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Hi friends, Jean Valentino and welcome to another episode of Gene Valentino’s Grassroots Truth Cast. Each week we
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present interesting guests and characters from all walks of life. We uh
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try to reach out into the community and apply what’s going on in real life to
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the political situation, the social situation, the economic situation, or
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just the situation. and we’re going to be talking with Pastor Austin Huggin
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from Mount Zion Bible Church here in Pensacola, Florida. Pastor Huggin comes
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to us with a very interesting background. His life experiences is what
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caused me to want to rely on a friend of mine to have the two of us meet here today to talk to you about uh not only
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what’s going on locally, but what’s going on in the world. He’s had some interesting experiences in Nigeria and
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we’re going to single that out as one of the issues in his life that I think you’ll find very interesting. We’re
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going to do all that with Pastor Huggin right after this.
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herplex.com/gene. Hi friends, welcome back to Grassroots
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Truthcast. My guest this week is Pastor Austin Huggin from Mount Zion Bible
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Church here in Pensacola, Florida. Yeah, it’s a local pastor, local church, but
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the story is worldwide and the experience is even grander. Pastor,
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thanks for joining us here today. I really appreciate your time. So good to be here. Thanks, Jean. You know, uh, one of the things that
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interested me when we had the chance to talk was the, um, experiences you had.
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Now, you came out of the military. You were working in sonar in a submarine.
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Yeah. And after that experience, you dealt with the pain of and stresses of uh, a
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beloved mother who was p was suffering. That’s right. And she had passed and uh, obviously
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that took its toll on you. We all have experiences in life that
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build upon what we become, right? Um there’s an old saying to understand a
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person is to understand where they’re coming from. And I found where you’re coming from is quite interesting. Let’s
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take it from the beginning. Folks, don’t go too far because Pastor Huggin has a deeper story here that I know he’s going
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to open up with. But background first uh came out of the military sonar expert.
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What happened after your military service? Yeah, so I separated at the end of 2011
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uh with a couple of serious diseases that led to the destruction of my thyroid and few other things that left me
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disabled in a few different ways. At the same time as I was separating and that diagnosis came, my mother uh was
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diagnosed with lung cancer. And so that began a series of cascading events where
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I left Washington state uh where I had been attached to USS Connecticut uh
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Seawolf class submarine fast attack and I left behind some of the military job
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opportunities uh that were there to be near my mother as she fought her battle with lung cancer. And as I myself was
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going through kind of a a new world experience medically speaking than than what I was used to. had always been
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healthy. Um, long story short, uh, she didn’t have long. It would be later in
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2012 where I was working as a safety officer and environmental officer at a
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ship building group down in Panama City, uh, that I would get the call that the cancer had returned. It was terminal.
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And Lord ended up taking her home at 44 years old. And one week later during her
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memorial service, my grandfather who was like the father figure in my life who
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shared Christ with me, poured into me, loved me, was was wise and uh
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trustworthy. He passed a week after her. So all of a sudden I went from this Navy man part of a team of uh you know expert
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warf fighters uh in far-flung classified regions of the world to all of a sudden
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being alone, unhealthy and orphaned in a sense. And that’s really uh where my
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life began. It was it was in the dark of that uh back bedroom where I was uh
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screaming at God at the top of my lungs one night when I came under conviction
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of sin for the first time in my life. I was a raging alcoholic. I lived in a very depressed uh state. There’s
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probably a lot of veterans that could speak into that. A lot of veterans could speak to that. In fact, um I wish in many ways they had
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better um nurturing and guidance. We have a run going here with Grassroots
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Truthcast and we’re focusing on a lot of veterans from different walks of life, each of whom is suffering some
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something. There’s um it’s not just PTSD. It’s some of the experiences that are just flawed
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in in the system. But back on point, you came out of there, you um moved toward
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the ministry. How’d you end up in Pensacola? Yeah. Well, that’s kind of part of the
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the narrative when I’ll pick back here. When that night all
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that took place, uh I changed literally overnight. And none of the story makes
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any sense whatsoever. Unless you’re able to grab hold of the fact that I went from one kind of person to literally the
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next day a totally different kind of person. Uh the Lord had convicted me of sin, saved me, transformed me, changed
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me, and I lost all my friends in two weeks. And uh You mean they distanced themselves or
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they died on you? Well, the family had died on me. My friends left me due to distance. If you
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can imagine a wild party guy, Yeah. all of a sudden trying to preach Christ to you every 12 seconds. Yeah.
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You know, that’s that’s a whiplash for some people. And uh but that was my life. And I ended
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up moving from Panama City to be underneath the mentorship of a man I had met uh in Gulf Breeze. And so that
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started bringing me over that direction. Okay. And then you morphed into Mount
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Zion Church here. He was originally on staff there at Mount Zion’s Chapel Library,
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our literature arm. And let’s jump ahead to when you were um
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taking on the missionary work. such as Nigeria’s trips you talk about.
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It was in that same network of men that a man uh by the name of Joe Jakowitz in
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2017 took me under his wing into a work that had begun back in the ‘9s into Nigeria. And so in 2017 I was there for
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the first time while doing missions work. What did you experience? I mean,
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going to Nigeria on a mission is very nice from an outsers’s point of view,
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but sometimes the dynamics of what goes on over there, you know, there’s some missionaries that never returned home.
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That’s right. Let’s what happened? Well, for context, I had been around the
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world. I had been to Japan, Guam, you know, South Korea. I had done mission work in places like Philippines and
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Nepal and and uh elsewhere. But Nigeria, I mean, there’s nothing like Nigeria.
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Nigeria is a world all of its own. And and just for context, 230 million
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people, the most populous nation on the continent. The city of Lagos, where we were getting started, 22 million people.
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Wow. Compared to New York’s 8.1 million people. Yeah. So, you have a mass of humanity living
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on top of each other. Uh, all the mosquitoes carry malaria and so the the birth rates and the loss of
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life are high. Uh criminal activity is very very high and off the charts. Uh
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corruption runs all throughout at all levels. I mean I’m sure a number of your
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listeners get those emails from Nigeria trying to scam them. Was this government-based work or was
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this missionary church-based work? Completely missionary church-based. Uhhuh. And uh what were you were you
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going there to hand out Bibles, preach the Lord’s word, uh reconstruct some
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village structures uh as they often do. What what what was your focus?
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So pretty much the ethos that wraps up a whole lot of what I do is when Christ
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said in the scriptures, “Freely you have received, freely give.” And so we print
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uh books uh by the thousands, tracks, booklets, theological resources, helps
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that ministries and churches and believers in the third world just simply do not have access to. We take for
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granted we can reach on the shelf. We can go to a school in any university, check out what we don’t have. We can go
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online and read it online, but over there if they were to get a physical hard copy of a book, the price to get it
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across the pond is just totally out of reach. So we will teach, we’ll train pastors, we plant churches, uh we extend
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this resource by the thousands, give it away for free. Uh we take a lot of questions, we train men up. We come
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along beside them for the long haul. These are men, some of which we’ve known for many, many, many years. Is this drug
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lordbased community governance or warlord based activity? Do you find
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freedom of government, a freedom of commerce uh and uh and mobility or did
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you feel confined, restricted and therefore in fear? So on paper, yeah, there’s there’s
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freedom. uh if you understand anything about the tribal identities that make up
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the context and the radical Islam that exists there along with the criminal activity and opportunist uh I don’t go
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outside walking down the street you know really no when when I show up uh the moment I’m
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getting out of the airport I’m getting with the brethren in the church they really envelop me and I only go where
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they tell me to go and I don’t go where they don’t say go so you’re going there uh to see a church
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community in advance I mean, they know you’re coming. Oh, yes. Okay. Yes. And you’re staying with them presumably
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a few weeks. And um uh uh what are you doing when you’re there?
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Yeah. Yeah. Normally I stay in the homes with the brethren. I I try to live like they live. I come alongside. Um we’re
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usually doing a lot of evangelistic outreach. We’ll go into the campuses. We will uh bring the gospel to the students
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there. We’ll distribute literature that’ll continue to teach long after we’ve left. uh we will go and hold large
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conferences free of charge and in the words of my Nigerian brethren that’s a shock because nothing in Nigeria is free
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and uh so we come to push back against
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one powerful dynamic there is a brand of falsehood and kind
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of silver tongue salesmanship that has come over from America into the religious world of Nigeria and when that
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mixes with African mysticism the byproduct is a is a noxious toxic gas
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that really spreads throughout the religious context there. And our job really is to push back culturally and
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society in a religious context to give a worldview that’s expressly biblical
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because the one they have isn’t. But you become put at risk like many um
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Christians have been. Uh you’ve heard seen we’ve seen lately in the news just how many Christians have been killed
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based on um uh uh this is what I call real persecution
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that is being imposed on Christians by by as a target. Yeah. Um by who are these the Sunnis, the
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Shiites, the radical Islamists? Who’s coming after Christians in Nigeria?
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So with all the recent international attention, it’s important to realize this has been
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going on for over two decades. This is not a new event with Islam coming in
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especially in the north and entities like Boka Haram coming in and the morph
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uh that happens when ISIS was in power and then you have ISWAP
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uh in that context stands for ISWAP uh it’s the Islamic State of West Africa the province or okay I need to go
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Google it and double check that’s okay um but there’s been a progressive push
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from the northern regions down through the south, uh the Fulani herdsmen, which
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are Islamic and Muslim by uh culturally are are more enticed, more uh riled up
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as it were. And so the the danger increases because it’s traveling further
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south down into the Middle Belt regions. I mean, in 2022, for instance, of the
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6,000 Christians that were martyed for their faith in the world, and this is 6,000 not due to disease or famine or
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secondary causes or a byproduct of war, that were specifically targeted for their faith in Christ. Of those 6,000,
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5,000 of them were in Nigeria in 2022. And we see those numbers increasing. I
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believe we were over 7,000 now just this past year. So the the attacks are coming
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from Islam, radical Islam, Islamic fani, uh Islamic Book of Haram, uh Islamic uh
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sometimes even officials which purposefully look the other way to allow stuff to happen. Uh there’s criminal
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activity, um tribal terrorism, but it’s it’s largely Islamic.
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Is are there areas where white uh westerners don’t go? Is there I mean I
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mean is this hey walk over here this direction with us and we’ll stay out of
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this burrow. Yeah there are large swaths where where you you can’t go. There are entire
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states like uh white westerners are not going into Boro state. You know they’re not going outside the city into Kaduna
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state. They’re not going into the you know plateau state. Uh at least not publicly and at least not with uh
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drawing any attention to this. And what is what is the um reason for that? Is it
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just the hate for westerners and the desecration they intend of um of
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Christians or is this a do you think there’s a deeper state behind this? Is there a China Russian um deep state
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motive to spur on a culture with the Nigerians as um as um weak in and
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insensitive um vulnerable individual sect of people that could be easily
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manipulated to take on the western whites? Well, a lot of people can be easily
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manipulated. A lot of people are paid money and incentivized to be able to do what they do. Now, being able to trace
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every network of dark money, I I don’t know. I know that there are arm shipments that do come in from Libya
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through the north. The border of Nigeria is very porous. And you can’t think of Nigeria as one nation. Historically,
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it’s a group of different tribes like Ebo and Euroba and House and so on. And
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those tribal boundaries extend beyond national boundaries. And so you’ll have entire communities, especially the more
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nomadic ones like the fani that’ll move across state boundaries like it’s nothing.
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What what is the concern for Nigeria being labeled in particular as a um I
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don’t consider it a narco state at this point like we’d call Venezuela or Colombia? Sure. How would you paint the
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picture of what Nigeria is today? That’s a multifaceted question. is
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probably a difficult one. Yeah, I I would say it’s a nation uh struggling to find its own identity
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collectively. It’s a nation where a lot of people believe it would be better ran in separate groups, not as one single
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entity. You have powerful radical dominating Islam, especially to the
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north, that is not content until they have instituted Sharia law and
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established their own Muslim governance. And then you have other groups that are trying to separate themselves from that.
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So there’s a you can identify a Muslim presence. Oh, undeniably.
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I mean, is it’s a as an identifiable force like um the Islamic Shihad element
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that uh intends to kill white Westerners. Look, about half the nation is Islam.
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Half the nation is Muslim. I mean, so many of the people in government, they are themselves Islamic. I mean the the
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well the Christians that are there must be up against a difficult um um
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confrontation of conflict just getting guests like you to come into the nation.
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I mean you they must be aware that they’re going to have to protect you in one way, shape or form since the
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the Muslims the Islamic jihadists are so anti-America in the first place. Well,
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if we’ve seen anything, there’s regional dynamics within Nigeria. It’s so vast.
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So, for instance, there are oil executives that’ll come into like Victoria Island and Legos Island, but
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they stay in their compounds and they stay localized in that area. People come in and travel through Legos,
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but if they’re wise, they’re with locals who show them where not to go, what streets not to go in. I I I know a
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couple guys that do get around, although they’re very, very few. Um there are just regions you don’t go. There are
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regions where you know there is a Muslim dominance of a a violent extremism. They’re in power and you if if you’re
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going to make it around Nigeria, you need to know the the Christians there. You need to know the saints. You need to
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be enveloped. You need to have guidance and people who are going to point you in the right direction. Can you see an
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American presence in Nigeria that’s working specifically at trying to
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improve or reform the nation? Or are we be we as Americans being taken for fools
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again to uh take advantage of our assets and our benevolence and then once we
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leave they’re back to their old regime, their old ways of killing. I are we
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accomplishing anything is what I’m trying to say. That’s a really good question. I don’t know if I’m the best person to answer.
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From my perspective, I believe in limited, this is my military history. This is me as an American. Yeah. I
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believe in limited national military presence inside of some of these
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nations, especially Islamic ones. You’re not going to change the culture. But Nigeria is a unique aspect. And me as a
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pastor, I’m looking at something real time, real faces, real data. And so there’s a dynamic that I have there that
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that that distinguishes it. Now for instance when you look at when the fani
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come through say there’s a village they will burn down your crops they will
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persecute they will kidnap your daughters kidnap you hold them for ransom that’s what they want to do with
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a white westerner if they see a white westerner those are dollar signs they want to kidnap him take him out into the
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the jungle for two or three months until they get their money maybe I come back alive maybe they don’t maybe she comes
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back alive maybe they don’t but once they’ve displaced an entire village out of its tribal land. It becomes what’s
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called an IDP camp. Now, there are hundreds of these around. IDP camp, internal displacement people’s,
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internally displaced people’s camp. Now, all it is is basically a squatters
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huddle. They don’t have food. They don’t have resources. What little bit they do, they’re eating dried rice. Children are
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dying. They have ulcers from malnutrition. They have no way to defend themselves. I mean, these are real.
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These are our brothers and sisters in Christ being killed. And there’s not just one IDP camp like this. There are
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hundreds. Now, when I speak to the local, you’re putting yourself at risk doing that yourself.
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There’s a limit to what churches can do. There’s a limit to what look my
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responsibility is to get the gospel into Nigeria and to saturate that land with
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sound literature with biblical truth because as when I met with those pastors
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that are living that world men who have looked Boka Haram in the eyes and preached Christ to them and by nothing
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less than a miracle of God made it out to tell the story who have gone and preached until fani are converted to
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Christ and they’re trained up and then turned around and sent back out as missionaries to their own people. These
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people when I asked them, “What is the number one thing we can do for you? We can pray for you. We can provide you. We
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can send you.” The men look me in the eye and say, “Pray for courage.
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Pray for courage.” A Nigerian not asking me for money, not asking me for provision, not asking for me to run in
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with uh the world’s resources or America’s resources at my arms. The number one thing he wants is for God to
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grant him and the men with him courage to continue to penetrate those Islamic regions, saturate it with the gospel and
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watch them one by one be changed and transformed just like the Apostle Paul was and brought to Christ.
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These are Nigerian military defense people or pastors? Pastors like yourself.
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Yes. Uh so it’s really a grassroots uh sort of uh mission.
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It is. Now, if there was any involvement, I would
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say one of the most important things to be done is there’s nowhere to put those displaced people. You put them in a
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city, they have no infrastructure. They’ve got no land. You need to put them back into their villages. You need
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to give them access to their tribal ant or they’re going to die. Their children are going to die. It’s not just if
23:36
somebody hears this and says, “I’m going to find the first NGO I can send a bunch of money to it to go feed them.” You
23:42
need to be aware it may not make it to those kids. There’s so much corruption. If you’re not on the ground, if you’re
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not actually being able to look officials in the face or look pastors in the face and actually network the
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transfer of those resources, you can have zero confidence that it’s going to arrive at the intended destination. So,
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I’m speaking there’s the military government side. That’s a whole other conversation. I’m speaking here in terms
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of the pastor, missionary, gospel side. Does the military government side sanction and bless your presence when
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you’re there? Do they provide you any support or cover for the adversaries
24:19
that you may not be aware of? Who am I? No, they probably don’t even know my name. They don’t even know you. Well, you’re
24:26
certainly at risk. Uh folks, we’re talking with Austin Huggin, pastor of uh
24:31
Mount Zion Bible Church here in Pensacola, Florida. A lot of local stories and his ministry locally, but
24:38
today’s focus is his missionary work uh that is being done worldwide. We focused
24:44
on part of that, which is just uh Nigeria at this time, and we’ll stay focused on that for a little longer. So,
24:53
what’s your pathway of accomplishment? What do you deem to be a a successful
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trip and how the heck do you get out of there and get home?
25:05
Yeah. Well, one by the grace of God. Two, by making much of the resources
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that I have and the greatest resource I have uh in material things is the men
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that I know and that I love and that I trust and I’ve watched grow and I’ve labored with for years. I mean, how when
25:26
you get in, you’ve been in politics. Yeah. How valuable is a trustworthy man? In politics, it’s invaluable. It’s
25:33
beyond value. It’s so valuable. Then I have gold upon gold and silver
25:38
upon silver. Wow. Because I’ve got handfuls of men that are vetted, known, trusted. I’ve been in
25:45
their homes. I’ve watched them speak to their children and their wives. I’ve lived with them. I’ve seen I would trust these men with my credit card. Now, that
25:52
is rare to be said in a land like that. But that’s what the gospel does to a man. And when we talk about the network
25:58
of churches that we work through and the number of godly men, I have something that that’s really difficult to come
26:04
across. What’s that? And when we penetrate into those regions and utilize those trustworthy men,
26:10
trustworthy navigated resources to ensure we can go put eyes on target and
26:15
make sure it’s going to where it needs to go. That’s what we’re trying to make use of. Uh I work not only with First
26:21
Love Ministries at Chapel Library, but also uh close with Heart Cry Missionary
26:27
Society and a few others. But when we
26:32
begin to bring resources in in whatever fashion that looks like and in whatever
26:38
time frame that looks like, uh we’re going to make sure it arrives for the
26:43
help and for the aid of those who are actually hurting and actually in a a difficult situation. But as a result,
26:49
pastor, anybody been killed in your inner circle, your fellow ministers, your uh worker bees on the mission with
26:57
you or the Nigerians that put you up in their benevolence. Has anything
27:02
adversary happened to them? I mean, we’ve been pulled over and and robbed, you know, by people masquerading
27:09
as police officers. I’ve been in situations where the car got stuck and we had a mob beating on the car with
27:15
their fists because they saw my white face and they were trying to get get money from us. And uh I I gave there
27:21
happened to be a a random police officer nearby. He could have cared less. They could have carried carried me out dead.
27:27
He wouldn’t have cared. But I I brought him over. I I handed him a track. I
27:32
said, “Sir,” I said, “Uh, while all this chaos is going on around us.” And, uh, I said, “Sir, um, if you promise to read
27:40
this, this has truth that will tell you the truth about eternity, about God and
27:46
Christ. If you promise to read it, I’ll give it to you.” And he reached into the car. He took the track. He put his hand
27:51
out cuz he wanted some more. Gave him some more. And he looked at the tracks. He looked at me, not knowing what would
27:57
happen. And he started shouting at the guys and telling them to get away from the car. And they actually the mob that
28:04
was forming helped us get our wheel out of the rut on the side of the road. Became your ally. Yeah. Well, we still had to pay them
28:10
some money, but they were willing to let us go. So, you know, I’ve had brothers
28:16
that I’ve labored with who have who have died in the difficulty of the Nigerian environment. People die in traffic all
28:22
the time. People die from diseases all the time. Uh but where we’re at is mostly in the south stretching to the
28:28
east and going up just south of the middle belt. We do work in other places,
28:34
but that’s dis undisclosed. And some of those areas that we’ve been into, the
28:39
men that I have spoken with and uh preached to and come alongside are men
28:45
that themselves, they’re scarred. They have they have fought. Uh they have had
28:51
loved ones killed. They’ve had one girl had her sister carried off for two
28:56
months and three weeks before they could finally get the ransom price up high enough to get her out of the jungles. By
29:02
the time she came back, she was so PTSD she had seen so much killing. She was a nervous wreck. One month later, after
29:09
getting her back, they attacked again, broke through the house, came through the window with swords. The father ran off into the night and left his family
29:16
and they were taken away again. Pastor, are any of the uh people around you
29:21
funded through NOS, non-government organizations? Is there a front of
29:28
funding from the United States taxpayer that’s funding what I would call parallel missions to help you out?
29:35
No. No. you’re totally on your own with in a nation that certainly is not as civil
29:43
and lacks the kind of um as many problems as we have here in the states.
29:49
It’s relative uh relatively um nil compared to what you’re experiencing
29:54
over there daytoday. Well, I think the response I would have to give to that is the remarkable part
30:01
of this is I’m I’m not alone. There is so many godly men in their prayers and
30:06
the resources that have been given to us have been given not through fundraising, not through, you know, uh, soliciting
30:13
donations, but have come because the Lord puts it on the heart of the saints to give. And we go in and I wouldn’t
30:20
trade the safety, the presence, and the power of the spirit of God for 10,000 armies.
30:27
How does this passion of yours in Nigeria in
30:32
particular compare to the level of concern you may or may not have with what I would call a
30:41
disruptive government in the United States? Yeah,
30:47
I see a um victimization of many
30:54
loyal, honest uh fear-mongering u Americans that are
31:01
trying to do good under what we call the Constitution of the United States of America. And at every turn, they’re
31:09
being demoralized with antics that do not um
31:16
uh of voter fraud, uh ballot harvesting,
31:21
um the messaging going on to um distract
31:26
and divert your attention over real issues, uh the taking over of our government by
31:34
what I would call a deep state of activity. Um, these are not what I would
31:40
call um, immigrant radicalized migrants.
31:46
This is a planned conspiracy. How much of Nigeria’s involvement is
31:52
using immigrants or I would say the natives to create a era of error of
31:58
disruption as compared to what we Americans might feel is somewhat
32:04
disruptive in our government right now. Are you saying the the presence of the
32:10
Nigerian issue in American politics presently? Yes. Well, that’s a loaded question. Yeah. I
32:17
I’ll say this. Whenever President Trump uh said what he said on
32:23
social media about getting ready to come in guns blazing. I was on the ground when that happened.
32:29
I was there and in Nigeria. I was in Nigeria. Okay. So, you just got back cuz he
32:35
didn’t say that too long ago. Yeah. Well, when I come and when I go is
32:40
kind of when it happens and uh I try not to advertise too much, but Okay. Um, I was in some regions that
32:48
weren’t far from where some of the headlines were breaking within a couple hours. And I can say this, as far as the
32:56
Christians on the ground are concerned, when they found out that attention was happening and there was some awareness
33:01
or pressure for change, they they welcomed it. They were very
33:06
thankful. So, when I returned to the states and I find out I saw some news
33:11
headline, I don’t even know if it’s true. I don’t know who put it out, but that a lot of uh Nigerian Americans that
33:18
are living in America were hotly against any involvement whatsoever uh from Trump
33:24
in their home nation. The problem with that is they’re protesting from the
33:29
safety of American defense lines. Uhhuh. And while their own kinsmen are
33:36
happily thankful, at least the Christians, that there is some attention being drawn, I’m not trying to sit here
33:43
and armchair quarterback international policies. I I don’t know exactly what
33:49
the right answer is from a governmental level. I think there’s no law against doing good. I think if we’re if if the
33:57
if it requires American blood to be shed on foreign soil, I I’m not I’m not for
34:02
that. But if there’s a way to help them and put pressure and draw attention and
34:09
put light where there’s a lot of darkness, I I can’t see that as being bad. That
34:14
can only be good. Yeah. I see a lot of um I see a two-part
34:21
rule going on. and I see uh part of the actions that make the 6:00 news, then
34:27
I’m always I always beg the question, what’s going on that we don’t see?
34:32
What’s the hidden fuse that’s causing the problem in the first place? Uh whether it’s in Nigeria uh with
34:39
foreign foreign adversaries of ours, which could be Russia or China, to what
34:45
degree are they influencing Nigeria? Why? for the resources of Nigeria that
34:51
they that they need to harvest versus um whether they really want a political,
34:58
economic, and physical presence in Nigeria themselves. Yeah. I mean, you can’t go into Nigeria
35:05
without seeing the infrastructure the Chinese are building. And you can usually tell it’s the Chinese because it’s it’s well built, you know, and but
35:13
but the long term is fairly visible. You know, they’re buying
35:19
up Nigerian real estate and they’re buying Nigerian uh infrastructure.
35:25
They’re building it. And so I can’t imagine they’re doing that just for the dollar alone.
35:31
That’s right. You know, but to what extent that goes, I think that goes beyond. And that was
35:36
my question today, pastor. To what extent does that then become influencing
35:42
factors of the um of the natives uh Nigerians that um that are imposing a
35:51
Muslim will, a shared Islamic jihadist
35:57
killing of of white Westerners? That’s my concern. To what extent does
36:02
Nigeria represent China’s actions throughout the world? To what extent
36:07
does the United States now um find themselves uh being eaten from within by
36:14
a cancer from the same foes, these these same folks, Russia and China in
36:20
particular, trying to draw a distinction, trying to draw a parallel. Yeah. And I think what makes your
36:26
question complicated is uh not not knowing for sure uh at those levels. I’m
36:34
I’m on the ground with the common people. I’m on the ground in the homes with the people who are just experiencing the Nigerian experience. So
36:42
at the governmental level and in terms of influence, can I see you know entities like China there? Yes. Russia?
36:49
I don’t think so. I don’t know. Uh but those levels of discussions would probably better be carried out u with
36:57
those who have more than me. This this has been a very interesting conversation because you’re a local
37:04
pastor but uh you have a worldly view on some things that I’m glad we had time to
37:10
let you get uh get out there in the last five minutes. Do you want to share anything in particular about either your
37:16
church ministry here in town uh and the future of your missions? Yeah, I appreciate that. So, we’re going
37:23
to continue to press on and do as much good as the Lord will allow us in Nigeria. Give us your website.
37:29
So, for our church website, it’s Mount Zion. Uh spelled out mount m o n t
37:35
zion.org. Okay. Um doesn’t matter where you’re at uh in the US or even outside. If you go to
37:42
chapel library.org, you can order $20 worth of free literature every month. We will send it
37:48
to you postage paid, no charges. Same thing with First Love Ministries. You can order books there, we’ll send
37:54
them to you. Um, we are thankful for the opportunity to represent the Lord’s
38:00
interest in the world. And as the literature continues to go out, not only here in Pensacola and around the United
38:06
States and anywhere between 60 to up to 100 nations around the globe, uh any if
38:12
you ever benefit from our literature, just remember the Lord provided it freely. That’s why we were able to
38:17
freely give it. Folks, we’ve been talking with Pastor Austin Huggin from Mount Zion Bible
38:24
Church in Pensacola, Florida. Uh and while we uh could have spent more time
38:30
on some of his uh tidings, good tidings he’s done locally, um uh he uh and I had
38:38
the chance to focus on what was going on in his missionary work in um in uh
38:44
Nigeria, which beg the question, uh it’s not a being local can be global at the
38:53
same time. And it’s interesting to see how you’ve used the ministry to help you do both. Um any final thoughts for your
39:01
parishioners or your or the public at large like to share? Uh no, thank you for the opportunity,
39:08
Gene, to be able to come and just know that uh all of life, all this world is
39:13
all cascading into the inevitable reality that Jesus Christ is Lord. And I pray that our listeners would take the
39:19
time to search out what all that means. Boy, I hope you are right. uh guidance from a power greater than me uh protects
39:28
we we the people and uh and I thank you for being here today. This has been
39:33
really great uh Pastor Austin Huggins from Mount Zion Bible Church, Pensacola, Florida. And
39:39
thank you ladies and gentlemen for joining us on another episode of Gene Valentino’s Grassroots Truth Gcast. See
39:47
you soon. Hi friends, Jean Valentino from My Pillow. You know, this past year has
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