Finding Your Way - Catholic Stories for Children (Guest Trevor Rothaus)

Ralph Linzmeier and Mark Prather are successful business professionals, members of the Catholic CEO group Legatus, generous donors to Catholic schools and charities and committed Catholics. Their show is dedicated to sharing the testimonies of those serving God in big and small ways, and helping listeners walk in the footsteps of Christ.  In this episode, they speak with Trevor Rothaus, founder of Catholic Stories for Children.

Transcript

announcement: 0:29

Hello. Welcome to finding your way on spirit filled radio with host, Ralph linspire. And Mark Crader. Ralph and Mark are successful business professionals, members of the Catholic CEO group love goddess and generous donors to Catholic schools and charities. This show is dedicated to sharing the testimonies of those serving God in big and small ways and helping listeners walk in the footsteps of Christ. Here's your host to make introductions.

Ralph Linzmeier: 1:01

This is Ralph Lin's Meyer and mark right here on spirit filled radio on our show, finding the way some Holy Spirit heal the hearts of us you're faithful and can enlist the fire from your love sin forth your spirit, you were renewed and you will revive the face of the earth.

Mark Prather: 1:15

Today, we're excited to have our good friend Trevor Roth is with us. Trevor is a former software engineer who is currently studying for a master's in theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is the founder of Catholic stories for children, a new nonprofit, which aims to spread the light and love of God through animated stories for kids. So welcome, Trevor.

Unknown: 1:37

Thank you. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Mark Prather: 1:39

Well, thank you for being here. Where I'd like to start is the beginning with you. Were you a cradle Catholic or tell us kind of your faith journey were started and walk us forward in that.

Unknown: 1:50

Yes, as a cradle Catholic, both my brother and I were raised Catholic, we went to Catholic elementary school, middle school, Catholic High School in, I want to say in high school and college is when I started to stray away from the faith wasn't I went to Mass every Sunday, but I wouldn't say I acted as a good Catholic. And it wasn't till after college, that I started to find my way back. And I have to say is actually because of my mother. So when my brother and I were in college, she started going to Bible study classes. And when I came back as grateful to have a full time job, but I was looking for something more. So I volunteer at soup kitchens and stuff like this. And one day, she invited me to a Bible study with her. So I was like, Sure, I'll go. And I went and the leader started talking about the class and what it would involve, and the expectations and everything. And what I didn't realize is this class, she invited me to it wasn't like a one week Bible study or a one month study, it was six months of Bible study. So I'd be spending half of the year studying scripture. And I didn't realize that until the first day that I was actually in the class listening to the person talk. But I was like, Okay, I'll go along with it and see how it goes. And that's what really woke me up to the fate. That's what really rekindled my faith. And I think the study was, is called Jeff cavan's Great Bible Adventure, or great adventure, something like this. And if you've ever had that experience, where the faith is rekindled in you, it really pushes you moves you to keep going with it. So I took more classes and it moves you to share it with other people. So I started teaching confirmation classes to high school students here at Christ cathedral, and helping out with that program. Until my wife and I moved to Canada, we moved to Montreal, there we joined a young adult, a Catholic, young adult group, as well as continuing Bible classes there. And then when we moved back to California here is when I started the nonprofit called Big Catholic stories for children, where the goal is to make stories, specifically animations to help teach kids different parts of the Catholic faith to teach them prayer, about saints, help teach them about the virtues and encourage them to live this life out.

Ralph Linzmeier: 4:30

So Trevor, it's interesting, welcome, by the way, bless it are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. That's Matthew five, six you, but you're hungry and thirsty, I can tell it. Congratulations are exciting to have you here. Do you have a special Bible verse that really pulls you forward? Or something like that? Or what's your great inspiration?

Unknown: 4:48

I can't say I have a specific Bible verse. There's a number of verses that I love from the beginning. Genesis one where God says in the beginning, and John one or he says In the beginning was the Word, the prodigal son story we had last Sunday. I love Psalm 23. Many of the other Psalms I can't say there's a specific one, but throughout Scripture, all of these different stories. I found inspiration in many different ways.

Ralph Linzmeier: 5:16

Now your nonprofit, how long have you been involved in that nonprofit?

Unknown: 5:20

It's relatively new. So we only have one animation out so far to help teach the Hail Mary it just started the end of 2020 In 2021, we've reached the nonprofit status the 501 C three. And now we're working on teaching other prayers, such as the prayer to St. Michael, the Arch Angel approach to your guardian angel, prayer before meals, even the prayer to St. Anthony for lost items. And it's interesting doing the research for some of these prayers, because the story behind say, Michael, the archangel, I don't know if we have time for but it's very fascinating to hear it. There's a few different accounts of it, but involves Pope Leo the 13th, God and the devil. And Pope Leo the 13th, after one of the masses, or during one of the masses, depending on which account you read, he has a vision. And then this vision here is God and the devil talking with one another. And the other people in the mass just see him in this trance for about 10 minutes. And at the end, he goes back to his office, writes down this prayer, and sends it to every church and tells them to pray it after every low mass to pray to St. Michael, the archangel. Now the original prayer, it's much longer than the one we have today. It's been shortened since then. But I think it's beautiful that many of the masses today afterwards, we still pray to St. Michael.

Ralph Linzmeier: 7:00

They're bringing it back.

Mark Prather: 7:01

Yeah, that's really interesting. I'm dying to ask you this question. Because you're you're young guy. And young people, your generation has moved away from faith significantly. And you're not that far removed from your cause. What college did you go to?

Unknown: 7:18

I went to Tufts University of Boston. Okay.

Mark Prather: 7:22

So here's my question with respect to, let's say, your post high school, from going through tufts into where you are now. What did you experience? Because you grew up with faith? And you go to Tufts University, you're in Boston, which is the number one college town in the country that I mean, it's, I think there's like 250 300,000, undergrads or something. So my question it has to do with what did you experience? And what is your perspective on? What's going on in the college scene? And why are so many moving away from faith? And what is your perception of because you've moved back for faith, and what would be your kind of guidance, you know, from your own life experience to all of this, for your generation, to get your younger adults back on track with faith has rekindled your faith?

Unknown: 8:13

Yeah, and I think even before that stage, starting in high school is where kids start to fall away from the faith and with teaching, confirmation, it was very, it was very tough, because we would get 1520 classes a year with these students. And that would be it every single day for the rest of the year, they are on social media on YouTube, hearing the news, getting all sorts of different input that's not Catholic, with non Catholic messages, steering them away from the faith. So as far as the amount of time hearing one thing versus another, there's a whole lot more pulling them the other way. The one thing that gives some hope, I think, oh, there's there's a lot that gives hope. But I think an example of this that I've heard is a person who's reading reviews for a product online, and it says 4.9 star rating, 2000 reviews, and they go to a store to buy this product. And a person in the store says oh, it's awful, don't get this product. Because that one person, they won't buy the product, even though it would have just been another of the 2000 reviews, it would have still been 4.9. But because of that person saying something in person, it made a huge difference. And I think that's where we have an advantage is all of this stuff that kids are hearing is online is through the media. And Catholics and Christians are out in the world talking in person. Now the church I went to in Montreal, the priest there did an amazing job growing the young adult group and the way that he did that he got tons of young adults to join and be part of this group. And the way he did this was by having other young adults go to people in person in the mass after mass and ask them to join talking to people in person. And that's that's what made a big difference.

Ralph Linzmeier: 10:14

Trevor, I found, you know, we all kind of get caught up in circles where we go around and around and around. And what's on your mind is really critical to our thinking. And so for me, I pick certain Bible verses I keep those things in mind. If I don't do that I feel I find myself being trapped. You know, we're in prisons, actually, you know, so many so many of us hurt each of us. By the way, every one of us all the time, we're always in prison of our circumstances. And there's something much better. God has much bigger plans, if we can just get think beyond what our present circumstances are. So the interesting thought is what's on your mind, that's, that's the interesting thing. And the kids, they're being drawn into social media, they're gone, and socialization, all these types of things, having things on on your mind that you choose to have on your mind, as opposed to letting the circumstances of the world, it could be just the media, those things in your mind. So your your nonprofit, if it can be effective, and going out and presenting things that keep better things on people's mind. That's, that's the concept

Unknown: 11:11

I see. Yes. So with what we're working on right now, with the animations. It's not what I said before about being there in person, these animations are going to where kids are right now, which is online, on YouTube, and putting these there, this content there. And the goal is to start with kids that are younger, and to build up this life of prayer. So we're starting with prayers. And we're taught to pray unceasingly throughout the day. So that's why we teach prayers to the Guardian Angel praying before meals, pray if you lose something to pray, with everything you do throughout the day, and this is a start. So we've actually started a second project, as well, as part of Catholic stories for children, which is to record priests and nuns A Day in the Life of a priest or a nun, because there are so many of them out in the world doing incredible things that nobody knows about. And even priests and nuns in the local area, are doing incredible work that no one knows about. And if I ask someone out there, what does a priest do during the day, or what's a nun do during the day, they have no idea, even if their uncle or aunt is a priest or a nun, they wouldn't know. So the this one has been very challenging, because it's very hard to get permission to record the day of a priest or a nun. And it takes a long time to go through the steps needed. And to get the schedule for their day, especially since many of them it's constantly changing. And I don't know if there's any listeners that know of a priest or nine that they think is doing incredible work, I would love to record them and share it with the beautiful I love it.

Mark Prather: 12:54

You know, to to Ralph's point, I took the word faith and turn it into an acronym. And the F stands for focus. And this is really I think what Ross really talking about is, we move in the direction of whatever we focus on. There's a great book called as a man thinketh is largely based on on proverbs. And I bring that up, because I think what you're doing with your Catholic stories in the animations, is just an incredible way to the truth of it is whether you're five years old, or 50 years older, older people gravitate toward entertainment, whatever they find entertaining, right. And I see a fantastic opportunity. And I love where you started with the prayers. Looking at Proverbs, and looking at Psalms, you'd have a ton of content, to take these proverbs and Psalms and turn them into little mini stories, and influence the focus, because we move in the direction of what we focus on. And it's really easy to get wrapped up in focusing on all the worldly stuff and all and especially in today's world, man with all the shows on internet and Facebook and all that kind of crazy stuff. As far as creating these stories, tell us kind of what, what the process is. You've talked about some of the pros, but you kind of grand vision for taking some of these stories, and, and what are some of the possibilities for that.

Unknown: 14:25

So with the prayers and where to go from there, for the starting with the prayers. The goal is to teach kids more than just the words right now many kids learn the words of the prayer than they repeat them. The goal is to help them understand the words. And this is where visuals help out a lot. And right now we're keeping the animations very short, maybe around five minutes. Because the goal is for them to be used as an aid, not the main teaching source. The main teaching source is parents praise catechist people in person and these would help kids come to the understanding of what the prayers are and what they mean. And there's a ton of content throughout scriptures that could be brought to life through animation in a visual way. And I think after these prayers for young kids, one of the directions I want to go is creating animations for older high school kids and above them to show the story As of early Christians, so after the collapse of the temple, after the temples destroyed, showing the flight to Pella, showing the early Christians in those days, and showing how strong that faith was, and showing the power over death that Christ had in the hearts of these people, I think these early Christians are a true testament to our faith, of living the life of Christ all the way up to and through death. And I think those are a big inspiration and can be a big inspiration for for people today.

Ralph Linzmeier: 16:06

Well, Trevor, I really agree with you. That's, that's powerful. This is Ralph Lynn's Martin, Mark birther, on spiritual radio on our show, finding your way. And today we're speaking with Trevor Rothfuss. And Trevor is just so excited to think that you can actually make these stories come alive for young people, can you tell us a little bit about this animation process, how you actually make all this happen?

Unknown: 16:26

So the animation process is actually a very new world. To me. It's not something I grew up with a background in or anything, and I've, I've received a lot of help from other Catholics and creating these and bringing them to life. And it's been through various networks and groups. One is called Creative Catholics, who I've helped found animators, composers, musicians, to help bring everything together. So starting with the research for one of the prayers going into the screenwriting, of exactly what aspects we want to teach how to make a story out of it. And from there going to the recording, recording the singers recording the voices, for the voice actors, from there to the animation for creating the visuals going to the character creation animation, and then there it goes back to the composer's to add in the sound effects and finalize the sound,

Ralph Linzmeier: 17:28

how much does it cost to make one production?

Unknown: 17:30

It costs quite a bit? Do you want me to go into the number?

Ralph Linzmeier: 17:34

Well give us an oversight? Sure.

Unknown: 17:35

So for an oversight, the composition, creating of a song of producing the song can be around eight to 10,000. And for the artwork, the character creation, the animation is another 10 to 20,000. So that each animation ends up costing between like 20,000 and up.

Ralph Linzmeier: 18:00

So Trevor, when you create this content, so what you need to do is you need to be able to project it to people? If so, how are you? How are you getting the content out to the young people? And what are your tools? How you going forward on that.

Unknown: 18:12

So right now, with the one animation, we have the Hail Mary, it's on YouTube, it's free for anyone to see, tell people tell people to get to it, go on to YouTube type Catholic stories for children, Hail Mary, and it should show up in the list there. And for the next animations. So as far as marketing them, getting them out there out to the world, for people to know about, that I'm still planning with our board to figure out our exact method of making this happen, whether we want to go the route of YouTube, because I would like these to be as available to as many people as possible

Mark Prather: 18:53

to write a question for, you know, you talked earlier about when you went to the Bible study with your mother. And you had kind of this, I don't know if you know, if it's an epiphany or an awakening, or, or this revelation and not. But what I've learned is over my life, and I'm 64 now in this world, trying to kind of tied together is, I think the really important point that Rob brought up about what we think about in your journey. Share with us a little bit about where, and this is why I think what you're doing with your Catholic stories is so important is you can read something and memorize it and never really still understand or get the real meaning of it. And that's why I think what you're doing with these animations can help parents immensely, because they're not very good at it either, frankly, in bringing the meaning to life. And so my question is, if you can share moments in your kind of your life journey so far, because this will never stop over your life. When all of a sudden, something the meaning lit up. And you could be something you saw, you know, through school or whatever, but also said something scripture or experienced in a faith where all of a sudden the meaning you saw you got it and really kind of brought you back to the faith in a stronger way.

Unknown: 20:14

I mean, as far as I feel like there's so many things with that because growing up going to Catholic schools, you learned so many different things that you don't really fully understand and it it wasn't till, till that Bible study You have learning exactly who Jesus is who God is who the Holy Spirit is, this whole story from the very beginning of creation all the way to today, that it really started to make sense. And seeing that the Catholic faith has, from what I could see so much more than all the other faiths as far as answers to the world questions of why there's suffering in the world, or why there's different things or purpose in life, or what should I do in my life? These answers could be found in the Catholic faith.

Ralph Linzmeier: 21:02

Trevor, I have an animation for you. Yes. I think this is exciting, okay, because so Jesus said, in John 14, six, Jesus says, I am the way I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. You said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. How could you animate that? Because now so I take that verse and I, I asked the Lord to show me the way the truth and life, okay, so the animation, that if you could bring that alive in such a way that people see it, it could really be profound, so interesting. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. And so that's fascinating. Right? Now, at this point, you're gonna spot Can you can you think of any way you might kind of turn that into an animation? You know, this Jesus speaking 2000 years ago, he used the way,

Unknown: 21:51

that's something that touches the heart. And that's always something that's very hard to animate, is something that speaks directly to the heart. The way that I've just seen this done is through telling a story that reaches people showing, because Sure, we could show Jesus have a character that looks like Jesus and I am the Way the Truth of Life. And we can also show how Jesus is the Way the Truth, the life. Yeah, show the experiences

Ralph Linzmeier: 22:22

come from every angle, like so. So so what I do is I pare it back. He says, I am the Way the Truth. And then I say, You are the way that in my mind, I use it all the time. You are the way the truth in life. Show me the way the truth and Life. So an animation could come from every angle, perhaps what do you think? Well, I have a

Mark Prather: 22:40

kind of a comment to your question. When I was a kid, I remember reading the story and the teacher talking about the story of the king with no clothes. Remember that story? Yeah. All right, famous story, right, the king with no clothes. And now as a kid, I remember reading that God is ridiculous. This is the dumbest story ever. The idea that, you know, this kid, this kid is walking around with no clothes, and no one's gonna say anything. And I just thought this is absurd. Here's why I bring it up, then to point to ROVs question on this is that what we're dealing with, with the truth is unbelievable to me today. You know, this young man that won the women's NCAA championship and in swimming, I think, and everybody's like, this is okay. That is the personification of the king with no clothes, right? Where everybody is agreeing that this man is a woman, and should be able to compete with other women to the point of winning a national championship. And so you know, to Rob's point of, you know, of how do you animate this is see, I think that's three animations, the way the truth, and the life and like this, like the king with no close story, is a way to help people see, you know, the denial of the truth. And where I think a lot of people get confused is there's a huge difference between denying the truth and judgment. The truth is what it is. But then the other part is, what do you do with the truth?

Ralph Linzmeier: 24:13

Trevor, this is a challenge, okay? Because if you could make this first come alive, it could be the biggest thing that's ever happened. Because if you come alive, you know, for the young people, you know, for the adolescents for even for adults who make this one come alive, my goodness. And coming from every angle would be something like Rob

Mark Prather: 24:30

and I are all excited because we see all the potential

Unknown: 24:33

for sure. And it's not me. It's not the animations, but it's got in Christ that make these verses come to life. And these words come to life.

Ralph Linzmeier: 24:40

I have another one for you too. By the way. These I'm sharing with you my very, very faithful by verses in felonious First Thessalonians were told to rejoice always. And you alluded to this by rejoice, always pray without ceasing, and give thanks and other things. And so that was St. Paul that said that, okay. And so now if you could make that one come alive, because you know, we're all fraught, we have all these challenges in life, and we never can see past these challenges. But coming at this thing from every angle to could be something amazing. Any ideas about that

Unknown: 25:09

one? I'm not entirely sure about animating that one. How exactly, we would go about doing that. But going back to what was said before about the about swimming about men competing in women's sports. I think that's been a real challenge for Catholics on how to respond to that. and how to bring those kinds of people who are not Catholic who don't see our point of view, how to get them to understand our world worldview, and how to see the way that they think they're saying?

Mark Prather: 25:44

Well, I see where I think the woke movement has gotten lost is, I think the objective of the woke movement, which is to embrace people, I think it's a good thing, where the division comes from where the, you know, the hatred and all the rejection and all that. It doesn't come from the truth, where it comes from His judgment. And you know, Christ speaks repeatedly over and over, don't be a hypocrite, you know, don't judge people. And that's where I think the woke movement needs to shift is, if a man is more comfortable dressing as a woman, for whatever reason, that doesn't change the fact that he's still biologically a man. But we need to address and still embrace, you know, because we all have all kinds of issues. We all have our own baggage. We all have our own, you know, we're all sinners. We have our issues. And we're not here to judge people. And that's what I think we're I think they've kind of got lost on that is I'm all for stopping in what Christ said about judgment, right. And so how to break that down into into an animation story, I think is really important. Because that's a big problem.

Ralph Linzmeier: 26:54

Trevor, my gosh, this has been such a great pleasure. And I may give me great hope. Because I know we really need to kind of provide something to our young people that very young people, adolescents as they come up, but you've got it's, I can hardly wait to see what you create over time. So now let's go ahead and close in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed on us, especially our faith in you. Open our eyes to your truth, for you are the Way the Truth and the Life by the God guide us well, to always yearn and strive for you, please fill our hearts and kindled us the fire of your love. God bless you, friends. And Trevor, thank you so much for being with us. It's been indeed a very pleasure. You're a great young man.

Unknown: 27:37

Thank you both. It's been a pleasure.

announcement: 27:40

You been listening to finding your way with hosts Ralph Linds Meyer and Mark Rader. For more go to spirit filled media.org That's spirit filled media.org. In closing, we share this word from First Peter chapter two, verse 21. To this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. Take care of rent. You are listening to the spirit filled Radio Network touching the world for God? Do you have a favorite Bible verse? Maybe one you recite from memory to help get you through the day? Check out this insight from host Ralph loons Meyer and Mark Prater from the finding your way radio show with his recent guests. Dan Burke from the Abilene Institute for spiritual formation.

Ralph Linzmeier: 28:38

Is there some key Bible verse that you have on your mind that is such a profound awakening that you want to share? Especially right now,

Unknown: 28:45

one comes to mind James chapter four around verse seven, it says, resist the devil, draw nearer to God and He will draw near to you. And the message is this Jesus came to set the captives free. We're not supposed to live in anxiety and fear right now most Christians Catholic limit anxiety and fear. People are just dying in isolation in their homes committing suicide. The fear in our country is a fear that reveals a lack of faith in God. And a real lack of connection to who he is and how powerful he is and how great he is and how kind he is and how much he wants to redeem us. And we need to know that perfect love casts out all fear. And we need to get to this place where we recognize that when we're afraid, when we're living in fear and anxiety, we are not in the will of God and something's broken. Like having a dashboard light in the car that says you can you need to fix your engine. It's not normal to be afraid of anything but God in terms of fear of in awe of God. Even Jesus said don't fear those who can affect your eternal destiny. Those are a few passages that are just really top of mind for me now that I hope people take seriously Jesus said, My peace I leave you my peace I give you not as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled. And we as a church are obsessed with letting our hearts be troubled instead of obsessed with what it means to be free in Christ so that we're not trapped.

announcement: 30:10

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