'The Hub' with Michael Allen sponsored by Manpower Richmond

Ep. 20 | From Football Dreams to Faithful Lead: Caleb Bloom's Impact with Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Indiana with Host Michael Allen

• Kevin Shook • Episode 20

Share episode

Ever wondered how a college football injury could lead to a profound ministry calling? Caleb Bloom's story is a fascinating journey from potential sports stardom to a pivotal role with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) in East Central Indiana South. Caleb shares his path of faith, family influences with host, Michael Allen on this episode of the Hub Sponsored by Manpower Richmond. Caleb talks about his serendipitous moments that guided his transition from the mortgage world to becoming a beacon of hope and guidance in student athletics. Through his experiences, discover the transformative power of faith and how it can redirect paths in unexpected, fulfilling ways.

Join us as we explore Caleb's efforts in expanding the FCA's reach in local schools, where he creates "huddles" to connect coaches, athletes, and Christ. These small groups serve as safe havens for students, offering Bible studies, leadership camps, and impactful events that nurture their spiritual growth. Caleb's passion for sports is evident as he recounts the joy of teamwork and leadership, emphasizing the camaraderie and guidance that FCA provides to young athletes. It’s a touching narrative about building community and resilience through shared faith, particularly as students navigate the challenges of high school life.

Additionally, Caleb sheds light on how FCA's initiatives are transforming lives by offering emotional support and fostering a sense of belonging among teenagers. Through heartfelt stories of leadership and community, he illustrates how faith-based programs play a crucial role in providing stability and hope during transitional periods. This episode promises to inspire and inform, offering insights into the profound impact of the FCA's mission on both individual lives and broader school communities. Whether you're interested in faith, sports, or community building, Caleb’s story is sure to resonate and encourage.

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Michael Allen from Manpower. We are a national brand, yet locally owned franchise. We are familiar with the challenges businesses face. It's tough recruiting and retaining qualified employees. That's why working with Manpower is a smart, cost-effective solution. Our entire focus is talent acquisition. We'll manage your hiring and training and provide ongoing, customized support. Since 1966, we have been your community-invested partner, uniquely positioned to help eliminate the hassles and save you time and money. Let us help contact Manpower today.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Hub powered by Manpower of Richmond, with offices also in Portland and Newcastle. I'm your host, michael Allen, and here on the Hub we interview local businesses, community partners and various special guests. And our mission the hub. We interview local businesses, community partners and various special guests, and our mission is to share and spotlight unique and untold stories of companies, organizations and people who are making a difference in our community. And today we are visiting with Caleb Bloom. Caleb is the area representative of East Central Indiana South for Fellowship of Christian Athletes, fca. Caleb, welcome to the Hub, thank you, thanks for having me Good to see you today.

Speaker 1:

It's great to meet with you and talk about Fellowship of Christian Athletes and before we do that, a couple things I wanted to talk about. I mean, we're just a couple of days out from christmas and, uh, I don't know, you're quite a bit younger than me, but I don't know if you've ever watched the charlie brown christmas my mom's obsessed with charlie brown and uh, so, uh.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, charlie brown's pretty frustrated with what's going on with the school productions and just all the kids and stuff, and he kind of has this meltdown and he really wants to understand what the true meaning of Christmas is. And so Linus takes the stage. And I want to go through this part that Linus quotes from the Bible, out of Luke 2. He says and in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people, you good news of great joy that will be for all people, for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a savior who is Christ, the Lord, and this will be a sign to you. And you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

Speaker 1:

And suddenly there was, there was, with the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those whom he has pleased. And you know, jesus came to this world for a particular reason and he said it himself later in the same chapter, same book Luke 19. He said For the Son of man came to seek and save the lost. And FCA's vision, from our discussions before, is to see the world transformed by Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes. And so it's just taking something that happened thousands of years ago and sharing that story with with others. And what FCA does that is through, uh, the influence of coaches and athletes and other individuals in the school system Is that fair to say, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, excellent, so, uh, but we're, we're gonna, uh, so we're going to talk about that today. One thing that we do here on the Hub is because of our association with manpower. We put people to work and we like to talk about jobs. So the question I have for you and this is a real enjoyable part for me is what was your first job that you ever had? Do you remember what that was?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for me is what was your first job that you ever had? Do you remember what that was? Yeah, my first job. My dad owned a restaurant in Edgewood a restaurant and, golf course okay, and my first job. I started working when I was 14, I think. Bus boy doing dishes, working in the kitchen, whatever, just walked in and helped out however, edgewood yeah, and where was this located at? Just outside of Anderson on the LaPel side?

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah, all right. So is that place still around to this day? It's still there.

Speaker 2:

My dad doesn't own it anymore. He got rid of it right before COVID hit.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

But we had it for about four or five years. It's still there, edgewood Golf Course and Restaurant, I think is the name of it.

Speaker 1:

All right. So a little nine hole 10, 18 hole course 18, 18 hole. All right, so you didn't get to do the golf stuff. You were me. Golf course, You're more helping in the restaurant.

Speaker 2:

I did some golf course stuff where I was like weed eating or edge and bunkers and stuff like that. But my dad's passion was the golf course and I loved the restaurant.

Speaker 1:

Great. Well, that's interesting. That's uh lots of people have. People have, you know, had their first jobs, and really even at that stage in their lives, so, yeah, it was fun. Next, I'd like to ask you, I mean, uh, share with our followers a little bit about yourself, kind of where you grew up, your education, some of your previous vocational pursuits, your family, wife, any children that you may or may not have. So tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, like you said earlier, I'm Caleb Bloom. I grew up in LaPelle, indiana. I'm 25 years old now. Lapelle is kind of sandwiched between Noblesville and Anderson, but that's where I grew up, my whole life, played football and basketball, went and played college football for two years before I ended up getting hurt. So I came back home in 2020 and started working and my first job coming back then was helping open up a restaurant in Anderson not Edgewood, my dad's previous one, but Grandview, also in Anderson. So helped open that up, worked there for a while as a server and then went out and sold cars. Sold cars for nine, 10 months.

Speaker 2:

I think it was okay, didn't love it and then went out and started doing mortgages and was doing mortgages for about two and a half years, all right, and that was a pretty tough market, pretty tough industry. And then, while doing mortgages, my current or my wife and I got married. Uh, we've been married for over two years now. Um, she does cardiac rehab in downtown Indy. Uh, we do not have a baby. We have a fur baby. We have a little golden doodle that we spoil like a kid. Um, and then, shortly after mortgages is when I started pursuing FCA fellowship of Christian athletes. I started with them in 2023, uh September.

Speaker 1:

So you made a transition from uh sit from uh car salesman to doing mortgages to, and now you're uh involved in a pretty well-known ministry. Has it's been around, I think, since the 50s?

Speaker 2:

Long time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, FCA has been so I don't know probably heading around getting close to 75 years. What kind of led you in that direction? I mean, did you know about FCA from the time when you were in school? Was that something that you were exposed to then, or is that something that kind of post school that you found out about and eventually became involved?

Speaker 2:

in? Yeah, I was exposed to it in high school. My dad was actually the FCA like school sponsor for my high school and he was doing that ever since I was in elementary school. So I was exposed to it through him, but I didn't know how big of a corporation company like it actually was. I thought it was just a thing that my dad did at lapel and we had donuts every Wednesday morning, talked about Jesus and went to school.

Speaker 2:

But I sat down with my dad again February of 2023. So almost two years ago now and basically just asked him how I could find my calling that Jesus had for me, cause I didn't feel like it was that doing mortgages Like I enjoyed mortgages, but I wasn't like feeling fulfilled, um, doing it. And dad said that I would be great ministry and great with kids and great with sports. So see if you can figure something out. I'm like ministry now, but I'll figure out something with sports and kids. Yeah, so I thought I was going to be a coach and a teacher or something like that. Go back to school, finish up my degree so I could become a weights teacher or something and then a football or basketball coach.

Speaker 2:

Followed that conversation with my dad to where seven people in about a two week time span all asked me if I ever considered pursuing ministry, and each time I told them no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2:

And then the sixth and seventh one happened and me and my wife were like maybe this is God trying to talk to me, not just random events of people asking me if I would pursue ministry, but kind of the icing on the cake for me was my wife and I were wondering what brought us to Hagerstown, because Hagerstown is not close to anything except her parents and a couple of relatives.

Speaker 2:

It was far away from both of our jobs, far away from my family, far away from our church, and the job that FCA was looking to hire for was an area rep in the exact county that my wife and I were living in and surrounding counties. So you're like, okay, maybe that's why we were called to move out here two years in advance before this ministry started. And then I sat down and talked with my aunt and basically told her the whole story of all these people coming into my life leading me to ministry. And for two months, before any of those signs or conversations even happened, she was praying for somebody to come into my life and lead me in the direction towards my calling. So for two months before any of the things even started happening, she was praying constantly, every single morning for two months straight, of somebody to lead me towards my calling. So that was the icing on the cake for me was that she was praying for that for that long.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's cliche cliche, but you know things happen for a reason, right, yeah, and you get all these indicators and it's just keep coming back into your, your pathway. You know kind of getting your attention about, about maybe getting involved in ministry and, specifically today, fca. Let me just backtrack a little bit. Tell me, uh, you played basketball and and football. So, between it looks like you went later and played college football, and that was at northwestern st paul, northwestern, and uh, so in high school, though, what was kind of more of your passion? Was it basketball or football?

Speaker 2:

yeah, so I obviously am built like a football player, not built like a basketball player. Um, but basketball at lapel had a little bit more like excitement and stuff behind it. Um, so basketball was probably. I had more fun playing basketball, but I was better and enjoyed football more, if that makes any sense. Yeah, um, it's good, I love both, but I wasn't built to play basketball for much longer after high school, so I went with football and didn't regret it Were you 6'4 then in high school. I've been this tall since about seventh grade.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So I mean there's definitely some advantages in basketball, so were you coordinated enough to take advantage of that height?

Speaker 2:

I was actually a perimeter player.

Speaker 1:

I had two guys on my high school team that were bigger than me wow, um, and really skilled post players. You guys have a pretty good basketball team those years.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, one sectionals a couple times and won the state championship in 2016 okay, awesome, yeah, that's great.

Speaker 1:

and then, uh, what position did you play in football? I was a tight end, tight end, so Mm-hmm, so what's like your best game? How many catches did you have in a game? Or do you name success by that? I mean, are you wanting the ball? Tight end is not just a receiver, you're a blocker, right, but I mean, what part did you enjoy about that position? Or I mean, what do you think back of that a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was funny. I caught my first varsity touchdown in a game my junior year and my dad came up to me and he's like dude, you caught your first touchdown. Was that your favorite play of the game? I'm like, no, my favorite play of the game was a pancake block I had in the second quarter. So I did a little bit of both. Catching was always fun my best game. I think I had seven catches in a game at one point, which was fun. But I enjoyed the dirty work too of blocking and things like that. So it was just a fun sport.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely Well, thanks for sharing that. So let's go back and talk a little bit about what Fellowship of Christian Athletes is kind of review and tell us a little bit about what Fellowship of Christian Athletes is this kind of review, and tell us a little bit about what it is. I talked a little bit about the vision, but maybe explain it a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, like you said, the vision is to impact the world, like get coaches and athletes into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and his church. Like we don't just stop once he gets into a relationship with Jesus. Like FCA is more than Tuesday mornings, church is more than Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. So we're trying to get them in a growing relationship with Christ and then the church. That way they can do more than just 25 minutes on Tuesday mornings before school. And our first goal is huddles getting campus huddles started, which is basically just like a small group for kids at their campus. And the way we go about that, without getting thrown off campus, with us being a religious group, is finding a student leader that initiates all of it. He initiates the time that we're meeting. The room that we're meeting in gives a piece of paper to the principal or superintendent or whoever, and it's during non-instructional school hours with a school representative present, a teacher, coach, whoever. So we try to get huddles started and then try to get those kids to go to camp to try to teach them more like leadership skills and what it's like to lead a huddle, like biblically, and not just getting together and doing motivational speaking for 25 minutes in the morning. So our ultimate goal is just huddles and getting a huddle active in every single school, just a safe place for kids to gather, hang out, learn a little bit about Jesus.

Speaker 2:

And then the next step that I have taken this year was we got every high school in my area I serve Wayne, fayette, franklin, rush and Union counties so getting a high school huddle started in every single high school, which happened last year Um, we were 10 for 10. That's awesome, yeah, incredible. And then, after all the high schools huddles were started, I wanted to start team huddles. So having a active FCA huddle for every single team at every single school like that's going to take a very long time. Yeah, pretty lofty goal, yeah Noble.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's been a fun start. This year we have seven huddles active at Hagerstown from athletic teams. We're with the men's and women's basketball team, the wrestling team, swimming team, track baseball and softball, and then we have a second huddle or sorry, first girls basketball huddle at Northeastern. So that's been a lot of fun. Team huddles has probably been my favorite part of the job so far because I'm obsessed with sports. So it gives me an excuse to go in and watch a little bit of practice and hang out with some athletes afterwards. Kind of takes me back a little bit to my high school days where I'm sitting in a gym for a couple hours at a time. Except this time I get to talk about jesus afterwards to kids who may have not heard of him before yes, I, yeah.

Speaker 1:

It talks a little bit about a question that, when they ask you, is like I mean, you're organizing these huddles. You have all these different schools and different times. I mean, how much connection do you have with the students on a regular basis? You know you get this student organizer that kind of gets the uh, the classroom use setups and then come and they meet. But how? I mean, what's your role in more of the from the interaction standpoint? Yeah, how does that work?

Speaker 2:

for you. So the student leaders, especially at new huddles, because when I came in I inherited a couple pretty successful huddles already. So my interaction with students, especially at huddles that are new, is weekly and almost daily, is just in communication with them. How can we make fca better? How can I help you? What do you? Interaction with students, especially at huddles that are new, is weekly and almost daily. It's just in communication with them. How can we make FCA better? How can I help you? What do you need from me? What training resources do you need? Do you need me to come in and speak? Do you need food?

Speaker 2:

Which is always a yes, but my interaction with especially Hagerstown, northeastern and Richmond are pretty daily, for sure weekly, but sometimes daily, just because they're new. They've only been doing it for about a year. Connersville started up their huddle about a couple months ago first high school huddle there as well, and my interaction with them is also weekly, just because they're new. They haven't led an FCA before. With my other huddles it's, I would say, monthly active communications and stuff with them the sign of led an FCA before. With my other huddles it's, I would say, monthly active communications and stuff with them the sign of a successful FCA huddle is when they don't need me anymore.

Speaker 1:

So how many kids or young adults are part of this, of the program? I mean, like I don't know if you have an exact number or not, but how many kids are we talking about?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So CU at the Pole gives us kind of our best estimate of how many kids we have because we get pictures from every huddle. So at CU at the Pole this year we had 615 kids roughly across 17 different schools. So I would say CU at the Pole is always an increase in kids that are there because it's a special, different annual event. So I would say we serve about 550 kids on a weekly basis. Uh, not just at CU at the pole, but on a weekly basis. Just cover what.

Speaker 2:

Cu at the pole? Yeah, cu at the pole it's not an FCA thing, it's a country wide thing. It's just a national day of prayer. I don't know exactly who started it country-wide thing, it's just a national day of prayer. I don't know exactly who started it, but it is a thing that FCA helps with. It's you circle around the poll, a flagpole on your campus, with whoever wants to come and just pray. It's a student-led thing.

Speaker 2:

This year we had again 615 kids, which was up from last year and Franklin County High School. It's my favorite story. One of my favorite stories to see at the poll this year was they had 25 kids roughly at their CU at the poll last year and this year there was a seventh-grade girl that said I want this to be the biggest, best CU at the poll that Franklin County has ever seen. And she talked to her teacher high school teachers, like middle school principal, high school principal, like got an article in, like a newspaper, was going all out for this and they went from 25 to about 150 in just one year. That's amazing. This seventh grade girl just spread the word.

Speaker 1:

She had a passion for it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, just spread the word to everybody and it was awesome.

Speaker 1:

How do you you talked about it a little bit, but navigating through, I I mean I don't think, trying to think about how I want to say this the coming in to the schools. I guess there's a certain concern, but because there's no religious affiliation, they, they don't want maybe perceived in and I'm maybe speaking ignorantly about it some type of people coming in and indoctrinating people or whatever. I mean, is it tough to kind of get this set up? I mean obviously to, I'm maybe contradicting myself. It's not that tough because you do have some people. But what? Where does the pushback come from sometimes? Or or is it more open than what people would think?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's very open. I haven't had at least in my year and a half of doing this, I've had no pushback from any school or any teacher or anything like that. Most of the pushback normally comes from anybody with a leadership position in school. But the ones that I've ran into to try to start huddles or continue huddles or grow huddles are like I love what you're doing. I don't know, I might not be a religious person, but I just want my kids to gather in a safe space. So I haven't personally had any pushback. Fca has had pushback before, but as long as it's student led, student initiated with the school supervisor and non-instructional school hour. Like you can't have FCA during English period as much as I would have liked to, but you have to have it before school or after school or during like a study hall period or lunch period or something. And as long as we do it during that, then we can't have pushback because it's legal for us to meet.

Speaker 1:

All right, okay, all right, uh, uh, okay, all right. Part of some of my notes here is that are you giving out Bibles or Bible study? Resources and discipleship is part of what we're doing here. Um, you also have a field. Did I say that right? I mean, am I accurate in my notes there? And then fields of faith. Tell us a little bit about about that fields of faith is incredible.

Speaker 2:

Um, I'll tie that in with the bible handouts that we do, cause our biggest evangelical event of the year is fields of faith, and this year fields of faith is just a student led worship night. Basically, it's gap or put together by FCA leaders across the state to come in and lead in worship. We had a whole band this year that was made up of FCA kids and our entire um speaking team was made up of five current high school FCA students and they are themed this year. Was ID, please? Talking about how your identity is not in your sports, it's not in your girlfriend, it's not in your job, it's not in the money that you have, but your identity, true identity lies in Christ, and Christ calls you like his child, his son or his daughter. So your true identity lies in that, none of this other worldly stuff that a lot of us put our identities in, oh for sure. So that was our theme this year and a lot of kids just came in and shared their testimonies about how they found their true identity or one of the most influential people in their life who wasn't a Christian, how that was affecting like this person's identity and things like that. And then afterwards if a baseball analogy we have a closing pitcher he's just a closing speaker that comes in, he's a pastor or somebody local in that area that comes in and kind of wraps up everything that we talked about and just closes out the night, and then afterwards we open up the altars to anybody who wants to receive prayer or even receive Christ for the first time, give their life back to Christ. We open up the altars for whoever wants to do that. And then this year had about 130 kids come up and do that and one of them was a mom who's been a drug addict and alcoholic for 15 years and she felt the call to come up and give her life to Christ at a student event, which was incredible, and that night we handed out about 170 Bibles and that's our biggest like Bible distribution night.

Speaker 2:

Um, we do it throughout schools and stuff like that too, like Richmond high school. Uh, last year we let them in a message of Romans road, because there are a lot of new kids in there that don't know anything about the Bible or walk with Jesus or anything. And basically a summary of Romans road is we're all centers. Jesus died on the cross. For us, we can't earn Jesus's love but, like, his grace is given to us anyway because he loves us. So if we just put our faith in him and trust him and have a relationship with him and give our life over to him, then we could spend forever with him. And we had 10 kids come up to us. That was our biggest FCA of the year.

Speaker 2:

Last year was that Romans road message that we had about 35 there and 10 kids came up to us afterwards and said I want to give my life to Christ. I don't know what that looks like, but I what you said. I felt something in me that I've never felt before. So how do I give my life to Christ? How do I get a Bible? Where do I start going to church? How, how do I do this? So the next week we handed out 24 Bibles at Richmond's FCA to all the kids who did not have a Bible, and my wife and I went through the week before and highlighted 35 verses in the Bible or the Bibles, just to give them a place to start Cause that's great.

Speaker 2:

We. When we talked about the Bible with them previously, they didn't know how to open the Bible to John three, 16, which is a verse that even non-believers know. But these kids, who have never owned a Bible, never opened a Bible. I said open to John 3, 16, and they looked at me like I was speaking French. So we had a Bible 101 kind of day with them. What's a chapter, what's a verse? What's a book of the Bible? Where do I start? And I told them that they don't have to read it front to back and it just blew their mind where do you point for a kid or young adult that hasn't really been exposed to that, to the scriptures?

Speaker 1:

where are some of the places you tend to lead them to?

Speaker 2:

first, because I mean, there's a lot there and there's some.

Speaker 1:

You go into some books of the bible and they it's just like. I mean it's not boring, but it can come off like I don't even understand what I'm reading here. The begats begat you know, and certain things could be a little confusing. So I mean, where do you tend to kind of direct kids?

Speaker 2:

initially. I always point to Matthew, mark, luke or John when kids are first starting, first four books of the New Testament, the gospels, where it just talks about Jesus's life from four different perspectives. That's where I always point to. I tell some kids like kind of make a joke of it, I'm like who thinks they're the smartest person in the room? And some kids raise their hand. I'm like go read Proverbs, and Proverbs is just a whole book of wisdom and then you'll see some stuff in there and it'll kind of humble you, because it humbled me when I read Proverbs all the way through for the first time. And then if there's like choir people or band people, music lovers in the room, then I tell them to go to the book of Psalms, because a lot of our current worship music is written from verses in Psalms. So those are kind of the six verses that I always go to, or, sorry, six books of the Bible that I always go to.

Speaker 1:

It's called Fellowship of Christian Athletes and is it? I mean it seems like it's is the athletes a part of it? I mean, is that through the teams, that's just kind of the conduit that kind of helps you get groups together, or is it really? I mean, when it started I guess it was probably more geared toward athletic teams, whatever, but it sounds like it's really much bigger than that now. I mean, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So when fca first started, um, it was started by, I believe, branch ricky of the brooklyn dodgers, and carl erskine was one of the founding fathers of fca as well, who's a big anderson guy, um, and he goes up to branch and is like I love sports and I love jesus, how do I put it together? And that's where fca started. So fellowship of christian athletes was started by athletes originally intended for athletes, but I like having a sign that's like fellowship of christian anybody's and has athletes marked out and anybody's can come um. The reason that it's called again fellowship of Christian athletes was because it started from an athlete and athletes typically have like leadership principles and like leadership attributes that other I don't want to say other kids don't have, but athletes are just born natural leaders and as an athlete, especially a good athlete on a high school team, you're kind of like the popular kid of school and they would have the most pull.

Speaker 2:

And my favorite story, kind of like backing that is Pendleton Heights High School. Right when they were leaving for COVID, there was a sophomore on the football team, really good player, that was leading FCA and they had about 20 kids and then COVID happened so they couldn't meet anymore. They did online school for the rest of the year. Then August comes around and he's nervous that nobody's going to show up for FCA. So he's going door knocking just around Pendleton and inviting as many people as he can and he shows up to their little classroom that they have it in and has two dozen donuts and a gallon of chocolate milk and then 110 kids walk through the door and again I think there would have been a lot of kids still if anybody would have gone and door knocked. But that's one of the best players on the pendleton football team. That's inviting you to something, and if a really good athlete from your high school invites you to something, people tend to go right uh, I bet a.

Speaker 1:

I mean I bet kids were just wanting to be together and that was such a rough time for kids in the schools at that time. And coming back and what a great way to start it. Come back and meet together with something like FCA would be a real great start to bringing kids back together again and bringing in some good focus toward what Christ can mean in their lives. Anything else that maybe we haven't talked about that's important to share about FCA and the work that you do.

Speaker 2:

That's really the gist of it. I can sit here for another couple hours and just share a bunch of stories that have happened forever. But, um, the big thing is huddles and then leadership camp that we have once a year where that's the only FCA thing that is not student led. That's the staff just pouring back into them and that's where we find a lot of leaders for our huddles. But really the only thing we haven't really touched on is small groups too.

Speaker 2:

Like with FCA is something new that I don't know if it's been a thing before, but I had a group of kids that came up to me and said, hey, I, I want to have a small group with other FCA huddles. Like I love my school huddle but I want to get to know other FCA kids too. So kind of what you were talking about during the COVID time, how kids just want to be together. That hasn't really stopped. Like kids still want to be together and meet other kids. And we just started a Bible study on Monday nights now where five different schools we've only had it four times and five different schools are present there and just kids coming from all over this side of indiana to come to a bible study and just hang out with kids their age for our followers.

Speaker 1:

kind of explain a little bit like I hosted a small group at my home twice a month and explain for those who are watching or listening what a small group is.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so this small group is a little different than your typical small group. The typical small group at least the ones that I've been a part of is you get together in somebody's house, at a Starbucks, at a restaurant, wherever, and you just gather and talk about Jesus, and it can be Bible stories, it can be life stuff that you're going through, that you want to gather around and just talk to people about and get biblical advice from. Um. Small groups that I've been a part of recently is a discovery Bible study, where we just read a quick passage in the Bible and what does this passage say about God, what does it say about people and how are we going to let this change our life? Um, the main Bible studies in small groups that I've been a part of, though, have been Bible studies.

Speaker 2:

This um Monday night service, though, is more of like a youth night, a small group where we have somebody come in and lead us in worship. We sing two or three songs every week, and then, after the songs are over, we do prayer. Either one person comes in and praise over the group as a whole, and I'm going to go off on a little side road here, but one of the most incredible things that I've ever been a part of happened last Monday, where we decided to break off and pray over each other individually and I got up in front of him and said if you are facing something where you need specific prayer right now, sit down and those of you who are still standing go lay a hand on everybody who is sitting down and pray over them. Pray over them silently, pray over them out loud, pray over them quickly or shortly, like long, doesn't matter, just go pray over them. And if you feel led to stand up and go pray with the rest of the group, then stand up and go pray. Long story short, that turned into what was a silent prayer to the whole room, crying and hugging and praying with each other so loudly to where you couldn't even hear the worship music that was playing in the background.

Speaker 2:

Just a group of kids sharing their high school stuff that they're going through with other believers and just praying. So prayer is a huge thing with this small group. And then a message where a student comes in and just shares a brief 10 minute message and the student that prepares the message also comes up with questions for the small group. So what we just talked about recently is finding your purpose. A senior from Northeastern came in and shared how to find your purpose, and then all four questions that she came up with was basically talking about your purpose. How do I find my purpose? How do I hear from God what my purpose is? And then the groups get together and talk about it.

Speaker 1:

FCA is prime. I mean you've got it in elementary or middle schools middle schools middle schools and high schools, and then you're working to have some in college. But wouldn't you say that the high school group is is maybe is it fair to say the target group or the biggest group of of the participants in fca?

Speaker 2:

it's been my target group for sure, um, just because of my testimony and some of the things that I went through in high school were some things that I don't wish other kids to ever go through. So that's been my target group. Just because that was my most like adversity faced four years, I would say so that's been my target group. Just because I've that was my hardest four years, I would say.

Speaker 1:

I think being a teenager is some of the most enjoyable part of of your life and memories, but it's, I think, one of the most challenging periods in your life, just that, transitioning from being a child to an adult, and you want to, and just you're in this limbo and there's so many things coming at you in life at that age. That's where I believe your faith can really give you stability in your life when all these challenges come. There's a sense of hope there, through the relationship with Christ that is is unparalleled with anything else you know, and so I I I can see where you know the ministry can do so many good things in that age group just because it's such a challenging period

Speaker 1:

in people's lives. You know we, I mean there's chapters of life, life, you know there's all kinds of things, but I, just when I look back, I think that is a tough period. Yeah, so well. Uh, one thing I wanted to talk about before we maybe kind of wrap things up, is that so this is your full-time job, but part of being representative for FCA is you kind of have to raise your support money. It's kind of like you're a missionary on the ground, in the schools and with those kids. So how does that work, trying to support? I mean you have Bibles that you're giving out. There's a cost associated with that, but then you know you're you're sacrificing a career doing something else by doing this ministry. So I mean you need to be able to, you know, support yourself and help support your wife. I mean she works but, um, so how does, how does that all work?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, like you said, I am a missionary. Part of my job is actively fundraising monthly donors, annual donors, talking to individuals, churches, businesses and sharing my vision with them and then asking them to go home and pray about support Right. Part of that support goes towards my salary. A lot of that support goes towards food because these kids love to eat. Of that support goes towards my salary. A lot of that support goes towards food because these kids love to eat. Right now, bibles is provided from my boss. That will eventually end up being an expense that I carry. And then the rest of the money that I fundraise kind of goes towards savings as a backup plan in case some donors fall off. And then out of that savings I can also give out scholarships for kids to go to camp, because camp is expensive and some kids do need financial support for camp as well.

Speaker 1:

so this is all of the funding stuff that you've gone out and raised, or do you have any money coming in through any other conduits at all?

Speaker 2:

I I have a side job on wednesdays that I work, but all of the money coming in through FCA is money that I have raised.

Speaker 1:

But people can donate to that, and then that's a check payable to FCA, and then what's the oversight on that? How does that work?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I wasn't allowed to get paid until I was fully funded is the word, which is just the first goal that you set for yourself. That first goal was $30,000 for me, which is 2,500 bucks a month. So my goal was to raise $2,500 a month through annual donors divided by 12 or through continued monthly donors, and all that money goes to FCA and then FCA pays me as, like, a W2 employee. Okay, if that answers your question yeah, no, it does.

Speaker 1:

It does so, um, if people want to uh contribute, I think we're going to. You gave us a QR code. We're going to try to uh put that in to uh this when it goes out, for at least people that are watching it. Um, but if someone wants to contribute to this ministry, how would they do that?

Speaker 2:

The best way would probably be to text or email me, which I can give you my number now. Yeah, go ahead and just say it Cool 765-606-1443. Or you can email me at cbloom B-L-O-O-M. As in Mary at fcaorg. I would love to share more in deep detail about the ministry with any of them who reach out, but that would be the best way because I could then send out a link to donate to my online page. Or you can also send a check.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So if you're listening and watching today and you're, you know, really struck by what Caleb does, uh, if you reach out to him, um, he's uh very open to meeting with people. I mean, we that's how we kind of got them cut to talk. Initially, someone said, hey, you ought to talk to this guy, and we just we came to us talking here today but, um, uh, appreciate uh what you're doing and and some of the sacrifices that you make to serve, um, our youth in this community and uh, so just wish you a continued, um success in this ministry and and just keep on touching lives like you have. So, thank you Very good. So thank you, uh, we'll wrap it up with that. Just ask if you are hearing us or watching us today. Just share it out to other people that you know that would enjoy hearing about FCA and Caleb's ministry. So thank you for joining us today on the Hub.

Speaker 1:

Michael Allen from Manpower. We are a national brand, yet locally owned franchise. We are familiar with the challenges businesses face. It's tough recruiting and retaining qualified employees. That's why working with Manpower is a smart, cost-effective solution. Our entire focus is talent acquisition. We'll manage your hiring and training and provide ongoing, customized support. Since 1966, we have been your community invested partner, uniquely positioned to help eliminate the hassles and save you time and money. Let us help contact Manpower today.