The Confirmation Part 3 (Ep. 26)

In this episode, Pastors Luke Evans and Devon Patton talk about the confirmation of when they knew God was calling them to something specific, and how we can recognize that in our own lives.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

What's up? And welcome to the another episode of the New Life Podcast. Pastor Devin's here. I'm here. He's he's got a deep, sweet, sultry voice. Yeah, if I talk deeper, it's a little bit easier to get my point across. He lost his voice. Yeah, you got a new accent.

SPEAKER_04 0:18

Hello. Oh yes. Hello, mate. It really feels natural.

SPEAKER_05 0:23

Yeah, no. If I talk if I talk normal, then my voice just starts to crack. It's alright. Yeah, but I don't think people want to listen to that for the next hour. So I'll let you guys kinda handle this. We're not gonna be on for an hour. Oh, we are. You're telling a story today. You have your tea over there.

SPEAKER_04 0:37

I do.

SPEAKER_05 0:38

I got my tea. I'll try to push this away when I drink it. That's nice. Was that better? Yeah. Okay, you're welcome. Well, we're glad that you decided to join us again for another episode. Yeah. We had a uh Okay. See?

SPEAKER_06 0:54

This is what we're talking about. Well, you said you didn't want to talk. Yeah, then I I forgot. Alright, so there we go.

SPEAKER_05 1:00

Oh man. Pastor Devin lost his voice over this past weekend because he was leading worship at youth convention, and it was an awesome, awesome weekend. What a time. We had our our worship team from here at New Life, Pastor Devin and Annette and Mateo and Spencer and everybody. It was cool. It was an awesome time. It was cool because Spencer's mom, Mary, shout out Mary Doria. Did we shout her out last week too? Yeah, dude. We shout her out a couple weeks. She came to me on Sunday and was like, it was cool because she got to see the live stream of the of the fine arts students performing, and then she was like, I want some video of the older fine arts crew. Like, because like it was all you guys, like Emma, Priscilla, Spencer, Mateo, Jake, like all back on the the the team again doing a fine arts performance, but out now at the event that they used to do fine arts at, which is kind of wild when you think about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

Yeah, I didn't think about that. Yeah. So I was that was sick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:00

They I got to go and drive. I had that Pastor Devin asked me if I would drive. Needed a driver. Because uh because these guys had rehearsals and stuff, and so I went and drove. I haven't been to youth convention in a few years now. Probably like close to ten years now. That's not true. No, it's not seven years. When was the last time you were at Liberty? Because that was the last time you were. No, because we had a crossover, me and you like we were together for a while. The last time Luke. The last time I went to youth convention, it was in Providence, I think. So I don't know how many years ago that was. Dang. But it's been a minute. Long time. And so it was really cool, like to see obviously it's always cool to get watch a bunch of young people worship and stuff like that. Um but then for me, like you guys were saying, you guys probably didn't realize guys playing with Legos over here. You guys probably didn't realize it because you were because you were up there doing it, but like for me it was like proud dad in the back corner, because all you guys, you know, watched all you guys come up through that. Well and uh especially these younger guys, watch them like come up through that and then watch them then lead the next generation. Like that's what it's all about, right? Is that like progressive understand like like raising up the next generation to lead the next generation and then so on and so forth. And I think that was just it was really cool for me.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

Yeah, and I think it kind of got us all like fired up, like or people who don't participate all the time in youth ministry stuff who don't see that kind of stuff. I think it was really cool.

SPEAKER_05 3:30

Like Annette and Laura, like them, like talking with them, um, just about like what it meant and and seeing and like when you're on stage you can't really hear anything because like you have your in-ears in the whole time. So like you can hear the band or you can hear yourself, and there's just like moments where like each of us we we had said we're like you just take it out because like you know the kids are singing, and it's like it's it's sick, yeah. You just for those of you that are obviously never been to them, like the stage is there, but then at most youth events, like all the kids run up to the front, they're like from me to loop this close, and so they're all they're all around the stage, you know, worshiping. So if it's a worship song, they're all there with their hands raised. If it's a fast song, they're all there jumping up and down, yeah. You know, crowd surfing.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

Crowd surfing, they had to put up a thing that said please do not crowd surfing.

SPEAKER_05 4:17

So they threw that one kid way up over their heads that first time they did it.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

And then you were you were like, Whoa! What is happening, dude? We should have jumped, I should have jumped, dude.

SPEAKER_05 4:28

We should have taken the leap of faith. Those kids wouldn't have been able to hold me, dude. Yeah, it was it was awesome. It really was cool event, a lot of fun. And some of our kids got to perform uh in front of the main stage. So Caleb played the drums and Alex did her song and just crushed it. It was uh that's like I had a youth pastor who came up and he was like, So what's the deal with new life? He's like, All you guys are leading worship, and then your kids are picked for these like musical performances on stage. He was like, What's in the water down there? Like, I don't and I was like, I don't know what to tell you, bro. I don't know, spirit of the Lord, that's it.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

So just developing them, you know. Shout out to Mateo, good job. Good job by you.

SPEAKER_07 5:13

Good job by you. That's how I felt seeing Caleb up there, like what you were saying, like seeing us up there, like seeing Caleb just rip a solo, like it started like four years ago or something like that.

SPEAKER_05 5:23

Yeah, he crushed that. Well, like half of the kids in the in the worship band didn't use like basically teach them how to play their instrument, like Blake and Caleb and stuff like that. Like that's sick, you know? Like all that hard work like coming to fruition, you know? And then they leave. Not not necessarily.

SPEAKER_04 5:43

Not you.

SPEAKER_05 5:44

You're never leaving. No, the kids that I teach are. Oh, okay. Oh, well. Well, they have to grow up. You gotta grow up sometime. Then I'm stuck. Then you get new then you get new ones. Yeah. So if you're interested in your kids taking music lessons, please reach out to Mateo.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

Or if you're interested in joining our regular band on a Sunday morning, reach out to Mateo. Or if you play play an instrument, play an instrument, sing a song.

SPEAKER_05 6:07

There's definitely a lot of people out there that's not even a question or hiding. Yeah. But playing worship music is a little different. So, you know, if you play electric guitar at some, you know, Led Zeppelin cover band, make sure you can actually play worship music before you come talk to Mateo. Yeah, that's true. How about that McDonald's trip on Friday night? Dude, what a time to be like.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

Mateo ordered his meal in Canadian.

SPEAKER_05 6:34

Dude, we we go, can we tell the people this? We so we go when youth convention is over, we're all obviously there, so we want to have some adult, we want to have some guy time. So we hop in the 12 passenger van, the four of us, Jake Lopez, Josue. Josue, that's it. That's it, right? We drive to McDonald's at 11:30. They close at 12. The nicest McDonald's worker ever. That guy was the man. He was like, please check your order. I got he got something wrong. He's like, my bad. We go in, I ask for stickers. He gives me all these stickers.

SPEAKER_04 7:08

Like he was just He gave us 4,000 straws.

SPEAKER_05 7:10

Yeah, he gave us a million straws. He was super duper nice. But when we're in the line, I'm ordering for everyone, and there's the numbers of the meals, and there's like a nine. It was like a great number nine. Like a normal person, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Like I'll have a nine, I'll have this, and then there's a number four, and then there's a A regular, B, spicy, C, crispy, whatever it is, you know. And Mateo just in the back, and I go, What do you want? He goes, Give me a four A. It was so weird. He could have just said, give me a four grilled, or give me a four grilled one. Give me a four A.

SPEAKER_05 7:50

And then Devin's like, oh, he's ordering like a Canadian four A. Give me a four, eh? That was so funny, dude.

SPEAKER_07 7:55

But the context was that you just uh gave me trouble because I was ordering Chrissy's food, and I was like, oh, Christy did like a weird order, a medium, and it's right. You're like, dude, just order a meal.

SPEAKER_05 8:06

I was like, all right, let me get specific. And I get flamed for how accent. Well, because Chrissy's meal was weird too. Why would you get a six-piece McNugget, a medium fry, and a medium drink when you get the ten-piece? Yeah. And it's probably cheaper because you're not ordering them a la carte. Yeah, you're probably right. It was really funny. That was great. Also, nothing slaps like McDonald's at midnight. Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah. I mean, the next day it's horrific, but that that moment, like when you're really hungry and it's late at night and you're a little delusional, which we were. Yeah. Because we thought everything was funny in that moment. We were laughing. Everything was funny, okay. I think at one moment over at the four of us and was like, How do you guys get any work done? Yeah, yeah. It's like you're just doing this all day at work, and you're like, Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. That's we live the life. It was the worst sleep of my life. Living the dream. Dude, you were snoring like crazy though. On live TV, you're gonna say that? Oh. Yeah. What? Me and Mateo shared a room at Youth Convention, and I was like trying to sleep, and this dude was just cutting wood, ripping it up. Just a chainsaw.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Yeah, dude. Bring back that chainsaw for that. That's crazy. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_05 9:16

It was the first time you guess you did sleep good then. I did not sleep good. I did not, no. I slept amazing. I had my own room. That's perks of being the driver. But now my back is cooked, dude. I have I've slept in the hotel. I've slept in a hope hotel bed, what eight weeks. Eight of the last night. Wow, life must be hard.

SPEAKER_06 9:35

Yeah, give me a break, dude. One of them was driving teenagers around.

SPEAKER_05 9:41

I knew he'd like. We had spring break. I went away with the fam and then came back for a night. And then went to youth convention and then came back for a night and then had to run to the city with. Yeah. I'm an old man, dude. I can't sleep on those. I gotta have my own bed. Dude, I'm like that with the pillow. That's what we were talking about. Yeah, the whole feel, the whole setup. I can't. The whole setup. Like a hotel pillow, it's always way too soft. I need like a Yeah. It's like I'm sleeping on a football. Like that's a I need like a fully inflated football. You're on your own. Deflate gate. Yeah, my neck needs to be like at this angle. My wife got me a uh I always say my wife, like you guys don't know who she is. Summer got me this like curved pillow for like people that put their arm under. What does it look like? Uh like one of the airplane pillows? Like that shape. But a little bit wider, but and then like a normal size, you know? And it's it's clutch. Because I don't like I hate when, like you're saying, hotel pillows, I hate when when your head sinks in and then the pillow like goes around your side. When I sleep on this side, I have to put my my hands under my head.

SPEAKER_04 10:57

Like I have to sleep on my hands. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

And then when I sleep on the other side, like I put my arm. Like I do that. I legit do night night when I go to the night night, little Debbie, and then I go to sleep. That's what I told myself.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

Yeah, I remember you sleeping like that. Yeah. All the time. My right arm. If I'm on this side, it's my right arm's up over it, and then if I'm on my left, it's both hands under. Yeah. That's is that weird? Yeah, we're gonna need Nicole. Nicole, if you're watching this ready, wait till Devin falls asleep, and we're gonna need a picture of him like this. Oh, obviously early, dude. Fucking no problem. Uh does sleep like that? Cy is like all over the place. Yeah. That's how hard. The other day we heard him talking in his sleep, though. Which I do all the time. That's terrifying when your kids start talking in their sleep. It's so scary. He was like, oh, that's a bad right. Like none of it made sense, and we were like, okay, he must be asleep.

unknown 11:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:55

I talk in my sleep too. Yeah. But I move around. I make coherent, I say like coherent things. Yeah. Some crazy things in my sleep. When me and Nicole first got married, I was uh like she had woken up because I was like moving around and I was crawling to the end of the bed, like underneath the the covers, like army crawling, and I came back with the TV remote and I was like, here, it's a C4, I'll come and get it from you later.

SPEAKER_06 12:20

And then just went back to I thought I told you guys that. That's awesome, dude. That's so funny. It's a C4. It was like during COVID, I think, because it was like that was right after, and we were playing a ton of college.

SPEAKER_05 12:33

I'm like, dude, it's a C4, I'll come back and get it from you later. Dude, yeah, it's wild. It's wild. Just like full-on army crawl to the end of the bed, just looking around.

SPEAKER_06 12:46

In a war zone, dude. Spencer's losing it. Dude, that's so funny. Oh my god. Dude, that in the story of uh Cy when you went into Oh, dude, he like ran into our room. He was like, like woke up in the middle of the night like scared about something. And he just like ran in and was like right in my face and was like, Daddy, there's a wolf in my room. And I was like, what you're you're telling me this now?

SPEAKER_05 13:14

There's a wolf in my room.

SPEAKER_04 13:16

Daddy, there's a wolf in my room.

SPEAKER_06 13:18

I'm like, brother, it's 2 a.m. There's really a wolf in there, we got a problem.

SPEAKER_05 13:23

You're like, there's Winnie. Oh my gosh. I slept over at my buddy's house when I was a kid, and his little brother woke up in the middle of the night, walked down the stairs, stopped at the last stair, turned around, and peed right on the la on the bottom step. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_04 13:41

Walking down to a urinal. That's it.

SPEAKER_05 13:43

Yeah, you must have just thought that he got to the bathroom. I woke up. When we were when we were in high school and college, my parents gave away our bedrooms to foreign exchange students. Yes, I know. So me and Drew had to live in the basement. It was an unfinished basement, by the way. So you're talking about it wasn't a basement. Hotels for a week. An unfinished basement on an IKEA mattress for three years. Yeah, but those exchange students put you guys through college. Yeah, that's facts. Shout out. Um, and so one night I woke up and I was like freezing cold, and I went and checked in the washer, and I'd put my sheets, my like blankets in the wash. In the wash. Yeah, in my sleep. It was wild. I woke up. I woke up like freezing cold. I'm like, where are my blankets? I went and checked they were in the wash. I woke up summer one night because I sat up in the middle of the night and I just went champs! Champs! Champs! And then I laid back down and went to sleep. Dude.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Mind is a crazy place, dude.

SPEAKER_05 14:42

My cousin Adam when him and him and my cousin Frank were rooming at Evangel together, and my cousin Adam woke up at three in the morning, walked in the bathroom, got in, got in the shower, started taking a shower. In his sleep. In his sleep. Completely asleep. Like literally like every time I got out, like got out and everything. Yeah, dude, what was that? My tile in your wallet. That was crazy. He just loves showing that off any chance he can. Oh I got a tile in my wallet, guys. Dude, last one. Do you guys ever have this happen to you where you're asleep, like you're dreaming of something, and you're do you guys sleepwalk or no? Not really. Because I do I get up sometimes and do so. Like once I I was playing in my dream, I was playing Xbox and I was standing in front of my TV playing Xbox like this, and I woke up because I dropped the controller in real life. Like I had the controller shattered on the floor, and it woke me up and it was just black, and I was just like in the middle of the night, and I was just standing there, and I was like, yo, that was crazy. But it's happened a few times like that, where it's like I'm in here doing this with you, and then I wake up and you're all gone, and it's like nighttime, like that. It's crazy. A little. What isn't Devin at this point? Dude, it's wild. It's wild. Yeah. I'll tell you about my night terrors.

SPEAKER_07 16:01

Ah my sleep flight like Ron Swanson's. Just punching stuff, dude.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

Oh my gosh. I'm done talking for the rest of the episode.

SPEAKER_05 16:17

Yeah, you this guy said he wasn't gonna talk. He's been telling us stories. Uh so we are we're gonna wrap up this little kind of mini-series we've been in talking about. We were just gonna all tell them on the same day, but each one of us now has told uh one, and I feel like it's been good for people to hear and kind of get the idea of like the Lord confirming something and kind of showing you how awesome he is and like giving you uh uh an eye-opening experience or a moment where it's like, okay, you can do this here now, go step into what I have for you. Um and a lot of people well, I mean, maybe not people that listen to this, but a lot of people, including you guys, know my story of like, you know, I was 13 and called to ministry. I had somebody pray over me. The drummer actually from from the band that was at camp, uh summer camp, came down and prayed over me and said that I was gonna be in ministry. Do you remember who what his name was? I don't remember his name. I really don't. I wish I did because it'd be really cool to try to like look him up uh and try to like see where he's at now and tell me.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

Well, that's like when we went to camp. Wasn't the guy his name Aaron Hole? Yeah, Aaron Hole. He was the speaker, and then he came back and spoke at a youth camp, and you I think you were able to tell him that.

SPEAKER_05 17:36

He was like, Yeah, like I actually Oh, the the bald guy? Yeah, so I remember him.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

The week that I got called, the week at camp that I got called, not me bald guy.

SPEAKER_05 17:44

No, I know that it was like it's like Aaron Holt is like, oh, you mean like the evangelist? Aaron Holt's like, remember you know that bald guy? He's super shiny bald, yeah. I remember he was bald, wear glasses, and big LeBron fan. Yeah, true. Yeah, which uh if I had known that about him, I wouldn't have listened to his messages. But um, yeah, he was the speaker of camp the week that I got called into ministry. So then obviously, whatever, 25 years later, yeah, when I was a youth pastor, I'm there with the kids and he was there speaking, and I I was able to tell him. But no, you well, he's the drummer at Valley Forge, and it was probably like early 2000s. No, no, earlier than that. It was nineties, it was the nineties, so because I was 13, so it was ninety-eight, you know. So maybe we could look him up in the yearbook. Dude, calling him call UVF, be like, hey, well nobody. Because a lot of times, you know, you gotta be careful when people just say blanket statements. Um, make sure when somebody's speaking over your life that they're specific enough to where you know that it's God, and not just like, you know, if I'm in if I was speaking at youth convention and I said, I know that there's somebody here struggling with depression. Well, yeah, no joke, there's 700 kids there.

SPEAKER_06 19:00

There's someone in here and you have a mother.

SPEAKER_05 19:03

Yeah, exactly. So, you know, you uh you just want to make sure when you feel like Benin services that people have done that. It's like there's someone in here and you have been to school before and you felt like your teacher said something to you. Yeah, every kid is in school, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

But that but that's an easy way to to to prey on the the feelings and the emotions of anybody, especially young people, right?

SPEAKER_05 19:30

Because they'll all go, oh, he's speaking right to me. It's like when somebody really speaks to you and God uses them to speak to you, I think that it's gonna be something very specific and very very something that you know only they know. And so he was telling me things about my life that no one knew. Hey, you know, I know that you're caught up in this and you've been doing this, blah, blah. And I was like, Well, okay, like this is you've been talking to. Yeah, exactly. Or please don't go call my mom, you know. Um, and then my mom's name is Dip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Please. Uh, you know, so uh that obviously, you know, happened, and then you know, like most do at camp and stuff like that, when I got home, I'm all on fire, but then you know, over time it it drifts and it fades. And my grandfather, obviously, Papa's a pastor, and my dad's a pastor, and I was like, I don't really want that life. I was more obsessed with you know basketball and sports and girls and stuff like that, and so that's kind of where I focused my energy and my time on and obviously drifted like like some of us do, and and it was about uh you know, sophomore year of college, and you know, basketball had gotten kind of playing basketball have got kind of gotten taken away from me, and so my the assistant coach at Evangel, which all you guys you guys all know this, I feel like I'm telling you this story a hundred times, but I guess people don't. Um and the coach called me and said, Hey, there's an opportunity to go, you know, coach high school basketball at this public school here in in out just outside of town.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Pleasant hope.

SPEAKER_05 20:57

Pleasant hope, Missouri, population 486, dude. And uh, you know, so I I I went and I interviewed for the job and I I got the job and and in this it was this moment of transition in my life where I didn't have some you know snot and cry and altar call moment. I didn't have some weeping come to Jesus moment. I just kind of had a moment alone in my dorm room one day where I was like, man, what like God, what what am I what am I doing? Like what what am I why have I run this far? Why have I messed with this call? Why have I why have I let myself get in this position where I'm you know so broken that now I'm turning to you and I kind of felt ashamed that that's what it took for me to turn to him, but I knew that he's a loving God and a forgiving God, and so in that moment I was just like God, whatever it is you want to do with my life, just tell me. Like at this point I'm you know getting a degree to try to go, you know, be a sports writer or commentator, com commenter, whatever they I can't speak.

SPEAKER_04 21:58

Commentator?

SPEAKER_05 21:58

Commentator, there we go. Commentator. Commentator. Uh commander. A sports commander. Um, and so you know, I I took this job and I went, and I felt like now over the next couple weeks, God was like starting to speak to me and kind of directing me, and I was like, Well, you know, maybe you know, maybe I could go, you know, be a youth pastor, maybe I could go speak to kids. And I was terrified of teenagers because I knew how I was as a teenager, like judgmental, and like, you know, well, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about, you know, I know more than this guy, blah blah blah. Which that and like teenagers, like you gotta come to the grips pretty quickly that like maybe four of the kids there are actually listening to your stuff. Yeah, you know what I mean? So it's like or even if they are, they're not gonna let you know. Yeah, they're they're not gonna let you know, and then they're gonna come up after and be like, Thank you so much for all the years that you put into my and you're like changed my life. You changed my life. You're like, dude, maybe it would have been nice to show me that. Yeah, exactly. That and I thought about because you've always said that, and I always thought, I'm like, it's so weird. Like, obviously, you're great with teenagers and and and everything like that, but at the same time, I was like, that's so weird. Like he was so nervous, and then I was like, I never had that. Like, I came back to work with you, so it was like I worked with all these kids like that. It was Mateo and Spence, like it was like I knew you already. It wasn't I was thrown into some situation that I didn't know anybody, which yeah, that could be super stressful and nerve-wracking. Yeah, and so that was it. It was, you know, my our first game when I was coaching my boys, and I had to go in and give like the pregame, you know, we'd had been in practice, but we practiced with the varsity, so the head coach was doing his deal, and I was doing my deal with my JV guys and stuff like that. But this was like the first moment where it was like just me and just them, and I had to like you know get them ready to play. And obviously, I'm talking about basketball, which is something I'm very comfortable talking about, but at the same time again, like with everybody's thing, right? His is music, and you talked about singing and God using those gifts, like basketball and talking about basketball or coaching basketball is like a I think a gift that I have, but the way that God uses kind of the the normal human gifts, if you will, that you have to then kind of relate to the spiritual and what he wants you to do. And I think that God used basketball and me talking to teenagers about basketball to kind of open my eyes and open my heart to the fact that like, man, I really have a heart for these kids. Like, you know, I'm in public school, I'm talking to these kids, and like two or three of them, because it's Missouri, two or three of them were like real legit like church kids. And when I found that out, now they're talking to me about church stuff, I'm talking to them about spiritual stuff, like they're telling their friends about Jesus, they're asking me to tell their friends about Jesus, you know, and so it was like this cool like mesh of two worlds of like God knew, like, hey, this is the thing that you that I know that you love, and so of your heart, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:53

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna completely remove this, but I did need I did need to remove the I needed to remove it because it was pr replacing me, yeah. But because it's not like a sinful thing, I'm not gonna remove it completely.

SPEAKER_05 25:06

Yeah, I'm gonna use it to then kind of infuse with what it is that I want you to do. And it was really cool in that moment of that confirmation of like, man, God loves me enough that he didn't give up on me, even though I kind of ran from it, but he also loves me enough that he can take something that I love and not completely remove it, but use it to then help me figure out how to step into his plan and how to step into his path for my life. The other cool part is like you hadn't coached up until this point, right? No. Oh, so it's like that's like the in the introduction of 20 21 year old. Yeah, so it's like that's the introduction, and now seeing the opportunities you've had to be able to coach like since then, like you coached me when I was in high school for JV basketball. Yeah, the greatest JV team to ever exist. We were discussing. Um, and then coached girls high school basketball for a long time, now boys varsity basketball for a long time. So it's like again, you're still around the game, you're still getting to to play. You play in men's leagues, but you get to play with your boys' team when you want to play. Like you get to do all that stuff, and then see that. It's always Lopez's.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

We're filming a podcast.

SPEAKER_05 26:17

Okay, it's Tuesday. Cut that out. She's still talking. Edit it in post.

unknown 26:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 26:26

She's still talking. Yo, that's crazy. We're really filming. That's crazy. I didn't want to cut her off. You're very nice. They're just gonna cut her. Um, yeah. So now that you still get that opportunity all these years later, and like now your son's playing basketball and and enjoys it, so it's like it's it is a full circle thing for you. So yeah, and it's been cool to watch as you know, God brought me in into that season of ministry, and then getting to you know, a little bit deeper into the story of like, you know, I came home that following summer and I like interned, and then the next summer our youth pastor like just up and like gave us two weeks, like like, hey, I quit. Like, um, and then kind of jumping in to that, and then remember I went back to school and my dad would fill in and I would like face.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

It was right as I got to youth. I was like, Oh, sweet, I'm out of kids' ministry, I'm going into youth ministry.

SPEAKER_05 27:24

You don't have to hang out with my dad anymore. Like, I love my dad, but it was like, Oh, this is gonna be awesome. And then the youth pastor's like, I'm out of here. See you guys, Pastor Indy.

SPEAKER_06 27:34

You have been promoted to youth pastor. I'm like, Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_05 27:37

He was the he was a good fill, he was a good villain, he was the stopgap for us, and and that was awesome. And then just jumping into it right after, you know, grad school and stuff. Rolling, dude. Getting into it, but then having you guys, you know, you and your brother and Jada and like some other people, uh vi and people that like you know, right out of the gate having you guys and youth group, and then getting these guys and stuff. It's like it's it's just cool how God kind of brings everything, everything full circle, and God kind of brings everything back to like where it started and everything. And it's cool, like, because Luke he plays men's leagues. I don't know if you guys have heard of this before, but he plays in the C League at In Sports. Um no, A-League only. That's his that's his rule. A league. A league until I die. But yeah, you play in the B in the C League. Nice. But it's it's cool that like there's I there I know that there's guys who they've played with you, like, because Luke will do like open runs on Saturdays and different stuff like that, or you play in men's leagues, and there's guys that they'll come up and ask Luke these questions about his faith, and he's very authentic of who he's not going there and he's acting one way, and then he's here and he's preaching on no, he's the same person, and so it's it's cool to see when they show up to church, or like like I'll be at a I get invited once every three years. Um but you come whenever you want. Yeah, I'll come whenever I want. But it's just like it's cool to see to see that, and again, like you're saying, like maybe you had these dreams of playing basketball at a higher level, but God had this purpose of like, hey, maybe one of these guys that you're playing with on a Saturday morning will get saved. And it's like, all right, that's cool to think about, you know what I mean? It's this great plan that we have sometimes, or great idea, and God's like, I got something even cooler. It might not seem like it right now. Like if he told you it's like, hey, instead of playing on every day or doing this, like on a Saturday morning, you're gonna have a guy who's gonna ask you about church one week and you're gonna get to bring him and he's gonna get saved. It's like, oh, okay, then it's that's cool, it's worth it for sure. It's that's and that's how God works, right? He shows up in those in those moments where you think, I don't know what I'm I don't know what I'm gonna do now, but he he confirms the plans that he had for you way, way, way before that. And I wrote what I wrote I wrote it down here. Psalm 37 verse 5. It's super short verse, but I I like short and to the point. It says, Commit your ways to the Lord, trust also in him, and he will do it.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

That's pretty good. I mean, you can't really go wrong with that, right?

SPEAKER_05 30:10

Like when I when I commit my ways to him, when I trust in him, and and I go out and I'm I'm faithful to what it is he called me, guess what? He'll do it. He's gonna do it. He's gonna do it. And and he's come through time and time and time and time and time again in my life, in your life, in these guys' lives, in every in everybody's life. It's just commit yourself to him, trust that his plans are better than your plans, and then go do it, because he's gonna he's gonna make it happen.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

Well, that's what we saw this weekend, right? It's you were that's what you're saying. It's like you're sitting there as a former youth pastor seeing your students even me, I was one of your students, old a long time ago. But it's just now you're seeing that that plan of like, alright, God, these are the students that I need a steward. I'm gonna do my best, I'm gonna do the best thing that I can, and now look at us and so look what God has done.

SPEAKER_05 31:00

Yeah, well, and again, that's that that's that full circle moment of like I you know I can't imagine like what someone like my papa or something feels like of like, you know, oh yeah, of teaching my you know, watching my dad grow and my uncle grow, and then and then me and like my cousin Morgan and my other family and stuff like that, and then then you and it's like every generation it brings something new and like being there this past weekend and seeing like even even other youth, I mean there was other guys there, you know, Eddie was there and and Mitch and you know, they they were all at camp and all at youth conventions, like when I was a youth pastor, and like watching you know the next generation of people kind of lead this next generation coming up. It's it's it's just really cool how God works and really cool how he's in, like we've talked about in all three of these, how he's in the details of like the connections you make, the the the relationships that you keep, the the attentiveness that you that you pay to like man, I want to make sure that these kids like stay saved and get fed and and and everything. And I think a lot of times we focus, and rightfully so, because it's you know it's the Great Commission, like I get it. I think a lot a lot of times, especially in youth ministry, we focus so much on saving the loss, saving the loss, get these kids from public school here, get these kids, get your friends here, get your friend that we that we neglect the kids who are in our youth group. Yeah. And I think that I think that we've done a really good job here at New Life Institute, our own horn um to mine and then yours, of making sure, yeah, let's save the loss, but let's make sure that these kids that we have stay saved. Let's make sure that they know the word, that if they go off to college, that they are not straying, that they that they are committed, and that this is you know, and so to be there like that and to see all you guys up on stage who I had the opportunity to do that with, and then see you guys now lead this now. It's it's awesome. It's awesome. Yeah, it's really cool. God is good.

SPEAKER_04 33:01

God is good.

SPEAKER_05 33:02

Amen. All the time. All the time. I'm not gonna do it. He's good. Alright. Got any follow-up questions? Nope. I never heard that story. Never heard that story? You've been in church or what part of it. Fully.

SPEAKER_07 33:19

Like the camps though.

SPEAKER_05 33:20

Yeah. I knew that. Where was the camp? Um Camp Hope, Lichfield, Connecticut. The goat. That campground was awesome, wasn't it? Oh man.

SPEAKER_04 33:31

We're going to Lichfield today. Yeah, let's go check it out.

SPEAKER_05 33:34

You're going to Lichfield today. Oh, play Foreman School. Oh, never mind. You're going to New London today. I'm going to New London. I'm going to Lichfield on Friday. Yeah. New London today, Lichfield on Friday. Maybe I'll be up with Foreman away games on the same weekend. And Foreman is at 7 p.m. Oh, senior night. Foreman? I thought it was like you needed like 11 people on a field at once. You're crazy, bro. Get it? This guy. Sleepwalking right now. Sleep joking. Sleep joking.

SPEAKER_04 34:09

Alright. That's it. Or do you want to play again? Did you have a game for us?

SPEAKER_07 34:12

I I looked up some uh would you rather questions. Ooh, I love a good would you rather. Let's hear it. I need you guys to like get into this. Because like get like ask like ask follow-up questions. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 34:22

Like build a whole world. I've I I had one that I was like. Oh, you go first. I thought he was like 10. Yeah. Yeah, you guys, I'm really gonna get into it. Lock in, bro. No, I asked uh I forget where it was. No, you you do one. You do.

SPEAKER_05 34:37

Alright, give us one. We're locked in. We're locked in. Why why I don't understand why when are we not locked in? That is kind of insulting. Just would you rather locked? Yeah. Be able to like a safety deposit box. Alright, go ahead. You guys are so dumb. Alright, go ahead.

SPEAKER_07 34:55

Would you rather be able to converse with animals or have lifelong fluency in every human language?

SPEAKER_05 35:04

Oh, animals, 1000%.

SPEAKER_04 35:06

Yeah, animals for sure. Really?

SPEAKER_05 35:09

Why do I need to speak German or Chinese or talk to anyone from there? I'm good. I'm good on that too. I would much rather talk to Ben at home. Just Ben. Yeah. Just Ben. Just Ben. Yeah, but then you have to hear Judo when you ran away. Then you have to hear judo. Oh, dang. Well, they speak judicious. You can't turn off their voice. Yeah, like you hear everything. So you hear birds chirping, you hear. I mean, I hear birds chirping. Yeah, but half the I mean most dogs, they just sit around sleeping all day. So it's not like that. If you hear a mosquito, he's like, let me bite you.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

So weird.

SPEAKER_03 35:49

You'd have to hear those foreign ducks again, dude. Yeah, dude. Alright, alright. We're locked in.

SPEAKER_05 36:00

That was an easy one. Alright, alright. I thought I would get a little bit more. Although, if you could speak every language, then you're a shoe-in for the CIA. That's what I was thinking too. I was like, you'd be the best spy ever. Ever. How about of all time?

SPEAKER_07 36:13

How about of all time? Yeah. So this one I like because it's kind of weird, but I like because there's so much you have to think about. Oh boy. This means it's gonna be the words. He's so deep. He's so good. No, no, no. If you had if you had to live in a cage for the rest of your life, would you rather the bars be horizontal or vertical? Vertical. Why?

SPEAKER_04 36:34

Because that's what it looks like in all the movies when I see prison shows.

SPEAKER_05 36:38

So it's just it's just bars. Vertical, yeah, vertical. Make me look skinnier.

SPEAKER_07 36:42

Some of the thrip. Some of the things I'm looking at are how would you get your food? Like they'd have to, like if you were like imperative, there's a little cutout.

SPEAKER_05 36:50

I'm going shakes. No cutout. Yeah, this guy's full of shakes. I'm full of shakes. If you can't get a glass this thick through it, just get through it.

SPEAKER_07 36:56

Yeah. People are saying horizontal to climb, like if they're bored. Or do pull-ups. Yeah. Yeah, you wouldn't be able to really have much food unless you like saran wrap it to a tray.

SPEAKER_05 37:12

Also, at the end of the day, if I'm stuck in a cage, who really cares? Yeah. For the rest of my life. Like, what do I like who cares? You gotta do something. No. I'm in a cage. You can't do anything. I'm in a cage weird Mr. Beast video. Yeah. How long can you last in a case? How long can you last in a horizontal prison? How long do you think you could last in a cage? Oh, for the rest of my life. What do we get in there? Like your current life. What do we get in in there? Food. So three meals. A bed. Do I get to sleep when I want, or are they making me get up and stuff? No, you can sleep when you want. Yeah. So you're saying like current life, so like his his wife and kids are at home. Right. And like a Mr. Beast, you have to last in here as long as you can, and as long as you do, you get money.

SPEAKER_04 37:59

Am I getting money?

SPEAKER_05 38:00

Yeah. Let's say every is this what you would hope to get in. Every week. Let's see your vision now. I'm like every week?

SPEAKER_04 38:07

Yeah. I get one.

SPEAKER_07 38:09

Exponential, exponential more. Like a Mr. Beast video. So like it's not like a linear, it's not like a hundred thousand every week.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

He's the one for not clicking Mr. Beast.

SPEAKER_05 38:19

Like when he trapped like when he says like you gotta live in this grocery store and every week you do it, you get another ten thousand dollars or whatever.

SPEAKER_07 38:26

Yes, but that's linear. So like if it's ten thousand one week, then the next week it's a hundred thousand, and then the next week it's you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_05 38:33

Oh, I could stay there for a year and a half. It's not even a question. Well, not see your children and your wife uh be worth it at the end of it. It's crazy millions of dollars, she'll forgive me. You just said that out loud, dude. The thing is, so if I had no wife or kids, though, like I think about this on the Mr.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

Beast, that would obviously be the hardest part. It's like those are the people that okay.

SPEAKER_05 38:55

They break naked and freak I can't do it, like I gotta get home. It's like, yeah, obviously. So it's like, if not, I'm like, dude, I could stay in the you could put me in prison, I'd be fine. Those ones where it's the the ones where they're like alone, like in the well, the wilderness ones I probably wouldn't be able to do. You guys don't think I've built a shot in my mind that I can't preoccupy. But like people go crazy by themselves. Yeah, I could I could even find it. If it wasn't for my wife and kids, I could do that for quite a while, I think. Yeah. No. A good but I but about the bars, I don't know if time stopped. How long do you think if time enter, you enter the cage guys? Thank God Spencer doesn't have to be like because you guys didn't have to hear that question. Talking about quantum the quantum realm, like like when Thanos snaps his fingers and they come back four years later, but nope, but it's not for whatever Doctor Strange does, dude. We don't watch that. He's a wizard. True. Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_07 39:59

Would you rather have a magic van that could teleport you anywhere you want and time travel? Forget about its magic or a magic.

SPEAKER_05 40:08

Okay, teleport you anywhere.

SPEAKER_06 40:10

You could turn mini and go to the floor.

SPEAKER_07 40:11

Yeah, like anywhere, anytime. Okay. Or a magic ring that when you touch a book, you absorb all the magic.

SPEAKER_05 40:17

There's a lot of magic going on here. I'm not really comfortable with it. Yeah, we're gonna have to delete this part. Um, what did you say?

SPEAKER_07 40:27

When you touch a book, you know you have you acquire all the knowledge.

SPEAKER_05 40:31

Oh, the van. What like what these are so easy. Yeah, give me the van. What can you do with the five? I got a van and go.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

What am I gonna do with that?

SPEAKER_05 40:39

What can I do with time travel? With infinite knowledge? I got enough knowledge right now. Yeah, I got like what if I have a phone that I could look anything up. Do you ever think of that? Yeah, but it's or I can hop in my van and I can go back and be there when the first thing is created or whatever. Like, what do I need? But then what?

SPEAKER_06 40:58

Then I come back to here and I'm it's real. Trust me on it.

SPEAKER_05 41:02

Then I come back here and I put a thousand dollars on in stock on whatever it is that I saw in the future. Oh, now money is power. I guess. No, I'm just saying, like, if you have to have my old guy in from uh back to the future with me the whole time. I think if we're if you when you do what we do for a living, like what like obviously you want to gain more knowledge in your field, but I don't want to like go learn how geometry works or like you don't have to touch a geometry read a book about stocks and then all of a sudden I'm amazing. Yeah, but what's I can know everything about the stocks by going in the future anyway. On what good ones there are? Listen, you asked us or would you rather don't get mad because we don't agree with yours. Nah. Mine, listen, I'd like neither because I don't want black magic.

SPEAKER_04 41:53

Okay. I don't know where we're going at this point.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

What just happened?

SPEAKER_04 41:57

Um, so the one that came up was uh like if you could pick a fictional world to live in, like which one would you live in?

SPEAKER_05 42:06

From any anything, like from a movie or a movie, like you could be like would you rather? It's just a hypothetical it's like Jeopardy. Would you rather what is yeah? Any fictional world so like I know mine obviously is Star Wars, but really which is really fictional world ever and you pick space. It's obviously it's historically accurate. We know that. Um it's just not in this universe, but I've been I've been told that George Lucas just ripped it from Dune, so that's what everybody keeps telling me. That's what people do say that Star Wars you guys are just trying to do. That's what people be doing, do doing it. Speaking of, did you sell your ticket? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 42:48

He's gone. Dang it. He didn't. He's gonna go on the road. So I'm I'm picking Star Wars World. Really? Yeah, man. I think so. Or Lord of the Rings. My precious. All right.

SPEAKER_05 43:01

Lord of the Rings. I'm just kidding. It's a war-torn New Zealand.

SPEAKER_04 43:06

Sounds pretty cool to me.

SPEAKER_05 43:07

Cars. Radiator Springs. Do I get to be a car? Yeah. Yeah. You're transforming into that.

SPEAKER_02 43:14

You know, what a human dude. I can pick any world I want and I want to go be a car.

SPEAKER_05 43:20

He's like, man, this is really limited to dating options.

SPEAKER_06 43:24

Incredibly. I haven't seen many movies with like I haven't seen any movies. That's the only one I've watched. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 43:32

Like, every other movie I've seen is like just Earth. No, come on. What about like Jurassic Park? How about the how about the how about that ocean world in the avatar that they live? That place looks sick. There you go. That could be yours. Yeah, but there's like genocide in there. Yeah, blue. Talk about genocide Lego movie. What is it?

SPEAKER_07 43:57

Be a Lego.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Everything is on the thing.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

How do they do anything? Honey, where are my pants?

SPEAKER_05 44:04

Yeah, that's a good thing. Being able to do a 360 with that is probably sick though. Trolls? Trolls. No. Zootopia? What about the different one with the different tundra town and what would you be? We we don't have to ask that one. But what animal? Oh, what animal? Yeah. And Zootopia. Why'd you say that? Because you'd be a sloth. I'm done with this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

I've had enough of the slander.

SPEAKER_05 44:31

I'd be a killer whale. We already know that. It's an apex predator, which means it's the best. Oh, apex.

SPEAKER_04 44:43

Moving on.

SPEAKER_05 44:45

I don't know what fictional movie I would pick. I'm gonna have to think about that one. Batman. No, it would have to be someplace like really sick, like someplace awesome. You're just living in Gotham City.

SPEAKER_06 44:56

Gotham City, right in the middle of Gotham City. Criminals running around in a human vigilant. Do I get to be Batman if I pick Batman?

SPEAKER_05 45:06

You get to be criminal. You get to be Alfred. That's actually pretty clutch. You get that big house all to yourself all day. True. Just running around, do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_04 45:16

Alright, fine. You don't have an answer.

SPEAKER_05 45:18

I'll think of one. Alright, give us one more. Space jam, dude. That's a good one. Looney Tuneville.

SPEAKER_07 45:24

For this question, you'll be locked in a room full of spiders for some amount of time.

SPEAKER_05 45:28

This guy is locking us up.

SPEAKER_07 45:29

This guy's locked in a prison of his mind.

SPEAKER_05 45:32

So you're in a room full of spiders for X amount of time. Okay. Would you rather have the lights on or off? Uh poisonous spiders? Oh boy. All different types. Daddy, long legs. Variety. How long are we locked in there? It's like you gotta last as long as you can. It's like fear for five minutes.

SPEAKER_04 45:53

Oh, turn them off.

SPEAKER_05 45:54

Yeah, turn them off. Five minutes? I'll just go like this for five minutes. I'll let them crawl all over me for five minutes. I'll let them bite me.

SPEAKER_04 46:00

I don't care.

SPEAKER_05 46:00

Yeah, you might turn into Spider-Man. That's how that works. Everybody knows that's real.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

The new Spider-Man movie looks good.

SPEAKER_05 46:07

That was the last one. I have more. Really ended on a bang there. Alright. No follow-ups.

SPEAKER_04 46:14

No follow-up questions to that one.

SPEAKER_05 46:16

I mean, some of these I can't say out loud. What are you looking at? Yeah, what a beer, dude. He's like, okay, I got one. I think we're gonna change. We gotta move it.

SPEAKER_07 46:27

If you were in prison, would you rather own a rhino, rhino-sized hamster or a hamster-sized rhino?

SPEAKER_05 46:36

Hamster-sized rhino. That would be so cool. Yeah, that would be so cool. Just run around. And it probably wouldn't smell as bad as a hamster does. Or a rhino. Or a rhino. Man.

SPEAKER_04 46:48

Me and Cy went to the pet store the other day. He loves it. It's the best. And he's just giving all of them names, and they're just the worst names. Yammy.

SPEAKER_05 46:56

Yeah. It's like, what's that? It's a rat. He's like, ratty. You're like, okay. Hey. Originality. But it did, they had this the coolest like python there. And I was like, dude, I can't. A python? Yeah, python. It was shaped exactly. Is that like where you eat as much pie for 24 hours as you can?

SPEAKER_03 47:19

And uh conda. And a conda. Ice cream code. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_05 47:24

And so I was like, is this that they had a python? Oh, it's the one, it's uh, I don't know. It's in Brantford, but it they have every they got dogs, they got every animal you could think. They got a huge aquarium section, it's awesome. Yeah, that's not a legal, not legal in uh that's New York. They banned the puppy puppy mills or whatever. They can't see it. Yeah, they got like four or five of them in this one cage and they're just ripping it up, dude. It's awesome. And then they had a python, and I was like, I'd buy that. That looks cool. No, you wouldn't. I think so. When the critter caravan comes, I'm like, dude, yeah, but you can't have that thing in your house. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night worrying that it that I like didn't lock it, like lock it in its thing.

SPEAKER_04 48:03

If he wants to come up and cuddle, that's fine.

SPEAKER_05 48:05

How about you would have really loved you know, I did I didn't even tell you. This is now we're too we're too far in now. But this would be the last story. The when we went to Florida last week, we did the fanboat tour, you know? But they did the when you went on yours, did they do like a Gator Boys show before? No, dude. They did the a show before, and this guy They just let us hold the baby, yeah. They did that too. But they and they had that's what made me think of it, they had huge snakes there, dude. Like, oh really? Oh the guy just gets in the pit and there's like 12 alligators in there, and he literally just he's like, I'm gonna go pick this guy up over here, and he walks in the water and he's like, You move, and he pushes one. He's like, You move, he pushes it up, then he picks it up, then he picks the alligator up and he carries it over and he put lays it down. He's like, This guy's kind of new, like he could might get a little aggressive because he's not used to this, but he's like, We're gonna give it a shot, and he jumps on top, and the thing is like wrestling around, and so he's got his he's got his head like this and stuff, and then he put the alligator's head in its in his chin and like put his arms out, like oh look at me. It was it was sick, it was sick, yeah. It was sick, dude. Dude, the coolest part of our fanboat thing was the guy was taking us around like trying to spot the gators or whatever, and like we weren't really having a lot of luck as far as like seeing them, and so we like went around this thing and Drew saw one, and Drew like pointed it out, and the guy from the back of the thing was like, sick spot, man!

SPEAKER_03 49:33

Like, nice job.

SPEAKER_05 49:34

And I was like, dude, that would have been the coolest thing ever for the gator guy with like mutton chops and his like big glasses on to be like brother sweet spot. I would have been like, dude, I would have been on the top of the world for like a year. Yeah, it was like the coolest thing ever. You get a metal. Yeah, he was like, he was amped up that Drew Fab. We saw like five of them because it was we went the last fanboat of the day. Uh-huh. So they were all out getting warm from the sun before the sun goes down. So they were all just sitting there letting the sun hit them, dude. It was really cool. It was awesome. That had nothing to do with it. Dude, those guys whip on those. I would rec I would highly recommend if you're ever in South Florida, take a fanboat tour. It's sick.

SPEAKER_04 50:15

It's really 100 miles an hour in the middle of the house. And they have to go like this.

SPEAKER_05 50:18

Yeah, and it's like Yeah, dude, it was I have no idea. I've never seen those. A fanboat? Put it up on the screen. It's like a boat with a giant instead of a motor, it has a giant fan on the back. You wouldn't believe it until you saw it. Dude, it's so sick. Yeah, dude. It was it was remote. And it can go in water like like this deep. Like it's that big of a boat and it can go in. Yeah, just hover. It's like a hover basically. Yeah. That's sick. We saw a Cayman too. Did you? Which is super they're super uh invasive and they're super rare. Um swamp puppy? Yeah, that's what he kept calling them. That's what he kept calling them. He's like, look at that swamp puppy over there. He's like, Oh, yeah, another swamp puppy here on your right. It was great, dude. It was so fun. So I'm a huge alligator nerd. I can name every species. All right. Wait, wait. Oh my gosh. What? This really was an hour. Yeah. I got one. I got another one. Oh my gosh. All right. Would you rather be locked in a cage with an alligator?

SPEAKER_06 51:19

Or never mind, I don't have one. No, no, no. Or locked in an alligator with a cage. Would you rather have to shout every time you speak or whisper every time you speak? We waited for that question.

SPEAKER_05 51:29

Yep. That's crazy. Well, we know someone, we know a couple people that shout a lot when they speak. I'd rather whisper everything. You have to preach. That's fine. I'll get a different job. Well, you get a microphone. You get a microphone when you preach. Plus, I actually know some preachers that they do that. They'll be like, and then God said, I love you. It's super creepy whenever they do it. He whispered in my ear. I know a ton of guys that do that, like for the effect of it. It's weird for me. And then they start like crying and tearing up. It's really off-putting. Oh boy. Yeah, I think whisper. I don't, I wouldn't want to just go around shouting all the time. Give us an example of what that might look like.

SPEAKER_06 52:11

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 52:11

Hey, how you doing? You guys good?

SPEAKER_02 52:16

Oh, dear God. Thanks so much for listening to the pod.

SPEAKER_05 52:19

We hope that you have a great rest of the day. Night, morning, whatever it is. Whatever it is. Pray for Pastor Devin's voice. We need him back up there.