how in a big way and I know cornerstone is a big supporter of Doug Tunney and the mission of YWAM so you are not going to want to miss one second of this interview you might even want to call someone up who has teenagers because this is something that they can go and participate I know Caleb my son went through the five month program and so they disciple them for three months it was his particular program and then he went on the mission field for two months in Belize so they put into practice the things that they're learning from God's word and that is making disciples and so and I'm seeing the fruit of it so you're not going to want to miss this and I know you're going to want to share this with a neighbor so please stay tuned maybe get your pen and paper or call someone but we'll be right back after this cornerstone television t-shirt where'd you get it I am so glad to do ask you know this is an exclusive offer for the month of June for you to receive this one-of-a-kind ctvn t-shirt you can support and support your favorite Christian television network this summer when you go to barbecues hanging out with family and having tons of fun oh man that is so much fun and speaking of cornerstone television I love their programming especially that hope today show yes we love hope today and all of the programs and you know with your best gift request your cornerstone television network t-shirt when you give this month we have sizes from extra small to six XL it is a hundred percent cotton it is quality and we want you to have this on you today that's right we have one for everyone and you get to represent the station you love with your own logo t-shirt you'll enjoy this wearable reminder that hope happens here as together we spread the love of Jesus every day you know we cannot do it without you when you give you help us to impact Pittsburgh and beyond reaching those of all nations and generations because we know people need to know the hope and the love of Jesus like never before so why don't you give us a call at 888-665-4483 and request your very own cornerstone tv t-shirt that's right you can also give online at ctvn.org slash donate we would love to see you out in public somewhere wearing this t-shirt maybe we'll have ours on too thanks for supporting us our next guests make it their mission to know God and make him known Doug and Deb Tony are the founders of youth with the mission Philadelphia and a few other places too and they're extremely dedicated to presenting the gospel of Jesus to this generation Deb is also an author and has a new book out called a legacy of faith our god stories from family missions and ministry Doug and Deb it's so good to have you guys here it's good to be here yeah I got to start off Sydney by if I was going to name like 10 people five people that have affected my life this couple right here is in that group because you guys challenged me and my family from an early age to follow after God I appreciate that thank you our privilege yes well let me ask you Deb so you wrote this book I know it was a chore it was it was a battle it was yours right it was yours but there's it's 50 years of ministry there and it's not stopped it's not like you're just sitting there so tell me about why write this book now I mean why put these stories together yeah so our son just took over our ministry in Boston and we looked at each other went okay what's the next assignment what do we do we don't know and we thought we always sit with our grandkids and tell them stories in fact just yesterday gathered our grandkids around on father's day and said I want to tell you another story they went well we heard this before you what I'm telling it again and so we wanted to capture the life that we've lived for them and so I thought okay what do we want to do so we just randomly went we said okay we want to miss this we don't want to miss this what we wrote 456 things that we wanted to capture maybe and not lose and at the end I said okay we're gonna write a book and so we began not all those made it in the book but all those were some things touches from God things that we thought wow there's no other explanation but there's a god who is real in our lives and so we wanted to leave a legacy for our kids for that what a tremendous legacy too and I know you guys have five kids and like 20 grandkids is that what it is 16 grandkids wow fantastic well Doug let me ask you so why why be in ministry I mean from the earliest time that I've known you guys you were about sharing the gospel with people and and that hasn't changed a lot of a lot of people in there when they're in their teen years or 20s they might do that but it's always been the forefront why I think because I was a lost person I was an alcoholic I was planning to kill a man I had all these issues and one of my fellow students came up to me on my college campus in California Pennsylvania and openly share the gospel with me and he was terrible at sharing the gospel about halfway through I was like this guy's bad but then he looked at me and through his eyes I saw Jesus I saw love I had never seen love like that in my life and so just his eyes just the love of Jesus poured it affected me so much and through that he invited me to an intervarsity Bible study I went there and I found Christ five weeks later I got set free of alcoholism two months later I forgave the man I was going to kill and God set me free and then I met this old missionary and he said hey Doug why don't you go to Brazil with me and I was like I don't want to go to Brazil I don't want to go anywhere and so I said I'd pray about it and he laughed at me I said why you're laughing he says because the Bible says go into all the world doesn't say pray about it it says go I said oh okay I'm new at this I didn't know this you know and so I I said okay so I went to Brazil and went to Ubatuba Brazil place that never had the gospel before we presented the gospel these people had never heard and 700 of them came to Christ and four years later they were 30,000 and so we saw transformation so I said missionaries can make a difference in societies and nations and families and lives so now 51 years later I'm still doing it we were just in Brazil again did you go back to that same place again in that area in that area yeah and there was a DTS of 126 DTS students and they were crazy wild for Jesus and I got to say we were here before the revival began we saw the first seeds of this revival and now you're taking it to the nation it's so exciting to see what God is doing and they went over the world at school wow so there you go just love hearing these stories of just how God is moving can you share another story in particular especially with like children how you've seen just the Holy Spirit break out and you know I think in our own family last year we had seven of our young people our own grandkids say I want to go with you our one granddaughter came from Kyrgyzstan all the way to be with us just I want to be on the streets with you and I think that that's like a central when you think about an inheritance you're giving it's not just like money or things you're giving you're imparting the faith you have and so for them to say we want to be with you we want to see how you do we want to pray with you we want to go hard with you that for me is how we pass on our faith to the next generation that's how we imparted to them let them be part of the journey with us right and I think that that is the most meaningful our little granddaughter last year is 12 years old she's out in the middle the the hardest part of Philadelphia and she's talking to this guy who is a little intimidating the six foot guy she's a little short girl she's got a wordless book presenting the gospel to him and I'm like watching her do that I'm thinking she has faith and she's strong and she has imparted to her this wild Jesus thing that's what we want to see and so we just found out she's somewhere else in the world today just this past week doing translation for a team that's witnessing so I want to see that right that's it that's how we do it people will say to us how do you how do you raise kids are going to love God I said live it with them take them with you be a part of it with you and tell them your stories you know in the book you talk about that you talk about that that whole I mean adventure just jumps off the pages in this book and I had heard a lot of these stories I hadn't heard all of them I mean I'm in I'm in a story here somewhere but the thing is is God takes I think I feel like God says hey I got a live one here I got one that really wants to to reach people yeah and he supports that person doesn't he dog even he supports that person gives them what they need you know I was so shocked about three days ago I got a picture from Texas my daughter lives down there and her son Ethan he's 17 he's one of the top celloists in Texas right now he decided to train his group around him in a bansalism and he took him on his own to a park to share the gospel of Jesus Christ I was like that's heritage that's heritage that's what you want to see you know in the great failure the American church is affected Christians in the church today don't go out on the streets to share their faith anymore in Philadelphia where I live in 1965 45% of the city was going to church today 7% is going to church in Philadelphia and we're seeing the results of it becoming one of the murder capitals you know and so we got to get the church from the seats to the streets back to the people and you know when you go out people are open they want to hear but nobody's out there telling them the reason people aren't accepting Christ because nobody's telling them so we got to get the church people back out there you know I've lived in Philadelphia so I have a very special heart and so I understand like I lived in North Philly and I lived in West Mount Air and I just know it is a very even though it's called the city of brotherly love you don't really there's parts of that that you see but there's a lot of strongholds I mean the opiate epidemic that's happening in Kensington so can you just share with us that what you have been seeing and through the work that you're doing through your ministry how you just see the gospel breaking out and breaking forth in some of the hardest places in the city well we had this thing the idea of taking that how am I going to get the people in the city out so we have this thing called prayer stations it's a table you set up with a banner over top and it says prayer station and you train people for like three hours then you go out and they stand behind this station we have free Christian books free hot chocolate or iced tea and the people come to you they people come to you and we pray for the over a hundred people every week in city hall you know city hall we go down to city hall we set up and people are drawn to us all the time and ladies will have the complete Muslim outfit on and they'll come for the free Christian books and we'll get to pray with them and lead them to the Lord and it's just wonderful and so now we've trained just in one church 220 people have been trained in just from one church in Philadelphia and now they said to me I've been a part of this church for 37 years but I never knew it was my responsibility to share the gospel and you're saying what are pastors telling people what are they telling them let's get them out so it's been wonderful since we got there in September of 2019 we've seen 3,800 come to Christ for the first time just in that period of time let me ask you that I wanted to ask you because um I heard a number a few years ago and I know you know numbers numbers are important Jesus talked about numbers talked about feeding the 5,000 feeding the 4,000 but we don't want to be evangelistic with these but and your sons kind of really drilled down how many people have come to the Lord through your ministry over the years me and my sons have figured out over 300,000 I've come to Christ wow fantastic and a lot of other ones disciple now I want to ask you about this book about the story because one thing my wife appreciated see the guys we talk about one thing the wives the wives have a different perspective you know I'm always joking about John Wesley's wife used to say don't listen to that man up there and stuff like that and Gene goes I understand that a lot better but tell me about the hard times tell me about the the the the things that you didn't shy away from telling those stories no huh well when I read the reviews the people wrote on amazon a lot of them say this was an honest conversation about ministering family and I really wanted to do that I wanted to say listen we're not the cleaver family you know we're not the like perfect family that nothing happened to in ministry hard things happen in life hard things happen we had our senior pastor run away with the organist you know I mean it's heartbreaking we you know we actually got kicked out of our ministry at the beginning and the same people who were part of that were the people ushered us in and invited us to come start why when Pittsburgh so it is the redemptive part of the struggle in life and journey that's really important that you don't give up you you know when the hard times come and you don't know where your next you know meal is going to come from you can trust God that he is with you he's developing you he's growing you and he the hard time enables you to do the very thing that you were destined to do and without the struggle you're never going to get there without the struggle you're not going to have authority to speak so I wanted to write this not only for our own kids but for this next generation of leaders and I wanted to say to them you're going to face hard times but you are you cannot be a victim you cannot feel entitled you have to embrace the journey in the battle God will strengthen you and he'll give you what you need it's no accent you've been dropped into history in this moment the crazy moment we live in and that God will prepare you to make a difference we got to do it in the time in which we live I love how you just brought up this whole point of like this the struggle because I think a lot of times it's very discouraging that I think a lot of times as we come to Jesus and we think it's going to be like oh kumbaya everything's going to be happy and then it's like oh hell is breaking loose like all the time it's like you have a target on your back but what could you say and speak to the person right now that is even going through that and walking through that what are the things what are some of the values and takeaways that you've learned just through walking with that and seeing who God is I can give you like a really short story when we were pioneering why we're in Boston it was so hard we ran out of money we had this big obstacle it we got kicked out of our building and all of why we're in Boston was happening in our house right next door and I just I said I just can't take this another day it's like there are people around me it's just like the pressure was so much and so I got in my car and I just drove I ended up in my daughter's place which was four hours away I had to pretend like I was just taking a drive through the park you know hi I'm here to visit she went okay well clearly you're not here to visit but I took a little mental health moment I came back after a few days and I pulled in my parking lot and I looked in the picture window of my home and there were like 30 Y whimmers in there and I said I just can't take this this is too much so I walked it was raining I walked in the rain the rain was cascading over my glasses and I walked up and I climbed up into a kids they had a little treehouse there all by myself it was sort of a scene you know here I was in my 60s and in this treehouse and my sweatshirt was totally soaked and the water was coming over me and I said I cannot do this another moment and in that moment God like brought back a refreshing to me and saying you're an overcomer you're called to this you're gonna make it I'm with you and I can't explain it like some like deep wild energy spiritual inspiration came and I said whatever it takes I'm gonna see this through I don't care God has met me he's with me he's gonna do it and I just felt like I was like throwing off all the negativity and saying I'm gonna persevere and it was right after that God released to us all the money we got back in our building and now this this ministry is affecting thousands of people does that answer your question that's a fantastic answer to the question and we're in a treehouse moment right we do yes I'm sure we we've all had the times where we felt like that so I just want to you know just say that again you've you've heard their stories and I I can't more highly recommend the book than this one so Devon Doug the time is so short there's a million other stories we could share thank you for all that you do and thank you for being with us today all right thank you thank you thank you well we're gonna take a just a head over to Amanda right now she's got something important to share with you well I'm so thankful to hear the testimony from the tonnies and what God is doing and especially discipling others it's so important but what Debra was talking about you know that moment of weariness I think we all go through that and if we could go to God's word right now let's go to Matthew 11 and it's verses 28 to 30 it says then Jesus said to them come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you let me teach you because I am humble and gentle of heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light you know it's so important when you think about Jesus's words when he says come to me it's the greatest invitation that we could ever receive and I don't know you know where you're at in life but sometimes I know even myself personally I can be burning the candle at both ends and feel exhausted but this is the Jesus that's saying to you come to me or how about we are really good of feeding all the people around us and serving them but how about ourselves you know this cry that God's asking of us come to me and we don't have to be perfect just as Debra said it's not about this pristine and perfect thing that happens when you become a believer but it's this humility that God develops within you our realization of how much we need him and this invitation isn't common to me all those who have themself put together but it's common to me in your weakness in your burden because he desires to give you rest so today I want to extend that invitation to you number one to those who maybe have never chosen Jesus as their Lord and Savior he is commissioning to you to come to him and will you do that today will you say yes today will you follow him today if so then I ask that you would say Jesus come into my heart forgive me of my sins and I choose to make you Lord of my life if you've said those very simple words this is the beginning of a life change for you it's a beginning of letting God be the leader in your life and we have prayer partners standing by please give us a call at our prayer line so we can further talk to you send you some materials and I just feel for those of you who maybe you are saved but you are feeling the heat of just everything you're doing Jesus says come unto me he really means that he'll give you rest it is so important that time that we sit with Jesus so pause today just be with him thank you for being with us here on hope today we're going to go back over to Tom and Sydney thanks Amanda you know it's so important that we don't let this moment pass if you've heard that word it's such a simple prayer you know it's not magic words but it's the commitment and the opening of your heart to Christ to say come in be my Lord and Savior Doug if someone does that what's their next step when they when they come to the Lord like that what should they do you know recently I did a study on what happens when somebody prays that prayer the bow says they pass from death to life old things are passed away behold all things have become new and so this is a contract that God has made with man you pray that prayer you commit yourself to the Lord and all of a sudden he's going to do all these all the inheritance all the promises that God has made you inherit them as his child that's there's thousands of promises once you pray that prayer and then one verse I've been thinking about lately is all things work together for good before I knew the Lord everything was bad I'd get depressed I'd get angry I'd get in fights once I accepted Jesus all of a sudden I look at my life I say man even with nine years of malaria it worked out that I could affect Liberia West Africa in a tremendous way with a crusade of 50,000 people you know and it came through the malaria so no matter what happens and so once they pray that prayer man your life has changed brand new person in the Lord you know just as you were talking like the one thing that God has just really spoken my spirit and I just read it over this weekend just spending a really intimate time with the Lord is there's a scripture and it's an Isaiah 59 and 19 believe and it says like to come like a rushing stream a lot of times it's interpreted as like the enemy will come up like a flood that's actually not what it says but it's really talking about that God will come in like a rushing stream because of the spirit of the Lord and we just declare and decree over you today that no matter what you're walking and I just see an image that you may feel dirty there's a lot of residue but invite the rushing stream invite God to cleanse you to clean you to go into those deep places to heal you and to go down deep to break off those bondages no matter what it may be maybe addiction or hardship or whatever you are walking through allow the rushing stream to cleanse you to come over you because you know when I think about when we take a shower how good it feels and sometimes a rushing stream is a little tough it's strong but there's a current that God wants to take you on and when you give your life to Jesus it is a wild ride but it's a beautiful ride through the ups and the downs the hills and the valleys but can I tell you friend there is no journey like it so today as you've been joining us and we've shared about these stories about the power of the gospel the power of his freedom the power of deliverance that's what God wants for you and that's why he gave Jesus he paid the ultimate price for you and through the power of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit enables us to walk to listen to be healed and to be all we are called to be so we thank you so much for joining us on this hope today and today we just hope that you grab hold of that we love you have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow