BraveMen S3E96: John Arroyo - Attacked at Home

Fort Hood is the United States Army base located in Colleen, Texas. It's halfway between Austin and Waco. On April the 2nd, 2014, a soldier, 32-year-old man suffering from PTSD, took a 45-smith and lesson and began to fire at, shoot, and kill the soldiers around him. The story today, Lieutenant John Royal is a man who survived, shot in the neck, large caliber, point blank range, survived, and helped warn others that there was somebody coming. And for that, he received a special commendation. With me, as Chris Shields, our producer for Brave Man podcast, Brave Man podcast is a ministry of the Christian men's network, cmn.men. And our goal, really, Brave Man is not just about Brave Man, it's a raise up Brave Man. And John Royal is a Brave Man. It's amazing. We met him. He was speaking at a breakfast you and I went to, right Chris? Yes, sir. And we heard him speaking without man, this guy's. What a story. Yeah, what a story, phenomenal story, powerful story. And the biggest thing that touched me from the story was not just his ability to survive a massive attack, but the reconciliation that God did to his life with his son through this. Oh, this story is great. He came out of the gangs in LA. Yes, right? Yes, sir. And so, I mean, in one sense, he gets shot once he joins a US Army and is getting his life together, right? And then, I mean, he comes out of the gangs, doesn't get shot, gets shot there. Tragic thing, tragic story of the man and those who lost their lives. It's a 2014 shooting of Ford Hood. You know, in John's story, you know, the reconciliation with this son, which is part of the book, and the book is called Attacked at Home. Yes. Attacked at Home. Yes, sir. And he was a green, green beret. Yeah. I mean, John, this guy's a major guy. I mean, serious man. Yeah, but it's amazing because when you interact with him, you wouldn't really know that. You know what I mean? Because he's so humble and he's so like gentle. Yeah. Well, he's just a Jesus guy. Yeah. He just is following Christ. But on the other hand, I wouldn't mess with him. No, definitely not. Not like to. That's suggesting that. I'm taking your waffles. You know, the men's breakfast. You don't do that with this man. Yeah. And now he's working with Dave Reaver, our friend who has this amazing ministry of Vietnam vet and working with healing, the wounds of servicemen. Yeah. But he got shot, but his book is about his own wounds being healed. Yes. Right. Yes. Yeah. Powerful. I mean, it blows my mind how you going through something is not for you. Wow. You're going through something to unlock the reality for somebody else to get through it. Wow. You know, because your breakthrough is somebody else's breakthrough. Yeah. No kidding. You know, and we miss that. Yeah, we do. Because in the mystery, like, God, why are you doing this to me? Yeah. He's like, we talked about a Monday night men a couple of weeks ago, whenever you're listening to this, I think it was made the 24th. And we talked about when you get a vision, that vision isn't just for you. Yeah. That vision is to solve problems for others. Yes. So good. Right. Yes. So the vision God puts in your heart is part of his plan for everyone. So good. Not just about you. Yeah. The world doesn't just revolve about around me. What? Yeah. I know. That's something. But we all think that way. Yeah. We are all, I mean, granted, there is that part of us and our identity and our story where the story is our path. But our path is about touching others. Exactly. And that's what happened. John, John Royo gets shot. Yeah. I mean, right through the neck cardioid artery. And I love the story of when he, when the general came and the general is, let me, let me catch the name here and get it accurate. General Keenan and general Keenan comes to see how he is meets him at the hospital, right? His family is there. He can't talk. John can't talk. So he's got a whiteboard. And so the general says, sir, we're going to take care of you. We're going to move you to San Antonio. You're going to be taken care of. And he said, he said, is there anything I can do for you? And he wrote on the whiteboard. He says, when I'm going, when I go to San Antonio, can I ride in your van? He said to the general, the general said, he said, he started laughing. I thought this guy's going to be okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's an amazing story. And I'm thrilled to have Lieutenant John Royo on Brave Men today. This thing is going to rock you. It's Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole, wisdom and courage for the journey. I'm with Captain John Royo Jr. And you are Captain. You were in special forces, Green Beret, US Army. And the nexus of where we're starting today in our conversation is something that happened in 2014. And I'll never forget this report. It seems to me it was April that year when when there was a shooter, a terrorist shooting on Fort Hood. And you were one of the people that were shot should have died. And yet you're here today to tell your story. Tell me about that moment, active shooter. It's in your book called Attacked at Home. Well, Pastor Park, thank first of all, I want to say thank you for allowing me to be on this show with you. And thanks to all your listeners who are tuning in. And I just want to share a piece of my life with them. And hopefully it'll impact them. Well, it's April 2nd, 2014. Let me just paint a little picture for your audience. A former listed Green Beret spent 15 years on Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Started out as enlisted and I transitioned to a commission officer. I went from shooting, moving and communicating. And you know, I started to look at my career. And I said, you know, how am I going to feed my family tomorrow when when no one's paying me to jump out of airplanes? Right? Who's going to hire me to jump out of airplanes or chase bad guys? So I went to the medical side because I said, I'll take my special operation side and I'll partner with medical and I'll get out of the army and I'll make a boatload of money in every five, you know, Fortune 500 companies going to want John Arroyo because I'm the coolest dude. Just just ask me, I want to told you, right? Yeah. Well, this, this, so here we are now on Fort Hood's April 2nd. It's a Wednesday, it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm now a medical service core officer and I started a course in which our instructor told us to go to our organizations, get some information and then bring it into class the next day. So I'm getting out of my car and not instantly I hear shots fired. Well, I'm on base. I'm behind security. I'm not thinking that I'm in danger. We often train for funerals and things of that nature. So when you hear a loud noise, it doesn't, it's not really alarming to where I'm ducking under cars. Right. I'm also in a parking lot. So cars coming go that's not alarming. So I hear the shots fired. I see a vehicle pull up in front of me. I acknowledge the vehicle and the individual inside of it, but I, but something just still instinctively has my little spidey senses up, right? So I'm still kind of being coisitive about what, what were those shots? So I turned my head to the right, just kind of like looking, looking in the direction where I heard the shots fired and the next shot I heard ripped through my throat. What I didn't know is the person that was shooting was actually the individual and the car right in front of me. What he was doing, what he was doing is he was driving down the street, coming towards me and everybody he saw, he was shooting at him. Now he's in front of me. And the next shot I heard was a 45 caliber that severed my jugular band into my voice box and into my right shoulder. So you're dead. I mean, a 45 caliber from that close, you're gone. This is 15 yards. Goodness. It should have been instant death. Yeah. It should have been instant death. And so the driver drives away. I'm shocked. I feel like a baseball bad is just hitting my chest. I'm not really sure if I'm shot or where I'm shot until blood just starts coming from my throat. And then I turn and I walk back towards my car almost like instinctively like I'm just trying to run. I'm just trying to get away. So I walk back to my car. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You got shot in a jugular with a 45 from 15 yards. And you're walking back to your car? Yeah, I didn't fall on the ground a lot of times I tell people and I do it in a joking way. I say it takes more than a 45 to kill a green beret. Yeah. Oh, man. So you're walking back to your car. Okay. I walk back to my, I walk back to my car and I just fall on the floor. That's where I collapse. I'm on my face. And I don't know how long I'm there. It could have been minutes. It could have been seconds. But I'm laying on the ground. And I begin to think about my wife because what a lot of people, what people don't know Pastor Paul is that just prior in September, my wife, both her parents died nine days apart. And her younger brother two years before that and a hunting accident. So now here I am, her brother in 2011 mom, dad nine days apart six months before I'm shot and then her brother and then her brother and then I'm on the ground dying. So I'm bleeding out and I'm thinking about my wife. I'm not thinking about money. I'm not thinking about the club. I'm not thinking about all the things that that I didn't do the, the, the, you know, because a lot of times we sacrifice our families because we tell them I'm doing this for you. But ultimately we end up sacrificing, which is the most important. But at the moment, but at the moment where you think you're dying, the one thought is my wife, this is going to hurt her so deeply. Yeah. Who, what happens to my wife and right at that moment, Jesus audibly speaks to me. At the time, I don't realize as Jesus, but later he reveals himself, Jesus audibly speaks to me and he says, John, get up or your wife will die. I stay there on the ground. I'm still on the ground bleeding out and then I hear it one more time. John, get up or your wife will die. You know, Pastor Paul, you know, one thing I want to share with the listeners. Wow. Is that Jesus didn't stretch his hand out from heaven and grabbed me by the back of the neck. It said, John, I told you to get up. I had, I had to be obedient to the word that he left me. Wow. I had it. I had a choice in that moment. So I'm on the ground. Jesus tells me to get up. I don't know if I have one more second to live, one more hour to live or one more step, but it doesn't matter. I was just obedient enough to follow through with what he said. And I get up and I begin to move my arm as I begin to move my legs and I'm actually getting up off the ground and right then. And this is what I want every father to hear every mother, every grandmother that's been trained for that loved one that they haven't seen come to the Lord yet. This is what I want to share right then. God puts my former pastor's words in my mind and pastor Dan from Rock this church in Fayetteville, North Carolina right out of Fort Bragg. He used to always tell us when you pray, pray out loud. And so as I'm getting up off the ground, I hear pastor Dan pray out loud. It was if God from heaven spoke wanted pastor Dan's wanted wanted me to hear pastor Dan's words because he knew I needed one more miracle, right? But God has given us dominion over the earth and he's not going to make us do anything. So what does he do? He puts the words of that seed that seed I needed that someone planted in my wife and my life years ago was what got sprouted at the moment I needed most pastor Dan says get up pray to me. He says pray out loud and I pray and I attempt to pray. I attempt to pray and that's when I realized that I didn't have a voice, but it didn't matter. So when I when I heard pastor Dan's voice, I said, and that's when I realized I couldn't speak, but it didn't matter. God heard my heart. Wow. That's fantastic. So now you're you've got your hands around your neck and by then I'm sure there's personnel all over the base running around seniors hurt and things like that, right? Not at all. No, what's happening now is I believe that God is protecting people, right? Because the shooter is still active. He's still moving. Yeah. And a lot and a lot because he was shooting from this car. A lot of people didn't know that there was even an active shooter situation going on. Because they hear it someplace else and all of a sudden it's where they are. Yeah. And you know, this guy's on base. It hadn't really gotten out to the to the 911 channels yet. You know, I mean, I think maybe people were starting to get to those points, but yeah. But at the point at this moment, the mass alert hadn't really been activated and people weren't sheltering in place. So what happens is I get up. I hear Pastor Dan's voice. I attempt to pray. Jesus hears me and I go to grab my arm. I go to grab my throat with my right arm, but my right arm doesn't work because it went through my my nerve. The bones went to my nerve itself. It's busted. And I assume that when I fell on the ground, it broke. So I grabbed my throat with my left hand and I'm stumbling and I'm going to my organization. I'm just looking for anybody that I can I can they would help me. So I see only once it's four o'clock in the afternoon on a base that holds thousands of soldiers. You were right. There should have it should have been like a shopping mall. But there's nobody except for one soldier walking towards me. And I'm I see the soldier from a distance and I'm trying to get to him, but I can't run. I can't yell. I can't do anything. And I'm trying to yell to him help me and I can't he gets 10 feet in front of me and it's a soldier that shot me. He got he shot me from his car, drove him parked his car, got out of his car. So when I'm walking looking for help, he's looking for more people to shoot. We meet 10 feet face to face and and by divine intervention, he stops. He's looking at me. I'm looking at him. He's looking around and Jesus blinds him. He walks away from me. He walks into a building. He shoots three more people walks out the back of the building and kills himself. That day he shot 19 of us. He became victim number 20. And Jesus said, today, you live for me and you tell the world about it. You know, this was a, you know, they've had, you know, they have the categories stuff, but it was basically a terrorist attack. And sadly, a number of people died. Was it four people? I think that it was four people. He was number four. Yeah, he's fourth. Okay. And, but you're, you're a, you're a veteran. If Afghanistan, Iraq, you've seen all these different things in warfare. Now, you got into the, you got into the armed forces because you thought it would be a great career. Is that, is that how you ended up there? You're like, man, I want to do something great for my nation. How'd you end up in the armed forces? It was, it was go to war, go to jail. It was go to war, go to jail. Okay. It was, you know, you hear that term from the Vietnam vets, you know, like, hey, you know, the judge gave me, gave me an option. I wasn't in trouble with the law, but I needed discipline. I needed transformation in my life. Well, at seventh grade, I was jumped into a gang in Los Angeles. By ninth grade, I already had a child. I was a, I was a teenage parent. And by 12 grade, I was doing methamphetamines. And my sister would pour water on me as I tried to sleep all day from staying up all night. And she said, John, if you don't get out of here, you'll be a loser the rest of your life. I went into, and I failed the military entry exam the first time. I failed it, and I passed it by one point. You need a 30. I got a 31. I got a third gut. I can look back at every single place in my life where God intervened in order to keep moving me toward my destiny. Yeah. So now, because you're, your father died when you were young. Yes. Yes. My father died when I was five years old, a cirrhosis of the liver. He's, you know, growing up in California. I'm a Mexican. My father, his family came out of Mexico. His uncle started was real cute to give the kids alcohol. So they could be amused while they were drinking and ultimately at 34 years old, my father died cirrhosis at a liver. So after five years old, I lose my father. Yeah. So now you go through your, and, but you've got a grandmother. This is pretty cool because my, my dad was the same way. He had a mom that prayed for him. And he said, I tried to outrun God, but I couldn't outrun my mother's prayers. And that's exactly it. Grandma had a relationship with Jesus that saved my family. I believe like Job, right? So in Job 1, if you go to Job 1, Job says, I'm, I'm sacrificing for my children because last night, they were drinking and having a merry time and they may have cursed you in their heart. And so what does he do? He gives, he gives sacrifice and he's asking for repentance for his children. And I believe that like Job, grandma had a relationship. But if you also go into where God talks to Solomon, I believe it's first Kings and it's chapter nine, God speaks to Solomon because we know the Solomon didn't end well. And so when God goes to speak to Solomon, you tell Solomon this, I would snatch the kingdom from your hands. But if it wasn't for the relationship between me and your father, wow. Wow. That's, that's huge, man. So you had a grandmother prayed for you. You end up joining the military out of central, basically what we would think of as Los Angeles, greater LA. And you joined the military. You end up, I mean, this is amazing story. I mean, you go from that and, and getting a 31, going to one by one point you get in, you end up a captain and this amazing story, John, just if you will props to you for, for the intestinal fortitude to do this. But where did your life tip over into becoming a passionate follower of Jesus Christ? Well, you know, one thing is, as you talk about transitioning to an officer, I never cross an act in junior high. I didn't graduate junior high. They just passed, they just passed me along because they didn't want a 21-year-old eighth grader. And then, and then I get, I get into high school, I, in summer school. So I, I never cross an academic stage. Well, in 2009, to answer your question, 2009, God knew that there was a storm coming. He knew the prayers that grandma had been praying. He, that harvest, right, that harvest time had to come because she had planted enough seed that it was going to reap a harvest. So he asked to get my attention. My wife and I now, I'm no longer addicted to methamphetamines. Now I'm a big drinker, but this time I brought, I brought someone with me on this path. I brought my wife. Oh, my gosh. So we hit rock bottom, partying, falling on the floor. We hit rock bottom, 2009. And God leads us into a church. He says, are you done? He says, are you done? He said, now he does me off. And he says, you have to be a tree planted into the rivers of living water because a drought is coming, a storm is coming. And you have to be able to sustain through it. And the only way that you can sustain is getting into his work. So 2009, he leads us into rock based church. Ask her, Dan, who I just mentioned, speaks into my life when I'm she, you know, when God uses his words to speak to me. So we go into that church. And and it's not, where were you at the time, Fayetteville, North Carolina, right? So you're in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which is Fort Brad, right? Yes, sir. It's one of the largest bases in the US. Yeah, that's the home of the airborne and special operations. Yeah. Is that where, you know, my brother-in-law, Richard was part of 82nd airborne. Yeah, that's where I grew up. That's where I started my career in the 85th airborne division. Yeah, he has a t-shirt that says 82nd airborne. We go to interesting places, meet interesting people and shoot them. Pretty hardcore. Hey, this was Chris. I want to take a moment right in the middle of this great conversation to let you know the Bradman podcast is a production of the Christian Minnes Network worldwide in the Global Fatherhood Initiative. Christian Minnes Network has helped pastors and leaders disciple men for over 40 years. You can find all the resources for mentoring and fatherhood at cmin.min. That's the Christian Minnes Network at cmin.min. We have tremendous resources for churches with special discounts for groups on that website. Everything a church needs from A to Z to mentor and disciple men of all ages and backgrounds. And cmin has created a 12-part training course on how to create a successful ministry to men for pastors and leaders. Check it out. To this podcast and share it. That's the Christian Minnes Network in Paul Lewis Cole. Now let's get back to this powerful interview between Paul and John Arroyo. That's kind of the kind of the thing, isn't it? To be a drinker and self-sufficient, a tough guy, and in some ways, there's a certain sense of that manliness, if you will, that it has to be to go into combat operations. I mean, you get on the plane the first time going to Afghanistan and you turn around to your family and you're like, I don't know if you'll see him again. You know, I've jumped out of airplane many times in C-17 Globe Master's Big, this big Cadillac aircraft that we would jump out. But when I boarded in 2004, June 15th, when I boarded that plane, I wasn't sure if it was a one-way trip. It was this time, I wasn't going to exit with the parachute. It was either I was going to come back safe, or I was going to come back in a casket. This may have been a one-way trip. Yeah, so you don't know. So now, you're 2009, you guys have drunk yourself. I mean, you're basically the son and son and daughter. And so now, there you are, and you end up at this church, and Pastor Dan looks at you guys and goes, awesome. Here's a great project. Yes, yes. And you know, I'll tell you what, he really, it was there that God said, you will learn my word. You know, the church, they're non-denominational church and they operate in the gifts, but that wasn't their focus. They're not a big charismatic church. It's a church where you're going to get in the word. And you're going to learn about Jesus. You're going to learn about His word. And you're going to be taught the word of God. And that's what I needed, because I think if I would have walked into a penicostal of church or something like more of a charismatic church, I would have freaked out. I wasn't ready. God knew I wasn't at that level yet. Yeah, let me ask you something. How did you end up at the church, John? Through a friend, one of my friends had attended that church before, and he had just mentioned it, hey, as a church up the road, I think it's really good pastor. You should check it out. And so we hit rock bottom. I had nowhere else to turn, but up. And let me add this real quick. Yeah. Let me add this real quick. When I was in Afghanistan, my first trip, grandma, this is 2004, I go into Afghanistan and grandma gives me a bottle of anointing oil. And she said, she says, you pray over everything and everyone. I had more faith than grandma than I did in Jesus. He wasn't the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was the God of grandma. I had more faith than grandma. And grandma's faith is what stirred me. So I take this bottle of anointing oil. I'm anointing at my green beret. I'm a 1950 chem machine guns. And one of my teammates comes to me and he says, he says, John, would you stop praying? And I said, what do you mean what I stop praying? He said, no one's shooting at us. We're green berets. We want to get, we want to get in some fire fights. Yeah. You want to get into some stuff. You want to get into some stuff. So now go back to 2009. I called upon the God of grandma. Wow. That that seed that grandma planted, I knew enough to walk into that church. It's amazing, man. So you guys give your lives to Christ and then, then everything's perfect. Yeah. We drug the addiction with us for a little while as God was trimming the, you know, trimming the faith. You know, there's a, there's a parable that Jesus uses and it's talking about the owner, the owner of the field. And he says the owner of the field walks out through this tree and he goes to seek fruit for three years, right? He goes out and he says, hey, there's no fruit cutting down in the, in the keeper of the vineyard says, sir, give me one more year. Yeah. Come on. So what he does is we were, we were the one more year. We were the one more year. So, but what happened is Jesus knew he had to transplant that tree. So what happens when you transplant a tree, where you uprooted and you begin to cut away all those weeds that were attached to it. So relationships, God began to cut relationships when we're walking in a church. He began to cut things out of our life and it didn't feel good. It didn't look good. It didn't smell good, but it was for our good. Wow. So now, uh, this, this whole thing transpires, uh, on Fort Hood. And, and at this point in time, you've become a fully committed follower of Jesus Christ. Yes. Right? You're praying over things, you and your wife, you've got three children, you've got a blended family and, and your praying over these things. And, but the Lord uses this, this terrible tragedy to put you now into another place, a new place in your life, right? Yes. You know, like the coronavirus that we're dealing with today, God didn't start it, but he's going to use it. Bam. He's going to use it. My boss, Dave Reaver, you know, we mentioned this, I worked for Dave Reaver Ministries. Dave Reaver said, I went into Vietnam with an M16, but I returned with a John 316. Right? And Dave talks about being on TV and with Jan Krauts, many, many years ago, Jan, Jan says this to Dave. She says, Davey, do you know why God didn't stop that bullet? He said, I wanted a pincher little pink hair right off. I was so mad when she asked me that question. And he said, no, Jan, I don't know why God didn't stop that bullet. She said, Davey, and so believe me, because Dave said, for 20 years, I thought about suicide every day. I wasn't suicidal, but I thought about suicide every day. She said, Davey, God didn't blow you up. He didn't burn you. He didn't make me. He didn't do any of those things, but he also didn't stop it because he knew that he could trust you with those scars. Pastor Paul, I believe that I'm here today to speak to your listeners, because God knew that he was going to need a green beret in this environment. Because the model, the model to green beret is day oppressively bare, which means free the oppressed. It means free the oppressed. I didn't realize the day I done my green beret was the day that Jesus commissioned me into his army because in Luke 418, Jesus says, what? He said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to free the oppressed. Come on. God is using our brokenness to speak into the people that are listening right now to say, you're going to make it. Just get up. Wow. That is that's an unbelievable picture. Just get up. Just get up. Get up. And then, and then what Pastor Dan had imprinted on your life was speak the word. You know, begin to just speak the word. And Jesus, I think, speaks to every single man. Just get up. You've been shot. I go back to what's the brother's name, a lone survivor. The yeah, yeah, market market market. Yeah. And there's one point he writes about it. I pretty sure was in the movie, but he writes about it and he writes about how they were all shot. And one of the guys, he's trying to get move guys around and fire back at the the adversary. And he says, the guy says to him, the other corpsman says to him, hey, Marcus says, you know, let's shoot over there. And the guy says, man, I'm shot. Marcus, I'm shot. Marcus says, we're all shot. But can you fight? And I think that's the word for us today. We're all shot. We may not be physically shot like you were in it. And it's unbelievable that you survived this whole ordeal in forward hood. Obviously, God's using this because he's put you where I saw you was on a platform, speaking to a large group of pastors telling your testimony and you talked about fatherhood and the importance of fatherhood because you've got this amazing thing where a mentor that Dave Reaver came in your life, pastor Dan came in your life, these mentors who took the place of a father. In that sense, it helped heal you of these father wounds, right? Yes, sir. Because your father passed away young because of the influence on his life. So he had father figures that actually caused him to die at the age of 34. Is that right? Yes, sir. And then in a sense, the enemy stole your dad away from you. And now God brings these other father figures into your life. And now you're speaking to fathers all over the world of the importance of fatherhood and speaking these things into their lives. Talk a little bit about that about fatherhood and what that why you're passionate about that. Captain John. You know, like I said at the promised keepers event, I was failing as a father because, you know, coming out of a California, you know, the military did a good job at breaking me down and building me back up. But I still, while I was still 20 years old now, you know, when I joined the military and now 24 when I have children and I'm, you know, my stepchildren, I have a son at, you know, ninth grade. But I'm trying now to raise them and I'm failing because I'm using the standard of the world, rather than the gospel. And so I took on a second job when I was in the military. I didn't need it, but I did it. And I look back now and I see where God said, John, you can have money or you can have your family, but you can't have both. And my children were 13 years old. My wife was a nurse. So she was working 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. And then, you know, she's getting home at 7 o'clock in the evening. My kids are getting out of school at 3 o'clock and then I'm going to this second job. So when they needed me the most, I was chasing money. I was chasing life. I was chasing the things of this world. Goodness. So when my kids began to get on trouble, I began to blame them. I didn't look at me. I blamed them. So what happens is we end up shot now in that forthood. And the doctors tell my wife, hey, when John leaves the hospital after, after just 30 days, John's going to leave the hospital. We're going to put him in a fisher house, but he can't go alone. Either he has to have like a medical attendant to be with them constantly, or we can't release him. My wife is like, well, I lived two hours away in Colleen. We have four dogs in the birds. And how do I, how can I be in two places at once? So God says, send Mason. Send the one that John had the big, the most problems with. Then send the one that John would never think. So Angel says, I feel that God told me to send Mason to come and be your medical attendant. I couldn't speak, but you would have knew exactly what I was trying to say because I was like, no, wow. Who is I had to make decisions during that time? And here's what happens. God uses my most broken moment to bring my son. And my son has to be, he becomes my caretaker. And it's there in my brokenness that God begins to heal my relationships with my children. Because I'm on my knees, I got tubes coming out of every orifice. And there my son, I have to ask for forgiveness to my children. I have to tell my son, I was sorry, but he didn't judge me. He forgave me and he took care of me. And see, as I'm dying on the ground, Jesus speaks to me to get up, but he also knew that he didn't need to just heal me physically, but he went to all the broken plate. And that's what I want to tell the listeners that God is not worried about your arm right now. Your arm is the easy part, but it's your heart and your family that he wants. That's what's most important. Come on, man. If you look back and do the Ron and me seven, he said, I chose you, Israel, because you were the least. You were the ones nobody wanted. Yeah. You were the nobody's. You were the trash to the world. And I chose you. And that's what God wants. God wants the people that are the nobody's. God wants those relationships that we think we threw out. And most of them are the relationships with our children. So we have to be fathers. And that's what he wants and us to be fathers. This is fantastic. Hey, the book is called Detected Home Captain John Royo Jr. And where can we where can we get this book? You can go to attackedathome.com. There you can find links to there's audio books and there's a square. If they click on the square, it'll come directly to me. And I can sign it and I'll send it to them. Wow. Other than that, they can go to Amazon or they can go to audible. Okay. So this is attacked at home and a green beret survival story of the four hood shooting, but really it's a testimony of your life. And it's a great book for dads because it's, you know, we need to learn we need to learn from each other. Why I can't make all the mistakes myself. And here's what here's that book is so special forces, Pastor Paul. And here's why because it looks like it's just a military memoir. But inside that book, my wife actually speaks. She says, I talk about the point of Afghanistan. And then my wife talks about me deploying to Afghanistan. And then I talk about coming home. And then my wife says, this is who came home. So you, you fathers or mothers that are listening to this, to this show, this radio station, open up that book and hear a woman's heart for her family, for her husband, for her children, what she had to go through and how God brought her through it. This is a great book to give to an unbeliever and a great book to give to to any man, attacked at home because he's going to look at it and go, oh, awesome, you know, you know, a book about being, you know, a stud. And he's going to get into it. And I love what you said. It's a special forces book because it's going to, it's going to come at him because special forces is all about asymmetrical warfare, right? Yeah. So it's going to come at him from an angle. One of my mentors taught me. He said, Mark, makes martial arts and he's a martial artist. He said, in martial arts, he said, your stance never gives away your strength. So the cover doesn't give away. And then he says, you always attack from an angle at an area of least resistance. And I think anytime you start talking about a relationship, a relationship with dad, a husband and wife, it starts touching people's lives and they didn't expect that. So man, I'm really, thank you for the taking the, you know, I mean, it's, it's taking to hit the right of book. This is not an easy thing. And um, that book is dead, but that book is going to transform lives and household. And not because, not because of me, but because the Holy Spirit brings upon that book and he, he, he who wrote that book. Come on, man. Hey, thank you for being on brave men today, uh, Captain John. And I'm going to ask you to do something. We don't normally do this, but I'm going to ask you to pray in particular for every father that's listening to this podcast right now. I want you to pray for them for revelation, for strength and for anointing. Let's go ahead and pray together. So father, Lord, there's no mistake that you put us together on this radio station. So father, I pray that you would draw, Lord, I call forth all those listeners right now that need to hear this. Lord, I pray that they would hear your heart. They would hear these conversations as we go back and forth. And you remind them, you give them the revelation of all those broken places that need to be healed. Lord, they don't need to step out into a, into a, the direction of a moving bus in order to have a testimony in order to be used to view, but you want to heal the right where they're at. You want to heal their families right where they're at. So father, right now, I just thank you that every family will be healed at the sound of my voice. Lord, I pray right now in Jesus name, Lord, that your blood, father, that heals all things. Lord, you sent your son so that I didn't have to give my son. So father, I just pray right now that every father that has sacrificed his son, his marriage for work or for busyness or whatever is going on. Lord, I pray that he would go back and redeem what the enemy is stolen from him, father, that he would have a revelation right now that he can go back and that you will fix those relationships that you will fix him internally that will externally receive a reward back to you. And I thank you and I pray for you for it in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Captain John Royo and your wife Angel, we pray blessings on you. We pray every place you put your feet is holy ground and everything your hands touch will prosper and that the Lord will keep you deep within the center of his favor in Jesus name, amen. Hey, thanks for taking this time brother. What an amazing story and thank God you're here and in a ministry with our friend Dave Reaver touching the lives of men all over the world. God bless you brother. Next pastor. Paul, what is something as you know a married man in having this conversation with John Royo that you got? You know it's it's that you know obstacles come to every life. Stuff knocks us down and yet what John did in the beauty of the stories he got back up. Yeah so good. And it was the power God that radically in other words it it brought him to the center and not all of us need to get shot in the neck. Some of us need to kick in the butt. Right. Some of us need a good kick in the butt to get our marriage straight out. Yeah. And so that's what happened you know here the book is great because it's got a lot of stories about Angel and how she persevered this whole thing with him. But here's a guy that you know grows up in a really tough area and then he's in battle you know in Iraq and everything and then he gets shot in a sense friendly fire guy that PTSD we know the man flipped out anxiety disorder all kinds of stuff that he had and it's tragic because this does happen. Yeah. And so that part of the story to me is why why we need to take care of our servicemen. Every single man and woman who ever served particularly people that served in combat yeah or in a combat zone doesn't even have to be it's like oh yeah you didn't get shot at well dude but you were sitting there in in let's say in office or in a post posting and at any moment something could have happened that anxiety that stress is massive. Yeah and we need to take care of those people and everything we can do as a nation and whether you're listening whatever country we're in listening to this and we go listeners all over the world. Take care of those who have defended you. Yes. Defend them. Take care of them. Yeah. And at christian men's network were advocates of helping those servicemen who have gone through things and I've got I've got friends who have gone through PTSD. It's real. Yes. And it's difficult and it's it can be debilitating and I've great admiration for those men who persevere through it. Yeah. It's not easy. So this story not only affects us you know listening to this story his courage whatever it may be that really touched us but I think what it does is also help us if you will Chris lift our eyes and say there are people who defended us. Yeah. Whether it's a peace officer, policemen, sheriff, firemen, people in the military. Those people who have defended us. It's sort of like this it's there's a phrase I can't remember the exact quote it's we can it's sort of like this we're able to rest easy and sleep at night in our homes because very violent men are somewhere defending us. Wow. And thank God for those people. Yeah. And to be a green beret this guy this guy is really something and now to take that same tenacity and use that to minister Christ. Yes. So John's story moves me on a lot of different levels. Yeah. Well it just reminds me of something Paul you always teach us that you know a true warrior is not going to cause madness now I'm putting my own little twist on it but it's someone that brings peace. Yeah. You know and that is the perfect example of John. You know he took all those years of having to cause you know trouble right for the soul but now he's here ministering the gospel from a place of peace and he's watching lives change through his story. Yeah it's the it's the opening part of the stalwart man book that I've written and it's it basically says this it says a warrior is not a man of war. He's a man of peace. He understands that peace is always the result of strength. So good. Man what a what a great time. Thank you John Royale for being with us man. We pray for you. We pray for you and Dave Reaver's ministry and pray for you guys to have huge impact in the lives of people. We do this podcast because our desires have changed the lives of men. We touch a heart of a man. We touch the soul of the nation. So Christian men's network, cmn.men committed dedicated to raising up strong men. Fathers who know how to disciple their children. Dads who know how to hug them and kiss them. Yeah. Boys or girls I mean I want a dad to be able to just say hey you're my boy I love you like your dad does you Chris and I desire that my heart is in the heart of Christian man's network is every child deserves a loving dad. Amen. Amen. That's why we do brave men. So thank you for those who support this. Thank you for everyone who gives sacrificially to keep us on the airwaves wherever we are wherever you have listened to this is because somebody did that for you. cmn.men. So join us join us in the journey. It's great to have you with us today on brave men. You've just experienced brave men with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Christian men's network connect with Paul at cmn.men or write to him at Paul at cmn.men.