WEBVTT - Ché Ahn - Oct 21 - 9:00 am 0:00:00.470 --> 0:00:03.870 But finally, by 92, we hit the perfect storm. I 0:00:03.890 --> 0:00:07.090 got blacklisted. I lost my job. I got a family 0:00:07.130 --> 0:00:10.780 of six now in Los Angeles. We didn't have money. 0:00:11.140 --> 0:00:13.900 There was one time we were hungry and in need. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:15.380 We didn't have enough money for groceries. 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:17.260 And we prayed. We said, Lord, would you provide? 0:00:17.980 --> 0:00:20.790 And literally right after we prayed, there was a knock 0:00:20.870 --> 0:00:21.329 on our door. 0:00:21.370 --> 0:00:24.210 We opened the door and there's groceries. There was never 0:00:24.230 --> 0:00:28.190 the word divorce or separation. We never threatened. So it 0:00:28.230 --> 0:00:31.520 wasn't at that point. We joked, we said we had 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:33.600 some intense fellowships along the way. 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.440 Divorce wasn't a question. Murder, yes, but divorce, no. That's 0:00:37.500 --> 0:00:38.080 one of the jokes too. 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:40.690 Yeah, that's what Ruth Graham said. You know, they asked her, 0:00:40.700 --> 0:00:45.830 have you ever thought about divorcing Billy Graham? And she said, murder, yes, 0:00:45.850 --> 0:00:46.630 but not divorce. 0:00:47.130 --> 0:00:50.449 Hey everyone, welcome to The Honest Podcast. Our main goal 0:00:50.490 --> 0:00:53.490 here is to reach and impact as many people as possible. 0:00:53.630 --> 0:00:57.870 So please like, subscribe, but most importantly, share this with 0:00:57.930 --> 0:01:00.770 as many people as you can. who you think it'll encourage. 0:01:00.870 --> 0:01:02.090 We greatly appreciate it. 0:01:02.780 --> 0:01:03.520 And now onto the show. 0:01:27.180 --> 0:01:29.240 Dad, it's good to be at the table with you again. 0:01:29.260 --> 0:01:30.880 Yes, it's an honor. 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.979 Anytime with you is a good time. I love you 0:01:34.020 --> 0:01:37.060 so much. I've been reflecting on the conversations we've been having. 0:01:37.100 --> 0:01:40.179 And I know in the last couple conversations, we talked 0:01:40.220 --> 0:01:43.280 about your divine assignment to run for governor. And one 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:44.980 of the things that stood out to me is when 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.770 you said that you're not running for your generation. You're 0:01:48.790 --> 0:01:53.280 running for the generations after you. specifically your grandchildren, and 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.840 you have ten grandkids and four children and ten grandkids. 0:01:57.890 --> 0:02:01.030 And so when you think about your family and when 0:02:01.050 --> 0:02:05.270 you think about your grandkids, what comes to mind for 0:02:05.330 --> 0:02:07.890 you when you say, I'm running for them? What is 0:02:07.950 --> 0:02:11.609 it that stands out to you? Why are you running 0:02:11.770 --> 0:02:12.730 for governor for them? 0:02:12.930 --> 0:02:14.230 Well, a lot of it has to do with what 0:02:14.290 --> 0:02:19.209 my parents provided for me. They were immigrants. We were 0:02:19.270 --> 0:02:22.030 very poor when we came in. My dad was a pastor, 0:02:22.930 --> 0:02:25.710 and he came from a very poor, impoverished background. He 0:02:25.730 --> 0:02:29.510 came from North Korea. And Korea, when he came, was 0:02:29.590 --> 0:02:33.549 the poorest nation based on the UN stats in the 0:02:33.590 --> 0:02:36.880 world in 1960. He came in 1958. This is after 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:38.600 the Korean War, which is why— It's after the Korean 0:02:38.620 --> 0:02:41.960 War because they went through World War II, the Japanese occupation, 0:02:42.580 --> 0:02:44.880 World War II, and then the Korean War. So they 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.050 went through like the perfect storm. that really impacted them 0:02:48.150 --> 0:02:52.250 economically as a nation. And so he grew up in poverty. Now, 0:02:52.310 --> 0:02:56.109 having said that, my mom grew up in a very 0:02:56.210 --> 0:03:00.570 wealthy home, one of the wealthiest. I remember my grandfather 0:03:00.620 --> 0:03:03.620 had a chauffeur-driven car. To have a car was one thing, 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.940 but to have a chauffeur-driven car was another thing. So 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.840 my grandfather was very wealthy. He was a banker. He 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:15.140 owned three banks. Back in those days, it was family-owned banks. 0:03:15.770 --> 0:03:19.370 So my mom was brought up in this extremely wealthy home. 0:03:20.050 --> 0:03:23.049 In fact, my father had one of the first high-rises 0:03:23.130 --> 0:03:25.850 in downtown Seoul that he built. And so he was 0:03:25.889 --> 0:03:29.850 a builder. He helped build Yalnok Presbyterian Church, physically gave 0:03:29.870 --> 0:03:32.400 the finances to build that building. You're saying this is 0:03:32.410 --> 0:03:36.740 your mom's father? Yes. And all the kids grew up 0:03:36.820 --> 0:03:43.420 to be high achievers. My uncle, my mom's younger brother, 0:03:44.370 --> 0:03:47.650 was president of the university, Hanyang University, and became a 0:03:47.670 --> 0:03:51.690 cabinet member to two different presidents, which is really unusual 0:03:51.770 --> 0:03:55.610 because usually if you're a cabinet member of one administration, 0:03:55.670 --> 0:03:58.250 you don't get to be picked to another administration. But 0:03:58.290 --> 0:04:01.880 he was picked twice from two different presidents. So they 0:04:01.900 --> 0:04:06.180 were all high achieving, very successful monetarily speaking. But my 0:04:06.220 --> 0:04:08.260 dad was dirt poor. So when we came here, it 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:10.940 was thank God for my mom. She had this business sense. 0:04:11.660 --> 0:04:13.340 And she said to my dad, she said, we're not 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:17.029 going to survive under a pastor's salary. And so we 0:04:17.070 --> 0:04:20.290 have to start a business. My dad was trained in 0:04:20.310 --> 0:04:24.710 dental technology as a student in high school under the 0:04:24.770 --> 0:04:27.900 Japanese occupation. So she said, why don't you get it certified? 0:04:28.220 --> 0:04:31.219 Go back to school, get trained, be a dental technician. 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.580 And not only that, I'll help you start your own laboratory. 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.659 My mom was already thinking as an entrepreneur to start 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.279 their own business. And sure enough, he started on dental laboratory, 0:04:42.300 --> 0:04:44.980 became very successful with the money. She bought a restaurant 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.530 and shows she had that entrepreneurship of my grandfather in 0:04:49.650 --> 0:04:52.289 her blood and in her DNA. 0:04:52.430 --> 0:04:55.789 By the way, side note, Omany, which is grandma in Korean, 0:04:55.910 --> 0:04:57.230 was one of the best cooks. 0:04:58.350 --> 0:05:00.120 I mean, I've, I'm such a foodie. 0:05:00.140 --> 0:05:00.440 You're a foodie. 0:05:00.460 --> 0:05:02.730 That's why the restaurant was so successful. She's such a 0:05:02.750 --> 0:05:05.250 good cook. It was an American restaurant, but she had 0:05:05.290 --> 0:05:08.270 a Korean special of the day. People were lined up 0:05:08.430 --> 0:05:10.310 to get that lunch special. 0:05:10.330 --> 0:05:12.930 So you can get ham and eggs or bacon and eggs, 0:05:12.990 --> 0:05:16.670 but if you went for the Korean special, it would 0:05:16.730 --> 0:05:18.190 be something kind of off the. 0:05:18.230 --> 0:05:21.130 It would be like a Korean dumpling. It could be 0:05:21.190 --> 0:05:25.039 fried rice. It could be bulgogi with rice, which is 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.920 Korean barbecue with rice. And it would always be served 0:05:28.940 --> 0:05:31.360 with kimchi that she made. And so it was a 0:05:31.380 --> 0:05:34.710 huge hit for our American restaurant called Three Kings, by 0:05:34.750 --> 0:05:38.050 the way. And so it was very successful with that. 0:05:38.550 --> 0:05:42.510 They ended up purchasing homes around the Washington, D.C. area. 0:05:43.430 --> 0:05:46.010 At one time, they owned five houses, including a vacation 0:05:46.029 --> 0:05:50.190 home right on Shenandoah River in West Virginia. Beautiful lodge. 0:05:50.690 --> 0:05:55.049 And so we got wealthy very quickly. Now, the downside 0:05:55.070 --> 0:05:57.750 of that is that my parents... didn't know how to 0:05:58.150 --> 0:06:01.490 show love except by giving me money. And I had 0:06:01.550 --> 0:06:03.990 all this money at a young age, which I ended 0:06:04.070 --> 0:06:07.510 up buying drugs in my years of rebellion. And then 0:06:07.529 --> 0:06:10.600 I had that entrepreneur gift and I started to realize 0:06:10.630 --> 0:06:13.400 that if I sell drugs, I could take drugs for free. 0:06:13.980 --> 0:06:16.580 And I became the number one drug dealer in my county. 0:06:16.620 --> 0:06:20.240 That's not from my assessment. The sheriff's daughter came up 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.460 to me and said, my dad told me you're the 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.599 number one drug dealer and they're watching you. I just 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:27.920 want to give you a heads up because they're going 0:06:27.940 --> 0:06:29.960 to pick you up and rush you any day now. 0:06:30.500 --> 0:06:33.339 But it was almost as if you inherited your mom's business. 0:06:33.580 --> 0:06:37.670 Her entrepreneurial gift was handed down to you. Of course, 0:06:37.690 --> 0:06:39.210 you were using it to sell drugs. 0:06:39.290 --> 0:06:41.330 Right. And a lot of people don't know that as 0:06:41.410 --> 0:06:44.790 a pastor, I started my own business in 2010. And 0:06:44.810 --> 0:06:47.130 it's called Joseph's Storehouse. And I make more money with 0:06:47.190 --> 0:06:50.720 my business than I do, obviously, as a pastor or 0:06:50.779 --> 0:06:54.789 president of HRM. I'm able to give my salary back. Happily, 0:06:54.910 --> 0:06:58.070 my wife and I, we are grateful that we could 0:06:58.089 --> 0:07:01.760 do that and double that. And so we have become 0:07:02.260 --> 0:07:06.859 one of our largest givers. And we're boasting in Jesus 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:10.680 because he really is the inheritance I received from my 0:07:10.740 --> 0:07:14.330 parents that I applied it. And people ask me, well, 0:07:14.350 --> 0:07:16.830 how are you going to run the fourth largest economy? 0:07:16.850 --> 0:07:19.970 And I said, well, God, I don't know, but God can. 0:07:20.050 --> 0:07:22.730 But I do have the basics of knowing how to 0:07:22.790 --> 0:07:27.170 run a business. and I've prospered economically on a micro level, 0:07:27.610 --> 0:07:31.100 but I'll apply the biblical principles and the gift mix 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:35.700 that God's given me to grow the economy in California. Yeah, 0:07:35.980 --> 0:07:36.600 that's amazing. 0:07:36.700 --> 0:07:40.210 Just curious, when you talk about Joseph Storehouse, Does it 0:07:40.470 --> 0:07:43.470 pertain to the books that you've written? 0:07:44.310 --> 0:07:48.190 I have like a dozen revenue sources, including buying real estate. Okay, 0:07:48.210 --> 0:07:51.370 so real estate, investments, things of that nature. Investments, everything 0:07:51.410 --> 0:07:56.270 from cryptocurrency to gold to silver to stock market. And 0:07:56.350 --> 0:07:59.830 so it's a diverse portfolio. And, of course, I have 0:07:59.850 --> 0:08:02.930 a great money manager, Tony Amoradio, one of the top 0:08:03.330 --> 0:08:06.250 in Los Angeles, manages my money. I just called him 0:08:06.270 --> 0:08:09.750 this morning. Phil Libertore is my accountant. And the reason 0:08:09.770 --> 0:08:12.310 why I started my business as a tax write-off, because 0:08:12.330 --> 0:08:14.730 I didn't want to give a single cent to this 0:08:14.770 --> 0:08:20.800 state for abortion or transgender issues. And so it's a 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.480 write-off to have my own business. So anyway, all that 0:08:24.500 --> 0:08:26.920 to say is that the Lord has given me grace 0:08:27.260 --> 0:08:30.090 when it comes to personal business. So I received a 0:08:30.150 --> 0:08:33.650 lot from my parents. The thing I did not receive 0:08:34.590 --> 0:08:38.959 was that there was no emotional connection I never heard 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:40.920 my dad say, I love you. I never got a 0:08:40.940 --> 0:08:43.540 kiss from my dad. I never heard him say, I'm 0:08:43.580 --> 0:08:46.420 proud of you, or just any words of encouragement. Part 0:08:46.460 --> 0:08:49.170 of it is the culture that he grew up in. 0:08:49.410 --> 0:08:52.090 He was a victim of war. He was a prisoner 0:08:52.130 --> 0:08:55.449 of war. He was under the Japanese occupation. And that 0:08:55.510 --> 0:08:58.390 generation did not express a lot of love. 0:08:58.570 --> 0:09:01.000 But you were also living in rebellion, so I'm sure 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:02.320 that contributed to. 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.040 Well, that's why I moved in rebellion. I felt so 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.679 much rejection at home. I started to look to my 0:09:08.780 --> 0:09:12.080 friends for the love. For the affirmation, yeah. It's not 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:13.860 that I didn't know my parents loved me. I knew 0:09:13.900 --> 0:09:17.349 they loved me intellectually, but I wasn't feeling it. And, 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.730 you know, there's different languages of love. And so time, 0:09:21.770 --> 0:09:24.550 we never went on a family vacation. My parents were 0:09:24.590 --> 0:09:28.050 working day and night. Never had a day off where 0:09:28.370 --> 0:09:30.359 we'd just go to the park or do something just 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.940 as a family. I can't remember a single vacation or 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:36.689 time with the family. I'm sure we had it, but, 0:09:36.730 --> 0:09:39.530 you know, maybe running to McDonald's or something like that 0:09:39.550 --> 0:09:42.720 just for a meal, a crook bite to eat. But 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.160 I never played golf with my dad. My dad was 0:09:46.220 --> 0:09:49.040 an avid golfer. Now he made up with my brother 0:09:49.059 --> 0:09:51.820 who was six years younger than me and started taking 0:09:51.860 --> 0:09:53.970 him out. But I never had one lesson, not one 0:09:54.030 --> 0:09:57.150 time with him. So there was hardly any time, no fishing, 0:09:57.170 --> 0:10:00.490 no sports, you know, like throwing the baseball. around. He 0:10:00.510 --> 0:10:03.170 wouldn't know what to do with the ball, even if 0:10:03.210 --> 0:10:07.880 he had one. But now we were tremendous sports fans. 0:10:08.130 --> 0:10:11.040 My dad watched the Washington Redskins at that time. At 0:10:11.059 --> 0:10:13.400 the time, the Redskins, yeah. And, you know, and I 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.569 became an avid football fan still to this day. And 0:10:16.610 --> 0:10:18.980 of course, the commanders are my team now in Washington. 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:23.460 Hayden Daniels. Yeah, but I love the Washington football team. 0:10:23.580 --> 0:10:26.160 And so that's the only thing I can remember doing 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:30.940 something in common watching the Olympics or a boxing match. 0:10:30.980 --> 0:10:33.780 My dad loved to say professional boxing. 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.280 But when you talk about the five love languages, you're 0:10:36.660 --> 0:10:39.180 saying that there was no words of affirmation. There was 0:10:39.230 --> 0:10:43.310 no quality time. There was very little to no physical affection. 0:10:43.490 --> 0:10:47.940 But the way that he did display... love was through 0:10:47.980 --> 0:10:51.140 gifts or through providing. But because of that, there was 0:10:51.179 --> 0:10:52.830 a deficit in all those other areas. 0:10:53.210 --> 0:10:53.530 Exactly. 0:10:53.550 --> 0:10:57.590 You started to have this disconnect at the very least, 0:10:57.910 --> 0:10:59.170 specifically with your dad. 0:10:59.510 --> 0:11:01.870 But on top of that, my dad was very violent. 0:11:02.010 --> 0:11:06.460 He was abused himself. And so he believed in not 0:11:06.510 --> 0:11:10.300 sparing the rod, but he took it to an extreme 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.100 where he would have me stand and he would take 0:11:13.140 --> 0:11:15.160 a broomstick and I could not move and he would 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.920 hit me. until the broomstick broke twice. So we're talking 0:11:18.940 --> 0:11:22.939 about torturing a kid. So looking back now as a pastor, 0:11:23.340 --> 0:11:26.170 he crossed the line with physical abuse. I don't share 0:11:26.190 --> 0:11:28.290 a lot about that publicly because I don't want to 0:11:28.309 --> 0:11:31.089 dishonor him. He's looking down for Mevin, you know, being 0:11:31.110 --> 0:11:35.290 part of the great cloud of witness. But no question, 0:11:35.490 --> 0:11:37.150 the reason why I left home at the age of 0:11:37.150 --> 0:11:40.020 17 was I was tired of the abuse. It wasn't 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:42.100 because I was on drugs and I didn't know what 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.600 I was doing. I just said, enough is enough. And 0:11:45.700 --> 0:11:50.600 here's the reason why. People don't realize that, and I 0:11:50.620 --> 0:11:53.839 heard this stat, that a million kids run away every year. 0:11:53.860 --> 0:11:56.760 A lot of it because of abuse. A lot of 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:01.350 it because absentee dads. Now, 50,000 of them every year 0:12:01.530 --> 0:12:04.069 are unaccounted for. They don't know where. A lot of 0:12:04.110 --> 0:12:06.690 them come back. A lot of them stay connected with 0:12:06.710 --> 0:12:09.390 their parents. But think about a million kids running away 0:12:09.470 --> 0:12:13.280 every year. And 50,000... There's no count on them. And 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.920 they're either trafficked or they're dead, murdered. And so a 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.179 lot of them end up in Los Angeles. They're homeless. 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.500 They're sex trafficked. And so we see the real root 0:12:23.580 --> 0:12:28.500 issue is fatherlessness. And I really have a message on 0:12:28.540 --> 0:12:31.300 that because I believe the way God wants us to 0:12:31.340 --> 0:12:34.780 restore the family is turning the hearts of the fathers 0:12:34.820 --> 0:12:38.760 to the children. That's Malachi chapter 4, verses 5 and 6. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.620 The last book of the Old Testament, before we go 0:12:41.660 --> 0:12:44.890 into what's called the 400 years of silence, God gives 0:12:44.950 --> 0:12:47.950 this instruction. You can have revival, but it begins in 0:12:47.970 --> 0:12:50.490 the home. And it begins with fathers turning their hearts 0:12:50.630 --> 0:12:53.929 towards the children. And then the children turn their hearts 0:12:53.990 --> 0:12:57.510 towards God the Father and their father. Because it doesn't 0:12:57.530 --> 0:13:00.030 say fathers and mothers, even though we do include that, 0:13:00.090 --> 0:13:03.150 just to be not politically correct, but because I do 0:13:03.190 --> 0:13:07.770 believe that our generation, moms have a tremendous role and responsibilities. 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:10.959 But the word there in the Hebrew for an orphan 0:13:11.260 --> 0:13:16.220 is yetem, which means without a father. So technically, you're 0:13:16.260 --> 0:13:18.260 an orphan. You could have a mom, be a single mom, 0:13:18.660 --> 0:13:21.210 but without a dad, you're an orphan. And so I 0:13:21.250 --> 0:13:25.630 grew up without a dad, literally because he migrated to 0:13:25.650 --> 0:13:28.850 the United States. He immigrated to the United States. And 0:13:29.710 --> 0:13:32.090 we had visa problems, so we were separated for three years. 0:13:32.170 --> 0:13:35.250 I was like almost two when my dad left. I 0:13:35.290 --> 0:13:39.520 didn't know him. I was just a little two-year-old. And 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.520 it wasn't until I was five that we reunited. But 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.860 then it didn't change matters because my dad was trying 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.120 to survive supporting a family of five, and he was 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.480 working day and night, so I didn't see him. And 0:13:53.500 --> 0:13:55.260 then when I did see him, it was nothing but 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:59.490 rejection because of his anger. And then, of course, that 0:13:59.550 --> 0:14:04.730 led to me rebelling against my dad, which caused more disconnect, more... 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.040 physical abuse. It was a vicious cycle. Yeah. 0:14:09.340 --> 0:14:12.059 We're going to talk about the story between you and 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.800 your father, maybe in the second part of this conversation, 0:14:15.860 --> 0:14:19.210 but going back to this whole concept of you running 0:14:19.250 --> 0:14:22.170 for governor, not for your generation or even my generation, 0:14:22.330 --> 0:14:25.510 which is the second generation, but really the third generation, 0:14:25.550 --> 0:14:28.410 which is your grandkids. I'm trying to connect the dots. 0:14:28.430 --> 0:14:32.150 Are you saying that family is so important to you 0:14:32.570 --> 0:14:33.190 because of. 0:14:33.170 --> 0:14:34.630 The context you just described? 0:14:34.650 --> 0:14:39.900 Absolutely. Growing up with an absentee father, an abusive father specifically. Obviously, 0:14:39.940 --> 0:14:42.580 that's not the case with you and me, but your 0:14:42.620 --> 0:14:46.920 point is that you're thinking of the generation after you 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.550 and the second generation after you because of how important 0:14:50.570 --> 0:14:53.410 it is to have fathers and mothers, how important it 0:14:53.510 --> 0:14:57.830 is to have family values, specifically in the state of 0:14:57.850 --> 0:15:01.130 California where there's such an onslaught against family values. 0:15:01.710 --> 0:15:04.880 Absolutely. So that's why. Oh, absolutely. I mean, when you 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:09.260 really look at all the social problems today, like 80% 0:15:09.260 --> 0:15:13.040 of those who are incarcerated have no dads. You think 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:18.060 about the no-fault divorce that began in California in 1969. 0:15:18.300 --> 0:15:20.600 Under Reagan as the governor, that you could get a 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.560 divorce for any reason or no reason. Now, think about this. 0:15:23.660 --> 0:15:27.580 Divorce rate in 1950 was one out of eight marriages. Today, 0:15:27.700 --> 0:15:33.170 five out of every nine marriages will end up in divorce, 55%. 0:15:33.170 --> 0:15:37.910 The government got too involved in trying to, instead of 0:15:37.950 --> 0:15:41.000 help the family, end up hurting the family. And they're 0:15:41.220 --> 0:15:45.460 still at it today. They're telling teachers you cannot tell 0:15:45.780 --> 0:15:50.520 the parents if the child is transitioning. So the state 0:15:50.700 --> 0:15:53.800 has become the parent. We've taken as if they know 0:15:53.820 --> 0:15:56.170 what they're doing, you know, and they're not. They don't know. 0:15:56.630 --> 0:16:00.590 Because the parents are the best for the children, and 0:16:00.650 --> 0:16:03.940 especially those who are believers who have a biblical worldview, 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.040 because it says very clearly, I quoted this before, but 0:16:07.100 --> 0:16:11.220 Proverbs 22, 6 says that parents are to train up 0:16:11.260 --> 0:16:13.240 their child in the way he or she should go. 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:16.020 And when they're old, they won't depart from it. So 0:16:16.090 --> 0:16:18.570 it's not the government's job, it's not the church's job, 0:16:18.590 --> 0:16:21.970 but it's the parents' responsibility. They will stand before God 0:16:22.290 --> 0:16:24.670 and have to give an account how they parented their kids. 0:16:24.850 --> 0:16:25.470 That's amazing. 0:16:25.530 --> 0:16:30.060 So you're really running not for governor, but you're running 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:30.700 for family. 0:16:30.940 --> 0:16:33.440 You're running for... So, yeah, that's why my three values, 0:16:33.460 --> 0:16:36.000 core values, the platform that I'm running on is faith, 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.440 my relationship with God, and family, and freedom. That's amazing. 0:16:40.620 --> 0:16:44.240 Now, I think of our own family and every family, 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:46.960 you know, even if it looks like on the outside 0:16:47.020 --> 0:16:49.740 that it's all put together, every family has some form 0:16:49.900 --> 0:16:53.220 or level of dysfunction. And I know even we have 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:56.360 had our fair share in our own family of dysfunction 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.490 and there's no perfect marriage, there's no perfect family, there's 0:17:00.530 --> 0:17:06.129 no perfect father-son or father-daughter or mother-son, mother-daughter relationship. And 0:17:06.150 --> 0:17:09.320 so I think back, speaking of family, because we're talking 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.100 a little bit about family, we're going to talk about 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.119 your relationship with your dad even more, but I was 0:17:14.140 --> 0:17:17.219 going to ask you, because I was very young when 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:19.860 this happened, but to share a little bit about some 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.560 of the struggles that you face specifically in your marriage. 0:17:24.540 --> 0:17:26.520 and how the Lord brought you out of that, and 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.940 how it's connected to your relationship with your father. But 0:17:31.050 --> 0:17:32.909 let's just be very vulnerable right now. There was a 0:17:32.950 --> 0:17:37.250 time in your marriage where you guys almost didn't make it. 0:17:37.470 --> 0:17:43.300 Well, technically, there was never the word divorce or separation. 0:17:43.340 --> 0:17:47.160 We never threatened, so it wasn't at that point. We joked, 0:17:47.180 --> 0:17:51.040 we said we had some intense fellowships along the way. Well, 0:17:51.060 --> 0:17:51.400 you said. 0:17:52.460 --> 0:17:55.740 Divorce wasn't a question. Murder, yes, but divorce, no. That's 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:56.250 one of the jokes, too. 0:17:56.260 --> 0:17:58.660 Yeah, that's what Ruth Graham said. Sure. You know, they 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.090 asked her, have you ever thought about divorcing Billy Graham? 0:18:02.170 --> 0:18:05.190 And she said, murder, yes, but not divorce. Yeah, right. 0:18:05.310 --> 0:18:11.450 And so, no, to mom's credit, she came from an 0:18:11.590 --> 0:18:15.350 incredible family. Her parents were both medical doctors. They were 0:18:15.369 --> 0:18:19.430 both wealthy. Her mom was a pediatrician. She was trained 0:18:19.470 --> 0:18:23.150 to be a children's doctor. And so from everything from 0:18:23.270 --> 0:18:26.970 physical well-being to the mental, emotional well-being, she was trained 0:18:27.030 --> 0:18:32.170 in that, what we call psychology today. And she grew 0:18:32.260 --> 0:18:35.860 up in a real healthy environment where their parents did 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:39.600 have family dinners. They were Catholic. They weren't born again, 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.540 but their values for family. I remember the first time 0:18:42.580 --> 0:18:45.359 I went over for dinner. I could not believe how 0:18:45.420 --> 0:18:48.540 long the dinner took. They were sitting around for two 0:18:48.580 --> 0:18:54.090 hours talking and eating. Because in the Korean home, my 0:18:54.109 --> 0:18:56.109 mom made me cook for two hours, but we ate 0:18:56.150 --> 0:18:58.730 in five minutes. Right, that's the irony of it. And 0:18:58.750 --> 0:19:01.429 we didn't talk. We didn't talk. The kids were not 0:19:01.450 --> 0:19:04.129 allowed to talk to the parents. The parents would talk 0:19:04.290 --> 0:19:06.560 after we were dismissed. This is more of a cultural thing. 0:19:06.580 --> 0:19:08.700 It was a cultural thing. So I want to just 0:19:08.740 --> 0:19:12.280 say is that the problem was on my end, not 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.720 with mom. She grew up in a very healthy, very 0:19:16.540 --> 0:19:21.680 Christ-like home, even though they weren't saved. The values, they 0:19:21.700 --> 0:19:25.250 had tremendous family values. Part of it is the Filipino 0:19:25.290 --> 0:19:31.330 culture with the Spanish influence of the Catholicism, which was 0:19:31.369 --> 0:19:36.890 really family-oriented. But because of my dysfunction, who doesn't have dysfunction, right? 0:19:36.910 --> 0:19:41.970 But circumstances of being orphaned, literally, for three years. In 0:19:42.010 --> 0:19:45.370 my formative years, Dr. Jobson said up to five, six 0:19:45.390 --> 0:19:47.770 years are the most important years. Well, I grew up 0:19:47.810 --> 0:19:50.480 without a dad during that period. Then when I did 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.040 meet him, he was angry, stressed out. Abusive, yeah. He 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:57.679 was very abusive because he was so stressed to the 0:19:57.740 --> 0:20:03.240 max because he was abused as an individual, as a student, 0:20:03.290 --> 0:20:05.869 but as a person of war. I would ask my 0:20:05.910 --> 0:20:09.100 dad about what happened in... During the war, he couldn't 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.600 even talk about it. He had so much what we 0:20:12.619 --> 0:20:17.200 call post-traumatic stress disorder. Couldn't even talk about it. He said, 0:20:17.220 --> 0:20:19.790 you don't want to know. And I can't even talk 0:20:19.830 --> 0:20:22.390 about it. So he would deflect it all the time. 0:20:22.410 --> 0:20:25.350 And so I didn't know what happened, but the manifestation 0:20:25.390 --> 0:20:27.670 of it. And so I grew up. But all that 0:20:27.710 --> 0:20:31.330 was part of God's plan because he allowed all that 0:20:31.369 --> 0:20:35.649 to happen because he wanted to not only bring me 0:20:35.710 --> 0:20:39.390 to Jesus, which I finally did at the age of 17, 0:20:39.390 --> 0:20:42.590 but he wanted to teach me values of being Christ-like 0:20:43.210 --> 0:20:45.930 and what not to do. And so my father, even 0:20:45.970 --> 0:20:48.909 though he was a pastor, no one trained him on 0:20:48.950 --> 0:20:52.900 how to be a good dad. Now, honestly, he was 0:20:52.940 --> 0:20:56.060 very good to my mom. He loved my mom. And 0:20:56.580 --> 0:20:59.300 so I never saw any abuse towards my mom at all. 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:01.639 I mean, at the most, I saw them get in 0:21:02.010 --> 0:21:04.490 This sounds like hyperbole, but I saw him yell at 0:21:04.510 --> 0:21:07.130 my mom only one time in my entire life. One time. 0:21:07.710 --> 0:21:10.040 I'm sure they did behind the doors, but I never 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:12.500 heard it. I didn't see it. It wasn't so much 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.180 his example to my mom, but it was his wounding 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:19.280 of me that caused me to leave home. And then 0:21:19.300 --> 0:21:24.440 when I got saved, I was very, very emotionally immature. 0:21:25.260 --> 0:21:29.580 I was not developed emotionally. And so I get saved. 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.630 I get married at a very young age, age 23, 0:21:33.630 --> 0:21:36.510 and we didn't have any engagement period. We just got married. 0:21:36.550 --> 0:21:38.530 The moment God spoke to us, that was it. We 0:21:38.570 --> 0:21:44.850 got married. And so I have to really confess that 0:21:45.290 --> 0:21:49.230 our marriage was beautiful in the beginning, but when we hit, 0:21:50.670 --> 0:21:53.449 which you're going to go through difficult times, when we 0:21:53.470 --> 0:21:55.880 hit difficult times, I didn't know how to handle that 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:58.920 in a loving way with Sue. And what I mean 0:21:58.940 --> 0:22:01.419 by that is that This brings us up to our 0:22:01.460 --> 0:22:05.090 crisis point in 1992. We went through the perfect storm. 0:22:06.590 --> 0:22:10.290 I resigned as senior pastor, and I thought I could 0:22:10.570 --> 0:22:13.850 make it as an itinerant, but nothing happened. I was 0:22:13.910 --> 0:22:17.500 getting a invitation, and the reason why I was blacklisted 0:22:17.540 --> 0:22:21.420 by the church that I resigned from, they blacklisted Lou 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:26.860 and me because they thought we were not... submitting to 0:22:26.900 --> 0:22:30.120 their authority, and we had struggled with that. And this 0:22:30.180 --> 0:22:33.180