AuDHD: When Autism and ADHD Collide. Week 1 of 2 with Raeleigh Kemp

Church can be a place of healing, and it can also be the loudest, most demanding room a neurodivergent kid walks into all week. Raeleigh Kemp joins me to talk about faith and mental wellbeing in a way that gets painfully practical: what happens when your child loves God but struggles with sensory overload, separation anxiety, and the pressure to “fit in” on Sunday.

Raeleigh shares her story of growing up in a Jesus-loving family, sensing there was more of the Holy Spirit, and becoming the person people naturally trust with hard truths. From there we move into parenting and neurodivergence, including an ADHD diagnosis, ongoing anxiety, and later an autism diagnosis. We talk honestly about autistic burnout, why medication can be a life-giving support, and how quickly school can become unsafe when systems prioritize compliance over understanding.

We also dig into inclusive church and what real belonging requires. What would it take for kids ministry and church leadership to be educated in neurodivergence and inclusive practice? How do we connect kids who cannot tolerate a crowded room, or who cannot handle kids church, without making them feel like problems to manage? Raeleigh offers grounded ideas, from flexible spaces to simple alternatives like kicking a ball outside while talking about Jesus, and we come back to a core Christian question: who do we make room for, and why?

If you care about Christian mental health, parenting neurodivergent children, autism and ADHD support, or building a church that welcomes the whole family, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

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Transcript

Welcome And Shared Heartbeat

Dave Quak 0:00

Well, welcome to Sumber's Holes. On this show, we speak about life and faith in our mental well-being, and Rayleigh Kemp is here.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hello.

Dave Quak 0:07

I love how you just said thank you halfway through my intro. So it's gonna be one of those um interrupting. I know, I love it, because you got something to share, Rayleigh. Like I've been watching your socials and you know, just observing you for a long time. We go way back in a strange way.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

We do, we do.

Dave Quak 0:24

Yeah, so when you were like mentoring some of the students back in Cleveland days, I was mates with some of the guys there.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

You were you're a young, young, young thing.

Dave Quak 0:34

I know it was. I I thank God for those days because I was pretty new to the whole thing. I wouldn't know if I was a Christian even at that point. Like I was trying to figure it out. But your church embraced me and helped. Yeah, you know, and I'm so glad. Yeah, and you and your husband were just always generous to the youth and hanging out with all the youth and helping everyone.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

We loved it. We loved it. Long time ago though, right?

Dave Quak 0:56

It's a long time ago. But we've been connecting over socials the last I guess couple of years, because I feel like we have a bit of a, I don't know, like a parallel heart for the way God can do a little bit more in the lives of people and the church and help that work a little bit better. Is that that's right for you?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Yeah, I definitely feel that. As I've been listening to your podcast, I've I've just felt this connection um with you and what you've been sharing. Um, just around mental health um and faith and how that fits together either in a good way or a bad way. Yeah. Um yeah, so it's resonated with me. So thanks for all you share. Oh. Because it's um bringing light into an area that's not always full of light.

Dave Quak 1:44

I agree. I agree. Um, as you know, we speak about faith and mental well-being. Before we start talking about mental health, just quickly, how did you even meet Jesus?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Oh gosh. Well, I really I was actually one of these children that was born into a incredible Jesus-loving family.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Um, my grandparents prayed for me before I was even a me. Um and that's my dad's parents. Um, and I honestly I really don't know a time when I haven't known Jesus. There's obviously been different journeys within that and different moments of closeness. Um but I have been yeah, I have been blessed with that, with an incredible family who love God and live for Him and live like Him. And so I've I've been blessed so much by that. Like, you know, walking in with other people in this world who have such different backgrounds to me. Um it just makes me really thankful for the family I was born into and the generations before me. That yeah, it's special.

Dave Quak 3:00

That is special. Yeah. I hope that's the testimony of my kids. Yeah, make sure you're not gonna be able to do that. You know, I don't want colourful testimonies or I had to do this many drugs to get back to God or whatever. Well, and I know that's a lot of people's story, and it's my story. And I love those stories. Yeah, they're cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

I actually am like, ah man, I feel like my story is so boring, but um I in the boredom, I actually am really thankful for it because it's you know, we've just always had that demonstration of of God and his love, and I am very thankful for it, I have to say, yeah.

Dave Quak 3:33

You can see it on your face, you are. You know, like you really and and I'll I love that you didn't just meet Jesus young and then wobble in your teenage years or 20s or whatever. It seems like you consistently followed him.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah, he's always he's always been with me and always been there. And there's definitely been moments where I probably look, I think one of my gifts is faith, to be honest. So it does come pretty naturally to me. I don't tend to wrestle with the big questions. I I am a simple girl with simple faith. And I don't need to be convinced much of who he is and what he's done for me. I just know it. And I do, I've always known that I've had a real special connection with the Holy Spirit too. Um even growing up in a conservative church, I felt like there was more. Like there was more of the Holy Spirit to, there was more of God, more of Jesus, more of the Holy Spirit to know. Um and I felt like I always had that connection with the Holy Spirit. And I, you know, I was a worship, a worship pastor and or worship director and different things, and even in that time, just knew there was more that we hadn't tapped into.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Um, which has probably led me to where I am now in a more of a Pentecostal church where we talk about the Holy Spirit all the time, and He's with us and in us and directing us and prompting us, and I love that. Um not dissing my conservative comments at all because I know the Bible incredibly well. Um and I know all of the, you know, that solid base. Um, but it got to a point where I was like, there is God was saying to me, there's more. There's more. And um so I've yeah, I've really enjoyed tapping into that more with him. Yeah.

Dave Quak 5:26

Yeah. I mean, you need more of the Holy Spirit considering where God seems to be like leading your life.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yes, I do.

Called To Care For People

Dave Quak 5:34

You know, like it really seems like he's equipping you and calling you to be speaking into Christian mental health and what that looks like. I mean, tell us about that. How did you end up doing all this?

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Gosh, so funny. It's funny because I have I've always been the person that people come to for support. Like, even as a young person, like even when I was at school, I remember that. Like people would come to me if they needed something. And it might be a little bit because I'm a firstborn too.

Dave Quak 6:07

Like, oh yeah, the dutiful first.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Everybody okay here, you know. It could be it's a bit of that too, I think. Um, and my personality, but I've always been drawn to helping people. Um, probably not always for the right reasons, if I'm honest, because sometimes it did make me feel better about myself, I think. Yeah, like the self-serving service. Yeah, there's definitely some some other sides to that at different times. But people just seem to tell me stuff, like in random places, they just seem to share things with me. And they'll I'll hear a lot. I've never told anyone this before. I hear that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yeah.

A Son’s ADHD And Autism Journey

SPEAKER_01 6:46

And um, so I guess it's a that was uh early on. And then as I sort of got married quite young, and um we had three kids, um, and at the time I had Zach's my eldest, um, he's now 23, turning 24, and Eli is my second born, and he is 21, turning 22, and then my daughter Amea, who is 19. And then about eight and a half years later, um, surprise, uh, our little bonus, I like to call him, um Zane, and he's now, he's nearly 11 now, um, and those 11 years have gone by like a flash. Um, but in our journey of raising him, um we discovered quite quickly in within school that there was just something a bit different about him, and he seemed to struggle with being at school, with separation. He struggled with um lots of noise. Um he was tricky with food, a few different things. Um nothing really obvious, but as we st as he started to get older and the demand at school started to get higher, he it became increasingly obvious that there was something different happening here.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Um and it wasn't something that we could just ride through. Um at the school that we were at at the time, um they had a great um s sort of structure for supporting kids that were struggling like that. Um and so we worked were able to work through that. Um and we ended up having a diagnosis um at the in grade three, I think. Grade two, I think, end of grade two it was, um, an ADHD diagnosis, um, where we went to the the child psych and we'd been there for not that long, and he's like, I think we're dealing with ADHD here.

Dave Quak 8:54

Like one of those meetings where it's five minutes in and they've they've made an assessment.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

And he's rolling around on the floor, and and I'm thinking this child just has anxiety, right? Um I'd started to think maybe there was something more going on. But because he was extremely anxious and he couldn't go in places and he'd have big meltdowns and um he struggled to separate from me mainly. Um anyway, so we get the diagnosis for ADHD. Then it's like, oh, the anxiety's still there. So he gets put on some anxiety medicine, which was amazing. Um I'm a big advocate for medication if it's making somebody's life function.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

Oh yeah, for sure.

Autistic Burnout And A Better School

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Um and so he went on some ADHD, um ADHD medicine first, and then some anxiety medicine. Um and then that kind of helped for that as well. And then a little uh a while longer, probably a year later, we're like, this he's there's still some things here. So we go to our a clinical, oh no, she's a developmental psychologist. Um, Louisa, her name is, she's amazing, and she did all the assessments and said, I think, yeah, we're we're we're deal we're talking about some some autism here. Okay. And so we went back to our child psych and he he had always thought we'll we'll do he's a big believer in doing one step, then one step, then one step. And so he's like, Yeah, this is still here as issues. Um so I'd say he's probably autistic too, yeah. So he got that diagnosis when he was in grade three, uh uh about a year later from the ADHD one. Um and yeah, so that's how that happened. Um but I guess through that time, my husband and I and my kids, we really just learnt um the complexities of life and how people have stories and everybody's struggling with something. Um and I guess it just set us on this bit of a journey of of how we parent, um, looking at what's important, what's not, looking at safety um or perceived safety. Um and uh I I guess from there I it wasn't all because of that. I think it was a lot of my history and my past and what I'd done. But I decided to do a diploma of counselling um in 2024 or 23 was. Um it went over two years, so they did it part-time. And um as I was doing that, just and obviously parenting this little neurodivergent child who was um struggling a lot at different times, and um I was like, I I just need to do I need to do something to help people. And so that led to the counseling diploma. Um and then, you know, God's just placed me in places where um in jobs where I've been working with kids who are doing uh like a vocational pathway, they often don't fit the box for different reasons. Um so I loved that, meeting them where they were at and helping them change the trajectory of their life. And it wasn't just about connecting them with employment and jobs, it was about giving them belief in themselves that they're actually awesome, even if they can't do ATAR. Um not everyone should be doing that. And so I loved that. And then after that, I worked in the junior school area with those neurodivergent kids who who struggled to be at school and loved that. Um the school then changed tack and um had started to remove a lot of the supports and or or change them. And um Zane just progressively struggled more and more. I stopped working for um particular reasons and it just got harder and harder for him to be at school until a point about two years ago when he was in autistic burnout. He couldn't be at school through situations that had happened at school where he had been given two options that were not good options for him. Okay. And it just crushed him and he just yeah. So uh we withdrew him out of that school and he's now at an autistic school that is the most amazing place. Shout out to Sycamore School at Alex Hills.

Dave Quak 13:32

I saw a post of yours very recently shouting them out.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

They're amazing, and uh I think uh this is what I love most about them is that they meet young, they call them young people, which is exactly what they are. They meet them where they're at, and they say, What can we do to make sure that you feel like you belong here rather than you need to fit in, be like us to come here.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

And um it's just been a game changer for him, for us as a family. Um he can go to school, he's there today doing superhero day.

Dave Quak 14:06

Oh what?

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Living his best life dressed as a bronco.

Dave Quak 14:09

Let's not just quickly dress up as a bronco. So normally they're like dressed as as Hulk or Thor or whatever, but he's as a Bronco. Shout out to him, man. Shout out to him.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Shout out to Zane, yeah and the Broncos. He loves he loves rugby league. Actually, this morning he said to me, he's just a relatively new fan in the past couple of years. Oh yeah. And um his big brothers like die hard. And um he says to me this morning, uh, I don't think I really like rugby league anymore. It's just getting a bit boring. And I went, what? And he went, April Fools, Mum. Four. I fell. I fell hard.

Dave Quak 14:42

Today's April Fools.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

April Fils.

Dave Quak 14:44

I haven't been done by anyone yet. April Fils. Yeah, you got me there. There you go.

When ADHD Conflicts With Autism

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah. So there we go. That's like in a nutshell how we ended up here.

Dave Quak 14:52

Like I love it because you're like figuring out how to parent a son, a legendary son called Zayn, who's got both ADHD and autism. Yeah. Like that's c what either one of them is complicated enough. Pardon any ignorant questions I ask, because I've not got many people in my world with that combo happening. So does it mean that there's symptoms and behaviors of both operating at the same time? Or is it like sometimes you're more leaning towards one to the other, or how's that work?

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Um look, it can be different for everybody. That's why it's called neurodivergence. Because it's a very diverse presentation. Everyone's brain is different.

Dave Quak 15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Um and for Zane, it it can be quite um oppositional, like because it's because some behaviors that are present in autism um are quite opposite to how they might present symptoms that present in ADHD. So it's often a real tension for him. Like, you know, like he needs things um predictable and audio doesn't do well with surprise, but ADHD loves the dopamine hit of the unpredictable. So he so it can be really conflicting for him. Like um, yeah, and that's just a very simple kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, no, that's a good thing. Like he loves he loves a good time, but the good time takes every in it ounce of energy that he has. Like, and he mo often takes a couple of days to recuperate.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Um you know, like a big change can be draining for him.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Um something that a neurotypical person would just roll with on a um input level for somebody with a neurodivergence can strip every ounce of everything for them. So yeah, it can be quite uh conflicting for them. Um and every person's different. So it it's hard for me to sit here and go, oh, this is what it is, but typically the symptoms of both or the behaviors of both are c uh often overlap, but but they can be really opposite as well.

The Gap In School Options

Dave Quak 17:02

Yeah. I I enjoyed hearing you talk about the Sycamore school quickly. Because the idea of a cohort of people who uh understand each other are understood by the teachers.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

It's amazing.

Dave Quak 17:15

Like what a blessing. That's so cool. Do many of those schools exist?

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Look, uh Sycamore is incredibly un it is unique. Um there are not as many around as what there is, you know.

Dave Quak 17:28

Need.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

There are a lot of alternative schools now, particularly for high school.

Dave Quak 17:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Um so a lot of schools like the busy school, um, the trade college, um, different things like that. You often find that a lot of the kids that end up there will be neurodivergent in a lot of cases, because they don't typically fit the institution of education, generally.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Um so there are a lot of alternate options for school, but often for young kids who don't fit the school mold, um, often the only option is distance ed or homeschooling. It's really rough. Yeah. Um and that affects a family, uh a vulnerable family, in a way that is extremely of like a huge impact.

Dave Quak 18:19

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well for sure. Even with the financial climate, like if someone had to all of a sudden be homeschooling and quit their role to do that, it's not attainable for a lot of people at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

No. And so consequently they're forced to be in school context, like an ordinary school context, which often does a lot more damage than than it should.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

And so it's it's they're really limited. Um so we do feel like we know that God create gave us a space at Sycamore because it it's hard to get into.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Um and there were two other families at the same time that left the school we were at that had to leave um because of the same reasons. And they we all got positions at the Sycamore Center. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, at the same time. And so we know that that was God on the city. Oh, it's got to be the handle. Yeah, yeah. And we're just so thankful for it because it really for all of us, even now it's been two years in, it was yeah, two years it's been. And we still go, we just cannot believe that God did that. Like for us, because our families, it's still hard. Yeah. But to have our children seen, heard, valued, loved at school for who they are is just been game changing for us. Yeah.

Dave Quak 19:41

Does Zeno go to church with you guys?

SPEAKER_01 19:43

He does. He does go to church with us.

Dave Quak 19:45

Um how's that?

SPEAKER_01 19:47

He finds church really hard because if you think about sensory input at any church is hard. Um there's lots of people that you don't know, you know, lots of bodies in a small space. Um really, like um our church is amazing. Um we love it so much. Um but it's it's it's loud, there's you know, louder music um in a contemporary kind of environment. And um he loves God and um but he does find church really hard. He can't go to kids' church because it's uh hard for him to be there. Yeah. Um just merely because of the, you know, size of the room, the amount of people in the room, he doesn't necessarily know people in the room. Um you know, it's it's hard. He did go to kids' church for a long time when he was smaller, then it just got too hard.

Dave Quak 20:50

Okay. That that's tough because obviously we want him to flourish at school, but the faith community is so vital for the whole family. You know, the three older ones have kind of made it through now, they're nearly all adults or they are 19 with the daughter. Yeah. You know, like if you if you could have the magic wand, yes, I said magic wand on a Christian podcast. No, if you could have the the the power just to go bing and change anything structural or even um physical in church to make Zane and people like Zane flourish, what would you do?

Building Belonging Through Inclusion

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Yeah. Um look, I will preface this and say, um, we're all on a journey, right? Yeah. Of understanding. And I think we're living in a context now that learning about neurodivergence and mental health and all the different things is becoming quite more you know, a lot more obvious, right? And so we are learning and we're all on a journey of that. So anything that I'm saying is not an attack at my church because I love them desperately and I I know that they're doing what they can at the moment, right?

Dave Quak 22:35

I want to quickly say too, Rayleigh. I've known you for twenty five years, and that whole time you've been faithfully serving the body of Christ. So and for me too. Anytime we critique church, it's obviously not we're hating the church. We love the bride of Christ. You know, you live this out. You live out faith in your faith community. So feel free to speak freely. I will, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

But also too, like I think in this last little while, God's like really shown me or given me insight to what it's like to not be like everybody else. You know, to not um necessarily find it easy or take it just take that for granted that everyone can just walk into church. Okay. Because it's really confronting. Yeah. Um both on a spiritual level, it's it's so different and countercultural to the world and what we see in the world, right? But also um in our area that we live, um, you know, we've had a we had one altercation early on with people who were at church who needed us to be quiet. Yeah. Um during the service, like sharp. Yeah, yeah. Um now uh that's hard. Um yeah, I understand that that may have been tricky for them too. Um God's given me lots of empathy in these last years. Um actually, you know, I get that that's hard and that might be different for them, and that maybe that is their church time. I get that. Um but also it was really big for us to even have our son through the doors that day.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Um and he wasn't able to go to kids' church. It the fight to even get to church, out of the car, into church, was massive. So for us that was really confronting. Um and you know, that has not happened since.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Um, I do believe people are becoming more educated and more understanding about about that.

SPEAKER_03 24:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Um, however, um, if I could wave a magic wand, um and I know our church will get there, I know they will.

Dave Quak 24:46

Um And you're part of getting them there.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And um it would be to have kids leaders and pastors that have understanding and educ are educated on um neurodivergence and um inclusive practice, like what does that look like? What can we do? How can we get the kids that can't be in kids church, how do we still connect with them because they're still kids? Um is, you know, if there was, you know, we're having a new building in the next few few years, like how do we and I I've had conversations with our fantastic pastors about what that could look like, and I know they're investigating that too, with a couple of the other bigger churches around of how how do we make an inclusive environment. But I think a lot of places have got stuck in the oh, we'll just make a space for inclusive, like that welcomes people in. But I think the the question is how do we make our environment here a place where people can feel like they belong, whoever they are?

SPEAKER_03 26:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Um, and I will say that our church i is amazing at that.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Um, you know, even our lead pastors are incredible and love Zane so much. Um and they check in on him and if we've had prayer, we don't have to go to the front, they come to the back and they come to him, or so that's great, like that's inclusive practice. Yeah. But I think on a broader level, how do we get these really anxious kids? Um, what can we do to say that kids church is a place for them to belong to? Um, and it's a big discussion and a big question. Um but I think that's the cr the my heart just wants my son to feel like he b belongs at his church. Yeah. You know? Um, and I know that he he does. Um he doesn't have friends at church because he can't go to kids and because that's hard for him. So and what you know, they talk about connections being what keeps people in the house of God, right? It's a community. So how do we do that for someone who finds that really difficult? Yeah. Um and that's the discussion that you know I would love to have.

Dave Quak 27:16

And I hope it doesn't just um end with the people you know, but it becomes more of an expanding discussion.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Yeah. And I know there's a lot of churches that are that are investigating that at the moment. Like how, you know, a friend of mine um is extremely incredible in this world of inclusion, um in early childhood particularly, but she's having conversations with her church leadership and kids' pastors about what does inclusion look like? What what can we do to bring all these kids in so that they feel like they can belong. And they're they're doing things like um, you know, um on a Sunday for kids' church, they'll have a little space where the kids can take a ball outside and kick a soccer ball around and they have conversations about Jesus while they're kicking soccer balls around. Yeah. And just lit it doesn't have to be much. It just it just has to be um making room and relaxing the the box to go, um we we just want you in here. We don't care if we have to do things different. That's it. I just want to see that you're loved and cared for.

Dave Quak 28:24

I think it's funny too that there's you know a bunch of younger crew who might benefit from a kick-the ball devotion time, but there's guys in their twenties who didn't want to sit in rows when they were back at school and they didn't want to listen and sit, stand, sit, stand and do all the other church stuff who would be brilliant and better off and love it more going out and kicking a ball.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Yeah, 100%.

Dave Quak 28:43

And it's not less holy. No. Like and it's not like we're being irreverent. Like there's nothing intrinsically holy about sitting in rows and being quiet.

Shame In Church Versus Jesus’ Way

SPEAKER_01 28:51

No, not at all. Not at all. Actually, what I love about my church the most, I have to say, is that if you want to get down the front and front row and do what you do to worship God, you do it. Do it at the back row, do it in the parents' room, do wherever you want. Like you know, yes, there's still the sitting and standing, but but you know, we've got a great guy, part of our church community, who has special needs. And he yells out in the middle of a sermon, has a conversation with Az at the front, and and the way that Az and Beck and our other pastors just embrace him and involve him and make room for him to belong is just so special. And and I think it's less about what's the right thing to do and the proper thing to do here. Um but it's not fair on everyone else. Well, what makes everyone else any more special than that one person? So was the priority leader? Like there's leave the one, right? We we go to the one. Yeah. So I think um I love that. You know, like my I've I've been inspired even from a story from my pa when he was young. My mum's dad um was in church as a young boy, and you know, he was a typical young young boy, probably didn't want to be standing and sitting and standing and sitting. And he's in the back row with his mate, and they were just having a yap in the back row, like boys do, right? And um the the minister at the front like actually pointed him out and and told him off for talking in church, and it changed the trajectory of my pa's life. Yeah, and he struggled with faith communities ever like forever after that, because of the embarrassment and the shame that he was made to feel by being a boy. And I think I don't ever want um I don't I think as Christians, like what did Jesus do the most? Like he was with the people that were not easy to love in adverted commas. Like he hung out at the well with, you know, women that were prostitutes. He hung out at different places where there was imperfect people all the time.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Yeah.

Prayer And Part Two Teaser

SPEAKER_01 31:14

And the people that were hard to love, the sick, the lepers, the the widows, the you know, the orphans. Um so I feel like when we love people and make space for people to belong, that's actually the heartbeat of Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

And I think that's the conflicting thing for me about these some institutions that don't want to um let go or let go of the control of the you know, the the environment and need people to conform to fit in. Um because that's actually not what who Jesus is at all.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Um it's so contradictory to that. Um so that's I think why I'm it's like this is who Jesus is.

Dave Quak 31:54

Yeah. Rayleigh, I can't believe that we've gotten to this place already, but it's already thirty minutes and I don't think we're done. Um can you come back next week and continue this chat?

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Yeah, I'd love to. I always have lots of words to say, Dave. Yeah.

Dave Quak 32:09

Well good. I mean I remember Stuart, your husband being quite a quieter guy. So do you take his extra words as like, you know, whatever is yours is his, you know.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Is that how he does say that? He does say that.

Dave Quak 32:20

I love it. Well, some of us, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna wind up, I'm gonna get Rayleigh to pray for us, and then next week we'll pick up this conversation once again. So, Rayleigh, if you could pray for us, that'd be awesome. Love to.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Well, thank you so much, Father, for your kindness and your goodness to us. And we thank you for your son Jesus, who walked this earth to show us how to love people in line with your heart. And Father, we thank you for this conversation. I thank you for Dave and for his obedience to you in creating sunburnt souls and um following you to open up our eyes to mental health struggles and and neurodivergence and all the different things and how they in line, how they line up with you, Father, and your heart. And um, so we thank you so much for continuing to grow us. And I, you know, I love the quote, if when we know better, we we have to do better. And so thank you for creating spaces for us to learn to do better. And uh, we love you so much, and we just pray that you'll be with us for the rest of this day. In Jesus' name, amen.

Dave Quak 33:36

Amen.