Selah Ep. 16: Called To Build Family

Hello and welcome to the Selah podcast. I'm Jacob, your host and I'm joined by Pastor Amy. And today our guests are Dar and Andrew Draper, who were our children's pastor here at the Refuge for many years and whenever I came on staff. And so during this podcast for Selah, we're having a 21 day fast at the church and Selah simply means pause and consider. We're also going to be talking about God given dreams.

You know, the dreams that he brings to you in prayer or just in certain times of your life and the journey to see them fulfilled. So, guys, can you start us out with your dream? How did this come about? What is the thing that God laid on your heart? Wow.

Well, we were living our dream. We weren't living our dream. Weren't we, husband? Yeah, because we met each other. Whoa.

That's the dream. That was the first dream. Yes. And anyway, the life is such an interesting journey because, you know, the word says, in his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. And honestly, I always had this dream of being in ministry and I wanted, I dreamed of, I thought you had to marry a pastor to be in ministry.

So I actually had this dream of marrying a pastor. And the Lord took me a different direction, had her marry me. I married Andrew and actually 15 years into marriage, he became a pastor. So I did get my dream. He forced me.

I did. But it's interesting because sometimes our dreams come true when we don't, we realize they're not what we think they're gonna. You know, we have these hyped up dreams. And I had to learn that ministry is everything. Like everything is ministry.

And then the Lord allowed me to be in formal ministry. So we were on staff at the refuge for 10 years from 2007 to 2017. Loved it so much. 10 glorious years. You wanna say anything about that season before we got our dream?

It was. Yeah, I always say it's greatest jobs I've ever had. I just loved, loved working with kids, loved teaching kids, pastoring kids. And I've got the mind of a child and a face for radio, so this works out perfect job. So, yeah, I loved it because I love humor and in order to engage a child, you've got to be at this high level all the time and you gotta be funny because the things you're competing against are like, you watch their cartoons, you watch the YouTube stuff, they, they watch it and it's, you know, it's real high level.

And so, you know, when you're ministering to them, you've got to be at this real high level of, you know, funny stuff and just things coming at you of things happening, you know, left and right. What's funny is when we left the children's ministry and then we started going to regular church, I'm like, oh, my gosh. I'm like, when's, like, crazy stuff going to happen? We were a little bored. You were Pastor J.

You're not throwing candy at us. Yeah. I'm like, where's candy? Where's the spray bottles? Where's, you know, where's confetti falling?

It took a while to sett to big church. It was kind of hard. Yeah. Being adult. One year of taking on children's ministry in Salisbury, and at first it's the opposite.

It's like, this is always crazy. And then a year in, when you do leave, you're like. I was like, it is odd. Like, where's the reward wall? Where's my club box?

I don't know. But, you know, as you know, as the Lord has us on our journey, he doesn't always tell us what's coming. And, of course, there's many dreams. You know, we carry. I'm a visionary.

We carry, like, vision for things you want to do in the future. But I felt what I call divine dissatisfaction. And not because I didn't love what I did, but there was something that was like calling me to something more, something. It just felt like there was something the Lord wanted us to step into that was not more significant, not better, but just this rumbling that I felt, and I started praying into it. And so one day, I remember standing down there in the river at the altar and praying.

I was by myself and I prayed. I said, lord, give me more of a heart for kids in the world. And I heard the Lord say, okay, but you'll cry a lot. And I was like, well, I'm not even a crier. Like, that's not even.

I'm not, you know, that's not really who I am. But okay. And so what happened? This was Christmas of 2015. Just a little while later, we had an opportunity to host an orphan from Ukraine.

And so someone messaged and said that this hosting experience was happening. And there was one kid left. He was tall. They thought of our family and asked if I would host this boy named Sasha from Ukraine. I didn't even know where Ukraine was at the time.

I didn't even had no just grid for Eastern Europe at all. But the Lord made it clear that we're supposed to host this orphan and actually as a children's pastor who. We love kids. Like we wish, like we love kids so much that I'll be in a restaurant and see kids. I'm like, I wish I knew that kid.

Like I really, we really love, love kids. But I really didn't consider the orphan and I had not considered what that meant and the gravity of what it means to have no parents until we had one in our home. And then my fear too was like, okay, there's a 16 year old kid coming into my home and I've got a. What was Anna time, 7 or 6? She's 6 years old and so you're thinking about her safety and you know what, he's coming from an orphanage.

What is it going to be like I want to protect her and just a lot of fear, like the enemy is just so in fear into my life going, you know you don't want to do this because you know the enemy could feel, I bet you. I'm sure he felt like something was coming too. And these. God wanted to use us and so I think a lot of times he'll try to step in and try to throw a monkey wrench into whatever it is that God's trying to do. Yeah, so we did pray about it.

Our kids were all on board, they're ready to have this. I was kind of wishing that it would fall through. Like I don't know if I want to host someone for a whole month at Christmas and doesn't speak our language. Close this door if you haven't. Yeah, exactly.

Like till the whole time we were getting ready, had a fundraise get clothes, they would come with no clothes. It was just this whole thing. I mean clothes on but you know, know clothe them and it seemed like such a, a lot at Christmas and, and the, he came down the elevator at the Charlotte airport. It's like he, he was in my heart. It's like the Lord put him there and he fit in our family.

And about a week into it the tear started and it was the, it was not so much I was attached to him yet he's running around having fun with the boys and. But I was like this kid has no parents. Like wait this guy. Like who's going to teach him right from wrong? Like who's like what's going to happen to him?

And all of a sudden it was so real because he's, he's there. And by the end of the trip our whole family was like weeping at the airport we were like the ugly criers at the airport. And we had to send our kid back to an orphanage in Eastern Ukraine. And they were already at war with Russia at the time. The war had started in 2014, so they had.

He was already a war refugee. He had to be evacuated from his orphanage in the East. And so it was just. We were just kind of wrecked. And here I'm still on staff and just have, you know, first, though, that whole crying thing, there was.

I wasn't crying. There was smoke. That was. Smoke got in my eyes. Smoke in your eyes.

The guy was cutting onions. Right beside. That's right. He was not crying. The rest of the family was.

So we cried all the tears for him. But what it did, though, is the Lord really. We hosted him again. And then the Lord put on our heart to go to Ukraine to go visit him. It was like, our kid.

Like, that's our. He's part of our family, you know, so. So In September of 2016, I flew to Ukraine with another mom who'd hosted, and we stayed in the orphanage. And the Lord gave us all this favor. We're the first Americans to stay there.

And people are like, what are you doing here? Like, there's Czech military checkpoints, and it was whole different world. And we're like, these Americans coming in, and they are. Ukrainians, typically are not like Americans, you know, in their demeanor, and it was just whole culture. But we fell in love not only with him, but all of his friends and these kids in the orphanage.

And the Lord was birthing this vision to come. We went to about three times we traveled to Ukraine. The third time, we did a camp and a graduation project. Do you want to talk about that? Yeah.

And that's. That's really where it really started for me. It got in Dar's heart early, but I was just being the guy not really noticing, you know, in an intimate way, like she was. And so we did this camp, and it was absolutely phenomenal what happened. Like, the older kids, I think, was like, 13, 11 out of 19, 11 out of 19 gave their hearts to the Lord, and then every single one of the little kids gave their hearts to Jesus, like, all at the same time.

And it was. I left that time saying to our. I was like, we have to do something. Because all of a sudden, the gravity of what had happened was so huge. And how do you just say, bye, you know, hey, glad you got saved.

Have a nice life? You know, you couldn't do that because God had started something. And what it was, he was beginning to really open our heart for a nation. And so that. That opening of our heart for these kids, and he was expanding this, you know, this love that's inside of us today for this nation, but for these kids.

And, like, we knew we had to help them because when you look at the statistics of their lives and what made us investigate what's going to happen to this kid. And so we found that 70% of the boys end up incarcerated, 60% of the girls end up in prostitution, 15% kill themselves, and the average life expectancy of an orphan In Ukraine is 30 years old. And so we're like, okay, this can't happen to these kids that we love. And so once you open your heart up to people, it's like, you'll go wherever they are, you'll help them, you'll do whatever you need to do. And that's what happened in our life.

Yeah, yeah. So there's this burden that's formed. I'm sure it's not very understood by those around you. I think I was on staff then, and even I was kind of like, that's cool. Likewise.

I was like, Eastern Europe. I don't know anything about that. So it seemed like while I think I could be supportive, it also didn't make sense in, like, a logical way to me. I was just like, do ministry here. Do we got to do ministry here?

That's all I could think. So how did you start to, like, unpack that with people you trusted? Yeah, well, I'll tell you real quick. It's like, you know, when we jumped off of the ship here, we jumped into the water, you know, leaving the refuge. It was unbelievably hard.

Like, it was like. It was. It just took so much faith to walk away from. You walk away from your insurance, you're walking away from your paycheck, you're walking away from community. So many things.

And, you know, really, we. I think we've always had this just blind trust in a lot of ways. We're like, lord says, okay, we're doing it. But then all of a sudden, the gravity of somebody will say something like, well, what are you guys going to do about insurance? And we're like, what are we going to do about insurance?

I don't know. All of a sudden, God's going to keep me. You're up here, like, riding on this faith way. Then somebody says something. All of a sudden, you're like.

You just crash and go, I don't know. I don't know what we're going to do. So Let me tell you a story of what happened there, because this is what will happen when people are going for their dreams. You're going to hit those kinds of moments. You have the, yes, we're going to do it.

We can, you know, put anything for God. Yes, anything for God. And then the rubber meets the road and there's some reality that hits. So I remember we came back from the trip and we had a meeting with Pastor Jay and Pastor Mel and Pastor Terry and several meetings really. And it all ended that they released us to do this, you know, and it was beautiful because I knew we had their blessing and all of that, but it was so hard.

And I remember Pastor J, we're in the meeting and it's like in July. And he's like, okay, well, we'll tell the church mid August, and then by the end of August, August, you'll be done, you know. And we're like, okay, we're gonna have. We're gonna start this nonprofit and okay, we have a few weeks, like, you know, to raise funds. So we were like, okay, we can do this.

So we started getting these questions like, how are you? You know, from well meaning friends and people who really loved us that made us kind of popped our balloon a little. And I remember getting ready one day and I'm like, lord, why didn't I just ask to stay till the end of the year? Why didn't I just, like, why didn't I, you know, January 1st, and that'll give us four months to get ready and why did I do this? And I'm really, like, kicking myself.

And I hear the lord say, John 4, and I'm like, okay. So I go to the Bible and I look at John 4 and it's the story. This is so awesome. It's the story of the Samaritan woman and Jesus. The disciples had gone off to find Jesus something to eat.

And they come back and he had just had this encounter with a Samaritan woman. And they said, rabbi, Rabbi, eat something. And he says, I have food to eat that you know nothing about. My food is to do the will of him who sent me. And the Lord's like, okay, part one.

Jesus friends were well meaning. They were thinking about the practical. But Jesus was considering his source. He knew I have food to eat and knew nothing about. He was gonna do the will.

My food is to do the will of him who sent me. So God's like, that's part one, part two, right after the very next verse. And I feel like the Lord put this in the Bible, just for me, it said. Jesus says. It is said, four more months and then the harvest.

But I say, look, the harvest is ripe in their souls for eternal life. It literally says four more months. And I was just asking. I was like, lord, why didn't I say we should wait till January? And, you know, we were gonna be gone the end of August.

So we had four months until then. And the Lord's like, I got you. That's awesome. And isn't that amazing? That's amazing.

Yeah, I gotta take. Okay, here's something really powerful that happened during that time. So there was a part in time where, like, I was doing inspections. There was things I was doing to make ends meet. And one of them was doing inspections for the bank.

Well, then I got a call from the bank, and it was like, hey, man, we're starting to end this. And I'm like, wait a minute. I need this money. I can't, you know, you can't end what we're doing here. And I remember, like, it didn't look like we were going to make it that month.

And I just felt like I was in this stadium and like, the Enemy had just won. And 100,000 people were just cheering, just, loser, Loser. And I just felt the weight of like, oh, my gosh, I made the biggest mistake. And, God, you led me out here, and now I look like a fool. I can't believe this is happening.

Why would you do this to me, Lord? Like, I was just so down. I was crying. I was like, I don't understand. Like, why?

Why, Lord? Why did you do this? I don't understand. And the crazy thing was, like, right by the end of the month, everything comes in and he swoops in the last minute. And it was so cool, because I just feel like the Enemy was, you know, in the crowd, having everybody cheer on, like, you know, pointing at me like, you just made the biggest mistake.

But then he comes in at the last second and wins the game. And then. And then just everybody has to walk combing the feet because God came in. And I remember this. This man calls me.

It was Mr. Thomason. He calls me and said, hey, you know, you guys are really on my heart. If you're ever up here in the Brown Summit area, come by and, you know, see me. And we're like, well, we're never up there, but, you know, if we are, okay. Well, like, in just a few weeks, my uncle passed away.

He'd been sick and he passed away. And so we were going up there for the funeral. I was like, Mr. Thomason, we're actually coming up there in a couple weeks. He was like, please come by and see me. And so the time was, like, getting really short.

He said, well, if you can't get here by this time, then don't bother coming because I'm going to have to go. You know, we have to run with appointment or something. I'm like, okay. So we get in the car after the funeral, and we look, and the time that we're going to get there is the exact time. He said that if you can get here by this time, it'll be okay, but anything after that, we will get there at that exact time.

I'm like, lord, what are you doing? So we get there, and I'm talking to him, and he said, you know, funny thing, they gave us a check and said, hey, you know, we want to support you guys, what you're doing. And he said, you know, a couple months ago, the Lord woke me up and he was like, I want you, and said, andrew. And he was like, well, Lord, you want me to look at in the Bible? Look at Andrew there.

What is it? He says, no, you need to pray for Andrew. And he's like, andrew who? And then I think how he showed him was Andrew Draper. He said, I want you to pray for him.

And basically he was just like, he needs your prayers right now. Like, he's going, that was that time. And I looked back, and it was that time where I just felt like everybody was jeering at me, saying it was a huge mistake. And that was the time the Lord said, I need you to pray for him. And so it was so cool to see how God touched Mr. Thomas and said, you need to pray for him now, because I've got something special for them to do, and he needs encouragement.

So isn't that amazing how the Lord works? So you, with lots of trials as it sounds, did successfully launch glow, which stands for Go Love Others. Well, that's right. And so now, looking back, how long has GLOW existed? And tell us a little bit about, like, what.

What's happened? What's happened since then? Yeah. So GLOW is seven years old, and it has been such a joy, such a. It's been such a challenge, such a joy.

We didn't know the war, the invasion would happen in Ukraine. We didn't know that God would be positioning us to be connected to people and to really be able to help in ways that. That have been really amazing on a lot of levels for the people that we got to serve. There. But what happened?

We started working with orphan grads graduates. We started with some projects and really it's been a step by step leading and with a mission like Go Love others well, and we're about launch igniting lives, launching destinies, and really about fulfilling the Great Commission through the greatest commandment. That's kind of our thing. And so we were focusing on orphan grads for a while and just. We felt like the Lord said, just pour into this group of kids.

And so we would do retreats. We had some people on the ground we'd support. We'd travel back and forth over there. So like three or four times a year, be based here. And then it grew.

It kind of enlarged as we make connections and meet people. We started working with elderly people. And we sponsor 60 babushkas, which are grandmothers in Ukraine that live in the Chernobyl region. And they are ones who. They live on like $50 to $80 a month.

And so we're able to support our givers, give $60 that goes to them to help them with their medicine and all that. So we. It went from orphans to orphans and widows, which. That's the James 1:27 verse. It's amazing how I was in ministry all these years, a Christian pretty much my whole life.

And I never really noticed James 1:27 that says true religion is taking care of widows and orphans and keeping yourself from being polluted by the world. And so it was like we were working with them. And then we actually moved to Ukraine. We felt like the Lord called us. We were so close to all of our kids and helping them navigate.

So it's a bunch of really broken lives. Kids who've been through the most horrendous situations that put them in the orphanage to begin with. Many of them are social orphans. Parents are alive, but drug addicted, alcohol addicted. They face these horrible statistics.

They face a stigma their country had against orphans. The country is not rallying to support orphans. They really do depend on these people with compassion from other countries at the time. That's one of the reasons we stepped in, to be family to them. So we decided to move to Ukraine in 2020.

We decided in 2021. We moved to Ukraine to finish some projects and to get them launched into their. What they could do with their lives. And so we moved in. The Lord, that's another amazing story.

But how the Lord prepared a house for us to live in that was going to be a hub for us. And they really prophetically showed someone a white house that when we got There on our trip, there was a white house that someone said, do you need a house? And there was this house and it was white and it was. Had two chimneys, like the prophecy said. It was really wild how the Lord got us there, but it was very clear.

So we move there, we sell our house, we sell all of our stuff for the most part, and we move to Ukraine. And then eight months later, the invasion happens, the war. So we evacuate and come home. So here you've just. But what was so wonderful, I don't feel any sense of loss in that, except, I mean, we knew it was the assignment for a few years.

We didn't know how long it would be. But what was amazing, when we got there, the Lord told us work with as many others as possible. So we feel like the Lord loves collaboration. He loves partnership. He loves when his kids play well together.

And so we never felt competition with other ministries. We became friends. It's like our ministry is friends with your ministry. And so we would do projects, we did internships, and we did barista trainings, and we did all of these things. We'd get together and work on projects together.

And so when the war happened, we had so many friends and so many other ministries that the Lord strategically had us placed there and we would work with. To evacuate people out to get the. We put a refugee house in Romania. We now have brought a whole bunch of kids over that were. Now they're young adults to America.

So some of our kids from the orphanage, we would. We knew them in the orphanage, we knew them in their trade school or their, their college. And we're helping them there and now we're helping them in America. And it's just been the wildest story. They had no opportunity to come outside of that.

They had no possibility of making it to America being an orphan. Yeah. So Glo has continued. We have loved where God has told us to love. And God's given us a domestic application.

We actually run Camp GLOW now, which is the old Girl Scout camp over there in Kannapolis. And we have programming for kids. And our heart is to see kids ignited with the mission to go love others. Well, your family, your neighbor, your world. And we hope to see it become a mission launching ground too, to where we're raising up kids in a culture of love and a culture that is all about loving God and loving others and then sending them off into the world.

That's incredible. And we're filming here today in the Boy Scout property. And we're at the Boy Scout property at the refuge which we still love so much. Yeah. So.

But for the listeners who are considering fasting, they're considering wanting to go deeper with the Lord. I think what the wrestle can be sometimes is like, you know, that if you fast or you spend more time in prayer, you have to face some things in your heart. And often, like, why you don't want to spend time with the Lord isn't necessarily because you think you won't hear Him. It's because you're actually anticipating hearing them and you're afraid to hear what that will be. At least that's been.

I don't know if you guys really. That. That can be my experience. So even when I wrestled with wanting to. Now I'm the creative communications director.

But I was a youth pastor, and I wasn't necessarily dissatisfied with that, but I. There was. What do you call it, a divine dissatisfaction. Yes. So I relate to that, like, where I almost didn't want to pray because I knew when I was going to pray I was going to have to address that feeling.

And what does it mean? What should I go do? And so sometimes the roadblock to wanting to pray and fast is not wanting to wrestle with this dream that is clearly there. And so you, early on, you were mentioning a lot of the, like, the roadblocks that you had. It wasn't just easy to jump right into it.

So how would you encourage people who are just feeling like it's not for me, because then I gotta wrestle with that thing the Lord's been pulling on my heart about. And maybe that's gonna be hard. Like, how would you encourage that person? Yeah, I think it's just, you know, it's just. It's so important to commune with God.

It's so important. And the enemy is like, you know, trying to, you know, sow stuff in your way to block that. And yeah, there is. You know, you can look at some of the things that were so fearful that we went, that people would be scared to death to do that. But it's like, the thing is, it's so beautiful, is just God, you know, wanting to use you and the beauty of that and the power of that.

And I wouldn't trade any of the comfort that I had before to not walk through some of the really hard things. Because along the way, he has just built this increased faith in me just because I said yes. Just because we said yes to this calling. And along the way, you get to see the power of his provision. You get to see the power of his word, the power of him speaking to you and the fact that he has a purpose for you, and you've been created for such a time as this to be on this earth and to make a difference.

And God has sown that in your heart because he's created everything around you. But he's created you specifically for a task that he has, and he would love for you to be a part of that. He'd love for you to go to trust him and go, yes, I want to do that. I want to step out of the boat. I want to.

And it doesn't mean. That doesn't always mean, well, you got to go to a, you know, foreign country like we did. It could be that you're, you know, starting a business and you're scared to do that, but God's going to take that provision and he's going to, you know, be able to fund people to do whatever. So you may use that you in the business realm like that, but the enemy wants to stifle you and say, no, you can't. Who are you to think that you can do that?

And. And Dara had this really cool thing happen to her where she was in her writing, and she said, well, who am I to do this? And God said, if I've called you to do it, who are you not to. If you've given your life to him, if you've given your life to him, he has all access. Like, it's my life.

It's his life. So if he wants to call us to do something, like even writing, like, it's not about me, it's about him and what he wants to do through my life. And there's no small thing, and there's no big thing. Like, I think sometimes we Americans, we get caught up in, I want to do this big thing or this great. Well, the greatest thing you can do is love.

That's the greatest thing you can do, is to love him with everything. It's the greatest thing we're called to do is the greatest commandment, you know. But I also. I read this book one time called the Dream Giver. It was a great book.

Bruce Wilkinson. And it said, there's a quote that I loved that said, if you don't do your dream, something wonderful won't happen. So good. I love that. I'm like, if I don't do my dream, something wonderful won't happen.

So to find your dream, if you're someone who doesn't know your dream or you're like, what am I supposed to. You know, there's Something that you were made for a purpose. You were. You were. You're designed to do great things, and you have.

Selah is the time to seek him. Selah is the time when you. When you keep yourself from being polluted by the world as part of that James 127 verse.

It gives the flesh time to die down and your spirit, man, to rise up. And you're feeding your spirit. Your spirit's becoming stronger. And your spirit hears and receives, is attuned to the voice of God. And those dreams come and the whispers come, and I believe we're people who are always.

There's always more. We never get to the end. I expect to be an old lady someday. Older than now and still dreaming, still dreaming, still having new vision, new creative things to do, because we're made in his image. And he has a lot to create through our lives.

And the thing is, too is he wants to create a story with your life. Like you think you look in the Bible. And how did he relate to people? How did he talk to people through stories? Well, he wants to do the same thing in your life.

He wants to create a story that when you tell someone that story, they're like, are you kidding me? So now I've gotten ruined to that. Like, I want a story. I'll wait on God until I get the story. Because I don't want things in a normal way to where I'm like, oh, yeah, I just went and did this.

You know, everybody else says, no, I want God to give me a story that will blow somebody's mind. When I talk about something that he's given me or someplace he's taken us or what he's done in the ministry, they'll say, are you kidding me? Are you serious? That's the kind of reaction that I want. Because this is what God wants to do.

He wants to show his glory through your yeses. And so when you say, yes, and you say, yes, I'll do it, well, then he's going to give you a story you can tell someone else to encourage them to step out of the boat or encourage them to do that dream that God's put in their heart to encourage them to be an instrument for his hand. And so, yeah, I just. I think he's all about story. He wants to create stories with our lives.

Incredible. Do you have any final thoughts before we close? I just think it's beautiful to see an international dream. I think sometimes when you are in the same place for a long period of time around the same people Sometimes you get close minded about your dreams. And I think when people come at you and they're like, oh well, there's enough ministry to do here.

Did you ever guys hear that? Well, there's a mission field here, but what about the kids here, what about the orphans here? But to open up your heart internationally and to see that and to be on the grounds God is working not just here in America, but he has put people in America to go out to make disciples. And I think it is absolutely wonderful. So I want to commend you as a dreamer.

And so the person that's listening, that feels boxed in to just what they see around them, that they would expand the way they dream, to think outside of the box and not to be afraid that it's okay to do it somewhere else. Absolutely. And not to feel condemned by it. Yeah. And I think I'd close with this last thought.

Earlier you were talking about how the Lord's laid out tasks before us. And I think that's probably the healthiest way you can look at all this. Like you can't look at the task as the seven years of glow or change of occupation. Like all that is too overwhelming for us to consider, all the steps it's gonna take. But a task is like a duty that could be one thing or a series of things.

And it's not really for us to stress out about how it's all gonna work out. It's just pursuing after that task that the Lord's put on your heart. That's right. Could I say one more thing? One lesson I learned at the Refuge and I'm so thankful.

I think we need to embrace brace our seasons too and get the most out of it. God's always preparing us. He's always forming us into his image. And he used our season at the refuge 10 years as a beautiful, beautiful time to prepare us in ways we didn't even realize until we weren't here anymore. But I remember one time being at being in the four and five year old room and I had this moment with this little boy.

I would come on Sundays. And I think I'll say it now, I haven't said this really before publicly or whatever, but I would walk in the church on a Sunday morning. I felt like me and the Holy Spirit are coming in and we have the most important job in the whole building in the four and five year old room. I was like, and I was like, nobody knows it and they don't need to know it. But my job is the most important because I Have the most fertile soil in this entire building.

These kids believe every single thing I say, you know, And I felt that, you know, and I was like, so I'm like, hee hee hee. You know, their parents are in childcare with Pastor J, you know, and I'm in here with the four and five year olds. But this, I was like, God's got, you know, everybody has this backwards. You know, we're really, really about you. But I remember looking at this little boy was a visitor, and I would sit in my little chair and invite the kids to come ask for prayer while the other ones are going to snack after the lesson.

And this little boy came up to me. I'll never forget this. And he was pouring his heart out. His dad had just gone to the military and he missed his daddy and he's crying and I'm like this close to so close to him. And I.

It was like the Holy Spirit said, this may be the most significant moment of ministry you ever had. And I felt it. I felt that moment with that little four year old. And I was like, I get it, Lord. Like, it's so.

It's not about the grand scale of what you know. It is so wonderful, like to be able to travel and to do all the things. And there's calling on that. But there was. And there was a calling there.

But I feel like everyone who's in Salem right now, we're all at different places. But don't despise the season you're in. Right. And embrace the season he's calling you into. So it's both, you know, and he might be calling you to go work in the nursery.

You know, this might be your podcast to hear that, you know, but it may be to go into all the world, you know, but it starts with that one, that one in front of you. Yeah, I'll say real quick too. Just real quick. Notice that get in people's lives. Like, that's the thing for us is that, you know, why we go to a war torn country where people are like, why are you going there?

Aren't you worried? Aren't you scared? It's like, no. Our heart has been open to these people. We'll go where they're at.

They're our family. And so when we begin, we open our heart, take advantage of time to where you can fellowship, get in people's lives in some way. Then it's going to expand your heart. It's going to expand the people that you're touching, and you'll do whatever you can for them. And that's the thing with our walk.

It's all about love. And so what can we do for others? And when we do that, you're expanding your ministry and the things that you're able to do just around you. So, yeah, you know, don't, don't get locked in, you know, Netflix and all that stuff. There's, you know, it's fine to detach, whatever, but try to engage as much as you can with the people in the world around you.

Well, we just want to thank you for sharing your story. I hope it's encouraging to our listeners who are thinking about taking that leap of faith to go on a big adventure. And we just want to encourage you to stay tuned in, to keep pressing on in your fast. And we pray that you just have an awesome time connecting with the Lord.