Living a Life of Adventure, Traveling the World on a Budget, and Enjoying Spiritual Disciplines with Peter Jones

Peter Jones, creator of The Daily Kairos Journal, and lover of all things related to adventure and travel, joins for a fun conversation about growing in passion and purpose as a young man. 

He shares his perspective on living a life of adventure and how, if approached carefully, this aligns with a Christ-centered life. 

Pete shares some practical tips for how to travel on a budget, and numerous helpful insights about how to grow into a deeper relationship with God through regular consistent engagement spiritual disciplines such as journaling, meditating on scripture, and prayer.

Transcript

David: 0:34

Well, I'm here with Pete Jones, entrepreneur and founder of the daily Kairos journal and a good friend of mine from freedom church of Philadelphia, Pete. Good to have you on the podcast today.

Pete: 0:47

It's good to be here, Dave, always a pleasure getting to catch up with you.

David: 0:50

Absolutely my friend. Well, bro, I'm excited for our conversation today. We're going to be talking some about just living a life of adventure that is really rooted in God, as well as cultivating life, giving daily habits and things like daily Bible reading and prayer and journaling. And Pete, I know you've got a great story. Both personally, as it comes to coming to follow Jesus and also just of how you've continued growing in your faith. And so I think it's going to be inspiring. I think it's going to be encouraging to all that are listening here. So, uh, Pete, again, welcome to the podcast. If you could, Pete, just start off by sharing a little bit about your story, your background and how it is you even came to be a follower of Jesus.

Pete: 1:34

Yeah, so, like Dave said, I'm Pete, uh, born and raised in Florida for seven years. And my family moved up to Pennsylvania where I spent most of my life. And, uh, when I was young, my parents divorced. And so I had this, uh, Both of my parents are Christians. Mom went off to Presbyterian church where she was raised and my dad went to more of a Wesleyan and eventually nondenominational. And, uh, so I kind of had tastes of both types of upbringings from those perspectives. Uh, my dad was certainly more of the, uh, born in the seventies, born in the fifties, had a crazy conversion story in the seventies, out of the Calvary church, out in Costa Mesa and, um, very much, uh, Rigorous in his, his, uh, way he would bring me like very, in some ways, legalistic, um, because of how he was before kind of wild. Whereas my mom was, uh, different, more loose with things. And so I could kind of pick and choose where I wanted to go. Uh, if I want to get, get away with something. So I came to, to accept the Lord at a very, very young age, but through my, through my middle-aged years, probably from middle school on to high school and definitely into college, I fell away. Uh, for a good chunk of them. And I fell away, I think because I was just surrounded by people that weren't godly at all. And I, I, I think that I just didn't really choose my friends wisely and I got led down some paths and ultimately I just kind of lost the taste for being with alert. And it wasn't really, until after college, I spent time in New York city and was working a corporate job there. I'm still kind of live in that college life. Ended up quitting that job and backpacking South and central America coming to the Philly area and found freedom church in 2016. And that's when the Lord really started stirring in my heart. And, and basically saying like, you know, you're in or you're out. And in 2018, I got baptized at freedom actually. So there's just a big, big shift towards, you know, 2016, 17, 18 with that question or place in my heart. Are you in or you're out and. I saw both ways. There, there were to go. And I saw the way that I had been living and I saw the way that I wanted to live. And I knew it was time to make some changes. And I'm really grateful for the, just the knock on my heart. And also even in the times that I was really, I would say I was kind of falling away. I still had a pulse, um, with the Lord because of how I was raised. And my dad at a very young age, again, kind of overbearing at times, he would. He would make us read a scripture and then also journal about what we had heard and we'd spend time. And I remember, I don't remember exactly how young I was probably like early, probably preteens. He was like, read Psalms, you know, let's say someone, someone, and maybe it was only like 10 verses. And he's like take 20 minutes to do. And I'm like 20 minutes into it. I can read this thing in like two seconds. What am I going to do with all this time? But. Doing that over and over again at that time it was, it was like, I was, I was young and I just wanted to go and play. But even in the times later on in life, when I was struggling was, uh, really not close to the Lord, I would always come back to that time with alert and journaling and, and reaching out to him. So.

David: 4:47

Hmm, Pete, that's a great story. Yeah. Even, uh, I was talking with my wife, Katie, about us recording this podcast and she just, she was actually reminding me that she knew you and your wife, Jordan, before I knew you. She was like, Oh, I know the longer than you did. And you guys were, of course, we're part of a small group Bible study together. That was probably what, 20, 2016, maybe

Pete: 5:11

Yeah,

David: 5:12

uh, But man, it's just cool to hear. And so thankful for the grace of God in your life. Uh, Pete, just, I know even beyond this and you've shared some really powerful things already about your story, but I know you're also a guy who loves the outdoors. You love adventure. I mean, you mentioned a little bit backpacking across South America. Uh, I know you also spent. Probably what close to a year, uh, are viewing around the country prior to having children. Um, you know, w w do you see any connection there maybe to that aspect of your life and your faith? And, uh, just talk about that a little bit, if you would, because I think some people, when they hear. Spiritual disciplines. I mean, even the word discipline, it just sounds like, Hey, that's, that's the bummer. That's the going to be no fun. Right. But these spiritual practices or habits reading the Bible, prayer, journaling, um, you know, for you and my time with you, you certainly seem to come alive with those things in a similar way to the way I see you come alive in the outdoors. And so I'm just curious if there's any connection there that you've identified.

Pete: 6:25

Well, I think, uh, When, um, yeah, we've had a lot of great adventures. I've been very fortunate and for what it's worth, we had done one of them in the RV with one child. Haven't done two children yet, but I think the outdoors for me is, um, especially as we grow in this age of technology has become more and more precious. And you know, those adventures just allow me to, I don't want to use the word escape because it gives the wrong word, but if it re as relating to. You know, my relationship with Christ, especially, or the past few years out in Breckenridge, Colorado, I'd probably I'd get up five out of seven days before the sun Rose four 30, read the word and then, um, you know, sub Sub-Zero temperatures go out and hike a couple of miles of the dogs in the mountains. And that to me, outdoors with the Lord, there is better than adventuring and outdoors without them because you're actually seeing his creation and you're not glorifying a mountain because the mountains are great. You're, you're glorifying the creator and thanking him for the mountain. So how amazing are the diesel alert, you know, and how amazing is that this is the one who created them. And so that's what the adventure brings to me now is being outdoors, recognizing what he's made and realizing that what he has made is actually there in front of you. It doesn't have to be viewed through a screen. So

David: 7:45

Yeah, Pete, that's such an awesome perspective. Yeah. I think about even just this idea of being alone and you know, out in nature, especially, but the reality is that for the Christian, when you're alone, you're never really alone that God is with you. And, and it's just can be such a sweet time to talk with him in an undistracted way, in a particularly out in some. Grand scene in nature, such as the mountains where there's just an element of inspiration built into that, or another similar thing would be like, when you, when you go to the ocean and you look out at the horizon and the waves and the skyline, it's just, there's something of the wonder. I think that can be awakened in our hearts, in those settings. That just is a natural segue into worship. So, man, that's, that's so cool to hear your perspective on that. Pete, I'm just curious out of all the different adventures that you've had backpacking in South America, et cetera, is there one adventure that you would say, Hey, this was the best out of all of them. This is, this is my favorite adventure. I know they're all different. So it's probably hard to pick, but is there anything that comes to mind?

Pete: 9:02

It's so challenging, but I'll just name a couple. I won't get into the nitty-gritties, but I would say Australia was one of them because, uh, aside from just landing in this foreign country at a young age, uh, they eventually did with the, I was studying abroad. There took seven of my friends in a camper van, like the size of a normal van here in America. And did, uh, uh, road trip up the coast, Kevin out of that, on the beaches and stuff. So that was, that was pretty, just amazing just to try.

David: 9:33

Wow. Yeah, that sounds amazing. Was that in Eastern Australia? Western

Pete: 9:37

Yeah. It was Eastern. That was like the gold coast all the way up to, uh, To cans where I was. So, yeah. Um, and then right after that, we went to New Zealand on the way home. And I think New Zealand to me will always have a sense of adventure because it's the purest place I've ever been on earth. You just feel like the carbon there's no, there's nothing wrong with the air. You just felt like it was so clean and pure. Um, but I'd probably say like the one that is at the height of it all is probably the Galapagos islands, because it had been a dream of mine. I loved animals growing up, had a, just a deep affection for reptiles, especially. And, uh, I always wanted to go to the Galapagos, but it was always, it always seems so expensive, but when you start to travel, you realize you can do things not expensively. And the coolest thing about the Galapagos islands is that you are the outsider on that piece of land. So. The animals aren't bothered by you. I mean, I, I'll never forget getting off the plane, walking down to the water and seeing this massive sea lion, just on a bench. I wanted to sit on the bench, but they didn't care. I would, uh, you know, body surf and the waves. And I remember seeing huge manta rays, 10 feet away from him like, Whoa, these guys don't even care. Nothing cared because it was their place. And that to me was the coolest, probably one of the coolest adventures.

David: 10:53

Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, Pete, I'm curious, just as a follow-up to that, I don't know this wasn't where we were really planning on going in this conversation, but since you brought it up, I am curious to know what are some of those ways to travel inexpensively? I mean, I'm sure there were probably some college students listening and they're thinking, Hey, uh, I've got a spring break coming up. I've got, I've got a summer break. Uh, so, so w what have you learned in your travels? How to do this and expensively.

Pete: 11:19

Yeah, well for the Galapagos, especially because that is one that can be pricey as a lot of people will fly in. To mainland and then they'll do like a cruise or a boat tour out to the Galapagos islands. And that you're already looking at at least four figures of spend, if not. Five because of all the time it takes, but actually flying in getting a cheap flight into the mainland. And then you can book flights. There's like one or two flights daily to the islands. They're um, they're actually not that they're very affordable. And once you're there finding, uh, an Airbnb or at that time, we were just using hostels isn't too hard at all. So I would say just looking for alternative ways to travel. Other places that seem farfetched is a good one. And, um, just. When you're in those environments. So you don't need a lot to, unless you're like someone who needs a luxurious, you know, backpacking trip, you don't need a lot. So just being smart in that way.

David: 12:10

Yeah. Yeah, that's great, Pete. Yeah. I wonder what of, that might apply to other types of travel related to Christian mission trips and things like that of just some of the things of, Hey, how do you, how do you get more out of, out of what you're investing out of what you're spending? So appreciate that, Pete, uh, just with this idea of adventure and your Christian journey. How has your perception of adventure, your view of adventure changed? If at all, since you became a, the follower of Christ.

Pete: 12:44

Yeah, I think, um, I think there's an aspect to adventure that if you get too lost in it, you become really selfish because it's always about you. And I think that's a, there's a fine line to draw there. Uh, because the alert didn't create us, just be all about ourselves. And I definitely started to feel in that pole pool when we were, are being full-time for a couple of years and really wanting to, I just felt like, you know, we need to invest in people in places, which I actually think we did a really good job. Um, our, we have essentially a check a second church family out in Breckenridge, Colorado, and I'm close to the pastor cause we knew we wanted it to be. We wanted to invest in the community, but it's easy to get lost. It's easy to kind of be a nomad now, especially with what's going on in COVID and everything in our world and in the younger kids coming up and can work remotely. Why wouldn't you do it? And you know, maybe 10 years, I would say 10 years ago, I would say, yeah, sure. Why not? Why not do it? But at the same time, I think the motives need to be checked in place to make sure that it's not all about what you can gain and what you can see and what you can do. And then there's nothing else left for anyone else that the Lord needs you to give to.

David: 13:51

Yeah, that's really good. What for you, do you think helped you to, to check that just sounds like you were really drawn that way and then you. Has some sort of a self realization of, Hey, if I keep going down this road unchecked that this adventure can kind of be a black hole of self-centeredness what for you helped you to come to that realization that pulled you back into community?

Pete: 14:17

Yeah, I don't. And I want to be careful with what I say. Cause I have a lot of good friends that still are be full-time and that's awesome. And, um, you know, I think there are a few factors. There were, there were, I was around. Older people like maybe retired or even middle-aged that were just out there escaping. And, um, I was like looking at someone who's 50 or 60 and they were done and now they're done with life. And so they got to go do all this stuff and I was like, that's so cool for you. Best not how I want to end, but that's not how I want to go out. And I think back to, um, you know, John Piper's infamous sermon, don't waste your life. Picking up seashells as you enter in the Gates of heaven and you know, some of those things and it can come across such the wrong way. Oh, it will be turned you in my life. Well, no, of course, but I think that I saw people like that. And I, on the flip side, I have grandparents of who are my heroes on my mom's side, who have lived an incredibly adventurous life and they've traveled a good amount, but their adventure, their greatest adventure is their everyday life. With the community that they're involved with. And I see a greater sense of purpose. I see them living out the purpose. God has called them to, I see them having more joy because they're feeding into those around them. And, um, I just think there's a fine balance that needs to be had because I'll always have that adventurous bone in my body. I think we're when the kids are older, we're going to want to go back and hit the road. But I think they'll need to be, you know, some. Modifications there. And then secondly, when we were in a place for a period of time, Breckenridge is one of them. I was like, we gotta find a church. We gotta get involved. And so the second year we came out there, we were there for five months. I led a small group. I was close to the pastor spoke. So that's just kinda how I checked it to make sure.

David: 15:55

Yeah. P that's that's so helpful. That's I think that's just so good. Uh, I think about, even in my own family, my mom who passed away a couple of years ago, just an amazing person. She was, uh, uh, a music teacher for decades in the school. And then later teaching private piano lessons and she just impacted so many kids' lives that it was amazing even at, at the. Viewing and the funeral, just how many people came. And I know my sister and I were so impacted and, you know, we had, we had adventures as a family growing up, we went on camping trips and things like that. My parents were both school teachers. And so they had a extended kind of a summer time available to do that sort of thing. But having said that my mom never traveled internationally with the exception of, if you count. Going to Niagara falls and walking over the bridge, you know, like she, she didn't have a passport and, and yet she lives such a rich and full life. And, and so I think that's just a great point. And I'm one that Pete, like, you though, you've traveled much more extensively than I have. I enjoy traveling internationally. I like seeing different cultures and things like that, but I think you, you just laid it out really well of, Hey, it's, it's good to, to enjoy, but also. Just just there, there can, there can be a way that that goes, that really can be at the end of it all very empty. And even you, you made that quote from John Piper, don't waste your life. That man. Yeah. What ultimately are we living for? Are we living just to, for temporary pleasure or are we allowing ourselves to enjoy the goodness of the world that God has placed us in while keeping our ultimate focus on that? Which is eternal. Okay.

Pete: 17:36

It's good.

David: 17:38

That's great. Well, Pete, to change gears a little bit here, I'd love to talk some more with you about the spiritual disciplines or spiritual practices. Again, specifically talking about things like reading the Bible, prayer, journaling, meditating on and memorizing verses of scripture. Talk a little bit about how those sorts of things have, have helped you in your journey. And you talked about your early experience, even growing up and how, you know, there was some of that, but it, it ultimately didn't seem very life-giving. Uh, but I know these are things that, that you really are, are, are giving a lot of attention to, and have given a lot of attention to the last several years, particularly since really committing your life to Christ as an adult. Uh, could you just talk about your journey, embracing those habits?

Pete: 18:31

so I didn't get really serious about my disciplines. You know, maybe it was 20, 20, probably like three years ago. I'm like really serious about them and yeah. You know, there's, there's like, like you mentioned earlier on in my life, it wasn't life-giving, but the, the, the habit was formed. So I came back to it, which has now turned the opposite of like being legalistic. It's been a joy. And I think what I realized was that this is a relationship that's real. And how much am I really putting into it on a, just a very basic level. If I'm just, you know, just opening up a Bible, reading a few. Pieces of scripture, open up the YouVersion, reading a Psalm 10 minutes. Lord, help me to have a good day. Amen. I'll talk to you tomorrow. And that's just to me like that's, that's not the Christianity I want to leave. That's not the Christianity. The Lord wants to live, but that's not Christianity going to really better the world. And so I just started thinking more about it. I started using my journal and writing more as I was reading because that's just helped me. It helps me a lot to learn and to be intentional and actually to. Uh, be a better host to store things better in my memory. And so the writing aspect to me was, uh, one that just had to be there, but the, the memorization and actually memorizing more scripture and reading the word with that intent has, especially in 22, one 20 into 2021, Ben, uh, just a big catalyst in my faith because. We're bombarded with so much as it is. And last year we were bombarded probably more than we ever have been, especially being at home, even outside of all the political and everything events. And if we are not extra, extra vigilant, and if we are not super, super intentional about what we're putting into our minds, and we're just going to allow our minds to be open to whatever's out there. And so, you know, we can get into this story of the Kairos journal later, but. When I started realizing that I was letting all this crap into my mind, stuff that I say crap is maybe considered good by the world. And I also think that, you know, for better or worse, that word crap can be, it varies by person. Like I might not like to listen to a certain type of music or watch a certain type of thing on Netflix, because I know how that affects me. It might be okay for you even as a believer, but for me, I know. And so. I think there was also this place where I was like, that's okay for me not to do it. It's okay if you do it, but I need to fill that, that place with his word. And so I started just finding those areas in my life where I was just like, ah, this is leading me down a path in my mind or whatever that I don't want to go. Let's let's put God's word in there, even if it's just a short verse that you just repeat in your mind and meditate on. And so I just started finding more and more of these times, and it's not a perfect formula or anything. I still go back and forth. And, you know, there was a point in time where I wouldn't listen to any music in the car, then I would just meditate on the word. And that was amazing. Now I'm listening to music in the car. It's fine. It wasn't like it. Wasn't fine, but I think there's different stages. So I've just come to value of his word. And I've seen, I think as I grow in my walk and we probably probably can all say this, I see actually more of a need for grace. I see, uh, more of a need of dependence and less of control that I have, or I think I have, and I want to just be able to tap into him more often than I do.

David: 21:49

Man. That's so good. Uh, I love that. Just one of the things Pete, that always strikes me about you is just the, the realness, the, the authenticity that you're like, Hey, I'm, I'm working on this, but it sounds like you have a great blend of, of just intentionality where you'll say, Hey, for a given time, Hey, this is all that I'm doing in the car. I'm not, I'm not doing this. I'm not doing that. Hey, I'm, I'm really focusing on. Chewing on scripture or prayer, but where you, you also don't take it to a point where it's just legalistic of like, Hey, this is all anybody should ever do in the car. And if you're not, then somehow you're, uh, you're not fully committed as a Christ follower. So, uh, you know, and I find in this area of spiritual disciplines or, or habits, we might say, okay, I don't know if there can they're so life-giving, they can be so great, but they can also be, become just. I don't know misapplied or, or, or, you know, harmful, not, I don't want to say harmful. I mean, it's never harmful. I don't think to read or meditate on God's word, but sometimes the spirit behind them, it almost can, can become legalistic. So, uh, so Pete for you, how, how have you, and I don't know if you could answer this about just, I'm just curious if you've thought about it. How have you steered clear of becoming legalistic while also being intentional. Have you thought about that at all? The T the tension between being intentional, but not becoming legalistic or fair cycle with these things?

Pete: 23:24

Yeah, well, I'm not perfect at it. That's for sure. Um, but you know, there are times when I won't use my journal. I mean, there's plenty of them. And when I feel like I'm just writing in it, because I feel like I need to do it to do it. That's when I just have a trigger in my mind to say, okay, this is a, if you're just going to write some stuff down now, because you want to fill this page and you want that to look good and make you feel good that you spend time, then. Why don't you try it, not writing anything right now and wait until the Lord puts something on your heart. So that's one of them. Uh, I also think that the, you know, praying that the Holy spirit would lead as I pray, or as I read and trusting that he will. And, you know, I think that the Lord, he values the quality of time over the quantity. And so I might actually have better time. Like when our second child was just born, I wasn't up in the morning at all reading. As I used to or praying as I used to for even a short period of time, it was hard. So my, my time was, uh, around dusk. I'd go take the dogs to this park and look over this body of water that I was like to go to. And that's when I would sit and pray. I didn't spend as much time, didn't have a journal with me, but I didn't feel like I was, you know, I didn't have that shame or guilt of not doing it. And that's how I kind of pray to be led by it.

David: 24:49

Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, Pete, uh, and for context here, you got two children currently under the age of two.

Pete: 24:57

That's true.

David: 24:58

a

Pete: 24:58

is true.

David: 24:59

as speaking from personal experience as a dad of a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old. That's phase that you're in right now can be pretty intense. Uh, and so I, I love that you brought that up because I was actually going to ask you about that. I know in my own journey and again, man, I'm, I'm not some perfect model of, of doing everything right all the time, but I have, uh, Just for years now, continue to believe that these spiritual habits, they are vital to just having a healthy walk with the Lord, though, there may be that ebb and flow or emphasis And you mentioned just the, quantity versus quality, all that. But I do remember specifically when having. Young young children. It just, it could be a real challenge just to find any kind of quiet time. There's always, there's always another bottle that needs to be heated up, or there's always, you gotta, you know, watch this or watch that, or, Oh, the, the baby. all their clothes are dirty and just trying to support my wife and trying to be there present as a dad. But also I do remember at times feeling a little bit guilty as if, Oh man. Um, am I spending enough time in prayer with enough time reading the Bible? Uh, I, in that season I found that. Usually to get even any time that was quiet, it was necessary for me to just go to the car and I would, would just be in the car for, you know, whatever amount of time. Um, but it certainly wasn't the amount of time that I was spending prior to that So Pete, you commented on it a little bit, but any word of it, encouragement to someone that might find themselves in a particularly. Intense time, whether as a parent of young children or, or maybe some other circumstance where they, they want to spend that time with the Lord, but they're just having difficulty spending the kind of quantity of time that they would like to spend.

Pete: 26:48

Yeah, I'll just, uh, I'll take from Jordan's playbook when she would be feet hurt because her time obviously got shot even more than mine because she was breastfeeding at the time. And so she had less time than me. But instead of, you know, in the past, maybe with Elliot or for our first child, instead of reaching for a phone or a show during that time, she'd actually reached for her, her Bible or her Kindle with the Bible on it. And so that became a really special time because she can't do anything. And instead of going to some mindless activity, she went to the word. And so that's what I would say first and foremost. And then this conversation made me think of something I read about John Wesley. And I think he was one of like, I don't know, 15, 19 kids. And his mom was the mom of those 1915, however many. And I had heard the story that she obviously didn't have a lot of time to be with the Lord alone. So whenever she put her apron over her head, five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes in the middle of 15 kids, that's when they know that she is with the Lord and she'd spent her time that way. And I mean, that's just incredible. So maybe the men out there need to buy some aprons, but.

David: 27:53

Yeah, all of a sudden sales of aprons is going up. I think just because of this conversation, it's funny, Pete. Well, Pete, I would love to talk specifically about this journal that you've created the daily Kairos journal. Could you talk a little bit about why it is that you created this journal and how it's helping people.

Pete: 28:12

Yeah, sure. So I created the journal first out of a need because obviously you guys know by now that I had been journaling. In my past, I have that, especially with the Lord, but when we had our first child, Ellie, I had gotten away from that because it was my first child. I didn't really know what was going on and had really, really struggled in my relationship with God. And I had this moment when I was feeding her. Probably a couple of weeks after she was born, I was doing work at the time and I was over it and I slammed my computer shut. And like, what am I doing? Like, I just was struggling. I was confused. I was tired. I was fatigued. And I just felt the entire journal come to the forefront of my mind and in a different way than I had been doing it. And I remember it as clear as day. I just remember like all these just kind of images of what the journal should look like. And I was only thinking of myself at that time, but. I put my computer down, whatever to our table and the sun was just beaming on it. And I just grabbed, moved everything off the table and grabbed all these blank pieces of paper and started scribbling as fast as my mind could write. I started writing out all of the different aspects of it that I thought would be important. Really the ones that were coming to me at the time. And, uh, I showed it to Jordan A. Little bit later. I showed it to George. He said, this is cool. And that was that nothing really happened. You know, that was like just this cool moment. And, and I was like, all right. So a few weeks went by, still was saying a lot about the journal that I've just drawn out. And Jordan went for a run and she was listening to a sermon and she just like, Pete, I don't know what this means, but I just want, the Lord is telling me that I just need to give you space to be creative. That's all I heard. That's all I know is that I need to give you space to be creative and I needed to take on more work because at that time we were running our business. And so, and she was only, you know, maybe. She was just starting to be able to walk and run again. And so recovering from a baby and taking care of a baby meant that she was gonna have a lot more work. And that was kinda like my green light to go. Go for it. So I started building out the journal, started testing more designs, having people go over it, finding the designer, and then we launched it in the fall of 2019 on Kickstarter got funded there. And, um, now we're roughly a year and a half into it. So maybe even a year, if you will, because we didn't really start really running with Kairos for about four months after we launched in 2019. So.

David: 30:32

Yeah. So Pete, how has the Kairos journal different from. What the person might think of just as a typical journal with just kind of a, an empty notebook, basically. How is it different from that?

Pete: 30:45

Yeah. So the Kairos journal, um, has daily and weekly reflection pages. And I like to the best way that I've actually seen this, uh, put into words, which is actually done by the, uh, our local newspaper in hand Heights. When I was living there. They wrote about it was the left side of the journal has prompts to get you focused for your time with the Lord. And I think so often, you know, we just will maybe say quick prayer, if we're, if we're feeling it and then dive into the word or dive into devotional and we're adding and it's chaotic. And so the left side actually makes you slow down a little bit. Cause you write out a verse that you're memorizing for a week, then you go onto what you're grateful for. So you can focus on things that. It could be small or big that the Lord has done that you're really thankful for a prayer that you want to write down. And usually I keep those personal, uh, as it pertains to my time with the Lord then about to enter and then an intention for the day, or even in your time with him. And that's the left side and that's the bridge until the time of the Lord. And so the right side is really just, um, free flowing, whatever you're reading through, whatever you're thinking through, whatever the Lord has placed in your heart texts, that really stands out. That's really where you have at it. And I think what makes it different is. Um, when I was studying the market, looking at a lot of different journals out there,

David: 31:59

Hm.

Pete: 31:59

at least for who I am and what I needed. I don't like the over complicated here's 50 lines and here's a 10 and a 10 30 spot, an 11, 1130 spot. And here's a task, here's 15 tasks. And it was just too cluttered. I wanted people to essentially come to this journal who have never journaled before and not feel overwhelmed by it. And that's how we built it kind of minimalistic like that.

David: 32:20

well, and I've seen it. I mean, it really is, is a beautifully done journal. Uh, I know my wife has used it a fair amount. P what kind of feedback have you been getting from people that have been using this journal?

Pete: 32:31

Yeah. Oh man. We've had, we've had really, really, really good feedback. Um, Mean, obviously we've had critical feedback too, which is good. We actually will go out and seek that so we can make it better, but we can save that. I think, you know, we had this email that just came in last week. I was out of town and I read it at dinner with some friends I had to hold back tears, essentially, a mom just emailing us saying, Hey, um, I just wanted to let you guys know that my. Adult son just came to Christ four years ago, but had been, you know, uh, Rocky and his relationship. And, um, then he, he is now recently going through a divorce. That's been like the worst time of his life. And so I bought him this journal it's been, and he's used it day after day since November. And it's changed his, his life with the Lord. He's speaking with him more. He's reading the Bible more. He's spending time with him more. And I just was writing. Let you know that we're going to buy a second journal. We're going to have a gap of a few days because. Of, uh, him not letting me know in time, so he'll go a few days without writing it consistently, but I just wanna let you know, I have never found a better journal out there in the market and it's changing his life. And so, you know, I think we've gotten some really cool feedback like that focus and time with the Lord, but all that stuff, we try to keep close to our heart because it makes us realize why we're doing what we do. And yeah,

David: 33:47

yeah. P that's gotta be just so satisfying to hear that kind of feedback, to know that the type of impact is something that. Um, God used you to help bring out there into the world that it's having that kind of, uh, an impact on people's lives. Well, that's awesome, Pete, we'll be sure to link to the daily Kairos journal in the episode, show notes on the webpage. Uh, Pete, I've got one final question for you. Just think about the people that are listening to this. We've got college ministry leaders. We've got college students listening to this, and I think back even to your story of your journey to Christ, um, I want to give an opportunity for you to speak to that college student. That's listening that AB 19 years old. And so I want to ask you if you had one opportunity to go back and to give a word of advice or encouragement or challenge to the 19 year old version of you, what would you say?

Pete: 34:45

Hmm. Yeah, that's a great question. Um, yeah, there's a few things I would say, but I think the one that makes the most sense privatizing my story is that I would, I would go back and say, be around who you want to be, be who you want to become. And I think, you know, through high school, especially, and then even in colleges, a lot of the friendships, uh, are just kind of by default cause who you're around and just kinda like fall into them. But now outside of that, as an adult, you have to choose and choose to you. Don't have friends right back there. It's like you have friends, even if you don't choose because you're around people all the time. And with that, this is where I think we just don't see the value. I didn't see the value at 19 at choosing who I want to become. If I had done that, I'd probably be a little different than I am today. So

David: 35:34

Pete. That's great advice. That is really great advice. Uh, Pete, I just want to say thank you. This has been such a fun conversation. I'm just grateful for you, grateful for your friendship and thankful for the time that you've invested in helping to encourage and build up the next generation of leaders on campus. So thanks for your time, Pete. Really appreciate it.

Pete: 35:55

thank you, Dave. It's been a great time.