The Real Reason She Started Streaming (It's Not What You Think)

Welcome in everybody to the Gaming Outpost podcast. So glad to have all of you here today. And with me today is Mama Brick Builds.

Welcome in Mama Brick. Say hello to—

Hey. Hello. Hello. Good morning. An earlier time for Mama Brick. I'm a normally after dark person, so here I am hanging out with you guys.

Yeah, it's so good to have you. It's interesting. I've had a lot, several people on the podcast and it's interesting to figure out which people I have met in person and which people I haven't met in person. And then you're one of those people that I actually met you in person before I even knew you streamed or saw you on stream because we met at Reach.

Exactly. Just over a year ago.

Yeah. Uh wow. I guess it has been a year because—

Yeah. Now it's going to be in November this year, not September.

So yeah.

Cool. So that's how we connected. You were volunteering there and you were helping out, but how did you get your start going into Twitch? Doesn't mean streaming, just how did you get connected with Twitch? Why were you going onto Twitch? And then how did you get over to Reach Conference?

So I am one of those people that did everything wrong. So I, um, my son Fade was helping get Reach started and off the ground and was just kept telling everything about it. And we're a big family, six kids. So when your kids doing something, all the family's doing it with them. So we were helping with whatever he had. We helped make all those little badge emblems. Had to put a sticker on the back of all of 3,500 of those. Um, had to cut those stickers into squares to put on the back of those. So we were just doing just whatever needed to get done.

Okay. Okay. I have, I have mine here. Let me grab that a second so people know what I'm talking about.

Well, hey Star Fox. Thanks so much. Yeah. So every single one of those little tiny pieces emblems of bad that were on the badges, um, was just a huge roll like 18 inches wide by I don't know 50 feet long. I don't know how much that, how long that roll was, but um we just uh you know, we had to cut that into a strip and then cut those into little tiny squares, put one half on the back so that you guys could put them all on your badges.

That that seems like a lot of work. And then on top of it, there weren't all the categories. So half of us were writing our own categories in—

Because—

And I think there were uh 23 different categories. Yeah. But you know, there's so many games like, you know, when you talk about some people that are just streamers of everything, you know, there's no way we'd ever get to everybody. So we hit the most popular.

Yeah. Was I was surprised though that marbles on stream wasn't one of them because I know a lot of people play marbles on stream.

That's actually so those are all things that after the first one of course there's all I don't know what the badges are going to be this year yet but um all we took uh all the he took all that information and we'll make it bigger and better this year but um so we when Fade was just doing everything to be able to help out then we just started going on board uh he told me um yeah that he was working really hard to find content creators that were willing to share Christ to share those alpha videos and um since Jesus is the most important thing in my life, I was like, "I'll share online." He's like, "You want to go online and share with people?" And he's like, "What are you going to play?" I was like, "Well, we play Lego on the Xbox, Lego, you know, video games." But which is a category, I'm just going to say, and people do play it. Growing Faith does a great job with it, but um but that's not kind of how our setup was. I was just on a laptop on our dining room table um at a dining room chair. Um you know, so it literally was just all the wrong ways. So I was like, let's do this. People need to know Jesus. And my son has always had a heart for gamers and we he has always tried to reach people in that realm. So as started with my husband, my husband's played World of Warcraft since the day it came out. So gaming family and so I just said, "Let's I'll do this." So kind of because I was a family, I unfortunately didn't do anything. So they were like, "Okay, mama, here you go. Well, what do you want to be called?" And I'm like, they're like, "Well, what are you gonna do?" I don't game. What? I love Lego. And they're like, "Okay, they'll let people build Lego." So I was like, "Okay, let's build Lego." So of course, there's a million names already taken. And so um Mama Brick Builds came. Most people that have Lego actually have brick at their end, like flat cap brick.

Yeah.

Because the brick is, you know, the ending. But I liked mama brick and now that's, you know, my shirt, mama brick. So I uh because that's who I am first as a mama and that's kind of how like it's most important secondly after the Lord is my family and uh the six kids keep me busy so enjoy it. So that's where Mama brick builds came out and I just said I'll just build Lego.

Yeah. Well, just to pause on that for a minute too. I I love the going in there and being mama in the space. And there are a lot of people that need a parental figure in the space, whether it's mom or grandma. And there are those people in the space serving that role in need. Like for instance, my kids did not grow up living and going to grandma's house every Sunday for dinner because we lived in a different state. So they needed a grandparent in their life where we lived a lot of time. I mean they talk with grandma on the phone and grandpa but that's different than spending time together with them. So there are people in the space that need a parent that need a grandparent. And boy I mean you would think like oh no it has mama in the name. I should avoid hanging out with that person cuz they're going to tell me everything I'm doing wrong in my life. No, there are people that need and boy, having mama in your name might invite some people to go in, wow, uh, I need a mom in my life. I could go hang out with mom. I'm missing my mom. And they might come in just for that. So I just want to say that anybody's watching this and going like, "What should I do in a name?" There's no wrong names. There really are no wrong names. Okay? The name can either be just incredibly creative. It can lean towards what you're doing in the space. It can be not taking yourself seriously in some ways. It can be goofy. It can based on what you're going to play or do. So I I just love that.

Yeah. And it's really just um people always say like, "What do you do for a living?" And I love saying I'm a mom.

Just followed.

It's a uh it's what I like to, it's what I like to do in life. So um uh yeah. So I uh my kids were like, "Are you sure you want to do this?" I was like, "Listen, these alpha videos and people need to see them. Who knows who's going to see them?" So I started, started my laptop. My title said like first stream ever, you know, type thing just building Legos, talking to myself because the the only other people in chat were um my husband and my two sons, you know. So we were at least I had, you know, a person in chat unlike some people. I did have family. Um, so I'm sitting there talking um, you know, to them as if I'm talking to people I don't know. And um I get a raid of 17. I didn't know what a raid was because I had never watched Twitch before.

Okay. Okay.

So I went live, never being on the platform before. Probably again not a great idea.

Well, you know, even even if it's not, I I know at least a half a dozen people that did that. They they and and some of them are pretty successful at it. So it's like, you know what I liken it to on some level is you have like if you're just looking at the disciples, you have people that follow Jesus for years. You have some that were already disciples of someone else. They knew what a disciple was when they got called and they went and did it. And Jesus just bumps into Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus is like Jesus says, "I'm coming to your house." And he's like inviting everybody he can to his house. He doesn't know what he's doing. He doesn't know what Jesus is all about. He's just heard stories. So he's acting on what his best knowledge is to be able to put it together. So like there are ways that might be proven best practices but that's all is best practices not the only way to do things. So yeah some some people stumble in but you had support which is very vital to have support. That would have been like really odd on some level to go live know nothing about it have a raid and then go what do I do? You at least had your family there going, "Here's what you do and here's how to respond and and here's what's happening."

Yeah. You should have heard the footprints coming or the foot coming down the stairs as they're like it's a raid. I'm like—

Yeah, what I don't what does that mean?

So you know, like mute mute, you know, they're like they're raiding you. They came into your stream to see you got to tell who you are, you know. So a great fun memory for all of us of just kind of a remember when mama went live and didn't know what a raid was. So um and just again like though but made that common bond like immediately um because I you know it's one it's my greatest memory my first person I had met quote online besides my family. So um it was a a fun first day. And then it was, I think after my second or third stream that I started adding in sign language just again because I had no followers. I didn't really have many people. Um, I decided to put ASL in my tag because I know sign language and I thought, you know what, the deaf community is a very small community. I'm sure there's some some of them on Twitch and I would love for them to feel like they are included. And so that's how my sign language during my stream started as well was just kind of this is who I am and so why not be who I am for reals instead of just trying to be in front of a camera and be someone I'm not.

So how how does that work while you're playing with the Legos and signing? How do you do you put them down? Do you—

I don't sign my whole stream because it would be too much. It'd be the same thing if I was trying to translate into another language of going back and forth, back and forth. So I have some dedicated times during any ad break. I I sign um a song and then at 10:45 p.m. um I always sign a song. So in case there's someone that's coming to my stream and that's why they come into my stream, they kind of know when that's happening. If that's all they're there for is to just that little like three minutes of encouragement, then they know when to come in to be able to be a part of that. Um, and then I have had uh there's been three times that I've had some deaf people roll in. Um, and then I began I kind of like stopped building and just began interpreting.

Okay.

Um, or I should say speaking at the same time. I wasn't interpreting, I should say was signing and speaking at the same time. Yeah. And so it's been it's been nice and there has just been people that have been there just for that or for a season have come in just to be encouraged by the sign language or come in and you know or just curious about it.

Right. Right. I know. I I've seen you do the signing with the songs. So I knew that. I knew you did that. I was just like going I never thought about what do you do if you're playing with the Legos and sign. You just don't unless it's someone is there that wants to engage with the ASL and then you're able to engage them. Okay.

Yeah.

Then it just becomes just chatting. Then we're just talking about something and I'm stopping building, you know. So, same thing if you were sewing and you had a conversation where it was more important, I guess, then you would stop your sewing and be with that person.

So, for me, I have to be able to use my hands. But, yeah.

I find it so fascinating because like all I knew about Twitch to begin with was playing video games and then you're thinking about I play Lego games, but wait, I could just do play Legos instead. Let me just play with Legos instead of playing a video game.

And I love the channels that are not games for the most part. That's where I hang out is in the non-gaming channels. Uh, I don't know why. Partly, some of it is maybe my bias of watch somebody else play a video game when I could play it instead.

But I love the engagement of the chat, of what's going on, engaging the person that's there, hearing the conversation. Like, we've had a few people that have come in. Star Fox came in and said good morning. And I'm watching you people. One of my mods has come in with a lurk and less manau. And I do not know that I'm getting that right. I'm guessing that's French. And I do not pronounce all of those vowels correctly, but welcome in.

Thank you. And was saying, "Oh, wait. I'm not too old." No, none of us are too old at all to be used by God. Abraham was eighty years old when God called him. I always like to remind people of that. So,

and I think like you're saying though, there's just Twitch. There's not supposed to be little kids, but there are little kids on here. And um and all ages are on here. I was watching some older dude playing some I mean so gray hair, gray beard, you know, it really is just what you feel comfortable with or where you want to spend your time to be here. And I think that that's amazing because there's not many places on the planet where you can be any age, uh, any speak any language and just go and feel comfortable right away.

And I think that Twitch does provide that um, in a way for for whoever.

Yeah, it definitely like as opposed to other platforms, it's about the live experience together and yeah. And I think that's what makes it so unique. That's what binds it with community in my opinion more than just producing video content. With video content, like it needs to be better polished than you know just starting out. You won't get noticed if you don't have better polished stuff. Uh with shorts and reels maybe, but long content not so much. So Twitch is about the experience and engaging.

So, I love that you were just starting out to begin with and holding a conversation as if there were people there. That's a hard thing for people to think about. I've gone into many streamers who've been on for a while and they will not be talking at all. They'll be in the chat and or they'll be streaming doing whatever. I'll show up for a minute, two minutes, type something in chat, they never acknowledge, they never say anything. And it's like, well, then I'm going to find someone else to watch if you're not here to help me out.

Oh, for sure. And I don't know if you saw um Lemon Monto's uh comment. Those with gaming controllers is what it means. What a great name.

That's fun.

Like you're saying, everybody picks their name um on Twitch to be, you know, on what whatever reason. Everybody has a reason. Even if there's a number there, there's a reason because um they got to show up. But choose it. But what a great name. Yeah.

What games do you play? Would love to know what you play. Um yeah, I think that um it because it's just wide open, it's able to Samarella.

Samarella, welcome in.

Um yeah, I just think that it's a unique place where we can all be who we are. And because we're live on this side and they're not live, they're chatting. You can either get to know them or they can stay as quiet as they want or as lurk as they want.

But I believe you're right. There's there was someone I was trying to support go into their chat. It's like I cannot sit here for five minutes for them to not notice me and I can't like push a button to scream. I guess I could make a some of those you can make things go loud, but um it is different um when you have someone to talk to and you're there's people talking back and forth.

Yeah. Yeah. And uh with Samarella coming in, Samarella has been u mentioned on the podcast many times. Dear friend and I don't know the last update we gave.

So Samarella has uh uh had her surgery. She has is at home and then she has some other things going on and she said she's going to DM me. So if she DMs and has something to share, but I love that she comes in and says, "Two of my favorite people in one stream. I want to thank God for this and I also want to let you guys know something really important. So I know it may sound cheesy or even crazy but I want to I have to let you know to few who are so important to me in life and I want to with you as well. So she's going to DM me. So uh we'll see what that message is when it comes through and we'll share. But uh yeah uh if you if you know if you've been listened to the podcast and you know some of the other details just keep praying for Samarella and her health. Uh she's got some

Yeah. So I didn't know Samarella till just a few weeks ago and we have been and we've been hanging out um quite a bit and um sharing a lot, praying a lot and it's been beautiful. So, it's been uh uh great to um get to know her and uh you know, just be an encouragement and so great to um have people um on.

I think the very first time I saw her name was in one of your streams maybe months ago because I was streaming before I met you at Reach, but nobody knew me because a Reach was so new. Unless you already knew somebody, they were just a name on a screen that maybe you went and looked them up on Twitch.

I tried to look up more people because I was so new to Twitch. I was like, "What do you do? What do you do?" You know, trying to figure out who is who. But when I got there, I still didn't know who was who. Like, you know what I mean? Jate walked in, most people knew Jade. I had no idea who Jade was. You know what I mean?

I didn't recognize him and be like, "Oh, that's that guy." Because I hadn't spent any time hadn't spent time in people's streams. And that's the thing that I've noticed most is that the more time I spend in other people's streams, the more I get to know them. So that when you get to meet people at cool places like Reach, you actually have a relationship before you walk in the door. Um, and I'm so excited.

Um, I would love to know what does Lane Montto what do they call you? What do you what's what do you call? So Rocket League, but what like in stream I'm gonna butcher that every time. I don't know. Maybe maybe Flat Cap won't, but the way you likes to be called number one. But um when people, you know, come in and they're just a name on a on a screen, they become so much more like Samuel, like you're saying.

Yeah.

Yeah. And and I think you're right with uh that's one of the things I wish I had more time to do was go watch other people's streams. Uh but I'm doing a lot other things in ministry as well as Twitch streaming, so it takes away from the ability. But you're right. I go to other people's streams. I knew I want to say at least a third of the or knew of even if I didn't go to their streams frequently. Uh I knew of probably a third of the people that were in reach the first time it came through. I am having some um delay on your signal. So I'm not sure like you're pixelating on my side. Am I pixelating on your side at all?

No. Okay. Um, is there something you want me to do?

That's what I was just trying to decide if there was if it was going to clear up or not. Let me just look if I've got anything else running on my side in the background I can shut down to make sure that it's nothing that you're doing. Let me shut that over there. I often have extra stuff that I don't always know is running. So, I just want to make sure it's not you. It's not me before I ask you to try.

Okay. Let me see if I have what I have up and running on my end. My Twitch browser that has all the Twitch notes, that's you. I just wanted to make sure I didn't have like the main Twitch page up where I've got like a billion people that I'm not really watching.

That's what I was just double checking too that I I don't have any of that. It's normally not an issue as we get started, but you know, oh well, I was telling you before we got live that I've had this with with expert streamers before. So with Aki and Fam when they were on the stream, his ISP dropped and he was he was totally out. So it was a problem with internet on his end. So I don't know if that's what we only have. Mine should be good. that I'm direct lined, you know, from the kitchen.

Yep.

Under the under the fridge behind the behind here to my computer. Um, but I don't have anything open except for uh the browser that has uh Twitch, the share chat, and then OBS.

Okay.

But if there's something I need to do, you let me know.

Well, it just cleared up, so it's better now. So

Oh, good.

Oh, don't be sorry about your language barrier, Sebastian.

It's our language barrier.

Yeah. Yeah, it's our language barrier.

All right. Um I I do want to because I think this is important part here. And we've already alluded to the relationship, the community, the connection. So, uh let's just catch up on what Sam is saying and then I've got the the the long message from Sam. That's why she sent it to me uh as well.

Uh Sam is saying, "Pastor was able to help me through things along with ukulele for worship, assassinator staff. Uh but one person you can relate to and felt like I'm not alone is you, Mama Brick Builds, cuz you can speak ASL." A that's so sweet.

I feel so blessed finding you guys like you found Maria, Stephanie, Mother Goose, and others. Thank you for everyone and to God for helping me not only find you, but also find a reason to live through you.

Uh, yep. And I've got the DM, so I will I will read that. It's longer. Uh, we've all been through ups and downs and had our worst. Sometimes we all go through things. That's what makes things special is people we meet in life. Sometimes people you can't even get to meet in real life. Sometimes you'll always be there or sorry, someone who will always be there to make you feel special, feel like you're okay to be you.

More like being a second family to you. Thanks for being that person to me in my life. I remember how many times I wanted to give up. How many times I was depressed and bringing people down, but not being able to really understand they wanted the best for me. And all I did was doing stupid things I'll always regret.

But I can say I'm over it because of a few people, one being you and your community. You never hesitated to cheer me up and you never avoided me. And you were always there to listen and not judge. I can never thank you enough for saving my life. In your darkest hour, your bravery enlightened up my world.

Oh, that's so sweet. Thank you for being a savior. You've given me the greatest gift, the gift of life and the gift of fighting and not giving up. You've never you're never going to ex accept this is I'm sure of it. But I owe you a lot of my life that I even wouldn't hesitate to stand up for you when you have the darkest times in life.

Thank you so much for everything, Sam. That is so sweet. I am going to treasure that. I'm gonna copy that and I'm gonna save it because that that that for me is the whole reason that I go on uh and and try to do this.

Not that everyone has to be in the same situation as Samarella is. Um, it's not that. But when those, when—that's so beautiful—when those moments happen.

Um, and I'll tell you what, that the moment almost didn't happen because I got a laptop when I started streaming and part of it was because I travel and so I could take it with me and I could plan to stream when I wasn't home.

So I was going to Nerd Culture Ministry Summit and it was going to start at a certain time, but I'm in a different time zone. So I could get up at 4 in the morning and get ready and stream. And so 4:00 in the morning comes and I'm just like going, "What was I thinking? Why am I going to get up and do this?" And I mod for ukulele. So I'm in ukulele stream and Sam comes in, Samarella comes in to ukulele stream and wasn't doing well.

And then Samarella or ukulele intentionally raided me because she knew who I was and we're good friends. It's like I'm gonna pass you off to someone who's going to keep caring for you where you are right now.

And so Samarella came over and we spent a lot of time talking and just showing love and the community is so, so good over in my stream of just accepting people where they are, meeting you where you are, not judging what you're doing.

And so yeah, it was about 10 months ago is when that happened when I was at Nerd Culture Ministry Summit and decided that yep, I'm going to stream.

And then I didn't know if Samarella was going to come back the next day. And she was, she was really in a dark place. She was sharing that with us. And I'm like just praying earnestly, sharing with other people. I think I probably—I don't remember if I made it raided Mother Goose that day or the next day, but I know early on I took her over to Mother Goose and raided out there to make sure there were other Christian friends online that I knew and trusted that were going to love on Samarella as well. And it's the community as you get to know others is just so uplifting. It's just great. So Samarella, appreciate you. Love you. Continuing to pray for your current situation. Uh, those that don't know, just keep praying for her health. That's what you can be doing right now. So—Amen. Amen. Yeah, Samarella, we're so excited. And that's the crazy thing. I had somebody in my stream last night and I was like, um, I don't know that I'm familiar with you. Where did you, where, how did you end up here? And he's like, oh, do you know, and he names off like seven people, seven or eight people, right? You're like, and so I picked the one that I knew because I didn't know any of the other ones. And he's like, I said that must be the, that's somewhere the click, right? You know, somehow I was somewhere that he was, that he's like, "Oh, that lady's on. I'll go see what she's doing." So the community here is beautiful and um so awesome that we can just take care of each other. I mean, that's what the body of Christ is, right? In the end, it's just the unifying that we have. There's just Christ at the center and all the rest doesn't really matter if that's who we're just always pointing. We're all pointing to the middle. So yeah, that's so cool.

Yeah, we're all pointing to Jesus. We're all working with Jesus. Samarella had a comment there for you. Mama bricks, if you want to share, I also want to be honest here with one thing I didn't say. I first see Palmer bricks, brick builds would feel, feel uh me weird one night um or avoid me, might avoid me or probably even hate me, but I really found a mom and her and I've always been thankful for that.

Yeah, you, um, I think sometimes it's easy, Samarella, from the other side the keyboard side to be to overthink what we're saying, but the person on this side that's live on stream is just ready for it all. So honesty is always the best policy and I was thankful that you were just able to be honest and show who you really were and how you really felt and I'm glad that I was able to make you feel accepted through them because we're just all here for each other.

Yeah. Definitely. That that definitely is like what I see in the Christian streamers that I like to hang around the most is being transparent and being accepting of people. Samarella and others that I know who come into my stream don't have that experience in real life. They often have people that are fully judgmental of where they are, of what's going on, condemning of them of things that are outside of their control. You know, like—the I'll give this example. It's like if a dog comes and attacks you and then your mom gets mad at you because you let the dog attack you. Okay, that's ridiculous. Okay. That's how we treat people sometimes when things happen to them outside of their control. Oh, you should have known better to not have dog food in your hand or you should have—like we'll make up all kinds of ridiculous things not knowing any of the circumstances making assumptions.

And people need a place to find hope. And uh one of my friends down the road that I that I met at a conference, we haven't actually connected in real life. Uh he's like half an hour away from my house. So eventually we will, but we met at a conference in Orlando, uh the one I was at in March, the uh church planning conference, and—yeah,—he he talks about being a hope dealer. Like he's in, he's inner city. He's not dealing drugs. He's dealing hope because what people really need is hope. Their lives are filled with darkness. And what they don't need is something to mask it and to hide it and to forget about their problems. They need hope which is an avenue out of what is going on in life and a glimmer that life can be better and uh which is I think what Samarella was expressing earlier in what she was saying. So uh—definitely and I just think that um that not everybody on Twitch is that way. No.—So it's easy, it's easy to click and go oh wow that's not where I wanted to be. You know, sometimes something pops up and you're like, "Wow." And um you're like, "That's not, that's not where I wanted to be." So um but there are some times that you like you have that double tap. I had a guy come into my stream early on. He's one of the reasons I kept streaming after reach because like you know the reach was the commitment, right? Like share this many things. Everyone else was already a streamer like I said and I just literally clicked live because I wanted to share Christ and because of the reach vision knowing that I would be going to reach and it was local you know I didn't need the airplane tickets and all that type of stuff but I was just wanted to share and I definitely wasn't reaching 50 people at that point but I was willing and um I did have a guy come in uh that to my stream he's like I have no idea how I ended up here. I I literally I I don't build Lego like you know whatever he but I had showed the alpha video. I was showing the alpha video. He's like yeah I'll stick around or whatever. So he watched it. Chat was silent. Chat was not moving. I paused the video and I was like you know guys we could take a break like you know. And he said, "Do not stop. That pompous jerk you see in the video is me and I need to hear this."

Oh, that's so good.

And it was just a—it was one of the videos where the guy was talking about how he didn't need God. He was too smart for that. He was brilliant. And he's like, "That is me and I need to hear this." And you know, he used the word infinitesimal. He's like, "It is infinitesimal that I found your stream—and I will never be the same."

And you're like, "Okay, that's why I do what I do." Like, I'm, you know, like check that box. Just keep going for people that, you know, just end up that you don't know. Um, and it's been a beautiful—he comes in every now and then. He's like, I just wanted to make sure you're here. Don't give up. Somebody besides is gonna need you just like I did. I just wanted to make sure you're here." And I'm like, "I'm still here, Teddy." And he's like, "Okay, don't ever let anybody tell you you shouldn't be." And I said, "Okay." You know, so like you're saying, it's just important to do what we do. And if and it's the same as the Lord. He left the 99 to find the one. And if the Lord has me to help one person, remind them that they are worth something and that he died, rose again in power for that one person. It's all worth it.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, so those are the fun things like and and sometimes I I say this, sometimes the stream needs you to show up and sometimes you need the stream to show up. It goes, it goes both ways. Um I'm just going to uh follow up on Sammy added another thing. Uh when I first met Maria, that's that's ukulele and pastor. Uh haven't met IRL. I would love to. That that would be fantastic but one of us will have to cross the pond to be able to make that happen. Um but I was at the point where I thought it was better for everyone if I just gave up. And I didn't have the guts to. Uh I don't know if it's God's will. I'm now, I'm now thankful uh you didn't and you got through it. Yes. So I am so thankful for that too, Samarella.

Um one of the things I do have as well that I post, I I think I have it in this channel too. Let me just double check. Uh yeah, I have the uh national suicide prevention hotline when we talk about things when we talk about mental health. I have that. I also have the international uh registry list. So there is a website and I just posted that uh ibf.org/resource-of-international-suicide-hotlines. So that's a website you can go to. So even if someone's in another country, like Samarella is in another country from me, I can still reach out and help even though I'm far, far away. So uh Samarella, I first started hating God when you lost your birth mom and hated more when you went through all the abuse, but for some reason I had a small hope in me. Not really sure why. And it helped me go through anything and just want to say no matter how hard life is having hope can change things. It's what you keep saying to yourself right now. Yeah, Samarella. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And that's that's the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, right? Like that's why we get up because like you're saying, sometimes we need chat. Sometimes chat needs us. Sometimes you're like, I'm not ready to push the live button right now because we've lost our hope or something's happened in our own life or it's just a it's a meh day.

Yeah.

Um but it's really uh the Lord can work all things to good and I and I think um Samarella was a great example of like you know just of being able to uh find hope when when you needed help.

Yeah. Yeah. Supersonic Save by Grace earlier said reach equals IRL a few chats up and yes that's the whole reach's theme URL to IRL. So come to Orlando where I am just waiting for everyone to come here and come see me.

Yeah. And and if you are unable to do IRL the church digital does have uh our own conference that will be coming up for uh digital gamers uh coming up as well. So you can go to missionary.digital. We also have a couple other conferences that are digital as well, not focused on gamers. They are on the next two Wednesdays. And next Tuesday, I'll be doing a podcast with uh Chino Mage Andy uh from Lux Digital Church and the Church Digital. And we'll be talking about the gaming conference. So uh just a plug there to come back and check that out. And uh Supersonic uh is looking forward to meeting myself and ukulele. So—oh, awesome.—Cool. Uh, I was thinking since we were just talking about things here for for me, one of the things I've, you know, being a pastor who has served at churches, I did not expect myself to be going into being a digital missionary.

Um, I thought that, you know, well, it took me six months of people online who I was in their streams telling me, "When are you going to stream?" before I finally said, "Fine, I'll do it and show you I can't do it." And then I can walk away and uh I don't have to actually do this. Uh but then it was just step by step moving into more things. But I never thought it was going to be this is what I do.

Samarella's story and connection and where I was at really solidified for me as I've been doing and work with the church digital of okay, I need to move into the direction of being a digital missionary and that's what I do and spend my time.

So, it is that whole thing of creating community, of being around it that I'm trying to work on on all of my funding to to make that happen.

Uh, but I don't know. I'm just thinking through this. I don't know. I mean, I've had similar stories uh with individuals, but Samarella just really um resonates with me as here's why God wants me in this space is to reach people like Samarella that uh just need someone to be around them.

Yeah. People asked you to go to reach Samarella. Yes. Oh, no. She's saying to reach out to professionals there, but you can't afford it, I think.

Yeah. I think that uh um I'm sorry. Were you done seeing what you were saying?

Yeah, I'm I'm good. Go ahead.

Yeah. No, I was just going to say I think that um it No, I lost my train of thought. Never mind.

That's okay. We do that sometimes if we step on each other when we talk. That's okay. Um, but there's I I don't know that everyone is called to be full-time streamer.

Uh, I thought a I thought a couple of years ago before I thought about trying to go in the direction of being a full-time digital missionary of maybe I'm called to be a full-time streamer.

So, that didn't turn out to be what I'm supposed to be, you know, and I say that from the standpoint of reaching partner, having that be my source of income, having that be the direction I go.

And I know a lot of other streamers who are Christian streamers where they have a full-time job, part-time job, and then streaming is what they do ministry-wise.

I think there's a lot of a lot of different ways to do that. Uh you're not going in the direction of trying to make your income off of streaming.

You are coming and reaching to uh be in the space. So, what are some obstacles that you've overcome as you've been moving and growing as a Well, how long have you been streaming?

A little over a year now. Year and a half.

It was just my streamversary. So, just a year.

Just a year. Okay.

So, yeah.

What What have been some obstacles you've worked on overcoming in the last year?

Well, I think for me, so like I said, I just had a laptop. Um, so those cameras, as you know, are pretty sure.

Yep.

But, uh, but it was what we had, right? So, we did that's you go with what you had.

Um, I've had I had kids that, um, you know, have been in the gaming industry, been online for a long time. So, you know, they kind of knew what I needed um to be able to help me out.

I think the biggest obstacle for me was just um I guess confidence that I was making a difference. Like is it worth my time, right?

Am I am I making um a difference? And then there's people um people like um like Teddy. Uh there's another uh gentleman that comes in that the same thing.

like I just know when he comes in I'm I'm needed. Um uh you know so there's just these things that I go through when when the enemy comes in is like you are making this much difference just go do something different.

Um that I'm reminded when somebody comes in Saman or somebody else that you go nope this is where the Lord has me. You know, sometimes sometimes it's IRL, right?

It's it's a youth ministry that you're helping with and you're like, there's so many other youth leaders. I'm the old lady compared to other people.

Like, do I need to help? And then there's somebody like Samarella that's IRL that says, no, I'm so glad you're here. You've helped me through so much.

And you're like, okay, this is where I need to stay. So, I think it's beautiful that when when the enemy comes in and tries to knock us down that we are in a place that the Lord just brings that encouragement in because sometimes we're not listening to him.

Like we ask a million times, right? Like, is this where I'm supposed to be? Is this what I'm supposed to do? And the Lord's like, "Yeah." And we're just like, "I don't know." And he's like, "Yeah." And we're like, "But this isn't working.

My computer's not working. I don't have any cool lights." Whatever it is. And then a person that even might not even know the Lord just goes, I think that's great that you're giving people hope.

And you're like, oh yeah. And then you're like, okay. So, I think the biggest obstacle for me was just that up and down as a small streamer of is it worth my time?

Am I making a difference? Does it really matter? Um, lots of people, um, including people that know what they're doing say, um, you shouldn't do it unless you're doing X, Y, and Z, um, and PDQ as well.

And I think that's really, um, as a Christian, it's kind of like you can erase it all because it's really between you and the Lord.

So, I think that's the biggest obstacle is just finding like Sabrina is saying, the hope like I hope that I'm making a difference and Lord, can you validate or show me that this is where you still want me to be?

And I hope that that's what everyone does in whatever they're in. If you're in a job that you absolutely hate and you're like, if I have to flip another burger, I'm going to flip out.

Then, like, God doesn't want us to be somewhere where it's so horrible. But sometimes we get so stuck in a rut that it has to be done this way, it has to be done this way, it's just a job, I have to pay my bills.

that we're not hearing the Lord or seeing him in other ways that we have to like sometimes either step out, quiet, shut up and stop talking or we have to find it from hear it from the source that you're like so shunked but you know it's God because you're like that person doesn't even know what I'm going through and they literally said all the things I needed to hear.

Oh yes.

Okay, Lord, I get it. I hear it. you know, um, and so I think for me that has just been the biggest thing. Lego are expensive. So if I, for me personally, um, people have to buy new games to keep content.

You got to buy new skins. You got to, everybody has their own things that they need financially to be able to run a stream.

I mean, the Lord's provided so many things. So for me, I've always loved Lego. Now I have more Lego than I ever have had because people do support.

Like when I when I went to Montana, my mom's like, "Well, I know you're going to need some Lego to stream." Like, she thinks it's cool what I'm doing, right?

She's never come into my stream, but she knows that I need Lego, so she's like, "I got you this." So, um, you know, Lego are my They're too expensive.

I mean, they should not be the cost that they do, but I am like a snob. I don't like Legos. Fake Legos to me are pretty just not as great.

They are getting better, though. It's going to be pretty soon. those fake ones are they'll they're getting they're closer. But yeah, the Lord has blessed me with so many different things, you know, that you know, a different camera, um a different um setup ideas.

So, my desk, you can kind of see behind me, um that's actually a china cabinet that's a little desk, like um not a roll top desk, but folds down.

So, I just stack my Legos up in front of my tea sets while I'm on stream. My desk rolls around and which was my idea.

So, I bought a desk that can go up and down so I can sit or stand. And I put wheels on it. I put wheels on it so that I can then when I'm done streaming, I roll this thing back over between these between these two and it sits against the wall.

My kid can use it for homeschool during the day and I can use it for streaming at night. um you know the camera's behind it, the camera just gets put away.

I mean so you know you the Lord also gives you ideas to be able to overcome some obstacles. Um but I think that's the biggest for Christians.

It's not a matter I I don't watch the numbers ever like I don't watch like is there six people watching me or 19 people watching me.

Um it's just I'm here for whoever's Yeah. right there chatting. If it's just Sama great that's great. if it was just you know I think was his name earlier y yes that's the biggest biggest challenge has just been overcoming myself throughout of it yeah I think that's that's one of those things that is difficult and I and one of the things I think is difficult is when you're in a place that has the ability to have comparison it's hard to not evaluate based on numbers because numbers are measurable.

Absolutely. But what you can't measure is someone's life change until they tell you that it has happened, until they can articulate it or that you can see behavior changes, which you can see in chat, by the way.

You can see behavior changes in chat by the way people present themselves, the way they talk, the way they ask questions. You can see it there.

It's it's it's a little skill to be able to discern that. You got to hang out enough. But yeah, I can say I I totally know that riding the roller coaster of looking at things.

And sometimes what happens is somebody is new, they come along after you, you support them to begin with, and then they're all of a sudden bigger than you are, and you're like, "But what about me?" You know, why why is not not happening for me?

Uh, y but I I'll I'll I'll tell you the thing that has really changed my thinking around that I think applies here is when I was in school and I wanted to excel at everything that I did and I wanted to be the state champion and and all of that kind of thing. It was all selfish and I didn't quite make it and it's easy to just judge yourself based on that. But when I had kids, I I just wanted to see them enjoy what they were doing and always get better.

And it and it's like I can have so much more fulfillment of helping someone go from, you know, and I coached I coached uh my kids in cross country of cutting a minute off of their time is so much more rewarding to help them be able to achieve that than if I would have won a race or I would have, you know, gone out on the wrestling mat and beat a guy that was a nobody. Whoop-dedoo.

I mean, I pinned him in 30 seconds. Uh, no challenge, no big deal. I didn't accomplish anything. Uh but helping someone else, striving for something.

And so I I love the joy of helping other streamers uh figure out things, move in new directions, inspiring them, and which is why it's so fun for me to bring friends on here and just talk about what's going on, what's God doing, what's he up to.

Absolutely. Sebastian's mowing his lawn.

I love that. I love listening to podcasts while I mow the lawn, too. That's so funny. I um yeah, I think um I think for me uh challenge two is just has been making not wanting my family to feel like they have to be here.

But of course, we're family. Like I I don't know many more families are as close as our family. Six kids. A lot of times there's maybe one or two that kind of are do their own thing um or whatever.

But like if somebody's not at something, everyone's like, "Where's so and so?" Like, "Where why is why isn't he here?" Like, you know, or why is it where why is she not here?

Because it's just it's just known. Like we we are so close. We stick together and everything. And so I felt a little gy Meline has done so much for me at 15.

He's basically had to be my everything. He's my tech guy. He helps me. As soon as you said whatever, I was like, "Come here.

We got to figure this out together. Um, I've definitely leaned too hard on some of them. Um, and I do I've been trying to do better at doing stuff on my own.

I don't know that that I would agree with you because if your kid is able to do something and you can rely on them and appreciate what they do, you are building confidence in them for them to be able to step in as they go, you know, through life. Someone needs me. I can be relied on. I can step in. I can use my skills. On some level, like if you go with Paul and Timothy, it was don't let people look down on you because of your age. You are helping them early on figure out don't don't let people look down on you because of your age. You have skills, you have talents, you can step in, you can be used.

Uh now, if you don't try to learn and you just never try to grow, then I might agree with you. But if you need to to help them teach you so that you can grow, then I I would say no. No, you can lean on them and they can they can be use and uh glorify God by God given talents and knowledge that they're able to share and help you step into doing more and more.

Yeah, you're right. And it it is we're we're borderline I need to get off my behind and not rely on him so much. But um but uh it is it is amazing and I am blessed to have him um be my mod and be my in in inh home tech my inhome everything. So, it's been um it's been great. But, u you know, some of those long nights, you know, 9:30 to 11:30, try to pick a time where it's not family time, right? It's not somebody needing me for homework, not um not someone I the dishes are done or dinner's done. Those things that are important, like I don't know many families that eat around the dinner table every night, but like that's important to our family. That's our time to connect. Um, and this is partly a time to connect, partly a time to um, support mama in what she's doing.

And, um, it is fun. They kind of know like after our Sunday night dinner, we all clean up the table and then we set up mama to be able to be here. I'm down in the dining room. Uh, because we there's eight of us in the house. If I was going to be in the game room where Meline is, there'd be people moving, noise happening because life still goes on in a home.

And um I'm thankful to be able to be on this journey with them. And they encourage me when I have those down times um to be able to say, "No, you're amazing. Do you remember when so and so said so and so or this happened?" Like it was it was it was so important. So, yeah.

What's kind of cool and and and you're years away from from this, but uh since my kids are out of the house, um I just see the potential for you as your kids move on and move out of the house for them to still be able to say, "Hey, you know what? Mom is streaming and uh we're going to go hang out with mom when they're off at college and they're far away." And you're going, you are creating the possibility. So, I don't know if it'll happen. It'll depend on kids. You're creating the possibility for continuous family connection. As they go off, they will still have family community together and streaming community when you aren't physically able to be in the same place, which I think is really cool.

Oh, definitely. Definitely. And I like Supersonic Say by Grace's comment, too. Um, and I'm not sure if they go by Supersonic, Save by Grace. Long name, so I'm not sure, but I just usually call them Supersonic. Okay. We'll just call you super no supersonic. Um you don't know who's in who's lurking and you and you don't. So that's why you never say anything like there might be no one there or um I hope no one's listening because you don't know who's impacted.

And it's funny you say that because there was a bigger streamer that came into my, and I mean bigger streamer, someone that's got like a hundred plus, not some thousands of people. But to me, that's a bigger streamer, not a Christian. And I had no idea he was in there ever. And then every now and then, because like I said, I don't check to see who's watching me. My husband will tell me, "Oh, so and so was in there tonight." But never said one thing. Never chatted one time. Um, so like you just don't know um who you're impacting when you're not impacting or if you have videos that go on for um for years to come, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't know if your content will impact people later on if they come across it when they need it. Uh yeah. And when you talk about not knowing if someone is there, I've often had and I just had one uh I think it was earlier this week. So, one of the things I really want to do early on when I was first got on Twitch, I saw someone who was riding their bicycle across Canada and streaming it. I'm like, "That's what I want to do. That is the thing I want to do." Like, it's a ridiculous thing, but it's like, "That's what I want to do." Cuz I was I'm riding my bike all over throughout COVID. I'm riding my bike everywhere and he's riding across Canada and he's live streaming and I'm like, "That's what I want to do." Uh, it took it took me until this year, until this summer to figure out how to make it work with equipment that I could do in the place where I live.

And uh okay. Because I was going to say you just started, right? I was like, I didn't know that you did that before. But you're saying that you've been inspired and you're just getting to it.

Yeah. Well, I couldn't I couldn't I could not figure out the tech to make it work with my system. Um, gotcha. So, I I I was streaming it and this is one of those things like this is what I want to do. And part of it is I love to see creation and I want to stop. I want to show that I live around it stuff that I think is beautiful. Uh supersonic I think we are at 326 miles today I think is what we we uh so I'm trying to ride 500 miles in September and stream all 500 miles. That's that's the goal. And so in September and you're a 321 uh 19th you're doing good. You got time? Oh, yeah. I'm I'm right on track. I have to average the 16 miles a day and okay. So, I'm right on track, right where I need to be. A couple of one day a week I'll get like 30 40 miles and the others I'm usually around 13. So, it all averages out. But, um I had someone that came in this week and they said nothing and I did not know they were there. They came back the next day and they said, "I came into your stream yesterday and you didn't know I was there. Uh, but I was really in an angry place and when I came into your stream, I just heard God say, 'Just sit back, relax, and enjoy creation and just watch the view.'" And so, he said, "That's why I didn't chat, cuz I was listening to what God told me to do, and it got me through my day. So, I'm here today to tell you what happened yesterday because I couldn't tell you yesterday because I had to just sit back and relax and enjoy what was going on. I'm like go, "Oh, that's so cool." Um, those who are wondering and and and how that works and all of that, um, I'm using my phone with IRL stream app. It's broadcast to my computer. My computer is sending it through OBS. the uh Bella Box, which connects through uh the IRL app, and that's what it's called, IRL Pro, uh connects to my Twitch stream, and it puts the chat in there. So, I can read chat on stream or on my screen while I'm writing. So, I can engage chat, but I can't hear any of the music. I can't hear anything else that that you get to hear. I'm just out with creation and and streaming. And then just because this is fun, this is this is my gimbal. So I mount this on the bike and then I can pan, tilt, zoom. I can't zoom, pan and tilt so that uh I can show the animals when they are on the side of the road when we come across those.

So that's so cool. I did stream when I was in Montana because the internet there is number one trash. Number two it was on would have been on my laptop and number three it was just something different, right? Like timing wasn't 9:30 p.m. um here is great, but that's 7:30 Montana time. So that's dinner. That's all, you know, family time. And I enjoyed it, but that was the challenge I had. I was like, I don't know how Jay did this because he's the only one I saw that was IRL when he went to like some escape room or something. And it was months and months ago. I was like, I can't re I can't remember what I tried to do. Lost the whole chat. Lost the whole stream. I don't remember, you know. So, that's awesome that you figured it all out. If I ever get to there, I know who to call.

Yeah. Well, the thing is is because I have such poor data where I live, half the time I only have 4G because I live in a national forest. Um I can't just stream from my phone to Twitch. It's it it takes too much data. That's why I had to figure a different way around is is a different system. So, yeah. Yeah. Hit me up on that. Would love to. Um, that's so awesome though. Yeah. So, when I get done with so, right now, I'm just streaming whenever I can fit my ride in. So, I already did my ride earlier today. Uh, tomorrow it'll be after I'm at my prayer booth. Sunday, it'll be Sunday morning. So, I don't know where the where they're going to fit. Uh, but after September, I want to figure out two or three daily. Here's or shouldn't say daily, weekly. Here's my regular I'm going to ride and we'll go forward and I got some ideas on that of what I might add. But it's like the creativeness of what people can do in the space. It's just like there's no limit of what you can do to connect with people, share things with them and all that.

King Quack Attack, welcome in. Uh, welcome in. Supersonic saying, uh, you like wearing biblical t-shirt t-shirts when you can. Uh, some may see it and walk by. Uh, others you may plant seeds or put a stone in their shoe. I like that thought. Uh, something they have to think about. And others might ask, "What your t-shirt?" Usually the chosen and there's a chance to share your faith. That's awesome.

Amen. Yeah. Like like you're saying and I know where are where are I he I see he wrote shuffling three topics. So, if we go off the topic, you wanted to talk about supersonic, bring us back. That's yeah. Well, the thing is is that I love this is why I love like I've figured out like streaming is is just like my what my brain is wired for this uh and watching streams cuz the chat that's going on that I can be doing this over on the side and engage there and the conversation that we're having and and then maybe some other stuff that's happening over in the corners like my brain is working all of those things where when I was in school I would have to say those things verbally. that I would put in chat and like so everyone would hear them and the teacher would so I would get in trouble. Uh I got called out once in seminary because I still did it when I was in seminary talking and uh hey uh you want to share that with the rest of the class? Oh, you mean you heard what I said in the back of the room? I thought I was whispering. My wife always reminds me my voice carries and I can't whisper. So, uh, it's like I like stream is what I could do cuz there's all the chat going on and I have all these side conversations with people no matter what's going on. It's it's just like I would I would have been in so much trouble if I had a phone in school. It would have been horrible for me.

Well, my daughter, one of my daughters who is learning to drive too and so now I sat in the back seat. Well, she actually does drive. She got her license. She's getting to the point where she can drive to school on her own. She said like, "Can you sit in the back of the seat like you're not here today?" I was like, "Yes." So, she's like, "Okay." And she's telling herself, "Got to go." And I was like, "Exactly."

I was like, "If you need to talk yourself through it, pretend I'm not here. Do your thing." And she's like, "Well, you know, talking to yourself is a sign of intelligence." I was like, "Great. Be intelligent. Get us to school." Like, you know, but sometimes that's just the way it is to get you through it. Um, I could type a lot but only is so fast. Laptop helps but shuffling to alpha. Gotcha.

Yeah. Yeah. Samus. Oh, yeah. Go for it. No, go ahead. One thing I learned, it doesn't matter what people think or what people say. What matters is what your heart really tells. Because I think that's what the what that's what matters, cuz in a way you'd be there for someone in some way just like you guys do for me to be honest. In a way I want to do something to help someone in a way. I'm just I'm just not sure. Um be a sure I'm able to stream but maybe try something.

Well and and on that note, you don't have to be the streamer to help people. You you do not. Nope. Um nope. My my mods are awesome. Uh comments in the chat are awesome. The other thing is is as we get to tell your story on some level, Samarella, of you finding hope, we then get to also pass that hope on to other people. Um which which I just really love. Like one of the like I love telling stories. I think like just chatting is the category that makes the most sense for me because I I'm going to talk the whole time anyway, so I might as well just focus on talking. But there is the I love telling stories and one of the things that I tried to do as a pastor was if I tell stories about myself, they're when I did it wrong. When I tell stories about other people, I want to tell stories of them getting it right. I want to tell stories that are good about them. I don't ever want to be the hero uh so that you copying me. I want to point to other people and and try to highlight them and I I don't know my my my wife tells me at times that uh you know I've heard this story I don't know how many times you keep changing it and it's like it's still the same story. It doesn't matter if it changes and grows. I the story can be like look at the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They tell the same story. They're told four different ways to four different audiences. I'm not changing the story. I'm telling the story for the person who needs to hear it in the way that they need to hear it in the way that's going to bless them. I didn't change the story. I'm just the storyteller.

It's funny you say that. It's a beautiful story. Speaking of stories, we had we have a sister church that meets at our church. Uh they're Hispanic or they speak Spanish and uh they have a a big ministry where they go out and help people that are homeless. Well, they went to a homeless encampment helping people. One of the guys was deaf and um I know a few people I know the pastor and his wife say hi. They're they actually their worship leader leads worship in our church now because our church left and she's leading worship with other people in our church. It's beautiful. This great crossover. And um anyway, long story short is is they have a Tuesday night prayer meeting that's bilingual, English and Spanish together. Come together on Tuesday and we pray together.

I don't I don't got a raid coming. Yep. Go ahead, celebrate your raid, whatever you do, and we'll come back to the ESL in the homeless sh.

No problem. Visually, I don't even know who you are. So, welcome in Raiders. I am not normally on during the day. I'm here hanging out with Flat Cap Dapper Pastor and we are just telling stories and enjoying time. I'm Mama Brick Builds. I normally am uh building Lego. You can see a few behind me and and yes, now I know you. Exactly. Now we're besties and buddies. Uh normally I'm building Lego and just chatting, just hanging out, talking to people about life. That's what we're doing today. Minus the Lego. You just get to see them visually today. No hand cam building Lego and hanging out with a friend. Just talking about life. So, what were you guys doing? Where what did you just end doing? Were you playing games? Were you talking? Would love to know a little bit um about why you're here, how you ended up here with us. And thanks so much for coming over and giving us a raid.

Yeah, welcome in. Welcome in. Um we're we are doing uh the gaming outpost podcast with the church digital where I just bring friends on whether they call themselves a digital missionary or not. They are being salt and light on Twitch sharing their faith. Some do that actively by this is the title and what I'm doing and some do that from just having people come in see that there's something different and when when life is happening they share the hope that they have in Jesus. So you don't have to believe what we believe but we love you having you hang out here. So, thank you for coming in with the raid. Appreciate that.

Yeah, and thank you guys so much for the follows and yeah, just welcome in. You can continue to hang out with us. We are um I got to leave to get kids in over a little bit over an hour, but we're just a little bit over an hour into this. And um normally I do a sign in sign language, a song in sign language as well, but you guys were reading the word. Awesome. Praise the Lord for that. We'll have to um give you um follow check out who you are and what you're doing. Yeah, absolutely.

And I don't know if Meline's on here to sh to give uh her a shout out, please. And I just gave you a follow visually. Thank you so much.

Awesome. And Casey girl, just go ahead. No, it was Did you receive a sub earlier or did you sub now? I didn't get a notification. You have been in my chat before, so thanks so much. Cool, cool, cool.

More family. More family. Thank you so much.

Okay, Supersonic had something that just scrolled by. If Supersonic, if you want to share it again, we'll come back to it. But I wanted to pick up where your story was. So, you were talking about working with the church that Oh, yeah. So, yeah, I was just going to say it's just a beautiful story like you're saying of just things meshing across. He So, I went to the prayer meeting, didn't know that Elijah was there and that he was deaf and would need an interpreter. I am not a certified interpreter. I never went to school for interpreting. But kind of like my Spanish, I can get along. Okay. And um literally the message so they pray for like twenty minutes just everybody's quiet, beautiful background music, people are kneeling, praying, and then for twenty minutes they bring God's word and they talk about it a little bit and um pray and then um you know it's applicable to your prayer life. And they brought up Elijah. They had taken him out of this homeless encampment and they clothed him. They fed him. They gave him a place to stay. They restored his social security. He'd been homeless for seventeen years.

Wow.

They got his social security restored so that he could pay rent to rent a room at someone's house, be able to get the contacts that he needed, to be able to get the medical care that he needed. I mean, talk about the restoration of the body of Christ. Just a beautiful restoration. So they bring him up to uh pray for him and the message was about using your gifts. So here I am. I haven't used ASL in a long time other than doing my songs, not interpreting ever in my life. But he wants to He's getting prayer. Like how can I not tell him what they're saying where someone's trying to kind of like write the main prompts, right?

Yes. So it went from Spanish to English to sign language to Elijah. And there were tears in that room as people were just like, "What a beautiful sight that here is this man and there's someone here to be able to interpret for him and for him to be able to get prayed over." Of course, that relationship has has blossomed some as he's come into our church a little bit to be around someone that can speak with him. But just a beautiful thing of of God restoring people. Um, but the thing is is he's a new Christian, too. Like he kind of grew up in church, but when you said Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, I was trying to tell and it they were telling the the story in Luke or something, and he's like, "That's different. Wait, wait, wait. That's different than I know." Right. Right.

And I was like, because so I had to explain to him exactly what you said. It's four different gospels and I people see it differently and so sometimes the message is totally lost as me just explaining God's word to him and who cares about the sermon because we're doing practical application in the Bible but um just a beautiful thing that it does look different to everybody but yet it's still still God's word. So

Yeah. Yeah, that's beautiful. I love that story. That's cool. And then that also connects with um like this is one of the things like just because we we want to focus on or we are focused on or we're talking digital doesn't mean that these things don't actually then turn around and have application uh in person. Because if you had not been using your sign language online, you may not have felt comfortable stepping up and saying yes to a person with an actual need and being able to step into that. So, I I I I tell people this is really weird, but I started doing things online and streaming, which then when God said I needed to go start a prayer booth in my local community, I took all the stuff I had learned online and I went and did it in person.

Awesome. And it's like I would not have known what to do or how to do it without doing stream because all the things I do to create my community, to create my space, to welcome people in, I do that in my prayer booth.

And and so that's that's my whole like I took all of my learning from here and I brought it over there. And uh that's really cool. I did see your repo supersonic. I'll get to that in just a second. So uh go

I'm really loud. Thank you. I had no idea.

Well, thanks for the the Yeah, some of it that's going to be a balance on your side. I can turn up mine a little bit, too.

I just move I just moved my She said it was too loud, right? You have very low. Isn't it any better? I turned it down.

Let me know.

Four messages already. Two topics. Sorry. Didn't want to flood you to it. Oh, no. No. It's all good. All good. Supersonic. So, supersonic was uh connecting with they have uh celebrate recovery and being able to share at at his church has really helped him uh be able to unbburden himself and then also uh a level of as other people share you get their stories too and what they're doing in recovery. Um I'll have to scroll back up a minute to get the rest of what you had put in there. Uh it's like a pastor giving a sermon to a hundred but each person learns something new and different then they can branch to each other and learn. So yeah

Exactly. She's saying for sure for sure a little bit lower on your end. So I'll keep talking. So hopefully hopefully we'll get this It's one of those things where, you know what, I don't think I did that. I often will grab my earbuds and listen to it when we get started so I can balance the levels between the two of us. And I did not do that. So hopefully my my side is good. Nobody said anything, so I assume it's good.

You sound great to me, but I didn't I can only hear myself, so I wasn't listening through anything else to check it. But um yeah, hopefully that's hopefully that's better. But thank you guys always though, chat. Thank you so much for helping us because we don't know unless you tell us. You know, something's too soft, something's too quiet, something's too loud. Those are all good things to know. I know my um my transition scene was really, really loud, and everyone's like, "You got to stop that." I was like, "I didn't hear it that loud."

"Thanks for letting me know."

"Oh, it's more peaking than too loud. Oh, that's interesting. Okay."

"That I don't know how to fix. I can go up and down with the volume peaking. I don't know how to fix that."

"Well, Supersonic's on my side, so that would be me. So I just tried to adjust it a little bit."

"Okay."

"All right. So—"

"Oh, that's true. Your side. My side."

"Yeah, he's on my side."

"Okay. Uh, Samuel reposted if you missed it. You just want to be open about a lot of things, pastor, but only a few. I'm able to a lot. Sorry. I want to be open about a lot of things, pastor, but only a few I'm able to do that. So not everyone she can do that with. Even here, you know, about your disorder and sickness and hope, but you don't know if Mama Brick knows cuz you're still scared of being open about it."

"Yeah. So I don't—Mama Brick, she just doesn't know if you know all of her situation. I do know all of her situation. So I will just leave that up to her to share with you if she chooses to. Uh, some of that's been shared here before and some people do know and like I said earlier, if you do not know, just be praying for her health."

"So, so we've been—"

"Yeah, we've been talking about a lot of—"

"Hey, ukulele."

"Oh, ukulele is coming in. Hey, we were we were talking about you earlier with Samarella and um you'll have to go back and watch the VOD unless you were lurking and just had a chance to pop in and say hello. The um so we were talking about some some places where we have um had obstacles and we talked a little bit about some blessings. Are there any unexpected things that have happened on your stream that just a good story to be able to tell? So you're telling about you know using ESL. Has there been anything just a surprising blessing that's happened through streaming?"

"H a surprising blessing. Well, like I said, I think for me, it's brought our family closer together. Um that's to me amazing. I think um I think being able to just like you're saying, I am just a mom to some people. I am an important um piece in their life that they've missed due to other things. So there's a there's a couple people that I um I don't have a Discord channel and that's just one more thing for me to to do that the Lord has not said like that's what you need. I feel like there's so many of them that um you can get prayer in my chat, you can get prayer in so many other people's like so I have just encouraged people that if you know me, it's the same on Discord, it's the same on Twitch, it's just Mama Brick Builds. Come um come find me. come ask me if you've got more questions. And I think um surprising that I could be so deep with someone that it could be I guess I could scold them like my child like okay that's not okay like you know what I mean like to be able to be that open and honest um where that I guess I wasn't ready for a couple of those digital relationships again someone I've never been able to hug in person but felt close enough that I could be like that's not okay like you need to stop that. That's why. No, this is, you know, we've talked about this. So I feel like there's been I have a couple relationships that I guess I just didn't know. I knew that, you know, some people say just chatting is kind of like you're a therapist on, you know, and whatever. And I think all of us as Christians should be like that should be part of our our gig regardless whether we're online or not. So yeah, I knew that that was coming. But um there I've built a couple relationships digitally that I was surprised at that I was able to just kind of be that um that real with I guess real is really the question I can wear. I can I can share those really hard moments but I can also be that stern mom of like Yeah. No. Um and it's been it's been surprising I guess like I said."

"Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and we were talking about that earlier, putting it in the name, then if people are seeing you that way, and Samarella was talking about how she does like, 'Hey, you're you're another mom for me. I view you that way.' Uh, and then she's saying a little bit about, 'Well, I'm worried about upsetting uh, Mama Brick Builds.' It would be the same way if it was her mom. Like, I I don't want mom to be mad at me. I don't want to upset mom. I don't know if she can handle what's going on. That that trepidation that you have which to me just shows real relationship just like you're saying of and then you like being a mom have no problem stepping in like a mom and saying uh this is my words not yours. Quit being a knucklehead and uh you know get get yourself together. You know you shouldn't do that. You know that's not right. You know whatever. Just like stepping in saying no we're not having that. So uh that's a fascinating thing to me that I think society in some places has lost. And and I would say that because for my family, a lot of it is I've never lived in the same community long enough for my family to establish roots in a community. Uh, my average before living in the house I am right now was three years in the same place. So—"

"Wow."

"And I've only done done more than three years three times. So uh, so it's like, you know, I don't want to move, but you know how many people I know in the community and how many people know me in the community? Very small. I don't have a large family. My name gets mentioned. Nobody knows who we are. I mean, it's not like I've lived places and you would mention a name and oh, there's 10 sisters and there's 10 brothers and everyone knows the family and you you worry about saying things cuz that family will find out or those kinds of things or everyone knows your reputation or your family. I've never had that. Uh so I haven't had those those things where hey, I know your mom. I'm gonna step in and I'm going to correct you because I know your parents or I know your cousins or I know who else because you're you're interconnected. I think that digital is recreating what we used to have in small communities where everyone knew each other. Now maybe it's not as widespread but in the circles that happen and are being developed in Twitch were able to just move into those spaces and oh you're a Mama Brick's community. Oh, I know. I know what she's like. I know who you are. I know what you're doing. You're in ukulele's community. Oh, I I know where that is. I know where all that's going on. So and I think that's like super important though. I think it's something that was lost. Like we moved Americans very we grow our kids independent, right? Like you can do anything. You can be anyone. Don't let anyone tell you you can't. Well, that's all that's all well and good, but that part where you need community and we are supposed to be generational in what we do and be the body of Christ, I think was lost for quite a a good section of a generation or a whole generation here in America. So like you said, I don't I don't think it's a bad thing that we're going back to keeping each other accountable or to be able to celebrate one another where we're all like, let's all say Flat Cap is so amazing. Let's just it's okay to tell him he's great because that's important. It's important for that um that building of who we are and our identity in Christ and with others. So yeah, definitely."

"Yeah, it is um a a whole new thing to have that connectedness. Now I like I have always had like my kids have always been amazed by this. We will go somewhere, we'll go on vacation and I'll bump into somebody that I know. That's because I always moving and always know someone and and so we go to Washington DC and we bump into somebody I know. We're going there on vacation. I go to Africa and I bump into somebody I know. I mean like how does that happen? And I come back and I tell my kids, my kids aren't even surprised by this anymore. And now that I'm doing digital ministry, it's like yeah, of course you're going to run into somebody that you know. How how are you not, Dad? U which I don't know. It's it's it's a lot of fun to to be able to do that. Uh, Supersonic, I don't know if I can keep up with all of the stuff. So you're talking about a whole bunch of Christian streamers that you are following and you enjoy and the the way that God has been using and moving in uh, Christian spaces is just really awesome for you and and uh, yeah, we'll be at we'll be at Reach Conference together. Uh, looking forward to that and uh, hanging out. And I did just make you a mod. So you were just saying you couldn't do a shout out earlier. Uh, I just made you a mod on this channel, so you can go ahead and do that if you want to."

"Nice. Instamod."

"Insta mod. Well, it's one of those things where it's like I know I should do this at times. I just never think to do it and then I'm also usually wait to do it later and then forget like I'm just going to do this now while we're talking."

"Yay. Yeah, definitely. And Born Again Gamer is an amazing there are so many amazing streamers and I was in someone else's stream like a raid to a raid type thing. You know, you leave people on, you know, I raid out and they just happen to be raiding out 15 minutes later. So you're still in their stream. I was like, I don't even know who half these people are and they're all Christian streamers. They're all smaller Christian streamers, but you're like, new people to church. Like, you know what I mean? It was like funny. I was like, oh, I'll be back."

"Yeah."

"You know,"

"I like that thought. Like it's new people in the community, new people in church. Yeah. It's—"

"And then and then it's also really fun with the way that raiding happens and communities overlap each other is other people in the community will already know them when they come and join this community because they know them in the other community down the road, you know, so to speak. So it's like he was mentioning hopeful disasters, taco, uh you know, we've got Reach Conference. I mean, there's there's a whole bunch of Christian communities like, well, you begin to overlap with those others. We haven't talked a lot about hopeful disasters here, but uh Wolfler 77 has been on the podcast. Uh I'm going to be going to Hope Con in a couple of weeks. That's happening near St. Louis. It's like I want to go and connect where all of the communities that are coming together are able to do that. So Reach Conference, NerdCulture Ministry Summit, we've got the Church Digital, I've got Hope Con. Um, if other people know of others, I want to find out. I want to be there. I want to help connect. I want to support and lift up anybody and give them encouragement."

"Yeah. I was like, Casey girl earlier, I was like, wait, she she has a gifted sub. So that was she came in when Mother Goose and I did a short collab for um my one-year anniversary. She sang I signed it was absolutely beautiful."

"And that's where Casey girl came in and she was gifted a sub because that's she's like don't forget your chocolate pickle for Mother Goose cuz Mother Goose is like I'd put chocolate. That was one of my things that I had to do. She's like I'd put chocolate on anything. And I was like oh gross. I wouldn't put chocolate on a pickle. But like again like those communities overlapping. Um and I needed Thank you for connecting the dots for me. I needed to connect that dot. Um, but a beautiful thing like it's kind of like when you used to go to summer camp, church camp, right? If you got if you went as a kid and all of a sudden, you know, this church was there and this church was there and or maybe you did a Friendsgiving at in the fall, but you didn't overlap other than seeing each other at school. When you can overlap in the Christian space, it just brings such dynamic to it because everybody's sharing their stories about what God's doing."

It's kind of like church camp all the time. People are giving their testimonies like you're asking people to do on this podcast to be able to like what's God doing in your life. Um, because I want to know it'll encourage me and it might encourage somebody else.

Yeah, yeah. And like to think of what I want and what my hopes are for this and I keep, you know, it might change, it might evolve, but one: celebrate what God is doing and hear stories of what God is doing so that I can promote and lift up what God's doing in the space. That's one thing. Two: anybody that listens to this podcast and they don't have the support of what's going on, they don't have support in their church, they can go to their leaders in the church and say, "Hey, I'm not alone in thinking of this. There's a bunch of people already doing it. Here's a podcast." You can put one, two episodes in front of them and say, "Here's what I'm thinking of doing, and here's people that God's already using." So I'm not alone in thinking this. God is calling people into the space. So hopefully it gives legitimacy to someone who wants to step in and be a digital missionary.

Absolutely. Supersonic, if you want, if you need somebody to tag along, like just send me a ticket. I'll follow you. He's going all over the place.

That's awesome. Um, super busy. Reach OC Church Christmas play. Ooh, I didn't know about that. Uh, Pennsylvania trip in December, Sight and Sound and Hershey Chocolate Factory.

Well, there you go. My life, Casey girl said she went down the Christian rabbit hole in Twitch and never looked back. That's awesome.

Just keep watching. You'll keep finding new people, you know.

Yeah, well, I hit the max of how many people I could subscribe to. So I hit the max of, I don't remember what the number is, how many people I could subscribe to, because I would go into a person's stream and there would just be people, Christians in the chat. I'd just start following everybody. I found out don't follow everybody if they're not actually a streamer. Um, because you'll run out of follows that you can give people.

But there didn't used to be tags of Christian streamers. There didn't used to be all of these things. So it is easier. But with tags, like you're talking about putting um sign language as a tag on there, it helps people find you.

Uh, sometimes you don't want the tag if you want to reach people that aren't looking for something. So, you know, if you have ASL, you want people to know it's ASL. Oh, what do I have? Follow.

Oh, Christ made Ben just followed.

Oh, Christ made Ben. Thanks for the follow. I've seen you around. Um, but I had pastor in my name because I didn't want anybody to be bait and switch and find out later and then be upset with me. Oh, you're a pastor and oh, this is what, like, no, I'm going to tell you upfront. This is who I am. Come on in and do that. So I do put Christian in the tag, but that limits the people that will show up. It does just by putting the tag in there.

Y, um, yeah, go ahead.

Oh, I was just going to say and so as a streamer, you make the decision of who you're trying to reach and what tags make sense for you and why do you put them through. One of the things I do think is evaluate what you're doing and what it's leading to and who it's leading to and constantly be thinking about that. If I put the tag in there, what does that mean? If I take the tag out, what does that mean? So, for instance, when I'm doing my live streaming on my bike, I could change my tags to try to reach other people, you know, who might not be looking for me reading the Bible, which is what I do most of the time. I haven't yet done that. I just kind of like leave my set my tags and leave them. But it's like I could be intentional and think through, oh, should I leave Christian tag in there if I'm just riding my bike? Maybe it doesn't need to be there. Maybe I could change that. Maybe I could do something different.

Yeah, and I think I mean mine has family friendly, Lego brick, Lego building, ASL in English. I guess mine doesn't even have a Christian tag. I didn't even, I somewhere I apparently lost that along the way or maybe because I know you can have ten of them so I don't have too many but um, but I I went to, how do I put this? I served at um a convention of a group of people that I would normally not have gone to serve with. Like they're not like-minded people, right? Um, but it was a way for me to make a little bit of money and I'm going on a missions trip. So I was like, "Sure, I can go do that." And um, it was a great reminder of the lack of Christ in the world.

Yeah.

Because this convention was not for Christians, in other words. So it wasn't like-minded people. And as I watched people in line, even just to check in, whatever, the sheer despair. Oh. And just hoping that they would find someone like-minded maybe to be a friend was really hard to watch. Like it was really hard for me to be there for a couple days serving at a booth, you know, helping someone in their booth, and just watching people literally just looking for hope. Yeah, like they were there trying to connect with other like-minded people, uh, looking for hope and I was like, wow, I am, it was another one of those like, okay, well, you know, in case someone pops into my stream. But I do think it is hard for Christians to end up where we're not just a group of bunch of Christians staying in church not welcoming people in. The Twitch, we don't welcome people in because it's not like a church where people just come to the door and then stop. They're lurking. So we have to always kind of be ready.

And I think that's what I keep telling myself, like why I don't look at who's watching, whatever, because I'm hoping there is someone lurking. I'm hoping there is someone that's just waiting to hear the right thing that the Lord had for them to hear. Um, but I think it's so important to not end up just a bunch of Christians that are fellowshipping together on Twitch. But like you said, those tags kind of limit if you want people to know you're a Christian stream so they can find you. It's that balance of who do you want to come into your stream.

Yeah. Uh, Casey girl, do you mean Geek Devotions or Greek Devotions? Because I know Geek Devotions, but yeah. And I also think not everyone is called to reach the same people.

Yes, Geek Devotions. Yes. Um, because what ukulele does with playing the ukulele is not something I'm ever going to do. So ukulele is going to reach people that I will never have a chance to. You're doing Legos. I'm not doing Legos. Uh, I'm just thinking who's going to be coming on the chat in the next couple weeks. Uh, Papa Tsunami is going to be coming on. He does painting. Uh, I've done one or two things. They're they're back here somewhere in the background. That's streamversary and it's not good. It's just it's something to do and fun. Uh, now maybe if I did it and I continuously did it like he does I could get to that level. I'm not there and it's also not my plan to do that. But also by me putting pastor in my title as an ordained pastor, it does set the stage for what people can know about my knowledge uh with things. So I don't try to come across as an authority. I always tell people, go check it out for yourself. Uh, there are plenty of Christians who have different views. We don't all agree on everything. Uh, but we have the centrality of Christ. And I think that's what I see so much in Twitch culture right now in gaming culture with Christians is a centrality of Christ and kingdom over castle. So the cooperation level between uh you know we got mentioned earlier Suzie Live with XP Church or I mentioned Andy Mage with Lux Digital Church. Both of those churches want to see each other succeed and both of them have come together to help with Nerd Culture Ministry Summit along with Love Thy Nerd. Uh, and those of us coming together in Reach, we want each other to succeed. We're not all about our own kingdom. We want to see more.

Oh, it's just so good what God is up to. Oh, yes. And Taco as well.

Yeah, yeah. And I think um so the mission trip I'm going on to the Dominican Republic. Our, we our church actually owns a plaza. Crazy story in and of itself. Um, because they were renting a building and now they own the whole plaza. There's a place in there that has an event space and they have a coffee shop. The coffee shop, for every meal given there, they give a meal to a group in the Dominican Republic. I've gone down once before. We're going down, my daughter, but I'm taking our twelve-year-old this time, and we're going to go down and serve meals to those kids that our church is helping provide meals for through the work that's down there. Um, and what I love about it is that every time that we go, there's not enough people from our church to go. So we get to be the body of Christ. Like, we're like, "Hey, do you guys want to come? Hey, do you guys want to come? Do you want to come?" And so it ends up to be like three or four churches being the body of Christ. And it's so beautiful because it's not about like, well, this is what my church is doing. My church is going down and serving meals. We bought these meals. We did. It's just about like this is what the body of Christ is doing. And I love it because that's what we're supposed to do. Everybody has different gifts. It doesn't matter, you know, what your church does, whatever. We're just going down there to just be the hope of Christ. And that's what I love about it. And I think that's like, wait for Twitch. I don't see it in our Reach server. I don't see it online so much of that battle of like, yeah, but what about this, is what isn't this what we're supposed to do? It's literally just Jesus, the end. And I love it that way.

Yeah, yeah, it's super fun. Uh, for me, I've always been one that cross-pollinates between places and is always like, even if you just think of the circles in in high school in the different groups, you know.

Yeah.

I was in the group of nerds cuz I was really good at math, but I was in the group of jocks because I was really good at sports. And and then uh it, where did I really fit? Well, I I actually fit with the Stoners even though I never did drugs because I liked hanging out with them. And so I'd go hang out with them. And then I guess the only group I didn't fit in was the preppies. I didn't have enough money. But I knew most of them from one of the other groups. So I hung out with them anyway, you know? So it was just like I never really had the one place that I fit and I never really wanted to stay in one place. Like I always wanted to be where other people are at. Yeah, cross-pollination. I like that. Cross with the cross of Christ pollin. All right, very nice. Supersonic caught caught you there. That's nice. Um, so I really am still striving to do that with everything that God's doing online. Where can I bring awareness? Where can I build up? Where can I lift up? And so, um, just just reflecting and thinking, it's so interesting because if you hadn't been at Reach, I don't know if I would have ended up ever coming across you. I don't go looking for Lego streamers. It's not something I've ever thought to do. I might have ended up in yours by chance if the raid happened or see you somewhere else around. So just the interconnected web that God leads it, it just it's just so much fun. And you and I had tons of conversations at Reach cuz I'm the person that talks to everybody standing around who's there to volunteer and help. I like to talk to the volunteers. I like to talk to the people at the booth. Um, I don't, I'm just not there for content.

I usually are there to chat and have relationships. So that was so super fun.

And then we got to hang out when you came in March for your conference and we got to go to ice cream and Disney Springs. So I mean yeah I got to see you twice.

Um, reminds me of the Bible verse building up the body and I know blessing boat was mentioned earlier too.

Um, oh Supersonic doesn't understand your cross-pollination comment. I don't know what you mean.

The cross of Christ, the cross that Jesus is on. So taking the cross from one community to another community, you are pollinating with the cross. But cross-pollination would be what you do when a bee goes from one flower to another flower of a different kind. You might end up with a different kind of fruit. So for instance, I was just at the farmers market and had a plumcot. Uh, so it's a cross-pollination between an apricot and a plum. So they made a new fruit called a plumcot by cross-pollinating from one plant to another.

So and that's what we do. I agree and I think that these conferences that are happening are great because they are bringing like-minded people together but they might not meet otherwise. Um, and I don't think I would have had the relationship that I've had with some of the streamers had there not been for Reach. Well, I know I wouldn't have because that's not the world that I was in. But I think that it's just beautiful because we continue to um push people forward and push people out of their boundaries like you asking me to do the podcast. I was like, okay, well, here we go. Um, why do why do I uh where did I start? What are my thing? What could he ask me? All those questions, you know. Um, and so I told my mom earlier, she's like, "Well, I can listen to it later, right?" I'm like, "Yes, Flat Cap does all that stuff. It'll get I'll I'll get you a link later, Mom."

Yeah, it'll, um, it'll be a couple of weeks. I've got a few of them in the queue. So I will send you an update when it happens. It'll be in October when I release it.

Yeah, no problem. But I just think that it's beautiful that we continue to push people, encourage people. Um, and I think the Reach is always asking, somebody's always doing something, asking somebody to do something who can do this. And there's always somebody that's like, "Well, actually, I can." Um, which then someone else is like, "Well, I didn't I kind of can, but now that you said you can, I'll help you do that because you probably know more than me and I'd love to not do it alone. So, let's go do that."

And uh, it's uh, it's been quite a ride, that's for sure. I would love to see more of that discipleship in the body of Christ move down to these younger streamers that like my son for instance who's 15 would love to be part of Reach. He's in the Reach server but it's really supposed to be for older people. I'm like, if if we don't have someone mentoring this generation, yeah, then when they get up there, they're going to just end up in the junk that's on there or not know how to handle it. Like how do you handle when someone like you're saying comes into stream and they're not in the right headspace and they're not doing that's happened to all of my kids at some point in the gaming world because people are looking for help and they're like well maybe if I type this someone will respond and I'll get the help that I need. How do you deal with that situation? Um, and that's one thing that I have seen that I guess is I'm going to say lacking and I don't feel that um I I know that there's ways that we can learn to be a better streamer, but to be able to mentor that younger generation because you I can go to a kindergarten classroom right now and somebody's going to tell me that they want to grow up to be a YouTuber.

Yeah. Like that's that's that's that's a profession. Like that but yeah I want to be no I've had kids say I want to be a YouTuber I don't go to usually they say like someone else right so if they are trying to emulate someone that's not great to emulate where we have to have people in place to be able to talk about yes that's awesome I would love for you to be like this guy but what do you think about like those questions you know yeah I do know or a streamer Casey girl yeah for sure I want to be a streamer when I grow up.

I do know several Discord communities that are doing discipleship in those Discord communities. So Lux Digital Church is doing that within their Hopeful Disasters is doing that in there. Uh I've done that uh with some one-on-ones that that I've done with people. Uh that's been my approach is to do more of a one-on-one mentorship with people and discipleship. Uh I think on some level though as individual streamers it may be harder to do if you don't have training or skill set or do some of those things. But that's a great great thought is maybe that's something that is still needed within Reach to be thinking about doing that. Um I don't know. Uh we'll have to ask questions about that and see if there's a way to do that. And you said you don't have your own Discord. Uh, I also like I know there's that tendency of once you start streaming you need to have your own Discord. I spend a whole lot less time in my own Discord than I do in other Discords because oh, okay, because I'm more invested in other communities than my own community. My own is simply there because I started it. I needed to have it. You can connect with me. And I mostly like some of the things I would point people to is, "Hey, go to the channel that says, 'Here are Christian streamers I know. You can go find more Christian streamers if you want to know them.'" Or it's, "Hey, here's podcasts that I listen to. Go and go to those." Yeah, Flat Cap Deaf Professor. I would take a class.

That's awesome. I I do have a a couple of classes if you are interested. So the Church Digital does have a course called Equip of course he has a class. Yes. Equipping Digital Missionaries and I'm teaching one right now. Um if and so end of October going into December I'll probably do another one. So if you go the Church Digital EDM you can learn more about what that is. And we talk about and it's not just specifically for gamers. It's anybody on digital spaces wherever you are uh can go through that course. Uh but get connected with me if you are a gamer because I I run the gaming outpost for the Church Digital. So anybody in gaming space I want to know you. If you're in other spaces I still want to know you. That's just kind of how I am.

That's cool. And Yukon Ley made a comment. She says she'd like to be like me but in what way? I guess for me, um, The Forge, the movie we, you know, when Cameron Arnett came last year, I was like, "Oh my goodness, I just watched that movie five times at the movie theater." I was like, "If there's a Christian movie that is worth seeing, I will go see that movie and I will take somebody with me because that's that's the only way that we get more Christian quality movies made, right, is by supporting them and having them keep going." But I guess that's for me. That's what I see. I see that one-on-one discipleship where like um ukulele is a mod in a 17-year-old girl's 16-year-old girl that's wants to be on digital way. She needs to be able to someone that has discernment to be able to be like, "Yeah, that's not okay." Or to like broad review with them and be like, "You know what? Let's talk about this." Like, "How did that go?" Um and bringing them back to your faith. Cuz I think that it's super easy, especially if you're a 17-year-old girl, 17-year-old boy. You want to be the cool guy. You want to be the beautiful girl that everyone thinks is so awesome and is getting all the follows to be able to keep them grounded. I guess that's where I see discipleship and mentorship. But you have to obviously be able to do that. And I'm not sure I know that I'm not in that place. I know ukulele is very seasoned and she I could see her doing that beautifully but um yeah I guess that's what I that's what I see ukulele but Flat maybe I think maybe your course is similar but different.

Oh my yeah I say there's several people doing different things. So part of part of what our course is is thinking through how are you intentionally moving into a digital space? Why are you in the digital space? What would a missionary who's going to a foreign country be thinking about and get training for? So we've taken uh and Jason Morris has who has been a missionary has put together uh a lot of the way that the course runs. Um and it's thinking through and for us it's about the relationship of people that are going through the course learning and dialoguing and connecting with each other thinking through so that you are intentionally going into the space to be salt and light and thinking about things you probably haven't. So while while a lot of what Reach conference has been and I've been trying to think about the difference between what Reach provides and what the Church Digital provides. Reach is trying to provide a lot of practical skills and thinking around how to be a really good streamer. The Church Digital we're not trying to answer the questions about being a good streamer and how to get better at that. Uh we're not thinking about that. We're thinking about how do you hone your skills as a digital missionary? What is your mission? What are you trying to do? Who are you reaching? Uh so some things along those kinds of things. So yeah, TCD and Taco are complimentary. Exactly. Uh uh Taco is also doing like Taco might be more of a blend on some level between thinking through being a content creator, but thinking being a Christian content creator, getting better, improving, but also thinking about I think everyone's trying to ask some similar questions. We just take a little bit different approach to how we're doing it. So if you've gone through one, fantastic. I'm right now actually taking the Taco course so I can learn uh some things that I need to learn. And we're going to be doing some more collaboration with Taco with the with the Church Digital. And so we don't want to duplicate what they're doing. So we don't need to reproduce it. If people need Taco, we'll just say, "Here's our friends over at the out, you know, the Alliance for Creative Outreach. Go take their course. It will bless you over there."

And I think that's so beautiful that that's what we keep doing, right? Like um when ukulele came in after taking the Taco cuz someone and was it you that recommended Taco? No, Samus maybe recommended Taco after Reach. Yeah. Um to me and then when I saw ukulele come in I was like oh my goodness we have arrived like these walls that you know like oh no this is that we do this and we do this and we do this but it's again like just the body of Christ like hey there's a plenty there's enough streamers going around that anybody can take any you can take this one then you can take that one and I think sometimes uh you know crazy but I don't always learn the first time so that if I took something in one place but then I took it in another it doesn't even reflect on the first ones. It's just I wasn't ready like or I heard it in a different way that you're like oh the well the same way that you tell your kids a hundred times and somebody else tells them once and they come back and tell you I learned this amazing thing and you're like I've been telling you this for six months and it's like why did you not hear it from me? Because they needed to hear it from someone else. So yeah, it's there's a lot of that.

Um, you you you did say you will need to go get kids.

How soon do you need to go to be able to do that?

I got about 20 minutes and then I'll probably head out.

Yeah. No, you had said two to three hours. So about in about 20, 25 minutes, I'm going to pack up and—

Okay.

Okay. I just want to check as we're coming at the top of the hour here, so that I know what other questions I want to ask.

And yeah, the ukulele saying yes. Yes, that's why God wants all our voices 100%. Yes. Um, and then also like along with that, we kind of touched on this earlier and I thought about mentioning it. I've had people come in my stream and whatever we're talking about will resonate with them and they'll say, "This is the third time this week that this passage has come up and I think I'm supposed to be listening to what God is saying." And that's a really cool thing because think about that. Otherwise, if you weren't in a streaming community and you only went to your own church, how quickly would you hear the same passage come up again?

Maybe in your devotions, maybe if you listen to Christian radio, and then maybe the church service. But you could even have it three times in one day if you go from streamer to streamer to streamer. It's like God can really move really quick through streamer community. It's so cool and amazing to see how God reinforces and or shakes us when we need to be shaken.

Totally. And I think that that goes back to like being part of the body of Christ, right? Like that Holy Spirit inside of us because sometimes there's things that come up that I'm like, "Yeah, I have no idea why I'm putting this verse in there." Right? But that's because we're listening to Holy Spirit and there's that person that is like, "Okay, third time. Okay, Lord. I surrender. I've got it. You've said it three times." Um, and it's so beautiful to watch it. My mom, um, you know, you see somebody maybe a different car, whatever. She's always, you know, pray for people as the Lord leads. If you see that person a second time, God has bought them that same person car, especially like if you live in a bigger city, right? If you're like, wait, I just saw that pink car like two hours ago.

Yeah.

You know, or that truck had that bumper sticker. I saw that guy earlier today. Anyway, she's like, "You need to pray through him." And if there's a third touch from the Lord, um, and my kids, not very often, but they have done that, but because they like say it with like, "Okay, that's the third time I've seen the person today." And they know that just means they got to be bold. They got to go say like, "Hey, I don't know why God's caught you've crossed my path three times. I know this sounds awkward, but if you need prayer, I'd love to pray for you. If not, just know there's somebody praying for you." And that's I think what you're saying here. There's like, you know, the third touch and you're like, "Okay, I get it." You know, your kid comes to you, "Mom, mom." And then they're like, "Mom," and you're like, "Oh, okay. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I heard that third time. What's what's up?" You know, it's important.

Um, and it's beautiful that that we can be that, but some of us don't know we're the first or the second touch, right? And until somebody's—maybe you're the third touch sometimes, but maybe you're the first touch.

Yeah. Oh, that's a good reminder. Sometimes you're the first touch that someone needs to hear, but they didn't hear it yet. But you planted the seed. The second touch is watering it, and the third one, it's finally blooming into what God's—

Yeah.

Super.

Yeah, it's beautiful that way. Um, and that's those things that we can instill in people, too. Things that we talk about like when people say that. Um, I love looking like straight in the camera and people are like, "You know what? Somebody else said that to me." And I go, "No, somebody else said it to you because God wanted you to hear it. I said it because God wanted you to hear it. It's so important. You're so important to him that he said it twice to you already. He wants your attention."

Yeah.

You know what I mean? And they're just like, you're just looking into them knowing that hopefully they're hearing and seeing what God wants them to say. But when they bring it back to you in chat, it's full range to be able to save whatever after that. Like if you're going to acknowledge the Lord working, let's go there, you know, and it's beautiful.

Yeah. Really cool. Um—

And I go ahead.

Go ahead. No, I was just going to say that's it just those are the things that like when you say about somebody else or um the touch between Samarella and I and ukulele or whatever like you know like I don't understand when someone comes in maybe who else they already know. Um and then when you see all those it's just beautiful.

Oh. Oh yeah. Yeah. The like I said the interconnected web of people and spheres and there are so many I wish I had I wish I had the full-time job of modding for people because then I would get to watch more you know if if you could pay me to mod I I would be there and mod for I'm not good at modding by the way other than the the part of relational welcoming people like the commands and shoutouts and all of that I'm not great uh I I'm I'm maybe adequate uh But that's because I don't do it often enough to get my skill level higher.

But I do have those skill level of welcoming people and and and greeting and all of that kind of stuff. So that part's easy uh for me, but not for everyone else.

So, but just thinking about the the places that people can serve. We often overlook that we need people not just on camera but behind camera in the stream uh promoting things making the connections because sometimes the most important thing you can do is invite somebody over someplace else.

So, if you are a Christian and you're in a non-Christian stream and someone is having a bad day, you might just go look at your list of who's streaming and say, "Hey, you know, if you're having a bad day, have do you know this person over here as a friend of mine, I really love them. Whenever I'm having a bad day, I go hang out over there." So, maybe maybe you go hang out over there. Now, maybe you don't do that in the chat because you don't want to offend, you know, the stream that you're in, but you could DM them or say, "Hey, I have a friend who's streaming right now. I could recommend if you want me to. I'll I'll whisper you." Uh because I don't want to, you know, step on anyone's toes as a streamer and say, "Hey, we should leave here. Let's go watch someone else." I'm not I'm not advocating that. But even when the raid happens, if you're going to go somewhere else and you want to help someone, knowing other people, knowing where you can point them to, know where you can set make suggestions. Maybe they don't go now. Just the suggestion might give them pause to think about going to somebody the next time that they're looking for somebody.

Definitely. And I think that that's that other generation that's that's coming up. Like you know you've got K I was literally in this kindergarten classroom and um I you know new classroom I'm the substitute teacher right and um I said something about something and little girl goes um well I just tell like I don't know whatever NIST or whatever uh Google whatever whatever like I think I was looking for a video or a song or whatever you know on my laptop and I'm like this kindergarten is googling things like that is so not okay with me right now.

But that's unfortunately what that generation's coming up. So that to be able to have people that we could say, hey, if you've got kids between this age and this age, go to this stream, you know, or this stream because they're they're needed. They're needed out there. Well, along those lines, thinking through um things, uh Lux Digital Church, it has just started a uh home kit because they're they're a digital only church.

A home kit that their pe their parents can sign up to. They'll receive a thing from the church. There's a kit to do devotions and uh lessons with underage kids who are not old enough to be on Twitch at this point.

So there are some people trying to solve those problems of parenting, discipleship, uh, and I they're going to come along. We still have the pioneers going forward with being the first in the space.

And it's people saying, "But we're missing this, and what about this?" And somebody's going to come along with great ideas and be able to share share those and innovate and create new things.

Um, I'm I'm just excited to see what God's going to do in the next five years, let alone what's going to happen in the next 20.

Um, yeah. Can you imagine Reach Con 20 what that's going to be like? That's—

Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure. Maybe we'll teleport to it and not have to fly.

I'm not sure. But, you know, Supersonic was putting in all these movies, too. Unsung Hero. Oh my goodness. I think I watched that three times in the theater.

Can tell I like to go to the theater. Um, but some kids stuff that parents could do with kids. Nice.

Right now, media.

Yeah. And, uh, if you end up jumping over into the church digital discord, I don't have this in front of me, but if you do go over to the church digital's discord and join there, I can get you a link to get uh, free right now media and be able to sign up.

And they have a lot of kids programs on there. They got devotional programs on there. They've got tons and tons of material. So, I I can get you a link to use a whole bunch of stuff.

So, if you want to do Bible studies or other stuff with kids, with other people in a group right now, media has a lot of resources on there and you can sign up for free.

Awesome. Thanks so much, Chosen RL and Alice in the Palace. By the way, thank you. You helped me meet my follower goal of 340.

So, thank you guys so much for coming in and saying, "Hey,—"

Alice in the Palace just uh followed you.

Yes. This minute.

Alice in the Palace is my first follower.

What?

Yes. Yes.

Are they on? Are they on right now? See, like again, I don't keep my thing in, so they must be here.

Well, Alice in the Palace, thank you um for making a goal. So, you're a goal meter in my stream and his first follower. That's amazing.

You've been called out.

Yay. Well, thank you guys so much for hanging out with us today. Yeah, Alice, love you. Uh, dear friend and like I said, my first follower six months before I streamed because uh the pastor I knew in real life that I was watching on Twitch, he said, "Go follow him because he's going to stream." And I said, "No, I'm not." And Alice said, "I'll go do that." So Alice—

Oh, that's so cool.

Yeah. Yeah. So, she's followed me six months longer than I've been streaming. So, that's fun. And and Alice and I have met up uh in person and uh had a lot of fun hanging out with the other pastor who uh had shouted me out.

So, we we both drove when Alice had come across the pond and we hung out with her for an afternoon. It was a great great time.

So,—

Oh, that's super cool.

Zach Lee live. Thank you for the follow, too.

All right.

I don't know. Yeah. As as we're wrapping up, is there anything that you are looking forward to uh within streaming this year?

So, things you're planning on doing, other people you know, you can talk about Reach if you want to, or even if it's just uh things that your kids are going to be doing in streaming.

Yeah, I think um uh Meline just has a heart to he's a gamer. He enjoys he enjoys gaming, so we'll see where he goes.

I'm excited. Um he's very good at Rivals. He enjoys playing it. Um I don't know what the Lord has for him in streaming, but I know that um he enjoys um gaming.

Um but it's tough to find people that are like-minded in the in that world too that are at your same place even, you know what I mean? Like same level. So it's hard to find. I don't know how to make a directory to help people find those people. But um I'm just excited to to meet new people at REACH, to be able to connect more.

Um I like you was the person in school that knew everybody in every group. I enjoyed meeting new people. Um but time is a killer, so it's hard for me to spend time in people's chats um to be able to get to know people better. I wish I I wish I did. Um so I'm not sure what um Brook has for next year. I have toyed with the possibility of doing some sign language lessons like being on during the day for maybe those homeschool kids or those people that um you know are just looking to learn um toyed with that idea. Um but more I think just of just a excited to be able to encourage people that like it you don't know what Jesus has and just to go back to those you know Jesus left the 99 for the one like it's just it's worth it to continue just encouraging um the viewer that you don't even know is lurking in the background.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Like Alice in the Palace.

Like Alice in the Palace just lurking and getting called out. She followed.

Um, but yeah, I just uh I love the bond that it creates in in our family, too. Like I said, it's just to to do it together is is amazing.

Yeah, that definitely is really cool. Um, I was going to say something and I lost it. That doesn't happen to me too often.

I do like a reach sticker on there. I'm wondering like, you know, I know there was that sticker conference um somebody, you know, won that where they're going to print those stickers, but I'm wondering if they're have another good one.

I think Alice won the sticker contest, actually.

Oh, yeah.

I think I think it was Alice that won the sticker contest.

Oh, cool. I never knew who made either of them, so awesome. Well, yeah. I'm just excited to um to be Zach. You're coming to Reach. I don't even know who you are. So, now I have to give you Are you a streamer? Oh, yeah. Look at all those badges you got going on.

Yeah. And Alice is unable to be at reach. So,

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Well, I will wear your sticker proudly. I will put it on all kinds of things like his water bottle that he just was drinking. I My laptop's not closed. Have I got gate zero on this one, but I don't have uh the breach sticker on this one. November 6th through the 8th. November 6th through the 8th. Still still some tickets left. Oh, look at all those. Just keep Oh, that was your alpha sticker I saw on there, too.

Yeah.

Yep. I got alpha on there. I mean, I've got I've got like another one. Oh, that's got reach on there, too. Uh, and then I've got my water bottles on my bike are almost completely covered. My old laptop is completely covered. Uh,

Nice.

You're going to have to get more water bottles or more places to put these or start going over old stickers that are worn out. I don't know. We'll do something.

There you go. Well, thank you so much for having me, Flat Cap. I had a great time. Um just remembering who I am and what I am doing as well as just um always thinking about new ways to be able to reach other people and enjoy our time here on Twitch. So

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm not one of those people that goes out to all the other platforms. So I'm just happy right here. So

Yeah. Yeah, I spend most of my time here as well. And I will go in spurts on the other platforms and then I will have lulls where I do don't have capacity to continuously post in the other places. Uh I do normally ask uh whoever is on the stream if they have a suggestion of where we can go raid out together to the same person and do a double raid into them and bring it back once we finish. So do you have a suggestion of who we could raid? Uh

Let me grab and see. I'll tell you who I am. You know all of those people. So I think you the only you could pick if you're going smaller. Chuching 24K was a reach partner. I'm not sure if he's going to be able to make it.

I do not I'm not following them. I do not think I know them.

Um I

Think I've heard the name but I don't know who that is.

Sure.

Yeah. So, they have four people watching. I mean, otherwise, if you want to go to someone, you know, AI is on and um

Well, I I

Well, that or Basselix is on. So, you decide.

Um

New friend. Oh, ukulele said new friend.

Yeah, that's that's usually the goal here is to go raid someone new. So, can you type their name in the chat? I don't Otherwise, I'm going to spell that wrong. Okay. So, you want me to not put it in a raid command so that you can see it, right?

Yep.

Well, then we can start the raid at the same time.

Yeah. Making sure I spelled it right. Oh, I didn't do the at, but you know.

Well, I usually use the raid channel.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Pink. So, it doesn't need to be the at. Okay.

Yeah.

So, yeah, let's let's go raid them together. Uh I love doing that. I love the double raid as close as we can uh of doing all that. Thank you, Mama Brick, uh for being

Oh, thank you. It's been great.

Thank everybody in chat for being here. It's been amazing.

Oh, yeah. Chat has been fantastic. Uh thank you everyone. All the the raids that came in, the shout outs, the follows. Uh, like I said, the podcast here is designed to be an encouragement for the people that are doing it and to also celebrate what God is up to. So, I'm ready to start the raid. You ready?

You're ready. Let's do it.

All right. Hit your button and we'll be close to the same time raiding out. And everybody have a blessed day wherever you are and whatever you do the rest of the day. I believe there's

Reach Conference uh raid train happening over the weekend. I don't know what time it starts, but if you go over to Reach Conference, I'll be at my regular time on Monday, part of it. Ukulele will be at her regular time a little bit early actually on Monday part of it as well. So, it starts I think tonight and it goes all the way through Monday. So,

Yeah. Awesome. Oh, you are we hitting raid now?

Yep. Hit the

Mine says ready. All right. Love you guys. Thanks so much.