Episode #7 -The Hyphen Perspective

All right, so we got a special. Episode coming here, this is

going to be with three new guests.

I'm going to introduce the people that we got coming on

here soon. But for right now we're going to

start off with the scripture that leads and guides this

podcast. All right, so Revelation 12 and

11 says, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by

the word of their testimony. And they did not love their

lives to the death. The power of that is everyone

has a testimony. We all know what a testimony is.

It's your story, it's where you come from, it's how you got to

where you are, right? So the Bible emphasizes your

story, your testimony, to the fullest extent as a way of

encouraging yourself, encouraging others, and bringing

glory to God. And that's what the goal is at

the end of the day. We want to bring glory to God

the best way that we can. I think we can all agree on

that. And testimonies are not strapped

to age, gender, or anything like that.

So you don't have to be 86 years old, 55 years old, pastor of a

church or a special musician or anything just to have a

testimony. So that's why we've got things

that we're doing today to kind of give people that you wouldn't

normally think of, give them a chance to speak it.

So we've got two guys here that are going to be introducing

themselves in a second. But first, I'm going to

introduce, or let her introduce herself, the special guest host

for this episode. Hi, I'm Lexi Holloway.

I'm a youth leader here at Lifegate and a prayer

coordinator. So that's a little bit about me.

I've been in ministry about six years.

Awesome. And we'll do a special episode

for you so that you can say your testimony, unless you want to

give a little bit tonight. But tonight we'll be focusing on

two young men who are the new young generation now that I'm

old. So I'm let them introduce

themselves first. We'll start with you.

Hello, I'm Hadley Champion and I've been I'm a regulated

churchgoer here. My name is Eric May and I just

started coming here about nine months ago when my family moved

down here. Awesome, where'd you move here

from? I moved here from Hernando, Ms.

Really. That's pretty cool.

Three hours away. Three hours away.

Is that where you were this past weekend?

No, they said you were in London.

No, I was in Memphis. Memphis.

Why would you want to go to Memphis?

Wait, I was actually in Hernando for the first service of my old

church. OK.

And the new building. All right, before I dig into my

questions, I know Lexi's got a couple questions.

She knows you guys a little bit better than me.

So I'll let her ask a few and break the ice, and then I'll

we'll switch back and forth. All right.

OK, well I have a lot of questions and probably won't use

all of them, but I wanted to come up with a fun one.

So that's kind of like break the ice and it's not so

intimidating. What is your current favorite

worship song or song that we do in church?

Probably praise the Lord's song. I don't know the name of it.

Praise, praise. Yes, the one.

And I like the the we don't sing it when when we went to camp,

the the Jericho walls coming down.

Yeah, they want to start dancing.

That's probably my favorite. I love that one.

My favorite's probably Goodbye yesterday just 'cause it's a

good song to play on for drums so.

So you like playing that one more than like listening to?

It I like that one, probably the most of it, yeah.

I like that one. And then I'll go another

question and then Johnny can kick off.

But I wanted to ask you, what kind of part does Lifegate play

in your story? Like so for Eric, you've only

been here for nine months, right?

And then, Hadley, you've been here.

What? Around 2 years.

Around 2 years, so like thinking about your life before Lifegate

and now which I know your stories are quite different but

like what part has Lifegate kind of played in your life?

It's definitely been opening, definitely an opening experience

to me. The people here have been like,

like accepting of me even though I wasn't.

I didn't grow up in a Pentecostal church.

And it's just changed my outlook on God and it's changed my the

the way I think of him. And yeah, just everything is

great about Lifegate. That's.

Good for me coming here. It was just like, I honestly, so

I didn't move around a lot, but I moved around.

So I've been in now 4 different churches.

So at first it was just, I'm going to another church, going

there just to go, you know what I mean?

But I made friends here, like lifelong friends that I can call

like real friends. I met people that I can call my

mentor, like just people that I know are really there for me.

That's awesome. I'll let whichever 1 you guys go

first. But like I said, this is our

testimony. This is where we are.

We'll make you guys feel a little bit more comfortable.

I'll go first. Don't worry, I'll go first.

I'll just kind of skim over mine so you kind of have an idea of

what where I'm coming from, right?

And so you know, I'm not, you're not on the spotlight.

I feel like. I can relate to both of you guys

in a little bit or you might get relate to me.

So I've been coming to Lifegate for 21 years, so I don't know

how old you are, but I've been coming to Lifegate probably

since you guys were in diapers. I was just a kid, but I came to

Lifegate for quite a while. You weren't born 21 years ago.

No. OK.

I was 18. There you go.

Yeah, I started coming here when we were still in the Madison

Theater. So every time they mentioned the

theater, I was there. When it was just me, my family,

sister Harville and the penton's, that was it.

Our Sunday school class was just the three of us, so I was there

for all of that. But as I grew up, started

getting a little bit older, started going to middle school,

junior high, I was not concerned at all what was happening to

church. Be honest, I was a kid that was

coming here just to be here. Parents brought me here.

I had no choice in the grand scheme of things.

I wasn't involved. So as I was growing up, the

world was a lot bigger of an influence on me than what the

church was on me. And that a lot has to do with me

just in how I was. Didn't care about 1, cared about

the other one. Long story short, in that case I

I went through quite a bit. I won't go into too much detail

because it would bore a lot of people, but going through high

school or junior high and into ninth grade, for me personally,

I will Hung out with the wrong crowd.

I got caught up with the wrong people, was doing the wrong

things, got to a really dark spot.

And then for in my own self, it just kind of got to the point to

where I remember as a 9th grader, I just, I had made the

something click that it was like, if I don't make a change

with what I'm getting with what I'm doing and where I'm at, I'm

not going to make it to 18. I'm not going to make it to 21.

That's going to be it for me. So I finally reached out to

somebody and in, in consequence, they started, my parents started

working on getting me closer here in church, trying to get me

involved with the other guys here.

And that's when I met Seth for the first time.

I already knew Cam and Coley, but we really weren't close.

But when that all went down and I was like, they were probably

feeling like, Oh my God, what's going to happen to this kid?

He's going to do something stupid.

They reached out to me, brought me in, and that changed

everything for me because all of what was weighing me down or

attacking me in the world just went away.

That being said, I still wasn't completely invested.

Fast forward, we had a, they used to have something called

youth explosion. I think it's called AYC now, but

it used to be called youth explosion.

They had youth explosion camp, some back to school rally.

This was youth explosion in February.

I didn't want to go. Everybody wanted me to go.

I didn't want to go. I had a bad haircut, at least I

thought I had a bad haircut. I was like, I don't want to do

all this. I'm not fixing to travel with

these people, whatever. But they forced me to go.

And Long story short, we get there to the service and I'm

listening to the guy. I remember the preacher as Court

Chavez is why I love him because he was the preacher.

So we're watching, I'm listening and I'm like, not invested when

I get there. But throughout the service, I'm

like, man, what this guy is saying is, is making sense.

This is making a lot of sense to me.

And it's starting to bring back like that idea of maybe this is

something I should get invested into.

We get to the very end of the service and he does an altar

call and he does it the old school way where he basically

goes, anybody here who does not have the Holy Ghost, raise your

hand. I knew I didn't have it.

So here I go raising my hand, hoping nobody's going to see me.

You know, just got it like barely hidden up.

Everybody in my row sees me. So they dragged me up to the

front. Next thing I know, they're like,

Oh my God, you're speaking in tongues.

You just got the Holy Ghost. And I'm like, I was blindsided.

I was a deer in headlights. So that happened.

And then when I got back, I started really trying to learn

about it. What is this?

What it just happened to me. What did I just go through?

Went to camp, started to really get a feel for it.

But I will say it was the friendship that I had with Seth,

Colby and Cam that made me not do go back to where I was

because we would sit down and we would talk about God.

We talked about what God had in store for us, what we felt our

callings were. We studied together.

They really taught me. That's when we joke all the

time. But like Mac and Vicki and all

of them brought me in. They were like trying to make

sure that I didn't backslide what it's called.

So. That's what happened for me and

then of course everything behind me went away.

I got re baptized because I got baptized when I was a kid,

didn't know what I was doing, so I got re baptized to make sure I

knew what I was doing. Ever since then it's just been

OK. Even if I make a lot of stupid

mistakes. I think there's one thing I

won't do and it won't go back on God because I remember where I

was before that happened and what my mindset was to where it

is now. And it's just completely

different. It's completely flipped.

It went from there's no light at the end of the tunnel to there's

no tunnel. All there is is light.

I just got to keep going. So that's me.

I can go into detail another time, but I don't have that much

time here. So what I'm going to do is which

everyone of you guys wants to go first, I want you to do kind of

the same thing. Just tell me.

Tell me how it happened. Walk me through the the the, the

the lead up to you getting it and what you were thinking as

you were going through. It all so originally I did not

grow up and I, I want to say my parents believe, but they didn't

you go to church and my dad was military.

So we moved around a lot, and then my parents got divorced and

then I moved down even more and I started going to a Baptist

Church and I was actually baptized there and I was super

young and I didn't know what I was doing either.

I just remember just playing around as a little kid, didn't

know what I was doing. And then we moved away from

there and I was out of church for a while.

And then I started going to another church and then didn't

stay there for very long. But I like the relationships I

made there, I guess, with some people.

But like, once I moved on, I guess they didn't really stick

around. So it's just like they were just

there, I guess. Yeah.

And then I found a girl, and then I started going to church

with her. And that's how I started coming

here. And I went to camp for the first

time. I was really nervous.

I didn't know exactly if I wanted to go because it was my

first big event like that. It's.

Overwhelming. Like I said, when it was like

that for me at that youth explosion, I was it was just, I

felt like I was getting caught up in another crowd that I had

no idea what was about to just befall me.

So that's how I think too. And there's a lot of, there's a

lot of people there. And seems like my thought is

like, if I don't know knowledge about something, I'm like, I

want to know everything before I go to something.

But then it was like, I don't know anyone that was there and I

was just kind of felt out of place.

But people made me feel welcome, especially our youth pastors and

everyone that was so supportive. So I went there and I got the

Holy Ghost. I don't know exactly.

I think it was a third day. It was there.

I. Think it was.

And it was just the eye opening experience like you said, like

it felt like I was free from the sins I've committed.

It just made me feel very, I don't know, explain like open.

If so, for me it felt like a weight had been lifted off my

shoulders. That's how it it.

Literally felt like it's how I would imagine a football player

would feel if someone just pulled the pads off after a

football game. That's how it was for me.

And I totally can relate to the the overwhelming part because

like for me, the other thing for me when I was first getting this

was I didn't know anything about the religion and everybody

around me was talking like they'd be joking.

You know, this scripture says this, and this says this, and

well, this is what I'm like. I don't understand what these

jokes are. I don't know what you're talking

about. All this is going right over my

head. See, I felt like an outsider

when I was supposed to feel like I was involved.

So. Obviously it was never done out

of malicious intent. People just that's just how they

are and I learned to to to jive with it.

But I completely understand that feeling that you had.

Yeah. And I go along with what you

said. Yeah, people, they'll say stuff

like that and then you don't know what they're talking about.

It's like, well, maybe I'm out of place here, but you just got

to realize that some people don't realize that you don't

know as much. That can also be a good thing

because they can teach you and you can make connections off of

that. And I just continued to go to

live life gate and I was like, well, this was I think this is

this is after NAYC. Oh no, before NAYC, like 2 weeks

before NAYCI got baptized. I think it was 2 weeks before.

And it was just I got I wanted to get re baptized because it's

baptized in a Baptist Church and I think it was under the

Trinity. And I was like, well, I think I

should get re baptized. So I got re baptized here and

then I've just been coming ever since.

Yeah, so. Can I ask you, when you were

going to those other churches growing up, when you come to our

church, I know you came here because you were seeing somebody

here, but did you ever feel when you walked through the doors and

you were in this, did it feel different just as a church, like

something was different about the way things were done here

versus the churches you've been to in the past?

It's definitely different. They were more most so the

Church of Christ I went to. I don't remember much of the

when I went to, I've only been to a few churches just because

my family weren't very active in the church.

But I just remember they weren't very opening.

I would say mostly to themselves and they wouldn't speak out to

anyone. Like you would have a few people

come up to you, but it was just like small talk.

But here everyone was more open. They wanted to get to know you.

They wanted to see what you were really like, I guess, and see

like build off of that. And I just think everyone here

actually cared for you. Unlike some churches, they don't

really care for you. They just kind of want you there

because it makes them feel better.

Not then I guess. It makes them think that they're

doing something right when they're getting people in, I

guess. Yeah.

So that made a huge impact on you being able to have people

that made you feel like family, I guess was, but the the idea

you weren't just a guest, you were like as if you've been

coming here for a long time. Exactly.

Yeah. So that that can change a lot of

things. So leading up to and you can cut

me off if you. Need to I did have a a question.

Was there a point that you can remember that like it changed

from just coming to church to like you wanted to have a

relationship with God or wanted something different that you

hadn't had before? I think ever since I've started

going to the church, I mean, obviously I haven't been, I

ain't go to the alternative as much as I should have, but I've

always been, I've been looking at everyone else.

I was like, I kind of wanted that experience, I guess.

And I guess like a few months in I wanted to be.

I got closer and then I went through the breakup and then

like a few weeks after that I was like, man, I didn't make a

change. So I started being more active

in church and I met some new friends, this guy Erica Reer,

and we just became close and being at bowling and stuff.

Yeah, kind of felt that shift. So you mentioned it after and

you know, after you've been coming here for a while, I mean,

you had an opportunity where you could have left.

You could have been like, OK, the person I was seeing, I'm not

seeing them anymore. I'm not interested at all.

You had a chance to leave, but you decided to stay outside of

just the friendships that you develop here.

Did you feel any kind of pull towards God?

Like God was pulling you while being here, that you just didn't

want to leave that as well? Yeah, I think, I think so.

I don't think, I don't know any other churches that have been

more open to me, like I said before.

And I think that just wanted me to stay here.

And I've never been to a different Pentecostal church.

And I think that is also a big reason why I just want to stay

here and I want to leave. I mean, even though you said the

connections, that is a big part and having, I mean, I'm not

against visiting other churches, but I would rather stay.

This is like my home, I feel like.

Yeah. And church wise, yeah.

Well, like, like I remember for me, after I had started coming

back for a while, I loved the family that I felt like I had

here, but I also realized like as far as my personal salvation,

I was on the right path now. Now I felt like, hey, I'm

working towards heaven. I'm working towards this.

And I felt that like call that pull.

So that was a huge factor for me.

That's why I was just like, I was just curious, did you feel

that pull in that regard as well?

Obviously something was there because you just, you didn't

want to go anywhere, going back to camp.

What made you decide to go to youth camp?

I guess my friends and stuff are going.

That's a big reason. I mean, I think I saw some

videos and stuff and it looked very fun and everyone talked

about how good the services and stuff were and I was kind of

worried because like the services were long.

I was like, I'm kind of worried because I haven't been to such a

long service I guess. Then I went and I thought it

was. I thought it was very fun.

Obviously had no intention. Did you have any intentions of

like, hey, I'm going here, I'm going to get the Holy Ghost?

Or was that just the side that just happened?

I mean, honestly, if I'm being truthful, I even though I've

been coming here for a while, I wasn't sure.

I haven't gotten it before. So I was like, I was doubtful.

I was. Like.

I was like, I'm not sure if this is a real thing or people are

just saying it and then I can't. I I went and got it and it was

like an eye opener. Yeah, I think anyone can get it.

It's just you have to have your mind in the right place.

Right, where Speaking of that, when, when that happened on

night three, walk me through that process.

Was it an altar call that you went up there?

Did somebody just happen to pray for you?

Did you just decide, you know what, hey, I'm just going to

pray and just see what happens? Like walk me through what

happened in that scenario. So it's actually sister Lexie,

she's like she was telling me how like how it can help to get

it and I think it was during alter call.

I think it was the night before you got the Holy Ghost that I

came up and was talking to you for a second.

Do you remember? Yeah, I remember.

I think that was it. And then the next day I really

put that into effect. And I mean, all you have to

like, all I did was open my mouth and pray and people, all

the church was praying around me.

And it's just like a different experience.

Yeah, some people describe it differently when it happens.

That first initial feeling, I know I was talking about when we

were talking to my dad when he first got it.

He got the Holy Ghost when he was in the Marines.

My dad was a Marine. He grew up.

He, he called, he, he calls himself a heathen because

Gentiles do nice. My dad grew up there for in

Saint Louis in the Northwest, in the Midwest.

Religion is not a thing as it is down here.

I'm not talking just Pentecost. I'm talking religion in general.

So for him growing up, there was no influence at all on my dad.

There was nothing about religion that interests his family.

His family was not having anything to do with it.

His dad wasn't in the picture. It was just his mom.

Well, Fast forward, he he goes to the Marines right out of high

school because he felt there was nothing else for him.

But while he was on tour, one of his bunkmates was a Pentecostal.

Just a Pentecostal, right? Wasn't somebody special?

He was another Marine and my dad overheard him talking about

Jesus, talking about the Bible. So Long story short, they

started doing Bible studies. My dad got the Holy Ghost while

he was on a basically a wasn't exactly an aircraft carrier, but

a liking to one. While on tour for the US

Marines, got baptized in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast

of Italy. That's cool.

He knew nothing about it, didn't know what the sign was for the

Holy Ghost. But when he, when he referenced

it, he said that he just felt like it was almost as if oil or,

or, or or some presence just flowed over him.

He's he didn't know. He started speaking in tongues,

didn't know what that was. It kind of probably freaked him

out a little bit. I can't remember.

For me, it felt like obviously everything just came up off of

me when it happened to me. Outside of just having that

weight lifted, did you feel any Like what was going through your

mind when you realized this is happening?

This is legit. Yeah, at first I didn't really

believe it. I mean, like you can't.

I wouldn't say you can definitely tell like you're kind

of just praying and it's like coming out and not what you

expect to what's coming out. I mean, God is taking over

control. So it's just, I wanted to say I

have a different experience from that.

I mean, I guess like my whole body was like shaking I guess a

little bit. Well, that's, that's awesome

that you. I didn't realize you were so

intertwined. With that, I was there.

Give me your perspective on He's at the altar.

Were you there too? I was.

OK, I'm going to get you too. Eric was there.

He did have a yeah. Yeah, give me your perspective,

Lexi, and then I'll get Eric to give me your perspective.

And just so I can see what everybody else is doing, because

I asked that a lot when it happened to me.

I asked Sister Penton, because Sister Penton was there for me

what happened? And she was, she was, she was

like, I'm be honest, she was like, we were all sobbing so

hard, just so proud of you being up there that none of us were

really like. It's hard to pay attention.

Paying attention, we just heard you speaking in tongues and just

knew but we were just we couldn't see.

So I'm curious what the experience for y'all was for

this. Well, my perspective going back

to the night before you got the Holy Ghost, you were sitting in

like a middle of row. No one was around you.

And I kind of felt impressed that you were wanting something

different. And you kind of been listening,

you know, to all the messages that had happened, but you

didn't understand and you didn't know, like when I got the Holy

Ghost, I knew what it was supposed to sound like.

I knew what I was supposed to do because I was around this my

whole life, but it never clicked.

Like, how do you do it? You know, like how do you speak

in a different language? You don't know that's

impossible, right? So anyway, I felt inclined to

come and talk to you And, and we kind of had a a moment that I

was just, I just asked you, you know, what do you know about the

do you know anything about the Holy Ghost?

Or is that kind of are you feeling, I feel like you're

wanting the Holy Ghost, but you don't know how to go about it, I

think is how I worded it. But anyway, we had that and that

conversation and then Fast forward to the next night and it

was a really powerful service. It was brother, thank you,

brother Nate White. And it was really powerful

service. And everybody's worshiping and,

and you were down in one of the aisles and all of the guys were

surrounding you and our our youth guys.

And then some of our girls were like on the outskirts.

And so I remember coming up and I think Sister Misty was there

too. Brother Jamari wasn't there, but

there was just a few different of our counselors that were with

you. And I remember coming up and I

was praying for you. And I remember like putting my

hand on your shoulder or your chest maybe.

I can't remember. And it was just like, I felt

like like electricity, like fell, you know, and that's what

I felt. And I, I never heard you speak

in tongues. I just, I felt that.

And I was like, I don't know if he got the Holy Ghost, but I

know something happened. And then, you know, service kind

of moved, our ultra call kind of moved on and we ended up

outside. And then that's when you came up

to me and you're like, I got it. I was like, what?

Like that was very excited. But that's my perspective.

Mine was so I was next to him and like the last two nights,

like he, he would be up, he would be at the altar and he'd

be like, dude, why is my hand shaking?

Why is my hand shaking? Because he'd be standing in

there and his hand just be shaking like out of control.

And but that happened. And then the third night when he

did receive it, I was right next to him and then his hand was

shaking right. And he had his eyes closed.

He used his praying. And then the weirdest thing

happened. We were outside.

He told us he's like, there's no room in here, go outside.

Yeah. So we were outside, and then he

came up and he was like, dude, I got the Holy Ghost.

Yeah. I was like, bro, that's crazy.

That's good. When I was running outside.

I could have ran around the whole building.

I was so excited that. Was crazy, but yeah, that was my

point of view of it. That's awesome.

All right, so we get the Holy Ghost at camp.

Now. It's like, it's like a whole new

world, as Aladdin says, we get back.

And how long was it between getting the Holy Ghost and you

deciding that you wanted to get baptized again?

What was that time difference there?

Does anybody remember? I'm thinking it was like a month

or so because the very beginning of June was camp and then the

middle of July was in AYC and it happened in between that.

Yeah, I think the only reason why I really waited was because

I wasn't sure. I don't, I wasn't sure about

getting rebaptized because I don't know my people's

perspective on that. I've heard people say so you can

get this baptized as many as you want.

I guess it's just like depends on how you think of it.

And I was like I don't know exactly because I was baptized

in a Baptist Church before and then I switched over to the

Pentecostal so I wasn't sure and plus I was young for the Baptist

Church but I just wanted to make sure and people were very open

on the idea of getting re baptized so I was.

Do you remember you came up, I don't know if it was the night

you got the Holy Ghost for the next night, but you said

something about brother Nate keeps saying and need to be

baptized in Jesus name. Just like kind of it wasn't a

message, but just in his message he mentioned it has to be in

Jesus name, which is what the Bible tells us.

And you're like, and I don't think when I got baptized it was

in Jesus name. So I feel like I need to get it

done. And so that's, I remember that

was like right after you got the Holy Ghost.

We were still at camp. Yeah, that definitely opened my

eyes. You know, because.

I mean, Baptist Church usually don't do it in Jesus name, so

yeah, I had to make sure. Well, it seems to me that when

all this went down for you, this is like all new stuff.

It seems to me like you had a little bit of a sense of, OK,

I'm invested now. Now I want to make sure that

I'm, I'm set. I want to make sure that I've

done everything that I need to do in order to be saved fully.

And it sounds like that's what kind of led you to be like, you

know, even if even if you're questioning in that, that's OK

because you want to be able to say, did I do this correctly?

Because if I didn't, I want to make sure I did it.

Correctly, you want to have that surety.

Right, Yeah, I I went through the same thing.

Wasn't over the name because I got baptized twice.

First time I got baptized I was 9 or 1099 I think.

My dad baptized me at the Huntsville church and he

baptized me in Jesus name. But as I said earlier, I had no

idea why really. I was told I had to do it.

And that's the only way you're going to get make make it to

heaven. As a kid, you got to got to be

baptized, but when nobody told me was you have to mean it when

you do it. You have to feel like it has to

be something special. So after I got the Holy Ghost

myself, it was actually the next time we went to Congress.

When I got convicted, it was almost like God told me.

So Hey, look, I know you already did it, but you didn't know what

you were doing. Now you know what you're doing,

and now you know why you need to do it, so you need to do it

again. And so I actually, that's when I

came home. When I told my dad, I was like,

I know you did it right, but I didn't do it right.

So I got baptized again. I was too embarrassed.

I'm gonna be honest. I was too embarrassed to like

mention it at all here at the church.

So I was like, Dad, grandma's got a pool in her backyard.

Take me to her house, baptized me in her pool.

I'm good. Between me and the Lord, we're

good. Was he open with the idea of

that? Say that one.

More time. Was he open with the idea of

being? Yeah, he.

Actually, he actually was like, he kind of got a little, got a

little defensive with me. He was like, I baptized, I said

it right, I did it right, I did it right.

I was like, Dad, you did it right.

You got to do it again. I didn't do it right.

My. Heart was not in it.

I wasn't repenting. I didn't know what I was doing.

So even though I've already been buried in that name, I want to

do it again. This time to know, hey, I've

done it right myself. So that was my reason for

getting baptized that second time.

And it did feel like it did feel like there was a difference that

second time that it happened. And I imagine you probably felt

the same thing. You get baptized for that first

time in the name and you're like, OK, now I feel it's weird.

It's like now I feel clean, now I feel like I'm a new person.

So since all that's gone down, that was last year.

No, this this year. Yeah, this.

Year that'll happen. This year, man, that's four

months ago. Good.

Gracious, I can't even remember last week.

So since that's happened, then what's your, what's your, what's

your like perspective of everything right now?

Are you, Is it, is it? Hey, I've got it now.

I'm invested in this church. I'm invested in this belief and

you want to learn more about it. Yeah, I think so.

And like, I think even though I just opened doors and so I think

I need to be more active in the church.

Yeah, I mean, I can always do more, but just opening doors and

so isn't it. Don't I want to learn the

guitar? But I haven't put much effort

into that yet. I haven't learned it either.

Yeah, I mean, that's awesome. I mean I.

Will say being active is definitely going to make a

difference. This is what I we were talking.

To the brides and he and brother Kevin mentioned it, but you

know, basically we're talking about just.

How to get the most out of it. And you know, what we likened it

to was I don't know if you've you're a finance guy at all or

what that pay attention to stock trading or anything like that.

But when I was at the when I was at the dealership, lost a lot of

money, but I learned a lot about it.

And the biggest thing? Was for the stocks that you

have. If you buy stocks, you invest in

those stocks, you're paying attention to those stocks and

you're, you're like, if they go down, you're not happy.

If it goes up, you're good. Like you're you're invested the

stocks you don't buy. So I don't.

Care what happens because I'm not invested in those stocks

it's. The same thing here at church,

the more you invest into it, the more you put into it, the more

you can get back out of it. And the good thing about this is

it's never going to go down. The stock is never going to go

down. It's always going to be making

its way up, so. That was a big thing for me.

Like I said, if it weren't for Seth and Colby and Cam and us

just, we all collectively decided we need to get more out

of this. I mean, it's you just.

You don't, you don't have that investment to kind of keep you

anchored and and you need to have that little bit of an

anchor to keep you keep you held down.

So. I agree.

There was a preacher who said one time that living hard for

Jesus is easy and living easy for Jesus is hard.

And kind of in that perspective, if you're going after everything

you're, you know, you're living the fullest that you can for

God. It makes your relationship with

God easy. But if you are just only serving

God on Sundays and Wednesdays and barely ever, you know,

reading your Bible outside, it makes life a lot harder.

It makes wanting to even come church hard.

And, and kind of in that perspective of ministry.

Like once I got involved in ministry, my whole perspective

shifted and I felt purpose or fulfilled in a different way.

And I think if I didn't have that, I, I don't know if I would

even be as close to God as I am, if that makes sense.

Not that you have to have ministry, but I mean, that's a

part of your relationship with God.

You know, we're one to be more like Jesus and he's served,

right? I mean, it's different capacity.

But so if we're, you know, if we get closer to God, I think it's

something that's going to organically happen that we're

going to want to get involved. So I guess one of the last few

things that I kind of want to as far as your testimony is I want

you to so for your opinion on this, let's let's pretend that

I'm someone who's never gone to church.

I don't know what the Holy Ghost is.

And I go, I go, Hadley, tell me about this.

Like, what's your advice to someone who's who was in the

shoes that you were in before everything happened to you?

What's what, what do you say to that person who's who's still

maybe in that I'm I don't know where, what what is this?

Yeah, I mean, first of all, tell them to try to come to church as

soon as possible. I mean, we do many, I mean we

bowl and stuff like that's to get people to come to church.

I think that could be a for like a a good.

Obviously mine was for a relationship, but I mean even

someone just trying to build friendships, people that need

friends, they can start coming to like we if they're invited,

they could come to like bowling and stuff.

Like if they're invited to small events and then they could go to

love the people at the church and then they go to the church

more and they find out what they really want in a church.

Yeah, absolutely. Eric, what's your opinion on

that? Yeah.

My opinion on that is just to like, I feel like as a visitor,

if you're visiting, I feel like it's more on the church to get

the visitor. Yeah, so, but in that case that

the church doesn't get the visitor, just don't close

yourself off. Like don't be like, Nah, I can't

go to that. And even though I do that

sometimes, but if you're new, you let don't try not to close

yourself off. Try to be open just like because

the people in the church will try their best not to hurt you.

And I feel like most times people do get hurt from the

church. It's just little things that it

almost seems like they want to get hurt about it.

But yeah, I think just don't close yourself off and that's

like the main thing, I think. Yeah, I agree.

It's definitely easy to have that like negative mindset about

attending things, especially if you've been hurt before by

anyone, not just somebody from church.

Awesome, So what do you feel like we could do?

And this will be for both you guys if you want to share the

mic. What do you feel like we as a

church could do to better reach people that are in your age

range who may be in the area that you guys are in?

I'm not saying that we're doing anything wrong when this

ultimately goes to pastor, but what I'm saying is you can

always do better for sure, obviously.

And we want to make sure that we can reach everybody that we can.

I mean, I, it's been, it's been 10 years since I was in your

spot and the things that affected me, it would have

helped me to get into church are probably a little different now

just in that, that 10 year gap. So between the two of you guys,

what, what do you feel like we could do better to better reach

those people? As you mentioned, it's on the

church to get the visitor. How can we do that better?

What are some ways that you think would be better

opportunities? There I would say I mean I'm not

sure what y'all's thoughts on this, but like maybe going like

missionary stuff like I know we have I think we have some people

doing that currently yeah but maybe even I mean people don't

like it. We're going door to door just

leaving cards everywhere. I mean, it is pretty expensive

buying cards, but I've seen many cards and Chick-fil-A and stuff

in the bathrooms and I've seen, I'm pretty sure I've seen a

couple people pick them up and be like interested in that.

Especially our Andreage. Everyone's on the social media.

So I'm I'm sure we have a big social media platform, but even

more trying to grow that more, we'll get more people involved I

guess and they'll be looking at it and be like, well, this seems

interesting. But I think definitely people

nowadays need to, they need, I don't know, short form content,

something to get them interested in it.

A. Hook.

A hook, yeah. Just to get them interested in

wanting to come in, yeah. Yeah, sounds like more exposure.

Yeah, I agree with Hadley on the door knocking thing because

that's that was like it's kind of old fashioned now.

Everyone's like no soliciting, get away from my door.

But yeah, I agree with that. But another thing is so like, I

feel like if you're talking about our age range, you're

trying to reach our age range. I feel like.

So if I were to go reach out to one of your friends that aren't

in church, it wouldn't work as well as if you went to reach?

Out to them. So it's I'm not trying to say

don't reach out to younger people, but I feel like it's

almost up to us too. Like our friends, like we reach

out to them and then y'all get to know them better.

So then y'all can like fellowship with them and stuff.

Are you going to say something? But yeah, not saying that or but

if you wanted to reach out to them, I'd say yeah.

Short form content. So anything social media,

because, I mean, our age is always on social media.

So yeah. Well, that's why I started this

just OK, how can I reach as many people as I can reach?

So So would you guys say then that for as far as people your

age, a lot more of the the a bigger difference could be made

if if the other people that are in your age range hyphen slash

youth made more of an effort to reach out to the other people,

there could be more of a change. How, how could a, let's say, I'd

say hyphen slash youth because you guys are right on that edge.

How can a group like that, What would you say to your fellow

hyphen people and fellow youth people to to to maybe start

something to try to reach more people outside of knocking on

doors? Yeah, definitely.

We're all in different circumstances.

Everyone has a different job, different things that they do.

They have many different connections.

We're not all in one place huddled up together.

We have many connections that we can make with our age group and

be like, hey, are you interested in coming to something?

Which obviously I haven't done a good job at that because I'm not

very outgoing person. I can't really go.

I need to be more outgoing and go up to more people and be

like, hey, are you interested in going to something?

Obviously not a stranger, but even someone that I'm decently

close with, I should be able to tell them something and be like,

hey, do you want to come to this bowling thing and hang out with

our church or whatever and see how you like it.

And even if you get a rejection, you get to learn to be strong

enough to take it and just be like, well, even though this

person maybe doesn't want to come, but there's other people

that want to come or they need to come and they just don't have

the ability or the time, I guess, to come but.

When I was in car sales, there were two sayings that we got a

lot as salespeople. It was, it takes three Nos to

get a yes. So out of every four people you

talk to that you ask are you can, you know, whatever reason

could it be 3 people are going to tell you no one person's

going to tell you yes. And the reason why they told us

that was because at the end of the day, the whole mindset was

that means if you talk to 30, say you talk to 40 people, you

get 30 Nos, but you got 10 yeses and those 10 yeses can go a very

long way. So I guess it it, it sounds like

it just say it face the rejection as you would as if you

were a door to door salesperson, but have that.

Positivity of but if I get a yes.

Then that one makes all the difference in the world.

Right, you could also apply that to one person.

So like I have friends that I've invited to things and they say

no but maybe the 4th time will be a yes for the same person.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense there.

Can you repeat the question? Again, I didn't forget say to

other hyphen or young people or youth to kind of get them.

Like what do you think helps get other people, their friends

involved? Like what would you say to

encourage them? Or would I say I would try to

like obviously, like I'm not saying that the church isn't

fun, but make church sound fun, You know what I mean?

Like don't like be like, hey, do you want to come to church with

me on Sunday? Because then it just sounds like

you're just going to a funeral almost.

You got to make it sound fun. You get like, the music is

awesome. The preaching is great.

Like you got to make it. You got to make it sound like

you like, not saying you don't like it.

You got to make it sound like you like you know what I mean?

Just lie to him. If you don't like it, just tell.

Him, but that's probably what I'd say is just to amp it up a

bit than it already is. Yeah.

All right, so we got a lot from Hadley's, and now let's get some

more from you. You, you went to a couple

churches before you came here, but they weren't like other

religions, as far as I know. You've you've been in Pentecost

for a little bit. Give me a give me a little back

story on you. And then lead it into how you

got the Holy Ghost and how you decided that you were going to,

you know, make this thing your thing.

So I always grew up a good boy. I was a good boy.

I was going to church every day with my family, you know, ever

since I was young, I remember going to church.

I would sing in church when I was little.

I would always, when we had communion, I'd be like, like,

let me drink some. Let me drink some of the like,

quote UN quote wine, yeah, juice, and then eat some of the

bread. And he's like, no, you can't,

you can't take it. The Legos.

I was like, OK, do you understand?

Yeah. But yeah, I always grew up in

church. We moved around because of my

mom's job. So probably I was at my first

church from when I was born to seven years old.

And then I moved to my second church, which was in Cookeville,

TN. And I was, it was from 8:00 to

when I was around 13 years old. And that church was where I got

the Holy Ghost and where I was baptized.

So it was in, I was around 11:00.

So I was, I was a little older than you were when you got

baptized and all that. But I was 11 and I remember I

got baptized before I got the Holy Ghost.

So I got baptized and then it was almost like like it was, it

was weird because I've never really like felt anything like

that before. Because I remember coming up to

my parents, I was like, I mean, I was young.

So I was like, hey, I really think I should get baptized.

I feel like I'm ready for it. And so I got baptized.

And when I went under, it was almost like everything stopped

for a second. And then when I came back up,

everything, like everything was still stopped.

Everything was like slow motion. Yeah, it was quiet.

It was all quiet. And I just started lifting my

hands. But I didn't receive the Holy

Ghost then. But I felt it like I was.

I started crying. I got out of the water, and then

I went to go with my parents. And then after that, probably a

year later, is when I received the Holy Ghost when I was just

12, turning 13, about to turn 13.

So yeah. Walk me through the process of

getting the Holy Ghost. Was it at like a regular Sunday

service? Was it at camp?

Was it intentional that you go up to the altar like they were

you drawn up there? What?

What happened? So it was like a revival service

and it wasn't necessarily like a camp or anything, but it was

like just one of those like weekend services.

Like it's one of the services you go Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

you know what I mean? Yeah.

And it was on the, it was the Friday, I believe.

And all my, all my like, youth group was up there with me and I

was praying and like, I'm like, I'm a very emotional person.

Like I'm sensitive, but I don't like to show it sometimes.

But I was up there and I just started crying like real bad.

And I was like, Lord, I need, I like, I need the Holy Ghost.

Like if I don't get the Holy Ghost, I can't make it to

heaven. You know what I mean?

So you almost. Had like a little bit of a

desperation. Yeah, it was almost like I was,

I was emotional about it, you know what I mean?

Like I was like, I can't, like live without.

I can't live without it well. Yeah.

I mean, that could weigh on you a lot that like I said, for for

a lot of us when we went through it, it was eternity is on the

line from a certain perspective and that's what it was on me is

eternity is on the line. If I don't get this, if I can't

figure this out, then. Literally the rest.

Of time is is not going to be good and it's not even like I

want to avoid the negative of it.

It's I want to be in the positive of eternity.

It's like that's what it was for me.

I got to get this because I got to be in the throne room when

all that's when all of the church gets raptured.

Like I want to be a part of that.

I want to see all that stuff go down so I can, I can definitely

understand the desperation to, to get there.

And I think, I think sometimes it, it's crazy how some people

get the Holy Ghost in different ways.

That's why I like to ask people about it because there are some

people where they don't get it until they get desperate.

It's not that they don't want it, it's that they get to a

point where it's like, if I this is all that matters, if I don't

get this, I'm not going to get it.

And you desire it that badly. Sometimes that's what it takes

for some people to get there. And then you have other people

who don't know anything about it, but you just just, it

clicks, you know what I mean? And you and you get it.

And then you're just so thankful that you didn't have to get to

that point to where you were desperate about it.

So from that, what would you say to somebody who let's say that

you have somebody here who doesn't have the Holy Ghost, but

they want it, but they can't figure out why they're not

getting it? Did you when you got to that

point, was there something that clicked in your brain, in your

mind when you're praying that that just you had made for some

people, it was I, they realized that they had to just they

couldn't, they had to accept the fact that they were not in

control. They had to relinquish that

control over their life, over their decisions.

They had to realize that everything they wanted, they had

to let go and and so forth and so forth.

Is there something that clicked in your mind when that happened,

that when you got to that point that was like, hey, you, It

just, it worked? So for me, it was being afraid

of what other people would think, seeing me crying and like

it was, it was like a pride thing because I don't want to

look like a wimp. Just like Ryan has not run out

my nose and I'm just like huffing and puffing and my hands

are up. And when you, when your eyes are

closed, you think everyone's looking at you.

For me at least. And I didn't, I didn't want to

go through that. It's very vulnerable.

Yeah, it is. Well, I mean, what is it?

There's a lot of people who are scared about that, even adults.

Even adults. Even people who already have the

Holy Ghost. They're scared to go to the

front and pray because they're scared of what other people will

think. And what's crazy about that is 9

times out of 10, I won't say 10 times out of 10, but nine times

out of 10, we make that up in our mind.

And those people that we're scared of will judge us, are

actually hoping and praying for you to do that because they want

to see you be better. They want to.

See that breakthrough? Or have that breakthrough.

So there. It's the opposite.

It's crazy how that happens. It's like you're, you're we can

say it's the enemy. We can say it's the flesh, we

can say it's ourself, whatever we want to say.

But but one thing is telling us is literally the complete

opposite of what God is trying to tell us.

So it's you're not alone when you when you think about that.

Yeah, so that's what I'd, I'd tell someone, just not to be

afraid of what other people think, because that was a big

thing for me. Just that pride factor there.

Yeah. Yeah, but that's huge.

Tell me. OK.

Well, we've kind of already talked about it, but why do you

think especially people your age find it hard to believe in God?

You know, we, we've talked about like how we want people to get

involved and like how we want to try to, you know, encourage

people, especially our friends to come to church and try to get

connected. But just in the belief in God

and in and why church matters. Why do you think it's harder for

for people your age to kind of believe?

Some people don't want to believe, they want to do

whatever they want and they want to follow the world.

And you'll tell them people think along the lines of

someone, they don't want someone controlling them, quote UN

quote. So they want to do whatever they

want. But once you get out of that

belief and you realize that God is the one that created you and

that he doesn't have just control over you, but he's he's

there to help you. And I think people nowadays,

like our age, they don't want to.

They want to be free. They just want to do whatever.

And even if it's bad or hurts them, they're like I'm just

going to do it anyways. So it's not really a struggle to

believe, but like, they don't want to for it to be real.

Because if it's real, then they're gonna have to change.

Yeah, that's what yeah, I think that's how I think.

I also think that some people who do want to believe it is

just a struggle because the world has a strong pool right

now. I think.

I think it's getting worse. People are just getting worse.

And like trying to tempt people into doing bad things and people

are age, I wouldn't say they're weak, but they just want to do

whatever, like I said. So they're I.

Do believe there's a stronger pull for your age group, though,

than there is for, you know, adults.

Yeah, I just think people, especially when you're young,

like your hormones are going wack and stuff and you're just

like, well, maybe the adults are telling me something, but I

don't want to listen to them. So after you graduate high

school, you're like, I'm my own person, I can do what I want

kind of thing. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. So I think even if you do

believe there's strong pools and you just got to get to that

mindset of I know something is going to be tempting me, but you

just got to get overcome and just keep going to church, read

your Bible and. What's more important?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

What about you, Eric? What do you think?

I think it's just, it doesn't like, it's like almost like

storybook ish. Yeah, like all the miracles.

It's crazy how everything happened.

It does almost doesn't seem real.

Yeah, but it is 'cause if you think about it, the whole New

Testament, even the Old Testament, but the New Testament

is all about people that's seen or the people talking about what

they seen Jesus do, right? Like all the miracles that he's

done and just everything that he did, it's almost you, you have

to, you almost have to believe it because it's people's like

they, I, they weren't there witnesses, right?

What happened? So I think the hardest thing

about people our age believe in it is like just the fact that it

was real, like what Jesus did and what he did in the Old

Testament, like was just that's, but it was real, yeah.

Yeah, it's hard to wrap your mind around, especially when

there's things in the Bible and things about God that we don't

have the capacity to even understand.

Like our brains are not that big, right?

He's how can we understand a God that's all knowing, all

powerful, everywhere at all at once, right.

But I do find that, yeah, I think it's the experience that

you're kind of referring to that like, once you experience it,

then it all kind of clicks because if you don't have that

experience with God, then it's just words in a book.

And that was, you know, passed down.

I want to ask you a question. So you, you grew up in church,

your parents were in church. This is this is a topic that

some of us wrestle a lot of people with about.

But there's this, there's this idea that's being pushed on

younger people, as you hinted to, that even if your parents

are in a certain religion, you don't have to do it.

And if you do, they almost try to convince you that you were

coerced into it or you're forced into it or whatever the case may

be, which is not true. So can you just kind of shed a

little bit of light on that for me, for your, from your

perspective? And that even though you grew up

in this, you, you made this yours.

You didn't just do it because your parents did it.

You made it yours. And you, you, you accepted it,

so to speak. So I was in Cookeville, the

church that I received the Holy Ghost and I was baptized in

from, as I said, 8 to around 13 or 14.

So that was right out of 8th grade.

So going into high school, just like you, I moved from there to

Hernando, Ms. and I started going to a new school in high

school. So I made a couple friends.

I made, I made two friends that really impacted my life from 9th

grade to 12th grade, not necessarily in a good way, but

it wasn't horrible. But I mean, yeah, it was

horrible. So ninth period year I got

there. I mean, they were nice.

They were friends, you know, trying to get you in the friend

grew, you know, I was a new kid. So yeah.

And then 10th grade goes by, we get closer, start hanging out,

going to sleepovers. 11th grade, they start getting into trouble.

Like, as in indulging in different stuff.

I wasn't there for that, but I was their friend.

You know what I mean? Yeah.

So 12th grade hit. And that year was like, I

didn't, I still didn't do anything, but I was with them

while they were doing this. So I almost felt like, why would

I, why am I here right now? Like, so after school we would,

we would get out early because we were seniors, right?

And we would get out of school around 12 O clock, go to our

cars and then go to Chick-fil-A and we would eat Chick-fil-A,

just have lunch. And then we would leave

Chick-fil-A and I'll hop in my friend's car.

All of us did. It was like 5 of us.

And they would be in the car playing music, blasting music.

It was like, oh, you hear that? They just blasting music and

then these guys start pulling out vapes and they started

vaping. And then they're like, like the

car was smoky. I was so scared.

I was so scared someone was going to see me but I wasn't

doing anything but just them seeing me in that car with them.

Associated. Yeah, just like guilty by

association, right? Like that's a real thing.

And I just felt guilty just by being there.

And it was, it was really bad, like, and it's hard to get away

from that because you're scared that you're like, hey, guys, I

can't hang out today. Or like, I don't want to hang

out today. And then you'll be like, oh, I

don't want you to hang out. And then you're like, oh, I got

to make something up. Yeah, I feel that.

Pressure. I mean, I have nothing going on.

I'm young. I want to, but I know I can't or

I know I shouldn't. So it's like, never mind, I can

go. So I go and same thing.

Probably the whole senior year until I moved here, which was

just like to get away from that. That was just amazing moving

here. So that that was probably like

the like the hard part of my life for for now.

So you're here now, you seem to have sold out to this it, it

sounds like the whole time that you were with this, this other

group, you were with them because that's what you were

used to doing. That's what you were comfortable

with. But you didn't, you didn't think

that was the right thing. You knew what you knew what was

going on was not good and was not a good crowd to be in.

So it sounds like you're just looking for any, any reason or

excuse to get away from that to get to while that's going on.

Are you thinking back to when you were in church and you were

getting the Holy Ghost and you're living for God and almost

kind of like you, you, you realize that's where I, I need

to be. That's what that's what I need

to be doing, not what is going on right now.

Yeah, most definitely. Because like when they would

invite me to sleep overs, I would ask my parents and they'd

say no. You're like, if any, if

anything, they can come to our house.

And then I'll be like, no, but I want to go to their house just

because just because of the fact, the simple fact that if I

didn't go the next day, they'll be like, yo, dude, you should

have came. Like we had so much fun.

And that really almost like it almost hurt me because I knew

him from 9th grade to my senior year.

So I was like, I didn't want to miss out on anything.

Yeah. That was, yeah.

So you have other people who are going through that too.

They're in the wrong crowd. They know they're in the wrong

crowd. They know there's something

better for them. They know that some people may

not know that it's God, but they know there's something better

out there. A lot of people get stuck in it

and they don't want to leave, like you said, because that's

what you're comfortable with. That's what you're used to.

It's almost a nerve wracking thing to walk away from it.

You feel like you're forced to stay because that's what you're,

that's what you've always known. But obviously that's not the

case. You can walk away from it.

You can get out of it. So what would you say to

somebody who was that age who's in that cycle to be like a word

of encouragement to them to, to say, hey, you, you can leave

this. How, how would you talk to

someone like that Who, who comes to you and says, Hey, I'm in the

same boat that you were in. What do I do?

First thing I'd say is don't ever think.

Like don't ever think because I thought this a lie, I was like,

I'm going to get right with God as soon as I get out of high

school. That was the biggest thing for

like for me. Like that was probably the worst

that I've ever had because you never want to wait, like to

pursue God. But it was just a big thing for

me. And I would tell them not to

think that at all. Because if you get into it now

and you're still in school, whether it be college, because

college, you can experience the same things.

But if you're in school now, like and you change, other

people will see that changing you.

And they might mock you like they might judge you for leaving

the friend group. But you just got to try your

hardest to reach out to them and be like, this is the right way.

Like this is the right things to do and the right I'm the right

person to be around. Yeah, yeah, I'm the good

influence. Yeah, I mean, I can understand

that. Like I said, when I was before I

got saved, I was in the same boat.

I'm with people that I know I shouldn't be around, but that's

just that was my comfortable space.

And you know, they're doing the wrong things.

And even though some for me sometimes, even though I thought

in my head I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do that,

before long I'm doing this and I'm doing that.

I won't think that and I won't do it.

They're taking it a little bit far here.

I will do that. And then for you know what,

you're, you're in that same boat.

It's like they keep raising the bar and you just slowly keep

edging up to it. Slow fade.

Yeah, that's how it was for me. Like I said.

Then it got to a point to where it was like, oh, I'm all right.

I went from being 50 yards away from the edge of the Cliff to

inadvertently walking all the way up and now my toes are

hanging off to where it's like if I take another step.

You better fall off. That's it.

So that I, I, that's where I said for me, it hit that.

It hit that towards like I got to make something's got to

change, but I didn't know. I should have known, but I

didn't know that this was that change that I needed.

So for that, I guess I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll get Hadley's opinion.

How about let's say I'm a youth and I'm going through high

school and I'm in those groups or I'm, I'm living life a

certain way, but I don't know anything about church.

I don't know what this is. And let's just say that that

person's listening to you right now.

What do you say to that person who doesn't know what church is,

but they know they're in a bad spot and they're just thinking,

what do I do? How do what what what's?

What's the best advice that you can give to someone like that?

If they're open to it, I would say like the nearest church, I

guess. Obviously we're Pentecostal, but

I mean, if that's not available, maybe even YouTube or something

online and just getting to know people that are Pentecostal or

people at your church that can teach you about something like

that. Because they're like my school

did have, they did have like a group that was for church.

It was, it was like church. They did like Bible verses and

stuff. And I would just say to be more

knowledgeable and like if they do want to go, then make that

commitment and don't be scared and don't be afraid what other

people think. Like making better connections

with other people. Yeah, I think that's a big part

of it. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. OK.

All right. Yeah.

I mean, I feel like if you are connected to the wrong people, I

mean, they're your friends, right?

You care about them. And so it can be hard, but I

mean, even I'm friends with people that don't believe this,

right? I mean, at work or people who

have backslide and, but they can't be my, my inner circle, my

core people, because then that's where the influence starts.

So I think you're spot on. Like as long as you have those

people that kind of hold you accountable and encourage you

when you feel like you're going to fall, it's it's definitely

about making the right connections.

Yeah, like I said, for me, I knew instantly when my group

went from the group that I had at school to the group that I

had here, everything changed. And it's it's it's sad that

human beings are this way. But The thing is, is you are who

you are around, right? Yeah.

And when you when you surround yourself with people who are a

certain way, you'll end up being like them whether you want to or

not. And that is another reason why I

think we all will tell everybody, hey, get involved as

much as you can, because then you're forcing yourself to be

surrounded by people who are also involved, you know?

There's there's several scriptures for stuff like that

but. Like the most one that comes to

my head is when he talks about being unequally yoked.

Most people link like in that marriage, but that's not the

case all the time. You don't want to be pushing the

plow with somebody who's not caring to push the plow in the

same direction that you're pushing it.

If your goal is to go north, because this is the direction

you want to go. And the person who's supposed to

be helping you push is actually trying to pull you down South

the opposite direction. You're not going to make it very

far. So what you need to do is find

someone who's going to step beside you and say, I'm, we're

both going to be pushing in a certain way.

So to close out my story, because right now it sounds like

I've just been in trouble ever since where I used to live at.

But coming here, I feel like a big part of my story was Sister

Pen really, because she was my teacher.

Yeah, so. And she's just, I, I felt loved

by Sister Pen when she's my teacher and even now, even

though she's not my sister. Teacher.

Music director now, Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And that's a big part too, because she's like, Eric can

play drums. Yeah, I'd love to hear you play.

And then not even like 3 months of you being here.

I was already playing drums here and it was just like, that was

the first person probably make me feel like.

Like connected and welcome, yeah.

And just being at the school with the friends that I had

there, it wasn't like nothing. There was no bad to go to, you

know what I mean? Yeah.

So yeah, that's that was the finishing.

Part of my story. That's awesome.