Keep On Keeping On: Dr. Mark Rutland on Joyful Aging, Purpose, and Global Mission
About this episode
Dr. Mark Rutland, author of his 20th book Keep On Keeping On, joins Philip Cameron for a candid, humor-filled conversation about finishing well, aging with joy, and trusting an unchanging God through every season of life. Dr. Rutland — founder of Global Servants, which operates Houses of Grace for at-risk girls in northern Thailand and West Africa — brings decades of pastoral wisdom and a refreshingly lighthearted perspective to the challenges of growing older in ministry. At the heart of the discussion is a simple but powerful truth: "We are changing. God is not." Dr. Rutland argues that walking with an unchanging God through the changes of life is what makes aging redemptive and even adventurous. He and Philip explore how a genuine sense of humor — not just knowing what's funny, but knowing what's funny about yourself — keeps believers winsome, joyful, and effective well into their senior years. Dr. Rutland also shares the story behind Global Servants' Houses of Grace, which proactively rescue girls from trafficking vulnerability in Thailand and Ghana, with graduates now serving as house mothers, attorneys, and doctors. To learn more or support the work, visit globalservants.org or drmarkrutland.com. Keep On Keeping On is available on Amazon and at charismashop.com. Don't quit — your best days in God may still be ahead.
Part of our Faith collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“If the devil can discourage us to the point of quitting, then he doesn't have to fight you in a big way. He's just got to make your heart sick. He's just got to make you so disappointed in yourself, in other people, in what your dream has been. And if he can make you fail at that point, then he's got you beat.”
“We are changing. God is not. So we walk with the unchanging God through the changes of our lives. And that's what makes it redemptive and fun. It's an adventure to walk with an unchanging God who is absolutely the same God he was when I was 25. God hasn't aged. God is not forgetting things. God is not hurting. So that unchanging God is still with me, as he has been since forever — the unchanging God in my changing life.”
“Of all the turning around two universities, a mega church, 20 books, everything — the thing that gives me the greatest, deepest sense of satisfaction is actually House of Grace.”
What's Discussed
In this episode, Dr. Mark Rutland — pastor, author of 20 books, and founder of Global Servants — discusses his latest book Keep On Keeping On, a humor-driven guide to aging with joy and perseverance in faith. He and Philip Cameron reflect on the physical and emotional challenges of growing older in ministry, the danger of discouragement, and the anchor of an unchanging God. Dr. Rutland explains that a true sense of humor means laughing at yourself, not just at life. He also details Global Servants' Houses of Grace in northern Thailand and West Africa, which proactively prevent trafficking by educating at-risk girls — with graduates now working as attorneys and doctors. The ministry can be found at globalservants.org.
- Introducing Keep On Keeping On
- Aging with Joy in Senior Ministry Years
- Humor as a Spiritual Discipline
- Walking with an Unchanging God
- Navigating a Strange New Cultural World
- The Tattoo Dot Story
- Global Servants Houses of Grace in Thailand
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Welcome to Daily Faith today. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am absolutely delighted that you are watching with us. We have got a very important program today. Let me tell you the biggest thing. I had a story one time that the devil decided to go into retirement, and he told his minions and the demons of hell, I've done enough damage, I'm going to retire. And all the demons were shocked. And he said, but there's one thing I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take one weapon with me into retirement.
Philip:And one of the minions said, what is that, master? And an evil smile crossed Satan's face, and he says, the weapon of discouragement. If the devil can discourage us to the point of quitting, then he doesn't have to fight you in a big way. He's just got to make your heart sick. He's just got to make you so disappointed in yourself, in other people, in what your dream has been. And if he can make you fail at that point, then he's got you beat.
Philip:Well, I've got a friend — this man I've known of — you ever met someone and you've never met him, and you've watched for years and years, and you've watched him go into circumstances and you've said, boy, better you than me. Well, this is the guy. Dr. Mark Rutland is a great man. He's a great pastor, a great leader, and I've watched him over the years and admired him. And I can't believe that he's taken the time to be on Daily Faith with us today. He's written a book, Keep On Keeping On.
Philip:One of my great heroes of my life is Winston Churchill. And if ever a man kept on going on in spite of overwhelming odds and coming out victorious, he did. And I'm going to let you meet him in a few moments. And I believe that he is a rhema word for you today. Don't you quit. God had you tune in today to Daily Faith for a purpose. And I'm just so excited.
Philip:As many of you know, we have a mission work. 35 years ago, my dad called me from Scotland and told me that he was watching babies dying. And I said, what on earth are you talking about? What he was talking about was Romania during the fall of the wall and all that time when Eastern Europe and communism collapsed. There was a country called Romania with a dictator called Nicolae Ceaușescu, who had tortured and beaten his people for decades. And they rose up against him.
Philip:But the residue of what this man did was that there were orphanages full of kids falling apart. I had no interest in orphanages. I was busy building a Bible school. I'd read a book on household salvation that had sold 300,000 copies. And my dad had just interrupted me in ticking all the boxes — a nice house, a nice car, a busy schedule. I had all the dreams I wanted to do. And he said that babies are dying. And I said, what are you talking about? And he kept calling me. He was recovering from cancer surgery.
Philip:And one day he called me, he said, well, if you won't go and help them, I'm gonna go. And if I die on the way, it's your fault. And that's how I was dragged kicking and screaming into the world of missions. And we went to Romania and found this orphanage. And I'm writing a book just now called Moments. And your world is made up of moments. Listen to me. There are moments of failure and moments of success, but God's bigger than them all. He's the master chef that can turn mistakes into miracles.
Philip:And if you keep going on, keep going on, don't quit, God's gonna see you through. So we started this place in Moldova — a country, the poorest in Europe, highest percentage of alcohol in the world. And the result of that is kids are put on the street at 16. Young girls are trafficked. And God helped us build the most amazing village called Vatra Village. It was built originally for rich people to have a summer dacha on that lake you're looking at. And they poisoned the lake with chlorine to kill algae, and that whole village just fell apart, and we bought it.
Philip:And today it is full of young girls and boys that we take off the street. We tell them, if you are born, God has a plan. And these young kids that are orphans are becoming sons and daughters and then missionaries. And they are involved constantly in outreach. The most amazing things I've ever seen. We've been in Ukraine for nine years, long before the war broke out. And our orphan kids have been giving and caring and preaching the gospel.
Philip:I've never seen anything like it. And they do their own videos and they send them to me. And we just got a video of a young girl's testimony that's been redeemed by the love of God from a horrendous circumstance. Her name is Alona. Watch this.
Alona:Every day my mother would prepare our clothes and place them outside just in case my father came home drunk. That way we could quickly grab them, get dressed, and run. My name is Alona and I am studying to become a baker. My dream is to build a successful career in pastry.
Alona:Growing up, my home was never truly safe. My father would always come home drunk, and every time my heart would pound with fear. I knew what was coming. My mother would be beaten again. And each time we had to flee, running through the night, knocking on neighbors' doors, begging them to take us in.
Alona:I remember one night when we couldn't escape in time. My father came home drunk and attacked my mother. Somehow she managed to break free and we, the children, ran with her as fast as we could, terrified. But he started throwing stones at us as we fled. And the pain of that moment left a deep scar in my heart.
Alona:The few times he didn't drink felt like stolen moments of happiness. In those rare days, our home wasn't filled with screams. And I clung to those moments, hoping they would last, but they never did. By the time I turned 15, we had lived in five different places trying to escape him. Yet no matter where we went, he always found us, always dragged us back into fear.
Alona:But now, thank God, he doesn't come anymore. I am incredibly grateful to the Orphan's Hands family for giving me this opportunity to stay here in such a wonderful home, for giving me the chance to study and have a future. Thank you.
Philip:In the hands of the trafficker, Alona is worth $300,000 a year. They use them 30 to 50 times a day and then fling them on the garbage heap. No one cares. We get them before the trafficker. We bring them to our place at Vatra Village and also in Odessa, Ukraine. And we put them back in school and we tell them, if you are born, God has a plan, you are not a mistake. And the amazing thing is just a wee bit of grace and a wee bit of mercy and kindness, and these kids blossom.
Philip:And the amazing thing is that Vatra Village today, as we speak, every one of the house parents are kids that we rescued 15 and 17 and 20 years ago, now married with their own families. And so we're now in the second generation of kids caring for these kids. I've never seen anything like it in my life. And part of the miracle of Vatra Village — each of the houses sponsors a village for a year, finds out every widow. They never have to worry about food or heat or warm clothes. Our kids go and dig their gardens for vegetables for the summertime. All through the year we have camps and outreaches, and everyone is led to the Lord Jesus.
Philip:I just heard the other day of a woman that had four kids to four different men. She lived with the men to survive, just to eat and to feed her babies. And then the next guy kicked her out and the next guy took her in, and she got pregnant again four times. And she got saved. And she's never missed a service because of the kids, the Orphan's Hands that go out into these worlds. And we need your help to keep us growing and going. We're about to start a brand new project for 50 little kids between the age of four to 16. It's a brand new thing. We've just bought the houses and we're believing God for the funds to continue buying the houses and support them.
Philip:And you could help us if you could, and any gift you can give right now — monthly support is our biggest thing. A dollar a day is the key to all that you've seen right now. All of those girls are there because of someone giving a dollar a day. And you can help us by writing us. It's really simple. PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee, 37716. You can call our 800 number, 1-833-Daily-Faith. That's right, 1-833-Daily-Faith. Or you can go to DailyFaith.TV and give a gift right there.
Philip:You can make this miracle grow into the lives of other kids just like Alona. And if you would, I'd appreciate it so much. I am so honored to have with me today Pastor Mark Rutland. He's a great man of God, one of the leaders in the church today across the whole denominations of the church. And he has a ministry called Global Servants and has the same heartbeat as we have here at Orphan's Hands. And I love it, and I'm just honored to have him with us today.
Introducing Keep On Keeping On
Philip:Pastor Mark, thank you for taking the time. I know you're as busy a man as I am. And I was traveling home last night and you were traveling home — or you, I don't think you've arrived home yet, is that correct?
Dr. Mark Rutland:No, I'm not home yet. I just got in from Rhode Island. I spoke at a church right on the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border last night. So I flew in, and so I'm not home yet.
Philip:Oh, God. Look, well, listen, I want to thank you and honor you for your leadership in the church over the years. I've watched you and, frankly, watched you being thrown into the lions' dens. And I thought, oh my goodness, I am so glad I'm not him. And I've watched God use you and your wisdom to heal and restore and remake things. And I just want to tell you that I appreciate you for being such a key element in so many different circumstances.
Dr. Mark Rutland:Well, thank you. What a gracious thing for you to say. I was listening to the introduction and you talked about parachuting into the fire, and I thought, you know, I never thought of it that way. That's about what I've done my whole life.
Philip:You have. That's the times I've read either in the press or I've heard. And I thought, oh my Lord, what does this man — he's got a death wish. But I've watched the results in God using you to be the means by which everything comes back together again and begins to move forward in faith.
Philip:You've written a brand new book, and I know you've written many, many books. And when I saw this one, I thought, wow, I should have written this book. He's stolen the title from me, and it's called Keep On Keeping On. And I love the cover of it. And it's a humorous cover because you are using humor to drive a point home — that the point is the devil doesn't know what to do with someone that won't quit.
Dr. Mark Rutland:Yes. The Bible says a merry heart does good like medicine. So I say to everybody, buy that book and take your medicine like a big boy. It's, if you're gonna deal with things like going on, working hard, keeping your joy, keeping your vitality, keeping your faith into your senior years, I felt that a spoonful of sugar would make the medicine go down. So the book is not like any — this is my 20th book.
Aging with Joy in Senior Ministry Years
Philip:Wow.
Dr. Mark Rutland:It's totally different from the previous 19. It's funny. It's lighthearted, but it does drive home the point. I just came to my seventies and I realized I didn't want to spend my senior years chasing kids out of my yard, you know, get away from my apple trees. I just didn't want to be that mean old guy. And then I realized I don't want anybody to be that mean old person. We live by faith and not by fear. We live with joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength. Why should all that hemorrhage just because we get older?
Dr. Mark Rutland:You know, we used to sing that song — I think Bill Gaither wrote it — Sweeter Gets the Journey Every Day. Remember that?
Philip:Yes, I do.
Dr. Mark Rutland:If the journey gets sweeter every day, why shouldn't we? Why do we have to be sour old people? And I just said, let's learn to embrace this process of aging with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Philip:Well, what you don't know is this — that next month I am 70. I am 70 years of age. I can't believe it. I looked in the mirror the other day and I thought, Philip Cameron, you are gonna be 70 years of age. And it does have a psychological effect on you. It really does. I've been having issues with my voice for the last couple of years. I just had surgery a few weeks ago. And things that you never thought about, things that youth kind of pushes back — and suddenly you're aware of a voice that isn't as strong as it used to be. And if you're not careful, the devil comes along as the accuser of the brethren and starts telling you, you've hit your limit. You've gone as far as you can go. It's time to compromise and pull back.
Philip:And I'm so glad you're on the program with me today, because a few weeks ago I said to my son Andrew, I said, maybe it's time for me to quit because my voice is not getting better. And he said, dad, no, you can't. You can't quit. You gotta keep on going. And this program — I don't care who else is watching it, but I sure am being challenged by you. It's not time to quit, it's time to be sweeter and embrace what God's got for us next.
Dr. Mark Rutland:Yeah. Things change. I mean, our bodies change. Things hurt that didn't used to hurt. Stuff doesn't work that used to work. And you have to kind of have a sense of humor about all that. I was speaking at a church recently and after the service, somebody came up to the platform to talk to me, shake my hand, and it was only two and a half, three feet. And I started to jump down and shake their hand. And then I said, no, that looks like a broken hip. And so I just walked down to the end of the stage and walked down the steps. What does that hurt you? You embrace the reality of your life and you change.
Humor as a Spiritual Discipline
Philip:Oh, I was speaking down in Florida yesterday, and we have a small plane that gets me around faster, but my son Andrew had driven down in our van that we travel in also for closer services. And I said, no, I'm gonna drive home with you. And so it was about a 10-hour journey yesterday night, got in at midnight last night. And we were two hours into this journey and I'm thinking, Philip, you are an idiot. What are you doing? My back was sore, other parts around that area were sore. And I thought, yeah, this is not a good idea. And before, I've done that and not thought anything about it.
Philip:But I do believe that your attitude determines how the circumstances of life affect you.
Dr. Mark Rutland:Yes. You know, people misunderstand the phrase a sense of humor. A sense of humor is not knowing what's funny. Any idiot knows what's funny. A sense of humor is knowing what's funny about you. And to be able to laugh at yourself in your senior years makes you charming and winsome and attractive. The outward things that we concentrated so on when we were young — they become increasingly impossible. You can't come to a place where you can't hide the fact that you're creeping up on 70. I'm creeping up on 80. And you come to the place where you can't hide that. But what you can nurture is the joy and the delight of serving God.
Dr. Mark Rutland:My son pastors a great church. And so when I'm not on the road, I love to go to the church and I hang around the lobby and shake hands with people and I love to joke around with the teenagers and talk with them and tell them how good looking they are and all that kind of thing. When the youth pastor resigned and moved on to another church, the teenagers asked my son to make me the youth pastor.
Philip:Well, that's — of course, I didn't do it because it would just be one lock-in and I'd be a dead man.
Dr. Mark Rutland:But the honor of it, that they found this old dude could be fun to be with.
Philip:Yeah. Well, I've got nine grandkids. And what amazes me — and my own kids — I read somewhere, you are a rich man if your kids have the possibility of leaving but they want to stay. And we as a family have stayed. My family's my best friends. We are our best company. And I often think, wow, if I were a mean old man, I would drive them away from me. So I must be doing something right that makes my kids want to hang around and be a part of my life.
Philip:And I know there are folk watching who are on the same journey that we are in this moment. Tell us, give us an idea as to how we get up when we fall down. How do you recover in your spirit from the realization that I'm not what I used to be, I'm not as strong? My son has to open those little flimsy bottles of water that drive me nuts, because as you squeeze them you're gonna lose your grip. And I say, Andrew, open this blessed bottle of water before I lose my salvation. How do we adjust ourselves to do that?
Dr. Mark Rutland:Well, the way we have to deal with it really is simple when you think of it. We are changing. God is not. So we walk with the unchanging God through the changes of our lives. And that's what makes it redemptive and fun. It's an adventure to walk with an unchanging God who is absolutely the same God he was when I was 25. God hasn't aged. God is not forgetting things. God is not hurting. So that unchanging God is still with me, as he has been since forever — the unchanging God in my changing life.
Walking with an Unchanging God
Philip:Amen.
Dr. Mark Rutland:That's what makes me able to get up in the morning and get on with it. Even though I am changing and I have to be able to laugh at those changes. What happens is that we live in such a changing world that it makes people afraid. You know, when I was a kid, the only people that had tattoos were old sailors and pirates.
Philip:In Scotland, that's exactly the truth.
Dr. Mark Rutland:Yes. So now you go to a wedding and the bride comes down the aisle and she's got a death's head tattooed between her shoulder blades. And you think, is she a pirate? You know? So you go through the checkout line of the grocery store and all the magazines have people that are obviously famous and you have no clue who they are. No clue. And you watch TV and they're advertising things on TV and I don't know what they are and I don't know what they do. And so I say to myself, this is a strange new world I'm living in.
Philip:It's so true. How do I keep that from making me fearful and angry?
Dr. Mark Rutland:Because I'm experiencing the adventure of a strange new world with the unchanging faithfulness of God. As he was, so shall he be.
Philip:Amen. And he is the anchor point for your heart. If you're watching today and your whole world is in transition and shifting, I've got good news for you. There is an anchor that keeps the soul, and he never ages, he never changes. And he's the one constant thing.
Philip:I'm the same — the tattoo thing drives me crazy. My youngest daughter, oh my Lord, she went to Australia to Hillsong and came back full of tattoos and piercings. I almost died. I thought — and she said, oh, dad, get over it. It's not a big deal. And I'm thinking, are you kidding me? You've just ruined my whole life. And I'll tell you a funny story. I had to get some infusions of iron and they couldn't find any veins on my arm. And it was terrible every day. Painful, painful.
Navigating a Strange New Cultural World
Philip:And I got so sick of it that one day they found a vein and it was a good one. And I went out of the hospital and I saw a tattoo parlor, and I walked into the tattoo parlor and I said, how much will you charge me to mark that spot right there? So they tattooed a wee dot on my arm. So I called my daughter and I said, Lorna, your dad got ink today. She said, you did not. I said, yes, I did. So I rolled up my sleeve and she was expecting to see all the tattoos on my arm. And there's one wee dot right where they can strike oil. So I moved just a wee bit from the old world to the new world by one single dot. So that's my claim to modernity.
Philip:Tell us about your work in Thailand. I really am interested in what God's using you to do there.
Dr. Mark Rutland:Well, I listened to your work, and really it's amazingly similar. We have in Southeast Asia, in northern Thailand, and in West Africa, we have Houses of Grace. It is — of course, once a girl has been trafficked, for her to be rescued is a wonderful thing, it's miraculous. But what I was concerned with was, by that time, huge damage has been done. So what I wanted to do was get ahead of it. That's what we've done. So we go to the villages in the mountains of Thailand and in northern Ghana, and we make an economic argument to the chief or the headman or whatever. We say, look, let House of Grace raise the girl, and we promise she will make more money than she would in a brothel, and she won't die with AIDS.
Global Servants Houses of Grace in Thailand
Dr. Mark Rutland:And since 1986, we have, in Southeast Asia, 14 buildings on two campuses. Hundreds and hundreds of girls have come through. We have three attorneys that have come through. We pay everything. Any school they can get into in Thailand or Ghana, we pay tuition, room, board, everything. And it's just been — I heard you say about your house parents. Of course, all our house mothers are now graduates of House of Grace. And it's — when I look back over my life, the thing that gives me, of all the turning around two universities, a mega church, 20 books, everything — the thing that gives me the greatest, deepest sense of satisfaction is actually House of Grace.
Philip:I'm exactly the same. We are doing exactly the same thing in different places. We tried to rescue girls from trafficking and we failed. They were so broken and so damaged that they absolutely just went back to the people that were abusing them. And we said, well, you know. And so what we do is we go to the orphanage or we go to the village exactly the same way and say, look, we'll put you in school. We'll pay — one of our girls just graduated as a doctor. Six years we supported her and her mother for six years to get her through. And she's now a doctor.
Philip:If you would like to help this amazing work in Thailand, it's called Global Servants. 30 Curtis Court, Suite 300, Cartersville, Georgia. You can go online to globalservants.org.
Philip:I encourage you today to go and give a gift to this ministry. They're doing the same work as we are in Moldova and Ukraine — they're doing it in Thailand and West Africa. And as you are helping these kids, if I could take you there, it wouldn't be a hardship to get you to give, I promise you. It wouldn't be hard, because whenever you saw the miracle and how God is working through these ministries — and I encourage you, please go to globalservants.org. And you can get this book, Keep On Keeping On, on Amazon and other places and on charismashop.com.
Philip:I want you to get this book and give it to someone that might be looking for the word of encouragement that this book brings, and we'll smile on the face at the same time. And also, I'm sure that Dr. Mark Rutland would come and speak in your church if you'd ask him really nicely.
Dr. Mark Rutland:Thank you.
Philip:And you can get in contact with him at drmarkrutland.com. We thank you so much today for being with us. Please come back, if you will, and be a part of Daily Faith again.
Dr. Mark Rutland:Thank you. It's been a joy to be with you. God bless you and God bless your work worldwide.
Philip:Thank you, my friend. God bless. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. We'll see you again. Bye-bye.
Common questions
What is Dr. Mark Rutland's book 'Keep On Keeping On' actually about?
It's about maintaining joy, vitality, and faith into your senior years — and it does it with humor. Rutland says it's his 20th book but totally different from the previous 19: it's funny and lighthearted, because he believes a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. His core message is that there's no reason your faith and joy should drain away just because you get older.
How does Dr. Rutland say we should handle the physical and cultural changes that come with aging?
He says the key is walking with an unchanging God through a changing life. God hasn't aged, isn't forgetting things, and isn't hurting — so that constant, faithful God is what makes aging feel like an adventure rather than a loss. He also stresses the importance of a real sense of humor, which he defines not as knowing what's funny, but knowing what's funny about yourself.
What is Global Servants' House of Grace program, and how does it work?
House of Grace operates in northern Thailand and West Africa, and its goal is to get ahead of trafficking before girls are victimized. Rutland's team goes to village chiefs and makes an economic argument — let us raise the girl, and she'll earn more than she would in a brothel and won't die of AIDS. The program covers all tuition, room, and board for any school a girl can get into, and today all the house mothers are graduates of the program itself.
What does Dr. Rutland say gives him the deepest sense of satisfaction looking back on his career?
Despite turning around two universities, leading a megachurch, and writing 20 books, Rutland says House of Grace gives him the greatest and deepest satisfaction of anything he's done. Seeing girls rescued from poverty and trafficking go on to become attorneys and house mothers for the next generation is what he points to above everything else.
Why did Dr. Rutland write a funny book on a serious topic like aging and perseverance?
He wanted to avoid becoming — or encouraging others to become — a bitter, mean old person chasing kids off the lawn. He points to the Bible verse 'a merry heart does good like medicine' and the old Bill Gaither song 'Sweeter Gets the Journey Every Day' as his inspiration, arguing that if the journey is supposed to get sweeter, believers should reflect that sweetness rather than sourness as they age.
Topics
mark rutlandkeep on keeping onaging with joyglobal servantshouses of graceperseverancechristian humor