When Tragedy Strikes: The Story of Kirk Black | Ep. 42

Cayla Valdez: Well, welcome to this episode of Divine Discourse. My name is Dr. Erby Valdez, and I am joined by a longtime friend and brother in Christ, Mr. Kirk Black. Thank you for having me. Yeah, Kirk. ⁓ it's been it's been some time. We've been talking about doing this podcast for for some time and and ⁓ full disclosure out there, Kirk isn't just some strange visitor here or some special guest, even though you are a special guest. ⁓ you and I have been friends for over fifteen years, ⁓ long time. In fact, ⁓ when my wife and I first were called to start the church, y'all were there for that very first service. Very first service. And then you and your family, y'all prayed on it and eventually y'all, y'all said, Hey, I think we're gonna come and we're gonna ⁓ join that family and we're gonna ⁓ continue to support the church. And so we have a a long history together, a long friendship and ⁓ we share in our pain of the Cowboys ⁓ and and all kinds of other things. Right now we're hurting from the the Spurs first, right? I mean first loss ⁓ for this ⁓ NBA final so ⁓ yeah, so we've we've had a long road. ⁓ your wife and my wife are really ⁓ close friends. And of course your daughter, Marali, is about my daughter's age, and so we have a lot in common. That's right. And ⁓ in fact, with that being said, congratulations, I think, are in order because I think your daughter just recently got engaged. She did. She's ⁓ been dating a great guy for the last seven years. Wow. Yeah. ⁓ they were high school sophomore sweethearts, ⁓ graduated. They wanted to do it right, didn't want to get married until ⁓ or even get engaged until they finish college. ⁓ so they both finished here this last December and here in about three, four weeks ago, they they he finally popped the question. So you see, that's a testimony to godly parenting there for you and and your wife because ⁓ they wanted to do it right and and so and so it should be right. But, you know, and we live in a culture today where, you know, young couples are moving in. And ⁓ well, we're gonna first live together for a while. That there's no biblical model for that. In fact, that's ⁓ that's the total wrong model. ⁓ you know, so to wait and to be ⁓ faithful to the Lord and the process and to trust in his design, that's that's the way to do it. So ⁓ kudos to that. And yeah, and I know Josh, the the ⁓ fiance, he's a great guy. He's been, of course, attending our church as well. So congratulations are in order. All right, now before we begin, I got I gotta I gotta put this out here. Okay. Now, let me tell you some of my previous guests that we've had here. Okay. Okay. We had Dr. Stanislav Contrat. He's one of the world's leading experts in biblical Greek. Okay. We had Dr. Brian J. Crawford. Okay. He's the world's leading Christian apolog, one of the world's leading Christian apologists to the Jewish people. Which, by the way, Dr. Crawford, thank you again for joining us and doing that that podcast. The amazing we went to lunch afterwards. You know, you ever sit down with people and you hear 'talk, you're like, man, this dude's way smarter than me. And you're just trying to keep up. That that that's him. ⁓ Dr. Lewis Marcus, ⁓ leading scholar in Greek philosophy and Christian theology, the merging of those. And he's a professor at ⁓ Houston Christian University. So we've had some stellar guys, okay? Now, Kirk. This is where it goes down. This is is this is this the Kayla, is this the end of our podcast here? Hey, you know what? People don't do any fact checking. Let's make him the president of Tunisia. Can we do something like that? They're not going to fact check it. So So Kirk, please don't embarrass us today. All right. Can we step it up? No, hey, listen, I was ⁓ I was thinking about what's gonna be the title of this ⁓ podcast. So I had I had three options. Okay. The first one is The Godly Goofball and Interview with Kirk Black, or Heaven Really Will Take Anybody and Interview with Kirk Black. Amen. But I settled on this one in all seriousness, Faith That Overcomes. And I think that that is a perfect ⁓ title for what we're gonna discuss because Brother, you have an amazing testimony. You really do. Your story is amazing. And really, that's why I wanted to invite you to the podcast because ⁓ true to the ⁓ to the to the desire of this podcast, when we started it, our one aim was to to glorify Jesus and in everything that we do. So it's your story, but honestly, it's Jesus' story in you and through you, right? And you, man, you have lived a full life. And ⁓ you're a great storyteller. So how many times, you know, we just heard your story and and in all actuality, it's his story completely. Amen. It's not my story. Yeah. And that's really, really what a testimony is. It's not about what what you've done, but what God has done through you and for you. Yeah. And and and man, you had your share of struggles in your early life. Well, we're gonna talk about all that, you know. So ⁓ because I know you've had your your setbacks, ⁓ you were a professional athlete in your ear earlier life and You suffered a terrible accident and you were a professional athlete, not just in one sport. I mean, you're just a natural athlete. And so this accident that left you paralyzed, ⁓ for a lot of people, ⁓ they would have quit on life. They would have said, Okay, well, my my life ended right here. And ⁓ I think that's why I wanted people to hear this story because there were several times when you almost died. And and I know that recently, even the here in the last a couple of years ago, ⁓ you you had to go through a serious surgery that almost took your life. ⁓ and ⁓ it was difficult for me as your pastor and your friend to go to go through that with you and to see ⁓ you ⁓ fight through that. But man, you're a fighter. You're a fighter ⁓ in every sense of the of the word. And you rose above all of these things. And you even went as far as qualifying for the Olympics. So we're gonna talk about that. ⁓ and so throughout everything, the one thing that you always say gave you strength is your faith in Christ. And I want people to hear your story today because ⁓ especially for those who have suffered setbacks, there are people out there that are gonna hear this, ⁓ brother, that have gone through some some struggles, some setbacks, some some events, major life events that many maybe people hearing out there today, ⁓ it stops for me here, or here's where it ends. And you are a story that says, ⁓ no. In fact, right when you think it's over, that's when the God of the story begins. Yeah, yeah. And so ⁓ that that's where I want to hand it over to you now. ⁓ I I want to start with you deciding where you want to start, but basically where does your walk with Christ begin? Where does the story begin when it comes to ⁓ and I'll let you choose where to start, but but ⁓ tell us about your story and where you want to start and and we'll go from there. Sure. So I let's just start at the beginning. I I'm a I'm a born Texan. I was born in Deer Park, Texas, Pasadena ⁓ area, near Houston. We moved all over the United States. ⁓ my my parents had ended up getting divorced when I was five. ⁓ so I come from a broken home. ⁓ my mother ended up getting remarried shortly after, and we moved from we moved from Texas to Colorado, to Colorado to Arizona. and Arizona is truly where my Christian life began. I went to a vacation Bible school when I was about eleven or twelve years old. and ⁓ that's when you know Christ came into my life, asked him to be, you know, my savior. Was it like a sermon that you heard or was it? It was it it was through a class. It was through a class and and they were talking about things that I didn't understand at first, and I stayed after. And ⁓ talked with a teacher for a while and ⁓ and then eventually ⁓ it was really amazing because the day that I got baptized, ⁓ my brother and sister came forward. Wow, and they accepted Christ as well. So yeah. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. ⁓ however, we were we were very faithful in the church f for three or four years. And then when we moved back to Texas, we fell away from the parents fell away from the church. I fell away from the church. ⁓ I was in high school. ⁓ that's when I started drinking, you know, typical high school kids drinking, that kind of stuff. Nothing really out of control. ⁓ lived in a small town outside of Austin. And there wasn't much of a future there for me. So I ended up deciding that I was going to sign up for the military when I was 16 years old, ⁓ in the tenth grade, signed up for the military and ⁓ it was the army, right? It was in the army into the delayed entry program. And ⁓ immediately seven days after graduating high school, off to the off to the military. Wow. And ⁓ so I don't know, ⁓ you know, I was in a relationship prior to that. ⁓ with a girl with this girl and ⁓ it was kind of an on again, off again relationship. And I went into the military and felt lonely and long story short, asked her to marry me. ⁓ we got married ⁓ right out of basic training and ⁓ we ⁓ ended up having a beautiful daughter. ⁓ okay. Now pause, you're talking about Paulina. No. I'm talking about my first wife. Your first wife, okay. Yeah. Okay. So so you had gone into the military and was it hard to transition over? Because I mean, you know, you're talking about boot camp and people screaming in your face. So I enjoyed that part of the military. Okay, because that that was me. That was my what I signed up for. That's what I expected. Be because literally that's you know, what in the tenth grade, you you you're know what you're getting into, or you think you know what you're getting into, and you're preparing for for two years for it to come. Gotcha. So it's not like I signed up and then just a couple weeks later I was off and somebody was screaming in my face. Yeah. It was I prepared for it for two years and it came. And I was, you know, I was a great athlete. I, you know, I played football, basketball. ⁓ you know, I what I didn't say earlier was that I started racing ⁓ well started riding motorcycles when I was six or seven years old. So riding motorcycles, playing basketball. In fact, you had played some serious ball with some serious players, too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I ended up in high school, played with Shaquille O'Neal. ⁓ I against Shaquille O'Neal, not with him. Yeah. ⁓ I was in a tournament one time and played against Shaquille O'Neal. ⁓ he wouldn't know who I was from Adam, but but ⁓ we have home videos of it. ⁓ you were all around athlete then. So I was a pretty I was a pretty good athlete. And ⁓ you used to coaches screaming in your face, so that's probably why it was not a problem. Yeah, it was the it was the ne natural progression of of things. Yeah. So so so this is about the time you got married, you said, and you had your child, right? That is correct. And ⁓ and then the Gulf War came around. And ⁓ so when the Gulf War was came around, I was actually shipped off ⁓ I was away from home for many months. And ⁓ I would just say that things didn't work out well between ⁓ two of us. And long story short, ⁓ we ⁓ end up getting a divorce. And ⁓ but I have this beautiful daughter named Ashley. ⁓ she was my my my first and ⁓ I I love her to death. When I first divorce her mother or her mother and I divorce, ⁓ my drinking becomes out of control. ⁓ in the military it got out of control. In the military that's a lot of drinking. There's a lot of drinking in the military. In high school was one thing, but military stepped it up. And then I go through a divorce and it stepped up tenfold. And ⁓ I go through a lot of depression I actually almost ⁓ committed suicide. It was a tough time in my life at that point. Yeah. Were you ⁓ able to see Ashley during this time or were you all kind of separated at this time from I was separated from her at that time? From service and and distance and so forth? It wasn't for distance. It was that I couldn't be around her mother. Yeah. It was a lot of heartache. ⁓ it it hurt a lot. And ⁓ so Long story short is I one day am with a friend of mine and we're drinking and we start talking about politics of all things and we get in an argument. He was a very good friend of mine. ⁓ we we get in this argument. ⁓ all I remember is grabbing a lot of beer and loading up my truck with a hag of clothes, and I set off. It was in January. This is up in Oregon. ⁓ it's snowing. ⁓ All I could see was the sides of the roads where you would dip off, but you couldn't see the road itself at all. Wow. ⁓ I wake up, which I think is the next day, and ⁓ I sit up in my truck and I realize that I I'm not in Oregon. I don't know where I'm at. What in the world? And I drive, I'm in a rest stop. And I drive out of the ref stop and I'm in Wickenburg, Arizona. You drove from Oregon to Arizona completely drunk. Blacked out. Don't remember him a bit. Wow. I don't know how I did it. Just by the grace of God that I made it. Yeah. That's right. So what's interesting is that I I end up calling up my sister who had to was living there in Arizona. And I tell her, I said, hey, I said, I'm I'm in town. Do you mind if I do you mind if I just drop by for a little bit? I planned this all the time. That's right. Plan this coming. And she says, come on. And so I end up going. And again, continue still drinking, what have you. But I am at this point feeling a tugging at my heart, knowing that I need to change my life. And it just so happens that I'm two miles away from the church that I was baptized in. Wow. It's almost like the Lord in all of that brought you exactly to the place you needed to be. And so one Sunday I went to church there. And I just gave my life up to Christ and I said, Lord, I I can't stop drinking. I'm a mess. I need your help. Please help me in this situation. And I'll be obedient in everything that you ask me to do. That was in nineteen ninety seven and that was the last day I ever drank. Yeah. Praise God, man. Congratulations. And it was interesting because literally within a month of me stopped drinking, I'd gotten me a job. I had an apartment. And within a month after that, my daughter came to live with me full time. Wow. That's how quickly God can turn things around. Turn it around quick. Yeah. And so ⁓ it was faithful. I was going to church every Sunday, every Wednesdays, ⁓ really trying to be be as obedient as I could. I was still a very much baby in Christ at this point. Even though I had become a believer when I was eleven or twelve years old, I was a baby in Christ. And ⁓ I got invited to go on a mission trip. To Mexico. And I thought to myself, ⁓ what am I going to do on a mission trip in Mexico? I don't understand Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. You know, what am I going to do? And they said, Don't worry about it. You're just going to help facilitate things and ⁓ it'll work out just fine. And I said, Okay, well, I I drugged my feet for a little bit and then finally I gave in. I said, Yes, Laura, okay, I'm going. So we go down to Mexico and ⁓ as soon as we get there to the airport, ⁓ the pastor that came to pick us up, his truck had caught on fire and all the wiring inside the truck burn up. And I thought, Lord, this is why you brought me here. I'm a I'm a mechanic. I was a helicopter mechanic at the time. ⁓ this is why you brought me here. I'm gonna I'm gonna rewire this past this guy's truck and get it going for him again. And That's literally what I did for the week. However, God had bigger plans than just a truck for me. that first Sunday morning, ⁓ we went to church with ⁓ with the the the Spanish church down there. And I hear these kids screaming and yelling in this one little room. And so I walk over to the room and I look in the window. And I see this young lady in there that's teaching these kids, and she's waving at me to come into the room. And I turned around and I walked away from there as fast as I could. Coward. Big coward. I thought, what am I gonna do? I don't speak any Spanish. Please don't ask me to come in that room. Lord help me. So I see her throughout the week. And ⁓ On the last day before we leave, I get up the nerve to go over to her and there you go. To talk to her a little bit, as much as I could, got her email address. Now that's impressive with limited like I figured don't está la biblioteca, that's about it. But no, no, you did it. I ended up getting it. Now, this is in the time when this is in 2000 and Back then there was no Google Translate. There was no the internet was as basic, it was dial up, especially down there in Mexico, dial up ⁓ connection. ⁓ it was as basic as basic could be. Yeah, you're on your own. And you're on your own. And so I get back to Arizona and I start emailing this young lady, and I don't hear anything from her for probably a month or a month and a half. I just thought she just not interested in me or whatever, but I kept writing every day. I'd write her. Every day I'd write her. And then finally one day, I broke her down, I guess. She wrote me back, and we would get into this little chat room. And back then there was no messenger, MSN messenger or anything like that. So we'd get into these little chat rooms and we would ⁓ get into what they called a private chat room so we could sit there and talk back and forth. And there was a lot of I love you. No, I love you. No, I love you. That was about all we knew as far as in s in Spanish and English. And ⁓ I went down to Mexico three times ⁓ visiting. And on the third time I'd asked her to marry me. And ⁓ she of course accepted and we got married ⁓ that same year. So I met her in March, saw her three times, and we got married in November. This is 97. This is 2000. I've been 2000. I'm sorry, 2000. Okay. This is in 2000. We get married. And ⁓ we get married first in Texas out in Kerrville. And and then three weeks later, ⁓ So we get married in t in in Kerrville and I had set up this beautiful evening for us to be alone together. Up until this point, we had had chaperones our whole time. There was no old school, man. It was old school. Yeah. Brothers, ⁓ cousins, so everybody, somebody's there with you all the time. And so I shut up this this beautiful hotel for us for a honeymoon night, you know, first evening together. And she goes, What do you mean? I said, well, you know, for our first night together. And she goes, Well, Kirk, I can't do that. I said, Well, you can't do what? She goes, I can't sleep with you. Otherwise, I can't wear white at my wedding in Mexico. ⁓ now there's a wedding in Mexico. And I said, Okay. Well, here we go. Two weddings. So there was two weddings. three weeks later, I went down there and we had our our our wedding in Mexico. ⁓ and then we start off on our journey. So ⁓ we're married. ⁓ language is getting a little bit easier, it's still very difficult. ⁓ but the Lord was there with us the whole time. I used my Spanish English dictionary to get me through. That's how we talked. Just so you know, ⁓ my wife's summiguel the Allende that I mean I I I thought I knew Spanish. I did the same thing when I met my wife. She didn't know a lick of English, we're very limited. I did and I thought I knew Spanish. I didn't. When I when I was first talking to it's like, what language are you speaking? 'Cause it ain't Spanish. And I was with my little Spanish diction an English dictionary. ⁓ so yeah, I can relate to that desire to want to communicate right. ⁓ but but the love that was there, the desire to know each other. I I'll tell you to even to this day, my Spanish is not the greatest. But you think it's but she and I can communicate really well. Yeah. And ⁓ And and when we're around her family or something, they'll look at us like Wha what language are y'all speaking? Your own language. It's our own language. That's right. Yeah, me and Mighty the same one. So so how was your how is because you had said you were a babe in Christ, you know, at this time, ⁓ you have Ashley living with you and you know, you're walking with the Lord, you had quit drinking, you get married. Do you feel like at this point in your life your relationsh your walk with Christ, your relationship with God is is healthy and good? It's getting It's getting better. Much, much bet much better. I think that when first of all, my wife is a an amazing Christian lady. And ⁓ I thank her every day for keeping me on the short and narrow. You know? Because she was a strong woman and she has taught me so much over the years. Yeah. She really has. So many good wives out there like that. ⁓ many men ⁓ you could say the same. Yep. And so ⁓ so anyways, yeah, it's getting better. ⁓ I'm going to a well when we first get married, we start going to a Hispanic church. ⁓ and it's an all Spanish church. And so she's getting fed, but I'm not really getting fed. And so we do that for I don't know, maybe six, seven months. And then we went to a Caucasian church, and then she's not getting fed, but I'm getting fed. It was really difficult at first. ⁓ and then literally six months into our marriage, she ends up getting pregnant. and it ended up being a baby that we lost. I'm sorry to that. Yeah. And it was a tubal pregnancy. And ⁓ the doctors told us that we should not even try to have a baby for a minimum of a year. And ⁓ and then that's when six months later, I'm out riding my motorcycle. First of all, we go to church that Sunday is a Sunday morning, and ⁓ the pastor is reading out of the book of Job, and the message is called. When tragedy strikes. This was a Sunday. It was a Sunday. Before you go out there on motor. Because you're still you're still at this time, you're still actively riding bikes. Competit competing? Competing. Wow. Okay, so you're still actively competing. This is like semi pro kind of deal, right? Semi pro. Yeah. And and ⁓ wow, brother. So the that Sunday before. Were they at church? When tragedy strikes. When tragedy strikes, and it's ⁓ he's reading from Job. And ⁓ the The gist of the message was, is there anything that could happen to you that would pull you away from God? ⁓ When we prayed over that, when I was praying through that, I remember getting this sense of peace over me and this warmth that just flowed for through me. And at that moment I didn't know really what it was. And then two hours later, I'm out riding my bike. I don't know what happened, but I remember waking up and there was people all around me telling me to be still, don't move, and that ⁓ the ambulance ambulance was on its way. And at that moment That same sense of peace. It's like God saying, I'm here. Yeah. I'm here with thee. Gotcha. And ⁓ little did I know that my life had completely changed at that very moment. ⁓ I am now what they call a T four, T five paraplegic, which means that most people think as a paraplegic is that it's ⁓ it's waist down. However, it's depending on where you break your spinal cord, is of course where you lose your ⁓ your movement. And mine stops right at just about chest level. So I'm a very high level paraplegic. So it's not waist down for you, it's from the lower chest. I'm always leaning on something because if I pick my hands up, I don't have any stomach muscles to help sit me up. Yeah. So the you like the abdominal muscles, that that that control of that is a big deal. Yeah. Yeah, that's your core. The whole core no core muscles at all. Wow. Yeah. ⁓ and so I there I am. ⁓ I'm in the emergency room. I'm in the ICU. They've done the surgery now. ⁓ and my wife walks in. Now this is six months after she'd lost the baby. Six months later, she's you know, here I'm in the ICU. And she walks in and she hands me a pregnancy test. Well. And so my wife is now pregnant with our one and only daughter daughter together. ⁓ and it was a blessing. I mean, in a time of tragedy, God gave me something to distract me and to let me know that things are gonna be just fine. And ⁓ so anyways, ⁓ she has the baby, you know, I'm home alone taking care of her, you know, I'm in bed. So the first year of my ⁓ injury, I'm in bed twenty four hours a day. Can't can't get out of bed. Too much pain to get out of bed, hurt. I live I'm living out in the country and There's really not anything for me to do as a new entry out in the country. Don't have wheelchairs to get out into the dirt and this, that, and whatever. And so I'm in bed 24 hours a day. And so my wife would go to work and there I was with my daughter in bed, you know, changing her when she needed to be changed. And ⁓ I we my wife would set up the whole bed with all the the food and whatever needed to be taken care of, you know, to feed her and it what have you. And I would play dad, you know, the whole time and ⁓ literally I know that's what caused my daughter and I to be so close all these years. Yeah. Is that time to be with her as most fathers don't get that opportunity to spend with their with their daughters that close ⁓ the the you know the whole time they're growing up. Well you know ⁓ I go back to the fact that literally just hours before you had this tragedy that the Lord put that message. ⁓ and and and that says something because it's not the week after, it's the you know the the just the moments before. ⁓ and those are the testimonies that say and remind us, you know, God doesn't and this is important for people out there to hear and understand, God doesn't guarantee that life is going to be easy when we've when we make our commitment to faith. In fact, Many times it's the very opposite. ⁓ it's a call to suffering and self sacrifice. And but what he does promise is that he'll be with us every step of the way. Yeah, you always hear that saying, God will never give you any more than you can handle. Yeah, no. Yeah, that ain't true. That ain't true. That is not a true story. Yeah, yeah. Because and I said this to the to the church. I go, just stop saying that. ⁓ God will give you never give you more than you can handle. If that was true, then we would never need God. That's right. No, constantly. And if you look through the through the biblical witness, the scriptural witness is he does give us more than we can handle so that we can rely upon him, so that we can call to him. ⁓ i it it wasn't it wasn't ⁓ as David says whenever ⁓ you know we he steps out on the valley of Ela to slay Goliath. It doesn't say, Hey, ⁓ God has given me, you know, over to you because of my strength. It's like, no, I come to you in the name of the true Lord God, Jehovah God, you know. So it's it's through him and by him that we're able to overcome. And so I think that's Same here for you, man. It absolutely is. Yeah. Yeah. I there's no way I could have done any of this without him. So so let me ask you this. ⁓ did were you angry at God? Were you frustrated? Were you shaking your fist at God and saying, Lord, why me? or I never went through a a why me stage. I never was angry. ⁓ I was surrounded by people who loved me. I know that I I mean I just knew that God was there and was going to take care of things. I never once doubted anything. I think that's a source of ⁓ of great inspiration for you because since I've known you, two things I've known about you. you you because a lot of times when people have setbacks, one of two things will happen. They'll get angry at God or they'll take on a a spirit of self pity. And I've never known you to feel sorry for yourself. No. No. It's like, no man, they ain't got just for that garbage. We got another day. There's another day coming. Yeah. Lord willing. Yeah. Amen. That's right. Amen. So what then? So interesting enough, ⁓ we move from the country here to San Antonio. Okay, what year is this? This is 2002. Okay. 2003. We move here to San Antonio, and I start going to the VA hospital. And ⁓ Thank the Lord that I was a veteran. ⁓ we start going to the VA hospital. I didn't even think I could get care there ⁓ because I wasn't in the I didn't have my injury while in the military, but they ⁓ you still can go and get your your care there. So I start going to the VA hospital and I meet this gentleman there that is in charge of outpatient rec therapy. His name is Jose Laguna. And he had been the rec therapist there for many years. And ⁓ he says, Kirk, what do you think about wheelchair sports? It's like, hmm. And it's not anything I'd ever thought about before because that's not what most people don't think about wheelchair sports. And I thought, okay, well, let's let's see what's available. And so he started having me coming out and doing sports ⁓ track and field events. And so I did we trained for six, seven months, and I went to what's called the veteran wheelchair games. And it's veterans, all types of veterans and wheelchairs across the nation. There's probably four or five hundred vets that come and compete in all different classes and from amateur up to Olympians. And you go in there and you compete and I do the shop put discus and javelin. And I end up and I finished third in all three c all three ⁓ events. ⁓ and everybody's like, Well, that's really good, Kirk. That's really good. And I said, Yeah, but that was only three people in my class. Well you see, you don't have to say that far. You don't have to say that far, but you got to be truthful. Yeah. And so I quickly realized, okay, this is not my event. So let me try something else. And so thereafter, I tried ⁓ Archery. And so I started shooting archery and I figured out that, you know what, I'm not too bad at ⁓ archery here. And over a year or two that goes by, ⁓ I end up making the military ⁓ it's their military program that helps lead them to the Olympics. And ⁓ I am now competing at ⁓ with Olympic athletes. ⁓ wow. In the in the sport of archery, and I did that for three years. ⁓ until one day I go to an event called the Winter Sports Clinic. And at the Winter Sports Clinic, you're up there and you're skiing in Colorado. We go snow skiing for a week. ⁓ and on your days that you're not snow skiing, ⁓ you get to go out and try different sports. And ⁓ one of those sports happened to be called the sport of curling. I thought I don't know what I don't know what curling is. What is that? And ⁓ so I go out and I try it and I'm out there for about ten minutes and this coach walks up to me and he says, Hey, he says, You're pretty good at this. How long have you been doing it? So so what's what's curling? I mean for the people out there now, I I know because I've been following you. Yeah. But for the person who's never heard of curling, give us a quick summary of what that is. ⁓ I would say that most people would call it shuffleboard on ice. Shuffleboard on ice. Okay. That is a good Kind of gives a description. It's way different than that. But for the that's the one where the people are sweeping right in front of you. That is correct. Right? Yeah. They're throwing 42 pound stones 150 feet down the ice to a target and the scoring zone can be within is measured. Sometimes stones are measured to down to the tenth of a thousandth of an inch. Wow, because that's how how close they're close. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, ⁓ Standard curling has the people with like the sweeping the eyes to make it flow and earth, but you don't get to do that. That's correct. You don't have that. So you have a disadvantage compared to the standard sport. Yeah. So it in able body curling, the person throws the stone. They have two other people that sweep their stone. And what that does is it it helps it to drag it further down the ice. So if maybe if they didn't throw it hard enough, it can get it 15 feet. for they can by sweeping it they can sweep it fifteen feet closer than had it would it you know without it without it being swept you don't and you you have to be all and in wheelchair curling it's all you yeah yeah so we're not as accurate but it's a much tougher sport. Sure. And so ⁓ he says hey he says you're pretty good at this he says ⁓ how long you been doing this I said I don't know about 10 minutes and he goes really he says well I gotta get you involved in this and so ⁓ they brought me out to Lake Placid. I played on the ice where the miracle on ice took place there in Lake Placid in the in the nineteen eighty-four Olympics, I believe, something like that. And was there for a week, fell in love with the sport, came home, was home ⁓ here in San Antonio for about two weeks, ⁓ when the coach called me up and he says. ⁓ Mr. Black, he says, we would like you to be a part of our developmental team. However, you've got a choice to make. He says, Winter Olympians don't come from Texas. And he says, So you've got to move. And I thought, ⁓ my goodness. So we we prayed about it. We talked it over. And ⁓ my wife and I, and ⁓ you know, we pulled my daughter out of school. We moved up to Wisconsin. We were there. We thought we'd go for six months. We'll see how this works out. If it works out okay, great. If it doesn't, six months we be back, we'll be back home and no problem. And within being there a month, I was invited to a tournament in New York, ⁓ competing against ⁓ every nation. ⁓ that showed up for that event. ⁓ Scotland and England and you know J Germany and all these countries. Does Mexico have a curtain? Yes. No. They have rocks. They have rocks but different kind of rocks. Yeah it's too hot down there. Yeah. So ⁓ so I'm competing. So here I am. I'm going there to compete with these all these Olympic countries. And and they put me together with Three other guys, because it's a four-man team, put me together with three other guys, and they say, Kirk, you're gonna be the captain of the team. And I said, I've been curling for a month and I don't know anything about this sport still. And he goes, You're gonna be just fine. In our second game, we play Team USA and we beat them. One. Yeah. And from that moment on, I was I was all in. I was all in. Yeah. I was excited. So, so You ⁓ took a natural ⁓ I guess you could say natural take to this sport, right? Yeah. How long were you involved in that sport in total? Like how long? Like two, how many years? Four years. Four years. Four years. So the first year I couldn't compete for the national team because of the way the timing was. ⁓ The next year I made the team USA, ⁓ competed in Switzerland. The next year we competed the world championships were in ⁓ Korea. ⁓ and then the ⁓ and then I made the Olympic team as captain of the US Olympic team ⁓ in 2018 in Pyongyang, South Korea. Wow. So 2018, team captain. Yeah. Bro, so you you know, you think about your journey leading up to now. Okay. Now I wanna put this, I wanna zoom out now. Looking back, there's no way you could have ever imagined, like, okay, look where I'm at now. What would you say to the person who's hearing this, maybe out there? And they just had their Jobe moment. And then they're hearing your story. And think about the the setbacks, the pain, the sorrow, the suffering, everything you went through. And the person hears you say this and they say, I'm in my job moment right now. And I'm hearing Kirk Black, captain of the US Olympic team. Okay, you remember I told you all these other guys, don't embarrass me. You didn't embarrass me, man. You're right there. Now I want to be telling the next person, hey, I had the captain of the US Olympic team here. ⁓ what would you say to that person? Like, how can I get from here to there? Because that seems like an insurmountable. I mean, that that's an incredible, that's a miraculous return. That's a That's incredible. What would you say to that person? Stay in the word. Grow your faith. Know that he loves you and he's gonna take care of you. You might not have the exact you're not gonna have the exact same path as me, but it's gonna be a perfect path that he has laid laid out for you. And this is this is why I wanted you to share your story. ⁓ because And and and correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I don't think you will. The the the the the the news here, the the celebration, the victory here isn't the fact that you made the US Olympic team and became the captain. The the the victory here but doesn't belong to you. It belongs to Christ. Because through all of this loss, through all of this suffering, God restored you. And that is the great miracle, isn't it? It is that's that's the whole story. That's the whole story. Yeah. Because because I'm nothing without him and I just know that I would never want to be here. how I used to be. I can't imagine growing up and living a life without him. Yeah. Yeah. So so after this Olympic run, which ⁓ was amazing, what year was it that you said you made the two thousand what was it? The the the when you were the team captain in in two thousand eighteen. Two thousand eighteen. I I met you I think it's in two thousand ten. What ⁓ what year Right at the church, right? So I'd already known you through this and everybody was celebrating and rooting you on. ⁓ outside of this, because I mean, y you know, it's two thousand eighteen, it's now, you know, six years later after the fact, did you struggle to transition out of that? Because that's no that's huge. How did you transition from there? Or where do you feel like the Lord has led you since then? Yeah, that was one of the hardest things ever for me. ⁓ First of all, my Olympic journey did not end like I had hoped it to. And we had all the ambition to want to win the gold. And we fell way short of that. But what was really neat through that whole situation was is that While we were losing, I got to share the book of Job with my team. Well. And and to me that's the win because I got to speak to each and every one of them almost every day through this event. when I transitioned from being a athlete to retiring from it, there was a massive void ⁓ in my life, not not a spiritual void, but a void that ⁓ it's hard to explain. I it's it's it's from like any person that is works in your career and and loves your career, and then you go and retire, and then you're trying to figure out what now what's now. ⁓ you know, you know, ⁓ a perfect example of that is is ⁓ Noah. Noah worked 120 years with one vision, finish this ship. That's right, finish this boat, right? And then after the flood, then Noah struggles. to transition, of course, that's where he gets falls into drunkenness for some time. And and where he can transition like, okay, now what kind of deal? And we see that kind of consistently with with people in their lives where like ⁓ we we we get so caught up in the mission or in or in whatever aspect or or path that God has us on that we we lose sight of the fact that our identity is not found in that. That happened to me personally. I was so involved in my career ⁓ in education and That's how I found my identity that when I lost it, I felt like I lost myself. And it and and our identity must be rooted beyond that in Christ. You know, and then so that when the mission changes, when when the work changes, ⁓ we don't lose a sense of who we are. And and and that's kind of how I remember, you know, like anybody, you're gonna struggle to transition. Okay, now what? Right? Where to focus? And that's that's that's natural. ⁓ but you you ⁓ I remember ⁓ especially in that time period for you. ⁓ you were ⁓ we ⁓ for example, I was having my Sunday afternoon ⁓ Bible studies and you would come and we would all share the word of God. And you know, ⁓ your wife and my wife, they they spent many, many times ⁓ studying the word together, the women's ministry working hand in hand and ⁓ seeing your your little one grow up and now here she is engaged, right? ⁓ that's the biggest work. That's that really is the biggest work. And ⁓ I think that now when we look at where you are, you're still, you know, you're you're leading strong, a a spiritual leader for your family. ⁓ you know, you're you're ⁓ a grandpa and you know I know how that feels now. Yeah. ⁓ the those are ministries, folks. ⁓ those aren't just, ⁓ well, I'm just a dad or I'm just a grandpa. No, that's a ministry to which is not just any ministry, but the very first ministry to which we we should ⁓ focus on as a husband, as a father, as a grandfather. Those are the primary ministries and you've always been a guy that's been focused on that. Yeah. You know, it's it's ⁓ it's been a struggle for me because you know, here I went from the Olympics and I was I feel like a shell of what physically I feel like a shell of what I was eight years ago. I mean, if I look back at pictures and stuff like that, I mean I mean I I'm my body has changed quite a bit. And and part of that is because of that surgery that took place two years ago. Yeah, let's talk about that. So that surgery I went in for a I don't want to call it a routine routine surgery, but it was a surgery that nobody expected for tragedy to strike. Yeah. And ⁓ I go in, go through the surgery, everything's working out just fine. ⁓ I think I'm on day five or six after the procedure. And then something starts to feel a little bit off. And I'm starting to lose my memory. ⁓ I not ⁓ understanding people very well. ⁓ I go to bed, my wife puts me in bed, and and my sister's a nurse. My wife had texted my sister and said, Something's not right with Kirk. And ⁓ she said that a lot of times over the over the years. Something's I was about to say that. I said like, amen, sister. I could have told you that. But something's not right with him. And ⁓ I go to sleep. ⁓ my sister tries to call the nurse the next morning to see how I'm doing. And long story short is I ended up going septic, which means that My bowels and my bladder actually burst inside of me and was leaking stool and urine inside my body. And ⁓ of course it's deadly. The doctors thought I was having a stroke. And so we're not treating me for the actual being septic. Yeah. And the last thing I remember is them. Rushing me down the hallway. ⁓ some people pushing the gurney. One guy over the top of me hit me on the chest, telling me to breathe, Mr. Black, breathe. And I'm trying to do as best I can. And I wake up and I'm innovated. ⁓ I'm innovated, and I don't know what happened at this point. My whole family's there, you know. ⁓ come to find out I had been opened up eight times over a period of seven days and washed out, washing my intestines out, ⁓ trying to get my the cavity all cleaned. and ⁓ they got it cleaned. However, because of that, ⁓ they couldn't get me closed back up. ⁓ they end up having to do all kinds of things to get things to work properly. ⁓ it's been over two years. It's been ⁓ March. March would have been two years. So we're, you know, twenty seven, twenty-eight months ⁓ past this now, and I'm still healing. My body still has open wounds on it. I I I remember going into the hospital I you know, several times in You know, y you know, and you're kind of a selfish guy, man. Every time I went to go visit you, you have to be, ⁓ you know, he's under, he's out, you know, he's unconscious and everything. I'm like, dude, I'm I made I made a twenty minute drive over here to come see you. The least you can do is wake up and come, you know, and entertain me. Right? But everybody laughs at me because during that time when I was you know, they would ask me who the president was and I couldn't name the president and then they'd say, Well, look down here, who's this guy at the end of the bed? Yeah. You looked over at me. And I looked over there and I said, And at that time I had been working on a a house that a project at our house. And I s I looked over there and I said, ⁓ that's Jesse. That's Jesse. That's Jesse. The contractor, my wife. I remember my wife and my daughter laughing. And there you were down at the end of the bed, like, huh? Yeah. I'm not Jesse. It was like, Man, thanks a lot, buddy. Yeah. And then ⁓ yeah, I think they had asked you, you had woken up and like, who's the president? Like Obama's like, Well, no wonder he went into septic shock here, you know. But ⁓ you know, we were teasing you because ⁓ you know, you you're a fighter, man, but I remember seeing you there and I remember leaving the room for of course laughing first, you know, because you didn't but but you know in all seriousness, I was like, Lord, man, I I remember man breaking down a little bit and like Lord, it's very selfish of me to ask, but but please preserve the life of my friend. ⁓ his his he's got s I feel like he's got so much more to do. And Lord, that we can tell the story. And so that's why this ⁓ sorry. That's why ⁓ I was looking forward to this interview because ⁓ I ⁓ I prayed about it and I said, Lord, if you would preserve the life of my friend, we wanna tell everybody about what you did. And that's what we're doing now. Amen. And ⁓ you ⁓ Man, you you you you came out of it, but like you said, you you're still it's been over it's been over two years. Yeah. And never once. I mean it man, you get tired, you get worn out, you know, you've had to go back and forth, back and forth. But never once. I'm always, you as a as a shepherd, right, as a pastor, I'm always checking the spiritual condition of my flock. You know, it's like, you know, listening to the words and we have to be we have to kind of be tuned in, like, is is he okay? Like, how's how's your soul? You know. How how's your how's your walk? How's your faith? And and and sometimes I'll hear others, you know, they'll say something, I'm like, ooh, I'm hearing a little bit of discouragement here. I'm hearing ⁓ a little bit of falling away, and then I'll pray with them and encourage them because folks, we all do, we all feel that way sometimes. But man, one thing that I admire about you is ⁓ I relent and really never heard that. I never heard you once ⁓ feeling like you were losing hope or or or frustrated or anything. Frustrated, maybe, yes. Yeah, yeah. In the aspect of the doctors, but never once questionings or or or or ⁓ I guess you could say spiritually ⁓ not the woe me. Yeah, the woe me kind of stuff. ⁓ and and and I think that that's I think that's been one of the major reasons why the Lord has been able to do so much through you and and and and for you. And somebody can be out there and going, Yeah, but couldn't God just snap his fingers and heal him instantly? Of course. Mm-hmm. But what an amazing testimony that God has done done through you because of this. Because we so quickly, when we all of us, when we find ourselves in a situation where we're suffering, you know what's the very first thing we say? Get me out of here. Right? We just cry out to the Lord, you know, I don't want to be here. I don't I don't wanna deal with this. But for those like Job, like you, you know, and for many those who are have have suffered through many different setbacks. But never asked for it to be changed. No. And that's crazy. Now that the the person who doesn't understand, they'll go, You're crazy. You're telling me that if you could go back and any of these things you could say, I c you'll never go through it. You're telling me and and a lot of people out there can't fathom this and say, No, I wouldn't want it any other way. 'Cause I knew the person I was before. Yeah. God's not interested in our in our comfort. He's interested in our character. Amen. Right? Amen. And I I ⁓ I've had my own ordeals, and I think a lot of you out there have your own. I've got my own story. You've got your stories, and I've got some setbacks. Boy, do I have some setbacks. Boy, do I have some some disappointing things. Do I have some humiliating histories? I have some things I look back, I go, I wish I hadn't done this, but I wouldn't want it any other way because I know the person I was before. And if this is what it took for me to be in a loving relationship with Christ, praise be to God. Amen. That's exactly right. Well, I'm gonna give you the last word, brother, because I know that ⁓ this story needed to be told. And ⁓ it's been some time and you know, we've we've man, we've had this journey together. You came and joined our church and your family has been such an important part of that. ⁓ you bought a you bought a a house in in Kansas. ⁓ you you know, you're you're seeing your kids grow up and ⁓ you're you're really I think you're enjoying a really fruitful time in your life right now, I would say. we are. We're excited because Monday we're heading up to that house and we're just gonna go enjoy it. My wife and I as boyfriend and girlfriend gonna go up and just spend some time together for the first time in I don't know how many years. Probably probably twenty years. Yeah. To go out and just do something by ourselves and be together. And so we're really looking forward to that. So Life has changed for me. don't not doing the things that I used to do, but but I'm excited to see what God is doing in my relationship with my wife and I. we are just really enjoying each other and I know that my story is far from being over with. And when he calls me home, I'm ready. Amen. Amen. And you can't overlook ⁓ your wife Paulina in all this because she's been the one. Yeah. Because at the same time, she could have said, Lord, you know, why me? Right? Like, you know, why did my husband have to go through this? And she's had to suffer alongside with you. ⁓ she's had to help you and clean you up and and deal with all these things and ⁓ just as much as you, right? And ⁓ praise be to God for a faithful wife. ⁓ he who finds a good wife. is worth more than rubies and gold. So young guys out there bachelors, you better choose wisely because ⁓ that's the kind of wife that you would want to hope. That one that will stand stand by you ⁓ through thick and thin, through better for worse. So yeah. And so God is is working through you and blessing you and all of this and and and and it's for me it's been a privilege in all these years. ⁓ I guess about fifteen years now, ⁓ that that we've gotten to to to really ⁓ I think the first time we met was in two thousand ten. So it's been about 15, 16 years. And so it's been a privilege to see this and ⁓ to grow with your family. And the the one thing I want to really encourage our audience out there ⁓ is is is really two things. Number one, you have a story too. ⁓ your story isn't about you, it's about, it's about God. And so if you're like, yeah, but my story's kind of embarrassing. I look bad. Listen, Peter made sure that that whenever he wrote his gospel through Mark, In Mark's gospel, hey, put it down there that I denied Jesus three times. Wait, you're writing your story. Why do you want to include that in here? Because I want Jesus to be glorified through it. Because because I want to show how little I am in regards to how great he is. So don't be ashamed of your story just because it may be potentially embarrassing and so forth. So that's the first thing. And and and the second thing, and this is really the most important thing that I wanted you to hear through my brother Kirk. You heard the stuff that he went through, you know, ⁓ alcohol addiction and ⁓ divorce, ⁓ the loss of, you know, that child ⁓ with you and your your your your wife Paulina and ⁓ you know your obviously your your injury, ⁓ the setbacks with the surgeries and all of these things. But you see that he's always kept his his eyes forward and he's kept his faith rooted in the rock. And I think that that that's the secret. It's not like Kirk doesn't have super faith. He just has his faith founded in the right place. This right. That's it. If you'll do that, ⁓ there's nothing that the Lord won't do through and for you. And what's great is that your story is not my story, but your story is just as important and can be used in such a great and mighty way to bless somebody else. Yeah. Amen. Amen. I think that's a great place to stop right there, man. And ⁓ the story continues, of course, and ⁓ I'm I'm I'm blessed and fortunate to share it with you, my friend. And so I thank you for joining us here and ⁓ telling us and sharing your story. And ⁓ folks, ⁓ I hope that this ⁓ testimony and this this ⁓ episode has been an encouragement and really an inspiration to you because ⁓ this isn't the first time I've heard the story, but I love hearing it every time because it really just moves me every time. So I hope that it blesses you as it blessed ⁓ me. ⁓ again, I thank you for tuning in. Make sure you click subscribe and follow us because this is the kind of stuff that we want to bring you ⁓ every month. And ⁓ ⁓ again, I thank you all of you for tuning in. May God bless you and may ⁓ Christ guide you in your life and may His Spirit sustain you. Thanks again, Kurt. Thank you. Appreciate you having me. Absolutely. God bless.