Episode 328 - Tony Kriz, "From Trauma to Triumph: Literacy's Role in Healing"

Welcome to another episode of Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick. In today’s discussion, Michael welcomes Tony Kriz to the podcast. This episode dives deep into crucial topics, including the impact of trauma on children's development, the importance of supportive adults in their lives, and how churches and communities can foster positive change through active involvement.

You'll hear about the startling statistics surrounding childhood literacy, the long-term effects of trauma, and inspiring initiatives like the Children's Literacy Project. This campaign aims to connect volunteers with local schools to help children read at grade level by the fourth grade, significantly influencing their futures. Together, we'll explore how a single caring adult can make a monumental difference and the spiritual and social justice dimensions of ensuring every child has the opportunity to succeed.

Prepare to be moved and motivated as we uncover the power of mentorship, the challenges faced by under-resourced schools, and practical ways you can be part of the solution. Whether through volunteering, supporting literacy programs, or committing to the well-being of children in your community, this episode is a call to action.

ON THE WEB: Children's Literacy Project

Transcript

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Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Restoring the Soul. I am so pumped for today's program because this is a book that I've read, and the topic is something that's near and dear to my heart. I'm welcoming to the podcast Tony Cruz. Hi. Hello, Michael. It's great to be here. Tony, you are a spiritual entrepreneur and a pastor, and you're the co author of the book Read How God's People Can Bring Justice Through Literacy. Correct and eager to talk all about that today. This book really caught my attention, but more than that, it caught my heart. I shared with you before the podcast started that where I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, my neighbor Nancy Oakley founded and ran a literacy organization called Project Learn. And so I just kind of watched the impact of that over many, many decades. So let's jump in. 44 million people in America do not read at a basic literacy level, which is stunning. And there's countless other stunning statistics about the impact of children not reading. So tell me about this book and about how you got involved in this and, and what followers of Jesus can do about this massive problem and why it's an opportunity. That's only about seven questions together, but jump in. Great setup, Michael. Yeah, you're right. It's about.43 million adults in America can't read well enough to get a basic job or get a job that can sustain a family. That's 43 million adults who rely upon public services and other programs in order to survive, or they're in our prison system or in other things where they're not contributing. And quite frankly, hope is hard to find. And in, in light of that, we just know that the children who read become adults who read. And in America, if you don't learn to read by the fourth grade, statistically you never will. There are no resources left in the American education system for people once they pass fourth grade. So that really is, that is the moment of your sentencing. Either sentenced to a life of opportunity or sentenced to a life of where you will drop out of school. Statistically, 1.3 million fourth graders do not read in Americ. Right. Every year. And 1.2 million kids drop out of school. I don't think there's, it's, it's, it's, there's a direct connection, I think, between those two things, and kids who drop out of school end up in our prison system and our welfare lines. So let me just hit pause because you talked about this fourth grade moment and you said in kindergarten through third grade, children learn to read. But then from Fourth grade on they read to learn. And if they don't have that basic reading down, they're not going to learn. And if they're not learning, then all of these other personal, relational, psychological, vocational issues start stacking up on top of each other and it's like a domino effect. Absolutely. Talk a little bit about that. Yeah. And particularly in our under resourced schools, our Title 1 schools, there are classrooms where 50, 60, 70% of the kids are two to three grades behind in those critical years, third grade, fourth grade, when they're learning to read. And those teachers are scrambling just to keep up with all the pain that those children are experiencing. So many of our children enter school, Michael, which you know better than I do, coming from backgrounds where there's trauma, there's pain, they come from poverty, from single parent homes and they're coming in emotionally, intellectually, psychologically under resourced to learn. And in that they're tapping, they're tapping the energy of the classroom and, and, and pulling all of their classmates down. Not because of anything they did. They didn't vote to come in with those being so under resourced. They didn't have agency in that. They're just kids. They're just kids. No, no kid wants to be illiterate. No kid wakes up and says I want to be illiterate. That's my goal for my life. But the resources aren't there. And you asked earlier about what, what can Christians do? Well, our mandate is clear, is to love our neighbor. We're talking about a least of these issue and the least of these in America today are our illiterate adults and specifically our illiterate children that will grow up to be outside the system. They will be our hungry, they will be our imprisoned, they will be victims of the sex industry, they will be victims of addiction and they will die earlier. That's just statistically, just true. And those are the people that Jesus spoke about. You know, for I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, kept them out of the welfare lines. For I was in prison, you visited them, we keep them out of prisons. For I was sick and you visited me. Let's keep them off. Addiction and being able to read is one of the primary ways we give kids hope and opportunities for their future. And that's the work of the church. And I'll just skip to the end of the page, Michael. My dream, our dream, our prayers. A million volunteers in local schools and I want those volunteers to come from American churches. I would love if every under resourced school had at Least one church park partner that said, we will. Our people will volunteer one hour a week to make sure every one of your kids reached a grade level by fourth grade. That's our contribution to our neighborhood. Two things exist in every neighborhood, Michael. A grade school and local churches. And we need to get those two things hooked up together. And that's what the Children's Literacy Project is all about. Well, I'm going to kind of play my cards early in this conversation. I read the book. I went to the website childrensliteracyproject.org, you can also go to teachakidtoread.com and that will take you to the Children's Literacy Project. And I signed up. What a cool website. You can click on the button that says take action, that takes you to sign up. You put in your zip code and your first name. It doesn't ask for a Social Security number or credit card. They're not looking for donations or anything like that. It's just take action. And then I got an email in my inbox, and I clicked on that and I put in my zip code and a little bit more information, and it gave me the email of someone locally that I sent it off to. And I said, I want to volunteer. And I'm literally challenging and inviting everybody who listens to this podcast. And the last statistic was we're heading toward 3 million downloads, and that's potentially a lot of people that could click that button. This is not about an Ask for Money. I feel like I'm Jerry Lewis on the telethon or something right now. This is not about an ask for Money. This is about. Right. Donating probably an hour a week, maybe much less than that, a couple hours a month for you to show up. If you don't know what to do, these people are going to walk you through this. And just to invest in our reading with a child and potentially with an adult in a way that can bring the kingdom of God in a way that's profound and have a ripple effect. Two questions. Number one, you talked about the impact at all these different levels of keeping people out of jail and keeping people off the streets and all of those things that Jesus said. What was it again that you interpreted the. When I was naked, you clothed me. There was a correlation in the book about how you interpreted that naked. Was that Jesus was talking about ministry to people that are sexually victimized. Yeah, I mean, that's. I mean, I'm making a bit of a leap. But when I think about our society today, I think About Jesus, you know, Jesus listing off these six categories of people, strangers, sick, imprisoned, hungry, thirsty. He adds naked, which is interesting. And I think as a child, I was just taught that naked just meant poor. Just meant poor. And yet when I thought about it, poor is pretty well covered by the other categories. So why would Jesus include this sixth category that was sort of out of left field for I was naked and you clothed me. And if there's one thing that Jesus was surrounded by in the Roman world, it was sex workers. They were in the temples, they were in the streets there. There are several characters in the Bible that we know are victims or participants in the sex industry. So the Bible is not blind to that segment of society. And I think in the modern world, for I was naked and you rescued me. That is a, that is at least partially a reference to our sex trafficking. I'll tell you who, who sex traffickers target. They target high school dropouts. My friends in the sex industry say that is a, that is a primary population that they go after. And dropouts tend to be children who never learn to read. And so there is a fairly direct correlation. And if we can help kids read, we can keep them from being victims of the most barbaric life imaginable. And so that's just one of the passions there. And that's in the book Read that just came out this year. Yeah. And there was. This is my second question. There was a statistic that I read. It might have been on the publicity sheet that they send, you know, when they send the book, but it was some kind of percentage of, there's some kind of an exponential greater likelihood if someone cannot read by fourth grade, the likelihood of them going into work in the sex industry, being imprisoned, being homeless, that kind of thing. And do you remember that statistic? Yeah. Children who don't read by fourth grade are five times more likely to drop out. And then you have to go to the correlation of what happens to dropouts. So 75% of juvenile offenders, according to the Department of Education, read at the lowest level. It means they read below first grade. That's 70% of first time juvenile offenders. Those are our dropouts. We already talked about human trafficking and girls and young boys as well, who get into prostitution. That's one of the correlations. And certainly the inability to get a job has been justified by the Department of Labor. I want to tie this conversation and the literacy issue into current events. Oh, great. With the recent election and the division between left and right and Republican and Democrat and everybody in between, even after voting, even after there being a candidate that was elected, I'm hearing a lot of people on both sides saying, you know, I really don't think there's much that can be done. And what we're talking about, if people want to see change in society, it really begins with helping one child or adult that's under equipped. No child wakes up in the morning in kindergarten or comes out of the womb and says I want to not be able to participate in the world and to engage with all that's out there. I just want to kind of, I just want to live life half baked. Nobody says that. Ultimately it's the environment, it's circumstances, it's victimization, it's trauma, it's socioeconomic realities. So if you want to change the world, and I'm preaching to myself because I signed up on your@the teachhildrensliteracyproject.org if you want to change the world, consider and I would even say pray about is this something that God would have you do? Because this is how we bring the kingdom of God. Yeah. I've been training pastors for a couple of decades now and well, I just love pastors and big hearts, want to love their neighborhood, want to love their city, want to love their world. And one of the things that I hear time and time again from pastors is their congregants want to love the poor in spirit, want to love the least of these. But by and large they know nobody who meets those descriptions and they don't even know how they feel paralyzed. And what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to go into a prison and start a Bible study that just feels really scary? Or do I open my home up, an immigrant family and let them stay with me until they get grounded and get paperwork? That sounds really scary. Do I go to a homeless shelter? Is that what I, you know? And I just go, yeah, those are all great things. And we want, we want people to fall in love with, with Jesus's love of justice and mercy and grace. Absolutely. But one thing that is not scary, Michael, is being the new best friend to an 8 year old. It's not scary because that's the minute you walk in the door, that 8 year old is going to think you are a superhero. They're going to think you walk on water, they're going to think you turn loaves and fishes into a feast. They can't wait to spend time with you. And in being there, it's not just about walking them through reading and helping them get Some of those basic steps that are going to empower them for a future as an educated adult. It's the emotion, the emotional support, it's the psychological support that you know more about than I do that these kids are going to hear. Maybe you're the first person who comes and shows up and regularly says you have a future. I believe in you. You're so smart. I can't believe how smart you are. So many of these kids come from traumatic backgrounds and maybe their parents tell them that they're great and they have a future, but maybe the next minute they're throwing something across the room. And a consistent, stable presence can be incredibly healing, even if it's just an hour a week. And statistically it's been shown that just an hour a week can make an impact on a young soul. Wow. Who wouldn't want that, who wouldn't want that experience of walking in and having that kind of impact? So let me ask you this question. Would you share the story? And I forget if it was you or Jeff who runs the Children's Literacy Project. Yeah. And the story of Yoga boy, because that was, it was both completely and so touching. That's a Jeff story. Yeah, that's a Jeff story. It's. He was working with his Head Start program. And Jeff lives in like what we here in Portland, Oregon, we call a rich suburb, one of the rich suburbs. Every, every city's got them called Lake Oswego. But less than a mile from his house, there's a Head Start program that is completely filled with kids that come from below the poverty line. A lot of times people think, oh, I, there's no, there's no kids that need help. There's no under resourced kids in my area. Jeff comes from a rich neighborhood and just an hour, just a mile away, there's a little enclave of these poor families that's in their kids to the Head Start program. And he went and he got this, this wonderful young boy. And I'll just kind of skip to the bottom of the page. This kid was rambunctious. He was punching other kids. He was running around his make. He's making hav it. So other kids weren't learning because of all he was doing. Jeff came in and sat down and tried to be his friend and this kid fought him, actually, actually slapped him in the face. Not, not maliciously, just, he was just being like a kid, you know, flopping around. And Jeff kept showing him books and he wouldn't, he didn't want to sit and read and didn't want to sit and read. And then the kid saw a book on yoga, believe it or not, children's yoga. And if you know Jeff, he is the farthest from yoga of any human being that I know. And he just opened a page and he and this little boy started to do yoga poses together as best they could. And both of them were terrible. And they laughed and they read the page and about the position and what the pose means and they flipped the other page. By the time they were done, the entire class had gathered around and the two of them were leading a yoga class for all of this little boy, this little wild boy from a tough background, he suddenly not just was accepted by the room, he was actually a leader in the room through that experience. That is remarkable. And then, if I recall, there was a lifelong relationship there with that boy and many, many, many years. And they're friends now. And that boy grew up and has a life and a future. Yeah. Jeff was just telling me this week he can't. He hasn't been able to go because our work has been so. We've been traveling so much because so many cities are grabbing this idea of adopting schools, churches adopting schools. We've been D.C. we showed our film Sentenced. We have a documentary out on Peacock called Sentence. We showed it at the Library of Congress and Congress showed up and the Librarian of Congress invited everybody to come. It was unbelievable trying to reveal this need in America today. We've been showing the film around the country and, and anyway, so Jeff's been so busy, he hasn't been able to get back to the Head Start program. And he just told me this week he's starting up again January 1st. He's going to be back in the classroom reading. Wow. So tell me a little bit more and tell our listeners about the film. It's sentenced film.com is where people can watch a trailer or preview the movie, but they go to Peacock, as everybody knows, the Peacock app. And they can actually watch this there. Yeah, that's right. It's co produced by Stephen Curry, who's a well known NBA basketball player. He and his wife Aisha are co producers on it and Stephen Curry is actually the narrator on the film. And it is a raw. It is a raw film, Michael. I just, I don't want to suggest something that it's not. It's PG13. You're going to have to endure a few curse words because we're following actual adults who never learned to read. Yeah, yeah. And out of respect for them as they, as they partnered with us to tell these stories. Their worlds are very complicated and so you're going to see some complicated things. But there is hope. The film does bring hope. And so I would really encourage people to go. They can go to children's literacy project.org and you can see the trailer there as well. And go to Peacock. And if you see something that inspires you, please let us know and we'll bring the film to your, to your city. We would love to show it as a way to inspire people to get involved in literacy again. We want to put a million mentors in under resourced schools. And after the film was done, actually that's what inspired the book read because we've been doing all this theological study about the connection between the words of Jesus and the 21st century and how do we apply those words? And that was sort of the framework behind the scenes of sentence. We go, well, we need to put all this learning into a book so people can see that Jesus really is all around this idea of literacy. So if people are at all interested, go to Amazon or whatever bookseller you like and order the book. Read and learn about this issue and why we think Jesus really cares about it. We were talking about Tony before the record button was hit about the loss of the late, great Tony Campolo, the evangelist professor at Eastern College, author of 30 or 40 books. I had the opportunity to spend several days with Tony and many interactions with him. I didn't know him well. He would probably not remember my name if I saw him, but then again, he just might. But he was one of my heroes. And you opened the book with a story of interacting with him at a kind of highbrow event. Will you tell that story and what he taught you about the theology of the poor? Yeah, this, this is. I worked overseas as a missionary all through my 20s. I was working in the developing world, the Muslim world, and I came home. I was pretty broken. Honestly, Michael, I was really. I pretty burnt out after that experience in difficult access countries. And I was in seminary working on my masters. And as a last minute, I got invited to this event at this, at this swanky hotel in downtown Portland. And there, there happened to be one last, you know, chair free and they asked if I would come. And so I showed up. And this was. I'd known, I had known about Tony Campolo my whole life. I can remember my, my high school pastor, Rudy her, you know, showing us clips of him and making jokes about, you don't want to sit in the front row when he's speaking. Yeah, any. I show up to this thing and he and I meet in the lobby and we go in to eat dinner and, and Tony is waxing eloquent all through the dinner, just capturing all of us with stories and with thoughts about the gospel and justice and the poor. And all of a sudden out of nowhere he just, he just stops the room and declares this or asks this question, what is our theology of the poor? Silence around the table are presidents of Christian universities, heads of missions agencies, pastors of megachurches, and at the far end is me, 30 year old second year theology student. And he asks again and nobody answers, scared to death to get the question wrong, as if they were back in third grade themselves. And finally Tony stares at me at the far end of the table, squints his eyes and says, young theologian. And those who know Tony, you'll know his, his knack for drama. Young theologian, what is your theology of the poor? And I froze, I was so embarrassed. And he didn't let me sit in it for more than a second. And he said, and he laughed out loud and he said, he said of course, because we never talk about. Our theology of the poor is simple. When you look into the eyes of the poor, you gaze into the face of Jesus. When you look into the eyes of the poor, you gaze into the face of Jesus. For as much as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me. And as you can hear from the storytelling like I can still hear it, like it still like echoes inside my chest remembering that moment. And you know, that was sort of my first moment where having come from an evangelical background and really, really loving proclaiming the gospel, I'm completely a proclamation list. I love it. But that was the first time I think I was really confronted with this idea that loving our neighbor is co equal with proclaiming salvation in the message of Jesus. And that has guided much of my life. And I say co equal. I'm not trying to raise one above the other. I'm not trying to say the proclamation is important, but Jesus has invited us to love our neighbor, particularly the one who's hurting, the one who's been tossed aside, the one who's been forgotten. And at this point in our country, Michael, and regardless of who's in the White House, we have left our children, forgotten so many of them. And this idea of spending an hour a week with someone is pretty low hanging fruit, so easy, especially that 8 year old that you're talking about, that seemingly, seemingly so intimidating. The last thing I want to talk about. And then I think you also indicated that you would like to talk a little bit about trauma. But this might be a good segue. There's a chapter called how to Build a Brain. Oh yeah. There's also on the website children's literacy.org there's some videos and there's a video of how to build a brain. But I thought this was a great conceptualization and just helpful for us to think about in general, talk about that. Thank you so much for saying that. First of all, that film, you know, I'm a lay, I'm a layperson in the area of trauma and neurodevelopment. You're an expert in that era area. And so, you know, we certainly went to experts and tried to get good feedback because we wanted to write a concise, beautiful way of discussing how a brain is built so people would understand both why so many of our children struggle, but also why there's always hope. There's always hope and that's built into our neurology. It's like science is finally catching up with theology around this stuff. And, and how to Build a Brain is really. It's an, it's an animated short film. It's like three minutes long. You go to children's literacy project.org and you can click on the videos and you can watch it. And it's just a lovely little demonstration so people understand that when you're spending time, when you're with that positive presence, when you're giving a map of words to a child, you're also helping map their brain. And in that you, they really have hope. But part of the film is about trauma. And Michael, I would love just to hear your thoughts on, from your research. What does trauma do to learning what is, you know, two out of every three children in America report at least one traumatic event by age 16. So these children are walking into school. They're not a blank slate, as we may like to believe. There's an awful lot going on behind that slate. And what's your understanding of the impact of trauma? Before I answer that question, I've got to read this line that you wrote. And I knew that I would love talking with you even before I met you online here because there's just some really great one liners in the book. But at the beginning of how to Build a Brain, you talk about how the neurological development largely happens before the age of 6. And then from 6 to 25 years old, only about 5% of the brain, it's all but 5% is developed by age 6 and then the rest of it develops between 6 and 25. Now that might sound like not a lot, but they're really critical parts of the brain that allow for abstract thinking or what's called formal operational thinking, so that we can think about our thinking. And you said, in light of this final 5%, you said. This explains why as a 53 year old, I can still recite the lyrics to every 80s TV sitcom, but half the time I can't remember why. I walked into the kitchen and I was like, okay, I'm every 70s sitcom or 60s sitcom and I can't find my car keys. It is strange, isn't it, what we give our attention to. But interestingly, there's a kind of cultural literacy, right, where we pick up and we internalize culture, songs, TV shows. It's interesting how when a new group of like a men's retreat or something that I lead or men getting together, one of the first things that people start to bond over is television and shows. And recently I was talking to somebody about did you see Gladiator 2? And then that led back to Gladiator 1. So we all have a kind of cultural literacy. And it might be very different based on your socioeconomic status and where you grew up, et cetera, but I love that line. I think trauma profoundly impacts our cognitive abilities. You know, the earlier that trauma, the less capacity we have to process that trauma. Because a very young child doesn't have a construct to say mom or dad is an alcoholic or absent, or they've been traumatized or they're disabled, or mom has postpartum depression and therefore my needs aren't being attended to. They internalize that. And that child can't without that more developed, abstract, formal, operational thinking, actually imagine a life without that caregiver there, because that caregiver is there. This is a crude analogy, but like someone who puts out the bowl of milk for the lost puppy or the cat, that child is dependent upon them so they can't look at the other through a negative light. That child always has to has that positive image. Even though they're abusing me, I still have to love them, be good enough for them, et cetera. So the earlier that that happens, the less likely children are able to internalize a sense of well being so that they can show up as they really are in life versus showing up with a survival or adaptive response to life. Yes, I was talking with someone recently and this is a really common theme. And this person was in full time Ministry of in their family. The message, not because anybody said it, but because of experience of dad's alcoholism and mom's traumatic past, was, I must be responsible. I have to take care of my big sister or my little sister or my siblings. I have to earn money and work a job and then come home and cook food. Now, obviously, I'm talking about almost a stereotypical urban or lower socioeconomic, but there's a lot of versions of that that are in the suburbs, in the big multimillion dollar houses, right? So if I'm not taken care of and the four S's that I talk about that are part of attachment trauma, if I'm not seen, soothed, safe, and ultimately secure in some kind of relationship, then I'm not going to have the basic apparatus internally, much less the energy to move into my world and show up at school in any way where I'm actually present. So kids are falling asleep, kids are checked out. Kids are dissociated because of trauma. In my background, and I've written about this in my most recent book, I was actually trafficked as a very young boy. There was sexual abuse that I've talked and written about before. But about 20 years ago, I began to recover. Memories have been corroborated about this. That happened in the 1960s. And I remember in third and fourth grade being absolutely dissociated. And for a long time I had no memories whatsoever of my third grade year. And I've often thought about, you know, what if that didn't happen? What kinds of things would develop that didn't develop, including learning disabilities. I have Asperger's or what used to be Asperger's. I'm on the spectrum. And sometimes I wonder, you know, how much of that is just a result of trauma and what did or didn't happen in my brain. So I can't go back and do it. But the big answer to your question is trauma profoundly affects how we show up in the world. And the younger we are, the more it affects our cognitive capacity to be present in the world. And neither overwhelmed with anxiety and anger. That's the fight or flight response. So if you see an angry kid, that's generally because he's wounded and there's no one there to advocate him and to step in on their behalf. Or you see a kid that's filled with anxiety. This used to be hidden when I was in school and my kids are in school. But now post pandemic and with some of the destigmatization of mental health issues, everyone's talking about anxiety. And 70% of kids are on antidepressants and things like that. On the other end, it's kids that are shut down, kids are withdrawn, kids that lose their emotional edge. They lose their passion. They're not showing up for sports, relationships, clubs, because it just takes all their energy just to show up for school. And then many of them drop out. Drugs, addictions, et cetera. So that's the impact. And therefore, I think part of why I was so drawn to this book and to what you guys are doing is that we deal with one soul or one person at a time and try to try to heal their nervous system and help people become whole. But then a wholly functioning person or a person who's on that way still needs to be able to function in the world and to decode the world. And we're in a world of words. Yes. And there's an old quote that one of our friends in Detroit uses. It's. It's easier to build strong children than to rescue broken adults. And I want to put you out of business, Michael. I want to put you out of business. And there's a Harvard study that says the one consistent, healthy adult can deeply affect a child's neurological development regardless of their background. And so that scene soothes. Safe, secure. I want a new best friend for forever. Every 6, 7, 8 year old in America. And I want them to be people of faith. I want it to be people who are bringing the love of Jesus. I'm bringing the power of the Holy Spirit into that friendship. Even though they're in a public school, they can't necessarily talk about it, but they're bringing the reality of God into that room through their life. And that child can experience love and safety, security, and they can feel seen and soothed. And if we can. If we can have one new best friend, a million volunteers every school. If we can have one church, adopt every hurting school in America, we could turn. I mean, this. We could literally change the country in 10 years. We could change. And I don't. You'd be hard pressed to come up with another issue. That if the church just showed up for an hour a week, and we're used to that, the one thing the church is good at is showing up for an hour a week because we do it every Sunday morning, show up for an hour a week in the life of a child, be their new best friend, and we could change the country. And who cares who gets the credit? Yeah, I really agree that I don't think there's A single issue that would be so easy to have this much impact. And that's why I'm all over this. Because when we work with an individual who has trauma, it takes a very, very long time and tragically it takes a lot of money to kind of get the care that people need. And that's part of our ministry is, I'm proud to say, by God's grace, that over the last several years we've averaged giving away about $300,000 in scholarships to pastors and missionaries and others that can't afford the full rate for our services. But this is a game changer. I want to come back and commend people to watch a video. You cited the Harvard Research and Dr. Nadine Burke Harris is a pediatrician and there's a wonderful TED talk all about the adverse childhood experience research and she summarizes that and it's in that video that she talks about, and this is a staggering statistic that you just referred to that a child with trauma, and in this case kids with illiteracy or adults, the critical ingredient, the secret sauce that leads to resiliency from adverse childhood experiences is one caring adult that's present in their life. And as you said, this is not Operation Christmas Box or something like that, you know, where you send a Christmas box, nor is this a short term mission trip, you know, on either ends of the continuum. It's just showing up and reading. Right. This is not signing up for foster care or anything like that. I just feel, I think my listeners are gonna go, wow, he's, he's pretty jacked up about this. But like I'm really eager to get an email back from this person that I wrote to and say when can I start? Love it. Yeah, and it's, it's so good and there's so, there's so much that we can provide and, and, and who better, who better than the people of God to, to play this role and to be in, to be in kids lives. And it's so simple, you know, in any, any of your listeners who can read, who can literally read at a fifth grade level, they are fully equipped to be a new reading best friend. They're fully equipped already and it's so easy. And so I would, I would encourage everybody just go to children's literacy project.org take a look at it, sign up and we'll, we'll help you get connected to something and, and if you feel inspired or if you're a church leader and you want this to become part of how your church Changes your neighborhood. Please go and sign up that your organization wants to get involved and we'll do a weekend to help you get connected to a local literacy organization. That'll make it easy. Well, we'll take as much of the administration off your. Off your plate as possible. A literacy program costs a church nothing. If there's an existing literacy organization in your city, it costs you nothing. And you could put 200 of your people in the streets loving their neighbors tomorrow. So we're excited about it. If people want to go see Sentence on Peacock or please buy Reed and Reid's written like a devotional, so it's very accessible. It's 50 short chapters. You could read one a day. You could read the whole book in an afternoon. It's very, very simple. And yet every chapter was written to inspire and touch the heart. And there's cool QRC codes so you can scan the end of a chapter with a phone and it takes you to a video or a talk or a webpage. And it's just so well done in that regard. Hey, as we wrap up Tony, share one more time the vision and the goal. How many million people by? I think 2027 I saw on the website. Yeah. So 1.3 million children every year in the fourth grade are unable to read above like a kindergarten first grade level. So we want to get to a hundred. I'm sorry, we want to get to a million kids a year. If we can get to a million kids a year, we will reverse the trend. So we're praying for a million volunteers to be a new best friend to a child. We're praying for a new church partner for every under resourced school in America. That's our goal. And if we can get those two things done, we will change the country and change the world. Because this country really is a leader around the world. And if we can show that we really are behind our children, it will change the world. So, dear listener of this Restoring youg Soul podcast, Please check out childrensliteracyproject.org or teachakidtoread.org Watch the sentenced film on Peacock. Sit down with your family, maybe teens and older. Read the book How God's People can bring justice through Literacy. This is an opportunity, this goal of 2027, of a million adults in God's church sitting and reading with children and adults, teaching them. This will bring the kingdom of God. We pray that Lord's Prayer. That Lord's Prayer. That sounds funny, but we pray that those words of the Lord's Prayer, of thy kingdom come and thy will be done. And so many times I pray that. And I'm not even aware of what I'm praying, but what I'm saying is, God, make heaven happen here. Bring the kind of relationships and society and world to this world that I live in through me and through my family and through my cul de sac and my neighborhood and my church. And so here's the opportunity. Tony, thank you so much for what you're doing. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for hearing and responding to Jesus words about what we do to the least of these. We've done that unto him. And thank you for helping me to see that when I look into the face of the poor, which is the homeless man or many homeless people that I drive by on the way to work, that I'm looking into the face of Jesus. There you go. Thank you, Dr. Campolo. Bless you. Bless.