Deacon Jason & Deacon James | #109

[00:00:00] We're starting, we're starting. Try blue, try blue. I'll stay. Come on, Matt. Oh, sorry. And we're back with Unforgettable Conversations. Today, it's episode one oh nine. Nine. One oh nine. We're getting there, we're getting there. Are we in Germany? 1099. Nine. Today we have Donnie Darko, we have the skipper, we have a returning guest, Santiago, and it's actually now Deacon Santiago.

[00:00:29] Deacon Santiago. And our newest guest, let's hit the clap. Our newest and also Deacon, Jason Rocha. He needs a nickname. It's your Jolito or what's your nickname? He's Lito. Donnie Darko, Santiago, skipper. What's Jason's call sign? Mmm. Ha-son. Do you already have a nickname?

[00:00:59] I don't. Is this my initiation? Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's your first time. We're gonna jump you afterwards. Danny's gonna take you in the bathroom afterwards. He'll give you a shower. He did it to everyone. I don't know, what's a nickname that you would like or a call sign like, let's say you were a pilot in the Air Force. I don't know. I think nickname's are something that people should give someone. Yeah, maybe by the end of the episode we'll figure it out. I like that. I like that. We'll figure it out.

[00:01:27] The guests or the viewers have to get to know Jason. I'm already out. You're out? Okay. So, what I did want to talk about is because I feel like a lot of the people that check us out on YouTube, check us out on Spotify and all the other platforms, they don't know what a deacon is. And I wanted to ask the two deacons here if you guys can give us your definition of what a deacon is. Wait a second. This one's been opened.

[00:01:58] I just opened it, but when you opened it, was it that much? Yeah. That much inside? Yeah. Really? It's a rip off. Wow. Oh, well, you know what? I've noticed that those monsters, they have like the air gap. It's kind of like a bag of chips. The bag of chips isn't full to the top. Yeah. Yeah, but at least I can feel the air in there. I didn't know there was going to be. So, if you guys could tell us what deacons are so that a lot of the fan base could figure out what they're going to be. But a deacon is.

[00:02:27] Santiago, you want to go? Yeah, I'll go. So, this comes from the Book of Acts. These cards are kind of distracting. Yeah, yeah. Here, pass them over. So, in the Book of Acts, in the early church. He immediately felt convicted right there. Yeah. Sheesh. No. Oh, but last night. So, there was a period in time where there were widows that were not getting the assistance that they needed.

[00:02:54] And the leaders of the early church decided that it would be best to assign men, holy men, men that represented the faith well, to assist and serve so they could continue preaching the word. And that's where the deacons come from. So, they're literally servants, you know, to assist and help the church, help the pastor, help the members in any way, shape, or form. Okay, okay. Right on. Yeah.

[00:03:24] I mean, I have to agree with James. Do you want to elaborate a little bit on that? I mean, going back and tapping into the Book of Acts, right? We're talking about the Hellenists who had an uproaring of they weren't getting the attention or the widows weren't getting the attention that was required of it. Mm-hmm . And at that time, the church was growing. And the disciples figured and they sat down, well, we can't preach and we can't also serve tables, right?

[00:03:50] So, they actually mentioned and they prayed about looking for Holy Ghost-filled men. That's what the Bible says to literally serve tables. Okay. So, that's where the initiation, or not initiation, but the, that's where it drew from, right? And they looked at very, they looked at a couple of different men, but one that stood out was Stephen, right? No credentials or nothing.

[00:04:17] However, he performed signs of miracles and wonders through Jesus Christ, right? Mm-hmm . With no credentials. And he was also martyred. And it's all, he did all this without no credentials. Like Alex. No credentials. No credentials. No credentials. He did all this just wanting to serve, right? So, how I see it is nowadays a deacon is like, oh, now he's in ministry, now he's above someone else. No, that's not how I see it.

[00:04:45] The way that I see it, if anything, I would put myself under the actual church and just more of an anchorage to lift up the people in the church. So, whatever they need when it comes to prayer, when it comes to serving tables. I know at my church it comes to even washing the bathrooms and cleaning the floors. Not to say that's all they do, but they serve as a guide or an assistance to the church leadership, which is the pastor and the other ministers. And that's how I see it, right?

[00:05:15] Right. And also comes more responsibility because on top of that, now you're not just a... One thing I did like about our initiation, James was there, was we took a knee and in that knee we took an oath. And he asked us to stand no longer as members of the church, but as deacons of the church. Right. Meaning there's more eyes on us now, more responsibility. So, more is required, more responsibility is given, right? So, that's how I see it.

[00:05:45] And that's how it should be seen. Serve with a humble heart. You're not here for platform ministry. You're not here for... Anyone can preach, but not anybody can serve. Yeah. That's good. That's good. I've always seen it as like a... In a weird way, you're kind of like moving up the ladder because ultimately, if one follows that same path, you end up being possibly a pastor or even a bishop. Do you guys see it that way too? Like, technically this is like the starting point for eventually...

[00:06:14] Because the next step would be minister, right? Yeah. I'm not here to say that it's not in some sort or some way like a hierarchy of some ranks, but... Technically, on paper, that's what it is. Yeah. I mean, you have your church member or you have your soul, you have your member, you have your deacon, and you have your ministers, your pastors, your elders, a bishop, and then your bishop president, according to the Apostolic Assembly. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So, in a sense, yeah, you're right. But I try not to...

[00:06:44] Well, at least for me, I try not to let it get to my head. Gotcha. Which is... That's a good way to see it. Yeah. The one thing that I always thought was kind of interesting was like the whole difference between like going from a local deacon to actually being initiated. And I think the best way, because I think I talked to, I don't know if it was pastor, that mentioned that it's kind of like you're...

[00:07:07] It's a little bit of a, like, we're just setting you aside so that you, once the time comes for you to be initiated, you become a deacon, like officially, versus being a local deacon. It's like, it's just the beginning process of it. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. One thing I did like about our initiation was the pastor who spoke, he goes actually, he actually pastors at Second Long Beach Church.

[00:07:32] He mentioned that just because when you go into initiation as a deacon and you become a minister, don't forget that ministers are also deacons of the church. Right, right, right. Yeah. It's not like you've lost that title or... It's not like you no longer don't serve, you know, the things that people don't want to do. Mm-hmm. I mean, you're still asked to do so. I mean, you should want to do so, right? Yeah. Kind of to not like forget your roots. Right.

[00:07:55] In a way, the way I see it is more of a, like celebrities remembering their humble beginnings. Mm-hmm. That's how it should always be. Right, right, right. To the community. Well, I think too, it's a part of it is like, in everything we do, we're called to represent Christ, right? Like that's the baseline of our faith is we need to, you know, die to ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Jesus. Amen.

[00:08:21] And one of the things that Jesus said was that he didn't come to be served but came to serve. Put this one right here. Spit it right here. That way you... Oh yeah. All right, that's better. Yeah. And so Jesus said that he came to serve. And so I think, you know, in any position, anything you're doing in the church, even title, no title, you should have that mindset that I'm here to serve.

[00:08:43] And I think, you know, getting bestowed the honor of becoming a deacon, it just, like Jason was saying, there's a greater responsibility to serve because you're accepting the role and everything that it entails. Yeah. And so as a deacon, you know that you are now called to serve in a greater capacity in the church. Right. I have a question for you guys. I'm just going to dive deep.

[00:09:10] Um, why did you guys choose to, you know, take this initiative to become deacons? Because obviously it's a choice that you guys had to make, right? I just want to know, was it a person? Was it, you know, something that you wanted to do since a long time? Or, you know, was it something that you guys, I'm sure you guys prayed about and, and, uh, it had a, it had been like God who kind of showed you the way to, to that conclusion.

[00:09:35] But what was your main reason or various reasons as to why you wanted to take that next step, that next level of, uh, deaconship? Do you want to go or? Yeah, I can go. Um, I don't think for me it was a matter of me wanting to do it because, um, there's a minister at our church who, um, I see as a mentor.

[00:09:58] Um, and to him, I remember at an early age, I was either 18 or 19 years old and he would tell me things, um, to get ready, to prepare yourself and, you know, the typical stuff. Right. And me as a 19 year old, I was doing not to, not to belittle anything other, anything, any other ministry in the church, but all I wanted to do was audio production. Right. That's, that was my thing. That was my focus. I've been doing this since I was 14 and up until I was 20 years old. That's like all I knew. That's all I wanted to do.

[00:10:25] Um, and it came to a point where he kept telling me and telling me and telling me, and I just kind of had a breaking point with him. And I just told them, this is not for me. I don't want anything to do with ministry. That is, that's not who I believe. That's not what I believe God has called me to do. So I just need to stop asking me about it. Cause I'm, I'm, I'm, my answer is no. Um, and it kind of reminds me of Jonah or, you know,

[00:10:49] the story of Jonah, um, where there was a calling or I felt like there was a calling and now I believe it. It's calling over my life. Um, but I just kept running away from it and life actually got a lot harder. Right. Um, not to dive too deep into the, my testimony and all that stuff, but it did get significantly harder. And until I was obedient enough, cause I truly believe this. And I live by this, that partial obedience is still disobedience to Christ.

[00:11:16] Um, until I was fully obedient to what God has called me to do. Um, life didn't get better. And, and I'm not serious to say that once you accept Christ, everything gets better. No, I think actually, I mean, James can testify for this. I believe getting called into ministry is even harder than just living your normal, um, fill up a seat kind of day at church. Um, cause more has asked for you. Right.

[00:11:39] Um, but for me, um, I truly believe, um, that it was God's way of telling me is like, either you're going to, you're either going to do it or you're not going to do it and you're going to suffer. Hmm. Right. Um, and I kind of had reached a breaking point. Uh, I was like, you know what? Uh, let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah. Amen. Thanks for sharing. Well, I think that's a really good question you asked too. Uh, it's definitely something that makes you think as far as me personally.

[00:12:07] Um, you know, I, I think I, I never in a million years would have imagined myself in this position. And what I mean is, um, you know, some of us in this room came from faith. Like we had parents, we, we grew up in the church. We had an understanding of who Jesus is and my background was not like that at all.

[00:12:28] And so, um, you know, getting to know God, getting to know redemption and knowing that God had a plan for my life, uh, it, it was profoundly impacting, but it just blew my mind. Right. Like what, like David says, what is, what is man that you're mindful of him? And this isn't about myself. Like I'm, I'm a nobody, but, but Jesus chose to save me. And, um, you know, early on in, in my walk of faith and I, I never understood it.

[00:12:55] Uh, you know, I had people speak over my life and say, you're going to preach the word of God. And I never thought that was going to happen, you know, in a million years, uh, that, that I would, I would preach the word of God that I would, I never even thought I'd be in church, you know, like, and you know, God, it says that his callings are without repentance. And so to see the goodness of God, like I, I wasn't looking for, you know, to become a deacon.

[00:13:21] I, I, um, you know, had no real like conversations with my pastor about, you know, taking these steps. Yes. At one point did he say, like, I see ministry in your life, but he never said like, I'm going to set you aside and I'm going to, uh, right up until, you know, he said, Hey, I'm, I'm thinking about making you a deacon. And then, and, and then it got serious. Mm-hmm . But, um, it just showed me that, you know, the calling of God, if, if it's on your life, like, like Jason was saying, like, you can't run from it. Mm-hmm .

[00:13:48] Um, and we, we have to be grateful that, you know, God does want to use this. And, and so, um, you know, I, I saw it as an opportunity to step into the plan that God had for my life. And, um, you know, I'm, I'm honored and I'm, I'm thankful that God would even, even want to use somebody like me. Mm-hmm . Yeah, man. Yeah.

[00:14:08] I mean, to piggyback off of James, um, personally me, I've been seeing like an uproaring more of a, it being kind of trendy as when I was younger ministry or, or men or young men going into ministry wasn't something that everyone wanted to do. It was either, um, going to the music ministry or, um, a media or production, whatever the case, everything except, uh, ministry.

[00:14:37] And as of recently, I don't know if it's just me, but I've just been seeing a, not a trend, but. A hunger, uptick. Yeah. I think I would say more of an uptick than it is a hunger of like young men who want to be in it, but some young men who are, who want to be in it for the wrong reasons. Yeah. Mm-hmm . You know? Um, and like James said, it doesn't, it's not something you can, you can desire it. It is, it's good to desire the things of God.

[00:15:06] Um, but up to a point where, um, you have to be able to distinguish, is it this from God or is this just something that I want to do to, um, put myself on a platform and put myself on a pedestal so that people could see me. Mm-hmm . And like James said, it wasn't something that, uh, like he said, it wasn't something that, um, he thought, it just came. Right? Same thing for me. It wasn't something that I thought about. It just came, uh, because I mean, I grew up, part of ministry is what's public speaking and teaching and preaching.

[00:15:36] Me, I grew up, um, in like English learners development classes. So public speaking for me was difficult. It was like stage frightening for me, um, to the point where, uh, like I have a, I, I, I can't genuinely express myself or I missed a point sometimes or, um, like I just, I grew up trying to, um, develop my communication with people and just in general.

[00:16:03] So it was something that I'd stayed away from because that's something that is required of. Um, so again, it wasn't something that I asked for. It was just, you either do it or you don't do it. Right, right. You know? That's how God works, you know? You know, you don't expect or you don't grow up thinking like, oh, I want to become like this. I want to take up this position, but God presents it at the right time in the right place. Um, that's pretty cool.

[00:16:28] Uh, another question that I came up that, you know, um, it just made me think about, um, you know, the, the hurdles in your life, like as you're younger and, and now you're still overcoming those hurdles. So you've overcome them, but like what has been like the most like challenging things, um, in your life right now that have been, you know, kind of, yeah. What are the, what are the challenges now that you're a deacon?

[00:16:54] I know you, you were saying like life doesn't get easier or like, you know, it's going to be, um, like one of those things where, um, you know, it's, it's, there's a lot required from you. But what do you think has been like the biggest requirements has been time, energy, um, you know, effort, dedication, uh, learning more. I'm sure all of those things, but what specifically can you say, like for anyone, maybe in the future wanting to become a deacon or, or, you know, eventually that door opens up for them.

[00:17:21] What are you, what are you, the biggest things right now in life for you? I would say, uh, and this is me personally, I would say, you know, it's character, character. We all have character flaws. Like, you know, like the Bible talks about slander and backbiting and lying. Um, you know, it's easy to do things when the spotlight is on you. I mean, like, not like how, what I mean by that is it's easy to, to present yourself at work, right?

[00:17:50] It's easy to present yourself in a certain way at church when everybody's around you and you know, people are watching. But the things that you do behind closed doors are what really matters. The things you're doing when nobody is watching, like, you know, say for instance, it's four in the morning and I'm at a red light and I see no cars around me. And I either have the, I can either choose to sit there and wait for the light to turn green or I could say, you know, I don't see any law enforcement officers.

[00:18:20] I don't see anybody else around here. I'm going to run it. Right. Um, I have that choice and, and, and that's just an example, but you have to remember that, you know, God is omnipotent. God's all knowing God's everywhere at all moments. And so I think, uh, I would say anybody that is trying to get into ministry or elevate themselves in any capacity or who's seeking God more, you know, like you have to develop your character.

[00:18:45] You have to take the little things, you know, you have to have integrity. You have to be honest. You have to be transparent. Um, and you have to be willing to do the hard things because, because that's, that's what life is, is really about. Like we all are going to face challenges. We're all going to, we're all going to have moments when nobody's watching and, and what do we choose to do? Do we choose to do the right thing or do we choose to do the easy thing? Cool. Thank you. Jason, for you.

[00:19:14] Um, I think, uh, yeah, James hit a good note on that. Um, that was, that's probably one of the biggest struggles, but just to not repeat what he said. I think for me, the most difficult thing is understanding that the church is going to start asking you guys or start going to start asking for advice. You're going to start asking for prayer and they're, they're going to begin to open up to you.

[00:19:39] And it's something that I wasn't really prepared for, for, um, like church, regular church members just to come. Um, and now that they, they, they see me in, um, in, in, in ministry as a deacon, they feel the want and the need or even the, um, the, uh, the, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, guidance or. Yeah. The guidance, um, and in just in general for life, like, Hey brother, I'm going through this, this, this.

[00:20:09] And one thing that I had to understand and learn is that you're not always going to have a word for that person. You know, it's like the one thing you have to understand is sometimes you just have to hear them out. And for a while, there's been a couple like just older sister. I'm talking about prayer warrior sisters who come up to me and she's like, I'm struggling with this, this, this, and that. And I need help on this. What do you think? And it's like, ah, I'm only 25.

[00:20:34] Like, I don't, you know, um, if you're talking about your granddaughter, I'm the same age as your granddaughter, you know? So I can't tell you something right now, but what I can tell you is that, uh, that we serve a, we serve a gracious and merciful God and that things are going to get better. Right. Um, so giving or having a word for, you're not always going to have a word for somebody and it sucks because you're like, I could have said this. And you start, you start thinking about what you could have said after the conversation already happened. Right.

[00:21:03] I would have said this, this, this, this, this, this, this is what I could have said. This would have helped him. It's like, no, sometimes you just have to hear them out. And now you're, you're in this limelight. So sometimes if you don't have the right word, they're like, and why is he in ministry for? Why, why is like, if he doesn't have a word for me, which I wouldn't say that people do, but that thought of, and that thought, um, pops up in my head of, of like, what if they thought like, um, I wasn't adequate enough to, to respond then and there for them. You know?

[00:21:32] So that's a difficult thing. And then, um, at least for my youth, um, kind of distinguishing friendship with leadership with them. Can you explain, uh, for why, why you said youth? Cause I feel like a lot of people don't know your position in church. Uh, I'm a youth leader at my church. Um, and at my church, we have about 50 young people at our church.

[00:21:53] Um, and getting into that was a little difficult because I had to distinguish, um, being friends, kind of like how you guys are being friends with each other to like, no, there's a time and a place to respect the things of God. You know? Yeah, that's good. And it's like, bro, you're doing too much. It's like, no, it's just, I'm in, I am in a different light with God right now. Like I need to, I need to take care of my testimony. Like James said, talking about integrity, doing the right thing when no one's looking. Amen. Not just at church. Yeah.

[00:22:21] There's a, um, a book that I read, uh, by John C. Maxwell that one of his quotes is, um, that you're close enough to relate, but far enough to educate. Yeah. And that's kind of like what you're kind of describing. Like you have to differentiate the like position of like, I'm your youth leader, but I can also be that friend, but ultimately I'm still your youth leader. Yeah. Yeah. Were you going to say something, James? Um, I'm trying to think what I was going to. Oh, so you're talking about, you know, being able to relate to people in the church and in different stages, in different situations.

[00:22:51] And I think even just outside of like being a deacon, something that I'm focusing on, uh, right now is, is, is adapting and trying to grow as my, my life changes. Right. Right. I, I, I'm married. I have two kids. And, you know, I, I think Jesus said, you know, about focusing tomorrow. Right. Like there, there's enough trouble in today.

[00:23:13] And I think a lot of people, they, they need to realize and, and really sit in the moment they're in and, and anything like, like, you know, in ministry or whatnot. Like I, I look at my greatest ministry is my, my home and I'm, I'm, I'm learning, uh, through, you know, marriage, like marriage is a beautiful thing, but it's also a challenging thing.

[00:23:39] And, um, you know, most of us are married in this room, but like something I think about a lot is Jesus, uh, really calls us to, to a higher, uh, not a higher position, but like he calls us to a higher, a greater response standard in our, in our marriage. Like he, he says, we're supposed to represent him like Christ did to the church, um, learning how to sacrifice. You know, you're, you just, uh, became a parent, Joel.

[00:24:04] You're, you're going to learn that there's certain things in parenthood like that are going to challenge you that you have. Like me, I, I, I, uh, I'm learning that I need to develop more patience, right? Cause my kids, they are just crazy. They're nuts and they're all over the place. And, um, you know, sometimes I, I, I lose my cool a little bit easier than I, but I have to think and reflect and my son, you know, he's four years old. Like, yeah, he doesn't see the world that I see the way I see it.

[00:24:30] And so I think everything in life, uh, you have to start to understand the stage you're in and seek God's wisdom to help lead you through that stage. That's awesome. I have a last question for you guys real quick. That's cool. Um, just want to change the. The really good questions. The, the, the tone.

[00:24:50] Um, I, I know both of you guys, I know your families, I know, um, pretty well, like your, your friend circles and stuff, but who have been the most supportive individuals, um, from, you know, before being a deacon, now a deacon and serving as a deacon. Um, and yeah, who would you think and, and, and kind of say a shout out to, or, uh, for everything that you've gone through?

[00:25:16] Well, that makes me kind of get a little bit of emotional, but, um, my wife, you know, you talked about inadequacy, right? Like, sometimes do we think that we're really meant for this? And my wife is a constant reminder. Cause, uh, you know, I, I have a lot on my plate, like not, not just responsibility in the church, but, you know, responsibility in my home, responsibility at work.

[00:25:38] And, uh, I feel a lot of pressure on myself and throughout our marriage, my wife has been, uh, you know, uh, a beacon of God. Like she, she, like, she's very sensitive to the Holy Spirit. And my wife will constantly remind me that you're where you're supposed to be. You're doing what you're supposed to be doing that not to give up, you know, not to, not to, um, you know, not to bear the weight of it and not to, not to get down.

[00:26:08] Like my wife constantly reminds me what the Bible says, like, cause it's so easy to, you know, hear these things and, and, and they kind of go through our head. But what does the Bible say about the tongue? The power of the tongue, there's life and death in the power of the tongue. And my wife, my wife is a constant reminder that everything I speak into, I speak, I'm speaking things into existence with my tongue. And, um, you know, anytime you say you're inadequate or you don't think you're enough or man, I could have handled this differently.

[00:26:34] Or, or like, uh, you know, like she reminds me that God has called me and, and placed me in the positions I'm in. And, and, and, you know, I, I just want to shout her out. Like, thank you so much. I love you. Like, uh, I, I, I know that, you know, God put us together for a purpose and, and I'm, I'm, I'm really appreciative, thankful for my wife. Amen. Amen. That's awesome.

[00:26:58] Um, um, I think for me, um, cause everything I'm doing now, I was already doing before, um, um, the initiation or the set, uh, being set aside. But I think even before, well, it has to be before anyone has to be the Lord, right? Um, but after the Lord, uh, um, actually it's, it's, it's been, um, a couple of people, but my mom was one of the biggest ones.

[00:27:23] Um, because if it wasn't for her to decide to drive, uh, two and a half hours or two hours in general from Riverside County all the way to LA County for church on a Friday and Sunday for seven to nine years, then I wouldn't be here. But she saw something in me. She saw something in my brother cause my brother's a worship leader. Um, and I actually strive to be like him. Um, I just don't see him.

[00:27:51] Um, but if it wasn't for her vision, it wasn't for her, the, the obedience that God had over her life, then I wouldn't be here. So it has to be my mom. Um, secondly, it has to be, uh, the leadership of my church, um, the minister in charge of our English congregation and my pastor for sure for always pushing me, um, to, uh, my limit just so I could see that I could do it with the help of the Lord.

[00:28:16] Um, and, um, as of right now, it's been the young lady I'm in courtship or relationship with, with, or relation with, um, she, in a way kind of grounds me the way that James's wife grounds, um, him. Um, and everything that I do, it's always like, is this, was this okay? What do you think about this, this, this, and that? Um, and out of the heart, the, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, right?

[00:28:40] So everything she speaks, like, I know that is genuinely from her heart because of the way she says it, the way she, uh, uh, uh, portrays it, the way that she speaks to me and lets me know that God has called me for such a time as this. So it has to be those people for sure. But I had a question for you guys, for anyone in the room who wants to answer. Is ministry something that you guys would want to be a part of in the future or something that you guys even thought about?

[00:29:06] Well, I feel like I can, well, I'm not going to answer for everybody, but I feel like all of us have at one point done ministry. Um, I mean, like Alex has been an usher before and now he's a chaplain. Um, James has helped out with the youth and like, uh, what was the montage, which is the young adults, uh, 21 and over. Now he's also the, uh, and yeah, currently he's the men's ministry, um, leader, leader.

[00:29:31] And then Danny's done everything from probably like media all the way to, I mean, yeah, definitely media from doing the new church and all the way to being a part of the praise team. Um, I myself have been in charge of the juniors, the, the youth, um, the events, uh, the events coordinator for the church, all like the, uh, uh, decor stuff and stuff like that.

[00:29:54] And just part of different ministries. Um, so I think all of us kind of have been put in a position like that. And, um, I think, uh, it's, it's definitely not easy. Yeah. And one of the questions that I did have for both of you, now that you guys are deacons is because I feel like I've noticed it, uh, before in ministry, uh, the closer you get to God or in the closer you do a ministry, the more it feels like you're getting attacked by the enemy.

[00:30:24] 100%. Absolutely. I, um, you know, when I was younger, I would look at, uh, like men and, um, used by God. And like you said, getting closer to God, right. I would think to myself, like, how do they know so much scripture? How do they know so much word? Like, how can they, um, just pull something out of nothing? Right. Um, and it has to be with getting close to the God, right. Reading the word, um, doing your, your praying, your fasting, getting closer to him, right. The command, the commandments that God has called us to do, pray fast, um, even give. Right.

[00:30:55] Um, but then comes the spiritual warfare aspect of it that the enemy is going to. Um, come at you even harder. Right. I mean, it's, and it's not that God is allowing it to happen because he's just not oblivious to things, but it's more of like, test my servant. Like he, he's, he's willing to do so. Right. And the best that I could describe this is that the Bible talks about, um, there's a scripture that says we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion formed against the knowledge of God.

[00:31:24] And in that very same verse, it says, and we make him obedient. We take them captive and we're making obedient to Christ. Meaning when spiritual warfare is presented before us and these thoughts, um, these, um, these things that come into our minds, scripture says that we have power to grab those opinions, those arguments, those thoughts. And we make them obedient to Christ. And how do we do that? It's just getting even closer to him. Mm-hmm.

[00:31:54] Right. So that's what I could say. It does get harder. That is not something that I take lightly. And for, it's just, it's like, um, it just evolves over time. Right. Um, things get harder. Things, um, get more challenging. And, and there's an, there's uproarings of murmuring and, and gossip around you of like, this isn't the person that he was before. Now he wants to be in this holy light. No, it's just, it happens.

[00:32:22] And I've, and I'm experiencing it because there was a moment where I told the Lord and I, and I prayed to him and I was like, anyone who is not edifying my ministry or edifying my relationship with you, like remove them from my life. And sure enough, God removed the closest people to my life. And I, and in that same prayer, I asked him to refill it with people who will edify me and who will allow my ministry to grow.

[00:32:46] So, and, and that same limelight, I met like James, um, not to say you guys, but like James, I met David, uh, one of the deacons at your guys' church. Right. Yeah. Um, I got closer to the, our, our youth president, our district youth president. Um, I got, I got in close relationship with different pastors. Um, so prayer works. Um, and, and, and they keep me grounded because the people who I thought were my real friends.

[00:33:16] Are the people who are the ones who turned on me and now are the ones saying like, well, now he's in trying to be in a holy light. And that wasn't him before. And he used to say this, this, and that he used to do this, this, and that. And those are the way the enemy trying to bring it down. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Do you feel like, uh, you dealt with something similar to that? The closer you got to ministry or I started seeing the enemy attack.

[00:33:41] Like, and in the way I say, uh, it's not like for like the fans that are listening. Um, it, it's not like spiritual, like ghost, uh, in the closet type of deal. Like at night it's financial, it's relationships. It's a strain on, um, work and, and trying to, uh, better yourself. It's, uh, giving up, uh, your time. It's, it's all of that. Even just thoughts, just thoughts like doubt will creep in.

[00:34:11] I was going to say one of the stories, one of the, something in scripture that's always kind of perplexed me is Elijah. And there's a story of a man named Elijah who was a prophet. He was a servant of God. And essentially he deals with, um, false, at the time there was a false God that people worshiped called Baal. It was like a cow kind of God that was a statue and people would sacrifice to it.

[00:34:39] They thought it would bring provision and whatever, you know, they, they thought they were going to get out of this false God. And in this time period, uh, the people of Israel, um, start to, you know, worship this false God. And so Elijah kind of sets the line in the sand and says, no, the God of Israel, the one true living God is the real God. And I'll show you what we'll, we'll have an altar for Baal when we'll have an altar for God.

[00:35:05] And, you know, they're sacrificing there and they're seeing who got, who's going to show up and God shows up for Elijah. And this is a huge moment. You know, he just proved these 450 prophets of Baal wrong. But what happens is, um, you know, uh, the King Ahab and Jezebel say, we're going to kill you. And he is scared for his life. He just had this great moment where God showed up in front of all the people. And yet he's scared for his life. He even, you know, says he wants to contemplate suicide.

[00:35:33] And so, you know, I see that as Jason saying, as, as you get closer to God, you are going to face more spiritual attack. Um, you know, I, I definitely face attacks in my mind. Um, you know, before I was even, uh, say before I was a Christian, I dealt with suicidal thoughts. And unfortunately, those are things that don't go away. And that's why what you said is so important.

[00:36:00] We have to recognize every thought and, and, and rebuke things. Um, you know, we have to remember that there is authority in Jesus. Um, and another, I know I'm kind of going to a few different places. So that's really important. That's key is recognizing the authority in Jesus and recognizing the attack. But the other thing I really want to caution, and this is just for anybody ministry or not, the Bible says we don't war against flesh and blood.

[00:36:27] Cause a lot of the attacks, a lot of, uh, the things we face are from people that are around, like, you know, it's coworkers. It could be even in your own home. Um, and we have to remember that it's not the person I'm battling. There's principalities, there's powers, there's, there's things, there's darkness around. Um, so, you know, I have to sometimes put that in perspective because, you know, my, my, my

[00:36:51] wife and I for two or three years now, we've done a Bible study in our home on Thursday nights. And when do we get into arguments? When do we have issues? Thursday nights, right before the Bible study. And that's not, you know, coincidence. No, man. And so, uh, I'm saying that to remember, you know, we have to remember what, what this is. We really have to remember what it is. Cause it's really easy. The enemy with, what does the enemy want to do? He wants to pit people against each other because he wants division.

[00:37:21] He wants separation. And so, um, you know, I just caution everybody that we, we have to remember what the, what the battle really is. Amen. And then, but I was just going to say, remember authority too. Now I was going to say how you, how you said about that. Um, I always tell people like the devil came to steal, kill and destroy it, but how does he do that? He distracts us. Like his focus isn't necessarily on attacking you physically or attacking you in these ways.

[00:37:47] It's how can I get this person to maybe miss a week of church or maybe, maybe miss this Bible study or maybe call off this Bible study or maybe, you know, just find a way to create separation between you and God. Because a lot of times you'll feel like God's not answering your prayers. You'll feel like, man, God's so far away, but it's not him. It's, it's us. It's us. Like we're, we're the ones that drifted off. Yeah. And so I think that's a key thing that you said. Um, I think it's, it's really that it's really that distraction.

[00:38:17] That really separates us from, from being in God's will. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I mean, to tag onto James and Danny, it's always going to happen. Day of Pentecost, it happened. They were filled with the Holy Ghost and, and the ones, the non-believers are, they're drunk. They're, they're, they don't know what they're talking. They don't know what they're doing. You know, so doubt from somebody else is always going to be there.

[00:38:41] But, uh, one thing I read recently, um, was, uh, uh, your foundation is in Christ. It's not something you go and revisit. It's something you build on. That's meaning. If you had your home here, Joel, right? If someone were to come and tell you like every three months, we're going to destroy your house and we're going to check the foundation of your house. That would be upsetting. That would be annoying. It would be a disturbance. Right?

[00:39:07] I say that to say that building your foundation on Jesus is not something you go and revisit and look and make sure that you're intact. You do from, you do in terms, in different ways. Uh, but once you build on the foundation of Jesus, you don't go back to make sure and reinforce it with something other than Jesus. Right? Amen. Something you build on. That's how I see it. That's how I see ministry. Yeah. When I think something else too, uh, uh, that you were talking about and alluding to is prayer. Prayer is not optional.

[00:39:37] You know, Jesus didn't say, if you pray, pray in this manner. He said, when you pray. Right. And, uh, you know, you see throughout Jesus's ministry, how many times does it say that he went alone? He went onto the mountainside and got alone to pray. And I think we have to remember that prayer is, is powerful. Yeah. That's true. I think. Go for it. Yeah. I was going to say even, um, something as far as like your testimony, like if we all go back and we look at, you know, what did God bring you through?

[00:40:07] Like nobody can take that away from you. You know, everybody can debate you on, did this really happened in the Bible? Did this scripture really take place? But nobody can take away what God did for you. Right. So that's, that's your weapon. I mean, that's your weapon. You know, you use, you can use scripture as your weapon all you want. Some people aren't going to take, you know, they believe in it or they don't. They can't deny what God did for you. Yeah. Like I look back at my past and I think like, okay, if God did it back then, what's going to stop him from continue to doing it now?

[00:40:36] Like if he did it for me, why can't he do it for Joel? Why can't he do it for James? What can he do for Alex and Jason? Like this is, it's really, I have like a theory in a sense where it's like, how big is your God? Like to what limit? And even sometimes I have to remind myself, no dude, like my God is bigger than that. Like Daniel slept with the lions, you know? Like Amshak, Meshak, and Abednego, they were in the fire. Yeah. Like it didn't burn them. It didn't burn, you know?

[00:41:05] So I look back at all these stories and sometimes it's, we think of them as just stories, but it's like, it happened. Yeah. Some news came out recently. The ark, they found the ark, the Noah's ark. They found Noah's ark and everything. Yeah. In Turkey. In Turkey. And it's like, we're seeing it before our eyes. Like, dude, Jesus walked this earth. Like he did all these miracles. Like he's still doing miracles today, but now we've gotten so, you know, in this, I

[00:41:33] mean, just, just in like the U S like we're just not prone to seeing the same miracles that maybe God did back then that Jesus did back then, but it's still going on in Africa. It's still going on in different places. And it's just like, how big is your God? Like how big do you set your God to be? You know, we can be driving to work and be so focused on our problems. So focused on our situations. And it's like, man, but like, did I talk to God at all today? Did I actually even like read my word? Did I, you know, all these things. And it's like, how big is your God?

[00:42:04] True. When I think to it that we have to have a constant heart check, uh, cause you're talking about these things and yeah, they, they were real historical events, but if you don't have faith, you don't have anything. Right. Like what was one of Jesus greatest rebukes to the people? Oh, ye of little faith. Right. So if we don't have the faith to believe it, we're not going to see it. And I think that's kind of what we're, we're seeing in our society, especially in America, you know, why miracles aren't happening. I mean, they're still happening. God is still doing amazing things.

[00:42:33] Like there, there is God is God is God. Like he, he isn't going to stop being God. The Bible says he's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. But I think the lack of faith, you know, leads to these dry spills, so to say. That's true. Um, I kind of wanted to dive a little bit into, uh, the fact that you guys are going to Bible college now as well. How is, uh, how's that process going for you guys? Um, I, I, I, I like Bible college.

[00:43:02] I love Bible college. Um, I think it's, um, um, I think this year is the first year they brought it back after so many years, um, and, um, in a certain region of our district. Um, but I, I, I love it, but I mean, tagging back to what you guys were, we were talking about, you know, how the enemy likes to work. Um, going back to ministry, it's just been, I've been so caught up and so busy with, with

[00:43:29] the things of the church, um, where there was, I mean, we have Bible college one Saturday a month. Um, and it, um, the last two I hadn't gone because of how much was on my plate. Um, but for the times that I've been going, um, it, it has edified, uh, my, my, in reproofing my relationship with God. Right.

[00:43:55] Um, because a lot of what Bible college is, is not necessarily so much on, cause it's the first year. It's not necessarily so much on, on learning new things. It's more of like reproofing and recorrecting what we already know. Right. Like diving a little bit deeper into the word or any misconceptions that you may have. Any misconceptions. Exactly. So, so my thing for me, I don't know if it was the same thing for James, but I remember like the first, one of my first classes that I was there and they asked us to write a

[00:44:23] sermon and I was like, I easily could have been like, well, I just pull one from the vault, you know, I just, you know, but, um, uh, but there's some people in Bible college who have never like wrote a sermon before. Right. So you're in a limelight of people who've never done something for the church and are trying to, um, uh, uh, uh, edify themselves. And there's people who are there because, um, well, they need to be there nor like to go into the next step of ministry.

[00:44:52] Um, you need a certain amount of period or time with the Bible college. So it's, it's just a different dynamic. Right. Cause I'm there more of as a, of kind of reproofing and recorrecting what I already know. Right. You know? And for some people they're there and they're for the first time figuring something out, you know? Right. Um, so in that sense, I do like it because, um, I feel as if I'm of aid or help to those who, uh, need a little bit more guidance or more of a push.

[00:45:19] So it's pretty much like a mixed bag of just different people and some people it's, they're like, they're super green. And then other people like yourself, you're kind of, and I probably, I would say you too, James, I feel like you guys are just kind of like reinforcing the walls. Yeah. You guys are just reviewing and like kind of just diving into a little bit deeper into the word and just trying to, uh, make sure everything's kind of nice and organized. Yeah. That's how I felt. I remember one of them was like, um, how did the, um, it was about teaching. Yeah. Um, and, um, there's this.

[00:45:49] Book that I really like. It's called the art of apostolic preaching by pastor Jacob Rodriguez. I just finished it. Yeah. I'm reading it. Yeah. It's a great book. Um, I got, it was recommended to me by, um, one of the deacons from you guys, the church actually, um, David. Um, and one thing there, um, where, uh, the teaching of that actual Saturday was really good because a lot of people don't understand the difference between teaching and preaching. Mm-hmm.

[00:46:16] And the best way I could put it is, uh, uh, teaching is, teaching is explaining the text or explaining the scripture and preaching is relating the scripture to the people. Right. Right. That's why it's so different. But we need teachers and preachers. Um, every preacher should know how to teach, but not every teacher should know how or needs to know how to preach. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's, it's funny cause I was telling James, I gave a book to James, um, that was from, what was his name? Jerry Jones. Jerry Jones. And it's called preaching.

[00:46:44] And it's, I believe that it was cited in, um, the art of preaching. And I, I read both books and I noticed that preaching is a, like a more in depth version. It seems like, um, Rodriguez pretty much read the book and then decided to summarize it and like pretty much give you like the spark notes. Yeah. Uh, to it. So I would definitely say if you, if you enjoyed that one, read the other one, it's definitely a more detailed, I don't know if you started it.

[00:47:13] I'm still in the middle of the, the art of apostolic preaching, but yeah, I'm going to read that one. I think it's called why, why we preach, right? Isn't that what it was called? Uh, I think it was just called preaching or yeah, I think it's called just preaching or something like that. I can't remember if it was. Well, that seems interesting. I want to know more about that book. I'll let you borrow it after he finishes it. Yeah. I cited it in one of the chapters. Yeah. That's awesome. It's really good. It's just like a little bit of bait, like a, it's because the book that, the, the art of, uh, apostolic preaching is like, I want to say like 200 pages.

[00:47:44] Yeah. Give or take. So this one's like about three something. Right on. And it just goes more in depth. Yeah. Into it. Yeah. And I think a lot of people have a misconception on preaching. They think that they gotta, you know, be just on it. Just, you know, you gotta, you gotta have different yelling points and all of this. And again, preaching is just relating to tech or yeah. Relating to text. So if you somehow, some way can relate the text to some, as a preacher, relate the text to the audience and not need to scream, you've done your job.

[00:48:14] But it's kind of funny how he, he says like, there's a section in the book where he does describe like the tone of voice and how you're supposed to do it. So it's like, there's a difference between us talking like this, but versus the Lord gave the people. And like, you're kind of, yeah, you're kind of, you're kind of like raising your voice on certain parts. It's a small little section, a little paragraph, but I thought it was kind of interesting how even he talks about posture. He talks about breathing.

[00:48:40] He talks about, I got the book mainly because you recommended it to me, but he coined a term that I didn't even know what it was, homiletics. I didn't even know what that was until I read that book. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Homiletics is something that, that's something they taught us or not taught us, but reinforced for myself at least. Um, at Bible college, it's the, um, uh, the art of building your sermon, right? Yeah. Um, but you can't have homiletics without hermeneutics.

[00:49:09] Hermeneutics is the understanding of scripture. Right, right, right. Um, so for me, yes, to an extent, I believe tone and everything matters. But again, that all comes down to how you as a preacher can relate the text to somebody, right? Right, right. Because I've met a lot of, I've met a lot of preachers who just straight up just yell the whole 45 minutes. And like, I didn't relate anything. It's that volume 10 nonstop. But I've met preachers, like for example, uh, uh, uh, Pastor AJ Holloway, um, who is like

[00:49:39] super, super, um, he doesn't yell. He reaches his points at some point. He reaches his points or he elevates his voice at some points, but he's not yelling. Um, but he is, that's one of the preachers that he's ever, uh, he's not yelling. One of my favorite preachers was one from him. I can't remember the name of it, um, but it just impacted my life so much. And he didn't yell. It was more of an emotional drive and it wasn't yelling. And he really made it to text. Like a roller coaster. Yeah.

[00:50:07] So like storytelling almost kind of, um, um, um, like again, it comes down to tone, right? Right. And his tone was more of like an emotional, anguist, passionate tone than it was like a authoritative yelling tone. You know what I mean? And that was one of like the, my favorite sermons that I've ever heard. Right. And it wasn't, there was no yelling. Who was the pastor? Uh, pastor AJ Holloway from Louisiana. Oh, okay. On YouTube or? Um, yeah, you can look him up. AJ Holloway. Love that trick.

[00:50:36] Um, but he, he's, he's awesome. But. Not the same. Yeah. Louisiana. But, um, yeah, I mean, I, I love preaching. I haven't preached in a while, but when I do, I just, I, I love to, to do so. Amen. Um, what was it the last time at Long Beach? Yeah. San Pedro. Yeah. That one was scary. That one was a little scary. Was that a youth event or what was it? It was, um, so, uh, for those of the audience that don't know, um, I'm part of an LA district,

[00:51:04] uh, we're part of an organization called the Apostolic Assembly and within the Apostolic Assembly, there's a young adults, um, district and within that district or youth district and within that district there's over 50 churches. Um, so throughout the year we have the, they have these, um, these services called Mission LA. And basically the, the, the point of those is to have two different services going on at two different regions, um, helping those churches, the smaller churches to bring a revival to those smaller churches.

[00:51:34] Right. Um, so throughout the year they have two, um, Northern and Southern region. Um, and I, I mean, this was around the time where things were kind of kicking off for me. And for some reason they invited me to preach at the finale and it was just one. And then when I went to go preach, I got on the stage and the, that place was jam-packed out. And I was like, how many people? I don't know. It was packed. How many people would you guess? Probably like 200, 500? Two.

[00:52:04] Yeah, around 200. The church was filled. Like our church. They were standing. Oxnard Church was about 200. Yes. Yeah. So it's a smaller church, uh, a small building, but a lot of pews and they were all filled up. They were like completely filled up. What's really cool about that mission LA, uh, ministry. I don't know if they do it for all the, um, churches or all the services, but what they did when they did ours is they do an evangelism like a couple hours before. Oh, okay.

[00:52:32] They go to different areas, the parks and out in the streets to evangelize. They'll evangelize. They'll ask people if they want to come. Some do. So then you could probably get more than 200 people. Yeah. It was probably like three or 350. And it helps the church out a lot. Yeah, it does. A hundred percent. I've heard a, um, brother or pastor Joe Camarena from, um, um, South Central, South Central, something like that. Um, he's been talking to me about it.

[00:52:56] Um, and he's just had a blast with the amount of support and people that have been wanting to come to church and young people who have been wanting to come to church and just even the people who were evangelized coming to church. And he's been having a great outcome. Um, I was just a little, I was extremely nervous for mine. I'm not going to say that I wasn't nervous. I was extremely nervous because that was the finale. Meaning usually there's two and towards the end of the year, there's just one. And everyone, that was a little, that was, he did a great job. It was, it was fun.

[00:53:25] Yeah, I wish I would have been there. I wasn't to it. What, uh, it was probably on a Sunday, huh? It was, yeah. Sunday Lighthouse Church in San Pedro. Uh, cause I live, I live in Wilmington, which is like a city away. Yeah. Like, you know, it's super close by. How is it leaving Oxnard to Wilmington? It's, it's crazy. Uh, we've talked about it like a couple of times in the podcast, like going from revive, that's like an established, like bigger church of the LA district.

[00:53:49] And then going to the church that I go now to where it's like, man, we probably have like 40 people in total. You know, so it's a small church. Like I came in and it was like, all right, I'm the, now I'm the music director and I'm also in charge of the media. And I'm like the right hand to the pastor and, um, I don't know his president and I have to do the lights. And I'm like, and not, not necessarily was everything like just poured on me, but like before like going into it, like I felt that call.

[00:54:20] I know like what I've been doing here. I revived, like I was prepared to like now leave. Yeah. Like I was called, I definitely felt that calling to where like you take me out of revive and like, they're still fine. But you put me over here and it's like, we're going to flourish. Like I knew right away, God had called me to like, to, to some, to, to make a change. Yeah. And I, and I had talked to my pastor and everything and he like, he agreed. Like he's like, yeah, like I want you to go over there and like make a difference.

[00:54:47] Like, you know, um, so I, it was, it was a huge difference, huge, huge difference from, uh, from revive. But I, I love it. Like, like now, you know, every Monday we have our Bible studies. Um, I'm leading like the Bible studies at my house. Um, and we have like, we're, we're growing that, that church, uh, the mission LA that helped us out. Right on. That's awesome. We even get like, uh, there's one of the visitors that came from that service.

[00:55:17] Like there's actually a couple that go to the church, but one comes to my Bible study now. Like it's, it's really good. Like that, that really helped us out. Is mission LA new? Cause that's the first time I've heard of it. Before they used to do the thing called access. Access. Oh, okay. I know. Okay. So they changed access to that. Uh, yeah. Or is this a, I mean, access was more about access to me was more about, um, introducing,

[00:55:41] um, new people into, uh, uh, uh, I want to say that spotlight is a bad word, but, um, yeah, bringing new talents. Right. Cause for so long they use the same people. Like access was about like using like, yeah, brand new preachers. You know, give them a chance to showcase what God has done in their life and what they can do. Right. Um, he said represent, there's a funny story. I don't know if you want to bring it up. Uh, yeah, you can bring it up.

[00:56:11] Yeah. Um, I was, uh, so for those, I mean, everyone already knows, right? Um, Alex used to go to revive church and now he goes to my church off in a mega family center. And, um, I forgot what we were doing, but it had to be during the break where, um, Alex was either speaking to me or my mom. And we were there and I had just happened to peek into Alex's like blazer and he had a white shirt and it said revive.

[00:56:38] Oh, the ushers win or what? The ushers win. Yeah. So I was like, what the heck? He's like sneaking around. I told my mom, I was like, my mom likes to joke. She likes to tease and poke. So I told my mom, I was like, mom, look what, look what Alex is wearing. And she's like, she looked at him. She's like, no, no, no, no. And then as, as soon as she said that pastor, which is his father-in-law, um, was walking by and my mom calls him.

[00:57:05] It's like, pastor, pastor, look, look at what, uh, what's your, uh, Alex has. Mind you, pastor was about to go in and give Alex a hug. And as soon as my mom says that, um, pastor likes awesome. Looks and he's like, he's like, take it off right now. Take it off right now. Repent. No. And then, uh, I think your mom also said, it's a spy. He's a spy. So they know me as the spy head. That was funny.

[00:57:31] Cause I had, I still have all my three shirts, the blue one at the black one and the white ones. Yeah. I mean, they're good shirts. So, you know, I'll just wear my blazer. But if you kind of like at an angle or kind of like, if I sit down, you could see like this revive, uh, it's like going to a Dodgers game, but having a giant stir. Or a Padres underneath. Has he shown you the revive tattoo that he has on him? No, he should be more worried about the revive underwear. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:59] It's a, I heard him and Isabel got matching revive tattoos. Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, it's right here. Like right above our heart, you know, revive. No, but I always joke around. I tell pastor like, Hey, you know, if I, I decided I'm going back. I've never asked you, but how do you, how, like how, how was it? Cause like, I've heard it from Danny when I've, I hear, I listened to the podcast. So like, you know, the horseman videos, those are my favorite ones. Oh, we have another one that's coming out soon.

[00:58:29] But, uh, like I've listened to your kind of, um, uh, move from even, um, I forgot what I was doing. I was, I was walking at work. Um, and I was just listening to the podcast as I was doing my job. And then Danny was talking about like the weather chains and how it was going to Wilmington. So I heard that, but I've never heard like how it was for you. Like you touched on it, but I've never like went into depth about how it was moving from revive to,

[00:58:54] to, uh, moving from Ox, or from Ventura to, to Chatsworth. And just moving the churches like, um, I think for me changes, um, you know, I see it as it's inevitable, but it's always happened in my life. You know, I've, I've changed, you know, so many things and especially with like locations, you know, I, I was born and raised in Mexico city. Then, you know, we lived in Santa Barbara, lived in Lompoc, then eventually settled in Ventura.

[00:59:22] Uh, I lived in Chicago, uh, when I was in the Navy, I lived in Germany. Um, and then, you know, eventually back to Europe. But then when I got married, uh, to my beautiful wife, uh, Isabel, uh, we, we established ourselves in Chatsworth and now, you know, I, I congregate, um, at Alpha Omega at your church, you know, now our church. Um, but yeah, it's, it's always been one of those things where, um, you know, I can adapt. I can, I get along great with people.

[00:59:50] I think I'm a, a people's person kind of thing where, you know, I get along with everybody. Um, you know, uh, I, I think transitioning from a, uh, a church in, in, in Oxnard, um, and then going to North Hollywood hasn't really been too much of a difference. I, uh, I know Danny said, you know, he was in a more, uh, bigger church where, you know, there was, uh, more support, you know, there was, uh, a lot of, uh, leadership who, who were

[01:00:20] for sure involved. Um, and, and there was like, um, they just didn't need that much help as compared to his church now. Right. Yeah. And, um, I think for, for me seeing, being in revive for like seven years and then jumping to North Hollywood, it's been really, uh, pretty much the same, you know, it's a, it's a mirror reflection. Yeah. You have a, uh, predominantly Hispanic, uh, you know, majority and, and both churches, they're both pretty, uh, big or the same in size when it comes to members.

[01:00:50] Um, pastors are, you know, also same type of people where, um, you know, they have a similar background. They have a same teaching or preaching style, um, and leadership is pretty much simple as well. So I, it hasn't really been one of those things where it's been hard. Um, and then also living in Chatsworth, it's pretty cool. I like it. I love it. I actually prefer Chatsworth than, than Ventura.

[01:01:16] Ventura seems a little bit, uh, too small, you know, you like, you know, everybody, everyone knows you. Um, you know, I, it was one of those things where I was ready to get out of there and, and now being in Chatsworth or more importantly, being in North Hollywood has really, uh, involved me in, in a lot of things because when I was in revive and ox art, I was just doing ushering and then, you know, maybe helping out with the kids, you know, but now a couple tasks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:01:44] It was like, uh, they threw me into the den, you know, they, they put me in like, you know, pastor said, Hey, I want you to be a chaplain. Hey. Uh, and now they've put, uh, Isabel and I, my wife, uh, as the junior leaders. And then, you know, uh, pastor has, you know, he'll, he'll ask me like, Hey, can you give a Bible study? Hey, can you, um, you know, I know Jason and, and, uh, uh, uh, brother Juan have asked me to, you know, also do the discipleship class.

[01:02:11] And, and so those things that I, I would have never like decided to take that like a role of like, Oh, let me do this. Let me do that. It's more of like, okay, now you're here. Like we want to use you like this. We want to put you here, you know, and, and, uh, that has helped me grow. Um, you know, uh, it's, it's helped me kind of, uh, get out of my comfort zone. And also, um, like, I think you mentioned how, uh, James, you had mentioned about prayer, right?

[01:02:41] I think, uh, when I was in Mumbai, my prayer life wasn't, um, as, um, vital or really of an importance because it was like, Oh, I, I, I, to me, it was just one of those things where I wasn't really focused and I wasn't really deep into, into my prayer life. But now it's like, it's, it's a, it's a necessity. It's important because, you know, as a junior leader, like you, you have these younger individuals who are the future of the church who are to one day become the junior leaders, the, uh,

[01:03:10] deacons, the ministers, and who knows, maybe in the future, pastor of a church, you know, I have to like exemplify a better life, be more Christ-like, you know, be my wife and I, we have to take that mantle of like, we need to be, uh, prayers. We have, uh, like, uh, we have to put in prayer and then, um, ask for wisdom and, and, and be able to like fill ourselves with knowledge to then be able to share that with the kids. You know, I, I can't be up there and start teaching the juniors and not knowing like,

[01:03:40] okay, did I pray for them? Did I pray for this lesson? And that I pray that, um, you know, God use me for, for me to reach their hearts and minds of these young kids because eventually they'll go to the youth and then the youth will go to, you know, other, um, places. So it's, it's, uh, one of those things where I'm like, okay, now it's like real, not to say I wasn't, you know, uh, it wasn't real back in Oxnard or in Rubai, but now it's like, okay, now it's like taking a step further.

[01:04:07] And then I've had to, I took a role of a husband now, you know, as a head of a household, it's just my wife and I, but God willing, it'll be more, you know, with our children. And what kind of like a leader do I want to be? You know, what, what, am I going to be a man that doesn't pray with his wife? Am I going to be a man that doesn't go to church with my wife? Am I going to be a man that, you know, doesn't encourage my kids to, to be involved? You know, I don't want to be one of those. Cause there's plenty of those kinds of men. I'm sure you all can name, you know, they just fill up a seat in church.

[01:04:38] Yeah. You see that the woman is the one who's, you know, taking that relationship. When I went to Dallas for that event, um, uh, one of the things that stuck with me because I'm not married. Right. Um, but one of the things that stuck with me was, uh, was, um, uh, marriage is your first ministry. So, I mean, I'm oblivious to marriage cause I don't know how it works outside of like the, the surface level stuff, but. You're going to do great. Yeah. You're going to do great. Yeah. I appreciate it, brother. Thank you. We have high expectations for you. Please lower them.

[01:05:09] I think we have high expectations because we could see the character, uh, and your personality itself. I appreciate it. A lot of, I mean, I'm still new. Alex is new. Um, these guys have a little more experience for sure. But like, one of the things that you could definitely tell from marriage is like, you got to be a leader. Like, you got to know when to be like, all right, like babe, I got this. Like, and so I think just, just based off character, like I could tell you like you're,

[01:05:35] you're a leader, you know, even if, especially if it's showing in church, like, I mean. Youth leader. Like any, any young lady that's looking at like for a potential husband, look at like Jason, like for example, that he's, he's somebody involved in church, somebody who's willing to lead, willing to serve. Like that's the, the best type of leadership is a servant. You know, the best, the best type of, you know, leader that there is, is going to be someone that's serving you first. So yeah.

[01:06:02] Look for, look for servants, people that are willing to serve and you'll find a good husband. Yeah. I've heard that like, you know, um, you know, you see men serving in church. If you can serve at church, he can serve you at home. Um, that's good. But yeah. So just real quick. Um, I don't want to be that kind of man, you know, the ones that were the examples of those, you know, I want to be a man that actually takes that initiative that leads that, you know, um, puts, you know, his, his faith in God first, then that will transcend to your

[01:06:30] spouse, you know, to your unity with your wife. And then it goes down, trickles to your children. Um, you know, I set that example. Correct. But yeah, um, that was, I don't know if that answered my question of, or your question of, um, you know, going from, from Oxnard to. It sounds like you were pretty much challenged. Like it's what you kind of needed, uh, in your life. Yeah. Because if you think about it, like, yeah, you were part of ministry over here, but like

[01:06:56] this step forward and obviously marriage and whatnot and other responsibilities, it gave you that like stepping stone to really challenge yourself. And so that way you can even grow. And it sounds like you're flourishing. Yeah. I mean, I've seen Alex grow at our church. I mean, I remember when he first came just, um, where he was at, I didn't know too much of him, but just to see where he was at when he first came to where he's at now. I mean, like you said, he's a chaplain now. Uh, he's the, uh, he's the head ushers for the English congregation.

[01:07:26] Um, and, uh, he's the junior leader. And that's something that we really needed at our church because the juniors haven't, juniors are, um, nine through 14 year old kids. Yeah. Nine through 14. So they hadn't really had any leadership in a while. So him and his wife, um, took over that. So now the juniors, uh, they have the junior, um, ministry now, and he's also a part of our English congregation committee. So all planning and everything goes through, uh, us too. And then a couple others that are involved.

[01:07:56] Yes. One thing that I noticed with once he left, um, is that one of the things that I, I was like, Oh, Alex is like definitely growing is when he sent us that zoom, uh, uh, Bible study that you were doing in the mornings at 6am. And I was like, wait, what? You want to wait? Zoom Bible study at 6am? I know. A zoom, uh, Bible study at 6am? And I was like, all right, I'll click in. And I, and I watched it. And I was like, yeah, we all clicked in.

[01:08:25] But surprisingly, you guys had a lot of people. There was like 50 people. And then there's, there's a zoom. And then it went into two different rooms. Yeah. It breaks off. I was in the wrong one. The first 30 minutes. He was in the woman's one. I was like, I don't see that. He's like, uh, do I need to be here? I'm like, at what point does Alex come in? Yeah. Yeah. Alex, uh, they've been pushing zoom for a while. I mean, during, since COVID. Oh, that's when it started?

[01:08:54] That's when it started. And that's how, and our pastor has been like super adamant on everyone should join zoom. I don't, I mean, I can't join because I work at six, but I was at work watching it. And I was just like, no, Alex actually knows his stuff. And he does a pretty good job. Yeah. He does a pretty good job. I'll give him his flowers. All right. It's all right. Okay. You know, you just got to grow, you know, keep on growing. James actually came to speak at our church to our young people. Oh, dude.

[01:09:22] When you, when, when I heard that, I was like, please tell me Jason recorded it. And he was like, I don't know if he did. And I was like, dude, I would have wanted to listen to that. No. That's all right. I don't know. Or like the church, the media recorded or something. I don't know if there was a voice memo or anything like that. And usually we do voice memos, but I don't know if our media person did the voice memo, but James, you did a great job. I appreciate the invite. Yeah. That was awesome. It was an honor to speak to the young people at your church. Yeah. I heard it fell on a cleaning day too.

[01:09:53] Was it? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was Saturday. The church had to clean. And I told my pastor, I was like, we're cleaning. I'm like, no, we have a guest speaker coming. Y'all got to move the clean to another day. No, but James, he answered the call and he was willing and he was, Abel. And I remember I heard his testimony briefly. It was your son's birthday party. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. We were talking about it. And then I was like, I want to, I want to invite him on. He did.

[01:10:22] And there's a young man. His name is, I'm not going to say his name, but there's a young man who, yeah. That is his name. I don't know why I'm really good at guessing. Marley. That's not his name. But he speaks about it because not that he's going through the same thing, but he just, he told me, he's like, I felt like I was going to go down that path. Right. And now he's in a way kind of like my Timothy, in a sense. Okay.

[01:10:51] And like, I can ask him to be like, Hey, can you dismiss? And he's like, yeah, I got you. Hey, can you open up prayer? Like, yeah, I got you. Look at that, James. Shout out Peter. You're touching people. Well, we'll call him Timothy. While we're on the topic of change, because, you know, obviously you guys stepped out of your comfort zone and leaving and going to a new place. And first and foremost, obviously we have to be sensitive to God.

[01:11:21] Like that's, that's the most important key thing. But if you look at the Bible, I think it's really important that we do embrace change, that we do, you know, accept challenges when they're, they're put in front of us. Because you look at some of the great men of faith in the Bible, like for instance, Abraham. Abraham was called to leave the Ur of the Chaldeans where he was called to leave his homeland. He was called to leave his family. And God didn't give him a roadmap. God didn't say, Hey, Abraham, leave.

[01:11:50] And I'm going to take you here, here, here, and you're going to end up here. God, God just told him to pack up and leave and to trust and to follow him. And you can see, you know, what comes from Abraham and his lineage. Another man, you know, he wrote most of the New Testament. And it's insane to think about, because if you look at the story of Acts, they introduce Saul of Tarsus, who becomes Paul. And what is he doing? He's persecuting the church.

[01:12:15] You know, he wasn't expecting to have an encounter on the road to Damascus, but he had an encounter and it changed his life. Gosh, I had another one that I was thinking of. And I just, even the disciples themselves, right? The disciples, you know, Jesus said, come and follow me. These guys were working their regular job, you know, no background, nothing. But they were put with that challenge. They were faced with the opportunity.

[01:12:42] You know, and so I think it's important that if we feel led by God, if we feel led by the Spirit, we need to embrace it because we don't know how God's going to use what we're going through. We don't know how God's going to use our life. And so, you know, I think it's very admirable, too, that you guys are now in positions where you are thriving somewhere else because clearly God, you know, ordered your steps. Yeah. You could add Gideon and David to that list, too. Yeah. Yeah. Because they were both young.

[01:13:12] Add Moses to that. I mean, yeah. I have a question for James. Is there any part of you, because I feel this way, where people meet you for the first time or, yeah, people meet you for the first time and you don't know if they got the impression of like, hey, I could be like, you know, like a cool friend of yours, like super, you know, I can crack jokes, too. Or do they leave with the impression of like, oh, this is like a man in ministry or man in some type.

[01:13:41] Because I struggle with it in a sense of like when I meet new young people, I don't know if they see me as like a church leader or if they see me as like a friend. And a lot of the times now I get left out of like those like friend conversations. Group chat or whatever. Because they're like, wait, wait, wait, he's coming, he's coming. You know? It's like, no, I'm like, I'm like, you know, like. I'm still one of the guys. You know? Yeah. Like your typical Theo's trying to be cool. Yeah, no, I think obviously there's certain people that, you know, I think they distance

[01:14:11] themselves in some respects. And the thing that I feel like because my wife and I have had conversations about this, like, you know, I do feel like sometimes it can get lonely because you get excluded. But the way that I look at it is like conviction, right? Like people have a certain sense of conviction. And if they're leaving you out of the conversations, if they're leading you out of, you know, what they're doing on the weekends and things, like it kind of speaks to what God's doing in your life.

[01:14:39] And I think it's part of it is embracing the fact that we are set apart. We are supposed to be different. But I think that like what you're saying, there's a fine line. We have to walk right. Cause you know, I try to always be relatable to everybody. Like, like I'm, I'm nobody special. Like, yeah, I'm just, I'm just trying to be obedient to God. And like, I'm more than always willing, like, you know, thank you for giving me the opportunity to come to speak at your church.

[01:15:08] But I constantly remind people, like I came from a bad background. Like if you, if you met me 20 years ago, you wouldn't recognize the person I am. Like, and so I try to always remind people like, Hey, I may, I may follow Jesus, but that's because he changed my life. And yeah, I am, I'm obedient, being obedient. And yeah, I am, I am trying to walk differently because, uh, you know, because I, I know what God did for me, but I, I think it's cool too. Cause I, I, I mean, obviously I have a lot of, like I came from Las Vegas, Nevada, and

[01:15:37] I came from like a crazy life and I've never let go of my friends. Like there's people that I grew up with that I still pray for today. And I still hope to see them change. And like one of my, one of my friends, actually, it's a crazy story. We, uh, through his family, that's how I kind of came to California and, and I still actually work with him today. And, and, you know, I've noticed, uh, little things here and there, like, like he knows, like to watch his language around me. Like, like, like he'll like, you know what we've, we grew up together and, and, you know,

[01:16:06] I, I used to speak really foul, but like, you know, now sometimes he'll, he'll apologize for cursing. And I just think it's kind of interesting. Cause it's like, Oh wow. Like he notices something is different, you know? And, and, uh, little things like that, you know, like, yeah, it's like a, not bittersweet, but it's like, well, you, you kind of just accept it at that point. Right. Um, it's like that feeling like when, where you're, if we're all having a conversation and pastor walking in our direction, Alex, calm down.

[01:16:34] I think too, like Paul said it like to, to all people on all things. Right. Like, obviously we, there's, there's certain boundaries, like we can't cross the line where we're, we're getting into sin or like, you know, misrepresenting Jesus. But like, we have to be relatable to people. Like we, we, we have to go out into the world. Like, yeah, well, yeah, I agree with you. Yeah. Cause I say this because when I met Alex, like, I didn't know how Alex perceived, like, I didn't know what he perceived me as. Right. I didn't know if he just, I don't like him. Let's just be honest.

[01:17:03] No, I'm just kidding. It's like, I, I didn't, I didn't know how he perceived me. Um, my friend Mike from high school, like he knew me from high school and like, he knew me as like, we played basketball together and all this good stuff. And at his wedding, that was his best man. And he's like, um, which is, I saw him as a bro, like just like a regular friend. And he's like, he's, um, at his wedding, um, he told me that, um, before his wedding, he told me that he looked up to me and I was like, what?

[01:17:31] Like, I didn't see it as I just thought I was like, we're like homies. We're friends. We're good. Um, and, and now he's been coming to church and like our friendship is different from high school, obviously. Right. Right. Um, but it's more of a sense of like, he comes to me and asks for advice on, um, certain, uh, spiritual aspects. Right. But when I met Alex, like I tried to make it very known that like, like, um, we could be cool. Like we're, we're good. We're friends.

[01:18:00] Um, and I think, um, in the beginning it was more of like a respectful, like, Hey, praise the Lord brother kind of thing. And now I think we're in the spot where like sleepovers and he's been, uh, hitting me in my foot. And then, uh, yeah, I totally see that, you know, cause you have to have like a, when you don't know someone you gotta like play that. Like, okay.

[01:18:30] Church role. Yeah. Church role. Like we're brothers, you know, as brothers in Christ, but, uh, with time, um, you know, we, uh, low key, I'm going to, I'm going to say this. I, uh, the people that came from like, um, like to my wedding from like all my friends and family, I invited. Right. And then Isabel invited her friends and family. Um, and so my wife knew Jason from like a long time for years. Right. And she's like, Oh, I want to buy the, uh, to just to point off, um, go off his point.

[01:18:59] Belle was at one point, my, my piano teacher. I was nine. She was like 14. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's how long we've, well, she's, she's gone to my church for a whole, and then we've worked in childhood. We've worked in, yeah. And we worked in youth. I got into the youth committee when I was 15 and she was like, I don't know, she's seven years older than me. Yeah. So like from very early age, almost like an older sister. Yeah. Like an older sister vibe. Exactly. And so, uh, they knew each other. And so she's like, Oh, I want to invite, you know, the, the Rocha, I'm going to say your

[01:19:29] last name, uh, Rocha family. I'm like, Oh yeah, sure. Yeah. I mean, like, I don't know him, but I'm like, all right, whatever. For some reason, I thought you guys already knew each other by then. We had met a couple of times. And, and, um, I think, um, cause I, before the wedding, like I would sometimes go visit or, um, I think through, uh, Juan and his family and like other little things that they would have, I think I would see Jason. Um, but I met his brother Josue first.

[01:19:54] And, um, I think eventually like just from there and then me congregating at church, like I got to know Jason a lot more and I respect him. You know how you were saying, um, what is it called? That Mike admires you and, you know, uh, looks up to you. Um, I, I, I can say I can look up to, uh, Jason cause you know, even though he's younger, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how old you are. Um, it's your attitude. It's your character, um, that will show and, and that will attract or, you know, uh, push

[01:20:24] people away. But, you know, for me, it's, it's like been one of those things where it, I, I can, um, I can, you know, feel closer to, to Jason, you know, besides just the pillow fights, we can definitely, like, uh, you know, hang out. He came over for my birthday party, um, this March, but I, I really respect you, your family, you know, your parents, your siblings. Um, and, uh, you know, I appreciate the love that you have for me cause I know you've been supportive of me and my wife. No, thank you. Should we hug it out now? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah. Use tongue.

[01:20:53] Oh, oh, it's magic. Did you feel it? Um, I wanted to, since, uh, I think James kind of knew this, but, uh, uh, Jason, you just kind of found this out. I wanted to see if you guys can give us some advice since both me, Danny and Alex will be attending Bible college in September. Hit the button.

[01:21:20] Um, any advice you would, you guys would give us to prepare ourselves for, um, for that endeavor? Um, I, I'd say just go with an open mind, right? Um, you're there to learn, not to, you're not, you're not there to teach anybody. You're there to learn, right? Uh, knowledge is key. I mean, even outside of biblical terms or church terms, knowledge is key. Even when it comes to work, plumbing, what you know now is, is more valuable than, um,

[01:21:50] someone who is physically in shape and can, and can outperform people like no, but you have the knowledge, right? So knowledge is key, right? Um, so I would say go with an open mind, um, and ask questions, ask questions because um, you're not gonna, you're not gonna, you're not gonna, you're not gonna learn. You're not gonna elevate if, if you don't 100% understand what is being taught and what is being shown to you. Right.

[01:22:17] Um, it is, uh, um, I want to say daunting, um, but it is, um, it is a little bit of a, uh, um, uh, uh, not trial, but, um, it's gonna be hard, right? Um, so I say this, uh, to say that, you know, Bible college is awesome and it's great.

[01:22:40] Um, but understand that everything that you learn there, um, is through one person, right? It's, it's, it's, it's, man, God has called us to put not our faith, not in man, but in him. Right. So whatever you learn, revise it, look it over and learn for yourselves, like go into the scripture yourself. Right. Um, it's okay to use chat GBT to ask a question. It's okay to use Google to ask a question. Right. But go into the word, dissect the word on your own, because at the end of the day, you're

[01:23:10] learning from a man. Right. Um, so you have to be able to be, uh, you have to be conscious and understanding that not everything that he says is not to say that, not to understand any pastor that taught before, but you have to understand it for yourselves. Chats word. Right. It's a lot of Christians who claim to be Christians, but all they listen to is like, uh, TikTok or Instagram clips on the word, but they don't necessarily read the word themselves. Right. Like man can be flawed.

[01:23:40] So in turn, the, even though we respect the, the, the leaders that are actually participating in being the, I guess, professors or teachers, but ultimately do your own research. Exactly. There's nothing like drinking water from the source, you know? Exactly. You can filter it out all you want, but there's nothing like that, that mountain water, you know? Yeah. Yeah. My thing, my thing is if you're the smartest person in the room, you're probably in the wrong room. Mm-hmm. That's okay. Well, yeah. I need to leave then.

[01:24:12] I think you need to leave for the opposite reason. This is a, I do got to use the restroom. I feel like we all need to go use the restroom. I need to go to the bathroom. I gotta go. But James, what do you want to give feedback for the Bible college? I think just simply you get, uh, you get out of it what you put into it. Right? Like, like everybody is there for whatever reason. Like some people like, you know, like, and I say this word not in a harsh way, but like there's an obligation, right?

[01:24:40] Like as far as being a deacon, you're actually required to get two years of Bible college. Um, and that's not, you know, wasn't my intent as to why I started, but like I could sit there and be like, I just have to do this. This is mandatory. I'm here. So I'm going to, but if you, if you put effort into it and like you were saying, do your, do your own research study, you know, review the text that is, cause they give us textbooks, books, you know, take, take the, like I've been, uh, challenged and I've, I've been really,

[01:25:09] uh, appreciative of, of some of our homework assignments. Cause I can't think of the last time. I mean, I've written sermons and stuff, but like some of these critical essays that we're having to do, uh, you know, deep dives into certain topics of scripture. Like I haven't had that stuff since college, you know, like, like 10 years ago. So like, it's been awesome to sit there and be like, all right, for two hours, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to work on my homework and I'm going to write an essay, you know? And, and, um, I think it's what, what you make of it.

[01:25:37] Like, uh, and, and just remember too, like what, what, uh, what, what is the point of it? Right. Like it's, it's edification, it's growth. Uh, so, so, you know, take that and take that information and, and, and try to, to see what God is showing you through it and, and, and, you know, use that, you know? I think that's going to be the interesting part for me. Cause like, I don't even remember the last time I did an essay, probably when I met you and that was years ago because we met in college, but, uh, the, the essay part is going to be the interesting part.

[01:26:07] Uh, and then just hold the whole school aspect of it, but I'm, I'm excited for it. Just AI, man. Yo, I'm actually, I'm actually excited for you guys because it's like one step into what I believe that God has in store for you guys. Um, and I know Joe and I have talked about this, um, just, I think at your son's birthday party. Um, and I had asked him like, do you ever see, um, being set aside as something in your life? You were actually the big influence on it.

[01:26:36] I feel like you were the first one to mention it. And then from there it was like, God, you know how like God works in mysterious ways. It was like another person out of left field. And I'm like, Jason that I just met not so long ago told me the same thing. And then out of nowhere, something else happens where it's like, it aligns where I could do it. I'm like, what the heck? And then another, like, it was like seven different things came around and it was like all pointing towards like, Hey, if you didn't get the notice, like go that way. Yeah. I got it.

[01:27:05] So I was like, I, I, most of it was like you. And then what the other person was Danny tipped it over because I, I made a joke with my wife and I told her like the only way I'll do it, like jokingly is if Danny does it. And we went to, yeah, we went to target one day and Danny's like, I'll do it. If you do it. And we said it at the same time and I was like, dang it, that's another sign. I was going to do it regardless. I was going to do it regardless, but I didn't even know that. I want, but I knew like, I just had a feeling like Joel will do it if I do it.

[01:27:33] Like, I didn't feel like he'd feel comfortable doing it by himself. So I was like, I'm going to ask him. Like, I feel like, you know, we're at a place now, like I'm growing my ministry. I'm sure. And we even thought about Alex. We're like, if we do it, Alex will do it too. Yeah. So we're like, you know what? Like, why not? Why not edify each other? You know? That's good. It's good. So I was doing it because I had talked to my pastor and my pastor was, you know, sort of the same thing. Like he's like, Hey, I want to like put you aside for deaconship and everything.

[01:28:02] And I'm like, man, like, I don't really want to preach. I don't want to do all this stuff. And then, you know, I came prepared pretty much talking to my pastor. Like, Hey, like, you know, I don't think like my things, the music ministry, like, I think we're growing here. Like I'm passionate about this. Also like the, you know, everything like the preparing for church. And he's like, you know, you're, what you're explaining to me is the responsibilities of a deacon. And I'm like, Whoa, wait a second. He's like, he's like, you don't have to be the best preacher. Most pastors aren't the best preachers.

[01:28:31] Like you don't have to be the best teacher. Like, you know, all this stuff. And he's like, you just have to be willing to serve. And he's like, what you're doing already. You're a, you're essentially a deacon. And like, that really opened my eyes. I was like, Whoa, well, all right. Well then you got yourself a deacon. I'm all in. And so when he, when he explained that to me, that was like, all right, like, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm down to do it. Yeah. It was about, it was right around this time last year where I was in the same place of

[01:29:00] like, um, going into, uh, thinking about ministry and thinkorship and all that stuff. Um, so I'm literally like right around this time is where those talks started coming to me and then come January, there was a, um, or yeah, was it January? Yeah. At January interviews and all that stuff. So yeah, right around this time. Yeah. It's funny because Bishop told me, uh, he told me like years ago that he wanted to do something like that with me.

[01:29:28] And I just told him like straight up like, no, I'm not, I'm not doing that. Sorry. No. And he asked me like a couple of times and then he was like, all right, I'll leave you alone. Uh, and then it wasn't until not too long ago around the same, he was one of the people too, that was like literally the moment that, uh, it was mentioned to him, he was like, do it. Like, just do it. Like you got full approval from me. Go, go, do what you got to do. And I was like, ah, that's another sign. That's gotta be another sign.

[01:29:54] Like, that's not just like, I mean, you, you normally, he, you get set aside like, like James or some of the other, uh, deacons that just recently got, um, uh, set aside. Uh, and I'm over here just kind of like, Hey, do you, what do you think about this? And he's like, go. That's good. So I was like, Oh man. When I was going to say to you, never know how God's going to use things for instance. Like, like again, my wife, like I'm so grateful and thankful to my wife. Cause I, I remember when Bible college was coming around cause for years I've always

[01:30:24] wanted to, cause I mean, in, in the Bible and it's either first or second Timothy, Paul tells Timothy study to show yourself a workman approved. So like, I've always wanted to, to, you know, you go to college to study or to grow in a certain discipline. Right. And the Bible is so vast. I mean, it's 66 books written in different languages over different periods of time. Uh, uh, I don't know if you guys have any, anybody has a strong concordance or, or if you guys know what a strong concordance is, but it's essentially a dictionary for the Bible.

[01:30:51] It'll tell you love, uh, and it'll say like, this is what it meant in Hebrew. This is where this version of love was in, in what verse. So like there, there, but there's just so much you can learn, right? You can learn historical aspects. You can learn, uh, you know, what, what context of things that, you know, the, the, the Lord is saying in different parts and in different scriptures. But so I've always wanted to take that step, but, um, you know, they started up the LA district Bible college.

[01:31:18] I actually enrolled a month late cause I, I wasn't, I didn't foresee myself going into it. Um, but my wife was kept telling me like, I, I hear God saying that you should do this. And eventually I was like, you know what? Like I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll take it serious. Like I think God's calling me. And, uh, you know, long story short, I enrolled, I didn't even realize that you had to get your pastor's permission to enroll. I just like started filling up. He was like, I'm just going to go. Yeah. I was just like, I'm just going to go.

[01:31:45] And then, uh, so yeah, by the way, I was like, uh, uh, out of nowhere, I, I, and then I looked at, I got the, you know, the forms, everything you need to fill out. And I was like, Hey pastor, you know, like I want to go to Bible college. And obviously he signed off, but that's, that's when he was like, Hey, look, I'm, I want to set you aside to be a deacon. Wow. That's awesome. Yep.

[01:32:14] Or like you can't stop God's will from being done. Like if you're not going to answer it, somebody is going to answer it. You know? So I think at the, at the end of the day, like when we all die, when we all, you know, go to heaven, are we going to be, we're going to have to, you know, come to God and be like, did you answer the calls? Like those, those times that I was knocking at your door, did you answer the door? Did you answer the calling? Yep. And I'd rather be somebody who answered the call and then, then someone who rejected it. Yeah.

[01:32:43] I really enjoy how intentional your guys' pastor is. As busy as you is with Bishop duties, it's very intentional. And sometimes it even scares me because he'll come up to me when I go visit and he'll be like, you did this to say, huh? And I was like, who, who, who told him? He's like, I heard, I heard, uh, what? He's like, he's like, I heard you, he's like, I heard you collected offering in Spanish. And I was like, who told him that?

[01:33:11] You're over here just recording everything, sending it to Bishop. So he is a spy. He is a spy, exactly. But he's very intentional as busy as he is. I very much admire him. Yeah. I love Bishop. Pastor. Yeah. I remember when... He'll always be my first pastor. Oh, yeah. Yeah, technically. I remember when I, when I called or tried to get into the, um, I, I sent an email. I sent an email to try to get into the Bible college.

[01:33:39] Um, cause same thing, actually, I didn't, I don't know if I had talked. With Obed? Or with who? With, uh, yeah, with Obed. Um, I had sent an email. He ended up calling me. And before it was kind of like, there was like a little interview. Like, how long have you been, you know, a Christian? Blah, blah, blah. All these things. And I felt like it's, his tone changed when I said like, oh yeah, I used to lead worship at Bishop's Church. He was like, oh yeah? Oh, okay. I'm going to send you, start sending you emails and stuff like that. I was like, oh dang, okay. That's all I need to do. It's funny. Cause he said the same thing.

[01:34:07] Or he, he was very like, oh brother Joel. Like if you knew me, I was like, I just texted you. Yeah. Yeah. Brother Brett's cool. I like him. Um, I don't really know him too well, but, um, um, from the times that he has been there, he's been really cool on, um, just making sure everyone's, um, appointed for. Yeah. But yeah. I don't know why I thought of that. Um, have you guys seen that video or like that trend where it's like, oh, um, they'll ask the members like, oh, smile. If you like another pastor or something like that.

[01:34:37] Have you guys seen that? No. It's hilarious. Cause they'll like, you know, they'll just like have the camera on someone and then the person like, uh, I don't know. Someone else is like asking the person like a question like, okay. Uh, and now like smile. If you like another passive besides your pastor. And so there's people that straight out, like the start smiling or like laughing and it's hilarious. It's just, uh, like just flashing. Pastor Alex's church did that. Alex's Rock church. Oh yeah. They did, um, they said smile if you want a different pastor and they would look at him.

[01:35:07] And they keep a straight face. Yeah. I'm going to tell your suegro. That's why. I'll tell them. You're going to get the pow pow. Hey pastor. It's over. He's a spy for you. No more kindness. He's thanks for you Alex. He's texting my suegro. I only know, I only know my pastor as my pastor is like very, um, how do you say it? Um, he's kind of all over the place. Like, uh, uh, you'll ask him for something. He's like, yes, yes, yes. Amen. Amen. He'll just walk away. And, um, that's him.

[01:35:36] So I don't know how he, if that, I don't know. Alex was like, can I marry your daughter? Yes, yes, yes. That's called me. Hey, hey, hey, hey. I don't know. I don't know if that transcends into like, um, father. That's a father-in-law? Or suegrohood or whatever you want to call it. Suegrohood. That's the first time I heard that one. Suegrohood. I don't know. He's just like, my pastor is like, just very like, um, he's like, amen, amen. And like, he'll call you and like, you'll try to speak. He's like, all right, brother. So I'll let you go. And I was like, oh yeah, pastor. Okay. I'll let you go.

[01:36:04] He'll click on you before you. You'll say bye. And like, when you're about to go and press dismiss, like as soon as he says bye, he's like. I know what you mean. Cause like for you, your whole life, you've seen him as a pastor. And for me, like the time that I've known him, he's been mostly like a suegro than a pastor, right? Yeah. I think I've only had like a couple real, like, what is it called? Stern. Yeah.

[01:36:34] Like, down to earth conversations. I know for me, the biggest one was asking him to, can I marry your daughter? You know? Oh yeah. Because, and this is a funny, like kind of like little story because, and Isabel knows, not when, and I'm sure, well, we're, we're all young, but I could imagine once we're older and we have daughters, if we are to have daughters, um, like it's going to be, you're having one. I'm going to have one. I already have one. Joel already has one.

[01:37:04] He's already leading, but. I bought a gun. Like, but I could, I could put myself in their shoes, but at the same time, I'm, I can never really know until I'm there, you know? And so for the longest time, like, you know, like pastor and I, we just have conversations as a, as a pastor and as a member of church. Right. And, um, you know, it was just really hard to figure out, like, can I get the blessing already to be able to marry, um, you know, his daughter? Because that was the whole point. Right. I'm courting his daughter.

[01:37:34] If I'm, you know, in a relationship, you know, the, the point back then was to like marry. Right. And so there was a time there I couldn't just, I couldn't figure out when or how I could do it. Right. But I saw a video about like how, you know, you, you have to, you have to be like stern and you basically have to be the dominant male. No, I am the pastor now. You will give me your blessing. I am the captain. Look at me. You will give me your blessing.

[01:38:05] Like, I'm going to find you all night for that blessing. No. Yeah. Uh, so what had happened was that, you know, um, I think Isabel was in Romania and, um, with the, uh, Christian brigades. And, and so it was myself with, uh, my in-laws. Well, back then it was just like the pastors. We, we went, uh, to, um, and there was a baptism out in the mountains and then we were going back. Uh, so I drove with them and I was like, okay, this is the time. This is the day today. It's, it's going to happen, you know?

[01:38:31] And I had to like, look, look at him in the eyes and tell him like, you know, not as a pastor and a member. It's more like a, like a future son-in-law or like someone that wants and needs something from his, uh, from another person. Right. And so I told him it was, I wasn't like, you know, I was going to sugarcoat it. I was just going to be direct and I was going to look, the reason why I'm here. And the reason why I want to talk to you is because I want to marry your daughter. And yes, and yes, you may. Yes. And he walks out. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[01:39:03] Yes. I know too much of your time. I know you're important, but if you can, if you can, can I marry your daughter? Look, can I just, possibly, possibly.

[01:39:31] Like I understand if you say no, like, um, I'll wait 40 years, but, um, no, but I told him, I told him whether you like it or not, we're getting married, whether she likes it or not, we're getting married. And it was the opposite. Pastors, like, I don't, I don't care what you want. You're going to marry my daughter. you take her so I didn't respond to that if it's not too personal he said yes he's like yeah yeah yeah take her take her no yeah he was like oh okay

[01:39:59] he kind of stayed quiet for a bit he does that because he's thinking his wife sister Liz was the one kind of talking for a bit but I knew pastor was the final word so he said yes I give you my blessing he said that he's like I give you my blessing to ask my daughter for marriage and I was like alright cool and I'll take the cars and I'll take a what is it called

[01:40:29] I'm moving in next week we're building the ADU in the back but yeah no it was one of those tense moments like one of those moments in my life that I'll never forget because it was just like was it relieving yeah afterwards oh man I was just like alright we're good and I think I even told Joel because a lot of people would ask me like oh when are you going to ask to marry her when are you going to pose but the final thing was or the most important thing I wasn't even nervous about asking Isabel to marry me because I knew in my heart and my mind that God had placed everything that

[01:40:59] I knew it was her right but it was like the father like her dad I was like man how's that yeah and especially as a traditional Hispanic man you know there's that category of people it's like super hard to like be able to really connect connect yeah have like a you know it's one of those things where I was like because I know because I have uncles I have my dad my dad's chill but there's like a lot of Hispanic men that I was like man like how do you get to them how do you like they have a lot of pride right my cheese mom

[01:41:30] yeah well you kind of in a weird way it was like two birds with one stone because he's pastor and he's the father-in-law yeah like I actually asked pastor first for approval and then he said yes and then I want to go talk to Kezi's dad and he said no oh yeah yeah so also Danny he also had to ask a pastor and a future father-in-law wow that's awesome double winning right there when I asked initially for her to be my girlfriend well actually

[01:42:00] it was our first date it was our first date and it was so weird because I came it was like my first time like we were on our first date but we went straight to her house and I had already lined up a whole schedule of things to do you guys keep talking I'm over the bathroom and then we ended up kind of missing our first thing we were going to go to the Getty and then we ended up missing it because we stayed talking to the parents the whole time and so it was like serious they were laying down all the like her dad was like

[01:42:30] very stern serious like what are your intentions with my daughter like right off the bat and I was like dang I wasn't expecting everything to the point you know what the question that got me the most was like bro what am I getting into was what's your credit score and I was like it's kind of struggling right now but but you know and so I mean he liked all the answers but I was for the most part I was always really really confident when it came to that and just kind of being honest like hey

[01:42:59] my intention is one day I want to marry her like that's that's the only reason I'm getting into this relationship that's that's the end goal right right and uh when it came time to actually ask for you know their permission I uh I took them all out to dinner um her her parents and her siblings and uh and then yeah I remember same thing I wasn't nervous at all I wasn't and then uh I started asking and all of a sudden it's like

[01:43:28] I start feeling tears I come down I start bawling dude and I'm like oh my gosh you're gonna make me cry I'm gonna cry dude I was I was not I was going into it just thinking like like hey like you know we're at a point where you know I want to make this woman my wife like and I think you know we're gonna be together for the rest of our lives and you know all this and uh no I started bawling dude and I I had no idea the whole time because that first date that first date that we were talking and everything and I was telling them like I prayed for this woman like

[01:43:57] I fasted for this woman I you know really I got to a point yeah yeah wow yeah I was thinner but um but yeah so I had I had told them like you know these are all my things that I wanted and she you know fits all those things and um I remember that first date we left that house they were all crying like the the dad the mom the dog she was she was Dakota was crying yeah and I was just like I wasn't crying I was like oh man

[01:44:27] so it's like it's funny how it was reversed like when I ended up proposing or like not proposing but like asking for uh permission I was the one baller wow they were crying because of the credit score remember when you when I talked to you about um uh the young lady that I was speaking to um and you met and you shared your your your information from the lord like this is what it was this is when I woke up

[01:44:56] at this certain time yes you know the next day the same thing happened to me no way I promise you three in the morning waking up I woke up at three in the morning and I was like what the heck really hallelujah and uh I don't wanna I don't wanna air you was it who was it was it was it was it Danny Danny Danny so um he mentioned you um and how you knew don't believe a word he said and how you woke up at a certain time in the in the I would uh you would wake up right I would wake up

[01:45:26] at five in the morning every day and uh pray right and pray for for her um I would before before we had met before I even met her I was like alright I'm at a time where I'm getting older yeah um I wanna start praying for my wife right like I don't know who she is I don't know where she is I wanna start praying for my wife that's awesome and oh did you no no yeah so I wanted to start praying for my wife I wanted to start God to start molding me into the husband that I need to be um cause I was

[01:45:56] and at the time I was like looking up like a bunch of like I wanted to be prepared yeah so by the time I get into marriage like I'm not having to fight any giants like I wanna already be conquered like conquer those giants so that cause I know there's gonna be trouble marriage is never perfect like you know um so I wanted to go in with as as clean of a slate as possible and so I remember something you said that um and it really made me know that you were definitely ready as you said I'm looking for a woman that's so close to God yeah that

[01:46:26] in order for me to get to her I have to get closer to him that's good yeah yeah that was something that I was really like really stern on I'm like if if I'm gonna pursue my wife like she's gotta challenge me too yeah like I need someone that's gonna challenge me I I can't be the one um like you know the bible talks about unequally yoked you know like we we have to find like the better like my my uh struggles like she's gonna be strong and and and when she's gonna be weakened

[01:46:55] I'm gonna be strong and and so I was really praying for for someone that would get me closer to God someone that I would you know help lead um and someone that would ultimately like I don't wanna make it sound like in such a bad way but ultimately you want a wife that's gonna submit like somebody that's gonna let you lead but yeah there's a thing that I heard um that in order for uh a woman to feel loved and protected um the man needs to feel respected and submitted to it's true it's a cycle it's a never ending cycle

[01:47:25] um but I say I say this to bring it up because so Alex mentioned you're this one my beginning stages with this young lady um Alex mentioned you um how you woke up at a certain time to pray right yeah and then that what happened to him was that he woke up at a certain time and he and he did something along the lines of something symbolic that later on he understood why he did something right and so at the same time that he woke up the next the next day after we had that conversation I woke up

[01:47:54] at exactly the same time and I knew that it was the Lord like confirming and calling me so as tired as I was at 3 in the morning I got up and I started praying thanks so it happened with Danny it happened with Alex and then Stephen it happened to you if I would have woken up at 3 in the morning I wouldn't have thought anything about it but because he mentioned you and because um he went through the same time period of waking up at a certain time um I knew that when I woke up at 3 the first thing

[01:48:24] I thought it was like the conversation I had with Alex and I was like oh okay so if it wasn't for that I would have woken up at 3 and I went back to sleep yeah because we had the conversation I was like okay Lord I know this is you kind of talking to me amen so I'm gonna so I prayed a bold prayer I was like she's not for me I prayed it 7 times um throughout the course of me getting to know her right right um if she's not for me remove her cause I have no room for distractions right right yeah it's better to go in and every time I prayed that it was confirmed

[01:48:54] yeah it was a confirmation praise that's good yeah I mean I feel like the way I see it is it's gonna happen I feel like I'm seeing like down the line in Jesus' name yeah uh it's gonna happen and I feel like uh it's like a match made in heaven cause I feel like I know I know her and I know you yeah well it's kinda weird cause you know how like you were saying earlier like the impression that you have with certain people like um now that you guys are deacons and sometimes

[01:49:23] there's like uh the other part of it is like when you meet someone new sometimes it could be like a little bit awkward because you don't know what the type of person is and then there's other people that it's like it's like you just know the person you can easily have a conversation with them the way it was with you when I first met you I was like it's like if I was just having another conversation with Alex yeah so it was like so quick and it showed your character your personality that made me think like oh that's actually what that other

[01:49:53] person needs right yeah so that's always like oh okay that's like perfect we're complete opposites yeah right um opposites attract yeah and I've gotten to understand that um she operates differently from me like I I'm naturally just outgoing I like speaking I like talking to people um and I like well you're invited multiple episodes after this right on you're gonna be a regular now woo we're gonna find a name where's the

[01:50:22] applause um give him the applause we're gonna dedicate a segment just for just for Jason and uh Jason and his disciples right on and James and Jason and Jason um and Judas oh no that's Shiva with it but um yeah she's like super completely different right yeah out of the norm

[01:50:52] and then like my brother um when I bring her around she's very quiet and my brother's like does she does she like us and I'm like nah you have to and I'm like this is how she is when she's first presented to to someone for the first time right but we've had conversations where like I've literally like made her laugh so hard that you know like she's like snorting um but like and she talks a lot once you get to know her um but yeah at the beginning

[01:51:22] it's completely different opposites so in a sense when I was talking to her for the first time I asked the Lord I'm like is this really like who you have in store and then um everything I knew it was from the Lord when everything just felt frictionless right when um like her close friends like you and Kez and and um um the Cedeno family and and even her pastor and her dad and her brother everybody around them like how she was

[01:51:52] just effortlessly just like yeah come come meet them and it would have been awkward like oh are they gonna like me but it's like you're part of the group already one thing that I really appreciated was the fact that she was willing and wanting to invite me to meet her people and it wasn't like um like a matter of like when am I gonna meet your people and she's like not right now you know but to her it was like right off the bed like yeah come meet my people come hang out with us why did it take time for you to introduce her to us yeah man what's that uh I think

[01:52:21] I was just kidding no no no no I was just trying to get I was trying to get an understanding in certain in certain situations that's a really good one right yeah man out there so that's right take initiative um I learned like early on like I always ask myself why didn't she come visit our church but um that's I'm pursuing her

[01:52:51] so I should act like it and just because I won her over doesn't mean I stop pursuing her but she's great she's awesome she's definitely edified my ministry and my relationship with God she keeps me grounded she keeps me rooted um so I I 100% see a future with her and um yeah these are looking great we all doing that we all we'll be praying for you yeah we'll definitely be praying for you ring or watch brother ring or watch uh

[01:53:21] I mean ooh that's a he's like a crown he's like um I have uh does bishop watch this yeah oh dang actually he has he he mentioned one time that he's like yeah I was watching some of your early episodes oh pastor those are the worst I was in my testimony during those times no I um um

[01:53:51] you don't do it that's one of the surprises let's just hold up but it was kind of funny because he was like uh yeah I just couldn't I couldn't like stick with it like I don't know you guys kept going from subject to subject and I'm like some of the first like episodes was like uh Canada versus Mexico just a whole bunch of like random stuff I still believe in maple syrup yeah just a whole bunch of random stuff the dolphins with turrets oh man turrets and turrets okay so I have a proposition

[01:54:20] for a nickname for Jason ooh okay let's hear this is just uh something that I would like uh and who knows if you guys want to the turn have you guys watched the show oh okay I don't know why I was thinking a reacher but I feel like for Jason it should be preacher the preacher the preacher the preacher I like that no I don't know if I like that then we all

[01:54:50] need a we need a better I need more details characteristics of Jason Jason what's your favorite color blue uh what's your favorite movie um or top three top three top three uh definitely fury with Brad Pitt oh that's a good movie um uh I mentioned it to you the lovely bones lovely bones yeah um more emotional emotional yeah right you got a variety I know the third one I know it interstellar yeah interstellar

[01:55:20] interstellar interstellar is a great movie that's why I'm his best friend call him cooper uh cooper you're one of them uh cooper is a cool uh murphy murphy's the daughter of Jarvis Jarvis uh yeah fury the lovely bones and in the cellar have you seen hell mary project hell mary no so actually we're supposed to talk about it so yes we're supposed to talk about it um I literally didn't have time like I I saw the messes between us like watch it

[01:55:50] I was like okay I need to make time to watch this movie and I just didn't have time we'll watch it right now um but um I don't even know what it's about but um it's like a three hour two and a half hour if it's anything similar to interstellar I would love it look the the the the the the scenery is the same okay right okay no story nobody spoiled nobody spoiled I like sci-fi but for example funnier we gotta go watch it you mentioned let's go right now you mentioned you mentioned um

[01:56:19] what's that one movie with that one actor who um oh yeah that one Martian no Matt Damon he just like he put the brakes on some on his neighbor for um recently he was oh Jack Reacher oh Jack Reacher yeah the motorcycle what's the actor's name oh yeah um that one new movie is it War Machine War Machine was good I liked it it just threw me off guard because I didn't know it was sci-fi oh yeah yeah I kind of knew it was sci-fi already going in but it gives you the idea of it's

[01:56:48] like a war movie yeah I liked it and then just goes sci-fi because like the beginning 30 minutes of it it's like oh this is cool it's like a new war movie yeah it's like similar in similar fields to like American Sniper yeah American Sniper Lone Survivor boom I've seen the beginning sci-fi they're like chanting right all the soldiers are like it's a yeah Rangers yeah yeah so um I liked it um but I had to like shift my my gears a little bit yeah okay turn off my brain real quick and let me just watch the movie yeah um we'll definitely have to watch

[01:57:18] what I like about Project Hail Mary is that it uh it goes you go through all the emotions on that one that is true like there's some scary parts there's some you know like there's jump scares there's funny parts there's emotional parts there's like man like you know like it's like a slice of life oh man yeah yeah it really pulls on all the strength you get everything all in one move in a weird way Interstellar is kind of the same you have like there's some somewhat humor and then there's emotional parts there's uh

[01:57:48] kind of scary parts I feel like it was more it's more drama uh well it's like uh Interstellar is like more dramatic this one is definitely science fiction yeah okay Interstellar is like realistic fiction yeah this is more definitely science fiction so be prepared for that oh that's awesome yeah alright cool yeah I mean I like the um what's that one movie um um Dune Dune I have the books right there Dune when's the next isn't the next one coming out December 3rd right

[01:58:18] uh yeah December 3rd I think we've seen the first two together each one I remember the first one I think we saw the second one too yeah we saw the second one we gotta see the third one are you guys Marvel fans yeah which one Doomsday Doomsday oh yeah Dune Dune and uh Doomsday come out the same week same day yeah I'm excited for the new Spider-Man movie oh yeah I'm genuinely like amped for it Spider-Nor is it oh yeah Dune or it's gonna come out too

[01:58:47] that's like 2027 isn't it yeah 2027 but the new one I'm like genuinely yeah no I can't wait excited for it let's all go yeah let's all go let's go let's go right now what's uh wasn't uh I think I told you about the Sinopolis I've never been oh yeah yeah it's cool we have to go like Tuesdays I think Tuesdays oh yeah there's like one day where they one night where it's like cheaper yeah and they bring out food right yeah well they do that every the food they do that like that's regular but I think like

[01:59:16] you have to prove to them that you're a couple so we might have to kiss but that's fine yeah it's fine you get a discount on a movie theater save three dollars yeah and then if we pretend we're disabled that's an extra like three bucks done I have a funny story about Sinopolis I have one of my friends I'm not gonna mention his name or air him out Jacob no shout out Jacob shout out Jacob Peter Peter again Peter is just the worst one he was like let's go watch a movie let's go watch a Sinopolis or Sinopolis

[01:59:46] in Inglewood so we so we're like yeah I'm down there's no good movies but I'm down to watch whatever movie comes up so we went right so he had bought tickets for his friend time period let's say it's 4.30 right after church and we all drove over there and it was like 4.40 and we were just running in and they were like who was the tickets and then he's like I have the tickets he's like I'm like send it to me because I could just check us all in so he did and then I looked at the tickets and we were in Inglewood and the Sinopolis

[02:00:16] was for one in Pico Rivera oh that's a mission bro so I was like I was like bro you got the wrong time there's no there's no time for 4.30 here it's only 5 o'clock and he's like you know I got I got the tickets and I'm like and I looked at it and I looked it up I'm like bro this is Pico Rivera and he's like oh my gosh so he was like all like he's like panicking and was it like a group of people yeah it was a group of people like it was I think 6 or 8 of us

[02:00:45] I'm not gonna say the other word that's probably like what 70 bucks 80 bucks right there worth of cash so he was like he's like I'll just buy the tickets pay me back and I was like yeah you're gonna buy the tickets what do you mean you're the one that bought them so he ended up buying the tickets again then we showed up to the movie that was screening at 4.30 and so we missed like half of the movie oh the guy should have just bought the like next one if there was one the next one was like at 8

[02:01:14] oh okay and so come on Peter so we Peter's messing up Jacob Peters but I mean at least he's closing now so that's gonna go yeah that's true we got food and the food came towards the end of the movie oh I was like bro we could have just went out to eat afterwards yeah yeah obviously the food at Sinopolis is kind of a rebuff yeah so it's not really worth it it's expensive I personally like the AMC by Topanga let's go to that one Topanga AMC anything's better

[02:01:44] than the hot dogs at what was that it was the Roxy right the zombie dog mine was moving yeah dude I bought hot dogs for everybody the last time we went and they're like prepping them before the movie two of them were actually decent which was I think Alex I got a good one yours and Alex no mine was bad I got a good one so Alex and James got good ones me my nephew Jonah and then this guy got like zombie dogs they look green mine looked like I had cancer it was bad like it was like really bad

[02:02:14] nothing beats a Costco hot dog oh yeah for 150 and a drink and a drink yeah that's crazy do you guys remember those chicken bakes did you still have them oh yeah you gotta make a glizzy bake what's a glizzy bake you stick the wiener inside the cheesy chicken bake yeah you stick the glizzy it's a thing yeah or you take the bun I feel like that's a thing for him we found out something yesterday about Costco the wings remember the wings they had wings oh yeah they were pronounced frozen ones

[02:02:43] but they're Kirkland brand and it was like a sauce I don't even know what kind of sauce it was probably buffalo it was kind of like buffalo it was like a buffalo but it wasn't like a normal buffalo yeah Tyson's are good no these ones are these ones are good so good you know how I got into Tyson wings 7-Eleven buys them in bulk so whenever they have them on like the little oven oh those are actually pretty good and I was like what kind are they and I talked to the dude and he was like dude we just buy Tyson wings in bulk

[02:03:12] you could technically go to like Vons or Costco or anywhere else and buy Tyson wings in bulk too so I was like dang they're really good in order for me to eat wings they have to be crispy I can't do no air fryer air fryer you gotta air fryer to flip them because then the bottom is all soggy have you had topper's wings topper's wings the one in Oxnard right or Ventura in Ventura I think yeah yeah I've had them they're pretty good dude

[02:03:42] my favorite wings sounds good right now my favorite wings are like these lemon pepper wings from the boiling crab have you guys been to the boiling crab oh yeah they have wings I didn't even know that never been yeah lemon pepper wings we gotta take this guy they're hot I've been wanting to go to boiling crab for like the longest time he doesn't want to take me bro we should go we should go to boiling crab right now I mean there's only one in Burbank Burbank? the closest one is Burbank how far is Burbank? it's like five minutes away what's the place that's not five minutes Mulholland there's one in Mulholland oh yeah there's one in Calabasasas maybe 10

[02:04:12] Calabasas no that's crab and spice that's that good which I will crab and spice is pretty good too it's like a watered down version of that boiling crab but then again I've never tried boiling crab I'd rather have raging crawfish right up by Victoria on Victoria yeah yeah I've never had that that one's good the CJ's BBQ not that CJ's BBQ it's fine it's all right Bucky's BBQ in I don't even know I think it's Texas oh no there's a Bucky's here I don't think it's related to that one but Bucky's BBQ

[02:04:41] oh I'm getting hungry you ever had a BBQ from Texas yeah so I was gonna mention that right now I'm excited for that I work in Simi Valley right so all the guys there they all like BBQ so we've been at Buster's BBQ in Thousand Oaks we've been at Green Acres in Simi Valley Buster's that's the one sorry I was calling it Bucky but Buster's we have another one over there that was good and we've been like the best BBQ in Santa Paula so as of like three years I've just been not addicted but you know introduced to

[02:05:11] like BBQ almost every other week every other day if you will and I went to Dallas for the first time in February so I went to Roy Hutchins BBQ Hutchins bro that's the best one is it? that's the best one I tasted it I fell in love with the BBQ and some of the best BBQ ever had I came back to Simi Valley and I ate BBQ it was not the same it was not the same it was not the same that's um Dallas Dallas Fort Worth DFW

[02:05:41] you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna have to do this because I told Kez already and she agreed we want to do our next trip is go once baby's old enough to fly go to Texas and then go from Texas to Kansas City because I hear those two spots are the best spots for BBQ yeah go to those and they just keep pouring they just keep pouring the Thai and the soft serve after like the free soft serve let's see what

[02:06:10] Jason's got so all the fans can see so after you get your meal at Hutchins after you get that that looks good this is the jalapeno or is that brisket I believe that is it's probably brisket no over there tri-tip to them is like it's whack so that's brisket brisket and sausages so it's once it comes up we had a

[02:06:39] potato salad we had so we had that mac and cheese that mac and cheese is that oh is that cornbread mashed potatoes oh I don't know what's going on Danny put it on your phone so we can connect it what is it let me send let me airdrop it to you Denny real quick I'm just trying to airdrop go on IG I feel like do they have an IG account I'm gonna eat some chips in the meantime you guys just don't chew on the mic

[02:07:07] do this real quick let's check this out dude uh buck not buckies uh busters I tried busters uh I think it's on johnson really good dude and I don't know if it's connected to the other one that uh he's mentioning in like uh LA uh but dude a lot of food they give you a big piece of bread two pieces of bread like that big just extras

[02:07:36] I um I think I took a picture of it too I might send it to Danny so once it comes up um so that was mac and cheese that was mac and cheese up there that's potato salad those are just regular biscuits up there Danny I'm sending you a picture of uh busters too and uh and then we had uh brisket uh yeah it's brisket uh hot links and then pulled pork pulled pork okay

[02:08:05] this is interesting right here the um the middle one right there they call that a caterpillar so um which one uh oh there we go that that that like pepper thing so we were there oh that's a pepper yes so yeah so we showed let me go see yeah we showed up and um we I mean we're from California we're from LA we don't like what's good here so they're like we just family pack it was like it feeds three to four people it was like that feeds me that's no I'm three to four people

[02:08:35] it's like 90 people and it was three of and it was $90 and it was three of us we didn't finish it um but basically um we're like yeah we'll get the brisket we'll get the hot link we'll get the pulled pork and then we I was like double mac and cheese mandatory right and then we had potato salad and then he's like what about a caterpillar y'all want a caterpillar and I'm like well what the heck is a caterpillar no he's like you don't know what a caterpillar is I'm like no I'm from LA and he's like caterpillar is um is a brisket stuffed brisket and cream cheese stuffed in a um jalapeno no jalapeno

[02:09:04] and we wrap it with bacon oh man that's like diabetes right there but I want it that's Texas for you right there even the uh the sausage the cheese it's cheese jalapeno sausage yeah oh yeah so you got cheese jalapeno it was good how's the bread there because I'm seeing the bread down here it's good it's uh it's not dry um it's fresh buttery um man I'm getting hungry oh man I just sent you the picture um we gotta go Buster's restaurant

[02:09:33] I just sent Danny the picture he's gonna pull it up Daz and Oaks um Ventura Johnson right yeah yeah Johnson Buster's is good too this was delicious dude they had those uh other ribs oh dude these things were dull like the sauce is the best part but the bread like I was telling you um uh Alex they it's literally like those uh french breads from uh uh what are you doing dude remember when we were on the phone like looking at Facebook marketplace

[02:10:02] oh sure okay we gotta talk about that too well okay but you guys gotta try uh uh Buster's I was trying to make a yeah no this doesn't compare to Texas barbecue man dude it was delicious it's the closest thing yeah the sauce and everything was delicious okay so so the Bermigos could see we were are you trying to buy a truck? no me and Danny

[02:10:31] were having a conversation for so long on the phone I think it was like two hours yeah that we ended up like getting to a point where it was just like a high and vibe conversation to hey let's look up what we could find on on Facebook marketplace and we ended up finding this guy go back to the other one this guy that can make freaking uh he'll take your wagons he'll take your he'll take anything and he'll make it into a Lightning McQueen he will you can send him a freaking refrigerator he'll make it into a Lightning McQueen

[02:10:59] send him a Target shopping cart and he'll and he'll turn it into a Lightning McQueen send him your car did you guys you guys were interested in doing that? well yeah the service is free so we found go to the truck we were trying to send him either the Prius that was $300 or the piano that we found and and uh eventually we were trying to figure out if we could find a smoker to take camping and put it in the back of his Tesla yeah so we found a couple different

[02:11:29] uh smokers but we just kept finding like Danny found this one this is literally just a barrel that the guy made it's like for 250 yeah but it's a it's a full on barrel like an actual barrel like an actual barrel in Linwood over there in Downey it's about you no? other smokers yeah kind of did you get one? the smoker? we were thinking about it we were thinking about it yeah we even like we're thinking what is that? I don't know I don't know I don't know what's safe in my camera right now

[02:11:59] I thought that was Joel's no oh it's cause there's a video that I sent to the group chat the the one about the baby yeah yeah that one's funny show it I want to know I mean if she doesn't approve it she'll edit it out play it it's cause the baby is wait wait wait let me unmute it cause it's muted right now not to be a buzzkill but I gotta head out in a little bit aw alright we can end this right now what are you gonna do?

[02:12:29] abuelita's 91st birthday wow that's that's important alright play it hello it was just that that was actually funny alright bro amigos I guess that's it alright yeah that's pretty much it Jason thank you for

[02:12:58] joining us on this chaotic adventure adventure and uh we're definitely gonna bring you back multiple times again any last any last words that you guys wanna say we gotta come up with your nickname oh wait we gotta come up with your nickname but we also have a very special date coming up so uh uh May 29th set it down because we're launching UNFC's website and it's gonna be live I'm busy that's it

[02:13:27] it's gonna be and it's gonna be a day before our four year anniversary world star four years that we've been doing the podcast so I'm excited for it so everybody that's gonna be watching this episode nice make sure to check it out we're gonna promote it and everything and then eventually launch it on May 29th right on yeah anyway so nickname I said Cooper because of Interstellar but we can also go with Bucky's because he likes barbecue

[02:13:57] Bucky's is not a place though barbecue jam it's not a place no yeah it is in Texas oh gas station oh gas station oh is it that little beaver beaver beaver beaver double mac oh I kinda like that what's double mac for cause you gotta go with the double mac I don't think that describes it you're out uh double mac Cooper beaver glover glover

[02:14:27] glover glover glover glover isn't that someone's last name donald glover donald glover um I say we wait till the next episode what about mitts no we gotta figure out right now right now why not mitts at work I'm most known for just energy drinks I just I down them like they're water so let's see he likes movies he's a deacon he drinks energy drinks um he's going to Texas mitts I'm sold on mitts why mitts because his hands are like they're like

[02:14:58] mitts pause yeah I just wanna get in them you wanna get in them yeah mitts it's mitts no no no that's so weird mitts are two so long I'm trying to think like I'm looking back to energy drinks I thought of one but I don't know if you'd like it what is it it's your last name part of your last name it's a roach I mean I got all the time I don't mind I kind of like it roach

[02:15:27] um I've learned to embrace that the roach yeah the roach no not the roach that's derogatory roach can't die that's true that is true I feel like we need something very like stoic stoic he's a wise man right here we need something like uh chasing son what about sunny sunny sunny sunny why sunny d how's that sunny j

[02:15:56] just sun capri sun oogway sun capri you just mentioned wise I don't know I don't think I'm wise I don't think I'm wise but I appreciate the compliment I think you're wise master oogway maternal what's the little the little one chifu chifu master chifu what about sun why sun cause like what's up sun get out no we need something uh james any

[02:16:26] the sauce the ooh saucy jay saucy jay saucy jay saucy jay we got saucy jay in the house that's hilarious bishop's gonna look at that and he's like saucy jay beacon saucy jay saucy jay i like it but i don't know if he likes it do you like it that's not very nick me it's not for someone to like it's just whatever you're given to yeah true yeah i get called handsome that's not a nickname

[02:16:55] that's a that's a lie they're talking to me that's a lie uh we'll think of something yeah yeah we're gonna have to think about it some other day then rain check rain check alright saucy jay for now saucy jay alright let's end this deacon thunder i like that from down under thunder from down under alright bye everybody bye