Half | Time from Success to Significance - John Waldo

3rd Act

John was greatly affected by the Murray Federal Building bombing in April of 1995. They had a mutual friend from college that John shares a heartwarming and inspiring story fo how they reconnected through Half | Time Institue from Bob Buford. Their mutual friend used his resources and experiences to pool resources with others to buy a building in a food desert where they offered opportunities to community members to shop, learn to cook.

When their mutual friend, Clark, passed away, John took some people to visit this building believing it would be closed for the funeral. But they found it full of activity as a group of kids were excitedly learning how to cook a birthday cake for their mother. This meaningful exchange served as a metaphor for a man who lived out his convictions and his mission continued on after (and even during) his funeral.

Both men share an appreciation for his life and the example he left for them to follow.

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We spent time talking about the Half | Time institute.

Many people are looking to move from success to significance. They use a tool called strength finders owned by Gallop to help people identify their gifts and understand how to maximize their strengths to make an impact in their community.

We also talk about John's involvement in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing. He was attending a local church that had a young associate pastor at the time, named Craig Rochelle. The First Methodist church he was attending was right next to where the bombing occurred.

Their church became the morgue for the bombing that happened the Tuesday after Easter Sunday in 1995. Since the church was uninhabitable for years, John felt like they needed to have an outdoor shelter for people to worship. The church raised a third of the money, the Jewish federation matched their third and that generated some publicity. A local Muslim man was moved to match the remaining donation to complete the funding for the structure.

He learned throughout this season that during times of pain like the bombing there are good things that are birthed from tragedy. Craig Rochelle went on to pastor one of the biggest churches in the US that created the Bible App.

We also discuss John's work with scholarships for the University of Oklahoma.