August 31, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode, we sit down with Outreach & Missions Director Herb Welday IV to talk through his testimony of Jesus saving him and leading him to come on staff at LifeHouse Church many years later!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
well, what's up?
Life talk family.
Welcome back to the life talkpodcast.
This is nate coming to youtoday and I am super excited I
have a special guest with ustoday Jarvis.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Brennan Jarvis is back.
I'm back, I'm back.
This would have been a goodtime to use our little sound
thing I know Should have donethat.
I missed an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm too rusty Too rusty Nate's relegated back to
the number two chair.
No, nate's number one, nate'snumber one.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm just you know I'm an addition, so it's good to be
back, nate.
Thanks for holding down.
It's great to have you back.
Uh, you know, yeah, had justsome time away and not as long
as I was away from the podcast.
I wish everybody probablythinks you were gone.
I know, I wasn't I wasn't gone,but um, just yeah different
things that way and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Everybody's enjoyed the summer, but we are excited
to have Jarvis back.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, I'm glad to be back and I'm back for a good
episode.
I think you guys will enjoyjust what you're about to hear
today, and it's specifically ourOutreach and Missions Director,
herb Welday.
How you doing, man.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me on thepodcast guys.
Of course, man Herb Welday IV.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The fourth.
Yeah, iquire, yeah, that mightbe my future.
There you go, cool.
Well, today we're just going totalk through just Herb's
testimony and just kind of howGod has worked, you know, from a
(01:35):
young age and just moving intowhere he's at now, right being
at LifeHouse on staff here andso the goal really when we
started Life Talk Podcast manyyears ago was to help LifeHouse
know LifeHouse better and sothat when the people in our
congregation are able to listento an episode like this and know
someone on staff in a deeperway that they might not be able
to if you know, they just seenthem on a Sunday morning or had
(01:59):
a small conversation in thelobby and so, just being the
size that we are, we like tokind of just work through, you
know, those areas and we've seenbenefit from that Just people.
I mean I didn't know X, y and Z,and so I'm excited for today.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Herb.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And so I hope you are as well.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
I am very much excited.
My story is a story, right.
Everyone has a story.
And mine's a great one.
I think it's a story that isreally of grace.
That's all.
Our testimony is a story ofgrace that we were dead, but by
God.
Like we heard yesterday fromPastor Mark, he intervened and
(02:32):
that's really.
I think if you could summarizemy story in one sentence, that
would be but God.
And, yeah, my parents a littlebackground, so we are newer to
Delaware, but it's not foreignto us and my wife's born and
raised in Delaware and herfamily's here and it's felt like
a family for me as well,because my dad was in the
(02:55):
military for 30 years nearly 30years, 29 and a half and we
traveled all around the worldbut we were never rooted in one
place.
So there's benefits to that andchallenges and everything in
between, but it's beautiful tosee how God uses things in your
life to prepare you for what hehas you to do.
And, as I even just reflect onthis new opportunity and season
(03:19):
he's placed us in, to step inmissions and outreach is just
seeing his hands you know, hearthat talk hindsight's 2020
around here.
It really is just just seeinghim prepare in different seasons
, uh, for this season that we'rein right now and to step in to
serve, so I'm excited about thatyeah.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And so let's just jump in.
Tell us your I mean your dadwas in the military.
Yeah, tell us the earliestthing, like, start from the
beginning.
You came out the womb.
Yeah, start from the beginning,you came out the womb yeah
that's a great question.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So I came out the womb 9-11-1995.
So obviously a big day in ournation's history, 9-11-2001.
But a few years before I wasborn in Tampa Bay, florida,
sunny Florida.
And you think about my earliestmemory?
(04:05):
Wow, that's a question.
Um, I would say probably theearliest memory I can remember
is going to elementary school,at tinker elementary school,
where the tigers and uh tinker,tigers, yep and I.
Honestly, 9-11 2001 was a bigday for me, not because of all
(04:26):
the things that were happeningin the country, in our nation
looking back, and all of theeffects it's had for many years,
but because, as a young, five,six-year-old, whatever I was at
the time it was a normal day.
It was my birthday.
We're celebrating, I'm bringingcupcakes to school, and we're
on a military Air Force base.
So things are a littledifferent than just a public
(04:46):
school, yeah, and, but itfunctions like a public school
and, um, and that shifted, likewe got sent home early and, uh,
I didn't get to give thecupcakes to my class and it was
just a down there.
I went around the neighborhoodand gave the cupcakes out, but
that was really the earliestmemory I've had, and other than
that it kind of gets a littlefoggy.
(05:07):
But so we were in Florida.
I have an older sister, youngersister, we were all born there
and my parents were born andraised in the inner city of
Baltimore and they'refirst-generation Christians.
So that's part of my testimonyis that they were raised in a
Christian home.
So they didn't know how toraise their family in a
Christian home.
(05:27):
So they were figuring that out.
They were fumbling throughlearning how to do that, but
they knew getting saved.
Later in life, as an adult,they wanted their children to
know Jesus and we did that.
And from my earliest age Iremember going to church, going
to VBS, going to men's Biblestudies with my dad and doing
(05:48):
these breakfasts and just beingaround the church and rubbing
shoulders with other Christiansand that's all I knew and I'm
really grateful for that timewhere we could experience God's
grace and that's the only thingthat I really, really knew and
and I I'm so thankful, uh, tothat.
So so florida was probably tillI was around like seven or
(06:11):
eight, and then we moved to newjersey.
New jersey was mcguire airforce base and like central new
jersey ish I think aroundtrenton a little south um about
three years.
My family was there for fouryears because my dad did a tour
in south korea for a yearwithout us so, um, we were there
for four years and that's whereI actually professed the lord.
(06:33):
So, around the age of nine, I Iprofessed faith in the lord and
I share that with my parents andI shared that with our pastor,
pastor, pastor Kosti at the timeKoston, excuse me, and he was
just a local chaplain, southernBaptist pastor, actually a
graduate from Southern Seminaryand we expressed that and, at
(06:56):
the same time, the Lord wasdoing a work in my older
sister's heart she was about 11,12 at the time, not knowing as
a nine-year-old what was goingon in her heart, and doing that
at the same time.
And we actually got baptized onthe same day, which was a very
sweet thing to see, and myChristian claim to fame, if I
had one, is that we got baptizedby the president, who is now
(07:22):
the president of LibertyUniversity.
Oh yeah, okay.
So Pastor Koston is the, thepresident of Liberty University.
Oh, yeah, okay.
So Pastor Costin is the headcommand guy there now I knew
that name sounded familiar.
I was like that sounds familiar.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Why don't I know that ?
Okay, cool.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
That's my little Liberty connection.
Okay, sweet, yeah, that'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So your church experience was typically
happening on base.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
It was Yep, that was all I knew.
So my parents were veryconnected to the military life,
from everything from the grocerystore called the commissary on
base to the family life.
I mean it was just verycentered around being with other
families who are doing the samething as you, and they had a
church on every Air Force base,an evangelical church, and that
(08:04):
there was pastors from differentdenominations would lead
because they're differentchaplains.
They would say, hey, I'm apresbyterian chaplain, hey, I'm
a baptist past chaplain.
And they would function muchlike a pastor would in a local
church and they would go justlike every other military person
would go from base to base,whether that's overseas on a
duty tour or whether that's, uh,inside a base around the united
(08:27):
states so do you feel like you,like you said, a lot of your
family was doing kind of a lifewith other people in the
military, do you?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
feel like you were able to build, because I know
right, obviously, moving fromflorida to jersey and I'm sure
that wasn't the last place youmaybe went um do you feel like
building community at at a youngage?
I feel like it's uh prettyintegral into our experience of
growing and maturing and how doyou feel like that life was, you
know, being in the militaryyeah, yeah, that's a great
(08:54):
question.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
I think it was a challenge.
If I could say it in one wordum, I felt like my experience in
the military as a military kid,military brat, is the term they
use.
So that's the challenge,because generally speaking, you
get two to three years at a base, and so do other families.
(09:16):
So if we move, like we did,from Florida to Jersey, well,
our new two three years startsJune 1.
And we'll fast forward forthree years and other parents
could be finishing thatthree-year tour, and that was
constant.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
So you might make a friend you might make a friend.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
He's gone in six months.
You know I might be that newfriend that's here for three
years and and that was constant.
So you, you would meet a ton ofpeople and you would have a lot
of friends, but they weren'tvery deep friends because, just
the nature of the coming andgoing.
So that was cool to see a lot ofdifferent people and see a lot
of different places, cultures,things like that from even just
(09:53):
different states.
We did Jersey, we went toEngland, lived in England for a
little bit and then we lived inGuam, middle of the Pacific
Ocean and a tropical island, andthen my dad got out in 2012,
and that's when we landed inDelaware.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
What was your favorite place?
You went Like where you lived.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah, I'd probably say England, Okay, england,
probably because I remember itthe most Okay and also I really
appreciated playing soccer.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I played soccer growing up and they're big where
it started, yeah, so I meanthey're all in who's your
premier league team yeah
Speaker 4 (10:24):
I'm a spurs guy, so tottenham hot spur there.
So a few years ago, a couple ofdays ago, we we did an ancestor
dna test together and wefigured out a lot of us were
from england.
So we we had, based on the test, there were several pockets of
where you could potentially befrom and we were all trying to
get into soccer in a moreserious way.
(10:45):
So we said, okay, we can't alljust pick the same team.
Yeah, pick where your family'skind of from, and that I had
that northern london vibe.
So I had a few choices but Ilanded with the spurs we got any
soccer fans out there exactlyfootball football that's correct
yeah no, literally nothing.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I'm like the spurs are a basketball team and that's
that's common.
Yeah, like that's correct.
I know literally nothing.
I'm like the.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Spurs are a basketball team, that's common.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
That's all that I know.
Great, I love the Spurs.
They are.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, the funny thing about the Spurs they actually
for a long time were founded onJewish roots, so they could
never play on Sunday for thelongest time, until recently
when they started in the PremierLeague.
And if there's any Spurs fansthat know more than me, you
probably do so correct me if I'mwrong out there With that
military journey.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
how did that intersect with your faith coming
to faith, like you say,building community.
Your family is looking toreally keep you grounded in that
faith.
But how did that kind of playout through the following years?
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So, as a nine-year-old, canjust try to live my faith as I
could, and that's loving myfamily, my sisters, loving my
parents, well, being kind topeople around me in my schools
and community in that way.
That's really what it lookedlike.
I can't really remember.
I mean I remember thinkingabout this in preparation, just
(12:04):
being newer to the church, andtelling people my story.
It's almost like it just got ahaze, like I get saved.
I remember pockets of things,but it's like fast forward to my
teen years.
Then it's like, okay, my memoryjust came back.
It's like I mean there's a Iremember hanging out with
buddies outside of school andthat's just like it was just
doing life as a young kid.
(12:26):
It's playing, hanging out,there's not much to remember.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
There's not much to remember.
You just kind of talked on.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Sunday, you know, with Sutton.
It's like he's going to theYMCA and he's just playing with
people.
He doesn't even remember theirnames.
It's like that's kind of whatmy upbringing was in that time
and it was just really going tobible.
So I mean I attend this thing.
I think it's called royalrangers or something.
Um, I'm not handy at all,there's not a bone in my body
that can fix something, and uh,it was something like outdoorsy.
(12:55):
I'm losing the word when, whenthe younger kids go out
outdoorsy, like a boy scout?
yes, it's like a boy scout vibe,but with um like a church would
host it and it it was calledRoyal Rangers or something.
So I participated in that, okay, and they met like every week
and I did that and they weretrying to get you to do stuff
outside, do a fire, do a tent,and I was just like not
(13:15):
interested.
I was a sports kid and thethings outside.
Like I never had a pocket knife, like kids loved it and they
loved fishing and I was justlike this just was just not
interesting to me so I'd ratherplay tag or capture the flag or
and I was just kind of like thedifferences.
So I kind of hanged out withhooking up with that crowd and
um, and yeah, I just kind ofloved them.
Well, been a good teammate ont-ball teams and encouraging
(13:38):
people that way, and that's kindof like how I learned to read
the bible and how does it looklike just being good, you know,
playing sports and just gettingmad when you lose Simple things
like that.
And just the Lord using theeveryday, ordinary things of
life.
Yeah.
You know, I think scriptureverse in first Corinthians 10
talks about whether you eat ordrink, doing all for the glory
(13:58):
of God.
And that's how, how?
How would a nine, 10, 11, 12yearold do that?
Well, he's going to do hisschoolwork very good, he's going
to honor his parents and, whenhe's wrong, learning to practice
that in the Christian life.
My parents were instrumental indoing that in a really deep way
through budgeting and being ina military household, your
(14:20):
parents get paid every first and15th of the month and that was
like clockwork.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So my parents helped us try to learn about biblical
stewardship through.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Whatever age you were , that was the amount of
allowance you had.
So when I was 10, I got 10bucks on the first day of the
month and the 15th of the monthand they taught us well, we're
going to give you something, andwe had to do chores and work
for a job and you didn't justget the money, and they wanted
us to learn how to steward theamount of money.
So they said hey, you're 70%you can live on.
You're going to save 10% andyou're going to give 10% to the
(14:57):
church.
And there was something elseI'm drawing a blank on.
What was the other 10%?
They were trying to model forus at a young age what you would
do with the money to be asteward of it, and that just ran
in a deep way in my life.
Just a small, simple thing.
I mean, I'm a spender by nature, so I would already spend that
$7 like two months in a row.
You can ask my wife, stephanieabout that.
(15:18):
I still do that today.
We have this mad money in ourbudget where we can say it's
free money, you can spend onwhatever you want.
You know within reason, and Ialready have it kind of mapped
out how I'm spending my moneythe next kind of six months, but
anyways, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Before you get it.
Yeah, that's right.
I teach that in financial peace.
You're the spender yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
So but yeah, that's kind of my young child, child
years.
And so years so and so let'sget into kind of teens.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Right.
Like you're, you remember moreof your teenage years.
Yes, I do.
Um, my teenage years were justdumb, a lot of dumb, and so yeah
, so kind of.
Yeah, what was yours like?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
yeah, some of it was pretty dumb, to be honest.
So, uh, I I had uh a lot ofkids around me that love sports
and we would do crazy thingsjust playing basketball right
after school or playing football, the real football, from the
English term soccer for us inAmerica.
(16:31):
I would come home.
We'd to live like Jesus one way.
But this is kind of what thecrowd is living and I would just
learn to hide myself well.
Hide myself well and honestlywith some of those temptations
and challenges as a youngteenager, when you're starting
to feel attracted to girls oryou're starting to feel
different things, your body'schanging and all of these
(16:55):
different things and it's likewhat does that actually?
mean and look like as a youngChristian.
So middle school years and thengoing into high school, which
is where we made the transitionfrom England to Guam.
So my early high school yearsis now in Guam, my freshman and
sophomore year, and that justcarried over.
I was playing basketball inmiddle school and football and
then you're in an environmentwhere it's almost just and it's
(17:24):
almost celebrated to just livelike the world.
If you could just summarize thatin a few sentences, it's you
want to hang out and do thingsand influenced by the world, and
that's what I got caught upinto doing and I would almost
play the part.
I would learn to be a goodfriend and there was boundaries,
(17:48):
like I just think back, there'smoments and times where I I
would know in my heart becauseof my upbringing and being
taught the word there was alwaysa line in which I didn't cross
that I knew was there and Iwould.
But I would flirt with the lineas close as I could go and I'd
always be a good friend, but Iwould always be knowing that he
would be the good friend.
That wouldn't do that thing.
You know what I'm saying,whether it was drugs or whether
(18:11):
it was simple alcohol orwhatever like, but I would be
around it but never do it.
You see what I'm saying.
So there was always that lineyoung adulting as a teenager,
going in towards young adult inthose in those years, from
(18:33):
football to basketball and andjust really being just a
middle-class teenager, I wasn'ta popular guy.
I wasn't like a you know personwho would be considered from a
world league standpoint a, aloner or whatever you know
person from from a high school.
You know those categories.
People put me put in.
But I was just like the averagejoe type of guy yeah people
(18:54):
knew herb went to church but Iwasn't super vocal about it but
I didn't hide it.
It was like just kind of likevery in between even keel type
of of of faith so you're goingto a public school at that point
, like in england, england.
So that's the, that's thedynamic.
It's like public but private atthe same time, because it's on
a military air force base.
So it's still on the base it'sstill on the base, and same
(19:15):
thing with the high school.
When I went to guam it was on abase, so, um, so I was in
middle school for seventh andeighth grade excuse me, sixth
and seventh grade in england.
Then we made the transitionfrom England to Guam eighth
grade and then I was eighthgrade, ninth grade and tenth
grade in Guam, and then that'swhen my family, in the summer of
tenth grade to junior year in2012, came to Delaware.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Okay, and then where'd you graduate?
From Delaware.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Cesar Rodney Riders.
Yep Go, riders Go, stillfaithful, still good.
2014 class 2014 class.
Class of 2014 represent that.
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
And so what was that transition like for you?
Like I'm assuming that can behard to almost.
Yeah, for the first 16 yearsish of your life, yeah, moving
every three years different, notjust different states, but
different countries, differentcontinents.
And then you land in Delawarefrom Guam guam.
(20:09):
You were living in guam, atropical island yeah, you're
living in delaware exactly whatwas that like?
It may be transition of living,but also just of life and with
christ and all the areasabsolutely.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Yeah, I mean the transition of living is is that
exactly just that?
The tropical island to delaware, I think we get all four
seasons here yeah but you don'tget a ton of snow.
It doesn't get super cold, butit gets cold.
I mean, guam is is exactly whatit is 75, 85 all year round,
whether that's january 1 todecember 31st.
And um, sounds like some peoplelove it.
(20:40):
I mean, I loved it, but alsoyou kind of miss wearing a
sweater.
You know, it's you know it'slike things like that.
It's you miss the time of the,the leaves turning and things
like that.
Um, so that was more like the,the geography and the culture,
but it was a really new thingbecause we've we've only moved.
That's all we knew.
Yeah, and that was the.
(21:00):
The biggest change was whatdoes it actually mean to be in
community with people like?
That was a challenge.
And it was a challenge becausewhen we came back, uh, my
parents, like I said, was bornand raised in Baltimore,
maryland area, so our familystayed in that area a little bit
in Pennsylvania now, but weDelaware was a good spot because
that was the first base myparents ever got to in the
(21:23):
military and, uh, it was closeenough to family, but they could
also use the benefits of themilitary Air Force Base in Dover
.
So that's why we landed inDelaware.
And that was some of thechallenges I shared were still
the same challenges in my middleschool years.
Just carried into the highschool space, went to Suze
(21:46):
Rodney.
I mean at the time it was likeover 2 000 kids at that time.
I, you know, I've onlyexperienced hundreds of kids
like max, like my high school inguam was like 350 kids for the
entire high school.
So going into a school likesusan rodney, your classes that
my classes were huge.
You know the, the ton of people.
It was just overwhelming and um, but you just kind of got by.
(22:07):
And how I got by was sports.
I would meet friends throughthat way, which is where I met
probably my best friend, chasethere, and Chase is a great
brother in the Lord and the Lordreally helped us be in this
group.
That was involved in sports, hedid lacrosse and some other
(22:27):
things, but we created a friendgroup that was good in sports,
he did lacrosse and some otherthings, but we, we created a
friend group that was good butnot great.
And then the really the lordset us apart.
Almost like the day wegraduated from this friend group
, like I remember almost vividly.
It was like june of 7th of 2014.
It was like the next week.
It was like all communicationjust like stopped, and part of
(22:49):
that is you grow growing awayfrom people going to college,
different things but um, andchase and I stayed here.
I went to deltech, chased atdeltech and these different
things, um, but the, the lordseparated us because, fast
forward, 10 years later, we'reboth in ministry now and that
was a trajectory that was doingto bring us actually back.
(23:10):
We got connected to an LYA-typegroup called Refuge at a
Baptist church in Cornerstone.
That really helped us see okay,you're an adult, you can't take
your parents' faith.
You know you can't take yourparents' faith.
It's growing into that andreally that being confronted
(23:35):
with it's not this pretend thing, it's not one foot in the pool
and one foot in the world, butit's both feet in the world of
Jesus and he wants to transformyour world through that and that
young adult.
Weekly Tuesday night, you know,7 to 9.30, where we was hearing
the word preached, we were insmall groups who were in
community.
That was a fresh experience thatI never get got to have because
I was constantly moving yeahand they would constantly be in
(23:57):
and out and that's just like thetension of, of the military
life so yeah, yeah, I mean it is.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I mean that's one of the goals with OIA right, is I
mean you mentioned, is, yeah,that the goals with OIA right?
I mean you mentioned that samethought and so, man, what a cool
kind of segue right into thenalmost life deeper with Christ.
This is where you get to take,not just not that it was your
parents' faith where youprofessed faith but, kind of
taking it seriously.
Yeah, and what was?
(24:25):
How did change like in maybedaily life?
Speaker 4 (24:29):
all of those areas.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, that's a great trajectory of work and obviously
you said you're in ministry now, like that's kind of the yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
So going back to that budgeting thing, real quick, I
I never had to.
I didn't get a job during highschool, you know, my parents
parents were, uh, middle classand whatever they they provided
for us and my parents were like,hey, you don't have to work, we
want you to focus on being astudent.
So I never got to work.
Being in guam, I didn't evenget a license till I was 18,
(24:55):
almost like.
It was just like a lot of weird.
I didn't get a cell phonereally till later, like all of
these things.
I felt like I was behind thetimes when, when I came back
over from the states because itwas three years in england,
three years in guam, and then itwas like welcome to yeah yeah,
and a lot of things havehappened from six years and then
, and and that includes a lot oftechnology advances that
(25:18):
includes like having smartphoneswere really big and everybody
had a smartphone.
They were starting to have thatand I was.
I developed a habit of I waskind of like too cool for things
and in graduating out of highschool I was continually invited
from this church like three orfour times, to their youth group
(25:40):
and I said I was basically likeI'm too cool for the youth
group, was basically the storythere, too cool for the youth
group was basically the storythere.
And that was the same groupthat said, hey, you should come
to our tuesday night groupcalled refuge and uh, that is
where the lord helped us have abiblical worldview.
We're going on a series theywere doing a series called
(26:03):
transformed I think it was whatit was called.
It was literally going throughtopics of having a what a
biblical worldview is, from sexand marriage and singleness to
just reading your Bible.
Like it was just going throughtopics every Tuesday night and
it would just take one and justhelp us apply and learn and
understand.
What does, what does God's wordsay about X?
(26:25):
And how can we then use thesedifferent means from work.
You mentioned work to school.
You know that's a verytransitional phase of life where
we're trying to figure out,lord, what is your will for us,
where are we going?
And the simple things of prayer, community, of things reading
(26:46):
your Bible, actually doing andI'm using that word
intentionally actually doing thestuff Jesus calls us to do when
he says come and follow me.
And that helped me have a heartthat was inflamed for him to
share the gospel with peoplearound me, to work differently,
(27:07):
use my work as a catalyst totalk to people about Jesus.
And it was just, you know, okay, I always gave, because that's
how I was taught to give.
But the why behind what I wasdoing and a lot of those dots
were starting to be connected,even though it was a lot of
those things I was always doingit was like the whys behind them
(27:27):
were finally aligning and Ithink the Lord helped me see of
those things I was always doing.
It was like the whys behind themwere finally aligning and I
think the Lord helped me seethat those things were being
done, but they were finallybeing done in an act of
apostrophe.
Worship and that season helpedme through simple things of just
opening up my Bible and readingthrough it and chewing on it
and memorizing it and prayingand learning how to pray and how
(27:49):
to seek the Lord and to seekthe Lord when things happen like
suffering and pain.
What does that mean for my lifeand what does that not mean and
how is God using those things?
And just doing that in a groupof people that I didn't have
because of all.
The transition was verydifficult and the beautiful
thing was that that is a reallya gift of God's church is that
(28:13):
we're part of a body and I thinkthat was really central for me
understanding how to live theChristian life, the one
another's, so I think that was agood thing.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I heard at you know something I was reading recently
.
Like you said, you have to takeyour you know you have your
faith, but a lot of it's whatyou've been taught through your
parents, and so you have to notdeconstructionist in the way of
walking away from the faith, butyou have to make it your faith.
You have to bring god's word,you have to bring the community.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
You have to not do these things, because that's
what I'm taught, but you trulyhave that, developing the
relationship, building thatfaith on the foundation of
christ yeah, cultivation of thefaith was instrumental to
understanding James talks aboutlike authentic faith.
That's where I felt andunderstood what faith actually
(29:03):
was.
It was being practiced.
You know, it wasn't just beingtaught in word, but it was
actually being practiced in deedand truth and it was just
seeing that combination wasreally refreshing and helpful.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, that's good.
And so thinking about, right,obviously, the cultivating of
relationships and now reallymoving from this faith of not
just your parents but kind ofyour parents, and you're kind of
growing and you're learning andyou're kind of working through
a lot of the biblical worldviewframework, how does that push
you into your later young adultyears, right?
(29:41):
Your, your college, ending ofcollege years and you have a
wife, right?
Speaker 4 (29:45):
So meeting your wife, kind of talk through that.
Yeah, that's great, Greatquestion.
So went on a mission trip withthis young adult group.
We went to the DominicanRepublic and that was part of my
journey of walking with Jesusis learning that God's heart for
people isn't just the UnitedStates of America but it's for
the nations.
And we did that by going on ayoung adult led mission trip to
(30:06):
one of our mission partners inthe Dominican Republic.
I did that in like the fall of2016.
I'm just finishing Dell Techand I don't really know what's
next and I'm just trying todiscern.
I come back from that missiontrip and the Lord really helped
me learn a lot of things abouthim on that trip and
understanding who he was and howjust simple life can be with
(30:28):
the food and clothing and thelack of what the need was there
Just really appreciated just thethings that can happen to you
on a mission trip to stir yourheart for the Lord and for other
people.
And that is when I started toget introduced to Stephanie.
Someone invited her a friend,to the church, the youth group
she was finishing out, she wasat Lake Forest and at the time I
(30:50):
was just a student leaderhelping out in the student
ministry and that's how I got toknow Stephanie.
She was graduating out and thenI was inviting her to the young
adult ministry because she washer kind of next step, you know,
graduating out of that and shestarted coming there.
And then in the in-between timeI was trying to discern okay, if
(31:12):
you're going to pursue arelationship with her, it would
be wise for you to step down asa leader or you need to stop
pursuing the relationship.
But it came to a head like okay, you got to choose one or the
other.
So I got good counsel from theyouth pastor saying I think you
want to pursue this relationshipso you should step down.
And everybody knew in the groupand it wasn't like she was, uh,
(31:36):
graduating out, so it's her kindof last.
How they did it was when yougraduated may, june, whatever it
was you can stay in the studentministry or go into the young
adult for that summer, like it'skind of like your choice to do
but, in the fall.
Then you had to kind of go tothe, to the next group.
So that's where we met.
We met at the churchCornerstone Church was the name
of the church at the time rightin the downtown of Dover.
(31:57):
And then the following year, ayear after Stephanie's whole
family went on that mission trip, we went to the same trip as a
family which is now my familydouble the people went it wasn't
just the young adults beforeand it was just encouraging this
(32:18):
mission partner and helpingthem and loving on them.
We built a well and helped themwith their ministry to further
the gospel and bring fresh waterto these villages and it's a
really, really sweet story there.
But Stephanie and I met at thechurch and her family.
It's kind of similar story.
She was younger.
You can hear her story but it'ssimilar to mine, where younger
(32:40):
actually got baptized the sameday as her dad.
So it was just a really coolstory.
And her younger sister, Ibelieve in California and just
seeing how God set them apartwas very sweet and instrumental
and the Lord brought us together.
I had to court Stephanie.
I had to do 25 house visits.
I'm not exaggerating.
This is the real thing.
For parents who are listeningand thinking about ideas with
(33:01):
dating and things.
So I had to visit their houseand get to know them and show my
worth honestly for lack ofbetter words and win their trust
, before we could even date.
And at the time I'm a youngadult, I have a full-time job
(33:22):
and I'm finishing school andit's like I have to come to this
family's house to do that andlooking bad, it was good and um,
we broke up once and I ended uphaving to reset the visits.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
I ended up doing like 37 total and then I'm not
exaggerating maybe a little bit,but like like a log definitely
kept a log.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
She did because she was like hey, see this guy's
really I I am doing this like,just so you know, mom and dad,
like this is yours for real.
Yeah, so did that.
Got married, um, and beenmarried for seven and a half
years, just trying to learn nowas a family unit to follow jesus
.
And what does that look likeand how do we?
(33:54):
You know, we got married.
She was 20, I was 23, 22 and ahalf, something like that, and
so young, family and startingand just walking through life as
a young adult, still pluggedinto that young adult group,
still learning, and there wereseveral friends who got married
in that same kind of time frameas well.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
So, yeah, and so you've been married.
There's some, you know, four orfive, six, seven years right in
between those areas.
What was life like then?
Uh, I know you felt called intoministry at some point.
Kind of talk about that how youfelt called into ministry and
maybe kind of just fast forwardus to getting to here.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah, yeah, so quick, quick there there's that
mission trip.
Actually I felt the lord'sserving me.
I thought maybe I was going tobe a missionary, just walking
through my church with that,expressing that to the
leadership, and they're helpingme like understand that.
And I didn't.
One of the values whatstephanie and I said when we
were getting married was wedidn't want to go into debt for
school so and I was just unsurethere wasn't clarity on what the
(34:53):
next step was, so I stoppedgoing to school.
I only did two years at DelTech and then I expressed to my
church and they were justwalking alongside me with the
elder team and just loving on meand just finding opportunities
to serve.
I served in ushers anddifferent things that just
allowed me to just continue towork out and pray over what that
looked like.
Continue to work out and prayover what that looked like.
(35:14):
And at the time I toldStephanie like I might be a
missionary one day and she wasgood with that and but we were
just opening them Like it's notreally clear doors opening, so
we're not really sure what thatmeans, what that looks like.
And then everyone had a thoughtof any type of pastoral
ministry on my desire or radar,and the Lord clarified that over
time that that's really whatthat calling was, through the
(35:36):
help of others in the church andthrough prayer and type of
preparation.
And I actually sat on that forlike six months our first six
months of our marriage I waslike I think the Lord actually
might be calling me intopastoral ministry, but I'm not
sure.
And before I even shared thatwith Stephanie because I didn't
know, long story short, her, hermom always thought, for for
whatever reason, uh, that shewas always her daughter would
(35:59):
always marry a pastor and andfor whatever reason, that was
what she thought and her nevermentioned anything about ever
being a pastor.
She's like, well, she's wrong,don't have to worry about that,
you know, with all the differentnuances that come as like a
pastor's wife and differentthings like that.
So then I just continue toexpress that to the church.
And then I got involved withthe young adult ministry.
(36:20):
I started to become a leader, agroup leader, and and end up
helping lead that group, uh,with with chase actually, and
the lord called him intoministry.
And then we're getting formaleducation, doing that online
through boys college CollegeBulldogs go Bulldogs, I will tap
them for some dead.
And then we did that for fouryears till 2020.
(36:42):
And then COVID happened.
At this time, I'm full-time atthe church.
I started part-time justhelping out doing some simple
things, from cleaning toilets,changing trash cans to helping
be over the usher team.
It's just an assistant, kind oflike a catch-22, small church
just doing some different things, administrative and stuff and
helping shadow the pastor justlearning more.
(37:02):
What does ministry in thechurch look like?
And then they had a need, asthe church was growing, to make
it full-time.
So I was really his directassistant and working alongside
him, and then it was just alwaysbeing open-handed like what do
the next steps look like?
So side him.
And then it was just alwaysbeing open-handed Like what do
(37:23):
the next steps look like?
So at the time during COVID, wehad a church plant who got
kicked out of church in Smyrnaand they were using our building
at the time, and then thechurches ultimately merged
together and created a newchurch at that same location and
the Lord just helped me againfor another season of a year and
a half to be under this biggerchurch.
The church was growing and towalk along what.
What did the next steps looklike.
And then an opportunity came forfor us to go to a church in
(37:44):
Syracuse.
So we went there for a year andthen went to seminary in
Louisville.
So now we're at 2023 ish, Ithink and we're in Louisville
and we're just being open-handed.
Our family's in Delaware weknow that summer is going to be
like two or three years andwe're just going to be all in,
(38:04):
do that, open-handed.
The Lord provided a cool jobfor me to work at a Christian
publishing house and just seeingthose different trajectories, I
was traveling all over thecountry going to different
churches and helping them set uppop-up bookstores at 10 of
those and I was rubbingshoulders and we're just like
Lord, you want us to be amissionary?
Do you want us to go back toDelaware?
Do you want us to go towherever you want us?
We're just being open-handedand praying through that.
(38:26):
We just knew we were going tobe uh, we for two and a half,
three years.
And then, january of this year,I get a call from Pastor Mark
and he calls me while I'm atDisney at one of these not for
vacation, for one of theseevents and he just has hey, we
(38:47):
have this opportunity for theOutreach Missions Director and
would love for you and Stephanieto prayerfully consider doing
that.
And um, we didn't try to go backto Delaware.
We said the only caveat sinceall of the travel and we're
focusing on preparing was thatthat would be the only reason we
(39:08):
would leave Louisville was ifwe went back to Delaware.
Family here know, the area feltlike we could be rooted and
grounded, cause that's what welonged to do, was to be rooted
in one place and fast forward totoday.
That's what happened.
We walked that process forseveral months with the elders
and the team here and God madeit abundantly clear, through
(39:30):
prayer and seeking him, thatthis was the right decision and
seeking him that this was theright decision and we're super
thankful to serve the Lordtogether with you two and the
team here, to see what God willcontinue to do through LifeHouse
and the rest of the churchesthat we partner with.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, man, what a blessing, I mean, for us.
I know I feel like I can speakfor Nate and really, just like
all the staff, I mean we'vereally enjoyed having you and
just it's been a blessing to.
You know, just watch how Godhas in the two months or so that
you've been here which is crazy, feels like longer really but
(40:06):
in the two months, just God, youknow, using you already.
And so I'm excited to see whatGod will do and, knowing his
faithfulness and what he'salready done, in you.
And just seeing what he'll doand the rest, amen.
What life will look like infive, 10 years?
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Definitely appreciate you sharing your story, maybe
as we're rounding out the monthof August with this episode, and
so it's been all about we go.
Obviously, your role ismissions and outreach, but
you're not doing it all yourself, right?
Speaker 4 (40:37):
No.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
I think we hire him.
You know, like you just do allour outreach.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
I don't think that's how the church works, right.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
But maybe you can just kind of share, you know
with kind of your position andhow we should view that as a
church, maybe just kind of capoff our episode here with kind
of this role, how God called youto it and how we as Christians,
you know, especially here atLifehouse Church, can really
live that out, as we're havingheard several episodes, you know
, from missionaries, churchplanners, just people who do
(41:05):
short-term, long-term missions,local, maybe kind of bring that,
you know, to a real capstonefor us.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Yeah, that's a great question and thought I think we
shouldn't overthink it.
I think Pastor Mark has beensaying a couple things the past
few weeks really strongly insome of his sermons, talking
about just the simplicity ofgoing and what that means of
making disciples where God hasplaced you, and understanding
(41:34):
that might be for some who arelistening, simply making
disciples with your children inyour home.
It might be meaning you aregoing across the room five feet
to the cubicle next to you orthe hospital bed, wherever God
has placed you.
That is where he's seeking foryou to make disciples.
And for some of us that meanswe might go to the missionary
(41:57):
field, like Eric and Lena orsome others who the Lord may be
stirring in our midst to rise upand go.
But going is twofold it'sactually physically going out,
but it's also sending people outand sustaining that.
There's that two lanes, so tospeak, of missions and outreach,
(42:18):
and I think those are twothings that we get to do
together as a church, both herein Townsend, middletown, odessa
area, where we're trying to befaithful in this community, and
then partnering, seeing how Godis working through raising up
some of these church plants andpartnering them, both here and
domestically in the States, butalso seeing how God is working
(42:39):
in different opportunities allaround the world.
We have several mission partnersthat we get to partner with and
trips we get to go on and justto cultivate that desire that we
see in Christians to make thegospel known, both in the
proclamation of God's word, inwords that we use, but also in
(43:00):
the way we practice ourChristianity.
So proclaim, if I would say twowords proclaim and practice, or
declare and demonstrate.
It's the word and the actions.
It's not either or it's both.
And and I just want toencourage our church to view
missions and outreach that wayand that everybody's on the team
(43:23):
, it's not just a select few.
So, seeing where God is movingalready in front of you, and
catch that wave of renewal thatwe get to participate in, to see
him move in far ways than wecan ever ask, think or imagine.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I think from your testimony as well, that happens
a lot in community, yourtestimony talking about how it
was difficult when you didn'thave the community and how
transformative it is.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
And so where we go.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
That practice you mentioned is bringing people
into the community of the Lordnot just some club, but true
faith community.
Yeah, that is where we fill upto pour out yes, as a community
encouraging one another amen andI would just encourage to
coming off of that.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
we we bring people in the church but, uh,
christianity is not not notnecessarily a come and see
religion.
It's a go and tell and I wouldjust encourage people it might
be uncomfortable but I wouldchallenge our people who are
listening to even open your hometo those.
Talk about going across thecubicle or across the five feet
(44:28):
across the workplace line, butthere are so many people right
across the street that God hasplaced us in in our developments
, in our rural areas, whereverGod's placed you to be an
invitation of grace and I wouldjust encourage us to see where
God has placed us and befaithful with that, to reimagine
(44:50):
our neighborhoods and see howGod will use the gospel to make
all things new.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Yeah, that's good.
We haven't done this in a while, but I'm thinking through.
We used to do rapid firequestions oh, I love it.
So we're going to spit off acouple.
It's been a long time sincewe've done them, so I might not
get them right.
Okay.
But I think it's a fun way forpeople to know you right, yeah.
First things.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
So let's start your favorite food, Favorite food
chicken and rice any kind, anykind, any kind.
I like it Chinese style, I likeit teriyaki grilled.
I'm a chicken rice broccolikind of guy and yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
There you go.
All right Chicken and rice.
What's your favorite hobby?
Speaker 4 (45:28):
Hobby yes, it's a great question.
I would say playing, sportsPlaying sports.
Love sports.
Great question.
I would say playing sports,playing sports love sports,
watching them, playing them,seeing other people play them,
whether it's going to t-ball,game sports, I'm a sports guy.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, all right your favorite book book other than
the bible?
Speaker 4 (45:48):
other than the bible?
Okay, um, that's a question.
I'm also a reader.
Uh, I'm gonna say don't wasteyour life.
By john piper okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, good one.
Now we'll go.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
Favorite book of the bible and not the whole thing
yeah um, I would say the book ofjames, okay yeah, that's good
and, last but not least,favorite pastor dead or alive
dead or alive, or preacher,pastor preacher yep, I'm gonna
go with my man, jp john piperthere you go.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
I mean, don't wish your life, john sorry I doubled
down on jp right there, hyperdisciples uh, totally fine,
welcome.
Thanks, man.
It's been a blessing to haveyou on and, um, yeah, just look
forward to seeing what god usesyou here at LifeHouse, but then
even beyond, however many yearsthat is so appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Thanks for having me, of course, man thanks for
tuning in to the Life Talkpodcast.
If this episode encouraged you,please be sure to like, comment
, subscribe and leave a reviewso others can find this content
as well, and we'll look forwardto seeing you next Monday for
another great episode.
well, what's up?
Life talk family.
Welcome back to the life talkpodcast.
This is nate coming to youtoday and I am super excited I
have a special guest with ustoday Jarvis.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Brennan Jarvis is back.
I'm back, I'm back.
This would have been a goodtime to use our little sound
thing I know Should have donethat.
I missed an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm too rusty Too rusty Nate's relegated back to
the number two chair.
No, nate's number one, nate'snumber one.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm just you know I'm an addition, so it's good to be
back, nate.
Thanks for holding down.
It's great to have you back.
Uh, you know, yeah, had justsome time away and not as long
as I was away from the podcast.
I wish everybody probablythinks you were gone.
I know, I wasn't I wasn't gone,but um, just yeah different
things that way and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Everybody's enjoyed the summer, but we are excited
to have Jarvis back.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, I'm glad to be back and I'm back for a good
episode.
I think you guys will enjoyjust what you're about to hear
today, and it's specifically ourOutreach and Missions Director,
herb Welday.
How you doing, man.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me on thepodcast guys.
Of course, man Herb Welday IV.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The fourth.
Yeah, iquire, yeah, that mightbe my future.
There you go, cool.
Well, today we're just going totalk through just Herb's
testimony and just kind of howGod has worked, you know, from a
(01:35):
young age and just moving intowhere he's at now, right being
at LifeHouse on staff here andso the goal really when we
started Life Talk Podcast manyyears ago was to help LifeHouse
know LifeHouse better and sothat when the people in our
congregation are able to listento an episode like this and know
someone on staff in a deeperway that they might not be able
to if you know, they just seenthem on a Sunday morning or had
(01:59):
a small conversation in thelobby and so, just being the
size that we are, we like tokind of just work through, you
know, those areas and we've seenbenefit from that Just people.
I mean I didn't know X, y and Z,and so I'm excited for today.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Herb.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And so I hope you are as well.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
I am very much excited.
My story is a story, right.
Everyone has a story.
And mine's a great one.
I think it's a story that isreally of grace.
That's all.
Our testimony is a story ofgrace that we were dead, but by
God.
Like we heard yesterday fromPastor Mark, he intervened and
(02:32):
that's really.
I think if you could summarizemy story in one sentence, that
would be but God.
And, yeah, my parents a littlebackground, so we are newer to
Delaware, but it's not foreignto us and my wife's born and
raised in Delaware and herfamily's here and it's felt like
a family for me as well,because my dad was in the
(02:55):
military for 30 years nearly 30years, 29 and a half and we
traveled all around the worldbut we were never rooted in one
place.
So there's benefits to that andchallenges and everything in
between, but it's beautiful tosee how God uses things in your
life to prepare you for what hehas you to do.
And, as I even just reflect onthis new opportunity and season
(03:19):
he's placed us in, to step inmissions and outreach is just
seeing his hands you know, hearthat talk hindsight's 2020
around here.
It really is just just seeinghim prepare in different seasons
, uh, for this season that we'rein right now and to step in to
serve, so I'm excited about thatyeah.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And so let's just jump in.
Tell us your I mean your dadwas in the military.
Yeah, tell us the earliestthing, like, start from the
beginning.
You came out the womb.
Yeah, start from the beginning,you came out the womb yeah
that's a great question.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So I came out the womb 9-11-1995.
So obviously a big day in ournation's history, 9-11-2001.
But a few years before I wasborn in Tampa Bay, florida,
sunny Florida.
And you think about my earliestmemory?
(04:05):
Wow, that's a question.
Um, I would say probably theearliest memory I can remember
is going to elementary school,at tinker elementary school,
where the tigers and uh tinker,tigers, yep and I.
Honestly, 9-11 2001 was a bigday for me, not because of all
(04:26):
the things that were happeningin the country, in our nation
looking back, and all of theeffects it's had for many years,
but because, as a young, five,six-year-old, whatever I was at
the time it was a normal day.
It was my birthday.
We're celebrating, I'm bringingcupcakes to school, and we're
on a military Air Force base.
So things are a littledifferent than just a public
(04:46):
school, yeah, and, but itfunctions like a public school
and, um, and that shifted, likewe got sent home early and, uh,
I didn't get to give thecupcakes to my class and it was
just a down there.
I went around the neighborhoodand gave the cupcakes out, but
that was really the earliestmemory I've had, and other than
that it kind of gets a littlefoggy.
(05:07):
But so we were in Florida.
I have an older sister, youngersister, we were all born there
and my parents were born andraised in the inner city of
Baltimore and they'refirst-generation Christians.
So that's part of my testimonyis that they were raised in a
Christian home.
So they didn't know how toraise their family in a
Christian home.
(05:27):
So they were figuring that out.
They were fumbling throughlearning how to do that, but
they knew getting saved.
Later in life, as an adult,they wanted their children to
know Jesus and we did that.
And from my earliest age Iremember going to church, going
to VBS, going to men's Biblestudies with my dad and doing
(05:48):
these breakfasts and just beingaround the church and rubbing
shoulders with other Christiansand that's all I knew and I'm
really grateful for that timewhere we could experience God's
grace and that's the only thingthat I really, really knew and
and I I'm so thankful, uh, tothat.
So so florida was probably tillI was around like seven or
(06:11):
eight, and then we moved to newjersey.
New jersey was mcguire airforce base and like central new
jersey ish I think aroundtrenton a little south um about
three years.
My family was there for fouryears because my dad did a tour
in south korea for a yearwithout us so, um, we were there
for four years and that's whereI actually professed the lord.
(06:33):
So, around the age of nine, I Iprofessed faith in the lord and
I share that with my parents andI shared that with our pastor,
pastor, pastor Kosti at the timeKoston, excuse me, and he was
just a local chaplain, southernBaptist pastor, actually a
graduate from Southern Seminaryand we expressed that and, at
(06:56):
the same time, the Lord wasdoing a work in my older
sister's heart she was about 11,12 at the time, not knowing as
a nine-year-old what was goingon in her heart, and doing that
at the same time.
And we actually got baptized onthe same day, which was a very
sweet thing to see, and myChristian claim to fame, if I
had one, is that we got baptizedby the president, who is now
(07:22):
the president of LibertyUniversity.
Oh yeah, okay.
So Pastor Koston is the, thepresident of Liberty University.
Oh, yeah, okay.
So Pastor Costin is the headcommand guy there now I knew
that name sounded familiar.
I was like that sounds familiar.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Why don't I know that ?
Okay, cool.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
That's my little Liberty connection.
Okay, sweet, yeah, that'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So your church experience was typically
happening on base.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
It was Yep, that was all I knew.
So my parents were veryconnected to the military life,
from everything from the grocerystore called the commissary on
base to the family life.
I mean it was just verycentered around being with other
families who are doing the samething as you, and they had a
church on every Air Force base,an evangelical church, and that
(08:04):
there was pastors from differentdenominations would lead
because they're differentchaplains.
They would say, hey, I'm apresbyterian chaplain, hey, I'm
a baptist past chaplain.
And they would function muchlike a pastor would in a local
church and they would go justlike every other military person
would go from base to base,whether that's overseas on a
duty tour or whether that's, uh,inside a base around the united
(08:27):
states so do you feel like you,like you said, a lot of your
family was doing kind of a lifewith other people in the
military, do you?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
feel like you were able to build, because I know
right, obviously, moving fromflorida to jersey and I'm sure
that wasn't the last place youmaybe went um do you feel like
building community at at a youngage?
I feel like it's uh prettyintegral into our experience of
growing and maturing and how doyou feel like that life was, you
know, being in the militaryyeah, yeah, that's a great
(08:54):
question.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
I think it was a challenge.
If I could say it in one wordum, I felt like my experience in
the military as a military kid,military brat, is the term they
use.
So that's the challenge,because generally speaking, you
get two to three years at a base, and so do other families.
(09:16):
So if we move, like we did,from Florida to Jersey, well,
our new two three years startsJune 1.
And we'll fast forward forthree years and other parents
could be finishing thatthree-year tour, and that was
constant.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
So you might make a friend you might make a friend.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
He's gone in six months.
You know I might be that newfriend that's here for three
years and and that was constant.
So you, you would meet a ton ofpeople and you would have a lot
of friends, but they weren'tvery deep friends because, just
the nature of the coming andgoing.
So that was cool to see a lot ofdifferent people and see a lot
of different places, cultures,things like that from even just
(09:53):
different states.
We did Jersey, we went toEngland, lived in England for a
little bit and then we lived inGuam, middle of the Pacific
Ocean and a tropical island, andthen my dad got out in 2012,
and that's when we landed inDelaware.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
What was your favorite place?
You went Like where you lived.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah, I'd probably say England, Okay, england,
probably because I remember itthe most Okay and also I really
appreciated playing soccer.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I played soccer growing up and they're big where
it started, yeah, so I meanthey're all in who's your
premier league team yeah
Speaker 4 (10:24):
I'm a spurs guy, so tottenham hot spur there.
So a few years ago, a couple ofdays ago, we we did an ancestor
dna test together and wefigured out a lot of us were
from england.
So we we had, based on the test, there were several pockets of
where you could potentially befrom and we were all trying to
get into soccer in a moreserious way.
(10:45):
So we said, okay, we can't alljust pick the same team.
Yeah, pick where your family'skind of from, and that I had
that northern london vibe.
So I had a few choices but Ilanded with the spurs we got any
soccer fans out there exactlyfootball football that's correct
yeah no, literally nothing.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I'm like the spurs are a basketball team and that's
that's common.
Yeah, like that's correct.
I know literally nothing.
I'm like the.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Spurs are a basketball team, that's common.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
That's all that I know.
Great, I love the Spurs.
They are.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, the funny thing about the Spurs they actually
for a long time were founded onJewish roots, so they could
never play on Sunday for thelongest time, until recently
when they started in the PremierLeague.
And if there's any Spurs fansthat know more than me, you
probably do so correct me if I'mwrong out there With that
military journey.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
how did that intersect with your faith coming
to faith, like you say,building community.
Your family is looking toreally keep you grounded in that
faith.
But how did that kind of playout through the following years?
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So, as a nine-year-old, canjust try to live my faith as I
could, and that's loving myfamily, my sisters, loving my
parents, well, being kind topeople around me in my schools
and community in that way.
That's really what it lookedlike.
I can't really remember.
I mean I remember thinkingabout this in preparation, just
(12:04):
being newer to the church, andtelling people my story.
It's almost like it just got ahaze, like I get saved.
I remember pockets of things,but it's like fast forward to my
teen years.
Then it's like, okay, my memoryjust came back.
It's like I mean there's a Iremember hanging out with
buddies outside of school andthat's just like it was just
doing life as a young kid.
(12:26):
It's playing, hanging out,there's not much to remember.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
There's not much to remember.
You just kind of talked on.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Sunday, you know, with Sutton.
It's like he's going to theYMCA and he's just playing with
people.
He doesn't even remember theirnames.
It's like that's kind of whatmy upbringing was in that time
and it was just really going tobible.
So I mean I attend this thing.
I think it's called royalrangers or something.
Um, I'm not handy at all,there's not a bone in my body
that can fix something, and uh,it was something like outdoorsy.
(12:55):
I'm losing the word when, whenthe younger kids go out
outdoorsy, like a boy scout?
yes, it's like a boy scout vibe,but with um like a church would
host it and it it was calledRoyal Rangers or something.
So I participated in that, okay, and they met like every week
and I did that and they weretrying to get you to do stuff
outside, do a fire, do a tent,and I was just like not
(13:15):
interested.
I was a sports kid and thethings outside.
Like I never had a pocket knife, like kids loved it and they
loved fishing and I was justlike this just was just not
interesting to me so I'd ratherplay tag or capture the flag or
and I was just kind of like thedifferences.
So I kind of hanged out withhooking up with that crowd and
um, and yeah, I just kind ofloved them.
Well, been a good teammate ont-ball teams and encouraging
(13:38):
people that way, and that's kindof like how I learned to read
the bible and how does it looklike just being good, you know,
playing sports and just gettingmad when you lose Simple things
like that.
And just the Lord using theeveryday, ordinary things of
life.
Yeah.
You know, I think scriptureverse in first Corinthians 10
talks about whether you eat ordrink, doing all for the glory
(13:58):
of God.
And that's how, how?
How would a nine, 10, 11, 12yearold do that?
Well, he's going to do hisschoolwork very good, he's going
to honor his parents and, whenhe's wrong, learning to practice
that in the Christian life.
My parents were instrumental indoing that in a really deep way
through budgeting and being ina military household, your
(14:20):
parents get paid every first and15th of the month and that was
like clockwork.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So my parents helped us try to learn about biblical
stewardship through.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Whatever age you were , that was the amount of
allowance you had.
So when I was 10, I got 10bucks on the first day of the
month and the 15th of the monthand they taught us well, we're
going to give you something, andwe had to do chores and work
for a job and you didn't justget the money, and they wanted
us to learn how to steward theamount of money.
So they said hey, you're 70%you can live on.
You're going to save 10% andyou're going to give 10% to the
(14:57):
church.
And there was something elseI'm drawing a blank on.
What was the other 10%?
They were trying to model forus at a young age what you would
do with the money to be asteward of it, and that just ran
in a deep way in my life.
Just a small, simple thing.
I mean, I'm a spender by nature, so I would already spend that
$7 like two months in a row.
You can ask my wife, stephanieabout that.
(15:18):
I still do that today.
We have this mad money in ourbudget where we can say it's
free money, you can spend onwhatever you want.
You know within reason, and Ialready have it kind of mapped
out how I'm spending my moneythe next kind of six months, but
anyways, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Before you get it.
Yeah, that's right.
I teach that in financial peace.
You're the spender yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
So but yeah, that's kind of my young child, child
years.
And so years so and so let'sget into kind of teens.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Right.
Like you're, you remember moreof your teenage years.
Yes, I do.
Um, my teenage years were justdumb, a lot of dumb, and so yeah
, so kind of.
Yeah, what was yours like?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
yeah, some of it was pretty dumb, to be honest.
So, uh, I I had uh a lot ofkids around me that love sports
and we would do crazy thingsjust playing basketball right
after school or playing football, the real football, from the
English term soccer for us inAmerica.
(16:31):
I would come home.
We'd to live like Jesus one way.
But this is kind of what thecrowd is living and I would just
learn to hide myself well.
Hide myself well and honestlywith some of those temptations
and challenges as a youngteenager, when you're starting
to feel attracted to girls oryou're starting to feel
different things, your body'schanging and all of these
(16:55):
different things and it's likewhat does that actually?
mean and look like as a youngChristian.
So middle school years and thengoing into high school, which
is where we made the transitionfrom England to Guam.
So my early high school yearsis now in Guam, my freshman and
sophomore year, and that justcarried over.
I was playing basketball inmiddle school and football and
then you're in an environmentwhere it's almost just and it's
(17:24):
almost celebrated to just livelike the world.
If you could just summarize thatin a few sentences, it's you
want to hang out and do thingsand influenced by the world, and
that's what I got caught upinto doing and I would almost
play the part.
I would learn to be a goodfriend and there was boundaries,
(17:48):
like I just think back, there'smoments and times where I I
would know in my heart becauseof my upbringing and being
taught the word there was alwaysa line in which I didn't cross
that I knew was there and Iwould.
But I would flirt with the lineas close as I could go and I'd
always be a good friend, but Iwould always be knowing that he
would be the good friend.
That wouldn't do that thing.
You know what I'm saying,whether it was drugs or whether
(18:11):
it was simple alcohol orwhatever like, but I would be
around it but never do it.
You see what I'm saying.
So there was always that lineyoung adulting as a teenager,
going in towards young adult inthose in those years, from
(18:33):
football to basketball and andjust really being just a
middle-class teenager, I wasn'ta popular guy.
I wasn't like a you know personwho would be considered from a
world league standpoint a, aloner or whatever you know
person from from a high school.
You know those categories.
People put me put in.
But I was just like the averagejoe type of guy yeah people
(18:54):
knew herb went to church but Iwasn't super vocal about it but
I didn't hide it.
It was like just kind of likevery in between even keel type
of of of faith so you're goingto a public school at that point
, like in england, england.
So that's the, that's thedynamic.
It's like public but private atthe same time, because it's on
a military air force base.
So it's still on the base it'sstill on the base, and same
(19:15):
thing with the high school.
When I went to guam it was on abase, so, um, so I was in
middle school for seventh andeighth grade excuse me, sixth
and seventh grade in england.
Then we made the transitionfrom England to Guam eighth
grade and then I was eighthgrade, ninth grade and tenth
grade in Guam, and then that'swhen my family, in the summer of
tenth grade to junior year in2012, came to Delaware.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Okay, and then where'd you graduate?
From Delaware.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Cesar Rodney Riders.
Yep Go, riders Go, stillfaithful, still good.
2014 class 2014 class.
Class of 2014 represent that.
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
And so what was that transition like for you?
Like I'm assuming that can behard to almost.
Yeah, for the first 16 yearsish of your life, yeah, moving
every three years different, notjust different states, but
different countries, differentcontinents.
And then you land in Delawarefrom Guam guam.
(20:09):
You were living in guam, atropical island yeah, you're
living in delaware exactly whatwas that like?
It may be transition of living,but also just of life and with
christ and all the areasabsolutely.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Yeah, I mean the transition of living is is that
exactly just that?
The tropical island to delaware, I think we get all four
seasons here yeah but you don'tget a ton of snow.
It doesn't get super cold, butit gets cold.
I mean, guam is is exactly whatit is 75, 85 all year round,
whether that's january 1 todecember 31st.
And um, sounds like some peoplelove it.
(20:40):
I mean, I loved it, but alsoyou kind of miss wearing a
sweater.
You know, it's you know it'slike things like that.
It's you miss the time of the,the leaves turning and things
like that.
Um, so that was more like the,the geography and the culture,
but it was a really new thingbecause we've we've only moved.
That's all we knew.
Yeah, and that was the.
(21:00):
The biggest change was whatdoes it actually mean to be in
community with people like?
That was a challenge.
And it was a challenge becausewhen we came back, uh, my
parents, like I said, was bornand raised in Baltimore,
maryland area, so our familystayed in that area a little bit
in Pennsylvania now, but weDelaware was a good spot because
that was the first base myparents ever got to in the
(21:23):
military and, uh, it was closeenough to family, but they could
also use the benefits of themilitary Air Force Base in Dover
.
So that's why we landed inDelaware.
And that was some of thechallenges I shared were still
the same challenges in my middleschool years.
Just carried into the highschool space, went to Suze
(21:46):
Rodney.
I mean at the time it was likeover 2 000 kids at that time.
I, you know, I've onlyexperienced hundreds of kids
like max, like my high school inguam was like 350 kids for the
entire high school.
So going into a school likesusan rodney, your classes that
my classes were huge.
You know the, the ton of people.
It was just overwhelming and um, but you just kind of got by.
(22:07):
And how I got by was sports.
I would meet friends throughthat way, which is where I met
probably my best friend, chasethere, and Chase is a great
brother in the Lord and the Lordreally helped us be in this
group.
That was involved in sports, hedid lacrosse and some other
(22:27):
things, but we created a friendgroup that was good in sports,
he did lacrosse and some otherthings, but we, we created a
friend group that was good butnot great.
And then the really the lordset us apart.
Almost like the day wegraduated from this friend group
, like I remember almost vividly.
It was like june of 7th of 2014.
It was like the next week.
It was like all communicationjust like stopped, and part of
(22:49):
that is you grow growing awayfrom people going to college,
different things but um, andchase and I stayed here.
I went to deltech, chased atdeltech and these different
things, um, but the, the lordseparated us because, fast
forward, 10 years later, we'reboth in ministry now and that
was a trajectory that was doingto bring us actually back.
(23:10):
We got connected to an LYA-typegroup called Refuge at a
Baptist church in Cornerstone.
That really helped us see okay,you're an adult, you can't take
your parents' faith.
You know you can't take yourparents' faith.
It's growing into that andreally that being confronted
(23:35):
with it's not this pretend thing, it's not one foot in the pool
and one foot in the world, butit's both feet in the world of
Jesus and he wants to transformyour world through that and that
young adult.
Weekly Tuesday night, you know,7 to 9.30, where we was hearing
the word preached, we were insmall groups who were in
community.
That was a fresh experience thatI never get got to have because
I was constantly moving yeahand they would constantly be in
(23:57):
and out and that's just like thetension of, of the military
life so yeah, yeah, I mean it is.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I mean that's one of the goals with OIA right, is I
mean you mentioned, is, yeah,that the goals with OIA right?
I mean you mentioned that samethought and so, man, what a cool
kind of segue right into thenalmost life deeper with Christ.
This is where you get to take,not just not that it was your
parents' faith where youprofessed faith but, kind of
taking it seriously.
Yeah, and what was?
(24:25):
How did change like in maybedaily life?
Speaker 4 (24:29):
all of those areas.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, that's a great trajectory of work and obviously
you said you're in ministry now, like that's kind of the yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
So going back to that budgeting thing, real quick, I
I never had to.
I didn't get a job during highschool, you know, my parents
parents were, uh, middle classand whatever they they provided
for us and my parents were like,hey, you don't have to work, we
want you to focus on being astudent.
So I never got to work.
Being in guam, I didn't evenget a license till I was 18,
(24:55):
almost like.
It was just like a lot of weird.
I didn't get a cell phonereally till later, like all of
these things.
I felt like I was behind thetimes when, when I came back
over from the states because itwas three years in england,
three years in guam, and then itwas like welcome to yeah yeah,
and a lot of things havehappened from six years and then
, and and that includes a lot oftechnology advances that
(25:18):
includes like having smartphoneswere really big and everybody
had a smartphone.
They were starting to have thatand I was.
I developed a habit of I waskind of like too cool for things
and in graduating out of highschool I was continually invited
from this church like three orfour times, to their youth group
(25:40):
and I said I was basically likeI'm too cool for the youth
group, was basically the storythere, too cool for the youth
group was basically the storythere.
And that was the same groupthat said, hey, you should come
to our tuesday night groupcalled refuge and uh, that is
where the lord helped us have abiblical worldview.
We're going on a series theywere doing a series called
(26:03):
transformed I think it was whatit was called.
It was literally going throughtopics of having a what a
biblical worldview is, from sexand marriage and singleness to
just reading your Bible.
Like it was just going throughtopics every Tuesday night and
it would just take one and justhelp us apply and learn and
understand.
What does, what does God's wordsay about X?
(26:25):
And how can we then use thesedifferent means from work.
You mentioned work to school.
You know that's a verytransitional phase of life where
we're trying to figure out,lord, what is your will for us,
where are we going?
And the simple things of prayer, community, of things reading
(26:46):
your Bible, actually doing andI'm using that word
intentionally actually doing thestuff Jesus calls us to do when
he says come and follow me.
And that helped me have a heartthat was inflamed for him to
share the gospel with peoplearound me, to work differently,
(27:07):
use my work as a catalyst totalk to people about Jesus.
And it was just, you know, okay, I always gave, because that's
how I was taught to give.
But the why behind what I wasdoing and a lot of those dots
were starting to be connected,even though it was a lot of
those things I was always doingit was like the whys behind them
(27:27):
were finally aligning and Ithink the Lord helped me see of
those things I was always doing.
It was like the whys behind themwere finally aligning and I
think the Lord helped me seethat those things were being
done, but they were finallybeing done in an act of
apostrophe.
Worship and that season helpedme through simple things of just
opening up my Bible and readingthrough it and chewing on it
and memorizing it and prayingand learning how to pray and how
(27:49):
to seek the Lord and to seekthe Lord when things happen like
suffering and pain.
What does that mean for my lifeand what does that not mean and
how is God using those things?
And just doing that in a groupof people that I didn't have
because of all.
The transition was verydifficult and the beautiful
thing was that that is a reallya gift of God's church is that
(28:13):
we're part of a body and I thinkthat was really central for me
understanding how to live theChristian life, the one
another's, so I think that was agood thing.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I heard at you know something I was reading recently
.
Like you said, you have to takeyour you know you have your
faith, but a lot of it's whatyou've been taught through your
parents, and so you have to notdeconstructionist in the way of
walking away from the faith, butyou have to make it your faith.
You have to bring god's word,you have to bring the community.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
You have to not do these things, because that's
what I'm taught, but you trulyhave that, developing the
relationship, building thatfaith on the foundation of
christ yeah, cultivation of thefaith was instrumental to
understanding James talks aboutlike authentic faith.
That's where I felt andunderstood what faith actually
(29:03):
was.
It was being practiced.
You know, it wasn't just beingtaught in word, but it was
actually being practiced in deedand truth and it was just
seeing that combination wasreally refreshing and helpful.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, that's good.
And so thinking about, right,obviously, the cultivating of
relationships and now reallymoving from this faith of not
just your parents but kind ofyour parents, and you're kind of
growing and you're learning andyou're kind of working through
a lot of the biblical worldviewframework, how does that push
you into your later young adultyears, right?
(29:41):
Your, your college, ending ofcollege years and you have a
wife, right?
Speaker 4 (29:45):
So meeting your wife, kind of talk through that.
Yeah, that's great, Greatquestion.
So went on a mission trip withthis young adult group.
We went to the DominicanRepublic and that was part of my
journey of walking with Jesusis learning that God's heart for
people isn't just the UnitedStates of America but it's for
the nations.
And we did that by going on ayoung adult led mission trip to
(30:06):
one of our mission partners inthe Dominican Republic.
I did that in like the fall of2016.
I'm just finishing Dell Techand I don't really know what's
next and I'm just trying todiscern.
I come back from that missiontrip and the Lord really helped
me learn a lot of things abouthim on that trip and
understanding who he was and howjust simple life can be with
(30:28):
the food and clothing and thelack of what the need was there
Just really appreciated just thethings that can happen to you
on a mission trip to stir yourheart for the Lord and for other
people.
And that is when I started toget introduced to Stephanie.
Someone invited her a friend,to the church, the youth group
she was finishing out, she wasat Lake Forest and at the time I
(30:50):
was just a student leaderhelping out in the student
ministry and that's how I got toknow Stephanie.
She was graduating out and thenI was inviting her to the young
adult ministry because she washer kind of next step, you know,
graduating out of that and shestarted coming there.
And then in the in-between timeI was trying to discern okay, if
(31:12):
you're going to pursue arelationship with her, it would
be wise for you to step down asa leader or you need to stop
pursuing the relationship.
But it came to a head like okay, you got to choose one or the
other.
So I got good counsel from theyouth pastor saying I think you
want to pursue this relationshipso you should step down.
And everybody knew in the groupand it wasn't like she was, uh,
(31:36):
graduating out, so it's her kindof last.
How they did it was when yougraduated may, june, whatever it
was you can stay in the studentministry or go into the young
adult for that summer, like it'skind of like your choice to do
but, in the fall.
Then you had to kind of go tothe, to the next group.
So that's where we met.
We met at the churchCornerstone Church was the name
of the church at the time rightin the downtown of Dover.
(31:57):
And then the following year, ayear after Stephanie's whole
family went on that mission trip, we went to the same trip as a
family which is now my familydouble the people went it wasn't
just the young adults beforeand it was just encouraging this
(32:18):
mission partner and helpingthem and loving on them.
We built a well and helped themwith their ministry to further
the gospel and bring fresh waterto these villages and it's a
really, really sweet story there.
But Stephanie and I met at thechurch and her family.
It's kind of similar story.
She was younger.
You can hear her story but it'ssimilar to mine, where younger
(32:40):
actually got baptized the sameday as her dad.
So it was just a really coolstory.
And her younger sister, Ibelieve in California and just
seeing how God set them apartwas very sweet and instrumental
and the Lord brought us together.
I had to court Stephanie.
I had to do 25 house visits.
I'm not exaggerating.
This is the real thing.
For parents who are listeningand thinking about ideas with
(33:01):
dating and things.
So I had to visit their houseand get to know them and show my
worth honestly for lack ofbetter words and win their trust
, before we could even date.
And at the time I'm a youngadult, I have a full-time job
(33:22):
and I'm finishing school andit's like I have to come to this
family's house to do that andlooking bad, it was good and um,
we broke up once and I ended uphaving to reset the visits.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
I ended up doing like 37 total and then I'm not
exaggerating maybe a little bit,but like like a log definitely
kept a log.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
She did because she was like hey, see this guy's
really I I am doing this like,just so you know, mom and dad,
like this is yours for real.
Yeah, so did that.
Got married, um, and beenmarried for seven and a half
years, just trying to learn nowas a family unit to follow jesus
.
And what does that look likeand how do we?
(33:54):
You know, we got married.
She was 20, I was 23, 22 and ahalf, something like that, and
so young, family and startingand just walking through life as
a young adult, still pluggedinto that young adult group,
still learning, and there wereseveral friends who got married
in that same kind of time frameas well.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
So, yeah, and so you've been married.
There's some, you know, four orfive, six, seven years right in
between those areas.
What was life like then?
Uh, I know you felt called intoministry at some point.
Kind of talk about that how youfelt called into ministry and
maybe kind of just fast forwardus to getting to here.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah, yeah, so quick, quick there there's that
mission trip.
Actually I felt the lord'sserving me.
I thought maybe I was going tobe a missionary, just walking
through my church with that,expressing that to the
leadership, and they're helpingme like understand that.
And I didn't.
One of the values whatstephanie and I said when we
were getting married was wedidn't want to go into debt for
school so and I was just unsurethere wasn't clarity on what the
(34:53):
next step was, so I stoppedgoing to school.
I only did two years at DelTech and then I expressed to my
church and they were justwalking alongside me with the
elder team and just loving on meand just finding opportunities
to serve.
I served in ushers anddifferent things that just
allowed me to just continue towork out and pray over what that
looked like.
Continue to work out and prayover what that looked like.
(35:14):
And at the time I toldStephanie like I might be a
missionary one day and she wasgood with that and but we were
just opening them Like it's notreally clear doors opening, so
we're not really sure what thatmeans, what that looks like.
And then everyone had a thoughtof any type of pastoral
ministry on my desire or radar,and the Lord clarified that over
time that that's really whatthat calling was, through the
(35:36):
help of others in the church andthrough prayer and type of
preparation.
And I actually sat on that forlike six months our first six
months of our marriage I waslike I think the Lord actually
might be calling me intopastoral ministry, but I'm not
sure.
And before I even shared thatwith Stephanie because I didn't
know, long story short, her, hermom always thought, for for
whatever reason, uh, that shewas always her daughter would
(35:59):
always marry a pastor and andfor whatever reason, that was
what she thought and her nevermentioned anything about ever
being a pastor.
She's like, well, she's wrong,don't have to worry about that,
you know, with all the differentnuances that come as like a
pastor's wife and differentthings like that.
So then I just continue toexpress that to the church.
And then I got involved withthe young adult ministry.
(36:20):
I started to become a leader, agroup leader, and and end up
helping lead that group, uh,with with chase actually, and
the lord called him intoministry.
And then we're getting formaleducation, doing that online
through boys college CollegeBulldogs go Bulldogs, I will tap
them for some dead.
And then we did that for fouryears till 2020.
(36:42):
And then COVID happened.
At this time, I'm full-time atthe church.
I started part-time justhelping out doing some simple
things, from cleaning toilets,changing trash cans to helping
be over the usher team.
It's just an assistant, kind oflike a catch-22, small church
just doing some different things, administrative and stuff and
helping shadow the pastor justlearning more.
(37:02):
What does ministry in thechurch look like?
And then they had a need, asthe church was growing, to make
it full-time.
So I was really his directassistant and working alongside
him, and then it was just alwaysbeing open-handed like what do
the next steps look like?
So side him.
And then it was just alwaysbeing open-handed Like what do
(37:23):
the next steps look like?
So at the time during COVID, wehad a church plant who got
kicked out of church in Smyrnaand they were using our building
at the time, and then thechurches ultimately merged
together and created a newchurch at that same location and
the Lord just helped me againfor another season of a year and
a half to be under this biggerchurch.
The church was growing and towalk along what.
What did the next steps looklike.
And then an opportunity came forfor us to go to a church in
(37:44):
Syracuse.
So we went there for a year andthen went to seminary in
Louisville.
So now we're at 2023 ish, Ithink and we're in Louisville
and we're just being open-handed.
Our family's in Delaware weknow that summer is going to be
like two or three years andwe're just going to be all in,
(38:04):
do that, open-handed.
The Lord provided a cool jobfor me to work at a Christian
publishing house and just seeingthose different trajectories, I
was traveling all over thecountry going to different
churches and helping them set uppop-up bookstores at 10 of
those and I was rubbingshoulders and we're just like
Lord, you want us to be amissionary?
Do you want us to go back toDelaware?
Do you want us to go towherever you want us?
We're just being open-handedand praying through that.
(38:26):
We just knew we were going tobe uh, we for two and a half,
three years.
And then, january of this year,I get a call from Pastor Mark
and he calls me while I'm atDisney at one of these not for
vacation, for one of theseevents and he just has hey, we
(38:47):
have this opportunity for theOutreach Missions Director and
would love for you and Stephanieto prayerfully consider doing
that.
And um, we didn't try to go backto Delaware.
We said the only caveat sinceall of the travel and we're
focusing on preparing was thatthat would be the only reason we
(39:08):
would leave Louisville was ifwe went back to Delaware.
Family here know, the area feltlike we could be rooted and
grounded, cause that's what welonged to do, was to be rooted
in one place and fast forward totoday.
That's what happened.
We walked that process forseveral months with the elders
and the team here and God madeit abundantly clear, through
(39:30):
prayer and seeking him, thatthis was the right decision and
seeking him that this was theright decision and we're super
thankful to serve the Lordtogether with you two and the
team here, to see what God willcontinue to do through LifeHouse
and the rest of the churchesthat we partner with.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, man, what a blessing, I mean, for us.
I know I feel like I can speakfor Nate and really, just like
all the staff, I mean we'vereally enjoyed having you and
just it's been a blessing to.
You know, just watch how Godhas in the two months or so that
you've been here which is crazy, feels like longer really but
(40:06):
in the two months, just God, youknow, using you already.
And so I'm excited to see whatGod will do and, knowing his
faithfulness and what he'salready done, in you.
And just seeing what he'll doand the rest, amen.
What life will look like infive, 10 years?
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Definitely appreciate you sharing your story, maybe
as we're rounding out the monthof August with this episode, and
so it's been all about we go.
Obviously, your role ismissions and outreach, but
you're not doing it all yourself, right?
Speaker 4 (40:37):
No.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
I think we hire him.
You know, like you just do allour outreach.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
I don't think that's how the church works, right.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
But maybe you can just kind of share, you know
with kind of your position andhow we should view that as a
church, maybe just kind of capoff our episode here with kind
of this role, how God called youto it and how we as Christians,
you know, especially here atLifehouse Church, can really
live that out, as we're havingheard several episodes, you know
, from missionaries, churchplanners, just people who do
(41:05):
short-term, long-term missions,local, maybe kind of bring that,
you know, to a real capstonefor us.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Yeah, that's a great question and thought I think we
shouldn't overthink it.
I think Pastor Mark has beensaying a couple things the past
few weeks really strongly insome of his sermons, talking
about just the simplicity ofgoing and what that means of
making disciples where God hasplaced you, and understanding
(41:34):
that might be for some who arelistening, simply making
disciples with your children inyour home.
It might be meaning you aregoing across the room five feet
to the cubicle next to you orthe hospital bed, wherever God
has placed you.
That is where he's seeking foryou to make disciples.
And for some of us that meanswe might go to the missionary
(41:57):
field, like Eric and Lena orsome others who the Lord may be
stirring in our midst to rise upand go.
But going is twofold it'sactually physically going out,
but it's also sending people outand sustaining that.
There's that two lanes, so tospeak, of missions and outreach,
(42:18):
and I think those are twothings that we get to do
together as a church, both herein Townsend, middletown, odessa
area, where we're trying to befaithful in this community, and
then partnering, seeing how Godis working through raising up
some of these church plants andpartnering them, both here and
domestically in the States, butalso seeing how God is working
(42:39):
in different opportunities allaround the world.
We have several mission partnersthat we get to partner with and
trips we get to go on and justto cultivate that desire that we
see in Christians to make thegospel known, both in the
proclamation of God's word, inwords that we use, but also in
(43:00):
the way we practice ourChristianity.
So proclaim, if I would say twowords proclaim and practice, or
declare and demonstrate.
It's the word and the actions.
It's not either or it's both.
And and I just want toencourage our church to view
missions and outreach that wayand that everybody's on the team
(43:23):
, it's not just a select few.
So, seeing where God is movingalready in front of you, and
catch that wave of renewal thatwe get to participate in, to see
him move in far ways than wecan ever ask, think or imagine.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I think from your testimony as well, that happens
a lot in community, yourtestimony talking about how it
was difficult when you didn'thave the community and how
transformative it is.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
And so where we go.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
That practice you mentioned is bringing people
into the community of the Lordnot just some club, but true
faith community.
Yeah, that is where we fill upto pour out yes, as a community
encouraging one another amen andI would just encourage to
coming off of that.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
we we bring people in the church but, uh,
christianity is not not notnecessarily a come and see
religion.
It's a go and tell and I wouldjust encourage people it might
be uncomfortable but I wouldchallenge our people who are
listening to even open your hometo those.
Talk about going across thecubicle or across the five feet
(44:28):
across the workplace line, butthere are so many people right
across the street that God hasplaced us in in our developments
, in our rural areas, whereverGod's placed you to be an
invitation of grace and I wouldjust encourage us to see where
God has placed us and befaithful with that, to reimagine
(44:50):
our neighborhoods and see howGod will use the gospel to make
all things new.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Yeah, that's good.
We haven't done this in a while, but I'm thinking through.
We used to do rapid firequestions oh, I love it.
So we're going to spit off acouple.
It's been a long time sincewe've done them, so I might not
get them right.
Okay.
But I think it's a fun way forpeople to know you right, yeah.
First things.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
So let's start your favorite food, Favorite food
chicken and rice any kind, anykind, any kind.
I like it Chinese style, I likeit teriyaki grilled.
I'm a chicken rice broccolikind of guy and yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
There you go.
All right Chicken and rice.
What's your favorite hobby?
Speaker 4 (45:28):
Hobby yes, it's a great question.
I would say playing, sportsPlaying sports.
Love sports.
Great question.
I would say playing sports,playing sports love sports,
watching them, playing them,seeing other people play them,
whether it's going to t-ball,game sports, I'm a sports guy.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, all right your favorite book book other than
the bible?
Speaker 4 (45:48):
other than the bible?
Okay, um, that's a question.
I'm also a reader.
Uh, I'm gonna say don't wasteyour life.
By john piper okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, good one.
Now we'll go.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
Favorite book of the bible and not the whole thing
yeah um, I would say the book ofjames, okay yeah, that's good
and, last but not least,favorite pastor dead or alive
dead or alive, or preacher,pastor preacher yep, I'm gonna
go with my man, jp john piperthere you go.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
I mean, don't wish your life, john sorry I doubled
down on jp right there, hyperdisciples uh, totally fine,
welcome.
Thanks, man.
It's been a blessing to haveyou on and, um, yeah, just look
forward to seeing what god usesyou here at LifeHouse, but then
even beyond, however many yearsthat is so appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Thanks for having me, of course, man thanks for
tuning in to the Life Talkpodcast.
If this episode encouraged you,please be sure to like, comment
, subscribe and leave a reviewso others can find this content
as well, and we'll look forwardto seeing you next Monday for
another great episode.
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