She Got a Dream from God About Going Live - This is Wild

Hey, welcome in everybody to the Gaming Outpost Podcast for the Church Digital. Glad to have everybody in here. I'm just getting stuff ready, getting ready to roll here.

I am super excited. I have two podcasts today. Now, those who are listening later, you're missing out on all the fun. I mean, I appreciate you listening into all of the fun that we have here, but being here live. And I know schedule-wise, it might not work for you, but it's going to be a wonderful day. You'll have to wait another week if you're listening later to get the second podcast. You won't get to enjoy it, but we've got two of them today. I'm super excited. DJ, you ready to say hi to everybody?

All right, a blessed day. I'm just excited. So I'm trying to contain myself. I brought a hat to match for the first two seconds, but I'm going to gently take it off as we start because it can't fit on my head all the way. But good morning.

Good morning. I'm going to, oh, you know what? You froze all of a sudden. Your camera froze.

Oh, you're back. Is it still frozen?

No, no, you're back. It just froze for a minute sometimes.

Okay. Um, I'm going to adjust the camera so that you're more centered on my podcast. There we go. Then you're a little bit bigger. How are the volume levels? I feel like they're pretty good for my side here in the stream. Anybody in the stream having issues with one of us louder than the other? I will probably get really loud because that's what I usually do.

Right. Same. I think everything's good on my end as well.

Okay. I think I'm going to turn you up just a little bit.

I can come closer to the mic, too.

Oh, well, that'll help. Good. Here, Sunshine is saying, "All right, dueling loud streamers. Let's go."

No, for real.

Oh my goodness, loud over here.

Well, you know, I know people talk about if you enjoy what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. Uh, that kind of thing. But we don't often think about that in ministry. If you love God and you love people, like everything is going to be some level of excitement that you bring with it. Um, I don't know if you've done StrengthFinders at all, but one of the strengths in StrengthFinders is positivity. And like I just always bring that, like, you know, the Debbie Downer kind of a personality that like, "Oh no, this is awful, like there's these things going on," and it's like always like, "Yeah, but it could also be this and it could be better." Like, right, there's always, and it's not a silver lining. It's God in it. Uh, that you can see something more gracious and hopeful in the midst of things.

So, um, hey, sorry, I am just distracted by your microphone there with the changing colors. That's awesome. What kind of mic is that?

I love colors and I love all this. You see my vibe in the background. This is all me. I want my spaces to reflect my personality. So I'm very particular like with lights. And so when I found this mic, I was excited because I was like, "Yes, even more."

Yeah.

More colors.

I've gone for the it's black, it's functional. It's professional.

It works, you know.

Well, yes, it works. And it needs to work really good so that I don't spit and blow all over it and blow people's ears out. Um, true.

But, uh, yeah, I just I was distracted by the lights, which is cool. Uh, I do have lights over on my hats, too, but I have it more subtle where it just gradually changes colors.

Really nice.

Um, I have thought about putting it more on a strobe light effect, but then people will be paying more attention to it. Like yours is, yours is in the back. Well, no, no, yours is subtle in the background because it's hidden behind the tree and bouncing off the wall.

Um, I think mine would be more obnoxious. So, okay, I see, I see. No, it looks really good, really, really good.

What I have a question really quickly, like, what, like, when did you start, like, collecting, like, the hats and all that, like, when you were a kid?

Okay, so, you know, you're the first person that's asked. I do have, like, in my bio, like, you know, I can't remember how I wore it, but I've been wearing flat caps since seventh grade. So I got my first one in seventh grade and it was probably at a secondhand store. I found one that was like banana yellow and yellow is my favorite color. So, um, I loved the style. I liked it. I got a hat and then actually, uh, after that, um, because I don't know about seventh grade, everybody's trying to fit in and be like everyone else, and like that was not me. I don't want to fit in. I don't want to be like anybody else. I think everyone should be like me. That's what I'm thinking.

That's right.

So, so I also at the secondhand store found a bright yellow suit jacket to match, and I already had yellow Converse. So then the quest became yellow head to toe and I had, uh, a yellow shirt, a yellow sweater vest, uh, yellow pants, yellow socks.

Now, yellow, I was about to ask about the socks. Unfortunately, all the colors didn't exactly match, but they were all yellow, so it didn't matter. Uh, so that's my first one and I don't know why my mom has no pictures of this. There is no proof that it ever happened.

Now, for years I was kind of happy there was no proof. Now I would love to have a photo. So if anybody from high school out there is listening to my podcast, which probably isn't happening, uh, if you can send me photos, that would be great. Um, but they were always hard to find. So I wore that hat out by the time I got to college and I didn't have one. Uh, so I did switch styles. I wore cycling hats. I don't know if you know those ones with a little flip up brim like that. And, uh, well, okay, so I'm watching here. I'll do this. I'll do this for I'm watching.

This is what most of, if I wasn't wearing a flat cap, and I curled my bangs. I curled my bangs. It was all big bushy bangs out here with a flipped up hat. That's what I wore. And then by the time I got to college, I was wearing, um, this is before the grunge scene happened. I was wearing a bandana with a baseball cap on backwards. So I went through a bunch of styles, but flat cap was always what I wanted. And so I don't think until I got to this century was I able to start actually finding stores that had them for sale. I probably could have got them overseas, but you didn't have online shopping. Online shopping made them become available, and actually, before COVID, I was in the flat cap of the month club. And, uh, yeah, so twenty dollars a month they send you a mystery hat, you unbox it. So, going into COVID, I was still in that. So while we're in lockdown, I'm doing unboxings of hats while we were in COVID, which was super fun. And then it became, wait, I'm unemployed. I need to quit paying for hats monthly.

Oh, goodness. So, I got you. Oh my goodness, that's so cool.

Yeah, thanks for asking.

How many do you have? That's my last question. How many do you have? Can I guess?

You can guess. Yes.

Okay, okay. I would say you have two hundred hats.

Oh, oh, no. I don't have that many. That's, oh, it's less.

Oh, it's less than that. Yeah. I am, I'm just shy of fifty.

What?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, wow.

Yep.

Okay, well, amazing.

Um, yeah. I say I'm at the point on some level it's like I don't need a new one unless there's something really unique or cool about that hat.

I don't have enough hats.

Uh, um, hi guys in the chat.

Oh, hey, uh, chat. What's up, chat?

Wasabi Jay. Hey, thank you, thank you on the compliment on the caps. I love them.

I love them.

Hi, Sunshine says hi watching.

I'll tell you one other story in regards to this. So I have, since I've been a pastor, I have always had a flat cap. Um, and I had, I began to collect them and be able to find them after seminary. So I would be in the pulpit on Sunday with no hat on, and then the rest of the week I would have a hat on, and I would go to the grocery store. And if people from the community saw me on Sunday with no hat on, waved at them in the grocery store, they did not recognize me and know who I was. And if I ran into certain people from church who only came to church on Sunday at the grocery store during the rest of the week and waved at them, they didn't know who I was with a hat on. So it's like it's super weird that like people, like it's like a whole identity, like you're the person with the hat. I know who you are. You don't have the hat on. I don't know who you are. Uh, so it was, it was, from a different person.

Yeah.

Like Superman.

Like Superman. Exactly. Clark. Yes, with the hat on, I am dapper and ready to go. Without it, I'm just nobody and I fade into the background.

Oh no. Hey, good morning guys. Good morning.

Yeah, if you need to say hi to people coming in on chat, feel free to do that. Uh, on the podcast, it's really up to the guest on how we're doing chat. If you're super engaging and welcoming with chat, I don't want you to be different than that. If we get in the middle of a conversation and then we need to take a break to get caught up on chat, we can do that. If we're just engrossed in our conversation, that sometimes we go, "Oops, we missed all the chat." So, right, it's all good.

Understood.

All right, well, well, I usually I usually start out with asking when did you get connected to Twitch? How did that start? Not necessarily how did you start streaming, but where and how did you get introduced to Twitch and decide to go on and watch, and then when did you decide you were going to be a streamer? And if there's a different level of you were a streamer and later a Christian streamer, just kind of like share that whole step process of how did that happen for you?

Okay, um, so before I met Jesus, like as a little girl, I always like was drawn to the gaming community. I like for my entertainment, I wasn't watching much TV. I was always on YouTube watching gamers like Cory Kenshin, Berlesy, PewDiePie, like all the gamers in every game. Um, and so I was kind of like drawn to that and I was like, I want to do what they're doing, you know, like, yeah.

I want to create and, um, I wanna, you know, I don't impact people's lives, like bring them joy. Like they brought me joy, you know.

Yeah.

Because, you know, growing up, we all have our testimony. We all have our story. And that was like, you know, my joy. That was my light. That's what I looked forward to doing when I wasn't around people, you know. Um, so just growing up I started like practicing editing or like whatever device we had, me and my sister, when we would play dolls, we would just make a story, like it was just always there, like just pretending, or maybe, you know, sometimes you're just sitting there and you're just like, "Hi guys, talking to an imaginary camera, whatever." So, yep, yep, I know.

And so that was just, it was always kind of part of my life or like what I always wanted to do. I just never had the resources nor did I have like the confidence in myself, uh, to do so, you know, because whenever cameras would come around me, I wouldn't, I don't want pictures, I don't want this, you know, like what I was dealing with growing up, um, and and just in my testimony in general, it caused a lot of background, you know, problems, like insecurities and whatnot in myself and in my confidence. Um, but yeah, so I, I, growing up, I was just like always dreamed about it. Um, and then 2019, I, uh, the Lord saved my life and I gave my life to Jesus.

And you know, he started just building more of a confidence in me. Like with him, it's like, "You know, I gave you an assignment and I made you to be the one to do it, right?" I'm reading about Moses and it's like, or who else it was like Jeremiah, where like God was telling them, "Like, you can, I want you to do this," and then they're like, "I can't do it," and then I like resonated with them and I was like, "Yeah, that's how I feel too, buddies."

Isn't that so good? Isn't that so good? I mean, that's that's one of those things I think we we kind of overlook on some level that these heroes of the faith don't necessarily all have bold confidence, right? To that says, "Oh yeah, I'm going to be that. Yeah, I'm going to be that. I'm going." They're not necessarily ambitious for God. They're called by God.

Exactly. And and have all of the the struggle of, "I'm not good enough. I I can't do it. I'm not qualified. I, you know, whatever it is that," or my background disqualifies me, you know?

What I've done, my past.

Right. Right. Like, not everyone looks at Moses this way, but there's a level of it. Moses probably knows at a very young age that he was rescued in the river and that God probably has a plan. But then he gets disqualified by his actions and thinks, "God can't use me." And then later God says, "No, that don't disqualify you. I got you. I need you." So, uh, when you were—I did have a question and maybe it's just the—it's always the people phrase things certain ways. Like, what do you mean by that? So, you said he saved you. Are you just talking about your your spiritual walk or was there a physical thing that he also saved you in some regard?

All all around my entire life. I was literally—it was COVID time.

Okay.

Um, in 2019, right? And I had COVID three times.

Okay.

But also like I was at my spiritual lowest as well. So, it was like physically I'm dying, spiritually I'm dying like. And I knew the thing was I didn't grow up in church. Just a little background. I didn't grow up in church.

Yeah, fill in as much background as you want. I mean, we got all the—we got hours here. People are going to sit in, grab the popcorn, tell the story. I want to hear it.

Grab some snacks. Big hugs. Sunshine. Come here. Big hugs. Sorry, I hug chat sometimes.

Hey, it's all good.

Um, sorry.

No sorries. I'm not sorry. I'm very excited to be here. I'm just nervous, but thank you for having me. Okay. Um, but yes, so little background. Um, I yeah, that that was the hardest time of my life. Like 2019, that was the hardest time. We I knew of God, but I didn't know him personally. I knew that um when bad things happen, I can pray and Jesus will take care of it, but I didn't know about the intimacy. I didn't know about like what he did on the cross for me. I didn't know that I can talk like he's as near by as he really is. He's not just this big god in the sky just watching everyone making sure we do right and you know like—I don't know.

So when I met him—oh quick, just really quickly. I was in my room um October 2019. I will never forget. And I was in deep sin. I struggled with um sexual immorality all my life. And um and so after just sinning and and participating in activities I should have not been doing a great like wave of like shame and guilt came over me and I just started like reflecting and just like thinking about life in general.

Yeah.

Because me, I always felt like there was more to life than just living and dying. Most of us think it's just like we live and we die and that's life. But I always felt like, "No, there's more. There's more to this than what it seems." And we're just not paying attention. We're just not seeking that. And so I just started praying. I didn't know what I was saying. I was just praying. And I was like, "Lord, I don't like feeling this way. I don't like the life I'm living. I know there's more to this life than living and dying. I know there's more to this life. I know there's more for me, you know?"

And um I just said, "Lord, I surrender to you. I want to know you. I give my life to you. I don't know what I'm saying, but I I I know you're real. Like, one thing about it is that I never denied Jesus. I never denied that he was real. Even even not knowing him like that at the time, I knew he was there."

And so, um, yeah, after that, I just felt a comforting presence come over me and I just started crying and I was like, "Yes, he heard. He hears me. He's here." And after that, like, he saved my life.

Yeah. My life has been changed. I met my the love of my life, the Lord Jesus Christ. And my life has never been the same. Purpose came, life came, healing came, transformation, like the person that I am today was not the person I was back then. And then life—he like the COVID was gone. Thank God it was gone. We were healed. Me and my family, everything it just started changing.

Um and so yes, with that being said, he started like showing me what he wanted me to do basically. And um it took five years for me to like build that in me. But basically top of the year, hey, one reason um at the top of the year um I usually started asking God um what he wants me to do. Now that's that's where I'm at. Like realizing that, okay, it's what he wants, not what I want. So, Lord, what do you want me to do? And um at the time, I wasn't content creating. I was just practicing, editing, maybe playing games with my f my friends. Um but I had a dream. I had two dreams back to back about me being with Twitch creators.

Okay.

Like I had a two dreams that were Twitch related. And the first one I was like, I don't know. I was like talking to these Twitch creators. I didn't even have the app at the time.

Oh, really?

I didn't have the—I was doing nothing related to Twitch. I was just editing, minding my business, you know, or like trying to do YouTube.

Yeah.

At the time, but really wasn't even consistent in that. And um yeah, I prayed and I had the dream about me talking with like Twitch creators and then I went to sleep again another day. It was like back to back uh within days because it was Janu—I think it was like around New Year's. He always does that though. Like anyways. Yes. So the Lord gave me instruction and I was like, "Okay, I guess you want me to do Twitch, but I don't have anything." Like I don't have no—I don't have anything. But just like when we see in the word of God, like when we talk about when we see the men and women of God in the Bible, it's like they're examples to us. Like if God did it for them, he would do it for us, you know?

Oh, absolutely. And and and just just to pause on that on that point of having a dream um and and having God speak to you. I I I find that so fascinating. But but one of the things is like the way I grew up like it was more of cessation. God God isn't speaking today. The it's it's closed off. It's it's not, you know, it's it's stopped. And so that whole idea of dreams speaking to you or the Holy Spirit speaking to you is not something that everyone in the the church world fully embraces or fully understands.

Um, but one of the things that's really undeniable is when God calls you to do something and you say yes, then God blesses it and people around you can see it. Now you can see it. You can see it and I can see it in you that. So that's just so fascinating that that like, "Oh yeah, I had a dream about Twitch. Why would you have a dream about Twitch? Who knows? But I had a dream about it. And not only once, but twice. God affirm that."

Um that and I think that's one thing that God does do at times. Affirms in you. Sometimes through different things that happen around you, through dreams, through a word that somebody mentions to you. I've had people on stream that will talk about, "Okay, you are the third person that's mentioned this Bible verse to me in a week," right?

And it's like, "Oh, God's talking to you. Are you listening?" Yes.

Um, but I've also had those those occasions. I don't think I've had any dreams, but I have friends that do talk about dreams, but I can le I can list a couple of times where I know uh that the Holy Spirit was talking to me cuz I was arguing. So that I mean I know the Holy Spirit was talking and and then um so I just wanted to pause on that for a minute and just say wow that is really cool. I love that that God did that for you and how interesting it wasn't like, "Oh, you were thinking about Twitch. You were thinking about I could be a big person on Twitch. I can do all of this." Cuz sometimes it's like that Moses we were talking about earlier. He calls you to go do something. You're like, "What you talking about? Uh go be a Twitch streamer. I don't have Twitch. I don't know Twitch. I don't know nothing. What do you mean I'm supposed to go over there? I'm I'm trying this YouTube thing. What do you mean?"

I can't succeed in this. I don't know how to talk to people life.

Yes. It No. And I want to elaborate on that too. That point was that we serve a supernatural God. The same God that was speaking to Moses in the burning bush. The same God that allowed that like split the Red Sea. Like that's the same God that lives in us. And that's the re like the reality of it. Yeah. Is that we serve a supernatural spiritual father. We are called to be spiritual children of God. And so you when he speaks to us, he's going to speak to us not just in a natural way or a fleshly way or a carnal way, but he speaks to us supernaturally as well. And ever since I gave my life and I real life it seems, right? Right. Um just to dig deep in it. I just want to get real like I've dealt with spiritual like attacks my entire life. Like when you have sleep paralysis that is a demonic attack and we have we as children of God we need to realize that because then you don't operate in the power that's within you.

You know what I mean? You you have authority. What is that authority? The Lord said that everything that he did, we're supposed to do more. If he's casting out devils and if he's healing the sick, then we're called to do the same. You know, and I and when I read that, I believed that one of the first books that he led me to when I gave my life to him was Matthew because he wanted to show me him. Who do I follow? Who he is and what he made me to be because my identity, our identity as the body of Christ is in him.

That's right. Oh, yeah. I' I'm just as as a pastor, I I study the different um styles of authors in scripture to kind of know, "Hey, who does this resonate with? Who was the audience that he was writing to?" So that's fascinating to me that he led you to Matthew first because one of the ways that we talk about Matthew is Matthew is writing to the mumser and if you don't know mumser mumser is like the illegitimate person in society. It's the outcast. It's the person that doesn't belong. It's the person that everybody can look down on. So knowing where you are coming from talking—oh of course he said read Matthew. Matthew is the one that and and this is one of the places where you can see it in the genealogy. He lists all of the illegitimacy in the genealogy. That ain't what you do. You don't you don't put anything in there to question a king's genealogy. And Matthew puts every questionable aspect of Jesus genealogy in there. He also includes a bunch of women uh which you also wouldn't do. He is. He Matthew invites everyone to sit at Jesus' table because he saw Jesus do that and Jesus did that for him. I mean, you take a person who's a tax collector who your occupation associates you with sinners. Like, you just one of those kind. You're just one of those kind. You're the worst that there is. Everybody can say whatever derogatory things that they want to about you and it's socially acceptable.

That's what Matthew was. And so to go read Matthew's perspective on you're the outcast of society. You are downridden. You are looked down upon. You are, you were talking about feeling shame. You were the one that everybody's throwing shame on.

Matthew, Matthew is the gospel to awaken what Jesus can do for you. So that's super cool.

I know. That's right. I love Jesus and I'm so grateful for him. I am. So yes, like seeing those things growing up dealing with like sleep paralysis and obviously like, even the night that I gave my life to Christ, I woke up with like scratches on my body. Like the kingdom of darkness does not like, the enemy does. You have an enemy out there. Us as a body of Christ, children of God, please understand you have an enemy.

You have an enemy. Why do you need armor? Because you are a warrior of Christ. You are a soldier for Christ. Okay? So please recognize that when we on stream I'm very adamant about us praying as a body, as praying for one another because every time my brothers and sisters in Christ would be like I feel like this, I'm going through this. Well I understand baby, I'm going through the same thing. So let's pray.

Let's pray this devil back into his spot, which is darkness. Oh yeah, with light. You know, like I really don't play about it. I thank God that he led me here and is gonna lead wherever else he wants me to go and wants us to go as a body because we're a community. That's why I thank God that he allowed me to join Reach. You know, I'm part of Reach now. So it's like we're moving up.

Yeah.

But I'm going a little ahead. But yes, basically, you know what? There is no there is no linear to any conversation that I have. Okay. It is out of order. It's jump, whatever you are led to next. Oh yeah. So um, I don't have any promo stuff here and I haven't really talked a lot about it on the podcast, but we're totally free to talk about that. So I've been, reach, you're in Reach. Um, Reach, for those who do not know, is a gathering um of streamers and their communities who are Christian streamers who are gathering together to be able to show the whole world and the church that God is at move in gaming community. This is how I'm summarizing it. And we're there to collaborate, have fun, and celebrate what God is doing in our streams.

And so I like right now, I think I just looked at tickets. We're over 150. We're hoping for 500 max. Uh I don't know if we'll make 500, but I am excited to see what God's doing uh with the number of people that are going to be there. Um, it is uh I don't have this info in front of me because I'm on this channel and not the other one. It's uh somebody just put the info in chat if you've got it. I want to say it's in November in Orlando, but I don't remember if it's the exact dates. I don't want to say the wrong one.

Six through eight.

Six through eight. Okay. And I was going to say nine in there. So that might be when I'm booked to go home then.

Oh yes, not for sure.

I'm sticking around to go to church this year. I didn't last year and then I felt really disappointed that I didn't stick around and worship with everybody. So yeah, Romans uh yeah, Romans just got tickets to go.

Yep. So it's and there are several communities too and I want and that's one of the things I've been doing too on this podcast is highlighting people from all of those Twitch communities that I know. So we've had BMG on here. We've had uh DC 4C. We've had Taco. We've had Hopeful Disasters. There might be some others that I'm missing. Uh but I'm looking to continuously bring light to communities that are bringing light together. So they might be outside of Reach. Reach is a larger community trying to bring everyone together. The church digital, we've got a gaming conference. I did the promo for that one earlier today. Uh we've got that, that's digital. It's not the same as getting together in person. Uh we're streamers. We want to get together. Um.

Absolutely.

It we want to have a blast. We want to play games together. We want to have all that fun. So uh I can't, I'm looking forward to seeing you there because I know I know you're going to be there. That's going to be super cool.

I am.

I'm going to have so many, so many selfies with everybody. It's.

And if you're listening to this.

Cosplay too. It's going to be exciting.

Oh yeah. I I am super excited about the cosplay. Um, like back in the day, the only people that did cosplay were theater people. And so we would go to certain movies and if you're in theater, you'll know those movies. You dress up and go to the movie and you act out stuff in the theater while the movie is ongoing. That's what we did. And we went to Renaissance Festival and we dressed up it. Comic-Con really hadn't fully started and gotten uh going when when that I was back in college, but later that became a place for it. And now it's just like it's spreading like dress up and have fun. Um so I'm excited because I really haven't gotten into it, but I have that theater background and so I've been working on costumes with my wife this year. Uh so we yeah. I just I just finished a cloak for her for one of her costumes. I made her a cloak.

Yep. And uh we're going to go to Renaissance Festival and I didn't make the um uh what do you call it? Um corset. I didn't make the corset. We we bought that. But you know, trying to do all that Renaissance style and all of that. So I made some things. I didn't make other things. And then I've got uh yeah, I will I will have three costumes at least at Reach because there's a different gathering every day and a different theme every day. I've just got to figure out make sure my themes line up so that I can win one of them, you know? I I want to win one of them. I mean that.

You know, like I'm thinking now. Okay. Okay. I can't wait. Oh, I can't wait.

It really can't.

It's going to, it's going to be really really fun. Well yeah, that kind of ties into everything. Like once I, it was kind of like surrender and obedience, and that's something that I really hadn't done in my life. Um I was kind of like I'm kind of a stubborn person. And so um some things I had to learn the hard way.

Um but yes, or I don't, I don't know. I don't know really how to explain it, but I don't intentionally try to be disobedient, but I feel like every time I want to do, every time I want to do the right, I don't, I don't try to be intentionally disobedient. I just good at it.

No, not good. I hope not to be good at it. No, please.

I don't want to be good at being disobedient.

I I mean, from the standpoint I have a lot of experience being disobedient. Not that it's a good thing, you know.

Yeah. Oh absolutely not. But no, I was like, I feel that. I feel that, you know, cuz at a point I'm like, is it just am I just a disobedience magnet or what? Like why can't I get it right? But top of the year, I was obedient. I said, Lord, whatever you want. Okay. And um on March, we were getting like he was preparing everything. It's so amazing how he does that. Like I I was always during that time I was reading. It's so funny like when my Bible studies, whatever I'm reading in the Bible at that time aligns with what he's doing in my life in that moment. And so I was reading Genesis and really focusing on the story of Abraham when the Lord was like, you know, leave your mother and father's home and I'll take you to somewhere else, right? And you're going to have a, you know, your children's going to be like the number of the stars and the sand and all that, right? And so I was like, okay, Lord, you got to do this for me with like everything cuz a lot had happened in the year before that long quick update everybody. Okay. In this walk with God, I've went through ups and downs. Okay? And literally this year or this fifth year in my walk with God had been the most hardest and challenging. And I know why because he's doing it. He's molding me. He's shaping me. All that. I literally got delivered from a church cult. Okay.

I it was a church cult. It was one of those um African spiritualism churches. And I thought that they were um like oh like they're moving in the power of God and da da and this and that. But the Lord had to bring me out. Like I had people praying for me. I had like friends how like they like I he I met a new friend who told me like hey where you're at you need to come out. God is telling you to come out. And so that was a whole thing um that I had to heal from. So that's why in the top of the year I was like I don't want to do anything on my own. Lord what do you want?

Yeah. Because I took myself to that place because I thought that oh that's the power of God without even asking God without even inviting him in that decision, you know, and so that's the shift like this year 2025 is the first year that I surrendered everything to God and I was like no Lord what you want cuz what I do will lead me to places like that will lead me to death will lead me to this will lead me to that will lead me to heartbreak um and so yeah so I was like okay let's go and so just like with Abraham I saw how God brought like led Abraham even though Abraham was lying. He still blessed him with like and and increased him on his journey to that place.

Yeah.

And so um that's what happened like he was providing things and providing community and giving me instruction. Can come on download the app um pay attention to this or um and I was thinking thank you. I don't see any notifications but thank you for whoever did whatever. If you followed welcome to the family. God bless you. And so um what was it? Yeah. And so I was like having thoughts like, Lord, would I be the only person on here? Like, am I the only Christian? Like, that's how I was. And a lot of people say that too, like thinking that we're going to be the only ones, but you know, I just kept praying for community and like just sitting back and relaxing and see what he's doing.

Yeah.

And so he I met some people. I met a community of um individuals, people that helped me, people who I'm, you know, I'm friends with now, who are walking with me now. And that was March. And so I've been kind of doing it for four months now and we're at 500 um followers. We've done so many oh my gosh, so many great things. We recently did a Bible thon. I don't know if you saw, but um.

I I did hear about that. I did pop in a couple of times. What, what you know, we're not going in any order. We're just having fun conversation here. So go ahead and talk about the Bible thon. What was its purpose? Uh why why did you choose to do it? How did it all happen? Um.

Yeah, share share about that.

So like I said, it's been the hardest season of my life in my walk with God. And in March, um not March, in June, I had to um separate from someone I really cared about. And um as an act of obedience, I didn't want to. And uh but whatever that situation was, it was leading me away from Christ. It was leading me away from God. And it was that was just the main thing. It was other things as well but the main thing was God was like you are not focused on me that person that individual that community whatever it was it became an idol in my life that person became an idol in my life u because it's always something I wanted uh was like a relationship or this and that whatever and a whole bunch of things came with that and so he rescued me again after the cult I go into this and now he rescued me again and it was like.

Okay Lord, well help my relationship with. I had not been to church in that situation. I wasn't really reading my Bible. And so I was now he's been at this point like bringing me back to him, coming back to my first love and doing it the right way, you know, not how I think, but like like I explain to people now like the Lord is simplifying my walk with him. When I was in these other places, it was like, oh, I have to do this and I have to be this and the Lord's like just grab your Bible, pray, worship, easy. Like they didn't have all the sermons and YouTube and other people telling them whatever. No, you learn from yourself. Go to the word yourself. Talk to me yourself.

He's just bringing me back to that intimacy instead of this performance, instead of this, you know, like it's really like me and him.

That's that's that's a really good um piece to to focus on there. Intimacy with God over performance. Uh because a lot of what happens throughout the Old Testament into the New Testament is that people were about the performance of of doing all of the obedience to the commands and I did all the things but their heart was far from him. Yeah. It's that intimacy that that God definitely is looking for with everybody. It's it's how are you connected? How are you related? And instead of just I I don't mean this flippantly. Um I I mean this just kind of to cover what it is. People who just go to church to get religious goods and services, right? And then to go and check that I did all I was supposed to, which is the view that the the Romans and the Greeks had is you just check the box and the gods are obligated to give you what what you want because you checked the box and you did it. It doesn't matter how you if you did it and you cared, you just did it. And and God's not all about that. So I love that the intimacy aspect there.

No. And we have to highlight this when we read Revelation. What does the Lord say? Depart from me. I never knew you. The point is he wants to know us. Yeah. It's not about, oh, did you do. Roma just added a really great thought. Uh, oh Lord. So true. Especially in ministry. Ministry can replace intimacy if we're not careful. So yeah, even what we're talking about here of serving God, if you're in the church and you're serving, it can replace intimacy with God because you're doing the thing. And if you're Twitch streaming, evangelizing, sharing the gospel online, it can replace intimacy, too. You need to have that intimacy, not just be about the ministry. Like, you're busy about the work. Great, right? But why you doing it? Who you doing it for? And exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. And and I just was it was brought to my mind like we look at all these other men and women of God, but we really need to look at Jesus. He is our prime example. Be be ye imitators of God. Yeah. And with Jesus, yes, he had a ministry, but what did he do? He left everyone and went to solitude and prayed to his father, right? Yep. And then in that place, in that secret place, that's where you get the true instruction from the one. You don't have to guess. Every time the Lord spent time with the father, he came out with new instruction. He came out, okay, this is where we're going. This is what we're doing. That's the that's that's truly how our walk with Christ is supposed to be because we sit here and we're we're stressed out about this, this, and that. You go to the secret place, it will change. And I learned that so many times. And I'm saying this because this is what I'm living in this season. This is what I had to learn. That nothing is going to move. Nothing is going to shake. Nothing is going to go the way that you intended because it's not how it's supposed to go how you intended. It's not your plan. It's not your life. It's his. He and I are one. I am in them. Are you in me? Are you trying to talk to me here? I'm just like hearing that, you know, like when you hear someone speak like it it's it ain't about you, you know? It ain't gonna go the way you intended. It's it's like h Yeah. Like every time every time I sit down and say, "Here's what my intentions are." It's like, "Oh, no. No, not not." I mean, and I'm and I'm a goal setter, so I'm I'm always like, "Here's where I want to go. I'm going to do all the work that it depends on to to get there." But ministry is hard to not think that way. It's oh well I want to have this many people uh baptized. I want to have this many people in stream. I want to have this many followers. I want to have this many gospel conversations which are all good metrics to measure. But you can't just focus on the measurable things because the depth that you're somebody is growing you can't measure. You can't measure by here's the thing of oh well they grew ten percent more in love with Jesus this this last month. How do I don't know how to measure that. I can I can tell stories about what I see in their life. I can tell stories about how I encounter them. But to measure depth of growth and your love and your spirituality for God, Jesus, your neighbor, I don't know how to measure it. But I can tell a story when I see it. And right that's so hard when you're a goal oriented person to go how do I measure those things but very much. I also I'm a storyteller so I'm gonna tell stories so literally that's what I'm learning and so it all ties together because that's when when Bible thon came into play right I was just sitting with God and having a conversation. I was sitting with God having a conversation and it was so weird like when I tell my loved ones I tell people around me Don't let me think cuz my thoughts like once D starts thinking then things can happen. Okay. And so I was just in my thoughts and I was like talking to God and I was just thinking about like you know how people come on stream like let's say Kais or any person comes I'm going to do a marathon on this game. I'm not going to get off a stream until I finish this game. Right. Yeah. And I was like Lord has anyone ever did that with the Bible? Like, has there ever been like someone who stayed on stream until they finished the Bible? And then it was like, "Oh, maybe we can do that." And I was like, "Oh, what can we call it?" Just sit here and I just go through this whole process with God. And it was like I was like, "Oh, I know what I would call it. Bible thon." And so I was like, "Okay." And then he like he just dropped it on my heart. And so we spent it took three days to plan it. I uh the first day I I planned some of it on stream. So, I painted all these paintings for Bible thon. So, this is the Jesus painting. Mhm. Um, that's I'm watching his birthday present. And then up, let me adjust the camera. So, yeah, this is the Jesus painting. And then up there, I like Ice Bear. I don't know if you ever seen We Bear Bears. No, I haven't. On Cartoon Network, but it's a little show. So, that's Ice Bear holding the Bible. And then right here, there's a painting. This painting right here is the Old Testament painting. And so, it has the scripture. I think First Timothy three sixteen one seventeen all scripture is profitable, you know, and then so and then I have pictures of like different Old Testament stories like Adam and Eve, Moses, Jonah and the ark, all that. So, yes, we the Lord, you know, we put he puts it put this together and we spent we spent seven days um reading the Bible um from Genesis to Revelation and we finished and we prayed for people. We had breaks, but I did not get off a stream until we finished the word of God. And then it was so amazing because I had gotten a new job. I had been unemployed since February. And through this process, I was actually about to get into my new job. So there was times I had to leave stream and he he kept it up. He kept it going. Like I or like Sunshine. Oh, praise the Lord for Sunshine. She's in the chat right now. Like the first day I was like, "Guys, I have to go to work. Maybe I have to end Bible thon and Sunshine was like no I got it like right when I was and I didn't the funniest thing with me is that I it's hard for me to ask for help and that's what I'm learning as well you know like I really used to feel like I could just I could only depend on myself you know like nobody's going to want to help me blah blah whatever but the Lord humbled me even with Bible thon he was speaking he was moving he was teaching me um and Sunshine was like and yeah we never even talked before that's the funny thing never said before thought. Wow. It was a thought. The Holy Spirit was like if you were there, you would know the Holy Spirit was chilling. Like that was his stream. I said, "It's not even I'm just I'm just here as a vessel. It's history." And he was streaming the whole time, his word. It was such a beautiful experience. And I know that he's like for this like I said, Lord, we're going to do it every year. This will be a routine thing. And it just helped in so many. It helped me so much. It helped me so much just as a child like because I was going through that hard time and he was like saying like, "Hey, let's get back in the word." And so it was kind of like all of us like a call for everyone like come back to me and come back to the word. And that's all we did. We sat there. We sat there and we read the Bible or you know sometimes in my stream I like to do side missions. So we had a little worship time. We had a little fun time. We definitely had people come in who would try to come like me personally you know like we have trolls like people who come in and try to mock the faith. What? You get trolls? I can't believe that. No, they try. Oh, no. They very much try. No, but the thing about me, they don't know. Like I tell my mods, like, you know, usually you have someone coming in, they try to start something and like you like block them or whatever. I said, "No, let them talk." Because I have experience with children. And so when a child is throwing a fit, you let them throw their fit until they get it together. Yep. And so they come in and they expect like for me to be moved and me to be and I don't react. And I'm like, "No, Jesus loves you. You're fine. You're going to be okay. We're here for you. You need anything. And they're saying like these blasphemous things and they're like, "No, it's okay. No, that's not true. I'm here for you. You want me to pray for you? We'll pray for you." And they just kept showing up and and they just stayed there. And then they started to reveal really what was hurting them inside. Oh, I'm dealing with alcohol. I'm dealing with this. I'm dealing with that. Okay, let's pray for you. There's a moment that we prayed for this one person to like be free from that. Um, oh my goodness. And then another thing, I'm so glad Sunshine mentioned that, Casey. Right. I had mods before, like I had mods, but like they're like my friends who also stream. Um, and there's this woman who named Casey who came in my chat that night on one of the worship nights. We were like dancing and singing songs or whatever and she was just such a help and I was just I didn't even ask her. I just pressed the mod button and she's just started it was just Holy Spirit led like nothing was really planned, you know, that whole time. And so I just press I was just like I don't know. I just made her a mod and she just she became my mod, you know, and she was doing all these things like that I never asked for. I never even thought I could ask for. He brought me help watching. She helped me every like he the Lord brought me help. People who will help me and that I never really felt comfortable asking just like any opport even this opportunity right here.

It just come. He just brings it.

Yeah.

You know, and so I'm I don't know. I'm just overwhelmed with joy. Like

Oh, yeah.

Overwhelmed with thankfulness.

And the chat is just fully in agreement here of we're not made to be alone. We are meant to help each other. Um, you know, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the gathering of bread and the fellowship with one another. Um, yeah, just so many people just in agreement with all the stuff that you're talking about of

Yeah. Don't do it alone. You're not supposed to be alone. I know. Like I think that there's um I'm just going to say what I think it is. I might be totally wrong. An American pride that says you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

And it's not, "Hey, I'm going to lend a hand to someone else" is not our what our methodology of thinking. So if it's "I have to do it all myself," well, I'm going to do it instead of the little red hen, which is one of my favorite stories of all time, is inviting everyone else to participate and nobody chooses to and does it anyway.

But then in the end when the results are everybody wants to participate.

I love that story.

But it's still okay. She still like depending on the version of it, I like the version where she still gives everyone some.

Right? True. Because she was blessed enough to be able to. So she's still sharing it and participating and yeah, my I shouldn't throw anybody under the bus. I know several family members who really struggle with, "Well, it takes longer to train someone else. It takes longer to have someone else do it. It takes longer to ask for help than to just do it yourself."

Well, fine, but by yourself, you get burned out.

Mm-hmm.

And in the long run, it might be slower to initially start with two people. But you have more endurance with two people. You have more endurance when you invite other people on the team.

Right.

I'm trying to remember what if I think this the saying is if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

And that's worldly thinking because if we really live by the Bible,

Yeah.

The Lord even said that man shall not be alone. He even said that.

Yeah. One of the first things the Lord did before he even began his ministry was grab his homeboys, you know, like nobody does it alone. You know what I mean?

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Like that. That's why we need the word of God. That just shows because it's the truth. We can come up with any ideology and all kind of metaphors in this world, but that's worldly thinking. Just like you need to test the car, you know, before you drive it or test the milk. Then don't you buy the milk.

Yeah. You make a commitment to the milk when you purchase it and walk out the store and then you drink it, you know, type. Like, come on now. Be for real.

Yeah.

Like, so that's why like, no, it all points to the word of God. That's why he tells us cuz he knows best. Daddy knows best. Our father knows best.

Like, come on. And it when we Oh, that's what Bible thon. Like really not even Bible thon. It wasn't even just the event. Just being rooted in the word of God as a family and as a community. I'm so thankful. And I'm so mad. The enemy was so mad because all the VODs disappeared. All the VODs disappeared. Usually Twitch, they wait a little bit. They were gone. I was like, "Okay, I see." But no, we will remember that and we'll come back. We'll come back. And when I tell you, oh Lord, when I tell you that

I know the Lord is going to be moving not only on this app, but in the community in general. Um, I've been dealing with a lot

Yeah.

Of spiritual attack ever since um Bible thon because this was my first time being obedient. You know, like when you're sitting here doing what you want and living in your sin, the enemy is not afraid of you. You're not doing it. You're doing what he wants you to do, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

When you when you're walking for God, it's like uh-oh, look at them. They're moving. Uh-oh, something's about to change. Uh-oh.

I can't grab I can't grab it, but I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna turn my camera here. So if you if you can see that uh right there above my fish tank is a bullseye.

Yes.

Okay. So the first week of seminary I should say the first week yeah week of seminary every semester um they would have the president of the seminary come in and say how many new people do we have? This is your first semester at seminary. And he said okay not only is your hand raised but there's a target on your back.

Mm-hmm.

You have just committed to being obedient to God. And until now, the enemy didn't care about you.

Maybe you had a few attacks here and there just to give you enough like they're more shot across the bow kind of thing to keep your head down and not actually be faithful. But now that you've raised your hand, that target is firmly on your back.

Right?

And there are going to be things that are going to get really hard and difficult as you choose to obey. And so be ready for that. Now, there's no level to know how much one person gets attacked over another person, but I've used this like in churches, like every time somebody would be um a new deacon, elder in the church, I would I did this, so this might sound really weird, but I would take and write their name on that bullseye. I would put a table out in the church and you would write a prayer and a blessing over every new elder and deacon to say, "We've got your back. We know you're going to be attacked and we we need to be invested." So, yeah, anybody who's new, who is finally going in the direction of where God's been calling them, anybody who they're first new in the in the faith, anybody who's I'm going to trust God again to go and lead me to do something I know he's calling me to. There's a target that you just said right here. Right here, I'm I'm available. Uh the enemy knows that. So, just just encouragement on you and and love hearing your story. I hope that encourages other people.

Yes. Thank you so much. I I see it. I've been I've been peeping it. It's always a resistance. That's why I was telling like we even all of us, we were going through um things during Bible thon like everyone, it was just things that were happening. We just

Yeah. If you want to if you want to share a couple of particular stories of something that was uh just a God moment that was really um you know, joyous or if there was a real sorrow that had to be overcome. If you if you got a couple of stories from Bible thon, go ahead and share those.

Yes. Um, we got a couple. There was one um person I would never forget. He came in, his name was Wraith, and he came in. First of all, no, let me just highlight the fact that there are so many people I during Bible No, before I did Bible thon, I was going to quit streaming.

Okay?

Three times. I just kept like like I don't know if I can do this. I don't know. Like I was really like doubting myself, you know? Um and I was telling my friends like I'm not worth it. Like I'm not worthy to do this. I can't do this. Like especially after everything that happened because um with the former person I felt like you know with me I kind of like dissociate like I push it away because this person also stream. So I'm like okay well let me just let them have it and then I'll just go in my corner. I can't succeed. You know they can I'll let them have it. But the Lord was like no. Like every time I was like, I'm about to quit. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to stream. I would literally once again because the Lord, he speaks to me through dreams. There's a lot of people who dream. When you your dreams are not just random things. It's the Lord speaking to you. There's just like Joseph. The Lord spoke to him. It's about his life, right?

Your dreams are regarding to you. They they are the Lord speaking. He speaks in many ways, but that's how he speaks to me. I dream ever since I gave my life to him. I dream every day.

He tells me something every day. And around that time, um, I was like, I'm gonna quit. And he was like, once again, like the dreams that I used to have at January. I'm I'm sitting here and I'm talking with stream. What happened?

No, I'm just I'm just laughing cuz I totally vibing with the arguing with God part. I just like Yeah. Yeah. God's trying to tell you and you're just like, I'm not having that. No, that ain't what I want. No. What are you talking about?

Um, stream where? And like you're gonna stream. Yeah.

Stream. Yeah.

Um, but yeah, I almost quit three times before Bible. So, we came on Bible thon and even in the midst of it, too. I'm like, "Oh, like it's not even hitting me that dang, I've been streaming for 58 hours reading the Bible with my community, with my friends." Like, it didn't even hit me. But like when as I was like going to sleep or as I woke up, like I would be feeling that like insecurity again, right? Or I'll be feeling like and then we'll have a raid of 60 people or somebody will say wow this is blessing me thank you Lord for leading me to this stream or thank you Lord for this or you really light a fire and it's like wow maybe he is using me maybe maybe I am useful maybe maybe I like I the only thing I care about is pleasing the Lord and helping my loved ones like y'all are like this is my family we are a heavenly family we going to be in heaven one day together so we have to like we can't see each other as strangers That's that's not what he said. He called us to be one, to see each other as, you know, love each other as yourself, right?

And so like what y'all go through or what they go through, what we all go through, I go through it, too. We carry each other's burdens. And so that's what happened a lot. Like that encouraged me to know that people were testifying and just sending me messages like, "You did a great job." or thank you or you know it it really inspired me because I I felt like I couldn't do it on my own. I don't I don't have that ability to help people even though I desire that. But that's just a lie from the enemy. That's why I'm saying you have to like anything that you think about yourself is complete opposite. You have to play the opposite game because the enemy will tell you the opposite because he knows. God knows. And so if you are meant to be a leader, you're going to feel like you can't lead and that's not true, you know. So that's what I I had to learn and that's what the Lord the Lord encouraged me with loved on like community is so important and that's why I keep seeking it like I didn't lose community the Lord brought me so many people I gained so much I thought that I was losing this person but it's like when you take that obedience he removed it for a reason because if I wasn't obedient to him I could have died in that and it's true like when you the wages of sin is death and you choose to be disobedient to God you will die spiritual death physical it doesn't matter better. And so that that is just a highlight is that not only did I get to dwell in God's word and see his promises, but all I kept seeing when you really read the word of God, you see that he's kind of repeating himself.

Obey me, love me, love each other. Obey me, love me, love each other.

That's basically the the the premise of our entire life. We don't even have to complicate it. We we went through Genesis and Revelation and each me the message was love. Oh, no. Obey me. How do you love God? Obey him. Love him and love each other. Because what did he say? If you're not loving each other, you're not loving me. Cuz that is my child. The Lord is so amazing.

And we don't understand that. But Bible thon taught me that. That encouraged me.

The person I was, I was dying in my sin. I was dying with no. And I was walking with God for five years. And this was the hardest time.

This is where I was the most disobedient to God because I wanted a person. I wanted a man. I chose a boy and I was beginning to choose a boy over my God.

Mhm.

And that was going to kill me. I had no like when we are in sin, it's so important that you have to understand that you are allowing and you're giving. You're being obedient to sin. You're not being obedient to the enemy. He's he's just like us. We're not afraid of someone who is just like us. You're he's a child. He's was made by God, too. We always put him like the enemy did this and no, baby, you did it.

That's just like like a bully or your friends trying to peer pressure you. You're the one who said yes to them. You either come into agreement with God or you come into agreement with sin.

And so, he rescued me from that. I don't play about him and I don't play about us because he rescued me from that. He rescued us from that. And he wants to rescue those in the world from that. That is the that is the purpose. And so Bible thought was the best thing that ever happened to me because I really got to see my father in his word.

I really got to see who he is and who he made us to be.

Yeah.

And so when people came in and they were like trying to test God, it's like come I I love like me personally, I I'm not a fighter. I'm a lover. But if you like to confront me and if you want to come at me a certain way, you're going to be talking to a wall because I don't fight with people.

I'm not a I don't argue. I communicate. My I was raised by a family where we communicate. My mama had me up in here. If we have problems in the house, my mama would gather up the entire household and you will express yourself what's going on and everybody will have a chance to speak.

We were taught to use your words.

Yeah.

We were taught not to react off of emotion because just like the word of God says, it always ties to the word of God. That's why like my family and I just want to highlight we didn't grow up in church but the Holy Spirit still remains. We we have a prayer. When you have great grandparents and grandparents that pray for you, it covers you. You cover your

Tell me about that. Yes. Yeah.

And so I know my generation was covered by my great parents and my by my mama. My mama is a godly woman. She don't have to sit up in church. I but she is now. And when my my relationship with God changed my family.

It changed everything cuz they saw me. They saw the mo like I told you they saw the most disobedient person. My my my government name is Deja. So I was known as like, "Oh yeah, she's the happy one, but she don't listen. She's all happy and goofy, but she don't listen." But then once they saw like I'm like talking about Jesus like, "Oh yeah, mom, I want a Bible and yeah, I've been praying and and and then to see that being consistent, it it it moved something in my family. Now my now now the family that wasn't even going to church, now they're talking about God.

Now they're reading their Bible. Now they're now they're praying as a family. Now now we're united because we used to fight all the time.

Now we don't fight no more.

Now we love each other. We see each other like we're supposed to see one another. And yes, we're still working on things. But like God came into my family's life and changed everything just like he he didn't just change me. He changed everything. And I know he'll do the same for my children and for my future marriage and for my children's children and for everyone that he will assign me to.

He changed my life, you know, like he changed my life.

Yeah.

He saved my life because you you grow, you live this life and it's like you look back. That's why he like that's why he tells people like to journal, write these things down. That's why we have the word of God because people wrote things down.

Just like David in Psalms, he wrote things down and he was able to look back in his life so he never forget. There's another thing the word of God says. He the Lord always says remember. Or sometimes when when the men of God are speaking to the Lord, they say Lord remember. And when you remember, it's like, "Yes, you did this for me. You saved me. Yes, Lord, you are who you are, and you will do it again."

Yeah, we

I love him so much.

I could tell that's so awesome. Um it

But I actually I was just reflecting on very similar to to where you're you're at, like you're telling all of the places you're remembering in your life. Um, the people in the Old Testament were told to continuously talk about what God did to deliver you from slavery. Don't forget it. Keep telling your kids. Keep We're going to have We're going to have a celebration. Not just a party, a seven day party. Oh, wait. We'll throw an eighth day on there, too.

Uh, we're going to have a big celebration. And you're going to tell your kids about this every year. You're going to reenact it. Uh, and and then, oh, you know what? You also wandered in the wilderness. Let's do another party for another seven eight days in the fall so you don't forget about that. And oh yeah, you went into a land that you didn't you didn't plant nothing.

You did nothing. You just showed up. God gave it to you and now you got fruits. Uh so how about we have another party about first fruits cuz God gave you the fruits. So we're going to have three week long festivals every year so you can remember what God done did for you and you won't forget.

And and I was thinking about this and going, why has the church and and I don't mean I mean the big C church, but also the small C church like why doesn't my local church and I'm just as guilty of this because I never learned this but I was just thinking this recently. Why doesn't my local church tell the story of how did this church start and remember that on a regular basis of how did we come together as a church?

What was the person and the people who gathered in this place first? Who how did we start? How did like why do we not tell the stories of how God led us to start what we're doing in ministry and pass that on to those who come after us so they remember it cuz I feel so disconnected and sometimes from what's going on in my in my congregation I was at cuz I wasn't there when it started.

Oh, it's one hundred years old. Great. Who who who started it? The I do I do know one of those though because the church did tell this story but we I didn't think about this before. We never practice it as a ritual remembrance of what God had done.

Um but they were supposed to go have a meeting with the denomination and talk about planting a church and they left well and there happened to be a blizzard. So, uh, they left and they didn't get told that the meeting was cancelled, so don't come. We're just going to have a small meeting. Everybody, don't drive. It's too dangerous. They'd already left. So, they show up at the meeting with a few people that were there. And so, they figured, well, since you drove all this way, we'll listen to you, but they'd already made up their mind to not plant a church.

But since they drove all the way through a blizzard, the church got planted.

Wow. Wow. So, so it's like, so I know that piece of the story, but why why isn't that more of a a celebration thing? Why hasn't it become a bigger thing? Why hasn't it become a let's tell this story annually so we don't forget,

Right? Like an anniversary thing.

It was only when somebody new would show up that they'd talk about the story. It was only then that you would you would do it. If oh, somebody new in leadership will tell the story about that. They don't know it. Otherwise, we keep it we keep it on the side. We don't remember it. So, I just love what you're talking about. Here's here's the story. Here's the pieces. The the one the one I don't want to take it and put it on me, but I think we all have those. So, that's why I want to throw this out there.

Mhm.

This is a piece of my story, and I love to to preach through this. I'll get emotional if I fully do. Um,

But my wife's great grandmother when she got married, her and her husband began praying every night that someone in the family would become a pastor or a missionary.

Wow.

And their kids all grew up and none of them were. And their grandkids grew up and none of them were. And then I come along and marry my wife and her grandfather. I met him. He passed away. And they didn't tell anyone in the family this either.

They no one in the family knew. And when she heard that I was going to seminary, she said, "God answered the prayer." And the rest of the family's like, "What you talking about?"

Um, yeah, we've been praying. And I don't know, I mean, at this point, how old she was and how many years she had to have been praying for fifty to sixty years over me.

Like, beautiful.

And and then now that I'm going to seminary, I've got my wife, my my my uh her her mother, her grandmother, her great grandmother, and oh, let's throw my daughter in there. I have five generations of women praying for me.

Wow.

You you you want to talk about how God has overseen whatever I'm doing in ministry, it is it is the prayers of those five women and and a lot of other people. But uh all the way through seminary, whenever I needed a prayer group going, I called up I called up her grandma, not great grandma, but grandma, cuz she was active in like five different prayer groups.

And I'm like, uh you need to share this with all your prayer groups. This is an important one. Go share it with everybody. Uh cuz I we need this prayer uh lifted there.

So yeah, just that whole family heritage kind of a thing is so powerful.

It's amazing. It it made me really think like, oh, maybe that's why I like the my main instruction the Lord wants me to do is pray. That's why on stream like yes we read the word but he tells me like I remember when I wrote it down in my journal

Games are cool but you're not on here to gain you on here to pray. You can you make sure that you pray and then you can play your little games after. But the Lord was like you're not caring about the games. He's care about the prayer and covering people. Oh, that's that's that's so so fun thinking about that because when uh I first started watching Twitch, and I think I've told this um a couple of times, so I won't go into all the details, but I started watching Twitch. I had no plans on watching. I was watching another pastor who I knew personally who was on on stream, and he kept telling everyone, "Go follow him because he's going to stream." And I kept going, "What am I going to stream?

I play solo players. I got Xbox. I don't have a PC set up to do this. I'm not going to stream. Why would I do it?

And then when it was really the Holy Spirit saying, "Maybe you should do this. Uh you you should do this." Okay. When are you going to do this?

He he led me a little slow in all that. Uh

It was I guess I could do sermon prep. I'll I'll do that. No one I don't see anyone doing that. Maybe I'd see people doing Bible, but I'm like, I'll do a little different. I'm gonna I'm going to do sermon prep.

And then that turned into, oh, now I'm going to read the Bible in a year on stream. Like this. It's like,

Wow.

Why? Why is God leading I say us weirdos? Us weirdos who uh you know it's like yeah uh let's go to a gaming platform. What game are you going to play? Reading the Bible. That's that's I'm not playing here, folks. We're we're going to read the Bible straight up. We're going to read it.

Wow. Yeah, that's amazing.

I'm just I'm just looking at some of the comments there uh in the chat. Yeah, go grandma go. Uh it's it's Yeah, I know.

Totally. That's incredible that God's hearing and answering and encouraging to his perfect time. Oh yes. Exactly. Perfect timing. Yep. And it's hard to see when you're praying for 40 years or more on something that God finally answers it. But the joy of the answer is definitely there. Yeah. Moses left Egypt and it was 40 years until he came back.

How long was Joseph in exile? Um, yeah. Keep praying for all those years. Yes. Yes. Um, yeah. Pink. Uh, your grandma can pray for a closed parking spot in Walmart for herself and get it every time. The woman has a special connection with God. Yes. Oh no. That's right. Uh, let me see. Was there anything else? Uh, yeah. That's when you found flat cap. Uh, one reason when I was reading the Bible in a year. Yep. I feel you on the weirdo part. I, as you get to know me a little bit, I am a very weird individual, but I like that. I like that I'm meeting other fellow weirdos. Yeah. So happy. Well, we'll just do the fist bump. That'll work. I got you. That was hilarious. Uh, nice. Yeah. I say, yeah, going back, they're just talking about how do you find um different people. There didn't used to be categories. There didn't used to be Christian tag. You, so you would look for family-friendly and you would sometimes run into Christians. You didn't necessarily, uh, yeah, we need an army, a Christian army on Twitch. It's building. It's building. And if you don't, if people are listening to this podcast and you do not know um the church digital, uh, we have committed this year to praying at 10:02 every day.

So Luke 10:2 says the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest who send out workers into the harvest. And so right now I could probably go look, but my guess is because it's the average, there are a million people watching Twitch right now. They are watching some very unhealthy shenanigans. They are watching some things that would be enjoyable. Um, but the number of people that are intentionally being light and salt on Twitch is very small. We need many, many more people. So uh, every time uh, we're praying that I'm praying specifically for Twitch, uh, but also globally. There are a lot of other places, a lot of other platforms where people are on far away from God. And when you have a phone in your hand, the gospel is that close to reaching someone. Right? Um, even in a closed country, they can't keep the Bible out of someone's hand who has a phone in their hand. And so it will infiltrate. So we need workers. And uh, so if you want to join us at praying at 10:02 every day, whether whatever your time zone is, our goal by the end of the year is to have someone praying in every single time zone around the globe. So there's there's my little pitch. I don't do pitches too often, but I definitely want to join. If y'all got a prayer team, I want to join it. Yeah, absolutely. I'll uh, I'll connect you. We have different people who are doing prayer, but and that's more of a hey everyone commit to doing it um and then sharing with us. But let me just see that's still up uh because I know we had it for a while. The church.digital pray. I haven't looked at that um in quite some time. So I'm going to see if it's up before I start promoting it. Yes, it's still up. So the church.digital/pray will take you to our page uh for praying for global digital spaces to be able to reach people. All right. So and if you want to promote it, there are some assets that you can get and post wherever you want to. Wallpaper that you can get if you need that as a reminder. Uh, let me just click on the prayer clock here. I haven't seen that in a while. Oh no. That's just a countdown. Um, I thought that we did have a globe. Um, maybe it's maybe it's no longer on there. I thought at one point we had a thing where you could click and see who is praying globally. Let me click on this one. See if it does. Nope, that's just sign up. Okay, maybe we didn't keep it. It was one of those things where you try to put a tiny dot on it and then it didn't really show up real well. So we might have ditched it um since since we started that in January. I haven't paid attention to it. I've just focused on doing the prayer part. So okay. So I'm just reflecting here on on the um reading the Bible, and you said it took seven days to do all of that. Um uh, that seems like a really fast read through the Bible in in my thinking. Uh, all of it, but but certainly God was in there listening to to the stories about that. And then the the videos are gone. They're not there. Um, but there's a level at which there's still stories to to tell. And on on some level, I want to have all of the videos, the audio to share to do all of that, but sometimes if you weren't there, you might not feel the spirit. Um, and maybe um, if the VODs were out there, there might be trolls trying to attack and take all of those things. And so maybe there's a hedge of protection that's actually come. This is this is my positivity. I'm I'm just thinking like maybe there was a hedge of protection that God was protecting you from something that could have happened if the VODs were there. Um, very true. Oh yeah, one reason. One reason followed. Oh, who do we have follow? Um, smoke break just followed. Thank you for the follow. Uh, one reason just throw in like I I love the symbolism in Bible numbers and maybe you're not familiar with all of that, but seven is the number of totality and completion. So the fact it took seven days and it took God seven days to create things. That just seems right. That just seems right. Yes. It was magical. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. Yes. Holy Spirit led. I yeah. I I don't know. It was it was a great time. It was a great time. I usually like when the trolls came in, it's so funny like you you sense it. You sense like they're coming in. I'm happy you guys are on this platform. Have a great stream. Thank you, Smoke. That you're here. God bless you. Have a great welcome in. Um, when I had a spiritual target on my back, I would have the Bible app read the gospel to me and let it play overnight. Drove with prayer station on every time I was in the car. Oh, that was one other thing I was thinking when you were talking about uh different places and stuff. There's there's also uh a relevant way that the church has prayed over people's houses. So I don't know if people are familiar with this idea, but there are specific prayers that historically the church would use uh to pray over buildings and things. So you were talking about, you know, praying over and praying against uh demonic forces. Uh, and I thought about it when you were mentioning that, but just like the target on your back. So yeah, if you want to pray over your family, uh, there are there are different prayers and depends on your church history and liturgy, you can go find these ancient prayers that are out there that would be prayer for a building. You prayer for a house. You have a new house or you've changed your life and maybe there were uh evil spirits or forces that were at work and had free reign and you pray a prayer of protection on that dwelling uh to keep them from being there. They would also go in for instance if there was a brothel or a bar or something where where nefarious things would happen and now that's going to be turned into a church. Will you pray over that before you change uh the you know it's kind of like the spiritual uh transfer of ownership if you will. So so the enemy had the spiritual ownership over the location. He had the deed to the property and you say that deed has been revoked. Uh, you've been kicked out. Uh, we are we're seizing it back for the kingdom and uh, you're not welcome. You're not welcome no more. You're not welcome no more. Yep. So so there there are those kinds of things. I was just thinking about that when you were you were saying that earlier and then with the target on the back just made me remember that. Uh yes. So yeah, you can go Google those. Uh, I've used them a couple of times. It's not really fully what my denomination does a lot. However, we do have one there when we're we're starting a new church. We do that intentionally. Pray over a church uh and do that. I have done that uh with different places that I I have lived. I will walk through and pray when we move in over every room in the house uh that your spirit God is welcome here and the devil you are not. Amen. Um, I even had a couple of incidents in my life where uh uh I got up and I did that again and then I walked around the property and said you can't come no further. Like this is the barrier and you you best stay away boy. Uh, cuz cuz God is here. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, spirit eviction. Yeah. Ukulele. Exactly. Eviction. That's right. We got your eviction papers and you're not welcome here. And the gates of hell can't prevail here. So hi Sai. Welcome in. Yes. Hold on. Let me fix something real quick. No, I love that. I love that. Um, can I ask you a question? Yeah, absolutely. Um, so like what was kind of like in your Twitch career like the hardest moment for you? Okay. The hardest hardest moment. Oh, that's an interesting question. Um, because on on some level I think it was uh really kind of around the level of going hey God might be calling me to do online ministry as a full-time thing instead of going got to follow Christian gaming guitarist just follow. Christian gaming guitarist, thank you for the follow friend. Um, so it it really has been this level of are you going to trust me again? Cuz because I've done trusted God. I mean, I've I've had changes in life and I've I've pursued after God and it's like, okay, I don't want to have to trust you anymore. I just want it to be here and I want it to be now and I want it to be over. And so it really was on some level um two years ago trusting him again, which wasn't entirely about streaming. It was about doing something um and starting a prayer booth and it was like are you gonna trust me again to do this because it meant I wasn't going to work on Sundays. So I've told you at times God does the slow little path with me to get me going in the direction and then I can't turn around because it's too narrow path to back out. So it was okay I can't go get a job in a church if I ain't working on Sunday. Nobody going to hire me but I got to go do this because the Holy Spirit done told me to. So I'm doing that. So I thought, "Oh, I'm going to be," and this wasn't what God told me. "Oh, I'm going to go be a full-time gamer, and I'll just do the Bible thing on the side. So I'm going to go two days a week, and I'm gonna play a video game, four hours a day. I'm going to see if I can build that up and become partner. That'll take care of my income." I did that for three months. I didn't have any more people watching me at the end of three months than I had to begin with. I just was tired and exhausted. No, I was like, okay, God, you didn't tell me to do this. I thought I could go pursue it. So okay. So I I was obedient for a year of of doing that. And then it was like, okay, so that's done. Now we're not going to be open on Sunday, so maybe I can go back to the church. And all the conversations I was leaning to is, uh, you need to go be a full-time missionary. And it's like, but that means I got to go ask people to fund me. I I don't I don't want to ask people to fund me.

I don't I don't want to I don't want to beg people. I I know that's not what it is, but I'm just saying that's the that's the idea that that's that's the lie of the devil running through your head of uh you know, I I don't want to go beg people for money. I'm not good at it. I'm better at raising money for somebody else. Like somebody's in need, I'll go pass the cap and ask you to donate because I know the need there.

I I don't need to go online and say, "Hey, I need another hat. Would you like to buy me one?" You know, that's I don't need another hat, by the way. Uh but that's that that's the way it feels uh when you go ask for yourself to me. So, it was really that okay, you're you're you're in leadership with the Church Digital. You believe in what they're doing. You are in leadership levels all throughout Twitch where you're connected with other people. You are an influencer to the influencers there.

Are you willing to trust me that I will take care of your finances and you're going to go in the direction of being obedient to to be in the space? And it's like, yep, I will. Um, it ain't easy. It ain't what I want. I mean, I want God to say, "Here's here's the here's the guaranteed income. Now go do it." Not here's the land I will show you. Um, and when you when you uh, you know, come back on this mountain and you worship me is the proof that what I told you you were going to do, you're going to be able to accomplish.

U although the older I get, the more satisfaction I find in that promise of saying, "Ah, yep. He's given me the promise. I'm supposed to do this. I'm I'm in confidence doing it, but but it's kind of hard. So, I know it's it's Twitch related. It wasn't really an onstream uh kind of event, but that's really it. It's the do do I just leave for me which would be ease and security of going getting a full-time job in a church which I like on some level I am the perfect age to go find a church because I'm right in that sweet spot of I've got enough experience and I've got enough years left and you could come hire me for 15 years easily maybe 20 years if I got that in the tank and and lead you into a new level of what God might be calling in your church, it'd be easy to go find a job.

And God has just said, "No, I got other people that will do that. I got other people that won't go online. So So you're my guy." So that's that's kind of it.

Okay. I have another one. Okay. So me, sorry. I just really like to learn from those who are walking it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still fairly new. So I would want to ask like any advice you would have for me as like a a new creator in for Jesus, you know? Yeah. Not just just a creator but just in general like even life. What what what kind of wisdom do you have for us?

Okay. I like it much better when I'm asking the questions. Let me just say that. Sorry. I like to ask question. I'm a little curious. Oh, no, no, no, no. Uh I I think on on some level it's it's really about uh obedience like you were talking earlier and I I I'm I'm going to throw a passage out there. Somebody can get the reference, put it in there. But it's don't throw your pearls before swine. If God has showed you that this is the pearl of great price that is worth sacrificing everything in your life for, don't go sharing that with other people that will not be on board with it. Don't go don't go sharing it to people that are going to attack it. Share it with people who are doing what you're doing and will be able to give you honesty about what you're doing. Give you good questions to think through. Have you fully heard from God? But don't go to the people who you know are going to be naysayers immediately about what you're doing because you know the fruit on their tree there ain't no fruit on their tree.

If they ain't got no fruit on their tree, they have no right to know what God's calling me to do until after I've done already been obedient and I'm in the land. Uh so so that would really be one of those things is is there is wisdom in sharing it with others um who are doing it and say hey I think God's calling me into this or adjacent things like somebody who is a church planter is going to understand what a Twitch streamer called to go be a missionary is like somebody who's a missionary in a foreign country can understand those concepts too. But if all the person is is someone who sat in church and they gave their tithe and they went home the rest of the week and they worked for a living, they're not going to understand God calling you to do something different because they weren't doing something different. So I don't share when like on those early conversations of like uh you were talking about how the Holy Spirit gives you dreams.

The Holy Spirit for a while u and this was during the COVID era was always talking to me on my drive back and forth to the churches I was working with. So I was working with churches an hour away and there was like a stop on the interstate that when I would hit the mile markers and it was like literally halfway both directions that I would pass by this town. I would hit the fruitport exit and the Holy Spirit would be talking with me like right it was like it would take me halfway to where I was going either home or to the church to to put aside what was happening for me and the Holy Spirit would speak to me and one of those was uh around I I do pastor groups John 17:23 groups John 17:23 has been on the podcast so if you wonder what it is go find the episode um and you can just be a missionary too someone who is serving in a role of shepherd or teacher within a church.

Don't care what your title is. Uh can be in one of these groups, but I would put people together in in those groups and uh my group was coming to an end. Uh couple people moved away, one person was retiring and it was me and one other guy getting together and so the group was ending and I was I was bemoning to the Holy Spirit uh missing this group. And the Holy Spirit said, "Well, you've started going online and you see a whole bunch of people online who need this. Why don't you go do that online?"

And it was so it was like Yeah. So that just beca and that was also I think the Holy Spirit before that on that same mile marker had said hey you've been watching Twitch long enough when are you going to go do it? Um so you know it's it's it's kind of those things is is learn how God speaks to you. Be in tune with the way God speaks to you. Be open to it. Don't always share the way God speaks to you to everybody because not everybody understands the way God speaks to you.

So when I talk about God speaking to me on the interstate when I pass by the exit, I get like people's eyes roll back in their head like, "What you talking about?" Um, but I know I know what happened and and I know the outcome of that. So I not only have the story, but I also have the outcome of that. So now it's easier to share that story with people who might not accept it because well, it ended up happening and it was ended up being blessed. And so, well, even if it was, you know, the pizza you ate last night, at least God used it. That might be what they think.

Uh, but but I know it was it was the spirits leading in that. So, those would be the the couple of things is is know how the Holy Spirit is leading you and what he's leading you to do. Only share with people who you trust to know because they have fruit on the tree and they have fruit in their life to know what you're being called into.

Amen. That is very I'll apply that very much. So I the one thing I wanted to um just talk about was like like you're saying um with how we tell people like how God speaks. I really feel like yes there's some things that we need to shield like not going to detail maybe like not telling your dream in detail like Joseph's right.

Yep. But I really do believe that it's very important to testify the different ways you know cuz I know there's some people who don't believe in spiritual things but that's your reality right and and some of it is when do you tell the story and who you know so timing right so now that that story is 5 years in the past about me driving past that spot on the interstate and God saying hey it's about time you start Twitch streaming what are you going to do I've I've been streaming for 5 years. I can tell that story now and people can see the evidence of it. I actually, this was really cool uh in the last month.

So, I was I was serving at a church. I had no idea that this was going to happen. Uh but we were modeling uh listening and and uh so actually in the middle of the service, I brought up two other people that were on leadership and we were going to model, hey, I'm dealing with something. I want prayer for it. Here's where God's dealing with me in that. And we didn't know what anyone's going to share. And I didn't know what I was going to share when we got up there. Um, and one of the individuals who who was there, uh, who came up, I talked about, hey, I think God's calling me to do this, uh, up on stage in front of the whole church saying, I think I'm going to do this.

I just I just met with him and two other guys uh, last month or maybe no, it was earlier this month. We got together uh went out to eat and I was just telling him how excited I I so I was talking to him about what God's calling me into now getting him caught up and saying hey man you know that was so cool because you were sitting on stage with me when God opened the door and after sharing it publicly the encouragement that all of you gave is like hey go try it. What do you have to lose? If God's calling you to it, he'll bless it. If not if it was just the pizza you had last night uh it ain't going to go anywhere.

Um and you'll figure that out right away. But you you could so you know I started that slowly and and now God keeps just opening more doors. I had no plans on doing a podcast. I mean like what I love listening to podcasts. I mean I do but most of them I listen to I'm learning something and and that's why I'm listening to it. I'm like what do I have to share? I'm I'm consuming all these other podcasts and it's like yeah but I got a lot of great friends. I just want to sit and have a conversation with friends who God's calling so I can highlight and bring light, shine the light on what God's doing in the dark places because the church needs to know and all of you need to know each other too and find encouragement from the stories of others that God has already called and more that are going to come behind and more. I mean, I'm not even 50 episodes in. I mean, I'm not going to run out of people that I can ask on the podcast anytime soon.

There's going to be plenty of people. I got years ahead if God decides that's what I'm supposed to do is continue to invite people. But um there's there's the people that mentor you, but you also need to be mentoring someone else. I think that'd be one more thing to kind of think about is yes, who are who are you blessing with the blessings that you've received?

That's true. Um, that's another thing just just to share. Um, I've been looking for mentorship really. Um, and praying about that. Yeah. Because with like me coming to terms with the fact that I need to ask for help, I also need guidance. Yeah. You know, I can't just Well, I I'm not like a lone wolf type of person. It's just like I can help people. Yeah. I can help them. But you know some sometimes we think of a mentorship is only top down. So I have to have somebody that's that knows all the stuff and I have to learn from them. But you also have peer mentorship.

So so you can you can have mentorship with friends who are who are next to you. Sorry. Sorry. Sometimes my family guest stars.

So don't mind them.

That's okay. That's all good. Uh, and if we need to wrap up, do we need to wrap up here in about ten minutes?

No. Okay. Okay. Because I always ask that because I say we're two hours is so however long we go.

Yeah, we're almost two hours now.

Yeah.

What?

Yeah, I know. It goes.

I know. This is what's great. Like you're just having a conversation. It just it just flows and uh and God's just blessing it.

But uh what was I saying? Uh oh yeah, mentorship. Um, one is is be in communities like Reach because that's one of the things we're trying to do is mentor one another with the things that we have.

Find someone who's able to help lead in an area and and and uh and talk about things that you can share with other people.

It's also a community where you can ask friends how are they doing things and learn from one another. I I have learned so much from so many people.

Ukulele is in here. I ask ukulele questions all the time about stuff. She's got great knowledge on on OBS, Discord, all that kind of stuff.

There's other people in here that I've asked questions. There's people in here who I've helped on the other side of it. Uh we also have the church digital.

We have a course equipping digital missionaries that we help people think through and process uh like who am I reaching? Why am I reaching them?

What am I trying to do? And then think through the mindset of what does a missionary who's going to a country do as they prepare to go to a country.

And we need to intentionally think about some of those things when we go into a digital space because every digital place has its own culture the same way every place has its culture.

We talk about platforms as places. So Twitch is a place and when you're going to Twitch, you need to know Twitch culture. YouTube is a place.

You need to know the culture. What works on TikTok doesn't work on Twitter. There's a reason for that. It's a different culture. So uh so we've got a course that's doing it.

I think I'm going to be if you go to the church.digital EDM which I think I just posted there uh you should be able to find out when our next group of courses is.

I'm going to be starting one the first week of September. Um I think it's going to end up being nine a.m. Eastern on Tuesdays.

So if anybody's able wants to join that, go click on uh the church.digital EDM digital EDM or DM me. I will make sure you get signed up and connected there.

Uh, and there's more people doing stuff too. Oh, who do we got following now?

CL Scott Cloud, welcome in. Thank you for the follow.

So, there there's other people who have courses too. There's the taco course if you know the taco streamers. Um, and I'm going through their taco course right now so that I can learn.

Yep. Yep. We're in there together. It's like we learn from each other. Um, and and we're also investing in one another. We're also encouraging.

I I have never felt this as much as I do currently of the idea of friends on mission. It's just so much of it everywhere I go.

Uh, I I took that phrase, by the way, from um, thank you for the follow. I can't see anything, so I'm sorry. I can't.

That's okay. Thank you.

Uh, from from Next Thing. So, Next Thing was an organization uh, that was discipleship church multiplication movement and and I I worked alongside of them and they always talked about friends on mission.

It's like, yeah, that's what I want. I want friends on mission. I'm in John seventeen twenty-three. Uh, we're friends on mission because we're intentionally cross-denominations.

We don't put two people in the same denomination in the same group in the same town uh because we want you to be across because we learn from each other.

We bring different things to the community to the group. So there's that whole aspect of friends on mission is like that's what I see an attitude of in Twitch and I think it's Twitch a little bit more than the rest of digital.

Um but I think it comes from the culture of raids. I I think I think Twitch created something unintentionally that blesses the kingdom.

So Twitch created something to keep people on the platform. Hey, your streamer you're watching is leaving, but don't leave. He'll take you she'll take you somewhere else.

Whoever your streamer is, they're going to keep you here. They'll drop you off at another community just like you like and you'll be here for hours and we'll make revenue off of you.

But you'll be here and enjoying things. And it's like, yes, it took off in a way that had unintended benefits, not consequences, benefits, because that's how you begin to learn other people in the space.

That's how you grow and share and find. That's how I found most of the people that I know on Twitch is by being in someone's channel and raiding out or somebody raiding into the channel that you're on.

And you begin to grow and have friends who are in the space and then that continues to grow and grow and grow. So raids is a part of the culture that has to do with collaboration.

It has to do with sharing communities. It it's like it's this outward-facing thing of friends that you know what I've never had in a church.

You know, like we get done with our service, uh, no matter what it is, we're not piling in the cars and driving to the next church and and having a celebration there.

Uh, it's like, it's time for me to go home. It's time for me to go home. No, no, we can go bless other people, can't we?

Um, by the I've shared this on stream a couple of times, but by the way, this is one of one of the things on my bucket list, but God's got to do it because I don't know how to do it.

I want to go to a physical church raid train. We're gonna go to a church. We're gonna go do worship. We're gonna leave and go to the next church when they start their worship.

And then we're going to worship there. And then we're going to leave that church and go to the next church when they do worship.

Like this is this is like like God possible. It's on my bucket list. God, you got to make it happen cuz I don't know how.

You got to do this. So if anybody hears of a church doing this, let me know. I I I would be willing to hop on a plane and fly there to be part of it.

I have an idea.

Oh.

Uh oh.

You know, I'm thinking, okay, so guess what? Watching just had a raid train, right?

Yeah.

And something that was highlighted to me is like in our community, there's people who do streams throughout the day, you know, just like how raids work, right?

We're passing it off to the morning streamers, then the afternoon streamers, then the night streamers, right? So a strategy that or not a strategy but like something that you can do is churches do have all different times.

Okay, who's the morning church? Who's the afternoon church? Who's the night church? They have all those times.

Wouldn't that be awesome? Except we all want our time.

You can do it cuz I'm a night owl streamer. You going to catch me at the night, right? But I know that you know does morning.

You know I'm on the I'm on the mornings too. Yeah. Yeah. I Right. You're in the morning. So you you see you could pass you could do that in real life because there's night churches.

I just figured that out. But hey. Yeah. And it can be done. Like I see it in Jesus name. May it be done, you know.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's so exciting.

Um that is so exciting.

I'm watching you. People wanted me to to to be able to share some of your uh VODs.

Um the promo pieces that you had, but I I do not have the channel set up to be able to show videos. I I don't have a uh a scene to be able to do that.

So, I'm just going to share the links in chat. So, if anybody um is wanting to see those, uh you'll be able to get them, but I won't be able to show them on on stream.

I just not something I have intended to do is show videos on stream. So I I don't have a scene set up. So I might need to set that up now so that I can do it in the future.

Uh if it Bible thon trailer.

Yeah, the Bible thon trailers. Yes.

Got it. Got it.

Yeah.

She loves it.

Go Casey. Okay, everyone give it up. I'm sorry. I have to highlight.

I was I was waiting. I s I saw her come in.

I knew you were going to get excited.

It's Casey. Yes. Okay. So, this Casey, I was just telling everyone how um during Bible thon how the Lord blessed u me with you and vice versa, you know.

So, say hi. This is my mod Casey. She's beautiful. She's wonderful. And my great friend and sister.

Yeah, that's Casey. Every time she comes to the stream, we have to highlight her because she'd be highlighting everybody, you know.

I h we just have to.

Yeah. But, you know, and we're talking about, you know, learning from one another. Uh, I am constantly learning uh new things I can do on stream from I'm watching you people.

She's one of my mods and she has walk-on music now for for people and I I I haven't got to the point where I I'm going to I've figured that out yet.

I know I know I can ask her and I know she's talked about it. It's like, "Oh, I need to get that at some point where when someone shows up, it just plays their theme music, you know?"

Wow.

You just show up and their theme music plays when when you come on stream. Uh music, but mods are another way that bless a community where where we have that blessing.

We're collaborating. We're not alone in it. I've got two great mods who are in the chat right now. Oh, actually three. Um I I haven't I don't know if I've officially assigned any of them mods um here on the church digital.

They're all mods in my personal stream. Uh, Sunshine is Luces is uh I'm watching actually Sunshine um is uh one of my OG mods.

So, she she was there from the very very beginning and then life hasn't always made it so that she can stay in my stream.

But when I was going to go um I was telling people finally, okay, I'm going to start streaming and next Friday I'm going to go live for the first time.

Uh Sunshine uh S Games and Miss Jelly Beans both messaged me and said, "Can we be mods for you?" And I'm like, "Yes, please.

What do mods do? What do mods do? And how do I do this?" So, right.

Um the that that just goes back to the the whole Friends on Mission, mentoring, uh community, collaboration, all those aspects of things.

Um, but yeah, it's it's super cool having so many people from all over the globe being part of it, having people that are like I just get so excited having people on my podcast.

I know I've had several people say, "I'm so honored to be on your podcast." I'm like, "I'm honored to have you on my podcast." I don't know why I have a podcast.

God gave me a a a platform and uh I'm I'm just trying to lift him up and point to what God's doing in other people.

So, so you threw me a little bit off there of my game by asking me questions now. I don't know what's next on my schedule of questions cuz but I'm thinking in the other direction.

So, I'm watching is still lost as to why Flat Cap wants me to mod. But we're we're here. Shrug of confidence. You know, I love people's enthusiasm.

Uh I think enthusiasm and joy cover a whole bunch of mistakes. Um, and not saying people make mistakes that are enthusiastic, but I do.

Uh, so I just usually point to myself in that regard. So, okay, I I know where where I want to go. So, you were talking about stepping away and being unemployed and then making the decision to go full-time or to go into streaming is where God's called you.

How has that whole journey been for you on the financial side of things while you're being faithful? How has God been caring for you and taking care of you?

So, you can just see him in everything, right?

Yes.

I had no source of income coming in at all. It was a spontaneous decision.

I've been working with children. I've been a teacher since I graduated.

Oh, what grades?

Uh, kindergarten, preschool.

Okay.

And, um, I used to do after school with all ages. I was just been with children for five years straight nonstop. Um, and so there's a—I was teaching preschool for three years at this Christian private school and um I just left. I was just like I'm gone. Like I need—I feel like I need something new. Um, and that was around—that was around the time that I left the cult.

Right.

Yeah.

Yes. And so I was like life—I was like I can't do this. I can't handle being with children and trying to heal and all that. So I left and without really thinking about the consequences of that, you know, I got bills. I'm an adult now. So, you know, I can't just leave.

But hey, and so through that, I was just witnessing God keeping me. Like sometimes bunny would pop out of nowhere, you know? Sometimes somebody—like I told—it's so funny. It's so—it's kind of embarrassing, but it's funny at the same time. It's like whoa.

Oh, sorry. It's so funny and embarrassing at the same time because I don't feel comfortable asking for help, but then the Lord always sends me help. Like one of my friends would just be like, "Hey, you good?" It's like the Holy Spirit would be snitching on me like, "Hey, she needs help, but she's not going to ask. She's not going to—she's not going to ask for help," and so just go help her. And so I'm just thinking like through—through this podcast we've—we've somebody needs to just like—it's not going to be me, but go scrub the podcast and find all the different ways that we talk about the Holy Spirit in some really strange ways. Holy Spirit be snitching on me.

Sorry.

No, no, no. I just like—I love the honesty of the way that our brains think about stuff. And here on Twitch, we get to be honest about how we interact with God, where sometimes when you stand up in front of a congregation, you got to be all proper on the way we talk about things. And if we don't talk about it and describe it the right way, everybody's going to be judging us, you know? So, I'm just like encouraging you on—yeah. Talk that way. The Holy Spirit's snitching on you. He does.

And another thing, and I'm just going to be straight up, okay? I have spent my whole life trying to please people.

Yep.

I've spent my whole life thinking about what is someone else going to think before anything. But like I told you, the Lord has taught me, we don't care about performance. I made you the way you are. Just like John the Baptist, did John the Baptist stop eating locust and honey because people are going to judge him? No, he didn't. But God made—I'm fearfully and wonderfully made and he made me to be a little goofy. He made me to be a little out of the box. Just like one day if the—if the Lord wills and if I am on stage, you're going to get D. You're not going to get PR trained D. You're not going to get—I'm trying to sit here and please you D—just like I'm gonna talk about—like when I tell my testimony I don't sugarcoat it. I'm trying, you know, like I give—I tell you this is what I struggle with. This is what it is.

Yeah.