Cascade Views Podcast

Josh Lair - Saved by Grace, Called to Serve

March 21, 2022 Michael Sipe - Central Oregon Leadership Discussions
Cascade Views Podcast
Josh Lair - Saved by Grace, Called to Serve
Show Notes Transcript

Josh Lair is the Community Outreach Coordinator for Ideal Option which covers the State of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Ideal Option is one of the nation’s largest outpatient providers of evidence-based medication-assisted treatment for addiction to opioids, alcohol, methamphetamine, and other substances. Founded in 2012 by two emergency medicine physicians, Ideal Option’s mission is to provide underserved populations with low-barrier access to evidence-based addiction treatment – saving lives, healing families, and helping communities.

Josh is also the Chief Operating Officer of Be Bold Street Ministries, which serves the US, Costa Rica, and Philippines, bringing the love of Christ to the streets every day. After 20 years of addiction, Christ met Josh in E Block cell 288 at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Through the grace and power of Christ, Josh has been free of addiction since January 11, 2011. He was called to go back into the darkness that Christ saved Him from and is now a certified counselor, works with the Salem Police to deescalate interactions with the homeless community, and has been with Be Bold Street Ministries since 2016.

So today, you’re going to learn a bit of Josh’s story, get some insight into the reality of life for those on the street, gain understanding of the drug, alcohol and mental illness crisis that’s growing in our state and hear some of Josh’s perspectives on what can be done to help. 

Unknown:

So I grew up in a house with two cops. By the time I was 12 years old, I was 100% strung out on methamphetamines, which just goes to show that you know, it doesn't matter where you come from what upbringing you have, who your parents are your social class, any of those things, addiction strikes, and it struck me. The first time I used marijuana, I think I was 10 and a half, maybe 11 at the latest. The first time I ever did methamphetamines was actually on my 12th

Narrator:

birthday. Welcome to cascade views a discussion with Central Oregon leaders. Your host is Michael SIPE, local business and community leader Best Selling Author of the Avada principle in candidate for Oregon State Representative for House District 53, which encompasses southern Redmon sisters, tremolo and northern Ben. The purpose of these discussions is to share the views and insights of local leaders from a variety of community sectors on a range of timely and important regional and state issues. With that, now, here's your host, Michael SIPE.

Michael Sipe:

Thanks for joining us on cascade views. My name is Michael SIPE, and I'm here today with Joshua lair. Josh is the Community Outreach Coordinator for ideal option, which covers the state of Oregon and southwest Washington. ideal option is one of the nation's largest outpatient providers of evidence based medication assisted treatment for addiction to opioids, alcohol, methamphetamine, and other substances founded in 2012 by two emergency medicine physicians. Ideal options mission is to provide underserved populations with low barrier access to evidence based addiction treatment, saving lives, healing families, and helping communities. Josh was also the chief operating officer of Be bold street ministries, which serves the US Costa Rica, and Philippines, bringing the love of Christ to the streets every day. After 20 years of addiction, Josh met Christ and he blocked cell 288 at the Oregon State Penitentiary to the grace and power of Christ Josh has been free of addiction since January 11 2011. He was called to go back into the darkness that Christ saved him from and is now a certified counselor works with the Salem police to de escalate interactions with the homeless community, and has been with Be bold street ministries since 2016. So today, you're going to learn a little bit of Josh's story, get some insight into the reality of life for those on the street, gain some understanding of the drug, alcohol, and mental illness crisis that's growing in our state. And here are some of Josh's perspectives on what can be done to help we are in for a treat. You can learn more at Be bold, street ministries.org and ideal option.com. With that, it's my pleasure to welcome my friend Josh lair to the show. Hi, Josh.

Unknown:

Hi, Michael, thank you so much. It's an honor and a pleasure to be able to be a part of this podcast with you today. So thank you so much for having me.

Michael Sipe:

You bet. I have been really looking forward to our conversation today. So let's kick it off quick with you sharing just a little bit of your background, please.

Unknown:

So my background, you know, I grew up in Southern California. Born and raised in Santa Barbara County. Grew up in a house with mom and dad. My dad struggled with with alcohol my dad would be what we would describe today as a functioning alcoholic alcohol never created an issue for him where he didn't show up to work. He was always a provider for us kids for my mom. You know, we grew up poor. Then my dad became a cop about the time I was I think about 11 My dad went to the police academy. My mom followed suit about a year later. So I grew up in a house with two gods. By the time I was 12 years old, I was 100% strung out on methamphetamines. Which just goes to show that you know, it doesn't matter where you come from what upbringing you have, who your parents are your social class. Any of those things, addiction strikes, and it struck me the first time I used marijuana. I think I was 10 and a half, maybe 11 at the latest. The first time I ever did methamphetamines was actually on my 12th birthday. It was not my choice. And when the drug hit my vein, I did methamphetamines crank back then, for the first time intravenously, I was scared out of my mind I was crying again. And it was not by choice. But when that substance hit my vein. The tears stopped. The fear stopped the euphoria and feeling that came from that drug completely engulfed every part of my body. I did not leave that house that day with the substance that I showed up for which was marijuana. I left with methamphetamines which catapulted a my life in a trajectory that was not anything that my parents nor myself ever imagined my life would look like. I ended up getting in trouble with the law. By the time I was 17 years old. By the time I was 15 years old, my parents who were in law enforcement had no idea what to do with me. And so they sent me to live with my grandparents in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri. While there, I traded hard drugs for alcohol, just trading one addiction for another. Alcohol ended up being my, my drug of choice as I got older. But alcohol got me in trouble too. I ended up putting myself in a position where I had a choice to make in my life of either going to prison, or going to the United States military. And I thought I was making the right decision, which I was to go to the military rather than prison. I ended up though because of my addiction, and things ended up destroying my military career, I ended up within going to federal prison with You know, an other than honorable discharge from the United States Army. When I came home, it wasn't long before I was just caught up in guns, drugs and gangs, which ended up you know, being what most of my adult life looked like, which was in and out of prisons and jails and incarceration and drug treatment programs and all of those things and tell as you read a little bit of my bio. And 2011 at Oregon State Penitentiary, I was involved in a 288 man riot at the prison. On my way back to a prison cell. I started having John 316, from the Bible running through my head. And I kept getting stuck at the whosoever. And I started to believe that that that scripture was talking about me. And when we got back to my, my prison cell, I surrendered my life to Christ, and Christ became absolutely as real as, as he is. And he's trapped, drastically transformed and changed my life. I was released from prison in 2012, July 2 2012. Upon release, I just, I knew that things needed to be different. I didn't know what that was really going to look like, except for I knew I needed to follow after Christ. And I, I was assured in my heart that I would not go back to gangs and drugs and crime. I got involved with a program through Marion County parole and probation called the SOAR program. And I met a counselor and a mentor, that both had similar backgrounds to me, which fascinated me that they were able to do what they were doing to help people. And, you know, with their background, I was given some direction on the way to go about, you know, doing what they did, and which meant I was getting an education, I was not fond of school growing up. I was more fond of drugs and gang activity than I was a school. But for whatever reason, education has been something that's been really really fun to me since then. And so I got you know, an associate's degree in addiction studies went on to Corbin university to get a bachelor's and a master's by 2025 I am hoping 20/26 I am hoping to have a doctorate degree from Corbin University. So things are definitely different today than they were growing up for sure.

Michael Sipe:

Well, I gotta I gotta dial this back just a minute because this is such an incredible and and heroic story. I asked when you got out of the out of prison after after you met Christ and and had that experience and you got out of prison was was it like all peaches and cream and roses after that or? No happened?

Unknown:

Oh, man. No, it wasn't. You know, after getting out, I was going through. So I have children from a previous marriage and even from a marriage that I am currently in and planned to be in for the rest of my life. But I met the girl that I'm now married to when getting out and that was not my intention. I wanted nothing to do with relationships. I knew I needed to figure me out with this new you know, way of living and but God saw fit that by another friend, a mutual friend, we were introduced. And I told her, you know, hey, if you're willing to follow Christ with me, like we can make this work outside of that, like, I can't do this. She said yes to that. And we've been following the Lord together ever since. But things were rough. You know, I got out, my kids, my biological, my biological children were actually in the state of Florida with their mother. While I was incarcerated, she did what she thought was best. And that was take the kids and go to Florida to get them away from me. Which I can't really say that I blame her. I wanted to be a dad, I wanted to be a father. And I got told by, you know, the Oregon state parole board that there was absolutely no way that they would let me leave this state. While on supervision, I tried to get the state of Florida to accept my supervision. And they said, Absolutely not. They wanted nothing to do with me. Which made things kind of interesting, because I, you know, I wanted to be a dad, I wanted to be a different person to my kids, I wanted to be a part of their life. And that didn't seem to be what was gonna happen. But nine months after I got out of prison, I ended up with sole custody of both of my kids, and they have been living with me ever since. Wow. But story, but yeah, but that was like some of the turmoil and the things that I had to go through, like, I still in the midst of, you know, like, Hey, I wanted to be a different person. And what that looked like, for me was changing my way of thinking, right, because I could have disobeyed and, and went and took the chance and, you know, suffered the consequences when I was caught, because, you know, I, it's not a matter of if, but when I would, you know, get stopped by the police for something, and then they would find out that I was in a state that I wasn't supposed to be, you know, but I chose to trust the process. And, and, you know, follow the rules, and it, it paid off, you know, I ended up with sole custody of my children. So I'm thankful but you know, that's just one of many different things. And I could take up all the time, that's allotted for just talking about the different struggles that I went through, but ultimately, you know, trusting the process and and, and doing the next right thing over and over again, and just trusting the Lord with every step of my, my life has been way better than doing it on my own accord.

Michael Sipe:

So I want to hear about Be bold ministries, and how did that come about after after this? And just like, how does that work? What do you do with that? So

Unknown:

be bold actually started. So my best friend Matthew macera, is the executive director and founder of Be bold. I actually met him when I first moved here to Oregon in 1999. And both of our lives were just absolute train wrecks, you know, he was involved in, and drugs and, and gangs and all of those things. And so as I and so our time together was, was not fruitful, for good for sure. And about the time that I got out of prison, we got involved with a with a an addictions Victory Group at our church called the most excellent way, you know, I made a little bit different choices than he did, you know, I chose to completely you know, at that time, surrender everything to God and trust him, and he chose to still dabble and, and pay the consequences. And in 2014, when he finally said, you know, complete surrender to the Lord and was walking in victory, he called me up one day and said, Hey, you want to come do something with me? And I'm like, What's up, bro? And he says, Hey, so I'm out serving water bottles, and spreading the gospel to our friends and neighbors on the street. Do you want to help? And I'm like, dude, yeah, come get me. So, you know, be bold, literally started with handing out water bottles in the summertime in the blazing heat. Well, Oregon's version of blazing heat, and just sharing the gospel and being there for people, you know, we, we were told numerous times, hey, you know, I'm glad that Jesus thing works for you guys. But that's not for me. But that never stops us from continuing to come alongside folks, you know, and point them in the right direction. And in 2016, we became, you know, a 501 c three, you know, nonprofit ministry. And we do the same thing here, all over the United States and all over the world, you know, and that's share the love of Jesus Christ, come alongside folks and point them towards him and just continue to disciple walk alongside and the good times and the bad times, you know, just being there for folks, you know, when they, you know, get told that they get to move into their own place and celebrate in the, you know, in the awesomeness of that to, you know, be in there still alongside folks, when they get told that they're, you know, their kids are getting adopted because they haven't got their stuff together and just still being there. With folks is is what we choose to do. You know, Christ never leaves us nor forsakes us. That's what His Word says. And you know, he, he's there for us, and we just want to be there to be the hands and feet of God who sent us to do what he's always called us to do.

Michael Sipe:

What a great ministry. Let me shift gears a second. So many things I want to hear from for with you. The so you got your degrees congratulations, by the way, that's what a tremendous accomplishment and congratulations on the doctoral project. And so out of those degrees, I presume that's where the ideal option keys came from. Is that right? Or tell us a little bit about ideal option and your work with that.

Unknown:

So, you know, man, I could, I could definitely talk a long time about ideal options. So here, here's here's the thing you read what initially, is told to most people when they hear about ideal option, you know that we're a low barrier evidence based, you know, leading organization, we're in 10 states with 76 Plus clinics, over 200 providers. We're a, you know, a medication assisted treatment program. And to be honest with you. I had no idea that ideal option existed. I I initially started my career in counseling with Bridgeway Recovery Services, which is one of the leading outpatient and inpatient with a medical medically managed withdrawal unit, a detox unit here in Marion County. And then from there, I was approached by law enforcement and by Salem Police Department. Actually Jason Van Meter, who's now the chief of Black Butte Police Department, due to an interaction with him out doing street ministry was told about the county, Marion County starting up a program called the LEAD program, the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program. And when he explained what it was, I was, I was sold, I was like, Absolutely, I want to be a part of that. And I interviewed with Marion County for that position and then helped create with Paige Clark's in our da are wonderful da here in Marion County and a team of people from Marion County Behavioral Health, as well as Bridgeway Recovery Services, the city of Salem, Marin County Sheriff's Department and a few other key players in that program and God to help create that program to be what it is today, which is highly beneficial to Marion County super successful program. And in that process of me working with, with folks that have been referred to that program through a strict criteria process with law enforcement, one of my clients who was reaching out for medication assisted treatment, you know, struggled with an opiate addiction and, you know, had overdosed a couple of times recently at that time. And I was struggling, and my whole job with lead was to be a walking talking Resource Guide to get people connected with the resources and the services that they needed at the time that they needed him. And I couldn't get her plugged in with services anywhere. You know, I had reached out to friends, I have friends and account in different counseling positions throughout this county that you know, serve and medication assisted treatment programs, and, you know, tried to pull some strings and was told Josh, if we could do it, we would you know that. We'll see what we can do in the next morning, I received a call from the client, who told me that she had found a, an opening for that day. And I was like, awesome thinking in my head, okay. You know, who do I need to thank for, you know, helping me out. And she I said, Okay, well, where were you going? She said, ideal option. And I said what? She said, Yeah, ideal option I can get in there today. Will you take me? And in my mind, I'm thinking Absolutely. Like, how do I not know of this place? So I took her in and we you know, I got to ask some questions. And here's some things which started a conversation with a lady named rose up in Washington, and I got to learn about ideal option. And in that conversation, I ended up with an email a few months later from rose, saying, Hey, I don't necessarily know if it's you, I know that you're comfortable where you're at. But if you know somebody who's looking for a job, we're hiring, and here's the position, which is the Community Outreach Coordinator for for Oregon. And I thought about it and you know, and I talked to my wife, and I said, Hey, who do we know, that could fit this? And my wife was like, I don't know, you know, if you're referring them, that's a big deal. So I sat on it for about two weeks, and I was typing a paper for school at like, 430 in the morning, and I woke my wife up by telling her Babe, it's me. I'm the one and she's like, you're the one for what? And I'm like, this position with ideal option. And she sat right up, she's like, whoa, you know, we're both county employees, we're double covered, you know, you are work for an amazing program. You know, you'd be walking away from, from what's basically like your baby, you know, and, and I'm like, Yeah, but, you know, I got into this field because I wanted to help people and, you know, being able to do it across the state, you know, really expands my reach. And I'm really interested. So I ended up my wife said, hey, I'll support you. And so I ended up getting Janette and I got the job, which was a big deal, you know, it was, it was probably the hardest thing I ever did was to send Paige Clark's in a letter of resignation, just because she's such a huge cheerleader and fan of the work that I get to do every day here. But I was, you know, professionally, you know, again, I got into this field because I wanted to help people. And so being able to help people on such a huge level, with an organization that, you know, eliminates so many different barriers that are out there for folks to get them access to the services life altering life changing services, is a big deal to me. And so, you know, I'm super thankful for the opportunity that I have every day to bring education to bring awareness, and to help people get plugged in to the services that we offer, in this state. And actually, like I said before, in 10 states is just such a huge blessing, not only for me, but for the individuals that we get to serve every day.

Michael Sipe:

You ever just like I got asked this question, do you? Do you ever just wake up sometimes in the morning and just pinch yourself and go, Man, do I get to live this life? This is like, what an incredible accomplishment?

Unknown:

Yeah, actually, I do. You know, it's funny, I talk with a couple of friends of mine. So Hank, Craps, er, and Matthew macera, from be bold, often, and I think, you know, and I tell him, I can't believe that I get to do what I get to do every day, like it makes it truly outside for me. And my faith, like outside of what Christ has done in my life, it makes no sense. You know, with my background of addiction and crime, and you know, all of the, you know, umpteen amounts of felonies that I have on my record, for me to be able to do what I do today is an adjunct miracle. Absolutely.

Michael Sipe:

So cool. All right, let's dig in on some tough issues. I'll talk to us about what's going on with the homeless situation in Oregon. There's a big question for you, pre factoring, bring it down to bite size, what the heck's going on?

Unknown:

Well, you know, we have a broken system, we truly do the access to services, you know, so when I get to serve the homeless population, you know, our friends and neighbors on the streets, I get to serve them every single day. You know, and I get to have conversations, build relationship and rapport with folks. So I get to hear, you know, the nitty gritty of what brings them to the position that they're currently in, you know, some folks it's mental health, Oregon is, is I think, at this current time rated 50th, for mental health services, that's also just came out, that we are rated 50th With access to services for drug treatment. So you start factoring in those two things alone, it's hard, you know, people struggle with addiction, and there's nowhere to go, you know, I not everybody's as blessed and as fortunate as I have been, to get into the programs and, and accepted into the things that I was accepted into, to get the resources that I got. Now, if those resources were expanded, we I truly, truly believe that that we can make a dent, we can make a change. Do I believe we will solve homelessness? No, that's a convoluted thought. We are not going to eradicate it. We're not going to eliminate it. But can we put a dent in it? And with a, you know, effectual change, absolutely better access to drug treatment and mental health services will help. I would say that that's probably our two biggest obstacles to change there is I talked to people I know people that have been out on the streets, you know, camping, doing what they do for 20 plus years, and they are just fine with it. But those people, despite what anybody tells you, those are few and far between. There is a lot of folks that you know due to life circumstances. I know a gentleman that, you know, 25 years of his life, he was you know, committed to an organization to a company where he was working hard. He was a janitor and janitor services for an organization and lost everything the company folded his 401k, his retirement, everything went when the company went bust. He's illiterate. He cannot read or write. But he was able to do that job just fine. He is out on the streets. And it's not because he chooses to be you know, he didn't do he doesn't do drugs. He doesn't smoke cigarettes, he doesn't drink beer. He doesn't do he doesn't gamble. He doesn't do any of the things that you would think they're homeless because of X, Y and Z. Know, this guy typically would be a hard working person and he can't fill out a job application. And so there's there's folks like that, you know, so there's a wide array of folks that are out there that are you know, homeless and on the streets. So it's a it's a tough one. When you start talking about like, what can we do to make a change here in Oregon, we need to make, you know, on state level, we need to make changes around availability access to services, you know, and not just availability and access to services, but funding to fund the services that are being offered. You know, CCOs got to be able to and willing to, you know, make better payment agreements with providers, so that they can expand services. You know, if you take all of the folks that struggle with mental health and addiction issues, and they all said today, when we got done with this interview, they all said today, I am ready for help and willing to make the changes, we would have nowhere for them to go.

Michael Sipe:

So you're right in the middle of this every day. Let's take a let's take Ben. Okay, so we've got the treatment challenge, as you mentioned, but let's let's take band because this is either a growing or a more visible problem, or both. If you could, like if you were king, if you were King bend. And and you could and I don't mean to mean Redmond's got an emerging problem too. But let's just focus on Ben for a minute. But if you if you were King a band, and you could could just with a stroke of a pen begin to change things dramatically in the situation for the folks on the street and and our overall community. And in regard to this, this this convoluted issue of homelessness, drug alcohol addiction, mental illness, what would you do?

Unknown:

Oh, wow, okay. Well, you know, again, access to services, you know, ideal option. The company that I work with, we are there in Bend, which we're super thankful we have a beautiful facility there, you know, access to services like us needs to be more prevalent, you know, I hear this often, you know, we cannot, being homeless is not a crime, absolutely is not a crime, the crime that goes on within the homeless community, his crimes, so I think that we need to police crime, not homelessness, because, you know, and I had shared this, you know, before with you, you know, in the morning when I leave my house to go to work, and I see law enforcement in my neighborhood, I think about my two daughters that are getting ready for school, my kiddos, I, it's a sense of comfort. You know, there's law enforcement, you know, and then I think back to when I was a criminal, whenever I would be going wherever I was going, if I saw law enforcement within that area, like I didn't stay there, I didn't go there. They were a determined nowadays, it's, you know, and I feel bad for law enforcement, and that's coming from me, somebody that was a criminal for a long, long time, I feel really, really bad for law enforcement. And, you know, because of a few bad apples, they're in a spotlight interview that, that I don't believe that all of them are, you know, I get the pleasure and honor of working with law enforcement there and banned into shoots County that are absolutely, God sends to your guys's community. So I think that there needs to be, you know, some different things in in that arena, you know, when police are in an area, criminals run just standard operating practices on both sides. I think that that would make a drastic change within the shoots county period band as a whole, you know, when crime is taking place within the homeless community, and if if laws were, you know, able to be more enforced in that area, I think that that would make a drastic change. More social workers. So more. So for Oregon, we have, you know, mentors, peer support specialists, certified recovery mentors, people that go out into the community and meet folks that struggle with addiction and mental health, right, they're where they're at. More, more of those within the community have been, I think, would be a huge blessing, as well, because you got to catch the person when they're at their at their lowest point, you know, and whatever that looks like for each individual, it differs vastly. But being able to, to have that person out there on the streets, is going to make a huge difference to be able to have, because here's the thing, right? So within the homeless community, there's also the stigma. I'm out there often, at least once a week, they're in Bend, do an outreach on the streets. And as I'm out there doing outreach, I commonly hear people honk and yell, things like get a job loser. And it it's like, that's not helpful, you know, that's not beneficial. But being out there in the midst of it, being able to say, hey, when you're ready, I'm here, and then when they're ready, really being there, and having somewhere for them to go to get the help. Is is key. So those are the things that that I would I mean, change in every county, it's the same, you know, bend is no different than any other county that that I get to work in. And I think a big component of it being so on the forefront is that it's really on the forefront, you know, It's where it used to not be. And I think we can get back there, I really truly, truly do believe that we can get back there where it's not as prevalent as it is today.

Michael Sipe:

Well, here's my last question. As we wrap up, this has been amazing, I think what you're doing is absolutely heroic. So, for the average everyday ordinary citizen in Central Oregon living in sisters, or Tableau, or Redmond or bend or Black Butte for that matter, just a regular folks like me that are that are living here. What do you see is our role? How can we help you? How can we, how can we help with this? This problem other than not driving around yelling at people and all of that, but you know, what positive things might we be able to do?

Unknown:

Well, you know, people, we're all going to vote, right? Well, not all, but we should all vote. And as you go to the ballot, you know, really study don't take a look at a person because of their, you know, political affiliations, take a look at the person based on the things that they're wanting to go after the things that they're desiring to tackle, you know, it's voters that change policies that change laws that change ordinances that make the things that we want to happen happen. So I think one of the things that we have to do as a community is truly, truly as boat, then the next thing, you know, like, if you see a problem, be a part of the solution, don't continue to add to the problem be a part of the solution. You know, even if everybody has giftings, right? Certain people are gifted with running, you know, fortune 500 companies, being CEOs and executives of large corporations, being CEOs and executives of, you know, up and coming. You know, organizations, we all can play a part, you can invest in different organizations that are out there on the frontlines doing the work, day in and day out, we can all play a part. It's just really figuring out what part we can play, right? So it doesn't matter if you are a CEO of a Fortune 500 If you feel called to be out there, and to be on the front lines and do something different about what's going on, shoot, give me a call, I'll gladly go out there with you and serve side by side with you. And if that's not your calling, but you want to know, you know, different ways that you can get involved on the on the back end. There's plenty, you know, you can research different organizations that are out there and and best and pray and, you know, support in different ways.

Michael Sipe:

So good, Josh, it's we got to wrap up here. It's It's been great having you on the show, I could talk to you, as you know, like the last time we got together, it was like a half hour talk that went for three hours, something like that. It was awesome. It was great. But it's been super having you on the show. Thank you for how you're serving the men and women of our community, for serving all of us because the things that you're touching, affect us all, both through ideal option and through Be bold ministries, I got a couple of takeaways. One is just just how magnificent your story is, and, and the path of redemption that you are walking out. And modeling for all of us is incredibly inspiring. And I also think the distinction that you made about not policing homelessness, but policing crime. I think that's a really big one to to ponder and, and to look into. And I'm going to do that. So thanks again for your time and your message today. Proud of you proud of the work you're doing and excited to see how it all comes, comes to fruition here.

Unknown:

Thank you so much, Mike, I appreciate your time. I appreciate your heart for the shoots County. I'm blessed to have been able to meet you and get to know you and your wife. I truly truly am honored by this time this conversation this morning. So thank you so much.

Michael Sipe:

You bet. My guest for this show has been Josh lair with Be bold ministries at the bold street ministries.org. And with ideal option at ideal option, nod comm check out both of those. And if there's a if something stirs you in your investigation of those websites, or out of this call that I've had with Josh today, please reach out to him and offer your help wherever you're called to help. Let's just do what he said to do, which is to help where we're called and go for it. So thanks for tuning in today.

Narrator:

Thanks for listening to cascade views with Michael SIPE to find out more about Mike the upcoming election. The key issues he's focused on and his campaign to represent Central Oregon and Salem as a state representative. Does it www dot a voice for Central oregon.com that's www dot voice for Central Oregon calm. You can get your own copy of Michael sites best selling book the Avada principle@amazon.com. And finally, please vote in the upcoming election. Your Voice Matters