{"id":939,"date":"2011-12-24T13:00:56","date_gmt":"2011-12-24T18:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=939"},"modified":"2011-12-24T13:00:56","modified_gmt":"2011-12-24T18:00:56","slug":"survivor-south-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/12\/survivor-south-pacific.html","title":{"rendered":"Survivor South Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week they concluded the 23rd year of Survivor.\u00a0 Many times this season one would find the cast members were \u00a0having a prayer meeting, instead of playing a game.\u00a0 Even Jeff Probst mentioned that he had never seen a year with so much prayer and talk of honesty and faith.\u00a0 They prayed for everything from winning challenges to maintaining integrity.<\/p>\n<p>Brandon Hantz was perhaps the most vocal about his relationship with Jesus.\u00a0 He said his main motive for playing the game was to restore the Hantz family name.\u00a0 His uncle, Russel Hantz is probably the meanest player to ever be on the show.\u00a0 He was the original lying, cheating, weasel.\u00a0 He was playing to win and didn&#8217;t care who got hurt in the process.\u00a0 He has played the game, but never won the million dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Brandon, just a young man, was trying to turn his life around.\u00a0 Although he had been raised in the church, like so many of us, he had strayed away from Jesus.\u00a0 He had become\u00a0 a drug addict.\u00a0 He lived a rough life that he was not proud of.\u00a0 Now with a wife and children, he never wanted to be that person again.<\/p>\n<p>You could see the on going battle between good and evil as Brandon played the game.\u00a0 He wanted to be a good witness for Jesus, but in a game that is dominated with trickery and lies, that is a difficult thing to do.\u00a0 When he would mess up, he was quick to repent and apologize to those he offended.\u00a0 It really was quite riveting to watch as he walked out his faith in front of millions of viewers.<\/p>\n<p>Brandon didn&#8217;t win the cash prize, but he came home with a deeper relationship with Jesus and a resolve to keep the faith.\u00a0 His extended family were less than thrilled with the way he played the game.\u00a0 His Uncle Russel was at the reunion portion of the show.<\/p>\n<p>He said, &#8220;I brought greatness to Survivor and no one needed to clear the Hantz name.\u00a0 Brandon&#8217;s gamed sucked!\u00a0 He did everything wrong! He did absolutely nothing right!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Most of Brandon&#8217;s family were not happy with him either, other than his wife and children.\u00a0 None of his family made the trip to the reunion to support him.\u00a0 He said no one accepted him and his faith in Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>What a shame that this young man gave his best shot and those who should have been supportive, weren&#8217;t.\u00a0 I know it doesn&#8217;t matter what I think of Brandon, but I am proud of him.\u00a0 I think he did a great job, even if he won no money.\u00a0 I almost wish I could tell him that.\u00a0 He needs to know that there are millions of Christians out there who did support him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week they concluded the 23rd year of Survivor.\u00a0 Many times this season one would find the cast members were \u00a0having a prayer meeting, instead of playing a game.\u00a0 Even Jeff Probst mentioned that he had never seen a year with so much prayer and talk of honesty and faith.\u00a0 They prayed for everything from&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,27],"tags":[11,17,19,29],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-news-or-feature","tag-convictions","tag-courage","tag-faith","tag-family"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Survivor South Pacific - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/12\/survivor-south-pacific.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Survivor South Pacific - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week they concluded the 23rd year of Survivor.\u00a0 Many times this season one would find the cast members were \u00a0having a prayer meeting, instead of playing a game.\u00a0 Even Jeff Probst mentioned that he had never seen a year with so much prayer and talk of honesty and faith.\u00a0 They prayed for everything from&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/12\/survivor-south-pacific.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-24T18:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Survivor South Pacific - 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