The Real Reason Pastor B Chose Twitch for Ministry

: Welcome in everybody. Welcome in. Appreciate you all coming in. Okay, so let's just chat a little bit as we're getting started. So my hope and plan for this and let me get the earbud out of my ear. Uh was not necessarily to be fully on all day long today, which is what mostly has happened. So, thank you all of you who are still here, who started out with me this morning, went over to the fish channel, and now are back over here. You guys are fantastic. Um, so I appreciate that so so much. Mel, hey, welcome in. So, uh, my guest isn't here yet, but my plan for this idea here is that I bring someone in who is doing ministry, who is whether they want to call themselves with an official title or not, they're doing digital ministry in the gaming sphere, and we're going to just chat about it. Now, I had hoped this afternoon to write out my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I want to raise tea and cookies. Well, uh, I do have, since you're here, I'm watching. I do have like almost no tea. I just refilled this, but if if I run out, I I got the water bottle ready. I got the water bottle ready and and I re I brought this second water bottle down. The second water bottle is down. This one's nice and cold. So, that'll be at the end of the stream probably is what I'll need that. Yes. Mondays and Fridays are the plan for um going from my morning uh stream over to the uh fish channel and co-working uh throughout the day. So otherwise the fish channel will just be up there 24/7. You can go and hang out. Your internet is spotty so you might just throw alert. I appreciate that Mel. Fantastic. Um, spend the time you need with your family as well while you're there. Where's your tea? Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. So, I have I have new tea that just came today. I have new tea that came today. It's decaffeinated Earl Gray. So, it's a new one and I get to try it tomorrow. Um, I don't have any commands set up. Okay. I have commands on my regular channel. Okay. I have just I have just stepped into the role of uh being the person on this channel and so everything has been set up a new again. A fresh a new and um no no commands yet. No commands yet. Why does he keep teasing you? Uh, so anyway, my my plan for this is to to bring on a friend who's doing ministry, talk about what they're doing, how they got started, be able to make some clips, some reels from there, and then and then have them introduce a game that they like to play to me. Now, I was struggling with getting the game set up. Uh, I'm needing to set up an account again. So, this might end up we're not with him running late today. I think we're going to not end up playing the game. If he's able to pull it up, as he he's able to show me, I will ask him, which is part of my plan of why do you like the game? What is it about the game that draws you in? What is the fascinating piece about the game uh that you want? Why you would want to play it again and again and again? And then I will go play it. So, what might end up happening is they'll intro me the game and then I'll go play it uh on another time. So, that might be the way that this ends up working out. I'm not sure. Uh but, you know, maybe streaming all day and not getting stuff done. Uh well, let me put it this way. I probably could have got a few more things done today if if I wasn't co-working. But co I I think co-working is fun. Um if I was in an in a virtual office, so to speak, with other people, I would probably love just doing a hey, every two hours, uh let's just pull up a window and chat kind of a thing, you know? Maybe do that in Discord. Okay, let's see. Let me actually pull up Discord. So when he shows up, I will know event details. Oh, it doesn't tell me that it started. Interesting often. It's Oh, it does say happening now. Okay. So, now let me find this and we'll do that. There we go. We'll hide over here in the corner. Your name looks like a huge smudge on the signature canvas. Oh, it doesn't look like that to me at all. Uh, how many live streamers are in the reach event? I don't know. U bag JH Samus and uh SAS stuff. Um I don't have a full number uh that's in there. So it it may it well I say I think last year we may have had 50 that participated. Not everyone I mean in the whole uh year-long uh campaign to do alpha uh but not everyone showed up at the uh event. So at that event there uh was at least 30 of us I think that were there and then people from our communities. Uh this year I don't know who all is committed to going. So there certainly is. Taco is planning on being there. So Ukulele is also going to be there. Uh Christian Ninja is also going to be there if you know them. Um oh um we often raid uh Z Seru and uh yo Dia Donnie I hope and quiz. Yeah I I my understanding is all of them are planning to be there. all of Taco. Uh Z Seru was there last year. I don't know if she'll be there this year. Uh Mama Bricks was there last year. That's when I met Mama Brick Builds. Um I'm just thinking of who I raid and oh uh Pastor Ducen uh was in the group last year, didn't make it. This year is planning on it. Donnie said he is even if car pooling with Mama Dreams. There you go. Okay. So, I want to talk about this that's coming up before that. And this this is entirely free. This is what we are doing with the church digital. We we are committed to helping people become digital missionaries that are equipped and mobilized to go and reach digital spaces. I'm spending my time hanging out in digital gaming spaces. So that's why I'm here on Twitch. So a little cog. You see the two of us together. There's a little cog on the right. Yeah. Yeah. settings, audio output. Do Yeah. Do I want to click uh send audio with your camera via browser source source? No, I mine mine is selected the one above that control audio via streaming software. Yeah, I was just asking if I needed the the bottom button as well there. Oh, no. Well, I don't I don't have mine checked. Okay, we're there. We go. I see you bouncing now. Okay. So, we should Yeah, I know the the echo there, but I was I was trying to do earbuds. I couldn't hear anything. Nothing was going on. Nothing was getting through. There was the thing I needed to do. It works. It works. All right, let's let's start over again. Let's just wipe. I don't have wipes yet. First clip. First clip. Just wipe. Wipe. Okay. All right. So, hey, good to have everyone in here. Uh, those who've been chatting, I'm sorry. I've been totally ignoring all of you lovely, lovely people as I'm trying to self diagnose all my tech stuff. Of course, when you do the tech drill, everything works. And then when you come on, you'll have problems. Welcome to Twitch, the home of tech issues. I know. Look like audio sync is off, but we can see in here. Yeah, that's weird that it's off on on mine. Um, it looks good for me. I wonder if they reset their Twitch. Oh, it it looks off for me on my screen, too. So, h okay. Yeah, it is what it is right now. You're just a little grainy. Yep. We're We're not going to get it any better than we have it right now is what I feel. So, all right. So my hope my hope with this time together is just really chatting about doing online missions, doing online ministry, being a digital missionary. I'm not worried about if that's the label that you use or not or if there's a a different label that you use. Uh that's just I think kind of the one that uh to me makes makes sense is to just talk about I'm online. I'm doing digital stuff. I am a missionary. Uh, I may be in a church. Uh, I may just be someone that's helping out. Uh, I might be someone that's gaming. I might be someone that is a content creator. I could be a mod. But whatever it is, I'm bringing Christ and being Christ in that space. Yeah, I see. I'm pixelated. Uh, yep. I don't know what I'm going to do with that right now. I I got everything working. I'm just going to deal with the quality problem and say it's okay. By the way, tomorrow I should be getting uh uh fiber and so hopefully that will make it uh quite a bit quite a bit better. Um let me just see if there's anything else I can shut off that's running in the background. Are you running quite pond on the other No, no, I am not. I shut that down to make sure uh because if we were going to do a game that would that would cause some more stuff. But why don't you just kind of uh talk about how did you come into feeling the call to be in ministry and how did you feel the call to be in digital space? Uh and just kind of start with that. Okay. Um absolutely. For everyone who doesn't know me, uh my name is Brandon or Pastor B or always. My Twitch handle is as always been. Uh and you know, it really started at the end of 2020 and starting into 2021. Uh I had a phenomenal church. I was working for a Taiwanese uh English missionary or English portion of their ministry. And um I I got to do a lot of different things in that capacity. And I was working from home because of the pandemic. And I just had another screen open. I just had another screen open and it was, you know, it was a content creator. It was uh Stone Mountain 64, not not a Christian uh content creator. Just watching him play War Zone and having a good time. And you know, I was just kind of grooving. And you know as things started to progress right as things started to go deeper into the pandemic and stuff you know it was um it was painfully obvious that there was so much more that could be done in this space and the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said this is you know we can offer them so much more and it was it was it was that that was the beginning that's when I talked to my wife and uh she's a music teacher and we had a one and a half year old and stuff or almost two year old at that point and I'm like, "Hey, like this is this is what I'm hearing. This is what I'm feeling. Um, pray with me about this." And so, you know, well, we're talking about a period of a couple months of just checking in with her and and stuff. And finally, you know, we we're like, "Okay, well, let's let's let's see what this looks like." And going down to one income in the Bay Area of California is unheard of. Um it's crazy. It's cuckoo town. Um and God just was very very present with us. Opened doors. Um he opened up the perfect location that no one would have imagined to start a digital ministry out in the mountains. Um about a two and a half hour drive away from where we were. There was this little cabin nestled up up in the little foothills of of the of our of our mountains over here. And and God just confirmed in our hearts that that was where he had for us. And and we went and you know, we quit the quit the church job. They they sent us with their blessing. Um we went and just kind of put ourself cozy and we didn't know where to start. We didn't know what to do. I had an idea and I can guarantee you the first thing I did was not anything at all related to what I thought I was going to be doing. Um, but God just kind of opened that door and and we've just kind of been leaning into that. Um, now we're going on three and a half years almost four, four in July. So, um, yeah, and you know, you you mentioned it and you know, because as we got into this intro, you know, the way that we participate in digital ministry is so varied. Uh, and one of the things that I've been feeling led to and making time for recently is participating in the Twitch community instead of just being a streamer in the Twitch community. Um, when I first started out, I was in everybody's channels. I knew everybody. not as many, you know, there's there's other people that know more streamers, but uh getting to know people and and now I'm I'm finding myself in people's Twitch channels and I'm clicking on people's names when they pop in the chat.

: Chat and I'm looking at their bios. Twitch is a very interesting community because it's streamers supporting streamers. I mean, there's the most active people that I see are other streamers and it's it's micro influencer stuff, right?

: It's people with one to three viewers and um and they know the value of what it is to be in chat and they know the value of what it is to drop a follow and they know the value of what it is to be engaging.

: It just takes such a tremendous load off of everything and to have people collaborating and to have people drop gaming just followed. Yeah. I I say it's I I I've known you probably close to close to that that length of time.

: I I think it we both started about the same time and then and then came uh connected at least three years ago and we both were seeing the mission field in the digital space.

: We were both seeing the people that needed to have the light brought to them. And then uh I started to notice too people that were out there.

: Uh, so I love that it's like you just happen to have something up in the background that you weren't paying attention to, but you're like, "Oh, I know what that person needs. They they need the love of Jesus. They they need to be connected there." And that missionary heart, you know, Bootstraps was asking about you being bilingual and and the answer is yes.

: U, absolutely. You know, growing up as as a missionary in another country, growing up with a family that that knows what that is. Um, oh, you know what? I know this story. So why don't you tell about your grandfather uh just like your heritage of the pioneering spirit of experimenting and bringing the gospel by whatever means necessary because it's an awesome story.

: Okay. Um wow, what an honor to get to share about my grandfather. Uh my grandfather was one of those people that when the Lord gave him a a vision or wisdom in doing something, there was no no.

: Um the Lord led him to a a little Bible college um to go to Bible school to get prepared. Um he went and worked in Alaska on fishing boats and spent the whole summer trying to earn enough money so he could go to Bible school about two weeks before uh he was supposed to go and enroll in this Bible school. The B the boat he was working on burnt. He lost every penny because he had it all saved in his in his bunk.

: Lost the entire savings of all the work of the entire summer. Um, and he said, "Nope, I am called to go to this school." I'm just giving you guys an idea of who my grandfather was.

: Right. I didn't know this part. This is new to me. I know the other piece in the what he does when he gets there.

: I didn't know the background. Dude, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, he he just showed up at at the Bible school and was like, "Hey, like I'm here to I'm here to enroll and this and that." And they're like, "Okay, well, you know, I mean, you don't have any money." He's like, "And they're like, well, you know, you it cost money to go to these classes." And he says, "Hey, you know, I I understand that. I did I did my part.

: I went and worked for it. It burnt in a fire. God told me to be here. I'm here." And they they they didn't admit him.

: Uh he went out and sat down on the steps of of the of the university for three days. Just sat there. Didn't move. Probably didn't have money for a hotel room to sleep in.

: So probably just crash right there. I don't know. I didn't get to ask him this part. Um after the third day, one of the administrators walked by, "Come on in." They walked him through some kind of whatever whatever it took to get him in.

: Uh all of his clothes had burned up in the fire. He didn't have any clothes. Um the local the local doctor had passed about two weeks before he got there.

: They you know they they connected him with the with the widow and she had all of the like all the suits and shoes and everything fit him to a tea.

: I mean God just provided and um so he he went through the training he did everything. He ended up going to Mexico. Um this was before he married my grandmother.

: Uh went and worked with us with the Braseros in Mexico. So, it's a migrant agricultural uh community just going out there sharing Jesus with people day in and day out.

: Uh they ended up getting some land that they rented from one of the other missions that was over there. Um so they could do corn so that they could self-sustain on the mission field.

: They were doing all this other stuff. And the Lord led him to to do a a a fast of 40 days of of prayer and fasting.

: And going to who my grandfather is, he's like, "I need a I need a place to do this." He didn't have a place to just be alone with himself.

: And so he took a shovel to the side of the mountain and hollowed out a cave out of the the lime and sandstone and stuff that was there.

: And I I I got to see this place in 2022. Cool. Oh my goodness. If if you need if you need a place to find Jesus away from the heat of the Mexican sun and stuff like that, I mean, this was the place.

: Dirt floor, nothing. I mean, we're not no furniture, no comfy pillows. He was on his face in the dirt in this in this thing.

: And after 40 days, he didn't have a word. He didn't have anything. But he walked out of this prayer cave and he and he heard the braying of a donkey, but that donkey was miles and miles and miles away.

: Yeah. And the thought came to him is what if like like how can I broadcast this sound? How can I broadcast the gospel? How can I get the gospel out?

: Right? And so this so that that thought just plagued him and he was one of those people that was relentless and he went and and somehow came to um a psychological warfare weapon from the Vietnam era.

: Um and this was a speaker system. And what they would do in the Vietnam era is they would fly very specific planes with the speaker system mounted in there's only one other one that I know of that's in existence.

: It's in the Smithsonian. Flew over the things to say, "Hey, we're going to be bombing this and this and this. Get the get your civilians out." Like this, you know, stuff.

: And so, like, they would they would use that for psychological warfare back then. And God provided the means for him to come to get one.

: I mean, this is not just regular military surplus. Like, this is like one of two maybe three at the time. And um and then he needed a very specific airplane for it to fit into.

: And he got that airplane and then he had to customize a special door so he could fly his airplane with the speaker system in it.

: But he needed to be able to open flaps and he made rigged a system for him to be able to do that. And then he started preaching over Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador.

: He's been, you know, all the way as far as uh South America. I know he made it as far as Argentina because he crashed his airplane there once.

: Um okay. But the but the way the the way that the acoustics the way that the acoustics work like he could preach over over a city or a town or a village and what he would do is he would he would just fly circles and his he had to dial in that circle

: just right put the the airplane in a formation. He would just preach and he would do an altar call and he would say at the at the end of at the end of his thing, he would say, "If you decided to give your life to Jesus, go find a mirror.

: Go find something. Show flash the sunlight back at me so that I can see." And when he would go and he would preach over this, these little towns and places would just light up with all these people running out with mirrors and they would start doing that.

: And there's a picture of my grandfather sitting in his aircraft. He's got a headset on just like mine. It was older obviously in green and you know and stuff like that but I'm in the same configuration as what I have today and broadcasting in a way that is like I I may never

: see the faces of the people that I get to engage with I may never get to you know shake somebody's hand in that but he would go and then and then you know after doing this for a couple of years like there's some there's some problems with that like you need to have

: boots on the ground you need to have churches ready to accept this influx all of a sudden of people that have given their life to Jesus.

: And so started working with that. Um he founded a church in in Honduras and um you know and that's where I mean he just kept preaching and sharing the gospel.

: He used to dive bomb with candy. They they take the uh the speaker system out of the aircraft and they would dive bomb soccer fields with candy.

: They would just open up 50 lb bags of candy and just just dump candy. Is it any wonder he had a couple plane crashes?

: 50 lbs of candy falling from the sky. This This doesn't sound entirely safe. Don't drop the bag. The The person that had to The person that had to lean out the door with this bag of candy was tied in was just tied with a seat belt just around their waist.

: It's a little Yeah. Just a little belt. Yeah. Keeping you in the plane. OSHA needs to stay in the United States. Anything, you know, anything south of that that was not going to be a permissible a permissible thing.

: But uh the imp the impact that you can have when you are open to what God has for you. Oh, right. And it's just man, God's looking for obedience.

: And one of the things that gives me courage and gives me encouragement is it's like God doesn't call the gifted, right? He calls the willing and he equips them and sends them out to do what he has.

: So absolutely. Yeah. Um I didn't know I didn't know the whole background there. I just knew I just knew he flew planes and uh you know preached the gospel and it was like huh innovative, creative and different than everyone else.

: How was uh your grandfather seen by the the the the traditional church that he was operating with as a missionary or or or did they not care what he did?

: Um well he said he was sent by the Assemblies of God missions uh committee. They never were able to endorse that part of the ministry.

: They, you know, planting a church, fine, you know, and stuff like that and all the other things, but just the liability alone of the things that he was doing.

: Um, he some people were not happy to see him. Um, he he one time his chair broke in his aircraft and he fixed it by rigging a 2x4 just, you know, shoved up under the seat in a way.

: Took took some kind of small arms fire and when they got out of the airplane after that event, the 2x4 had caught the bullet.

: Otherwise, it would have been somewhere in his uh rear end. Yeah. Um it's just like, you know, hey, like there's actual costs to that kind of Yeah.

: Kind of ministry. And um you know and the the the you know the Catholic Church in Mexico is so prevalent and you know it's very very um very very authoritative and they they were opposed to him preaching and they um I heard this story after I wish I wish I could have seen

: his face when he he was such a good storyteller if I am I am not he was a phenomenal storyteller but he they uh they they started um to interfere with him preaching, they went over and they started ringing the church bells.

: Oh, you know, so they just go oh ding ding ding ding. And that was that was their answer. And I don't know if it was a couple times or if it was the first time, but my uh my grandfather got on the microphone and said, you know, even the Catholic Church is celebrating

: the news that's being preached to you by the ring of the the bell stopped. Yeah, it's um it's a very very interesting story, but u I I had to tell the first part of the story about you know the the fish the you know the fish boat burning up and everything just to

: give you an idea of his resilience. That's amazing. Um, and as as you're sharing about that, um, it it just it does bring to mind that pursuing what God calls you to do can often bring obstacles and barriers and difficulties.

: What, and you didn't talk about you having conversations with your wife. What are two or three you and if they they're longer stories just keep it you know to one but two or three things that um have come up in the three to four years as you've been doing this that have been obstacles that you've had to overcome and then how have you overcome those or how has God overcome those for you?

: Hmm. I think the first obstacle was myself and I'm somebody who rates myself pretty high on the obedience and um you know the discernment and stuff. I think that's pretty intuitive for me. Um but when I committed to moving my family and everything over to do this, I thought that I was going to go live in the first two weeks that I was out there. We left in April and I struggled with myself. I struggled with the way to do it. Our first official stream was July, um July 8th I think was our first official stream.

: And you know the understanding I, you know I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted good camera, good audio. You know I couldn't get my game audio to come into the stream at the same time. So I did a couple test streams and I was just working and working working. I'm kind of a, you know, I like fixing computers and I like doing stuff and I was just throwing everything I had and just making everything just work.

: Got a capture card, you know, I didn't have a whole lot of money. A little thirty dollar one from Amazon, you know, got that on the thing and I was like, "Okay, now I got video in." And I just, you know, I was so proud of the way that my first official stream looked. And I look at that now in retrospect after three years, I'm like, "Ooh, that thing was so rough." And there was so much more that um, you know, so much improvement that needed to be done.

: And so my first struggle was with myself with perfectionism as an excuse, right? Because we want to do things well and everything is unto the Lord and all that stuff. But the call to go, you know, the commission to say make everything perfect and then teach the gospel. No, it doesn't say that. It says go and preach and, you know, and teach, baptize, you know, and so it's one of those things that for us is crucial is setting our preferences aside and being missional first.

: Um, you know, finances has definitely been a struggle um for us. You know, going from two salaries to one salary even though we moved to a much cheaper place to live and things like that. Um, it's something that I've seen and it's some, it's on like a recurring thing. It's like whenever I'm struggling with finances, I can look and see into the lives of five or six other creators and they're in the exact same boat with me.

: And when I see content creators go dark and I check in on them, it's like, "Hey, this life is, you know, life is being difficult," and you know, and this and so I see that kind of stuff and it's like, "Man, like I, this is, it almost feels like an attack," but the reality of the situation is that God is always in control. He's in control of everything. And um really what's coming down to is just finding that obedience.

: And um so that's been the second hurdle. And the third and probably the least impactful thing is just resistance from quote unquote traditional pastors. Yeah. Um, not understanding, not understanding the digital sphere and not understanding the diff, like not understanding the level of community we can build for stuff and the, I'm a hugger. I like to hug people and when we get to digital it's very very difficult for me to wrap my arms around somebody and just give them a good comforting squeeze but you know there these are the challenges and these are the things that we've had to overcome right and then we get opportunities like Reach Comp and um Exponential and all these other places where we can actually engage with the people that we're ministering with and all ministering with and and for in those in those spaces.

: So yeah. Yeah. Um Bootstraps was just kind of an agreement with you there that we all, we all get that part of the growing pains of the yeah.

: And the concept when you when you start something new, you try something new and you and I was talking about this earlier today of have and I'll ask this question. So, I will say I feel totally blessed that before I went to seminary, the church that I was working at and serving with had an attitude of let's try it and failure is okay.

: Um, after I got out of seminary, I didn't realize what a blessing that was. I went to churches that excellence is the most important thing. And if it's not excellent, you don't get to do it in the church. Not not that this was their attitude exactly this, but the example that makes some sense is uh well, you can't be pitchy when you're up there singing.

: Um if you're pitchy, you're not even going to get to get in it. And once you, so it's like go out in the world, perfect what you're doing, then come back to the church when you are perfect and then you can be used by the church. Like God has to, you know, take you out into the world to hone your skills. We can't do that in the church cause the church has to be perfect when you get up front. The church has to do everything right the first time. And as I, I even feel that today when when I went to my denomination and said, "Hey, I'm thinking about, you know, doing digital stuff." And they're like, "Well, how is it going to be viable?" Look, God called me to do something. I didn't ask God about how is it going to be viable, you know, like and then and then how do I even demonstrate if it's viable or not? Unless you're just talking on a financial sustainability basis, I don't know what else you're asking about when you're saying viable, and that's really what they were asking.

: So, right, it's it's not the easiest thing. Hey, tall skinny is in the house. Tall skinny Kiwi uh saying your pastor, you know, nothing Jon Snow is counterproductive. Totally. Yes. Yeah. Um just checking if there's anything else in the chat. Oh, as always, ask if you can turn your mic up a smidge.

: Oh. Um, I might be able to do that, too. Yeah, if you can if you could up me there, that would be better. Yeah, let me let me do that. Oops, wrong way. Um oh, I know where it is. There it is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, that's that's a really interesting perspective. Um, and I was, you know, getting to read one of the greatest chapters in the Bible today with my wife. Uh, we were in Acts chapter two, right? And so we were um we were looking at this at this moment in in history where these these guys, most of them, right, fishermen, unlearned people, they are uneducated.

: I love that line. When they saw that they were uneducated men, they didn't know what to do anymore, right? You know, and it's like, "Hey, you know, is this viable? Can we put six fishermen, a doctor, a tax collector, and you know, can we throw these people in the deep end and start a church?"

: Yeah. Well, I mean, and technically Jesus sent them out before they were even filled with the spirit. Jesus sent them out, you know, to to do ministry to cast out demons in his name. And and it was something that during his ministry before everything else was going on, he was making an impact in the world through people whether they even had a full understanding of what the gospel actually was. They were actually they were out there doing doing the work. Yeah. And I and I think that's one of the things I'm I have and I continue to see is in digital space when you are hanging out in digital space and you start feeling the nudge from God to do things you're you're like okay let me let me move into that let me try that let me see but I think there's also a level of the more you see it the more people are inclined to see it uh the church digital we're praying at 10:02 uh in your own time zone We're inviting people to join us that it's Luke 10:2 is pray for the workers of the harvest um to send out and we're praying that for the digital mission field.

: So at 10:02 we're inviting people to pray every day. Um but I am seeing God send people into the harvest and uh Bootstraps was asking so I I think this goes right along with that of when you are feeling you are the only one doing it when you are isolated because you don't have a church that's that's physically with you. um when you have struggles of the doubts, the mental struggles or the enemy attacks or you know like I heard you reaching out to people but what do you do yourself?

: Uh what has been helpful to you in the last three to four years of being able to stay faithful and stay in the trenches of what God's called you to do?

: Um, I think I'm half the man my grandfather was. So that resiliency is is generational. Yeah. Um, you know, I don't know if that came out entirely right, but you know, resil you know, just, you know, just the raw raw resilience is is part of it.

: Um, if my wife were not who she is, I don't think that I would be where I am today. I think that that's a really um it's a really difficult thing to ask of her to do what she does. Um, you know, she's um she's been a tremendous supporter of this and she doesn't know the impact that she has. I try to tell her. I try to tell her, but it doesn't ever come across as as well as it does. Um, and then having people that even though they're struggling, they still come in and they support and they they do stuff.

: Um, that's been a major component. And then having um kind of in the same vein, I mean the John 17:23 groups, having other pastors that are in in similar spaces, in similar struggles coming together and and and sharing and talking and having that brotherhood as iron uh sharpens iron. Um that's that's been that's been very much a a major component of why we are still able to do what we do. And we've been through some we've been through some tough times.

: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I say it's been a privilege to be in uh and and I'm I'm one of the people that that coordinates and and helps to to put John 17:23 groups together, but essentially those who are doing ministry and serving as a shepherd pastoral role, which missionaries certainly do. So, you don't need a title. Uh you don't need credentials. You're just doing the work of that. uh we put people together in a group uh talking about similar things and struggles.

: So I I've set those up digitally to gather together and we do four things in those groups for those that that haven't heard about them. Uh we share our life story with each other. Uh we check in with each other on how things are going. Uh we we read scripture together. We don't teach each other. We we bring a scripture and we talk about, "Hey, I saw this in this in this passage and God and the spirit were speaking to me in this way and I wanted to share it just or hey, I uh what are your observations on this?" We're not teaching theology. We're we're intentionally uh interdenominational uh so that we we can share with each other and build up because John 17:23 uh if you don't know is is part of the high priestly prayer.

: And Jesus says uh as I and the father are one, he is praying for us to be in unity the same way. And he's praying for all believers and so that the world will know that they are my disciples when because of the unity they have for one another. And so I really believe that's important. Uh I see it happen more easily in digital space, but it might be right now because there's so few of us. We're not territorial. So I'm praying that it stays that way that we build it into the culture in digital space that I'm going to support you u and I'm going to support as always ministries and I'm going to support DC4C and all the things that you're doing uh because I want to see

: You succeed. The church digital, we want to see you succeed. We want to help you in whatever ways, and anyone else with community, with connection, with equipping and helping to mobilize you in whatever you're doing in ministry.

: One of the things that I know for myself personally that keeps me going are the stories of impact in a person's life. Can you maybe just share, absolutely, one? If it's a really good long one, that's fine, or two if they're a little shorter of deep impact that you were there, and because you were in digital space, whatever was going on, you were able to make an impact in a person's life, or it was a repeated ongoing relationship. So either, you know, either side of that, what keeps you going from realizing the impact that you're having for the kingdom?

: Yeah, I think that there's two stories, and I'll be brief about them. But you know, we had, as most great stories do, there's a struggle, and I was struggling. We fin, you know, we were not, we're not are not financially viable. We had to move in with my in-laws. I was tired. I was frustrated. I was just not, I was not in the head space to get online and be happy and cheery and push forward and do stuff. And I was like, I'm not going to stream tonight. And the Lord just pressed on my heart, "You're going to stream tonight." Like, okay, God, but I'm not going to play video games. That was my thing. And I, I mean, I don't know how the spirit communicates. I don't care, man. Just do it. But he let me operate that way. It was really interesting.

: And I just went and I got an orange background. It was a Thanksgiving stream. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I just had a little, you know, oak leaf up there, Thanksgiving over the thing. And I'm just a face right smack dab. And I get online and I'm just talking about all of the reasons that I'm thankful, and just, and we have people coming in and you know, and talking and sharing what they're thankful for and whatnot. And all of a sudden, just this person, brand new, never seen this person before, popped in and like, "Oh, I thought you were playing Fortnite." I had forgotten to change my, the game to just chatting or whatever. And so we start having this conversation, and we just, you know, we're like fifteen minutes in, and the spirit just presses on my heart like, "Do an altar call."

: Okay. Well, how do you do an altar call with just a couple people talking about why they're thankful? But it's like, "Hey, you know what? I hear you, and I just, I get in," and we have people that are in the chat and they're like, "Hey, following Jesus was the best decision I ever made in my life." And this person who, she was eight or nine years old, gave her life to Jesus live on that stream. And just the euphoria of what was there followed by immediate sheer panic because here I am, you know, a guy in his thirties talking to an eight or nine year old girl. And I'm like, there, we always follow up. We always connect. There's you, and this is a child. Yeah, in the digital space. And I'm like, what? As much as I wanted to make her decision to follow Jesus about her, and in that, it's like, and I don't remember how I worded it. I was like, "Can I talk to, you know, your mom or your dad or whatever?" And, you know, eventually we ended stream. I got on Discord. Her mom messaged me, and we started having this conversation, and then she ends up recommitting her life to Christ over Discord messaging. And just like, what is, like, what is happening? What is going on in this thing? And it was just because obedience factored in.

: And the other story is really interesting. Just before you jump in, the other story there, I love the arguing with the Holy Spirit, because not a lot of people are, and let me put it this way: not a lot of pastors that I know are willing to talk about that. But I, that's how I usually do it. Like, no, why? Why? No, that's not what I'm thinking. What do you mean that's what? And people will ask, how do you know if it's God speaking to you? I like to phrase it this way: it sounds like my voice, but it's not my idea, and it's not what I want to do. Now, that's not all the time, but that's when I know for sure that this is the Holy Spirit leading me into something, because I'm arguing with the Holy Spirit about, well, I didn't say that. I only said this, so you can be obedient to the part that you're willing, just like you were talking about. Well, I told you to go online, so if you don't play the game, that's on you, bro.

: You know, it's like, yes. You know, as almost as irreverent as that sounds, I mean, if it's bigger, faster, stronger, better than anything that you would ever dream or imagine, yeah, harder, you know, it's, yeah. And I'm not going to get to the Jonah and I'm going the opposite way, but I'm going to argue along the way kind of a thing, like, are you sure? I'm testing this out. I don't know. It doesn't sound like a great plan. Have you thought this through, Holy Spirit? I don't usually say that, but I think it, you know, it's like, what? No, this can't be. I mean, let's, like, when I started the prayer booth, and you know that, you know, the whole like, why am I going to take a year off of work to start a nonprofit and not get paid and have no income and sit in the local artisan market? Like, God, you're bringing me into digital. Now you're telling me to go into physical. What am I supposed to be doing here?

: Mm-hmm. So, oh, it's just so fun. The other thing I was going to say or ask: how often do you recall that story for yourself so that when you're struggling, you go, "Oh, I've had a moment. I've had at least one victory for the kingdom. That's enough to keep me going"?

: When it gets struggling, I probably at least three or four times a year. Yeah. You know, when it comes to measuring impact, when it comes to being able to clearly and effectively communicate how God is moving in digital spaces, how God could possibly use some guy playing a violent video game can actually make a difference in people's lives, you know, we had, we had somebody. I literally took him out in Warzone, and he raged, and he came into my channel, and he pops in from time to time. And I mean, if you're here, Lazy, love you, man. You know, like, hey, and now, you know, God's working on him. God's not letting him loose. God's, you know, and we have connection. We have an opportunity to engage and stuff like that, and it's fantastic.

: Yeah. It's only God, you know, and I think that there's, I've been doing a devotional live, or pre-recorded, or recorded in the past, anyways, from "My Utmost for His Highest." And one of the things that he cautions against is basing your life and your ministry on the victories of the past, because if you're not focused on what God is doing right now.

: Oh, yeah. Right. Right. And so, you know, so when I say three or four times, you know, I think that that's accurate, because I'm constantly looking for the victories of what God is doing, right? Right. Today. And my point in bringing and in saying that is, because part of Bootstrap's question was, what do you do when you feel alone and isolated and you don't feel so? My thought was just in the recounting the victories that God has already given, which is also what we're called to do. You know, teach them to your children, recount them along the way. I mean, there is the annual celebration that God brought them out of slavery, you know. So it's an ongoing. So that was my thought, not living in the past, but in the present, when it feels like I'm wandering in the desert, I remember that he brought me out of slavery. That was my, but yeah, I know you do Oswald Chambers and have been doing that for some time.

: Okay, if you want to, you know, either follow up on that or move into the other story.

: Yeah. No, and that's, you know, the other story is just, you know, getting to see what God has done in someone's life over three years now. This was the person that first gave their life to Christ because of digital, you know, and as always ministries, Christmas Eve 2021. And you know what a tremendous thing to three years later have that person speaking words of wisdom into my life. Oh, that was, I know it was something that I mean, you know, the Bible is very clear, you know, don't consider yourself better than or more than anybody else and stuff like that. And so be careful of those, you know, just because you're called to do stuff, right, doesn't mean that you're the only one called to do it, and things like that. But, you know, being admonished, being loved on, being cared for by somebody that I was there from the moment that he gave his life to Christ, you know, that was a full circle moment. And I took the time to talk about that with him. I was like, what an encouragement that three years ago, you know, you, I was pouring into you, and now three years ago, in a really down time for me, you know, you're really pouring into me. And I, you know, it's, it's really corny, you know, those teachers that are like, oh, the kids teach me, you know, but it's, I mean, it really is. I mean, when we're talking about operating in the spirit, when we talk about operating in the giftings and things like that, I mean, that's, we've got to be ready to receive as we're giving too. That's really, really an interesting turn and very, very heartwarming to me.

: Yeah. I think you really do need to be humble and realize that you can learn from anyone, and you may, I mean, specifically thinking spiritually, they may be speaking into my life at a time when I need them, whereas before I was speaking into their life when they were in a place of no knowledge and or coming to Christ. I think about, you know, over time, the, I talked about the church that I was at, and boy, three fantastic mentors that I had there before going to seminary. The senior pastor, the junior high pastor, and the senior high pastor. And I hung out with the two, you know, senior high and junior high pastor as much as I could, because they were trying to do adult ministry or they needed help. So I was young, married, I'm hanging out with those guys. They're younger than me. But it's like, I don't know why I just love hanging out with you guys. So if you say, "I need help," and I say, "When can I be there?" You know, what is it? Oh, I don't care. You just, you say you want me there and I'll be there. That's how valuable they were in my life. And then the senior pastor, I didn't take up a lot of his time, you know, in that same way of an ongoing weekly connection with him. But boy, when we would sit and have chats, he just poured into me and always was calling me to something more than I thought I could do.

: Fast forward years later, when there were struggles at the church, and I stop in and I pop in to visit him, and then he's asking me on a level of, hey, you know, this is going on. What do you think about this? You know, like, hey, you've got fresh eyes. You're on the outside. You're a young, you know, guy trying to work your way. Can you breathe life into me because I'm feeling worn down? And it was like, it just was like, "Wow, I didn't, I never thought that this relationship would flip, that I would be on the other side speaking into you, my mentor." You know, but it was just so powerful.

: I'm I've kept up with two of those guys throughout the years. One moved away to Scotland and I lost connection with him. But the other two, I've tried to stay connected with as much as possible. And right, you know, boy, in digital space you can even stay more connected still.

: Like every relationship, it takes effort on both parts to do that. But it just seems so much more of a to me I'm in your life because I'm constantly chatting with, responding to it.

: Um, and maybe that's something that people that are only in physical churches may not see. Yeah. I mean, that's I think that, you know, we're talking about the viability of ministry and I think viability of ministry is not measured in the finances, it's measured in the fruit.

: Yeah. Yeah. Right. It's something that um I mean if we look at the viability of the ministry of the apostles, I mean they bled and died, burned, boiled, you know, for the sake of the gospel and stuff. And for us, you know, it's about um, you know, how do we measure our success? Do we measure it in the analytics, right? Do we have three people watching, five people watching? Sometimes it's one, you know. And one of the encouragements that I give people, especially when they're starting out, is if you have two or three people hanging out in your stream, if you average three, you're in the top ninety percent of Twitch streamers. I know.

: That's so mind-blowing. It's so mind-blowing. And then if you're on YouTube and you're engaging and stuff on there, and I mean, who knows? YouTube is such a different thing altogether. But I mean, how you define success is I think it's got to be measured in impact.

: Um, and the way people I think that the way people see you, the way you see yourself is always different than the way people see you, right? And having those people in your life to come alongside and say, "Hey, you know, I see the faithfulness. I see the consistency. I see the constant attempts at approval or approval at improvement. Yeah. I see, you know, all of these things. I mean, that's faithfulness, right?

: So that's um for me, I think that's one of the crucial elements in knowing that we're making a positive impact. Yeah. Um, yeah.

: Um, and just asking, do you need to be getting off the stream here shortly or do you have still more time?

: I have another twenty-three minutes. Okay. Okay. Another twenty-three. Good. Uh, because I got a couple more questions that I'm really dying to ask.

: Um, sure. As you look at this year and where God is calling you, what is the most exciting thing uh that you are venturing into, experimenting with, or you just feel an overwhelming sense of purpose that God's going to make it happen?

: That's such a good question. Um, I think I mean there's so many different things that are going on right now. We're in the middle of a church plant on the peninsula. Um, we're doing the digital stuff and I am excited to see lives transformed is obviously one of them, but I'm excited to see the way that God intervenes.

: Uh, we're going through our credentialing process with the Foursquare and one of the tenants, one of the, you know, it's a Foursquare gospel. Um, you know, Jesus is savior, Jesus is healer, Jesus is lord, and Jesus as giver of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus the soon coming. Those are the Foursquare tenants of that. And we've been really operating in Jesus as healer. Um, you know, my testimony of what happened with my wife.

: Um, I'll give a ten-second version, fifteen seconds. Um, you know, December second, uh, I looked up from my computer. My wife had been on her computer. We'd been working all day and she was in full-blown mega seizure. She suffered with epilepsy as a child. Uh, but she was one of the first children to receive brain surgery and it was one hundred percent success. She didn't take another medication. She didn't have any other problems. And then all of a sudden December second, that stepped in and God has been using that story because I couldn't, she wasn't breathing. Her lips were turning blue. I was, you know, all I can do is pray the name of Jesus over her and God gave me the word release.

: And I said, "Release." And that's the moment that the seizure like let her go and she was able to take a deep breath in and I was able to get her to the floor. We got her to the hospital. She's okay. Um, and then that Sunday they prayed over her um at church and Jesus moved in her life, completely took away the mental fog, the physical exhaustion, everything that comes along from the seizure.

: Uh, and now she has been using that story to connect with people at work. She shared the gospel with around three hundred people between faculty, parents, students. Uh, and that's been our in into the Palo Alto area and sharing Jesus. And I'm excited to see healings. I'm excited to see the way that the Holy Spirit's going to move in the lives of the people that we are in connection with.

: U, there are families that are believers that are coming around us. Um, and I'm excited to see what God does in their life.

: Um, that on top of everything that we're seeing with DC Forestry, we have people that are uh coming in and I mean one of them is going to be at Reach Conf uh representing, or two of you guys, you know, you're going to be there. Redeem Jay is going to be there. Um, you know, and like we're just we're seeing God just move in people's lives and grow and do tremendous things and getting to be a fly on the wall, getting to be one part of the puzzle in all of those things.

: That's what gets me excited. That's what makes me excited. Um, and like I was talking about being in people's dreams and recognizing the need and building relationship with people. That's um, that's taking a center stage for me. Yeah. Yeah. I guess say that that's one of the things that I got to do early on when I was on Twitch was just hang out in streams.

: And then as I've been busier in ministry, when I went back to working in physical church and having those responsibilities, it was, well, I'll raid over to you and I'll hang out for five minutes and then I got to go. Now, still often when I raid out to someone is because I have a meeting in five minutes now and I can't hang out, but I'll come back later if I can and try to do that.

: And so I do think that's a piece that people don't realize in digital space is that connection of community that can happen because like right now the chat, not super active, but people engaging, commenting back in there, that we can respond to them, they can respond to us, we can engage along. I just love the yes, yes, yes, Lord. I don't know if you can see that going on. It's just fantastic. Uh, whose emotes are those, by the way?

: Yeah, but my chat is bugged. Yeah. Uh, I think when we had to restart the, oh, when we restarted you over here. Oh, sorry about that. Yeah, but no, that's okay. But I pulled it up on a different tab here, so I got it.

: Yeah, that's just, so I'm seeing it right now. That, well, that's the other thing, too. I think is that we build camaraderie with others who are on mission together that I've rarely been able to do in a physical church.

: In a physical church, I can be in an ecumenical community and we can have a pastoral, and in different communities are better and worse than others, but the most we do is, oh, we'll do a Lenten lunch series together and it's an extra thing and it's at your, so one church will host and a different pastor will preach and seventy percent of the people that come are from either the host or the preacher who's there.

: And we're not getting any engagement from the community. And then you know what? I don't see any of those people again till next year. We don't actually connect with each other's communities. We might connect on pastors. And I think that's a great thing, but I don't connect with your community because I'm never in your community. I don't go to your events because I have my own events and I'm busy with my events. But in digital space, I can show up for twenty minutes to your event and I get something out of it and I give something to you in a very short time where if I'm getting in the car and going to spend my time and effort, even if it's a five minute drive, if I showed up for twenty minutes, you're going to be looking and everyone's going to be looking like, why did they bother to come at all? They didn't even stay. It's a totally different uh atmosphere and culture um that I think appreciates everything that people do instead of looking at what you do as you weren't here when we started. You didn't stay all the way to the end. And more judgmental. And that I'm not saying it's not in the space. I mean, because it is, but I'm just saying uh a lot of the communities that I'm hanging out in, I don't feel that. I don't feel that at all. Um, which leads, which leads me, oh, you go ahead and respond to that. Oh, no. I think that, you know, there's always that element of collaboration.

: Um, even when someone takes five minutes just to pop in like you say, that there's encouragement, there's support, there's that other stuff. And you know, one thing that um that I've seen, you know, is like, oh well, we show up to events, but you know, there's this, oh, how could we do it better? If we were in this situation, what, how would we do it? Yes. Right. Yes. And it's all, and they had that, they had that staff meeting and it's like, you know, what can we do that's bigger or better? It's the Tim the Toolman Taylor uh Christmas decorating. I've been watching that again. Um, you know, it's like what can we do that? And that's one of the elements of Foursquare that's been really encouraging is like I've never been in a situation where I felt that, you know, God put us in this place. We went to this church and they know that we're leaving. Yeah. They know that we're building. They know that we're engaging with them, their community members, and they're encouraging us to do that.

: Yes. It's like I've always been, oh well, you know, you're only going to be here for six months or you're only going to be here for a year, you know, hey, don't talk to this person because, you know, I mean, we know you're leaving, right?

: Right. It's like, whoa. You know, and so it's been this entirely different framework for us and it's been really, really um encouraging. And in digital, man, you know, we just, we all we have the people that we know on a personal level, we have people that we know of and the things that they're doing. I rated out to somebody who I've never been in one of his streams before because people have come in and told me about his stream and he's a Christian content creator.

: He plays a game I don't play, which is why I've never done anything with him, you know, but I was able to rate out to him and, you know, he's a bigger streamer. For what, you know, my rate of six or seven, big whoop, you know, but you know, right out to that and it's an entirely collaborative and encouraging thing and it's what the church, big C, needs.

: Yes. Yeah. I've often commented the whole raid thing. I'm like, "Oh my goodness, this would be like a dream of mine if what a church had a service at a time and then everyone left and went to the church down the road and then you left and went to the church down the road and you didn't see it as compet, like you're not going to do it every Sunday." But like if you could do this like for a Holy Week kind of a thing, how awesome would that be if you could coordinate it?

: If you could get past egos, if you could get past uh kingdom or castle over kingdom, if you could get past that. Um, it probably won't happen.

: So, but I love the idea of that of going from community to community. The closest I've ever done in person would be like a pub crawl or something like that or a progressive dinner if you've ever done one of those where you usually a progressive dinner is like you go to one person's house and you have the appetizers. You go to the next person's house and then you have a course, you go to another person's house, have another course, and you go to another person's house and have dessert. You something along those lines. And so you're going from place to place where people are serving you. You're still not open to the public.

: The pub crawl is like, "Anybody comes, let's all bring ours, we'll go somewhere else. Whether you're drinking or not, it's a fun time to just go along with the group, moving from place to place, and you keep inviting and bringing more people along, and you lose some along the way." And anyway, I just think that'd be super fun to do as a church. I don't know. Yeah, my brain went right away to the logistics of that. It's like, well, during the pandemic, you know, they were doing the, um, what do you call that? The outdoor movie theater church, right? Where they would hang the speakers in the cars, the project. Everyone's already in their cars, right? All right, we'll do a service at 7:30 a.m. and then, you know, we're going to be, you know, at so and so's church at 10 o'clock. If you missed the seven o'clock service, let's meet at 10. You know, just that kind of collaboration. I again, we were in Acts chapter 2 and we're talking about the joy of the people that are coming to Christ and selling everything that they have. And there was joy. Oh, yeah. You know, in the body. It's like, man, how could we do that? Yeah, that'd be fun. Well, um, one final thing that I do want to talk about.

: Um, so we're on Twitch and I have a limited genre, a limited scope of games that I've played. I usually stick to one game until I defeat it. I've usually only done single player games. I've not done the online things, but Twitch is more open to all of those things. So I asked you about a game and I did get it downloaded. Um, and then I was still playing through it. It said it had bugs, so I'm not sure it's ready to go. Then it said, "Oh, I've got to set up an Activision account." I didn't get that done. It wouldn't let me pull up because it maxed the screen, which drives me nuts that it's like, "No, I've got two screens. Let my mouse go to the other screen so I can pull up my password manager so I can create an account." You know, anyway. Anyway, so you said Call of Duty Warzone. So I've never played. Explain to me why this is a game that you love and any of the genre. I know you play first-person shooter, so it doesn't matter this game specifically. So just talk in general of why you love that style, what it does in the community for the people that play it. Why this one in particular you invited me to play? I don't think we're going to have time today, but I will play that game. And then after I play it, I'm going to play whatever this clip is that you're inviting me into it and I'll put that together with my gameplay.

: Okay. Um, the idea of you playing Call of Duty Warzone tickled me pink. I told you. I was like, I'm trying to be merciful. I tried to find another game that I had done that I knew we could collaborate and do stuff on and stuff and I'm like I've got nothing, got nothing.

: Um, so what brings me back to Warzone time and time again despite, and there are many issues, many issues. Um, but the thing that's there is there is always improvement. There's always something to talk about. There's always something that, um, it challenges me and it's one of those, it's one of those things I like games where I can drop in that I don't have to sit here. Um, I was literally in a Discord chat talking about potentially getting back into Destiny 2 and things and that game just takes so many hours of grinding and grinding and grinding to have the higher level stuff and this one once you grind your guns until they bring out a new gun, you're good to go.

: But um, the friends that I have built in this community, the friends that I have, I mean the ministry we've done, um, getting there's proximity, there's so many different tools here. There one tool on here is proximity chat and if you are just close enough to another player you can talk to that other player. Yeah. Um, I usually have that turned off just for stream purposes because when I win that gunfight, they have not nice things to say. Uh, and we try, we try to keep things as PG as we can on stream, but you know, if you know, should the occasion arise, I can do that. And I think that there's uh, there's this constant improvement that drives me to the game and that's that's why I play it. Yeah. Um, so what is the general storyline of the game then? Because I know it's war and it's first person shooter, but I have no concept of what the goal is, when it's set, any of those things. So what is this one uh set for? So the lore is more from the uh, from the gameplay of the actual game. So the Warzone is a separate entity specifically around battle royale. So if you want to, if you want a storyline, you know, there's Captain Price and you know there's all these characters and I, I honestly cannot remember for the life of me the storyline and the betrayals and you know and all of that. But if you play through the story, um, and there's I think there's two different iterations. There's the Treyarch version and then there's another one. So there's there's two different storylines that are that are ongoing. Um, you know, I don't play it for the lore. I like to be able to drop in even if I'm going to spend six hours playing it, right? I can cut, I can stop doing it at any moment. And that's uh, that's why I like it. Yeah. I was just trying to, you know, figure that out because I don't know, is it, you know, post-apocalyptic World War II? Is it World War II? Is it, I mean, it's modern warfare. I know is one of the names of within that genre. So I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to get myself into. So any way that they can sell you skins and different things, um, they kind of build around that, but yeah, definitely uh, World War II and later. I don't think there's anything prior to World War II uh, in the Call of Duty franchise. Um, and then, yeah, very much in the new era of uh, of tech. Uh, one one of my chatters says it's it's about as sci-fi as the old G.I. Joe cartoon. Oh, okay. See, now you throw the G.I. Joe in there now. Now I might be intrigued. But I want the laser type shooting. You know, I can see it going, you know, not just, oh, I shot, price of, was I off by 50 feet or 20 feet? I can't tell. Yeah. It's like, you know, for the low low price of $24.99, you can get tracer rounds. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. You know, yeah.

: Um, yeah, there's, yeah, it's it's um, it's in an interesting space, but yeah, it's it's one of those things where we can talk smack gently with one another about it. Yeah. And you know, and we, you know, the constant ribbing of the squadmates is is a lot of fun. All right. Yeah. And I can understand the camaraderie of the people you're playing with. There are certainly games, uh, card games and board games that I play with people that I don't care one lick for the game, but I want to spend time with you and camaraderie and I'm just going to hang out with you uh, to be able to do that. Uh, now we know and knowing is half the battle. I'm watching. Thank you very much. G.I. Joe, the greatest American hero. Sorry. Uh, that's fun. Um, I guess one final thing before you need to go is how can we be praying for you and your ministry and you as a digital missionary?

: I think that, you know, more than anything that God would open up the um, the creative component. Um, you know, it's one thing to be a streamer, it's another thing to be a content creator. Yeah. Um, uh, and you know, just that whole vein of of video editing and and making things and being relevant, you know, I'm pushing, I'm pushing in, you know, the 40s, you know, and it's one of those things that's like I could spend all my day entirely on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok and I still wouldn't understand why something would be uh, viral or not viral. It's just entirely about a different thing. Um, and you know, co-laborers, you know, people that want to come in and um, you know, our we're a part of EC4C. We want to encourage, equip, empower people to share the gospel in digital spaces. Uh, the three E, right? We want people that that have that that um, ability that have that that desire to uh, to do that.

: Um, and then, you know, as I mentioned, you know, we are not financially sustainable. I just did my taxes, you know, our uh, our revenues were negative for last year, you know, and it's like, well, it's it's not about the revenue. It's it's about the impact and and stuff. And so those those are all things that are entirely uh, surrendered to to the Lord and and we are joyful for what we were able to do for him. Uh, but you know we do have a we do have a hope and a prayer that as things grow and as things develop and as you know churches around the world begin to invest in digital right that this would be uh, you know one of the one of the places where um, where we could be financially viable you know. Yeah, absolutely. I'm I'm just typing in the chat here. Um, someone was asking about or suggesting Discord. Uh, I can probably copy a, so that's the church digitals link, but uh, let me find the link to share for, do you want, as always men, uh, Discord shared? If I can, I don't know if I can share that. Can I share that? Um, yeah. Let me let me pop that right here. And to my chat, thank you so much for being here. And I I have been seeing messages. And whenever you see me smile, that's that's me seeing your uh, your message. I don't know if it's showing up in in uh, in flat caps. No, I'm I'm I'm trying to grab it here. Didn't work. Come on. Um, there we go. RLR C. Yeah. So, the next time we do this when we have to restart one, I need to restart the, yeah. Oh, you got it. All right. Perfect. I, yeah. Yeah. I say I go, I go to, I found that several of them I go to and it says hidden. Well, I can't actually share. I can only invite then. I can't post the link from, so I was just looking. Here says hidden when I when I went to, is it showing up? So there we go. So there's there's your info. Um, which definitely go check that out. There's also, as we're mentioning, DC4C, and that's a collection of streamers, just like there are other several other collection of streamers out there, which you just start realizing uh, if you're on your own, it's it's a lot harder to always feel like you're you're being successful and you're doing something. Uh, and Jesus doesn't even do it that way. He sends them out two by two when he when he sends them out. They they go off and they go together. Uh, I really, I know some denominations do it more that way. But when they're calling pastors, it's not usually that way. You're not calling two people. You're not calling an associate pastor and a pastor together. That could be a team. I mean, that would be fantastic on some level. Uh, you know, Paul and Barnabas go off together. Uh, uh, and then and then uh, Barnabas and Mark go off together and then Paul takes Silas and goes off together and then gathers people along the way. Like missionaries are usually sent to a foreign country. If if there's two of you, it's because you're married and you bring in your spouse and you're bringing your kids if there's more than that.

: They're not usually sending two people to do ministry together. We don't rarely do that. But I think in digital space there's more capacity to collaborate and be on there.

: Um, I mean I've got my resources here and thankfully, um, well we'll see what happens because I still haven't got my tax return from last year but my tax return from this year is bigger than last year's.

: Uh, if it comes in and when it comes in, um, that'll cover uh a month of uh well a couple of months of housing. Um, let alone other stuff. It's like wow, that's totally a blessing. Wasn't expected. Um, but because I had so little income and filed joint with my wife, you know, it was like, yeah, my income was negative and hers was positive and that balanced us out. And so I was like, oh God, I didn't expect you to provide that way. That was the last way I expected to be provided for. And uh, he does it.

: So um, any last thoughts or things you want to share with everybody? Yeah, I mean the main thing and the main, uh, the main component for me when it comes to digital is wherever you can be, wherever you know, use your time wisely and stuff like that. But it's not about being a live streamer with a thousand people. It might be being live for two people and you're sharing. It might just be modding. It might just be, you know, whatever it is. If you have a streamer that you love their ministry, you love their support, reach out to them and say, "Hey, how can I support? How can I pray?" Because those connections, those things that they make a difference. Uh, but don't let that be your excuse to not do what God is calling you to do. If God is speaking to you about going live and posting content and doing stuff like that, get out there. Do the work. Do the work.

: Yeah, that's a good point about mods and other people. Um, we are all needed in the kingdom. Not everyone is going to be a streamer and not everyone's called to be a streamer. Not everyone's called to be a mod, but everyone is called to be salt and light. And whether you're in the Discord, whether you're in the chat, wherever you are encouraging people, um, yeah, God is going to use you uh to do those things. So absolutely.

: All right. Well, thanks, thanks my friend for being here. Appreciate you so much. I love hanging out with you. Uh, I'll get the game set up and figured out and I will stream when I play and then, you know, maybe down the road we can we can uh play together sometime and you can share the joys with me and uh we can hang out and do that. So that's kind of my thoughts here is to do that.

: Uh, my morning stream on my other channel, I've been reading the Bible and that's probably what I want to spend most of the time here. I want to bring friends in, talk about what they're doing, and then encourage other people to come check out and hang out, is play a little bit of game that friends are inviting. Maybe I'll play it on my other channel too. Who knows? And uh we'll go from there. So uh, let's uh, let's blow up the chat with uh, thank yous and hype and emotes, whatever, whatever you want to throw in the chat. Uh, just thank, uh, as always, Brandon, for uh coming and hanging out with us. DC Forsy Lifeline, I'm throwing all your accolades out there, all your monikers, and uh, go follow him.

: I appreciate everybody. Thank you so much for having me on here. I got to jet. Yep. Take off, man. All right. God bless. You too, man.

: How do I leave this thing? Okay. So I'm still here. Let me go up to here. Is that the one I want? Or let me see this one. Let's go to this one. Let's go to this one.

: Hey, thanks everyone for hanging out. Uh, that's kind of after all the technical difficulties, if you were hanging out the full time, uh, you know, the struggle at the beginning, then struggle is real. Um, you know, inviting a friend in, just talking about ministry, that's what I want to do in this space.