Pints With Aquinas - 171: My Africa Trip + a Big Announcement!

Episode Date: September 17, 2019

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G'day! Welcome to Pints with Aquinas Africa edition. I didn't intend to cough, it just happened and now I'm not going to edit it. So, I'm going to share with you all about my recent trip to Africa, plus I have a big announcement which I'll be making at the end of the episode. So, buckle up! Oh, how you going? You alright? Nice to chat with you. It's Saturday morning, sitting in my office. Why? Why am I sitting in my office?

I'm interviewing Father Gregory Pine today. What we're doing now that we're having Father Gregory on every other episode is we basically just knock two episodes out in one sitting. So shortly we'll be sitting down for two hours and the two episodes we're going to record are seven misunderstandings people have about Thomas Aquinas. And then we're going to talk about William Lane Craig and divine simplicity. So all of you geeky philosophical tomists, you know, strap on your geek hat and get ready or something. Today, I want to talk about my recent trip to

Africa. And then I have a big announcement that I'm excited to make and we'll be making later. I was invited to speak in Africa in Uganda and just got back a week ago and it was an absolutely phenomenal experience. The folks in Uganda reached out to me about five years ago and asked me if I would come to Uganda and lead a week of apologetic talks, you know. And at the time I said, you know, because they couldn't pay me and I said, I just can't really take the time out to do that, nor can I afford to take a week out of work, nor can I afford a plane ticket.

But I'm not sure if you remember about, well, gosh, a year and a half, two years ago when I quit my job, if you go back and listen to that episode, I talked about one day I would like to go and help Catholic communities and third world countries, you know countries defend the faith or whatever. So I was able to do that thanks to your support on Patreon. We got a donor to pay for my flight from Australia. So he paid for my flight to Uganda and then I didn't charge him anything. So they didn't have to pay anything. And it was a week long apologetics conference, which I led.

And again, absolutely fantastic. So I got my yellow fever shot. I'm such a baby when it comes to getting needles. This is really sweet old lady with a needle. I'm like, okay, it's okay. Yeah, okay. Here we go. Okay, okay, okay. Just don't tell me when you're doing it. Just do it. It's really pathetic. I'm taking my malaria tablets, we say in Australia. I guess you say pills in America. And yeah, that was it. Got the visa and headed there.

I'm doing Exodus 90 right now, which means I can't watch television, which meant for around 18 to 20 hours, I couldn't look at the screen in front of me. So I had to keep turning it off whenever it would come on. And I would try not to look at the screens that were glowing up around me. So much to say about that, but I will drop it for now. So I eventually get to Uganda and the customs line's about two hours long. I couldn't believe it. I was thinking, surely they're going to bring someone else out. But no, it was about two hours of me standing there and the bloke who was picking me up his English name is Dennis and you know he texted me and said hey I'm nearly there I'm like cool two hours later you

know I'm almost through customs and I text him I'm like hey coming out and I've never met Dennis before so you know I was like I guess I'll just recognize him because he'll wave at me or something. This is what usually happens if I go and travel somewhere, you know, people will nod at me or wave or something, you know? So no worries. I'm rolling my suitcase out and I get out there and there's this, you know, dude in the corner and he's nodding at me and smiling and sort of gives me a wave. I'm like, ah, awesome. So I go up and I hug Dennis and I say, I'm like, glory to Jesus Christ. It is so good to be here. I am so excited. Let's do this. And as I'm saying this, he is saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm like, what? It's like, I'm a taxi driver. So I guess there's like a bunch of guys who wait

outside of customs and they're kind of like, come on, come with me, come with me, come with me. And I don't think he has ever, this bloke, received such an enthusiastic response. By the way, this is a tactic that I sometimes intentionally use when somebody wants to sell me something or if somebody's outside of a grocery store and they want me to give money to scouts or if I'm in, you know, a mall, which is almost never, and somebody is trying to sell me something, you know, you always exceed their enthusiasm. It throws them off guard and they're like, and then you just walk on by. So if like, hell, hey, sir. Hey, how you going? Oh, good, good. Have a good day. So that's just a little tip for free. But this poor bloke,

I'm hugging him, hugging him. And I've been on a plane for like 100,000 hours, so I don't smell great. And anyway, so he's like, I'm a taxi driver. Oh, sorry. So I said, okay, bye. Let him go. Have a good life, you know, walk out, meet Dennis, get in the car. And we drive along potholed roads in the middle of the night for about two or three hours till we get to our first stop. All right, pause. I want to share something with you that I think the Lord really said to me. This was a real revelation for me, and I think it will be a blessing for you as well. I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport, eating sushi, writing in my journal, and I'm thinking about what a blessing it is for this Australian kid from a country town to have the opportunity to proclaim

the gospel in Africa. You know, I've been able to do it in Europe and the Middle East and North America now, obviously. And I'm just thinking, what a blessing, like what a blessing to be able to help these men and women defend the Catholic faith. Now, as I'm doing this, I suddenly become embarrassed, right? Like I shouldn't be speaking about myself in this way. Like here I am proclaiming the gospel, you know, in Africa, the Lord is calling me, right? And as I'm saying that, I'm like, oh gosh, I shouldn't talk about myself like that. Do you know what I mean by that? Like that's too epic. I'm not epic.

You know, I've got a bit of a belly. What else? I don't know. I just ate a protein bar for breakfast. My house is a mess. I don't pay my bills very well. So my wife has to take care. Like I'm a mess is what I'm getting at. I don't know why the protein bar had anything to do has to take care. Like, I'm a mess is what I'm getting at.

I don't know why the protein bar had anything to do with it, but I feel like I'm a mess. And so there was this embarrassment. There's like, no, you're not like the great saints who are called to do these things. So stop that now, you know? And if it weren't for, I think, the Holy Spirit, I would have agreed with that assessment. I think I would have said, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.

What I'm doing is different. That would have been wrong. So let me just sum it up in a line and then explicate it. To deny that the Lord Jesus Christ has called me to proclaim the gospel with the power, which he did give me, right? Will give me as it happened when I was in Atlanta, to deny that, right? To deny that this is a big deal, right? That the Lord wants to galvanize the church in Uganda to set captives free. And he's going to use me to help bring that about. To deny that is not humility, but abnegation. You with me? It's not humility, it's abnegation. And this applies to you as well. The Lord willed you into existence, right? Knew of you from all eternity,

into existence, right? New of you from all eternity, has a specific plan for your life, desires you to be holy and to speak truth to those around you, to lead other souls to Jesus so that they can be saved. For you to deny that because you live on a cul-de-sac in Kansas and work at the local whatever. This is not humility. Stop it. Stop downplaying your role in the body of Christ. We have this vague idea that someone out there somewhere is called to great things, to do great things, but I'm not. Someone in Rome, maybe, or someone in Africa, someone there is being called to do, but not me. But the thing is, and you know this, if you go to Rome or if you go to Africa, you realize that life is just life everywhere and people struggle with the same things everywhere. We've got to stop waiting for superheroes and accept the call Christ has placed on us. So, I willingly praise the Lord Jesus Christ for this call and accepted the gravity of this calling in all humility,

knowing that whatever good would be done, it would be because of Jesus Christ. Whatever power I would speak with would be because of the Holy Spirit, not my cleverness or rhetoric. So anyway, we go to this little retreat house. They have these mosquito nets over the beds, so I don't die of malaria, but I'm taking the tablets. So it's okay. Wake up, go to breakfast. Now people have told me, don't drink the water. You will like not, it would not be good. You will die of diarrhea or something. So I'm like even hesitant to drink the coffee, but you know what? I'm tired and I just got off a long flight, okay? And I would rather die of diarrhea at this point than not be caffeinated. So I drank some

pretty subpar coffee and then they celebrated Holy Mass. People in Uganda are beautiful. It's a young country. There's a lot of younger people and a very modest culture. The women almost always wear dresses and the men almost always wear pants. Someone said to me, don't wear shorts. In their culture, only boys wear shorts. And I thought, thank you for telling me. And I was just really, really impressed at how beautiful they were. I couldn't stop looking, especially at the women. Something about their dark skin and their bright dresses. Everything about them.

I was just mesmerized. And it was funny. It's like the girls, before I went to Africa, my wife's like, hey, if you want to bring home like a child, like a little Ugandan child for us to love, because I don't know if you know this or not, but my wife had to have surgery because she was super, super sick, had to have a hysterectomy, unfortunately. So it definitely opened up the possibility of adopting, right? She's like, hey, if you bring home a little like Ugandan kid, I'm okay with that. I'm like, I know, I know. But she's like, I just don't know how I could handle a little black girl's hair. And honestly, up until this point, I didn't really understand that because I haven't touched a lot of little black girl's hair, I guess. I don't know.

I haven't inspected a great deal. But yeah, like the hair is so beautiful and spongy. And they have like three options, right? They kind of like plate it back. I think that's the word. Or these little girls, they'll have their head shaved because it's just so difficult to deal with or it's just a beautiful fro. But every option is gorgeous. at these people. They're beautiful, especially the women. Anyway, so we celebrated Holy Mass and then we got back in the car and we drove about two, three hours into the country where he lived and where the conference would be taking place. I fell asleep because I was so, so, so tired. I woke up and I was like, wow, this is a lot greener here. Also, the temperature was very beautiful and lovely. It wasn't hot, you know. And yeah, we went to this seminary. There was two seminaries opposite each other.

One was St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary and one was St. Joseph's Minor Seminary. And so that's where I led five, seven days of retreats. All right. I guess what I'm about to say is going to lead into the announcement. I was shocked at how little they knew about Catholic apologetics and philosophy and theology. Some of the leaders may have, but the majority of the leaders, because they were

leaders that came, like four out of 75 of them had catechisms. This is obviously a third world country. The Thomas Aquinas Seminary, I would go and pray in that church every day. They did not own a copy of the Summa Theologiae. I looked in the bookshelves of the seminary and a lot of the books were broken, tattered. And I just was, it just, yeah, it was driven home to me. And as we would drive to like a store, a lot of these houses don't have electricity. You know, so there's, the point is like we, you and I, if you live in the Western world, are the, and are English speaking, I suppose, as they are, but we are the beneficiaries of a lot of brilliant people.

Janet Smith, Carl Keating, Scott Hahn, Peter Crave, people have really helped you and I understand and defend the faith. And that has not made its way there. helped you and I understand and defend the faith, and that has not made its way there. And so, the simplest objection to the Catholic faith from evangelicals throws them for a loop. So, I felt like Scott Hahn there. Like, the way Scott Hahn probably feels when he talks to people like me, and my mind is being exploded. That's how I think that they felt that way. They felt very blessed by what I had to share. Let me just give you one example. There were dozens, but someone raised their hand and they said, okay, but what do I say to my friend

who says the word, you know, Jesus never used the word Catholic. And I said, very unbrilliantly, right? I said, well, Jesus never used the word Christian. And you could just hear this gasp throughout the room that this was an incredible response. The faith is strong there in Uganda. The people are good. They don't complain. I never heard them complain. It was another thing I found fascinating. But it tends to be more emotional. So it was good and a blessing to be able to go there and to speak about what we believe and why we believe what we do about the Blessed Virgin Mary, about Holy Scripture, about sacred tradition, about the Pope, about purgatory, prayers to saints, all these things. Because in an economically, what do you say, desperate environment, health and wealth people are going to be preying upon Catholics and others who are poor. Now, don't misunderstand me.

I totally get that Protestantism and health and wealth gospel are poor. Now, don't misunderstand me. I totally get that Protestantism and health and wealth gospel are not intrinsically tied. I get that. But there is a lot of the health and wealth stuff happening over there. And so you've got like an emotional Catholics who love Jesus, but haven't been trained in apologetics. You have many of these people being snatched out of the church by really terrible arguments against the Catholic church. So, to be able to be there was such a blessing, and I just thought, like, I gotta do something. I have to do something. And so, here's kind of the announcement, I guess. I believe, and I've spoken with my spiritual director about this, I've prayed with my wife about this, I believe that the Lord Jesus is calling me to minister to communities,

Catholic communities in third world countries to help them know and defend the faith. This was a terrifying realization. See, when I left Catholic Answers about five or six years ago, I had this thought because I had people from third world countries reaching out to me saying, we have no resources. I'm like, maybe I should do that. But I decided working for Covenant Eyes, I didn't ever follow up with it. And so, knowing I was going back to Uganda, this thought was in my heart. Like, is this something I can do that would be a blessing to the church in these countries? So I was praying about it a great deal.

Like, I went to this Thomas Aquinas Church, prayed there daily. And I'm like, Thomas, you tell me, you know, I don't know if you've ever had this experience where you're like, God, don't tell me with symbols. Don't tell me with hints. I want you to have like a black Dominican friar appear to me and say, yes, you are being called. And then I want him to walk out of the church and then I want to follow him. And then he's gone. And I'm like, what happened? Like, tell me, like, just be, just be blatantly obvious. Is this what you're calling me to do? Because if you are, I will do it. But I would like to know that this is your calling and not my imagination. So I am wrestling with this. By the way, nothing ever happened. No

supernatural sort of response miracle happened, but I'm praying. So I don't want you to get your hopes up. I'm praying about this Lord. What is your will? What can I do? Is this really what you're calling me to do? You know? And, and I, I get up and I'm praying and I, and I see this beautiful stained glass window in the choir loft. And I walk up these very questionable metal stairs to the choir loft. And the stained glass window is Thomas Aquinas literally teaching the Summa Theologiae to an African man. And I'm like, yeah, cool. All right. Because, I mean, when you think about it, that is kind of what apologetics is.

I mean, you look at Thomas Aquinas. Here are the objections. Here's how you respond. Like, this is kind of what I want to do. So I come down the stairs and I'm praying about this. And there's a bunch of side altars around the main altar, which I had not looked at yet. And so I go to the first side altar. And it is to Therese of Lisieux, who, if you're not aware, is the patron saint of missionaries. And I'm thinking,

okay, all right, maybe that's a sign, you know. I walk to the next side altar. Who is it? Saint Francis Xavier, the other, I think the only other patron saint of missionaries. At the time, I wasn't terribly sure he was the patron saint of missionaries. I had to go back and look it up, but yep, sure enough, he is. I go to the third altar. These are consecutive. The third one was a statue of Thomas Aquinas right beside a statue of one of the Ugandan martyrs. I'll throw up photos on Patreon that everyone can look at, not just patrons. So there'll be a link at the top of this show notes if you want to see these photos that i'm talking about click that link and you'll see them but i mean this this was i'm like okay maybe i think you're calling me to do this so i come out and i go over to saint joseph's seminary and i'm sitting down for lunch and i'm chatting with a couple of the main leaders who had me in

and i'm essentially trying to get them to tell me that this is a bad idea. I'm hoping that they will talk me out of it. So, I'm like, hey, so like, I'm just thinking like, maybe the Lord is calling me to come to these communities, like at my own expense and bring suitcases full of catechisms to use your print houses to print tracts and pamphlets. I even said to them, I've got a lot of listeners at Pints with Aquinas. I will tell them, I told him, to send me all of your rosaries, by the way. So I didn't check with you first, listener, but here you go. This is something I was telling him. I'm like, they could send me all of their rosaries and not just your cheap plastic rosaries. They have them. Something that's beautiful. The same reason you would want to look beautiful on your wedding day. It's like, it befits the

occasion. Just like you and I would prefer not to pray with a cheap plastic green rosary. We would like something more beautiful, like a wooden ros green rosary. We would like something more beautiful, like a wooden rosary or something. I'm like, I can tell my guys, send this to me. I'll get a PO box. I'll fill up suitcases and bring them down. Because I was originally saying to him, like, can't I just send you books? I'll just send you like boxes of catechisms and the Summa Theologiae. And he said, we've had people send us things in the past and they get stolen at the post office. Huh? Okay. So I'm saying to him, you don't need me to do this though, right? I'm like, you don't need some white dude who like has revelations from Jesus while he's eating sushi in the Atlanta airport in a first world country. You don't need me to come

and like do something like this, right? And like the intonation, everything about what I'm saying is begging him to say, yes, no, we don't need that, but you could help us in this way. Instead, they both look at me and they're like, we absolutely need you now. No, no, really? no, no, really? Like, as if they were saying like, what don't you get about this? We need it now. And what I love about it too is they are in no way apologetic for the fact that they can't pay me or will never be able to pay me. Why should they be? They don't have the kind of money that people have here in the States. They're like, come now, right? And one of the guys who had me in, Fred, his name is, he works for a group that has put him in touch with around 20 Catholic communities throughout Africa.

So already, like right away, he's like, I have the communities to go to. He said, come here next year with your wife. We will travel to Kenya, to some other countries, and we will do this. We have to do this. So the announcement is essentially this. I reached out to my assistant and I told her to dial back quite significantly the number of talks I'm doing next year in America. Almost half of what I'm doing. So I'm still going to be speaking in the

States, but I'm dialing that back in order to travel to these communities in third world countries to help people defend the faith. Now, this is great and it's scary. It's scary because a lot of my income comes from speaking in the States. So to cut that almost in half and then to pay, you know, to buy books and rosaries and suitcases and plane tickets and take weeks off to go do this, that's kind of scary. I just want to make this perfectly clear. The only way this is possible is because of those of you who support me on Patreon. There is no way I could think about doing something as radical as this, except that you, if you're listening and you support me on Patreon, even if it's five bucks a month, it's because of you and people like you that I am able to do this. like you that I am able to do this. You know, on Patreon, they have this thing in the top left-hand corner and it says, you know, once I reach this many patrons or once I reach, you know, whatever, then I will do this project for you. And this is cool because it incentivizes people to give. They're like, okay, I did this recently, right? I did this with Father Gregory Pine. I'm like,

if you want Father Gregory Pine on, you know, make it happen. I need this many more patrons so I can pay him. And y'all stepped up. Here's the thing. I'm going to do this with or without any more support. So I'm not going to pretend that I need another 500 patrons before I engage in this work. The Lord, I feel, has called me, and I'm just going to do it. That said, it would be really great if you would decide to support me on Patreon. So for the next couple of months, here's what I want to do. If you support me on Patreon, in addition to all the free stuff you get get like signed books, beer steins, audio library, online courses, book studies. In addition to that, if you support me, I'm going to send you a private video message like thanking you using your name

and everything, right? Just a thank you by email. So I'll record a video specifically for you. thing, right? Just a thank you by email. So I'll record a video specifically for you. So if you give me today, like a dollar a month, like I'll do that. In addition, if you can give 10 bucks or more a month, in addition to all the other free stuff I send you, I'm going to send you a sticker of Thomas Aquinas throwing a Hadouken at Richard Dawkins. You remember that painting we came up with recently? So I'll send you that as well, if you can give 10 dollars or more more a month in addition to all the other things that I'll give you. And no matter what level to know, I'm not going to get into specifics here, but I am working with a very business savvy guy about turning this idea into a non-profit organization with a board of directors, right? So we're just not there yet. It takes about five to seven months, I think, to get this up and running. We're in the process of talking about this. So for those of you out there who are like,

you know, I know a lot of things about business, I can help you. I have people who are helping me. But in the meantime, if you can support me on Patreon, that will be tremendously helpful because I want to make a few trips next year to different countries to do this. So next August or July and August, I'm going to travel to Uganda with my family for a month. We're going to rent a house, meet with these leaders, come up with some plans, and even run a couple of week-long apologetic conferences. In addition to that, I'm going to be buying catechisms by the hundreds. As I say, you know, like my wife will take an extra two suitcases, I'll take an extra two suitcases, and they'll be filled with materials and things like this. Down the road, I love the idea of maybe some of you applying to work with me, right? So maybe you come up with an apologetics

talk, and you can give it to a, you know, have it filmed. And then my team can check it out. We can do an application process and we can fly you in with us to these different countries so that you can help. So this, that's the announcement. And I really feel strongly about it. I'm wondering how vulnerable to be here. Here it is. I'm just going to do it. I feel like up until now, when people have asked me, hey, like, what's your deal with the Matt Frad show? Like, what's the point of it? Okay, so I don't know how much, if this will make sense or not, but I feel like I've always tried to give an answer, which sometimes succeeds in convincing the person I'm speaking to, but doesn't really convince me. You're right. So I'll say something like, I want to get good, articulate, intelligent Catholic

speakers and put them out there on YouTube so that people can encounter them. Or I'll say something like that. Or I'll say, I want to break people out of the kind of soundbite thing we have on these little Catholic radio interviews. And I want people to be able to fully flesh out their position. Sometimes when I say that to you or, you know, you or someone else might say, oh, brilliant. Yeah. But I am never fully convinced. So I'm not even fully convinced that the Matt Frad show is the Lord's will. Now, let me quickly pause and say, I don't plan on abandoning it. Pints with Aquinas will continue. The Matt Frad show will continue once a month. Pints with Aquinas will continue.

The Matt Fred show will continue once a month. I think, you know, originally I'm like, I just need to do more of these. And honestly, it was for my comfort. I'm like, I want to do two or three Matt Fred shows, you know, and that way I can stay at home with my family more and things like that. And I won't have to travel as much, but I'm just not that interested.

It's like the Lord has lifted this desire for more YouTube subscribers. Like it doesn't, I don't, I'm not interested. I'm not saying YouTube isn't a very effective means of evangelization. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that people shouldn't be interested in boosting their subscriptions because I am. I'm just, I want to retreat from speaking to quote unquote thousands of people on social media to speak to handfuls of people in these countries. Like we have contacts in Haiti. We have contacts in the Middle East, some in India that we're looking at. Now, another question you might have for those of you who know me, love me, are concerned about me is, well, is this just going to take time away from your family? And it's not.

is this just going to take time away from your family? And it's not. It's not in that this is precisely why I'm stepping back from speaking more in the States so that I can speak in other places. So it's going to basically balance out. The only difference is I'll be gone for longer periods of time, but not more days a month. Also, I plan on maybe bringing my wife with me on certain trips. So next year, we're only thinking about doing two trips to get things started. But that's where we are at. So that's it. That's all I got to say. I want to thank all of you who prayed for me during this trip. I was inspired by Jason Everett, who told me or has told me in the past to pray a novena of holy hours daily, which I did

somewhat, mostly successfully. Sometimes I just checked out mentally, you know how it is, prior to going. And this was just a very successful and fruitful and beautiful trip. And that's thanks to your prayers and thanks to your support on Patreon. So that's it. That's thanks to your prayers and thanks to your support on Patreon. So that's it. That's the plan. If you want to be a part of this, if you want to help me so that I can do this, please go to patreon.com slash mattfradd. If you hate Patreon and don't care about having the Patreon experience, go to pintswithaquinas.com slash donate. You can give to me directly there.

This is going to be tremendously helpful in me doing this. So a big thank you to all of you. I know that I said this week we would be discussing the marital debt with Emily Sullivan, but that is going to have to wait until next week. So please be sure to tune in for that one. Okay. God bless you. Have a great day. And I would give my whole life to carry you, to carry you.

And I would give my whole life to carry you, to carry you.