Growing Together
Step into a virtual garden of spiritual growth and community connection with the "Growing Together" podcast. This podcast is a nurturing space for individuals seeking to deepen their faith, cultivate relationships, and explore the boundless beauty of a shared spiritual journey.
Each episode of "Growing Together" is a breath of fresh air, where Pastor Michael, Syd, Nic, Pastor Holly, and Pastor Roger try to navigate the twists and turns of life while staying rooted in faith. Their warm and inviting presence makes you feel like you're sitting in a cozy living room, engaged in a heartfelt conversation with old friends.
Diving into topics ranging from personal growth and self-care to building resilient relationships and fostering a sense of community, the podcast aims to equip listeners with the tools to nurture their faith in all aspects of life. Through scripture readings, open discussions, and interviews with experts in various fields, "Growing Together" provides a holistic approach to spiritual development.
Whether you're a lifelong believer, a seeker on the spiritual path, or simply someone curious about how faith can shape lives, "Growing Together" offers a welcoming haven for everyone. Tune in during your morning routine, while taking a leisurely stroll, or even during a quiet moment of reflection – the podcast fits seamlessly into your daily life.
Join the "Growing Together" community and embark on a journey of discovery, growth, and genuine connection. In a world that can sometimes feel disconnected, this podcast reminds us that nurturing our faith and cultivating meaningful relationships can lead to a life that's deeply fulfilling and spiritually abundant. Subscribe now to start your journey of growing together in faith and fellowship.
Growing Together
Volunteering and What it Means to the Church
Picture this: a frantic, last-minute Christmas Eve dash for a laptop that unexpectedly sets off an introspective journey about holiday spending habits, strategic financial planning, and the art of thoughtful gift-giving. This episode takes you on a rollercoaster of relatable life challenges, from the chaos of organizing council meetings and Easter egg hunts to the unexpected complexities of financial management tools like QuickBooks and Excel. Alongside learning to juggle these commitments, you'll find humor and candid insights into making wise financial decisions, all while strategically maximizing credit card rewards.
Dining with a large group can be both a joyous and challenging experience, as we learned from our contrasting visits to Denny's and Dee's. Through these anecdotes, we explore the intricacies of group outings, the importance of treating restaurant staff with respect, and the delicate art of managing children in public spaces. The conversation also highlights a more profound topic: the pressing need for volunteers in small church communities. We reflect on the impact of attendance on church life and the essential roles volunteers play in sustaining ministry activities, especially in children's ministry and tech teams.
From tackling church volunteer shortages to the curious realm of promotional marketing schemes, this episode is packed with stories that offer both laughter and reflection. We discuss the necessity of thorough volunteer screening processes, share personal anecdotes about unexpected challenges, and inspire listeners to explore their purpose through small commitments in community activities. Whether it's through humorous tales of choking on steak or exploring modern car features, we emphasize preparation and dedication's vital role in enriching both personal and professional lives. Join us for an engaging and enlightening conversation that might just inspire you to find your place in contributing to a greater purpose.
Because none of us can remember what we said we were going to have our next topic.
Speaker 2:Well, the hard part is so I did that. I was sending those text messages at the same time I was doing the planning meeting for the Easter egg hunt. At the same time that I was sending council text messages. I was trying to get all of my appointments on the calendar all at one time. I was like, ah, I do that stuff to myself all the time. It's like just kick myself in the teeth and I wait until the time. It's like just kick myself in the teeth and I wait till six o'clock at night to do it. Like when I'm starting to wind down, we're getting ready to go eat dinner and like now my phone's blowing up and I'm not keeping track of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, listen he, when I asked about the council meeting because I couldn't remember and then I dinged and I picked it up and it said sick, all I seen was the last text and was 6 30. I'm like like dude, I'm in the tub already.
Speaker 2:I'm not coming, no, we. So we opted to go to 630 because Alyssa can't be here at six and I feel like it's important that she be here for a little while. Just with the finances, the way that they are and making it make sense, because I can't, I don't, I can't see the stuff that they can see from my end of QuickBooks and Courtney is still very much learning all of the categories and the hidden, like how do I get to that to see that quickly, things like that. So I'm going to have Alyssa come and kind of keep us balanced for a little while, just to make sure we're all.
Speaker 3:Hey, do you remember when your grandma bought her iPad to fix? I'm seriously thinking about bringing my laptop to you.
Speaker 2:Jeez.
Speaker 3:That my Excel program is like Excel, that I do all his billing. I tried to open a new file to put 2025's billing all in. I don't know where they're going.
Speaker 2:They're going someplace. Well, there's a search feature on there. You can just search for it. You should be able to find it.
Speaker 1:You know that button right there. It says search.
Speaker 2:Yeah, only that it, and you should be able to find it. Yeah, yeah, you know that button right there search, yeah, yeah, yeah, but we're only that easy. I bought alissa a new laptop for christmas on, okay, so again, this is how my brain works. It's christmas eve, six o'clock in the morning. Her and I are sitting out on the, at the bar, in the, the counter, in the kitchen, and we're having our coffee and we're talking. She goes oh, by the way, if you still want to get me something for Christmas, it's Christmas Eve. She goes, I could really use a laptop. She's like I don't want to go to the office anymore because she doesn't do church work, so there's no use for her to go to my office to work. And I said, alright, yeah, okay, it, okay, it's christmas eve, that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2:And immediately left the house with easton because we had to go get that basketball hoop. So we stopped at walmart, I bought her a laptop and then I took it. I had to hide it in the garage in order to wrap it for her to give it to her, but she's in love with it and it's so much better than most any laptop I've ever owned. It's flippable to be a tablet. It's like a 16 inch screen, so it's huge, um, but she can stand it up. It's got the keypad, which is super important to her, the number pad on the side, because when she's doing any type of financials like she can quick key um, oh, and it connects to her phone. That's a fairly new windows feature. Like my mac has always been able to connect to my iphone, I can mirror my phone to my mac. You can't do that. Couldn't do that with pc.
Speaker 2:Now you can, now you can, so that's neat yeah, yeah, we had a 500 budget for each other for christmas yeah, how'd that work, that worked out for you it? Didn't at all. I you know, honestly, I didn't even try I was like you never, do no, no we make that agreement and then I just do whatever.
Speaker 3:Well, Well, our agreement was is we got new furniture? So we weren't going to spend you know I got Jarby a few things, the one he knew he was getting.
Speaker 2:His metal detector. His metal detector Cause he picked it up from the post office Yep.
Speaker 3:And then, and he got me my bottle perfume that he gets me every year and a few other things, and then of course he, of course he always gives me a fairly nice chunk of money. And I'm like why, why, you said we weren't. I felt like an idiot because I spent like $300.
Speaker 2:Well, Alyssa and I are always really particular. We want to make sure the kids have everything that we wanted to get for them. But my Christmas bonus every year that's where we take our shopping money from. That money goes. We cash the check. We each get cash and that's what we shop with, and then I max out a credit card for the rest of it no, I'm just kidding, but yeah you used to I did used to
Speaker 2:that's growth, right there, let me tell you we still use our credit cards just responsibly but we get points for most everything we buy. Like our card dude, we max that thing out almost every month because everything goes on it. But then it's an auto pay at the end of the month. That whatever's on that. Whatever the balance is, that statement balance, it gets paid, that we're never paying interest on it.
Speaker 1:Like Capital One, but now I use the Discover.
Speaker 2:Listen we used to use our Capital One at Walmart. Walmart had a Capital One card and that you got 5% cash back on everything you bought at Walmart Everything we ever bought, all of our groceries. We did grocery pickups, ordered them on that card. I think we left with like $300 in rewards. But they canceled those cards and they gave us Quicksilver cards. So we have to redeem those points. We only have so much time. We had like $300 in rewards just from using it all year and then we turn around. We spend that money on christmas presents smart free money as far as we're concerned.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like we were going to spend the money on groceries regardless.
Speaker 5:So right might as well collect the points.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we like to abuse the credit card companies a little bit. The other thing I'm really bad about this is this is gonna sound terrible. Um, we will like if there's a bank that says hey, open a new account with $100 and we'll give you $50 after it's been in there three months. I'll do it every time. I do not care, I will take your $50 for doing nothing, just putting $100 in that account.
Speaker 4:I don't have to use that account.
Speaker 2:When the $50 hits, I go in and I withdraw the $150, close the account. I do Like Huntington used to have. This is before Alyssa and I were financially responsible, so let me just tell you they used to have like this oh, deposit $15,000 into the savings account, we'll give you $100. And I was like who in the world has $15,000 put into savings account to get $100? Right Now I do it all day, every day. It's $100. It really has.
Speaker 2:I've changed the way that I think about money. By how many hours of my life is that Like? If I want to buy a new Elvis jumpsuit, for instance, how many shows do I have to do to pay for that suit and how many hours do I have to put in in order to get there? Now I'm a little more loosey goosey on that rule, because it doesn't really matter to me, because you know I want an Elvis jumpsuit. But when I'm talking about, like, buying something that's trivial, like I don't know, I want a new pair of shoes and they're $300. I'm going, I have to work quite a few days in order to pay for those shoes. Is it worth it to me?
Speaker 4:Margie and Seth will do that. About going out to eat sometimes Drives me crazy Like this is three hours of work.
Speaker 2:I think it's depressing looking at you. It is, but it'll stop you from spending the money I know this is why.
Speaker 4:I work to get a nice meal.
Speaker 2:I will tell you, we don't do that with meals, but we also like. That's very precious for us. So we love, alyssa and I absolutely love to take our three littles out to dinner, and we don't mind taking the big boys with us too. But there's nothing better than taking our three little sit in. Or we went. Where did we go? Oh, we had to go to Canton, to Mac bid, right before Christmas because I had an item that had to be picked up before a certain date and it was about to be that date. So we drove up and while we were up there we went oh no, that's not true, that was part of it. But we also had to drive. Guys, somebody has to take away my big kid money. We drove to Hobby Lobby because I had ordered a Christmas present that wasn't going to arrive in time.
Speaker 4:They had it in stock in Fairlawn we drove all the way to Fairlawn to buy this $13 item rather than just not get it.
Speaker 2:Okay, All the way to Fairlawn Bought the $13 item and while we were there spent $450 on other stuff. We bought a new Christmas tree.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because everything's what 50% off.
Speaker 2:No, everything was all their Christmas stuff was 50%. So I bought a brand new Christmas tree. We bought carts full of stuff and the guy's like are you going to take this with you tonight?
Speaker 1:I'm like oh yeah, it'll fit, we drove the Tesla.
Speaker 2:I had to go back the next day, drive to Fairlawn twice in two days, but anyhow, we decided we were going to have dinner and we ate at Rockne's. Have you ever eaten at?
Speaker 1:Rockne's.
Speaker 2:We ate at the one in Fairlawn Delicious food, but here's why we enjoy like that's precious time for us. We go, our kids order their own food. They look at the things and everybody always tells us for such a large family, you guys do a really nice job of making sure the waitresses don't have to work hard and we pride ourselves on that and we feel like we're teaching our kids something. So we enjoy those meals together. We went to Denny's one time and Denny's is not like a super fancy place, you know what I mean, but Aiden loves Denny's and so we were all there. It was a family. There were seven of us. That place was packed and we just like the tables were clean when we left and we were nice and tidy and the lady was just she just couldn't believe it.
Speaker 5:She's like nobody ever treats us like this and I'm like, well, we're a big party, we already respectful of your time yeah but we love those meals and I never have a problem spending that money because of that, um, I went to d's a few weeks ago on a saturday morning which, when my friend suggested it, okay what time? Saturday morning at like 10 nope too late.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you gotta be there by eight.
Speaker 5:Okay, so it's me, mandy, maddie, kirsten, was that it Four of us, but one has two kids and then the rest of us has one Plus there was like a random niece there. So there were like nine of us, but like outnumbered by children, like infants, like small, and we had so many people saying like they're all doing so good. We're like don't don't, don't don't curse it don't curse it.
Speaker 2:Don't poke the bear.
Speaker 5:Like we didn't want to like start a conversation with each other, because we're like look how well we're all doing, but it was nice because so many people were leaving like they're all doing so good. And it's so great to see this and we're like yeah, we're just on edge, like hoping that it continues.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're hoping we can breakfast before it explodes. Roger, what so we have? Roger and I have been to Dee's lots of times and have not always had stellar experiences there. The food is delicious, typically, the servers are wonderful, but there is one hostess there that, like I, would like to fist fight her in the parking lot. She is mean, plain old. Same lady that was there when I worked at Union.
Speaker 1:Mean.
Speaker 3:Was she mean then?
Speaker 2:Oh yes, she don't go to the hospital during the week, does she? I don't know she might, but I want to fight her. Like, roger and I went there one time and we always, when we would do men's breakfast there, we would go and we would hold a table, but we never knew who was going to show up. Like we would have no idea. We might have three this week, we might have 10 this week. We could never know.
Speaker 2:So we always sat at the table of eight or nine I can't remember exactly what it was and so it was just he and I one time, and she asked if we had more coming and we said yes, and then only I think two more showed up, but we were already planted there and all the other tables were busy at that point and she, uh, like she comes over to the table, she goes, do you guys have more coming? And I said no, it looks like this is gonna be. She goes and shakes her fist at me. I'm like I will come out of this seat, like we didn't have a choice at that point.
Speaker 2:And we, every time we would go in there, I would always tell the waitress like hey, we don't know how many is gonna come, and she's like oh, you're fine. Oh you're fine, oh you're fine. And even after that happened, she came back and she apologized. The not the mean lady, the waitress, came back and said you guys are fine. Like, don't worry about it. She's like we always get busy like this and it's always okay.
Speaker 2:So anyhow not a big fan of hers.
Speaker 1:We don't go there anymore either. No, we don't.
Speaker 3:So, michael, did you pick this topic after I backed out of nursery?
Speaker 2:No, no, um, I, so I actually had. I had a list of topics that I liked and this was one of them, because I mean, we are in a season of very much so need for volunteers, but we're also a small church. There's only 70. I think we probably have 80 people on register and, honestly, if you look at the number of registered congregants or number of church members, it is much, much greater. It's probably like 300 people. Most of those people are either dead or don't attend here anymore, but without written removal, like they have to write you a letter or something to remove themselves from the roster.
Speaker 5:Just picturing people on their deathbed.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:I gotta tell them.
Speaker 2:I can't come back, so it's a whole thing.
Speaker 5:You're not really there for a hospital visit.
Speaker 2:Hey, I pre-wrote this letter for you. Can you go ahead and sign it for me? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This isn't a last will and testament. This is just to get you off my roster.
Speaker 5:We can only have 40 on at a time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but so we're a small congregation and so volunteers are hard to come by, which is we've talked about in the past. Like when we do large events or we do any type of event, we don't always have enough people to take care of it. And it's really frustrating for me when people volunteer to do something or commit to doing and then they don't follow through. Like I don't ever want children's ministry to be a death or a life sentence. Same with this. Like when we started this. I text all of you before we started this season. How do you guys feel? Is everybody up for it? Does anybody want to back out?
Speaker 5:Yeah, now we're sitting here in shackles. Yes, and now everybody is chained to the table and can't leave and my plan worked exactly.
Speaker 2:So. But it's hard for me because I look around the sanctuary and there are people who are like, well, there's nothing for kids here. Why is there nothing for kids here? Right, because nobody wants to volunteer in kids ministry?
Speaker 5:Like we can't Like yeah.
Speaker 2:I can't do with what I don't have. I can't preach in the sanctuary and run a kids class. It's not. I know you guys think that I can do that stuff, but I cannot. And there are some people who flat out are not qualified, yeah, and think they are Not even that. I don't think here we have that problem a whole lot, yeah, but there are some people who like if they said hey, I want to go to kids ministry.
Speaker 2:I would have to like it's really hard to tell them no, but I'm going to have to say no. It's the same with, like any type of program that you do. You want to make sure that you have a spiritually grounded person in that role, and my rule of thumb this year has been if you're not all in, then you're not going to volunteer. That's how it's going to work. You know what I mean. Like, if you're skipping sundays regularly I'm not talking about anybody at this table, just so we're all clear, because I, like I know that sometimes you hear those things you're like oh Jesus, he's talking about me. Now, if you're not going to be here every Sunday, then there, you just can't volunteer, and I don't mean every Sunday, like we're all going to go on vacation. I'm going to take some Sundays off this year too, but you can't skip every Sunday and then be like well, I never get asked to do anything. There's a reason. It's because I don't think you're going to show up for church on Sunday, right, well?
Speaker 5:and to make matters worse, when you actually do put the trust in them and put them on the schedule or on the task or whatever it may be, and then they don't show up yeah. And then you're like ah.
Speaker 2:And guess who's left holding the bag? Hi, that would be me on a Sunday morning trying to find somebody to cover nursery or kids ministry, or—.
Speaker 5:Easton's got it handled. Oh, or kids ministry or Easton's got handled.
Speaker 2:Oh, easton would run kids class, no problem. But what I can guarantee you is there will be bloodshed. There would be a fire. There will be bloodshed, there will be a fist fight at some point.
Speaker 5:I'm picturing the angry. Have you watched Inside Out?
Speaker 2:No, I know what you're talking about the guy who's like sets on fire. No, actually, I think what you would have is, I think, more about the little person in Elf. Oh, call me Elf one more time. That's what I Easton running down the room, drop kicking somebody, easton, running down this table. Yeah, that's what I envision.
Speaker 3:He is a good little organizer though.
Speaker 2:He is and he is very much so a leader.
Speaker 5:He is very like he can structure and he can help and he is going to lead probably a third world country somewhere. He's going to be Kim Jong Un's replacement at some point.
Speaker 2:I'm like he very much so, loves power and he is fully convinced that he can drive. Well, he doesn't need to. He said to me one day. He was like Dad, do you want me to move the car for you? And he wasn't joking.
Speaker 5:He was very serious. He's like well, the Tesla does 90% of it anyway.
Speaker 2:Very serious what was?
Speaker 4:I talking about.
Speaker 2:Volunteers, so it is really hard. I don't know what people expect of a small church and I think what happens is people drive by this building and it's a fairly big building and you just assume that you have all of these members and then you show up, like last Sunday.
Speaker 2:When I walked into the sanctuary I was like geez 50 people in here, and it's hard to deliver a message like that, and so then I can't imagine what it's like. I'm thinking about my volunteers who are serving in other areas of ministry, and Roger and I, when we do communion, we fill two full trays and then one tray that's half full on the bottom. We didn't even use a whole tray this communion. It doesn't feel good Like we're trying to talk about like the number of people who are being saved and being directed back to Christ, and we're not. Like the people who are saying they're saved aren't even showing up for church, like, oh, I've got plans, I'm busy, I've got this, I've got that. Do you know how busy I am? Do you know how nice it would be to not have to come to church on Sunday morning? I don't get that option and I don't think to be part of ministry should have that same desire. Right, I was talking to Courtney and Tyler. They missed because they were sick two weeks ago.
Speaker 3:I missed because Clayton was here.
Speaker 2:And when I was talking to them they're like it was weird not being in the building. It's hard to readjust.
Speaker 3:I felt guilty. I felt guilty.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing. I don't want anybody to ever feel guilty. They didn't show up to church because I would expect them to be here. I want people to go. You know what? I should have gone to church, because that's where I'm supposed to be on Sunday morning, Exactly Like that's what I want.
Speaker 5:Not because of you or anything. Yeah, when I was walking in today I was like I feel like I no either, because Cooper's been a devil, waking up from 4.30 to 7.
Speaker 2:I am sure he is a saint.
Speaker 3:He's gonna grow.
Speaker 5:He's probably going through a major he is, and he's got seven teeth now.
Speaker 2:Oh jeez, you feed him a steak.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, they're all.
Speaker 2:Don't let him choke on it like my wife. Let me choke on it though.
Speaker 5:Oh no, Chase Still talking about that.
Speaker 2:When have I not told that story?
Speaker 5:Mm-mm.
Speaker 4:Uh-uh.
Speaker 2:You guys don't know about me choking on the steak that was all your wife's fault. It was not my wife's fault. It was not my wife's fault at all. Okay, so here's what happens. You know that new steakhouse in Philly, jay, or some jay tony yes, joe tony beautiful place steak was fantastic.
Speaker 2:So we both order steaks. They bring us a flight of chili because they're doing like a chili contest and they're like, hey, eat these, tell us what you think. I don't like spicy chili so I was like whatever. But I had my little cup of chili. And then, um, they bring us our steaks. I cut a piece of steak, I eat it without incident. I cut my next piece, I start chewing it and I swallow it and it gets stuck in my throat and I'm talking legitimately stuck, and at first I'm like, you know, just kind of like, oh, it's just a little bit stuck. Now I'm panicking because it's stuck, stuck, and I'm like my eyes are watering and I'm panicking and I'm coughing and I'm gagging and I've got the napkin up to my mouth and she's sitting next. We always sit next to each other in the booth when it's just her and I and she's like knock it off.
Speaker 1:Quit it.
Speaker 2:Michael Paul stop it. And she's legitimately angry at me because she thinks I don't like the taste of the steak. If I didn't like the taste, I would have spit it out. So I finally get my mouth and I pull out this piece of steak and she goes you were actually choking, well. But here's the thing. I didn't want to make a scene. I was doing my best because we are in the back corner, we are sitting with our backs to the wall and literally everybody in the restaurant can see us.
Speaker 2:So I'm trying not to make a scene because I but so you'd rather not make it Well at the time when, when I initially started, like I didn't think I was actually choking, choking I thought it was just stuck and it was going to go down or whatever. When it didn't, then I started to freak out. I'm like am I going to have to get myself?
Speaker 5:Heimlich maneuver.
Speaker 2:How do you do that? She doesn't believe you. I didn't know what to do. So I finally just and I'm like my fingers are in my mouth and I pull it out and it's in the napkin, and the waitress comes back and I won't eat the rest of my steak, I won't touch it, and this wad of meat is wrapped up in my and she's like is everything okay? I'm like yep, we're fine, we're fine, everything's good.
Speaker 2:You're like Jim Carrey, it's like everything's fine, it was awful, but I bring it up all the time. I'm like oh, I was choking, you didn't even care, yeah. So we went to Texas Roadhouse one time and I got a steak and Emmett goes, don't choke, dad. Shut up Emmett, yeah. But so from my standpoint, I think the importance of volunteering in a small ministry is support A for the ministry, and then really that's what our calling is, yeah yeah, is support A for the ministry and then really that's what our calling is Like.
Speaker 2:When we serve in children's ministry, we serve in technology, or we serve even sitting here at the podcast, or on Wednesday nights in the sanctuary, whatever. When we're serving in the food pantry we are. Our responsibility is to bring more people to Christ through that ministry, and this is what I try to explain to my tech team, and I'm so adamant with them that if their ministry either the visual part or the audio part, if those don't go well, then my ministry doesn't go well. The preaching doesn't survive if you don't. I was so disappointed to find out we didn't record Christmas Eve service, because I was so excited about it and I wanted to hear it. We didn't record it. And we didn't record it because it was an off night, like it felt like. It was kind of like it wasn't a Sunday morning, it was very fluid and I had everything prepped to record but they didn't hit the button and so I just told him I was like, hey, if the microphone is on my body, I want to record it.
Speaker 2:Because, that's the only archive that we will ever have of this portion of the ministry, and I don't want to lose that.
Speaker 2:So, that's been. It's important for me, to me, that people understand that when they're serving in those ministries and the responsibility that they have is beyond just showing up and sitting in the nursery, or beyond just showing up and sitting in the tech booth, beyond just showing up and sitting in the tech booth, that there is a great amount of responsibility to that. Again, if kids men doesn't go well, then we don't have kids men and now all of those kids are in the sanctuary and that's not good for anybody else who's trying to get a message. Yeah, harder to receive a message, it becomes chaotic.
Speaker 1:So that's just my opinion.
Speaker 2:That was my best Amish accent.
Speaker 3:Just my opinion. I did feel bad about pulling out a nursery, but with taking on the food pantry, I'm doing a lot more. I just feel like I'm busy, busy busy. Yeah, that's what I was going to say, and then we've got all these babies, which I love babies but when they're on the floor and they need picked up, with my back it's rough.
Speaker 2:I think it's perfectly acceptable to say, hey, this is not my season, and to be able to walk out of that, and nobody should ever feel guilty for that. Nobody should ever feel bad for that. But you should also have the confidence to know that when I step back, somebody else is going to step in. That's not the case. We did have one new volunteer for nursery, which is great, but they're new. They're a new volunteer, so we have to go through the background check and do all of that before we can put them in the nursery. So they have to watch this out. Child safety videos that's a new thing this year. They have to view the videos before they're allowed to go to kids ministry. So and that's all important to me, because you don't know, I mean, we just had a local church that had struggled with a sexual offender being in their building and obviously nobody knew that they weren't serving in children's ministry or anything like that, but they could have.
Speaker 2:And this is what I try to give parents a little bit of understanding on what we do. We always background check. We always have them watch the child safety videos, which is like, hey, if you see something, report it. Always. Side hug, all of those things Like those are all of the things that we teach and that we want people to understand. But a background check only helps me if that person has ever been caught or convicted.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, if they have never been caught or convicted. I can only protect so far, which is why we try to put two people in those classrooms and in those nurseries all the time, because again, then we know that there's some safety there. But that's all we can do.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 4:If you have somebody that comes to you and you say I feel really led to do children's ministry or some other something else to do with the church, Do you have like a certain? If somebody says that to you, do you have like a certain criteria in your head of like okay, here's my response to that. As far as know I'm like how much I guess I'm not saying like how much of their word are you taking when they say that to you? But do you have a certain idea, no matter who it is, no matter how long you've known them? Yeah, do you have a certain crafty in your in your head?
Speaker 2:so, oh, just to explain that we had a um, a family who had a, a significant other, as part of their next generation, and that significant other started coming to church. They were here for about three weeks and they're, like I feel, led to volunteer in nursery and it was this big to-do that they were going to volunteer in nursery. I don't know this person. They've only been here three weeks. I love your heart, I love your enthusiasm, but first of all, you're going to have to go through the background check. That's going to take a couple of weeks and then they stop showing up the following week. So there was no way that person was going to make it to nursery before we vetted some of that out.
Speaker 2:I treat that a little bit like I treat marriages. When somebody asks me to marry them, we're doing six weeks of marriage counseling. That's just what we're doing. I don't care if I've known you your entire life. I don't know. I don't care if I've known you through that entire relationship. We're going to poke the bear a little bit. We're going to talk about things that are uncomfortable for you.
Speaker 2:We're going to have conversations that you're going to say I don't really know that I want to talk about that in front of them and I'm going to say we are not. This is not good. Yeah, I did one marriage counseling session that ended in them not getting married because we found out that one of them was lying Like big time lying, like their stories didn't add up. And I talked to the other one and was like, hey, like I'm a little bit confused by this story. And they're like well, I'm as confused as you are. And when we started to like to poke and ask some questions, we found out that they had been seeing their ex. Do I want to expose that in a pre-marriage? No, I don't. Do you think I want to expose some sort of deep, dark secret?
Speaker 4:You don't want to be Jerry Spriggan.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly that's not what I want to do and I don't want to do that for somebody who wants to volunteer. But I cannot, in good conscience, just let anybody volunteer. Yeah, but I cannot, in good conscience, just let anybody volunteer If you are not sold out, if you are not attending regularly, if you are not committed to whatever area it is. If I stopped pastoring this church and started attending somewhere else and I said to that pastor, hey, I want to volunteer in kids ministry, that pastor would be a moron. To let me volunteer in kids ministry because that is not my calling, I do not like kids. It's a fair statement. Why would to let me volunteer in kids ministry because that is not my calling, I do not like kids. Right, like, it's a fair statement. Like, why would you let me do that? You would think you know what? You're a tech guy. I'm going to find a spot in tech ministry for you, like that would be the logical thing to do.
Speaker 4:You're not going to let somebody volunteer out of desperation.
Speaker 2:No, no, never. So listen, I've always got a backup. So, like sis is about to have a baby, like I mean we got a little while yet, but I her and I are meeting on Friday to talk about what that off ramp looks like, I am not going to be desperate when she decides to go into labor and try to figure out how we're going to make Sunday work. Like we're going to figure that out in advance. And if that means splitting that role between a couple of people for a little while because I figure you know she's going to need when she gets close, like six weeks before she has a baby, we probably need to be thinking like she could have that baby at any point and need to be prepared for that. And then if she comes back to work or church six weeks after she has that baby, I still don't want her in the tech booth.
Speaker 5:She got a baby.
Speaker 2:Right. Why should you be able to sit and hold your baby Right Like? That doesn't make sense to me. So we've got to look at how long is that on ramp then? So no, I will never allow someone to volunteer out of desperation. I told you guys the story about the time I went to the Four Square Church in Newark.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they let me on the worship team the first Sunday. I walked through the door. They didn't know me. That's bizarre to me. No, I will never do that.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And again, like, my dad can run slides. He's not great at it and he'll tell you that, but he can get us through and like, if that's what we have to do, that's what we'll do. Um, I can actually run them remotely from the pulpit. If I have to do that, it's a little more complicated because I've got my notes and then that and your fan?
Speaker 4:yes, and my fan I'm taking.
Speaker 2:okay, I have decided I'm gonna take that fan home and I'm bringing a smaller one, because that thing's aggressive, like even on two. That thing was like blowing my hair sideways. That thing is impressive. It is nice, though man, it gets hot up there. Kept me nice and cool, like my fingers were cold last Sunday. Like it was like ooh, that's chilly yeah Arctic blast.
Speaker 5:I saw on a Facebook reel, not on a TikTok on a Facebook reel this morning. That'll be my next thing. No, it was like a space heater, but you plugged it into your outlet. I saw that the other day?
Speaker 2:Yes, I was like that's pretty nifty and they're supposed to be super efficient. They actually heat pretty well.
Speaker 5:I don't know, you plug it in there.
Speaker 2:It just goes into a regular outlet. It looks like a nightlight almost. Yeah, it's not like a foot heater.
Speaker 5:It's a smaller version of one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they're infrared so that they're safe.
Speaker 5:Almost like the size of that speaker, or a little smaller. No, that's a. That's not speakers, that's shelves.
Speaker 2:Those are lights inside of those shelves. Oh yeah, that little puck. But you're right, they're not very big, like a Wi-Fi extender, almost yeah. So they're not real big. I've seen those.
Speaker 3:That would be nice on the boat, yeah, oh jeez.
Speaker 2:Somebody send her an Amazon link.
Speaker 3:Right, listen, I'm ready for boating season.
Speaker 4:Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, we just had to pay dock fees. If I'm going to pay it.
Speaker 2:I want to use it.
Speaker 3:Yep, I had to chunk that money out.
Speaker 4:Did it go up again? Huh, did it go up. Mm-hmm yeah bad 3,500 what from what it went up? 31, no, no, no, that's, I don't remember that's what it was this year oh, but it went up from last year yeah 3,500 to just have the boat there and that's clindenning right, that's not piedmont, piedmont, okay, so like 3,500 is probably a standard a lot more like tapping an atwood.
Speaker 3:It goes by the size of our boat. Oh, okay. Good gravy Our boat's a little bit bigger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's why Beth can't drive it.
Speaker 3:That's why Jarvi can't drive it.
Speaker 1:See, if you had a little dinghy, it only cost you about $12. Just blow it up each time.
Speaker 3:I probably can park it better than he can.
Speaker 2:Next time I see him at the post office I'll be like so. Beth tells me she can park the boat better than you can, jarvie.
Speaker 3:But that includes the electric, because we have electric out there.
Speaker 2:That includes them putting it in and taking it out.
Speaker 3:Putting it in, taking it out Like the full season, Storing it yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they do all that. Well that's, that's better than having somebody come in and get it, haul it somewhere, store it and then hauling it back.
Speaker 3:Well, that's probably 500 dollars, depending on we have to have a permit for that thing to be moved, because it's so big yeah yeah, it's not. I mean it's not huge, right, but there's bigger boats. There's two more out there.
Speaker 5:That's bigger, but see my father-in-law gets his just, but he's got a buddy that lives between genate and import, like right off of 36, and they just store it there in a big garage, so that's cheaper that way.
Speaker 2:But if you don't have a place like that, then, sometimes that's your only option can I jump topics for just a quick second? So easton is here but you guys don't know that because you haven't seen him right, because he's quietly playing somewhere. Um, but how many of you? Well, it's probably nobody in this room, because this is kind of a fairly new thing.
Speaker 2:Alissa and I, when we exchange children and we do exchange children like she'll pick up emmet and drop off Easton or whatever She'll send me a text and it will say, like she sent me one earlier when she dropped Easton off, that said you're Easton, and I have to respond my Easton, so that she knows that I know that I have Easton with me. And like then, vice versa, like she'll say if she's taking Emmett, my Emmett, you're Easton, or your kids my kids. It's a weird trade-off. The only reason I ask if anybody else has ever done that is because I saw the text. I was like, oh, you know what? That's one of those weird things that her and I have done for so long that it seems normal to me, but it is probably very strange, right.
Speaker 5:Does it just give you accountability, like, oh, I got to make sure Easton stays alive, not just that.
Speaker 2:So to some degree, yes, like cause, she knew that I wasn't going to see him, like I watched him walk in but then I wouldn't know he was in the building otherwise. But it's for me to like.
Speaker 5:Hey, don't forget that he's here when you leave.
Speaker 2:But it's more about um, like this is my break, Like. So she's saying your kids, I'm saying my kids. That means that when they come out of the bedroom and they see like we could be both be home at the same time, and she will say your kids, okay, my.
Speaker 2:She needs a rot session on the couch so she's gonna go back to the bedroom or whatever and when the kids need something she's out like she's not a mom's not home okay yeah so, but we do that when we exchange the kids, even in public settings, like she will say to me if she's going when we go to Easton Aiden's basketball games, she's taking Adeline to the bathroom. My Adeline, your boys.
Speaker 5:Huh.
Speaker 2:Like so that we like she's leaving and she's got Adeline that way in my mind. I know where Adeline is at Adeline's with mom. Yeah, so it's not a oh crap. Alyssa went to the bathroom. Where'd Adeline?
Speaker 5:go. Yeah, so did you guys like read that somewhere? I can't remember start it I can't remember she.
Speaker 2:I don't know if she read it somewhere or heard it somewhere probably did but then she was like, hey, we're gonna start doing this, is it just makes it easier? So we know that we're on the same page with who's responsible a lot of times just saying it out loud.
Speaker 2:Well, there it doesn't, kids though, like my kids and this is, I think, any kid in the world, and I don't think this is any reflection of me or any other dad, but my kids I will be sitting in front of them and they want a snack. They will go find Alyssa and ask for a snack. Yeah, exactly, I'm like I was sitting right here. They're like I'll text Aaron and be like, hey, when's your next cross meet? Never hear from him and I'll get home and be like hey, aaron told me his cross meet's on Thursday. I'm like I texted him and asked him. She's like I don't know. He texted me and told me what the heck he left me on. Read Kids are just like that. It's just what they do, so nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 5:I've seen something that said like texting my younger sibling, like this is like a 20 or 30 year old talking about texting their younger sibling, who's like a teenager. It's like you're almost like that annoying girlfriend to them because like they're just one word yeah, yeah, what? No, I'm like yeah, it's Mallory.
Speaker 2:It's funny because they don't text anymore.
Speaker 5:They don't.
Speaker 2:It is such a transition because we All right. First of all, let's back up. Do you remember everybody remember when they got their first cell phone? Does anybody remember what kind of cell phone they had? Mine was a flip, like a black and white screen flip phone. You could play Snake on it, maybe. Okay, do you remember when you could start downloading your own ringtones or your callback tones so when somebody would call you they would listen to?
Speaker 5:I just record it.
Speaker 2:Oh what? Okay, right, that's what. But you like, yeah, you remember that. Yeah, we all had to have, like personalized ringtones, and now we all mute our phones so nobody can hear it ring.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 2:And then we got to the point where we would only text like we don't take calls or we don't answer calls, we don like you send a DM on Insta or you send a Snapchat. Right, marco Polo, have you done, marco Polo?
Speaker 5:No, I've heard of people that have done it my Alyssa and I's best friend.
Speaker 2:She like she just Marco Polo's all the time. That's how you talk to her, like you don't, and the beauty of it is it's like a video chat, but they open it at their own leisure and then they're able to record a message and send it back.
Speaker 5:Now my sister will do like the voice memo. Oh yeah, that drives me nuts and I don't like those.
Speaker 2:Well, because I don't need the whole world listening to what you've got to say to me. Yeah, like if you're telling me about your hemorrhoids, the world doesn't need to know about that. Can I tell you a social faux pas People who walk through Walmart and speakerphone. Oh yeah, I don't need to hear your grandma grunting as she poops. I don't need to hear these conversations. It's ridiculous. Put a pair of earbuds in or something. Man, can we get away from this?
Speaker 4:I hate when I see it's obviously the boyfriend or the husband shopping. Yeah, and he's talking to and she's telling him everything to pick up. Yeah, here's what I've learned.
Speaker 2:My wife will send me a text message of the things that she wants, and if I get there and I'm like, ooh, does she want the big marshmallows or the little marshmallows? I'm buying both. They're 98 cents. Does it matter at this point? I'm just gonna get whatever. First of all, marshmallows are disgusting, so let's just clear that out.
Speaker 4:No, no, no, Marshmallows are good.
Speaker 2:I can eat them like cotton balls. You eat cotton balls.
Speaker 1:Elf, my wife will make fun of me.
Speaker 5:She's like you eat them, like Elf eats some cotton balls. So you guys have marshmallows on stack.
Speaker 4:We have a coffee and hot cocoa bar and one of the canisters has mini marshmallows in it, so I'll just open it so you like the mini ones, not the big ones, it don't matter.
Speaker 5:Okay, now here's.
Speaker 2:Whatever's open. You get me those little freeze dried ones that they put in, like the hot cocoa packets. I love those ones.
Speaker 5:Do you like them in your hot cocoa? I'll eat them by the handful, yeah.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 1:Lucky charms. But I was going to say it's something about them being dried Like.
Speaker 2:I don't like the texture of a gooey marshmallow.
Speaker 4:We are not on topic, you could get a bag of just a Lucky Charms marshmallow.
Speaker 2:Dude, I have a bag in my office. I stop at Walnut Creek Cheese, I pick up a bag of those Sometimes it's root beer barrels. It just depends. It depends on what I'm hankering that day, and then I eat those things by the fistful. I don't even care.
Speaker 5:No shame in my name. I was going to ask if you eat them for breakfast. No, I eat them all day All day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, I just pour milk on my marshmallows. No, my wife makes fun of me because at lunch. So I used to spend $10 to $15 a day eating lunch. Because you know you go to Burger King, it's $8. Yeah, a sit-down restaurant, like if I go to Dirt Dutchman or Farmstead, I'm being 15, 18 bucks by the time I've paid for the meal and gratuity. So I started buying those Campbell's Chunky Soups and I have. We have a kitchenette in our office.
Speaker 5:Do they have the crackers on the top? No, have you seen those ones? No, I have not seen those.
Speaker 2:But thank you for pointing those out, because now I will look for those. But it's the can of like hearty vegetable and like beef and whatever, and I just I have every flavor in the cabinet and in the middle of the day I'll walk in there and run through there.
Speaker 5:I'll have this one.
Speaker 2:And then I have a bowl of soup and a thing of instant mashed potatoes for lunch. I'm good to go.
Speaker 3:Nice, you don't eat your ravioli at work.
Speaker 1:No, and the reason that I don't eat the ravioli it doesn't fill me up, I need something that's hearty, he eats the soup, or, if he just eats it out of the can, cold as well, no, I don't.
Speaker 2:So I went and bought myself a real bowl a big kid bowl and a real spoon a big kid spoon and I put my soup in the bowl warm it up, mainly because if you get the steak and mushroom one, those mushrooms cold they're slimy and you can't even chew them. They're like it's bad, it's bad. So definitely I have to heat those ones up.
Speaker 5:Where do you buy those I?
Speaker 2:get them at Walmart, and usually I'll go to Walmart at work. So on my way home or middle of the day or whatever, I'll just go and buy 12 or 14 of them and take them back and put them in the cabinet.
Speaker 5:I should just do that for work.
Speaker 2:And I used to. I used to pack them in my like I would take a lunchbox and I would just pack them. But now that I have a kitchenette, there's no, like I just leave them there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I have learned, though I hate this, I it happens here too.
Speaker 4:I can't have certain things at work because people will take it like.
Speaker 2:I always tell everybody if it's in there, you're welcome to it, but if you take the last one or it's getting low, let me know.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I used to always keep a case of coke in there. I'd go in there and be completely gone. So, speaking of coke, have you guys tried the? Not stevia, is it zevia? Um soda, it's like okay, probiotic stuff. I don't think so.
Speaker 2:It's like, isn't it probiotic stuff?
Speaker 5:I don't think so. It's like the Stevia sugar substitute it's their brand, but it's like A&W cream soda. Or the blue can is Pepsi, but like the blue can tastes just like Pepsi, doubt it.
Speaker 2:Doubt it.
Speaker 5:And it's clear it's not like a dark soda. Are you serious? I'll try it, but I doubt it. It's at Walmart, somebody. Are you serious? I'll try it, it's at.
Speaker 2:Walmart. Somebody brought me a Olipop one time. And it was cola flavored classic cola and they're like it tastes just like a Coke. You'll never know the difference.
Speaker 5:I knew the difference.
Speaker 2:The minute I took the drink I'm like no, it ain't. And the side effects of an Olipop, no, thank you.
Speaker 5:What like the digestive yeah?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I ain't never pooped so much in my life.
Speaker 1:Good lord. Yeah, if you're ever like, well, yeah, I just drink Olipop, you won't have to drink that now, lord have mercy.
Speaker 2:I was like no, thank you, but that's what it's supposed to be good for your digestive system, which is the purpose of drinking it. It's got probiotics in it and it's got like it's a better, it's a healthier alternative to soda.
Speaker 3:But I was like, oh no, I've never heard of it. Oh yeah, it's. Olipop is one, and then there's another brand.
Speaker 2:There's another one too, and I don't remember what it is.
Speaker 5:So like where do you find them?
Speaker 3:You can get it at Walmart or by the individual cans, even In the back, where the pop is.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, and it's like a carbonated water almost, but it's got all the. I don't either. I think they taste awful, and I've never found one that tastes like whatever they say it tastes like, so that's why I'm doubting that your Poppy.
Speaker 5:Poppy is the other one. Poppy is the other one. I don't drink any pop.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think kick of poppy. I think I didn't like that went to one of the food shops they have uh, it was troyers. They do hot sandwiches for lunch and so I occasionally pop in there, grab a hot sandwich and they turn around and they have a mint, lemon, sparkling water in a glass bottle and I was like I'm gonna try that mint I love mint anything mint.
Speaker 2:I love mint me too, but I'm like mint lemonade sound or mint lemon sounds weird, but I'm like maybe you'll have like a lemonade. It's bad. One sip gone.
Speaker 3:I'm like mint lemonade sounds or mint lemon sounds weird but I'm like maybe I'll have like a lemonade.
Speaker 2:It's bad. One sip gone.
Speaker 5:I'm like give me a Coke Tried being healthy for a minute.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, thank you, no, thank you.
Speaker 3:I wish I could get off the pop, but I've got myself limited to like I buy those little itty.
Speaker 2:that doesn't work for me. I drink six of them and it costs more to drink those than it does to just drink a regular soda. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But now I don't at home, I don't drink them during the week, I'll just drink it. I'm like on the weekend I'll have one or whatever with my meal.
Speaker 2:But Alyssa stopped buying soda at the house entirely. It's like she will have a case of pepsi for herself, but she only ever. Usually drinks one a week like she's not a um. But she stopped buying coke at the house, so that has helped a lot. But I still will occasionally stop at mcdonald's on my way home and get a coke which, by the way, is highway robbery. Now how are you charging me a dollar a month ago and now, all of a sudden they're $1.80?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah highway robbery.
Speaker 2:I text tina bober I. I was like dude, how is McDonald's charging me $1.80 for? She's like if you buy it on your app it's still only $1. I said right, but I have a gift card which they won't allow you to use on your app, really. Yes, they did that intentionally. They did that intentionally because they've already got your money. They want you to spend as much of it as you can in one shot, you son of a gun and anyhow. So now I just redeemed my 40,000 points 40,000.
Speaker 2:I have a ridiculous amount of McDonald's points. I had like 3,500 that was going to expire so I just went and bought a bunch of junk and I ate it all. I think I had like I don't even know it was, like even know it was, and you drank an olipapa no, they don't do anything on the app, so I didn't realize they even had points.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh yeah my, my phone storage is terrible and, like all those apps like if it's something I only use a little bit, like bath and body or target I did keep on but I'm never there much, but I still keep them on there, um, but I just have to delete them because my phone storage is terrible right now.
Speaker 3:It's all them, baby pictures.
Speaker 4:I know it was pretty bad before that, though Do you think McDonald's will ever bring back Monopoly?
Speaker 2:No, have you not watched the documentary?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think Monopoly will ever come back.
Speaker 3:Why that's a shame.
Speaker 2:It was a scam. It wasn't McDonald's that was scamming people. There was a guy who was practically dealing on the black market. He had some sort of system where he was getting the pieces that he needed. He didn't claim them every time, but he would give them to friends and family who would then claim all of these huge prizes, and then he would end up reaping the benefit from it, and they finally caught on. He ended up going to prison, didn't he? I think so.
Speaker 3:I mean if he wasn't doing anything illegal.
Speaker 2:It was illegal. Whatever he was doing was some sort of racketeering or something crazy.
Speaker 3:It was like it was very much so illegal. I mean, somebody figured out how to beat the.
Speaker 2:Yes that was exactly basically what it had boiled down to, because there were only like six of the no, it wasn't even that like maybe two or three of the boardwalk pieces ever produced, and he had somebody on the inside who was telling him where they were going. Six of the no, it wasn't even that like maybe two or three of the boardwalk pieces ever produced, and he had somebody on the inside who was telling him where they were going, and then he would go and buy and then have other people do and like it was a whole shenanigans.
Speaker 4:So I also enjoy have anything I know Right.
Speaker 2:I also enjoyed the Pepsi. Where's my jet documentary? Did you enjoy that one? Anybody watch it. Watch it. Watch it Because for those of us who grew up in the 90s, we remember that very well.
Speaker 5:Did you watch the subway one of the subway guy? No, remember the-. Oh, yes, I did watch that one, the main subway guy, jared Jared, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the Pepsi, where's my Plane? Basically, the crux is, pepsi had a remember when you used to be able to get the points, the Pepsi points. So Pepsi had a commercial on TV that said for 50,000 points or whatever, you could have this fighter airplane, because 50,000 points was an obscene amount of points that nobody was ever going to get, or so they thought.
Speaker 2:And there was a guy who acquired enough points, mailed them in for the fighter jet and Pepsi obviously would not give it to him and they sent him like a coupon for a free case of Pepsi or something ridiculous and he ended up suing them and they fought in court forever over it he ended up losing because they were like there was no disclaimer on the commercial that said that you can't actually win. The jet was the crux of it.
Speaker 2:And he ended up losing he ended up losing because the court said it was unrealistic. Well, they couldn't get that you can't buy. You can't just go and buy a fighter jet Like Pepsi can't go to the US government and say sell me a fighter jet Like it's not, you can't. They could have got one on the black market, Probably yes. So so it was it ended up being, but he, I mean, and I think he lost everything.
Speaker 2:But he couldn't get them like for like false average or anything, or anything Nope, lost, and I mean like, but you can spill your coffee on yourself.
Speaker 1:Burn yourself when you know it's hot coffee.
Speaker 2:I have learned that that is not a true story. She did burn herself with the coffee, but that is not why it says hot content. So it wasn't that lawsuit that led to that and it wasn't like, oh, she was burnt a little bit, like she was pretty severely injured. But there was more to that story that led to that. It wasn't just her, but that's like. The story that we all know right Is that she got burnt by a hot coffee and became a millionaire. But you know, this is another and this just my opinion, and again, we're not talking about the topic. We answered it without answering it. People are so litigious in society anymore. I just saw that um rudy giuliani has lost everything to a couple of campaign workers in georgia who, he said, who he defamed, right yeah now what defamation is?
Speaker 2:I don't fully understand at this point in my life because, like if I said that you stole money but you never stole money, rather than you proving that you never stole money, now you just sue me for defamation and I have to pay you a bunch of money. So he was holding on to his penthouse. He didn't want to give it up because he really had nothing left at that point. They became billionaires overnight because they sued a guy. That's crazy to me, but that's what society has become. It's easier to sue somebody and become a millionaire than to work hard and be an upstanding citizen. Sue somebody and become a millionaire and then to work hard and be an upstanding citizen. And I'm not saying it's right that he would say those things, because I don't know what he said. I don't know the crux behind it.
Speaker 2:But it just seems like we really shouldn't be able to sue everybody for everything Feels kind of crazy to me.
Speaker 5:People are getting sue happy.
Speaker 2:Well, that's why you see billboards for lawyers when you drive down the highway, tim Misny. Well, that's why you see billboards for lawyers when you drive down the highway, tim Misny, yeah, yeah, you know what I do. Right, I'll make them pay. We all know that. Or you think about structured settlements. Everybody knows the JG Wentworth commercial right 877-CASH-NOW.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I was hoping somebody would do it, but that's what we've become. Yeah, okay, so I have a structured settlement. I need a little bit of cash. I'm going to call JG Wentworth. He's going to get me that annuity paid out early, but he's going to take 60% of it.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now how does that make any sense? Like eBay, People are so desperate to have something that they're willing to that lottery and it's it's a really high number of the people who win the lottery are broke within oh yeah so many years, like two years yeah, if you haven't worked for it, I don't think you respect.
Speaker 5:I agree and don't appreciate it, I agree someone was telling me I think it was someone in strasburg a few years back or I don't know how many years back, but they won the lottery and they were saying in nine months or so he was gone yep, broke broke.
Speaker 2:I have a friend who they played scratch-offs every day, like multiple times a day, and they weren't like dollar scratch-offs, they were twenty dollars, fifty dollars. They were big scratch-offs and then they won. I think it's 150 000 or something. That was a big chunk of change, right yeah, but how much? Exactly. I was like let's do the math over the last 20 years, $50 a ticket, three times a day how much You've lost?
Speaker 4:money. Yeah, when I managed to save a lot, I'd see people just their whole paycheck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's nuts.
Speaker 4:They'd come in, they'd buy some, go outside scratch would come right back in. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was just constant.
Speaker 1:I saw a commercial the other day where you can do it on your phone. Oh my gosh, I'm like oh, whatever, oh that's going to be a huge problem and this is the thing is.
Speaker 2:That is that addictive personality that so many people struggle with, and I struggle with it too, and that's why I don't gamble Like again. I've told you guys this I can't go to Chuck E Cheese.
Speaker 3:Like you, don't short me, I don't think so.
Speaker 2:Dad killed Chuck. I'm on top of Chuck punching him in the face all over the number of tickets I got from that game. But anyhow, like I play a game on my phone that if I lose, I cannot stop playing until I win.
Speaker 5:Like.
Speaker 2:I have to win because it just like it makes me feel good and I can walk away from it. I can walk away from it for days and it doesn't bother me, but I have to win one before I stop. That can consume and each round that you play is like two and a half minutes. If you don't, you can play doing that for an hour and not even know you're doing it and if all those were the reels?
Speaker 2:yeah, and if all of us would refocus that time and volunteer at church see how we brought that back.
Speaker 3:Yeah see how we did that.
Speaker 2:See how we did that. That was a loose tie back, but we pulled it off.
Speaker 5:We pulled it straight back from the beginning see what we did there.
Speaker 2:but no, honestly, to jump back to that, volunteering at church doesn't mean every sunday morning because some people think that, like ministry is preaching, that's not always it. Sometimes ministry is opening the door for somebody on Sunday mornings, or when you see somebody struggling to pick up their coffee and you're like, hey, let me help you with that this Sunday because well, holy smokes, it's snowing again. If you look outside, I'm starting my car.
Speaker 2:If you guys, look outside. They plowed the lot today and they piled the stone up in front of the handicap spots. Well now, like when Vicky Hickey gets here this Sunday, she can get out of her car, but she can't get on the sidewalk because there's a pile of rocks.
Speaker 5:Speaking of, I think, some of the handicap.
Speaker 2:things need some screws, yeah they have fallen over so many times, the screws have popped out of them. Roger's going to take care of that.
Speaker 5:I can do it, I just don't know how straight Well we have extras.
Speaker 1:See, somebody didn't want to save anything, but now Now, all of a sudden, we need them. Well, I know where some of those are at. Ridiculous Roger Go get them Ridiculous. That's the truth.
Speaker 2:Oh I know. And so this Sunday we're not just going to have volunteers opening the doors, we're going to have people prepared to help those people get into the building, Like I don't want Vicki to be out there trying to step over that pile of snow, or whatever. Like, even if that means, hey, pull up out front, park your car, you walk into the building and we'll park your car for you Like if that's what we have to do this Sunday that's what we're going to do.
Speaker 5:We're not going to leave.
Speaker 1:We're going to have valet parking at church.
Speaker 2:Only for the legacy members. Yes, only for the legacy members.
Speaker 5:Watch out, who's going to park mine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which I was going to say, which technically Roger qualifies for.
Speaker 1:Who's going to park my truck?
Speaker 2:Nobody. You're going to be the one parking everybody. You, I was going to say, maybe me, maybe Would you park my truck.
Speaker 5:I will park your truck. Michael's Tesla will park your truck, oh speaking of.
Speaker 2:they did an update a couple of months ago and they gave us the summon feature so we can summon the car to come to us wherever we're at and it'll self-drive to wherever we're at, but then it only lasts for so long and then it goes away. Well, they did another update. We got it back.
Speaker 5:I haven't used it yet, but I'm so excited. Do you have to pay extra?
Speaker 2:No, Well, you do if you choose to purchase that later on, but they give you a lot of times. They'll give you full self-driving after they've done an update so that they can get user data.
Speaker 4:That's kind of their test.
Speaker 2:They get people hooked Full self-driving is $99 a month. I can drive myself for $100 a month, that's a lot of money, so you have assisted driving.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yours is probably what mine is. Lane assisted, yeah, but it does a lot. So mine, it does all of the things that a normal one would do, but mine auto brakes. If it detects an obstacle, it auto brakes going around a turn. So there are some snazzy features. I don't like it. Well, here's what I was going to say. In Holmes County you can't have the lane assist on Because if I need to go out around a buggy, I went around a buggy one time and it came to a dead stop in the middle of the road Because I'd crossed the line.
Speaker 5:Chase hates mine. He's like. This thing has a mind of its own.
Speaker 1:You can feel she really got used to hers and she loves it.
Speaker 2:It is weird.
Speaker 1:I always forget about it.
Speaker 4:I don't like it First time it happened in that Honda. I mean, I didn't know what was happening.
Speaker 2:I forget. One time somebody and I was at the top of a hill, coming down the hill, but somebody went across a cross section and I was nowhere close to them and that car dead stop on the hill. Cars behind me just arch and that was it.
Speaker 5:Does yours have the feature like, if you have excessive braking or something and it like you, if you turn it on, they could call like 911 right away?
Speaker 2:mine has crash detection okay, so if I, if, my car is in an accident, if it has impact, if it detects impact from any side, it automatically records. So if my car is in an accident, if it has impact, if it detects impact from any side, it automatically records whatever. So my car is constantly recording on all the cameras and if something were to happen it would stop and would keep that clip. Otherwise it dumps the clips. Did you start yours? My app on my phone won't work. Beth can't remote start her car. Mine has defrost mode and I turn it on and it warms the windshields, the wiper blades.
Speaker 1:That's what mine does.
Speaker 4:Our Honda has no auto start or heated seats. Yes, just remember that.
Speaker 2:That's like living in some—.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I told her she's never allowed to buy another vehicle on her own again.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Heated seats to me are a must, and of course she drives my truck. Oh my, I love them. You know what, though she?
Speaker 4:drives my truck to work every morning because it's cheaper in gas. But yeah, my truck has the heated seats.
Speaker 5:Yeah, of course she does. It's an auto starter and I'm driving this car.
Speaker 4:That has nothing. When she was looking for her car, stand my car and he couldn't stand my car last time. I'm like you should see her ask you, you should see her deal with these people she's a shrewd negotiator he is, and she's really good at it, so I had total faith in her like you know, let her go, but yeah, she failed.
Speaker 3:She failed, failure, my dad's so bad when he pulls into the honda place they leave the salesman like no, I'm out, no, I'm sick today.
Speaker 2:Gotta Gotta go.
Speaker 3:And when I bought that CRV and he was up there dealing with me and that guy finally just said to me he said you just tell your dad I'm a cart salesman, not a floor mat salesman. You're no floor mats, because by the time he gets out of there he's got floor mats.
Speaker 2:Everything for free. All the add-ons are included. That's funny. It is funny. Okay, anything else. On volunteering Anybody in here want to volunteer in children's ministry?
Speaker 5:Anyone want to volunteer to turn on Nick's car while?
Speaker 2:we pray, run out and start Nick's car. Anybody want to volunteer to start Nick's car?
Speaker 4:I would just say you know, if you feel led to do something, don't be afraid to do it. Yeah, you know, don't sit back and just.
Speaker 5:Maybe this is your eye opener.
Speaker 4:Yeah, just.
Speaker 2:And ask, if you don't know what that entails, ask the question. I'd love to have coffee and talk about what volunteering actually. We just need the second person to help make that happen.
Speaker 5:Well, and not only that, like there's, we now have workbooks and like Everything is so easy. Curriculum to go off of.
Speaker 2:Honestly, alyssa has made that so easy for everybody. You get all of your. You just get it's a printout and here's all the stuff, and usually your supplies are in the room waiting on you. It's a, you know, it's pretty basic, but, and it's again, children's ministry is not the only place to be. There's lots of places.
Speaker 4:So and if you don't feel led to do something, don't feel pressure to do it yeah. Something that you know as we talk. I mean, some people probably don't truly know what their calling is, and there's probably times where you don't know what you're calling until you start doing it yeah, right yeah. So I'm sure that happens too. But yeah, at least think about it, you know, and you know, just do what's in your heart to do yeah, you know and just try to maybe start with making a small commitment and sometimes and then we're sometimes that's just saying, hey, I'm gonna come out and help mow the grass or well
Speaker 5:you just said to be done, there's right. Most of the time you guys are here on Tuesday, yeah.
Speaker 2:Tuesday night, if you want to just come. Sometimes we just need somebody to hold the light fixture while we put the screws in.
Speaker 5:Seriously, While Roger's bleeding out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tonight we put up three new light fixtures in the nursery. We put up track lights against the painting on the back wall, so it's illuminated now, super cool. But, like tonight, I just needed an extra set of hands to hold the thing up while I put the screws in. But Roger was here, so it's not always that easy. Sometimes you just need an extra set of hands for something that just makes it happen.
Speaker 3:So that pantry room was a mess and I'm just thankful for that. Chris, come in early to help me get that organized and put together and put together there's a whole table full of food that all had to be dated, dated and put in rotation yeah yep, all right, nick, it's your turn to pray.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right. Well, maybe you will. I don don't know Like you, we'll see.
Speaker 4:Lauren, I just feel very grateful that we've been able to start a brand new season here, season three.
Speaker 4:Yes so three years we've been able to come together as a group and to fulfill our mission of getting the word out about just how truly wonderful and great you are out about just how truly wonderful and great you are. And just with that being said, let us all just try to search our hearts to see how we fit into your kingdom and to see how we can do our part to make that kingdom just all the greater. So I just pray all these things in your name. I pray that everybody gets home safely tonight, amen.
Speaker 5:Amen.
