CPG Podcast with Bob Snyder ===

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[00:00:05] Hugh Brandt: This is the Intersection Faith Work and Life podcast hosted by Bob Varney and myself, Hugh Brandt. The intersection is committed to helping people see that discipleship means we live by faith in God in all arenas of our lives all the time. If you wanna hear more. Discipleship stories of people living by faith in every sphere of their lives.

[00:00:27] Hugh Brandt: Please invite others to listen to the Intersection Podcast. Welcome and thanks for listening today to learn how Bob Snyder has learned how to integrate his faith into his daily work. In 1996, God called Bob, his wife Pamela, and three daughters to b Budapest Hungary. As a result, IHS Global was birthed. To date, the ministry has yielded over 50,000 indigenous Christian healthcare workers equipped as witnesses to their patients at the [00:01:00] bedsides and clinics where they work in more than 128 countries.

[00:01:04] Hugh Brandt: The work is now overflowed to equipping not just healthcare workers, but any believers where they live, work, and play. For 15 years, Bob practiced emergency medicine in a trauma center hospital, serving as co-chairman of the emergency medicine department at Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

[00:01:25] Hugh Brandt: During those years, he served as faculty in emergency medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. Bob has written two books, come Walk With Me and Lessons Learned on The Journey, and writes A weekly bo blog call. Lessons Learned on the Journey. Welcome Bob, and today Bob Varney's gonna interview you.

[00:01:47] Bob Varney: Welcome Bob. Glad to have you on our podcast. It's good to be here. Good. Good. It's an exciting time. These these times we have on podcasts are just fun times to chat with one another, and hopefully the Lord will [00:02:00] use this and the snippets from it to to just enlighten people. So we'll start off just asking you to say something about yourself and something about how you ended up moving from the emergency room doc into this IHS Global.

[00:02:16] Bob Varney: It's I've heard the story, but I know our listeners would love to hear it.

[00:02:19] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's interesting you pick a point in time on my journey, 1996, but. There were many steps on that journey that led to that step to go to Budapest, Hungary. Your identity is created in many different ways.

[00:02:34] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Actually, right at birth, I had an identity issue. I was a twin. So whenever I'm among twins, I go, I'm a twin, or whenever I actually played soccer in college and then rugby and medical school. So the two times I was in New Zealand, I go. I played rugby. 'cause New Zealand is rugby heaven.

[00:02:56] Bob Varney: And I'm glad you survived, Bob.

[00:02:58] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah, there you go. No, [00:03:00] no scars or anything here, but it's interesting because those areas where I want my identity to shine through or I'm so amazed to have been allowed to marry a woman like Pamela. My wife is an amazing woman and I have three wonderful daughters.

[00:03:20] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It would not have happened on having us move to Budapest if they weren't who they were. But it's interesting. You have to take steps backward, like I remember I was told before I got a medical degree that the day I got my medical degree, I would be a doctor 24 7. And that has lived itself out in my life.

[00:03:42] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. But the thing I most want to identify with is as a follower of Jesus. It's interesting because I think what I've had to learn in my life is how to integrate that following Jesus and his Christ-like character into my life [00:04:00] as a husband, as a father, as an ER doc. And I think those are the things that really mattered.

[00:04:06] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And what, what began to happen to me that brought me to the point of saying we need to go to Hungary is. I went to work every day, and so many of the days I watch people die. Who goes to work and watches people die. And I was amazed at how much effort, time, and money I could put into saving your physical life and not think one minute about your spiritual life, your eternity.

[00:04:35] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so I began to struggle with that. I talked to people at my church and I began to say. How can I take Jesus to the er? That was my whole thing and the things that I was given I must be candid, didn't work very well. I found myself going, ugh, I so passionately want to take Jesus to the er, but the things I was given, the tools I [00:05:00] was given didn't work very well.

[00:05:03] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so in 1996, our family moved to Budapest, Hungary to figure out. What it means to be a witness where we live, work, and play. That's actually Acts one, eight, where you know, it says you'll be filled with the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses, to the ends of the earth. But for me, the ends of the earth were the er.

[00:05:26] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I wanted to figure that out in healthcare and the clinic, as you said, the clinics and bedsides that I've worked in. So in 1996 we moved to Budapest's Hungary to figure that out.

[00:05:38] Bob Varney: So you were. I wanna go back a little bit to the motivation in the frustration maybe that you were expressing that, here you are saving lives and yet you felt like the tools just weren't quite available.

[00:05:52] Bob Varney: So how did that affect, your motivation? What did you do with that?

[00:05:57] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I knew that God had called me. [00:06:00] I knew that I had to answer the question for myself, and what I had wasn't working. So I was gonna figure this out. I'm one of those out of the box kind of guys, is that I'm gonna figure it out.

[00:06:13] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And I realized I had to move to Budapest. I had to move out of the US 'cause as long as I was here, I kept getting roped into to things. I couldn't focus on that. And so we found a tool that Christian Medical and Dental Association used. Called the Saline Solution, and we began to translate it into Hungarian and we were given the international rights to that product.

[00:06:41] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It turned out that it too was not perfect because it was very American and was hard to translate, so we created our own tool, but it was birthed from Saline Solution from Christian Medical and Dental Association of the USA. I'll be forever indebted to them. [00:07:00] And them giving us that to stimulate that process.

[00:07:04] Bob Snyder, M.D.: That brought us to actually a, an intermediary, the International Saline Process, which was the tool we used for a while. And now we have the saline process for healthcare workers, a witness training program for healthcare workers and salt and light process. For everybody.

[00:07:23] Bob Varney: Now, you had mentioned in some of our previous discussions, this resuscitation that you clearly did in the e er the cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the CPR as we often know it as, and that whole notion has as a part of the saline process.

[00:07:37] Bob Varney: But can you help us just understand or pull that apart a little bit so we get to hear what you really mean by that?

[00:07:43] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's really funny, Bob, because many people think cardio pulmonary resuscitation we call CPR was probably started in Egypt or somewhere back in, the first century.

[00:07:55] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's not true. It was actually developed by some [00:08:00] anesthesiologists in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Was launched into the United States in the early 1970s. Wow. When, guess what? I was in medical school in the 1970s and they were introducing this amazing tool, CPR, but their focus was, it needs to be done by doctors and nurses.

[00:08:22] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We're gonna train all the people inside the hospital how to do CPR Oh. And it really didn't increase survival at all. Because you had to have your heart attack in the hospital or be lucky enough if you were in the mall to have a doctor walking by.

[00:08:40] Bob Varney: Wow. Bob, sorry to interrupt you here but this just reminds me of the place that we're at with this whole idea of carrying your faith around.

[00:08:48] Bob Varney: You're familiar with what I've said about, we had Barna do a study about where Christians spend their time. Only 1% of Christians spend it in the religion sphere. It's kinda being in the hospital right? [00:09:00] When you don't train everybody else. It just doesn't matter.

[00:09:03] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. This is why I love city's project.

[00:09:06] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. You guys are my great, I love you guys. 'cause I think our hearts and our motivations are in the same place. Yeah. I realized that we had to get out of the, the CPR story said we had to get out of the hospital. And guess who was resistant to it getting outside the hospital?

[00:09:27] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. It was doctors, of course. Mostly doctors actually. But if you think through this process, Barna is showing that people are not taking Jesus outside the church. And so a lot of data has come out recently to show that. Almost no one is talking about Jesus in those workplaces in the place where you at the gym, at the market.

[00:09:51] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so we've gotta get Jesus out of the church. It doesn't mean that church is important. Trust me I'm a champion for the [00:10:00] church, but the people in the church have to take Jesus outside the church to the workplace. So that's my passion and that's why I think we wonderfully connect together. Yeah.

[00:10:11] Bob Varney: Yeah. And I think this analogy is really great because, talking to pastors about having people other than pastors talk to others about Jesus it's sometimes it's the same impediment that you talked about with the doctors, you know? But us having an analogy which is not faith on exactly, but in fact, cPR and all of us are familiar with the training that goes on. You run a youth camp and they train you how to do CPR you have a any kind of business retreat and they wanna make sure somebody's a trained CPR person when you're, going away. And so this entire thing has has developed, you must have some stories or some research actually that tells how it was, how did it spread around the United States? Do I, because I don't know that story

[00:10:59] Bob Snyder, M.D.: From [00:11:00] the CPR story, and I'll talk, out through that. Yeah. Actually the city of Seattle was so unhappy with the success of CPR because it was in the hospital that they committed, they were taking it outside the hospital.

[00:11:15] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Ah, and they began training hundreds of thousands of people and listen to this. Their goal was that you could not be inside the city of Seattle and be more than two minutes away from someone who could save your life with CPR. Wow. So if you were on the fourth floor of the, office building down here and you had your heart attack, there's gonna be someone two minutes away or less who would be able to begin the intervention.

[00:11:41] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So they began to cover, and Seattle became the. Template for what to do, and so that's how it spread. Now, today, it's so interesting 'cause people don't know the story at its beginning, they go, so where are you gonna get your CPR? Oh, I'm going to the fire station up the [00:12:00] road, or I'm going to the library.

[00:12:01] Bob Snyder, M.D.: No one goes, oh, it's not in the hospital. You don't even think about that anymore. And no one says, oh, Hugh, you're not a doctor. You shouldn't take CPR. Everyone goes, you have to take CPR maybe and make sure your wife takes CPR so she can save your life. That's what I make sure my wife knows what to do.

[00:12:22] Bob Snyder, M.D.: She can save my life, so I think in the, and that's one of the fears that people had with CPR, you have to have a PhD and understand physiology. No, you just have to get the process started so that someone who does know can take it from there. And that's what I think is happening in the church.

[00:12:45] Bob Snyder, M.D.: People go what if they ask me the wrong question? I don't know what to say or do. Bob, you've been through the course. You know that the thing that I love is spiritual referral. So Hugh, do you know what made me a great emergency physician? [00:13:00] It's that I had a great spiritual refer, a physical referral team.

[00:13:05] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So if you came in with a complex fracture of your elbow, you better hope that I wasn't gonna operate on you, but I could. I could prepare your elbow and make sure there's no nerve or vascular damage, and I'd get you to the best orthopedist. So here in the spiritual realm. I'm out there at work and someone asks me a question and I go, whoa, I have no idea, but I know, my pastor or my friend could answer your question for you.

[00:13:35] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Would you mind if I, engage with them? So I think it's a process of learning how to do it and reducing fear. I think the two biggest fears. Or someone's gonna, I'm gonna fumble and do the wrong thing. And that people might think orally of me, because I'm doing this.

[00:13:54] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. And the reality is those two things are shown to be in research, not true. So we [00:14:00] need to liberate people here, both of our organizations. People out the door and get them going.

[00:14:07] Bob Varney: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So tell us a little bit now about your organization. How does IHS Global actually work?

[00:14:15] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah,

[00:14:15] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's been fun, Bobby, you, no one has ever confused me for a mythologist or a theologian. I'm an emergency physician, so I'm a simple guy. I just try to do what I think Jesus would want me to do. Actually, I don't know if you know what IHS stands for, but IHS in first century Greek was the name of Jesus.

[00:14:39] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So IHS global we picture as we wanna take the name of Jesus to the ends of the earth. But what we do is he, we equip people out in the workplace, out in the world to be witnesses for Christ where they live, work, and play. And our model is Acts one, eight. To be filled with the spirit [00:15:00] of God and be free to share his name wherever we go.

[00:15:04] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And our desire is that every person would have one chance to meet Jesus. We know that it's the heart of God. Hugh, listen to this. If you put a stethoscope on my heart, you're the, this is, you'll hear. Love dub. Love dub. That's what you're gonna hear. If you put a stethoscope on the heart of God, you know what you're going to hear.

[00:15:27] Bob Snyder, M.D.: None should perish. None should perish. None should perish. And that is our, that's what motivates us. You asked Bob, what motivates us. We know that the heart of God is that none should perish. How are you gonna get an educator in downtown Denver to hear about Jesus if they're so far from, they're an atheist and they don't care.

[00:15:51] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's not gonna come from getting them to church probably. It's gonna be a Christian educator who, who can [00:16:00] introduce them to Jesus, much like the woman at the well. So our model is actually the woman at the who did wonderfully well and saying, going into the city, I think I met the Messiah. I'm gonna bring you out to meet him.

[00:16:12] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I, what did she know? She couldn't give you any doctrine or theology. She brought them to Jesus. And I believe, actually my picture is that, she's bringing all, it says the whole town went out. This woman of ill repute the whole town responded and went out to Jesus. And I picture Peter and John slapping high fives.

[00:16:35] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I just led 10 to the Lord, aren't we great? And Jesus in John four said he rebuked them for that thought. He said, you are reaping a harvest. You didn't sow. And oh, by the way, she did the hard work. And the sower and the reaper are to be glad together. That's also not a concept in sharing the gospel that we believe there is a [00:17:00] cultivating, sowing and harvesting.

[00:17:02] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Most people focus on the harvest. Actually cultivating, sowing is where the hard work is done. So that's how we start. Do you want me to go on and talk about how we work with partnership process and people and that kind of thing?

[00:17:16] Bob Varney: Yeah, no, I think that'd be great. But just as, just before you go do that, I just wanna reinforce this cultivating idea.

[00:17:23] Bob Varney: 'cause in your class, as I was looking at it and looking at the sort of tail bottom end of the angle scale I realized just in the agricultural analogy that Jesus uses all the time. When you think about what's it like in your house, what's it like to put the garden down in your house, to plant the bushes, to do the, and you buy a new house and you come along and you stick a shovel in and you think, oh man, this is really hard.

[00:17:47] Bob Varney: This ground is really hard, you don't. So seed on top of the hard ground you get to dig it up where you go find somebody who's gonna dig it up for you. And then you put some nutrients in the soil and then you put some topsoil on top of [00:18:00] that, and then you grind that around, and then you hope that something, and it, the whole process of cultivating just, we just forget as Christians, we're so excited about trying to bring somebody all the way to Jesus.

[00:18:11] Bob Varney: That we lose track sometimes of the necessity of the cultivation. If you don't prepare the soil right. Even if you have a crop, it's not a good one, I think that cultivating piece is just very important. But

[00:18:25] Bob Snyder, M.D.: let's

[00:18:25] Bob Varney: go ahead.

[00:18:26] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. I think the issue there is I just two years ago, moved to Lancaster County where I get to see Amish farmers cultivating the soil with horses, and, plows.

[00:18:40] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And it, it's so interesting. It's hard work, as you said. It's very hard work. And so I think understanding that is important. But we, when we describe our work, talk about three Ps. One of the things, as I said, I'm a simple guy. As I looked at the work of Jesus I realized he [00:19:00] never added, he always multiplied.

[00:19:02] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so as we began our work, we said, how does multiplication occur? And I think it's by collaborating with other Christians and Christian organizations. Absolutely. And so for instance, as we started this in the healthcare world, we wanted to multiply as quickly as possible. And so we developed relationships with nurses, Christian Fellowship International, international, Christian Medical and Dental Association.

[00:19:31] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Healthcare, Christian Fellowship International, these, all the Ukraine medical outreach, there are nine organizations. We came and said, could we work with you and teach you how to do the saline process, this witness training inside your organization? And they were so excited to do and after 18 years, most collaborations I've studied last no longer than seven years.

[00:19:57] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We've been together for 18 years with this group. [00:20:00] Because we learn that the way you collaborate, you don't collaborate. Oh, nurses And IHS? No. We collaborate around a vision and a mission together. So with the nurses, we came to them and said, could you imagine that absolutely every Christian nurse in the world participated in the great commission?

[00:20:25] Bob Snyder, M.D.: By being a witness for Christ where they work, would that be a great vision? And then the mission is to equip them. So we then we gotta equip all these people and we'll use this tool, the saline process to do it. And so we have these shared visions and shared mission. We actually have shared priorities of prayer and obed.

[00:20:46] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So as we come together, as organizations sharing together, we're sharing a vision that actually is the motivation. If you're just trying to get numbers and doing, let's do hard work together. It's hard to keep [00:21:00] going, but after 18 years we're still going because there's still work to do.

[00:21:04] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So it, it's we use the P word partnership. I prefer the word collaboration 'cause it's working together for the sake of the gospel, is how we describe it. And then, so then we have partnership, a process, and people, and as you could hear, people matter. You know who we work with and when you find followers of Jesus who are totally in love with Jesus.

[00:21:30] Bob Snyder, M.D.: You're, you actually, I see our course as a way to restrain them, so they're, they don't do crazy stuff, so it isn't it true. Bob, as you hear our course, we talk often about permission, sensitivity, and respect. Yes. So in first Peter three 15, it talks about how to talk to people about Jesus.

[00:21:51] Bob Snyder, M.D.: He talks about gentleness and respect. Amen. When you're asked. So we try to shape it so that the people we [00:22:00] train understand how to do it appropriately, right? So that's the threepeat part. And then the pill, which is the witness training program, our saline process and salt and light process.

[00:22:12] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And the reason we use the word process is because it doesn't stop. You don't take a 10 hour quarter, this is the rest of your life. This is how you're gonna live the rest of your life. So it's a process. So we believe I'm a doctor, so Hugh, I don't want to give you a pill that doesn't work. So we've taken our course and in England we hired a research firm called the IDO Group to study our witness training program, which involves three Cs.

[00:22:43] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's content, community, and coaching. And if you do those three things, and I'll explain what that means. If you do those three things, there's an 86% chance that the participants will engage with the tools that we give you. We [00:23:00] want, we wanna make sure the tool the bill we give you is accurate.

[00:23:04] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. 80. The 6% is a wonderful number. You can ask Bob Hugh what the course is like. He's been through it and hopefully the content is rich and deep. But I think also we have found that when you bring it into a community of people who care about being a witness, where they work, where they live, where they play, it changes everything.

[00:23:29] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And then what you need to do is coach them. And under coaching, we believe that involves follow up. That involves encouragement, accountability, how you build that into your. Program matters. And so if you take our course, you'll get 18 months of follow up because once again, research shows that it takes at least 18 months to change a habit.

[00:23:53] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So we want to make sure that this becomes a lifetime activity, not a weekend. Yeah. I'm gonna do [00:24:00] it for however long, so I'll stop there. And Hugh, what do you, what's your reaction to that? Bob, just to jump in, I have not been through your course, but what I'm hearing, I really God used the incarnation model.

[00:24:13] Bob Snyder, M.D.: He came and lived amongst us and the person of Jesus. And what you're describing is for example, in the medical field, it's people that work there. They're insiders, they're the nurses and the doctors. And I love that idea that you are becoming a witness where you work. You're the insider, not an outsider.

[00:24:31] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And I think that's just a great model that you're communicating. I love how you said that Hugh, I, God himself had given his people his word. So they had the Torah and they, God had given his word to the children of Israel, but he in the end had to send his own son. To complete the process.

[00:24:52] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. Here's what I'm saying. So often I run into organizations and say, oh, we print the book of John and give it out, [00:25:00] or, we do Bible translation, that's incredibly important, but who's gonna take it to them? The Ethiopian was reading the Bible and he didn't know what he was reading. Oh, Philip.

[00:25:12] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Boom. He needed to be there. And I think that's what we see. Here's an example that's so fun. So many people love and I happen to be one who loves the Book of John and give that out, but in England, our Christian medical fellowship in England says, we so oftentimes if they've had an opportunity to start a spiritual conversation, they will say, would you like to read a book?

[00:25:40] Bob Snyder, M.D.: That's actually in the Bible that was written by a doctor, and they go, what? And they say, here's the book of Luke. Yes. Would you like to read this? And we'll talk about it the next time you come back. So they give out the book of Luke and begin that process. It's a journey, that has many steps.

[00:25:59] Bob Varney: [00:26:00] Yeah. So how about that? Isn't that crazy? It's contextualized, that's the kind of thing that we think about when we put something, in Central Asia or in India somewhere, or in South America, each of these cons they're all different and the workplaces are different.

[00:26:13] Bob Varney: That, that's one of the, one of the crazy parts. I worked. For a long time at the executive level at ca at Campus Crusade for Christ. And one day my wife and I were chatting and I was bemoaning a little bit that maybe I didn't, wasn't saying things well or doing things as well as I could.

[00:26:31] Bob Varney: And she said to me, you're from the business sphere. You don't sound like those religious people because you have an accent.

[00:26:38] Bob Varney: Yes. Don't never lose your accent. There's culture all around us from a lot of different places, yeah.

[00:26:45] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Don't, if you send religious theologians in, to the guy, the trash collector, is what are you talking about?

[00:26:53] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I have no idea. Whereas, so this is where we try to. Teach [00:27:00] indigenous people to train their own people. So we've trained over with our partnership collaboration, we train trainers inside those organizations in the countries and the places where they work. So we've trained over 5,000 trainers of our program.

[00:27:18] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So I don't go and train in, I've trained in India many times. I'm there training trainers so that they can train themselves, in India or wherever we've translated our program into 43 languages. Because that's the other thing you find. Isn't this your experience that Yes. That the heart language.

[00:27:41] Bob Snyder, M.D.: People is where they best receive spiritual messages. Absolutely. So we're trying to get it as close to their heart language as possible.

[00:27:49] Bob Varney: Yeah. No, absolutely. It's yet another reason why we like you and you like us because we train our trainers too, and they're in different places, speaking different languages.

[00:27:58] Bob Varney: And you're, [00:28:00] you've got over 50,000 and you got 5,000 trained. We've got 400, have gone through our course and we got 50 trained, so with the percentage really pretty close, coming along. So it's it's fun. It's really fun. Part that's similar.

[00:28:14] Bob Snyder, M.D.: You might be interested in this 'cause both of you are so strategic.

[00:28:18] Bob Snyder, M.D.: In the last month, our team has been challenged by our board that, you're in 129 countries, 53,000 people trained. Is that wonderful? Our board is saying to us, we're not so sure. So how many Christian healthcare workers do you think are in the world? So as we talk to our partners, we say we wanna train everybody.

[00:28:43] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We believe, no one knows for a hundred percent certain, but the best we can use using Pew data and other organizations' data, there are probably over 5 million Christian healthcare workers in the world. Wow. Okay. So how are we doing, [00:29:00] Hugh? After 15 years, we're at 50,000. My board's so what We asked the question, and this is what we put to our ministry team.

[00:29:09] Bob Snyder, M.D.: How long will it take us in our current methodology to train 1 million. That's not even 5 million, right? How long will it take us to train 1 million? Do you know how long they came back and told us? 150 years. 15 one years. Oh. And oh, by the way, Bob, you're not gonna be alive then, thank you for reminding me of that.

[00:29:33] Bob Snyder, M.D.: But, so we have been two years in the process of developing a project, and you can, that's one of the prayer requests at the end, we're developing a multi-med modular multimedia video project. That we'll use, not trainers, but facilitators, so we can give you this video process and accelerate the process.

[00:29:57] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And it will certainly take us [00:30:00] less than 10 years. It may even take us five years. Yeah. If we can get that process going. Yeah. We're, you have to, you're always fighting pride. We're in 129 country, 53,000 and our board. Or wise men who go, nah, don't get too excited yet. Let's answer the call.

[00:30:18] Bob Varney: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:30:19] Bob Varney: Yeah. I think, I had that experience when I was chairing a thing called Table 71. 'cause we were looking at unengaged people groups were therefore looking at language translations. And I think that the current path of language translation was going. Go out some hundred years or something like that because it was select one at a time.

[00:30:39] Bob Varney: But there were people inside of that language area that said, no, I bet we could do it this way, or I bet we could do it that way, or maybe we could do a group together, or maybe we could do multiple languages, and by the time those innovations got put through, now we're looking for all of the language starts.

[00:30:57] Bob Varney: By 2013? No, [00:31:00] 2033. I'm sorry, 20, 33. Yeah. Yeah. Not that far away. And some of us might still be alive then,

[00:31:04] Bob Snyder, M.D.: and Bob here's the thing, we need to be very careful how we use AI and some of those technologies. You of all people, Bob, Mr. PhD, tech, technology guy.

[00:31:16] Bob Snyder, M.D.: But what I would just say is that. We have found that we can speed up the translation process by just a fraction. It's amazing how we can compress it. We still review it by three different Yep. Methods so that we get it in the end that it's excellent, but we can get that process. The hard process started.

[00:31:38] Bob Snyder, M.D.: In, in, in actually hours. Yes. Rather than months and years kind of thing. Yes. Yeah. So I think this is the challenge of learning, what would Jesus be doing today if he were here? It's fun to think about, but it's also a challenge. Isn't it that he just took 12 guys from the workplace?

[00:31:59] Bob Snyder, M.D.: This is what I [00:32:00] love. He didn't go to the temple. He went to the Fisherman's Wharf and he went to the IRS and picked up a guy there. He is just, he just went to the workplace and said, these are the people that are gonna take this to the ends of the earth. And I have been in Chennai, India, where Thomas was murdered, murdered.

[00:32:21] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I stood on the place where he was murdered. Thomas made it to Janai India to take the gospel there. And oh, by the way, he wasn't a theologian either. No one ever confused him for a mythologist, but he loved Jesus and took him there. And I think that's what. I think that's what we both resonate with. We Yeah.

[00:32:44] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Your hearts resonate with mine. I just feel it, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Your desire to see the name of

[00:32:49] Bob Varney: Jesus taken to the ends of the earth. As you've gone through this journey ER doc for quite a while, and then God really said, okay, there's some stuff here that relates to bringing the gospel [00:33:00] everywhere.

[00:33:00] Bob Varney: When you reflect back on it, on your personal life, you and Pamela what's that been like? How does it, how did you get personally impacted by this?

[00:33:09] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's interesting. Maybe I'll just share a little bit about this. You have to watch who you marry.

[00:33:15] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Because she, I get a lot of credit from people like you, oh, Bob, you gave up your career and you did all this. It was my wife who kept challenging me and at one point we felt convicted that God was calling us to Hungary to explore Acts one, eight. Now, people, and so I traveled around the country to people you might even know Uhhuh, to say, I think this is what God is calling Pam and I too.

[00:33:47] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And you know what, almost everyone said, oh, don't go full-time. Go part-time. You can still make a lot of money and you can do this and that. And I'd come home and I'd say, Pamela, is [00:34:00] God calling us part-time? And she'd go, no way. No, that's easy. But. At one point I went to see a man in Chicago who had been the president of Youth for Christ, and I had a similar experience in Japan.

[00:34:14] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Go to Japan and he said, why are you coming here for advice? And I said, I don't wanna get it wrong. I love what I do. This is really great life that we are living, and I want to make sure that we get it right. And so he said hey Bob, get all the advice you can get and when you're done.

[00:34:32] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Listen to God. And so I came home and I tell Pamela that, and she goes, wow. And so we were praying desperately, God guide us right now. Listen to this. This is frightening. So I, one night Pamela said to me, Bob, do you really feel like God is calling us? And I said, yeah, it's really, I'm feeling that this is what God's calling you.

[00:34:57] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And she said, I too. So she leaned [00:35:00] forward and said, Bob, could you live the rest of your life knowing that you were disobedient to God? I'm like, oh, Pamela don't do that to me. Don't do that to me. And so those are the kinds of things that God brought into our walk. And I would just tell you we're a Democratic family in this way.

[00:35:21] Bob Snyder, M.D.: If. We're going on summer vacation. Should we go to Maine or should we go to North Carolina? Yeah, let's take a vote. And we had three daughters, and Colorado. Maybe we should go to Colorado or North Dakota. North Dakota. That's where we should go. Yeah. So on this one, and we would always take a vote and, the girls would vote with us and whatever and might be four to one or three to two.

[00:35:45] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We did not vote on going to Budapest. I can tell you the vote would've been three to two. No, we're not going. But my girls are my heroes. They weren't in favor, we knew Uhhuh. They [00:36:00] loved they lived on the main line of Philly. They had a great life, a great church, wonderful friends, but they did not do anything that prevented us from going.

[00:36:11] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And they all speak fluent Hungarian and they're, they're amazing people. And I think that's the other thing that I would just say I've learned that to follow Jesus is like what happened to David in the cave? When he learned that he was now king and he's there in a cave with this three generals and and he hears, oh, you're now the king, Saul and Jonathan are dead.

[00:36:37] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And you know what his next thing was? Oh, what about Bethlehem? Did the Philistines have Bethlem? Yeah. And he goes, oh, he, this is a desire of the king's heart. It wasn't a command, it was a desire. Oh, to have a cup of water from the well of Bethlem. And you know what happened? Three generals, it wasn't a command.

[00:36:58] Bob Snyder, M.D.: 'cause if it was command, they would've, [00:37:00] Hey, three privates, go get some water for me. Yes. The generals heard the desires of the King's heart went. Brought water back and poured it on. He, when he brought it back, he poured it on the ground. I would a ducked it, he, I risked my life to get there.

[00:37:13] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So you pour it on the ground. Here's what I learned. If you want to do the heart desire of the king, you have to be intimate with him. And it was during these days that Pam and I just spent so much time in prayer, right? Is this what you want us to do? But then we then had to decide could we risk and sacrifice?

[00:37:34] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It turned out it was it was a risk, but it wasn't as much a sacrifice as we thought. We thought, oh, maybe we're giving it, oh, we gave up some material stuff. It was nothing for what we got back. But the other was, the third thing is what are the outcomes? I found out the outcomes are in the hands of the king.

[00:37:54] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So often I would go, oh, this is what should happen if I do this. And we prayed about it and. [00:38:00] It turns out differently. That's it's the Holy Spirit is in charge of guiding this process, and I have to accept the outcomes as they come, and that those are the three things that really intimacy, risk and sacrifice and willingness to let go of the outcomes.

[00:38:18] Bob Varney: That's great, Bob. It really is. And it I think back over some of the stories that you've shared with me as we've chatted o over getting to know one another and I wonder if you wouldn't, this idea of me being a witness, okay. Is a very strong idea that comes out of the teaching that, that you guys do.

[00:38:38] Bob Varney: Examples are always helpful. And I know you're filled with them. So I'm wondering if you couldn't just describe some of the, maybe even the more recent experience that you've had in the diner or in the taxi or wherever, where you were just looking at what God was saying to you.

[00:38:59] Bob Varney: [00:39:00] Where this person was in their spiritual journey and what kind of things do you end up talking about? Can you do that?

[00:39:08] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. The I'm thrilled. Thank you, Bob. You know my heart. You don't have to push me too hard to do that because I had always been taught. That the only goal was to get people to make a decision, and so I'm there out pushing on the will of people and trying to get them to decide for Christ. And I didn't really understand fully that it's not mine anyway. It's the Holy Spirit. The only one that can change heart is the Holy Spirit. So I was trying to do, I was trying to witnessing rather than be a witness.

[00:39:41] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yes. And being a witness involves. Christlike character and listening and gentleness and permission and sensitivity. And so I think we, we don't hear examples of, oh, and they didn't come to Christ. We cultivated, we planted a seed, we did something. [00:40:00] So I'll tell you about an Uber ride I had in London in the last year.

[00:40:04] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I'm telling you, Hugh put me in a taxi cab or an Uber and I'm out of my mind. Happy. Because we can sit there and talk and, and I'm in London and I get in a cab, Uber, and it's already paid for. My daughter lives in London and she had already Uber it for me. So I don't have to pay at the end.

[00:40:24] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And and so I get in the cab and Mohamed is driving the cat and I say, oh, Maha, this is great. Where are you from? I'm from Somalia. So one of the things we teach is the first thing you better do if you're going to start doing this pray. 'cause this is gonna be a, this is gonna be a challenge. So pray and then ask questions and get spiritual history and find out what's happening.

[00:40:49] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So I say Muhammad. Where are you from? Oh, I'm from Somalia. Oh, wow. How long ago was it that you, 15 years. I came, bill, I came, do [00:41:00] you have family? I have a wife and three kids, and oh, I love London and all this kind of stuff. And I said, wow, do you have a spiritual heritage? And he said, I don't assume because he is Mohamed, that he is Muslim.

[00:41:13] Bob Snyder, M.D.: But he said I'm a follower of Islam. And I said, wow. So then I wanna know. Is it important to him? I know a lot of people who say, I'm a Christian and it's meaningless, so I said to him, do you go, did you go to Friday prayers last week? Oh, I go to Friday prayers every week. Do you pray five times?

[00:41:32] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Oh I stop the Uber five times a day to pray. I go, wow, this guy's serious. Yeah. So I say to him, I know Muslims love Jesus, and I want you to know that I'm a passionate follower of Jesus. He said, really? Oh, that's interesting. He said, I know that Muslims and Christians believe exactly the same thing about Jesus.

[00:41:59] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And [00:42:00] so I left a long pause, Hugh on that one, and I then I said, Muhammad, do you really believe that Muslims and Christians believe exactly the same thing about Jesus? He looked at me and goes, no, that's not true. And I said, wow. So let's talk a little bit about that. But now I'm one minute from the airport where he is gonna drop me off, so you know, what do I do now?

[00:42:25] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so I shifted to say, Hey, Mohamed, would it help you if I gave you a tip in cash rather than off of the Uber, the Uber app? He goes, wow, that'd be wonderful. So when we get there, he gets my luggage out and I give him a very good tip. And I said to him, Muhammad, there's a reason I'm giving you this tip, and it's because I want you to talk to Jesus the rest of the day and ask him to show you who he really is.

[00:42:56] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I'm not smarter than you, but I'm just saying [00:43:00] you will you talk to Jesus for the rest of the day and ask him who he is. He said, yeah, I'll do that. I gave him a good test. He said, sure. And then I walk away and I say, holy Spirit, it's yours now. I did the best I could do, and I think that's where people too often go I could never have gotten to the point where I, you pray the sinner's prayer.

[00:43:20] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We want to get there. We need to be cultivating and planting seeds. So that's an example of how we take them on a journey. I could give you lots of different illustrations.

[00:43:32] Bob Varney: Yeah. It's a great example. And they really they show up all the time. We're doing a household move to guy coming in here to estimate what it is.

[00:43:41] Bob Varney: He says something about. What do I do? So I tell him, I got this global Cities thing. That doesn't sound religious, he then goes on and asks me a little more as soon as he does now I'm open to tell him what we're doing and how we're helping people in the workplace to understand how God made them and the responsibility as a steward in the kingdom of [00:44:00] God.

[00:44:00] Bob Varney: So then he goes on and tells me some of his spiritual heritage, right? It's almost crazy how easy it actually is to engage people and how somehow people don't know that. They, that just not, there's an awareness issue that's a severe one,

[00:44:18] Bob Snyder, M.D.: and so often, isn't it true Bob and you, your illustration shows this, that people don't.

[00:44:25] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Care unless they know that you care. So in the end you're back and forth and he asks you a question, and once they ask you a question. You're at liberty to answer the question, and so I think it's a back and forth that is done with permission, sensitivity, respect.

[00:44:44] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I really like what you're saying, Bob. We we're talking about having a conversation with someone, not making a presentation, but a conversation. And that means asking them questions. It means listening. Yes, but just, I know we have a few more minutes, but just very quickly, I've [00:45:00] not been through your training and you talk about, you call it for the.

[00:45:03] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Medical field. You call it saline. I have a little idea what that means, but what does that mean? Thank you for asking. Saline is salt, and oh, by the way, Jesus said to be salt and light. But if you came into my e er and you were really desperately ill, I would put into an IV of 0.9%. Saline solution. So that's, and that's life giving and it's 0.9%.

[00:45:32] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So most Christians are not too salty, but some are not salty enough. And so the perfect 0.9 is where you want to be. And that's where we take them with. So are we clever enough? The course for everybody is salt and light, but we couldn't. I'm an ER doc. I just couldn't leave behind my 0.9% saline solution iv.

[00:45:57] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I like that. That's good. Thank [00:46:00] you.

[00:46:00] Bob Varney: Bob any other closing comments and thoughts that you might have?

[00:46:05] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah I would just say for anyone who sees this, just know that as I've gotten to know both Hugh and Bob, this is an organization you wanna get to know and this is what we have to do. We've gotta get Jesus outside the walls of the church, right?

[00:46:22] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And that's what cities global, projects global is all about. And so that's why I'm excited to be talking with you guys and hopefully somewhere along the way, collaborating.

[00:46:34] Bob Varney: This is what it's all about. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. I really appreciate that. And I I'm so excited about the strategies that you're using, and God really does want us to do more.

[00:46:46] Bob Varney: And yet he's so gracious that it's not quite about us doing more. It's about us thinking about the things, praying about the things, doing what we can. God's the one that's really the heavy lifter here. Can I just

[00:46:58] Bob Snyder, M.D.: say, Bob, that this is [00:47:00] one of the key teachings? You, it's not about overwork, it's about overflow.

[00:47:05] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So that's what he was saying, if it's in you, it's just gonna, it's gonna be a part of your life, kind of thing. Yeah.

[00:47:11] Bob Varney: Bob, I'm gonna ask you to close us in the word of prayer in a few minutes. And and I know you have a couple prayer requests, and so how can we help you in prayer?

[00:47:20] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I would just say, the kinds of things you heard about my identity, the constant daily thing of integrating Jesus, not just into work Yeah. But into my life as a husband. Yeah. As a father, yeah. Is a constant thing. So pray that the that the Holy Spirit continues to reveal to me where I need to grow in Christ-like character, as a husband, as a father.

[00:47:47] Bob Snyder, M.D.: As a friend and neighbor, but then also, with IHS Global, we are just having so many opportunities and God will allow us to do what he wants us to do. But we're in a [00:48:00] season of transition and as I said, this project to allow it to go faster with a video project. Is really on my heart and mind right now to figure out how to do this.

[00:48:12] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And we have it all ready to go. We just need the resources for that to do it. So it could be a great benefit to you guys. Yeah. I think to make it much simpler to collaborate together and then just, I would just say people matter no matter where you are. The people in our organization, the people that we reach out to we're always looking, they're all children created in the image of God.

[00:48:39] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Some of them don't know him yet and don't know they need them yet, but they're all beautiful people. So we're our hearts really palpate with, maybe that's the wrong word. That's a medical term. They beat with, the desire to, to share Jesus with everyone. So just pray for faithfulness in our work.

[00:48:58] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I'd love to. Let's [00:49:00] pray. Thank you, father. Thank you for this special time with Bob Snyder. That we got to know him and see the joy and the enthusiasm and the passion that we call him to do. And as he said, people matter. People matter to you. People matter to him. People matter to all of us, and we're grateful that he and his team have been faithful to engage people and talk with them and have a conversation about Jesus.

[00:49:28] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Father, I do pray for Bob that he would continue to grow in his walk with you. That he would live like Jesus and his relationship with his family, with his wife in his neighborhood. And as he does that the Holy Spirit will reveal to him where he needs to grow and become more like Jesus. And then Father, thank you for the opportunities you've given IH global.

[00:49:49] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Hs Global and their desire to take this training to more and more people. Will you provide the resource, resources that they need in order [00:50:00] to grow, to expand, to take it to literally millions of people, not thousands. Father, thanks for hearing these prayers and answering them. In Jesus name,

[00:50:10] Bob Varney: amen. Amen. Amen.

[00:50:13] Bob Varney: Amen. Thanks you and thank you, Bob. It's been delightful. Really delightful. It's always delightful. We chat. It's always delightful.

[00:50:21] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I wanna say thank you to all our listeners for joining us on this eighth intersection Faith Work and Life podcast with Bob s Sniper. We ask you to go to our website, cities project global.com, or to LinkedIn or to Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:50:37] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And listen. Subscribe to our podcasts, and if you have found our podcasts helpful, please let us know through our review. Thank you, Bob for joining us today. My joy.

[00:50:48] Hugh Brandt: This is the Intersection Faith Work and Life podcast hosted by Bob Varney and myself, Hugh Brandt. The intersection is committed to helping people see that discipleship means we live by [00:51:00] faith in God in all arenas of our lives all the time. If you wanna hear more. Discipleship stories of people living by faith in every sphere of their lives.

[00:51:09] Hugh Brandt: Please invite others to listen to the Intersection Podcast. Welcome and thanks for listening today to learn how Bob Snyder has learned how to integrate his faith into his daily work. In 1996, God called Bob, his wife Pamela, and three daughters to b Budapest Hungary. As a result, IHS Global was birthed. To date, the ministry has yielded over 50,000 indigenous Christian healthcare workers equipped as witnesses to their patients at the bedsides and clinics where they work in more than 128 countries.

[00:51:47] Hugh Brandt: The work is now overflowed to equipping not just healthcare workers, but any believers where they live, work, and play. For 15 years, Bob practiced emergency medicine in a trauma [00:52:00] center hospital, serving as co-chairman of the emergency medicine department at Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

[00:52:08] Hugh Brandt: During those years, he served as faculty in emergency medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. Bob has written two books, come Walk With Me and Lessons Learned on The Journey, and writes A weekly bo blog call. Lessons Learned on the Journey. Welcome Bob, and today Bob Varney's gonna interview you.

[00:52:30] Bob Varney: Welcome Bob. Glad to have you on our podcast. It's good to be here. Good. Good. It's an exciting time. These these times we have on podcasts are just fun times to chat with one another, and hopefully the Lord will use this and the snippets from it to to just enlighten people. So we'll start off just asking you to say something about yourself and something about how you ended up moving from the emergency room doc into this IHS Global.

[00:52:59] Bob Varney: It's I've heard the [00:53:00] story, but I know our listeners would love to hear it.

[00:53:02] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's interesting you pick a point in time on my journey, 1996, but. There were many steps on that journey that led to that step to go to Budapest, Hungary. Your identity is created in many different ways.

[00:53:17] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Actually, right at birth, I had an identity issue. I was a twin. So whenever I'm among twins, I go, I'm a twin, or whenever I actually played soccer in college and then rugby and medical school. So the two times I was in New Zealand, I go. I played rugby. 'cause New Zealand is rugby heaven.

[00:53:39] Bob Varney: And I'm glad you survived, Bob.

[00:53:41] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah, there you go. No, no scars or anything here, but it's interesting because those areas where I want my identity to shine through or I'm so amazed to have been allowed to marry a woman like Pamela. My wife is an amazing woman and [00:54:00] I have three wonderful daughters.

[00:54:02] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It would not have happened on having us move to Budapest if they weren't who they were. But it's interesting. You have to take steps backward, like I remember I was told before I got a medical degree that the day I got my medical degree, I would be a doctor 24 7. And that has lived itself out in my life.

[00:54:25] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. But the thing I most want to identify with is as a follower of Jesus. It's interesting because I think what I've had to learn in my life is how to integrate that following Jesus and his Christ-like character into my life as a husband, as a father, as an ER doc. And I think those are the things that really mattered.

[00:54:49] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And what, what began to happen to me that brought me to the point of saying we need to go to Hungary is. I went to work every day, and so many of the [00:55:00] days I watch people die. Who goes to work and watches people die. And I was amazed at how much effort, time, and money I could put into saving your physical life and not think one minute about your spiritual life, your eternity.

[00:55:18] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so I began to struggle with that. I talked to people at my church and I began to say. How can I take Jesus to the er? That was my whole thing and the things that I was given I must be candid, didn't work very well. I found myself going, ugh, I so passionately want to take Jesus to the er, but the things I was given, the tools I was given didn't work very well.

[00:55:45] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so in 1996, our family moved to Budapest, Hungary to figure out. What it means to be a witness where we live, work, and play. That's actually Acts one, eight, where you know, it [00:56:00] says you'll be filled with the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses, to the ends of the earth. But for me, the ends of the earth were the er.

[00:56:09] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I wanted to figure that out in healthcare and the clinic, as you said, the clinics and bedsides that I've worked in. So in 1996 we moved to Budapest's Hungary to figure that out.

[00:56:21] Bob Varney: So you were. I wanna go back a little bit to the motivation in the frustration maybe that you were expressing that, here you are saving lives and yet you felt like the tools just weren't quite available.

[00:56:35] Bob Varney: So how did that affect, your motivation? What did you do with that?

[00:56:40] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I knew that God had called me. I knew that I had to answer the question for myself, and what I had wasn't working. So I was gonna figure this out. I'm one of those out of the box kind of guys, is that I'm gonna figure it out.

[00:56:56] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And I realized I had to move to Budapest. I had to move [00:57:00] out of the US 'cause as long as I was here, I kept getting roped into to things. I couldn't focus on that. And so we found a tool that Christian Medical and Dental Association used. Called the Saline Solution, and we began to translate it into Hungarian and we were given the international rights to that product.

[00:57:23] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It turned out that it too was not perfect because it was very American and was hard to translate, so we created our own tool, but it was birthed from Saline Solution from Christian Medical and Dental Association of the USA. I'll be forever indebted to them. And them giving us that to stimulate that process.

[00:57:47] Bob Snyder, M.D.: That brought us to actually a, an intermediary, the International Saline Process, which was the tool we used for a while. And now we have the saline process for healthcare workers, a [00:58:00] witness training program for healthcare workers and salt and light process. For everybody.

[00:58:05] Bob Varney: Now, you had mentioned in some of our previous discussions, this resuscitation that you clearly did in the e er the cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the CPR as we often know it as, and that whole notion has as a part of the saline process.

[00:58:20] Bob Varney: But can you help us just understand or pull that apart a little bit so we get to hear what you really mean by that?

[00:58:26] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's really funny, Bob, because many people think cardio pulmonary resuscitation we call CPR was probably started in Egypt or somewhere back in, the first century.

[00:58:38] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's not true. It was actually developed by some anesthesiologists in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Was launched into the United States in the early 1970s. Wow. When, guess what? I was in medical school in the 1970s and they were introducing this amazing tool, [00:59:00] CPR, but their focus was, it needs to be done by doctors and nurses.

[00:59:05] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We're gonna train all the people inside the hospital how to do CPR Oh. And it really didn't increase survival at all. Because you had to have your heart attack in the hospital or be lucky enough if you were in the mall to have a doctor walking by.

[00:59:22] Bob Varney: Wow. Bob, sorry to interrupt you here but this just reminds me of the place that we're at with this whole idea of carrying your faith around.

[00:59:31] Bob Varney: You're familiar with what I've said about, we had Barna do a study about where Christians spend their time. Only 1% of Christians spend it in the religion sphere. It's kinda being in the hospital right? When you don't train everybody else. It just doesn't matter.

[00:59:46] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. This is why I love city's project.

[00:59:49] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. You guys are my great, I love you guys. 'cause I think our hearts and our motivations are in the same place. Yeah. I realized that we had to get [01:00:00] out of the, the CPR story said we had to get out of the hospital. And guess who was resistant to it getting outside the hospital?

[01:00:10] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. It was doctors, of course. Mostly doctors actually. But if you think through this process, Barna is showing that people are not taking Jesus outside the church. And so a lot of data has come out recently to show that. Almost no one is talking about Jesus in those workplaces in the place where you at the gym, at the market.

[01:00:34] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so we've gotta get Jesus out of the church. It doesn't mean that church is important. Trust me I'm a champion for the church, but the people in the church have to take Jesus outside the church to the workplace. So that's my passion and that's why I think we wonderfully connect together. Yeah.

[01:00:54] Bob Varney: Yeah. And I think this analogy is really great because, talking to pastors about [01:01:00] having people other than pastors talk to others about Jesus it's sometimes it's the same impediment that you talked about with the doctors, you know? But us having an analogy which is not faith on exactly, but in fact, cPR and all of us are familiar with the training that goes on. You run a youth camp and they train you how to do CPR you have a any kind of business retreat and they wanna make sure somebody's a trained CPR person when you're, going away. And so this entire thing has has developed, you must have some stories or some research actually that tells how it was, how did it spread around the United States? Do I, because I don't know that story

[01:01:42] Bob Snyder, M.D.: From the CPR story, and I'll talk, out through that. Yeah. Actually the city of Seattle was so unhappy with the success of CPR because it was in the hospital that they committed, they were taking it outside the hospital.

[01:01:57] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Ah, and they began training hundreds [01:02:00] of thousands of people and listen to this. Their goal was that you could not be inside the city of Seattle and be more than two minutes away from someone who could save your life with CPR. Wow. So if you were on the fourth floor of the, office building down here and you had your heart attack, there's gonna be someone two minutes away or less who would be able to begin the intervention.

[01:02:24] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So they began to cover, and Seattle became the. Template for what to do, and so that's how it spread. Now, today, it's so interesting 'cause people don't know the story at its beginning, they go, so where are you gonna get your CPR? Oh, I'm going to the fire station up the road, or I'm going to the library.

[01:02:44] Bob Snyder, M.D.: No one goes, oh, it's not in the hospital. You don't even think about that anymore. And no one says, oh, Hugh, you're not a doctor. You shouldn't take CPR. Everyone goes, you have to take CPR maybe and make sure your wife [01:03:00] takes CPR so she can save your life. That's what I make sure my wife knows what to do.

[01:03:05] Bob Snyder, M.D.: She can save my life, so I think in the, and that's one of the fears that people had with CPR, you have to have a PhD and understand physiology. No, you just have to get the process started so that someone who does know can take it from there. And that's what I think is happening in the church.

[01:03:28] Bob Snyder, M.D.: People go what if they ask me the wrong question? I don't know what to say or do. Bob, you've been through the course. You know that the thing that I love is spiritual referral. So Hugh, do you know what made me a great emergency physician? It's that I had a great spiritual refer, a physical referral team.

[01:03:48] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So if you came in with a complex fracture of your elbow, you better hope that I wasn't gonna operate on you, but I could. I could prepare your elbow and make sure there's no nerve [01:04:00] or vascular damage, and I'd get you to the best orthopedist. So here in the spiritual realm. I'm out there at work and someone asks me a question and I go, whoa, I have no idea, but I know, my pastor or my friend could answer your question for you.

[01:04:18] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Would you mind if I, engage with them? So I think it's a process of learning how to do it and reducing fear. I think the two biggest fears. Or someone's gonna, I'm gonna fumble and do the wrong thing. And that people might think orally of me, because I'm doing this.

[01:04:37] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. And the reality is those two things are shown to be in research, not true. So we need to liberate people here, both of our organizations. People out the door and get them going.

[01:04:49] Bob Varney: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So tell us a little bit now about your organization. How does IHS Global actually work?

[01:04:58] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah,

[01:04:58] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's been fun, [01:05:00] Bobby, you, no one has ever confused me for a mythologist or a theologian. I'm an emergency physician, so I'm a simple guy. I just try to do what I think Jesus would want me to do. Actually, I don't know if you know what IHS stands for, but IHS in first century Greek was the name of Jesus.

[01:05:22] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So IHS global we picture as we wanna take the name of Jesus to the ends of the earth. But what we do is he, we equip people out in the workplace, out in the world to be witnesses for Christ where they live, work, and play. And our model is Acts one, eight. To be filled with the spirit of God and be free to share his name wherever we go.

[01:05:47] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And our desire is that every person would have one chance to meet Jesus. We know that it's the heart of God. Hugh, listen to this. If you put a stethoscope [01:06:00] on my heart, you're the, this is, you'll hear. Love dub. Love dub. That's what you're gonna hear. If you put a stethoscope on the heart of God, you know what you're going to hear.

[01:06:10] Bob Snyder, M.D.: None should perish. None should perish. None should perish. And that is our, that's what motivates us. You asked Bob, what motivates us. We know that the heart of God is that none should perish. How are you gonna get an educator in downtown Denver to hear about Jesus if they're so far from, they're an atheist and they don't care.

[01:06:34] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's not gonna come from getting them to church probably. It's gonna be a Christian educator who, who can introduce them to Jesus, much like the woman at the well. So our model is actually the woman at the who did wonderfully well and saying, going into the city, I think I met the Messiah. I'm gonna bring you out to meet him.

[01:06:55] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I, what did she know? She couldn't give you any doctrine or theology. [01:07:00] She brought them to Jesus. And I believe, actually my picture is that, she's bringing all, it says the whole town went out. This woman of ill repute the whole town responded and went out to Jesus. And I picture Peter and John slapping high fives.

[01:07:18] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I just led 10 to the Lord, aren't we great? And Jesus in John four said he rebuked them for that thought. He said, you are reaping a harvest. You didn't sow. And oh, by the way, she did the hard work. And the sower and the reaper are to be glad together. That's also not a concept in sharing the gospel that we believe there is a cultivating, sowing and harvesting.

[01:07:45] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Most people focus on the harvest. Actually cultivating, sowing is where the hard work is done. So that's how we start. Do you want me to go on and talk about how we work with partnership process and people and that kind of thing?

[01:07:59] Bob Varney: Yeah, [01:08:00] no, I think that'd be great. But just as, just before you go do that, I just wanna reinforce this cultivating idea.

[01:08:05] Bob Varney: 'cause in your class, as I was looking at it and looking at the sort of tail bottom end of the angle scale I realized just in the agricultural analogy that Jesus uses all the time. When you think about what's it like in your house, what's it like to put the garden down in your house, to plant the bushes, to do the, and you buy a new house and you come along and you stick a shovel in and you think, oh man, this is really hard.

[01:08:30] Bob Varney: This ground is really hard, you don't. So seed on top of the hard ground you get to dig it up where you go find somebody who's gonna dig it up for you. And then you put some nutrients in the soil and then you put some topsoil on top of that, and then you grind that around, and then you hope that something, and it, the whole process of cultivating just, we just forget as Christians, we're so excited about trying to bring somebody all the way to Jesus.

[01:08:53] Bob Varney: That we lose track sometimes of the necessity of the cultivation. If you don't [01:09:00] prepare the soil right. Even if you have a crop, it's not a good one, I think that cultivating piece is just very important. But

[01:09:08] Bob Snyder, M.D.: let's

[01:09:08] Bob Varney: go ahead.

[01:09:09] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. I think the issue there is I just two years ago, moved to Lancaster County where I get to see Amish farmers cultivating the soil with horses, and, plows.

[01:09:23] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And it, it's so interesting. It's hard work, as you said. It's very hard work. And so I think understanding that is important. But we, when we describe our work, talk about three Ps. One of the things, as I said, I'm a simple guy. As I looked at the work of Jesus I realized he never added, he always multiplied.

[01:09:45] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so as we began our work, we said, how does multiplication occur? And I think it's by collaborating with other Christians and Christian organizations. Absolutely. And so for instance, as we [01:10:00] started this in the healthcare world, we wanted to multiply as quickly as possible. And so we developed relationships with nurses, Christian Fellowship International, international, Christian Medical and Dental Association.

[01:10:14] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Healthcare, Christian Fellowship International, these, all the Ukraine medical outreach, there are nine organizations. We came and said, could we work with you and teach you how to do the saline process, this witness training inside your organization? And they were so excited to do and after 18 years, most collaborations I've studied last no longer than seven years.

[01:10:40] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We've been together for 18 years with this group. Because we learn that the way you collaborate, you don't collaborate. Oh, nurses And IHS? No. We collaborate around a vision and a mission together. So with the nurses, we came to them and said, [01:11:00] could you imagine that absolutely every Christian nurse in the world participated in the great commission?

[01:11:08] Bob Snyder, M.D.: By being a witness for Christ where they work, would that be a great vision? And then the mission is to equip them. So we then we gotta equip all these people and we'll use this tool, the saline process to do it. And so we have these shared visions and shared mission. We actually have shared priorities of prayer and obed.

[01:11:29] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So as we come together, as organizations sharing together, we're sharing a vision that actually is the motivation. If you're just trying to get numbers and doing, let's do hard work together. It's hard to keep going, but after 18 years we're still going because there's still work to do.

[01:11:47] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So it, it's we use the P word partnership. I prefer the word collaboration 'cause it's working together for the sake of the gospel, is how we describe it. And [01:12:00] then, so then we have partnership, a process, and people, and as you could hear, people matter. You know who we work with and when you find followers of Jesus who are totally in love with Jesus.

[01:12:13] Bob Snyder, M.D.: You're, you actually, I see our course as a way to restrain them, so they're, they don't do crazy stuff, so it isn't it true. Bob, as you hear our course, we talk often about permission, sensitivity, and respect. Yes. So in first Peter three 15, it talks about how to talk to people about Jesus.

[01:12:34] Bob Snyder, M.D.: He talks about gentleness and respect. Amen. When you're asked. So we try to shape it so that the people we train understand how to do it appropriately, right? So that's the threepeat part. And then the pill, which is the witness training program, our saline process and salt and light process.

[01:12:55] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And the reason we use the word process is because it doesn't stop. You don't take a [01:13:00] 10 hour quarter, this is the rest of your life. This is how you're gonna live the rest of your life. So it's a process. So we believe I'm a doctor, so Hugh, I don't want to give you a pill that doesn't work. So we've taken our course and in England we hired a research firm called the IDO Group to study our witness training program, which involves three Cs.

[01:13:26] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's content, community, and coaching. And if you do those three things, and I'll explain what that means. If you do those three things, there's an 86% chance that the participants will engage with the tools that we give you. We want, we wanna make sure the tool the bill we give you is accurate.

[01:13:47] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. 80. The 6% is a wonderful number. You can ask Bob Hugh what the course is like. He's been through it and hopefully the content is rich and deep. But I think [01:14:00] also we have found that when you bring it into a community of people who care about being a witness, where they work, where they live, where they play, it changes everything.

[01:14:12] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And then what you need to do is coach them. And under coaching, we believe that involves follow up. That involves encouragement, accountability, how you build that into your. Program matters. And so if you take our course, you'll get 18 months of follow up because once again, research shows that it takes at least 18 months to change a habit.

[01:14:36] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So we want to make sure that this becomes a lifetime activity, not a weekend. Yeah. I'm gonna do it for however long, so I'll stop there. And Hugh, what do you, what's your reaction to that? Bob, just to jump in, I have not been through your course, but what I'm hearing, I really God used the incarnation model.

[01:14:55] Bob Snyder, M.D.: He came and lived amongst us and the person of Jesus. And what you're [01:15:00] describing is for example, in the medical field, it's people that work there. They're insiders, they're the nurses and the doctors. And I love that idea that you are becoming a witness where you work. You're the insider, not an outsider.

[01:15:13] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And I think that's just a great model that you're communicating. I love how you said that Hugh, I, God himself had given his people his word. So they had the Torah and they, God had given his word to the children of Israel, but he in the end had to send his own son. To complete the process.

[01:15:35] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. Here's what I'm saying. So often I run into organizations and say, oh, we print the book of John and give it out, or, we do Bible translation, that's incredibly important, but who's gonna take it to them? The Ethiopian was reading the Bible and he didn't know what he was reading. Oh, Philip.

[01:15:55] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Boom. He needed to be there. And I think that's what we see. [01:16:00] Here's an example that's so fun. So many people love and I happen to be one who loves the Book of John and give that out, but in England, our Christian medical fellowship in England says, we so oftentimes if they've had an opportunity to start a spiritual conversation, they will say, would you like to read a book?

[01:16:23] Bob Snyder, M.D.: That's actually in the Bible that was written by a doctor, and they go, what? And they say, here's the book of Luke. Yes. Would you like to read this? And we'll talk about it the next time you come back. So they give out the book of Luke and begin that process. It's a journey, that has many steps.

[01:16:42] Bob Varney: Yeah. So how about that? Isn't that crazy? It's contextualized, that's the kind of thing that we think about when we put something, in Central Asia or in India somewhere, or in South America, each of these cons they're all different and the workplaces are different.

[01:16:55] Bob Varney: That, that's one of the, one of the crazy parts. I worked. For a long [01:17:00] time at the executive level at ca at Campus Crusade for Christ. And one day my wife and I were chatting and I was bemoaning a little bit that maybe I didn't, wasn't saying things well or doing things as well as I could.

[01:17:14] Bob Varney: And she said to me, you're from the business sphere. You don't sound like those religious people because you have an accent.

[01:17:21] Bob Varney: Yes. Don't never lose your accent. There's culture all around us from a lot of different places, yeah.

[01:17:28] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Don't, if you send religious theologians in, to the guy, the trash collector, is what are you talking about?

[01:17:36] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I have no idea. Whereas, so this is where we try to. Teach indigenous people to train their own people. So we've trained over with our partnership collaboration, we train trainers inside those organizations in the countries and the places where they work. So we've trained over 5,000 trainers [01:18:00] of our program.

[01:18:00] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So I don't go and train in, I've trained in India many times. I'm there training trainers so that they can train themselves, in India or wherever we've translated our program into 43 languages. Because that's the other thing you find. Isn't this your experience that Yes. That the heart language.

[01:18:24] Bob Snyder, M.D.: People is where they best receive spiritual messages. Absolutely. So we're trying to get it as close to their heart language as possible.

[01:18:32] Bob Varney: Yeah. No, absolutely. It's yet another reason why we like you and you like us because we train our trainers too, and they're in different places, speaking different languages.

[01:18:41] Bob Varney: And you're, you've got over 50,000 and you got 5,000 trained. We've got 400, have gone through our course and we got 50 trained, so with the percentage really pretty close, coming along. So it's it's fun. It's really fun. Part that's similar.

[01:18:57] Bob Snyder, M.D.: You might be interested in this 'cause both of you are [01:19:00] so strategic.

[01:19:01] Bob Snyder, M.D.: In the last month, our team has been challenged by our board that, you're in 129 countries, 53,000 people trained. Is that wonderful? Our board is saying to us, we're not so sure. So how many Christian healthcare workers do you think are in the world? So as we talk to our partners, we say we wanna train everybody.

[01:19:26] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We believe, no one knows for a hundred percent certain, but the best we can use using Pew data and other organizations' data, there are probably over 5 million Christian healthcare workers in the world. Wow. Okay. So how are we doing, Hugh? After 15 years, we're at 50,000. My board's so what We asked the question, and this is what we put to our ministry team.

[01:19:52] Bob Snyder, M.D.: How long will it take us in our current methodology to train 1 million. That's not even [01:20:00] 5 million, right? How long will it take us to train 1 million? Do you know how long they came back and told us? 150 years. 15 one years. Oh. And oh, by the way, Bob, you're not gonna be alive then, thank you for reminding me of that.

[01:20:16] Bob Snyder, M.D.: But, so we have been two years in the process of developing a project, and you can, that's one of the prayer requests at the end, we're developing a multi-med modular multimedia video project. That we'll use, not trainers, but facilitators, so we can give you this video process and accelerate the process.

[01:20:40] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And it will certainly take us less than 10 years. It may even take us five years. Yeah. If we can get that process going. Yeah. We're, you have to, you're always fighting pride. We're in 129 country, 53,000 and our board. Or wise men who go, nah, don't get too excited yet. [01:21:00] Let's answer the call.

[01:21:01] Bob Varney: Yeah, absolutely.

[01:21:02] Bob Varney: Yeah. I think, I had that experience when I was chairing a thing called Table 71. 'cause we were looking at unengaged people groups were therefore looking at language translations. And I think that the current path of language translation was going. Go out some hundred years or something like that because it was select one at a time.

[01:21:22] Bob Varney: But there were people inside of that language area that said, no, I bet we could do it this way, or I bet we could do it that way, or maybe we could do a group together, or maybe we could do multiple languages, and by the time those innovations got put through, now we're looking for all of the language starts.

[01:21:40] Bob Varney: By 2013? No, 2033. I'm sorry, 20, 33. Yeah. Yeah. Not that far away. And some of us might still be alive then,

[01:21:47] Bob Snyder, M.D.: and Bob here's the thing, we need to be very careful how we use AI and some of those technologies. You of all people, Bob, Mr. PhD, tech, technology guy.

[01:21:59] Bob Snyder, M.D.: But [01:22:00] what I would just say is that. We have found that we can speed up the translation process by just a fraction. It's amazing how we can compress it. We still review it by three different Yep. Methods so that we get it in the end that it's excellent, but we can get that process. The hard process started.

[01:22:21] Bob Snyder, M.D.: In, in, in actually hours. Yes. Rather than months and years kind of thing. Yes. Yeah. So I think this is the challenge of learning, what would Jesus be doing today if he were here? It's fun to think about, but it's also a challenge. Isn't it that he just took 12 guys from the workplace?

[01:22:42] Bob Snyder, M.D.: This is what I love. He didn't go to the temple. He went to the Fisherman's Wharf and he went to the IRS and picked up a guy there. He is just, he just went to the workplace and said, these are the people that are gonna take this to the ends of the earth. And I have been in [01:23:00] Chennai, India, where Thomas was murdered, murdered.

[01:23:04] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I stood on the place where he was murdered. Thomas made it to Janai India to take the gospel there. And oh, by the way, he wasn't a theologian either. No one ever confused him for a mythologist, but he loved Jesus and took him there. And I think that's what. I think that's what we both resonate with. We Yeah.

[01:23:27] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Your hearts resonate with mine. I just feel it, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Your desire to see the name of

[01:23:32] Bob Varney: Jesus taken to the ends of the earth. As you've gone through this journey ER doc for quite a while, and then God really said, okay, there's some stuff here that relates to bringing the gospel everywhere.

[01:23:43] Bob Varney: When you reflect back on it, on your personal life, you and Pamela what's that been like? How does it, how did you get personally impacted by this?

[01:23:52] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It's interesting. Maybe I'll just share a little bit about this. You have to watch who you marry.

[01:23:58] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Because [01:24:00] she, I get a lot of credit from people like you, oh, Bob, you gave up your career and you did all this. It was my wife who kept challenging me and at one point we felt convicted that God was calling us to Hungary to explore Acts one, eight. Now, people, and so I traveled around the country to people you might even know Uhhuh, to say, I think this is what God is calling Pam and I too.

[01:24:30] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And you know what, almost everyone said, oh, don't go full-time. Go part-time. You can still make a lot of money and you can do this and that. And I'd come home and I'd say, Pamela, is God calling us part-time? And she'd go, no way. No, that's easy. But. At one point I went to see a man in Chicago who had been the president of Youth for Christ, and I had a similar experience in Japan.

[01:24:56] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Go to Japan and he said, why are you coming [01:25:00] here for advice? And I said, I don't wanna get it wrong. I love what I do. This is really great life that we are living, and I want to make sure that we get it right. And so he said hey Bob, get all the advice you can get and when you're done.

[01:25:15] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Listen to God. And so I came home and I tell Pamela that, and she goes, wow. And so we were praying desperately, God guide us right now. Listen to this. This is frightening. So I, one night Pamela said to me, Bob, do you really feel like God is calling us? And I said, yeah, it's really, I'm feeling that this is what God's calling you.

[01:25:40] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And she said, I too. So she leaned forward and said, Bob, could you live the rest of your life knowing that you were disobedient to God? I'm like, oh, Pamela don't do that to me. Don't do that to me. And so those are the kinds of things that God brought into our walk. And [01:26:00] I would just tell you we're a Democratic family in this way.

[01:26:04] Bob Snyder, M.D.: If. We're going on summer vacation. Should we go to Maine or should we go to North Carolina? Yeah, let's take a vote. And we had three daughters, and Colorado. Maybe we should go to Colorado or North Dakota. North Dakota. That's where we should go. Yeah. So on this one, and we would always take a vote and, the girls would vote with us and whatever and might be four to one or three to two.

[01:26:28] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We did not vote on going to Budapest. I can tell you the vote would've been three to two. No, we're not going. But my girls are my heroes. They weren't in favor, we knew Uhhuh. They loved they lived on the main line of Philly. They had a great life, a great church, wonderful friends, but they did not do anything that prevented us from going.

[01:26:53] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And they all speak fluent Hungarian and they're, they're amazing people. And I think [01:27:00] that's the other thing that I would just say I've learned that to follow Jesus is like what happened to David in the cave? When he learned that he was now king and he's there in a cave with this three generals and and he hears, oh, you're now the king, Saul and Jonathan are dead.

[01:27:20] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And you know what his next thing was? Oh, what about Bethlehem? Did the Philistines have Bethlem? Yeah. And he goes, oh, he, this is a desire of the king's heart. It wasn't a command, it was a desire. Oh, to have a cup of water from the well of Bethlem. And you know what happened? Three generals, it wasn't a command.

[01:27:40] Bob Snyder, M.D.: 'cause if it was command, they would've, Hey, three privates, go get some water for me. Yes. The generals heard the desires of the King's heart went. Brought water back and poured it on. He, when he brought it back, he poured it on the ground. I would a ducked it, he, I risked my life to get there.

[01:27:56] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So you pour it on the ground. Here's what I learned. If you [01:28:00] want to do the heart desire of the king, you have to be intimate with him. And it was during these days that Pam and I just spent so much time in prayer, right? Is this what you want us to do? But then we then had to decide could we risk and sacrifice?

[01:28:17] Bob Snyder, M.D.: It turned out it was it was a risk, but it wasn't as much a sacrifice as we thought. We thought, oh, maybe we're giving it, oh, we gave up some material stuff. It was nothing for what we got back. But the other was, the third thing is what are the outcomes? I found out the outcomes are in the hands of the king.

[01:28:37] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So often I would go, oh, this is what should happen if I do this. And we prayed about it and. It turns out differently. That's it's the Holy Spirit is in charge of guiding this process, and I have to accept the outcomes as they come, and that those are the three things that really intimacy, risk and sacrifice and willingness to let [01:29:00] go of the outcomes.

[01:29:00] Bob Varney: That's great, Bob. It really is. And it I think back over some of the stories that you've shared with me as we've chatted o over getting to know one another and I wonder if you wouldn't, this idea of me being a witness, okay. Is a very strong idea that comes out of the teaching that, that you guys do.

[01:29:21] Bob Varney: Examples are always helpful. And I know you're filled with them. So I'm wondering if you couldn't just describe some of the, maybe even the more recent experience that you've had in the diner or in the taxi or wherever, where you were just looking at what God was saying to you.

[01:29:42] Bob Varney: Where this person was in their spiritual journey and what kind of things do you end up talking about? Can you do that?

[01:29:51] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah. The I'm thrilled. Thank you, Bob. You know my heart. You don't have to push me too hard to do that because I had [01:30:00] always been taught. That the only goal was to get people to make a decision, and so I'm there out pushing on the will of people and trying to get them to decide for Christ. And I didn't really understand fully that it's not mine anyway. It's the Holy Spirit. The only one that can change heart is the Holy Spirit. So I was trying to do, I was trying to witnessing rather than be a witness.

[01:30:24] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yes. And being a witness involves. Christlike character and listening and gentleness and permission and sensitivity. And so I think we, we don't hear examples of, oh, and they didn't come to Christ. We cultivated, we planted a seed, we did something. So I'll tell you about an Uber ride I had in London in the last year.

[01:30:47] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I'm telling you, Hugh put me in a taxi cab or an Uber and I'm out of my mind. Happy. Because we can sit there and talk and, and I'm in London and I get in a cab, Uber, [01:31:00] and it's already paid for. My daughter lives in London and she had already Uber it for me. So I don't have to pay at the end.

[01:31:07] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And and so I get in the cab and Mohamed is driving the cat and I say, oh, Maha, this is great. Where are you from? I'm from Somalia. So one of the things we teach is the first thing you better do if you're going to start doing this pray. 'cause this is gonna be a, this is gonna be a challenge. So pray and then ask questions and get spiritual history and find out what's happening.

[01:31:32] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So I say Muhammad. Where are you from? Oh, I'm from Somalia. Oh, wow. How long ago was it that you, 15 years. I came, bill, I came, do you have family? I have a wife and three kids, and oh, I love London and all this kind of stuff. And I said, wow, do you have a spiritual heritage? And he said, I don't assume because he is Mohamed, that he is Muslim.

[01:31:56] Bob Snyder, M.D.: But he said I'm a follower of Islam. [01:32:00] And I said, wow. So then I wanna know. Is it important to him? I know a lot of people who say, I'm a Christian and it's meaningless, so I said to him, do you go, did you go to Friday prayers last week? Oh, I go to Friday prayers every week. Do you pray five times?

[01:32:15] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Oh I stop the Uber five times a day to pray. I go, wow, this guy's serious. Yeah. So I say to him, I know Muslims love Jesus, and I want you to know that I'm a passionate follower of Jesus. He said, really? Oh, that's interesting. He said, I know that Muslims and Christians believe exactly the same thing about Jesus.

[01:32:42] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so I left a long pause, Hugh on that one, and I then I said, Muhammad, do you really believe that Muslims and Christians believe exactly the same thing about Jesus? He looked at me and goes, no, that's not true. And I said, wow. So let's talk a [01:33:00] little bit about that. But now I'm one minute from the airport where he is gonna drop me off, so you know, what do I do now?

[01:33:08] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And so I shifted to say, Hey, Mohamed, would it help you if I gave you a tip in cash rather than off of the Uber, the Uber app? He goes, wow, that'd be wonderful. So when we get there, he gets my luggage out and I give him a very good tip. And I said to him, Muhammad, there's a reason I'm giving you this tip, and it's because I want you to talk to Jesus the rest of the day and ask him to show you who he really is.

[01:33:39] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I'm not smarter than you, but I'm just saying you will you talk to Jesus for the rest of the day and ask him who he is. He said, yeah, I'll do that. I gave him a good test. He said, sure. And then I walk away and I say, holy Spirit, it's yours now. I did the best I could do, and I think that's where people too [01:34:00] often go I could never have gotten to the point where I, you pray the sinner's prayer.

[01:34:03] Bob Snyder, M.D.: We want to get there. We need to be cultivating and planting seeds. So that's an example of how we take them on a journey. I could give you lots of different illustrations.

[01:34:15] Bob Varney: Yeah. It's a great example. And they really they show up all the time. We're doing a household move to guy coming in here to estimate what it is.

[01:34:24] Bob Varney: He says something about. What do I do? So I tell him, I got this global Cities thing. That doesn't sound religious, he then goes on and asks me a little more as soon as he does now I'm open to tell him what we're doing and how we're helping people in the workplace to understand how God made them and the responsibility as a steward in the kingdom of God.

[01:34:43] Bob Varney: So then he goes on and tells me some of his spiritual heritage, right? It's almost crazy how easy it actually is to engage people and how somehow people don't know that. They, that just not, there's an awareness [01:35:00] issue that's a severe one,

[01:35:01] Bob Snyder, M.D.: and so often, isn't it true Bob and you, your illustration shows this, that people don't.

[01:35:08] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Care unless they know that you care. So in the end you're back and forth and he asks you a question, and once they ask you a question. You're at liberty to answer the question, and so I think it's a back and forth that is done with permission, sensitivity, respect.

[01:35:27] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I really like what you're saying, Bob. We we're talking about having a conversation with someone, not making a presentation, but a conversation. And that means asking them questions. It means listening. Yes, but just, I know we have a few more minutes, but just very quickly, I've not been through your training and you talk about, you call it for the.

[01:35:46] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Medical field. You call it saline. I have a little idea what that means, but what does that mean? Thank you for asking. Saline is salt, and oh, by the way, Jesus said to be salt and light. [01:36:00] But if you came into my e er and you were really desperately ill, I would put into an IV of 0.9%. Saline solution. So that's, and that's life giving and it's 0.9%.

[01:36:15] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So most Christians are not too salty, but some are not salty enough. And so the perfect 0.9 is where you want to be. And that's where we take them with. So are we clever enough? The course for everybody is salt and light, but we couldn't. I'm an ER doc. I just couldn't leave behind my 0.9% saline solution iv.

[01:36:40] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I like that. That's good. Thank you.

[01:36:43] Bob Varney: Bob any other closing comments and thoughts that you might have?

[01:36:48] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Yeah I would just say for anyone who sees this, just know that as I've gotten to know both Hugh and Bob, this is an organization you wanna get to know and this is what we have to do. [01:37:00] We've gotta get Jesus outside the walls of the church, right?

[01:37:04] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And that's what cities global, projects global is all about. And so that's why I'm excited to be talking with you guys and hopefully somewhere along the way, collaborating.

[01:37:17] Bob Varney: This is what it's all about. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. I really appreciate that. And I I'm so excited about the strategies that you're using, and God really does want us to do more.

[01:37:29] Bob Varney: And yet he's so gracious that it's not quite about us doing more. It's about us thinking about the things, praying about the things, doing what we can. God's the one that's really the heavy lifter here. Can I just

[01:37:41] Bob Snyder, M.D.: say, Bob, that this is one of the key teachings? You, it's not about overwork, it's about overflow.

[01:37:48] Bob Snyder, M.D.: So that's what he was saying, if it's in you, it's just gonna, it's gonna be a part of your life, kind of thing. Yeah.

[01:37:54] Bob Varney: Bob, I'm gonna ask you to close us in the word of prayer in a few minutes. And and I know you have a [01:38:00] couple prayer requests, and so how can we help you in prayer?

[01:38:03] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I would just say, the kinds of things you heard about my identity, the constant daily thing of integrating Jesus, not just into work Yeah. But into my life as a husband. Yeah. As a father, yeah. Is a constant thing. So pray that the that the Holy Spirit continues to reveal to me where I need to grow in Christ-like character, as a husband, as a father.

[01:38:30] Bob Snyder, M.D.: As a friend and neighbor, but then also, with IHS Global, we are just having so many opportunities and God will allow us to do what he wants us to do. But we're in a season of transition and as I said, this project to allow it to go faster with a video project. Is really on my heart and mind right now to figure out how to do this.

[01:38:55] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And we have it all ready to go. We just need the resources for that to do it. [01:39:00] So it could be a great benefit to you guys. Yeah. I think to make it much simpler to collaborate together and then just, I would just say people matter no matter where you are. The people in our organization, the people that we reach out to we're always looking, they're all children created in the image of God.

[01:39:22] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Some of them don't know him yet and don't know they need them yet, but they're all beautiful people. So we're our hearts really palpate with, maybe that's the wrong word. That's a medical term. They beat with, the desire to, to share Jesus with everyone. So just pray for faithfulness in our work.

[01:39:41] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I'd love to. Let's pray. Thank you, father. Thank you for this special time with Bob Snyder. That we got to know him and see the joy and the enthusiasm and the passion that we call him to do. And as he said, people matter. People matter to you. People [01:40:00] matter to him. People matter to all of us, and we're grateful that he and his team have been faithful to engage people and talk with them and have a conversation about Jesus.

[01:40:10] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Father, I do pray for Bob that he would continue to grow in his walk with you. That he would live like Jesus and his relationship with his family, with his wife in his neighborhood. And as he does that the Holy Spirit will reveal to him where he needs to grow and become more like Jesus. And then Father, thank you for the opportunities you've given IH global.

[01:40:32] Bob Snyder, M.D.: Hs Global and their desire to take this training to more and more people. Will you provide the resource, resources that they need in order to grow, to expand, to take it to literally millions of people, not thousands. Father, thanks for hearing these prayers and answering them. In Jesus name,

[01:40:53] Bob Varney: amen. Amen. Amen.

[01:40:56] Bob Varney: Amen. Thanks you and thank you, Bob. It's been delightful. [01:41:00] Really delightful. It's always delightful. We chat. It's always delightful.

[01:41:03] Bob Snyder, M.D.: I wanna say thank you to all our listeners for joining us on this eighth intersection Faith Work and Life podcast with Bob s Sniper. We ask you to go to our website, cities project global.com, or to LinkedIn or to Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[01:41:20] Bob Snyder, M.D.: And listen. Subscribe to our podcasts, and if you have found our podcasts helpful, please let us know through our review. Thank you, Bob for joining us today. My joy.