Description: Robbie Leaf is a Native American who has a heart to reach Native Americans with the Gospel. He wants to see representatives from every Native American tribe in heaven. Today, as Daniel King, “The Evangelism Coach” interviews him, he shares on the challenges and rewards of ministering to indigenous people in America.
Show Notes: In American there are 562 Native American tribes. Many of these tribes have their own unique language and culture. More than 3 million people in the U.S. are from a native American background. The biggest tribes are the Navajo, the Cherokee, and the Sioux. Many Native Americans in the United States struggle with issues of alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide. Indigenous Americans need Jesus.
On today’s podcast, we will hear for Robbie Leaf. He is a Native American who has a heart to reach his people and other Native Americans with the Gospel. Robbie Lead is Cherokee on his father’s side and Muskogee Creek Nation on his mother’s side. He recently returned from a ministry trip to a reservation in South Dakota. On today’s podcast, he will discuss some of the secrets of reaching the Native tribes of America.
In Rev. 7:9-11 it says there will be representatives from every nation in front of the throne room of God, After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb. The Greek word translated here as “nation” is the word “ethnos.” So this means every ethnic group will be in heaven including representatives from all the tribes. God loves Native Americans.
Here are some of the questions Robbie Leaf answers in today’s podcast:
* When you were younger you had a fascination with the supernatural. Tell me about that and how that fascination helped you find Jesus.
* How did a Native American like you get saved at the age of 22?
* Why is it hard to preach the Gospel to Native Americans?
* I have heard native Americans say, “Don’t trust white people. Don’t trust the government.” I am a white evangelist, what can I do to build trust with native Americans so I can talk to them about Jesus?
* Where did Robbie get the nickname “Mad Dog?”
Key Idea: Robbie Leaf says that in order to reach Native Americans, the evangelist needs to:
- Come with no agendas.
- Serve them.
- Be patient.
Transcription
Daniel King(00:00):
Hi, I’m Daniel King and I’ve traveled to over 70 nations around the world in a quest for souls. And today we have a special guest with us that I’m so excited about because God has anointed him to reach a special segment of society that needs Jesus. His name is Robbie Lee. Robbie. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you being on the podcast.
Robbie Leaf (00:29):
Thank you, dr. King. It’s a very, very blessed an honor to be
Daniel King(00:33):
You’re here now just a minute. I’m going to tell them why you’re special. In just a moment, I’m going to tell them about the special area of ministry that you’re anointed to do. But first let’s talk a little bit. How did we meet?
Robbie Leaf (00:51):
We met it was a C fan bootcamp. You were an instructor, you were one of them evangelist instructors. And I was at the cross for all nations bootcamp evangelism bootcamp, and I was one of the students. And that’s where I’m at, where I’m at, dr. Daniel King.
Daniel King(01:10):
And so what are, what are some of the things that you learned during those sessions?
Robbie Leaf (01:16):
I learned a lot about surrender about submitting, about being obedient to God and learning just how continuing to dislike. ’em Die to self in every area of my life, learning how to be physically fit for, to afford a mission field in Africa and onward, wherever God leads me. And there’s, and of course, evangelism a lot of different people from different walks of life and different countries learned a lot through them, just their, the evangelism, evangelism styles, their their personalities. And there’s so much, really, so much to talk about with that, that it’s just, as, it’s not a life changing experience, you know, on, on all.
Daniel King(02:08):
I’m so delighted that you’re here on the show with us. Robby Lee is a native American and he is specially gifted by God to reach other native Americans with the gospel. And he has a heart for reaching American Indians, indigenous Americans with the good news of Jesus Christ. And so tell me a little bit about your, your heritage.
Robbie Leaf (02:35):
Well, my heritage is I’m on my dad’s side, I’m Cherokee and on my mom’s side I’m Creek Muskogee Creek. And I was pretty much raised in some of the ideology of native culture. And yeah I’m other tribes, but I am registered with the Cherokee and the Creek nation. And you live in, in
Daniel King(03:00):
Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I live, which is the heart of Indian territory. And there’s actually lots of people in our area that, that are native Americans here in America. There are 562 native American tribes. And many of these tribes have their own unique language. They have their own unique culture. And in total there’s more than 3 million people in the United States who are from an native American background. So the biggest tribes are the Navajo, the Cherokee in the SU. And I was thinking about these, the, these different tribes and nations in the, the verse from the Bible that comes to mind is revelation seven verse nine through 11. And Robbie, let me read this to you. It says after this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation tribe, people and language standing before the throne.
Daniel King(03:59):
And before the lamb, they were wearing white robes and were holding Palm branches in their hands. And they cried out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and onto the lamb. And so this verse tells us that every nation tribe, people and language are there in heaven, standing before the throne and the, the, the Greek word, which is translated as nations in English is actually the Greek word ethnos, which is where we get the word ethnic from in today’s language. And so this means that every ethnic group, every tribe of people will be there represented before the throne in heaven. And so this tells me that God loves the various tribes. God loves the Cherokee tribe. God loves the Muskogee Creek tribe. God loves you. You’re going to be one of those standing in front of the throne. And, and, and talk to me about God’s heart for native Americans.
Robbie Leaf (05:02):
Well I just remember Billy Graham said back in 19, I believe it was 1967, gave a prophetic word about the, the native people are a sleeping giant in this nation. And right now I feel like the sleeping giant has awakened with the native people. I feel like not just me, but there’s other native people all around this country and this continent that God’s raising up to go back to our, to our heritage, to the people and bring the fire and the passion of the Holy spirit of Jesus to them to bring healing, to bring deliverance and to set free the captives of so many strongholds for four generations. There’s so many strong holds of, of addiction of alcohol, drugs, poverty S premature death. There are so many strongholds. I’ve been over a fan over to native families and, and generations over native people. And I’m seeing a new, a new vision of God coming in and raising up people to go back with the fire God, with a passion with that zeal to lead our people, many people into, into salvation, the lead, into breaking the chains of those addictions and those strongholds. And it’s captaining. Now I’m seeing a beginning stages of it. And I’m excited for the future of what he’s going to do, continue to do in native culture.
Daniel King(06:40):
Now, were you raised in a Christian home?
Robbie Leaf (06:43):
I was not raised in a Christian home. I was raised pretty much a little bit about what the native, the native ideology about. This is my little story. I grew up in a secular home. No, there was no, no Christianity, anything like that. I wasn’t raised in church or anything like that as I was raised a little bit with just a mentality of don’t trust, a white people and don’t trust the government and don’t trust non native people. So, yeah, no, I wasn’t raised in a Christian home.
Daniel King(07:16):
Did anyone from the church ever reach out to you when you were young?
Robbie Leaf (07:20):
I just remember when I was a little kid my mom, I think it was my mom. There was a, there was a pre, there was like a children’s church near my town is Wagner, Oklahoma. And I went for a month, just checked it out. It was a children’s church or whatever, but I had to get, I had to take a bus, like they had to pick me up and I think as a month, month and a half, and then they didn’t pick me up. That was my only exposure to church. When I was,
Daniel King(07:47):
They forgot about you, they stopped picking you up and you were never exposed to church again. Okay. So then how did you end up becoming a Christian?
Robbie Leaf (07:55):
Well, as a young age, I was into like I had an unusual fascination with the S the supernatural, like ghosts and unexplained phenomena and horror movies and books about the unexplained and hornos and stuff like that. And then I, so I started getting it, started going to heavy metal music and punk rock music, and all kinds of this junk this, this worldly horrible stuff. I mean, it would take too long to talk about it, but yeah, I was pretty much into that. That was what raised me. I didn’t really have anybody in my life, not even family members to really say that, you know, just give me a sense of worth or sense of self esteem that I can do something to my life. So basically those horror movies, those horror books, heavy metal, punk rock, pretty much raised me in.
Robbie Leaf (08:56):
And I basically grew up on that and it felt when I was bullied at school, it just felt that I just had that anger, just all that stuff, all that frustration of not feeling like I fit in anywhere, or I belonged anywhere. It fed a lot of anger and a lot of frustration, and then reinforce some of what native, native family members and native people. I was around. Like, don’t trust a white people, see, look what they’re doing. They don’t treat you right. They’re bullying you, you know, don’t trust a white people. Don’t trust nothing, anybody that’s not native. So that reinforced my anger and my hatred towards society for my youth, most of my youth. And but I came to a point I was even atheist. I didn’t believe in God. And if he did exist, I believe that he didn’t care about me or my people. So that was my mindset when I was young. Just that if there was a God, he didn’t care,
Daniel King(09:52):
You didn’t even believe that there was a God. So, so then when did you have an encounter with God? What brought you to now? You believe that there’s a God?
Robbie Leaf (10:01):
Well, like I said, I was kind of like a militant atheist. I had a little ideology of that native mindset of not trusting people, but a year before I got saved, this was in spring of 1995. I was like just into that darkness and all that depression, all that blackness. And I was cold hearted, but this man, this, this old, this elderly man came to my apartment one day. And he was cleaning the carpets and he was singing hymns, like Christian hymns. And I was like, who is this guy? You know, I was making, I was mocking him. I was making fun of him, you know, like it’s Christian Guy. And I’m like, is he
Daniel King(10:41):
Amazing sweet? Like that
Robbie Leaf (10:46):
Stuff like that? Like, who is this guy? You know? So I actually asked him if he was a Christian and he said, yes, son, I am. And I kind of like, well, I don’t believe in your white God. And I don’t believe, and your white, white man’s religion, stuff like that. And then, you know, it was like, instead of really just give it to me. Well, I probably deserved it. He was, he was like, I’m sorry, you feel that way, son. I want to pray for you and nothing. No, I’m, I’m cool. You know, but he was really gentle. I just remembered this gentle, humble man. When I was like making fun of him, he was so gentle and gracious towards me. And he said, he gave me a scripture, a piece of paper. It was scripture. And it was a poem, also a poem called a touch of the master’s hand.
Robbie Leaf (11:34):
And he gave me that, he said, son, I’m going to pray for you. You know? And Jesus loves you. And he still, no matter what you say to him, he still loves you. And he still has a plan for your life. And he walked out that door and it just stuck with me. I was, I was just lying to myself. I was depressed. I was having suicidal thoughts. And for that whole year, that man, what he just did, just his demeanor, just his presence just was haunted me, I guess you can say. So I came to the point in the spring of 1996.
Daniel King(12:09):
How old were you at that point?
Robbie Leaf (12:11):
I was 22 years old,
Daniel King(12:13):
Two years old. And you heard this man singing and you, you impacted your life. You started to think about that.
Robbie Leaf (12:21):
Yeah. I didn’t know. I didn’t want to think about it like, but something about that, man, just the presence that he held. It was like, it, it just, like I said, like kind of haunted me even when I was in my sin, haunted me. So that spring, I found myself, like I said, depressed, I had suicidal thoughts. I felt so worthless and empty and feel like trash to the world. And I found myself at night, it’s a spring and 96, one night just crying and looking in my ceiling ceiling. And I’m in my bed saying, God, do, are you real? If you’re real, show yourself to me. I don’t think you’re real. I don’t think you care about me, but if you’re real show yourself to me because I don’t want to live anymore. And I’m for two months, two, three months, every single night, I found myself doing that. This weeping like so miserable, I was wanting something real. I tried to find it in pot smoking and all these other things. And I wasn’t finding any peace. I wasn’t finding any joy, any fulfillment or worth in anything I was doing. So I found myself as an atheist, as you know, a person that hated felt like I hated God and hated Christians crying out to him. Are you real? Show yourself to me? And then like two, three months into this, something happened to me. It was him, his presence. I felt
Daniel King(13:52):
A love. I felt a peace.
Robbie Leaf (13:55):
I felt an acceptance that I never felt in the world. It was a supernatural presence of love that came into my bedroom. And I was transformed that night. Like you are real. And instead of tears of pain and suffering, I started crying tears of joy. And then that night I’m like, well, I need to go to church. I need to get my rifle. Right. And I didn’t know what church to go to, but he led me to guts church
Daniel King(14:23):
Guts church there in Tulsa, Oklahoma pastored by pastor, bill Scheer, bill share. Great man of God. I love that guy. Yes. So you went to guts church and what happened?
Robbie Leaf (14:36):
Well, it came in, they’re kind of still skeptical Cole. Like I had long hair, had sunglasses, had abandon a back pocket and wore a baseball shirt, kind of looking like a thug. I thought, Oh, the other kind of rough. So I know what to think. I went there by myself, got all this courage. I had to go in there by myself and check it out. And I just knew that I saw the love of Jesus on these kids that were sitting in the bleachers when they, when they were looking at me and just to love. And it convicted me almost like the devil that night was telling me, you don’t need to go up to the alter. You don’t need to give your life to Jesus you’re too.
Daniel King(15:15):
So the devil was whispering in your ear trying to stop you from getting saved. Yes, he was. And was the Holy spirit talking to you at the same time?
Robbie Leaf (15:23):
Yeah, that whole sermon he was doing. I felt a tug in my heart that I need to go to the altar. That, that what he’s saying, like give my life to Jesus, go to the alter, walk up there and give your life to Jesus. What the devil was lying to my head and my, and my thoughts saying you don’t need to go up there. You’re too cool for that. What are you going to do? You’re not going to be, nobody’s going to like you anymore. And I’m always going to care about you to the people I was hanging out with the old crowd of, of people that were as messed up as I was. They won’t like you anymore. So the devil was lying to me, even though I knew in my heart, I need to go up there. So there was a war in my spirit that night.
Daniel King(16:04):
And so what ended up happening who won the war
Robbie Leaf (16:06):
That night, Satan Satan won out. But when I left there, I was so convicted that every single day I’d call the guts church, the guts TV hotline, and said, I need to talk to somebody. And the, the, the, it was the receptionist or whatever. It’s like, okay, give us her your name and your phone number. We’ll have somebody call you as soon as possible. So waited. I went to work that Monday. Nobody called me. So I called again second day it’s Tuesday. I need to talk to somebody. We’ll get somebody to you. So Friday finally, I’ll call them again. And then just before I went to work, I had an evening job that night on Monday through Friday, before I went to work on Friday, a guy named Darryl called me and said, Hey, I’m, I’m calling you. And I’m wanting to just touch base with you and tell you what’s going on.
Robbie Leaf (17:00):
And I told him, I think I, I don’t know about Jesus, man. I’m, I’m just miserable. And I’m having suicidal thoughts and I’m feeling alone and misunderstood. And I don’t know about this, but I just tell me something about him. So he ministered to me and he prayed over me and he said, I wanted to meet you show up an hour before church on Sunday night. I want to meet you. And so I did. And that was Sunday night and he comes in and we talked for an hour before service. And what was his name? Darrell there.
Daniel King(17:38):
Darrell. And so you came in, you started talking to him. What, what did he say to you?
Robbie Leaf (17:42):
Basically just loved on me. I mean, like you said, Jesus loves you, man. And it wasn’t anything fancy, anything eloquent is like the love of what he would. I, when you said that I care about you and Jesus cares about you and loves you and he wants to change your life. I knew it. I mean, like he was, he wasn’t giving me some lip service. It was real. Cause I could see it the way he was talking to me. So it was, it wasn’t this basic just Jesus loves you. He has a better plan for your life than what you went through. And I believed it because I saw it as love. And that was genuine with him. That relationship with Jesus was genuine with them. Cause they exuded from that to me. So yeah, that night I went to the altar, I got saved and they were having baptism all night that night. And I got baptized.
Daniel King(18:36):
You got baptized the same night you got?
Robbie Leaf (18:38):
Yes, that was June 30th, 1996.
Daniel King(18:42):
Wow. Congratulations. What a tremendous story. And now you’ve discovered that that God has a call on your life. I heard that you went to a school down in Brownsville during the Brownsville revival with a evangelist Steve Hill, who was a great evangelist. And he called you mad dog. T tell me about that.
Robbie Leaf (19:06):
Yeah. then the mad dog named the nickname. I got right just before I got saved. I was working at ups. That was my part time job just before I got saved. So I got a reputation of a, of a short tempered and angry guy. So my supervisor at ups called me mad dog. But when I shared my testimony at Brownsville and March of 1998 I mentioned that I just kind of was making a joke on onstage about my, during my testimony to my neck, call me mad dog. You know? So from there, Steve Hill would say, mad dog that’s that’s, Robbie’s native American name, you know? But
Daniel King(19:48):
So we got Robbie, Matt dog leaf with us today, but now he is saved and loving God. But that wasn’t really your, your native American name.
Robbie Leaf (19:58):
Yeah. Till this day, people are still people at Brownsville say it’s Robbie’s native American named no, it’s just a nickname. That’s the infamous nickname I had before I got saved.
Daniel King(20:09):
Now, while you were there in school, you got to know Daniel Kolenda, who at that time wasn’t a well known evangelist. Now of course he’s become Reinhard Bonnke his successor and taken over Christ for all nations. You also knew a Russ, Russ Benson, Russ Benson, while you were there. And so what were they like when you were in school together?
Robbie Leaf (20:31):
They were, it was it’s, it’s amazing that we’re older now, but back then were, were a bunch of us were kids that just loved the Lord, but were goofy. You know, the sense of humor, those guys. I still remember that. It’s like just there, we’re all just goofy guys. Just love Jesus. We went out witnessing together and perming together, but we’re just a bunch of goofy guys that just kid around
Daniel King(20:55):
And now look at how God is so powerfully using you for preaching the gospel, you and Daniel Kolenda. And it’s amazing. All right. So, so just recently you went to South Dakota and you preach to native Americans up in South Dakota. Tell me about that. What happened?
Robbie Leaf (21:15):
Yeah, last week I was invited. I was actually originally before I got accepted to Christ nations evangelism bootcamp. This year I was on the mission field and the Jenkins sea reservation and Wagner South Dakota for 14 months. So I was there last year and the friends I made up there, they invited me there. They were doing evangelistic outreach on main street on Wagner, South Dakota. And they invited me to come and speak and preach. And I came up last week and did some outreach, did some, you know, just one-on-one evangelism here and there. And then last Saturday night around this time, actually they set all the speakers up and they had a native American worship band there leading worship and did outreach right on main street on Wagner, South Dakota, and had me preach, had me share a little bit of my testimony and preach and just, just be, just do it. There’s Wagner considered a reservation. Yeah, it’s right on the reservation. It’s like, so what’s the tribe. That’s there, it’s a Yankton Sioux, Yankton Sioux.
Daniel King(22:24):
And so how did people respond to this outreach?
Robbie Leaf (22:28):
Cool. Well, actually it was like, there was about, I’d say 80, 90 people that showed up, which is pretty good because there’s, there’s so much of a story, a backstory to it, but I’m,
Daniel King(22:40):
You had native American music from one of the church bands and then you preach, what was your message?
Robbie Leaf (22:47):
It was a tied it in some of my story of what I’m sharing with you guys. And then about how he redeemed us. Like he all he can make what we go from the old man to the new man that the old things have passed away and all things can become new in your life. And I shared mostly about any of you, maybe struggling with what I used to struggle with, with the music, with the movies, with, with sexual lust or what, or addictions or whatever, like Jesus Christ. I’ve basically just preached a simple message. Just like,
Daniel King(23:25):
How did people respond to the message?
Robbie Leaf (23:28):
There are actually a lot more responsive than I expected, because to be honest with you, some native people they’re very hostile to the Christian message. They were represented as a white man’s religion or white man’s God. And there’s so much bad, bad memories from the past of assimilation or whatever, but they actually received it very well. It was also though, they were kind of scared when it comes to the ultra call that was given, I was like, this is the first person like, they’re wait for, they didn’t want to be the first person to be up there. They were like I don’t want to be up there if you’ll go, I’ll go kind of like, there’s still that little hesitancy in that fear, I guess you could say, but it was amazing nights. Seven people got baptized at the end of the night.
Daniel King(24:19):
Wow. Seven people got baptized on the reservation. What a tremendous miracle. That’s amazing.
Robbie Leaf (24:26):
Yes. And it was a very, and that’s good. I mean, because
Daniel King(24:31):
That’s great fruit. That’s amazing. That’s wonderful. All right. I got a question for you. You’re you’re called by God to be an evangelist. And because you’re, you’re native American you are able to, to speak in a credible way to others who come from a similar background to you. Now I’m an evangelist to as you can see, I’m white. I don’t know if you can see on the podcast, but I’m about as white as they come. And you know, I’m an evangelist. And so I go to different nations and we talked to people from many different cultures, many different colors, and I love everyone. But you, you talked about how many native Americans are taught. Don’t trust white people don’t trust the government. So, so how can, can someone like me who who’s a white evangelist, who, who loves people, cares about people? What can I do to build trust with native Americans so that I can talk to them about Jesus
Robbie Leaf (25:38):
First, no agendas. Like you go in there when it comes to a native person, most native people, if you’re not native, there’ll be like, what is this non native person or white person, whether they want, they, what they want from me as not in every case, but most cases that are like, why are they, what do they want from me? So you gotta come in with no agenda. Like I’m, I’m here to love you guys. I’m here to just serve them. Whether it’s like helping, if they’re going through a hard time, helping them with groceries or a few bucks here or there, and have no agenda, like have not have nothing like trying to like put fire and brimstone or whatever, you know, just love them. Just simply just love them. Like I’m not here to to judge you or try to beat you over the head with something you got to simply just come love them and continue to love them and have them just have, have them trust you and have no agenda about it.
Robbie Leaf (26:40):
Once some people are different, more different than others. Some will open up more, but some are really so closed off. And so wounded from the past and what they’ve been indoctrinated with that you just gotta be patient. You’ve got to continue to be patient and persevere and just love them. And just, just shared a love of Christ with people before they were going to have really listened to like a gospel message, this like really intently. You’ve got to the show, I’m here to love you. I’m here to serve you. What can I do to help you and just be your friend or, or just serve them in some way. And then they’ll open up.
Daniel King(27:22):
Yeah. I heard someone say one time that people don’t care how much, you know, until they know how much you care. And so I hear you saying, number one, have no agendas. Number two, serve them. Number three, be patient number four, just befriend them. And then that’ll open up a door to, to share the gospel with them. I have two stories for you. One is a success story. One is a, an unsuccessful story. So, so the, the, the bad story first I was just last week I was participating in a food outreach where people were coming in cars and we were putting food in the trunk. And as we were giving them food, we were praying for people. And if they weren’t saved, we were telling them about Jesus, inviting them to give their life to Jesus. And so there was one man, his name was Jack.
Daniel King(28:17):
He was native American. And I ended up having a 20 minute conversation with him. Most of the cars, I would spend one or two minutes with him, pray with them, and then they’d go on their way. But Jack he, he was willing to talk for a long time and he was native American. He was, he spent some time sharing with me, some of his beliefs about how there’s a great spirit up in the sky. He told me that he doesn’t believe in the devil. He says, I’m not against Jesus, but he does emphasize that that’s not how his people get to God is through Jesus. And he also shared with me several near death experiences. He had with people that were right on the edge of death. And he got even to be in the room while they passed over to the other side.
Daniel King(29:02):
And so he was talking to me about that. And then he really resented that white people had stolen his language and stolen his culture. And so I spent about 20 minutes talking to him and I asked him if he would pray with me, the prayer of salvation and, and he declined and he wasn’t ready for that, but, but I was able to at least plant a seed in his life talking about what I believe, listening to what he believed. And I spent most of my time listening because I think by listening, it’s a good way to show that you care. Then here’s the good one time. My wife and I got to lead a teen mission trip to a reservation up in Canada and up in Canada. They call them the first nations people cause they were the first people here.
Daniel King(29:57):
And so the place where we went is called LA shh. It’s up in North, Northern Canada. And it’s a, it’s a first nations area, a very poor, lots of trouble with, with, with drugs and alcoholism and poverty. And it’s really sad, but a lot of people in that reservation struggle with depression. And there’s a split. You heard of suicide that attacked many people in that area. And we were told that in the year before we arrived, that many, many teenagers had been committing suicide in that community. And so many teenagers were committing suicide, that they actually had a tree that they called the hangings and tree. And [inaudible] teenagers had gone to this tree in hung themselves. So one did it. And then the other teenagers were coming along and imitating, I mean, negative peer pressure and they committed suicide on the same tree.
Daniel King(31:04):
So, so we went and we preach the gospel and we prayed with people for salvation. And then we took all the teenagers from that community and went out to the hanging tree. And we broke the curse of death that was over the hanging tree. And we said that Jesus died on a tree so that you wouldn’t have to die on a tree that he took the curse of sin and poverty and disease and even alcoholism and drug addiction upon himself. When he hung on the cross, he hung on a tree and he hung on the tree so that you don’t have to hang yourself on a tree and through Jesus, you can be saved. And we, we actually took note cards and wrote down on those note cards messages of hope and inspiration and hung those messages on the tree. And we said, no longer, is this a hanging tree?
Daniel King(32:12):
Now this is going to be a place of hope. And it had such a tremendous response there that we, we heard a year later, a year after our mission trip that a year later, not a single person in that entire community had committed suicide. And that’s the power of the gospel. The gospel can change people’s lives. Even people that are in difficult circumstances that are depression attacked by the spirit of suicide, Jesus can set them free. The Bible says he whom the son sets free is free indeed. And he can set you free from the spirit of suicide. So, so if you were, we were with a group of native Americans today, what message would you give to them?
Robbie Leaf (33:02):
That the same Jesus Christ that changed my life. That turned me from an atheist, a person that hated God considered that he was a white God and white P and I, my hatred of white people, if he can change my life, completely transform my thinking my life from depression, from suicidal thoughts, to joy, to peace, to loving my brothers and sisters, no matter what race they are, he can do the same thing for them to exactly even, even greater, greater things than what I’m, what I’ve been able to do. And he’s 24 years. So that’s what I would say. That he’s the same Jesus. The Bible says Jesus Christ at the same yesterday, today and forever. The same Jesus Christ Rose from the dead 2000 years ago is the same Jesus Christ. I can come in and change your life and transform every single aspect of your life. Mine, no matter what it may be. Even this area or life, what he’s done in my life, he can do the same thing in their lives. That would be my message.
Daniel King(34:07):
Wow. That’s tremendous. Robbie mad dog leave. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. I appreciate it. You are a tremendous evangelist and God is going to use you to reach many people for his kingdom. I’m very honored to have you. God bless you.
Robbie Leaf (34:26):
Thank you for having me, dr. King I’m I’m I’m. I’m just, I’m just thankful for you to have me on this podcast. Thank you so much.
Daniel King(34:33):
Absolutely. And remember everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
