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Passion 2026 (ft. Ali & Dai) · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast of First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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Well, welcome back from our holiday break on the podcast.
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We have a special treat today. You don't have to just listen to
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Jeremy and me. We've got Ali Tribulus and Damir
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Green here with us who both had the opportunity to attend the
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passion trip with Jeremy and the young adult ministry.
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And I'm get to hear some of their experiences from that
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trip. And so let's start off outside
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of Passion. What are you guys involved in
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right now? What are you doing?
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Just to kind of help people know you a little bit more?
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I'm currently working, going to college, pretty much all.
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What are you studying in college?
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I'm studying in biology since Canley County don't have a
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marine biologist. OK.
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Allergy program. So yeah.
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Good. I'm Ali and I'm a freshman at
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Saint Joseph's University and I'm studying neuroscience
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currently. Learn.
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Currently. Yes.
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Is that up for debate? No, no, no.
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OK. I actually love it so.
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Jeremy, what do? You do.
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That's a great question. I will let you all determine
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that for yourselves. So, so you guys are both
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freshmen, right? You graduated last year.
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This is your first experience go into passion, right?
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Yes. What were your initial
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impressions when you first walked into the stadium?
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It was a little overwhelming because I wasn't sure what to
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expect, but overall, like it was like a great experience and you
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could really like feel like when he walked in, like I don't
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really, you could just feel it. It's the holy space.
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Yeah. Same with me.
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So like as soon I got there, I'm like, wow, this is like a holy
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different big lot of surrounded by a lot of Christian people and
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believe in people. So like as soon I walked in, I'm
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like wow, I was like a like a like a Holy Spirit just hit me.
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So yeah. And for people listen, they
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might not know passions not just held in like a big church or
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whatever. Where?
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Where was it this year? The Global Life Stadium in
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Dallas, TX. Yeah, so that's where the
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Cowboys play, right? No, it's the.
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Rangers The Rangers play. Texas Rangers.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've been in that stadium.
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It's it's pretty big that my boys will always remember that
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stadium as the one where there were fireworks inside the Dome.
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We did not get that. You didn't get fireworks.
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Nobody hit a home run, I'm sure. So, So what were some of?
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Your expectations going into the trip, like I'm sure Jeremy had
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told you a bit about it, that's why you went.
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But I just said go, yeah. And they trust me.
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Basically, yeah, I wasn't really sure what to expect because I
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didn't really know anything about it.
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Like I've heard other people like that went, but like I
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didn't really do my own research so I really had no expectations,
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but it was wonderful nonetheless.
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On that case, thank you for trusting me.
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On our way there, I was like kind of nervous because I've
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never like been in there like a big like stadium and I never
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went to bash before. So I was like, what am I
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expecting basically and all that.
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And like it just helped me like basically like just get out and
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actually like leave like the daily life behind and like focus
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on like this to actually take a breath.
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So it was kind of great experience for.
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Me Jeremy, this is not your first time, so how did this
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experience of passion line up with other ones?
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It was the worst one. The worst?
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One, yeah. Not because of passion, but
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because of the company. No, no, no, no.
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It was. I mean, this is the first time
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I've done I, I honestly lost count.
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I honestly like 8 passions and I've only been to one that
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wasn't in Atlanta and it was in DC.
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So the first time had to fly to passion always driven.
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So that was dynamic shift and good and bad and in various
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ways. And then we had almost a new
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crew, a bunch of people that have been with us before
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couldn't go. We had a bunch of high school
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seniors last year that are now able to go this year.
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And also it's been a while since we've gone on the trip, even
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though passion didn't start till New Year's, but also to be
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together and start the trip on New Year's Eve.
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So that's what I think. It's just, I mean, even though
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it's like a newer group kind of testing the waters and getting
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to know each other, it was still a good New Year's Eve
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celebration and bonding before even the whole conference
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started, which was nice. And so, yeah, I, I think this
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year was unique, even going into my expectations is this is one
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of the best lineup of speakers I've seen.
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And it's not that like they are what make passion, because Jesus
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is what makes passion, but God has spoken to me through their
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messages more consistently than other speakers.
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And so then I get more excited and anticipating the various
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people. I was like, if they took out two
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and switched them out with Levi and Francis Chan, I would have
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been happy. But then Levi was already there.
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Priscilla Shire was there even though she wasn't on the ticket.
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And then the two that I wasn't as excited about, and they're
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great. I like them.
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They're just not as consistent. We're a part of a discussion
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panel and that discussion panel was incredible.
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And so God just really used every single piece and person
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and see how he connected each talk in section to really just,
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I think like cohesively work together to not only encourage
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but also inspire and give next steps for what's after passion,
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which is really great. Yeah, that's great.
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So for people who who haven't been before, is it just a
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conference where people speak and you just sit there and
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listen and take notes the whole time?
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No, there's it's like half worship songs and like half
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speaking, I would say. So it's not boring at all.
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Like it was engaging the whole time.
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I mean, we were there for like so long on Saturday, Friday.
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Yeah, we were there like the whole day.
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We went back to the house to eat dinner.
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But. But besides that, like, it was
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not boring at all. Like, it's not like I wanted to
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leave, like I wanted to stay. And yeah, it was just really
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engaging. I took lots of great notes and
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discovered lots of new music. Which I think is really
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incredible because I think the the reiteration of the it's not
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boring is good because that was my experience with Passion where
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like I grew up if the service went more than like an hour and
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10 minutes, we're like, can we wrap this up, please?
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Like we're not going and this isn't going anywhere.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I keep pointing my
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watch at you, Scott, and you keep going longer.
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And then I went to Passion. I was like, oh, I can sit
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through like a three hour church service.
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I didn't think that'd be possible.
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But like between the worship, between the preaching and then
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they switch it up with like the discussion panel and other
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things like it just keeps you engaged and the topics are
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really just touching on the hearts of this generation.
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And so they it's not boring, but it's impressively not boring.
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Yeah, it's not, It's not boring at all.
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It was actually kind of fun. It was fun because normally I
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can't just sit like anywhere for like over like 3 hours or more
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because then I'll just need to get up a walk around and stuff.
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But they're like the songs was great.
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My favorite song was probably the I think it was The Blood I
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think. Yeah, the.
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Blood so good it was one of my favorites as soon as as soon as
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I got on the plane I just had that music is played in my head
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soon I got home around like 9 something just playing on TV
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until like 12 nice love that song.
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So it was a great experience. I felt that like, as you know,
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you could see God present anywhere, but they're like, I
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actually felt it, like, felt it deeply and also did not want to
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leave. I love the weather there.
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Yeah, we hit like 73 the one day and sunny and everyone was
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dressed for winter clothes because no one trusts me.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah, there are reasons for that.
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Now I know, I know that stadium for a baseball game can hold
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like 3840 thousand. Oh, we, we had 45,045 thousand.
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Yeah. And primarily young people right
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under 25. Oh yeah, 18 to 25.
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And they said they, I don't think they ever, maybe I, I
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missed an announcement and went to the bathroom or something,
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but they were talking about that.
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It was potentially the most heavily attended event at Global
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Life Field ever. Yeah, they said like this was
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the the most people they ever had, like at the Global Esteem.
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Because I think they also counted the door holders, which
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are like the volunteers that come from all over to help
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demerge and help us get organized.
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And in there I think they had like 1000 volunteers.
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So that's in addition to the seats.
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I think, wait, I don't know if it was Japan or somebody,
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something, some, some people came from all the way from
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Japan. Yeah, I think every state, over
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50 countries and over 1700 colleges represented.
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Wow. Yeah.
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So what was that like for you guys to be with that many of
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your peers? Because I mean, we've got a
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good, good group of people here, got a good youth group, good,
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you know, growing young adults group.
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But what was it like to be worshipping with 45,000 other
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people, all mostly your age? I'll say worshiping with that
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many people, I was not really like, scared about it.
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I was just more like interested in like knowing new people
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basically, and actually listening to the worship songs
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so I can make those better connections, yeah.
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I would just say it felt like a safe place and I don't know,
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it's just really cool to see that there's so many people.
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Like that's not even like there's so many other people,
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but like just like seeing everyone in that stadium, it
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just like helped me see like, wow, they all love God too.
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Like I'm not alone. And when we're doing the
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flashlight thing, basically they put like, I don't know how to
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explain. They're just saying like, oh,
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raise your flashlight if you've been through this or this and so
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many other people raise their flashlights to the same things I
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was raising my flashlight for. It just like made me feel less
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alone and it was really comforting.
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So. So what would you say were some
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of your highlights? I really liked Cliff is his
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name. I liked that when Louis was
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asking him questions, like one of the questions was like how do
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you know God's real And just like stuff like that.
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Like he would just ask him questions and Cliff would just
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like respond and he's very intelligent and it just really
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helped me like understand things better.
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And of course I love the music. I like the song Goodbye
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Yesterday. That was my favorite one.
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I'd say those are my 2 highlights.
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I say one of the speakers I really enjoy.
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Well, I enjoy most of them, but what was her name?
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Jackie Hill Perry. Jackie Hill Perry, she was a
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great speaker, but what Ashley touched me probably was the last
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speaker of the thing because what she was saying, I was going
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basically doing that, like through all that stuff.
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Yeah. Christine Kane, yeah, was the
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last one. Jackie Hill Perry did a great
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message that like semi centered around Jack and Rose from the
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Titanic and such a good job. It was great, I loved it.
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So what do you hear God say unto you during your time?
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What I heard basically him saying like that, I'm not alone,
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like it's other people probably in the stadium.
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That's like dealing with the same stuff that you're dealing
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with and stuff. What I got from this was that
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God was telling me that I have to make some changes in my life
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just in order to, like, reach my fullest potential that God has
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for me. So yeah, I've already started
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working on some of those. I can agree with that.
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I should have pulled that one up.
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Yeah, that had to change some things in my life.
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I could agree with that. And there there's a few things
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that he spoke for me, but I felt like he just provided a lot of
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things to me to give to others immediately in that time or like
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for lessons or sermons coming up that he just.
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Yeah, I don't know. So I got questions.
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What changed from the beginning of us arriving in Dallas to the
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end? For me, I'll say what changed
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was me is like when I was going there, I had like so much like
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stuff build up and like as I was there, it all like mottled down.
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So like at the last bit, when I went home, I felt like a whole
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totally different person. I would say when I got there I
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was very anxious and I feel like I had like a part of my heart
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closed off. Like feel like I wasn't really
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open so much, but I feel like after going to the conference,
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like I said, like I, I guess I opened up and I realized what I
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had to change and it just like, I guess like shifted my mindset
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a little bit and made me want to change things in my life in
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order to get better, I would say.
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Was there something specific that led to those changes?
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I would say just like all the speakers in general and just the
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way that all of their messages like correlated with each other
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and I just feel like I was kind of being called out like about
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like fear and anxiety mostly. I feel like that was the big
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thing that they touched on. And I feel like I, I realized
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that I've been going to other places and things to like try
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and like make myself feel better, but I haven't really
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truly gone to God with these things.
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And just like some of the messages, like they're talking
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about that. And it made me realize that I
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really should put God 1st instead of going to other things
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like my friends and just like stuff like that.
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And instead of like shutting myself away and like isolating
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myself, I should like what Sadie Robinson was saying.
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She was saying like about her anxiety.
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She was saying how she had really good friends to help her
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through it and she would like talk with them, her like godly
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friends. And I feel like I also don't
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have many of those. So she's talking about her
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friends. So that's one thing I realize I
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need to like find more godly friends, I guess.
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And one thing that happened after Passion, I did invite my
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best friend to church. So I'm hoping she comes this
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Sunday. But I think she will because we
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are talking about it a lot and I was just telling her my
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experience is a passion. But yeah, I realized that I need
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to go to God 1st instead of turning to other things.
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She. Just took all the word, all the
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stuff I was thinking about. But but yeah, like as she said
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that that like all the speakers, I felt like they was like
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basically calling me out and like half the speakers, I felt
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like it was directly coming to me because I don't go to God for
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it. Like I hold I hold it like in
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like hostage basically and hold it deep in the like deep down
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and like it's like a pressure is I need to talk about to
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somebody. I need to give this to God at
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the end of passion, as I said, I went to Jeremy, I told him what
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was going on. He prayed for me and after that
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it felt like easier to like actually try to go speak to
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someone. Thank you for that, Jeremy.
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And that was one of those things that like walking with and being
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with you guys for 3-4 years. How long have I been here?
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My son was born when I got here. So 3 1/2 years.
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I don't think that they would have had that opportunity to
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share at the end of the trip if someone didn't know him.
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And like, 'cause I, I checked on you and like 3 or 4 times like
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they are you OK? Like everything good.
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Like he was just semen off and I and I didn't know what, but I
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also want to give him a space to just chew on whatever God was
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doing. And then he was bold enough to
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share with me at the airport what was going on and able to
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pray for him. But like, if not, if it was just
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like a new kid, I didn't know that it was like, I don't want
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to like maybe that's just his normal thing or just tired, like
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not going to press on that. And then with Ali just trying to
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help support her leading up to getting to the actual passion
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event, I don't think she would have entrusted a stranger or
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allowed them into that space to navigate that time, which again,
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I don't take for granted the trust that they've put into me.
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And trying to, I mean, Mexico definitely helped with that.
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And I read at some point of passion, I remember you're
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trying to do and I was like, Ali's going to get hurt or
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whatever. And I was like, Rebecca can save
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your life only so many times, something like that.
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But it's just like a blessing of, of walking together like as
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a family, navigating the things outside of this specific event
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and like things that you pay to go be a part of and seeing how
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God uses all of that as a part of the entire experience to draw
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them closer to him and hopefully to other believers to continue
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to encourage and hold accountable and all that kind of
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stuff. And so, yeah, I'm just blessed
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of of just how God's been working and all of that.
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What would you share with someone who was thinking about
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going to Passion next year? But but I was.
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Jeremy's just, you know, go. I'm.
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Just go tumbling up. But no, I'll I'll share like the
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stuff that I experienced. Tell them that they something
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like during they should go. Well, you can probably catch
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that experience as well because you're surrounded by so many
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believers and like you might be out of life.
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Like thinking like, is this like a step that I want to take?
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Basically, yeah, you should go because it's like a good
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opportunity and also like a good place where like you can see
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other people that's probably going through the same things
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you're going through. I would just say to do it and to
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take the risk. I, I think it was Louis who said
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it in his like talk. If you're feeling lost, like
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passion's not gonna, like it's not just going to heal you
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miraculously, but it can be like a first step in order to start
19:07
that healing process. And I think that it has been
19:13
that for me so far. So I would just say to go take
19:16
the risk. You never know what's going to
19:18
happen if you don't like it, you never have to go again, but you
19:21
might as well try. And I truly enjoyed it and I
19:25
would like to go again so. Yeah, same here.
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I would love to go again. And I've never had someone
19:32
regret going to passion before. I've had someone regret going to
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passion with me. I can't blame them because we
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did not get along. This was a long, long time.
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I think it was the first time I took a group of passion.
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There was 1 and I just like I was not having it anyway but
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luckily can I say that publicly? Can I?
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Can OK follow up if if passion is a first step or a step in the
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process, what do you feel like I'd say or is maybe a next step?
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I think for me, I just, I need to go to God first.
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Like I need to pray a lot more. I feel like that's something
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I've been lacking and reading my Bible regularly.
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That's another thing. I just feel like I have not been
20:27
doing that throughout my first semester of college.
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I mean, I've been like involved in campus ministry and stuff,
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but I haven't, I've been like lukewarm I would say like I
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haven't actually like gone deeper and fully devoted my
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life. And there's like some things I
20:40
need to cut out, and I guess probably some people I should
20:45
cut out to, but yeah, I guess. Don't worry.
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I guess those are just some of the next steps.
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I just, I just really need to like grow closer is what I'm
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being called to do. And in order to do that, I just
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need to do some life changes. And yeah, I think that's what
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I'm being told. What I say I'll have by like say
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I need to read the Bible more and also like pray more because
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I haven't been doing that God basically like show me like the
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inside person like he re renewed me basically.
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So now I'm seeing like expectations on like what he
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wants me to do and how he wants me to do it and what steps you
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want me to take. I'm seeing that right now and.
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That was something I forgot who touched on it, but they were
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talking about like almost like having a spiritual role model
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from like a church history or something.
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And essentially we always focus of when I'm there instead of the
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what am I supposed to be doing here?
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And how did they get there is because of all the important
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things they did to draw closer to God and the here and now.
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And I think that was really encouraging, inspiring, because
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sometimes, a lot of times we're like, well, when I'm 20 years
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down the road in this stage of life, that's when it'll all
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click. But it's what are we doing now
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to get us in in that direction? And so, yeah, having that
22:14
perspective is very helpful thing for everyone.
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Anything you were hoping I would ask you about that I haven't
22:21
asked you about? You're just dying to share with
22:24
the listeners. Best barbecue UAE or?
22:27
I don't like the Texas BBQ. Why?
22:30
It did her dirty. It did her dirty.
22:32
It was delicious. Don't tell me it wasn't
22:34
delicious. It was.
22:35
Good. The brisket was OK.
22:37
You had the brisket tip. Yeah, I thought I like the
22:40
sandwich. Oh, the.
22:42
Brisket was good. I had my first Texas Twinkie and
22:44
it was so good. It's I think it's a jalapeno
22:49
pepper, some sort of pepper stuffed with cheese and some
22:53
sort of maybe the brisket, maybe pulled pork inside that and then
22:56
wrapped in bacon and fried. So good.
23:00
They serve a hot dog like that, that global life.
23:05
Also, I couldn't afford everything that was that global,
23:08
global life. Yeah, it was.
23:09
A hot dog inside, a pepper with cheese and then wrapped in bacon
23:13
and. Yeah, it was the way to go.
23:16
And I I felt bad for apparently it was a lot of people's first
23:22
real BBQ experience and they weren't anticipating the size of
23:26
their meals. Like the big?
23:29
Yeah, like the big Papa. Everything's bigger in Texas.
23:32
So Murph and Gracie got the Big Papa, which is a stuffed potato,
23:37
and they were thinking like the potato you buy at the grocery
23:40
store. Yeah, it was probably like a 10
23:43
to 12 inch long and like 6 inch wide potato piled up about like
23:49
6 inches potato itself. Probably weighed a pound.
23:53
It was it was definitely lived up to the name Big Papa.
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So they could have easily split that, but they tried their best
24:00
and shared and all that kind of stuff.
24:03
That was good. We also got in and out, which
24:04
was good I. Like in and.
24:06
Out, a lot of people's first in and out and having wore the hat
24:10
and that was great. He has the little kids hat that
24:13
you can wear. It was a good time.
24:15
Well, that's our conversation for today, but that doesn't mean
24:18
the conversation is over. We'd love to hear your thoughts
24:21
on these topics as well. To ask a question about anything
24:24
we've discussed in this episode or to join the conversation, you
24:27
can head over to fumccollingswood.org/podcast.
24:33
Thanks for being part of this conversation.