ANSWER GOD'S CALL

We are joined by a former Alpine staffer (Rooster)! 

On today's episode we talk about cool God moments, play a wild game, and talk about what goes good with Mana.

The Campy Tales Podcast is a fun Christian show where we play "campfire" games, talk about cool Bible history, and speak with local pastors. It's great for youth pastors, youth, and anyone who loves camp! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Campy Tales Podcast, where we get to talk about all sorts of fun Bible stuff, camp stories. We play games and do all sorts of goody things together. Today we have a really special guest, Rachel. Oh goodness, I wasn't ready for that. Jacob, which is Rachel's brother, a former camp employee here who goes by the employee Rooster. Rooster? Rooster. We're still working on the rooster call. Yeah. But you want to introduce yourself? Tell us a little about who you are and why you are.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

My name's Jacob, but you can call me Rooster. Hi Rooster. Hi Rooster. Hi Rooster. Hi Rooster. Yeah, I uh the only reason I ever ended up here and knowing you guys at all is because I ended up being called the Bible College. And so I'm actually originally from Massachusetts, which is on the other side of the country from where we are right now. And then um yeah, I heard about Calvary Chapel Bible College. So the Lord brought me westward, and I've been up here for the past several years, and and then I got plugged in with you guys, and it's it's been life. Yeah, it's been history.

SPEAKER_05 1:11

Did you land today? Is that what you said? We landed yesterday. So are you still doing that? Last night the time difference is three hours. Yeah. So you've got a little jet lag going on or what?

SPEAKER_04 1:21

Yes and no. Yeah. Oh good. I don't I don't know. I think the in and out fixed it.

SPEAKER_05 1:26

Like that. It kind of set me back in balance to West Coast time. That's from an outsider's perspective perspective. You didn't have In N Out where you were in Colorado.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_05 1:35

They just opened it in Colorado Springs, but I mean this is like three or four years ago. Um but is it is it does it meet the hype from I I would like to say yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

I mean, it does like I've been craving it for the past seven months. And I'm like, I want it, but I don't want it that bad to drive 3,000 miles to go get it.

SPEAKER_05 1:57

Well you only have to drive till to October now.

SPEAKER_07 1:59

It doesn't reach the hype. Whoa, fancy, you can walk out right now.

SPEAKER_04 2:04

We're gonna replace you with Rachel now. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

I just like the I love the Wendy's bacon eater. Like that's Wendy's? Yes. I love the channel. Okay, everybody chill.

SPEAKER_05 2:17

I feel like that's like saying I'm really into Arby's.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Oh, I don't like Arby's. But no, uh the In N Out is fine and it's budget friendly, and they have scripture on the bottom of their cuttings. I was gonna say, that's probably the best. How much is a Wendy's bacon eater? I would much rather eat at Chick-fil-A or I don't know, I haven't been able to get a few.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

Nobody has time for Chick-fil-A, dude. I've yeah, and I rarely have 40 minutes more expensive for a drive-thru.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Well, that's why you go in. It's faster if you go in, and then you get to sit and they have fresh flowers on the table. Like what what is it's never enough?

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Yeah, going in is probably the better way. Because when you go through the drive-thru, they're like talking to you and they're trying to get in your car. My pleasure.

SPEAKER_05 3:01

That's just that's good to be a good thing. You stake my order right there. What is that real? It's like hey, welcome to Chick-play. And they're like crawling into the window. What are you guys doing today? You have any fun?

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Where are we going?

SPEAKER_05 3:16

Uh you guys want to play a little game?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

I'd love to play a little game.

SPEAKER_05 3:19

Okay, this one you're you're not ready for. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

I'm so nervous.

SPEAKER_05 3:23

It's not really a game, but I I have some smelling salts here. Oh. And so it's just a crack and react. That's all it's all I crack and react. So you can reframe. I did look this up before I announced this. I wanted to make sure there was like no harm. It's legal. I was like, is this gonna harm us in any way at all? And and what uh AI said was, no, it won't. Some people use it for their pre-workout, like, you know, hype. But this might be good for us. So we're gonna get hype. We're gonna get some hype. Alright, so we have five.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Are we trying not to react? Recording? Why is it like flatlined for everybody? Uh-oh. Huh?

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Is that fine? There's peaks, yeah. Is there? Okay. Just maybe peak.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Technical difficulties, folks.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

Okay, so we crush there. Alright.

SPEAKER_06 4:24

Wait, are we are we trying not to react?

SPEAKER_05 4:26

So directions. Do not remove cl uh cloth jacket. Hold away from face, then uh release ammonia by crushing inhaling between your finger. Hold six inches and breathe. You guys ready? Are we doing this at the same time? Maybe not one of our best ideas. I accidentally crushed it. Did you do it already? I crushed it.

SPEAKER_04 4:54

Smell it! I'm smelling it! I'm trying not to react. I thought we were trying not to react.

SPEAKER_05 4:58

Okay, ready? One. Wait, are we doing it all together? Three.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

You were just chilling with that?

SPEAKER_05 5:11

I'm not hyped. Why? I was not expecting it.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I think I held it too close. It was like burning the inside of the code. And it just burnt the other side of it.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Oh, I held it too close.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

No, no.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Alright, the next part of this game you have to put it on your eye. No.

SPEAKER_05 5:34

Taste dust. You guys I don't think I was ready for that, dude. That smells that smells like Ted. Whose idea was it?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

I'm gonna talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

What a fun game. Where's HR? What a good game that we just played.

SPEAKER_05 5:47

Oh, it's well. Take it. Mine's in the trash. That was bad. Oh. Welcome to Campy Tales.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

This is for you guys. We did this for you. Everybody's eyes are like watering. I wasn't expecting that. I can still smell it. It's like we ate something spicy.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Next time I say we just bring like the really hot peppers. I need Mike. Uh oh.

SPEAKER_05 6:12

Michael, let me talk for you. Okay. You say hello. Oh, there we go.

SPEAKER_06 6:16

There it is. No. That's gone. He said no, I hear you.

SPEAKER_05 6:18

I have to talk quiet. He has to talk quiet. What were you gonna say? I'll translate in Wookiee.

SPEAKER_06 6:27

So I was gonna say, next week, we're gonna do pepper spray in the eye.

SPEAKER_05 6:30

Pepper spray in the eye, which also translates to something like that. What do you say? But not a direct translation. The words don't. You know what?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

There's gonna be an actual Wookiee walkie watching this that's like, whoa. Whoa, Jude!

SPEAKER_05 6:44

Curse word in Wookiee. Alright. You know what time it is? It's time for our intro song. And luckily, we have our lovely fancy back this week. Thank you. Yeah, G did pretty good. It was mine.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

You had it well. I thought you take it away. Come on, G. What for me?

SPEAKER_03 7:04

I can't, I can't.

SPEAKER_05 7:05

You can't, no, you don't want that. You don't want that. Is really a perfection. I think so. I would imagine. How embarrassing. Well, do you want to? Commercial break. Do you want oh perfect time? Check out this ad for summer camp. Hey! Hey, you yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah, you hold on, wait right there. Don't go anywhere. Wait. Stay there. You gotta come to camp.

SPEAKER_05 9:57

Alright, you ready? It is time for our camp theme song! Fancy, take it away.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Are you ready?

SPEAKER_05 10:05

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Alright. Three, two, one. Camp it is camping. Camp it is where it's at. We're gonna yep about lots of stuff, especially Jesus because we love him.

unknown 10:22

Woo!

SPEAKER_05 10:24

That was beautiful! Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Picked up right where we left off.

SPEAKER_05 10:28

Today, our camp story theme. You know, I was thinking about this, my my ADD brain. I was like, what if we get 150 episodes in? And we're just we're just out of stories. Not possible. Wishful thinking on my part that we'll get to 150 episodes. But if we keep up this rate, we'll have 52 by the end of the year. We might take a couple breaks. So the theme for today's camp story is favorite God moments at camp. This one can get deep. Emotional. As our guest, you get to go first. Alright. You actually help jog a lot of other memories by telling your story first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

So yeah, like when I'm thinking about camp moments, I'm thinking about like the things that we wouldn't consider God moments, just like camper moments. Those are the ones that come to mind first, but I guess they go hand in hand. Let's see.

SPEAKER_05 11:23

Okay, we'll share.

SPEAKER_04 11:24

No, I think I think find God enough. Fancy and I were talking about it. Because I I I think that's probably the biggest God moment, especially in my time at this camp, was how I got here. That was like a real God moment because my school abruptly decided to move to Florida. And then I was kind of torn between like three families. I have family at my church here, I have family back home, and now I have family moving to Florida, and so I was like, what am I what do I do? Like which family do I want to go with? Because whoever I go with, I gotta say goodbye to two others. So it was kind of a like emotional time of trying to figure out what my next steps were. And I felt like the Lord was leading me to stay on the mountain for the summer, at least. And so I was looking for a job that would oh, because uh initially I was working for the school, but lost my job. So happened. Thanks anymore. Thanks, C C P C It's okay. I forgive. They're doing great, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Good, but been trained.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

So I was looking for a job, you know, telling people about it, and of course, people were saying, Oh, there's so many good camps up here, you should apply to camp. So, you know, most people don't know this part of the story. I actually didn't apply here. I know. I applied to Thousand Pines.

SPEAKER_05 12:41

Oh, I didn't actually know that.

SPEAKER_04 12:43

Yeah. And like the last two weeks that I was up here, not knowing if I was gonna have a place to live or a job to work at, they just didn't respond to me at all. So I was like, okay, maybe this is God closing the door. But then I get a call from a number that's just not in my phone, and it was Christy, and she was like, Hey, is this Jacob? And I was like, Yeah. She's like, Hey, do you want a job? And I was just like, Yeah, I I kind of do.

SPEAKER_05 13:13

Yeah, I need something.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

And then uh, and then that that was like big God moment because it was one of those situations where I like I knew that like this is where the Lord wanted me, at least for that season. But it was like, okay, Lord, if this is what you want, you're gonna have to you're gonna have to make it happen because I don't see anything happening. Nothing's lighting up, and and at just the right time it happened, and then I got to be here, and it was you know, reluctantly, I I was able to do all the camp stuff because my thought process coming into it was like, I'm just gonna like, you know-time here and there. Part-time do a little something while I'm doing my classes, and then but it's it's it's summer. That's just not gonna cut it in summer, so.

SPEAKER_05 13:57

Do you remember our why does my it sounds echoey? Check, check, check, check, check, check. Hello.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Ooh, that was nice. That sounds better.

SPEAKER_05 14:06

Okay. Um, do you remember our interview with me and you? I vaguely. I remember it was right here. Well, the initial okay, yeah, I remember that one. Okay. But the initial interview where it was, I think you introduced me to Jacob, and then uh I was like, or we uh was it on the was it on the ropes day? Maybe it was on the ropes day where CCBC came over here and ropes.

SPEAKER_04 14:28

I was I I met you and I met you because I I had to do homework and I was like, I just need a quiet place to go. Or no, I had a Zoom call I needed to get on. Yes. And there was no quiet place to do it. I was like, you're Jacob.

SPEAKER_05 14:38

You want to work here, right? And you're like, yeah, I was like, okay, good, good, you're hired.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

Yeah. Yeah, and that's what everybody said. Everybody was like, you know Jonathan Trask? And I was like, yeah, and they were like, oh, great, you're you're hired.

SPEAKER_05 14:48

I was like, oh, wonderful. That's awesome. Uh does that sound better? That does sound better. I think so. That was a beautiful Camp God story. I think I think probably all of us could say something about how God brought us to camp and like the different the different ways that he just lines everything up.

SPEAKER_06 15:04

That was my story too. Was it how you got brought to camp?

SPEAKER_05 15:06

Well, let me hear it. Let me hear.

SPEAKER_06 15:07

You want to hear it now?

SPEAKER_05 15:08

You want to talk about our interview?

SPEAKER_06 15:10

Did we have an interview? We we kind of did, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:13

I talked to you on the phone.

SPEAKER_06 15:14

Talked on the phone. Well, I I I kind of interviewed before we even I even was thinking about working here because originally I I only came on to do worship for uh for the summer camps. So I wasn't gonna be on staff or anything, but I I was bringing my my worship team from the church uh to lead worship for two weeks. Um and at the time we were just is this loud enough?

SPEAKER_05 15:41

It's kind of quiet a little bit. Dude, I remember I remember like it was a better day.

SPEAKER_06 15:45

Yeah, no, at the at the time we were me and Kylie, we were um in full time baking. So we were uh running our business full time. Both of us. Shout out sourdough! It was a fun time, but at the time we were working 20 hours a day, sleeping 40 hour or four hours a night, uh doing markets, doing pickups, and we were just like working ourselves to death. We didn't know we were doing that, and then um I I started leading worship for those two weeks, and then you guys asked me back for family camp. And at family camp, it was uh it that was a story too. Kylie broke her ankle. And because of that, it it led to the conversations, and I reached out to you guys. You you mentioned that you were thinking about approaching me too, and then we kind of just met up met up, talked about some things, and it just happened right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Don't you still have that voicemail that he left you when you guys were like in that stage of yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:44

Yeah, it was so different. It was like when I was so professional, dude. Do you listen to that every week? Do you have it? Can you pull it up? See if you can find it. I just remember thinking like the difference between a voicemail now and a voicemail then. Should I play both? Do you have do you have both? Michael, get over here now. Literally. Where are you, dude? It doesn't change that much, guys, okay? Let me see if I can find it. Hey Michael, this is uh Micah from Alpine. It was more like, hey Michael, it's Micah from Alpine. I just calling you back and uh wanted to talk about it You listen to it every week. I listen to it, yeah. I've been practicing it. I'll be practicing. That is the salesman is.

SPEAKER_06 17:28

Alright, here's the first one. Oh, it sounds like it's wind.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

It sounds like the ocean.

SPEAKER_06 17:37

What?

SPEAKER_00 17:38

I'd love to talk to you today when you get a chance.

SPEAKER_06 17:39

Oh, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Hey Michael, this is Micah from Alpine. I'd love to talk to you today when you get a chance. Uh feel free to call me back whenever you got some time.

SPEAKER_05 17:53

Is that my voice? That's your voice.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

You haven't changed a bit. That's exactly what you sound like.

SPEAKER_05 18:00

Everybody chill.

SPEAKER_06 18:02

Dude, I think I think your mic is messing with all our ears. What is that? I don't know. Now it's real quiet. That? So so this is now.

unknown 18:17

Are you trapped in a hole, Michael?

SPEAKER_07 18:23

Okay. Are you okay?

SPEAKER_06 18:28

That's because I didn't respond right away.

SPEAKER_05 18:31

And it was like five seconds later. Yeah. Where are you? What's going on right now?

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Your responses whenever someone doesn't pick up right away are my favorite. Because it's usually like, do you hate me? Are you avoiding me? What's wrong?

SPEAKER_05 18:41

No, no, instantly take it personally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Wow. It just it's the example of a friendship developing.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:51

It's like how how close we are.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

Could that be a bit that you have a button? Are you trapped in a hole? Push it. Whatever it's like.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Do I need to call for help?

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Oh, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_05 19:05

I think something's on the easier. I don't know what it is. Now it's now it's really loud.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Now it's just fine.

SPEAKER_05 19:09

It sounds great now. Fancy. You got one? I want to hear it.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

I do. I told it a while ago, but it's I was thinking on it and I was like, man, there's so many, and there's so many small ones, but I think what has to be my favorite is this last summer. It was really hard. Um program was I sound like I'm far away.

SPEAKER_05 19:30

It's gonna click it's gonna click.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Program was hard, and I wasn't expecting it to be hard. And I had my sisters here for the summer, and that brought a different kind of heart. Um being the only believer in my family and and living in a way that gets questioned and challenged, even if not intentionally, it still happens. And so it was actually they came for two weeks, and the first week it was like I was just getting so much pushback, and they were like grinding every chance they got. They were they were so mad at me for for simple things, and then they'd have these moments of I'm really sorry. And it was just emotionally taxing on top of like needing to be present and and do my job with my whole heart because ministry isn't something that should be taken lightly. So it was just a struggle for the second week to be a complete 180 was insane, and I just your sisters stayed for two weeks at program camp. They stayed for two weeks at program camp. The first week was I want to go home, I don't want to do this, this doesn't make sense to me. This might this might be the way that you live, but this isn't the way that I want to do it. This is how is this life real? Like, why this doesn't make sense to me? And you know, I shared my testimony and it got like thrown back in my face of like that didn't happen that way. Why are you seeing it that way? And it was hard, and so there was a lot of tearshed, and then the next week, one of my sisters in particular clung closer to me and started to ask questions and started to like really wrestle with some things, and I was so blessed that just the Alpine staff felt like home to her too, because she didn't have just me, she was able to go to Ranger and Aloha and Fern and other people of like we this is real, this isn't just my sister being my sister, like there's other people that are living this life, and so it it all came to this climax point of like I could tell something was going on with her, but I didn't exactly know what, and it was the last chapel, um the last night's chapel, and we had that like you know, come find a leader and pray and all that. And one of the campers came up to me and she's like, Can I just pray with you and your sister? I was like, Yeah, of course. So we called her over, and this girl just starts praying, and it's so beautiful. And I you know how sometimes you wish you could have like a camcorder on your head or like somebody recording, but because her prayer was just so beautiful and it was so knowledgeable, even though like I'd only known this girl for a couple of days. I was like, wow, she's you know, the spirit's with her. This is so beautiful. I'm crying, I'm in hysterics at this point. And my sister starts crying, and she's like, Okay, I'm gonna leave you two to pray. I'm I'm gonna go pray with another friend. And I was like, Okay, and so I just look at her and I was like, Do you not see, Abby? I don't want to cry. I was like, Do you not see how the Lord is trying to reach you? He's calling to you, like just um, you know, open your heart, open your ears as has anything reached you. And she just looks up at me with these tears in her eyes, and she's like, I already call I already prayed for him to be in my heart yesterday with Ranger, and she's like, and I wanted to tell you, and I'm so happy, and it was like just this huge breath of fresh air, and so I'm crying now. Her and I are both crying and praying, and at one point I look up and like I think half of chapel is around us just praying and crying and sharing in this like huge victory, like two years with the Lord, and I sometimes have moments where I'm like, I just have to this is so hard, and and I just I want my family to know him, and so it was such a a God thing, and it was actually your niece. She looked up to me and she's like, Look, Fancy, look at all these people that love you. And I was like crying even more and to think like other and then you just think about the whole picture, right? Other kids gave their life to the Lord that week, or or a new fire was was kindled within them, and now they get to go home. And it made me more intentional of how I pray for them, of of how I, you know, approach prayer for any camper that comes up this way, whether they're with us or a different camp, and when they go home, whether they go to a community that's like celebrating with them, open arms, or you know, not that way, and and they're on a lonely ship, right? You know, so that's my godmother.

SPEAKER_05 24:18

That was beautiful. Cool. That was beautiful. You know what I think that when you tell tell that story too, it's like with those sort of camps, we have that direct involvement and get to see directly God's hand moving, but with a lot of our our camps, it's like retreats and we're more behind the scenes with it. And and so to think that kind of thing happens so often up here that we don't get to see uh but we hear the stories afterward. But it's like a really cool thing to be tangibly in it and to witness it. So that was gonna that was gonna be my one of my stories too. Not yours exactly, but but last summer and like seeing that impact. But I think I'm gonna change it. Do you have one?

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Yeah, well, mine was about Abby too.

SPEAKER_05 25:06

So it's like what are we gonna say? Abby's so I gotta think of something else.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

She's so she she was asking about you guys, how everyone was. She says she missed everybody.

SPEAKER_05 25:14

Tell her to watch this one. Abby, we love you and miss you.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Um for me, uh I think it would be the first God moment. It was our first camper at Alpine. Um and I think that one meant it meant a lot, um, and even now. So I had just moved up to camp. I just came from a secular job. Um, I'd been outside of ministry for uh some years, um, and we hadn't even hosted a group yet. And I hadn't even learned all of our buildings at camp yet. I haven't been to all of the buildings at this point, and it was our first snow, and uh it was a good it was a great snowstorm. I think it was like a gnarly one. Yeah, like a couple feet, maybe, maybe two feet. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 26:01

Is that the one you're talking about where we lost power for we lost power for like two weeks?

SPEAKER_03 26:05

Um and uh and I get a knock on the door at like midnight, and we had just moved up from like Greater LA in not so good of an area, and so like my wife was kind of startled, and she had never lived somewhere rural like ever. She's always been Bay Area, LA County, and um so she's like, Don't don't answer the door, like we don't know, we don't know this neighborhood, it's late, that's weird, like shouldn't it's the middle of the snowstorm, you can't even drive right now. Like, what's happening? And uh I look out and it's like this dude, he's like mid-30s, and um, and that makes my wife like more worried, and then I look out a different window and I see like five kids out in the snow playing in a car right in front of my house. So I was like, okay, he's got a bunch of kids, I don't think this is gonna be crazy. Open the door, and uh and he's like, Hey, can you come help me? I need your help. You got you gotta come out outside, you gotta come help me. And uh and I'm like, what's going on, dude? And uh and Caleb's like, no, no, definitely not that. You stay you stay inside. Um, but yeah, I ended up going outside anyways, and uh and he had snapped a chain on his car, it's two-wheel drive SUV, like a Cadillac, and um and so he was just kind of spinning out right there in front of my house, like literally directly in front of my house. And uh so I was like, man, pretty much everywhere's closed. We could go try like the village, um, try and get you some more chains. So I called uh one of the other guys that was one of the first hires, and and him and his wife came over to stay with the wife and the kids. Well, I took uh the guy to go and get some new chains. And uh and so on that drive we were just kind of talking, and he's like, Well, tell me about what is that place like that we came across. And I'm like, Well, it's gonna be like a camp, youth camp, Christian youth camp. We're gonna be you know, spreading the light, we're gonna be doing this, we're gonna be doing that. And I was telling him the vision of camp and what it was gonna be. And um and he was like, That's the coolest thing I've ever heard, like that's so awesome. Like, I love philanthropy stuff, you know, and I'm getting the sense that he's not really religious. Um and I'm asking him, you know, so what about you? What do you do? Oh, you know, I work in tech, I do some tech stuff. And um on the way back, he finally tells me, like, uh, because he's like he's he does a philanthropy thing with some kids, um, but then his full-time job is it's the third largest porn site in the world, and he's the CF, CTO, chief technical officer for that. Um, and I was like, our jobs are a little bit different, different vision, different goal here. Um, and so I was able to see that contrast just kind of driving. Um we we get back and put the chains on his car, and he drives up the street to his Airbnb he had rented, and um none of us ever thought the power is out like on the whole mountain because of the snowstorm, and uh so it was 34 degrees inside of his Airbnb. And he he had like a U-Haul trailer with him too. It was like it was crazy, and so we're like, No, you're not gonna stay there, like come back to camp, we have a generator, put him up, and he was our very first guest. And afterwards, the next day I was talking to uh one of our camp wives that was talk stayed with his wife and was talking, and um, and she was like, Yeah, we're we're Muslim, and um I really struggle with his job. You know, we have a bunch of kids and we've been butting heads, and uh and he's very involved in his work, and we were on the brink of you know separating, and uh and so he said, Well, last ditch effort, like let's go let's get away before Christmas, let's go up to the mountains, like I'll get an Airbnb and we'll spend some family time. And then on this trip from San Diego, we're fighting the whole time, and we get up here and we turn on Clubhouse, and I just had it in my mind, like, I'm just gonna pray, God, please do something, intervene in in our marriage, in our life, and help me. Wow. And then the car broke down in front of my house. And um, and so that I know the other camp wife she still keeps in in touch, and I know that she's been going to Calvary Chapel down in San Diego now. Wow and um and so for me it was just like really affirming, and it was crazy coming out of the secular world and career um and back into ministry and seeing like, oh yeah, this is about life change, and um just providing a place and loving people and serving people, and that was our first guest, and it was he was literally like unplanned, he's producing maybe the the the something very negative, I think, for uh humankind. Oh yeah, and um and he's at kind of at the forefront of that, and yet he was our first guest, and his family has been impacted and had change. And so for me, that's one of my favorite ones. I think it just it was reaffirming that God's behind this camp, this is God's camp, and uh he was already using the camp before we were even open with our first group. And so that's been cool.

SPEAKER_05 31:31

And I wonder too, I bet that that wife, when she prayed and then the car broke down, she was probably thinking like, oh my gosh. What the heck? What now? Are you serious? You're just adding insult to injury, but then realizing, oh my gosh, this this terrible thing turned into a blessing. That's I mean, that is a beautiful, like very tangible God works in mighty ways. We don't know, we never know, and we don't understand it. And wow, beautiful man.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

I didn't want to go outside. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:03

But I'm glad I do. I'm glad I do. Dude, you could use that for so many sermons.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

I hadn't driven in the snow in so many years, too. And I drove all the way to the village, it took like 40 minutes. It was crazy. Wait, what store did you go to? We ended up going to 7-Eleven and it was open. I called them. I called them at like it was like 11.50, and I was like, what time do you close? They're like 12. I was like, I need chains. Do you have these chains? And they were like, yes, we have one.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

And they charge pairs $380.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Yeah. As soon as we got back in the car, it was like, is that normal?

SPEAKER_06 32:40

I don't think so. But at least good chains. Like the self-tightening I got about the no dude, they were chains, bro.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

They were just like they're cheap. Yeah, regular, regular old chains.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

That's costly.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

They knew you needed it.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

So they're like, we have one pair, take all the other ones off the shelf.

SPEAKER_05 32:56

Yeah. Well, my story begins a long time ago. Never mind. And uh it's actually so it is more personal. I was gonna share a little bit about last summer and just the I mean, I'll share a little bit about it, but the the the amount of planning and time that goes into preparing for a planned summer camp is insane. Is insane. So much planning and um coordination and working with so many different people's schedules and everything, and and continually reminding yourself like we want these kids to have a life-changing encounter with God. We want them to have an opportunity for that. That's the whole reason. And then the last night of that first week of camp, just seeing all the kids raise their hand, was like, oh Jesus, thank you for letting me see that. Like beautiful. So that's that was that was the one I was gonna hone in on, but I was thinking more about after you told your story, just kind of like how I got to camp and then what God did while I was at camp in my life personally. And I I started at camp um not wanting to be at camp. And my dad really wanted me to be at camp, so I I I went up there kind of reluctantly, and when I got in, I was like, this is where I'm supposed to be, this is beautiful, this is perfect, like like God was really reigniting my passion for him, like the fire was burning. I was like, this is great, I love this. Um and I I wanted to stay so bad, I felt like God was calling me to stay, and so I talked to the director and found a place for me to stay there, which was awesome year-round. And then I ended up really uh I fell in love with this employee there, who's really cute and real. I was waiting for that. It was his sister. It totally was. It was also the boss's wife, so or not wife, boss's daughter. That would be scandalous. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

My wife. Camp's kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_05 34:57

So the boss's daughter, let me specify that. Um, but on our wedding day, God kind of opened up this this uh started this pattern of the way he talks to Cassie and I. And it's it's kind of wild, but when we when on our wedding day, we got married at Mile High Pines, on our wedding day, um, we woke up early and it was raining, and Cassie called me, this is my wife, and she told me like you're which is kind of you're not supposed to do that. You're not supposed to talk to your you're not supposed to see your spouse until they're like walking down the aisle, sort of thing. At least traditionally. So she called me and she was super stressed out as one should be on your wedding day, and she was like really worried about the rain and like our our ceremonies outside, what are we gonna do? And I was like, well, I'm let me just um we'll pull pull the groomsman aside and we'll pray. And so we we stopped and we prayed, we held hands and we prayed, and then the rain stopped, and we looked off into the distance, and there was this giant double rainbow in the sky. I was like, Oh god, thank you so much. Not realizing that that was gonna be kind of like a sign that God would use to kind of direct us. So a few years pass and we're still at camp, and my wife applies us for uh applied us for this. This is a long lot of little details that go into this, but she ended up applying me for a job at a at a place in Colorado that was not ministry related. Yeah, Colorado. Um and it was not ministry related, and it was um it was uh that was just a fundraising job, a for-profit fundraising job that fundraised for elementary schools, and then I was like, I don't want to do that. You you can sense the tone through my God's calling my on my life is I never want to do what he originally called me to do. Um but uh we go through this process and then God is very clear about us moving out there in like really visible ways, like one day my brother-in-law hands me a book, and the I open up into this middle section, and then the top title says you need a major job change. And I was like, uh okay. Um but on our moving day, we move out and it's dumping rain. And right when we get you were helping me move in, right? Yeah, so dumping rain, and we get the last little bit in and it stops raining, and there's this giant rainbow over our house, like, oh god, thank you for showing me that. Like, this is just you saying this is the right move, and that's how I that's how I interpreted it. So we get down the road a little bit more, we're gonna caught over a year, and we get the calling to move back to California with the same company, and um on the way to the airport dropping Cassia off, there's a big rainbow in the sky. I was like, ah, beautiful, thank you, Jesus, this is what I wanted, and they needed. And then in California, we're doing this fundraising position for like three and a half years, four years, and I get a call one day from our executive director. He's like, Hey, we're buying this new camp. I'd love you to come work there. And again, I was like, I don't want to do that. I just we just got a house, like we just got our like everything's going smooth after COVID. And then um I'm I we're praying about it, and we're like feeling that the Lord's telling us to go to camp. And so I called my boss and I'm like, hey, she's a wonderful believer, awesome person, very gracious. Um I don't know if you'll ever see this, Kissy, but I love you, thank you. Um I I called her and I was like, hey, I feel like God's telling me I need to move out of Apex and go to camp again. And she like was so gracious so gracious. She had bought a territory in California with the hopes that Cassie and I would go out there, run it, and eventually take it over. So she was like fully investing into us. And so me calling her was like really heavy on my heart. Like I'm telling her that what I all the stuff that she's done for us right now is kind of pointless. And so um I call her and I tell her I feel like God's telling me to move, and she's like, Mike, I want you to feel no burden that you have to be tied to Apex. If God's calling you, then you need to follow it. And I was like, oh my gosh, thank you, Lord. And she texted me the next day with very little uh very little understanding of like my history, but she sent me this picture of a giant double rainbow that she saw from her living room out of her window, and she said, Hey, I just felt like I needed to send you this. And it felt like I feel like God's telling me that He He will provide and He will make a way for us to be okay. And I was like, that is beautiful, Jesus, thank you so much. I was like, really, really cool that throughout this whole process, God was just very clear in a very specific way, and it sounds kind of wild, like sure that could have just happened, but it seems more than a coincidence where God just kept opening up these doors and it was cool. And now I'm here and I can look back and be like, wow, that makes so much sense why I took that four-year sp sabbatical of camp and and be here in camp now. It was beautiful, it was beautiful. So praise God. Yeah, that was that was my little calling into camp with the camp ministry. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 40:05

God is so cool. God is so cool, isn't he? I love that guy.

SPEAKER_05 40:08

I love that guy, man. With all my heart. Did you see those new stickers I got?

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Yes, I love you too, too.

SPEAKER_05 40:14

I'll get you one as a as a thank you for doing this. We have a couple of them. It says, Jesus, I love you too. And my hope was like it's a personal response because it Jesus, we know, loves us first. That's a given. And we know the song Jesus Loves Me, this I know, but do we love him? Right. And now it's time after that deep and weighty thing. That was long. Should we do a should we do a uh a dance break? Uh a palette cleanse.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Oh, okay. More salt. Yeah, we got more salt.

SPEAKER_05 40:46

We got some more smelling stuff.

SPEAKER_04 40:48

It's time we have to breathe in like that. It's time we have to taste test though.

SPEAKER_05 40:54

It is time for the question of the day! The question of the day! Oh. Jacob, Mr. Rooster here. I can't be.

SPEAKER_04 41:07

I've been looking forward to this for like two weeks.

SPEAKER_05 41:09

We need to have at least two full rotations.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

Okay. Alright, I'll make sure it doesn't fall off the table. Yeah, thank you.

unknown 41:14

Spin it.

SPEAKER_04 41:17

That's a good spin.

SPEAKER_05 41:18

That was a good spin. Oh! And the question is You have to eat. You have to eat mana. For every meal. Mana. Mana.

SPEAKER_04 41:31

For every meal. But you are allowed one modern condiment. What do you choose?

SPEAKER_05 41:38

It was a playoff of The Hebrews in the Desert for 40 years.

SPEAKER_04 41:42

I don't think I've had mana. So I don't know how like what goes big mana.

SPEAKER_05 41:48

Well, it's kind of described as like a sweet bread.

SPEAKER_04 41:53

So is it butter count?

SPEAKER_05 41:56

This is it. You get one condiment on the side.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

I was gonna say you said sweet bread, so I immediately thought like honey.

unknown 42:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:02

Make it sweeter. I'm probably gonna go with like a steak condiment. Like a bunch of meat. Yeah, just like a part of a cow, dude.

SPEAKER_05 42:13

We're gonna turn it to my. What is a condiment? I was thinking like popping a whole steak. Probably uh like anything squeezable. Right?

unknown 42:29

Hmm.

SPEAKER_05 42:30

Like relish. I mean squeeze a cow, man. Like wait, what is yeah, what is a condiment? I feel like I don't love ketchup, mustard, relish, bacon. Anything you'd put on a hot dog?

SPEAKER_03 42:42

It just has to be smaller than the base, I feel like. Anything smaller than the base. Oh no, it's not a big big.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

So would you do like a fillet then? Like something a little smaller.

SPEAKER_06 42:51

Uh yeah, like little pieces of it. I think it's it's like a sauce or a topping. But we're not.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

Yeah, see, like under topping, like you'd say, if you had steak on top of your salad, yeah. That's a top idea. It's a topping. Is it a condiment?

SPEAKER_04 43:05

I'm just overthinking the question. Okay. Because they're like, yeah, are we Israelites?

SPEAKER_05 43:09

We're Israelites. I mean, whatever condiment we have to put on there.

SPEAKER_04 43:12

Do I have to go or thinking next level?

SPEAKER_05 43:19

It has to be technicality.

SPEAKER_02 43:22

It changed.

SPEAKER_05 43:23

Okay. A condiment is a sauce, spice, or preparation. Preparation added to food, usually after cooking, to enhance, compliment, or add specific flavors. That could be stead.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

I'm pretty stead, dude. You over there with your honey or whatever. I got meat. It's good. That actually, like, out of like what I would think of in a condiment, that would probably be top choice. That's probably what you use, honey. That's what I probably put. That's what I mean. I feel like if you go natural, you're less likely to get tired of it, maybe.

SPEAKER_05 43:57

Natural, like honey? Yeah. Yeah. I I would choose. Man, that's a tough one. Pick something kosher.

SPEAKER_04 44:12

Because when you when you said you're like, oh, sweet bread. Like my first thought was like maybe it's like a Texas toast, like a Texas toast kind of thing, so I'd want to put some butter on it.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

That too. That's what I think.

SPEAKER_04 44:24

Yeah, cinnamon butter would be amazing on there. But I don't think that's kosher.

SPEAKER_05 44:29

For the rest of time, too. For 40 years.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

Another I don't like that butter. It's not my favorite thing.

SPEAKER_05 44:38

Butter? Just butter?

SPEAKER_01 44:39

No, the the cinnamon butter. Cinnamon butter? Butter from Texas Roadhouse. That sounds great.

SPEAKER_05 44:43

You have a lot of butter. What about garlic butter? Garlic butter on some sweet bread. It came down in like it didn't come down in like loaves, right? It was like it was like like powder, right? Or like snowflakes, and then you I honestly I don't know. I know what Christy would put.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

Balsamic vinegar, dude. I could probably do that. I go crazy with that. But it does kind of like you can only have to use. Oh, yeah, like oil in vinegar. Maybe I'm allergic to that.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

I was gonna say Christy would probably put cholula on hers.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

Ew.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

She puts cholula on everything. Shout out though.

SPEAKER_05 45:18

Alright, alright. Final answer. Butter. Final answer. I think butter's probably honey though is really good. Maybe some like spicy button. I wouldn't want honey for everything though. Spicy honey? Yeah, have you seen anything? Yeah, like some spicy honey.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

You can have different like flavors of honey. They'll put different things in it. You could do spicy honey or regular honey. Or you could do like they have few fruit in in peach honey. I think too. Like I think I've seen like peach honey or something like that.

SPEAKER_05 45:50

That sounds great. I love it. So final answer. I think my final answer is honey. That sounds really good. That was a good idea. I think mine's gotta be the cinnamon butter. Cinnamon butter, also.

SPEAKER_04 45:58

Texas Roadhouse cinnamon butter. But like if the man is not toasted, then that might kind of ruin it. Just like soft? Yeah, I might have to toast it. Leave it out in the sun.

SPEAKER_05 46:12

I wonder, like, because after 40 years, you gotta imagine that they figured out ways to like spice it up. Like, let's let's make deep fried fried manna. Get some deep fried man.

SPEAKER_06 46:25

But they were allowed multiple condiments, whatever they can find. We are only allowed one. We're only allowed one. Beyond the street. Horser. Horseradish.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Horseradish.

SPEAKER_05 46:35

Horseradish should be good. What was your final? Is it steak? Steak. Oh, that's beautiful. We have a little bit of time left. How long are we on now?

SPEAKER_06 46:46

Hour and a half. Well not much. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 46:50

Maybe we don't have time. We took like a five-minute break in there.

SPEAKER_06 46:54

We're just under 50 minutes. Okay, good. So we have about 10 minutes left.

SPEAKER_05 46:57

I do want to capitalize on this because Jacob is very passionate about one passage specifically. Can you turn it? Well, let me turn the wheel. Yeah, there we go. Boom! I want to give you that coming. I want to give you a soapbox.

SPEAKER_04 47:13

Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_05 47:14

You really shouldn't have.

SPEAKER_03 47:19

It's tradition now.

SPEAKER_05 47:21

You have to set up the table. It's tradition now. We want our hundreds of thousands of viewers who watch this. Hundreds of thousands. Yeah. Can come back and see this.

SPEAKER_04 47:31

Well, I'll put a little thing out there because I'm probably, you know, ten minutes is not gonna cut it. I I have officially decided I'm gonna start writing a book. Yeah!

SPEAKER_05 47:41

So you're plugging your future book. Last week we had a real author on, and we bought well, I bought his book. He's one of my favorite authors. He has merch, other merch too. He also has sweaters. Yeah. It's really cool. The music, the wonderful music of life. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, wonderful. If you guys want to check that out too. So your book is called.

SPEAKER_04 48:02

Well, it's not official yet. But the working title is The Breath of New Life. Ooh. And it all kind of comes from the one verse in John 20. John 20, for context, is Jesus' resurrection. And so probably a lot of churches talked about it over the past couple weeks because of Easter. But um there's a scene where Jesus appears to the disciples, which in most what people think is like the upper room where they were hiding. And he kind of just appears and he says, Peace, it's me. You know. And they're like, Oh my gosh, it's him. Well, they didn't believe at first, but then he showed them his hands and feet, and Luke's gospel says he actually ate fish with them to prove that it was actually him. Israel. Yeah. And then and then John says Jesus breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. My entire endeavor in studying that for one of my classes was actually because like I've I we had to pick a passage to study for like the whole semester, something that like, you know, like we wanted to do a deep dive, like theological, what does this mean? And I was like, I already knew that there was some theological significance to that. But my question was, well, like, if Jesus is here imparting the Holy Spirit on the day of his resurrection, but then 50 days later the Holy Spirit came. So it looked like a contradiction. So I was like, well, somebody's gotta get to the bottom of this. Someone's gotta do this. Is it? No, it's not it's not. So I'll still buy the book. I'll still buy it. The book's probably gonna go in a lot a lot more into just like spirit theology of how the Holy Spirit works. Well, give me a little taste of it.

SPEAKER_05 49:58

So wait, wait, wait. The the that they received the Holy Spirit twice is the idea. Right.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

So so the way I break it down for people is like there's kind of four main camps you can fall into how to reconcile this problem. Two of them I kind of just throw out the window right off the bat. Some people say, well, this is John's version of Pentecost, you know? Like John wrote John, Luke wrote Acts, so you know, it's just two different versions of what happened. But that's just not right because John is clearly talking about the day of the resurrection, and Luke is specifically talking about fifty days later. Like they're not talking about the same event. Another way people look at it is like, well, you know, maybe Jesus was giving them like a sprinkling of the Spirit, you know? And then the fullness of the Spirit came at Pentecost, which I I think can be partially true depending on how you explain it. But like we know that the Holy Spirit is a person. So how do you give a sprinkling of a person to somebody? That just doesn't, it's just illogical. You know. But so then you're left with what are probably the like the two most common views, which is like it basically what's divides Baptists and Pentecostals. Oh, interesting. Which is like, some people are like, no, it's it's just symbolism. Like Jesus is, you know, John's gospel is full of Jesus doing symbolic things. This is just a symbolic act of what he will do 50 days later. But then on the other extreme, you have Pentecostals who are like, no, no, no, he literally gave them the Holy Spirit. Like, how else are you going to interpret that? You know? But he did it twice, and therefore that's kind of how people receive the Holy You receive the Holy Spirit twice. That's kind of what I was grown up taught in a Pentecostal church. Oh, interesting. Was like you receive you receive the Holy Spirit when you you know confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior. But then at some point down the line, whether it's 50 days or 50 years, you receive some other filling of the Holy Spirit. And I was just like, that, but that just doesn't seem right either. Because like now you're putting God in a box. Right. You know? Right. So I was like, it's gotta be somewhere in the middle. And it is.

SPEAKER_05 52:08

And it is. That's awesome. I love that. Thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_04 52:12

But yeah, you can read my book in a couple years whenever I finish it.

SPEAKER_05 52:15

He's such a smart guy. Set a reminder on your calendar, guys. He's putting a date to it. April 16th, 2028. 2028.

SPEAKER_04 52:23

Wow. It'll be at least a goal. Yeah. You know, I need to have some kind of goal.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

Hey, he does he does have a paper.

SPEAKER_04 52:30

For for you know, it's easy to get lost in the theological weeds. I mean, at least for me, because that's just who I am. That's how my brain works. But on a more like on a more like uh pastoral note, I think this is something I I was reflecting on this year. I like I never get on social media, but I hopped on Facebook on Easter just because you know I felt like I gotta say a little something about John. It's John 20 Day, I gotta say something about John 20 day.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

He literally texted me, happy John 20 day. Like, happy Easter to you too.

SPEAKER_04 53:02

So I got on and I I just wanted to encourage my friends with with something the Lord put on my heart about John 20, on a more like, you know, pastoral note. And it was this this idea of like, you know, we celebrate on Easter, we celebrate the empty tomb. And and then it's like there's a lot that goes into the empty tomb. Like the tomb's empty, that means like Jesus was who he says he was, that his sacrifice was accepted, and all these things. But one of the things that the Lord kind of opened my eyes to with my my passage in John 20 is the tomb was empty, and then the people were filled. So there's this kind of contrast of like there's an emptiness in the tomb, the life that was in the tomb it didn't stay in the tomb because it was meant to be imparted into humanity. That's a cool analogy. I like that. So, anyways, there's something something to chew on.

SPEAKER_05 53:54

And his people were filled. Yeah, something to chew. There's the next sticker. There you go. Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_04 53:59

I've been trying to get Jonathan to draw me a little cartoon. He still hasn't, so.

SPEAKER_05 54:06

Oh, it makes me think of the Shroud of Turin, but we'll get into that. Next week. You know what? I might have to stay for that.

SPEAKER_04 54:13

I've been researching that a lot.

SPEAKER_05 54:14

It's really interesting. That thing is gnarly, man. The more and more research that comes out about it, it's like, dude, that could very well be Jesus. Yeah. Have you seen it at all? You specifically? The Shroud of Tar Turin? Tarin? Turin? Turin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:30

I think I've seen like little bits and pieces, but I haven't done much research on it.

SPEAKER_05 54:33

Michael's gonna put a picture. Sure. Boom. Shout out for Michael. Yeah, it's really cool. It's right here. It's really, really cool. Check it out. If you guys haven't looked into it, look into it. Um, it is time to close out, ladies and gentlemen. We had such a good time with you, Jacob. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming, man.

SPEAKER_04 54:49

I'll try and come back for the Shrouded Turn one. That was the one.

SPEAKER_05 54:51

You flew out 2,000 miles.

SPEAKER_04 54:54

A couple thousand miles.

SPEAKER_05 54:55

Yeah, a couple thousand miles just to be here, so you guys need to be thankful for this. But let's close out with our theme song one more time.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

Okay, ready?

SPEAKER_06 55:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:03

Three, two, one. Yep, that's done. Especially Jesus. We all are the hands.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:16

Bye everybody. Bye, friends.