Sam's Story

Well, G'day everyone.

It's a great privilege to come back again to the Canterbury Gardens Community Church podcast.

I feel like I need a new name for this podcast.

Uh, I just want to take a moment as well, uh, with the software that we use, we got a little bit of reports, like there was a thousand downloads.

Thanks mum for doing that.

Uh, and I want to just, uh, yeah, thank you to those of you who've been listening, sharing.

Uh, it's a real privilege to serve you.

So we, uh, part of the podcast that we do is part of our desire to serve our church.

That's Canterbury Gardens Community Church, a church in the outer East here in Melbourne, but also the wider community.

And so part of that is various things from our sermons to these little moments and where we have people share their stories with us.

And today I'm a bit nervous and I'll tell you why I'm nervous because I'm sitting across the table from a good friend.

Who's been in Canberra for many years, Samuel Ramson.

Hi there.

Hey man.

How are you?

Good.

How are you?

That's good.

I've got to be, I've got to be honest with you.

I was nervous here.

I'll tell you why.

Why?

And I feel like I'm sitting next to someone who knows exactly about podcasts and what they're doing.

And for those of you who didn't know, Samuel was the one who helped us start our podcast.

So thanks, mate.

That's all right.

It's a, it's a world that you actually never really understand and you just keep pretending.

So you're doing a good job.

That's the story of my life, pretending to know what I'm doing.

And mate, tell us a little bit about you, who you during the week, your family, all those things.

That is a complicated question.

Good question.

I, um, I'm someone who wears a lot of different hats.

I am a dad and a husband.

Um, my wife is incredible.

She is probably the reason that I'm able to wear so many hats by how well she supports me and looks after me.

And she's amazing.

I've got four beautiful little girls, um, who are all kinds of fun and chaos.

Um, I run an electrical business with a few people that work for us, um, which is a lot of.

Learning and occasionally a bit of fun.

And I do a kids podcast on the side for a bit of a laugh.

So there's uh, there's a few things there.

And at Canterbury, I love being involved in the youth ministry.

It's something that, uh, had a massive effect on me growing up and something that I've massively enjoyed being a part of over.

Uh, a few years now, so, how long have you been at Cannery cause I've known you for a long time.

I, I don't remember any other church.

So I think we came to this church when I was a baby.

So we're talking 34 years probably.

So just a little while.

Married for how long?

Uh, it has been, we got married in two, two, one, two, one, three.

We got married in 2013.

So 11 years we've been married now.

So.

Good job.

You remembered.

And, uh, this is another tricky one.

How many kids do you have?

Um, and so did you fall into becoming a Sparky for those of you Sparky is the Aussie way of saying electrician.

So did you fall into it?

Um, I always knew that I was going to be an electrician from early on.

Um, I remember at Christmas as a kid, my uncle sitting me down and asking if I wanted to work in an office.

And I was like, I don't think so.

And he basically said, you're going to do a trade.

You need a license.

You should be an electrician.

And I was like, okay, I guess I'm going to be an electrician, but running an electrical company is something that.

I never wanted or never intended, so that was something that kind of just happened and we hung on for dear life as, uh, as we learned all the painful lessons along the way.

Was, what's, uh, one job that you think of that was one of the craziest jobs that you've ever done?

Um, Oh, that's a really good question.

I think there's been a lot of crazy jobs and a lot of crazy moments and a lot of areas where we were doing things that we did not understand.

But one time I got to do thermal imaging, which is waving a special camera over switchboards.

But we got to do it at the MCG on a game day because they needed it to be at full capacity and running at full power.

Um, and I'm standing there walking around as a crowd screaming with this random camera and people looking at you funny.

So that was certainly one of the more interesting jobs that we did.

Um, and working on massive switchboards for some of the big buildings in the city.

We had one where we were servicing the switchboards on level 54 of a building.

Oh, wow.

And so we'd shut down the entire building and the generator ran out of fuel and smoke started pouring out the top of the building and people thought the building was on fire.

So we got put into lockdown and got stuck up there for like two and a half hours and then had to take the stairs back down because they shut down all the lifts.

It was, it was a nightmare.

Well, you mentioned a little bit earlier about the many hats that you wear.

Yep.

Uh, did you notice growing up the way that perhaps God's wired you in the way that your Brain in many ways.

Yeah.

Has many hats.

Uh, I am busy is probably the best way to describe it.

As a kid, mom always used to say I was very busy, happy, fun, but very busy.

Um, and I'm someone who I don't like being still, I don't like being stagnant.

And so I get excited about things and.

And I really want to do them to the best I can.

And when that excitement lines up with something that God's given me a gifting in, or giving me a real love for, that's, uh, that's a lot of fun.

Hmm.

Was there, was there a moment where you saw that as a positive thing?

Uh, regarding the way God has wired you.

Uh, yeah, yeah.

I, um, so I've served at Canterbury in a few different spaces over the time.

And I did youth ministry for a long time when we were out of our depth and pretending we knew what we were doing and had no idea.

And by God's grace, a lot of those people are still following Jesus despite.

Yep.

Despite what we were doing and every kid survived, there's no one that's gone missing.

Yeah.

Only major injuries, no deaths.

So that was, uh, that was great.

But I stepped out of ministry for a while after my mum passed away and I stepped back.

And then as I slowly started to plug in, I started plugging into a few different ministries and.

Trying a few different things that I hadn't really done too much of before.

And then once I kind of plugged back into youth ministry and just saw who God has created me to be and the love that he's given me for that space and it all kind of lined up.

It was just that real reminder of when you get to serve.

It's just so much joy and it was just that thing of, okay, God, this is, this is the area of service that you have for me.

I love this and thank you for giving me this opportunity.

So when those things align, it's, it's so good.

You mentioned a little while back when we were chatting, you made a comment that stuck to me that I was going to talk to you about today, which was, you don't know how long you've got here.

Yep.

Um, do you want to unpack that?

Why has that shaped you?

Oh, I don't know.

I really value time.

I, um, I'm someone who I really want to make the most of each moment and all those kinds of things, because I don't know, we say over and over again, how stages change and moments pass and people, uh, we never know how long we've got.

My mom passed away a few years ago now, and it's one of those things that you kind of never prepare for and never expect.

And so.

I look at her life and one of the things that I'm incredibly grateful for is I'm able to sit here and say that I had more of a mom in the shortened years that I got than a lot of people get in and someone that lives into their hundreds.

And it was one of those things of you actually, we're here for a purpose and we actually need to be utilizing.

Who it is that God's created us to be and the opportunities that he places us in to the full potential all the time, because you never know when God's going to say, okay, that's enough for you.

It's, it's time kind of thing.

So for me, not just in a sense of life and death, but in a chance sense of opportunities as well.

So.

We've got a few really fun little opportunities at the moment.

We've got an electrical business that's running okay for the first time and probably it's existence, which is unbelievable.

And I've got my podcast, which I'm doing, which God is go plug in, man, go for it.

Cause I'm, I'm like about to scream like a little kid as soon as you say it.

Yeah.

Okay.

I run a podcast called silly stories for kids, which is, uh, Which has been one of the biggest random things that has ever kind of happened.

Wasn't my idea.

It was something that Russ, my father in law said, you need to do this.

And I was like, what are you talking about?

And so you start doing something and it's just been a real evidence of.

When you go to God and are prepared to just serve with open hands and let him do what he wants with it, he's blessed it so much more than I would have expected.

But in that, at the same time, I feel the need to do the best that I can in that space with where he's got me at the moment, because he's opened doors and opportunities.

And I've had moments of, we got to do some Christmas carols and things over the Christmas break where.

We were meeting people that had never been in church before.

And they said, Oh, we heard that you were telling a story.

We thought we'd come down and check it out.

And I said, well, it was just an opportunity to say, Hey, well, the reason I'm here is because I love Jesus.

And I really hope that you get to hear some of that here tonight.

And it's one of those things of when God gives you an opportunity, it's actually a real, it feels like a real responsibility to use that well and to serve well.

And at the same time to serve with open hands, because in the same way that he can provide an opportunity.

It can disappear any moment.

I could say something that people don't agree with and people might want to shut us out and get rid of us or whatever.

And so for me, it's that moment of considering everything that we're doing and trying to serve faithfully wherever God has got us to the max that we possibly can.

And I say we, because it's a family thing.

It's not just me.

My whole family is on this journey together.

My wife, I couldn't do it without her.

My kids, uh.

So much fun and give me the most honest feedback.

Tell me when my stories are terrible and when it's so bad, it's, it's great.

So one that comes to mind straight away with one of the kids, I can imagine who it might be, but who, who gave you very blunt feedback on one of the stories?

Oh, there's a couple of little funny ones.

So last night I was telling a story to the girls and they were loving it.

And Brinley, my third was.

She was smiling and laughing and giggling, but she hates it when the stories end.

And so because it finished.

She started bawling her eyes out and she's like, that was a short one.

That was terrible.

I was like, it's gone for 15 minutes, kid.

And you were laughing the whole time.

But the other one was, I'm currently writing a kid's storybook.

And so I'd written the first draft and I was like, I'll read this to the kids.

It'll be so much fun.

And I read it and Holly's like.

That doesn't sound like silly stories for kids.

I was like, ouch.

Um, maybe you'll like it when there's pictures, but I love their honesty.

It's great.

That's good.

Has there been challenges?

Like, do you ever look, step back and go, I wish God hadn't wired me this way at any moment or, I mean, yeah.

Um, has there been challenges is probably one of the silliest questions I've heard.

Um, it's all challenges and it's one of those things like.

Um, my, I look at what has happened in my life so far and just see moment after moment after moment of things going wrong and things going painfully and all those kinds of things.

And even the way that I'm wired, like.

Um, trying to get my brain, my brain is chaos, trying to get it to do the practical things that you need to do to run an electrical business over the years has been a nightmare.

But it's the kind of thing where all those difficult things and tricky times and things that I look back on and a lot of them I go, I would have preferred not to go through that.

It's interesting now being at a stage where you can actually see how God's used that to shape me in so many different ways and prepare me for things that I otherwise wouldn't have been ready for or prepared for.

So.

That's pretty wild.

That's amazing.

Um, was there a moment where like we chatted about this earlier, about ADHD, was that a formal thing or was that, you know, nowadays, you know, you can Google things and Google symptoms and so on.

What was your journey?

Oh mate, it was something that I never really thought of and had never seen myself as someone who might have ADHD, but I, um, after.

Mum had passed away, I wasn't feeling myself, I wasn't feeling super down or anything, but I just didn't feel as bright as I normally was, um, and I'd always heard that expression of, we service our cars, why don't we service our brains?

And so that had always kind of floated around in the back of my head.

And I was just at the point of going, I think I just need to check in with someone here before this turns into something, because I actually can't afford to fall apart and I'm trying to provide for a family and things were really tough.

Like it was, we were hitting all the COVID and all that kind of stuff and business was going terribly and all kinds of stuff.

So I was like, I can't afford to fall apart here.

And I went to see a psychologist and we were just chatting.

And then she just kind of made a comment of, do you mind if we do a quick test?

And then she put me through some verbal ADHD test.

And next thing she's like, so you've scored off the chart.

Is this something that you'd like to look into?

I was like, Oh yeah, maybe let's, let's have a look.

But then getting to understand what that actually meant and realizing that it was because of all the extra.

Pressure and all the things that the symptoms and the way my brain works was hitting capacity, being able to find ways of being able to help cope with that capacity.

Cause it was like, it's never going to get any less.

It's only just going to keep increasing from here.

And so.

Yeah, it was an interesting little journey of learning and understanding and trying different things.

But the funny thing is, as soon as you get an ADHD, ADHD diagnosis, everyone around you thinks they've got ADHD.

It's hilarious.

Cause they're always like, Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure I've got that too.

I'm like, yep, cool.

That's fine.

It's a bit of a laugh.

So, but yes, it's a wild little journey.

Yeah.

So.

Now, obviously these are labels, which are helpful.

Yeah.

Um, they're helpful to kind of give us a bit of a grid.

They're not bad.

From a Christian perspective, what has been helpful for you to not just be known as that person or that thing or, yeah.

Yeah, for me, like.

I, I have, I try not to refer to myself as someone with ADHD.

I prefer to just call myself someone with a busy brain because I'm so grateful for the brain that I have.

And I think I'm really grateful for God's timing in making me aware of that as well.

Cause I think as a kid, I could have very easily.

I used it as a bit of a crutch and I could have fallen into using it as an excuse to not do the things that I didn't want to do rather than forcing myself to do hard things.

Um, but now it's helpful looking at it and just knowing that we're made in the image of God.

And this is a conversation I have with my kids all the time.

You're made in the image of God and does God make mistakes?

No he doesn't.

And so looking at the way I'm wired and going, well, has God made a mistake here?

Well, no, he definitely hasn't.

He's given me a set of giftings that come with this kind of crazy brain that are really, really useful for a lot of things.

Yeah, there's some stuff that it's incredibly hard to manage and hard to do, but I'm really grateful for what God has given me.

And if I lean more into what I've been given rather than what I'm missing out on, it's one of those things.

If you look to God and keep your eyes focused on him rather than focused on yourself and your own circumstances, it really changes your perspective on a lot of it.

So I wouldn't want a different brain.

Um, in any way, shape or form, the way that God's given me the ability to be able to connect with people and read emotions and all those kinds of things.

I wouldn't trade those for administration ever.

Has there been any passages or stories in the Bible that, that have helped to shape that for you?

Um, or maybe even like thinking about your mom, are there words that come to mind?

Ah, the one passage for me that just always speaks to.

It just speaks to everything in me.

And it's really fun.

Another person from our church, Grace Kayser, actually did it in script for me in a little frame, which is just so special, but it's just the John 10, 10 passage of I've come that they may have life and have it to the full.

And so for me, that just speaks to so much of what I want to see in this place as well, because we're here and we're here to serve God, but we're not here to serve God so that we just get to the eternal.

The fact that it's also for the here and now, and in the times when things are tricky, like, it's, Christ has said that he came that, We may have life and have it to the full and fullness of life is something that is really, really beautiful when lived under the leadership of Christ and lived in Christ.

And so for me, it's one of those reminders often of when I'm doing something dumb or I'm wasting time, or I'm feeling down and low because I'm focusing on myself, reminding myself that Christ has actually come to give me life.

Both here now and for eternity.

So for me, that's, that's the verse that kind of sticks with me always.

Hmm.

Did, um, I was just thinking about as you were sharing that, were there moments, uh, we talked about challenges, but, uh, were there moments where you reflect back and go.

It's hard to apply that.

Are there temptations that come with, you know, for those of you who don't know, I would encourage you to check out Silly Stories.

Um, this, by the way, they're not sponsoring us just, just to clarify.

But, um, but you'll see that, uh, it has blown up, right?

Yeah.

Uh, what are some of the challenges and temptations that you face?

Or are you like, you know what, it's very clear for me what this is about.

Uh, I will always struggle against arrogance.

As a kid, I was a really arrogant kid.

I grew up very big fish, small pond, and that syndrome certainly bled through.

I was watching back some video of when I was in youth group and we were making these videos and I was just watching myself wanting to put my head through a wall at the absolute like self centeredness, love yourself kind of thing.

And so for me, that was something that God had to break me in, in a lot of ways.

and humbled me in a lot of circumstances, which wasn't comfortable, but those temptations will always be there.

And so when things are going well, and things are going great, that temptation to want to make it about yourself will always be there.

And so for me I have to verbally articulate to myself and to others constantly that it's actually God that's doing the work.

And it's actually God that's making these kinds of things happen.

And he's the only reason that I can breathe, let alone have the opportunity to do any of this.

Um, and then that's a really helpful reset for me and the prayer that I often pray to myself and at the same time, don't want to pray to myself is God, keep me humble because humbling is painful a lot of the time.

And so it's often followed by a God, keep me humble, but please don't make it painful this time.

And so it's one of those things that I know that I need to keep in check and I know that I need God to keep me in check because.

We're sinful people with sinful natures, and we're always going to be tempted to stray from where God wants us to be.

And I know that my own arrogance could be the biggest thing stopping me from being able to have impact for Christ.

If it's about me, it's not about him.

So I need to make sure that he's always the first and foremost, and that helps with the decision making.

And probably the other thing that I struggle with that I probably don't talk about that often.

Um, with a lot of things that have gone.

I really struggle when things are going right, because I sit there in the moment of what's the next thing, what's coming, what's the next thing that's going to blow up, what's the next painful moment.

Um, and something that I've been really learning lately, and if any youth kids listen to this, they'll be like, yeah, he's harping on about the same stuff.

But for me, it's the more I remind myself about the promises that God has made about himself.

It helps me in those circumstances, because for me, when I'm feeling those kinds of things, I am able to remind myself that God has said that he is here for my good.

And so I can trust that.

And God has claimed that he is in control of all things and he created all things.

So I can actually trust that.

And so by knowing who God claims himself to be, that helps me so often when.

I'm looking at a situation and I can see that I'm believing a lie about who God is in that moment.

And to be able to remind yourself of the truth in those times is really, really important.

It's the key, right?

I mean, like you just said, it's being aware and being self aware, but it's, it's easy to fall into.

I know that I've done that too, where like it's, everything's going really well.

It's almost like superstitious, wherever you go, bad's coming.

And just like history.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's, it's true.

Like.

Historically in our life, it's been a lot of things that go almost well and then things that blow up.

And the thing is like, one thing that I've had to learn to really wrestle with is, is the God that's there in the times that feel comfortable, the same God that's there in the times that feel tough, or as he changed, or has he changed?

And the reality is if he's changed, he's not really the God of the Bible.

So he can't have changed.

I just didn't fully understand who he was in those times.

And so the depth of understanding that you can develop of who God is through painful moments.

Um, it's valuable, it's difficult, but it's valuable.

Yeah.

Can I ask you about a very significant, painful moment in your life with your mum, uh, who I deeply miss too, uh, for those of you who are new to our podcast or part of Canterbury Gardens, Florina, uh, it was, is, or was married to John, who's the associate pastor at our church.

Uh, she's home with Jesus now.

Um, tell me, I've heard little bits and pieces, but mate, I guess, what's a thing that, as you reflect on that season of your life?

Uh, what are the emotions of the things that you reflect on?

What was God, where was God in that?

It's a really complicated question.

And you don't have to talk about this cause I can edit this later.

So no, no, I'm, I'm happy.

I'm happy to, I think for me, one of the most difficult things of that time was seeing the impact that it was having on other people when mum was going downhill and things weren't going well, seeing people that were.

Connecting with Christ because of her passing and restoring relationships because they'd seen her go earlier than expected and seeing God use it for so much good was really tricky.

And I really was wrestling with God of, I get that this is good for other people, but this is not feel good for me.

And that real wrestle of like, how the heck, how the heck is this a thing?

How are you using something that is so broken and so painful and so difficult?

How are you redeeming this for your glory and being okay with that and being okay with God around all of that.

I, um, I learned a lot from the life of David and how often he just cried out and said, this sucks.

And so I took that on.

I would often just sit there and pray, God, this really sucks.

I don't get what you're doing here.

It makes no sense to me.

I don't think I'll ever understand.

The complexities of how this works in your perfectness and your good nature, but help me to trust in who you are.

It's something that'll never feel right.

It'll never feel good.

But at the same time, God is good, despite what I'm feeling in that moment.

And it's really one of those things that I still wrestle with often.

Yeah.

It's the, how is God able to redeem so much good from something that is so broken?

And then you have the things of like, why, why my mum?

And that's really tricky because you feel incredibly guilty for saying it.

Cause you're like, well, do you feel better about it being someone else's mum?

You're like, well, no, but still why?

That's normal, right?

Yeah.

Can I ask that?

Yep.

And getting to the point of being okay, that I will never actually have answers for these questions this side of heaven.

And I think if I dwelt on that and got caught in those, it would drag me further from Christ.

And so resetting my eyes on who.

God is, and trusting him, despite all the things that I don't understand.

It's a difficult journey and something that you walk in every day.

You know, as you're sharing that story, uh, uh, um, story comes to mind with your mom, actually.

So I was at the church building and she had this famous line that she would, after the service, everyone had gone, she'd be hanging around and she'll, we'll be talking about certain things and she'll have this thing where she goes, Lord, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

And I'll look at her and then she goes.

But I've got to trust you, I've got to trust you.

Um, and I think I can see that flowing out into your life as well, mate.

Um, thanks for being honest about that.

Sam, as you, um, think of perhaps your passion, uh, and love for youth.

There might be someone who's sitting there, or if they're listening, G'day, uh, um, they might be going, why has God wired me this way?

What kind of encouragement would you give them?

What would you say to them about how to help them move forward?

Yeah, I think, I do love youth.

I love youth ministry.

It is the area of serving God that brings me so much joy.

And I realize it because with the way my brain works, when you plug into something and you're just in it and just can't help, but just do everything you possibly can and just so excited about it.

And you go, okay, this is what God's designed me for.

I go, cool.

What has God designed you for?

Like we live in a world where there's all this airy fairy, who are you?

Know yourself kind of, I'll say rubbish for want of a better word, but I will.

I will.

But the reality is that there's actually some real godly truth in that.

And who God's created you to be is very different to who God has created someone else to be and the skills and abilities that he's given you.

Uh, different to someone else's, like the Bible is so explicit on it.

Talking about passages about the body and how you need all the different parts.

And the reality is that you actually seriously do.

One of the most exciting things about our youth ministry at the moment is actually that we have a youth leadership that is so different from each other.

We have so many different characters.

We have so many different skillsets, but with all those different people with different abilities, working together.

focused on Christ, what is able to come out of that ministry is so much greater than if everyone was like one person or everyone was like another person.

And so the reality is if someone's sitting there in a stage of going, Oh, why has God made me this way?

There is actually an answer to that question.

There is a purpose for why God has made you a specific way.

And the reality is if you focus on the, why has God made me this way and change that focus to, God, you have made me this way.

What do you desire from me?

Take your eyes off yourself and back to Christ, because it's actually for his purposes that he's designed you as you are without making any mistakes in his image, which that expression is something that gives value and dignity.

Without anything else, if you're made in the image of God, which we all are, that has inherent dignity and inherent purpose.

So I encourage people to actually get to know who God's created you to be, not in an airy fairy sense, but what loves has he given you?

What abilities has he given you?

And how might you use that to love and serve him and to love and serve others?

Because when people plug in, in the way that they've actually been gifted, like running an electrical business, I've done for a long time.

And I often say that I think God put me in that business, not to make money or to run a good company, but to develop, but to develop things in me that he needed me to have.

I'm not good at running a business.

I do not have the right values to run a successful, profitable, amazing company.

Cause I don't care about the kind of things that.

People in high business and successful trade companies care about.

But.

What God has done through that and shaped in me has actually enabled me to be able to plug in with those skillsets that I do have and the loves that I have in the right areas.

And so it's one of those things.

I love seeing kids go, I love this.

How could I use this to serve God?

I love drawing.

Like I was having a meeting earlier today with the illustrator for, who draws all the characters for our podcast.

And I love sitting down with her because she thinks so differently from me.

And together we're putting together a storybook and that is so fun.

I couldn't do that on my own.

And so God has created each one of us different for different purposes.

Take your eyes off yourself and focus on him.

So who's the illustrator?

Give a shout out.

Uh, Abby Clerk, she's incredibly gifted and she's just put out another book recently.

So go check her out on Instagram.

You'll be able to find all the details and bits and pieces, but.

She is someone that God has given a completely different brain and watching her just put an amazing picture to some words that I jotted down on a paper and going, Oh yeah, you've made my own story.

Make more sense to me.

It's just fun.

It's fun working with other people who love God to do these kinds of fun things together.

As you share your stories, I think the common thing I keep hearing is that know who God is, know how he's wired you.

And to know what his purpose is for you, for his kingdom and beyond.

And, you know, I've really appreciated hearing that in the different seasons and seeing you grow in that.

Um, for those of you, if you're interested, shout out to CIA Youth.

I'll give a shout out.

Is that what you do?

I feel so old saying those words.

I do, I do a story podcast, so I don't have to worry about all these normal things that other people do on podcasts.

It makes no sense to me.

Anyway, CIA youth represent.

I'm starting to show how old I am, I think.

So to all the young people, if you're listening to this, I apologize, I'm one of those dudes now.

Um, yes, we do have a youth group.

Please do check us out.

If you, if you live in the outer Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

And don't have much to do and you're in high school, uh, age on a Friday night and you don't have a local church youth group to go to, please check us out on our website, I'm sure.

Samuel, anything else to say before we wrap up?

I just want to reaffirm the fact that God doesn't make mistakes because there's been so many times.

In my own life where I've felt like God has made a mistake with me when I'm not walking with him, when I'm doing my own thing.

And I think I knew too much about God to be able to tell him to completely go away.

It was one of those things of God, I don't think you got this right here.

And I'm sure there's plenty of people that feel that about themselves.

And so I just want to really reiterate the fact of we serve a God who is perfect and doesn't make mistakes.

And the more we can get to understand the why behind who we are and what he has done for us.

It's not actually about us.

It's about him and his saving grace that can redeem anyone and anything for himself.

And on that note, would you like to pray to that great God for us?

I would.

Um.

Dear Loving Lord Jesus, thank you so much for an opportunity to sit down and to talk openly about who you are.

Um, I praise you that this is the world that we live in now, where we can share ideas and thoughts and all kinds of stuff so readily and so wide.

Um, I really just want to Praise you for the work that you're doing, um, both at Canterbury and in the wider community.

I pray that you would continue to raise up different people in different places for your purposes, um, so that we might see great change in this place and that we would see your hand working continuously through different types and different people and especially through the unexpected.

Um, we ask that you would, uh, Keep all these things for yourself.

Um, give us wisdom to know when to step out and give us the knowledge to know that it's not of ourselves and the strength to continue for the moments that we are in.

We ask all this in your name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, friends, thanks for joining us today in regards to the topic of ADHD.

As you know, this is Samuel sharing his story and his life.

We're not health professionals.

If that's something that you are interested in checking out, please talk to your health professional otherwise than that.

God bless.

Chat to you soon.