Austin Ave Unplugged #027 Missions: Building Relationships, Making Disciples

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Unplugged.

Um, I'm gonna do the intro, I guess, since this was uh my idea.

I thought we could talk for a minute kind of behind the scenes missions, um, mission trips.

We have an opportunity to tell um Doug about our Salt River Church of Christ trip over in Mesa and um talk about our upcoming spring break trip that we're just now kind of working the logistics and yeah, it's a lot to talk about there.

There is a lot to thought it might be fun, a lot to plan.

Yeah, we can reminisce about uh Mesa, and that's always fun.

Yes, that's always fun, yes.

That was a great trip.

I think we grew a lot during that trip together, together.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, that was amazing.

Um, we we were also there the same week as um spring training, so there were a bunch of baseball fans sharing the hotel with us.

Yes, so we forgot about that at breakfast, and they would be in their, you know, whatever team they were supporting.

They're always like, Oh, are y'all here for spring training?

We're like, no, we're here for a mission trip.

We're here for Jesus.

Oh yes.

Okay, we're on God's team, yes.

Yes.

We're cheering on something that will have a trophy that will last forever.

Yeah.

And your team will probably lose.

Our world series isn't here on Earth.

Yes, it's a not World Series, it's the heavy world series, and they were wearing a Chicago Cubs uniform, so yeah, World Series isn't here on Earth either.

Oh, are you Cubs fans?

Yeah, they got their one.

Only took what 106 years or something.

It was long um, it was before I was born.

Oh, it's a long drought.

So okay, so we're gonna be talking about mission trips and salt river.

Um what are y'all's thoughts?

Uh I mean, I I guess you've already kind of hinted, what are your thoughts on um uh short-term mission trips?

Mine has certainly changed.

Um we we, when I was in the youth group and first year of college, we did a few.

Um, we went to Monterey School of Preaching, which um historically uh the church has gone there quite a bit.

We support uh preaching school down there.

So the youth has been down there many times.

This was my first time to go.

There was a lot of painting.

Uh there was some socialization, and then um for the college trip that we went to, we went to uh Cuenca, Ecuador, and I didn't realize until now why we went there.

I had no recollection of who we went to visit.

I remember that we made um water filters, uh concrete um filters, and it was a lot of work.

There was again some socialization, um, but I've also aged since then, and that has made a tremendous difference.

Um I think I think if you're gonna do it do mission trips young, document it.

Because if you're like me and you have no memory, and you're you know, I guess like us, we talk about that quite a bit.

A happy life is a is a forgetful life.

Um but I would like I remember pictures and that's like that's what I remember about it are the pictures.

There's very few solid memories of interacting with people or or doing the work.

There's just a few things.

So I wish I would have taken more more notes, like journaled more, or and read about it more and talked about it more, kind of like we do now, is like we'll sit and we'll tell stories of when we were there and who we talked to and and all that kind of stuff.

I think it can be very good.

And I think it can go wrong.

Yeah, for sure.

Um I've been doing a lot of just research and seeing how other people are doing uh short-term mission trips, which really I don't know, that seems to be um it's shifting away from that uh from a short-term mission trip to um prepping and getting relationally involved in where we're going.

Um, you know, like Salt River, if we're planning on, we've got several different uh congregations just in that Arizona, New Mexico, you know, the Northeast, Arizona, Northwest, New Mexico, um, that we're gonna try to see, you know, what needs they have.

Um, and the the most important thing I think about that is getting a relationship with these people instead of um showing up, doing some work, seeing them for a week, and then see you in two years.

Um and I I'm so glad that we're prepping this early out so we can start that process.

We can um call them, we can send them um, you know, just encouragement messages that they can share with each other when they meet up, um, or we can start letter writing um in uh to them from our members, not just the guy that calls all the time, like from everybody.

And I think really that's how we're gonna be impactful with our um mission trip is it being an all-year thing instead of just that one spring break every other year.

Yeah.

So and yeah, that's what um that's what our missionary in Salt River talked about.

We we discussed it, we discussed it a lot about his needs, uh what he would like to see uh relationally with the church.

Is like if you're gonna be with us, be with us.

Um we we want you to be with us, and that is our desire.

And and we had a really interesting time because we didn't really know what we were going into, headed into for that week.

Um so that was really interesting, you know.

Giles had his uh stuff for the the big kids for that week, and then we had the stuff for I had some of the things for kidsmen if we had any of the littles, and they have they have quite a few littles, and it was really cool to to go in and and um help them set up uh a children's area for them um so that they could have a place for kids to go.

Um who in it used to be the training room where families should be sitting together with them, teaching them how to sit in the seat, but it had just become this place where some of the older brothers and sisters would go and then you'd see kids like jump from one chair to the other.

Yeah, it it became an indoor indoor um jungle, you know, jungle jungle gem, um um wrestling pit, you know, that kind of and so um just how to make it more um purpose-minded.

And um, it was really cool that I got to to talk to them about what we do here and kind of impart some some things that we've learned as well along the way.

And so that was really cool.

Yeah, but the week it was that's all we were doing was loving on the members there.

They would come in, we would do Bible studies with whoever showed up, um, talking about.

Tons of food and coffee.

Oh, it's a tons of food.

They first Sunday was a potluck.

Yes, and like they they potluck very well.

They they fed us so much.

So much.

Um and uh it was just it was a beautiful thing to see.

We got to take a tour of the the res and got to go to the roundhouse, which I'd I'd I've been to the res before, but I'd never been to the roundhouse, and um it was really neat to see and to talk to people there.

And yeah, it was yeah.

The roundhouse is like a community center for everybody wondering what the record is.

Yes, on the reservation.

It's like a food court.

Yeah, the food court they have playground there for the kids.

They've got all kinds of stuff.

There's a park and basketball goals nearby and lots of activities.

So it was great.

And our our goal, and mind you, I was I'm very shy and timid.

Um, but our goal uh when we went there was to visit with anybody that we could just sit with, like ask them questions, talk about their lives.

Um one of the y'all were involved in kids men quite a bit up there, but the adults got to do a um healthy relational class that Lance led.

So each night um there was gosh, what it was like a two-hour s was about a two-hour hour session.

I threw my back out and missed some.

But um we got to talk about healthy relationships, biblical relationships, whether it's in your marriage or or within the body or within your family.

Um and I remember the one of the last evenings we were supposed to break off into partners, and Josh had kind of divvied out those partners like beforehand, so he was like, Will you go with so-and-so?

And you go with this couple, and y'all go with this, and I was like, I'm so nervous, I'm so nervous, and I wish I could remember her name.

I wish I could remember her name, but I got to visit with a lady who was mid-50s.

We had the best conversation.

I didn't there there was nothing in it that was uncomfortable.

It was like visiting with a a a friend from ages ago, and then we were just catching up.

It was so great.

I wish I could remember her name.

But anyway, got to hear her um story.

She was she was Catholic, she grew up Catholic, she converted to to Christianity, she realized the truth, and and to hear that was remarkable.

It was so great.

It really changed it changed me.

That conversation changed me.

It was fantastic.

Yeah, and we got to do Ladies' Day too.

That was I was out that day.

That was a really great day too.

I'm glad it sounded like it was great.

We had so much fun.

Uh brunch and I didn't do ladies' day, yeah.

The the men the men did a hike.

Um but we we had brunch, we had great conversations, and um I I loved that, you know, talking about having a purpose there and building those relationships.

That was one of the things that I know Lance did a lot of back and forth talking with Josh about what their congregation actually needed.

And and that was the thing that they needed was what does a healthy relationship look like?

What does a healthy marriage look like?

And um that's some place that they're really struggling because of you know their backstory and everything.

So absolutely, yeah.

So I've heard a lot of personal stories about this that specific trip, and I think we've all been on mission trips that we love.

I've I've I personally love mission trips, but on paper, they're a really they're not a very uh efficient model at all.

No, they're very you know, I mean we're we're talking strange on paper.

I mean, because you you think about the the amount of dollars that are spent, you know, renting vans and gassing up vans and driving.

Uh and I I I mean I don't have any statistical data, but I I can imagine that there have been multiple times that there has been a church from one city that could have driven across country uh in somewhere around the same time from where the city that they ended up, you know, a youth group or a church drove from from where they were and ended up in in that same place.

And so we're we're talking about why aren't we doing that?

Um uh it it's a strain uh on on groups.

I I had an opportunity to visit with a missionary, a good friend of mine, Whalen, heard me share this, but um, he was a missionary over in Scotland.

Uh, and he said, you know, when when people wanted to come to do mission work, he said, it was um it was amazing the amount of work that was required.

Yes.

And and he's like, we're you know, we're we're just trying to keep our head above water as it is.

And then they say, hey, we want to come do a mission trip.

He says, what that means is means is I have to come up with busy work for, you know, 40 people.

Uh he says, and those are people that I would love to sit down and just kind of live life with and refresh and have these conversations, but instead, uh, you know, jokingly, you know, we're we're painting, you know, the orphanage for the 14th time uh in the last six years.

And so um how do we justify that?

And and why are we willing to drive all the way across, well not across the country, but I mean northwest New Mexico, uh New Mexico's not small.

So how do we justify that?

There's a lot to that.

Um some of the things that I um again, a bunch of research.

So I'm trying to basically change the way I'm looking at this and make it um more uh relational again.

Um the justification um to go there and just say we're gonna do a bunch of work, right?

That's not really what that's about.

If we can do some things while we're there, great, we'll do that.

The purpose that we should be thinking is as we're going there, we're gonna strengthen our relationship with these people, and we're going to help them become disciple makers, um, just as we are trying to be disciple makers.

And honestly, that right there um is worth all of the money.

Um and luckily here with our members, we have a great um church for missions that that has heart for missions that wants to support those things.

We really do.

And they're generous and they give and they give and they give and they give.

And um that right there, you know, I just think all the times, you know, that we've talked about giving and um the amount of times that people give and they give till it hurts.

And I'm like, that's you know, that's that's the purpose.

None of this stuff is ours.

All of this stuff is we're we're just controlling it, right?

God gave us this stuff to manage, and once we think of that that way, it's easy.

It's easy to give all of these things, and I don't know.

I'm I'm trying to to grow and just change my whole perspective on that and think of things that way.

I guess that's part of getting old.

Yeah.

I th I I've been looking at some some pictures uh recently.

Like again, I couldn't remember why we went to Ecuador, and lo and behold, I come across the mission trip that we young college kids took to Ecuador.

And I didn't remember that Mike and Betty Stegmuler went with us.

I didn't remember that um oh I lost their names, hold on.

Gill, that the Gills um went with us.

I wish I would have been more present.

And I that's what I want to change now, is that um I finally I finally was able to remember who our missionaries were over there.

Um I d we don't support them now, it appears, which is could be really a great thing.

Like they were fruitful and and they could sustain the church with by themselves.

It seems like that's the case following them on Facebook now.

I don't know just talk to them on Facebook, but um I just I want I want to do better and I want to be like the members around here because you'll see them in other pictures on other mission trips.

They they did want that relationship and I I love that.

I'm so thankful that this church really has built some personal relationships and we really care about some of these missionaries and and um and the people in the congregations.

It's really neat to see those old pictures of Roland with with everybody going to Santiago or um just all over.

It's really neat.

It's really neat.

So I look forward to kind of building some better relationships with our um with our res churches.

Um that's gonna be that's gonna be neat.

Yeah.

For me, uh what I've I've realized is I and I am I'm such a short-term missions guy, I love it.

I've I've gotten to go uh a couple times overseas.

I've been to Mexico at least a dozen times.

Uh, and then as a youth minister, every year we were going somewhere and uh yeah, you could sit sit there and say, you know what, if if you counted up every dollar you spent going all these different places, you could have spent it in your own neighborhood, you could have done different things with it.

That's true.

But but there have been some benefits from that, and I've seen lives that that have been changed.

Um, just for me personally, getting to experience a different culture, um, provided a uh it is eye-opening in a lot of ways and very humbling.

Yes.

Um because we I I ended up in going to some places that that they did not that I mean I I I remember going into one house, uh they did have electricity, and that came in the form of a light bulb that was in one room uh of of their very, very small house that had beds on the floor, and and there was you know probably a dozen people who lived there.

Yeah.

Several generations of family, and they were incredibly generous and grateful.

They were they were grateful for what they had, they were proud of what they had.

Um, and they were willing to open up their very meager pantry and spend hours cooking, you know, just to bless us.

And so some of those things really have affected me.

Uh a trip to Seattle years ago, back when I was in college, and I can remember going to a um, it was like a a shelter for teenagers.

Uh um Seattle has a high population due to the the climate and some other issues.

And but but to me, it this is I was so naive.

I just thought kids who ended up in in shelters where, you know, they didn't like mom and dad, and you know, I I don't want to have to do homework and I don't like, you know, it's things like this.

And you go and you talk to these kids and listen to a uh the story of a a young woman who I mean she was probably 13, 14 years old and was living on the streets and um she left home because of just the severe amount of abuse that that she had to deal with.

She had to save her life.

Yeah, and it's just like that softens your heart.

Uh and so uh and through those uh I had some really amazing relationships, both with the people that we went to see and the people that we rode in vans with.

And so um I I love that.

I'm excited about spring break coming up and where we might end up, if that's gonna be Arizona or New Mexico.

It's um both.

Or both, or all of it.

It could be all of it.

Yeah, we could be going all different places.

We split we split last time too.

We had such a big group, so we we were at Cayenne and at uh Salt River, and it was great on both sides.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm really looking forward to it as well.

Yeah, I just love those relationships and just I I mean, there's there's a bond that's built when you're sitting in a car or you're you know, uh painting a house, or you know, you're in that awkward time where they're divvying out who's gonna go with who, and and both of you are sitting beside each other like, oh, we are so incredibly nervous.

I was I literally just wanted to to grab onto Aaron's arm and just follow where he was gonna go.

But that didn't happen, and it blessed me tremendously.

Yeah.

And I hope it blessed her.

We we had a fantastic, fantastic conversation.

Yeah.

Um and that's not to say those conversations can't happen with our neighbors around here, but but a lot of times making that trip is a catalyst and and hopefully is something that gets people going to say, hey, you know what, I can do this here.

I don't have to get in a church bus and drive.

Yeah, you know, across the border to Well it gives you confidence.

Sure.

Um forces you to get out of your comfort zone, and that's the biggest thing.

We we're creatures of comfort.

Absolutely.

So yeah.

I would love to see something like like a short term mission trip happen in our church.

We We really do have a great opportunity with our food pantry.

Um to get a group together, show up on Thursdays, maybe offer maybe publicize that we're offering a a Bible study or we're starting practicing the way with them something.

Just prayer.

Prayer with them that day, invite them back to to something.

I think we really do have that opportunity.

And it it just has to get planned.

It has to get started.

And um maybe maybe maybe we could do it.

Maybe we could light that fire uh in the in a planning committee.

I don't have a secret agenda that's going on.

Um I really, I really do think that we could build a short-term mission trip right here.

Yeah.

Right in our backyard, literally.

Yeah.

So anything else about Salt Lake, Salt River, Salt, Salt.

There's something.

There's some kind of season, there's some kind of body of water.

There's no way almost two years ago, I guess.

It was two years ago.

It'll be two years, yeah.

Uh and and that was also a spring break trip.

Yes.

Okay.

We had most of the office staff go, uh several um adult members, several kick uh youth group kids.

Um my son was uh nine at the time, so he was he the youngest?

He was the youngest that went.

Okay, he was the youngest there.

But yeah, Charles went some youth group kids, yeah, some adults.

We had um no, I was just thinking that Rex and Sherry they drove separately because they had family members in the area that they went to go visit after or before they met up with us.

And like we we really do have committed um disciples, and it's so great to see, and it's I'm really thankful that I'm getting to see that side of it.

I've been in this church for f almost 44 years now, and I really feel like I'm just now opening my eyes to to everything that's that we do, and it's really it really is great.

Um it really is.

Why did you say almost 44?

Because tomorrow birthday.

Uh so this will by the time you you folks are listening to this, it will already have passed.

But she will accept um belated uh birthday gifts.

Yes you can bring up to the office.

If it's food, uh leave it in my office and I'll make sure that she gets it uh after it's been tested.

That's fine.

Yes.

Don't be my poison tester.

I will yeah, I will be the cupbearer.

Perfect.

I will bear that cup or cake.

Or cake or cookies, especially cookies.

Or cookies.

There's a cobbler out right now.

It's really good.

Yeah, it is really good.

Yeah.

So there's no such thing as a good cobbler, but let's not digress.

I'm not gonna go there.

I mean, it's cooked fruit.

What can you say?

I I totally get it.

I didn't like cobbler until last time.

You missed the cake yesterday.

You should have saved you a slice of cinnamon cake.

Wow, the only thing worse than y'all having cake while I'm gone is then you telling me afterwards that you messed up.

And then been like, I could have saved you some, but I didn't.

I didn't think about it.

Well, I forgot to to do that.

I'm sorry.

That's on me.

Yes, you are sorry, but not in the way that you think you're sorry.

So I will be bringing up cobbler.

What day are you gonna be gone uh next week, Shannon?

Monday.

Okay.

We all are gonna be gone on Monday.

Oh, okay.

Well, okay, yeah, it is a labor.

Yeah, we're gonna celebrate labor by not.

Exactly.

And that's how we roll.

Yeah.

Sorry.

I should have a different table for that.

That was your your your Call of Duty just slammed down.

I've never played Call of Duty.

However, this is my one millionth uh monster.

Wow.

I don't know.

I drink a lot of monsters.

That's funny.

I just didn't have time to go to the store.

I would have had one too.

Could have had multiple product placements.

I'm still I'm sticking with taco casa.

I've never had a monster in my life.

I think I've had a sip of a Red Bull, like, and I didn't really like it at all.

That is I've never, I've never I've stayed away from those.

And so I trust me, I have my vices.

I can I can take out a bag of homemade cookies, like, but I'll let you have the monsters.

Yeah, Red Bull.

They brought that to Ramstein Air Force Base or Air Base when we were over there in what like 2003.

Yes.

And I tasted one.

Yeah.

And I was like, there is no way anybody's ever going to drink this.

Like this is I'm like, this is a waste of money.

If but by the way, if you ever hear me say this is a terrible business idea, you should invest in it.

Immediately.

Like immediately invest in it.

Buy a thousand shares, regardless of what it costs, because you're going to be a millionaire one of these days.

Who's going to buy a shirt with a check mark on it?

Like, this is the worst business ever.

What does Nick mean anyway?

Nick.

Who is Nick?

Who is Nick?

And why does he have a check mark on his shirt?

This is going nowhere.

Sidiculous.

I wonder if Red Bull is like cilantro, though.

Like some people love it, other people hate it.

I don't know.

Because I don't find an in-between.

I don't find Celtic.

I enjoyed it after you know drinking it a few times.

Too bad.

But yeah, you know.

I can't stay.

Yeah.

Makes sense.

And they needed the character.

If it's free, we need it.

Yeah.

They were like, we're trying to build lifelong customers like some other industries.

Yeah.

And and that's how they did it.

Oh, that's a great way to do it.

To give it to the army.

Give it to militaries.

Yeah.

Let's test it on them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're always the guinea pig.

Let's overcaffeinate these guys and just put them in a room together.

See how it goes.

Yeah.

It went well.

So I was probably in high school, this is definitely changing subjects, but we were leaving a theater, and for some reason, MM's was trying to promote their new um flavor of candy.

Okay.

Uh yeah, I don't know if flavor is the right word, but they at that time growing up, all they had was regular and peanut.

And they were trying to break in with um peanut butter.

Okay.

And I am a huge Risa Speesis fan.

And they like they literally would hand us, they handed us like a box of like there had to be like 20 packages.

And they were just handing them out to people as we were walking out, and I got them.

That's crazy.

I would assume some more.

Yeah.

It's a different peanut butter than Reese's.

It's not.

It's I'm sorry, MM's.

I don't want to lose my sponsorship with you guys, but it was not that great.

In fact, I like I would if somebody said hey, you can send them to me.

Yeah.

Um, I I wouldn't eat them.

I mean, I love your peanut MMs.

They're awesome, they're classic.

I could eat those all day.

Uh and and honestly, MM's, you should have taken the deal years and years ago with ET and you missed out on that one.

So that was the Whalen principle.

Yeah.

They they and then Reese's pieces.

Oh, I love me some racist pieces.

Yeah.

Nice.

So I do.

I appreciate that you say Reese's.

Yeah.

Oh, I don't say Reese's PCs.

Racists, racist pieces.

So yeah.

I don't even know.

There's a Reese's.

That's what I used to say.

Reese's PCs.

I would even mispronounce pieces.

Reese.

Reese's pieces.

You see how that sounded?

It's not right.

Oh, man.

It sounded right to me.

Pieces.

Pieces.

Yeah.

It's funny the things we used to eat as kids.

I I used to eat Rolos.

And now I just thought of a Rolo.

What?

I love Rolos.

I don't know why, because I do not like caramel.

I don't like nougat.

I don't like any of that stuff.

The best thing they did was put them in a package unwrapped.

Like now you don't even have to do the little tiny thin tinfoil that sometimes gets caught, and then you get it in your mouth, and it's like burns your teeth.

It stays like metal.

Yeah.

Now you can just reach in the bag and grab them out and just Yeah.

I used to put tons of Skittles in my mouth.

And chew and chew and chew.

Skittles?

Uh-huh.

And then spit the Skittle juice out.

I just thought that was the greatest thing.

I've never heard of that.

I don't know why.

I don't like the candies.

Yeah, I won't even put two different colors of Skittle in my mouth at the same time.

No.

You keep them separate.

Yes.

You enjoy the flavors as they are.

I don't need them anymore.

I don't need this mixed up.

Dessen Ross.

I don't know.

Like a mixed drink.

I wonder.

So your brain says it's different.

There's one of those candies.

It might be Skittles where they're like they literally just inside is all the same.

Yes.

But when they spray it, the spray is a different color and and and taste.

And different things.

Flavor.

I I uh see an office challenge coming up of like a taste test of Skittles.

You don't have to.

You don't like Skittles?

No.

I've never liked Skittles.

Okay, so this I probably hate them now.

Our friendship depends on how you answer this.

So get ready.

Okay.

I'm probably gonna fail.

Um Nerd Clusters.

Oh, I love those.

Hard no.

Only hard no.

Only grape.

I'm weird about flavor.

Uh I'm trying, I'm gonna try we were friends at one time.

Sorry.

I told you I was gonna fail.

I told you.

Did you see they have like a gushers style nerd cluster now?

It's got a liquid center.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I want to try it out and see what happens.

It takes me back to when I was a kid.

We did not have crazy awesome candy.

Like literally, we'd have a candy that was like shaped like a tiny, tiny little Coke bottle, and it was made of like wax.

Yes.

And you would bite it and like this stuff would ooze out.

That's what I think of when you say gushers.

Or or the little, do you remember the juice barrels?

Yeah.

And you drink it and your throat burns for like an hour after.

That's I think it was medicine.

I think that like that was their way of like, hey, this is how we're gonna be.

How we're gonna keep them calm.

I feel sleepy.

I just want to lay down in the poppy field.

My child just drink.

I've heard stories of parents giving their kids cough syrup and being like, here, drink this.

It's you're gonna love this.

And they're like, yeah, they slept the whole trip.

Yeah.

I don't know how.

Amazing.

So quiet.

Yeah, so that's just full circle.

We will be offering Robotessin on the nerd's break break trip for anybody who wants to go.

We will put a little sticker on it that says nerds um like gummy clusters.

Clusters.

We will just you can dip your gummy cluster in it and eat it and sleep the whole trip.

The whole way up there.

So come join our spring trip.

It's awesome.

Oh yeah, we will be having signups for that as well sometime soon.

Yeah.

So if you are interested in doing that or you've thought about that, we're gonna be doing that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All ages.

All ages.

Yeah, all ages.

This is open to the whole congregation.

Everybody.

Hey, I I have you talk about pictures.

I have a picture when Wyatt was probably half the size of the broom he was holding.

We were down in Mexico and he was trying to to sweep up, and it's just one of those like memories of us running around.

It's just so great.

That's awesome.

That's neat.

Yeah, yeah, that's a great time.

It's a great memory.

I enjoy thinking about that because I I think we probably um grew closer.

Oh, yeah.

And Shannon and you and Aaron without a doubt during that time.

Yes, you know.

Without a doubt.

So it it's a great That's what I like most about it, is how it changes me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I need that transformation continually.

Yeah.

Sarah, though this is a great topic.

I'm I'm glad you uh let it off and not Lance or Giles.

It would have been, you know.

Um yeah.

Um I just woke up this morning and I was like, let's talk about that.

Yeah.

It was it would be fun.

It would be fun to get to tell you about it.

And I knew you would have really great questions and we've got the stories and I'm excited about making new stories.

Yes, yes, uh, and being a part of that.

I sure hope so.

I sure hope so.

Well it was good to be back on the podcast.

I mean I hadn't been here in a while.

A while.

Yeah, a long while.

Yeah, it's uh busy summer for Am I right?

Is this number 49?

Am I making that up?

I feel like this might be 49.

Wow.

So getting to I think getting to the big 5-0 uh this the next time around.

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll have to do that.

Pressure's on.

I'm pretty sure I won't be on that one.

Hey, Wayland, wanna do you mind when you pray us out?

Absolutely.

Okay.

Father, we thank you so much for all of the opportunities that uh we have to share your good news.

And we just pray that you allow us to um strengthen our relationship with uh the min missionaries that we support.

And we pray that you allow us to um go visit them more often and develop those relationships and not just relationships with them, but the relationships with the uh disciples that they are making.

And we just ask that you um help us to accomplish the Great Commission.

And we just uh thank you so much for uh the things you do for all of us and the things you do in our lives and uh the relationships that we have here that we can go out together and celebrate you and celebrate Jesus who died for us.

All these things we pray in Christ's name.

Amen.