Making Men

In a recent live stream, I mentioned that I'm spending part of this summer with the young men at Frontier Forge Institute. It's a tremendous program that's investing in the next generation by teaching leadership, discipline, service, and a Biblical foundation for life. It's been a privilege to be part of what they're doing.

I also mentioned my book, Making Men, and several of you asked where you could get a copy.

Although it's written primarily for young men, I also wrote it with my daughters in mind. I wanted them to understand the kind of man worth waiting for, encouraging, and someday marrying. Strong families begin with men and women who understand what Biblical character looks like.

If you have a son, a daughter, a grandson, a granddaughter, or anyone trying to navigate adulthood with wisdom and purpose, I hope this book will be an encouragement.

I've included a copy for our Locals community below.

There's a dangerous pattern emerging in America that almost nobody is talking about. In this video, I break down the failed White House terror plot, the research behind what Data Republican calls "assassination culture," and why people from completely different political movements are arriving at the same justification for political violence. This isn't just about one disturbed individual—it's about the machine that creates them.

The videos coming out of Venezuela are difficult to watch.

Buildings collapsing into clouds of dust. People stumbling through streets that seem to move beneath their feet. Families desperately searching for loved ones. Hospitals overflowing. Rescue workers digging through concrete with little more than their hands.

Officially, the death toll continues to rise. Thousands remain unaccounted for, and the true scope of the disaster won't be known for days—or even weeks. The first casualty numbers after an earthquake are almost always wrong. They don't account for the people still trapped beneath collapsed buildings or the communities cut off by damaged roads and communication failures.

I've covered disasters all over the world during the past 25 years. Wars, famines, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. Every one of them is tragic.

But earthquakes are different.

Nature Doesn't Care

Wars are terrible, but they generally have a target. Earthquakes don't.

An earthquake doesn't distinguish between soldiers and civilians. It doesn't care whether you're rich or poor, young or old. It simply releases unimaginable force, and whatever happens to be above it bears the consequences.

That's why earthquakes often claim the lives of society's most vulnerable. Children. Elderly people. Families asleep in their homes.

I've seen it firsthand.

When Haiti was devastated in 2010, I arrived only days after the ground stopped shaking. Entire neighborhoods had collapsed into piles of concrete. Buildings I had stayed in just months before were flattened into layers of rubble. In some places, you could still see where each floor had pancaked onto the one below it. Those images never leave you.

Venezuela Faces an Uphill Battle

The situation in Venezuela presents unique challenges.

This wasn't simply a powerful earthquake. It struck a country already struggling with years of economic hardship, deteriorating infrastructure, and limited emergency response capabilities. Even before the earthquake, hospitals were under pressure.

Now emergency rooms are overflowing. Rescue crews face blocked roads, damaged bridges, broken water mains, power outages, and thousands of unstable buildings that could collapse with every aftershock. Heavy equipment is desperately needed. Unfortunately, that's exactly what developing countries often lack. People assume rescue operations begin immediately after a building collapses. In reality, many survivors spend days trapped beneath reinforced concrete while crews struggle to reach them with hand tools.

I've listened to those phone calls.

During Haiti's earthquake, survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings called family members to say goodbye because rescue teams simply couldn't move the massive slabs of concrete covering them. Many died waiting. That reality is difficult to describe unless you've witnessed it.

The First 72 Hours Matter Most

Search-and-rescue experts often refer to the first three days after an earthquake as the "golden window." That's when the greatest number of lives can still be saved. Every hour counts. Every excavator. Every trained rescue team. Every medical professional.

The challenge in Venezuela is logistics. Roads are blocked. Airports have sustained damage. Communications remain unreliable in many areas. Moving heavy machinery into the disaster zone takes time, and time is exactly what trapped victims don't have.

After the Ground Stops Shaking

Ironically, the earthquake itself is often only the beginning.