EXPERIENCE 193 | Party In The Front! - Overcome Loneliness and Find Community Right Where You Are - A Conversation with First-Time Authors Jeff Dillon & Ty Dannebring

I met Ty Dannebring at church one Sunday, when he hunted me down and said “Can we have a conversation about possibly being on your podcast, with regard to our new book?”  Knowing nothing, I said, “of course” - and then after a coffee and conversation I was eager to spend time in the podcast studio with Ty and his co-author, Jeff Dillon.  Ty is a financial advisor with a big idea, and Jeff is a Pastor at Redemption Church in Loveland, and his skill and expertise in writing helped give shape to Ty’s ideas with proper grammar and sentence structure!  

From the Go-Fund-Me Page for Party In The Front! - 

There is an epidemic of loneliness in our culture today.

The U.S. Surgeon General says lacking social connection is more dangerous than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. More dangerous than obesity or air pollution.

Yet most of us live separate lives - distant from the people who are literally right outside our front door.  We believe it's time to change that story. And it doesn't take a lot.

All it takes is being yourself and bringing the good things of your life out into the open for others to see.

Instead of a party in your backyard, why not bring it to the front yard, where people can see and be invited in?

This is what it means to Party in the Front. To overcome loneliness and create community right where you are.

My conversation today is with a pair of smart and thoughtful guys, who spent a bunch of time putting together ideas and structure around a big challenge - why are so many people lonely, when we’re surrounded by people every day? - and how can we fix that? 

So please, join me to share in some ideas and visions for a more-connected future, and get to know the authors behind a new book sparking change in our cultural revitalization - Party In The Front!  

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Transcript

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Logistics Co op is a proud sponsor of the Loco Experience Podcast. We started Logistics Co op to help Northern Colorado local businesses compete with the big box, big tech monopolies that have put tremendous strain on the family business. If you want to raise your level of competition with service, Logistics Co op can be your solution. We deliver anything from Colorado Springs to Wellington for easy to understand fees that are far less than the national carry. If you are looking to raise your services with delivery to compete with the national behemoths, Logistics Co op is your solution. We're here to help people shop and ship local. Visit logisticscoop. com to find out more. I met Ty Danabring at church one Sunday when he hunted me down and said, Can we have a conversation about possibly being on your podcast with regard to our new book? Knowing nothing, I said, Of course. And then after a coffee and conversation, I was eager to spend time in the podcast studio with Ty and his co author, Jeff Dillon. Ty is a financial advisor with a big idea. And Jeff is a pastor at Redemption Church in Loveland. And his skill and expertise in writing helped give shape to Dai's ideas with proper grammar and sentence structure. From the GoFundMe page for Party in the Front, there's an epidemic of loneliness in our culture today. The U. S. Surgeon General says lacking social connection is more dangerous than smoking 15 cigarettes a day, more dangerous than obesity or air pollution. Yet Most of us live separate lives distant from the people who are literally right outside our front door We believe it's time to change that story and it doesn't take a lot All it takes is being yourself and bringing the good things of your life out into the open for others to see You Instead of a party in your backyard, why not bring it to the front yard, where people can see and be invited in? This is what it means to party in the front, to overcome loneliness and create community right where you are. My conversation today is with a pair of smart and thoughtful guys who spend a bunch of time putting together ideas and structure around a big challenge. Why are so many people lonely when we're surrounded by people every day? And how can we fix that? So please join me to share in some ideas and visions for a more connected future, and to And get to know the authors behind a new book sparking change in our cultural revitalization. Party in the Front. Welcome back to The Loco Experience. I'm honored today to be joined by Ty Danenbring, and Jeff Dillon. And Ty goes to my church. He's a financial advisor of unnamed firm, which is also not relevant to the reason they're here. And then pastor Jeff Dillon serves at Redemption Church in Loveland. So together they've written a book called Party in the Front. And, uh, It's just as cool as you might think, and, uh, so why don't I, uh, just kind of let you start, Ty, since you are the person that, uh, talked your way onto this podcast today. Yeah, Kurt, thanks so much for having us. Um, it's a blessing to be here. So the, the subtitle of the book is Overcome Loneliness and Find Community Right Where You Are., We, we feel like it's a huge need right now, um, to get the word out to, um, to really a lonely world and, um, an isolated world for many reasons that we'll go into, but, um, but yeah. So the right where you are, uh, if I recall from our coffee was kind of hang out in your front yard. So you actually get to meet your neighbors and stuff. Yeah. At least that's part of the theme. I'm sure it's a much more expensive book than that because that would be the essay at the best. Yeah. Yeah. It, what, what's been interesting is, you know, I think you set out to write a book and you think you know what the book is going to be about and then you get in the process and it's like, Oh. That's what the book's going to be about, right? It's about some other things. And, and yes, it is, you know, very basically about that idea of bringing, bringing the party to the front, bringing the things that you do, uh, that bring life, that bring connection, that build relationships from the backyard, from inside your home to the front, where you can connect with your neighbors. But it's also really started to become about more than that. And this idea of, you know, finding community right where you are, you know who you are, who God's made you to be, your warts and all, your weirdness and all right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and just being real. I'm here cracking sex jokes with a pastor and guy I go to church with, you know? Right. You gotta, you just gotta be who you are. Afterlife jokes and I think, uh, I think that's what builds relationship and what our world needs to see. is people, particularly Christians, who can just be real, can be who they are. So that's part of it too. You know, I think that's one thing that people have appreciated, like, I try not to do anything that brings a lot of, uh, disdain or shouts of hypocrite, uh, from the non churched people, but I also, I give myself a license to be kind of weird. You know, and I, I, I cuss a lot less than I used to, but when the word is just right, you know, sometimes I do. Um, and, uh, so, I guess, oh, one thing I wanted to mention is that navigation, somebody told me a long time ago, writing is thinking. And so, through the act of writing, you're thinking this, you're thinking that, and then you're like, oh shoot, I changed my mind about that a little bit, or I want to expand on that, so. Yep, absolutely. How's that work? Doing so with two people like is this both of your ideas and you work together on it right from the start or what? Ty's just always right. He gets to subscribe. He's the big name on the front of the cover and you just kind of get to use your big voice as a pastor and stuff to give him some credibility. You know, I, I think the synergy has actually been really cool. Um, not only to do a project with someone else to keep you going, uh, when you're, you know, running out of ideas or when you're at a block or whatever. Um, but just to bounce things off one another and, or be encouraged by like, Oh yeah, that, like you're, does that resonate with you too? Like, okay. Yeah. Um, we feel like we're onto something from your angle. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. I feel like I've had a lot of ideas in the past that, um, you know, Probably should not have been shared. And so I was like, okay, I'm glad this one's sticking. At least don't feel as crazy. We have that kind of philosophy here. You know, before something leaves the local think tank office, whether it's a note from Kurt or, you know, my blog, somebody else has to read that, you know? And so I can imagine that that building process over time was pretty special. Yeah, for sure. And. You know, this is, this was Ty's idea, you know, full credit to him. He, he approached me a couple of years ago at a, at an event at church. and said, Hey, I have this idea for a book, you know, party in the front and explain the whole idea and about reaching your neighbors and building community. And I thought, yeah, that's great. And he, he said, yeah, just, you know, I need someone to help me write it. Here's the idea. I'm not writing any of it. I'm good at math. Right. Talking to people. I'm going to talk about my ideas and you write them all down. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and so I, you know, I'll, I'll share more probably, but you know, my background is in journalism and writing. I'll see. I write. I write sermons. I write church emails that nobody reads. They're fantastic. Really well written. I write local think tank emails. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's just part of it. But you know, I was like, I'd be willing to give it a shot. And, and Ty was willing to, to let me jump in. He was crazy enough, loco enough to let me jump in on the process with him. And. And, and yeah, it has been so good to see how, how God has led us through this process, how we've learned, how we've balanced ideas off each other, how we've changed things as we went. And it really has been an incredible process and it, it becomes its own thing. Like I said, you think, you know what you're setting out to write and then, and then you start to actually figure out what that's going to be. Right. The process. Totally. Totally. Um, Where did this idea germinate from? Were you, like, I'm guessing it might have even been a COVID season kind of an idea when everybody was so isolated and whatnot? Yeah, that was certainly a catalyst. We, we moved into our neighborhood that we live in now. So we purchased a home three years ago. And I think like most people in 2021, we're just still kind of coming out from that fog of COVID. Um, yeah, it was just, uh, how do we, how do we meet neighbors and how do we. have meaningful conversations other than maybe just knowing their names. And so, you know, I, I guess I could door knock them and just, you know, but then you're creepy. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like trying to sell me life insurance or something. Totally. You know, I've had plenty of that with my own job. And so like, uh, how do I not be that guy to my neighbors? And, um, and so, yeah, it just, it, it came out of us, um, trying to think outside the box and we, we pulled our, our griddle, uh, Out from the backyard and put it in the front yard and we started hosting, hosting pancake breakfast and it's just been a real hit. We've done, um, like a bigger one for the last three summers now and we've, we still get it out. Um, you know, probably two or three times a month just to, to get it out. And I like to, and do you like advertise this thing or whatever? Just the smell of pancakes. Yeah, we'll do, we'll do like, yeah, one, one big one for sure. We'll, we'll, we'll try to get as many people from our neighborhood there and, and I'll send text messages or, yeah, I, I, Because I know them now, I'll go door knock them. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's just been great too. By the way, one of my, uh, favorite, um, music shows around here. Have you, have we talked about the brothers fountain? I don't brother's fountain band. They have a song that's got pancakes in it and they're in there. They're like the kids of, uh, young. Life parents. Uh, and so they have kind of all this kind of sneaky Christian biblical stuff wrapped in their folk music. And so if you guys ever want to do a pancake breakfast, like street party with with music, uh, like they could sing the pancake song like every 20 minutes. Anyway, sorry not to interrupt, but I, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a scroll chaser. No, that's great. And you know, it's fun. You were doing this for a little while. Yeah, we're doing that for a while. And. It was like, Hey, we're going to keep doing this because we're, we're having meaningful conversations. And, um, what we noticed is that people are a lot more receptive to come if it's something in the front yard, less creepy, I guess. For sure. Yeah. No, it's an interesting, like we put a sign on our door when we have meetings. backyard parties, because we've got a two bedroom, one bath house. And so when we have people over, it's in the summertime and in the backyard. Yes. And, but we put a sticker has come on through and like, if people are there for the first time, it's like, what do you mean? I come right through your house to your backyard. I'm like, my, my hairs are standing in my arm as I'm imagining other people's feelings in that circumstance. Yep. But my dog will get out if I leave the door open. So, you know, yeah, yeah. There's something about that. And it's interesting because we've, we've even done some research in the book and just talking to people, how even the design of homes has changed over the years in our, in our culture over the decades and how, you know, used to have big front porches, a lot of homes and, and things were designed. To, to be more Yeah. You were some iced tea. Yeah. Look, those horses were all quiet Yeah, exactly. Going by and stuff. And you could wave to your neighbor. Exactly. You didn't need a garage. Right. It was just, it was just different. And so there's some, there's some practical things like that, that have changed the way we interact with neighbors and makes it more of a challenge. And, and you forget about that, that, that it can be intimidating. To walk through someone's house, to walk through someone's front door to go to the backyard. Yeah. And just the simple act of coming to the front can change that. Yeah. Yeah. Make that easier. Well, and did we talk about lightning mini golf when we met for coffee? No, you mentioned that to me before Jeff got there. Okay, gotcha. I missed it. I gotta hear it so. Well, you gotta go check it out is what you gotta do's. It's in my neighborhood on, on West side, on LaPorte and Whitcomb. The corner of it is the. Original three holes and it was built during COVID and it's, it's free mini golf equipped with putters and balls and everything you need a donation QR code. If you want to, after the podcast, we're going to go there right now. I don't stand a chance. World class golfer. It'd be fun to lose. It's mini golf. It's different than regular golf. You're looking at a two time, uh, champion of the neighborhood mini golf team. Oh, wow. Let's do it. Wow. Congratulations, Kurt. Well, but I, I, I think why, why I resonated a lot with, with you guys and like, we literally have a hole that, uh, with a spinning gate that we put in the fence between us and our next door neighbors. Neat. So that we could have his shared 50th birthday party in both yards because they didn't have enough room for everybody in his yard and I had the pig roast in mine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's Old Town Westside. It's a different. Yeah. You know, it was built in a different time. It's early 1900s is when those homes were built. Yep. For sure. Yeah. You just don't realize some of those things. I I've never thought about it before. And we actually were just in North Carolina and, uh, had an event out there sharing about the book and I was in a buddy's neighborhood and some of the homes in their neighborhood had been built like 20 years ago and then some of them within the last 10 years. And even in that 10 years difference. You can just see on the block, you know, every other home is just built differently and you know, from 20 years ago, even there's still a little front porch. And I know this is one example, but I think this is kind of the trend. And then now the newer homes are all, you know, they, they give more space inside the house or in the backyard. There's literally, there's a few steps up to their front door. So there's some of these tangible things that we just, we, you know, I've never thought of that. Doesn't preclude you from getting to know your neighbors. It doesn't, it doesn't make it maybe a little more. Intentional. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So much of our world now is built around, uh, things that, that don't make that natural to interact with our neighbors. It's not as natural or as organic as it used to be. so, can we, like, jump into the book a little bit? Does the book have a, like, a prescription? Or is it more of a story? Like, talk to me about the, uh, outline, if you will, of what, how do you lay out a book like this? Yeah, Jeff, do you want to take a stab at the outline? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So kind of our, our vision from the beginning was to, um, kind of go backwards a little bit and look at how culture has changed, how, um, those things like the design of homes and, um, just the cultural societal norms, you know, um, Uh, there used to be bridge clubs and things like that. I remember my grandparents growing up would talk about playing bridge. I still don't know what bridges have you guys ever played bridge? Uh, no, no people that do, but yeah, that's right. They're all over 80 too. All right. Bridge will die or it might be making a comeback. I'm sure it's a ton of fun. fun. No offense to the bridge players out there, but you know, it's one of those things where like those things have changed. There's a really good book. Yeah. We went to North Dakota. We would have whisked parties in the winter time. Yes. Which in North Dakota in the winter, we've got like, if you're a farming community, like you're not doing nothing from November through March, really trying to stay alive. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And not bored to death. So go play Whisper Six Hours and drink Tom and Jerry's. That sounds real good. There you go. Yeah. There you go. So it, you know, it's so interesting as we've, as we've looked at that, just some of the, the cultural changes that have happened. There's a great book called Bowling Alone that was written in the nineties. Yeah. And talked about the cultural changes from like the 50s and 60s through the 90s, you know, and all, all kinds of changes that happened in our culture in terms of, um, you know, the, the, the sprawling suburbs and how, how homes were built, how neighborhoods were designed to garages, the advent of the garage. Now you don't even have to see your neighbors. No, you literally don't have to interact at all. Um, to the design that the, the introduction in the, in the spread of, of television sets, you know, that now all of a sudden you've got entertainment in your home. Right. And you don't even have to go out for ice cream or for a walk around the neighborhood, go see how Bob's doing. Exactly. So just, there's like some of those cultural changes and that was written, that book was written before the internet really exploded. So you think about the changes since, since Al Gore invented the internet. And right. Wasn't that you know, and it's like, those, all those changes have just exploded even more over the last 20, 30 years. And so the first part of our book, we kind of go backwards to look at, okay, what are some of those changes that have happened? Um, and then kind of bring it up to today and address, address some of the issues, strategic planning things start. Okay. What's an accurate assessment? Been of our current condition. Exactly. It ain't good. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. And I think, and that's where, you know, coming out of COVI, a lot of those issues were really apparent to us where, um, again, I think a lot of things that, that the issues that already existed got accelerated during Covid. Yeah. And so we addressed some of those things as well. Things like the political divisiveness in the country. Right, right, right. Um, like, you know, some of the covid policies and masks and those types of things. I mean, everything. Yeah. Got even more intensified now in, in literally for a while during COVID, we were told to not see our neighbor, right? And so, and that's a whole other thing. Right. But like, literally we had this, this period of time where we were discouraged from loving our neighbor and interacting with our neighbor. And so that's, that's kind of where we go in the book a little bit. We don't get into a ton of that, but addressing. Some of those realities that exist in our culture today. The, uh, the reason I'm smiling is not just because of COVID, but my guest from about two months back was my neighbor with whom we have the, the fence hole cut. Yeah. And we talked about in that episode about, um, we continued our tradition of having a Cinco de Mayo party in May of 2020, a backyard party with, uh, fish tacos and, and a carnitas tacos and whatever. And our neighbors, Chris and Christy moved in like, two weeks before. Yeah. Like, yeah, you know, in the first month of COVID basically, and we invited them to our party and they were like, huh? And then we, you know, invited them again or whatever, they didn't come, but I put some leftover cilantro, lime coleslaw and carnitas and some tortillas on the fence in case they wanted them. And like by the next weekend, we were like, Hang on the pretty regular and yeah, you know, and I'm, you know, probably more libertine than almost anybody and They were probably both from a fairly liberal perspective in there, but they're moving more libertine I think at least in part from our influence and just yeah being old and seeing the world go into a Weird place for a while. You're like, you know what? I'm not gonna Yeah. Jump is high when people say jump next time. Sir. I don't know. Yes. You mentioned food too. It's amazing what food can do. Food is binding. It really is. Food and music are amazing. Yeah. And so. You know, getting back to the pancakes, it's like, we're doing things now. We, we just saw neighbors this last weekend because we, it's fall time here now, and, uh, we made pumpkin spice pancakes with, I was just going to ask you, you make pumpkin pancakes. Yeah. So what's the acronym PSL, uh, you know, pumpkin spice latte. It's like PSPs and, uh, so we've got the PSPs going on with some chocolate chips in it. I like it. Who does not like that? And. Um, and you know, if you griddle it, they will come with the bacon. So it's, it's great. Do you have the, the Blackstone? We do. Yeah. So shameless plug for Blackstone. It's been, it's been a game changer for our family. Cause Jeff and I, we both have five children, 10 between the two of us and uh, our families. And so it's been, well, so you eat a lot of pancakes. Yeah. That's all we eat. Cheap bacon. Um, Yeah, we can feed an army with a griddle, so Well, and the Blackstone never needs to be cleaned. I mean, you clean it like I know. Yes. It's amazing. I, I got one of those in Covid season too. It was great. We still use it every, it's in the truck. Yeah, right now. They're great. Yeah. It's, it's actually sad for me to not cook breakfast that way or anything really in the wintertime. So it's like, gotta be creative. I mean, you can use it pretty cold if you're willing to tolerate that. Yeah, true, yep. They light up. Yeah, yeah. Keeps you warm. So, anyway, I think, Jeff, I might have derailed you a little bit. So you kind of look back, set the current assessment of the scene, and then I assume that the kind of Okay. Now, what do we try to do about it? Yeah, for sure. We, we, we try to, we, we didn't want to leave the book on just, Hey, this is the problem and, uh, see you later. Here's a big problem. It is called party in the front. It's supposed to be a, you know, a fun book and an engaging book. So really what, what's kind of interesting is in the heart of the book. Again, as we wrote it, we realized, yeah, we can look at all the cultural changes. We can look at history, we can look at how things have changed, um, in our neighborhoods and in the way we function as, as a society. But the reality is, is we believe there's a deeper reason that we are. That we desire connection and community with other people and that that there's a deeper reason and Deeper things that keep us from doing that and so we believe that's what the Bible teaches, right? And so we go all the way back to Genesis chapter 1 in the middle of the book and we look at creation and how God made in his image man and woman To be in relationship, right? Adam and Eve to be in relationship. And I don't need to go into the whole story, but you, you, you see this design of relationship and community. Well, and right away, Cain and Abel fractured relationship, you know, and even before that. Exactly. So Genesis chapter three, you've got the fall, right? Adam and Eve commit the first sin and there's a brokenness now. in their relationship with God and with each other. And then, yeah, you see immediately Cain and Abel, right? Like, and, and throughout the pages of, of the Bible, you see the brokenness of human relationships being played out. And so we, we really didn't want to just say, Hey, let's point the finger outward at all of these things that we can blame for our lack of community and lack of relationship in our neighborhoods. Let's actually challenge all of us, ourselves included to look inward as well and go, Hey, Hold up. Something's broken in here and I'm, I don't always want to get to know my neighbor, you know, I am tempted many, many nights to just drive into the garage and close it and not talk. And there's a lot of different reasons for that. But a lot of those reasons come down to me and my own struggles, my own brokenness, not necessarily because, you know, of something my neighbor's done or, or, or some societal change. It's just, there's something in me that wants me to kind of. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's a very safe place to just go flip through YouTube videos. Nobody's criticizing your bad habits, you know, whatever. Exactly. Else, you don't have to even engage in conversation. Yep. Uh, yeah, that's an interesting dynamic. Yep. And shame leading to isolation just naturally, right away. Right. In the garden, you know, it's like. They, they know they sinned and they tried to hide. Obviously they didn't, but. Yeah. Um, but that, we, we see that, I see that in my own life. And, um. Yeah, it's easy to try to escape. Yeah. And, and my add to like, when we look at community and where people had found community in the past, like looking through their work, like actually physically going somewhere or going to a classroom setting, uh, going to get groceries somewhere. Um, having front porches and maybe a different type of setting, uh, 100 years ago or wherever, um, or the church. And now you have a lot of different options for any of those, uh, spheres. For sure. So you're working online, uh, online church, uh, even proximity to family. People just don't live. So just that community is way different now. Um, it's been this, I think, slow fade to where we are now. Not all those things are bad, but yeah, but that's where we're at. That's really, uh, Ava, our, our newest employee here at Loco. Uh, she came over maybe a month into her tenure for a Sunday football game between the Vikings and the Packers. Cause Alma and her husband are pretty close. Packers fans, me and my wife, Jill are Vikings fans. So we planned ahead and we, you know, included Ava. And at least in part, like, like we could see, like, she's got an abundance of friends, but it was mostly her and her mom and her older, much older brother growing up and her dad's been here and there and she doesn't really have family. family, you know, not that we're going to ever be her family, but if she can have the sensation of a family type atmosphere at this little office, you know, the likelihood that she'll work hard and not quit on short notice and maybe want to stay, you know, is much stronger. Yeah. And it's not self serving. Like that sounds almost like I'm trying to, you know, but I'm more trying to justify the doing of, of, of like, Doing good things always comes back and connecting with people, building relationship. And the other thing I was just thinking when you were talking to Jeff was Um, I guess that notion of the body of Christ, like that's one of the most powerful elements. And I think which frictions against the, the individualism that's been created, like individual rights is the only way to have individual rights. And as a, a pretty pronounced libertarian, you don't always see me advocating for individual rights cause that's the only way to do it, but it doesn't recognize the fact that none of us are sufficient. By ourselves, right? You know, we, if, and if we would all see ourselves as part of a body that yes, division is a lot, uh, decreased. Yeah. Right. Yeah. We were, we were made for community. That's one of the things that we, that we talk about in the book. We believe that. God designed us to know others and be known by them. That's what God designed. And you think about, you know, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, like God himself exists in a relationship and, and there's this recognition that we, we need to be connected with each other. And I think, you know, you look at, uh, I think community is defined as, you know, meaningful, Relationships in a group of people that are close together. I just botched the Miriam Webster definition, but, um, because people that are geographically aligned, there's something about that. When you're talking about family, like what, what is a, what is a family? Like a family is a group of people who are like together and committed to each other. Yeah. No matter what. And that's, that's really a great, that's the beautiful picture of, of community right. And a family. And is this idea that we, we are, we're here, we're together, we're knitted together. And that means we're, we're kind of stuck with each other too. And like, uh, unfortunately, because of like, like Ty was saying, the, the the, the way that our culture is set up and how, uh, you know, people just bounce around, you know, from place to place and, and move every few years. It's a lot harder to find that. And, and I think there's a tendency, I was just talking to someone where it's like, they're having an issue with their neighbor. And the easiest thing to do is just shut that off, right? Just avoid that person. And, and yet we believe that God has designed us for something more and that we're actually called to press in. We're called to have relationships. So I had a, a former pastor that would always say like, you're not, Close to someone until you're close enough to hurt them or be hurt by them, you know, And that's a scary thing with community and yet absolutely. I think that's what we're called to That's what we're called to in the church is the body of Christ But we have a chance to share that with the world as well and to let people know Hey, you might you might see things completely different in terms of the kovat shutdown But I can still share some fish tacos with you, right? And and and for your neighbors to go like, oh, you know Maybe these people aren't so crazy, you know, like, and even if they are crazy, they make some good. Yeah. And all of a sudden now you're friends. Right. And, and, and you, you have an impact in their lives and they have an impact in yours. And so I think that's a great picture of like, community is, is a commitment to each other as a knitting together. It's a pressing in and that's uncomfortable yet. That's what we're designed for. You know, I, I grew up in a village, basically, of a hundred people. Yep. Uh, you know, in a school with fifty kids in the high school and sixty kids in the elementary school, kind of thing. Yep. And I never really gave it credit for how much, maybe, of my, uh, fanciful notions of community. Uh, there are, because you're stuck with, you know, yeah, like people don't really move away from 100 person villages in the middle of North Dakota, right. Very often or north of the move. There's like, Oh, screw these neighbors. They suck. I'm going to move somewhere. You know, they're just cut. Uh, that's where you're there. That's where you're at. Yeah. And you're, you've, You've, you've committed in some fashion, um, but especially the, the online game and the, the garages and the, and the internets allow people to, I wonder what the average Um, like monthly interaction of, of, uh, of a typical American household is. Like their kids go out and do stuff and stuff, but a lot of families really only have a handful of people that they really interact with. Right. And a lot of times their families, families families are not in the same city as they are anymore either. Mm hmm. Yep. What did your research say about that? Or did you get deep into like the real data around how lonely people are, how isolated from each other? Yeah. Yeah. Jeff, can you remember some of the stats? Uh, yeah. I, uh, Yeah. I would like to say I have them memorized, but I've got them, I've got them pulled up here while you're, while you're pulling that up. I'll say a picture that someone told me that was just, uh, helpful, especially getting back to things like the fish tacos. Like it might sound insignificant, but it really is significant. I believe in, uh, pumpkin spice pancakes, you know, like what does that actually do to a relationship? And if you think about like rock climbing, it's like you're going rock climbing. And you have these carabiners, right? And you have these, these points of contact with the mountain as you're climbing up that are safety nets, you know, I feel like fish tacos and stuff like those relationships, those connections, as people look back, like, like, those are important because they provide a carabiner to the relationship. Like if, if you don't see eye to eye politically or whatever the reason. And something gets under your skin with your neighbor or whoever you're in relationship with. Yeah. Yeah. You have those carabiners that hold you back from just like crumbling. Yeah. And I just, I feel like it's just so important to, um, to just keep at trying to get those carabiners in place, uh, with your neighbors and with people in your community with. Yeah, I think that's distinctive. Uh, and I'm going to remind myself to tell the story of Derek and Crystal, uh, when we come back, but I want to, I want to hear what you got for stats. Yeah, absolutely. So we, we found that, um, uh, well, first of all, last year, 2023, the U S surgeon general actually released a report declaring, uh, an epidemic of loneliness in our culture. And so this is the, this is the government that's identifying this. And, um, and so they have a lot of statistics in that report that you can go read, but one of the things they found is that, um, about half of adults in the U. S., um, report experiencing some level of loneliness on a regular basis. Half. Um, Studies show that about only, only about half of Americans know some of their neighbors. Um, 17 percent of Americans say they know none of their neighbors. And for people under 30, that's about 25%, almost a quarter of Americans under 30 say they know none of their neighbors. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then this is another interesting stat among those who do know at least some of their neighbors, Um, 58 percent say they have never had meaningful connection with them. Wow. So, you know, I think if you ask the question differently and define what a, really knowing someone is. So really, 7 percent of Americans actually have meaningful connections with them. Some of their neighbors. Exactly. And it's something like that. Yeah. Maybe 15. Probably. It's probably very, very low. So you think about some of those things and it's pretty shocking. Right. And then, uh, and, and you recognize, yeah, there probably is an epidemic of loneliness in our culture today. Cause there's so many people that aren't known and if they don't have family close by, if they're not a part of a church or. A social club or a bridge club, one of the last remaining bridge clubs, then they might not, do they have any meaningful relationships? Maybe they have coworkers or things like that, but you know, I, I think about it in my own story and after graduating college, like, you know, it's, it's very easy if you don't. Search out community. It's very easy, I think, to just get in your own little bubble and just go home and, and watch TV and do your own things and, and just kind of build your own little world and never have to interact with those around you, but which for a while, especially as a guy is like, there's a part of me like, That sounds awesome. But after a while, it's like, Oh, like I am lonely. Like I do crave relationship and interaction, meaningful connections with people. Well, and I'm thinking to myself right now about the notion of, uh, renewalment and, uh, in that like, A lot of us build a lot of friends, like, maybe it's high school, maybe it's college, maybe it's our first few years of working at a job, you know, and especially if it's a vibrant community of peers and stuff, you build a bunch of friends, and then you hang out with your favorites of those people. For a long time, but then maybe you move, maybe this or that happens, and people just kind of slip off, slip off of that list, and unless you have a process by which you invite and allow new people to, to renew your community, you know, whether it's your next door neighbors or, or just Your list of people that you hang out with regularly, right? You know, you either not hanging out with anybody anymore or just the same small number of people that are left. Exactly. Yeah. It's, it's interesting. You think about like growing up, like as a, as a kid in school. And then, you know, all the way through college and, and just kind of the way most of us have grown up, like community relationships are almost like built in for you, there's like these places for you to go where, whether you want to or not, you're going to have relationships, you're going to have connections with people, but when you get out of that, when you become an adult on your own two feet, um, you know, all of a sudden now you have to be intentional to create those relationships, you know, you have to build that community. Yeah. That's part of why our, you know, our subtitles find community right where you are. You know, another way we talk about is building community that takes action because there's not these automatic places for most of us to immediately have that community. Now, we would believe that that's part of the huge purpose of the church, right? That we find community there, but that's only 40 percent of Americans. Exactly. And that number is continually going down or something. Yeah. Yep. And then you look at some of the numbers of, of who even experiences meaningful connection Within church and those numbers can be kind of startling to, you know, even if you're going, um, you know, with the mega church movement, some of those things we talk about in the book and nothing against mega churches, but it's, it's a lot easier to go to some of these churches today and, you know, have enjoyed the service, but never have meaningful interactions. Nobody knows if you're there or not. Exactly. Never been, you know, so it takes a lot of intentionality and, and stepping out of your comfort zone to build that community. I'll add to that. I think part of the reason why we wrote this is because we wanted to leave a legacy for our kids, you know, there's this next generation that we want to help train and we're seeing, I think now the, the anxious generation of the, as they've been called, you know, and, and a book and, um, and we don't want our kids to fall into that. And we want to show them what does it, what does it mean to just look someone in the eye? What is it? What is it like some of these basic life skills that um, you know, making pancakes for them and serving them is An act of humility and an act of just like hey, this is an easy this can be an easy thing. Yeah, and it's powerful Yeah, um, so yeah So like I think if nothing else if like us working on this project together, like I I really think our our family You know Our families have changed, um, because of this and, and it's been a real good accountability. What's the, uh, what's the spread, uh, on your kids and your kids? Very similar. Yeah, it is really similar too. Yep. We're just trying to be like the Danbrings. Just a little bit behind them. That's right. Yeah. You have, you have the oldest by a little bit, right? No, I think. Or is Abby the oldest? Yeah, I think Abby's just older than Leah. Yep. Okay. That's right. Okay. We're, we're nine down to two. That's right. And they're. 10. We're 10 down to. Yeah, so we're a little, a little tighter, but they're more organized than we are. Well, he's not trying to love how the pastor's income is. He probably is trying to, but he's investing the rest. So we're trying to change the next generation and we're trying to make the next generation. That's right. Well, if we keep having kids, that guarantees, You know, at least we've guaranteed 10 book sales, all of our kids buy a book. So my, my oldest, when I told him about the book idea, um, that we're at the table and I said, Hey, I got this book idea and you know, what do you guys think? And I, and, uh, our daughter had seen like New York times bestseller on something. She's like, dad, you could, you could just write New York times bestseller on it. Like I was like, I was like, yeah, that's not how it works, but I love the idea. Well, I I'm in Rotary Club and I really appreciate Rotary. Rotary Simplicity sometimes. Have you, have you attended? Oh, I have. Yep. Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? You know, is it, when you start with, is it the truth? You can eliminate a lot of things like. New York Times bestseller. You can put like a really tiny print potential. I just changed the words around a little bit. So you've got this, uh, this, uh, It's totally cool. Uh, the camera can't quite see it probably, but, uh, a yak, I think, uh, is that a yak? Yeah. It's a, it's a Highland, a Scottish Highland cow. Oh, a Scottish Highlands cow, which is pretty similar to a yak as far as I've seen it. They both have the same hair, dude. And, uh, uh, So what's with the cow? What's with the cow? And, and, well, and it's like, if I remember correctly, Oh wait, it's party in the front. Oh yeah. It's party in the back. It's normally, yeah, I get it now. Business in the front, party in the back. Yeah, but you're suggesting we turn that around. Exactly. Exactly. It's like the reverse mullet. Business in the back, party in the front. I'm going to go home and tell Jill I'm going to grow a reverse mullet. There you go. Yeah, absolutely. Keep it just like it is right here. Let it grow, man. Just like the Highland. Sweet. So because we haven't seen too many of those hairdos, uh, you know, the, The Scottish Highland has become the perfect mascot for the book and one of our taglines is like taking loneliness by the horns and So it's just been so fun. Do you guys have any ideas to do like a workbook or something to go with this? Have you thought about that? Yeah, because it seems like if I was a pastor, especially I'd be accustomed to this kind of book with an associated workbook Kind of thing you can implement this in your neighborhood. Yeah. Yeah Yeah. And actually within the book. So the last chapter of the book, we, we are, we're still kind of shaping actually, as we, as we work through the editing process and we want that last chapter to be really focused on practical action steps and action steps. So we want that to be within the book, but yeah, we've, we've thought about and had a lot of people suggest, you know, like a small group, small group guide or just something like that. We want to make this really practical for people and, and share ideas that, that like, yeah, You can pull your griddle around the front and make pancakes, but you also can do something as simple as, you know, my, my girls love having a lemonade stand, you know, have your kids do a lemonade stand or literally just sitting out in front. We share the story in the book of my grandfather, who again, grew up in a very different culture, a very different time. He was actually a world war II veteran and, Um, has had an amazing story and, and he was kind of a, a gruff guy, kind of intimidating and, um, but he would sit on his front porch in Eaton, Colorado, this little town, and he would sit on his front porch swing all day, every day. He would just sit out there. Every time we came over, Grampy Don is just sitting on that yellow front porch swing. And, um, and, and I just, you know, I used to be just like, well, that's just where he is. There's, there's Grampy Don, but I started to pay more attention as I got older and realized. He knew every neighbor in that neighborhood, you know, he knew pretty much everybody in the town just by sitting there, you know, he wasn't doing anything and people would stop by. I mean, he had some crazy stories about things he saw and, you know, he, he got to know people and be a part of their lives just because he was, Out there. And so we want really practical ideas like that and encouragement that anybody can do this. And it doesn't take some huge fancy party necessarily. It just takes being present. Well, and that's, I mean, that's the number one, like encouragement of life for most people is just like, do something like get engaged, you know? Yep. Yep, exactly. And that's, that's bringing it back to the, what's the deal with the cow? Um, I always heard Jerry Seinfeld in my brain when I say, what's the deal with the cow? What's the deal with the cow? And it's like that when Ty, Ty sent me that picture a while back, they were traveling, I think in an Airbnb, right. And he saw the, you know, the picture of the Highland. They're very popular right now. Like go to Hobby Lobby. They're everywhere. Oh yeah. Yeah. And he's like, that's perfect. Like that's our mascot, you know, for partying in the front. Yes. Because of the haircut, right. The hairdo. Um, well, these guys always hang out in herds for sure. They don't hang out by themselves. Exactly. They're herded. Exactly. And what makes the Highlands so cool? Like they are kind of goofy looking, you know, they're kind of messy, right? There are hairs all over the place. Right. But that's kind of what makes them lovable, right? Yeah. Is there just who they are and all, yeah, that's just who they are. They're just there. And, and we love that as a, as a picture of what this can look like. You don't have to be all cleaned up. You don't have to be fancy. You don't have to be impressive. You just need to be you and be out there and present and God will do the rest. Um, I see www dot party in the front book. com. You got it. Uh, and then Instagram party in the front. Yep. Um, Before we, uh, jump in the time machine to get to know more about the authors, uh, I guess, what, if, uh, if you had, like, your prayers and wishes come true of how this book impacts the, the community, impacts your lives, I mean, are you, like, optimistic you can chase this thing and, like, do a book tour and, I mean, you're already doing some stuff, you're in North Carolina, you said. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think from the get go, we, we had a conversation of like, do we swing for the fences or do we just do this for our families? And it's like, let's do this. Like, let's go swing for the fences. And, um, as a middle aged man now, it's like having a project like this to just devote to, it's like, yeah, it's been, it's been really fun. And so, um, yeah, we're like, get us on the today show. Get us like, we, we want to do the fun thing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's like that's where we want to go. Cool. I dig it. Because it's like, I think there's some traction. I think it has possibility to change a lot of lives and, and make an impact. Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate you mentioning Instagram or on Facebook too. You can just search party in the front, but, um, we really want this to be a movement as well. Yeah. And, um, we know that's kind of a, a crazy word, but we want to, we want to dream crazy, you know, that people Oh, there you go. There you go. That sounds like a new tag line or something. And, um, you know, to, to, to see people catch on with this and, and do, you know, hashtag party in the front, like share what you do out there, share your ideas. We want to see people catch onto this and kind of have a, a culture, a, a, a. Uh, a community that's built even online and, and, um, just encouraging people that it's, you can do this. This is something you can be a part of, and we're hoping that lots of people out there will catch on with the idea of Party in the Front. I'd recommend starting like a, a Facebook group or something if you haven't already. Yep, yep, we got it. Got it. Yep. And you guys are, you're, you're on this. Yeah, we're getting there. Yeah. We're getting there. Step one, uh, write book. Uh, step two, come on in. Be on the local experience podcast. Yeah, that, yes, that's really the key step. Well, and I, you know, I'll share Kurt, uh, one of the pieces of advice we got early on that was really helpful for us was a lot of people will write the book first and then they try to promote it. And, and, and we've, we're told by several people, you know, do it the other way around, actually start promoting the book, start sharing the idea, start casting. As long as you're sure you're not going to. Flake out halfway. Exactly. You got to finish the book. So, but we're, we're very close to having the book all done. But what's cool now is we have. We have people excited about it. We have people that are engaged with it and we're, we're honing in the message of the book. The book has gotten better as we've done this process. And so, um, when the book comes, it's, uh, we're excited to see where it goes. Awesome. Well, and, and we're getting ideas like the feedback and, and it makes the book better or yeah, making the book better, but also just like, Like it's, uh, we were talking to our friend Jason a couple of weeks ago down in Denver and, um, he's like, oh yeah, we did something where, you know, we built bike ramps like we used to as a kids and like we did as kids. And, um, so they had this bike ramp, they went to their neighborhood, invited people that had kids bikes and they had this bike night where the kids literally just went in circles riding over this ramp and the parents brought their lawn chairs. And so they just sat there for three hours, just having a good time and having conversations. And so like. Just having cool ideas like that come up has just been really cool. So if people can be annoyed three years from now by the number of Like street closures and, uh, like people hanging out together. Why are all these people hanging out together in these side streets and in these cul de sacs? Yep. Yeah. If we're getting angry letters from HOA boards, we have done our job. One of the other ideas that was just shared by some friends of, of ties in North Carolina, as we were sharing. Was, uh, they would, they would do like a, uh, uh, Nerf gun war in their front yard. Yeah. And they would line up a bunch of Nerf guns that, you know, they just collected them over the years, invite all the kids over and adults would get into it, you know, and they'd have these epic battles in the front. It's like, that's such a cool idea. I have a gift for you guys, actually, if you'd like, cause when I was food trucking, after I left banking and landed with a mobile food business, uh, I I, I, we were backyard party in a box. Oh, that was our concept. And I've got like maybe nine nerf guns left. No bullets. All the bullets are, but I've got a bunch of nerf guns, including, I think two megas, seven year old son that would probably have to get the air hose and dust them off a little bit. They've been in the shed for a while, but, uh, That's awesome. Yeah. Remind me. Yeah. Um, well let's go ahead and take a short break and we'll jump in the time machine and learn about these two crazy authors. All right. We are back. Uh, and, uh, Gosh, that was a nice, uh, little comic interlude. Yep. I think I've decided I'm going to take the explicit, I'm going to take the fucking explicit button off of my podcast and I'm going to turn it into a comedy show after this one, instead of arts and entertainment. Yeah. Yeah. After that's the last time I'm cussing on air. All right. Um, should we play a fun game of, uh, guessing age? Uh, Cuz I'm trying to decide who we're gonna jump in the time machine and go back to where both of you guys were like From and born and age and stuff and yes, like Jeff or sorry Jeff tie Is clearly a lot smarter, uh, but I don't know if that's from his age, or Yeah, no, it, no, that's, that's just But he has the hairline thing that's deceptive, he's a lot harder to guess. He could be 27, he could be 53. Anywhere in there. Whereas you're pretty much 37. That's just handsome GQ guy over here. And you're not 40. I just turned 40. I just turned 40. That's not too bad. Yeah. You were close. Um, and I'm going to guess that you are, if you just turned 40, it's irrelevant because you could be 27, you could be 53. I'm going to say you're, 42. Okay, 37. Oh, you are 37. I just turned 37. I was gonna go lower actually. It's the balding. Well, I mean, well, you're smart for your age. I didn't start getting smart until I was like 35. And would you care to guess? You want to try? Or do you know already? No, I don't. I'm gonna go 49. Wow, I was gonna say like 46. 50, just turned 50. I'm sorry for overguessing your age, Ty, we'll do something nice for you. When's your birthday? How many months? Uh, August 20th, I just turned 50 a couple months ago. You gotta give me credit for that. That's impressive. That's fair, that's fair. Alright, so, uh, 1980. Yes. You were born somewhere. Yes. Is that right? Yes, I was. I was born in Twin Falls, Idaho. Oh, cool. And I was born the weekend that the original Ghostbusters came out. Oh, nice. Because my aunt, who is a big movie fan, she said that she got news that I was born while she was driving to see Ghostbusters. And, um, she didn't still went. I thought about getting on a plane. She lived in California. It was like, I'm seeing ghosts. So, um, yep. I was born into a world of Ghostbusters and, uh, in, in Southern Idaho, really small little town. Yeah. I've been in Twin Falls actually. Yeah. Actually. My wife's parents lived in Twin Falls before they moved to Yuma, Arizona, where my wife was born. Wow, that's amazing. But her older brother was born in Twin Falls. That's really rare to meet someone that knows anything about Twin Falls, Idaho. You know, that's incredible. So yeah, that's where it all began. My dad Uh, was a pastor. He was. And was a pastor for three plus decades and so he was a pastor there in, in Southern Idaho and that's where it all began. Okay. Were there twin falls? Yeah, there are twin falls, but the falls are like kind of far away from town and not that big. You know? So, you know. Like two months of the year when there's waterfalls. Does anybody have a good name for this town that we've started building around here? It's like. Well, we passed some falls like a couple of hours ago, but, uh, you know, it's a nice little, this is a nice little town. And, but we moved to Colorado when I was five or six years old. So I really don't remember much of the town and, or my time in Idaho. And we've been back to visit since, but, uh, moved to Greeley when I was in elementary school. And my dad pastored a church there for pretty much my entire time. It's probably a good time to pass. Pick up the story. Anyways, uh, when you can start remembering it, um, so tell me we only child You've got a bunch of littles to were they breeders also you're also I have one brother just one brother Yeah, they weren't writing a book. So they didn't need as many kids to buy copies So, you know, it was just me and my brother and He was younger? Older? He's older. Fifteen months older. Okay. So we're real close and, and still are. And, uh, we did everything together and, um, played sports and rode our bikes and went to church a lot cause our dad was a pastor and that was our, that was our lives. And what, uh, what kind of a church was he pastoring? Is a Baptist church. Okay. Yep, Baptist Church and a little, little, little Baptist Church. Same thing up in Idaho, I assume, they don't change charter that fast, kind of thing. Yep, yep, same, same kind of thing. And, um, you know, great group of people. I actually really, I really enjoyed being a PK, a pastor's kid. Okay. Um, I really did. It was a good experience and we were involved with church. We had a lot of friends at church. We had a great youth group growing up. Um, and my faith really grew there during my junior high, high school years. Um, So I really enjoyed it. I never, ever would have. You were never like a revolting pastor's kid to speak of? No, not really. Especially, especially not then there, there was really no, really not ever. You know, I think. Um, there certainly were years where I wasn't as, as serious about my faith than others. But no, it was, it was really a pretty good experience, but I never would have said I'd be a pastor when I grew up. Yeah. And it wasn't again, that I had a bad experience. It was just like, I'm going to do my own thing. Right. Right. I'm going to, I'm going to do something different. Were there things that you were especially good at? Were you a sporty kid? Were you a good student? Yeah. So the girls, yeah. Now we're, now we're getting into the ping pong questions. Yeah. So I, uh, I was into sports, played basketball and tennis. Those were my main things. And, uh, especially in high school. Uh, yeah, I used to, I, I haven't played a lot recently, but I can still, I get done early enough, we can try to whip a game out real quick. I find that the people that beat me the most are tennis players. Yeah, yeah. Historically. Yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm, you know, it's, it's something I don't do as much anymore. And now I go out and play tennis and I just get frustrated at how bad I am. Because my brain still thinks I can play like I did. That's when I played basketball, it was the same thing. Yep. But I, yeah, so sports were a big thing for me. And, um, again, really involved with church. Um, you know, I mean, the girls, the girls liked me, you know, I wasn't, I mean, they always try to turn you. That's right. So tell me about growing up in Greeley, I guess, whatever, 40 years ago, 30, 30 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Greeley. Greeley is a really interesting town. Still is. Um, You know, a lot, it's a, obviously a huge rural community, you know, farming community kind of population. And that's where a lot of my family background was, was, was from that side of things. Um, so our church was, was a lot of farmers, frankly, and, uh, people have been there for a long time. Yeah. And so they drive in from, you know, Wiggins and stuff, exactly, exactly. And, um, yeah. So a really great group of people. But, um, you know, I think, I think I enjoyed it for the most part. I feel like, uh, you know, we moved to a new brand new neighborhood. It was a new build neighborhood when I was probably in. Second or third grade, something like that. And, um, and, and I loved our neighborhood and we were at the very end of our street and, you know, we would organize basketball games and we'd love riding our bikes around. And, uh, so you were partying in the front already. Yeah. I mean, looking back for sure. Like we did some stuff in the backyard, but we were out front a ton. We had the basketball hoop out front and that's where we were. And, um, actually it's funny. We had a golden retriever named nugget growing up. Yeah. And, uh. She was an escape artist. I mean, she could, she could get out of anything. We couldn't keep her in our yard. And, uh, so I was thinking about that kids out front playing. Yeah, exactly. I was like, we need to put the nugget in the book because nugget would like, we met all these neighbors because nugget would just wander to their house. You know, she was like creating, Creating community for us. She was partying in the front before partying the front in the, in the side yards and Exactly, yeah. Pooping in the roses. Exactly. So yeah, that was kind of our experience. And, um, and, you know, it was, it was, uh, I think it was good growing up in, in G Town as I called it for the most part. Yeah. Yeah. Um, let's bounce over to you, uh, Ty. Uh, where, where, where were you? Uh. birthed. Yeah, birthed in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Oh, yeah. So fairly close to. Yeah, pretty close to Jamestown, where I'm from. Yep. And then, uh, grew up mostly in Yankton, South Dakota. Okay. Short stint in Laurel, Nebraska, uh, south of the South Dakota border there. Okay. And, um, So, like, what were you doing, like, what were your folks situation in Aberdeen and then Yankton? Yep, so, my dad was in school, um, at Northern College, up in Aberdeen. Okay. And I've got an older brother, he's four years older. So he was going to school when you were born? Um, yes, yep. Okay. My parents were really young when they had us. Yeah, yeah. And, um, and then, um, he got a stint. Teaching job down in Laurel, Nebraska. So we were down there for I think two years. And then, um, we got to go back up to South Dakota where he's from. Well, actually both of my parents are from, uh, from Yankton, so. Okay. Um, yeah, so it was, uh, a great place to grow up. Um, oh, so that was multi-generational. So like, like your, your mom's parents and your dad's parents were both around Yeah. When you were growing up. Yep. So, yeah, it was great having, having some family there. Um, and, uh, and yin's what, like 20,000, 30,000, 50,000 people. It's about 14, 000, 15, 000. Okay. So it's right on the river. It's Missouri River. Yeah. Yeah loved going down the river on on tubes and stuff growing up and Yeah, yeah. Wasn't that supposed to, that was a candidate to be the capital of the Dakota territory, wasn't it? Yes. But then Bismarck won and then the South Dakotas got all sissy and pissy and made their own state. Yep. But made Pierre's capital. There's like the capital building still right on the river there, um, that I think they're really proud about that still. But, um, you know, what could have been, you know? What could have been, yeah. Um. That's awesome. Awesome. So, uh, you have brothers and sisters too? Yep. Um, so, older brother Scott, um, have a twin brother, uh, Sam. Okay. He's out in Oregon. Alright. He's got a way cooler job than I do. He, uh, is, uh, with the Coast Guard and he drops out of helicopters. Oh, cool. So, I'm a rescue swimmer with them. Nice. Um, our family doesn't go without any brokenness too. So, we, uh, my parents got a divorce when I was younger, but, uh, Um, I have, uh, some half siblings and I'm really thankful for, honestly, just how God's redeemed that brokenness and to have just a healthy relationship with all my siblings now. Yeah. Yeah. My, uh, my folks split up actually after my wife and I got married 21 years ago. And then my dad married a gal who had been widowed that had like twin 11 year old girls and a eight year old boy and they've all gotten married the last year. and now they're having babies. I've got like four or five babies between the three of them. And it's just like a whole generational chapter of our family that we otherwise wouldn't have experienced. Because the next generation, like there's going to be at least 10 years before we'll have any babies around. And it's just really a special thing, uh, to have, you know, both of those things, like, uh, that opportunity, but, but also, um, just for my dad to have a second. Swing through the raising children game was kind of cool for him, too. Yes. Yep. So anyway, um, so what is your like situation look like? Are you, uh, you're pretty tall guy. Were you tall early or tall late athletic man? I was like that awkward. Lanky. Uh, stage in middle school, um, I grew up, grew up golfing all the time, 8 a. m. to 8 p. m. typically. Oh, wow. And, uh, it was for, for a lot of reasons, but I just gravitated toward that. Um, I loved it. Yeah. Talk to me more. Like, was your dad a big golfer or something? Um, actually, so my, uh, when my mom remarried, she, uh, married a family from North Carolina. Okay. Okay. And, uh, So when we went out to visit her in the summertime, I would, um, just play golf and my grandpa introduced me to it out there. And he was a very good golfer. He played in one of the U. S. Opens in 1955. Um, and so, uh, yeah, really good golfer. Uh, feel really blessed that I could learn from him. And, um, it was just really great to, Yeah, I became that as an outlet. Passion, you're on the high school golf team and stuff like that, I suppose. Golf team. And then went out to North Carolina for college and played golf out there. Okay, cool. Um, did you try to go pro? I mean, I played a couple of events on the Dakota's tour event, uh, or events. And, um, you know, it was just a really good humbling experience. Honestly, golf's good for that, but, uh, love still golfing and good lifelong sport. My dad was really good about, uh, teaching us things that we could do longterm. So we, I ran. In high school. Oh. And, uh, and then a little bit college country or cross country track. Yeah. Um, yeah. So still do all that to this day. Very cool. Very cool. Um, and you went to college in North Carolina and then, um, like were you on track to be a financial services guy right away? Or did you go, what did you go to college for? Yeah, I, I got my, my MBA eventually. Oh wow. During that time, but, um, yeah, it wasn't, wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I have some, had some ideas, um, wanted to honestly be a missionary and, uh, and do different things, um, globally. And it was really drawn to different people groups and, um, loved, I love to travel and so that was certainly on my radar. Um, even like business as mission. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Type concepts. Um, so did different mission trips in college and graduate school and learned more about that. Interesting. So yeah, we'll see if that circles back around later on in life, but yeah, um, but yeah, I really actually enjoy my job right now. So yeah. Um, how does, uh, where, where did you go, did you go off to school? School, Jeff? Uh, yep. So I went to, uh, a Nazarene school in San Diego, point Loma Nazarene. Okay. In San Diego, California. And, uh, uh, and where did the Nazarenes fit in With the Baptist and all that? Yeah. Not, not really. Well, that's what I thought actually. Yeah. Not really. Well, yeah, I was a Baptist kid at a Nazarene school and, um, but the reason I went there. Was because their campus is maybe the most beautiful campus in America. Point Loma Nazarene University. So Point Loma is a little peninsula that curves around to the southwest of, of downtown San Diego. Yeah, yeah, I've seen it. So it's, yeah, it's a beautiful place. Okay. And it's like the campus. You're like, I'm here for the surfing. Yep. I mean, I wanted to live on the beach, play tennis. They had a tennis team and be a California surfer kid. We had the same idea. Cause I went, uh, I went to Wilmington, North Carolina for my first semester. Yeah. Yeah. It, you know, Ty and I have a lot of overlap with some of those things. Like, you know, you're just a kid and you're like, you know, not maybe thinking through the decisions that deeply. It's just like, that's a cool spot. It's I told Ty like, uh, you know, at our high school graduation in Greeley, they would read off, you know, the, where the kids were going to, to school. Yeah. And I wanted mine to be at least like top three coolest, you know, like that was my, that was my mission criteria. Yeah. So it wasn't exactly like a prayerful, thoughtful decision, but I went out there and, Uh, honestly, like that was the first place that I really experienced loneliness and, you know, obviously the homesickness and all that, but like, I just didn't, um, connect real deeply with a lot of people and I felt very alone. Uh, And, you know, I was, I was surrounded by people all the time in a dorm. But, um, so looking back, that was kind of a shaping experience in a, in a hard way, but a good way for me. Tennis was going nowhere. I, my coach sat me down sophomore year and said, look, Jeff, you know, we'd love having you on the team, but you're not going to get to play a lot and you're probably never going to get scholarship money. So. You know, and I was like, other than that, was that, was that a focus thing? A physical thing? Was it? So it was, uh, it was a fact that in, in California, even, you know, we were in NAIA school. Um, so not a huge school by any means, but they, they can supply of incredible athletes that, well, they recruited people from overseas. So our top five players were all foreign born because they want to come play in a place like San Diego. Right. And so we had some unbelievable players on our team and I just was not getting a lot of playing time. And so, you know, I was pretty good here in Colorado and in, in high school, but Um, by the time I got there, it was a very humbling experience. If you had gone to UNC instead, you'd have been a star. Yeah, that's exactly, yeah. I mean, yeah. Not University of North Carolina. No, not, yeah, no, that was it. But yeah, I, I could have stayed close to home. There was other places I could have gone, but I wanted to be in San Diego. So, um, it's really interesting because, you know, thinking about it, like, I lived in this, I mean, I lived on, on the beach, you know, my, our dorm was a five minute walk to the ocean with 140 people to live in it. Right. And yet I felt so alone and depressed. And so I looked back and I really am thankful for that experience now, a, because God was shaping me in a lot of different ways, but B, I think I can relate so much more to what, what loneliness feels like and, and just that desiring deep connection. And I remember thinking like, I wish I had. A family around here that would like adopt me. Right. And I'm like, just go over on Sunday afternoon and have, you were talking about Anna, right? Having Anna over and just, sorry, that's close. Uh, but like, you know, just that, that idea, like, that's what I desired so much is that I could be brought into it and that what I was desiring was, was community, was that meaningful connection. So that's, that's my experience. Then I, I transferred out, um, after my sophomore year came back, um, To, uh, Colorado ended up finishing at Colorado state university and, uh, majored in journalism here. That's a whole other story, but, um, that's kind of how the college years and, uh, didn't talk to the tennis coach. They don't have men's tennis. So it's, they have a club team, but that was a title nine casualty back in the eighties or nineties or whatever. So there wasn't even a men's team, but I honestly was, I was ready. That was done. Got it. Got it. Well, tell me about. Uh, while we're here, tell me about the switch to journalism and what did you go to the Nazarene school for in the first place? Yep. I was studying business there. Uh, cause that just seemed like the thing to do. Uh, you know, I just, sometimes I like, if I could go back and talk to myself, like, what, what are you thinking Jeff? Like, but that's just where I was, you know, I'm going to go to San Diego and stuff. Study business. Well, your dad was a pastor and business is like the opposite of that. Yeah, right. Exactly. And, and so here I was and I just was not happy. And so I came back, landed at CSU and I was like, okay, I, I, I need to just get this degree, right? I need to finish like so many, so many people had told me, like, my parents were really freaked out. Like if you take off too much time, if you, if you kind of wander, you know, you'll never harness your, uh, yeah. And so I was like, all right, a bunch of scare tactics, but I look back and I'm like, I had so much time. But anyways, um, I, I just wanted to get it done, you know, and so I'm like, all right, I'll go to CSU and, um, what do I want to study? Well, don't want to do business because accounting almost killed me. Like, I almost died in the classroom. Ty probably came to life. Ty was like, you know, this is amazing. credits balance. I'm like, oh, like somebody. Should we know? Yeah, exactly. But, you know, I decided journalism. I've always loved writing. Yeah. And I've always loved communication. And I love sports. And so I'm like, man, I can cover sports for the collegiate, the Rocky mountain collegiate. And so I did and got to travel and cover football and basketball and all those things. And, um, and, and did a little bit of radio and some other things too, just got experiences and, and I loved it. So it's got a great radio. Yeah, you do. Yeah. I'm kind of envious of your podcast. Well, you're, you, you've got a good one too, but yeah. So I, that's what I thought I was going to do is, is, you know, I thought it'd be at ESPN by now. And, uh, Uh, doing something like that. But I graduated in 2008 with a journalism degree as the economy was tanking. And I'm looking for print journalism jobs when the internet is killing every newspaper. I mean, I could not have, yeah, I could not have chosen worse, right? Um, and so that's where God kind of started to redirect my story, but, uh, but I, I enjoyed it so much. And I, I like to think that those skills of writing and communication serve me in, in my role as a pastor. And that's where I'm at now. We're writing a book together. Yeah, well, for sure. It's been good. Well, it was, I just shared this in a podcast a couple weeks ago with somebody that, um, one of my, one of my advisory board folks, Sharing, you know, Kurt, the reason you're a really good banker, like you get the customers and stuff, but you get your loans approved because you're an excellent writer. Like you can write the story about why this person will pay us back and stuff, you know, and that, that really, that one small comment. Like, it's probably the impetus for having a blog since I went independent. You know, when I first left, I, with Bear Capital Advisors, I had a blog with my food truck. I had a blog. Who needs a blog in your food trailer, really? I did. I don't know how many people read it. Not very many. Uh, but, but writing is thinking and if you can process what you want to do with yourself because you spend a little intentional time thinking. Right. Uh, that can, you know, help lead to those things. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, it's so good and that's, yeah. So did you get in, like, an entry level church thing then, uh, instead? Like, what was that first career step? I think my only You know, job offer in the, in the journalism world was, uh, to go cover high school sports, probably, probably what was your town in Nebraska? That's probably what it was like, this is little Nebraska town. Probably that's probably what it was. Um, but you know, it paid 14, 000 a year. Oh yeah, exactly. And I'm like, Okay. That's not quite ESPN, you know, but, um, so I'm like, all right. So my brother was living in and working in Denver. I went and worked with him, taught tennis for the summer and just kind of thinking about praying about where I should go. And I, and it was sitting in church one day and the pastor was talking about, you know, God's will and all, you know, how do you know that? And it's like, sometimes you're banging your head against a wall and it's like, well, You know, maybe that is a closed door. Like maybe God has something over here versus like, come on, God. Did God really say you should not be a pastor? Or was that me that told me that way back when? 100%. So all of a sudden, um, I felt prompted to look at ministry, um, stuff and Got a job with an adoption agency, a Christian adoption agency in Loveland, nightlight Christian adoptions, started working there. And then my wife and I got involved with another nonprofit ministry, his little feats and international children's choir and worked with them for a number of years. And God just gave us a heart for ministry, for kids, for families. And then when the whole church thing started, um, that was, that was, you know, God just kind of made it clear. We were a part of it. Yeah, we weren't, we weren't officially, we were still working in the nonprofit world. So we were lay leaders, but we were a part of it from the beginning back in 2015. I'm going to come back to that story because we've neglected Ty for a little bit. Go back in Ty's time machine. Yeah, yeah. Ty's time machine. Um, where did we leave you off? You were, um, in North Carolina, not quite becoming a pro golfer, but having a lot of fun with it. And dreams being crushed. Yeah. Yeah. It was really, really helpful though, yeah. All good. Uh, uh, what were the significant things and where did you, like, start your actual career after? Yeah. Did you find your wife there while you were in North Carolina? No, sweet story. My wife and I have known each other since the first grade. Oh, dang. Small, small town in South Dakota. Back in Yankton, so. Um. When did you grab her along the way? Lot in between there. You grabbed her lots of times. People ask us where you sweat, uh, high school sweethearts. Right, right. Well, that's half true. You know, I was sweet on her. She wasn't sweet on me. Um, but. No, so we, we went different ways for, for college. Um, I was on the East coast. She was in the Midwest still. And, um, and then got redirected things. It was really clear, uh, for us to be back together. It was honestly where it was, it was really cool. I, this is like my, my throwing the fleece out to God about my future wife. Um, I felt prompted to pray for, for 40 days. Uh, and just for my future wife, I was single. And this is like. Post college, post graduate school. Okay. And, uh, it's back in South Dakota, and then, um, Ashley was not on my radar, and uh, I won't tell the whole story, but, um, but, yeah, so, on the 40th day, um, we got reconnected through a friend, and, uh, I was like, this is really clear. Like, to at least I mean, did you have a 40 day plan or you were going to go and tell it, get it answered or like the 40 day thing is pretty, you know, you could have quit after that. So yeah, like, um, yeah, so it was, it was just really, 41? Yeah, right. I guess I just felt prompted to pray for 40 days and, and then I guess just keep looking, but so, so yeah. So then, uh, yeah, it was just really clear, uh, to reach out to her and, um, and I did and. It was January 14th of 2014, we ended up getting married in May, that same year. And we were, yeah, totally different states, so it was really cool. Having that friendship growing up, um, really helped obviously, but, uh, yeah. You look like you wanted to say something about his wife. Well, no, they're, they're such an incredible couple and family and just thinking about like, yeah, the intentionality that you had to, to pray about that and God so clearly directing you. I just had, I'd never had heard that story before. That's so, that's so incredible. But it is funny to think about, like, if you would have met someone, like if Ashley, Would have come to mind or reached out on day 41 and you're like, sorry, you missed the cutoff. I'll tell you the full story later. You know, I, uh, I was just musing to myself that, I mean, I have no question that. God answers prayers, you know, I've seen it and whatever. And I have also no question that prayer, like meditation or something, focuses its user in ways that make prayers come true sometimes too. It's an interesting dynamic, you know, um, It is cool, I, having this conversation with people that ask us what our story is, like, Ashley will share that during that same time, she was just praying for a lifelong best friend. And I'm the guy that fit that mold, you know, in her life, and, um, so it was just cool to have that friendship from, you know, knowing her from the first grade, and, Yeah, um, and having that background's, So you go to your school, and then your MBA, Yep. And then like, yeah, then a major crossroads. Actually, I, I, um, nobody wants to give me 140, 000 with an experience. So it was, you know, North Carolina, 2012 timeframe when I finished my MBA and still the economy out there. I think when I graduated, my I think unemployment in Hickory, North Carolina was 17 percent and it was just like, so that's why I went to graduate school. So, um, got my MBA and, um, and it wasn't a whole lot better there, but my parents didn't want me to come back to South Dakota without a job. So I got a job and, uh, and, uh, and then just kind of started things from there. So, um, but before being able to come back to South Dakota, um, you know, Jeff talks about college. That time of kind of loneliness and depression out out there and I experienced something very similar I was very heavily involved in in our local church and campus ministries and things and then all that kind of stopped in graduate school And I kind of had to figure out what it means to like, yeah be an adult single man. Yeah, right and Um, yeah, I mean, to be transparent, I, I kind of spiraled into a point of depression and it was a really dark spot that I hope no one gets to, but that's kind of the motivation for this book too is, um, so that we can put a guardrail up around situations like that. And if it weren't for the local church back there, like, um, you know, who knows? Um, I, I don't want to go there, but, um, but the reality is that, that there's a problem right now. And, and I, I felt like God, um, as I look back, like I'm really grateful for that time. Right, right. So that I can have some empathy. Um, because I never would have thought, like, there was, like, I loved waking up in the mornings, like, seriously, like, but not that, not in that time, like, I, I did not want to wake up, I couldn't wait for, um, my head to hit the pillow, and, um, and night time was hard, and so, um, it was a funny story, we share a little bit about this in the book, but, yeah. Got to go with a family on, uh, from our church. They had a milk cow and, uh, and that was like my motivation to get out of bed because they said, yes, you can live with us. And, uh, here's, here's what rent costs. And by the way, you have the morning shift. I'm dead serious. And so it was like, it was the best. thing for me because, um, you know, well, a little bit of responsibility, purpose, a reason to get up out of bed in the morning. Oh, totally. You know? And so, yeah, it was, it was great. So that was, uh, honestly, that was a catalyst for me getting back on my feet, literally. And, um, and things turning around. Was it a, was it a cowtalist? Move over, depression. That was a stretch. That was a stretch. Sorry, that just came to me. I felt like I had to share it. We need to cut that. That's a cat alist. Uh, I don't think so. So we're not cutting that. Um, let's see, uh, where'd we go? Oh, so, but you still don't have a job or what you got, you got a job, but not really. Or I mean, I was, I was working some, some odd jobs there and. Gotcha. And, um, just waiting for, to get a real job. Um, and so my dad would let me back in the state. Right. So you're like, hunting for jobs in South Dakota virtually. It was. Trying to find a girlfriend in South Dakota. Yeah, exactly. And so, I mean, to my dad's credit, like, that was the right thing that I needed to hear. Yeah, yeah. Some tough love at the time. And, um, yeah, didn't want to, he for sure didn't want another child in his basement and, uh, Fair enough. Um, so. When you made it back, like, what was that? And did you get right into the financial services room? Yeah, no, I, um, in, in college, I was a part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Ministry, and so I got a job with, um, the University of Sioux Falls as their golf coach, um, cause I played golf in college and then also, um, was, uh, part time. And you could fundraise for your own salary with FCA? Yeah. Yep. So I, I, I, I did both of those. Yeah. So I worked for FCA part time and then worked for the college part time. Yeah, I gotcha. Um, you know, I bet my. I bet my salary was like 26, 000 barely more than that sports writer and a small town, Nebraska. So, uh, you know, quickly, and that was not going to support a family, but, uh, um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What was the pivot? The pivot. Yeah. Well, that was right around the same. So when I was in Sioux Falls, uh, that's when I started praying for my future wife and then God provided Ashley. Yeah. And then. And then I needed to get a, a different job. And then she got pregnant right away? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. You didn't really have this epiphany leading you into your current work necessarily. Yeah. Like if this book blows up and you can quit your current job, would you? No, probably not. Your clients are going to listen to this. So you don't want to, cause you love your work. I can tell from our previous conversations. I do. I love my job as a financial advisor because of just the relational aspect. And it's a, it's a way that I can speak life into people's situations. Uh, I feel like, um, Is it something that you've been good at? Yeah. I've done this. Well, I've done this for seven years now. Um, No, but you do it good for your family. Well, yeah, I feel like, um, Cause I've met a lot of broke financial advisors that are also have BMW leases and stuff. I feel like growing up, um, I was always like the, the bank for a couple of my brothers. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Good saver. Um, and, uh, Fair enough. I'm not trying to get you to be, uh, dishumble, but, uh, like I said, I've seen a lot of BMW leasers, uh, financial advisors that didn't, uh, it didn't benefit them financially. Anyway, uh, so, so that has been just kind of a slow unfolding. You've been, uh, You change jobs, need to make more money for the kids. Here's a good conduit where I can serve people, use my kind of natural abilities. Yep. I feel like, um, as a financial advisor, uh, similar to like a pastor, we're the first that, that see major things that go on banker too, is where I came from, you know? Yeah. Right. Yep. So, you know, either, um, weddings or divorces or deaths, like we're like first line of defense for most families. And, um, so to be able to come alongside people, it's been, it's been Been a great, great position. Cool. I dig it. All right. Let's hear the story of the church plant thing. Yeah. Yeah. So my wife and I were working for a nonprofit. We're attending. Oh, where'd you find her? Yeah. That's a great question. You picked her up in the journalism school? Yeah, no, we. Didn't actually. So she went to Colorado Christian university in Denver. So we met through some mutual friends. That's where my brother went to school. So the summer I was in Denver teaching tennis, um, we met and then actually had a pretty crazy, uh, reconnection. We, we didn't really stay connected after that summer, but that October. So this was October of 2008. Yeah. October 2008, right before the financial crash. Yeah. So I just graduated that spring and yeah. And, um, I had gotten the job at the adoption agency. So I've moved back up here. I just started, I was living in Loveland and, uh, went to. Old Chicago in Old Town, Fort Collins. That's the first place I went to in Fort Collins. Was it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I missed that spot. And we, uh, some buddies and I went to watch some playoff baseball, uh, that was going on and, and we were sitting there and incomes Becca, my now wife, um, who lived in Denver, but here she is in Fort Collins and they sit down at the table right next to us. No. And, uh, the funny thing is that I didn't. I didn't talk to her. She, she kind of like, you ghosted her back that previous summer. Well, it was kind of a mutual ghosting. And when she walked in, she like did the whole, like, you know, glance away real quick, like, um, and, and so it was just awkward. And of course I made the mistake of telling my buddies like, Oh, Hey, like that's that girl I met this summer, you know, and you weren't telling her bragging, you were like 100 percent and, and they're, and they're like, you got to talk to her, you know? And I'm like, no, she clearly doesn't want me to, I don't want to make it awkward. It was like her, it was her sister's birthday party. I think is why they were, I'm like, I don't, that's awkward, you know, but they're sitting right next to us and as hilarious. And so, um, meanwhile at their table, I realized, you know, now, now, uh, after the facts, I've been told that they were having a whole conversation as well. And they're like, well, he's going to come over here. Right. Like, and then they're like, no, he's not coming up. We're like, what are you? What's the deal? Like what a wimp. And Beck is like, if he's not going to come over here, then fine. Like, you know, I'm done with this guy. So they get up and leave. Old Chicago. And my buddies are killing me. You know, they're like, you are a loser. And I'm like, no, I'm like, I really don't think she wants to, it's okay. Like, and they're like, no, you, you gotta do something, bro. Like. And so I was like, all right, fine. Like mostly just to get them off my back. I texted a friend who I knew had her number. And so I, I very boldly and courageously shot her a text message that said, Hey, was that you at old Chicago? And, um, yeah, I was just keeping it cool guys. Yeah, exactly. And of course she's like, yeah. Yeah. It was, that was awkward or something. I was like, I know, I'm sorry. And I was like, Hey, you know, if you're still out, like maybe we can meet up somewhere. So we were going to meet up. And then some, for some reason they had to, they had like something, something bad happened with one of their friends or something, they had to leave quickly. And then it took a while for us to reconnect. But anyway, so all that to say, it was kind of a crazy story drinking too much. No, it was, it was a friend of. One of the friends she was with Oh, was in an accident or something? Yeah. No, I don't remember. Yeah. You were trying to avoid your kids hearing something. I thought so I was, no, it was legitimately a terrible situation. And they had to leave. Mom couldn't deviate because Yeah, at the time, no, at the time I'm like, is this just a story? You know? But she has confirmed that like, no, like something weird happened. And um, and it took multiple attempts after that to finally get her to, to go to lunch with me. But we had lunch, actually it was Halloween. Um, later in October was our first lunch date and then kind of the rest, rest is history from there. So we got married in 2010. We weren't quite as quick. It's tight. See, Ty's just more organized. He's smarter. Like you said, he's got these things figured out. It took me a while. And, um, but we got married in 2010 and then we were living in Loveland, but, uh, landed at Mountain View community church in Fort Collins and just loved the church there, got plugged in and, um, We, um, uh, we're doing the nonprofit things. We were traveling a lot and we weren't, uh, you know, super involved, but we loved our church and then in 2014, well, I guess it was towards the end of 2013. We found out we were pregnant with our first, uh, for our first little one. And, and so that kind of brought us back from traveling. We were going to be more stable here. And, uh, right about then we got word about this church plant in Loveland, from Mountain View. And we were back, we were living in Loveland. So we thought, well, we'll go, you know, check it out and just kind of get to know some of these people. But we really, we loved Mountain View. We love Fort Collins. Yeah. You know, we didn't want to live in Loveland. Like who wants, what's in Loveland? Yeah. You know, like Loveland is just where, where you drive through to get to Fort Collins or Justice Park, you know? And, um, so we were like, well, we'll probably end up back at Fort Collins. And where is the Redemption Church in Loveland? We are right in downtown. The very heart of downtown Loveland and we, we weren't at the very beginning. Um, we met, uh, in homes for two weeks, then realized we had way too many kids, um, to pull it off. We met at another church in town that was gracious to let us use it on Sunday nights. Um, kind of an interesting story. You mentioned the Vikings. We are first. Um, uh, like month of like formal meetings and, and, and kind of going through who we're going to be about at church. We were meeting Sunday evenings, I think at five o'clock during the Broncos Super Bowl run when they won the Super Bowl in 2015, Yeah, I think so. I'm like, the church is going to die. Like, what are we doing? And like, you know, during, during the services, you just kind of see a bunch of dudes just checking their phone, like what's going on, you know, but we, we made it through and then we, then we actually were able to start meeting at a seventh day Venice church in downtown. Okay. And that kind of from the beginning, the, the pastors who planted and, and led the church early on had a vision for downtown. And talk to me about that. Who, who was that group? Yep. So it's Matt Morehead, Matt Brown, and Jason Valderrama. Okay. Who were all Oh, yeah. Involved at, at Mountain View, uh, uh, Jason Valderrama and Wendy. Mm-Hmm. yes. Went skiing with me and Jill soon after I first got my Audi s. Six turbo, um, back in the day and we went to winter park soon after the birth and pass was improved to two lanes on the uphill. And we did two hours door to door and those two did not freak out at all. Uh, so cheers. I think Jason's in Carolina maybe now, isn't he? Or somewhere in Southeast. No, that's a map. Morehead in South Carolina, North Carolina, but the Valderramas are actually in Denver. Well, they are. Okay. And, uh, they're that's actually a tie reference. Jason earlier, they're good friends of ours and a great connection. Wendy has helped us a lot with photos and marketing for party in the front. So we're still super close with them. And, and, and, uh, Um, so yeah, we got, Jason, if you listen to this, I appreciate both of you guys very much. There you go. And, and glad you survived that trip up Bertha pass. Yeah, that sounds like, uh, quite an experience. It was. Well, I mean, uh, he was a neat guy. I was. I guess Jill and I were recently back to Fort Collins, and we entertained joining the Mountain View Church. Yeah. But it was where Jill's parents, my wife's parents were members, and I was like, eh, you know. Yeah. They're gonna know our attendance rates and stuff in the summer. Can't be having that. Let's go to the crossing. So the crossing seemed better, yeah. That's good stuff. Although Mountain View was a lot closer. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. So, okay, so these guys get the church, and it's really, like, to start, it's whatever Six couples, plus these three pastors are probably three couples plus their kids. Plus these three pastors and their kids. Yeah, it was just a core group of people. I think, you know, with kids, maybe 50 or so people in the beginning, but God really blessed it from the beginning, brought people, uh, just, just an incredible group of people. And, and, uh, you know, we had this desire to, to reach people that in Loveland, you know, Loveland is, is kind of an interesting place. It's kind of like, it really is kind of in between. Uh, it's how I describe it, it's, it's in between Fort Collins and then like, you know, getting closer down to Denver, it's in between, you know, I 25 and the mountains, it's, but it's in between kind of culturally, it's kind of an interesting, it's kind of in between Fort Collins and Greeley, culturally, I kind of is, and, um, and so there's just kind of a unique demographic there, and there's a lot of church hurt there, we've realized, and that's probably true in a lot of places. Uh, but you, you just have a lot of conversations with your neighbors and people that say like, Oh yeah, I'm a, I'm a believer, you know, but I don't, I don't go to church anymore. You know, I've had some bad experiences and there's a lot of sad stories of, of, you know, some church, um, difficulties and, and collapses over the years. You probably know Adam Lum. Sounds familiar. He was a Mountain View guy for a long time that, uh, Uh, became part of the Eastern Orthodox Church down there, St. Spyridon. You probably know Father Evan, perhaps. My, uh, my, my longest, uh, one of our good friends is, uh, her son is dating his daughter right now. Uh, the St. Spyridon guy. And I listen to his podcast more than I listen to The Crossing, because I find it very interesting to learn about kind of the Greek Orthodox. Twist in comparison. There you go. Yeah. And you don't have to listen to the crowd, the crossing podcast. Cause you're there every week. I was there last week, yesterday, but yeah, it's all right. We, it was incredible to be a part of that. We're coming into winter now and I'm going to be a hit and bet in at least like 70%. There you go. There you go. Um, but yeah, so great church network that we're part of and redemption has been such a blessing. We got just kind of, you know, more and more involved and, and God made it clear that, that he wanted me to, to go through pastoral leadership training and started doing that in 2016. And, uh, Okay. So pretty quickly after you pretty quickly, yeah, yeah. And we just got more and more leadership training with anybody that's actively serving in the crossway network now. Yeah. So Matt Brown took us through it, but Nate Tyler, who was one of our pastors still at redemption, we went through it together and it was kind of a Matt and Jason really took us through it. It was kind of an on. On the job training because we were in the middle of church planting. We're growing, we need more pastors. Yeah. And so our, our situation was different than a lot of the other, you know, Crossway, which was really amazing because we were, we were showing up to our PLI meetings. Talking about, Hey, this family's going through X or Y, right? We've got to make this decision. When I went to my driver's education training and I had already logged like 5, 000 miles on my dad's pickup. There you go. There you go. Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, it did happen pretty quickly and in 2018, I think we were both brought on as pastors. Cool. Yeah. Um, and so do you have the same kind of structure where you have two, three paid pastors and a couple of, uh, hardworking and non paid laypersons? We actually, so Jason was our pastor. for a number of years, but they, they moved to Denver a year and a half ago. Um, but we've had, yeah, we've had kind of a mix of that right now. It's, it's three of us, pastor Greg, pastor Nate and myself are, are on staff. Um, but we've got some guys right now that are kind of in the pipeline to become elders and, and that's been so cool to see, you know, I love the model of raising up leaders within and, and seeing guys that, that take that step. So, um, plurality has been a good thing. I was just telling somebody today about. You know, going to Mountain View and it was like, who's, who's the lead guy here? You know, like, can you just tell me growing up as a pastor, you know, or as a pastor's kid, it's like, this is so weird to me, you know, and now I'm like, I love it. I love the plurality. I have a small confession to make. Um, maybe it's a confession, maybe it's not, but like when I tell people about the crossing church and the crossway network in general, I, I talk about that plurality of pastors and whatever. Yeah. Um, and sometimes usually I say, you know, that way. If the pastor gets caught with the church secretary, like the whole church doesn't just crumble. Like there's still some other pastors there. And that's not, you know, it's a sad thing to say. Well, it's just, I'm a pragmatic kind of guy. Uh, and so, and people. I think people, uh, associate with that because that's part of the wounds that people have seen is the hypocrisy shine through in the actions of a, especially a very charismatic. I was in Colorado Springs when the whole, uh, dude with the gay meth dude kind of thing came down and that was like fascinating to see how fast an organization can evaporate just about, I guess it still is rebirthed a bit, but yep. Yeah, no, it's true. I mean, the, the church cannot be built around one person. It's supposed to be built around Jesus. Well, it's way easier for a pastor, be a man of the Lord and a good shepherd for his sheep, if he's with peers, instead of just a bunch of adoring fans. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's mutual accountability and it's totally, you have to tell people all the time, it's not the most efficient way. It's to lead a church. Totally. In a lot of ways, like our payroll's way too high. Yeah. I mean, it's true. and, and, and, and decisions take longer and Totally. You gotta get on the same page, but it is, I am convinced the healthiest way to do it. How, uh, I, I also describe our church as kind of like Presbyterian ish. Uh, how, how's that jive with. Your Baptist background. Yeah. That's really interesting. Um, yeah, I think it took me a while going to Mountain View to like, even realize what they're, yeah, just, just the different approach on, on so many different things. But, um, you know, at the end of the day, I, again, the plurality, I love, I love the approach of, of teaching exegetically through books of the Bible. Um, and you know, and dogma light kind of, uh, yeah. And, and just like the, I love, you know, the idea that, that we are supposed to be about making disciples. Like we are to invest in people's lives. You know, even the reason I'm there, reason I'm a pastor is because Matt and Jason, those guys came after me to invest in me, you know? And, um, it's not all about programs or, um, you know, classes or those types of things. And not that those things are bad, but it's about relationship, you know, it's about community. It's the things we talk about. We experienced that at Mountain View and it was like, man, this is so good. So, um, yeah, so that, I think I'm, I'm, I'm fully on board with, uh, with that model of doing things. I think it, yeah. Um, Any observations from that little tangent on church, uh, oh, you're, you, you, you changed churches to come to the crossing now. Is that, uh, yeah, yeah, a little background. Um, had you been at redemption? I assume. Yeah, we were at redemption for. I mean, six and a half, seven, almost seven years. And, um, you talked about the first couple of weeks of redemption being planted and in the homes and Ashley and I were out here during one of those Sundays and we were at one of those homes. Oh, cause you knew somebody? Yeah, we knew, we knew, uh, We knew Matt Brown and, uh, the Valderamas and a bunch of people there already. Matt Brown married us here in Loveland. Oh, cool. So, um, Ashley was at Mountain View. And I've met Matt, but I don't know him, you know, I know him ish. Yeah, I think everyone knows Matt Brown. Right, right. Um, but yeah, so a lot of overlap relationally. And, um, so when we were just hoping to come back out here, um, Because Ashley was out here, uh, after college, she moved here. Her sister went to Mountain View and, um, and then it just made sense to Oh, so you took a little while to reel her in kind of, even though Ashley or, uh, well, I mean, like if you consider like 18 years or whatever it was. That's true, from first grade. Oh, that was your, you were in South Dakota, but she had moved out here. Yeah. Oh, now I'm getting it. I was, I had my time. So, yep. Uh, yeah. I finished school, moved to South Dakota. She was out here after college. Gotcha. And then, relationally, we were still connected. Yeah, yeah. But, um, but yeah, she was at Mountain View and, and. Um, God really used that church to, to help and, and save her family. And so, um, then she was really drawn to that and then I was really drawn to her. Whatever you say, baby. So, but, but honestly, yeah, the, the network's been so great from a plurality sense of, of individual churches, like people in the church and the pastoral teams, but, um, even just having multiple churches that we can lean on. And so. You know, I think the cool thing is we can tie that back to that body a little bit. You know, having a really vibrant church is a really important thing and having three pastors and maybe a couple of bivocational pastors at that church is really great and a nice membership of a huge mix of young people and a few old people that give you way too much money help you pay all those salaries and stuff. But then being a part of a greater community, like the Crossway Network is, is really, but not too big. Right. Yeah. Right. Exactly. We have to do some monopoly busting if we get too late. Yep. Yeah. So anyway, sorry to interrupt, but I felt like that was such an interesting tie in back to that previous, you know, strong, but not that capable by yourself. Right. Well, yeah. And we talk about, um, you know, not living in isolation and you wouldn't want to do anything in isolation. So you wouldn't want to pastor in isolation. You wouldn't want to do your job in isolation. Um, and so. Yeah. So many, so many great things to pull from that experience. Um, and so you were early adopter, a part of that plant crew and you've seen his transition up and so it's nothing personal that you're coming to the cross. Yeah. Yeah, no, no, it's great. And having a project like this too, like. It's been so helpful for our friendship and like to just it's like we're all we're on the same team and Um, even though we're in different places right now at a church. Yeah, we're still great friends So some of you do you want the real story? Sure. So we were playing top golf a while ago And I think I started to intimidate him that I was getting my game. Uh, you know getting A little too close to his. So before that happens, Jeff, we're going to the Putt Putt after this. Before you pass it by, he's like, I need to stop hanging out with that guy. I can't be at a church with someone better at the game. And, um, and so it was time. The alpha dog's coming out. We're going to play Putt Putt. But that's, I love that about the network, you know, we've, we've joked actually, Ty and I were talking about this the other day, like, the Crossing has sent us so many amazing families. So Um, and people. Oh, for sure. Yeah, over the years. Well, because people will move away. Exactly. And it's like, dude. Yeah. Like, you can't be driving. I mean, you can. You can. You can drive 15 miles to church every week if you want to, but you could also drive six. Yeah. Well, I, I mean, it's, it's in the tagline of our book, again, find community right where you are. Right. You know, and there's something to that. No, there's a hundred percent. And so. A hundred percent. We encourage people that. So we've gotten, we've inherited so many incredible people from the cross. Right. We're like, it's finally time to pay back. Well, for sure. Cause we were the Southern most. It's a quadrant for a long time. So anybody from, we had people from Millican and Johnstown and all kinds of stuff. They're all just, exactly. Yeah. So now we're trying, we're trying to pay, repay the favor. Here you go. You could have the den and brings, which really makes up for a lot. It's not that we have a trade chart in our offices, but you know, something like that. Well, um, I'm feeling like I have to go pee, um, again, and so we can do a short break and then we'll do our closing segments after that. And we are back with our closing segments. Uh, we always talk about faith, family, politics, and we've talked about faith and family quite a bit already. Um, do you want to stay on those, uh, and close with politics, or do you want to start with politics and the danger section? Let's go politics. You want to go politics right away? Let's hit it. Let's just jump right in. All right. I mean, we're 22 days or something and counting. I saw a rumor on X today that, uh, uh, they're getting ready to pull a Kamala and put another, I'm pretty sure it was just a rumor. Um, but, uh, like, how do you think that's, that's going to turn? You know, it's so hard to, to know what to believe anymore. Yeah. Right. It looks like a horse race. Uh, yeah, I think it's probably closer than people give credit to. Um, Yeah, and I think large part because people don't know what to believe anymore. Right. You know? And so, Yeah, yeah. Just kind of put into two different categories and just, Alright, let's do it. Yeah. But, Um, like, is there some thoughts in the book about, The political divide. I mean, uh, you guys are Christians. So you're obviously voting for Trump, even though he's, uh, like cheated on his wife a bunch of times and grabs him by the, I mean, I, that's a whole other podcast. If you want to talk about Trump someday, let's do that because there's, there's obviously issues, but what do you think about this? Like the scene right now is really like, literally I wrote about that in my blog. Like, Half the country just about believes that if the other candidate wins, that the America's ruined forever. Um, and only half of them are right. Just kidding. And I don't know which half, uh, but it is really an awkward place where like, there's a Darth there's, there's only like three Harris, Biden, or Harris, whatever, Walls signs in my whole neighborhood of Old Town Westside and there's no Trump signs hardly that I've found. Sure. Which is a testimony, I think, to. Yeah. Maybe it's a testimony to Fort Collins for not trying to play that, for trying not to play that game. Yeah. A little bit. I love that you brought that up. brought that up because that's, that's something that we talk about in the book is political signs in the front yard. And it's funny because we, it's, it's party in the front, you know, and it's like thinking about how the front of your home can be used as a tool to reach your neighbors, to build community. And if you know, and look, I'm. I enjoy talking politics and I'm a U. S. history nerd. I was a U. S. history minor. So I majored in journalism and minored in U. S. history. I not sure what I was doing there, but that's, that's what we did. So I love getting in that stuff and it's important and we should be engaged and we should be involved. We should vote. things are true, but, uh, we actually talk about political signs in the book and how, you know, planting a, a, a Trump or a Harris flag or, or whatever, you know, in your, in your front yard, um, can, can immediately be a barrier to getting to know your neighbors, you know, and I know lots of people who, who do it and I don't want to condemn them by any means, but for me personally, I'm just not going to do that because it's like, that's how you lead into the, some of those relationships. And unfortunately, because of how divisive our culture is, because of where the media is at and how it's portrayed, like you said, when people see that sign in your front yard, if they're either going to go, yes, I agree with them. And I love that person or 50 percent of the people are going to go, I don't like that person and I'm never going to talk to him, you know? And it's like, why would we immediately? And I'm sure there's lots of research about like how effective is a political side in the front yard anyways. Um, but we don't think personally, I'll speak for myself, what we talk about the book, like it's not worth it for me. Well, the world's like totally different now, like even in. I don't see bumper stickers. It's changing. Uh, you know, going back to even to the 2008 Obama bumper stickers were all over the place and different things. And like, it was a lot more visible thing. And maybe it's just because social media is active with it. I don't, I really don't understand the lack of, maybe it's a positive thing. Kind of the lack of visible identification. I think it's definitely positive for your movement. Yeah, I think it's just like, I don't want to, I don't want to lead with that in a relationship, you know? I want somebody to know that I'm a follower of Jesus. long before they know how I vote politically, I think politically, you know, and, and, and, and it's easy to, to do it the other way around. And so, um, man, I want, I want my neighbors to know that, that we love them. We care about them genuinely interested in them. Those are the things that are important for them to know long before they know whether you follow Jesus or not. How you vote is that you love them, that you care for them, that you appreciate them. Exactly. That's why bringing them fish tacos. I mean, that's a great starting point, you know? Versus putting a sign in your yard that you've got a 50 50 chance. is going to offend them right off the bat. Um, Ty, what would you like to add in the political segment, if any? Yeah. Wow. It's, that's a, it's a hard tension. You know, if you're passionate about something and you feel strongly that Why do you have so many yard signs? I come over at night and just pick them up. He puts them back. Do you guys ever have the flamingos? Like someone put flamingos and you had to pay to get them off? The, uh, the, uh. The, the tire spiked Trump signs have been very popular on x. com this year. It's just like, yeah. So I, I mean, I, I'm going to, I'm going to side with, I'm going to err on not trying to, um, put a divisive wall up, uh, where I live. Um, I think there are other ways that I can, uh, make my voice heard or if I'm passionate about a certain topic or not a candidate, um, I just don't think that's one that I want to, uh, I, uh, I've been, well, I voted for Kanye, uh, last election, uh, me and 450 other loyal Lerner County citizens. And and so this could potentially be the first time I would vote for Trump or I might just vote for RFK. I kind of, I don't know. Cause it won't matter in Colorado, right? Like we're not a swing state. Um, and I got, you know, some static here and there about that. And obviously people think I'm weird anyway, but, uh, the, the way that the, the primary, like the way that. We all know that, knew that Biden should be in a nursing home in 2021, 20, 22, 23. And then they run him out in primarium and keep competition away from it. And then slip somebody else in that, like, that felt super democratic to me, uh, on this cycle. And that's my biggest criticism, including their, their, Yeah deceitful and including they're not like if like RFK was like, Hey dude, just so you know, I'm here and Biden looks like a turnip. Um, can I run? And if the party knew what was good for itself, it would let a little bit of competition into that space, I think. Um, so that's my biggest criticism with the election season so far is just the way that, and then, and then you don't even have somebody like a little, kind of a, a little contest at the democratic committee. It was coming right up like, we're going to just decide awkward, fascinating, fascinating how things work. The, uh, the plant, I don't know. The vegetable made way for the plant, uh, to save democracy without a vote. VeggieTales democracy. VeggieTales democracy. Anyway, I won't get you into any trouble with your democratic, uh, because I, I suspect, like, at your church, uh, there's probably a fair mix. I don't know if your church is the same as ours, but, like, Aaron Santini has mocked Donald Trump from the pulpit quite a few times, uh, back when he was president. Sure. Eddie, I'm sure you'll vote for him. Sure. But, like, it's a, uh, and he has a, fuck, that sounds rough, but, uh, teased, uh, commentary on cultural, political events. I mean, they're all easy to pick. To poke fun at. Right. Right. Well, I think that's just being real. Speaking the truth. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure. No, and I think, you know, I'm, I think I'm, I'm growing in my conviction in that area that like, I think in 2020, just to be honest with you, I was like, I just don't want to talk about it at all. You know, I just want to avoid it. Like, certainly not from the pulpit. I'm a new pastor here. I don't want those emails, you know, I'll let Matt or somebody else, um, do that. And they, and they did at times, but, but then going through all the COVID stuff, you know, and, and realizing that like, we live in a time right now where, and this, this might sound like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth with the political side thing, but it's like, you, you, you almost can't help but offend somebody with anything you say. And, but here's the reality, like whether it's in your neighborhood or in our churches or, or wherever, like, I want to speak the truth to your point. Like, I want to speak what is true. I want to be loving and compassionate, but, but truthful. Right. And care about what God cares about and not hide the truth. My faith and what I believe in God's word. And so, you know, that's what I want to continue to land on. And the reality is, is if we just stay out of those conversations entirely, if we just won't engage, then we're not, we don't have an opportunity to inject truth into them. And so the last couple of weeks at our church, I've made a point to talk about the election and even some specific issues and things that we are, we encourage people to think about. And so, you know, it, I'm never going to say things exactly, right. I got. an email that was like, thank you. And then I got another email that was like, we're not sure you, we like you talking about those things from, from the front, you know, but it's like, I'm, I can't put my head in the sand either. And I think as Christians, that's the challenge. And it is a tough road to walk. But again, you know, you think about how Jesus would constantly, he, he spoke the truth in love. There's a way to do both. And I think that's our calling as Christians. I was just imagining a new hat for my hat website sales, uh, how would Jesus vote? Bright red. Yeah. That's it. That's right. Anyway. Um, that's really funny. I'm not actually going to put that on my website. You would sell a lot. I might. Yeah. Any wrap up thoughts on the politics segment, Ty, before we move on? No, I just think that, you know, what we're trying to do with the book and, and with not only isolation and loneliness, but like the political divide and other things that have fractured our society. I think it's just so important that, um, like that's why we're trying to get back to, um, looking people in the eyes and like having real conversations and you may disagree with them, but at least you have some rapport with that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and you're not stuck in this, um, algorithm. You know, I, uh, circle, echo chamber. I had coffee with, uh, I had coffee with John Al the other day. Oh, neat. Uh, and partly because of my conversation with Ben ote, I found out how much money county commissioners would make and I was like, John, uh, maybe I could. If you'll give me your endorsement, I could probably win your seat. Uh, and, and it turns out it's a full time job. I can't keep doing podcasts and local think tank and stuff. So I will not be running for county commissioner in 2026. It's going to be exciting. No, I will not be running maybe in 2030 after I find somebody to run local think tank for me. Uh, but anyway, we. We, we ended up, we talked about a lot of things, motorcycles and the job and all these things. And we ended up talking about the election because I find that always curious. And when I told him that I think most people that vote for Trump will be doing it in part because it's less likely that a World War III type scenario will unfold and they trust that he's the anti war choice. Like you, his, his point is, Like you can barely believe that that's what most people think because frankly, he's been so programmed by his tube to think that Trump's a warmonger and we'll side with Russia and Ukraine's fucked or something like that. I don't know what he thinks, but those echo chambers are just not healthy. And so, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And that's why I try to say things like that. Like I think most, Of these people think this and it seems like my knitting that stuff together a little bit, right? Well, that's the thing is I I mean that's that's maybe another book down the road I don't know, you know party party on the on the tv cable news station or something but like in recognizing that Um, you know, our media is so set up to, to divide, frankly, you know, and to present things in an echo chamber that we either party in the dumpster. When I talked about Republicans and Democrats, let's talk about party in the dumpster and dustbins of history. And, you know, but the reality is, you know, Three weeks from now, or however many days from now, four weeks from now, we're going to live in a world. We're going to live in a country where 50 percent of people are going to be happy. And 50 percent of people are going to be really upset. And the reality is, is we have an opportunity regardless of how things go. Um, to be witnesses, right? To be lights wherever we, we live. And I think we need to prepare ourselves for whatever's going to happen in, in the country. We got to trust that God. Well, I'm moving to Costa Rica. All right. Uh, I think, I think Trump's going to do the same thing. He might be your Elon Musk could get a place together. Now that Elon Musk will be toast. Like our, our perspective needs to be bigger. You know, the country is still going to keep going. Like the world's still going to exist. Jesus is still going to be on his throne. So how do we set ourselves up to live in that world? Whatever happens in community with the people that are right there with us, right where we are. Uh, family. Oh, go ahead. And people's problems don't go away. You know, if anything, they're going to be magnified to some degree. Um, if. Internally, potentially for them. If their anxiety, their loneliness, their angst could be increased. Right. And so like we just, oh, we never said this earlier, but, um, um, maybe you did. Uh, the, the stat of not living in community is worse than, um, Smoking six, 15 cigarettes a day. And you know, the surgeon general number where they keep that number, but like, it's, it's data that they're putting out there that, that lacking. I mean, that's why I have so much community in my life. So I can keep smoking. We've joked that we've joked that that's why we only smoke 14 a day. I guess I'm one step behind you on that joke. Um, I'll go ahead. But yeah, like the election's going to happen. And, and so. We want to do something that's meaningful that, like, will leave a legacy and that, that can change lives and that, um, that can enter into those things and, and to some degree be an antidote for those things. Yeah, yeah, I dig it. Um, Family or faith faith faith next. Yeah, let's do faith. Um, I mean, you were, of course the pastors, he always answers Jesus. Well, like in your story, uh, I didn't really hear, um, for a pastor's kid, especially didn't really hear for too much, uh, you know, womanizing, uh, chasing girls, uh, doing drugs and all that stuff. You're a pretty good kid the whole time. Yeah. No, no crisis of confidence. Yeah. It's interesting. Cause I think, you know, my experience, so yeah, growing up, uh, you know, not to say you didn't ever chase girls or drink too much. Yeah, pretty straight arrow growing up and had, well, I would say like a pretty close walk with, with Jesus. And I was very involved with church and then, you know, went to a Christian school, a Nazarene school in San Diego. Um, but that was where I, I experienced some of that loneliness and depression and really kind of got to a dark place of, of my faith as well, where I just felt like, man, like, God, like I came, I came to a Christian school, you know, I'm supposed to, my faith is supposed to be thriving and I feel alone and I like tennis isn't working out. And. Accounting almost killed me, almost died in class. And it was just like feeling a little bit alone, a little forgotten by God during those years. And I, and I look back and it's like, okay, that wasn't true. And I see where, where God was using that season. But I came to CSU in a place of really, um, kind of just wanting to do my own thing, frankly. And now I'm at CSU, this big school, now I can live the college life and. You know, I never got super crazy, but I just kind of did my own thing for a while. And, um, and then, uh, this is circa 2010, this would have been 2006, 2006. Um, and, but I worked actually at the library, Morgan library on, on campus. It says you, I'll get you in a lot of trouble. Um, yeah. And, and had a bunch of. Trailhead would have been better if you were trying to get in trouble. Yeah, exactly. Uh, just saying. But I don't know, some of those library, uh, employees, you'd be surprised. But, uh, there was a couple guys I met there that were involved with campus ministry and a church, church here in town. And, um, the crazy thing is, um, I was in a relationship at the time with a, a girl who wasn't a believer. And, and again, just kind of doing my own thing and, and not really thinking about Jesus a whole lot. And, um, she broke up with me. And, um, I, I, that night I decided I, I, I should go to this campus ministry thing, you know, and I showed up and, and one of these guys from the campus ministry came over to me at one point and said, Hey, uh, your girlfriend just broke up with you, didn't she? And I was like, what, you know, yeah. Is this like, yeah. I was like, well, how'd you know? You know? So anyways, God used that and these guys, and they like just kind of challenged me and poured into me. And then slowly my faith kind of came back on track. So it's really interesting. Cause I talk about, like, I went to a Christian school and my faith really kind of struggled there. And then I came to CSU and I really had to kind of decide, okay, which way am I going? And my, and my faith really began to grow during my time at CSU. That's cool. That's cool. Back to the guy that talked to you that night. Was it like, dude, what's wrong with you? You had like, did your girlfriend break up with you or was it like, dude, your girlfriend broke up with you? No, he was a prophet. It was straight up. You know, and I think he even said like, I don't know. I just had a feeling like, uh, it was like, you, your girlfriend just broke up with you, huh? And, um, so yeah, yeah, it was, it was one of those, one of those handful of times in my life where I'm like, I don't, that's crazy. You know? That's a, we just went through. Oh gosh, Luke 12 or wherever we're at, at the crossing this past week. And that, that, uh, line of it where they're describing how Jesus was like blindfolded and then, oh, who punched you, Mr. Prophet kind of thing, and stuff like that was fascinating. I hadn't really picked up that detail before, just the cruelty of that moment in some ways. Um, and like, I don't know if you, like, sometimes when people. Let me say this, but I'm a prophet for sure. Like when they talk about the different personality types and who gift of service is that I see things way ahead of time, a lot of times. Yep. Uh, and sometimes I'm wrong. Uh, but anyway, that's an interesting thing. Like that was, that was him exercising that gift of faith for him. Yep. Uh, right there. And he was also the one that, that really challenged me in a, in a prophetic sort of way, like, what are you doing with your life? You know, like, I know, you know. The, you know, the way the truth of the life, like, why aren't you living in it? Why aren't you walking in it? And I remember thinking, this dude's a jerk, you know, what is it? Like the truth will set you free, but first of all, take you off. You said that's the quote, but it's like, you know, I look back and God was, God was, God was coming after me in those years, you know, he never left me and, um, and use some of those, those conversations to, to find me and, and bring me back home. So, um, yeah, so that's kind of my, my story. And, and then, you know, since then. I'll, you know, all over the place, but have been involved in ministry and, and, uh, just see the Lord growing me, still growing me. So I have so much to learn and, um, but yeah, that's, that's my faith story. Cool. Ty, um, same question, although different, obviously from a different background and different, uh, circumstance, but maybe the same question of you. Did you have a season when you were doubtful? Oh, yeah. Because you were raised in a Christian home as well, right? Yeah. Raised in a Christian home and grateful for my dad's influence. And, um, you know, in sixth grade we moved, uh, churches and that was significant for me to hear the gospel, which is, you know, God creating us to be with him and our sins separating us from him. What before that? Um, uh, we were, we were at a, uh, just a church that was not, Just not a gospel center. Actually I, yeah, same. Like, I, I went to a congregational church, uh, in central North Dakota and I never heard the good news really until I was 25, you know, I got confirmed and everything and never really knew it, you know? Yeah. I remember when we switched churches, so sixth grade and I was like the heyday of like me golfing and like, right. Everybody's celebrating how awesome you are. Well, I was like. Uh, it's 8am to 8pm to get out there and, and to try to prove myself. Oh, not yet, yeah. But Well, cause you were feeling maybe lonely as your parents split up and stuff? Yeah, just, you know, just, yeah, brokenness and Yeah. Um, and just an awkward time anyway, in sixth grade, you know, um, trying to figure out like, so we switched churches. Um, there was a youth group that was, I think part of the reason my dad did that. And I'm grateful for that. But at the time I was like, not interested. And it was Wednesday came around and I totally spaced off. Like I rode my bike to the golf course across town with my golf bag on my back and seven o'clock. And I was, you know, I golfed till eight. So like, I was not at youth group and my dad was not happy. That was my first, uh, taste of like moving to that church. And like, and it just really exposed where my priorities were, of course. But there were some people in that church that, um, that leaned into us as, um, just young men, you know, my twin brother and I, and I'm just really grateful for their, their, um, willingness to listen and, uh, meet us where we were and, um, you know, getting back to like the gospel, like, like things starting to come alive because I like see them a different light. Right. Well, I, I not only heard it, but it was like, this is making sense because you're right. I, I can see that I'm sinful. You can see that I'm selfish. Um, and so Like hearing like repent and believe and seeing like, Hey, there, there maybe is something to this. And so seventh grade, um, I, uh, I would say that that's the time where I surrendered to what I was doing and, um, and wanted to, um, just accept that. Yeah, maybe there, maybe Jesus did die for, for me too. And so, um, so yeah, that was really pivotal. And then going into high school, I was still immature and chasing my own things. And then college came around and I, uh, actually got cut for my first college golf team. Um, and so that was, that was huge just to really shake me up. For skills, grades. Um, yeah, so I was a recruited walk on and, um, wasn't playing great golf. Yeah. to go into that. And then he took the upperclassmen and said, you know, Hey, just wait around. And I didn't want to wait around. So I went to a different school that gave me a scholarship. So, um, so, but, but still that had a huge impact and it was like, what, you know, the, the whole identity thing and, um, where, where's my hope and, uh, why am I, why am I here? That's my purpose in life. All those questions. All those. So, was there a time when you really, like, okay, aside from your girlfriend being a Christian, uh, were you really embraced, uh, the faith? Right, yeah, so Or, how did that look for you, or were you when you were, because you said you had a church community, like, in that time of Yeah, in college. Yeah. Um, so College, uh, gravitated toward things like Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Campus Crusade for Christ, uh, InterVarsity, uh, Kind of church adjacent kind of communities, but also aligned. And the local church there. Um, so I was in Hickory at the time. Yeah. I think there was a season for sure, a couple, a couple of years where like four or five nights a week I was, you know, Like going to a campus ministry event and like, I was like, all in, you know, I was not, you know, I was just like, this is, this is amazing. Like, like my life was changing and it was really cool to like, like all the energy and effort that I put into golfing growing up. It was like, I was putting it into something else now, fast forward a couple more years and then I'm depressed and lonely and don't want to wake up in the morning. So, you know, what happened, you know, it's like, um, Do you have a theory? Yeah. Well, I think like anything can become an idol, you know, even good things. And so I, I started expecting all this change and all this magnificent stuff from being a part of all these things. And well, I think there's a level of immaturity and like trying to, like, without knowing it, I was, I was propping myself up and becoming self righteous and like, Trying to almost set yourself as an idol in some ways to some of those communities, or at least in your own mind. Yeah, right. Oh, look at all these things I'm doing. I must be perfectly great. Yeah, well, I think it's just like, not truly understanding. Like, I, I, looking back, like, do I think if I died then, like, would I have gone to heaven? Yes, because, like, whatever I did was not going to separate me from the love of Christ. Yeah, yeah. But, um, But I wasn't, I wasn't joyfully living life because I was living it for myself still. And so just that navigating those truths and trying to, um, and God having to humble me and yeah, and then eventually like using a cow to get me out of it. To milk it. It was like, I needed that. And it was just, so I wasn't. Like there was a point where I just needed to repent. Yeah. Yeah. And that was the biggest thing that was blocking probably. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. That goes back to the, our lesson from this past Sunday. Yeah. Take the focus off yourself. You know, you can be remorseful and not really change how you approach the next day, but you can repent and do that. Amen. That's good. Um, this has taken longer than I thought on these segments. So I'll keep us moving here. Family. Um, Jeff, we'll bring it back to you. Uh, what's your wife's name? Becca. Yes. And, uh, tell me, uh, what Becca would say nice about you if you weren't here. Oh, man. Wow. He is ruggedly handsome and, uh, uh, very smart with his intelligence. I don't know about that. No, what set you apart from all the other dudes that were chasing Becca? No, um, I think she would say, you know, She, she feels safe with me and, uh, feels cared for by me. I think she has always, um, affirmed, like she loves doing things with me. We've, we've, we're friends as well. We, we didn't know each other in the first grade, but friends first. And we, we just enjoy doing things together. And, um, I think she, she loves, you know, I make her laugh. She at least laughs at my jokes. If no one else does, that's why I keep having kids. Yeah, that's right. Tell her about three that, you know. Man, yeah, we're starting to get to that age where my, my older girls are like, yeah, come on dad. That's a bad one. But Becca still laughs at my jokes too. I dig it. Um, do you want to, uh, run the gauntlet? On, uh, the child thing. Sure. We can just, uh, we'll just do it a name, an age, a one word description, and then 30 seconds more. Yeah. Okay. Just for some extra color. Sounds good. Oh, you want to go. Yeah. Oldest to youngest is kind of the norm or whatever. What's helpful. Cause each of their names kind of has a meaning and a word that we've kind of spoken over and says, well, it's, it's pretty easy, but it fits, it fits. So our oldest is Abigail, which is, uh, the Hebrew spelling of Abigail. We call her Abby and, uh, she is 10 and the word I would use is joy. Um, she has the joy of, of the father and her, um, Aiden may as our second. And actually Aiden is a masculine name in Hebrew, but it's a, it's a A feminine name in, um, in Gaelic, and in Gaelic, it means little fire. So that's two words, but she's, she's our fire and she's got that warmth and that spark to it. And you don't want to, you don't want to set her off too much either. Um, and then Isley is, uh, oh, and Aidan Mae's eight. Isley is six. Uh, her word is cheer. She's a cheerful little girl. Isley is what? Like E I S L E Y? E I S L E Y. Yeah. There's actually a great band, uh, called Isley. Well, and, uh, uh, a singer with that last name, the Isley Brothers. The Isley Brothers. Yes. Yes. Exactly. So, she, uh, she is, yeah, she's our cheer. She's, she's a sweet little kid and, and then, uh, and that's what Isley means actually in, uh, in English. Swiss, I think it's a Swiss name, cheer, cheerfulness. And then our fourth is Eleanor and she is three and her word is light. She's our little light. Okay. And brights, brightens up everything. Does Eleanor mean light in? Uh huh. That's in there somewhere. It's something. Uh, and then, it's funny, you can find What happens if you're wrong with one of these names? Are you gonna change the name, or are you just gonna lie about it? We're gonna just straight up change it, yeah. Okay, I'm just curious. Yeah, I mean, you can find anything on the internet, you know? Like, yeah, sure, we've, you know, in, in, uh, you know, Some random country in in Africa. It means this so we can okay. All right. All right. So, uh Semantics are our last one is our first boy. So we have four girls. Oh, wow. Okay, and that's Noah Noah Shepard and You know, it's funny because the there's meaning of names there But for for me like I as I've been speaking those words over him, like I've just said he's my son You know, he's my son and, um, I know that's obvious, but for me being a girl dad, which I've loved being a girl dad. Uh, to get a boy now has just been a gift. It's still mind blowing that we have a boy. Yeah. And, uh, that I've been gifted with a son. So, there you go. I like it. I like it. Um, I had another question I was going to follow up with that, but I'm going to just leave it because I I forgot it quite. I can't remember it quite. It was right in there. It was about one of those littles along the way. Uh, but it's okay. I'll leave it. Tyler. Yeah. I assume it's Tyler? No, it's just Ty, actually. Just Ty? Oh shit. I don't know if I've ever met a Ty that was just a Ty. Just Ty. The long last name. Dutch name. Right there, like, we got enough. Yeah. So we have, uh, we have five as well. Um, three girls and two boys. So Leah is our oldest. She's nine. Oh, that was what I wanted to ask. Did you do something different with that last one to get a boy? Yeah. Just chugged hot sauce for like a month. Yeah. Yeah. It's a Louisiana red hot sauce and, uh, highly recommend it. My, uh, my wife's father was one of, uh, Seven boys, no girls. Okay, yeah. Uh, and when they announced their, their final, um, boy, still not a girl, pregnancy, the father in law or something was like, put it in deeper next time! Oh, jeez. Anyway. Yeah, I don't think there's any, uh, specific method, but, but, uh, yeah, if I ever discover that, I'll let you know. You'll have to explain that to your daughter when she listens here. Sorry! Eisley. That's right. That's right. That's right. Sorry, Ty. It's a comedy podcast. It's a comedy podcast. We're changing it up here. Bill Arts and Entertainment. This is pure comedy. Good deal. Um, yes. So, Fruitful and Multiply, for sure. Um, yes. Leah is nine. And, uh. Man, you did such a good job just like Well, he's all like, he was prepared for that. Yeah, totally. Use your heart. Um, I mean I mean, what, this isn't one word, but I guess her We allow hyphens easily. We intentionally had, like, so, uh, L E D, so her middle name starts with an E. And, um, and so Yeah. Like bright led. So like, it was like efficient, bright and efficient. Just kind of like praying over her about like being a light to the world. And so that was, that's kind of what came to my mind originally when, when we thought about that. Um, Samuel is, uh, number two, he is seven and, and he, uh, What's a good word for Samuel? He's organized. He really is. He's a lot like his mom. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, yeah, he's just, he's always up at like the same time, 6am. He's like, if you come to our house and go to the bathroom at 6am, he's getting his hair done and he's ready to go for school. So, yeah, he's, he's really organized. Um, Abigail is right smack in the middle. Yeah. Fire is a good word for her too. Was she jealous of Abigail's name or it was cool. Yeah, I don't know. I think, yeah, she's just, yeah. Or passionate. She's just really passionate. Okay. Um, and so that comes out in different ways. Um, and then Anna, like the fire. Yeah, totally. Yep. Um, Anna, she is sweet. She's really sweet. Um, she's definitely a gift. She says the right thing at the right time. Um, for. For different dynamics in the family, just like, Oh, that was, that was a good word. And, uh, you fixed it. Yeah. So yeah, really good sweet hugs. Um, and Joseph is our youngest and, uh, still figuring him out. There's two. Um, he loves golfing. He actually really does. He, He talks about golf all the time. He'll watch golf on TV. Oh gosh. I made him a little golf club, um, like out of PVC pipe and stuff. And I love it. It's great. So, uh, we'll just go golf with him. What, uh, what percentage of your, um, financial services clients, uh, come from the golf course, Ty? Oh yeah. It's a great way to meet people. I love it too. If they don't golf, I really don't talk to them. Yeah, I love, love getting out there still. And, um, for sure. It's been great to meet people. So, we did faith, we did family, we did politics. Uh, who wants to go first on the loco experience? And that's the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share. Um, oh, and actually I wrote this down. Because people sometimes ask me to share some of my loco experiences as guests and stuff. And I've only shared like four or five or something, but I've got like a hundred. Yeah. Um, and, and. Old Chicago, uh, played into my local experience in July of late, yeah, July, late June, early July of 1999. I moved here sight unseen. I had a job starting Monday morning in Fort Collins at the bank at, uh, right across from Fort fun. I stayed at the Kiva Inn. Um, I towed my Pontiac Grand Prix with my U Haul. I partied hard the night before with all my friends from Minnesota that I lived there for a year. And then drove hungover all the way here and got here at like, six o'clock. Wow. Um, and took a shower, went down, no, went downtown on a, on a Friday night. I had to find a place to live on Saturday, move in on Sunday and go to work on Monday. And I roll into old Chicago cause I recognize the name cause there's old Chicago's in Minneapolis and in Fargo. So I was like, Oh, that's sweet though. Lots of beer samples. And so I roll in there, I'm finishing my pizza or whatever, a calzone, probably if I know myself. And a group of like, seven people rolls in, and uh, sits down at a bar with me, I guess, and like, meets me, and they're like, Oh, you, like, literally just moved here. Well, you gotta come out with us for Anna's birthday party. We're pubcrawling. And, uh, so they, like, and it was like fun. I think I was just there to balance the thing, even though there wasn't a spark, you know, or anything like that. But I go to like, six different places, um, and then they took me to an after party at like, 1 a. m. that I stayed until like 3. 30 Um, I quit drinking but I smoked some weed and it was the best weed I ever had in my whole life because I was in Colorado now And I like find my way home. This is pre internet phone and google maps and stuff You guys don't even know that but I found my way back to the Kiva Inn at four o'clock in the morning Sober ish. And I was like, man, this town is fucking awesome. Anyway. So thanks to all of you guys. I, I would see those people occasionally, uh, for years afterwards, never really stayed in touch, but just the fact that they'd be like, Oh, well, you got to come party with us. So it was like such an introduction to this community and just the welcomingness. And I think that's even why you wrote this book in some ways is because the welcomingness of Northern Colorado is different than the welcomingness of Of some other places. And if we can transfer that to other neighborhoods and communities, that would be good. And we can do a lot better at it too. So anyway, there's my local experience. I love that. That's awesome. That's amazing. So anyway, who would go first? Yeah. Do you have anything to top your head? I, well, so, you know, I was trying to think of something. It doesn't have to be crazy. Get you fired from the church. No, I probably the craziest experience. I was in a hurricane in Haiti. Hmm. Um, you know, we actually were just being in Haiti is pretty crazy. Yeah. We were just in North Carolina right after hurricane Helene through, and we saw, you know, massive trees down in, in Hickory and. Um, fortunately, you know, the worst was, was further west of, of Hickory, fortunately for, for them where we were, but you can still see the effects, but that really brought back a lot of memories of, of, yeah, being in Haiti with the nonprofit I was working with, uh, was there. Uh, yep. And, um, and, uh, I was just, you know, visiting some orphanages there doing some ministry work and I got a message from my brother. I was like, Hey, have you checked the weather forecast? I'm like, no, I'm in, I'm in Haiti, you know, I'm in the Caribbean, like, why would I check the forecast? And, uh, and so I look and sure enough, there's a hurricane headed right towards Haiti. And it's like, oh, sheesh, you know, so I start looking at flights and, you know, talking to our ministry people back home. Um, and, and, uh, all the airlines are getting their planes off the island. Right. So it's this mass exodus. So it was gonna be like They're like flying empty planes off the island. Yeah, it was like, and, and, there was one plane I maybe could have gotten on, it was gonna be like 3, 000 bucks or something to get out, and, and, um, so anyways, I, I stayed Yeah, all these people are gonna die. Yeah, I stayed there and, and weathered the hurricane, technically when it made landfall it, it became a tropical storm, but hurricane in Haiti sounds way Um, and, uh, and so that was a crazy experience and, and some, some wild stories with that. But the, the crazy thing was the next morning, uh, driving around, um, the city and seeing the people that weathered the storm in their tent cities, you know, from people still living there from the earthquakes back in 2010 or whenever that was. And, and just remembering, like, I mean, Goodness, like here I am worried about myself and like, I'm in a guest home that has pretty solid walls and these people are out there and the next day they're just back to selling stuff in the market and walk around like nothing happened. And it's like, wow. So anyways, there's a bunch of stories that go into there, but being in a hurricane in Haiti is, is up there. That is a pretty interesting, uh, so. Do you want a terrible question? Sure. Like, you were talking about, like, being in Haiti, doing adoption related ministry and stuff. Are you, like, buying? Are you, like, picking up inventories? Great question. So, so it's actually with, uh, with, uh, his little feet ministry, the, the, the international choir ministry, where we'd bring kids to be a part of the ministry here. And so, Oh, is she? We would work with orphanages. No, we're, we're here to, we were there to bring kids to be a part of this experience, to advocate for kids that needed adoption, but most of the kids that came weren't, they didn't actually need it. Okay. Gotcha. So it was more of a, uh, an opportunity to, you know, to share the, the need and, and these kids were able to come for a, for a season. So no, that's a good question. So, but yeah, you're trying to build relationships with orphanages and find a good family. fit and, and places where they're, they're taking care of the children. Right. And, and, and where, you know, that these kids are going to be going back to a good situation. And so that's a whole story because we ended up not working with any of those horses in Haiti because it, there wasn't, they weren't great situations. So it was a very strange trip. And the whole thing was just like, people have talked about there. There is kind of a spiritual. darkness, heaviness in Haiti, um, and, uh, and I felt it there and then a hurricane hits. I mean, not to get, go back into political, but like that, that notion of like bringing Haitian immigrants in when they've been coming from a dark place, it's not that much different than like, no country wants the Palestinians because the Palestinians have been like, totally programmed to think that if you're a Jew, I, Kill you kind of thing. And like, nobody, nobody wants those people in their place. Yeah. It's anyway, it's interesting. So do you think we would improve the situation if we just made adoption more capitalistic, kind of a bid system? Man, it's, it's so, it's so tough. It's so tough. Really? No, I mean, honestly, like it's like, did he's winning again? Sorry. That's wrong. That's, I think, I think the reality is, is like, you know, adoption is, Is such a beautiful thing that should be more possible for more people. Agreed. That's what I would say. And I wish that we could do that. And it's hard because it's now, it's so expensive because of all the government red tape and everything. It costs more than IVF. Exactly. And so it's, it, unfortunately there's, I think there's a lot of people, especially within the church who would like to adopt and it's just not possible. Yeah. So I, there's something that needs to be done there. Something needs to be broken. I don't know what the answer is. Yeah, I, I, I I agree. It's a, it's a fascinating, you know, my wife and I don't have any kids of our own and if a baby wasn't 30, 000, maybe we would have one. I don't know. Um, but certainly there's a lot of mismatched placements there. Yep. Yep. Right. People, both sides of benefit, you know, just like you wanted to be adopted. You wanted to be, no, you wanted to be adopted by a family when you're like going to college. Like just somebody to hang out with, you know? Yes, exactly. And you were like a star tennis player. Like you'd be easy to adopt. I would have thought so. Right, how pretty you are. Ty, meanwhile, is like a prematurely balding 19 year old. And like, who's going to take him? Well, he milks cows. Well, yeah, just for the cow milking. Great skills. That's why my wife married me, for my skills. I think. The thing I appreciate about Ty the most is that I think he likes my humor. He smiles early at my jokes when he figures out where I'm going. Anyway, uh, your local experience. Oh, my twin brother, they call him Smiling Sam. He actually got in trouble in the military for smiling too much. So that leads over to me too, probably. Um, your local experience. Yeah, since we're on the Haiti theme, um, I've got. Haiti experience too. Um, so I went there twice in, once in undergrad, once in, uh, graduate school. We were probably there the same year. What month were you there? Gosh, I don't know. Um, June, I think it was summer, June or July. Okay. I was spring break time. So March, uh, I'll say that I think it was the 2012 March time. where this experience came from. Uh, went down there just to serve, uh, some people from, from our church. And I was helping. There's like post hurricane kind of post, um, well, hurricane season. I mean, there's always stuff to recover from it. Hey, yeah, right. But it post earthquake. Okay. That was the first big one. Yep. Um, so they're to help. And I was there kind of leading, uh, a medical mission trip. from our church and I didn't have any medical background, but, um, You're a good project manager. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I helped, uh, rally the troops and we got a good team there, uh, doing different projects. We went to, uh, the Island of Lagunov, which is just off the coast there. Um, so still in Haiti, but just a small Island off there. And, um, and so we did, um, medical things up on the island and then I was adventurous and just wanted to go see the place. Oh, you want to go for a hike? Yeah, so I literally did. Find lunch in the town. So I told the guys, I was like, all right, I'm going to, I'm going to go out for the afternoon cause we were done with the morning stuff at the clinic. And, uh, ended up finding this, uh, this other village way up in the hill, uh, on the mountain, top of the mountain there. Cause it's, I think that probably is, the island is probably another volcano there. I'm not sure, but, uh, but anyway, so I went, well, you get off the beach and you go up to the mountain and then there's like cooler things down there, pig roasts and stuff. Yes. It was like, I'm not just going to sit here. So I went up and, uh, and had a great time by myself, met some people and there was a missionary from, are you fluent in Spanish or? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I, I could get by with, with some things, but, um, and smile and nod gets you along with this too. Um, so there was a family up there, um, they're, they were American, had been there for I think 30 years. Our Haitians were a French colony or something, right? So Spanish won't get you nowhere. Yeah, the Creole. They speak Creole. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Um, so then, uh, this American family was up there. And this was probably like five miles, five mile walk from where I was. So they had no where, like the team had no idea where it was. Right, right. And I, they just knew I went up the road. So then a couple hours had passed. So I'm there with this new family that I met. And then they're like, Hey, we're going tonight. We're hosting a, uh, uh, uh, like a revival. Oh shit. Like, Oh, this sounds fun. So then a couple more hours passed. And I'm up with this random family, uh, having And there's, like, no comms or whatever? Oh, like, no cell phone or anything. Like, I had no way to reach them, and they had no way to reach me. And I'm this white guy up there. And, um, so then, yeah. All told, it was probably like six hours where I was off. By myself, um, and ultimately it was with his family, but then it became dark. And so then I was in their car, they started driving me down the three Haitians that were like our interpreters. Sort of like, I saw them running up the hill trying to find me and they were, and then word got back to the mainland with the doctor and he was like, it was, it could have been, he like, a reputation decreaser. He, he taught, he had a good talk with me. So, um, I had a blast, Right. Best time. And what was the revival? Did they have like a worship band going? Yeah, yeah. They, they were, you know, they were, uh, missionaries there. Right, right. And so yeah, they were just doing their thing and so I just joined along. That's so awesome. And like Creole, um, yeah. Oh yeah. They, yeah, they had everything, um, interesting. The native language and it was, uh, what a fascinating, uh, yeah, it was great. Interesting Haiti connections here, right? So, yeah. Um, one of my podcast guests, I booked him because he was, he, he hasn't done a very good job apparently, but he was like negotiating with all the major interests in Haiti. Um, he was working for a nonprofit that had like 65 percent of the people in the room, all the biggest industries that are actively in, which is very tribal and very like chessboard oppositional, you know, Um, and you know, shit went downhill since then, so I guess Sean is not doing good. I don't know. Yeah, it's a hard place to set. Yeah, like, it's, it's, it's too bad we can't push the reset button easier on human stuff. You know, cause we get programmed sideways sometimes and stuff, and I feel like that's part of our country right now, part of the world, like part of the Palestinian situation. Like you can't. Not to get into it, but you can't really blame the Jews for wanting to have security. And you can't really blame these poor, miserable people that have been suffering for a long time, that have been programmed to Think terrible things about their neighbors. Yeah. Hard. Anyway, that's where we need the gospel. We'll fix that in the next. Yeah, actually it is. I mean, if you love your neighbor, if you love your neighbor, that is the reset button. Yeah, that is the reset button. And, um, you know, that's, I mean, that's at the heart of the book is like, there really is no, yes, we, you know, obviously it's party in the front and there's practical things we can do. There's fun things we can do at the end of the day. The only thing that. Um, reconnects us in a healthy relationship to each other. Um, and obviously it's a God is, is the gospel is Jesus. So that's, that's why we're writing the book. That's a theme song, right? Yeah. You want to say it for us to close? Yeah. Yeah. I've been waiting for my opportunity. Come on. Now we'll, we'll set you up for that. Um, and you're, you're a hundred percent right. You know, I think. Like, I don't know about your, your congregation down there in Loveland, but we've got at least probably a dozen mixed race families at the crossing. And I just, I'm really proud of that, you know, and, and there ain't nobody from any race that we're Americans and we're Christians and we love each other. Right. Yep. So to set this up, it's like buying a new car. You know, you We're working on this book project and you start seeing things that can connect to the book and, you know, you see your car everywhere once you buy it. Sure. And so, uh, so, Jeff, he threw this out to me, he's like, hey, the Full House song, like, It's our song. It's our song. Yeah. So, you know, I won't quit my day job, but, um, so I'll, I'll, I'll read the first lyric and then, The last, the last, the outro of the song is just too good to read. So I'll just sing it. Um, so everywhere you look, everywhere you go, there's a heart and a hand to hold onto everywhere you look, everywhere you go, there's a face of somebody who needs you everywhere you look when you're lost out there and you're all alone, a light is waiting to carry you home everywhere you look. And then the last part, uh, how's it go? Chibbity bop! Chibbity bop! Badaow! There you go, yes! Thank you. That's amazing. Um, again, uh, those people that want to get the book and get updates, uh, go to thepartyinthefrontbook. com. It's not yet for sale, but it's coming soon. Might be by the time this podcast is published. Yep, soon. Uh, follow on Instagram. Party in the front book. Got it. And, uh, if you're, uh, like, cool, and you've had bad church experiences in the past, and you're not currently part of a cool church, because we don't like to steal people, we like to redeem them, uh, go on and come on down to Redemption Church Loveland, or wander up to Fort Collins for the Crossing Church. You'll see me and Ty there. There you go. And, uh, otherwise, I just want to thank you two guys for spending the time. Yeah. Thank you, Kurt. Thank you so much for having us. It's been fun. All right. Cheers. Yep. Bye for now. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Loco Experience podcast produced and sponsored by Loco Think Tank. This is your producer Alma Arellano. Check out our website at thelocoexperience. com to find all of our episodes, nominate future guests, or leave us a message. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn at The Loco Experience. 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