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How one hot dog stand turned into a $10 million mission

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The Hidden Lightness with Jimmy Hinton – A struggling man in Ecuador turns his lowest moment into a life-changing mission by giving away his last $200 to start a small business for a family in need. That single act sparks a viral movement, empowering communities, building sustainable businesses, and proving purpose can emerge from even the darkest circumstances...

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How one hot dog stand turned into a $10 million mission

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America Out Loud NewsHow one hot dog stand turned into a $10 million mission. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

You're listening to the Hidden Lightness on America out loud talk radio. I'm your host Jimmy Hinton. As we come into the 250th year anniversary, the celebration of America, and all that she is in all of her glory, we just have such a powerful year this year. We have the astronauts who went to the moon for the first time in 53 years. We have so many big activities, and I feel like a lot of this stuff gets overshadowed by the negativity in the news. The war in Iran and so forth. There are many, many things that overshadow good news. But today I want to talk about a story that is absolutely riveting, and I found this by accident. And I love these stories that I find accidentally. I had no idea that

this person even existed until just a couple days ago. And this story is absolutely inspiring. I can't wait to share this with you. And it's a story of overcoming. It's a story of digging yourself out of rock bottom and making something absolutely wonderful with your life. Now we all remember the pandemic. The pandemic was a dark time in our nation's history and really in the history of the world. We had the over regulation and the government, you know, big brother coming and telling us what we can and can't do, where we can and can't worship, how we can and can't worship, how we have to mask up, how we have to take the COVID shot, where you're going to be fired from your job and you're going to be publicly shamed and humiliated because you hesitated and weren't quite sure that it was on the market

long enough to be able to be tested and all that good stuff. You got it. You got the picture, the social distancing, which didn't make any sense on and on and on. Having kids stay home from school for an entire year or more, it goes on and on and on. Many businesses came to ruination because the government said, you're not essential. And therefore, you have to close your doors. You can't have people show up to your business. Excuse me, government, then how am I going to make a living? How am I going to pay my employees who depend on income for their families to feed their families and put a roof over their head? How do I pay my taxes? And the government's answer was too bad, too sad. Guess you would

just figure it out. And so millions of Americans were left reeling. And again, not just Americans, this was all over the world. And what if I told you that there was a gentleman who got stuck? He was traveling and he got stuck for an entire year. This is a story of determination, survival, a gentleman who only had $200 to his name. Absolutely incredible. And when I say $200, I don't mean $200 on his person. I mean $200 to his name. And it's just such a powerful story. It's a story about a man named Aaron Murphy. Aaron Murphy is known globally as Murph's life. And you may

have heard of him. Maybe not. As I say, I never heard of him or his social media platforms. Murph's life and consequently his organization. So here's the story of Aaron Murphy. And you'll find out why this is so inspiring to me because it just fits this show so brilliantly. This idea that rock bottom doesn't have to be the end of our story. It doesn't have to end with rock bottom. That people who are literally homeless can make something brilliant out of their life. And they can bless the lives of thousands of other people, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. The sky is the limit. And when we believe in the good Lord and that he blesses us when we bless other people. And again, I am not a wealth and wealth and health preacher. I don't buy into this thing that all

if if you're a Christian and you're faithful and you give quote unquote seed money that God is just going to fill your pockets full and he's going to make you happy and healthy and you're going to ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after again. I don't think life works that way. Life is full of many, many struggles even for people who are very faithful to God. And so this is not a health and wealth story. But I do firmly believe that God blesses us in many different ways whenever we're generous with other people when we bless other people with our time, with our money, with whatever resources we have. If we're just put another way, if we're just decent human beings, life typically tends to go a little bit better for you. If you're constantly taking people off, if you're ignorant, rude, condescending, stingy, life tends to throw you a

couple more curved balls. You don't make many friends that way. At least not real friends, people who stand beside you through the thick and thin. Whereas people who are decent people who have a good heart, maybe they struggle in different areas of life. As Aaron did, you'll learn about his story. He really struggled. Maybe you struggle in life. That doesn't define who you are. Maybe it tells us something about your circumstances at the time, but it doesn't define who you are. And I think it was Steve Harvey talked about people wanting to get rich. And he said there's this this idea that if you get rich, you're just automatically going to be a piece of crap. You're going to be a bad person. You're going to take advantage of people. You're going to be dishonest.

Oh, no, no, no, because there's a stigma that goes along with being wealthy. And Steve Harvey said, you know what? Yeah. If you're pursuing money and that's your goal, you just want more money and you'll do anything to get it. Yeah. You're probably going to be not a decent person. But his point was you're probably not a very good person before you got money. Because if that's your goal, and that's how you think, then you already were not a very good person. But he said, wealth doesn't define who you are. It highlights who you already were. And I really love that. And I think it's very accurate. So I said, if you're a decent person, but you struggled, you lived in poverty. When you become wealthy, you're going to be still a decent person. You're going to be generous. You're going to be kind because you already

were that before. And I know Dave Ramsey has said, has said similar things and plenty of others. But it's just a, it's such a true idea. And you're going to see that with Aaron Murphy. So in his early 30s, he suffered from severe anxiety so much so that he couldn't even drive a car. I mean, very, very heavy anxiety. He was caught in a cycle of heavy addictive drinking and smoking. And he reached a point where he said he felt his soul and mental health were at rock bottom. So what's really cool about him is instead of taking prescribed medication, because typically that's the answer. That's the American answer. Well, let's just prescribe medication for the anxiety. Don't treat the cause, treat the symptoms. And the medication will kind

of take the edge off of the anxiety. Maybe you won't have a severe panic attacks and a word that doctors use is, we'll make it manageable. Well, what if people don't want to settle for manageable? What if instead of treating the symptoms, we actually treated the cause? What if we actually worked on making ourselves better? Wouldn't that be incredible? Well, Aaron Murphy seemed to think so. Instead of taking prescribed medication, he made a very radical choice. He was going to face his fears head on. He vowed to backpack through South America and learn Spanish before the age of 34, leaving literally everything behind to find a sense of purpose. Now, I don't know about you,

but this brings up images of what Jesus said, what he told his disciples. He took his disciples out, and he said, I want you to leave everything. You know, sometimes in leaving everything, we find ourselves, we find God, we find purpose, we find meaning, because I can assure you, meaning is not tied to material things. So many Americans want those material things. We're addicted to material things, which is why America is also buried in debt. Americans have the highest debt ever in the history of our nation, personal debt. As I've mentioned before, total household debt in America exceeds 18.8, almost 19 trillion dollars, which is a record high. The average debt per household

is 156 dollars, 105 grand. That's the average debt per household. Mortgage's account for 12.8 trillion dollars, auto loans account for 1.64 trillion dollars, student loans 1.63 trillion, and credit cards 1.13 trillion. Credit card crisis in America, credit card balances have reached record levels every year. We've reached record levels. We've seen a 66% increase in credit card debt. Since quarter one in 2021, generational debt, Gen X carries the highest average debt. While millennials and Gen Z are borrowing heavily for housing and living expenses, instead of increasing income or decreasing the cost of living by eliminating things,

we still want the car, we still want the house, and we just begin borrowing. We borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow, and it's put us in a very, very bad position. So clearly, trying to gain satisfaction from things is not working for Americans. In fact, I would argue it's making Americans more unhealthy. It's making us more unstable. It's making people more anxious. And so anyway, Jesus told his disciples, leave everything, only take the clothes that are on your back, take no extra sack, take no extra clothes, take no extra staff, no extra money, literally take the shoes that are on your feet, and the clothes that are on your back, and go out and be my disciples, be my followers. So the sounds really familiar. What Aaron did sounded really familiar, and I think there's something deeply spiritual about that.

Now I'm not saying that's the life for everybody, but there is something incredibly humbling about leaving everything behind. It's a very humbling experience. So at any rate, Aaron, Murph's life, that movement was born out of a moment of complete vulnerability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aaron was in an Ecuadorian border town when the entire world shut down. He only had $200 left to his name. So instead of hoarding his last dollars, he encountered a family who was in desperate need worse than him. Now I have friends who live in Ecuador. My family has visited Ecuador. We plan to go back. We absolutely fell in love with Ecuador. It's such a beautiful country, and the culture is just so cool, and a lot of people

don't know this. They use US American dollars. That's their currency. So that's pretty cool. You don't have to exchange money. You just use our money because that's their currency. But they have a lot of poverty in Ecuador. I mean a lot of deep poverty. And so it's a really diverse place. They do have wealth, but there's a lot of poverty in Ecuador. So Aaron found a family that was really struggling. So instead of hoarding his last $200, he used his remaining money to buy them a hot dog stand and supplies, and he taught them how to run it so that they could have a self-sustaining income. He relied on a woman who he calls grandma, and he lived with her for an entire year. Fast forward a couple years, he built her a brand new home.

And he didn't just stop with her. You see his TikToks were going viral. He began with filming the encounter with a hot dog stand. He put it on TikTok and it went viral. You see kindness resonates globally. I've been talking about this a lot for a well over a year now. If news cycles would get this, if they would understand it, this is what gets the views. People get exasperated. They get tired from the endless negativity that we see in the news cycles. The lies, the dramatization of certain things to make it sound really vicious. You know, you hear that about political opponents. They annihilated so-and-so in a debate. You want to talk about drama? So anyway, kindness is actually what people want.

We're coming up on a break here. We'll talk more about this story after the break. Be sure in the meantime to check out the America Out Loud store where you'll find incredible deals. Use the code out loud for 20% off and visit AmericaOut Loud.News. Help us share the out loud truth. We'll be right back. Hi, this is Colonel Mike from the National Security Hour calling all patries to join me in Nashville on July 2nd, 3rd and 4th for America Out Loud news, 250 10th anniversary in Nashville. Go get them, Cowboys. Along with Clear, the wellness company. We're celebrating two big milestones, 250 years of America and 10 years of America Out Loud.News. That's where you come to hear military and intel experts on the national security hour and where you get freedom of speech with liberty and justice for all, not like anywhere else. This is a once in a lifetime celebration. We will have inspiring entertainment, incredible fireworks, nationally recognized speakers, who proudly stand for freedom, just like you and us. Let's unite to salute and celebrate the history of our great nation and collaborate to protect the future. Join us and register now

at AmericaOut Loud.News Nashville. One in three people will face cancer and most never see it coming. I'm Dr. Kelly Victory with the wellness company and I know this personally. I exercised daily, avoided processed foods and had no symptoms when a routine mammogram resulted in a cancer diagnosis. And modern medicine is often reactive instead of preventative. That's why I formulated shield. A two-part system designed to support immune health and antioxidant defense. A chemical-free cocoa mix and soft gels. Prevention is power. Visit twc.health slash out loud and use code out loud for an exclusive discount. Virus protection and immune boosting just got easier. Enter the daily V-stack. Using cellular absorption technology we put vitamins A, C, D, Zinc and Quirceton together with a multi-mineral complex for complete protection. The daily V-stack is basically an oral IV of six products all in one at an affordable price. Go to chemicalfreebody.com,

forward slash out loud, get the daily V-stack, protect yourself, boost your immune system and save 20% on your first order. Merf's life is about Aaron Murphy. Aaron Murphy is a really, really interesting and quite likable individual. You've got to check out his social media. I'll post the links to that in the show notes, but he's absolutely incredible. This is a story of sheer determination. Aaron was at rock bottom. He had to reach rock bottom right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and he was just kind of grasping his straws. He had been addicted to alcohol and smoking. He had severe anxiety and he was not functioning. I would consider low functioning or no functioning where he could not even drive a car. His anxiety was so bad that driving was just too much of a chore for him. If you've ever seen anybody witness somebody who has that kind of anxiety,

it's nothing to make fun of. It's very painful for them. Then of course it makes them feel shame, loneliness, alienation. It makes them feel different. It makes them feel unworthy and on and on and on and when you're battling with that kind of anxiety, which many millions of Americans do, I'm going to add a lot for a couple of numbers just because I'm a numbers guy and numbers are not emotional so numbers don't lie. Numbers are what they are. So this is not saying, well, most Americans suffer from anxiety. No, these are the actual numbers with percentages and actual statistics for what we actually have. So roughly 40 to 42.5 million American adults is just adults. 40 to 42 million, 42.5 million, roughly 19% of the population in

America suffer from anxiety disorders annually, making it the most common mental illness in the United States. Now I would argue that anxiety is not a mental illness. I think it's a shame that we label it that way. I think that adds to the stigma and some people are just anxious because they've suffered many traumas in life. There's nothing wrong with them. It's not a mental illness. They just have anxiety because they've been dealt some hard blows in life. So anxiety disorders are highly treatable, but only 36 to 43% of those affected receive treatment. Of any kind, whether therapy or medication or a combination of both or whatever. Women are twice as likely as men to be affected by anxiety disorders.

Specific phobias affect 19.3 million people. Social anxiety affects 15 million people and panic disorder affects 6 million adults. Now I've known several people with panic disorders. So I have to wonder if that number is actually maybe a little bit higher, but you get the picture. Yeah, this is not something to make fun of and it's not some fringe thing that a handful of people suffer with. Many, many, many people suffer with this. I hope that today's show really resonates with some of you because I can guarantee based on statistics that some of you are suffering from anxiety and it can be crippling. And so Aaron's story ought to be a motivator. It ought to encourage you to say that, you know, if we face our fears, we can conquer them and if we conquer them, there's nothing that we're not capable of. Now this gave him an incredible boost of confidence.

So his story began while he was trapped in Ecuador. He was stuck there on a border town. He was traveling through had $200 left to his name. And he got stuck for a year because of the pandemic. Ecuador was one of the stricter state, sorry, countries. Ecuador was really strict when it came to vaccinations. I think that they were more strict than than America. And so he he was stuck there. Their travel restrictions were really tightened down. So what began, in fact, according to his website, merfslifefoundation.com, according to his foundation, it all started with a hot dog stand. So his story began with instead of hoarding his last $200, he gave it away. He gave it to a family and he bought a hot dog stand for them. He bought supplies and he taught them how to use it. He

taught them how to work and how to be profitable and how to market. And these are all really important things. And this gave him a sense of purpose. So I'm going to say this number several times because it really is mind blowing. But just since 2022, when he started his organization, now we're talking only not even four years ago, right? Not even four years ago. Over 10 million dollars have been donated to his cause to Merfslife Foundation. Over 10 million dollars, they've helped lift over a thousand families out of poverty. And let me tell you, a dollar in America goes a lot farther in Ecuador and some of these other Latin American countries.

A dollar here is more like five or six or more dollars in a lot of these countries. So it goes really far. So 10 million dollars is an astronomical amount of money. That is really incredible. So he lifted over a thousand families out of poverty. And part of his method is not just dropping money. See, the American way, the American way is to just throw money at things. And we kind of get this, we're kind of conditioned to do this because of our government. The government is like, well, we're going to do food stamps. And we'll just give this endless supply until another politician comes along and reverses that or until the American people kind of get tired of dishin' out so much money in food stamps. But there's no plan. Usually there's not a plan when it comes to government. They're just like, hey, let's take care of these needs. Let's dull out the money. And let's just quote unquote, help these people. All right. So Aaron Murphy,

he decided that what we need to do is it's basically the old Chinese proverb, teach a man to fish, who'll eat for a day or sorry, give a man a fish, who'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and don't have food for the rest of his life. So Murphy Life Foundation is about teaching people how to how to structure their lives in a way that they can they can become sustainable because that's really important. It's really lacking in a lot of these countries. I know when I was in Ecuador, it's one of the big issues. When you have entire communities living in extreme poverty, there's not an infrastructure in place. There's not enough money within that village for everybody to be able to sustain themselves because they're all buying off of each other, buying and or bartering. And there's only so much money to go around. And people are not getting wealthy. I can assure you of that.

In fact, many people are just barely getting by. So how do you fix that? Well, you teach sustainable models and you generate income and wealth. You have sustainable farming. In a lot of these countries, they really don't know how to do sustainable farming because it's just they've never been taught or they don't have the equipment. So they're using hand equipment and they just don't they don't have the tools necessary to be able to do it. So it's really cool. So 15 plus countries have been donated to 100,000 individual donations have gone out. So when I say there have been literally hundreds of thousands of lives that have been changed, that's a true story. Now, I read a little bit right off of the website because it's it's really cool. Trapped in a

border town of Ecuador at the beginning of the pandemic, Aaron Murphy found himself with only $200 to his name. Despite his own dire circumstances, he selflessly gave his last monetary resource to a family in need. He purchased a hot dog stand and showed them how to operate and make money with it. This act of kindness gains significant attention on social media, enter the American people. I mean, people are absolute rock stars. And this is what it's what I love about the stories that we heard coming from Orion, right? The four astronauts. They're like, look, from our vantage point up here, we're all humans. We're all in this world together. So kindness wins, helping each other out wins. Given somebody else in upper hand and seeing people become successful, that wins. Love wins.

So again, I'll read that sentence again. This act of kindness gains significant attention on social media, prompting donations from people around the world. Inspired by the support, Murphy decided to focus on generational poverty and self-sustainability as a solution. Brilliant. I love this more than anything in the world. This is incredible. This is what I'm talking about. generational poverty is so difficult for people to break out of. I've seen so many people stuck in generational poverty. It is very, very difficult to break those chains. It really is. And again, that's not passing judgment on people. That's because some people are like, well, if you just want to be poor, it's not that they want to be poor. It's that one of two things. One, either they don't know how to get out of poverty, or they've not been given the resources to get out of poverty.

And self-sustainability is difficult. If you don't believe me, literally leave everything. Leave everything behind. Leave your home. Leave your family. Leave your bank account. Leave your car. Leave all of it behind. Walk out into the woods or a field or wherever and just start to survive. Start with nothing. And I'm not talking like the Grant Cardone. He did that whole thing where he went out and had a hundred bucks or whatever and turned it into a million. And he went undercover as a poor person. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about people who have everything, who have millions of millions of dollars and have all these connections and know how to make connections. I'm talking ordinary people like you and I. Leave everything behind. Go walk into a field or some wood somewhere. Go to a random town where you don't know anybody

and try to become self-sustained. Starting with nothing. Try it. You know, it's easy for us to point the finger at people and say, well, just go get a job. You must want to be poor. Go get a job. Well, it's easy for us to say that because we've not been there. We don't understand how complex it is to be living in poverty. It's really, really challenging. So anyway, I'll keep reading here. Moved by the impact of his compassionate gesture. Murphy recognized the importance of addressing the root causes of poverty rather than providing temporary relief. Ding, ding, ding. Bullseye nailed it. He understood the poverty often persists through generations due to systemic factors and lack of resources. This realization led him to establish the Murph's life movement, leveraging social media and the collective support

received to create sustainable solutions that empower individuals and communities to break free from the cycle of poverty and build a better future for themselves. I love it. Love, love, love. Everything about this. Here's a message from Murph. A few years ago, I found myself in a state of hopelessness. I was burdened with debt to my friends, caught in a cycle of partying, drinking, and smoking. My anxiety had reached the severe levels, preventing me from even driving a car. Each day felt like a ticking time bomb. As if a mental breakdown was imminent. People told me it was a family trait that medication was my only option. I relied on others hoping they would rescue me, but soon realized that no one was coming. Determined to face my fears before reaching 34, I made a promise to myself. I would confront South America, the dentist, and most importantly,

myself. With my backpack as my only companion, I left behind everything and everyone I knew, driving, diving, headfirst into the unknown, placing my trust in a higher power to guide me. It was a terrifying journey filled with immense challenges, but it was also profoundly fulfilling. Serving others was never my initial intention when I embarked on this path. It was God's plan all along. That gave me chills. I mean, this is a story of sheer determination and what it means not only to be an American, but to just be a human. To act in kindness and grace and compassion towards your fellow humans, and to just lean into God and see where He leads you. And He said, serving other people, that wasn't my intention. That was never my initial intention.

His intention was I have crippling anxiety. I need to start facing my fears. I need to step out in faith and face my own fears and overcome them because it's crippling. Anxiety is crippling for many, many people. And this is part of why I don't like hearing the excuses when people always become victims. And they're like, well, the system is rigged and the government against us and everybody's ripping us off. And now people are talking about gas prices and pretty much the whole world is turning against Donald Trump because of gas prices, which whatever. His word definitely caused it. There's no question about that. But people want to be victims and say, well, I can't do anything. I guess I'm just destined to be

poor. I guess people are just always out to get me. You know, our electric bills are insane in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is one of the worst states. But it's happening across America. It's eventually coming. We all need to be prepared for super high electricity, electric rates. But instead of being a victim, we should say, all right, how do we create a path forward? How do we help other people who are struggling? Because I can keep my lights on. But what about other people, there are people in my own town who can not keep up with their electric bill. What are we doing about it? How do we create sustainable models? How do we help our neighbors? And that's what I love about sustainability and serving other people, blessing other people. It opens our eyes to so many more opportunities. So everything about the story is fantastic. We're coming up on another break here. All of our shows do go to podcast the next day after the broadcast heard on talk radio.

You can hear them on your favorite podcast app. Be sure to check out the America Out Loud app and visit the store at americaoutloud.news. Use the code out loud for 20% off. Help us share the out loud truth. We'll be right back. I cannot tell a lie. My sinuses are blocked. George, you crossed the Delaware. You can cross congestion. Here, try clear. Freedom smells like victory. Come celebrate 250 years of American independence at the America Out Loud, 250-10 Independence Day celebration in Nashville on July 2nd through 4th. Go to america-250-nashville.com. Use code XLEAR for 20% off admission. Clear. Breathe in the independence. I'm Doug Evans, author of the Sprout Book. And I'm also a father with a three-year-old daughter. And that's why we grow sprouts. Did you know that you could take seeds,

add water and get fresh organic vegetables in three to five days without soil, sunshine or fertilizer for under a dollar serving? That's the miracle of spouting and I want to share that with you. Go to thespoutingcompany.com slash out loud and use the code out loud for a special offer. Aaron Murphy's story is an incredible one and he's just somebody who really struggled in life. He was, man, he kind of lost himself and he was addicted to alcohol and smoking and was in debt to a lot of his friends. Most likely burned a lot of bridges, suffered with crippling anxiety and he decided to confront his anxiety in his fears and to travel through South America and become fluent in Spanish before the age of 34.

Well, he went on his quest with basically a backpack on his back and nothing more and then the pandemic hit. And when the pandemic hit, he got stuck in Ecuador and he had $200 to his name. And he decided instead of hoarding the money, he was going to give it away. So he gave it away to a family, bought a hot dog stand, taught them how to sell hot dogs and they made a living from doing that. So Aaron learned, hey, this is sustainable. To teach sustainability is really incredible. So he posted the video to TikTok and of course, lo and behold, the people didn't disappoint. As happens almost always, virtually every time when somebody shares an inspiring story,

people step into action. They want more. They want to do more. They want to help more. And this is one of the things that I got to tell you, even as a minister, I stop a lot of the times and I hesitate because I'm like, well, people wouldn't really go for this. And we tend to put ourselves in the shoes of other people, superficially. And we're like, well, I wouldn't want to give $500 or if somebody was begging for money or this is just another fundraiser and people have donor fatigue and all right, we come up with all these reasons not to do something. And we get crippled by ourselves, by our own self-worth and our own a lack of confidence, those sorts of things. But I think that people like Aaron, I think he was at a point where it just didn't really matter like he had reached rock bottom.

And he had met these incredible people in Ecuador and lived with a woman in Ecuador. For a year, this elderly woman put them up, gave them a place to live. And he didn't take that for granted. You know, he saw kindness and because he's a kind person to begin with and has a kind heart, he kind of emulated that and reciprocated that kindness. And he started doing kind things for them. And he started to think, started to think, well, how can I bless them? How can I harness social media? And this is what I love about social media. Gary Vee talks about this all the time. He's like, if you don't have a phone in your hand and you're not harnessing that phone to get rich or to make the earth a better place or whatever it is, you're kind of squandering

something that's in your hand that's literally your fingertips. And that's what I love about social media is you literally, you don't have to be famous. But you literally can reach people's hearts. Even if you reach five people's hearts and those five people share your story with five other people or 10 other people or 500 other people, eventually you're going to get to the right person. You're going to get to somebody who has a lot of influence. They're going to hear that story and it's going to reach viability. It'll become viral just by nature. And part of the reason things become nature is just because people like to give people like stories like this and shown videos. Video is really important because you can see people's faces. You can feel their emotions. You can tell the people are really moved whenever you bless them.

So he has a lot of videos. Aaron Murphy has a lot of videos on his social media, Murphy's life. And it's heartwarming. Now you add this one woman, this elderly woman, I think this was an Ecuador and he's talking to her and she's like this little tiny. So people, their growth gets stunted because they're malnourished from the time they're young. And she was very, very skinny. She looked really frail and she was living in extreme poverty and he walked up to her and was like, hey, I don't have any food. And he's like a big tall white dude. Like he just towered over her. And that can be kind of intimidating. He reminds me a lot of my friend who lives in Ecuador. And he's got this deep, manly voice and he kind of seems rough around the edges.

And he walks up to this woman and he's like, I'm hungry. And she said, oh, let me go into town and I'll buy you tortillas and I'll make you eggs. And he allows her to do it. And that's something too that you learn about these cultures is when people want to bless you, even though they're living in extreme poverty, it's an insult to them if you say no. They want to bless you. So he lets her go into town and she comes back. She has the tortillas and he's making her eggs or she's making him eggs. And he thanks her and he said, hey, I have to be honest. I'm not really, I'm not really poor. I'm not really hungry. And she said, that's okay. She said it's in the past. God forgives. And he's like, no, you don't understand. God wants me to help you. And he gives her money. I think it was like $20 or something maybe a little bit more and she

just breaks down crying and she's so grateful. And he had planned from the very beginning, he was going to help her in a very big way. And in the end, he ends up building a house for her through the organization. But there's a point where he takes her to a store and he asks her, what's your life dream? What have you always dreamed of? And she told the story about how she grew up in poverty, like she's always been poor. And I think it was one of her parents or one of her siblings, they had to share an egg. One egg, they had to share every day. They would split an egg between the two of them and that was their meal. And again, a lot of us don't comprehend what that level of poverty is like. That there are people all over the world, millions of people, that they're living like that every single day. And they're grateful. She had a smile on her face the whole time. She's like, I thank God that he gave me my life,

that he sustained us, that he provides for us. I'm like, man, one egg between two people, every day she lived like that for years. That's just heartbreaking. So anyway, Aaron asked her, what is it in life that you really want? You know what her answer was? I'm going to choke up talking about this. She always dreamed of having a doll. She never owned, she never owned a toy her entire life. This is an elderly woman, probably in her 70s. Up her 70s, maybe, maybe lower 80s, she had never owned a toy her entire life. And she said, my dream, my life dream would be to own a doll. Aaron took her to the store and let her pick out her own doll and she just started

weeping. She broke down crime because she said, I knew I could feel that God was being good to me my whole life and that God would answer my dream before I died. As she's holding this doll and that was for her, that was her dream. And again, some people would make fun and they'd be like, oh, that's ridiculous. They just don't get it. People don't get how special those little things. What to us is something little is something huge for somebody else. There's never a gift that's too small, ever. So he gives her the doll, she's holding it and it's still in its box and she's sobbing and she started to kiss the box. She was kissing the box and she looks up and she said, I thank my God for the ability for my dream to come true. I'm like, man, this is just so

got wrenching and inspiring and hopeful. And I look at that and I'm like, man, all these people who say that we're screwed as Americans and I hear all these people just trashing America and Donald Trump this and Donald Trump that. He's ruining our country. He's ruining the people. He's making us so divided. Look, look, Donald Trump doesn't have that kind of power over the American people. If people are divided, it's because they're divisive people. If you think that our president, I don't care who the president is. I don't care how mouthy or how sleepy or how socialist they are. Right. I don't care who the president is. If you say our president is making us divisive and your point and fingers at him saying he caused this. He caused us to behave this way.

You're fooling yourself. You're absolutely fooling yourself. People are divisive because people want to be divisive because that's who they are. The devil made me do it. Right. It's essentially you're saying the same thing. So we've got to eliminate the excuses and just bless people. Just be kind. Be compassionate. Step out of faith and watch what God does with that. You bless one person. Look at what Aaron Murphy did. Literally, he blessed one person. I guarantee you, I will stake everything on the fact that when he bought a hot dog stand and spent his last $200 that Aaron wasn't thinking, boy, am I going to build an empire from here? This is going to turn into a movement.

I'm going to start Murphy Life Foundation. In less than four years, I'm going to raise over 10 million dollars and change people's lives all around the world. I don't think he was thinking that for a second. I think he literally was just doing something kind and something about that family gripped his heart and he said, you know what? They need this more than I do. And he buys the hot dog stand. He teaches them how to market it, how to sell it. And he saw that that moved people. It moved other people's hearts in the same way that his heart was moved. And he's like, all right, well, let's see where this goes. Let's find somebody else to bless. And that's how these movements begin. It begins with somebody sharing their hidden lightness. Yes, we all have it. You do it. No matter what you think other people are going to think about it.

In the end of the day, who cares what other people think about it? If you're doing it because you're worried about what people think or don't think you're doing it for the wrong reasons, just do it. If you're going to bless people, just do it. So now the big thing that they're doing, they're working in El Salvador. This is on Merfs Life website. They're building a global village. Our mission at Merfs Life, we are dedicated to building a global village online and a physical village in El Salvador. Our goal is to use donated funds to provide housing, education, and the tools necessary for impoverished communities to run their own businesses and become self-sustainable. Our flagship project is the Merfs Life Village in El Salvador. This village will serve as a model for sustainable living and empowerment. We're constructing homes,

schools, and community centers to provide a safe and nurturing environment for the local population. There's a picture of him in El Salvador next to a backhoe and they're breaking ground and making this thing happen. I look at this and I'm like, my goodness, this began with a guy who was too anxious to drive a car. He slammed me back alcohol like there's no tomorrow. He's racking up that, taking money from his friends, given the IOUs, I promised to pay you back. Burnin' bridges everywhere he goes, I'm sure of it. And now, just a few very short years later, he's $10 million deep in donations.

A thousand families have been, their lives have been completely pulled out of poverty. 15 countries that have been donated to 100,000 individual donations have gone to people. This is incredible. And I love stories like this. I love it because this is what mankind is capable of. When we trust God, when we lean into him, when we just be kind, that's literally all that we need to do. If there's any message that you get from this, it's this. You don't have to have an elaborate plan. The plans will come together. All you have to do is be kind, compassionate, gracious, full of mercy. God will take care of the rest.

We're so blessed to live in a nation where we have to freedom to do this stuff. We don't have to answer to the government for doing nice things for people. Do people realize that? All this talk about how the government's against us, they don't care if we're kind to other people. Right, if we do these things, the government's not there. Now people are going to argue, well, the IRS will, they're going to nail people out, whatever. They're not stopping us. We have the freedom to bless other people in any country in the world. We can bless other people. I love that about America. I celebrate that about America. I'm so glad that that we live in such a place where we're this blessed. And so my urging for you is to go do something kind for somebody. Bless them. I don't care how small it is or how small you think it is. Bless somebody and see where God takes that. You never know. That my friends is the hidden lightness. You can find more out about my

show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at America out loud.news under our shows or schedule. You'll be in the know. There's a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us. When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness into ultimately inspire other people. Join me in being a light.

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