Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. Thanks for joining us today on the WallBuilders Show. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. You can learn more about us and the organization at wallbuilders.com. That's our main website. Encourage you to visit there. And now's a great time to visit their cause there's a lot of great stuff you can get going into Memorial day. July 4th is coming up. There's going to be a lot cool stuff this summer. And then of course the 250th of the year from now we're already working on planning and doing a lot. Of cool stuff. So wallbuilder.com go there to get some great information and some great tools and even some cool swag. That you can be wearing to increase patriotism out there in our communities. Later in the program, JP Decker will be with us. We'll be talking about increasing patriotism and some of the great programs like American Journey Experience, David and Tim. Of course, we've been already talking about just the fun of being able to have an excuse to talk about the stuff we love to talk about anyway, and almost every day. What do we got? Bunker Hill will be next month. We can talk about Dr. Joseph Warren and Bucker Hill, but, what a great time to, for how to have American journey, experience and Mercury one growing and teaching more people. 

Tim Barton [00:01:07] Yeah, it really is. And it's something that, you know, Rick, as you mentioned, we, we've been talking about this a lot already, but it's super fun that now we get to celebrate the anniversaries in brand new ways, and there's a new and renewed interest for so many Americans, as we've traveled and taught for years on American history and some of that faith foundation, some of the constitutional principles and animal rights and bill of rights. We've always had good response from crowds. There's always been people eager to hear and learn that they want to see what a George Washington say and what a Jefferson write and and every time we present from those original documents It's always impressive to people but as impressive as it has been over the decades that this has been going on there is a there is a new vigor. There was a new vitality. There's a new energy for people that are recognizing, this is a very special moment that we are coming into and so it does raise a level of optimism, as you mentioned, having a president who actually loves America. Like how, also, how silly we're having to say that. I mean, the idea that we have a president or have had presidents that embrace far more of Marxist ideology and did not view America as a fundamentally good nation or that we haven't done great things and they weren't looking at objective realities and objective standards about how much good America has and It's just, it's sad that we've ever had those kinds of presidents. But the fact we have a president now who is unapologetically pro-America and unapoligetically pro the American people, it stirred a lot of people and a lot interest and it is kind of an exciting time to be able to retell those stories to people that now are listening with even more attentive ears. 

David Barton [00:02:54] And there's really a lot of ways to retell that story. You know, we're talking about getting ready for the 250th and we've already talked on the program how that Trump's plan is to make it about 14 months of celebrating the 250. And there're a lot things that you can do the 250 anniversary of in that 14 months and look back over that year leading up to the American War for Dependence plus with the founding fathers dead. But you can celebrate it a lot other ways as well. And so even with some of the key events that are coming out and we already mentioned the fact Trump administration. They're really looking for thousands of events to happen across America. They want something in every community, they want people to take ownership of it and do things that help help get that community focused on, you know the special nature of who we are. So there's a lot there and coming up this summer we're certainly gonna be getting ready for that, but we got a lot of other stuff going this summer as well There's a a lot happening this summer with with wall builders American Journey experience and Mercury On,e, whether we partner together and we do teacher trainings and we do trainings for, young people that are college bound or in college. And there's just so much going on. We just recently got done with what we call a family seminar. It's kind of a two day session where we can take you through from the very beginning from Columbus all the way up to the current time and essentially two days. And it's usually a better overview of history than what most kids get in the years of school. So it's just a lot of good stuff happening right now. And it, it's very positive. And so Jonathan Decker is one of our executive directors over at Mercury One, and Tim and I are on the board over there, and we do, we collaborate all the time with Glenn Beck, who he started Mercury One and then Tim and help run that and JP, Tim and are on board and JP helps run that, but there's so many things happening right now and this is where we have that massive historical collection of better than 100,000 historical items showing all these various things from American history. And so having JP on, we thought it'd be a good way to kind of catch up with some of the opportunities that are coming this summer. There's things that people can do, and also some things we can do in looking forward to celebrating the 250th and what you can start doing right now in your community. 

Rick Green [00:05:01] Alright, JP Decker with us. When we come back, stay with us, you're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:06:12] Welcome back to the WallBuildrers Show. Thanks for staying with us. JP Decker back with us from Mercury One and American Journey Experience. JP, great to have you back on, man. 

JP Decker [00:06:19] Good to be back on. 

Rick Green [00:06:21] Been an incredibly busy year for you guys. So much happening. I mean, between the disaster relief stuff you guys are doing, the constitutional education and history education, the training of families and legislators and everything else, I can't keep up with you. So, but it's good to have you on and catch up and wanna encourage people to be a part of Mercury One. Y'all do such good work. 

JP Decker [00:06:41] Thank you, thank you. Yeah, it's been a crazy year. Now we get to all work together for 250th anniversary next year, which is just crazy to think about. 

Rick Green [00:06:49] Yeah, you know, the opportunity right now, I mean, there's, I don't think we'll ever have anything like this again in our lifetime. The timing, it's like this perfect storm, right? You got a president who's willing to talk about it to focus on the faith part of us that brings attention to it. And you get all these groups like Mercury One, American Journey, Patriot Academy, WallBuilders. I mean all these group that honestly for years, I think God's been preparing us for this moment. It's just a perfect storm and people are interested. So, you they're ready. They're like, they're not bored. They want to know this stuff. 

JP Decker [00:07:19] Yeah, it's so cool. Cause you know, a couple of weeks ago, we do a family seminar every year, with American Journey Experience and Mercury One, and we have our museum. You know, we partner with WallBuilders and, so we've got a museum of about a hundred thousand artifacts. And so we get families from all over the country that come in and they get to learn from Glenn Beck, David Barton, Tim Barton and obviously on American Journey Experience team. And there was such a different feel this year cause everyone's super excited about... they just have that freedom again, not saying we lost that freedom, but they have that freedom of knowing we can actually now go out and tell others about God's providence through American history. And we get to pass those artifacts along to each of those people that come and attend. And, you know, we'll be doing that even more this year. We've got our teachers conference with WallBuilders that's coming up soon. And then we also have our summer Institute that's come up where we've got 18 to 25 year olds that come in for a at a time. And they learn from David and Tim Barton and Glenn Beck, and they get to learn about-

Rick Green [00:08:17] And that's hands-on. That's not just listening to lecture. I mean, that's hand-on, they're looking, they're getting to handle documents, they're going to be part of the process. 

JP Decker [00:08:24] Yeah, and that's what's cool. What's different is that, you know, especially when you go to Smithsonian, you don't get to hold the Revolutionary War, right? You know musket or you don't got their whole George Washington's personal compass that he had with them his whole life but at our events you actually get to whole those items, which is pretty cool And we actually just got something that was pretty cool in our collection is George Washington's hair and it's it's you know Just to learn the history of that to learn a history of having those artifacts throughout American history given to certain people within founders. It's just, it's cool. 

Rick Green [00:08:56] It brings it to life. 

JP Decker [00:08:58] It does, it brings us life. It does, it brings it to life. 

Rick Green [00:08:59] Just reading in a textbook, you know, or having somebody even just putting up a PowerPoint picture of it or whatever, it's so different to either go to the places where it happened, walk in the footsteps where they had, or be able to hold those documents in those, like you said, the muskets and that sort of thing. You feel like you've stepped back in time. It's a whole different ballgame. 

JP Decker [00:09:16] Yeah. And then, you know, at all, at the same time, we're creating a, we're digitizing everything we have. So we're making sure that we get it up online on his honest histories and, just telling that honest history of America. Cause so many different, you know, education and school boards are trying to change, you know, the history or not allowing certain things in, you know, being taught and we're changing that. And we're doing that not just with our artifacts, but also digitizing it so people can get online and look at all the artifacts, study it for themselves. Because that's the biggest thing with us is we don't want you to just listen to us. We want you to go do your own research. I mean, we will never learn the truth about American history, the truth, about our, you know, the scripture alone. Like you can't just trust people. You to go and do the research on your own. So that's, that's what's pretty cool. And then also, like you were saying with, the profile of legislators network, we've partnered with them to go around and work with legislators in every state to get that 10 commandments bill, passed. And obviously David and Tim have been testifying in all those. And then some of my team as well. So we've been busy, man. We are busy and we are prepping for 250, working with the white house on different projects. And then obviously Glenn Beck, our founder, he's got a few locations that I wish I could say out loud, but currently he's in conversations with the White House to try to get those set for next year, but there's a lot going on. And, I'll also, you know, with the tornadoes this past weekend, we are disaster relief as well, so we do all these things and then we're still helping with, making sure that all of our partners have everything they need like barbecue relief, operational blessing, we provide trucks, we provide food for the first responders. We provide, communications for the first responders to go in with Starlinks. And, yeah, we do a lot. We're still in Western North Carolina too. We're, we're planning on being there for about two years, helping rebuild 400 homes and we're already up to about 50 or 60 just in the first few months. So it's awesome. God is doing a lot, God is moving for sure. 

Rick Green [00:11:21] You guys are a perfect example of why I totally support the idea of getting rid of FEMA, they do such a terrible job. It's it'd be so much better if all of that money was going to private organizations, you know, if individuals were able to give that money directly to private organizations like Mercury One and not have the government, you know, taking 60% of it and then maybe 40% gets to people in need and they're just inefficient. I mean, we saw it was a North Carolina was a perfect example of why private organizations, like Mercury, one do such a better job than the government. And we heard it from all the people on the ground. You know, you guys went there. So many of the videos with Glenn, you know, literally right there on the ground. It exposed, I think, the failure of government, not just because it was Biden in charge. I mean, it was just, it's just the way government operates. Republicans are not gonna do any better, not much better anyway. I mean we saw it with Katrina and everything else. It just needs to be, it should be private organizations helping and you guys are exemplify that. 

JP Decker [00:12:13] And it should be, and that's the same with some of these education things too, is that, you know, we always trust the government, we've seen a failure of government, it doesn't matter who's in charge, but when your goal and your focus is on God and what God has called you to do, being a servant and making sure that you're helping your fellow man, that's all that matters. I mean, you know, especially with the Afghanistan fall, you know, with Nazarene fund and helping rescue 12,000 people. We did that at Mercury Wine and Nazarene Fund. It wasn't the government that stepped in when they should have, but we're not willing to wait. And I think that's what's great about WallBuilders and Patriot Academy and Mercury One and American Journey Experiences. We're not gonna wait for the government to teach our kids. We're just gonna do it. We're gonna teach this next generation. We're going to teach those families, those parents, those grandparents, everyone who's been looking and searching for truth. They have a place to look and search for truth. And they can do that with all four of these groups, that it's just, it's amazing to see how God is using us. And just like you said, He's been preparing us for this. He has been preparing for this, because I don't think a lot of us really saw what was gonna happen in the election last year, but now that we're here, it's cool to see and look back on the trials and tribulations we went through. God prepared us for moment. 

Rick Green [00:13:30] Yeah, I don't think the appetite would be there if it hadn't been for the trials and tribulations, right? I mean, you said earlier, they didn't, they didn't completely lose their freedom, but it was pretty close and, and people felt like they didn't have the freedom to speak up or to share their faith or to, you know, all these different things. And so when you feel a little bit of that pain and you go through those tough times, it wakes you up. And so right now, I think that's why they're so interested in, in, in what you guys are doing and what Patriot Academy is doing and what WallBuilders is doing. I mean this is just the right time, the right place. And with president Trump talking about it. With all the, you know, like you said, the dates coming up with Glenn and the events that are gonna happen, it's a perfect storm, and we're gonna make the most of it for sure. We got a little over 400 days between now and the 250th, and we are not just interested in that. Why'd you have to say that? I'm not ready for that. 

Tim Barton [00:14:13] That's great every day 

Rick Green [00:14:14] We're not just going to have a bunch of fireworks and hot dogs. We're going to, we're going have a new educated, you know, informed patriotism in America. And it's an exciting, exciting time to be alive. How can people help with Mercury One? What's the best way to do that? 

JP Decker [00:14:29] Well, honestly, I mean, obviously donations, prayer donations, but also you can come join us to be a volunteer in a museum, which is pretty amazing to do. We're scanning every artifact we have. We're also going to start doing 3D scanning of every artifact, like, you know, actual tangible artifact, not just the paper. And it's going to be busy weekend. We've got about 13 writers as well that are going to help write a lot of the history that's going to go up on the website, do the research. And so all that can be found at mercuryone.org. But also if you go to americanjourneyexperience.com, there's access to all the information on there. But again, it's so cool how everyone is stepping up to help and get involved because we can get involved. We can do something. And American Journey Experience, we're looking for volunteers, we're we're lookin' for people to help get involved, all that could be found on americanjourneyexperience .com. 

Rick Green [00:15:23] AmericanJourneyExperience.com folks, financial help, just individual help, go give a little bit of your time. Hey, this is, we're going to be celebrating the declaration, so lives, fortunes, sacred honor, lives, that's your time, look for an opportunity to go volunteer, fortuns, make a donation, sacred honor, that your reputation, stand up and speak truth, share some posts for American Journey and for Mercury One. JP Decker, God bless you man, thanks for coming on Wall Builders. 

JP Decker [00:15:42] You too, thank you. 

Rick Green [00:15:43] Stay with us, folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton

Rick Green [00:16:53] Welcome back to the Wobblers Show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to JP for joining us and, uh, and to Mercury One, just for all the good work, like we said, not only for American journey and the history and the preservation of, all these cool documents and artifacts, but also the, the rescue work, the, you know, all of the disaster relief. I mean, guys, JP's, he's got a lot of stuff on his plate andthey're in totally different areas in some ways, but it's, you know, it's all helpful to save the country, but that's a lot to manage. 

Tim Barton [00:17:19] It is a lot to manage. And you're right. They're very different areas all of these areas were things when Glenn started the nonprofit, they were things that were important to him. He wanted to help the American people. He wanted help Christians around the world, and he wanted to help retell the story of America. And so you have the American history side, you have disaster relief, and then you have The Nazarene Fund, which helps rescue persecuted Christians. And there's really even more that they do. They do stuff with Israel and veterans, but guys, just, just as a connection point for people to know. Over the last week, there's been tornadoes in multiple states. In Missouri, in Kentucky, in Kansas, they've had tornadoes very recently. Earlier this week, we had tornadoes in Texas. I had a tornado less than seven miles from my house in Texas, where my wife, my girls and I, we were all in the master bedroom closet for nearly two hours. Our producer, Justin, he and his family had to go take cover. Tornadoes were very close to them. 

Rick Green [00:18:13] Did you do the mattress thing like did you have a mattress ready to cover up with? 

Tim Barton [00:18:16] Well, we, we did, so there's some kind of foam, toy called a nugget. It folds out. You can build things with it. So we did take the nuggets in there. 

Rick Green [00:18:26] Nugget was the key. 

Tim Barton [00:18:28] We did not take and not like chicken nuggets. We weren't going to eat these. If we got hungry, they were padded foam things, but we did take them in there, we also took, you know, fortunately I live in a home, where we have more pillows than like sets of socks and underwear. Right. And so. I just, I was taking the pillows from all over, actually, just two places, the couch in my bed. And there was like 20 pillows. 

Rick Green [00:18:49] That was enough,. 

Tim Barton [00:18:50] Right? We, we, and now we have this fully padded room. Uh, but all of that to say is this, this is a reality. Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of disasters, and Mercury One has been since their origination, one of the very best that you can go to their website at, at mercury one.org and you can there's multiple places you can click to donate, but if you go to the tornado relief section, one of the things they point out is 100% of your donation, excluding that 3% credit card fee, it goes to the initiative. And so one of things that Glenn's heart was, and my dad and I being on the board, we've helped to ensure, JP's the one that helps carry this out. He and Suzanne, they're running Mercury One. They make sure that when people give, the gift is not being consumed in administrative and overhead related things. We're taking this money and we're helping the people on the ground and they pride themselves at being if not the first at least one of the first ones in and they're usually the very last one out as JP even highlighted. This is something that is as we are looking at the nation every time you see whether it is a some kind of big hurricane, some kind a big storm, a tornado, whatever happens that is a disaster mercury one is there to help and so I would encourage people, you can go to MercuryOne.org right now and you can help contribute to help people in need and it's also worth noting that what mercury one does that is is very unique is They don't go into to do all of the the work on the ground themselves and JP kind of mentioned this a little bit But they find partners on the ground who are already there doing the work. And the number one group they partner with on the ground are local churches. They work with the local church to find out what resources needed, where do people need help? What can we do that is the most beneficial? And he even mentioned, you know, in North Carolina, where they're still building homes and FEMA was not the first ones there and they were nearly one of the first one's to leave and all they've done, and not that there's not good people in FEMA, right? It's kind of like when we bash public school and we have to disclaimer, hey, there are good teachers. There are good people on the public school system, but the system itself, there's so much brokenness there. And Mercury one has just been a beacon and a shining light in so many ways. And I'm saying this, not just cause I'm on the board. This is a reality. If I was looking to give somewhere and make a difference, Mercury one is the kind of organization at the Mercury One, Samaritans Purse. There's only a couple. That that I in good conscience would give money to and have full confidence that what they're doing with my money is exactly what? I would want to do and helping those people that really have a need and so they really are one of those groups and again, when disaster hits they help they have a tornado relief donate section up now because they're helping people that have gone through those tornadoes. So just to reiterate some of what JP said and I know we talked a lot about education and different initiatives and seminars and so much going on but because Literally over the last week, there's been a lot of people that have been displaced. There have been people that families have lost loved ones, et cetera. Mercury One is on the ground helping there. And if you want to help make a difference, you can go to mercuryone.org and donate there today. 

David Barton [00:22:00] And I can tell you, those guys are some of the nimblest guys as far as responding. Even going back to North Carolina, JP, Glenn Beck were some of the first guys on the ground, literally. They, they chartered planes, they flew in to see where it was, they were there days, literally a week before FEMA showed up. And on the day they arrived, they'd already gone to Lowe's and said, Hey, we need to get every generator we can from Lowe. Let's get all the, and they were already pulling this stuff in. And they do have great partners working for Operation Blessing and working with Samaritan's purse. So many others got great partners and while we're waiting for the partners to get there, go in and get that stuff set up. And so literally we were going, doing rescue missions. The guys were out looking for people who are missing at the time. Those raging rivers had gone through some of the houses and so really nimble, really quick getting there. Some of the most efficient stuff going on. And as JP mentioned, we don't hear anything about North Carolina news anymore, but building a couple hundred houses there to help replace what was there, still on the ground, they're still doing the work. And who even thinks of the fires that we had in Hawaii a year ago? Well, that's one of the things where they're over in Hawaii, still rebuilding over there. Help get a church open, get that community some spiritual food again, as well as all the other stuff they've done. They're building houses over there, so it really is a great organization. And Tim, as you pointed out, all the money that's given goes downrange. 100% of this is going downrange. We do fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for staff and for administration for other things. The money that's given, this contributed dollars, this is for the people who have the And you're just not going to find that with many nonprofits, especially as nimble as we are and as quick as we can move and as efficient as we do things. 

Tim Barton [00:23:41] And even dad beyond the disaster relief, just again, highlighting some of what JP said, we've partnered with Mercury One in so many areas, uh, where they do have an education arm. And so they're, we do a lot of teaching with them. And some of the seminars we do, whether it be summer Institute or teachers conferences or the family seminars, we do a a lot training with some of their staff. And part of why that's super beneficial is as you and I have traveled all over, it seems like the nation, especially beginning this year, going to state legislatures to testify on some of the history and tradition of some of religious aspects, the ten commandments. The Bible, various things that we've been able to talk about in some of these state legislatures, there were times that you or I couldn't make it. And fortunately, Mercury One, some of their staff was able to go, and again, as experts of American history, be able to tell some of the reality of the foundation of America, the history and tradition of the impact of the Ten Commandments, the Bible and education, whatever that topic or category might've been. And so there's a lot of things we've able to partner with them. As they mentioned, JP said,  they have been able to go in various States, working with state legislators and setting up history displays, taking history on the road. So many cool things that they have been doing. And Rick, I know that they've even at times come and done stuff with some of the Patriot academies, and I think probably as, you know, Rick, you're looking at the 250th, potentially a grand opening of a new building, God willing, right? Finance is coming in. One of the things that we've talked about a lot is having an area down there where there can be some artifacts on display. 

Rick Green [00:25:13] Yes! 

Tim Barton [00:25:13] It might be, you know, probably many on loan from WallBuilders, maybe some on loan, from the American Journey Experience, which is the educational arm of Mercury One. 

Rick Green [00:25:22] Producer Justin, can you put a pin in this program? I want to make sure we have this on hand when I call Tim is hey, man I got an area for you to put some document. Okay. Anyway, sorry, bro 

Tim Barton [00:25:30] I will not forget, but again, it just, this is one of the organizations we partner with in a lot of levels. The reason that we are as involved with them as we are is because this is a group that's doing really great work. The character, the integrity, the heart is all there as well as the execution. There's nobody that does a better job in some of these areas when it comes to some of these disaster relief kind of things, when it come to help rescuing Christians and persecuted religious minorities. From around the world. We've had many interviews with our friend Rudy Atala, David Jacobs, people from the Nazarene Fund telling some of those stories. In fact, we'll probably maybe next week we ought to have an update from some of those guys finding out what's going on. But Mercury One really does do an incredible job. 

Rick Green [00:26:12] You know, and I said it earlier, like there's all these different things that are very different, how difficult to manage, but man, think about for your donation, you're able to give in one place here and impact all of those different areas. So it actually has a really, really positive effect as well. So check that out today, folks, mercuryone.org and it's really easy. Make your donation there. And then, you know, you were helping with disaster relief. You're helping with preserving American history. You're having with educating people. I mean, all these things. So we love those guys. We appreciate what they're doing. Really appreciate JP Decker joining us today to catch us up on all the new programs and things coming up. And appreciate you listening today. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.