Growth & Grace

Announcer 0:00
This is a K-Unb Studios original program.

Wesley Knight 0:04
The following program is underwritten by Crawford Management Group and Chris Glow, and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jasmine Moore, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Music 0:18
Even better than I was last time, baby,

Leaha Crawford 0:35
we back and we back and we back and we back and we back and we back hey,

Julian Rosado 0:44
hey, hey, How are you guys? This is Julian Rosado. And hey, Julian, you

Leaha Crawford 0:54
did it, you did it. Hi, y'all. This is Lee and Crawford. I hope you are having an amazing Saturday morning. It's hot.

Julian Rosado 1:00
Did you watch the.. oh, I know you did. I know you did. I know you watched.

Leaha Crawford 1:05
You better not. We're not talking about that's it. We're not talking about it, not talking about all. I'm gonna say is e a g l e s. All right, so what the sixes didn't. All right, I'm gonna leave. Stop. We're not talking about time. All right. So today we have special guests in the studio with us, because it is National. We are ending National Salvation Army Week, and if you have been listening to us over the past couple of years, we always bring the Salvation Army staff, their participants, and programs on, so that we can, so that you can hear, you know, what this organization is doing right here in Clark County. So, today I have Major Boyd with me. Good morning, Major Boyd.

Major Boyd 1:46
Good morning. It's great to be here. I'm great.

Leaha Crawford 1:49
So, National Salvation Army Week. Okay, how was

Major Boyd 1:52
it? It was a great week, and in fact, all three mayors in the area gave us proclamations, so in Henderson, and then Mayor Berkeley came out in, in Las Vegas, and Mayor Goines Brown came to the ARC in North Las Vegas. All of them gave us a lovely proclamation and celebrating Salvation Army.

Leaha Crawford 2:13
Well, I love it, because the Salvation Army does amazing work. Now, How long have they actually, how long has the Army been in Las Vegas or Clark County?

Julian Rosado 2:20
We've

Major Boyd 2:21
literally been here 100 years, but we've officially been here for four, for 80 years.

Leaha Crawford 2:26
80 years

Major Boyd 2:28
officially founded in 1946 but we were doing work in bread lines and other things that go dating back into the 20s, and in fact, one interesting fact there, we were, we were noted to have the longest bread line in America per population, at one point helping feed people who are working on the Hoover Dam.

Leaha Crawford 2:46
Oh, wow. Well, congratulations to all the staff, and just all the officers at the Army, and to the board members, the advisory board members. Hi, y'all. How y'all doing? Because we do a lot of good work here in the valley, but today we are going to talk, I mean, ARC, and I'm going to get it right this time, the Adult Rehabilitative Center, right, got it right, okay, the ARC, so the ARC is one of the programs, can you talk to me about the ARC, why did the army bring the ARC

Major Boyd 3:18
here? Absolutely, we help, we've been helping people with initially just alcohol problems, dating back to the 1880s

Leaha Crawford 3:25
Oh, wow,

Major Boyd 3:26
1880s back before people realized it was a

Leaha Crawford 3:29
problem that was pro, that was before prohibition, that was before it was the alpha. Okay, so they was making the stuff in the kitchen, okay?

Major Boyd 3:36
Right. And we started helping alcoholics find a way to get sober and stay sober, and we've done a similar program ever since we brought it here into the valley in the 1900s and here we are now in 2026 and still operating strong,

Leaha Crawford 3:52
operating strong. Wow, wow. Well, today we have some very special guests here, and I'm going to, we're going to talk to them a little bit about their experience, because they are, they have either graduated from the program, and are currently, or are currently in the program. So, Greg, Brad, welcome. Hi. Good morning.

Both 4:08
And good morning.

Leaha Crawford 4:09
Good morning. Good morning. So, Greg, I'm gonna start with you, because now let's talk. I mean, what are you doing now?

Greg 4:16
Now, I am humbled to tell you, I'm the resident manager of the Salvation Army ARC program, the program that I went through about three and a half years. All

Leaha Crawford 4:24
right, can we get a hand? I mean, can we get some applause or some? Can we get some applause for him? All right, yes, that is huge.

Greg 4:30
Yeah,

Leaha Crawford 4:31
what you're there now, so you, I mean, you've been through the storm and now you're on the other side.

Greg 4:37
Thank God. Yes.

Leaha Crawford 4:38
Okay. Why did you go? What made you choose the ARC?

Greg 4:43
The short answer is, I was arrested four years ago on New Year's Eve. Thank God I was arrested, and I was holding meth and fentanyl in my pocket, and I was given a deal. I was given either 18 to 30 months in prison or two. Years probation with a rehab. I chose probation, and when I went back to the pod, which is the room we were staying in at CCDC, there's like 80 men there, and my best thinking at the time was I'm going to go to the three month program, non-faith-based, no work.

Leaha Crawford 5:15
The

Greg 5:15
easier way out was my motto for decades: take the easiest way out,

Leaha Crawford 5:20
lowest hanging fruit.

Greg 5:20
Thank you.

Leaha Crawford 5:21
Whatever, whatever it is, lowest hanging fruit, easy.

Greg 5:23
But the next day, a man who I had never met and never spoken with came up to me and said something that changed the direction of my life. He said to me, What are you in such a rush to get back to Salvation Army being six months and being three months? So I signed up for the Salvation Army program, and when I walked through the doors, I was completely broken. I was filled with shame and regret, decades of use, all of the consequences - losing my family and my children, business, home, et cetera - was all coming up without any medicators, without gambling, is a part of my story, as well as drugs and alcohol, and I had nothing to pacify myself with. So, I had a very challenging time the first three weeks, but something shifted in me about a month in at the ARC. The staff plays Christian music everywhere, right in chapel, in the warehouse, in the canteen where I worked, and people find God many different ways. Obviously, He's God - some through the word, some through fellowship, etc. I found God through music, and I was listening to the lyrics, and I wanted the life that the lyrics spoke of, and I couldn't believe that that life was available to me, a life of joy and peace, that God's forgiven me, that He has a purpose for my life, and I went all live on that program, and for the next five months, not only did the staff feed and clothe me chapels and outreaches therapy, they treated me with respect, and they, yes, every day, and they loved me far before I was able to love myself,

Leaha Crawford 7:01
and that's huge

Greg 7:03
for me, it was huge,

Leaha Crawford 7:04
that's huge, that's huge. Well, thank you for sharing, I really appreciate that.

Greg 7:07
Thanks for having me.

Leaha Crawford 7:08
Yeah, okay, so Brad, my mountain man, y'all gonna love this one. Come on now, Brad, tell us the story. Good

Brad 7:14
morning.

Leaha Crawford 7:15
All right, because so Brad, you are currently in the program.

Brad 7:18
I am. I just passed five months sober,

Leaha Crawford 7:21
five months sober. All right, so give us your background, because y'all won't let us

Brad 7:25
one. Okay, so I'm originally from New Hampshire, very close to Canadian border. There was a point in my life, I'd say about 1012, years ago, that I decided to leave society and spend some time in the forest, so I walked from Maine to Georgia, Georgia to Maine, and when I went back and forth, I said, well, now what? Let's go back to Florida. And then from Florida I walked to Georgia, and I said, now what? How about back to Maine? And so I figured out a way that I could live in the forest as long as humanly possible, away from people, and I became what you'd call an actual wild animal.

Leaha Crawford 8:09
Oh, wow. The

Brad 8:10
only reason I came back to society was the COVID virus. I was in, I want to say it was either Virginia or Tennessee, in the Shenandoah Mountains, and the rangers came out and caught me and said, well, you got to go home. I said, I don't even know where home is anymore, so you got to go home anyway, because all the national parks are closed. What, I didn't even know what a pandemic was, so they tried to explain to me what a pandemic was, and apparently two days later here I am walking my little butt all the way back to New Hampshire,

Leaha Crawford 8:49
walking. How? Okay, okay, all right. I know that I know the forest connects, but if they're closed, then what do you

Brad 8:59
do? Oh, well, there was some highway walking, and there was some sneaky,

Leaha Crawford 9:04
okay,

Brad 9:04
yeah,

Leaha Crawford 9:05
okay. So, how do you get to Vegas?

Brad 9:08
So, Vegas, I actually took an airplane, I didn't walk

Leaha Crawford 9:13
every say no, I was, I was waiting for, I was born, you know, I walked across the country, and I, you know, okay.

Brad 9:18
Here's another interesting part of the story, I learned that Las Vegas has 3500 different rock climbing pitches, and I was coming to Vegas just as a practice ground before I went to Yosemite Valley, because I wanted to be the first to climb what's called the Dawn Wall. Come to find out, it's already been done a few times, not by anyone as old as me, but it's been done quite a few times, and it's supposedly the hardest wall known to man, 3000 feet of sheer terror, and I wanted to do it without ropes, like you see in the movies that they're making now.

Leaha Crawford 9:55
Okay,

Brad 9:56
yeah, I'm one of those crazy people.

Leaha Crawford 9:57
Okay,

Brad 9:58
I take my shoes off when I climb. I'm I take my shirt off when I climb, basically just a chalk bag and a pair of shorts, and see at the top.

Leaha Crawford 10:08
Okay, that's the reason why I'm not saying anything is my mouth is just my mouth is just dropped open. Okay, but living, so you're living, you're living, I mean the things we see in the movies, because Julian just talked to us about a bunch of movies, huh?

Julian Rosado 10:21
Like Waterworld.

Leaha Crawford 10:23
Yeah, you're actually living, you're actually living off of nature.

Brad 10:28
Oh yeah, for years. Yeah,

Julian Rosado 10:30
yeah.

Leaha Crawford 10:30
Oh, wow. Do you know how long you were actually in the forest?

Brad 10:37
I don't have a definite, but I would say a little over three, possibly four.

Leaha Crawford 10:43
What was the most challenging part about living in the forest?

Brad 10:48
That's a good question. Loneliness. I would say I was all alone, and

Leaha Crawford 10:53
wild animals. You weren't scared of the wild animals.

Brad 10:56
I mean, I didn't really get bothered by much. I saw coyotes here and there. I heard bears,

Julian Rosado 11:02
that's complete loneliness.

Brad 11:04
Yeah,

Leaha Crawford 11:06
because it's no human interaction.

Julian Rosado 11:07
Yeah,

Brad 11:09
I still got

Leaha Crawford 11:09
a little.. I mean, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Brad 11:11
Oh, I was gonna say there was still some human interaction, because obviously I needed money at some point here and there, because I was in my addiction, and when I couldn't make my own booze, I was going into town to grab a bottle of something or smokes or something else, and so I would have to take on any kind of odd job that I could, make a little bit of money, grab what I could, stuff it in my pack, back out to home, so I made some interactions, but I found that I was already a socially anxious person coming back to society. It was just tenfold. Yeah, social anxiety, and especially when I went from a small, small town in New Hampshire and moved to Las Vegas. I've never been in a big city like this, and actually having to try to live here was, for lack of better words, it was a nightmare.

Leaha Crawford 12:05
Okay,

Brad 12:06
I tried to find work here. Oh my gosh,

Leaha Crawford 12:08
okay.

Brad 12:09
And just living in a city

Leaha Crawford 12:12
is different.

Brad 12:12
Oh, it's very different.

Leaha Crawford 12:14
Okay, so when you get to Las Vegas, do you have a place to stay to start, or

Brad 12:18
I stayed with a couple of young kids, I think there was five of us in a small little two-bedroom. I stayed on the floor because I wasn't comfortable with beds or couches yet. Anyway,

Leaha Crawford 12:28
okay,

Brad 12:29
yeah,

Leaha Crawford 12:29
okay. When that's real now, where you used to like, I guess, well, you were in society, then you went out to the far, so coming back to society, like using, using the restroom, using, using the restroom, and

Brad 12:43
it took a minute, but I still knew how.

Leaha Crawford 12:46
Okay, okay, all right, okay. That's this. So, ARC, what brings you to the ARC?

Brad 12:52
Well, I went on a cruise with my wife, and at the end, tail end of the boy, it was right before the cruise, she found out that she had some liver damage, and she was going to have to quit drinking completely, and so she asked me after this cruise, "Will you quit with me? And, of course, tried to be as supportive as I could, so I said, "Yes, absolutely, we'll get back from this cruise, and I'll quit with you. Fast forward next month, Brad, can you please quit. Fast forward another month, Brad. Please, please, can you quit?

Leaha Crawford 13:24
So, back up, back up, back up, back up. Okay, so you come to Vegas after, after the pandemic. So, you get here in what year? About 2022

Brad 13:31
the pandemic, 2020 still going. So, I believe it was 2020

Leaha Crawford 13:35
Okay,

Brad 13:36
the tail end, it was November 1, so would have been 2020

Leaha Crawford 13:39
Okay, so 2020 So, you get to Las Vegas. Oh my god, I mean, oh my god, big bright lights, big city, right? Yeah, because it is bright, it is, it's bright, it's bright. Vegas is brighter than most cities. You is it easy to find work here?

Brad 13:52
I went to a temp agency, and because I'm a good worker, I was able to find work, but it wasn't work that I wanted, and it wasn't like I'm a carpenter, they had me making doors, was all right, but I mean one of the jobs they sent me to the border of Nevada and California, and I was picking marijuana, and at the time I was a pot smoker. This

Julian Rosado 14:16
is so

Brad 14:16
awful. Why would you do

Leaha Crawford 14:18
that? Why did you do this to me? Okay, got it, got it right. And when you're living in the wild, it don't matter if you smoke it, don't matter what you do, right, do whatever I want to do. I'm out here in the wild, I'm not bothering anybody.

Brad 14:26
Yeah, and I don't want to be a thief, but they have me with an entire plantation worth, what am I to do,

Leaha Crawford 14:34
right? Okay, all right. So you find, so you end up now, how do you meet your wife?

Brad 14:38
This is great. First time in my life ever, I was picked up by a woman. I went, okay, I went. She's a karaoke DJ,

Leaha Crawford 14:46
okay?

Brad 14:46
And just out of the blue, I went to the bar that she was horsing her shit with, and I just sat down in a machine. I threw $20 in, so I could get free booze,

Leaha Crawford 14:57
okay?

Brad 14:58
And she came to me and. We just, we talked for a few hours, and one of the only bars in town that actually closes down said, "Oh, last call. They

Leaha Crawford 15:07
had that, they have a last call up here, they have, they have a bar in Vegas that closes.

Julian Rosado 15:11
I didn't

Brad 15:11
know that either,

Leaha Crawford 15:12
right?

Brad 15:12
But so it's last call, and she said, "Are you gonna get my number? I said, "No, no, I wasn't, and I get ready to leave. She runs to her little station, where you know her DJ equipment is. She fills out one of the little forms that people give her in order to sing a song.

Leaha Crawford 15:28
Karaoke, right?

Brad 15:29
Puts it in my wallet. You better call me. And you did. The rest is history.

Leaha Crawford 15:33
The rest is history. Okay. All right. I love it. So, first day you make the decision to go to the ARC, what is your first day like,

Brad 15:41
oh my gosh, so I showed up, and it was

Leaha Crawford 15:47
hold up, but back up, say hi to your wife, please.

Brad 15:49
Hi, Elaine.

Leaha Crawford 15:50
There you go. First day in ARC, come on.

Brad 15:53
So she dropped me off at 8o'clock sharp. I say dropped me off, but she stayed with me anyway. Iva was the beneficiary that was working in front desk.

Leaha Crawford 16:03
Okay,

Brad 16:03
and everything's going smoothly until he says, 'Will you blow in this breathalyzer? Oh, absolutely. Sure, I'm sorry. We can't admit you. You have a.. is it a point 03 So, from the day before, I didn't touch anything that day. I didn't touch anything the night before, but from the day before I still had a point 03 blood alcohol level. What

Leaha Crawford 16:26
was you drinking?

Brad 16:27
Vodka, and what I made.

Leaha Crawford 16:29
Okay, so you need.. so you made some stuff. Yes, you don't know. We might have a patent. Oh,

Julian Rosado 16:34
see, we

Leaha Crawford 16:35
might have a patent over here, because he got a formula. He has a formula. I'm just saying, we did, you know, we need to call, yeah. Hey, we need to, we did, we need to figure it, figure that out. Come on,

Brad 16:45
you guys can't see me, but my cheeks are purple, right?

Leaha Crawford 16:48
No, I'm just, no, you got, you got a formula, you know, people get paid for the formula, they do, they get paid for the formula.

Brad 16:55
I can't say that it tastes good.

Leaha Crawford 16:56
Well,

Brad 16:57
it actually does the job, it did,

Leaha Crawford 16:59
it did the job. Okay,

Brad 17:00
so they actually allowed me five and a half hours sitting at what they call the bus stop, which is just a line of seats for intake, and or I don't know what they call it when someone's

Major Boyd 17:11
discharged.

Brad 17:12
Discharged. Thank you, sir. Drink some water, and they tried to feed me lunch, but I was so shaky that it wasn't possible for me to even eat anything. Yeah, my wife helped me fill out all of the paperwork, and I put an X at the end, just so that it could be my signature to prove that it was me that was trying to get into the program, that was, you know, saying that it's okay that I'll do this, that I'll do whatever they're asking of me, and so five and a half hours later I was finally, oh, you got 0.0 congratulations,

Leaha Crawford 17:47
oh wow,

Brad 17:49
so I left all of my old clothes, put on a really nice pair of pants and a really nice button down shirt, and that very night they cut my hair, all of the hair that I mean, it was probably halfway down my back. The beard was probably, I don't know, 10 inches long. They sheared me. The man that did it told me it took 35 minutes to cut me, and then another 20 to probably style

Leaha Crawford 18:16
it to style it. Yeah, how did you feel with your hair being cut, because that was years

Brad 18:23
part of me,

Leaha Crawford 18:24
that was years, yeah,

Brad 18:26
part of me, it was so sad, but at the same time I said to myself, this is gonna be worth it, and it'll grow back,

Leaha Crawford 18:34
okay,

Brad 18:35
and now at this point I don't even want it back,

Leaha Crawford 18:38
yeah, I love it. All right, so first day you are in, you got the new clothes. Now, what do you do? Because now your wife's not there, you're there by yourself.

Brad 18:51
Yes, the very first thing I did is ask, I believe it was Greg, it may have been Brian, one of the two RMS. Okay, am I able to use the library, and I proceeded to hide out in the library for the next three and a half weeks.

Leaha Crawford 19:05
Okay, got it. Okay, so

Brad 19:06
it wasn't meal time or bedtime.

Leaha Crawford 19:09
Okay, so you hid out in the library, Brad. I mean, um, Greg, you cried for three. Okay, so okay, different experiences. Okay, all right. So then after the three weeks, I'm getting at the three - that first three weeks is crucial for everyone,

Brad 19:22
really. Yes.

Leaha Crawford 19:22
Okay. And you guys know this coming in, so you just.. okay, let's see what happens in these three weeks. Okay. Now, are there people, and I'll ask you, Greg, are there people that leave during that first three weeks?

Greg 19:35
Yes. Yes. The first month there, it's actually the first

Leaha Crawford 19:38
three days, 30 days. Okay.

Greg 19:40
We call their red strings, and during the first 30 days, everyone wears a lanyard around their neck, and during the first 30 days, they're on campus, they can't leave campus. We weren't able to leave campus our first 30 days, because we want everyone to receive from the outside, pull back, because when I was using, I had crap falling out of the sky, I'm bobbing and. Evening, and I have this sun done in this, so that first 30 days we're hoping we can help them settle. No phone calls other than one the first day, but after the first 30 days, they can make as many phone calls as they like. But during the first month, yes, in fact, most of the discharges that happen are within the first 30 days.

Leaha Crawford 20:19
Okay,

Greg 20:20
but then you get some traction.

Leaha Crawford 20:22
Okay, so we make it past the first 30 days. Now, what? Month two, because you, it's fresh in your memory. So, how was month two?

Brad 20:31
Well, month two went pretty well with me. I started making the distinction between the people that I want to associate with and the people that I don't, because some people go there and you can tell they're either not going to change or it's going to take time for them to change, and I was there as a walk-in, I wanted this change, needed this change in my life, because I couldn't, I know that 100% I couldn't stop drinking by myself, so the ARC. Here's another point. The ARC taught me about God, taught me about the Holy Spirit and Jesus. And I remember going to one of the other beneficiaries and asking them, "Dude, how do I pray? I don't know how to pray.

Leaha Crawford 21:13
That's a good question.

Brad 21:14
And he said back to me, "Just talk to God like he's your buddy. You can talk out loud, you can talk in your mind, just talk like you're talking to a friend, you know, maybe be respectful, but just talk to them and tell them how you're feeling. Generally, don't ask for stuff for you, ask for stuff for others, and be thankful. And so I've learned to be very, very thankful, very gracious. I've learned humility in spades, you know, because I wasn't humble, but I've learned the word humility, and I've learned how to be humble, and I've also, like, the NRC has, ARC, excuse me, has taught me so much as far as leadership and just compassion towards other people, I was very judgmental,

Julian Rosado 22:03
like

Brad 22:04
I'd see another person and just I would look them up and down, and nope, but now I'm that guy that people come to, hey, I have a question, or hey, I need to talk to you about something, and it's just become

Leaha Crawford 22:16
approachable,

Brad 22:16
yeah, yeah,

Leaha Crawford 22:18
before

Brad 22:19
all of these great, great things that have happened in my life have been because of the ARC,

Leaha Crawford 22:25
and you're teachable,

Brad 22:26
apparently. I am apparently had no idea,

Leaha Crawford 22:29
and willing,

Brad 22:30
yeah,

Leaha Crawford 22:30
to do something different, even if you don't know what it looks like.

Brad 22:34
I had no idea, and I had no idea it'd be this difficult, but well worth

Julian Rosado 22:38
it.

Leaha Crawford 22:38
What was difficult?

Brad 22:39
The program itself, they're not kidding when they say that it's very structured, and you just gotta every day is it's gonna be a struggle, and you don't want to do what they're asking you to do, but you know that it's

Leaha Crawford 22:54
the

Brad 22:54
right thing, you know that's the right thing

Leaha Crawford 22:57
to do. Structure and discipline, I think a lot of people act in a whole lot of areas

Brad 23:02
from coming out of the woods like that

Leaha Crawford 23:04
because you had no structural, you woke up when you want to, you go to sleep when you want to, you eat, okay, let's go eat, no

Julian Rosado 23:10
rules,

Brad 23:10
and now all of a sudden

Leaha Crawford 23:12
I got a rule,

Brad 23:13
every room think of, and so

Leaha Crawford 23:15
I gotta sleep in the bed, okay,

Brad 23:16
that was weird too, oh,

Leaha Crawford 23:18
okay,

Brad 23:18
somewhere around 10 days I couldn't sleep, sleeping with other people in the room, that was weird. Okay, yeah, but we make, we adapt, basically. Yeah,

Leaha Crawford 23:30
all right. So, Greg, for you is different, though, because you're living the fact, I mean, you're gambling, drinking, we, you partying, because all that goes together, and New Year's Eve, life changes.

Greg 23:44
Thank God it changed on New Year's Eve. I was on Fremont Street, and standing in front of a 711

Leaha Crawford 23:49
I know which one.

Greg 23:50
Yes,

Leaha Crawford 23:50
I'm familiar with

Greg 23:52
beer, Mike's daughter, and a pizza, and a cock car rolled up. I was doing nothing, wasn't speaking to anyone. They popped out. They said, 'Don't put your hands in your pocket. Of course, I'm high. I put my hands in my pocket. I throw it in there, and that's how I got arrested. And I had just thought days earlier that I was going to become the Jewish drug dealer of Fremont Street in my head, and thank God I got arrested. I'm Jewish by birth. I'm a born-again Christian now.

Leaha Crawford 24:20
Okay, got it. Got another story for another day. Jesus Christ saved my life. Store, story for another day. Yeah, because I, you know, it's funny because my off, well, my old office by my transition is right by Fremont Street, right downtown. So I go to Fremont Street. I don't go at night, but I go to Fremont Street during the day, and I just.. I'm like, wow, this thing changes in about five hours. This thing is gonna be totally different, because I'm there like 1230 1o'clock and it's totally different at 7o'clock at night, and it's totally different at midnight.

Greg 24:48
Very sad. Yeah, at night. Yes. During the first month, he spoke with Brad. The reason it's structured, they want a. Yes, coming into the program to stay out of our heads, so the schedule is very busy, right? Okay, there's the structure. We work during the day, we go to meetings, we have chapel, we have

Leaha Crawford 25:08
therapy for you busy, so you're not thinking you really don't have time because you got to go to what's next and you got to go, and I'm keeping you busy, keeping you busy. I do that with children, which is wonderful. No, no, if you ask my children, like, look, Mom, I'd stop. I keep you busy, but go ahead. So, you keep them busy, just so that they can stay focused and get to what's next.

Greg 25:30
Behind in our heads, the first 30 days were behind enemy lines. We know no structure, no discipline. Our days revolved around using, and here, if left to our own devices, thinking and ruminating about the past, we might walk out the door. The door is consciously unlocked from the inside. You got to want it, and the ARC is truly a place of rapid transformation. If you want it much more than just freedom from drugs and alcohol, I've never met an organization like this.

Julian Rosado 26:00
Who does this?

Leaha Crawford 26:00
Who does this?

Greg 26:01
Six months, it's entirely free. And then after you graduate, a world of options opens for the men. They don't cut the umbilical cord at the salvation. Do

Leaha Crawford 26:11
you mean they just don't kick you out? No, your way.

Greg 26:13
It's amazing. Quite the opposite. You have choices. You can go to vocation, where they'll train you on over a dozen different trades. Men are graduating, and the Salvation Army is paying for them to get their CDLs. A world-class cooking school in Napa, California, is available, one here in Vegas. What would you gentlemen like you do moving forward? Well, I'm honored to be one of two resident managers there now. I'm very happy in the position.

Leaha Crawford 26:38
Okay,

Greg 26:39
I get to help pay it forward, honestly, and hopefully with men that are younger. I'm 56

Leaha Crawford 26:44
Okay,

Greg 26:44
so when the younger ones come in, I pray that they'll get some traction, and they don't have to wait till their 50s.

Julian Rosado 26:49
Okay,

Greg 26:50
and when it's time, I know God will show me which way to go.

Leaha Crawford 26:52
All right. And then Brad, what do you want? What, where do you see yourself? Probably in five years.

Brad 26:57
I plan to start a small business.

Leaha Crawford 26:59
Okay.

Brad 27:00
Yeah, I have learned so many things through the ARC, like humility, integrity. I believe that I had integrity to begin with, but I've learned how to be just such a great guy, and I see these other companies that are operating in the valley and taking advantage of customers. So, I'm a carpenter, you know, by trade. Before I joined the ARC, I was a garage door technician. I would like to take those skills

Leaha Crawford 27:26
and

Brad 27:27
start a company that, that just goes the distance, but not gouging, not not trying to take advantage monetarily, just, you know, a fair day's wage for a fair day's work.

Leaha Crawford 27:39
Got it? Got it. Okay, so to contact ARC, it's 702-399-2769 again, 702-399-2769 So that brings us to the end of our show. I want to tell you, gentlemen, thank you.

Julian Rosado 27:55
Yes,

Leaha Crawford 27:55
thank you for sharing your stories, thank you for sharing your experiences, and being open with our audience, and I mean, just to know that you know one day some time ago you were in a space where you needed help and you were able to take the first step to get the help, and as always, Major Boyd, I know you didn't say much on this show, I mean, last time we talked a lot, thank you for the work that you do with the Army here in the valley, especially that is free of charge, because a lot of times people I can't get help because I can't afford to pay for

Julian Rosado 28:27
it.

Leaha Crawford 28:28
Well, it's paid for you, it's paid for you,

Major Boyd 28:32
and it's paid by our thrift stores, thrift stores, our small collection of thrift stores pays our bills, so if you have things to donate, we'd love

Leaha Crawford 28:41
to go. Salvation Army, you are helping to pay the bill,

Major Boyd 28:44
right? You are helping to make Brad or Greg, you're helping to make people like that have a changed life without those usable discards dropped off at our thrift stores and then sold. We don't have an income, so we need that. We

Leaha Crawford 28:58
appreciate the Salvation Army thrift store. All right, Julian.

Julian Rosado 29:01
Yes,

Leaha Crawford 29:01
good show.

Julian Rosado 29:02
Yes,

Leaha Crawford 29:03
good show. All right, y'all. Like I always say, you know, you're listening to Growth and Grace. I am Leah Crawford. And remember, you know, growth is something that's inevitable, and as you can see, these gentlemen growing in their own special way, and grace. Give yourself grace while you're going through the growth. Until next time, until next week. Peace and blessings. Bye bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai