God's Great Outdoors

Guest (Male): Most good books have a way of drawing you from one chapter to the next so you can see what happens. The better the story, the more you want to know. On today's program, we'll visit with an old friend that shares the next chapter of his life. Three years ago, we met with a friend that had spent years fighting alcoholism, and at 40 years old, God saved him from himself.

God has done amazing work in his life. We'll hear of what can happen in a life when we allow God to do his work. Every one of us has something in our lives that can draw us away from a close walk with the Lord. We need to come to a place in life where we drop those things that keep us away from God. The blessings that come with giving up these things that separated us from him far outweigh any short-term pleasures we gain from that sin. Let's join our host now, Dean Hulce, as he turns that page on a life lived for Jesus Christ. The miracles that he shares today should encourage everyone. Now let's jump onto the trail to adventure in God's great outdoors.

Dean Hulce: Welcome to the Trail to Adventure, and we are in God's Great Outdoors in North Florida. We are in a very special place with a very special friend. Two years ago, we were in this very room sharing with Johnny Burbank, and we shared a story that was very touching. Honestly, up until the last little bit, yours has been the most sought-after and questioned and praised story of all of them. It's a story of what God does, not what you or I do. Good to have you, Johnny.

Johnny Burbank: Thank you, sir. Good to be here.

Dean Hulce: Why don't you start us off with really the story of human failure and God's success?

Johnny Burbank: I was just telling somebody about the stories in the Bible and how you can read them and I believe them and all. But the one story I know the best is my own, and I know about the failure and I know how God moved in my life and that's why he means so much to me today. That's how I know he's real.

It all started back, I grew up building shrimp nets in a family. My brothers and uncle and grandfather and learned the net-making business. We worked hard, but we drank hard and alcohol was a part of our life. We all drank growing up and then went to high school and met my high school sweetheart and we got married and I became a father, had a couple children. But the whole time alcohol was growing in my life and it just got worse and worse, as it does in a lot of people's lives. It seemed like the harder I tried, the worse it got. That was the destroy of it.

I think it was around 27 I went to my first rehab. They did an intervention on me and I knew I was an alcoholic then. I knew that alcohol had grips on me, but for some reason, I always thought I could do it on my own. How was something in a bottle like that going to whip me? I tried and tried and I'm telling you from age 27 to 40, it was just a mess. Up and down and in and out of AA.

My wife drug me up the steps of the First Baptist Church downtown Fernandina and I knew just enough about the Bible. I said, "They'll probably take me out back and stone me." But they didn't, they loved me and low and behold, I wore them out. I wore out three pastors and the whole church. They tried to help me and get me sober. Finally, it ended up I was 40 years old, burned every bridge that I had. My wife, it about killed her, but she had to let go of me and she did eventually.

That was the turning point, that's what it really took for me in my life because she was my enabler along with people in the church that didn't mean me no harm, but they was trying to help me. But enablers can keep you in that position. Anyhow, she finally let me go and I ended up through God, God had a plan, and I ended up in a place called Bridges of Hope in Georgia.

About two weeks in, I was about to go nuts replaying my life over and over because all your dreams, everything I owned was in a paper sack at this point. All my dreams were gone and as much as I loved my wife and my children, I just could not overcome it. So I'm sitting in there and I hadn't slept in about three nights and finally, 3:00 in the morning, I got up off the top bunk and I went outside underneath the stars and them big old pine trees and me and God had it out.

I started telling him all the good things I did, how I was in the TV ministry in the church and I was there every Sunday wearing a three-piece suit and picking up chips in AA and I joined the Kiwanis Club. He listened to everything and finally he called me by my name and he said, "Johnny, I don't care about none of that." And then he said, "I want you."

I heard that and I said, "You want me?" And he said, "I want you." And that's when I surrendered. He reached down and that's when he touched me and I belonged to him then and I'll never forget that. From that day on, the proof in the pudding was from that day on, God just took over my life.

The next day they call, I go up to work in the garden, I was on the garden crew. They call me in and said, "Just want to let you know you'll be going out to work the next day." And you're not supposed to go out until your 90 days, and I'd only been there two weeks. The little young boy said, "I'm just telling you what they told me." So God started breaking the rules already.

So I go out to work at a feed and seed company in McRae, Georgia. First day on the job there was a young boy in there and we was stacking seed together and come to find out, I finally asked him, I said, "How come you're not in school?" He said, "Well, it's a long story." I said, "Well, we got lots of time." Turned out alcohol and marijuana and he had got suspended from school.

So I started witness to him. I said, "Well let me tell you about, I'm 40 years old and I've lost everything in my life and I'm trying to start over and I'm trying to get sober." I said, "I just surrendered to Jesus Christ last night." I started telling him that story and you look back on it, that was my first day on the job with Jesus and I'm already witnessing. So that was my calling and it's been my calling.

Just a few days ago, February the 1st was my sobriety date, 25 years. A lot of the people in the church, they had a little get-together for me and the pastor gave me my 25-year chip. How many people have a Baptist pastor give them an AA chip? Well, when it's a God thing, that's exactly right and he did. He just took over my life.

I stayed there about 52 days and then he moved me to Louisville, Georgia and it didn't make any sense. That was my first time that I needed to trust the Lord because he was blessing me there in Chauncey, Georgia. When Mr. George, he's the man that built the Bridges of Hope and all, he's the one that asked me to go to Louisville to help them build another one. Fleshly thinking, it didn't make any sense. I was doing so good there.

But as soon as I walked out of there, I told Mr. George, I said, "Can I pray about it?" And he said, "Well, pray quick because they're loading those bricks on that trailer out there and that's your ride." So I was on the way back to the dorm and I heard that voice again, the same voice that called my name and told me he wanted me, he said, "Johnny, you said you'd go and do." I said, "Oh, so you're the one wanting me to go."

So I answered the call and that taught me something right there. So I went back in and I went to Louisville. I get to Louisville and didn't know why God had moved me there. It was hot and it wasn't good and I had kind of gotten a little backslid a little bit, quit praying so much and I was just wondering what in the world because I was being blessed there.

But finally I went in there one night and I realized how I had backslid a little bit and I got down and asked God to forgive me on my knees. I slept good that night, the next morning I went out and I said, "We're going to build this place." They was bringing the mud, they was bringing in, we're going to pour footers and all that day and I said, "Let's do this." I just had a different attitude.

About 10:00 the manager comes by and says, "Johnny, don't you know something about nets?" I must have told somebody and I said, "Yeah, I know a little bit about nets." My whole life, professional net maker. So I said, "Why?" He said, "Well there's some Mennonites." I said, "Some what? What in the world's a Mennonite?" He said, "Well, they got beards and the women wear long dresses, but they got a big long rip in their catfish seine and thought you might could help them. I heard them in the hardware store."

I said, "Yeah, I probably can." Long story short, the next day a little Mennonite man picked me up, I went back over there, sewed that rip up. They're all going, "Where'd you learn how to do that?" Next thing you know, they had a community catfish seine 1,200 foot long, falling out of the lines and they had been praying about it. "What are we going to do?" Because they really can't afford a new one and sending it back to Mississippi to get it worked over, that was going to cost and they'd be without a net.

Lo and behold, the Lord sent them a net maker. So they said, "Can you fix this?" They went and got it and I said, "Yeah, I can fix it, but you got to ask them over here at the Bridges of Hope." And they did, and Mr. George laughed and said, "Oh yeah." Next thing I know, I got my own net shop in rehab and I built them a new seine. I fixed that seine and I seen the catfish.

But the one thing they had that I needed was faith. I heard all their stories, I went to Bible study with them, revival with them. I'd be in Sunday school class and they're talking about whether it's sin or not to have air conditioning in a tractor. I'd go to raise my hand and they'd say, "Put your hand down," because I vote for air conditioning. But it was just amazing how God worked and he hasn't stopped since.

He put my family back together, put me back head of the household in my family and my children love me now. I came out, I went back to work with my brother, my oldest brother in our family business, got back in there. But I had made up my mind that I wasn't going to do shrimp nets anymore because it was kind of declining, all the rules and regulations and shrimping and it was down.

But we had already started into the baseball world, baseball nets, and I saw the profit in those. I had made up my mind and the Lord clarified for me I was going to be a net maker because the Lord got me a net shop in rehab. Okay, God. And he did and he blessed and we built a company called Burbank Sport Nets and we went at it wide open.

I was all over the United States, I never traveled much before then. I was all over the United States putting up nets. We did about a third of the pro stadiums, did most all the SEC, ACC schools, then all out Oklahoma, Texas, just all over out there, Oregon, you name it. I had a trailer and a truck, I wore out three Duramax diesels and sleet, snow, it didn't matter, we was putting up nets and webbing and we built a beautiful business and God just blessing.

He put my son-in-law, married my daughter early about probably about three years into my sobriety, and he came to work with us in the company. What a blessing he was in my life and just a smart young man. I taught him everything I know and then he taught me things because he's smart and it was just a blessing.

As it ended up, we did that for about 15 years and about 15 years, the company was sold. Me and my son-in-law and another Christian man, good friend of his and good friend of mine that we knew from church, we started another business, Netting Professionals. In 10 years, it's just went through the roof. We're working with the Savannah Bananas now and going to put up nets for them all over, doing padding, wall padding, and branched off into another company called Stadia-Onics, just making your stadium iconic. God's just blessed.

Dean Hulce: Well, let's take a quick break and then we're going to jump back into this because the reason for doing this over again was to go from what we just talked about, this is what we covered two years ago, and what God's done since that time. When you started your own business with your son-in-law and your friend Will, right? What God's done since then and really what it's allowed you to do to be able to step back and do ministry more. We'll be right back with God's Great Outdoors on a Trail to Adventure.

Guest (Male): For over 30 years, God's Great Outdoors Trail to Adventure has been broadcast out to win men and women, boys and girls to Jesus Christ. This is only possible by the generosity of our listeners. Thank you to all who have supported us in the past. God has blessed us because of you, and we pray for you to feel his blessings as well.

Additional underwriting support has been provided by Matthews Archery, the leader in the archery industry. Mission Archery, with revolutionary crossbow technology. Hunter Safety Systems, saving lives is what we do. Centershot Ministries, hit the mark with Centershot. Wheelchair Whitetails, guided whitetail deer hunts for wheelchair-bound disabled hunters. And Hodgdon Powder Company, the gunpowder people, delivering reliable performance and precision you can trust every time.

God's Great Outdoors has produced many ministry tools, including tracks, DVDs, and books to help you reach others for Jesus Christ. You can access these items, other God's Great Outdoors items and so much more at our website, GodsGreatOutdoors.org. That's GodsGreatOutdoors.org.

Dean Hulce: Welcome back to God's Great Outdoors, a Trail to Adventure, and we are again in North Florida and we are with Johnny Burbank, who after a few years ago, what everybody remembers me of when they think of yours is they think about Otis Campbell. A lot of people say, "That Otis Campbell guy." But it's touched a lot of lives.

As we had the break here quick, we just said how God changed way more than even the little bit you just explained. It's almost unimaginable. In a matter of weeks, he changed your life. Share more of that with us.

Johnny Burbank: We talked about the business side of all that blessing, but that wasn't what it was all about. That was just a way for me to make a living for my family, and I did meet a lot of people in there. But the reality is two weeks in after I got back, actually when I was in rehab, God showed me that the power was in his word. I got scared before I started coming home.

I'd been up there with the Mennonites, but I was in rehab and I wasn't in and now I'm coming back to Fernandina to be a husband and a father and I got scared. I was telling God, I said, "God, I need something else." I was telling God, "You don't understand, there's a liquor store at every corner." I said, "Everybody there seen me fall on my face, just a big loser."

God showed me that the power was in his word and he assured me that his word was going to keep me sober. So I'll never forget though, I was on the way home with my wife Robin and I was thinking to myself, "There's no need for me to go back to AA because the word's not there. There's nothing wrong with it for the secular world, yes." I said, "But the word's in the church and I just need to go to church."

But Jesus stopped me dead in my tracks and he said, "Oh no, no. You're going back over there because you're going to tell them about me." I said, "Lord, tell them about you? They'll persecute me over there." I forgot who I was talking to about persecution. But I did, I came back and I went, and Jesus Christ was my higher power.

Everybody all had different higher powers, some of them higher power was Jesus. But I went two weeks in up there, there was a chalkboard and you could barely read the writing on it and it just kept calling my name. Finally, I asked an old-timer, I said, "What does that board say?" And they said, "Jail ministry." I said, "Jail ministry?" He said, "Yeah, they used to carry a meeting out to the Nassau County Jail a couple years ago."

But I said, "Ain't nobody been?" He said, "No, ain't been in two years." He said, "Why?" I said, "Oh that's okay, I'm just trying to stay out of jail." But that board called my name every time I walked in that room. Finally, I said, "Jesus, you want me to go to the jail." I knew he did. When I said I'll go, boy that peace, the same peace as when I surrendered under them pine trees, that peace fell over me.

That Tuesday night, 7:00, I took an Alcoholics Anonymous book and I went out there and I knocked on the door. The guy come to the door and he said, "Can I help you?" And I said, "Well, they used to carry a meeting out here 7:00 on Tuesday nights. I was just going to see if we could have one." He didn't look real enthusiastic, he said, "Well, hang on."

He come back and said, "Come on in." They didn't ask me my name, driver's license, or nothing. They took me on in there. They broke every rule. Christ had already set it up. He'd done set it up and we went, he hollered in the pod, you could see in the pod through the glass and we was out at this like a picnic table type thing. He hollered, "AA meeting," and one guy came out.

So me and that one guy had a meeting and we shared. We held hands at the end, said the Lord's Prayer like we always do. I went out next week and there's about 20, next week 30, next week 40, and then that went over 16 years. We moved from the old jail to the new jail and going in and I can't tell you how many men got saved in jail through an AA meeting.

I had this one guy say, "This ain't no ordinary AA meeting." I said, "No, it's not and Jesus Christ is my higher power." I mean, I can tell you so many miracles I've seen from then and just the blessings of that. Then I became known here and then even in church. Even today, there's not a Sunday that goes by that somebody don't come to me that's got a husband or a son or a daughter or somebody struggling, their lives are being destroyed by alcohol and drugs.

"Can you help them?" And I said I have. And the sad part about it is only a few get it. Out of all of them that I've tried to help, only a few have gotten it. But he even says that in the Bible that only a few, the road is narrow, the gate is narrow and the road is straight and only a few going to find it. I have to remember that and I have to remember that I'm just a seed planter and God's going to do the rest.