No Sanity Required
SWO24 Kickoff | Be on Mission
It’s day 1 of SWO24 Summer Camp! Please be praying for our staff and the students that will be arriving today!
In this episode, Brody interviews some of the guys on staff to learn how staff training went. Brody also walks through a challenge and encouragement he shared with the SWO24 summer staff about staying on mission!
We serve a sovereign God! He is able to save you and keep you. Let’s rest in these promises today.
- Colossians 1:28-29
- 1 Thessalonians 2
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
It’s day 1 of SWO24 Summer Camp! Please be praying for our staff and the students that will be arriving today!
In this episode, Brody interviews some of the guys on staff to learn how staff training went. Brody also walks through a challenge and encouragement he shared with the SWO24 summer staff about staying on mission!
We serve a sovereign God! He is able to save you and keep you. Let’s rest in these promises today.
- Colossians 1:28-29
- 1 Thessalonians 2
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
More staff interviews. Today we're also going to dive into an overview of kind of week one of SWO 24. And then I want to share with you something that I shared with our staff one night last week, one night during week two of staff training, and I think it'll be an encouragement, give you sort of a feel for the DNA and the pulse of this staff and this team as we go into this first week of ministry. Asking for your prayers, I want to share this thought in hopes that it will also challenge you this week to be on mission for the gospel. It's something that's applicable to all of us, pertinent to all of us and hopefully will be a word for all of us, a word of encouragement and challenge this week. Thanks and welcome to no Sanity Required.
Speaker 1:Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters a podcast about the Bible culture and stories from around the globe In this episode we're going to get into. I told you last week that we would have some interviews and updates from some of the men on staff, and so I'm excited to do that. Also got Mo Mo chimed in. He came along as this was on Thursday night. We were having just kind of a big block party kind of thing over at North Campus and so all of our staff we were feeding them from the food truck. Everybody was having a good time munching on cheeseburgers and, man, the cheeseburgers are good. If you're coming to SWO in 2024, you're going to be impressed. And so I grabbed a few guys. We had a conversation about what staff training has looked like and I want you to hear from them. Some younger dudes that this is their first summer heard from Mo, and then some guys that have been with us a while and I'm excited for you to hear from these guys I want to share with you. Before we do that something, I'm just going to read this. It's something I read to our staff on Wednesday night of last week. It says this I'm convinced this is a phrase that Paul uses to talk about the confidence he has in his salvation and in the Lord's ability to do what he intends to do.
Speaker 1:There's a very powerful and confidence-building reality that I live with as a believer, when I can say that I know that God is able. He's able to save me. He was able to build and create the world and a million galaxies by simply speaking them into existence. He was able to speak through prophets over periods of thousands of years, promising that he would come into the world to save people, and he did it exactly as each prophet had predicted. These men didn't even know what they were saying exactly. We were told that they were literally carried along by the Holy Spirit. He was able to leave his throne and enter into humanity as a poor baby in a poor family. He was able to endure temptation in every way as intensely as we ever will, yet he did not sin. He was able to call and empower weak, uneducated and ill-equipped men to follow him and to change the world. He was able to conquer blindness, deafness and every known disease, and to stop hunger and famine. He's able to demand the worship of every man, every boy, every woman, girl, king, peasant, human who has ever lived. Yet he himself bows to no man, nor has he ever. He was able to lay his life down and take it up again. He controlled weather and he still does.
Speaker 1:Jesus is God and is able to do abundantly more than we could even ask of him, according to Ephesians 3.20. He's able to shut the mouths of lions, silence the roar of Satan. He's able to walk on the surface of water and able to ascend and descend to the very throne of Satan. He's able to walk on the surface of water and able to ascend and descend to the very throne of heaven. He's able and worthy of angels and the exaltation of the heavenly hosts. He's able to crush earthly kingdoms and to build a heavenly kingdom that will never end. He's able to bring that which is dead to life, and he himself literally conquered sin and death and hell and the grave. Jesus saved me and he's able to keep me from stumbling. Praise the Lord.
Speaker 1:Some people will say that I could walk away from Jesus and lose my salvation, but the Bible says it's not my salvation to begin with. It is his salvation, given to me because he's able to provide it. Shared that with the staff on Wednesday night and just as a word of encouragement and excitement, and then I shared that with the staff on Wednesday night and just as a word of encouragement and excitement, and then I shared this with them and I want to share with you as well. This comes from Colossians 1, where we're walking through Colossians 1, 28 and 29, which is the scripture that supports and drives our mission statement at Snowbird, and there's a line in there that says warning everyone and teaching everyone. So let me read you this the New American Standard uses the word admonish, warning, teaching, admonish everyone. William Hendrickson says this this proclamation took the form of admonishing and teaching.
Speaker 1:The apostle had been carrying on this blessed activity before his imprisonment, but even now, in his bonds, he makes use of every opportunity, both in person and by letter, to make known far and wide the riches, both present and future, of which believers possess in their Lord and Savior, and so do his helpers. Paul was ever emphasizing the need of pastoral labor. For him to admonish meant to warn, to stimulate, to encourage. He would actually plead with people to be reconcil. Meant to warn, to stimulate, to encourage. He would actually plead with people to be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5.20. He would at times even shed tears Acts 20, verse 19.
Speaker 1:His proclamation of the Christ was a marvelous combination of the true gospel and the most affectionate presentation. He was able to write this to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2,. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day. That we might not be a burden to any of you. While we proclaim to you the gospel of God, you are witnesses, and God also. How holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you, believers, for you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory, shared that with the staff on Wednesday night and then challenged them with these words Do you feel the weight of Paul's words here?
Speaker 1:Do you feel it? I do. Have you wept? Have you been seething mad? Have you felt abandoned or betrayed? Have you felt the sweat and groan, the calluses of the labor and toil of ministry you will. Have you poured your heart and life and soul into those you've been entrusted with shepherding and guiding and leading and speaking into, only to have them deceived and seduced by the God of this age and the erotic draw of secularism? You will. You'll experience that. Have you had mothers and fathers contradict the word of God that you have taught and instructed, invested and sown into your students? Have you labored over exegesis and exposition so that you might lay a foundation and stitch together the fabric of the gospel of Jesus in the hearts and minds and lives of your students, only to have a lukewarm mother or father pull at the threads of that fabric to unravel what has become uncomfortable to them? Shared that? Just my thoughts there, as students come here and have their lives changed and they go home a lot of times they're not going home to supportive families. That's a reality we have to face. Have you lost the futile battles of trying to on a student ministry budget in a week of camp and a couple of days of impact? Entertain students enough to pull them away from the bombardment of images and sounds and constant stimulation and dopamine production created from that demonic bell on their $1,100 phone with unlimited data and global access that notifies them of the pseudo-community and acceptance the world is providing for them? Have you pled with them to come in to experience the community, the real community that Jesus offers to his people and his bride? We have, and we all will over the next 10 weeks.
Speaker 1:I can think of nothing else in all of existence that creates such a dichotomy as what Paul is laying out for us in these verses. Paul's telling the Colossians in Colossians 1, 28 and 29, that we are to teach and warn, we are to love and rebuke, we are to edify and encourage, but at times to confront and rebuke and correct. And we are doing this in the context of a generation that has lost the ability to resolve conflict, to think critically. And who will cancel you or shout you down if you speak the truth in love? But it's not us doing it. This is ultimately what the proclamation of Jesus will bring us to. It is the word of God that is profitable for these things. It is the word of God that is profitable for rebuke, for reproof, for correction and conviction and instruction and righteousness. And no matter what text of God's holy word that you drill deeply into, what you will find emanating from that text will be the proclamation that Jesus is all of the things we have learned him to be over the past two weeks and that we have known him to be, but that we need to be reminded of. It is this Jesus that we proclaim through admonition and mourning and teaching, and we do it for the crown of glory that he has received. We do it for the promise of hearing the words well done, my faithful servant. So I shared that with our staff as we were sort of winding down our staff training. I shared one more thing that I wrote and challenged them with that.
Speaker 1:I'm going to come back in the conclusion of this and and leave y'all with, but I want to now introduce you to four or five maybe young men that are serving at SWO this summer and also Moses Holloway will be in the mix and just let you hear from these guys. I want to start off with a young man named Xavier. We call him Zay and he's in a leadership role here, so I want you to hear from him. His is going to be a little bit longer than the others, and then, just a couple minutes apiece, from several guys that are here for the summer, and I hope it's an encouragement to you. It gives you sort of a glimpse into the lives of these young men, young women that are going to be serving here at SWO this summer. All right, this is my man, my guy, what's up? Introduce yourself. Where are you from? How long have you been at SWO? What do you do?
Speaker 4:Okay. First name, last name no. Okay, well, my name'm from Georgia. I live around like Kennesaw area, if you're familiar with that, if you know another city called Marietta, similar area. So yeah, that's where I'm from. How long I've been here?
Speaker 1:I remember meeting you when you came. Was that a winter swope?
Speaker 4:I was telling somebody about that earlier. Actually I was saying you remember how like we had the stage coming out. It wasn't the you know the even stage like this. It came out a little bit protruded and then you're right here and we're sitting on that, uh, in that front our church was in the front, and then you like, dude, you should come work, because I was around that age and I was, like, I'll think about it, you know in my little 20 year old brain, 19 year old brain probably.
Speaker 4:I was like, nah man, this ain't for me. You know this in the mountains, I'm from outside of atlanta, this is not for me, but I came and lord's been moving and working and I'm, I'm grateful yeah, man, what's been the highlight of this last year? Last year. Man, that's difficult because I feel like you've had a lot I haven't had the average year, you know because the first half we were in east africa yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:Uh, our listeners would love to hear that they know Kilby and Greg Kilby, my daughter, greg, my son-in-law, you went and served with them.
Speaker 4:So Cole and I I think Cole's right over there, cole and I we went to East Africa with Greg and Kilby for about three months it was just under three months. We went over there, we joined in the mission work, we tried to encourage them, them and uplift them and we got to just see what life is like outside of the context of the western world.
Speaker 4:You know we're in a third world country, I believe so, um, and somewhere where you're not walking past screens and you're not walking past, uh, celebrities. If you're in a famous city like that, you're not looking on tiktok and instagram every day, but people are having fun. What they do is they're kicking around a soccer ball or they're kicking around a, uh, you know, a soda can or a soda bottle, um, and I remember, on that topic specifically, it was issues that you won't necessarily deal with here, that are so much different there, but it all impacts the gospel. Like there was this one time where kilby and greg everybody burns their trash there, and so we had a trash pile in the backyard and kilby and greg had this, their trash there. And so we had a trash pile in the backyard and Kilby and Greg had this big trash pile and these kids were sneaking under the fence and they were like stealing trash.
Speaker 4:And Cole was out there having his quiet time he's just spending time with the Lord and this kid's like, and he sees Cole and he's like, ah, what do I do? Cole's like, ah, do I hand him trash? Because this kid's stealing trash to probably be like, see what he can get out of it, maybe make some money on it, and so he can do whatever he wants that money. But it's like do I tell this kid that he can't steal my trash, or do I give him the trash? And if you give this kid the trash, it's gonna be two kids the next day and three kids the next day, then 12 kids after a week and everybody's gonna know you as the people who are giving things away and in that in it's like oh, what do you have for me? And so if you get that reputation of, oh, they're giving you stuff, they're like what do you have for me, what do you have for me, what do you have for me? And I have something free for you. It's the gospel.
Speaker 4:I can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with you. I can share that story, the greatest story you'll ever hear in your life. It'll change your anything physical. And so it's a weird mindset where it's like what do you have for me? And if it's not tangible, I can't hold on to it, I can't eat it, I can't sell it, I can't use it in any way, and they're like well, you're no use to me.
Speaker 4:And so it was a weird balance of like do I share with this kid the gospel? And he doesn't even really listen. And you can share the gospel and how people receive it. You can only do so much about that, right, but it's like man. Do I give this kid some trash because he's just a kid and I want to be nice and there's repercussions that I might have no idea about afterwards. Or do I completely push him away? And if you push him away, it's like you're being rude and that gospel witness is kind of. It's a little bit taken back from that point Because it's like man, I was just rude to this little kid so he's not going to listen to me anymore. So hopefully that made sense.
Speaker 1:What did you end up doing? With the kid With that kid.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I remember it was like one day he gave him a piece of trash and he came back the next day and it was like two more kids and they were like this and I remember I walked out.
Speaker 4:I didn't know what was going on, and so I, because he had his quiet time in the back and I was in the front because you know, you just want to spend that time alone so I walk in the back, the back door, one time in the backyard and I see these kids like standing on the fence, like three or four kids, and they're like pointing at the trash pile and I'm like, oh, what's going on? He's like man. These, they wanted this trash. I don't know if they're using it to sell it or maybe they're finding something valuable, they use it as a toy, but he's like man. It breaks my heart to not give these kids something, because it's just to us is dirt, it's trash, it's garbage, but to them it could be like you know, a new toy or it could be something. Like I said earlier, they sell it and they use it for money. But the weird thing about that is if somebody sells it, that kid sells it and one of their family members find out that you got money from selling something, they're beating that kid and they're taking their money, even if it's family. And so we were just at the point where we're like man.
Speaker 4:Cole, I understand it's really difficult to look at a kid in the face and say I'm not going to give you something, I have absolutely no interest in it's garbage, and say I'm not going to give you something, I have absolutely no interest in it's garbage. But it's very difficult if you continue to do what you do, because it's going to end up in actions that we couldn't even imagine right now, like this kid could be beaten, this kid could be shunned, this kid could be. There's literally so many things that could happen just from a piece of trash. And so we're like we can't continue to do this, because we already saw people starting to congregate. We saw other kids come in. First it was just one kid, now it's like three or four, and it was already going down that path of like, okay, something's about to build and build and build, and so we had to just stop giving them trash. But it was really difficult, you know.
Speaker 1:That's just one story in one instance, but a life-changing experience being over there for three months, yeah, for sure you recommend people that are young enough to do something like that.
Speaker 4:To go spend a month to three months a semester in a place like that, yeah, and for me, and I think for cole as well we didn't necessarily have like that desire or necessarily like I feel like the lord's calling me to be missionary.
Speaker 4:It wasn't necessarily under those circumstances, but it was still like OK, this could be an opportunity to encourage a believer, a fellow brother and sister in Christ. This could be an opportunity to expand our knowledge and our experience on the world and on the gospel, because you see so much sin in the world, in America, but it's on display in a completely different context. You know it's a different way to experience the world in America, but it's on display in a completely different way in that context. You know it's a different way to experience the world and also, just as young men, for us it was a way for us to grow our faith, for us to bolster our faith in Christ, because when you're going through something like that, it's difficult on the mission field and day after day after day, you're waking up and you're saying Lord, I have to rely on you, because if I don't, these small things are going to start building up, everything is going to start slowly attacking me. The enemy is going to start whispering in my ear.
Speaker 4:I'm going to start believing those lies over and over and over again. And so just for us, that challenge that we had to do it. It was just something that I wouldn't take back. And if I could encourage other people to do it if the opportunity is there, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah back and if I could encourage other people to do it.
Speaker 4:if the opportunity is there, absolutely like we had. It's a little bit of a different context, but we went to visit um. This wasn't in Uganda, but we went to visit New Orleans uh, their seminary and he was like, if you're not really sure what to do with your life and you come here for two years and you spend two years learning about uh, having some theological training, you're not going to get to the end of those two years and be like, oh man, I wasted my life thinking more about the Lord.
Speaker 4:And so I would say the same thing with if you ever have the opportunity to go overseas or maybe even if it's in the States, to a different to a mission field. You're not going to get to the end of that and be like man. I wasted my past month to three months being on the mission field, Like if you truly love Christ. That's not going to happen, so I would recommend it for anybody.
Speaker 1:That's good. That's good. And then you came back and got back into the flow and the rhythm of what we're doing here and you had the opportunity to do some preaching, speaking, teaching at some SWO retreats. How was that?
Speaker 4:That was really good. I got to speak to a Christian school.
Speaker 1:I sat in on that. You crushed it. It was awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I appreciate that You're very gifted.
Speaker 1:The Lord's giving a gift. We're going to cultivate that.
Speaker 4:I appreciate that. One thing that I just really try and do every time that I speak is just go into it with as much humility as possible. I don't know if you said it or somebody recently was saying. It was like, whenever you get up on stage and you're presenting the word of God, I want to lose myself as much as possible, like take as much as myself out of it as I can, but at the same time like let God use me still be comfortable being yourself, but lose yourself lose yourself and be yourself.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I actually got that from Alistair bagg. It's uh, when he goes through what his sermon prep looks like and I've and I've talked about that on here, I think but he talks about, um, the way he prepares a sermon and he really breaks this all out into a whole top, a whole conversation. But it's like, um, uh, write yourself empty, read yourself full, pray yourself hot, then go out there and lose yourself, but find yourself but be yourself, lose yourself but be yourself. So just be who you are, who God created you to be. Use, use the gift and the platform he's given you and lose yourself in behind the cross, behind the message, behind the word. And yeah, you did that. Yeah, god's God's definitely, I think, gifted you, not, I think it's evident, the Lord's gifted you with a really good ability to communicate his word. I'm excited to see where that goes. Okay, so you're leading a fire team and a community group.
Speaker 4:No, just fire team.
Speaker 1:So who's the community group leader? Clay. So it's you and Clay. So for our people that don't know the structure, I'll walk through that at some point. But basically we've got leaders of different groups of people. So, zay, you've got a group of summer staff guys that you're their mentor, their discipler in the day-to-day. So yeah, how's that been?
Speaker 4:That's been really good. I think the three guys that I have with me are we're going to create a really good bond, and I think that it's something that you go into every summer like thinking about, because when you hear the term leader, you immediately kind of feel this pressure where you're like, oh man, I'm in a leadership position, I'm in people are going to be looking at me.
Speaker 4:But it's almost like as soon as I sat down with these guys, it's like man that pressure was immediate, if I felt it, that pressure was immediately relieved because these guys are just brothers in Christ who I've been appointed to oversee by the Lord ultimately, and then by Swo second, to just walk with them through the summer and just, if they have questions, to answer those questions. But I think, with my fire team and the community group specifically, I don't think I've ever had as much fun just being around them.
Speaker 4:You know, I think, one thing that you can kind of count on, which you never want to discount or act like it's all there, because you continue to need, to continually need to grow in your faith. But if, if someone's working at Snowbird, we can pretty much, you know, know that they're pursuing the Lord to some capacity, right. And so I'm not saying that we need to write it off and say like, oh, he's doing that, we're good. But I look at these guys and we're waking up every morning together reading the Bible, you know, an hour before we got to eat breakfast. We're getting together in community groups and talking about things of the future, what we want to get into, what we want to pursue. We're talking about struggles that we have right now that the Lord's working through with us, and it's like this, this bond and this relationship that's being formed, but on top of that it's like man, we're we just boys, you know.
Speaker 4:I would just sit down and hang hang out and I think with my fire team and with my community group I've never had this type of like relationship with the guys like so quick, it's natural.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's natural. You have to work at it.
Speaker 4:And I see that with those guys.
Speaker 1:Who are your guys?
Speaker 4:I have John Mark.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:You know, john Mark, john Mark is really fun, gabe Nussman, he says it just like that oh that's my dude.
Speaker 1:He's from my team. That's a Haywood County boy. We grew up in the same community. Gabe goes to the church I grew up in in Bethel in Bethel, north Carolina, which is in Haywood County. He's a mountain boy.
Speaker 4:He's from Milltown, he is so funny, yeah, every time he introduces himself. We talk about him, we laugh about that all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that's cool. Yeah, he, literally it's crazy. He played for my brother and my cousins who are football coaches at the high school there and that's cool. We got uh, I'm very thankful to have him, because he did not grow up coming to camp here yeah, he said that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he said that. Pretty cool, I have those two. And then there's uh eli.
Speaker 1:I always mispronounce his last name, but it's like pruer yeah, pruer I think yeah, oh, you got a good group yeah, he's really fun, he's, he's got.
Speaker 4:I feel like he's one of those dudes who has so many like hidden talents, secret talents that you would never know I don't know him yet.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've met him and talked to him briefly, but I don't know him, knowing he's crazy smart he's crazy smart he's going into the medical field.
Speaker 4:I'm like you already lost me because you're talking about biology, dude, so like I'm already gone. Yeah, you know and so just just real quick. You know that's a community group, that's a fire team, but I think one thing that I've seen as a whole came from one. It came from kickball. And the other one what was I going to say? Oh, the other one was just like in staff meeting and camp talks. So the first one with kickball is just like. I feel like everybody was just in it. You know, competitive. They were trying to win.
Speaker 4:They were trying to run they were trying to like even got to the point where you're like all right, I got to remember I'm a Christian, I can't be you know, like I got to be humble out here.
Speaker 1:For our listeners. We do on the first Thursday of staff training. We divide teams by community groups. Four teams Is there four?
Speaker 4:It was either four or five, something like that, and then we do a kickball tournament. It's super fun.
Speaker 5:It's intense it's crazy.
Speaker 4:Hey, and I'm just throwing that out there, we got the W, we got the.
Speaker 1:W. You are the champions. Yeah, who were the? So Clay and who? Clay and Macy. Macy are the champs this year.
Speaker 4:Actually, I think there are six community groups in total, so I think there were six teams.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 4:Because you did it by community. Family groups yeah, and so I just saw like a hunger, a drive, an ambition and like obviously it's a sport, so the competitive nature is going to come out. But I think in the same way that could be used in ministry for kingdom work, you know, because you're still going to have that hunger, you're still going to have that drive, but Lord willing, it should be to an even greater degree, because now you're not playing kickball, now you're talking about um, you're leading kids who are eternal souls, you know in discipleship and.
Speaker 4:Bible reading and worship, like you're leading and discipling these kids, so hopefully that competitive nature and that ambition is used for the Lord to an even greater degree than just kicking a ball and scoring runs.
Speaker 1:you know, oh yeah, give me competitive people any day to do any mission, whether it's work, blue-collar work, white-collar work, ministry work. People that are competitive, they got dog in them, and that's what I want. Yeah, yeah, that's good, that's all so good. What are you most excited about? Go ahead.
Speaker 4:I know I said the kickball and then the questions. It's just that they ask questions.
Speaker 1:Oh right.
Speaker 4:It seems like they're wanting to learn, like they're teachable. There's a hunger, that's a really good trait in people just to want to learn to want to be taught.
Speaker 4:That's a really good trait to have. I saw that just because they were raised, their quick raise their hands and ask a question and that's just. It was really cool to see that. Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 4:Yeah, man, I'll just say from my experience since this is going on nsr and the listeners are familiar with snowbird and uh, specifically, um, I think it's really important just to highlight the work that goes into it and you say it a lot how you guys are like you're preaching the word from the stage and you're delivering the word of God, but we're kind of the ones who are like boots on the ground.
Speaker 4:We're doing the work day to day and I just think that it shouldn't go unnoticed that these guys and these girls are working really hard and they're putting their summers aside, whatever else it is that they could be doing. You know what I could be doing this, but I feel like for me to do this is no more important than for me to go somewhere and continue to spread the gospel, continue to spread the word of Christ, and so I just want to give a shout out to all the staff who have committed their summers to come and work here at Snowbird, who have put their own interests aside and who said you know what? I'm going to go work and I'm going to go labor.
Speaker 4:And, like you said, I'm going to put my hands to the plow. I'm going to work for the kingdom and I just think it's very commendable. So I just want to give a little shout out to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd piggyback that and say you know, every evening of these two weeks we have a time of worship and basically I preach. I mean it's, it's we. We opened the word and we walked through the mission statement and the scripture that supports the mission statement, but it's basically a sermon and they are hungry, man, they, they're, they're taking so many notes, they're engaged, they want to be here. This is a calling for them and, yeah, I would just echo that and it is exciting. Yeah, sure, all right, thanks man. All right, tell me your name. Where are you from?
Speaker 6:My name is Matthew Keenum. I'm from Tuscumbia, Alabama.
Speaker 1:And what's your like first year on staff?
Speaker 6:First year. I've never actually even been to a summer camp.
Speaker 1:So what was your history with SWO?
Speaker 6:So I've been to the Pure and Holy Retreat as a student, and then we also came this past February.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 6:We brought our youth up here.
Speaker 1:To the Pure and Holy Retreat, correct, so you've been here twice and both of those were weekend events in the winter, correct? For our listeners that aren't familiar with that event, that's a once-a-year event. We do it in February, so check that out. Give me your assessment. Let's do this. What kind of where has this two weeks been? We're winding staff training down. We're at the end of week two. How has this kind of lined up with what your expectation was? Similar, completely different, and then just kind of, how's it been?
Speaker 6:I will say so. I honestly didn't know what to expect coming in, so I kind of had an open mind and the way everything's like just established and the organization of it is kind of like that's a blessing for me, and just kind of not only seeing the vision of the, the ministry, but also like stepping into that.
Speaker 6:It's something like that. I'm like bought in. You know, after just a week and a half and we're almost at two weeks now. It's like this two weeks is like an opportunity for us as summer staff to buy in, and so I'm there and so that's cool.
Speaker 1:I love it then. That is why we do two weeks. It gives um, it gives y'all, it gives our staff. One week is not enough. You, you know, by the end of the first week you're just getting your head above water, and the second week is you start to really settle in. That's very encouraging to hear you say that too. Um, what was your background? What were you doing before you came? Were you in school? Were you, were you working?
Speaker 6:Right, so I do. Yeah, I've been working for a church. I'm a guys director for the youth and so I help there two days a week and then I also do some financial stuff for my dad's business. He's in concrete. Oh cool, I'm in between both. Cool, that's good. Yeah, bi-vocational Cool.
Speaker 1:That's good. Yeah, bi-vocational. Well, good man, I'm excited to have you. Yes, sir, thanks for jumping on. It's going to be awesome. Next week, week one, when this episode drops, it'll be Monday of week one. Let's go, let's do it. Thanks, man. All right, we got a veteran, a young veteran. Tell me what, give me, let's go. Name where, where are you from? And Snowbird history.
Speaker 5:So my name is Justin Buckner. This is my second year on staff. Last year I worked on the Element team. I'm from Winter Robins, Georgia.
Speaker 1:Awesome. And prior to being on Element, look my man, mo, walking by. Hey Mo, you want to jump on here in a minute. Let me get a few words from you. All right, cool, don't go far. Prior to coming and being on element what was your history as far as had you been here? If it's a summer camp, winter SWO what? How often had you been? How many times did you have some history with SWO?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I was here three times as a camper. I was here first time in 2020 and then 2021. And then I came for a pure and holy of 2020.
Speaker 1:Sweet. All right, so that's two guys here that have been to the pure and holy deal. That's cool. And you're a, you're student, pastor Jake. Jake Fowler.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:He served on staff here, so there's some history there. So that's cool. Our listeners who attended be strong in the spring of 23 might know you as the man who dominated the ice bucket challenge that wasn't me, that was seth, actually. I didn't you do it?
Speaker 5:I did it, but seth was the one that got everything right oh, oh, but you did it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did. Yeah, I was just giving you props, man, oh okay yeah yeah, yeah, you did great. That was awesome. That was some. It was cold day, it was that was march of 23, is that when that was?
Speaker 5:that was in in September that we did it.
Speaker 1:So that was the fall yeah, this past fall Cool Staff training, so coming on Element, last year you didn't go through a full staff training, so how's this been?
Speaker 5:It's been awesome, especially getting back into this community, being with fellow believers. It's been super awesome and motivating being with like fellow believers. It's been super awesome and motivating because back home I'm I work at chick-fil-a but like it's not one of those chick-fil-a's that you usually get like the super christian vibe from um, it's not bad like just some of the people there aren't like the best, if you get what I'm saying yeah, more of yeah for sure, um, but like being back into like a solid Christian community has just been so refreshing and motivating and I'm super excited to get back with students.
Speaker 1:Something cool about everybody, like-minded, going in the right same direction. On, you know, one mission, one vision and we're doing it together. Everybody's got a hand on an oar and we're just rowing and plowing and um, it's. It's powerful to be part of a group that's on mission together. Yeah, 100% Cool. Uh, what is last thing? What is going into the summer? What's the thing you're most excited about?
Speaker 5:I'm excited to get back with students, share the gospel with them, keep encouraging kids that are already saved, Hopefully finding helping some lead them to Christ. I'm super excited for students.
Speaker 1:Good stuff, man. Monday. It's Monday, this is dropping Monday, so here we go, week one Week one let's get it. Let's do it Awesome. Thanks, man. Of course, I will tell you right now that I have my favorite NSR guest, who has been a long time. Since you've been on here, tell everybody your name, moses holliday, and it's been a while, hasn't it? Yeah, I, I don't remember the last time you're on here. So you're wrapping down fourth grade. Finished it up. Yes, sir, give me your thoughts.
Speaker 3:Good year yes, sir, I'm going to miss fourth grade moving up to fifth and I think I know who you're going to miss the most Miss Rickett.
Speaker 1:You love Miss Rickett, don't you so much. Yes, sir, yeah. And then you had a special treat when Miss Lopp went in maternity leave to have her baby, you got Miss Woods.
Speaker 3:Miss Woods is amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got a good group of teachers. And who's your other teacher? Miss Brown. Miss Brown, number three. I really like your principal, Miss Davis. She's very good. You had a good year. I'm proud of you. What are you Tell me this? We're coming to the end of staff training. How's this two weeks of staff training been Compared to others? How you feel about this staff?
Speaker 3:It's going to be fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a good staff, isn't it? Does anything stand out about this staff that might be like you know, to this staff? It stands out to you.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of tall people.
Speaker 1:I know. Okay, let's think we got Aiden, he must be like 6'8". We got Big Mike he's 6'5". And then we got a bunch of guys that are maybe an inch or so taller than me, and I'm almost 6'3". It is a tall staff, I know that's a good observation, that's a good point, and I think they're a fun staff. What's your favorite during staff training? You don't get here until after school each day. What's your favorite thing to get into?
Speaker 3:The pool. Yeah, yeah, you love the pool the last time I got in the pool, me and Malachi were playing around and my shorts fell off.
Speaker 1:In the pool, in the pool In front of everybody.
Speaker 3:Not really everybody.
Speaker 1:Good, that's good. You didn't flash nobody, I had underwear on, okay, good, well, that's a good, that's a move.
Speaker 3:You have made a step in the right, and then Jed picked it up and showed me I thought I had it on fully but you didn't know it had slipped off on the dive. Not a dive Malachi body slammed me and they came off.
Speaker 1:And they came off on the body slam. Oh, it happens. It happens to the best of us. How's soccer season been Good? We're going into the championship, that's right. Y'all look good. Y'all are a good team. Man, I'm excited, yeah, yeah, which actually, this will drop on Monday, so by then the championship will be over and maybe I can give our listeners an update and tell them if we won or not. Laylee had an awesome season her senior year. Yeah, she finished top seven in the state. The all-state first team is only seven players. She was one of seven in the state of North Carolina, all-time leading scorer at Murphy High School. She's good at scoring goals, wasn't she? It was amazing. Do you know how many she scored in her career? 103. 103? Yeah, she had 33 this season. I was about to say 24. Well, she had 33 this season and then, yeah, each year she had scored one. It was fun, wasn't it? Yeah, but I like watching you play and you got some SWO guys on your team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Jackson Jackson Mabry.
Speaker 1:Walker, walker.
Speaker 3:Conte.
Speaker 1:Caleb, caleb Spatola, yeah, they go to church with us and they know the Swo family and Titus, titus, titus Tucker and Lana and Lana Parker, yeah, a lot of Swo kids, swo and Red Oak. So, hey, man, thanks for coming on. Let's get you back on here more often this summer. We can do some weekly updates. All right, I love you, buddy, proud of you. Thanks, all right, cool, I will just say I'm very excited about this one. Introduce yourself and where you from.
Speaker 7:Yeah, my name is Jeremiah Weibel. I'm from Lynchburg, Virginia.
Speaker 1:So our listeners that are very familiar with SWO will know the Weibel name. What number are you that has worked at SWO of the Weibel family?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I'm the sixth. I'm the sixth, weibel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so cool man, it's so cool. So I had Heather who was in it was four and five-year-old Sunday school and James was four. Little and I were like the assistant teachers to this old lady named Kathy Brown. She was probably this was in like 1994, 95, 96, right in there, yeah, and she was probably in her 70s then. I'm sure she's gone to be with the Lord now. And your brother was in my Sunday school class and I got to do one lesson and I did the story of Ehud, the dude that stabs the fat king, yeah, and I had the kids draw pictures and I remember Chase drew a picture of like this dagger coming out of this big fat man and it was blood and poop all over the floor. I remember denise, I remember your mom saying um, okay, I think james is gonna like this sunday school teacher. And you got you got a really cool family situation, because what is your dad's, what does your dad do?
Speaker 7:ministry wise for a job yeah, so my dad is deaf, um, and for for my whole life over 20, maybe 25 years now he's been a deaf church planner and a deaf pastor at a local church in lynchburg, um, and so he's just been reaching out to deaf communities, the deaf people, um, and it's a. I mean it's a huge unreached population, um, because deaf people just blend in. You don't think about it much because you don't talk to strangers a whole lot. I mean it's a huge unreached population because deaf people just blend in. You don't think about it much because you don't talk to strangers a whole lot.
Speaker 1:So he's been reaching out to them and it's been a huge impact. It's cool your whole family is bilingual. It's just crazy to think that all of y'all just grew up with two languages.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's interesting. A lot of people ask what that's like. Yeah, it's interesting. A lot of people ask what that's like, and I kind of put it into perspective of maybe a Latin family, hispanic Maybe. If they grew up in America, they're fluent in Spanish because they grew up in that household, in the home, but then they go out into school and this stuff, and so both languages just come naturally as they grow up and that usually gets people to understand the concepts.
Speaker 1:Something that's been interesting to me when I text because I'll text with your dad, we text back and forth and his verbal I guess you would call it his texting language it's slightly different than the way I communicate. Yeah, it's different, like word order or some words aren't in there. I guess that there aren't necessarily signs. It's very fascinating to me.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it is. I mean, it's its own language and it's got an entirely different grammar in the way ASL works and it's super interesting to see how like interpreters are able to do it so easily. Just translate English to ASL, because you're here having to swap around the sentences a little bit. Make more sense to the deaf people that are watching. But yeah, it's an entirely different language. So when a deaf person talks to you, texts you like my dad, it's like he just texts the way he signs. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I love it, I always enjoy it and I love texting back and forth. So I wanted to talk about that, because part of NSR is we call it no sanity stories or stories from around the globe, so we love to look at the stories of our staff and the people that are coming here. But also because I think last summer we had two deaf kids, so your brother, james, is in a full-time role here. Um, jeremiah's brother works full-time at slow, has been here for years, is a vital part of our team. But I will pull them out of maintenance and security to come in here and sign.
Speaker 7:You know you might get called up yeah, I was thinking about that before I got here. I was like man, man, I hope I can run into some deaf students. I hope so.
Speaker 1:There's one family from the Charlotte area. I hope they come, they always do, and they appreciate that we have someone here that is mindful of that and that we have someone equipped to communicate. So your history with SWO you basically grew up coming here even before you're old enough to be a camper. You were. You just came as family yeah, it was.
Speaker 7:I mean I, I just I. People ask me if I came here as a camper. I said once in high school, but I mean before that, since I was, I don't even know. I mean I was the ring bearer for John and Jenna's wedding, which was in the coop, yeah, and that was oh, nine or 10. Yeah, that was a long time ago, and um, and then after that, every time I come here I just hang out with tuck, hang out with Ty yeah, we'd be running around, yeah.
Speaker 1:Your family, I mean literally, literally. Your so bonded just from well from when little and I were newlyweds.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you're in church under your parents' ministry, so that's so special. Let's shift it. Last thing, let's shift a little bit to what's the last two weeks been like staff training. We've just come out of that. We're getting ready to go into week one. As this drops on Monday of week one, how was your staff training experience? Any thoughts? Anything that stands out from that?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I mean the staff training was, I mean, as far as the recs go, super in-depth.
Speaker 7:I mean we spent like two days in the books and then we applied it to actionable knowledge and to, you know, hands-on skills.
Speaker 7:And then, other than that, like the camp talks, the sermons, they've been super applicable. Like we're able to apply that to the rest of our summer and how we interact with the students and how we apply it to our own lives. And it's been super cool to see in our community groups and in our fire teams, within the staff, which is the accountability that we're going to have throughout the summer. Um, so that's a super encouraging part of um the staff structure. But within the fire teams, you know, we're having conversations and each person has their own individual uh, struggles going into the summer and like things that are kind of beating them down and it's I mean, you know paul says to rejoice and in your weakness and uh, it's because, like, we know that there is a target on our backs and satan is trying to beat us down and it's uh, it's super encouraging to be alongside them in that and to encourage them to keep on moving forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, that's encouraging, yeah. So here we go. Week week one, week one, let's do it. Yeah, thanks, man, love you All. Right, well, a little bit of everything there Some young guys, some veteran dudes and Moses Holloway. It don't get much better than that. And let me, I want to conclude this episode by reading to you something that I read as we finished everything up last week to challenge our staff and encourage them. It's going to be hard, but it's going to be worth it. I'm speaking of the next 10 weeks of ministry. 10 weeks, monday to Saturday each week, 7 AM to about midnight each day, constant moving and just it's. It's it's high stress and it is demanding ministry. So that's what I wrote. It's going to be hard, it's going to be worth it.
Speaker 1:I think one of the greatest lies I ever heard someone say was this that if one person's life was changed, my calling would be worth it. The actual quote went something like this Well, if one of those kids that goes up there to Snowbird has their life changed, then it'll be worth it. I appreciate the sentiment but frankly I don't agree with that statement. Experiential results don't validate mine or your faithfulness to calling. Our prayer is that every kid that comes through would have their life changed by the gospel every one of them. But that is up to the moving and working of a sovereign Lord by his Holy Spirit, and that Lord uses the proclamation of the gospel and the hard work of discipleship to achieve what he has planned and ordained. Results neither vilify nor verify, they neither validate nor nullify. Jesus does as he pleases, according to his sovereign plans and purposes. For you and I, it is simply worth it to be obedient and faithful to Jesus and to the calling he has given us, to proclaim his preeminence, to exalt him in our preaching and teaching and worship, to point students and families to him and to do it all so that the lamb who was slain may receive the reward of his suffering. At SWO 24, may the lamb who was slain receive the reward of his suffering and may lives be changed eternally by the power of the gospel.
Speaker 1:Thank y'all for tuning in as always, ask for your prayers and it's on. We're rolling, it's week one and I'm looking forward to next week's episode. I'm going to actually jump into a Beyond the Flannel graph and get into some theological content and practical application of that and look forward to bringing you that. But for now and we'll do an update from week one of camp. Just a brief update, but for now, be praying for us. It's on, it's crazy. Watch all the social media outlets. Make sure you're following Snowbird on Instagram, on Facebook, we're going to be putting out a ton of content and uh, and then, of course, our other podcasts, our teaching podcasts. Um, yeah, thank y'all so much. See you next week thanks for listening to.
Speaker 2:No sanity required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us atOutfitterscom to see all of our programming and resources, and we'll see you next week on no Sanity Required.