Episode 280 (Rob Hoskins)Podcast Intro: [00:00:01] Being a great father takes a massive amount of courage. Instead of being an amazing leader and a decent dad, I want to be an amazing dad and a decent leader. The oldest dad in the world gave you this assignment, which means you must be ready for it. As a dad, I get on my knees and I fight for my kids. Let us be those dads who stop the generational pass down of trauma. I want encounters with God where He teaches me what to do with my kids. I know I'm going to be an awesome dad because I'm gonna give it my all.Rob Hoskins: [00:00:38] I don't think my daughters ever heard a negative word about dad travel because she had woven into our family's reality, the fact that Dad was on a mission and that we're on mission. They knew where I was, what I was doing and why I was doing it. So there was a real intentionality about the purpose of our family, and it wasn't dads off at work or dads off of making money. It was we are teaching them family and this is our calling.Jeff Zaugg: [00:01:07] Hey guys. Welcome back to dadAWESOME. Today, Episode 280, I have Rob Hoskins joining me. He leads the Ministry, OneHope, they co-created the Bible app for kids. They've impacted 2 billion kids around the world with God's word. So grateful to have Rob Hoskins on today. We're actually kicking off, this is season seven of dadAWESOME so in anticipation of our episode 300, this coming fall, season seven, will take us through that, through that celebration. And I want you guys to know this, guys, this this is a timely invitation for all you guys. You know that we have dadAWESOME, we have the podcast, but also we have Fathers for the Fatherless this mission or this this campaign that that really empowers men to come together around the cause of the fatherless, helping locally and globally through 100 mile bike rides, through Spartan obstacle course races, through triathlons. We have ten more days for all of us listening in the Midwest, ten more days to sign up for our 100 mile bike ride on August 5th. So we have to cut off registration to give us time to order the jerseys, in time to train for 100 mile bike ride, but this will be our fifth year riding in Minnesota, and June 11th is the deadline to join our Fathers for the Fatherless team. We ride 100 miles, we raise awareness, we raise money for incredible kids that do not have a dad presence, both locally and globally. We're so grateful to be a part of this mission. And this is our fifth year. This is the year that we're going to push past $1,000,000 fund raised in our cumulative fundraising. So guys, check out f4f.bike to register. You got ten more days if you want to join us in the Midwest. So let's jump in, though, today's conversation kicking off season seven of dadAWESOME, Rob Hoskins, he's joining me from Pompano Beach, Florida, where their headquarters is located. Guys, this conversation is a little longer than usual, but it's so rich. There's so much, so many punches, punches of wisdom to us that all of us I was like, I need to take notes during this conversation. This is for me. So buckle up, takes some notes, this is my conversation, episode 280, with Rob Hoskins. This is fun for me today, Rob. Just to talk Dad life with you. You're a husband, you're a girl Dad, you got two daughters, you're a grandpa. How many grandkids do you have now?Rob Hoskins: [00:03:42] Three. Yeah. We got we got a third one. Little Scout Joy, so we've got three now.Jeff Zaugg: [00:03:46] Even on your Instagram to see you celebrating the grandpa role. What's your name as a grandpa? Do you go by grandpa? Rob Hoskins: [00:03:52] Funny story. No, I go by a very strange name. I go by the by the moniker Doo Doo. And, and Doo Doo is, I spent time in France and so that's not uncommon in France, the Doo Doo is kind of like the binky, like a blanket. And so some grandpas get Doo Doo. And when my daughter heard about that, she's got a very strange, dark sense of humor and so she she, this is the Aunty, right. She doesn't have any of her own kids, but she made sure that with her sister's kids, the first words they said were Doo Doo. And so I'm Doo Doo now. And she gets the biggest kick out of that and it's stuck.Jeff Zaugg: [00:04:31] And so this was crafted, this intent by the Aunty, which I love, I love when there's like strategic, hilariousness into a name so Doo Doo that's and now it's public, now it's out to the dadAWESOME world your your grandpa name.Rob Hoskins: [00:04:46] I'm Doo Doo.Jeff Zaugg: [00:04:47] Well before we talk about being a grandpa and being a dad, I thought we'd talk about you being a son for a little bit. And because your, your dad, I've had a chance to hear hear him live, hear him through video, medium. I just know his story about him following God's lead. And I think you were in seminary when he had a vision about Satan attacking children. Can you tell that story and and even the mechanism that God gave him that's led to what you're doing today.Rob Hoskins: [00:05:16] Yeah. Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, it was powerful moment. Obviously, in Dad's life. He had this this encounter with the Holy Spirit where God showed him the incredible spiritual warfare that was taking place over children. And he began to see prophetically what was unfolding and what would be coming. And then in the years to come, with the enemy, really trying to prolong his rule and reign, that the way he would do that is to capture the hearts and minds of children and young people. And so dad saw on this vision back in 1987, he saw weapons of warfare that the enemy was forming against children, young people. And Jeff, some of this stuff we can't we didn't even know what it meant at the time. But he he said things like, I saw kids watching pornography on the palm of their hand. I mean, this is before cell phones, right? This is before we had cell phones. So and he just saw the proliferation of drugs and suicide, mental illness. He saw child soldiers, he saw child prostitution and and said the enemy is going to try and fill children and young people with lies and he's the father of lies. And the only thing that will overcome these lies is Truth. My Word is Truth. Take my Word and give it to every child and young person in the world. So that was the word that came to my dad in 1987. And, we as a family, began to pray. And as you said, I was studying in seminary and I was youth pastoring. And so we began to interpret that and say to Lord, how can we even begin to do that? And that was the birth of what we now call OneHope, God's word, every child. And we've been consumed with that vision for 35 years. My dad and I work together as a father son team and our my mom and my wife Kim and our family and including our girls in that vision, too. And so, yeah, that's what our family's been about since 1987, is putting God's word into the hands of children and young people around the world.Jeff Zaugg: [00:07:12] Rob that vision, the weight of it as a dad, because I think of I mean, there's a global weight of kids and the attack of Satan going after them. But then there's my four little girls and the weight of me thinking about them and then the plan of the enemy to go after them. For you, there's the macro global vision, which we all celebrate with you and your team and the local churches who are part of your team, 2 billion, with a B, kids impacted from that dream point forward. Is that right? That's the timeline. The dream back in the late eighties through today, right? 2 billion.Rob Hoskins: [00:07:47] Yeah. It's been incredible. Just when I hear the word billion, it's hard for me to get my mind around it. But this here through, we have about 370 different programs now, so this is grant programs, curriculums, websites, apps, Bible app for kids, which is you know, we created four 0 to 6 year olds. We just celebrated 100 million downloads of the Bible app for kids in 62 different languages. So we have these 370 programs that this year, through those programs, will reach 150 million kids. So there's been an even acceleration of our ability to really take God's word, implant in the hearts of children and youth. And as you said, they're are all important to the Lord, He knows them all by name, and He loves them even more than we do. I mean, I know how much you love your four little girls. I can't even tell you how much I love my three little granddaughter, grandkids, my two daughters, but God loves them more than I do. And so He wants His word made available to them to help guide their lives, to show them His grace, His mercy, His peace, His joy and that comes through His word. So, yeah, we're just celebrating, rejoicing that 2 billion children around the world have received that story of Jesus and his great love for them.Jeff Zaugg: [00:09:02] So, Rob, I just want to call you out on something, cause your numbers are a little bit off. My three girls were looking at one screen playing together, the Bible app for kids. And so you just said something about 150 million through the Bible app for kids. And so your numbers only show what one your end, that three little, those are three of my daughters just yesterday morning so. So it's a gift. I actually want everyone listening, every dad listening, to pause the podcast, open your app on your phone and download the Bible app for kids. My guess is 95% of our listeners already are using with their kids as a tool. So let me just say thank you for the big, the macro, but on the micro level of like the at home level of, are we dads who fight for our kids, that that vision again of the enemy coming after them, we dads who fight or we dads who take flight and you know the fear and can cause us to back away. But no I mean our our our dadAWESOME community, we're fighters. And I want to ask you, Rob, on the home front, a vision like that, yet you're raising, maybe you weren't, your daughters weren't born yet probably in the late eighties or they were close to that time frame. How did that vision play forward on the home front for your your two daughters and you and your wife?Rob Hoskins: [00:10:16] Yeah, thanks for that, that question. I think one thing my wife and I both had really great models of parents. Both of us are missionary's kids. So I grew up in the Middle East and in Europe, France, and then came to the States in my late teens. And then Kim grew up in Central and South America and kind of interesting story, our parents were best friends. They were missionaries on different sides of the worlds, but they vacationed together. And so Kim and I knew each other from a very young age. So our families had very similar values. And I would I would say those values were built around a missional family. We both grew up in missional families, so we had great parents that loved God and that brought us up in the faith. So that was always part of our DNA. We couldn't even imagine, like our kids not growing up, not only with a strong, robust faith, but also to really raise them as missional agents, as kingdom agents that God would use in the world. And so it wasn't just, man, I need to protect my girls from the world. No, I need to raise them to be agents of transformation in the world. And so that was always, that was always our focus and our, our bend. And I think there's something powerful about that just in raising kids. I think particularly like, man, Jeff, looking at how my kids are having to raise my grandchildren in today's America, talk about scary. Talk about, wow, everything my dad saw in that vision in 1987 not only has come true, but it's come true on steroids. Like, I mean, what they face just with issues like sexual dysphoria and identity and gender confusion and mental illness, suicidal ideation at such young ages. You know, my granddaughter had a lockdown at the, she's at the, at a pre-K school, but her school in Nashville, Tennessee, had a school shooting for the older kids. And here I'm getting a text from my daughter, Hey, the school's in lockdown, you know, and and, you know, children have been shot and killed and you're you know, you immediately hit your knees and you're praying for my granddaughter. And and it is a war, Jeff. It's always been a war. The enemy has always wanted our children. And so growing up with that realization as a missional family, I think was was always built in to Kim and I. And so we from the very beginning wanted to live out what we had seen in our you know, it's like it's like they said to Timothy, it was the faith of your grandmother and your mother, Timothy, that has made you who you are. And so we've always grown up with that understanding that, hey, this is our greatest responsibility, like we have a mission to reach the world, but our greatest priority should, needs, always to be our own kids. That's our number one stewardship responsibility that we hold as soon as we make the decision as as as a married couple, we're going to have children. We've got to bring them up in the faith.Jeff Zaugg: [00:13:15] And are there any practical, like just tools or like frameworks that helped you balance the on mission globally and the on mission for the hearts of your two daughters? Any any just like things that might be transferable to us listening?Rob Hoskins: [00:13:31] Yeah. You know, I can tell you a lot of the things I did wrong. I can, I can really point those out. I think, I think any father looks back and said, I wish I'd done more. I wish I'd done better. Like, I think, I don't think there's a father on earth that doesn't live with some level of regret, right. And I, you know, even in in, in counseling times, like reflecting on my life as a as a as a, you know, these last 35 years, I've been building this global ministry that's, you know, quote, changing the world. And I ran hard and fast. And and there are some huge regrets I have. I heard my dad recently, we were in a team of leaders and they said, you know, Bob Hoskins is my dad, kind of an iconic figure in the church, great spiritual leader. And they said, do you have any regrets in your life? He goes, I had a lot of regrests, they said, what's your number one regret? He said, My number one regret is I didn't spend more time with my my kids. I was so busy trying to change the world, that I didn't spend, I wasn't, I didn't have as much time as I needed with my kids. And and I think my dad and his generation, it was kind of like when you're in ministry or even when you're in business, or even, I think, kind of the roles of of male and female and gender at that time were I'm the man, I'm the breadwinner, I'm going to go do this and and sort of if I do my job of providing financially for my family, there was sort of that mentality in the boomers, I think, and even even more probably, G.I. generation, my dad's generation, like I'm here to provide and my wife's here to raise the kids. And I think I sort of got a lingering of that. I'm kind of a late boomer, but I think that one thing is Kim and I did well at, was even though we did sort of have that bifurcated type of mentality, like, I'm going to I'm going to go build the ministry and I'm going to provide financially and Kim's going to be a stay at home mom and take care of the kids. And there was sort of this bifurcation of responsibility that I think, you know, was let me just put it this way, in my counseling, they just sort of said, Hey, you've raised two wonderful daughters, put everything you had and worked and and I think that we're all like born and raised in the generation that God intended us to be in, you know? And I look now, though, at my kids and how engaged my son in law is with the grandkids and I sort of look at him and go, I wish I could have been the dad he is to my grandchildren, like I am so proud of my son in law. He's so engaged. He's so a part of their life. And there is this sort of bifurcation between as much as Dad's role, mom's role. And I know culture change. We've got women in the work force a lot more than we did before. But I think one thing Kim and I did, and by the way, I think every generation of I think if you're doing a good job, kind of says that because I can remember my dad saying to some other people, I wish I was as good a dad as as Rob is to his girls. Like he thought I did a great job. He didn't think he did such a great job. I didn't think maybe I did a great job. I think my son in law is doing a great job. So we all have to be faithful in our generation. We have to and we have to have grace, I think, with our own lives and and not look back and say, would have, should have, could have but sort of just say, hey, from where I am right now as a grandfather, what kind of grandfather do I want to be? But I think, Jeff, one thing my wife and I did really, really well is I think we were very intentional like and my wife, even when we were dating and we were talking about our future, like she knew what I was going to be, I was going to be a missionary evangelist, wanted to win the world, and she came from a missionary family, so she had that as a as a life mission as well. But she made a conscious decision because she was raised on the mission field every night in crusades. She was on TV, she was doing concerts in stadiums, and her and there was sort of no separation between her ministry life and her and her childhood. And so she was raised on the road, mainly doing correspondence course before they even called it home school. And so when we were dating, Jeff, she was she was the one that really insisted to say and actually broke up with me at one point and said, I don't know if I can live that kind of life, and I don't know if I want that kind of life for my children. And I know what I'm getting into. I know I know who your dad is. I know who you want to be. I know who my dad is. I know what childhood I kind of I was going to have. And she had to pray through it. But she also challenged me to say, can we do to this different? I understand you're going to travel a lot, but I'm not going to go with you all the time. Like she went with me a lot and we probably spent more time traveling than any normal couple did or probably should. But without her intentionality, I think it wouldn't have fulfilled her ambition as the mother. And frankly, I'm so grateful for her pushing that issue. And so I think the important thing is intentionality. So I'll say this, like she said, I want my girls to go to school and I want them to feel a sense of security at home. And and that's the way she and we decided to raise our daughters. So we never thought as missionary kids that our kids would ever be raised in America, number one. But as OneHope began to grow, it just made sense that this is where we should live and make our base. And and she released me to go out and to be the missionary evangelist that I was and travel a lot to build the ministry that is OneHope today. But then she was also super intentional. Like, I don't think my daughters ever heard a negative word about dad travel. Because she had woven into our family's reality the fact that Dad was on mission and that we're on mission, that they knew where I was, what I was doing and why I was doing it. So there was a real intentionality about the purpose of our family. And it wasn't dads off at work or dads off of making money. It was we are teaching them family and this is our calling. And then we were super intentional, Jeff, to say, how do we get our girls more involved even though they're not going have the opportunity we had, which is growing up in another nation, being a traditional missionary family that was both of us are both bilingual, multicultural, like we knew they weren't going to get that experience necessarily being raised in the United States, but we were super intentional in the summer times about going together as a family, making financial sacrifices in order for them to experience what our family was accomplishing, what God had called us to, and letting them actually participate in the ministry of OneHope so that they grew up understanding who we were as a family and what our purpose and mission in life was. And I think if there was anything we did well, it was sort of that intentionality to raise them on purpose. And so all of us have the reality of our lives where, of course, in an ideal world, we think the best thing would be to go away. You know, we had all the money in the world to go away to an island somewhere and raise our kids in a super safe environment that was totally protected from the world. But none of us have that luxury, and frankly, that is not a healthy way to raise kids. They need to be aware of all of the complexities of life, the needs that there are in the world that we live in, and all of us at that point just have to say, Hey, I've got to work, moms got to work, this is the reality of our lives. But based on the reality that we're living in right now, Jeff, are we being intentional with the lives God gave us to raise healthy children, to be on mission and on purpose for the Lord?Jeff Zaugg: [00:21:52] And that fire that I see in your eyes right now, and some of our listeners are watching on YouTube and seeing the, seeing the fire and some are just hearing it in your voice. But the the dads who are fired up and like, I've got a mission, I'm going after it, I'm not doing it to the detriment of my family, I'm doing it with my family, is what I'm hearing. And we just need more men, more dads who have the fire that, that I was sensing. And I think the story might actually give a little metaphor for this. There's a story you told of a potted plant versus a planted plant and I think it was an early conference you attended when you took over leadership of OneHope. I'm not sure if you'll recall, because you wrote the book a while ago. Could you tell the story? But also, it's deeply the planting, the vision of OneHope within you, but I think there's a dad that might need to hear the difference of taking that deeper ownership and saying, I'm going to be a dad on mission.Rob Hoskins: [00:22:45] Yeah. Thanks, Jeff, for reminding me. It was a powerful story in my life because really before I felt I was ready to lead, my dad contracted cancer and was was really stage four. And he had said, Hey, Rob, I know that we, at at that point hadn't even talked about me taking over leadership of the ministry, but he began to think about if something happens to me, I feel like God has put an anointing on you to do this. And even as he grew sicker and sicker, he began to hand over responsibilities to me that I didn't feel I was equipped to sort of handle as a leader and felt totally inadequate. I remember coming back from one meeting where I was sent to represent the ministry in his place, and I just failed. I mean, I just and as soon as I left the meeting, I knew that I had and I sort of was saying, I can't I can't do this. Like, I don't have my dad's giftings, I don't have his his his, this deep insecurity sort of rose up inside of me that probably a lot of us have when we think about our dads. You know, like I, I don't know if I have his giftings or his talents and then I'm flying back and I, I really thought at that point, like, I got to get out of this. Like, I'm not my dad. I don't know if I can lead this ministry. I don't know what I want to lead this ministry and and all of these. And I, and Kim and I had kind of resolved in our heart that we never were going to pastor, like we don't have the pastoring gift. Like, there's the five fold ministry and shepherding and teaching are like our bottom, like our top ones are, you know, the prophetic and the evangelists and, and so, and the apostolic gift. So we thought we're not built for pastoring but we said there's this one church and it was in San Francisco which is a city we love, she's from Northern Cal, and it's a mission field, right. San Francisco is a pretty unchurched place, so we thought if we ever pastored, it would be that church. And I come home from this trip where I feel like I failed miserably. You know, I get in the mail an invitation from this church to come and pastor, and I'm like, Oh, this is God, right? I mean, here is an opportunity. I won't have to travel anymore. We can put roots down. We can settle in a city we love. We can, you know, And so I'm literally going to my dad with stage four cancer to let him know, Hey, Dad, not only do I not feel like I'm a leader, I I'm ready to exit, like, here's an opportunity and I love you, I love the ministry, but I love my family and I think this is best for us. And before I could even say it, he said, how'd the meeting go? And I said, Dad, it went horrible and I was about to go on, He says, Oh, that's okay, I'm sure you did great, He goes, hey, by the way, I've got to be at another meeting next week. Obviously, I can't go because I'm still here in bed and you need to go for me. And I was like, Oh man. And I couldn't get it even out of my, I couldn't get it out to say anything to him. I was just like, okay. So I thought, look, I'm going to go to the meeting, then I'm going to have a serious talk when I get back. And Jeff, I showed up at this meeting really kind of very discouraged while I was wrestling with how do I tell Dad? But also I've got a call to the nation's. I, I love God's word on every child, but I feel like this is best for my family right now and this is best for us. And this is a safe bet financially. It's going to be awesome. Like, you know, it's not a missionary salary. It's a good you know, I could work more as, you know, pastors don't work 9 to 5. But compared to what I was doing, it seemed... So all those reasons, you know, but I'm wrestling with it. So I show up at this conference and it was at Wycliffe Bible Translators in Dallas.. And I knew, because I've been there before, it like a dorm setting. And so I just had been busy because I was doing Dad's work, my work, and so I asked them ahead of time, Hey, can I in my own room so I can when I'm not in the conference, I can get work done? They said, Sure, no problem. You know, And so so they gave me the key. I go to the room and I open it up and there's and as soon as I opened, there's all these clothes hanging up. And I thought, Oh my gosh, I must have the wrong room. And so I start backing up and this guy sticks his head around the corner, he goes, Hey, Rob Hoskins. I go, Yeah. I said, I'm sorry. I thought this was my room. He goes, No, no. When I found out you were going to be here, I asked if I could room with you, and I was like, Oh my God. And Jeff, honestly, this guy was the most talkative guy I ever met in my life. He was nonstop. And so I'd come back from the meetings tired, in this state of sort of confusion about my destiny and my future. And and and and he'd come over and I'd, I'd be working, like, obviously working, and he'd start talking to me, and I'd go, Hey, bro, I'm just trying to get some work done. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. Hey, that reminds me, he just start talking some more, you know, and I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is horrible. And then in the midst of that, I'm like, Really? You know, Jeff, where you're in that sort of pivotal moment in your life and you said, God, I need you to speak to me. And there was nothing coming, like zero. And and then my mom calls me and says, Hey, your dad has a, got a staph infection. His temperature is 104. They don't, they can't get it down. Like you need to fly home right now because this might be his last night. And I couldn't get a flight out of Dallas that night. And, and I went to bed that night, I can't tell you how discouraged I was at every level, potentially going home, losing my dad and all this unresolved inside of me at the same time with his expectations and and and finally, I guess I really think I went to bed that night for the first time, almost angry at God for the first time in my life. And I somehow started to fall asleep and the guy in the bed next to me goes, Hey, are you awake? Well, I am now, you know, He said, You know, I was just lying here thinking and I was thinking about you and your ministry. And and I know that you know your dad, and he goes, You know, I took over my ministry from my dad and great ministry. And he said, But man, when I took over, everything went wrong. Like, I wasn't equipped. I didn't feel I'd be the right kind of leader for the organization. We got sued and we lost the lawsuit. And the board was like questioning whether I should have taken over. And he goes, I was scheduled to go on a trip for India, and the board said, We don't want you to go right now. We're just trying to figure out if you're going to be our leader. My wife said, don't go right now, Morgan, Like you need to stay home. And and he said, I was ready. I like, okay, I won't to go to India. And he goes, But I got up in the morning, the Lord said, Go to India. And so I said, I just told the board and called my wife like God wants me to go. And so he said, I went. So I was at this conference, he said, and I was waiting for God to speak to me. And he said, I wasn't hearing anything from the Lord. And now, now I'm really awake. Like, you know, I'm listening now. And he said, I left the conference and I was I found myself walking in this garden outside of the convention center. And as I was walking along, I turned around, there was a guy following me, this Indian guy, and he came up to me and he goes, introduced himself, he says, I'm the gardener here in this. And I said, Wow, this is a beautiful garden. And he said, You see all these trees? And I noticed along the path there were all these potted plants all along the pathway. And I said, Yeah, I was I was kind of wondering. He goes, Well, these are the plants that I grow, and then I sell them. And he goes, How old do you think these trees are? And he said, I don't know. I'm not a gardener. He said, Maybe a couple of months old, they're pretty small. And he goes, No, no, most of these trees are three and five years old. And he said, Then the gardener pointed in front of us and and in front of us was this huge tree. And it was it was flowering and it was it was full of leaves. It was massive. And he goes, How old do you think that tree is? And I said, Well, if these trees are three or five years old. That one must be 30, 40 years old. And the gardener said, No, sir. He said, that tree is five years old. He said it's the difference between being potted and being planted. And this guy sat up in bed, Jeff, and he looked at me and he said, The Lord sent me here to ask you, Rob, are you potted? Are you planted? And, man, I just felt in that moment, just the Holy Spirit gripped my heart and had a divine encounter that night. And, you know, Jeff, I just I made a promise to the Lord that night. I'm going to plant myself in the life that God has given me. Even if it's hard. Even if it's difficult. Even if it doesn't have an ideal travel schedule, even if it doesn't seem, in the natural, like the best place to raise my family. That wherever you plant yourself in God's purpose and destiny for your life, Dads, you're going to flourish if that's where God has you. Even if it doesn't look normal, even if it doesn't look traditional, even if it looks crazy and wild like my and Kim's life has been. There's a promise in our purpose if we plant ourselves in the destiny that God has intended for our life. And I made a covenant with the Lord that night, I said, Lord, I'm planting myself in God's Word every child. And and Jeff, I flew home the next day and it was amazing. My dad, in the middle of the night didn't even know how, but he was in this horrible temperature and he just reached out and found a phone in his hand. And my wife on the other end of the phone, he doesn't even remember dialing her number or anything and my wife gets a call in the middle of the night from my dad and he just said, Oh, Kim, I'm so glad it's you, pray for me. And Kim began to pray for my dad and Jeff, that began his miraculous healing. And that was more than two decades ago. He was completely healed of his cancer and is still at 87, still working with the ministry today. And but I'll tell you what that that showed me that there is not only purpose in planting yourself, but there is miracles that God will give you as a father, as a dad, as a son, if you're planting yourself in the purpose that God has intended for your unique life, that He has called you, your wife, your kids, and your grandchildren to.Jeff Zaugg: [00:32:55] Rob the the double miracle of that story, of that testimony in your heart and then your dad's life and his flourishing for these 25 plus years since. I, I, I'm, I'm visualizing the planted versus potted and the divorce statistics and the fatherless kids statistics and a dad who approaches being a father, being a husband, being as a potted like like is going to see limited growth, right, and is kind of not all in committed. And I just I just feel like it does the story does parallel into the dad life for the dad who just says I'm planted for the long haul, I'm staying and I'm going to fight for my family. I'm going to see my family flourish and see the fruitfulness. I'm not going to, I'm not going to like, so could you take it just a step further with that parallel and in some of your hopes for, for dads?Rob Hoskins: [00:33:53] The metaphor was so powerful because even what the gardener told Morgan was, you know, these these these plants are easily sold. And I feel like fathers have sold their birth, their birthright as a dad like and that right of fatherhood. I mean, can you imagine that God the Father chooses as His most supreme title, as Father. Not, not King, not Lord. He is Father. He is Abba. And that moniker, that honor is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, God of all. That's the title He wears most proudly. And for us to sell it out so cheaply for the things of this world, whether that be an affair, whether that be a job that we know is not right for our family, but it's going to make more money, whether it's spending too much time in front of the television, whether it's, you know, not being intentional about raising our children, or supporting our wife as she's struggling with the kids in difficult circumstances. Like, there are many ways to sell out. And I just feel like our society just is, it's so convenient for dads to not be intentional and disciplined and strategic and all in with the most important role that any of us are given that the Lord blessed us with more than anything else, to be a dad, to be a father, to raise our kids. Hey, dads, if you're being tempted right now, if, if, if you're wanting to check out and be easily sold, like don't do it. I mean, plant yourself in your marriage. Plant yourself in the lives of your children. Plant yourself in a place, in a garden where their roots, where your roots are going to grow deep and where they have the ability to flourish. And as as you, as healthy parents flourish, then your children will flourish as well. And wow, it's just so easy, particularly in our narcissistic culture of self fulfillment, to see ourselves as individuals and make individual decisions rather than in the construct that God created for us as a community and as, as and as family. And understand that there are some things you don't even need to pray about. I mean, when you start prioritizing the responsibility you've been given to be a healthy father. And it's not just about, you know, the time you spend with the kids. It's about are you putting yourself in a place where where you are healthy enough to raise, you can't pass on your faith to your kids if you don't have a faith. You can't pass on the peace and shalom of God if you haven't lived out the peace and shalom of God. Because all of us know as dads, Right, our kids are taught the worst habits. It's like, Oh, no, you know. But I think being a healthy father is also about being a healthy servant of the Lord. And and I just think that you have to be intentional and disciplined to make sure that you are planted. Like, there's some things for health that you need to do to make yourself a healthy plant. And and I know, like, there's some things that are so out of our control, like the weather, the wind, the rain, the nourishment of soil that we're playing planted in. Like, a lot of those things we have we can't do anything about. But I just love that analogy because even the gardener had told Morgan in that story, well, like if your roots are deep, we have monsoons here and the potted plants will always get ruined with the monsoon. But he said those that have been planted long enough for their roots to grow deep, they'll they'll live through a monsoon and a horrible hurricane winds. And so just making ourselves resilient by the decisions we make to be healthy so that our families and our kids can be healthy.Jeff Zaugg: [00:38:27] So helpful. I'm going to just dip in for a moment to your book. The book you wrote with John Maxwell, Change Your World. To me, I read it with a double lens, at the lens of dads, men, people who have a burning mission that they just stick with, like it's good for everyone around that person when someone just goes after, again, the God mission in their heart and has the fire, it's good for them. As I have surveyed and traveled the country for the past 18 months in an RV with my wife and four daughters, I gather groups of dads and I'll ask them, Hey, when was the last time someone invited you to grow in being a dad? When was the last time someone invited you to join a group of men who grew around this topic of discipleship, or in God's Word, or did a book study together? And often, especially on the theme of fatherhood, the people say, Oh, I haven't been invited, you're the first one to invite a group of us dads together. Like, it's just uncommon, dads playing a lead role in saying, I am imperfect in my fatherhood, but I'm going to be the one that says I'll go first. And it's something that I've just been kind of like ringing the bell, like, we need more dads that say, I'll go first. So when I, the Change Your World, the other lens that I read it through is, is we just need more dads who say, I want to grow in this area and I'll be a catalyst of change for other people. So, like, there's so many takeaways from both lenses of the broader vision mission you're going after and the dads who are growing in their fatherhood journey and inviting other dads to grow, so I was just so thankful. But I wanted to dive into one specific lens from this book, and it's your five D framework. So, so the five D's are tracking, I just feel like it's interesting, like to track progress and to track is this actually making a difference? So discover, design, deploy, document, dream. And I know we won't be able to go into the depths of it, but it's a resource in a framework that might help dads be like, Hey, actually I can do this for my family. Could you give us a flyover of that 5 Ds?Rob Hoskins: [00:40:28] Yeah, I mean, that was that was the one chapter, like John sort of said, we wrote the book together, but he said that seventh chapter, Rob, is yours. Like that's, and it came out of what I call my science of outcome based ministry and the process that we use here at OneHope to build what I call outcome based programs, which is, you know, and part of the Change Your World philosophy is, you know, begin with the end in mind. Like hopeful leaders have a vision for the future and they almost re-engineer everything backwards like we imagine the life that we want for ourselves, and then we. So, so what are the outcomes that we want? Because what gets measured gets done. What gets done gets measured. And so that whole process of how we actually build things like the Bible app for kids or one of our 370 programs has gone through the science of outcome based ministry and the five Ds are part of that. But you're absolutely right, Jeff. It's not just about building programs or products, it also can be used for building kids. It also can be a process as a dad to be super intentional about what are the outcomes that you believe your children should have. And I don't know if you know how, you said you have four girls is it? Jeff Zaugg: [00:41:37] Four Girls. Yeah.Rob Hoskins: [00:41:38] I'm sure they're all exactly the same, have the same personality and you're raising them exactly the same, right?Jeff Zaugg: [00:41:43] Not at all.Rob Hoskins: [00:41:45] Not at all. They come out of the womb different, right? I mean, and you begin to see their unique characteristics and that they are unique. So, you know, parenting isn't one size fits all. It's one size fits one. And so how you even tackle because you have family values that you want instilled in all of your kids, but how you instill those values has to be very different depending on their personality, depending on their uniqueness's, who God has made them to be. And I don't care how many good books have been written on parenting, you've almost got to write your own book for every child that you raise. And so that intentionality do, Hey, we know what the outcome is that we want to get to, but there's a process to get to that outcome. And so the five D's help you do that. And so whatever issue you're facing and I was I was I was just talking to a dad the other day who, you know, got an emergency call from his wife. That call, you never want to get a 16 year old daughter, suicidal ideation and being sent home from school. You know, they were going to, you know, have to put her into an institution like and this a great Christian family and find out the daughter is just feeling an incredible amount of shame because of gender confusion. And here's a dad that was like, man, I didn't even know that she was facing, dealing with that. And he was just calling me like, like, like, what do I do? And we could go through a million different cases, like you find out your kid is maybe taking drugs or they're a toddler and they're lying a lot as a child. And you're looking at their life going, I want a different outcome for my child than what I see right here. And, and as I talk about in the book, like Hope, you know, optimism is not a strategy. Optimism is a feeling. Hope is a strategy. And and hope actually has components to it that that that force us, as I talk about in the book, like hope is action. And and so that that hope that you have for your child needs to process. And so the five Ds really help you do that. So what I told this down on the phone that's struggling with a sixteen year old, but it could be for any situation or circumstance. It's like, first I need to do discovery, like I need to discover, how my, How my Daughter, how my son, not any other child, but I need to do discovery on them right now. Do I, do I understand where they're at? Am I going to spend the time? So at OneHope we do a lot of research. Hey, Dad, do your research. Like research what are the emotions of your child? What are the feelings they're having? What are the outside pressures they have? Like, ask the questions. You know, research is just a discovery of the truth. And that's what that's what the discovery process is all about. So, you know, find out as much as you possibly can and then find out as much as you can about what God's word says about about this particular topic or subject, like get deep in the word on this subject. And then it says in the Council of many, there is wisdom. So there's this whole thing of of discovery. You're discovering what the truth is about this situation. You're discovering who your child is. You're getting the best advice you can from from from other people that know more about the subject than you do, all that is discovery. And then you go into a design process, where hopefully you and your wife or even if you're a single dad, your friends or your pastors, or those people that you trust in your life. Like don't do parenting alone, like if you have Godly counsel. I can remember my my wife and I would call our parents, Hey, this is what's going on in our kids lives. Like, nobody is the perfect parent and everybody realizes that. So so like, and then get a design together and say, okay, how do we start designing a solution and a strategy towards the hopeful outcome that we're going to shoot for? And after that's designed, then then you go out and you just do it. I mean, you just start implementing the plan. There's no perfect plan. There's no silver bullet solutions. No one has ever raised your child. So, so no one, now you might read a book and get excellent advice, but, but you try it out. And, and if it doesn't seem to be resonating with your child, like, don't just get so stuck. I mean, you have to be, and that's what documenting does. It's it's to measure. Measure is the strategy that we developed working or not and then so you're you're documenting your process as you're going along and then then it's really more of a of a concentric circle of hope, I call it with outcome based ministry. Where you're going through and and you're constantly redesigning, you're constantly redocumenting what's working, what isn't. And, and we're just creating virtuous cycles that hopefully get bigger and bigger as hope begins to grow in the strategy and situation by using this five D process. So I'm glad you saw it. A lot of people haven't ever, I have done it in my own life, like as a process for for raising my children and raising my business and raising my ministry. So it's tested, tried, and it's been true for me.Jeff Zaugg: [00:47:06] Well, I I'm going to leverage it for the ministry, dadAWESOME. But then for each individual daughter, I love that you're saying instead of as a family, think so contextual to each individual that we can go through this process of discover, design, deploy, document, dream round and round, round and round. So thank you. It'll all be in the show notes for the guys listening. Rob, I'm so grateful. I'm pretty sure I got through about 25% of my notes and questions to ask you, but that's okay. We'll get you on in the future. We'll get you back out again for another round. Would you say a brief prayer over all of us?Rob Hoskins: [00:47:41] Sure. Well, you got me going on one of my favorite topics. I mean, I love the fact that we celebrate OneHope as a global ministry, that we're touching kids all over the world, but at the end of the day, I'm most concerned about my kids. And at the end of the day, you know, that's that's the testimony that's going to be so absolutely critical for for me and my role. The most important role I have, which is which is father, which is Dad, which is grandpa, or in my case, Doo Doo. So Doo Doo's going to pray for you guys right now and and just pray a blessing and anointing on your lives. Lord Jesus, I thank you. I thank you, Lord, for this time. I thank you for Jeff, I thank you for this incredible ministry to fathers and dads that you have given him. I thank you for the audience that's even listening right now, Lord Jesus. And that is just, I hope, taking the conversation that Jeff and I have had and they're applying it to their own personal context, Lord. And I pray that that faith would be arising in their hearts. I pray that faith would arise even right now to know, Hey, I'm not a perfect dad, there's never been a perfect father, except you. And even you, Father, had to relinquish control by allowing your son to be human, allowing the risk of him having to encounter this world with all of its temptations and you had to let Him go, Lord. So even not only has Jesus, the Son, experienced life in every way as as human, but you, as the Father, chose to put yourself in that vulnerable situation and allowed your Holy Spirit to take control. And so, Lord, we do that, now. I pray for dads who who might be struggling with a child right now, might feel like they don't have all the answers, might feel, Lord, like, Hey, I messed up. We've been talking about being planted. I was potted, I screwed up. I haven't been faithful, all right. I haven't kept my commitment to my son or my daughter or my grandchildren like I promised. Lord, I thank you that you are the redeeming, grace filled God. And that right now, Jeff and I can agree together with everyone on this call that you can turn any situation around, you can redeem it, you can bless it, you can anoint it, and by the power of your Holy Spirit, you can even take what Satan intended for, for bad or for evil in the lives of our children and you can turn it around and make it good right now. Make it good right now in Jesus name, over every father, every dad that's listening in the mighty, mighty name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being dads today, Lord. And I pray that you would bless the work of our hand. In Jesus name. Amen.Jeff Zaugg: [00:50:46] Thank you so much for listening this week, Episode 280, with Rob Haskins. All the conversation notes, the links to the resources we talked about Rob's book, The Ministry, One Hope are all going to be at dadawesome.org/280. As a reminder, we're ten days away from the registration deadline for our Minnesota 100 mile Fathers for the Fatherless team. So I would really encourage you guys to check out that opportunity or share with other men who live in the Midwest who might be interested in joining this mission. Lastly, want to remind you, we just came off of four episodes for Mom Month, the month of May, we featured wisdom from Moms. Just a different perspective. It's so helpful for us. So, if you missed those episodes, you can jump back and listen. Also, we will be dropping one or two more conversations, I recorded too many to feature in the month of May, so I'll be dropping those later this summer, a few other extra bonus Mom Month episodes, so look out for those. Guys, thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of this mission of saying, man, we're going to be dads who are all in. We're going to be dads who pursue the hearts of our kids. We're going to be dads who pray with our kids, who who play, whose eyes shine with, can you believe it I get to be a dad. That's our that's our heartbeat. So I'm praying for you guys. Cheering for you guys. Have a great week.