Support Our Troops – with Patrick Kanewske retired USMC Colonel & Creation Speaker

[00:00:00] thanks for being here this evening my name is kevin conover i’m the host of educate for life radio down here in southern california san diego and um we

[00:00:08] are streaming all over the world and uh this will be up we along with many other shows that we have all over um

[00:00:14] on my website educate4life.org it’s also a full curriculum on there if you’re interested helping people be able to

[00:00:21] defend their faith understand their faith be able to communicate about the christian faith and so there’s all kinds

[00:00:26] of resources on the website there that you can check out and that can help you and uh you know if you know anything

[00:00:32] about san diego you know that it’s a military town uh it’s pretty um the marine corps base here camp pendleton

[00:00:39] actually has around 42 000 active duty marines and sailors and and their families also

[00:00:46] living there on base and my guest this evening it’s appropriate right it’s veterans day here so uh thank god for our veterans uh

[00:00:54] patrick kanusky served in the united states marine corps and retired at the rank of colonel after serving 33 years

[00:01:00] of active duty he holds master’s degrees in military studies systems technology

[00:01:06] and international relations and i just want to thank you so much patrick for being able to be with us this evening

[00:01:12] uh it’s awesome um i’m uh here in virginia beach uh visiting my uh daughter

[00:01:17] and her family and uh i just came back from annapolis i was in indianapolis for

[00:01:23] a couple days i went to school at the naval academy and uh i rode when i was there i was on the

[00:01:28] crew team and uh one of our buddies uh passed away a couple weeks ago so we had a memorial

[00:01:33] service for him there at the naval academy so it’s just very fortunate to be able to uh attend

[00:01:40] that uh memorial service and see all my old rolling buddies oh yeah that’s fantastic how long has it

[00:01:46] been since you’ve seen those guys um i see some of them periodically i’m involved with uh one of them uh

[00:01:54] in a a team building he has a team building company that is kind of centered around rowing so it’s called

[00:02:00] team concepts and i’ve been dealing with that company for a couple years now so i see him and

[00:02:07] i came up to pennsylvania where he lives uh last year with my family

[00:02:14] and uh so i see some of them at reunions and things like that but but not enough yeah well but the brotherhood’s always

[00:02:20] there that rowing brotherhood is just very strong and uh we we have a million stories to

[00:02:26] tell every time we get together yeah that’s for sure uh yeah i every year you know i teach at a christian school here

[00:02:32] in southern california uh with pastor david jeremiah um his the school that’s run by the church

[00:02:38] there and every year we have a veterans chapel and we had a fantastic veterans chapel uh yesterday just celebrating um

[00:02:45] you know our military and our veterans and you know one of the issues that comes up all the time is the

[00:02:51] the tragedy of just the the high rates of depression and suicide in the the military and it’s something that a lot

[00:02:57] of people are doing something about you yourself are doing um something about that and i want to talk about that this evening and give people an opportunity

[00:03:04] to get involved with what you’re doing and um to reach out and and support people who have sacrificed in a lot of

[00:03:10] ways their lives for our country and for us and um we want to be able to give back and to be able to make a difference in

[00:03:16] their lives and and help them to be able to uh you know assimilate into back into

[00:03:22] civilian life and these sorts of things so uh but i wanted to ask you about your testimony um

[00:03:28] you have an inter interest in in creation you you were involved with answers in genesis um and you know uh i

[00:03:35] read your bio a little bit of the stuff on the fibonacci numbers that’s really interesting to me too coming from an apologetics background so um but would

[00:03:43] you mind just sharing with our listeners you know your own testimony about you know growing up and then how you got

[00:03:49] involved in the military and then a little bit about you know the difference between

[00:03:55] being in the military as a christian versus being a civilian as a christian and and uh you know how our our

[00:04:01] listeners can pray for the the christians in the military service but but if we could just start with you know you’re growing up and all

[00:04:08] sure yeah i i grew up in dallas texas in dallas proper a lot of people say yeah i’m from dallas but

[00:04:14] it’s not really dallas but it’s such a huge area down there yeah i

[00:04:20] i was raised catholic and uh when i got into high school we got into public high school as kids i have seven brothers and

[00:04:26] sisters oh wow that’s a big family yeah my folks couldn’t afford the catholic high school

[00:04:32] way of doing things so we went to public high school and i started getting involved with young life

[00:04:38] in dallas and uh that’s where i got saved in young life and i was going to

[00:04:43] a pentecostal church at the time as well so the transition from catholic church so pentecostal church is quite dramatic

[00:04:50] yeah that’s for sure [Laughter] but the young life i really warmed up to

[00:04:55] it was awesome and uh you know i was in in that group with my friends and all that from high

[00:05:01] school and then uh after high school i enlisted in the navy enlisted and went to boot camp at great

[00:05:07] lakes uh up there up north very cold in the wintertime

[00:05:13] and but i graduated from great lakes and then i went to school in um

[00:05:19] it’s called a school in the navy enlisted navy uh in memphis

[00:05:25] and i kind of fell away from the church a bit i got to my first duty station and enlisted just south of boston in a place

[00:05:32] called south wales i got kind of in a rut um and then i put in for the naval

[00:05:37] academy uh in annapolis and uh when i put in for that i started to get back to church at

[00:05:44] annapolis you know i was accepted uh didn’t have to go to the prep school or anything

[00:05:49] i was a direct accession into the naval academy from enlisted which was just

[00:05:55] awesome it was a guy was really looking out for me he knew what he wanted best for me and that

[00:06:01] so i was in the choir there at the church i got into you know going to church again and and

[00:06:07] got into a couple bible studies uh at school uh i was rowing i got onto the crew team

[00:06:14] uh as a freshman as a plebe and uh rode for four years and that was that was kind of religion

[00:06:21] in and of itself and i was just surrounded by really great guys and all that uh at the naval

[00:06:26] academy so that got me back on track uh pretty much um and then so that’s you

[00:06:32] know that’s that’s uh pretty cool that you know you said you were surrounded by great guys at the naval academy and you

[00:06:38] know that got you back on track you know you hear different stories from different people some people say you know i i got in with this particular

[00:06:44] group and i totally went in the wrong direction and then um you know and we i have a lot of young students i

[00:06:51] teach 12th graders um you know a bible class and i have a lot of young men or women who are interested in joining the

[00:06:57] military had a couple that joined the air force academy uh last year and

[00:07:03] so my question is what advice would you give to a young man or woman who is considering joining the military as far

[00:07:09] as you know uh how do you determine whether you know this you know you’re going to go in a good

[00:07:14] direction you’re gonna go in a bad direction spiritually in your walk with god well it’s it’s just keep reading the

[00:07:20] word i mean i that’s that was my downfall i didn’t i didn’t stay in the word like i should have i didn’t surround myself with the people that uh

[00:07:27] believed in the things that i believed in and i just and i wasn’t going to church i kind of fell away if you don’t

[00:07:33] if you don’t have those three things going for you i mean you’re just kind of out there on an island and i was really

[00:07:39] out on an island all by myself and it’s interesting uh you know brad lambert at calvary

[00:07:44] chapel living hope there are no uh brad is an old pastor of mine when i was stationed at pendleton and he was we

[00:07:51] were talking on the phone about that the other day or texting or something about you know what how does that and

[00:07:57] he’s trying to wrap his brain around how do you mix the military with that christian life

[00:08:02] and actually uh once i got into it and i was an officer and all that it they

[00:08:08] they are not separated it’s not diametrically opposed they’re they’re really uh you can have both and it’s a

[00:08:14] really good marriage between being in the military and being a christian at the same time

[00:08:20] well that’s really interesting that’s really interesting that you say that because a lot of people they they

[00:08:26] you know their perception is is okay how do i uh you know be a warrior but at the same time be a christian and they do

[00:08:32] think that they’re you know diametrically opposed now i don’t think that at all but um

[00:08:38] can you share your thoughts on that walt’s thought was well how do you how can you be in battle and kill

[00:08:44] someone else the enemy well because uh because when you have the moral high ground when it’s a

[00:08:52] when it’s a battle it’s a it’s a righteous battle you know like like the israelites or anybody you know

[00:08:58] any of the bible uh you know biblical accounts of the battles they were righteous battles

[00:09:04] and and god was on their side and they were able to you know it’s not murder

[00:09:09] it’s it’s you know you’re it’s a it’s a righteous fight fighting for um

[00:09:15] uh you’re fighting for right so in that regard it’s righteous and

[00:09:21] it’s that’s not sin that way it’s you know we’re not trying to justify it but it’s that’s it’s the truth that’s

[00:09:28] the way it is yeah absolutely i i mean um i mean there’s super clear examples of that

[00:09:33] when you look in at things like world war ii and and um

[00:09:39] what’s going on uh between the the fundamental philosophies of these uh different nations and uh you know what

[00:09:45] they’re supporting and a lot of it’s very evil so um people in those countries can’t they

[00:09:52] can’t help themselves then you know the united states a lot of times uh we go in and we

[00:09:58] fight to fight for them we fight the good fight and it’s a lot better if we have a coalition obviously sure behind

[00:10:05] us and all that kind of stuff but uh it’s been interesting lately in the last

[00:10:10] 20 30 40 years it’s been very interesting different kinds of fights yeah yeah

[00:10:16] yeah i uh uh the speaker we had yesterday at the veterans chapel he was talking about this too and he was saying

[00:10:23] that um that the spiritual component he actually said i thought this was really interesting he said that when a person

[00:10:29] has a strong faith in god they’re actually a better uh warrior they’re a better

[00:10:35] you know whatever part of the military they happen to be in they’re actually stronger than somebody who is not they they

[00:10:41] actually have a better sense of you know trusting god through what they’re doing as well as

[00:10:48] yeah and and you know the saying is always that there’s no atheist in the foxhole

[00:10:53] uh and i think that’s part of our human nature actually that we we we want to seek strength from a

[00:11:00] higher a higher order somebody that is going to look out for us that that we know created us because we all know that we

[00:11:07] were created by a being it wasn’t just you know out of goo over yeah exactly

[00:11:13] happened over millions of years old oh here we are you know we seek that higher being to to

[00:11:19] be on our side yeah and um so you know um

[00:11:25] a few years ago i had a father and son uh chaplain father and son chaplains on

[00:11:32] the uh who were who were i believe marine chaplains uh on the radio program and they really had said that that um

[00:11:39] spiritually the military has fallen on hard times um what’s

[00:11:44] you you served for 33 years so you’ve seen any changes that have taken place in the military what’s your perspective

[00:11:50] on that well first of all the marine corps uses navies for chaplains okay

[00:11:56] we use navy chaplains so we don’t have our own chaplain core in the marine corps but um

[00:12:02] that’s interesting i think i i think part of that is the social

[00:12:09] atmosphere in the country as well like the the military’s been forced

[00:12:15] uh to have gays in the military transgenders in the military all this other kind of

[00:12:21] stuff and um you know the chaplains are still uh

[00:12:26] there’s a chaplain in every battalion if true battalions have chap and all those chaplains are assigned and all that but

[00:12:32] it’s kind of like what’s it’s kind of following what’s going on in the church too we’re not emphasizing the

[00:12:39] excuse we’re not emphasizing the gospel like we should we’re not getting back to our roots as a church and the church has

[00:12:46] fallen down in many ways so i think i think that translates to our military as well

[00:12:52] gotcha would you say that um what is the difference between being a christian as a civilian and being a christian in the

[00:12:59] military are there glaring differences in that or is it pretty much uh very similar

[00:13:05] no i don’t think there’s any different at all i mean if you’re a christian you’re a christian that’s uh

[00:13:10] there’s a set of guidelines that you go by you know the bible tells us to

[00:13:16] to read the word pray continually you know and and if you do that if you focus on

[00:13:22] the word daily you have to have you know some kind of guideposts that how you start your day

[00:13:28] if you focus on the word daily and you’re praying continually even when things are tough

[00:13:33] even when things are good going well for you then i think uh you have that kind of mindset that you can

[00:13:40] you can perform your job and you know god’s in god’s in charge ultimately you

[00:13:45] know we we know that god’s in charge of everything and a lot of times you know we have to step off smartly

[00:13:52] even if we don’t agree with the civilian leadership the civilians around the military the department is run by

[00:13:58] civilians you know and and we have to go by their rules and their uh their mission for us

[00:14:06] and you just have to trust in god that you know it’s the right thing to do and you step off smartly you know and you

[00:14:12] can make a statement and all that kind of stuff but i think the way you make your statement is if you don’t like what’s going on you just have to get out

[00:14:20] you can’t yeah and all that kind of stuff it doesn’t go well usually if you make a big stink about things

[00:14:26] yeah yeah of course yeah um so for those of you just tuning in if uh you’re just tuning my guest uh this

[00:14:33] evening is patrick kanewski uh he’s a colonel who served as a colonel for 33 years um as a united state in the united

[00:14:40] states marine corps and also his website operationhonor.org we’re going to talk about this

[00:14:45] we’re going to talk about patriots landing which is a ministry that he’s

[00:14:51] launched and which is meant to help young men and women veterans

[00:14:56] adapt to civilian life and deal with some of the struggles that um that come about because of military service and i

[00:15:03] wanted to read this stat and um patrick you can you can um chime in on this

[00:15:08] because these are the latest stats i heard um the quote was 80 of marriages right now

[00:15:15] are ending in divorce in the military that seems incredibly high according to the uso

[00:15:20] september 1st 2021 suicide rates among active duty military members are currently at an all-time high since

[00:15:26] record keeping began after 9 11 and have been increasing over the past five years at an alarmingly steady pace in 2021

[00:15:32] research found that 30 thousand 177 active duty personnel and veterans who served in the military after 9 11 have

[00:15:39] died by suicide compared to 7057 service members killed in combat in

[00:15:45] those same 20 years which would be military suicide rates four times higher than the deaths that occurred during

[00:15:51] military military operations um does that sound accurate to you i really don’t know i’m not tracking

[00:15:57] that i i do know that uh suicides are up i just get a flavor for that from what i read but i

[00:16:04] don’t know numbers exactly um that’s a tragedy and it’s a real

[00:16:09] tragedy and uh it’s i really don’t know what to attribute

[00:16:15] that to necessarily i do know that a lot of the combat that we experienced in afghanistan and iraq

[00:16:22] was tough it was it was brutal it was a lot of uh there was a lot of

[00:16:28] you know destruction and and a lot of guys died a lot of guys and girls died and it just it wasn’t a good time

[00:16:36] it was kind of a an enemy that we couldn’t see so they would it was diabolical in the

[00:16:42] way that they were fighting and all that we and we had a hard time with with the results uh from that but i i’m

[00:16:49] not tracking on the on the stats on suicides or divorces uh 80 percent

[00:16:55] that’s that’s catastrophic i mean that’s way high i don’t i’m not sure

[00:17:01] about that i’d have to do some research and look into that one yeah so so tell us about what you’re

[00:17:07] doing with um tell us about what you’re doing with patriots landing and what your vision and heart is

[00:17:12] okay about three years ago i met a gentleman named joe montgomery joe is the founder of operation honor

[00:17:20] and he started operation honor about 12 years ago and he started doing

[00:17:25] [Music] cornhole boards and [Music] helping helping different uh

[00:17:32] different uh units in in the marine corps all services actually you could go to

[00:17:38] carriers and they would have parties for that um and they were doing uh

[00:17:44] just really good stuff to help out with the troops just kind of you know meeting with them

[00:17:49] and having a good time and they were they had these drones that were flying around you could shoot at

[00:17:54] the drones and all that just oh that that’s um cool seen a drone flight around my

[00:18:01] house i and i was told that that i can’t shoot it though it was like it was like a

[00:18:07] flying kite so it was big enough that you could see it and you could you could shoot at it

[00:18:12] with a shotgun and oh wow get an indication that you hit it so

[00:18:17] that was tailgating for troops so that was a fun thing to do just kind of interact with the troops give them

[00:18:23] something to do tailgating for troops fun stuff and then one day he went to a local

[00:18:29] local to us northern kentucky williamstown kentucky area he went to the veterans cemetery that’s

[00:18:35] there and um there was a bunch of burial flag cases that were inside of the office

[00:18:41] there for the cemetery and it turned out that there was these 16

[00:18:46] flags there wasn’t anybody to give the flags to that there was there wasn’t any family members that showed up for that

[00:18:54] veteran that was buried which is kind of tragic in and of itself when he looked at looked into it further

[00:19:01] these flags were in a when a in a flag case they were in a wooden flag case and

[00:19:06] he turned it over and he saw the label on the outside and it said made in china

[00:19:12] uh he couldn’t he couldn’t deal with that so that was kind of that’s awful

[00:19:17] yeah it was kind of like a seminal event for him and he replaced all of those flag cases with flag cases that we now

[00:19:25] make in operation honor and as a matter of fact operation honor supplies the only

[00:19:31] burial flag cases to arlington cemetery wow that’s incredible so those those come from kentucky and uh

[00:19:38] it’s you know oak wood stain different colors different shades of stain

[00:19:44] and then it’s actually a piece of glass instead of a piece of plexiglass like the chinese did it

[00:19:49] so we’ve we’ve really uh upped the ante on the quality of the burial flag cases

[00:19:55] um so that’s going and then uh joe was having a uh

[00:20:02] you know operation owner was having an event in our hometown and that’s when i met him three years ago

[00:20:07] and uh from there on we’ve been fast friends and he’s always had this vision for a place called patriots landing

[00:20:15] so patriots landing we’ve raised almost all the money we need for patriots landing now

[00:20:21] that’s going to be local right around the corner from the arkan counter right is across the street from uh the

[00:20:27] veterans cemetery that we were talking about it’s a state cemetery it’s a kentucky

[00:20:33] veterans cemetery there’s four in kentucky and this this is one of them uh so right across the street beautiful location

[00:20:40] uh two and a half acres uh we’ve already signed for our building so we have a contract for a building and we’re

[00:20:46] getting our site plan together so for and we already have a carpenter shop

[00:20:52] that’s in a different county so that’s all going to be part of patriots landing it’s a it’s a veterans healing center

[00:20:59] so and and what i mean by that is you know you got the carpenter shop where the veterans can come in and make things

[00:21:06] and that’s that’s really a healing process right there they’re busy with their hands and they’re talking to other

[00:21:12] veterans and they’re signing the back of the products we have wooden flags that we make we also make patriot crosses

[00:21:20] which is a cross that has a american flag on it oh that’s fantastic really good stuff

[00:21:26] so uh we’re also going to have health and wellness classes there in the building

[00:21:32] celebrate recovery for anybody that might have addiction issues or partner with a church that’s nearby for

[00:21:39] celebrate recovery we’re going to have character building classes from the medal of honor society

[00:21:46] that’s huge this is such a huge need that you guys are fulfilling i mean that’s incredible and then listen to this though this is the best part of the

[00:21:52] whole thing i think is we are partnering with three courts uh court systems that northern

[00:21:59] kentucky county courts and they have what’s called a veterans court so if a veteran gets in trouble in

[00:22:05] northern kentucky for the most part they’re going to be able to get to go to this veterans court and the judge does this uh as a

[00:22:13] volunteer judge didn’t get paid for this veterans court and so we had a zoom with

[00:22:18] each one of these three judges and they said hurry up and open so we can send our people to you

[00:22:26] kentucky will send their people to you know when they get in trouble you know they’re putting them out in orange

[00:22:31] suits on the you know the uh highway side of the highway to pick up trash and stuff like

[00:22:36] that that’s that doesn’t rehabilitate no no people back into society so

[00:22:42] wow that’s so that is so great ability we’re gonna have a library

[00:22:48] uh we have so far we have 300 military books we’re going to probably going to be close to 500 books there for veterans

[00:22:54] to uh to read and maybe even borrow um and then we’re gonna have a garden and

[00:23:00] things like that too for uh you know just a place to meet we can kind of bounce off the ark

[00:23:06] encounter as well i mentioned that it’s kind of around the corner from the ark yeah the arc provides a 20 discount to all

[00:23:13] veterans and then three days out of the year it’s free to veterans

[00:23:18] memorial day fourth of july and veterans day today uh the ark is free

[00:23:24] uh so that’s fantastic well talk to us a little bit about that i mean that’s really interesting that you that you got involved with you know

[00:23:30] answers in genesis and and the ark encounter and everything like that um how did that all transpire

[00:23:35] well that’s that’s a pretty neat story actually we uh we raised three of our kids in homeschool

[00:23:41] and we were using the answers in genesis material for homeschooling and uh we we took a road trip in 2013 to

[00:23:49] go up and see the creation museum that was well before the arc uh yeah about so 2013

[00:23:56] uh they were having a bond initiative to raise money for the ark they were having a another money raising initiative you

[00:24:02] get a boarding pass for life for you and your kids together yeah i remember that remember when they were doing that

[00:24:08] that was awesome so we bought into all that stuff and i made friends with one of the co-founders he’s a retired army guy

[00:24:16] and as you know ken ham and his two partners came from sandy robot from institute for creation research

[00:24:22] yeah yeah we have i i there’s so much rich history i mean it actually came out of the church that i uh

[00:24:29] that i work at so it’s pretty cool well icr uh they literally 97 came to

[00:24:34] northern kentucky and northern kentucky because within a day’s drive is two-thirds of

[00:24:40] the population of the united states they wanted it accessible to people

[00:24:45] so they knew they were going to build a museum eventually the museum came up in 2007.

[00:24:51] again that’s where we went we saw this presentation met one of the co-founders and we kind of stayed in touch

[00:24:58] and i i texted him in january early january of 2016.

[00:25:03] and i said hey mike you know uh arc’s going to open this year i hope everything’s going well and he called me up a half hour later

[00:25:09] and he goes hey why don’t you come up and help us build the ark i got in my truck in january

[00:25:16] of 2016 and uh discovered the heater didn’t work a florida truck never been turned on but

[00:25:22] anyhow i’m getting up to uh northern kentucky it’s nine degrees when i got there oh my gosh

[00:25:29] well they put me in charge of a crew of guys who built all the interior walls

[00:25:35] finished them so they could install the exhibits wow so wellness had done all the timber

[00:25:41] framing the ark is the largest timber frame structure in the world uh so the amish kind of we’re working on

[00:25:48] the timber framing and we’re installing the walls and and then uh and installing all the exhibits and everything by

[00:25:54] and and it opened by the first week of july it was open so uh you know mission accomplished

[00:26:00] that’s incredible they don’t have a job and now i’m in charge of the volunteer

[00:26:05] program uh for answers in genesis and we provide volunteers to both attractions and

[00:26:12] uh it’s been pretty cool and i teach a workshop there too okay okay so we can we can come out and

[00:26:17] see you if we want yeah absolutely we we actually have overnights oh wow

[00:26:24] later to uh youth groups i mean you’re going to sleep on the floor you bring bring your own bedding you know you’re

[00:26:30] coming in probably in a vans or a bus or something like that overnights uh the program is just awesome very

[00:26:36] popular you know we separate the boys and girls on separate decks in the ark for instance you have the art

[00:26:42] to yourself so there’s not another group with you wow oh you come in and set up your uh

[00:26:48] you’re like a scavenger a scavenger hunt throughout the arc scavenger hunt on the ark at night that’s great yeah

[00:26:55] show up when we close like this time of year we close at six so you show up when we close so you’ll

[00:27:01] be traveling all day show up when we close set up your betting on deck two and three and then um you have a scavenger hunt

[00:27:08] maybe a speaker maybe a movie something like that and then you bed down and then in the morning breakfast

[00:27:14] is included and you have a behind-the-scenes uh tour of the zoo and then the ark is

[00:27:21] included for the whole that whole day that’s that is great now yeah i have a bunch of kids

[00:27:27] i have a bunch of kids uh that we just did the flood and we just finished up dinosaurs i do

[00:27:32] units on those and i i reference the the ark and everything in in kentucky and all and they’re like mr conover a road

[00:27:39] trip let’s do it so san diego that’s quite a road trip i know that’s

[00:27:45] why i’m like i don’t know if we can i don’t know if we can swing that but well brad lambert from uh cabbage chapel

[00:27:52] living hope they brought out a whole bunch of people from their church that’s great

[00:27:58] there was people that had already moved away uh there were marines actually two marine families that had moved away

[00:28:04] and uh they came and joined us in kentucky also and uh like 16 people stayed at our

[00:28:10] house we had a blast that’s so cool um so what’s that go ahead

[00:28:16] it’s doable yeah it’s doable okay we can all stay at your house right i don’t know about that part

[00:28:24] no i got a lot i got a whole lot of kids so um but uh so you know that’s interesting too you

[00:28:30] know uh coming out from a creationist perspective and everything is that you know is that kind of stuff

[00:28:35] ever come up in the military are there ever opportunities to have those sorts of discussions um you know as uh being

[00:28:42] in the military or uh how does that how does that work well maybe not for creation specifically

[00:28:48] i mean i i really didn’t get into that specifically when i was in the military

[00:28:53] but you know the bible overall we we would have uh bible studies at work and stuff like that

[00:29:00] uh quite a few duty stations i went to a lot of dues stations as you can imagine and uh some of the you know sometimes we

[00:29:08] were in garrison or even uh deployed we we’d have uh

[00:29:13] bible studies and all that so yeah that’s great well uh for those of you listening uh my

[00:29:19] guest this evening is patrick kanowski uh he served in the united states marine corps retired at the rank of colonel

[00:29:25] after serving 33 years and uh he’s also involved with answers in genesis and

[00:29:31] you know the ark encounter and all that that’s a pretty incredible what that’s also an incredible ministry and he’s

[00:29:37] also uh working on patriots landing which is a fantastic ministry that’s meant to give

[00:29:45] veterans purpose and opportunities for healing you can check some of that out at

[00:29:50] operationhonor.org and that’s a fantastic another stat here on military in the u.s

[00:29:57] there are about two million active duty men and women in the military approximately 850 000 in the reserves

[00:30:04] seven percent of the adult population is composed of veterans so you’re looking at around 23 million people in our

[00:30:10] country who have served in the military and are our veterans so we have a lot of people to be thankful for uh for their

[00:30:17] service and for providing us with freedom and liberty in this country and being able to hold our christian views

[00:30:23] without fear of uh you know uh of persecution really um and so we have

[00:30:29] a lot to be grateful for and so i just want to encourage you um if there’s if you’re looking for a ministry to support

[00:30:34] this is a great opportunity to give back and to pour into something that’s really

[00:30:40] going to provide a lot of help for people that are dealing with things like uh you know suicide ideation or

[00:30:46] depression or just trying to reacclimate to civilian life i was talking patrick

[00:30:51] to a guy the other day and he said he said you know one of the biggest things that happens in the military when

[00:30:57] you leave the military you have all this purpose when you’re in the military it’s it’s pretty i mean it’s it’s guiding

[00:31:03] everything you’re doing and then all of a sudden you’re out and all that purpose just kind of disappears

[00:31:09] for a lot of young men and women and so um you know for each one of us purpose is a driving need we we need to know

[00:31:16] okay why do i why do i live what what does god have for me what what am i doing right and so um

[00:31:22] can you speak to that you see that as one of the issues that that provides healing right well i you know you can’t you

[00:31:29] can’t like we talked a little bit a little while ago about you can’t become an island i mean in your christianity

[00:31:35] and your walk with god you can’t become an island you have to be surrounded by

[00:31:40] uh like-minded folks you have to go to church you have to assemble things like that and and the same thing

[00:31:46] goes when you get out uh there’s a lot of transition programs uh for military there’s some great

[00:31:53] programs these days for getting people plugged back in you know maybe even a a second career

[00:31:59] i mean i i needed to find purpose when i got out i got out in 2011 i had been a colonel for eight years

[00:32:06] uh you know chief of staff for guys you might recognize like general mattis and general dunford

[00:32:13] and general wallhauser those guys chief of staff for those guys and then you know it was day in and day out you know

[00:32:19] until many hours of the day so you’re kind of focused on all that and then you know you retire and it’s like you know

[00:32:25] go on a vacation and you know spend some time with your family but then it’s like okay now what

[00:32:30] yeah well what find something that you really want to do

[00:32:36] find something that’ll make you happy and give back basically i started a home

[00:32:42] renovation business i had a partner uh he had already had it for a while and i linked up with him and

[00:32:48] i created an llc warriors at work um and i home renovation business for

[00:32:54] five years then i got involved with the ark and uh now i’m really involved with uh

[00:32:59] patriots landing and uh operation honor so you just have to really you know make

[00:33:05] sure you don’t sit at home and and veg because that’s the worst thing that can happen i mean yeah

[00:33:12] somebody said their their stats about how long retirees last in the military

[00:33:18] after they get out if they’ve been in a really long time 30 years or so and they retire how long they last and it’s not a

[00:33:24] good stat not a good step but if you if you exercise your mind you know you stay

[00:33:29] with uh like-minded people and you’re you’re involved with the community and you’re giving back

[00:33:35] that’s what i love the most this is the giving back part i mean i’m i’m a total volunteer right now i’m in charge of the

[00:33:40] volunteer program with answers in genesis but i’m not getting paid i don’t have to pay taxes

[00:33:45] which is a good thing but uh you know it’s it’s the giving back part that really gives me a lot of joy right

[00:33:52] now and probably the most joy is showing people around that ark it’s just uh i

[00:33:58] love showing it off and i just all the just the the the ins and outs of how that thing was

[00:34:05] built and uh you know how noah might have done it and all that is just really

[00:34:10] that that’s what charges me up yeah that is so cool i mean what an incredible i know for all my students it just

[00:34:16] when you look into this and you study it and you just the bible just comes alive and you’re just like whoa

[00:34:22] you know this is real a lot of things in genesis that i kind of would skim over on my way to the new testament you know

[00:34:28] what i mean well does that make sense you you don’t study genesis like i should have and

[00:34:33] when if you really dive into it i mean there’s lots of details in there i wasn’t even i wasn’t tracking

[00:34:40] like the bible says it wasn’t just two of each kind it was seven of the clean kind yeah

[00:34:47] bible translations say seven pair of the clean kind so you know

[00:34:53] we at answers in genesis the guys that were studying all this for uh building the ark they said well

[00:34:58] how many animal kinds are there based on the fossil record back then yeah

[00:35:03] number of animal kinds if we take 14 which would be the most

[00:35:08] number of the clean kind and two of the unclean kind how many animals does that translate to

[00:35:15] and that’s how they came up with the number of animals we think might have been on the ark so yeah yeah

[00:35:21] approached all that uh based on what the bible said so that’s fantastic yeah i saw um i saw a

[00:35:28] map at one point in time and they had expanded beyond the ark into you know uh

[00:35:36] even a bigger park and part of it had them uh had the tower of babel uh

[00:35:41] are they gonna build it i was like man you know that that might not go well you know building the tower of babel

[00:35:48] let me tell you what that’s going to be but you’re right there’s there’s lots of room where the ark encounter is we have

[00:35:53] 800 acres there yeah the only thing about kentucky it’s like you know peaks

[00:35:58] and valleys and you know hollers is what they call them they could they’ll call them valleys

[00:36:04] in kentucky so a lot of haulers in the in the property you can’t build in these things oh interesting the flat space is

[00:36:11] where the ark is and room enough to expand so there there’s ideas for uh like a

[00:36:17] jerusalem village and and a tower of babel eventually i mean i’ve seen drawings for

[00:36:24] some concepts and stuff like that so it’s being thought about right now but what that’s going to concentrate on is

[00:36:31] okay from really basically from the six people that were on the ark

[00:36:37] no and his wife there’s no record that they had any kids after the arc landed but they had three sons and three

[00:36:43] daughters-in-law from those six people comes the nearly eight billion people that are on the

[00:36:49] earth right now right yeah so the next biblical account after the flood

[00:36:55] is the biblical account history of what happened at the tower of babel they

[00:37:01] the mankind you know the people that were uh you know they just kind of congregated around that area they built

[00:37:06] this tower and and god came in and said oh no no you got to populate the earth get out of here

[00:37:12] uh and he confused the language and all that kind of stuff yeah the origin of all the languages right

[00:37:17] yeah that and our skin color so we’re going to feature that quite a bit about

[00:37:22] our skin color and you know one race one blood that’s a book that ken wrote with uh another

[00:37:29] gentleman and one race one blood we we are one race we don’t they’re not separate races yeah that’s different

[00:37:36] pigment in our skin color based on the amount of melanin that’s underneath your epidermis so the melanin determines how

[00:37:43] dark you are uh now if you were white like if you were a piece of paper white

[00:37:48] you better call 911. yes you have you have no melanin

[00:37:54] we’re not white brother yeah but we are like a light shade of brown

[00:38:01] and uh you know darker people are just darker but they have more melanin in their skin so we’re going to feature

[00:38:06] that one race one blood and aspects that revolve around

[00:38:12] how did we become the people that we are in the world right now yeah that’s a powerful message that’s that’s greatly

[00:38:18] needed right right now with everything that’s happening in our culture and everything so that’s really cool well uh patrick

[00:38:26] i’m so grateful for you being able to be on the program here this evening and and we’re just about out of time here

[00:38:31] but i just wanted to say thanks a lot uh for being here but also really for your 33 years of service that’s incredible

[00:38:37] and what you continue to do even beyond the military so thank you so much for everything you’ve done

[00:38:43] that’s great if anybody is planning on coming to northern kentucky the ark encounter or the creation museum

[00:38:50] uh to you know everybody knows who i am so just say hey i want to see patrick and they’ll call me up and i’d be glad

[00:38:57] to meet him and show him around oh i’d love that i’d love that for those of you uh that are are

[00:39:03] here maybe you tuned in at the end i just want to let you know our guest was patrick kanewski this evening and um

[00:39:09] united states marine corps colonel 33 years of active duty patriots landing is

[00:39:14] the ministry that they’re launching if you’re interested just get a hold of him you can get a hold of him through answers in genesis.org you can also

[00:39:22] check out operationhonor.org that’s a great opportunity to give back to our veterans who have sacrificed so much and often

[00:39:29] are are in need of healing and help and uh that’s a great opportunity there to give back so i hope you’ll do that and

[00:39:36] we’ll be back again next week with another fantastic show we have some really exciting guests coming up

[00:39:42] we have abortion survivor coming up next week and we’ll be talking about what’s happening at the supreme court and in

[00:39:48] texas there are huge things happening that are really really good and we just got to keep praying hard and doing our

[00:39:53] best to support those who are on the front lines fighting the good fight so god bless you i hope you have a fantastic evening and i look forward to

[00:40:00] being with you next week take care

[00:40:13] you