Speaker 2: 0:02

Welcome to the Saints that Serve, podcast where, each week, your hosts dive into the crossroads of faith, culture and the unknown.

Speaker 1: 0:14

Christ is Lord and the kingdom is now.

Speaker 2: 0:18

We are the Saints that Serve and welcome to the Saints that Serve podcast with your hosts, Jairus and Johnny. This is episode 17 and we have a special treat for everybody.

Speaker 1: 0:55

So if you haven't been listening to the podcast first off, what are you doing? Starting with episode 17. Second off, this is the start of our Ministry Month. Say it again, because that's almost sounded like Mystery Month.

Speaker 2: 1:10

And we're starting out with our Ministry Month.

Speaker 1: 1:16

Ministry Month.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Okay, alright. Well, we don't really have any announcements for you guys, besides that we're opening our Ministry Month, where we talk about missions and ministry. So if you're not already following us on social media, what are you doing with your life actually? Let me reword that please. We beg you, follow us. It helps with our algorithms. So, just like our, go, like, subscribe wherever you can on the podcast, if you can comment, there's a little link at the bottom of the description that allows you to send an SMS message to us If you have any questions or concerns or prayer requests or if you have any critiques or corrections, and that's pretty much it. Just follow us social media wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 2: 2:02

We have some sad news. Youtube declined our episode 11, putting it back on because they're they're poo-poo head, yeah, poo-poo heads. So we've got to apparently be a little more careful with how we say things. Thanks youtube, yeah, thanks youtube. So anyways, yeah, so we're gonna get into it. If you need pray for you Friday, do it every Friday. Just reach out to us. You can either reach out to us through our socials or you can email us at saints that serve at gmailcom. Again, that's saints that serve at gmailcom. So that's all the announcements out of the way.

Speaker 1: 2:41

So we have a few firsts here. This is our first ministry month, that's right, and this is also the first time that we have two guests on the podcast at the same time two guests at the same time.

Speaker 2: 2:53

So either of you decide which. However you want to do it, the d20 dice right here the one closest to your coffee cup, yep just roll it on the table and let's just see what it is the cup. Yep, just roll it on the table and let's just see what it is. Five, five, okay, so you've got a now. We already said it's episode 17, but go ahead and say episode 17, but you gotta do it like not not committed, like you barely know what the number five is. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3: 3:24

No, it doesn't.

Speaker 2: 3:25

You barely know what the number episode 17 is, so it's like episode 17, or however.

Speaker 3: 3:31

Okay, you ready. I have just the voice for this, johnny.

Speaker 2: 3:34

Okay. All right Three, two, one go.

Speaker 3: 3:40

Okay, episode 17.

Speaker 2: 3:45

Five, yep, yep, yep. There we go. All right, so these are our guests and we will go ahead and introduce them and then we will get into the conversation about missions and ministry. So we have with us Jennifer.

Speaker 4: 3:58

Hello.

Speaker 2: 3:59

And Sam.

Speaker 3: 4:00

Good evening, jasim, jasim, that's another oldie, he just dusted off.

Speaker 2: 4:06

Yep, so these are actually lifelong friends of ours and Jennifer is actually blood related to me, so a little bit of family action going on here again. This is our second guest that is related to me by blood. Not running a theme or anything, right?

Speaker 1: 4:26

We don't know a lot of people, so not running out of ammo anytime soon.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah you gotta get a better guess, it's like. But just for everybody listening, you guys are married and you've been married for x amount of years and that is correct you have children, and so that's all the personal stuff out of the way. So now we're going to get into it.

Speaker 3: 4:48

Those alleged children are running around upstairs.

Speaker 2: 4:50

We intentionally be vague. I know you guys aren't on social media. Bless you guys for breaking those chains.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Break every chain.

Speaker 2: 4:58

All the same, we want to have fun conversation, but we also want to honor your privacy. So first name basis.

Speaker 1: 5:10

We don't get into kids or any of that kind of stuff, just cool, for safety reasons. But, appreciate you, feel free to say whatever you would like to say, just for the sake of confusion. You both have divided 30 children. Oh, so 60 children 60 children total 30 each.

Speaker 4: 5:23

That's way more than I had even wanted.

Speaker 3: 5:27

You had them.

Speaker 4: 5:28

But I had them Surprise. Why is having 30 kids so easy?

Speaker 2: 5:34

We actually just have 60 Chia Pets that we've been keeping up for you guys. So as our gift to you, we're giving them to you at the end of the podcast.

Speaker 1: 5:42

You shouldn't have Not to get too personal, but y'all live out of state so y'all have to find a way to get those Chia Pets back home. A lot. Wait a minute.

Speaker 2: 5:51

What are those little? What was the little pocket? Tamagotchis, Tamagotchis. We've got 60 Tamagotchis for you guys.

Speaker 1: 5:57

That's a lot easier. No, we've got you 60. There are cats that you have to find a way back home. They're all outside, Bring them in guys, come on, you get a cat and you get a cat.

Speaker 2: 6:10

Everybody get the cat Anyways, okay. So let's go ahead and get into it. So you guys have both done Youth with a Mission, the organization, yes. So, however you guys want to go, if you want to go first, or if you want to go first if you want a tag team, however just. But we'll start with the first question. How did you hear slash learn about YWAM? Jennifer, go ahead.

Speaker 4: 6:33

All right, I actually went to YWAM shortly before Sam. We didn't know each other at the time and I knew about Youth with a Mission seven years before I even went, because our older sister went right out of high school and it was something that was kind of expected, in a type of way that we would do missions or some type of service after high school, kind of as a gap year type of thing, so we could do any type of ministry we wanted. We could go with the church, we could go with an organization and she just happened to find YWAM online, I think and found a base that she felt like she wanted to go to, and so she went and had a great experience and so I think it was just the path of least resistance and she had such a positive experience and went back that then all of the siblings after that just kind of naturally went into that same pathway, but going to different bases.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Yes, yes.

Speaker 4: 7:40

So that was just kind of what I had been looking forward to for seven-ish years, because when she went I was only 11 years old, so very impressionable, like big sister going to do something amazing, going on an adventure.

Speaker 4: 7:57

And when I had reached high school, reached senior year especially, I had just struggled so much in school that college wasn't really even a possibility in my own brain. All of my friends were applying for places and getting into schools and I was like get me out of here as soon as possible so I don't have to be the one being left behind essentially, and so my goal was to leave before them essentially, which was a terrible motivation looking back, and one of the reasons I picked the base that I did was because the school started a month after I graduated high school, but I was still 17 at the time. I hadn't even turned 18 yet, so it was a quick turnaround for me, I think the best option for me at the time. Even though my motivations were immature and the reason I picked the base that I did was immature, it was still very transformative and positive overall in my arching life. So that's how I heard about YWAM.

Speaker 2: 9:00

Okay and I realized that we didn't give this YWAM. Okay and I realized that we didn't give this. For those who don't know what YWAM is, it is an international missions organization that focuses on introducing people and getting them into long-term missions. They have something for all ages, but they focus on young adults coming out of high school and they have different locations all over the world and those locations are called bases ywam bases. So if we use the term base, that's what we're talking about. It's just a location somewhere in the world, because they're all over the world.

Speaker 1: 9:35

So not quite Okay, it's a prison. I said it's not a prison.

Speaker 2: 9:48

All right, Jacime, go ahead. How did you hear about YWAM Right?

Speaker 3: 9:53

So I was in, I think, my junior year of high school and a good friend of mine who, mr Jonathan here, happened to meet in his own YWAM experience. That's right, we'll call him John and that's about it, because that's his name, because that won't get confusing at all. Also a nondescript name, and we won't give his last name.

Speaker 2: 10:16

John, last name, do.

Speaker 1: 10:19

John, last name the Baptist.

Speaker 3: 10:23

That's not true. He was not a Baptist. Even better Not this, john.

Speaker 2: 10:28

John, take those sinner words out of your mouth.

Speaker 3: 10:30

No, all right, so through a mutual friend yeah, yeah, so he, he was someone I, you know, have always looked up to. He just went above and beyond anyone else because we were in a public school setting and it was in a small town, so there were a lot of Christians around. But, as it is at that age, it's not really common that people are radically obedient to God in that setting. If you are, you will stand out, and John was among those types who would do so. And around that time I also had a pretty pivotal experience with God and where I kind of went from just the. You know, I was a good churchgoer growing up, but then that really started the relationship with Jesus and it just kept growing and growing.

Speaker 3: 11:16

And around that time I knew this John was graduating and going to this thing called YWAM and you know, obviously he went to Honolulu where you also went, jonathan and yeah, it's not something that I really thought I was going to do, but then I felt like the Lord was really putting it on my heart to get involved in mission work. And then he highlighted India to me for some reason and it ended up just being kind of a short-term thing he wanted me to do. But I found out that YWAM goes to India and that base in particular also went to India and I'm like, well, you can't go wrong with Honolulu. It's like thank you for my service. But at the same time, you know, it was going to be a leap and I initially had planned on going to a base closer to home, in Appalachia, or closer to it at least, and so there was a base in Kentucky, I think it was in Louisville. I even had reached out.

Speaker 3: 12:13

But then some personal stuff happened and I felt like I was just being called to get farther away from home so that when Christmas break came around I would not be going back home.

Speaker 3: 12:29

And, long story short, it's a good thing. I went that route and just made a kind of a clean cut, went very far away and did not come home until after the outreach was done, which I don't remember if we touched on that. But in the first phase, in the first school of YWAM, there's a lecture phase 10 to 12 weeks at the base. There was a lecture phase 10 to 12 weeks at the base and then, as followed by an 8 to 10 week outreach in some other country or countries and a lot of bases. They'll let their students go home, especially if it's a stateside base or in the continental US, but Honolulu not. So no, that ended up being the best thing for me, and, sure enough, god gave us the option to go to India, and I took that option, and that could all be its own podcast, but suffice it to say that was how the YWAM journey got started.

Speaker 2: 13:17

Alrighty, awesome, okay. So also another disclaimer for those who are confused my God-given name is Jonathan, it's not Johnny. So if you hear them call me Jonathan, it's because that's my actual name.

Speaker 3: 13:33

I don't know why I reverted to that Because, like having met you in your Hawaii circle of friends, we all called you Johnny, Maybe the microphones make him look more official.

Speaker 2: 13:42

It's either that or the microphone makes you feel more official. That's possible. Maybe that's what it is. He's like dude. I'm about to break into NPR and correct all their fallacies. I wish I would listen to that. Welcome to the Radical Conservative on NPR. You're wrong, and you're wrong and I'm right.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Anyways, If you start calling us, sir, yes, sir, no, sir, you are going to have to leave Too formal.

Speaker 3: 14:14

Their names are yes, sir and no sir.

Speaker 2: 14:16

I'm just a boy. I'm just a little boy. I don't know where that came from. Shrek, you're right it did come from Shrek. Okay, so how'd you go to the base? Why did you go to the base? You did at your DTS.

Speaker 4: 14:32

Yes, so I did my discipleship training school, like I said, the first month after I graduated high school. No-transcript, just a long process and hearing back from people and then trying to get all of your paperwork to be able to go overseas, and fundraising especially. So I started earlier than other people in my school had. So I was searching on the website and none of the bases really stood out to me. I was searching for something adventurous. At the time I was very into backpacking and just the idea of being a free spirit. I guess Not doing the normal thing. Yeah, I don't think that's who I actually was at the time, but being in high school about to graduate, there's just this air of who are you going to be in life and just so much pressure from people they don't mean to. They're just curious and want to know what your plan is after high school. Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:26

No pressure.

Speaker 2: 16:27

Right.

Speaker 4: 16:27

But what are you going to do?

Speaker 1: 16:28

for the next 40 years. No pressure, but why don't you have your life together yet? Yeah, yeah, you're only 12.

Speaker 4: 16:34

Absolutely, and so I had grown up in the church. But when I started, like the end of middle school, into high school, I really just threw it in the back drawer, and it wasn't until I was about 16 that I started hearing things at the church that actually sparked my spirit. And so 16 into 17 was when my discipleship actually started. And in my senior years, when I heard the voice of God for the first time since I was a child, and that's what truly, truly opened up my heart to be discipled and to be a disciple, to hear the voice of God and obey in the moment. And it was my own personal struggle that had kept me in depression and isolation in high school.

Speaker 4: 17:26

In a moment of just sheer resentment, I heard a thought in my mind one night of why don't you just forgive and see what happens? And obviously that was not me, because that is not the reality or the thought process I had been letting myself live in for the last four years or so. And so in that moment I said out loud I forgive this person that I had been resenting, and my personality changed overnight I laughed for the first time in two years, was able to smile, I slept great that night, and so I think that was my personal salvation moment and was that hearing of the spirit and then obeying in the moment, and he was able to transform my heart and soften my heart, and so, from that point of view, I was able to actually make a decision of where to go.

Speaker 2: 18:25

Okay.

Speaker 4: 18:25

And I used my interests to guide me and the start date to guide me. So, like I said, I wanted to leave as soon as possible. So I was looking for a start date June, july of my senior year, having graduated in May, and so that narrowed down a lot of the bases. And so that narrowed down a lot of the bases, and so from those bases, I chose Cascade, idaho, because they had a backpacking DTS.

Speaker 1: 18:54

And a lot of potatoes. I was about to say it wasn't for the backpacking, it was for the potatoes.

Speaker 2: 18:58

Right yeah, you guys have excellent voices. You both look good. But I'm just saying as far as like recording, thank you, you got very hallucinable voices, does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 19:10

Thank, you Very clear, yet clean.

Speaker 2: 19:13

You're not doing All right, so question number three, jairus, go ahead.

Speaker 1: 19:20

So what was the DTS lecture phase like and what is your biggest takeaway from that, Jasim?

Speaker 3: 19:27

Please go first, Jennifer.

Speaker 4: 19:28

My DTS lecture phase was incredibly good for me. It was a breaking away from my home and from my comfort zone. It made me realize that I had actually never been away from home without anyone in my family before, and so the first five weeks of the 10 weeks I was incredibly homesick, withdrawn. Very emotional Things were happening back home, like positive things that I was missing, that I felt like I was being excluded from, and at one point I almost came home because I felt like I was really missing something important in some of my siblings' lives. I'm glad.

Speaker 4: 20:12

I didn't come home and when I realized that we were going on outreach to India, that was another point where I was like I actually might go home because I don't want to go to India.

Speaker 2: 20:25

Compared to the opposite of your husband.

Speaker 4: 20:27

Exactly, I was like Lord, take me anywhere else but India.

Speaker 1: 20:32

So our listeners in India? You heard it from Jennifer she did not want to come visit y'all.

Speaker 4: 20:36

Yeah, and even when I was there half of the time, I didn't want to be there, so I wasn't the most like called missionary. I think I went to DTS because I wanted God. I didn't want to be a missionary. So, like I had said, my discipleship really started when I was 16, leading into 17. And so my biggest drive for going to DTS was I wanted my faith to be my own and I wanted to know God, which is, you know, one of YWAM's main premises is know God and make him known. So obviously that is a missionary calling, great Commission calling, and that's a part of being a Christian. Is that Great Commission? And so I knew that was a part of it.

Speaker 4: 21:25

But it wasn't why I was going. I was going because I wanted my faith to be my own and I didn't feel like staying home in the church bubble grind in the Deep South would have put me in an environment to create the type of faith backbone that I was hungry for. However, I did not realize that I had so much depressive tendencies, and I only know what I was dealing with now, in hindsight. So those first five weeks that I was in DTS, I couldn't get out of bed. At night. I couldn't go to sleep at night. Anytime I ate meals, I needed to nap afterwards. I couldn't focus. I couldn't connect with anybody. I was fascinated by the lectures, but any of the homework assignments gave me so much anxiety that I couldn't do them, and I was constantly feeling withdrawn.

Speaker 2: 22:22

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 22:24

And I just thought it was normal homesick stuff.

Speaker 2: 22:26

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 22:27

But the fact of we were backpacking and it was extremely vulnerable, like out in the Northwest backpacking and kayaking and things like that and that brought another element of resilience that I didn't have, of resilience that I didn't have because my body was being pushed to the limit while my spirit was trying to grow. But I was also dealing with all of this depression that I didn't know that I had. So in hindsight I see what was going on, but in the moment, in that time, I thought I was just weak and not cut out for it. So the DTS lecture phase was a great experience for me, but I don't think I was very. I wasn't a team player. I don't think. Even though my school was very, very small there was only seven of us the biggest thing that I took away from the lecture phase was just the sheer amount that I didn't know about God himself. I was. I felt like an actual sponge, like going into the lectures. Those were.

Speaker 4: 23:33

My favorite part of DTS was the three hours a day that I got to sit and listen to things that I'm sure my parents had told me at some point, but I was hearing it fresh, I was open to it and it was very, very charismatic and the fact that you can hear God's voice and you can get a personal calling and you can ask the Holy Spirit direct questions and get direct answers. These were things that were so personal that, again, like I said growing up in the church, I am confident that someone along the lines had told me that, but I was just fresh and vulnerable at that time, so I think it was. For me, the lecture phase was mostly that breaking away, making it personal and then being open to just the sheer amount of information and experience that God has for his people.

Speaker 2: 24:36

Awesome, okay, sammy.

Speaker 3: 24:39

What's the full question again, just so I don't.

Speaker 1: 24:41

It says what was DTS lecture phase like and what is your biggest takeaway in the lecture phase?

Speaker 3: 24:50

okay, perfect so yeah by the time I landed in hawaii, who? Ain't me I was in kind of a uh, a christian ascendancy in my life, so I showed up with no expectations. I really felt like I was dialed in almost every way you could be to get the most out of this YWAM experience, because I wasn't expecting one thing or the other. But the lecture phase is broken up usually by topic and each week has a different topic, usually a different speaker, some repeat speakers, but it was really a good overview of so many Christian topics and so many topics that are going to be relevant to people going into the mission field.

Speaker 3: 25:41

And it's kind of like drinking through a fire hose, especially for people that have no very little exposure to the church. And that was another important part of lecture phase was the fellow students, because of people like me who came from another part of the bible belt or you know, just kind of straight edge conservative rural area, and then there's people that literally are not yet christians and they're showing up there and they don't know why they're there. That's just kind of a last resort and they're coming from different parts of the world and everyone in between Protestants, catholics, you know, former church members that are just coming back to it or just people that are like super on fire about it or just brand new, you name it.

Speaker 3: 26:23

that's who was sitting next to you, and even among the lecturers in those weeks you had people with different opinions on things and they kind of present you as much information as they can, as well as they can, and they leave it up to you, the listener, to pray about it and decide for yourself if there's a topic that you're not sure about, if that makes sense. So that was amazing and again, jennifer hit on this a little bit, but it was the idea of hearing God's voice. I think that's something, jennifer and John and y'all's family, you were a bit more familiar with, because the church that I came out of is not really about that. They're far more, I guess you could say. I've heard some people call it Father, son and the Holy Book as opposed to the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 2: 27:11

Yeah, oh, we have experience with that.

Speaker 3: 27:15

And no shade on that group either, because they were very fervent about getting the gospel out and I learned a lot from them. But in that time I was in a sort of my own breaking away and stepping into uncharted territory. Because in that preceding year where I was developing a relationship with God, a lot of it was new ground as far as actively interacting with a living God, with Jesus, with his Holy Spirit, and kind of answering a lot of the questions I'd had about those things. But it only kind of been outlooking in relationally. So just being around people on base, listening to lectures and my own personal time. It was a rapid expansion of what the Lord had already been doing in my life. But I don't think there would have been a better place on earth that that same growth could have happened. So, and again I would just add to that, the people. One of my biggest takeaways was the first night I got there. You, john, prayed for me.

Speaker 1: 28:20

And it was super cool. That's nice. That sounds like something he would do.

Speaker 3: 28:24

Yeah, it's super cool, that's nice. That sounds like something he would do. Yeah, it's on brand. But yeah, he and a couple other folks were going up to the prayer room and we just went up there and worshiped and I was very happy to do that and John told me he got a word and he felt like he said that I was.

Speaker 3: 28:41

I seem to be someone that likes to be extra cautious before going into a decision and this is a time that the Lord wants you to just take a leap step off that cliff and that has actually been a theme that really started that day. And maybe it started when I decided to go to Hawaii and you know, get rid of it, turn down a college scholarship and all that, and say no, it's okay, but that it's easy to do that at a one-time thing as a young person. Your whole life is ahead of you, but as life goes on and you continue that trend, when there's more stuff on the line, you know a family and just other decisions that are absolutely going to affect everything going forward. Ywam was just a big start of that for me, so that was a big takeaway. It's just my relationship with God and with other Christians, my relationship to the rest of the church really broadened as I met more people from different backgrounds.

Speaker 2: 29:42

Awesome, all right rounds. Awesome, all right. So what was DTS outreach like and what was?

Speaker 1: 29:50

your biggest takeaway. So same question as before, just the outreach portion the outreach portion.

Speaker 4: 30:00

So the outreach portion. We visited three separate cities in North India and it was supposed to be over a course of 10 weeks.

Speaker 2: 30:05

Shout out to those cities because we do have a listener that has listened at least once.

Speaker 4: 30:08

Oh, okay, I see, gotcha. We were in Jaipur for the first two weeks, then we traveled to Agra for one week, and the next two weeks we were in New Delhi.

Speaker 1: 30:21

Okay, Not old Delhi, New Delhi.

Speaker 4: 30:24

Well, we did visit the old city of Delhi, but that was more like a day trip to kind of have build historical context of where we were.

Speaker 1: 30:31

They serve sandwiches.

Speaker 4: 30:33

Probably, but I wasn't brave enough to eat any of them.

Speaker 1: 30:36

Yeah, I'd love a deli sandwich. Nice, nice, okay, go ahead.

Speaker 4: 30:42

So, like I said, I kind of went to India, metaphorically kicking and screaming. I did not want to go. I had never, ever had any aspirations of going to Asia at all and I had secretly hoped that that base was going to somewhere in Europe, just because I'm like that.

Speaker 2: 31:03

I was not brave.

Speaker 4: 31:04

I was not wanting to be a missionary per se and so going to the, you know, darkest, hardest places that tend to draw the missionary heart was not my goal. It was a huge culture shock and a huge struggle for me, having never been out of the country and especially not even feeling called there. So the first three weeks so we were in Jaipur and Agra were horrible for me. I couldn't sleep, wasn't able to eat anything really but rice. I was doing my best to be supportive and be a part of the ministry that we were doing there, but I was very pessimistic and hard to be around. Yeah, overall, and the Lord was trying to get through to me and eventually did.

Speaker 4: 31:57

When we ended up in New Delhi. We were working with primarily street kid ministries in New Delhi and week four of the 10 weeks was when the Lord actually broke through to me and showed me the value of being where I was and I was able to actually bring my best to the team and to the ministry that we were doing. And I was able to actually bring my best to the team and to the ministry that we were doing, and so I was able to function like that for two weeks, to the point where I was contemplating staying there and joining staff. That was the transformation of, you know, four weeks earlier, being kicking and screaming, contemplating buying a ticket from our layover in Amsterdam just straight back to Georgia, to then, four weeks later, the Lord having transformed my heart to see the need and what he's doing in the church.

Speaker 2: 32:49

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 32:51

And those were the thoughts that were kind of going around in my head when I got the news that our grandfather had passed away suddenly and that was my first experience with death truly like in our family, so first person that I had ever, really ever had an actual relationship with passed away suddenly and and it was our father's father, and it's not uncommon for people to leave DTS for family issues and things like that and there are some rules around how to deal with that as a staff and team and things like that. So I had to make a decision practically overnight whether or not I was going to go home or miss the funeral and all the grieving with my family and stay and finish out the DTS outreach. And that was actually the most important part, I think, of my whole DTS experience was that decision point of being able to confidently hear the voice of God in a decision of intense consequences and conflict in the face of people that aren't necessarily supportive of what my decision ultimately was, which was to go home, ultimately was, which was to go home, leave outreach early. And I knew that because we were communicating with the home base back in the States at the same time and it was made clear to me that if I did decide to go home, I wouldn't graduate with my team, so I wouldn't be able to actually graduate from my whole DTS experience and I wouldn't be able to go forward in any YWAM schools.

Speaker 4: 34:42

So that was the decision point of do I stay because God called me to this experience and my team is depending on me and we're on outreach and that's, you know, the big highlight point of most DTS experiences or do I go home and be with my family in a time of mourning and support them in that way?

Speaker 4: 35:03

So getting alone with God in our really, really shabby room that we were all staying in, and being able to make that decision and come to the decision on my own to choose to go home instead of staying, finish out, the outreach was the most important part of my outreach in my view Because, like I said, the point of me going to DTS in general was to make my faith my own and to be able to hear the voice of God and to be able to hear the voice of God and the Lord gave me that perfect microcosm decision point to be able to see that I practiced both of those things in my exit and that brought a lot of confirmation that I had achieved, with the Lord, what I had set out to do in that time, even though it didn't end in a diploma and it didn't make me my team's favorite person in the whole world.

Speaker 2: 35:59

Yeah, hey, that's okay because it worked out the way god wanted it to. For those who don't know, I've actually been thoroughly intertwined in both jennifer and sam's ywm experience, so this is more for the audience and jerry's.

Speaker 1: 36:15

I know about this, about this, but go on, trash Cat doesn't.

Speaker 2: 36:17

Yeah, Trash Cat, this is his experience. This is Trash Cat's first story of YWAM. Can I just say what a word Microchasm. Or did I say that wrong?

Speaker 4: 36:27

A microchasm.

Speaker 2: 36:28

Microchasm, chasm, chasm. Never heard it, but I felt smarter just hearing it. So smarter, just hearing it.

Speaker 4: 36:37

I'm glad I could contribute.

Speaker 1: 36:40

It's awful for me and John when there's people on the podcast smarter than us, because it makes us look really bad.

Speaker 2: 36:45

No, it's not. We're both aware that we're goofy and silly and stupid, but when we just sit here and don't say anything and you're just brilliant and you sound brilliant and everyone's like wait a minute, why aren't we listening to this podcast there? Brilliant and you sound brilliant and everyone's like wait a minute, why aren't we listening to this podcast? There's better people out there listeners. Don't leave us please, please, stay, please. We need you anyway. Sam. What was your dts outreach phase like and what was your biggest takeaway?

Speaker 3: 37:13

well, I think, with some hindsight and having talked to other YWAMers and looking back on my own experience, I don't think any two outreaches are the same. There will be similar stories in different people's outreaches, but no two are the same and that's a combination of what the Lord's doing in your life as you go on outreach and what your attitude is going into it. So again for me, I was trying to go at this with, you know, open mind, no expectations. It can only be, you know, the best that it possibly can be if I approach it that way. But our teams during lecture phase I did get the India team but we also found out that we were going to an additional country of Sri Lanka, Sri.

Speaker 2: 38:00

Lanka.

Speaker 3: 38:01

Which ended up being like it was kind of not many people from that base had been there yet and they kind of described it like oh, this is going to be the cherry on top of the India cake and it ended up being its very own cake and both were very spicy. Two cakes.

Speaker 4: 38:17

Smaller, smaller tropical cake. In India everything very spicy Two cakes Smaller, smaller tropical cake.

Speaker 1: 38:19

In India, everything is spicy. That is factually true, Confirmed yes.

Speaker 3: 38:23

So, as Jennifer did, we also stayed in Jaipur, rajasthan, and then, after a few weeks, we took a train down to the south, in a province called Tamil Nadu. And for listeners who are unfamiliar, india is like a lot of countries in one you travel a few hours on a train and all the languages that you've been studying, all the culture you've been getting used to, is out the window. It's useless.

Speaker 3: 38:51

Because you're in a new basically a new culture and the people have a language there that is not even related to the language. You spent a few weeks, you know, trying to immerse yourself in Not that we were trying to be bilingual, but you know a few phrases, ideally to help you around. And then, for people listening, most outreaches, you were helped a lot with translators or people that are from that country pretty much holding your hand while you do the few things that, honestly, you learned how to do in YWAM. You know going into it, but it still has a big impact if you are obedient. So, jaipur, rajasthan, down to Tamil Nadu and then to Sri Lanka. Jaipur was a much more, had a more Middle Eastern vibe and again I actually stayed, Again our team stayed, in the same building that Jennifer's team had of only a few months prior, even though obviously she and I had not met yet.

Speaker 2: 39:45

Wow, but I had met you, john, you had met me.

Speaker 3: 39:49

Yeah, passenger, van going to the airport with you and the other sbsers standing there, and you gave me a very encouraging nod, like just quietly saying you got this I do that a lot. You do it's a signature move and it paid off.

Speaker 3: 40:07

Yeah, because that turns out I did in fact had it. So, yeah, jaipur was wonderful because it was such a cool place, kind of a high mountain desert kind of feel to it. It was wintertime, so it was probably a good 70 degrees cooler than it was when Jennifer was there. Unfortunately, it's a very heavy atmosphere there. Women are not really seen as equal to men in that region. It's a rough environment.

Speaker 3: 40:37

For that reason, in a lot of situations, without getting too much into that, we also had to be pretty careful about what we did ministry-wise. So a lot of that involved us working with orphanages, working with Christians already established there who knew the kind of bar we could stay under to stay under the radar of authorities that would get mad at us. So there was a Mother Teresa home there and that's just basically a really crazy third world-esque old folks home. A lot of really emotionally damaging stuff. You would see in there People towards the end of their lives and you just have to try and show them the love of Jesus a couple times a week that you were there, whether that's cleaning up the facility, trying to pray with them. A lot of these are just old Indians that aren't really necessarily Christians, just even though they're in a Mother Teresa home, things like that.

Speaker 3: 41:28

And then a lot of the team was frustrated because we had heard so many stories coming out of Nepal of miracles happening. And again, that's not something that in my background I was used to, but I was so eager to see. And so we're like, yeah, we're on outreach, here we go. Game on Holy Spirit, what do you got for us? Not much in the way of crazy, in the way of crazy firework type things, but much more. I want to see God move a mountain. Yeah, we did.

Speaker 4: 41:59

We wanted that so bad. That's kind of tricky in India because you might land on someone.

Speaker 3: 42:03

That's true.

Speaker 2: 42:06

Because you know there's so many people there's a good amount of people there.

Speaker 1: 42:10

There's only one mountain, but a lot of people.

Speaker 4: 42:12

You might want to leave the mountains alone there.

Speaker 3: 42:14

Zing Got them, so yeah not much of that in the north there. Zing Got them. So, yeah, not much of that in the north there. But we did like important stuff was happening on the team, mostly between us all getting along and going on prayer walks and just kind of going through the motions that we knew how to do and praying that God would use it.

Speaker 2: 42:33

You actually had. I remember you had a really, really solid team. Like your cohesion with each other was really good. That's what I remember, just seeing you guys during lecture phase, kind of like just getting along. I mean, nobody's perfect, but from what I remember, you guys for the most part.

Speaker 3: 42:53

I think those bonds were definitely tested on outreach. Yeah, you know, pranking each other in the middle of the night is not really conducive to team unity.

Speaker 1: 43:02

I would say it would be bonding.

Speaker 3: 43:04

You and I would. Yeah, some would not, and those that would were 18 and 19, such as myself and some of the others. Anyway, there are better ways to go about outreach than others and we learned a lot of lessons. But, that said, we took a 40-hour train ride down south with our team intact, and that could be its own episode describing that train ride, but we won't get into that. In the south, in Tamil Nadu, much freer environment, religiously, as far as the authorities go, much warmer climate. It felt like we had just taken a train to summertime and women had more rights there. So it was just a lighter atmosphere and most of our team was mostly female. So when I bring that up, it's because it had an effect on our team, because they could see what happens.

Speaker 2: 43:52

So it was like how big was your team, how many people?

Speaker 3: 43:57

With our leaders 14, 14, and there was one there's for the listeners. There's usually one male and one female leader yeah, so so, but 14, including your leaders.

Speaker 2: 44:07

So it was you and transition tyler, and then 10 other girls. Really, yeah, tyler is on his team, nice. Yeah, tyler has won an epic place in our podcast. Every single time that we transition into a different topic, we call it a tyler transition I'm definitely gonna have to get into the lore of that uh off the air because tyler obviously it's really short.

Speaker 2: 44:30

He gave feedback and the only feedback he gave was I'd like to have more clarity about when you're moving topics. But otherwise you did great on your podcast and I was like well, I really appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 44:40

So we make a very conscious point to make sure Tyler is aware that we are having a transition.

Speaker 2: 44:47

So we say, even though he's probably only listened to like one episode and never listened again, I'll make sure he listens to this one, Tyler this is your transition and we move on.

Speaker 3: 44:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 44:56

So he's transitioned Tyler.

Speaker 3: 44:57

He's going to be disappointed because we're not actually transitioning topics, but his name has been said about 12 times. He has been mentioned in every episode. Yeah, fair enough, okay, anyway. So I'm glad you brought up Tyler, because while there are some things that I would do different as far as team unity is concerned, some of the laughs that tyler and I had I will never forget. Just when you're bored and you're in between uh outreach activities and you have a rooftop kind of uh apartment, if you will, it's like people's porches are on the roofs in that part of the world yeah it allows for some real shenanigans, uh, with the crowds below when foolery if you will.

Speaker 3: 45:38

Yeah, so that's um silliness yeah if we have more time at a later date we might get into those stories. But suffice to say a lot of laughs were had with good old transition tyler, which has a weird anyway. Okay, so it's weird, but he probably doesn't like that title. It's all right, let's use it more.

Speaker 2: 45:57

He has a special place in our heart. Actually, tyler's probably the third most mentioned person on this podcast, because we mention each other jess and I mentioned each other, and then tyler and he's never been on. I'm sorry, no, my wife yeah, but she comes up like every other episode transition tyler.

Speaker 3: 46:16

Tyler comes up several times, every single episode so true, I had better wrap up my answer so okay, so, yeah, so the south was a lot freer. We could do a lot more open ministry. We found ourselves going to villages, some of which had never heard the name of jesus, and so came the radical kind of miraculous, charismatic events we so desired. And it turns out the Holy Spirit was playing his cards right, because in places where there was almost no name recognition with Jesus or Christians, some of the most dramatic things happened Blind people were healed, were healed. I was involved in praying for healings and I even witnessed and was involved in the casting out of evil spirits of people and of places, and these are things that, mind you, in my relationship with God.

Speaker 3: 47:07

Leading up to this, I wasn't sure what to make of because I had no exposure to it, and I heard a lot of people in the West with opinions about it, about what the origins of these languages, whatever actually are, about it, about what the origins of these, you know, languages, whatever actually are, for example. But the Lord answered every question I had, with different events, and it was just so generous on his part. And then we went to Sri Lanka and it was a little bit of a mix of the two prior locations. As far as what we saw, sri Lanka was a war-torn country, a beautiful but tragic place, and we were just because we were kind of breaking ground there. As far as YWAM Honolulu was concerned, it was a little more of a pioneering trip and kind of figuring out what the lay of the land was. But Sri Lanka is just a fascinating, amazing place. So the biggest takeaway for me for all those places was summarized in one event takeaway from me for all those places was summarized in one event, when a blind man was healed.

Speaker 3: 48:02

And what took place in my heart immediately after, you would think that was like this crown moment of the outreach that I was looking forward to. And immediately as it happened, this realization set in that I could not have predicted and it was just a profound sense of disappointment. The miracle had happened and my heart realized it doesn't matter if there's a really good Sean Foyt song that mentions this it doesn't matter if I can raise the dead, if you don't know me.

Speaker 3: 48:29

And obviously the team was off the wall, thrilled that we saw this miracle and this village that had never heard of Jesus was cheering on us as we left and drove away, and I think our contact there has since gone back and helped establish a Christian community there, but I don't know details on that. But the point is all the way home I was wallowing in my disappointment at realizing I was gunning for the wrong thing.

Speaker 3: 48:53

I'm so stoked on this miracle, so stoked on this action, this crazy thing that, oh man, I've only read about this thing. You know, I want to see it. And then I saw it and I can only imagine what Thomas the Apostle thought when Jesus was like all right, you asked, so here I am, I'm alive, obviously. Here's the hole in my side. All that and just the realization of if only I had just believed him the whole time. And just the realization of if only I had just believed him the whole time. And obviously I believed in him, but my honest relationship with him was still fledgling.

Speaker 2: 49:24

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 49:24

If I'm being honest, and I got home, we got back to our base or our apartment in that part of the country that night and I was like I don't want dinner, I just want to go up and pray. And I went up there and just wasn't even sure where to turn with God.

Speaker 3: 49:33

I was like I don't want dinner, I just want to go up and pray and I went up there and just wasn't even sure where to turn with God. I was like, do I listen to worship music? Do I read scripture? What do I do? Because hearing the voice of God is not really something I was used to. It was brand new to me. And my teammate comes up and she says I feel like I'm supposed to tell you you're doing a great job and you need to give yourself some credit. What I had just prayed is Lord, show me something, tell me anything about my relationship with you and there came the

Speaker 3: 50:10

answer and she went on to say you know, a relationship is like a tree it takes time to grow and yours is in good ground and well watered and it will grow into a giant tree. And yeah, that's your relationship with god. And so the takeaway, that said, is I went there hoping to help other people and I was really passionate about it. The lord gave me a lot of passion about helping other people with the gospel, with just relief work, feeding them, whatever it was, and we did all that with the gospel with just relief work, feeding them, whatever it was. And we did all that. But the takeaway was he was there to help me and that has been the case since then.

Speaker 2: 50:46

Awesome, all right. So we've got to wrap it up because you guys can't be here all night. So I'm going to fill in some gaps and then we've got a couple of bonus questions we're going to ask you. But you guys both met in YWAM. That's how you started your relationship and it started to blood and blossom. Blood, blood started to bud Brutal way of putting and blossom.

Speaker 4: 51:10

Yes, much to your chagrin.

Speaker 3: 51:12

Oh, I wasn't even going to go there.

Speaker 2: 51:13

Yeah, so, but basically correct me if I'm wrong with just how this happened. But anyways, sam finished his DTS and then, through some prayer and convincing, convinced him to come back into a secondary school in Hawaii to do an SBS, which is a Bible, a nine-month Bible study.

Speaker 3: 51:35

Yeah, also due to another secondary school that I had planned on coming back to get canceled, and the School of Biblical Studies or SBS, is. If anyone is listening and has the opportunity to do one, do it. It's. It was just a. I've heard the expression said by Francis Chan. It's like if you would sit alone on an island and I wasn't alone but if you were to sit on an island with just the Bible and that's all you had time to deal with, what would you come off of that island after a year or so believing? Would it be what you believe? Would it be what most of the church teaches? And I got to try that experiment out because it went back to Hawaii and, just like if I was drinking through a fire hose in DTS, that fire hose was amplified by like 50 because we thought we had work to do in DTS.

Speaker 2: 52:27

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 52:28

No, no, this is grad school level. Hefty, hefty work, A lot of cemetery grade but rampant. Seminary seminaryant Seminary grade.

Speaker 4: 52:39

It felt like death. It felt like death.

Speaker 2: 52:44

So you did that, you did a Bible study, sbs School of Biblical Studies in Hawaii and then towards the end of your school, jennifer came out for a month to YWAM Honolulu to actually finish up her DTS so she could get the paperwork.

Speaker 3: 53:00

The outreach credits a year and a half after the fact.

Speaker 2: 53:03

But you know our base was willing to come out and help her finish it up and so that's how you guys met, was doing mutual YWAM stuff at YWAM Honolulu and you know I got on both of you like, hey, you don't entertain relationships, focus on what you're supposed to be doing, but you entertain relationships anyway. So but it worked out. You guys ended up starting to date and then after that, jennifer, you went and did your school of biblical studies. You did it in the like the mothership base of Montana.

Speaker 4: 53:32

Yes, yeah, I was at Lakeside Montana.

Speaker 2: 53:34

Which is where for anyone who doesn't know that's where the School of Biblical Studies that's the heart of it is in Montana. So you went through your whole program and then you got finished up and you came back to Georgia and you guys kind of grew in your relationship, got engaged, got married, went through college. Both of you went through college, grew as a couple, had a kid, and now you are in Maryland and you are both pursuing careers, but you're also working with a YWAM kind of right.

Speaker 4: 54:10

To an extent we dabble. There's a base in Kaiser, West Virginia.

Speaker 2: 54:16

Shout out.

Speaker 4: 54:16

Yeah, shout out. It's considered a pioneer base, even though it's been there for a substantial amount of time. And they're unlike any other YWAM base that we've really encountered, because they don't run schools very often. When they do, they're more concerned about transforming their community.

Speaker 2: 54:35

Got it.

Speaker 4: 54:36

So that's their mission. They run a homeschool co-op for. That started after COVID lockdowns, when the kids in their community were falling way behind in the public school system. So they saw a need for the kids there, so they started this homeschool co-op program. They work with most of the churches in the area. One of the staff members is like a lunch security guard at one of the middle schools.

Speaker 2: 55:03

Okay.

Speaker 4: 55:04

So they ingrain themselves in the community and they don't focus so much on foreign missions.

Speaker 2: 55:11

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 55:11

Even though they all have a heart for it.

Speaker 3: 55:13

Yeah, and occasionally do so on, like every two years or something. They go to a couple of countries that they're kind of revisited.

Speaker 4: 55:20

Yeah, so we've had the opportunity to support that base and help with certain parts YWAM, but you're still somewhat, and the YWAM worlds, but we're less directly involved than we were when we were in the schools.

Speaker 2: 56:04

Okay, all right, I got a couple of quick fun questions for you guys and then we'll end it. So, real quick, what do you like to do for fun?

Speaker 3: 56:13

I think we like to go outside and bear the elements, because we did that for six months when you mentioned us growing in our marriage. A big part of that was deciding to through hike the entire Appalachian Trail in spite of a lot of rain and other things that are real downers.

Speaker 1: 56:31

Weren't you pregnant too, when you did that?

Speaker 4: 56:33

Oh gosh no.

Speaker 1: 56:33

No.

Speaker 4: 56:34

That would have been a dramatic mistake.

Speaker 2: 56:36

I do remember you guys because you announced to the family that you were planning on doing a hike through. And everyone thought and everyone was like oh wow, they're already pregnant. Because everyone was together in the living room out at our family's farm and Jennifer and Sam were like we have an announcement for everyone and we were all like what. And she was like we are through hiking and we're like what.

Speaker 4: 56:58

And she was like we are through hiking and we're like, okay, everyone was so confused and disappointed. Yeah, we're like wait a minute.

Speaker 2: 57:04

But no, that's awesome Because very few people can claim that they've done that Right Like. It's a very small percentage of people that have hiked all the way through Right Impressive. Okay, if you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be? That's tricky. You guys aren't big movie-ery.

Speaker 4: 57:21

No, truly not. I don't watch that many movies in my adult life, I just don't. We can't all be as disciplined as you. No, I just prefer reading.

Speaker 2: 57:32

So if I had to read, Okay, what's one book besides the Bible?

Speaker 4: 57:39

One book would be Jane Eyre. It's just that British novel Jane Eyre, it's depressing.

Speaker 1: 57:42

Don't they have a movie?

Speaker 4: 57:44

They do, but it loses so much in the translation.

Speaker 2: 57:47

Got it Alright, sam. For the normal people out here.

Speaker 3: 57:52

This could change in a few years, but currently I would say Office Space.

Speaker 2: 57:57

Office Space is the one movie you'd watch the rest of your life if all of the movies got cut out.

Speaker 1: 58:03

I think so I'm going to need you to come in on Saturday. Yeah, and you know what Come in on Sunday just to be seen. Jairus, I've got to ask what do you do here? I press buttons.

Speaker 2: 58:19

And he's really good at it.

Speaker 4: 58:21

That sounds like management material.

Speaker 2: 58:23

Okay, last question what are you nerdy about? If someone asked you about something, you could just go on for hours talking about it, because you love it. You love learning more about it. You have a lot of information about it.

Speaker 4: 58:37

I'm just going to take this one real quick.

Speaker 3: 58:40

Jane.

Speaker 2: 58:41

Eyre.

Speaker 3: 58:42

Jane Eyre.

Speaker 4: 58:46

Correct, depressing British novels. No Nutrition, okay take this one real quick um jane air, hey jane correct. Depressing british novels, no correct nutrition, okay, and how it affects, uh, psychology and mental health, that is. That is my current niche. So I didn't know diddly squat about nutrition before getting married, and sam enlightened me that a box of Kraft mac and cheese is not in fact a meal, so it was enlightening.

Speaker 3: 59:10

I have zero memory of that, yeah.

Speaker 4: 59:13

It's been a passion of mine how food is just chemicals essentially, and how they're broken down and used by the human body and how they affect the human body. And the reason I say the mental health aspect is after having my first child. I was diagnosed with the postpartum depression after the fact and medicated for it.

Speaker 2: 59:36

Which is brutal for those who don't know.

Speaker 4: 59:39

It was enough to scare me into being medicated.

Speaker 2: 59:42

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 59:43

And it changed who I was. That's what was so scary about it.

Speaker 2: 59:48

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 59:49

And so, having, you know, been medicated for it, I was able to get my head above water, actually be myself again, and started researching how nutrition affects mood disorders. That enlightenment showed me, and the Holy Spirit as well, that the way that I had been eating in high school, in DTS, in SBS, was a huge factor in why I had such a negative experience through all of those things. So, that being the case, now it's something I'm passionate about. It's something I know a lot about, and I want more people to ask me about it and actually be interested in it, because I see so many people dealing with the same exact symptoms that I have.

Speaker 2: 1:00:47

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:00:48

And I know exactly why. There is a factor of food that goes into that, and I would love to talk to you about it for hours.

Speaker 3: 1:00:58

Sounds like you need a microphone, a laptop and one, jairus, that's right. A button pusher? Yes, I would like to, and one, jairus, that's right.

Speaker 4: 1:01:03

A button pusher.

Speaker 2: 1:01:05

Yes, I would like to order a Jairus. Please Put it on two-day shipping.

Speaker 1: 1:01:08

So if anybody out there is listening and you have any questions for Jennifer, reach out to us and we'll reach out to her and get your questions answered, yep.

Speaker 4: 1:01:19

That'd be so fun.

Speaker 2: 1:01:19

And I do want to encourage if you're listening and you do struggle with depression, Yep, That'd be so fun. And I do want to encourage if you're listening and you do struggle with depression, just know that it doesn't make you a bad Christian. If you get medicated for your depression. Okay, God has created everything in our world to sustain us and take care of us. God is the great healer and deliverer. Just trust and pray and trust in him. But it could also be something like what Jennifer was saying it could be your diet. So don't just be stuck in the pity party of your depression. Do the best you can to be proactive in it and know that God loves you. He doesn't hate you and that's why you're depressed. God loves you and this world's just hard.

Speaker 2: 1:01:58

So if you need to be medicated, be, medicated and if you need encouragement, just know that God does love you and maybe check out what you're eating and putting in your body. Check your diet, yeah, check your diet.

Speaker 4: 1:02:10

I will say one other thing on that when I was dealing so, so heavily with the depression I am very fortunate to have had Sam very closely in that In that the biggest lie that I was believing at that time was that I couldn't hear the voice of God when I was depressed, and so there was no hope, there was no one to save me, and so it wasn't getting better. That was. The biggest lie was that when I'm depressed, I can't hear the voice of God. He doesn't talk to me. Biggest lie was that when I'm depressed, I can't hear the voice of God. He doesn't talk to me.

Speaker 2: 1:02:48

And Sam was able to tell me that is a lie. Stop believing that.

Speaker 3: 1:02:54

Amen. All right, Sam, what are you nerdy about? I am most nerdy about rocks Incorrect.

Speaker 1: 1:03:01

Oh my gosh. I'm glad that me and you both thought of that at the same time.

Speaker 3: 1:03:05

That is impressive, Although your wife asked me upstairs what rock is my favorite and I did not have an answer, so I clearly haven't been thinking about yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:03:15

We get it. You're not super nerdy about rocks, but it's just. You've got a degree in it, so we just you have a bachelor's degree in rocks.

Speaker 3: 1:03:23

Wish I did and I could make more money.

Speaker 2: 1:03:25

Yes, I'm a doctor in rocks.

Speaker 1: 1:03:32

How do you feel about the?

Speaker 3: 1:03:33

movie the Rock with Sean Connery. I have no opinion about it because I have not seen it.

Speaker 3: 1:03:38

Okay so what are you nerdy about for real? I need to watch my pauses or else they will be filled. I need to watch my pauses or else they will be filled. I am nerdy about history, especially the American Civil War. I am interested in geopolitical stuff, current events and decisions that we can make as a country about that. I would like, if the Lord allows, to be involved in the business of national defense, still figuring out what that looks like. And I'm really into aviation, which is why I'm trying to complete my private pilot certificate and prayers appreciated for that, because hoping to get a date for my check ride, which is the final in the next month, and to be be ready for it.

Speaker 1: 1:04:22

I let Sam drive my drone one time and he about cried. He's like this is the greatest moment of my life.

Speaker 3: 1:04:29

It was the 4th of July. In my defense and there were fireworks everywhere as soon as the drone got above treeline. It was just.

Speaker 1: 1:04:35

We saw all those fireworks for miles from the drone. Oh glory, yeah, yeah, you teared up. That's a beautiful moment.

Speaker 2: 1:04:40

I know, yeah, you teared up. That's a beautiful moment. I know that can be now shared with the world because you told the story. That's right Way to go, jairus Way to involve everybody. See, I am useful. Yeah, he can do more than push buttons.

Speaker 3: 1:04:53

Of course, all right.

Speaker 2: 1:04:55

Johnny, I know.

Speaker 3: 1:04:59

What? Okay. So before we wrap up, there is something on YWAM that I wanted to leave people with, because there's no shortage of opinions on YWAM. As a user will find, when you look on YouTube and you find like type in, like most viewed videos concerning YWAM, the ones with the most views are the ones that say quote the truth behind YWAM or any insert negative title here. That is what gets the most views, because people hear about it, they think about it and then they hear someone who had a horrible experience which, by the way, I'm not discounting but that's what gets all the attention. But that's what gets all the attention and you know the content from other functional bases that aren't facilitating those bad experiences. You know they just don't get the traffic, you know.

Speaker 2: 1:05:51

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:05:52

And I think for someone to understand YWAM, they have to understand here comes Trash Cat. They have to understand that each base is pretty decentralized as far as leadership is concerned. There are some core tenets that YWAM is focused on, and maybe you could fill people in on what those are.

Speaker 3: 1:06:12

Knowing God and making him known are some of the main ones I remember. And then just getting involved in as many spheres of society as you can, in or out of YWAM. That's what they want to equip people to do. Leadership matters, and sometimes there are bases where people take leadership positions for the wrong reasons, just like they did in the first century church, which is why Paul had to write so many letters, because it's a human organization, you know, and are some some groups of bases that have a different approach to leadership. I think the, the leadership at honolulu has been great for us, you know, and for a lot of people you know, around the world that claim you know they've had horrible cultic experiences where they were abused like I.

Speaker 3: 1:07:00

Just that was not my experience and I think good leadership was a big reason for the fact that it wasn't, and so I guess I would just encourage people trust the Lord, do what he tells you and you know, take everything anyone says with a grain of salt, good or bad.

Speaker 2: 1:07:19

There you go, all right. Well, this has been our episode 17, our first episode for mission month yeah, mission month, ministry month.

Speaker 1: 1:07:31

Mission ministry month.

Speaker 2: 1:07:31

Mission, ministry month so this has been our guests Jennifer and Sam. I hope that their stories have blessed you guys and maybe opened your eyes to potentially getting out there and just knowing God and making Him known. So thank you guys for coming on. We really appreciate it.

Speaker 3: 1:07:49

Absolutely Thanks for having us.

Speaker 1: 1:07:51

Love you guys, and if y'all have any questions about YWAM or anything like that, reach out to us. We'll have the answers.

Speaker 2: 1:07:59

That's right. You can reach out to us at saintsthat Serve at gmailcom, any of our social media platforms, or there's a SMS messaging link at the bottom of the description for this podcast. As always, guys like, subscribe, share, leave a review If you can. We want to hear from you and build a relationship with you. So, yeah, that's been this week's episode. Christ is Lord and the kingdom is now. We are the saints that serve way to go.

Speaker 2: 1:08:50

Y'all did it sorry that the cat kept on jumping on you, that's all right. You were like trying to mother control.

Speaker 1: 1:08:58

Like stay down you didn't say please get off. You said you, you are getting off, you are getting off.