Warrior Encounter with Alexander Doose

Josh (00:00:00) - All right, so here with my. My twin brother. I've got a few twin brothers. Yes, I'm one of them. Yeah. Mr. Alexander, we're here in Jasper, Georgia, 2023. And you and I had a little encounter the other day, and you're. You're a medic here. You're a you're a guy who walks around and helps with the hearts of other men. So why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are and what your what your focus is around here, this event, the the heart of the warrior. Encounter.

Alexander (00:00:39) - Well, being a medic is not actually a medic as you would think it would be, in reference to medical training and all of that. Basically, what we've been instructed and the privilege of doing was helping men realize the pain and suffering that they're going through, and sometimes they don't even know that they're in pain. A lot of men never have an opportunity to talk to anybody, feeling as though nobody wants to hear what I have to say.

Alexander (00:01:10) - Nobody cares about me. So what we do here at Zoe Ministry with the medic side of it, is we allow men to come and sit, have a medic appointment where they get to express what it is. It's on their heart, on their minds and some of the pain that they're. That they may have. And as we sit and listen intensely as a medic, we ask questions. To take them in a direction in which we feel as though God wants them to go, in order to find out where the pain is. And in addition to that, to ask Jesus. To help heal him to start the healing process. But then it's up to the man to have the courage to want to take that walk, because it takes courage to go back and dig up pain that you had buried. You had a map to it. You destroyed the map. And the tree is gone. Yeah.

Josh (00:02:06) - Yeah.

Alexander (00:02:06) - So that's what we attempt to do. Is this to be there as a sounding board and let the men.

Alexander (00:02:12) - I hear you, I see you, and I care. Yeah.

Josh (00:02:16) - So your job, your your. Your assignment?

Alexander (00:02:21) - Yes.

Josh (00:02:23) - From God. And from these. These group of men is to walk around and check in on dudes, triage them. Right. I'm a former medic and the guy behind the cameras, former firefighter medic with me and your triage triaging men. Because a lot of times they might not even know they're hurt. So you're walking in and, you know, like you could you're observing. You're the guy who's walking around on a cane with a cool hat, super nice saying hi to people, but then you see a dude, and how do you know a guy's hurting? Because this is my experience. How are you doing, man? I'm great. Bob, how are you? Right. And that's the normal engagement. But how do you know as you're walking around, there's 250 guys here. How do you know if a guy's hurting? What are some signs and symptoms you see as a soul medic? To no guys hurting.

Alexander (00:03:12) - Because I've have hurt and I'm hurting for so long to sound. One of the signs is that a man is alone. He's standing off. He's isolating himself. He wants to be engaged. He wants to see if someone sees him.

Josh (00:03:29) - That's your story.

Alexander (00:03:30) - And it's a lot of man's story. Yeah. And in addition to that, then some expressions. So the expression and the energy and the be wilderness is like, I don't know why I'm here. I'm ready to leave. That's what the Spirit of God leads me to look for and then just to engage. A lot of times the Spirit of God will lead me to a man where I normally would not have invited myself to talk to. And then we strike up a conversation and then find out that he's hurting and I'm hurting, and we exchange in such a way that we both begin the healing process. And a lot of times we encourage men to have a medical appointment. That's how we initially as Zoe medics to have them come, because now they realize that we do care.

Alexander (00:04:20) - And we do want to hear what your story is.

Josh (00:04:23) - Yeah.

Josh (00:04:24) - You became a medic, but first you had to have a medic encounter yourself. We heard a little bit of your story this morning. Take us back to. The wounds. Right. And I'll recap some because I want to move into why you became the medic that called you out, and now you're medicating other men, your triage and other men and helping them walk towards the journey of healing. But growing up, you were unseen, invisible. And that that man in isolation, sitting in the corner, hiding or maybe wanting to be seen even. But stealth. And then someone came to you and they said, what? They were walking into the conference. You came to a men's conference because you knew you needed some help. You needed to be around men. And some guy walked by you and said, what?

Alexander (00:05:19) - He introduced himself. Now before we came up, we was back on the porch, similar to this, and the door was there, and I'm seeing him coming up the back way, and I'm standing off and I'm still healing.

Alexander (00:05:32) - I'm still trying to understand what's going on. And I'm still hiding. So I'm going. I'm moving away from the stairs that he's coming up and try to be invisible in the corner. But yet I'm visible. And as he comes up, I'm not trying to make eye contact at all. And then it's like, okay. He opened the screen about to walk through and it's like, okay, great. He didn't see me, I made it. Yeah, I'm safe. Right? Safe. But then he turns around and comes back and introduced himself. It's like, wow. And we exchanged information and then he went on. And I never thought much of it. But a couple of months later he gave me a call. He was in Georgia. He said, hey, why don't we get together? I'm stunned. We talked about Michael Thompson, the president of Zoe. Wanting to know. Wanting to have breakfast with me. I'm excited, but yet I'm scared at the same time. What do you want with me? You know I'm nobody special.

Alexander (00:06:38) - So we met and we talked, and he wanted to hear my story. And then, as I explained to him, my story about the relationship with my dad, that my dad never really saw me, I don't believe. He never. From my point of view, my dad, he took care of me. But he didn't love me. And at the same token, a flip side. I don't think he knew how much I loved him.

Josh (00:07:03) - Hero.

Alexander (00:07:04) - Exactly. He was my hero, but he kept every chance he had. I guess I was a disappointment because all I got was negativity from me. I was either stupid, dumb, I would never amount to anything. He felt. I felt as though he was ashamed of me. You know, it was one instance where I was younger, and since I didn't have his attention, I started stealing from him. I didn't know why I was stealing. I just. Then he finally realized that he was missing money and he didn't know where.

Alexander (00:07:37) - And then he finally figured out it was me. And then he beat me, but it was like, okay. And.

Josh (00:07:45) - What was worse, the beating, which is the aggressive side or the apathetic turn his back and ignore which which wounded the moon.

Josh (00:07:59) - And.

Alexander (00:07:59) - Ignore because he still never acknowledged me. Only if I did something bad or wrong. I got in trouble at school one day and he had to miss work and come up. And of course, don't ever let me have to come up to him again. Yeah. Ever. And my dad at that time was a very mean and hateful man. And when I got a beating, it was with an ironing board, one with a belt, the one with a stick was ironing cord.

Josh (00:08:28) - Like an ironing.

Josh (00:08:29) - Yes.

Alexander (00:08:30) - The cord back in the day. Yes. That puts welts on you.

Josh (00:08:34) - It leaves a mark physically, but it also leaves a mark emotionally and in your soul. Exactly. So fast forward now to here. Some guy noticed you.

Josh (00:08:48) - Engaged with you, right? You wanted to hide. You were trying to run. But God had a calling on your life. And to use the guy who engaged with you and who followed up with you and started walking you through a or, and introduced you to at least the healing journey. Now you are taking hundreds of men. You're wanted. You're a wanted man here. Because people seek out meeting with you, having conversations with you. So you went from hiding to now you're the one pursuing dudes. And introducing them to the healing journey. Isn't that crazy how that works out?

Alexander (00:09:31) - It is. But to to just back up a little bit, it still was a process because after I met Michael and I read the book heart of a warrior. It inspired me to come to a Zoe event. Um, back in 2020, I read the book and it was like, okay, I'm all in. And then in October, when it came around to make reservations, I chickened out. You chickened out? I chickened out.

Josh (00:09:57) - Right. Yeah.

Alexander (00:09:59) - And then it was like, well, why? I said, well, I'm going alone. I don't know anybody.

Josh (00:10:04) - How old were you when this was going on?

Alexander (00:10:10) - 60. 67.

Josh (00:10:13) - So a man in his 60s. Feeling alone, isolated, hurting. Not seen, not heard, not loved, not validated exactly. Had it called to come and chickened out.

Alexander (00:10:28) - Okay. Kind of. Sort of. I called the karma. Yes.

Josh (00:10:32) - Yeah.

Alexander (00:10:32) - The following year, by the end of that year of 2020. I'm still hurting. It reached a point where as I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. Yeah. So I made my mind up that I was going to come in 2021. And doing so, I had to put some stuff in place and be mentally and emotionally and spiritually prepared. Yeah. And in doing so, I had to realize, I say, okay, look, you'll probably be maybe 1 or 2 African Americans that's going to be there.

Alexander (00:11:02) - How you. How are you going to perform? How are you going to respond? Which mental attitude is going to be. Wow. How will they receive me? Well, if you see me. Well, all of you see me at all. And then are you going to keep your guard up or are you going to be transparent? I fought with that. I prayed and fasted and fought with that for three weeks. It came down to I want to get healed. I knew if I came I would get healed. I knew that. Yeah. So in knowing that, it was like, okay, I'm going to be transparent. I'm going to get healed. So whatever I need to do.

Josh (00:11:45) - I'm going to do it.

Alexander (00:11:46) - I'm gonna do it regardless of what the consequences are or will be.

Josh (00:11:50) - Whatever it takes. When for us guys, we might be in pain, bleeding out. I'm fine, man, I'm fine. Leave me alone, dude. I'm okay. I'm going to make it.

Josh (00:12:01) - But there comes a point where you get desperate. You get sick and tired of being sick and tired. You get where it's like I, damn it, I got to do this, and there's nothing that's going to prevent me doing it. And I think that's when magic happens for guys.

Alexander (00:12:17) - It's not magic. Not at all. It's. It's trusting and believing what God has for me. That's when my faith had to step in. That's when I had to believe he had me and that I knew I would be healed. Or at least starting the healing process. Yeah, and the healing process didn't start until after reading Michael's book. It said. My version is that you have to go back and find out where that hurt began. You have to go back and dig that up, wherever that is, and confront it and start from there. Because until I do that, nothing else is going to matter.

Josh (00:12:59) - So. One last question. If you're looking into the camera and there's a dude like you who's hiding in the shadows, he he's trying to engage and he's like, he comes to one of these events and he's like, I'm.

Josh (00:13:12) - I'm trying, you know, like, I'll show up. God, I'll show up. If you do something like that kind of thing where it's like, go, great, I'll buy the ticket, I'll show up now. God, it's up to you. You stand off in the corner. If you could say one thing to that dude. Piece of love, piece of encouragement. What's that one thing that you say? That dude who was like, you kind of hide in the shadows, wants to show up, wants God to do something. But maybe he needs a word of encouragement from a guy like you. What would you say to him?

Alexander (00:13:43) - You've heard this a thousand times, and I heard it a thousand times. You got to trust and believe that God loves you. He loved you so much that that he's going to make a way. All you have to do is show up and be willing to have someone hear your pain. Here. We sit up and we listen to what you have to say.

Alexander (00:14:06) - We don't comment. We don't. Chastise wee wee wee, just listen and then ask simple questions to help guide you through this process because it is a process. First, we got to realize where that pain is and start there. Who gave you that? Who wounded you in that process? And in that there has to be some forgiveness in order for you to move forward.

Josh (00:14:33) - Yeah.

Alexander (00:14:33) - But first you have to make that first step. Yeah. And then if when you come prayerfully we're trained that we will notice you and come after you. But you have to make. You have to get here. And then if if you're really bold. Make a medic appointment.

Josh (00:14:51) - Yeah.

Josh (00:14:52) - Yeah. That's the guy who goes in there and goes, I know I need help. I'm having a hard time engaging or figuring this out. I just need help. I raise my hand, I go sign my name, pick a time and show up, and then you show up. And the process of healing begins.

Alexander (00:15:11) - It does with a lot of a lot of prayer and conversation and healing.

Alexander (00:15:16) - It begins. But it's an ongoing process for some of us, is rapid. Other of us, it's a journey because we've been wounded so deeply and made me from 1 or 2 or more individuals.

Josh (00:15:32) - Here we are. There's some dudes out there in the sage stage, right? They're getting older and they got the grays. They got the cane, they got the limp. There's. Life's a little slower. And they're going. It's too late for me.

Alexander (00:15:46) - It's not too late. As Mike Schnabel said, if you've got a pulse, you have a purpose. See, the thing about this is, is that men of our age, we have so much wisdom and so much understanding and insight that we yearn to pass that on to a younger man so that they don't have to go through that, that they don't have to struggle as hard, or at least give them somebody they can talk to to get it off their brain and let them know, oh yeah, I did that. You ain't crazy.

Josh (00:16:17) - Been there, been there, done that.

Alexander (00:16:18) - Exactly. And we can laugh about the same thing. I say, yeah, I did that. Yeah. And then give him some direction so that I know once, once the man knows that he's not alone. And somebody really generally cares and has a great relationship with them. Touchdown.

Josh (00:16:32) - Yeah.

Josh (00:16:33) - Pray for the dudes listening, and then we'll close it out.

Alexander (00:16:37) - Father in heaven, we thank you for this gathering. We've allowed that you've allowed to take place. I pray for my brothers that are out there that are hurting. Some are hurting and don't even know that they're hurting. And and the biggest takeaway is that we're all in the spiritual warfare. Satan wants to kill, steal and destroy you. Destroy the dreams that you have destroyed, the love in which you've been given, and falsely accuse you of not being loved by Almighty God. So don't believe the lie. Trust in God and he will direct your path. In Jesus name, Amen.