Samaritan Services International

Digging water wells in Africa, helping people in a cyclone. I went to Billings and helped with a situation there. Like, I didn't know the whole thing, but I know you're there helping the. The least. The last and lonely. Right? Tell us the story. This is the one I want to get involved in. Okay. So I wanted to get to here before this was over, because I hope people listen and maybe this will be a way. Because what's the name of the nonprofit is Samaritans.

Samaritan Servants International.

Samaritan Servants International. And so it's not just putting water wells. And you guys have put, like, 40 water wells. We helped with one of them. We want to do some more there. But you went to Pakistan.

What you.

Pakistan.

So for some reason, Pakistan has been a country that has been on my heart. I think years ago, maybe a decade ago, I saw a documentary about people you know in Pakistan. And of course, it's a. It's an Islamic republic. Lots of poverty, obviously, but that need always stayed in front. And then I had been to India, introduced to a man there who now is representing us there, and every month we do a water well there. But he said, hey, I've got a friend in Pakistan. And you have to understand India and Pakistan. If your listeners may know, they don't really talk to each other, right, because they're enemies. After World War II, there was a huge split between Muslim and Hindu and war and on and on. But anyway, so India and Pakistan, they can't even get visas to visit each other, but these two guys met each other in Nepal and became friends, and so they've been friends ever since. And he said, man, I've got a friend in Pakistan. I would really love for you to get to know him. And so, yeah, that was a year and a half ago, and we got to. We were introduced to Emmanuel there, and turns out that he serves people who are Christians. And Christians, of course, in Pakistan is a very small minority. And in Pakistan, whatever your faith is, it's indicated on your id. So if you're not Muslim. If you're not Muslim, everybody knows as you do business or whatever that you're Christian. And so the Christians get the worst jobs. They don't get loans. They don't, you know, they don't get the grants, they don't get social help and so forth. But so many of them end up. Pakistan has over 20,000 brick kilns where people make bricks by hand. These bricks are made by hand with, you know, trading in the mud, your feet making mud, and Then making bricks. So it turns out this guy serves these people in these brickyards on a daily basis. He goes to about a dozen of them and just helps people with their immediate needs. Of course, he's a minister as well and shares the gospel and give people hope. But we had learned about this up till the point that we went. And then we went there and we saw this. And some strange reason I, I thought, well, maybe we could help one of these families to get out of this difficult situation in the brickyard where they earn about $7.50 for making a thousand bricks every day. And I'm thinking maybe we could get one family out because we had learned that they're actually indebted to their owners and that's why they stay. So they took out a loan you years ago, and now they're paying off that loan and the owner is taking interest. Long story short, we were able to free six families while we were there from their debt. Literally pay their owner, which the debt is never more than $1,000. And some of them has been second generation trying to pay that debt off. I tell this to people. I didn't want to believe it until I saw it, but it really is, it's slavery and it's happening every day. And they say that there's over a million of these people, but you can do the math. It's probably very true. 20,000 brickyards, you know, each brickyard has upwards of 50 families that are there. They live there on property. That's where they eat, sleep and drink. And their kids are there. The kids can't go to school because the kids have to help in doing the work. It's the worst situation you can ever find.

It's hard to believe that that is.

It is, it is hard to believe. It's hard to believe, you know, but, you know, day one, we found ourselves at a brickyard. We had hired security. I didn't care for the security, but our friend there said, man, if you don't have security. So we have four guys with AK47s with us all the time and we're over here in this Muslim owned, you know, and by the way, I mean, I love old people, so I don't want to use the word Muslim too hard here. I, I'm trying right now.

No, but as a Christian, you could be frowned upon there for sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and you know, the country has lots of inner turmoil. I mean, they're there.

It's just an amazing story. Six families. Yeah. You gave them an Opportunity at freedom. And it'll be up to them what they do with it. Right. It's always my question, like, do they, do they go back to it? Because it's the only thing they know, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's the reality that we're working on, you know, to set up. Knowing now how little the debt is and how easy it would be to get them out of there. Now what do we do with them? You know, we were careful to the people that we paid the debt, you know, they had family they could go to, or they were elderly and they can go be with their kids, or they were really young and they needed to not be in that situation at all, you know.

Yeah. Next time, like you got this on a plan, give me a heads up notice. I want to come help. I want to go be there.

Absolutely.

I don't think anybody should be in a situation like that.

Yeah.

In today's world, it's sad whether it's here or anywhere else. That's actually, you know, a lot of people don't know this kind of how America started. Like how, how did you get from Europe to here? You, you paid for passage, but you had to work it off whenever you got here. And you worked for a long time before you were able to pay it off. And some of that went second and third generation in a very similar situation. And to think that that thing still exists today, mind boggling to me.

And yeah, it's hard to believe the.

Work, the work you're doing with that and all of it, I mean, the water wells all, just everything that you're doing. We want to be more and more involved. I hope that the listeners out there are hearing this today and if there is any tug in any way in your heart, this industry gives us an opportunity to do things we might not have been able to do before. Some of us have been pretty successful in all this. You feel in a tug of your heart. Look up Samaritan Servants International. We'll put it in the show notes below this. You want to help out? You want to be one of those mysterious donors that give a bunch of money so a guy can go work in a cyclone? That would be absolutely amazing.

Yeah, I'd love to take you with too. My invitation to people who want to give is just really almost first go, you know, try and go with me when I go or with one of my groups, you know, when you see it changes how you come back, you know.

Well, maybe we put something together. Maybe, maybe we have a sidebar about this and say, hey, let's go to the community out there, home service contractors, and say, anybody wants to help, listen, money, Great, wonderful. But if you want to actually get your hands dirty, let's go do something.

Yeah.

I've been praying for an opportunity like this, to be honest with you. Like, that's like, I. It's great. I live in a nice house. You know, food isn't an issue. I just got back from Napa Valley, so I got to travel over there and have a good time. But I want to. I want to go help. I want to go serve. I want to. Like, we get to serve contractors. I want to serve other human beings as well. And so maybe we can put something together on this, maybe get Michelle in contact with you, and if we can get some planning to some organization to it, maybe we can pull it off.

I know we can.

Das. Hey, thank you for being on the show today. I know we ran a little over. I appreciate your time. I appreciate what you've done as a contractor, but even more as a human being. Thank you for your service and not only the families that you have created. Opportunity for there, where your offices are. It's not the only business you own. You actually own a couple of other businesses there in Tyler as well. You are what this country is all about. There is an American dream here. It seems to me like you're living it, but you're also sharing it with others. And to me, that's pretty cool.

Thank you, Jim. You set the bar pretty high, so I appreciate your life as well. You know, you've had great success, but I know you don't even have to do this, but you continue sharing and giving back. So thank you for what you do, your wife and family.

I like these stories a lot better than the news. I haven't watched the news in 15 years because it's just like, oh, everything's so bad. So there's so many good people in the world, too, though. Let's. Let's talk about that a little bit. Dust. This is a great way to start off our summer series about contractors and how they're impacting not only their own lives, but the lives of those who work for them, the communities around them and shoot, even the world around them. Thanks for being on the show today, man. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Jim.

All right, thanks, das.

Bye. Bye.

What an awesome show. Doss Rosso from Clean Cut Exteriors in Longview, Texas. Amazing individual, amazing human being. The. The fortitude and insight to say, hey, this vehicle gives me the opportunity to help and serve others. And being so attracted to it even from a young age, I think a lot of us have it in our heart. I think a lot of us feel that tug, that nudge, that thing to do something more than what we're doing and just gaining, but being able to give and show generosity, that generosity helping us grow. It's funny, the more we give, the more the good Lord takes care of us. We don't do it with that in mind, but those blessings seem to return to us. If you're a contractor and you're looking to lead your business maybe a little better so you can grow your business a little bigger and you can find that personal and financial freedom to do the things that are on your heart and in your heart to do, reach out to us here@contractorcoachpro.com go click the button that says take assessment. It doesn't cost you anything. It'll take you about 15, 20 minutes. It's no joke. It's a real assessment of your business. And if you complete it and hit submit, you'll get a calendar link back and we'll do an actual real coaching call with you, no obligation. Help give you the two or three things you should maybe do next in your business to take that next step and level up a little bit. If you like coaching and want to work with us, great. If you don't, that's okay, too. We served you well. That's our goal. Thanks for being here on this episode of Contractor Radio. And we'll see you on the next one. Sam.