January 7, 2025 • 49 mins
50 friends paid off their college debt, 7 families helped them buy a house, and they joined in on buying cars for 4-5 people. Branden and Ashley are members of an extraordinary Army of Generous Folks and show us what living in community can look like!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue now with part two of our conversation
with Brandon and Ashley Status right after these brief messages
from our general sponsors. All Right, so you saddle up.
(00:30):
You did the whole cool proposal, you get married, you're
living on Ramen noodles, You're paying every extra penny you
got toward this debt. And this is when you own
your own army of normal folks. Your personal army of
(00:51):
normal folks makes a huge play in your life. And
today's story, guys, is not about some Mengo or five
oh one c three that you founded. The twist of
this particular show is you're here to tell us what
it's like to receive a blessing from an army of
(01:15):
normal folks. I watched a video about it this morning
and it's just so sweet, really, So tell me about
the day that it was revealed to you that you
had an army of normal folks willing to support and
love you because they saw the hard work you guys
were doing as a young married couple to do things
(01:37):
the right way.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, we got tricked into thinking we were going out
to eat with a friend, which.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
On forty bucks.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, he said he was pained because he's like, you
never get to eat out and you're eating wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
What does this friend do for a living.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Chris, I guess, Oh yeah, he's in commercial development. Okay,
So it's to your point.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
About one of the ten guys in the house.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
He was older.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
He's a little older, all right, but a buddy.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Oh yeah, close buddy.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
How'd you meet him.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Through young life? Yeah, he's he moved to the city.
He was a F sixteen pilot in the Air Force.
Moved to Austin.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, and he wanted to care for college guys. He
got my number. We started caring for college guys together.
We became close.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Okay. Just a buddy, just a bro, yeah, just just
just guys. And he's in commercial development, probably make it
a really good living, going on a track that you
almost went down in financial whatever. But he loves y'all, yep, okay,
And he knows that y'all are saddling up not going
out to eat, paying off this dut so that you
(02:41):
can one day maybe have a kid or two. And
he offers to take you to dinner and spring for it.
Because he loves you. Yep, good enough, Yep, friends do friends.
That's what that is. That's what that must have felt
like to y'all.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Right, yeah, for sure, we didn't sniff it out at all.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So were you going to ride your bike to dinner?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Or he had to pick up? He picks us up
and we are going away that I'm like, what restaurant
are we going to? She's like, I'm a surprise, y'all
for a great restaurant. Take y'all out. We pull up
to my old house what was her old house that
she lived in before we got married, and he said
(03:19):
something like, I got to pick up a shirt from
another friend of ours. Totally didn't think.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
The family that you lived with this was this.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So I moved away with the moved from the family's
house into a house of five girls. So we had
the stack of the ten guys the rack of the
girls girl's house.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Are you kidding me? So you pull up to that to.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
My old house with all my friends still ye?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
All right? So what why is he picking up a
shirt at your That was.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
The worst idea And why didn't we sniff that out?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
We just because those past didn't necessarily crossed so y'all are.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Just blindly in the back happy you're going out to
eat and really don't care.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
But we don't care.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
And then he was like, y'all come in with me,
and we were.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Like, hold it, you need to pick a shirt up.
Is he married at this point he is not married. Okay,
well maybe there was a shirt to come up with,
but anyway, it's not made. He's pulling up to a
house full of girls to get a shirt. Really whatever,
(04:30):
I mean, whatever he says, come on in. You're not
as financial advisors. You got to get neck and change shirts.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I had no clue. We were down for anything, just
happy to go eat. He takes us out to the
back deck and at that point it just says door open.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Surprise, and we were like, what a surprise?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I mean, there's fifty people there, maybe in the backyard
in the our whole life are our Austin community life
girls that.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I was leading at ut the staff that he was
on staff with friends that we had lived with.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Our community was pretty robust at that point. Everyone was there,
what about the shirt?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
No shirt and all?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Just wasn't there no shirt?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
But fifty people in the backyard of the house, yep,
and you have to be thinking, hold it, it's not
our birthday, it's not our anniversary. What on the good
Lord's green earth are we doing in the backyard? And
does this mean we don't get to go out to eat?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Where's the food?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Food?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Lot thickens because they tell us to sit.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Down, and these two rocking chairs in front of the
crowd were two rocking chairs, and they're like, sit down.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
There is a gotta be surreal, right.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
It was very thin, no clue, no clue. We were like,
why are we here?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
We have no clue, really honestly true.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Zero clue. There was a sound system with the mic, and.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
There's a sound system in the girl, and then.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
One after the next people would get up and basically
tell us what we meant to them.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
So we were until the end we were like, we
still don't know why we're here. This is very one.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Another doing the husband wife look at each other like
what you were communicating with? I was only going, why
is this twilight zone happening?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah, the whole time I was.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Planning on getting the link winging.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
The whole time.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Truly, person after person went up like this is what
you mean to do?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
A little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Na. No, I just was like, thank you for saying that,
And then the next person, Wow, thank you for saying
Do you.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Think you were going to have to stand up and
say something good about everybody else? I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
It was like we don't even know what to think.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Right now, even after having watched this video, hearing you
say it and thinking about it, I would have been
looking at Lisa going, what the heck going on right now?
And why? I mean, why us?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Why are y'all bless Why do y'all feel like y'all
need to bless us?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And what for?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And what for?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
What are we doing? Totally I would I'm telling you.
I know me, I would have been uncomfortable. I've been like,
this is weird.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
I mean, there were tears. People are telling us like
what we mean to them, So there was like.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
And they were tearing up.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
They were tearing up, we were cheering up. We were like,
it's like.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I mean, if one of your boys, if you if
you went out into this backyard, your family would be there,
your friends would be there, and then all of a sudden,
your son comes up and it's like, Dad, I just
wanted to tell you like this is what you mean
to me. And when you've done this that meant a lot.
You just be like, thank you. I mean, you're just
like you felt like it was like a funeral, but
you're there alive. You're hearing all these things. It's like,
what is going on? Surreal, very surreal, even without the money,
(07:48):
Like the money has not been shown yet, the check
has not been shown yet.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
You don't even know a right, So now you didn't
go for it. At the end of all these people
having their mutual admiration society conversation about you, you two
guys look at each other, going, well, we're not going
out to eat now. The shirt was a lie.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I'm hungry.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I'm not sure what's going on in the backyard. The
reveal happens, and the reveal is Lucy.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
She stands up. Lucy's a friend of ours, was also
on staff with me in Young Life at ut the
Shirt house. She gets on the mic and she says,
we wanted a night to bless y'all, but really what
we're here for is for the last year, we've seen
y'all fight and tooth and nail and grind to pay
(08:41):
off your student loan debt and just as much as
Jesus has paid the debt of your sins. We want
you to know that your debt free tonight. And we're like, what,
she goes, we've paid off all of us here have
paid off the rest of your debt. And then she
kind of notions to someone and they one of those
big fat golf checks. Doesn't have an amount, it just
(09:06):
cardboard and they put it here and all it says
is to Yeah, to Brandon and Ashley's staff, it just says, debt.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Free from debt the bank.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I'll start kind of just thinking about It's just like
the weight of like I think what we had been
doing those days, and you know, the the unseen moments
where we're like, Okay, it's November, and let's keep paying,
you know, hundreds and thousands of dollars to this debt.
Let's get it out. What else can we do? Can
we babysit business? What else can Let's just keep going,
(09:37):
keep going. You can kind of get that grind. I
think that's what they were seeing. The sacrifices and for
them to be like it's done, it was so powerful,
and they'd all just gassed you up. You'd been juiced up,
by just all that, I mean it would have been
I blew the thing, but like it would have been
a fine, an amazing night without the check. It was
(09:59):
who who does that? Who gets to receive that? Who
gets to hear that? We long to hear that stuff
of like what people really mean, what we really mean
to people? And then on top of that, they're just like, hey,
it's finished.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
What did it mean to you? It feels like now
you can start talking about children. It feels like now
you can start talking about actually exhaling, you can live
your young married life together.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, because we really couldn't see past.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Past that first year. It was like such a head
down gazelle like intensity. Dave quoting Dave.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
That we literally were like, it was such a weight
off our shoulders.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
We were like, and they didn't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
We'll be right back. How many people do you think
this was? Fifty?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, fifty to somewhere between fifty and.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Somewhere gave than those specific people, but I think that Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
The point is, though this is not a five O,
one C three, This is not some organization. These are
just a community of people seeing a need, loving and
deciding through their own generosity to fill the need, and
in doing so, really did change your young married couple's lives.
(11:42):
And it's not like somebody wrote a sixty thousand dollars check.
It's more like one hundred people got together and everybody
pulled in a little bit of money that didn't really
hurt them that much.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I think the smallest amount someone gave was like fifteen bucks.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Doesn't matter. The point is they did right. Again, I'm
going to butcher it, but it's the woman that came
in that couldn't give much at all, But that gift
meant more than someone given a million because as a
percentage of her work, that was the same thing. See,
that was really good scripture.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It also shows what you can do together because I
think so the frame was like no one gave more
than a hundred I think, and the lowest amount was
fifteen because when we started fearing like who did this
and how did it all happen? Essentially it was Lucy
who was like, I just started rowlling people because I
wanted y'all to be free. It was her. She was
(12:39):
the torch bearer, and she started calling around and said, hey,
what if we got the stat this is out of
debt would you be in and they're like.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I bet nobody said no. I mean if someone called
me and said, hey, you know there's awesome young couple
that working in young life, helping people doing everything and
everything else, we just want to get together, pull a
little money and bless them with letting them start their
lives and get out from underneath this burden. I don't
know anybody that wouldn't pull something out of their pocket
(13:10):
for that. But that's the point is this story is
not about a five, OHO one C three or something
that you started. This story is about with the generosity
and what just normal folks getting together seeing it are
your need and filling it. It's one of the simplest
(13:30):
ways in the world changed your lives.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
And I think that on top of that, I don't
know if you watch part two of the video. That
same week, we had figured out that we were pregnant
with our first and so the timing that weekend that
was the party, and so it was this insane week
(13:55):
for us. Of the crux of these two points crossing
of going. Our desire was to start a family debt
free days after we find out we're pregnant.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
We truly are debt free. It was this very.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Emotional moment for us where we were like, we feel
so seen like the Lord, the Lord.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, I did see that, and I had an initial thought,
which was when you have no money and you can't
go anywhere, I couldn't imagine you're doing anything other than
getting pregnant, because what else else it was free? That
was free.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
You're finding something for you to do.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
So we had not told anyone we were pregnant yet.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Oh I didn't know this part. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
They say like once you find out on the little
stick that you're you should wait X amount of time
or wait to get make sure no one at all.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And we literally look at each other and like Brandon
gave me a head nod and I was like I
nodded back, and he was like we after we collected
ourselves from tears.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Are you just bawling?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yes, I mean we feel so unworthy to see that generosity.
I'm like, we're not any more special than any other
person sitting in that room, Like why do or do
you don't want to bless us?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
You guys are a pretty bright light together. Honestly, sitting
here across from you, it's beautiful. By the way it
really is, but go ahead.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
We looked at each other.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I nodded to Brandon and he was like, you know,
collecting himself, and he was like, well, we have something
to tell you guys, and he goes, We're pregnant.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And it was.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Just this like uproar of excitement, enjoy jumping, We're crying,
They're crying.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
And it was just this like.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Beautiful moment of Wow, the Lord really sees and knows
our needs and what a blessing that we get to
celebrate with this community. I mean we rushed to call
our parents after. We were like, hey, by the way,
we're proct this whole.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Group of people know. And it was just a very surreal.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, that is such. See, it's a simple story. It's
a cool story, but it just speaks to the power
of what normal people can do. So somewhere along the
way in and amongst the story is other little stories
(16:25):
are the same type of thing that like, some guy
is at young life and needs to go to another
young life and can't he doesn't have a car, and
you want to tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, all of a sudden it started to replicate itself
of essentially the model of if you see someone in need,
someone speak up and rally everyone and we'll take care
of it. And so there was a guy named Dale
who was a young life leader who he would go
to the Cedar Park High School and his car broke down,
didn't have a car, didn't have really the means to
(16:56):
fix it. And a guy named Casey, who is they
were all in the same kind of group that we
were leading, was like, boys, he'd just send us all
a text, boys, we need to get Dale a car.
If we all if we can all give twenty bucks,
and we can find one hundred people to give twenty bucks,
we'll have two grand. I'll find us a car for
(17:17):
two grand. So everyone's like and then it's over.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Then it's not making money.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, it's just over. And so then Casey finds someone
who tells the person about the vision to bless Dale,
and they're actually going to sell their car for five grand.
They're like, you know what, take it for two. So
then they're blessing too. And then we essentially have a
similar night where we're having a group together, we're hanging
out or doing whatever, and then we sit Dale down,
we bless him, We tell him what he means to us,
(17:46):
and it is fun to be on the the giving side.
And then at the end they say, hey, man, you
know you're trying to go to Cedar Park to love
on those guys, but you need a fresh set of wheels.
So we figured we'd just give you them. And he
just throw them the keys and he's like, what walks outside?
Bows on the car and this is not a Mercedes or.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Some sort of rolls thousand dollar ride.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
It's like a It was a used but to him
it might as well have been a BMW. Just he
was like, what I mean, We're like, let's go. I mean,
we're just a bunch of college guys getting pumped up.
And we did it again and again, and I think
we gave away four or five cars in that similar model.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Twenty bucks. Twenty bucks, everybody listening. This took a text string,
twenty bucks and an evening in a backyard to tell
somebody how much you care about them and that you're
gonna bless them with the significant need they have. That's
how hard this is.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And life changes its magnetic.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Thing, the Citney five. But we don't even have a
name for this, no name a thing. This is just
normal folks seeing need and filling it.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
It's a good way to live. Yeah, and what it's
a good way to live. So, because I am not
good at scripture at all, I'm not going to quote
like trying to quote off my head because I obviously
have proven that I'm incapable of that.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
But I'm going to read this. Alex sent me that
this morning Sewod Corinthians eight thirteen through fifteen, not that
others should have relief while you were burdened, but that
as a matter of equality, your abundance at the present
time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may
also supply your needs. That there may be a quality.
(19:42):
I'm going to read it again, not that others should
have relief while you were burdened, but that as a
matter of equality, your abundance at the present time should
supply their needs, so that their abundance may also supply
your needs. That there may be a quality whoever had
much did not have more, and whoever had little did
(20:03):
not have less. Why don't you just explain that? Well?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
When I used to read that, I always thought, if
you're a multi millionaire, you should share.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's exactly I'm so glad you said that. That's exactly
how I took it is, you know, Elon Musk should
be given some money away. Isn't it interesting that when
you read something like that and you always find what other.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
People should be doing.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, yeah, it's so easy to point out all these
things these other people should be doing.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yep. And it's actually not that. It's not that far away,
meaning that truth that scriptures like. It's simpler, it's more
even elementary if you have a little extra sure, So
if you think about it, it's like if you have
twenty bus and some people don't have twenty bucks to share,
(21:02):
and that's okay. If you have a twenty dollars bill
to share, you don't even let your right hand know
at your left, you just do it. And that was
that's what happened to us. Then that's what happened to
these people that we gave way cars to. Just you
didn't give people time to think one because it's not
even that much money. It was twenty bucks and everybody's
(21:23):
in on it, and you're living out this communal magnetic
way of sharing.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So one of the reasons this show even exists is
I was on your side of the table one day
and Alex was sitting here about two and a half
years ago interviewing me after the movie and the book
and speeches and stuff that was interviewed a lot, and
Alex interviewed me for a company he worked for. During
(21:51):
that interview, I said what many people who listen to
the show often or read stuff. I said, their communities
all over the place. Where you look down the road
and you see poverty and despair, you think somebody had
to do something about that, as if the cinema matters.
And then as you pass by, you know, because you
didn't want to have a flat tire there, and you
(22:13):
kind of exhale. Do you think somebody knew something about that?
And I think government has proven woefully inadequate, although well
intentioned in many cases. Obviously, all of these policy decisions
and all of the money we've poured at all of
the issues, they're still there. So the data says they
(22:36):
hadn't worked. All of these narratives crafted out of people
in DC and New York on the national media. I
don't see them fixing a lot. In fact, I see
them sewing division candidly. So who is somebody how to
fix that? One? Day. Who is this somebody? Who is
(22:57):
this proverbial somebody? Maybe a way to kick that rearview
mirror about fifteen degrees to the left. Maybe that's just
somebody that ought to fix it. Us just an army
in normal folks. And as I read that scripture and
I hear what you just said, and I think about
(23:18):
it is so easy to look at Elon Musk and saying, yeah,
see he ought to be doing more.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Solve all the problems.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yeah, maybe it's us. Maybe we ought to be doing more.
And you don't have to be a multimillionaire to affect change,
because it's just twenty bucks. It's just a whole bunch
of people, an army of people doing what little bit
they can that can significantly change lives. And I think
(23:51):
that's a lesson of that scripture. I think it's also
the lesson of the blessings that you guys have received
and what you've shared with us. So do you teach
that young life?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Oh yeah, they crave it. They crave to be a
part of something like that. You know, Christianity gets kind
of boring if you just dim it down to going
to church and not sinning. But when you put the
offensive playbook on somebody and go we could bless people
and love people together and didn't have to be some
far fetched idea. It's actually that guy.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
We'll be right back. I think there's been a number
of generations, even more than decades, of Christianity being its
own worst enemy, floating the sales pitch that believe like me,
(24:46):
or you're doomed to hell. It's not a very hopeful narrative.
That's not a.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Very attractive what's up attractive?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
It's not. It's not it's like me or it actually,
in my opinion, almost Illicits paternalism. You know, I know
better than you, and if you think like me, you're good.
If you don't, you're a piece of crap and you're doomed.
And I think for many years, especially in the American
(25:17):
and European church, guilt and fear drove the narrative rather
than hope and love and compassion. What do you think
about that?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I agree. I think we have a generation of people
and I think I kind of grew up in this
where I just that's what I thought Christianity was about.
I mean, if you go to church for X amount
of years and then you and after you come out
of there, you think, Okay, I just need to be
really good and try not and sin less. It's like
(25:49):
that is not the gospel. In fact, even when you
think about that, the famous verse the tim teebovers of
John three sixteen, generosity is actually hit the core of it.
For God's love the world that he gave, so you
can almost it's a great litmus test to be like,
if we are loving, if we are full of love,
(26:12):
we should see generosity kind of over oozing out of
our skin. And it's hard. It's hard to do. We
want to protect ourselves, you know, take care of ourselves.
But I do think it's about much more than kind
of what you're talking about. It's people want to be
a part of that movement of blessing someone. It puts
(26:36):
skin on all the theory of love your neighbor and
love the Lord, your God, and all of those kinds
of things. So to keep it grassroots and to keep it,
you know, kind of in the alleyways and on the
front lines. What we would do at ut is we
just would rally people to spend less time thinking about
whether they send less or was good and wasn't good,
(26:57):
and goes to this church and argue about destination whatever.
It's like, are you loving?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Oh, it's funny predetermination? Why don't we kill each other?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I mean it's just like even the smartest people can't
figure that out. But I think I can love this
other guy. Take him out to lunch and listen to him.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
So, actually, the debt was paid off and you have
this kid, and now you're able to be free and
you're not locked in your apartment. But you have five kids.
Why don't you explain all that, young lady? Five children?
How old are they?
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Kids? Three, five, seven, eight, and eleven?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Are you do? Homes don't have home school?
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Blessed?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I did homeschool for a year and it just isn't
for me. For me either trying to teach curriculum and
being pregnant and taking care of babies, it just didn't work.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Out for me.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
No, but that was like during pandemic all the things.
But we feel so blessed.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
We feel Do you work outside the home?
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I do photography. I'm a wedding photographer. I am, and
so I'm a home full time, but I do that
on weekends and nights when I'm not with kids.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
So you've recently changed from Young Life to.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Search, which is it's like young life, but to adults,
it's a relational ministry. You pursue the kind of the
furthest out.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
How do you find the candidates everywhere?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
They live next to you, you work with them.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
So are you interacting kind of the same way, just
with a little bit of an older crowd.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, I think it's it's much more during the day
adults when they're home, they're home with their families and whatnot.
But you essentially rally an army of people to think.
I mean, it's just it's so basic. It's just like, oh,
just being like a Christian just to love other people
and around you. You don't have to go to Taiwan and
be a missionary to see God move it. Actually open
(29:05):
your eyes and love that one person in your office
that you're like, I think I have some favor with them,
or I don't and I want to love them more.
You raise up an army to do that. And then
but it's really you're not going after churched people. You're
going after people. It's like, oh, yeah, I'm convinced, I'll
never ever believe that I would never ever step from
(29:27):
a church, or I'm out on God for a x
X number of reasons. Those are the people that we're
going after and trying to love.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I hope when you leave here you'll look up the
name Craig Strickland. He was a youth pastor at my
church forty years ago and he started a satellite church
that met in a restaurant for its first three years
on Sundays and became what's called Hope Presbyterian Church, which
(29:58):
is now Hope Church. And what he wanted to start
was a church for the unchurched, that's what he called it.
And he went out specifically to start a church for
people who had no church, who might lead lives that
(30:20):
were principally what we would say is right in terms
of the way they treated people, the way they acted
in the world, were honest and fair, decent people, but
had no faith because he said, those people align with
(30:41):
the principles and fundamentals of faith, they just don't have
the faith component, primarily because either they've walked from it
because of the narrative we discussed earlier, or they've never
been introduced to it. And he wanted to start a
church for the unchurched, where people felt comfortable to come
in and just say, Okay, what is this whole Jesus
(31:02):
thing all about? It is now a massive church. Wow.
It almost sounds like Search has the same fundamental mission.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah. What's interesting is I think middle school, high school, college,
really twelve to twenty two. You have organizations like Young Life,
Campus Crusade, FCA, even your local youth group kind of.
You even have people like me for fifteen years who
would pursue those people, care for them, pursue them. Once
(31:38):
you become an adult, I haven't heard of an organiza
like who's you Either go to church or you don't.
You're either forty and your life's going well or it's
not your community. It's very hard to find community outside
of that. You're kind of you're just trying to keep up,
like being an adult ain't for the feint at heart,
like it's and so Search is essentially trying to go
(31:59):
out after those people who are like I'm out and
it's like it's not too late. I think God's love
is always pursuing. So it's been. I've been only in
it five months, but it's been. There is such a need.
There are thirty year old men forty year old men,
fifty year old men and women who are like, I
(32:20):
guess this is it, And it's almost even more needed
because when you're younger, idealism is at its highest peak.
So even if you've hit rock bottom, you're like, oh,
my life's still ahead of me. I maybe get married,
make some money, have a family. When you hit forty
and you have hit all of those things, and it's.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Like and you're still going, eh, yeah, so's satisfied or unsatisfied?
Satisfied yeah, or have everything that you thought was going
to satisfy you and are still dreadfully unsatisfied. That emptiness
is uh, I think very common for a lot of people. So, actually,
(33:05):
you got these kids, you got this family.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Always wanted a big family, Well you got it. I
like to buck this system a little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
What's it like pushing three kids through Walmart and pregnant
Lisa knows, Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
It's it's a challenge. I have grown to My husband
is not love it.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I'm like he's the air and runner because I'm like
it's a little overwhelming sometimes.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah. So do you remember people looking at you like
you were completely out of your mind?
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Still?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Still?
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Yes? Still when I have to take all five to
the grocery store. They're all yours. No, I just because
I just wanted more time, all yours. Do you know
how babies are made? I'm like I do.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Do you know how this happened? Everybody gets it.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
I wanted this, okay.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I mean we used to know. We had a little
differentt on it, which we lived in the country when
we first got married, had all the kids, and I've
always said, you know, we had four kids in four years.
But we got on city water and it cleared up,
so we know, maybe maybe it was.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I don't know. So the last little story once you
share is you want a house for this big family.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
M hmm.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
And that's a lot of money. Yeah, the now payment's tough.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
We were living in this thing Austin has, it's called
the Affordable Homes program in this one Newish neighborhood. It
was close to campus at the time. We had one
kid moving in there. Basically, you have to have no debt,
which praise God. That provision. You had to make under
a certain amount and I don't have under a certain
(34:51):
amount of assets, and you can.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Well because of your friends qualify. You had no doubt
and because your job, you certainly were not making too
much and you, uh, yes, I was.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
And I was to stay home mom. So we were
on one income.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
So we were in this affordable holmes had another kid,
had another kid, and.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
I was like, I can't have another kid in this house.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
It was how many square feet twelve glorified apartment kind
of and so we were like, okay, let's start looking.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
And then we started looking.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
We were very discouraged because Austin Market is a little
Craig Cray and.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
It's I know, it's very yeah, it's very expensive.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
So we were like, okay, just like everything else in life,
we're going to like kind of put a request in
front of the Lord, and we're going to write kind
of our wish list of like what we would want
a home, what we feel like we need.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
We we're not talking about a ten thousand mansion here
with a pool. We're just talking.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
About a house house, yeah, yep. And so we were like, okay,
I guess we're gonna have to move to Wayco.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
That really no, no, no, we but it's just far,
just far, very far away.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
And so we were we were.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Like, okay, but here's what we kind of need in
a house our parents never can visit and stay with us.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
We know we want to keep having kids.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I wanted sick, dreamt of sick my whole life. But
we were at three and so we were like, here's
our request. We were looking with some of our best friends.
They we found a house that we were like, wow,
this would be really amazing, like kind of above what we.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Deserve and with how much we make.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Our friends bought the house next door the day after
the house next door went up for sale. After they closed,
and every it was everything we wanted on our list.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
We'll be right back. There comes another crazy story, like
all my debt gets paid off same day pregnant, and
then our best friends boy the house, and the next
(37:05):
day the house next door to them just happens coming on.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
It was a total god thing. We had been searching
for a year ish And.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
What was the down payment on this thing gonna have
to be?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Uh one, there's a bunch.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Yeah, it was a lot, I mean one ten maybe no,
I don't remember. Well, then if you wanted to get
rid of PMI or not, and.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
It was more than you had, more than we had, yes,
And so.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
There is a man who was like, if I know
Austin housing, uh, you know is very difficult. So if
you find a house that you like, let me know,
and if you can't afford it, let me know.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Maybe we can figure something out.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
And so we found a house and we were like, wow,
this is like everything on a list, everything we've dreamt of, spacious,
all that kind of stuff. And so we were like,
I think we should call him and say we really
want to go for this.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
This would be the dream.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And I guess you thought maybe he'd loan you a
little extra money.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Well, initially there were some people that were like, we'd
love to maybe co invest in the house.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Co invest co invest. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
There were a slew of people that were like, we
know you're in ministry, we love what you're doing at
ut and young life. How can we keep you here?
Essentially like the housing market is going to push you
and maybe other people like you away, and we got
to keep you here. And they they did have means,
but they are very not clear on like how they
wanted to do it. Was.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
It was just like, oh, you find a house, let
us know, Yeah, may no clue that, maybe we'll talk
to the real.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yes, or you maybe he knows a guy that could
no clue, no clue, So we we find it. And
but really the the undertow of the whole thing was
similar to the to the Debt Journey, which was Ash
and I in our home being like, this is our reality,
and this is what we're looking at, and there is
(39:00):
a delta here. There's a gap, Lord, you know the gap.
I mean, it's like, Lord, what do we do? This
is all that you've given us, and this is what
we're looking at and you and here are our desires.
And so when all of a sudden that house came
up and we told this guy, he said, oh, that's
(39:21):
really interesting, blah blah blah, didn't say anything. A week
later he said, once it takes me out to lunch
and says, hey, so what's the delta? And I was like,
seventy grand probably is what we would have to figure
out to do. And and no chance is anyone going
to give seventy gre who does that? I don't think
they're that I mean, they're that that wealthy. But he goes, well,
(39:43):
it's not just me that wants to help keep you
in Austin and keep you here, you know, these other
ten families, we're all going to cover that delta. So
let's see if we can go get this house. And
it was like, and again, you don't even know if
you're going to get it. You gotta put you know,
fight all the others and all the It was just like, Lord,
what's happening. We live in the house.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
And that's not your home.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
It's now our home. And I every day walk around
and I'm like, I don't deserve.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
To be here.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
And it's an answered it is an answered prayer, it's
God's provision.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
We're just like you own the cattle on a thousand.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Hills and the hills too, hills.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Once again, kind of normal folks seeing an airy need,
appreciating the work you do and stepped up. Not a
five oh one c three, not an organization, nothing, just
people that had the ability seeing a need and fellow it.
I can't imagine that in turn. That's not It's a
(40:49):
blessing to them, is what I'm saying. It's probably one
of the greatest week days of their month to be
able to to do that.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
For Jesus says something that's very countercultural and very upside
down when he says that it's better to give than
to receive. And I think what's inverted is, you know,
when we helped, you know, give those cars away, when
we helped rally for some other people that were in debt.
We've been on both ends. It's way more exciting to
(41:21):
be on the giving end. It means so it changes
your life to be on the receiving end. The joy
is on the giving end. The like, the momentum, the feel,
the zeal like let's go. And so they we walked
away from both that night where we got our debt
cleared and when we closed on the house, feeling that
(41:41):
humility of like, oh my gosh, how did this happen?
Everyone who participated in it walked away with that joy
of like, let's do it again. And so I think
there's a difference there for sure. But it's been fun
to now go, oh, let's be on the giving end,
because that's where the action's at.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
And army and normal folks can change lives in so
many different ways, and you don't even have to have
an organization to do it. You know, Ashley, I want
you to close us this way. Tell the people who
are listening to us today in the words of a
(42:21):
mom of five, what twenty bucks can really.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Do change change your world? It it changed the trajectory
of our lives for sure. It allowed us to walk
into something that we deeply desired and allowed us to
start a family with a new flag in the ground.
(42:49):
And it's a blessing to any mom.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Without Ashley, those blessings in that help if your husband
probably would have had to have left the ministry with
five children and done something else to make for sure,
I'll just wonder if it's dawned on anybody yet that
the blessings that were given to you are in turn
(43:18):
through the work of your husband given to all of
the kids at Young Life over fifteen years that he
was able to work with because without those blessings, he
wouldn't have been able to do that work.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
For sure, I very much feel like we stand on
the backs of hundreds. We absolutely do our income, our
whole marriage has been on the backs of community.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
What does that? What does it make you feel?
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Thankful? Scene extremely loved and known, known by the father.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
We feel like in our lives we're like we don't
make as much as mostly all of our friends, but
we lack nothing because not saying we live this abundant life.
But he God knows our needs, he sees, and we're
patient enough to go. We submit these to you, Lord,
(44:25):
and we wait on you.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Brandon Nashley, your love affair is so apparent when you
sit across from us with one another. But your love
affair and faith is also amazingly apparent. And I just
gotta believe that's what other people see in you. And
(44:53):
while they're so eager to continue to support you and
your work, and they're so eager to bless you need
and I think you guys are a beautiful example of
what an army of normal folks can do to further
support down the road the work that you can do.
(45:18):
I'm I wish how how can people watch that video
on YouTube? Where do they get that it's generous Giving? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
I think it's on generous giving dot org, which is
a it's a chalk full of a bunch of.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Videos generous giving dot org. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Generous Giving is an organization. It's funded by a foundation
and they essentially hosts people. They call it journeys of generosities,
like a weekend away or a weekend away where you
just talk about money, talk about what would it look
like to be generous. They're the ones that had generosity. Yeah,
they had heard about the debt story and they filmed it.
(45:58):
They were like, we need to reenact. Doesn't do this.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
I love it. So anybody wants to see your reactions
when you're going in the girl's house for a shirt,
which I still can't believe you call that. That's ridiculous,
but it's awesome. Yeah, guys, thanks so much coming from Alston.
Share the story and thanks for having I hope our
(46:21):
listeners will go watch that on YouTube. It's ten minutes.
It's worth the watch and the expression on you guys
faces is pretty priceless. I loved it. God bless the
work you do. Good luck with it. I know you've
been only been in five months, but I gotta believe
you're going to pour yourself into it and be successful
in it. And what a beautiful, sweet mom you are.
(46:45):
And anybody listened to us in the Austin area, if
you have a wedding, call this woman. She will absolutely
love it. I love I have a website.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
For just my name, Ashleystathis dot com.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
You got to spell the last name stat es So
if you're in the Texas area, and you want a
really cute mom and a great couple with five kids
doing great work in Austin who have given and received,
and you want to support her. She can do a
really good job for your photographs at your wedding and stuff,
(47:21):
right he can. Maybe you get some calls hopefully.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
I love it too, guys. Thanks for being here, Thank you,
thank you, and thank you for joining us this week.
If Brandon and Ashley Staffus or other guests have inspired
you in general, or better yet, to take action by
(47:46):
catalyzing your own army of normal folks to bless people
in your community, or something else entirely, please let me know.
I'd love to hear about it. You can write me
anytime at Bill at normal Folks dot us, and I
swear to you I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, guys,
(48:06):
please share it with friends, share it on social subscribe
to the podcast, go on Google and rate and review it.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Actually that's not Apple, but well it's okay.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Are on Spotify. I'm just gonna keep this in here.
It's just kick why I mean, yeah, Well then go
on what Apple? Spotify? Go on Spotify? Apple? Can you
go on? iHeart I don't know, go on something and
actually review the thing and rate it. Puts five stars
down there for us if Phil deserves it. Yeah, we
(48:39):
you know, make me feel good about myself. Join the
army at normal Folks dot us. Consider becoming a premium member.
There all of these things that will help us grow
an army of normal folks and make me feel better.
Thanks to our producer, Iron Light Labs, I'm Bill Courtney.
Until next time, let's do what we can
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue now with part two of our conversation
with Brandon and Ashley Status right after these brief messages
from our general sponsors. All Right, so you saddle up.
(00:30):
You did the whole cool proposal, you get married, you're
living on Ramen noodles, You're paying every extra penny you
got toward this debt. And this is when you own
your own army of normal folks. Your personal army of
(00:51):
normal folks makes a huge play in your life. And
today's story, guys, is not about some Mengo or five
oh one c three that you founded. The twist of
this particular show is you're here to tell us what
it's like to receive a blessing from an army of
(01:15):
normal folks. I watched a video about it this morning
and it's just so sweet, really, So tell me about
the day that it was revealed to you that you
had an army of normal folks willing to support and
love you because they saw the hard work you guys
were doing as a young married couple to do things
(01:37):
the right way.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, we got tricked into thinking we were going out
to eat with a friend, which.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
On forty bucks.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, he said he was pained because he's like, you
never get to eat out and you're eating wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
What does this friend do for a living.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Chris, I guess, Oh yeah, he's in commercial development. Okay,
So it's to your point.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
About one of the ten guys in the house.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
He was older.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
He's a little older, all right, but a buddy.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Oh yeah, close buddy.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
How'd you meet him.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Through young life? Yeah, he's he moved to the city.
He was a F sixteen pilot in the Air Force.
Moved to Austin.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, and he wanted to care for college guys. He
got my number. We started caring for college guys together.
We became close.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Okay. Just a buddy, just a bro, yeah, just just
just guys. And he's in commercial development, probably make it
a really good living, going on a track that you
almost went down in financial whatever. But he loves y'all, yep, okay,
And he knows that y'all are saddling up not going
out to eat, paying off this dut so that you
(02:41):
can one day maybe have a kid or two. And
he offers to take you to dinner and spring for it.
Because he loves you. Yep, good enough, Yep, friends do friends.
That's what that is. That's what that must have felt
like to y'all.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Right, yeah, for sure, we didn't sniff it out at all.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So were you going to ride your bike to dinner?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Or he had to pick up? He picks us up
and we are going away that I'm like, what restaurant
are we going to? She's like, I'm a surprise, y'all
for a great restaurant. Take y'all out. We pull up
to my old house what was her old house that
she lived in before we got married, and he said
(03:19):
something like, I got to pick up a shirt from
another friend of ours. Totally didn't think.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
The family that you lived with this was this.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So I moved away with the moved from the family's
house into a house of five girls. So we had
the stack of the ten guys the rack of the
girls girl's house.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Are you kidding me? So you pull up to that to.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
My old house with all my friends still ye?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
All right? So what why is he picking up a
shirt at your That was.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
The worst idea And why didn't we sniff that out?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
We just because those past didn't necessarily crossed so y'all are.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Just blindly in the back happy you're going out to
eat and really don't care.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
But we don't care.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
And then he was like, y'all come in with me,
and we were.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Like, hold it, you need to pick a shirt up.
Is he married at this point he is not married. Okay,
well maybe there was a shirt to come up with,
but anyway, it's not made. He's pulling up to a
house full of girls to get a shirt. Really whatever,
(04:30):
I mean, whatever he says, come on in. You're not
as financial advisors. You got to get neck and change shirts.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I had no clue. We were down for anything, just
happy to go eat. He takes us out to the
back deck and at that point it just says door open.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Surprise, and we were like, what a surprise?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I mean, there's fifty people there, maybe in the backyard
in the our whole life are our Austin community life
girls that.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I was leading at ut the staff that he was
on staff with friends that we had lived with.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Our community was pretty robust at that point. Everyone was there,
what about the shirt?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
No shirt and all?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Just wasn't there no shirt?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
But fifty people in the backyard of the house, yep,
and you have to be thinking, hold it, it's not
our birthday, it's not our anniversary. What on the good
Lord's green earth are we doing in the backyard? And
does this mean we don't get to go out to eat?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Where's the food?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Food?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Lot thickens because they tell us to sit.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Down, and these two rocking chairs in front of the
crowd were two rocking chairs, and they're like, sit down.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
There is a gotta be surreal, right.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
It was very thin, no clue, no clue. We were like,
why are we here?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
We have no clue, really honestly true.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Zero clue. There was a sound system with the mic, and.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
There's a sound system in the girl, and then.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
One after the next people would get up and basically
tell us what we meant to them.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
So we were until the end we were like, we
still don't know why we're here. This is very one.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Another doing the husband wife look at each other like
what you were communicating with? I was only going, why
is this twilight zone happening?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah, the whole time I was.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Planning on getting the link winging.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
The whole time.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Truly, person after person went up like this is what
you mean to do?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
A little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Na. No, I just was like, thank you for saying that,
And then the next person, Wow, thank you for saying
Do you.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Think you were going to have to stand up and
say something good about everybody else? I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
It was like we don't even know what to think.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Right now, even after having watched this video, hearing you
say it and thinking about it, I would have been
looking at Lisa going, what the heck going on right now?
And why? I mean, why us?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Why are y'all bless Why do y'all feel like y'all
need to bless us?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And what for?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And what for?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
What are we doing? Totally I would I'm telling you.
I know me, I would have been uncomfortable. I've been like,
this is weird.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
I mean, there were tears. People are telling us like
what we mean to them, So there was like.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
And they were tearing up.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
They were tearing up, we were cheering up. We were like,
it's like.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I mean, if one of your boys, if you if
you went out into this backyard, your family would be there,
your friends would be there, and then all of a sudden,
your son comes up and it's like, Dad, I just
wanted to tell you like this is what you mean
to me. And when you've done this that meant a lot.
You just be like, thank you. I mean, you're just
like you felt like it was like a funeral, but
you're there alive. You're hearing all these things. It's like,
what is going on? Surreal, very surreal, even without the money,
(07:48):
Like the money has not been shown yet, the check
has not been shown yet.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
You don't even know a right, So now you didn't
go for it. At the end of all these people
having their mutual admiration society conversation about you, you two
guys look at each other, going, well, we're not going
out to eat now. The shirt was a lie.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I'm hungry.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I'm not sure what's going on in the backyard. The
reveal happens, and the reveal is Lucy.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
She stands up. Lucy's a friend of ours, was also
on staff with me in Young Life at ut the
Shirt house. She gets on the mic and she says,
we wanted a night to bless y'all, but really what
we're here for is for the last year, we've seen
y'all fight and tooth and nail and grind to pay
(08:41):
off your student loan debt and just as much as
Jesus has paid the debt of your sins. We want
you to know that your debt free tonight. And we're like, what,
she goes, we've paid off all of us here have
paid off the rest of your debt. And then she
kind of notions to someone and they one of those
big fat golf checks. Doesn't have an amount, it just
(09:06):
cardboard and they put it here and all it says
is to Yeah, to Brandon and Ashley's staff, it just says, debt.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Free from debt the bank.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I'll start kind of just thinking about It's just like
the weight of like I think what we had been
doing those days, and you know, the the unseen moments
where we're like, Okay, it's November, and let's keep paying,
you know, hundreds and thousands of dollars to this debt.
Let's get it out. What else can we do? Can
we babysit business? What else can Let's just keep going,
(09:37):
keep going. You can kind of get that grind. I
think that's what they were seeing. The sacrifices and for
them to be like it's done, it was so powerful,
and they'd all just gassed you up. You'd been juiced up,
by just all that, I mean it would have been
I blew the thing, but like it would have been
a fine, an amazing night without the check. It was
(09:59):
who who does that? Who gets to receive that? Who
gets to hear that? We long to hear that stuff
of like what people really mean, what we really mean
to people? And then on top of that, they're just like, hey,
it's finished.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
What did it mean to you? It feels like now
you can start talking about children. It feels like now
you can start talking about actually exhaling, you can live
your young married life together.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, because we really couldn't see past.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Past that first year. It was like such a head
down gazelle like intensity. Dave quoting Dave.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
That we literally were like, it was such a weight
off our shoulders.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
We were like, and they didn't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
We'll be right back. How many people do you think
this was? Fifty?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, fifty to somewhere between fifty and.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Somewhere gave than those specific people, but I think that Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
The point is, though this is not a five O,
one C three, This is not some organization. These are
just a community of people seeing a need, loving and
deciding through their own generosity to fill the need, and
in doing so, really did change your young married couple's lives.
(11:42):
And it's not like somebody wrote a sixty thousand dollars check.
It's more like one hundred people got together and everybody
pulled in a little bit of money that didn't really
hurt them that much.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I think the smallest amount someone gave was like fifteen bucks.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Doesn't matter. The point is they did right. Again, I'm
going to butcher it, but it's the woman that came
in that couldn't give much at all, But that gift
meant more than someone given a million because as a
percentage of her work, that was the same thing. See,
that was really good scripture.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It also shows what you can do together because I
think so the frame was like no one gave more
than a hundred I think, and the lowest amount was
fifteen because when we started fearing like who did this
and how did it all happen? Essentially it was Lucy
who was like, I just started rowlling people because I
wanted y'all to be free. It was her. She was
(12:39):
the torch bearer, and she started calling around and said, hey,
what if we got the stat this is out of
debt would you be in and they're like.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I bet nobody said no. I mean if someone called
me and said, hey, you know there's awesome young couple
that working in young life, helping people doing everything and
everything else, we just want to get together, pull a
little money and bless them with letting them start their
lives and get out from underneath this burden. I don't
know anybody that wouldn't pull something out of their pocket
(13:10):
for that. But that's the point is this story is
not about a five, OHO one C three or something
that you started. This story is about with the generosity
and what just normal folks getting together seeing it are
your need and filling it. It's one of the simplest
(13:30):
ways in the world changed your lives.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
And I think that on top of that, I don't
know if you watch part two of the video. That
same week, we had figured out that we were pregnant
with our first and so the timing that weekend that
was the party, and so it was this insane week
(13:55):
for us. Of the crux of these two points crossing
of going. Our desire was to start a family debt
free days after we find out we're pregnant.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
We truly are debt free. It was this very.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Emotional moment for us where we were like, we feel
so seen like the Lord, the Lord.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, I did see that, and I had an initial thought,
which was when you have no money and you can't
go anywhere, I couldn't imagine you're doing anything other than
getting pregnant, because what else else it was free? That
was free.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
You're finding something for you to do.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
So we had not told anyone we were pregnant yet.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Oh I didn't know this part. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
They say like once you find out on the little
stick that you're you should wait X amount of time
or wait to get make sure no one at all.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And we literally look at each other and like Brandon
gave me a head nod and I was like I
nodded back, and he was like we after we collected
ourselves from tears.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Are you just bawling?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yes, I mean we feel so unworthy to see that generosity.
I'm like, we're not any more special than any other
person sitting in that room, Like why do or do
you don't want to bless us?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
You guys are a pretty bright light together. Honestly, sitting
here across from you, it's beautiful. By the way it
really is, but go ahead.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
We looked at each other.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I nodded to Brandon and he was like, you know,
collecting himself, and he was like, well, we have something
to tell you guys, and he goes, We're pregnant.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And it was.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Just this like uproar of excitement, enjoy jumping, We're crying,
They're crying.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
And it was just this like.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Beautiful moment of Wow, the Lord really sees and knows
our needs and what a blessing that we get to
celebrate with this community. I mean we rushed to call
our parents after. We were like, hey, by the way,
we're proct this whole.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Group of people know. And it was just a very surreal.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, that is such. See, it's a simple story. It's
a cool story, but it just speaks to the power
of what normal people can do. So somewhere along the
way in and amongst the story is other little stories
(16:25):
are the same type of thing that like, some guy
is at young life and needs to go to another
young life and can't he doesn't have a car, and
you want to tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, all of a sudden it started to replicate itself
of essentially the model of if you see someone in need,
someone speak up and rally everyone and we'll take care
of it. And so there was a guy named Dale
who was a young life leader who he would go
to the Cedar Park High School and his car broke down,
didn't have a car, didn't have really the means to
(16:56):
fix it. And a guy named Casey, who is they
were all in the same kind of group that we
were leading, was like, boys, he'd just send us all
a text, boys, we need to get Dale a car.
If we all if we can all give twenty bucks,
and we can find one hundred people to give twenty bucks,
we'll have two grand. I'll find us a car for
(17:17):
two grand. So everyone's like and then it's over.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Then it's not making money.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, it's just over. And so then Casey finds someone
who tells the person about the vision to bless Dale,
and they're actually going to sell their car for five grand.
They're like, you know what, take it for two. So
then they're blessing too. And then we essentially have a
similar night where we're having a group together, we're hanging
out or doing whatever, and then we sit Dale down,
we bless him, We tell him what he means to us,
(17:46):
and it is fun to be on the the giving side.
And then at the end they say, hey, man, you
know you're trying to go to Cedar Park to love
on those guys, but you need a fresh set of wheels.
So we figured we'd just give you them. And he
just throw them the keys and he's like, what walks outside?
Bows on the car and this is not a Mercedes or.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Some sort of rolls thousand dollar ride.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
It's like a It was a used but to him
it might as well have been a BMW. Just he
was like, what I mean, We're like, let's go. I mean,
we're just a bunch of college guys getting pumped up.
And we did it again and again, and I think
we gave away four or five cars in that similar model.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Twenty bucks. Twenty bucks, everybody listening. This took a text string,
twenty bucks and an evening in a backyard to tell
somebody how much you care about them and that you're
gonna bless them with the significant need they have. That's
how hard this is.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And life changes its magnetic.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Thing, the Citney five. But we don't even have a
name for this, no name a thing. This is just
normal folks seeing need and filling it.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
It's a good way to live. Yeah, and what it's
a good way to live. So, because I am not
good at scripture at all, I'm not going to quote
like trying to quote off my head because I obviously
have proven that I'm incapable of that.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
But I'm going to read this. Alex sent me that
this morning Sewod Corinthians eight thirteen through fifteen, not that
others should have relief while you were burdened, but that
as a matter of equality, your abundance at the present
time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may
also supply your needs. That there may be a quality.
(19:42):
I'm going to read it again, not that others should
have relief while you were burdened, but that as a
matter of equality, your abundance at the present time should
supply their needs, so that their abundance may also supply
your needs. That there may be a quality whoever had
much did not have more, and whoever had little did
(20:03):
not have less. Why don't you just explain that? Well?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
When I used to read that, I always thought, if
you're a multi millionaire, you should share.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's exactly I'm so glad you said that. That's exactly
how I took it is, you know, Elon Musk should
be given some money away. Isn't it interesting that when
you read something like that and you always find what other.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
People should be doing.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, yeah, it's so easy to point out all these
things these other people should be doing.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yep. And it's actually not that. It's not that far away,
meaning that truth that scriptures like. It's simpler, it's more
even elementary if you have a little extra sure, So
if you think about it, it's like if you have
twenty bus and some people don't have twenty bucks to share,
(21:02):
and that's okay. If you have a twenty dollars bill
to share, you don't even let your right hand know
at your left, you just do it. And that was
that's what happened to us. Then that's what happened to
these people that we gave way cars to. Just you
didn't give people time to think one because it's not
even that much money. It was twenty bucks and everybody's
(21:23):
in on it, and you're living out this communal magnetic
way of sharing.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So one of the reasons this show even exists is
I was on your side of the table one day
and Alex was sitting here about two and a half
years ago interviewing me after the movie and the book
and speeches and stuff that was interviewed a lot, and
Alex interviewed me for a company he worked for. During
(21:51):
that interview, I said what many people who listen to
the show often or read stuff. I said, their communities
all over the place. Where you look down the road
and you see poverty and despair, you think somebody had
to do something about that, as if the cinema matters.
And then as you pass by, you know, because you
didn't want to have a flat tire there, and you
(22:13):
kind of exhale. Do you think somebody knew something about that?
And I think government has proven woefully inadequate, although well
intentioned in many cases. Obviously, all of these policy decisions
and all of the money we've poured at all of
the issues, they're still there. So the data says they
(22:36):
hadn't worked. All of these narratives crafted out of people
in DC and New York on the national media. I
don't see them fixing a lot. In fact, I see
them sewing division candidly. So who is somebody how to
fix that? One? Day. Who is this somebody? Who is
(22:57):
this proverbial somebody? Maybe a way to kick that rearview
mirror about fifteen degrees to the left. Maybe that's just
somebody that ought to fix it. Us just an army
in normal folks. And as I read that scripture and
I hear what you just said, and I think about
(23:18):
it is so easy to look at Elon Musk and saying, yeah,
see he ought to be doing more.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Solve all the problems.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yeah, maybe it's us. Maybe we ought to be doing more.
And you don't have to be a multimillionaire to affect change,
because it's just twenty bucks. It's just a whole bunch
of people, an army of people doing what little bit
they can that can significantly change lives. And I think
(23:51):
that's a lesson of that scripture. I think it's also
the lesson of the blessings that you guys have received
and what you've shared with us. So do you teach
that young life?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Oh yeah, they crave it. They crave to be a
part of something like that. You know, Christianity gets kind
of boring if you just dim it down to going
to church and not sinning. But when you put the
offensive playbook on somebody and go we could bless people
and love people together and didn't have to be some
far fetched idea. It's actually that guy.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
We'll be right back. I think there's been a number
of generations, even more than decades, of Christianity being its
own worst enemy, floating the sales pitch that believe like me,
(24:46):
or you're doomed to hell. It's not a very hopeful narrative.
That's not a.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Very attractive what's up attractive?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
It's not. It's not it's like me or it actually,
in my opinion, almost Illicits paternalism. You know, I know
better than you, and if you think like me, you're good.
If you don't, you're a piece of crap and you're doomed.
And I think for many years, especially in the American
(25:17):
and European church, guilt and fear drove the narrative rather
than hope and love and compassion. What do you think
about that?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I agree. I think we have a generation of people
and I think I kind of grew up in this
where I just that's what I thought Christianity was about.
I mean, if you go to church for X amount
of years and then you and after you come out
of there, you think, Okay, I just need to be
really good and try not and sin less. It's like
(25:49):
that is not the gospel. In fact, even when you
think about that, the famous verse the tim teebovers of
John three sixteen, generosity is actually hit the core of it.
For God's love the world that he gave, so you
can almost it's a great litmus test to be like,
if we are loving, if we are full of love,
(26:12):
we should see generosity kind of over oozing out of
our skin. And it's hard. It's hard to do. We
want to protect ourselves, you know, take care of ourselves.
But I do think it's about much more than kind
of what you're talking about. It's people want to be
a part of that movement of blessing someone. It puts
(26:36):
skin on all the theory of love your neighbor and
love the Lord, your God, and all of those kinds
of things. So to keep it grassroots and to keep it,
you know, kind of in the alleyways and on the
front lines. What we would do at ut is we
just would rally people to spend less time thinking about
whether they send less or was good and wasn't good,
(26:57):
and goes to this church and argue about destination whatever.
It's like, are you loving?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Oh, it's funny predetermination? Why don't we kill each other?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I mean it's just like even the smartest people can't
figure that out. But I think I can love this
other guy. Take him out to lunch and listen to him.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
So, actually, the debt was paid off and you have
this kid, and now you're able to be free and
you're not locked in your apartment. But you have five kids.
Why don't you explain all that, young lady? Five children?
How old are they?
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Kids? Three, five, seven, eight, and eleven?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Are you do? Homes don't have home school?
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Blessed?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I did homeschool for a year and it just isn't
for me. For me either trying to teach curriculum and
being pregnant and taking care of babies, it just didn't work.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Out for me.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
No, but that was like during pandemic all the things.
But we feel so blessed.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
We feel Do you work outside the home?
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I do photography. I'm a wedding photographer. I am, and
so I'm a home full time, but I do that
on weekends and nights when I'm not with kids.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
So you've recently changed from Young Life to.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Search, which is it's like young life, but to adults,
it's a relational ministry. You pursue the kind of the
furthest out.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
How do you find the candidates everywhere?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
They live next to you, you work with them.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
So are you interacting kind of the same way, just
with a little bit of an older crowd.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, I think it's it's much more during the day
adults when they're home, they're home with their families and whatnot.
But you essentially rally an army of people to think.
I mean, it's just it's so basic. It's just like, oh,
just being like a Christian just to love other people
and around you. You don't have to go to Taiwan and
be a missionary to see God move it. Actually open
(29:05):
your eyes and love that one person in your office
that you're like, I think I have some favor with them,
or I don't and I want to love them more.
You raise up an army to do that. And then
but it's really you're not going after churched people. You're
going after people. It's like, oh, yeah, I'm convinced, I'll
never ever believe that I would never ever step from
(29:27):
a church, or I'm out on God for a x
X number of reasons. Those are the people that we're
going after and trying to love.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I hope when you leave here you'll look up the
name Craig Strickland. He was a youth pastor at my
church forty years ago and he started a satellite church
that met in a restaurant for its first three years
on Sundays and became what's called Hope Presbyterian Church, which
(29:58):
is now Hope Church. And what he wanted to start
was a church for the unchurched, that's what he called it.
And he went out specifically to start a church for
people who had no church, who might lead lives that
(30:20):
were principally what we would say is right in terms
of the way they treated people, the way they acted
in the world, were honest and fair, decent people, but
had no faith because he said, those people align with
(30:41):
the principles and fundamentals of faith, they just don't have
the faith component, primarily because either they've walked from it
because of the narrative we discussed earlier, or they've never
been introduced to it. And he wanted to start a
church for the unchurched, where people felt comfortable to come
in and just say, Okay, what is this whole Jesus
(31:02):
thing all about? It is now a massive church. Wow.
It almost sounds like Search has the same fundamental mission.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah. What's interesting is I think middle school, high school, college,
really twelve to twenty two. You have organizations like Young Life,
Campus Crusade, FCA, even your local youth group kind of.
You even have people like me for fifteen years who
would pursue those people, care for them, pursue them. Once
(31:38):
you become an adult, I haven't heard of an organiza
like who's you Either go to church or you don't.
You're either forty and your life's going well or it's
not your community. It's very hard to find community outside
of that. You're kind of you're just trying to keep up,
like being an adult ain't for the feint at heart,
like it's and so Search is essentially trying to go
(31:59):
out after those people who are like I'm out and
it's like it's not too late. I think God's love
is always pursuing. So it's been. I've been only in
it five months, but it's been. There is such a need.
There are thirty year old men forty year old men,
fifty year old men and women who are like, I
(32:20):
guess this is it, And it's almost even more needed
because when you're younger, idealism is at its highest peak.
So even if you've hit rock bottom, you're like, oh,
my life's still ahead of me. I maybe get married,
make some money, have a family. When you hit forty
and you have hit all of those things, and it's.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Like and you're still going, eh, yeah, so's satisfied or unsatisfied?
Satisfied yeah, or have everything that you thought was going
to satisfy you and are still dreadfully unsatisfied. That emptiness
is uh, I think very common for a lot of people. So, actually,
(33:05):
you got these kids, you got this family.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Always wanted a big family, Well you got it. I
like to buck this system a little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
What's it like pushing three kids through Walmart and pregnant
Lisa knows, Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
It's it's a challenge. I have grown to My husband
is not love it.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I'm like he's the air and runner because I'm like
it's a little overwhelming sometimes.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah. So do you remember people looking at you like
you were completely out of your mind?
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Still?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Still?
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Yes? Still when I have to take all five to
the grocery store. They're all yours. No, I just because
I just wanted more time, all yours. Do you know
how babies are made? I'm like I do.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Do you know how this happened? Everybody gets it.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
I wanted this, okay.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I mean we used to know. We had a little
differentt on it, which we lived in the country when
we first got married, had all the kids, and I've
always said, you know, we had four kids in four years.
But we got on city water and it cleared up,
so we know, maybe maybe it was.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I don't know. So the last little story once you
share is you want a house for this big family.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
M hmm.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
And that's a lot of money. Yeah, the now payment's tough.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
We were living in this thing Austin has, it's called
the Affordable Homes program in this one Newish neighborhood. It
was close to campus at the time. We had one
kid moving in there. Basically, you have to have no debt,
which praise God. That provision. You had to make under
a certain amount and I don't have under a certain
(34:51):
amount of assets, and you can.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Well because of your friends qualify. You had no doubt
and because your job, you certainly were not making too
much and you, uh, yes, I was.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
And I was to stay home mom. So we were
on one income.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
So we were in this affordable holmes had another kid,
had another kid, and.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
I was like, I can't have another kid in this house.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
It was how many square feet twelve glorified apartment kind
of and so we were like, okay, let's start looking.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
And then we started looking.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
We were very discouraged because Austin Market is a little
Craig Cray and.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
It's I know, it's very yeah, it's very expensive.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
So we were like, okay, just like everything else in life,
we're going to like kind of put a request in
front of the Lord, and we're going to write kind
of our wish list of like what we would want
a home, what we feel like we need.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
We we're not talking about a ten thousand mansion here
with a pool. We're just talking.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
About a house house, yeah, yep. And so we were like, okay,
I guess we're gonna have to move to Wayco.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
That really no, no, no, we but it's just far,
just far, very far away.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
And so we were we were.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Like, okay, but here's what we kind of need in
a house our parents never can visit and stay with us.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
We know we want to keep having kids.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I wanted sick, dreamt of sick my whole life. But
we were at three and so we were like, here's
our request. We were looking with some of our best friends.
They we found a house that we were like, wow,
this would be really amazing, like kind of above what we.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Deserve and with how much we make.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Our friends bought the house next door the day after
the house next door went up for sale. After they closed,
and every it was everything we wanted on our list.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
We'll be right back. There comes another crazy story, like
all my debt gets paid off same day pregnant, and
then our best friends boy the house, and the next
(37:05):
day the house next door to them just happens coming on.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
It was a total god thing. We had been searching
for a year ish And.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
What was the down payment on this thing gonna have
to be?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Uh one, there's a bunch.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Yeah, it was a lot, I mean one ten maybe no,
I don't remember. Well, then if you wanted to get
rid of PMI or not, and.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
It was more than you had, more than we had, yes,
And so.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
There is a man who was like, if I know
Austin housing, uh, you know is very difficult. So if
you find a house that you like, let me know,
and if you can't afford it, let me know.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Maybe we can figure something out.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
And so we found a house and we were like, wow,
this is like everything on a list, everything we've dreamt of, spacious,
all that kind of stuff. And so we were like,
I think we should call him and say we really
want to go for this.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
This would be the dream.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And I guess you thought maybe he'd loan you a
little extra money.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Well, initially there were some people that were like, we'd
love to maybe co invest in the house.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Co invest co invest. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
There were a slew of people that were like, we
know you're in ministry, we love what you're doing at
ut and young life. How can we keep you here?
Essentially like the housing market is going to push you
and maybe other people like you away, and we got
to keep you here. And they they did have means,
but they are very not clear on like how they
wanted to do it. Was.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
It was just like, oh, you find a house, let
us know, Yeah, may no clue that, maybe we'll talk
to the real.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yes, or you maybe he knows a guy that could
no clue, no clue, So we we find it. And
but really the the undertow of the whole thing was
similar to the to the Debt Journey, which was Ash
and I in our home being like, this is our reality,
and this is what we're looking at, and there is
(39:00):
a delta here. There's a gap, Lord, you know the gap.
I mean, it's like, Lord, what do we do? This
is all that you've given us, and this is what
we're looking at and you and here are our desires.
And so when all of a sudden that house came
up and we told this guy, he said, oh, that's
(39:21):
really interesting, blah blah blah, didn't say anything. A week
later he said, once it takes me out to lunch
and says, hey, so what's the delta? And I was like,
seventy grand probably is what we would have to figure
out to do. And and no chance is anyone going
to give seventy gre who does that? I don't think
they're that I mean, they're that that wealthy. But he goes, well,
(39:43):
it's not just me that wants to help keep you
in Austin and keep you here, you know, these other
ten families, we're all going to cover that delta. So
let's see if we can go get this house. And
it was like, and again, you don't even know if
you're going to get it. You gotta put you know,
fight all the others and all the It was just like, Lord,
what's happening. We live in the house.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
And that's not your home.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
It's now our home. And I every day walk around
and I'm like, I don't deserve.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
To be here.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
And it's an answered it is an answered prayer, it's
God's provision.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
We're just like you own the cattle on a thousand.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Hills and the hills too, hills.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Once again, kind of normal folks seeing an airy need,
appreciating the work you do and stepped up. Not a
five oh one c three, not an organization, nothing, just
people that had the ability seeing a need and fellow it.
I can't imagine that in turn. That's not It's a
(40:49):
blessing to them, is what I'm saying. It's probably one
of the greatest week days of their month to be
able to to do that.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
For Jesus says something that's very countercultural and very upside
down when he says that it's better to give than
to receive. And I think what's inverted is, you know,
when we helped, you know, give those cars away, when
we helped rally for some other people that were in debt.
We've been on both ends. It's way more exciting to
(41:21):
be on the giving end. It means so it changes
your life to be on the receiving end. The joy
is on the giving end. The like, the momentum, the feel,
the zeal like let's go. And so they we walked
away from both that night where we got our debt
cleared and when we closed on the house, feeling that
(41:41):
humility of like, oh my gosh, how did this happen?
Everyone who participated in it walked away with that joy
of like, let's do it again. And so I think
there's a difference there for sure. But it's been fun
to now go, oh, let's be on the giving end,
because that's where the action's at.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
And army and normal folks can change lives in so
many different ways, and you don't even have to have
an organization to do it. You know, Ashley, I want
you to close us this way. Tell the people who
are listening to us today in the words of a
(42:21):
mom of five, what twenty bucks can really.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Do change change your world? It it changed the trajectory
of our lives for sure. It allowed us to walk
into something that we deeply desired and allowed us to
start a family with a new flag in the ground.
(42:49):
And it's a blessing to any mom.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Without Ashley, those blessings in that help if your husband
probably would have had to have left the ministry with
five children and done something else to make for sure,
I'll just wonder if it's dawned on anybody yet that
the blessings that were given to you are in turn
(43:18):
through the work of your husband given to all of
the kids at Young Life over fifteen years that he
was able to work with because without those blessings, he
wouldn't have been able to do that work.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
For sure, I very much feel like we stand on
the backs of hundreds. We absolutely do our income, our
whole marriage has been on the backs of community.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
What does that? What does it make you feel?
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Thankful? Scene extremely loved and known, known by the father.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
We feel like in our lives we're like we don't
make as much as mostly all of our friends, but
we lack nothing because not saying we live this abundant life.
But he God knows our needs, he sees, and we're
patient enough to go. We submit these to you, Lord,
(44:25):
and we wait on you.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Brandon Nashley, your love affair is so apparent when you
sit across from us with one another. But your love
affair and faith is also amazingly apparent. And I just
gotta believe that's what other people see in you. And
(44:53):
while they're so eager to continue to support you and
your work, and they're so eager to bless you need
and I think you guys are a beautiful example of
what an army of normal folks can do to further
support down the road the work that you can do.
(45:18):
I'm I wish how how can people watch that video
on YouTube? Where do they get that it's generous Giving? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
I think it's on generous giving dot org, which is
a it's a chalk full of a bunch of.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Videos generous giving dot org. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Generous Giving is an organization. It's funded by a foundation
and they essentially hosts people. They call it journeys of generosities,
like a weekend away or a weekend away where you
just talk about money, talk about what would it look
like to be generous. They're the ones that had generosity. Yeah,
they had heard about the debt story and they filmed it.
(45:58):
They were like, we need to reenact. Doesn't do this.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
I love it. So anybody wants to see your reactions
when you're going in the girl's house for a shirt,
which I still can't believe you call that. That's ridiculous,
but it's awesome. Yeah, guys, thanks so much coming from Alston.
Share the story and thanks for having I hope our
(46:21):
listeners will go watch that on YouTube. It's ten minutes.
It's worth the watch and the expression on you guys
faces is pretty priceless. I loved it. God bless the
work you do. Good luck with it. I know you've
been only been in five months, but I gotta believe
you're going to pour yourself into it and be successful
in it. And what a beautiful, sweet mom you are.
(46:45):
And anybody listened to us in the Austin area, if
you have a wedding, call this woman. She will absolutely
love it. I love I have a website.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
For just my name, Ashleystathis dot com.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
You got to spell the last name stat es So
if you're in the Texas area, and you want a
really cute mom and a great couple with five kids
doing great work in Austin who have given and received,
and you want to support her. She can do a
really good job for your photographs at your wedding and stuff,
(47:21):
right he can. Maybe you get some calls hopefully.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
I love it too, guys. Thanks for being here, Thank you,
thank you, and thank you for joining us this week.
If Brandon and Ashley Staffus or other guests have inspired
you in general, or better yet, to take action by
(47:46):
catalyzing your own army of normal folks to bless people
in your community, or something else entirely, please let me know.
I'd love to hear about it. You can write me
anytime at Bill at normal Folks dot us, and I
swear to you I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, guys,
(48:06):
please share it with friends, share it on social subscribe
to the podcast, go on Google and rate and review it.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Actually that's not Apple, but well it's okay.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Are on Spotify. I'm just gonna keep this in here.
It's just kick why I mean, yeah, Well then go
on what Apple? Spotify? Go on Spotify? Apple? Can you
go on? iHeart I don't know, go on something and
actually review the thing and rate it. Puts five stars
down there for us if Phil deserves it. Yeah, we
(48:39):
you know, make me feel good about myself. Join the
army at normal Folks dot us. Consider becoming a premium member.
There all of these things that will help us grow
an army of normal folks and make me feel better.
Thanks to our producer, Iron Light Labs, I'm Bill Courtney.
Until next time, let's do what we can
Host
Bill Courtney
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