Episode Eighty-Eight: The Interview-Pastor D.G. Hollums

Pastor D.G. is a photographer, a member of the Rebel Alliance and an all around story-teller. His miracle? His wife can tell when he's lying (well, most of the time). Listen to this longer episode to hear how the people closest to us keep us on the straight and narrow and how being child-like will heal the world.

Transcript

Hello,

Hello,

And it's Sunday,

So that means another episode of Bite Size Blessings is dropping today.

This is episode 88,

Y'all,

And it's so exciting.

My guest this week is so funny and so self-deprecating,

And at the very end of the episode,

After the credits,

I have two additional stories from Pastor DG.

Hopefully both of them will make you laugh.

I couldn't find a place to put them in a podcast,

So I put them at the very end,

Because I thought they were too great to be missed.

So yes,

It's episode 88 of Bite Size Blessings,

And my guest this week,

Pastor DG Holloms,

Is really such a creative and fun human being.

He is an exceptional photographer,

And you'll be able to see his images,

And I'm going to provide a link to his website,

So you can check out his work under the episode show notes.

But Pastor DG,

His photographs are more than that.

They're very contemplative,

And as he explained to me,

They're meant to encourage visio divina,

And from the trusty internet,

Visio divina is translated as divine seeing.

It is related to the prayer form lectio divina,

Divine reading,

But instead of scripture,

This form of prayer uses visual elements to help set your mind on prayer.

It allows God to speak into your heart through the image.

And let me tell you,

I have looked at his photographs,

And they are so beautiful and so evocative.

I really urge every listener to go to his website,

Check out his art,

Check out his photography,

And see if those photographs speak to you,

If they lead you somewhere,

Maybe even into a more contemplative mood.

So now,

Episode 88 of Bite Size Blessings.

And I really got into,

Ironically,

I really got into movies in home theaters,

Like home movies and stuff.

So I wanted to have the best TV,

I wanted to have the best speakers,

I wanted to have the best,

You know,

DVD player,

You know,

All this stuff.

And I would do research all the time when I was working at Lawn Johns,

You know,

During breaks and stuff,

I just go to websites and read about,

You know,

The best movies at the best sound or the best picture quality,

Whatever else.

And I went and ordered from online,

A really expensive DVD player that was progressive scan that was,

That was the big thing.

I mean,

It was like,

This $400 DVD player and we were living in a seminary,

We're not making tons of money.

But I but I did spend that money.

And I did not tell my wife.

And then she said she found out like she said,

How much was this?

And I was like,

Oh,

It was around $400.

And she's like,

$400?

Wow,

My gosh.

And I told her,

I said,

Oh,

Yeah,

Well,

You know,

It was my friend in college.

And he bought the chair that I left there.

And he gave me the money.

And that's what I bought it with.

It was a complete lie.

Who are you as a human being?

If you were to go to a convention or take a class or introduce yourself at a gathering,

How do you self describe?

How do you introduce yourself?

Who are you?

Oh,

Man,

I,

I have so much self deprecating humor that I would want to probably go really low with it.

I usually tell people that I'm a I'm an extroverted contemplative.

You know,

It's you know,

One of those things they say,

You know,

Tell three things about your whatever else,

Usually inevitably,

One of those things is,

Is if I ever go bald,

I could probably shave my butt or my back and have a full head of hair.

So I'm like this hairy,

Fat monk dude,

That is tattooed.

And you know,

It's just I don't look like a pastor.

Sometimes I really actually a lot of times I don't talk like one or act like one.

But I I have a love of people.

And I love people.

You know,

I really do believe that,

You know,

When when Christ answers the question of what's the greatest commandment,

And he says,

He only quotes the Shema at the first,

You know,

Love the Lord your God,

Lord,

Your God is one,

And then love the Lord your God with basically all of who you are.

But in the in a form states in Luke,

Or it could be the Matthew one.

But anyway,

It says,

And the second is like it.

It's actually in the Greek,

It really should be translated in the second,

It really should be translated as in other words,

It's actually an equaling statement.

And so that in other words,

Part says,

In other words,

If you don't love the Lord your God with all of who you are,

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

So like,

I really take that literal,

That part.

And so I really consider that when I love others,

I am loving God.

That's that really is probably my life's the thing I live by is,

Is just I love,

I live to love,

I love to live.

And I love others,

Because I know that I'm loving God when I'm loving others period.

Like way,

Way before.

And I don't know why I don't know how the church and a lot of conservatives start with original sin,

Because there was original blessing,

Original grace,

Way before,

Was in our brokenness,

And Genesis narrative,

And or whichever one you want to talk about Genesis one or Genesis two,

You know,

Whichever creation story you want to stick with,

But I don't know why they do that.

But I'll never forget,

I had a professor that was going through Genesis one,

And in seminary,

And he was saying,

You know,

Okay,

God created this,

And then God said,

It was good tove.

And then,

You know,

He created this,

And God said,

It was good.

But it was only after God created humanity,

When,

When God said,

It was very good tov mohov in Hebrew,

And I,

He said,

If you know of anybody who is,

You know,

Dealing with the throngs of depression or something else like that,

Remind them that when God sees them,

It is very good compared to all of other creation,

That creation,

Everything about it was not total,

Unless it has you in it.

And I just don't know,

I think that we're just missing the point of how beautifully and wonderfully created we all are.

And I guess if we can just simply grasp that,

Then we can be able to start loving ourselves.

I wanted to ask about how,

How you initially got involved in or enchanted by or developed a passion for,

Do you call it cosplay?

Oh,

Oh,

Are you talking about like my Star Wars stuff?

Yes.

Yeah,

So,

Oh,

Man,

Yeah,

That's a,

That's a story,

Too.

I've always,

I've always loved Star Wars.

There's been just a love of mine.

And I love Star Trek.

I mean,

I'm just a massive geek.

I just love it.

I love all of it.

Firefly is probably my favorite TV show.

And and of course,

I love fantasy stuff.

So Lord of the Rings is a big,

Massive part of my life.

Reading The Hobbit when I was like,

In the fifth grade,

And then reading it almost every year after that.

It's just,

I'm just a massive geek.

Thanks to my brother,

Who was seven years older than me,

And he was a geek.

And then my mom and dad were both geeks.

My mom was probably more fantasy geek.

No,

I guess my mom and dad were both fantasy and sci fi.

Anyway,

I always thought that Star Wars was pretty cool.

I loved it.

And then I found out about something called the 501st.

Have you ever heard of the 501st?

I don't even know if you know.

So,

So the 501st is all the bad guys.

So that's,

That's the stormtroopers.

That's the Darth Vader's.

That's the,

You know,

Imperial officers,

Those little guys.

So and they're,

They're the ones who do a screen accurate costuming.

And they literally,

They're hardcore about it.

Like you have to take pictures from the front side back,

And then they will ask for more photos of your belt or your boots or you know,

Whatever else and it has to be screen accurate.

And so,

So basically any of the costumes that people are wearing in 501st and what I'm in is the Rebel Legion,

But those are the good guys.

But it has to be screen accurate.

And so you have to get it approved and all kinds of stuff.

So it's not just like a simple,

Hey,

Let's just go to Comic Cons and dress up kind of a thing.

It's a pretty hardcore group to be a part of.

But once you're a part of it,

Once you've been approved,

Then you go on things called troops and those troops are just amazingly fun things.

And so I found out that the 501st and the Rebel Legion both in the Mercs,

The Mercs are basically anyone who's Mandalorian who's a Boba Fett and the Mandalorian,

You know,

From the Mandalorian place.

But I found out that those troops go to like children's hospitals.

And they just go and bring smiles to kids that have terminal illness or cancer.

Well,

Really,

My big dream would be that I could be able to officiate a Star Wars themed wedding.

That would be epic.

I would love that so much.

That would be so awesome.

I just have to find the perfect couple that would want to do that.

But I keep on trying to tell everybody that's in the Albuquerque area like,

Hey,

Guess what?

If you ever need a Star Wars wedding,

I can do it.

And I've got tons of friends that would love to show up for that trip.

But anyway,

I just especially the children's stuff.

I just thought to myself,

Man,

Bringing joy where it's so needed and so,

So desired.

But I found out that when you go,

Yes,

The kids think it's cool.

But the parents are the ones that think it's way cooler than the kids.

And so the parents are like forcing the kids to go take their picture.

And they're like,

I'm not sure if I know these people.

But it is a lot of fun.

So if you know of anybody that listens to this podcast that would ever want to be a part of the 501st,

Or a Merc,

Which would be like the Mandalorian world,

Or a good guy,

Send them my way.

I will connect them with people that will help them build their armor,

Help them,

You know,

Build their costumes or whatever else and get approved and then you get to go on troops and it's just so much fun to be able to hang out with that.

It's a massive geek culture.

I mean,

These people are like,

They know so much Star Wars lore that I'm clueless on it.

I mean,

It's just,

It's mind boggling how geeky people have gone down that rabbit hole.

But it's awesome.

I love it,

Though.

It's fun.

But anyway,

It's just so much fun.

It does.

It allows you to be,

You know,

A kid again.

And there's something there's something holy about,

You know,

I think all of us once we get old enough to,

I don't know,

Just to start to see the brokenness and the messiness of life in the world,

There's a large part of us that longs to be childlike again.

It's just a no brainer,

Right?

I mean,

Come on.

That's one reason I love going to Meow Wolf.

Like if I need to,

If I need to become a little bit more deeper in a creative space,

I'll usually go to Meow Wolf and just kind of sit and soak up.

And it's funny thing.

I don't necessarily soak up the art,

The installations that are there.

I soak up the people that are soaking it up because I see them getting like really in awe about it.

And that's what inspires me to say,

OK,

I want to go do some more of my photography or I want to go on a trip so I can be able to inspire that awe in others.

Because that's just and that's a gift.

That's a massive,

Huge gift.

I grew up.

I mean,

It wasn't like super religious.

I mean,

My parents were pastors or something,

I'm not a PK,

Which I feel like I'm just so worried about my daughter being a double PK.

I mean,

My wife's clergy in the Mother's Church,

I'm clergy in the Mother's Church.

Oh,

My goodness,

Please,

Lord,

Don't let her be that screwed up.

But but no,

We didn't grow up in a super religious household,

But we always went to church.

And I love church.

I had so much fun church like I I had memories of sitting in my dad's my dad's pew.

My family's pew was like maybe two or three pews up from the very back row.

And so it was basically like all the high schoolers sat on the back row,

Whispering and talking and writing notes together to people.

And then you had the rest of the church,

You know,

After that.

And so I would constantly like my brother,

I remember my brother and I,

He would he would say,

OK,

Circle all the O's in the bulletin and that would keep me busy.

So I got to circle every O.

And then,

Of course,

He would find a zero and say,

Oh,

You missed one.

Like you suck,

Man.

So that was one thing I always love to do.

But then I started getting into folding the bulletins as airplanes.

You know,

It's just so it wasn't like,

You know,

I wasn't having like this amazing,

Amazing,

Amazing religious experience with me as a kid.

But I was still having a fun experience.

I was still associating,

You know,

This is a community of people that I can have fun with.

I can enjoy stuff with.

And then the high schoolers started,

You know,

Folding paper airplanes and handing them to me and they saw me playing with stuff.

And so I have a lot of really good memories,

Even if it was just sitting in a boring worship service.

But I also found a love of singing there.

I found a love of just people in general.

And as I grew up,

As I grew up and,

You know,

In high school and things like that,

I would go to youth group on,

You know,

Sunday nights or Wednesdays.

I can't remember.

I think it's Sunday nights.

And that was fun,

Too.

I loved doing that because,

You know,

There were cute girls there and I wanted to be there.

And,

You know,

That kind of mentality.

I did remember I remember asking the people who are leading it,

Which were just really sweet lay people.

And like,

I'd be like,

Hey,

They're funny and they're awesome.

And I loved them.

But I'd be like,

Hey,

Instead of doing,

You know,

The study on how to date good and things like that,

Can we do revelation?

And they'd be like,

Next,

Is there anybody else?

Like I don't want to do that.

But I am so clueless on that book.

I don't want to ever cover that book or something like that.

And so I was kind of hungry.

I was kind of hungry for something a little bit more meaty than just good buddy Jesus stuff,

Which I'm thankful for.

You know,

I'm glad that my first theology of God was a loving,

Sweet,

Kind God instead of a vengeful,

You know,

You're going to hell kind of a thing.

I grew up a good Methodist and I knew the good buddy Jesus.

So I married Tiffany.

And the next,

We went on our honeymoon for like four days,

Drove and flew back to El Paso.

And then we drove straight from El Paso to Lovington,

New Mexico,

Which is where she lived at the time.

She was the one called to go into ministry.

I wasn't at the time.

So she and I traveled to a seminary that I'm,

I want to say this.

If you ever know people who have gone to seminary,

They really love to judge you depending on where you went.

It's kind of like,

Hey,

Tell me your Enneagram numbers so I can be able to figure out who the heck you are.

And so it's great that I went there because I needed to go there.

But it was a pretty conservative seminary.

I'm not talking like Oral Roberts or something,

But Asbury Theological Seminary is in Kentucky.

And they are,

They're known for being a much more conservative,

Still Armenian at Wesleyan,

But conservative.

But I needed that because I was longing for some pretty good biblical conversations and education and stuff like that.

So anyway,

My wife started school there.

I went to work at the corporate headquarters for Long John Silver's in the marketing department.

So I was making pretty good money straight out of college and loved it.

I was having fun.

It was good.

Then we went to go watch a cartoon movie,

Which was DreamWorks' very first movie they ever made,

Which was called The Prince of Egypt.

And it was all about the movie,

You know,

All about the story of Moses going up to Pharaoh and all of the,

All that whole,

You know,

Part of it of just leaving all of the slavery in Egypt.

And that movie was the first time I'd seen,

I'd seen God as an almighty,

Powerful,

You know,

Being,

Not just a loving and sweet and kind,

But almighty and powerful.

And I,

And that,

That,

That was attractive to me.

I thought,

Man,

I,

You know,

For some reason,

I never thought of God that way.

And if I believe in a God,

I want God to be unexplainable and fully powerful.

And I don't want a,

You know,

A demigod.

I want a God,

You know.

And so that's what that movie did.

And I just kept on thinking to myself,

That's the God that I serve.

I mean,

That's a bad,

God's a badass,

But he's still loving people,

But he's badass,

But he's still,

You know,

And,

You know,

Living into all those different contradictions.

And I'm like,

Oh my gosh,

This is so cool that God's becoming so much more rounded and,

And so much more than what I ever kind of just shoved that little box that God should be into.

And I,

And I just kind of came to the realization that that's the God that wanted me to serve,

That God.

The closest thing I can think of that I just have no other explanation but God.

I guess that's the only thing I could come up with.

And it's not good about me.

It's like this bad story of me.

No,

We're just,

It's typical.

When we were first married,

My wife and I were first married,

We were in seminary.

I had a major problem with materialism.

And I really got into,

Ironically,

I really got into movies in home theaters,

Like home movies and stuff.

So I wanted to have the best TV,

I wanted to have the best speakers,

I wanted to have the best,

You know,

DVD player,

You know,

All this stuff.

And I would do research all the time when I was working at Lon Jon's,

You know,

During breaks and stuff,

I just go to websites and read about,

You know,

The best movies that the best sound or the best picture quality,

Whatever else.

And I just got really,

Really into that.

And I went and ordered from online,

A really expensive DVD player that was progressive scan that was,

That was the big thing.

I mean,

It was like,

This $400 DVD player and we were living in a seminary,

We're not making tons of money,

I was making decent money.

But you know,

I was still in the lowest rung of corporate America.

So it was not a whole bunch.

But I but I did spend that money.

And I did not tell my wife.

And then she said she found out like she said,

How much was this?

And I was like,

And she's like,

And I told her I said,

Oh,

Yeah,

Well,

You know,

It was my my friend in college.

And he bought the chair that I left there.

And he gave me the money.

And that's what I bought it with.

It was a complete lie.

It's just a complete because I had a problem with materialism.

I'll do anything to be able to,

You know,

Whatever.

Welcome to the world of brokenness and sin.

It's just way too tempting.

And you have to tell a bunch of white lies to make up for it.

But anyway,

Nothing was said after that.

She totally believed my lie.

And I was like,

Okay,

Good.

All right.

I'm safe.

We're good.

We're all right.

And this is where first married,

Right?

I mean,

I was just like,

Okay,

This is maybe this will be a marriage that I can be able to throw a little a little white lie into every now and then it would be all right.

That happened like in January.

The next December.

This is like almost 12 months difference between this time periods.

We went to her family's house in Levington,

New Mexico.

For Christmas.

She was taking a shower and she called me into her parents bedroom after she took a shower.

She goes,

I need to talk to you about something.

And I was like,

Yeah,

What's up?

And she said,

Greg did not give you the money for that DVD player.

Well,

Months afterwards,

Like,

We had not discussed anything since the last time I joined January.

And I was like,

What do you mean?

What are you talking about?

You know,

You know,

Backing up as much as I can.

And she literally said,

God told me in the shower,

That that was not the truth.

And I had,

I mean,

I was blessed that I had no and and I and and I saw just like,

Yeah,

And so I just poured out my heart and said,

I'm so sorry,

Please forgive me,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

And it was great,

Though,

Because it's almost like God was like,

Hey,

I want to set a precedence for your marriage real quick,

You're not going to get away with anything,

Because your wife has this wonderful innate ability to have a conversation with me.

And she really does.

She can,

I tell people all the time,

I probably most miraculous stuff I know of is how she can be able to read people.

She just has this,

This unique connection with God.

And,

You know,

She can be able to say deep in your heart,

You're a good person,

You're not.

And she really does kind of have that.

I don't know how it is,

Then I have no explanations other than this is just God,

This is going to be God here.

And so just like that,

I have no explanation for that.

You can call it a miracle if you want.

Maybe all the wives out there like,

Yeah,

That was a miracle.

Or the husbands are like,

Oh,

Dude,

Yeah,

That sucks,

Man.

But,

But I'm so glad you know,

I'm so I really am so glad my marriage is so much more richer because I know right up front,

I can't lie to her.

I don't I really never want to lie to her.

I didn't want to lie to her last time I just was so caught up in materialism and missing the mark there that that I was just blinded.

But there have been several times and so it's so funny because I'm the guy who wants to go talk to the people that she would say that person's bad.

So she'd be like,

That person's good.

That person's good.

That person's bad.

I'm like,

I'll make him be like that bad person because I love hanging out with those people.

I want to go see like,

You know,

What makes them tick and let's hear stories from them and get to know them and get to love on them.

And it's funny because I'm the one who runs towards all the bad stuff.

Because I love people.

I feel like those are people that have not experienced love very much.

And they need to they need to experience it because it's it's a pretty powerful,

Amazing thing.

I don't think that God sees miracles.

As we see miracles.

I think that's just everyday things to God.

And so maybe,

Maybe the closer we get to God,

The more we can be able to see miracles is not just oh my gosh,

But yeah,

That's good.

You know,

What is the difference?

There's a difference between being blown away by it,

Or having it happen and say,

Nick,

Cool.

I love that.

And that's it,

That's Episode 88 of Bite-sized Blessings.

I need to thank my very,

Very funny and very self-effacing guest,

Pastor DG Holloms for sharing his story with me.

And as I said before,

There are a couple more stories at the very end of these credits.

So if you have the time,

Give them a listen.

They are actually pretty funny.

In one of them,

You'll discover how it's possible to actually fail at a conference about failing.

And that was the one that kind of took my breath away.

And I think will enchant you.

As well as thanking Pastor DG,

I need to thank the creators of the music used in this episode as well.

Chilled Music,

Music L Files,

Alexander Naccarata,

Tyga Sound Productions,

John Bartman,

And Frank Schroeder,

And Kevin MacLeod.

For complete attribution,

Please see the Bite-sized Blessings website at bitesizedblessings.

Com.

On the website,

You'll find links to groovy music,

Other artists,

Books,

And playlists I think will lift and brighten your day.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Pastor DG.

How can you be more childlike?

How can you incorporate more play into your life?

Because that play and that joining of the 501st or the Rebel Forces,

That's what's going to heal a broken world.

And if you want to join the Rebel Forces,

Contact Pastor DG.

He'll be happy to set you up.

So the first one with my wife was.

.

.

It was just so awesome.

It was so epic.

She's from New Mexico.

I'm from the panhandle of Texas.

So I grew up in a little tiny,

Small West Texas podunk town,

All cotton farming and stuff like that.

And then she grew up in Levington,

New Mexico.

And her dad was a banker and her mom was a teacher,

Just like my mom was a teacher.

So we had kind of similar.

.

.

Her dad was in the Army,

My dad was in the Air Force.

We really have a lot of similarities going on.

I had told her that the reason that White Sands had turned white was because of all the nuclear testing that they did,

That it caused a chemical reaction in the sand to turn it white.

And so she.

.

.

She's,

Really?

I'm like,

Yeah,

Yeah.

Isn't that cool?

Oh,

That's so cool.

So anytime we met anybody and they found out she was from New Mexico and they ever asked about White Sands or talking about.

.

.

She would pull that fact up.

Like she was so proud of knowing that fact.

It was a complete lie.

So then while we were in seminary,

We had dinner with a friend of ours who is from New Mexico.

He is a rocket scientist and he worked at White Sands.

And of course,

We went there to eat and I was like,

Well,

What are you doing?

He's like,

And I was like,

Oh,

No,

No,

No,

No,

Three years,

Three years,

It's been three years.

And of course,

Tiffany and her love of showing off how much she knows about chemical engineering and chemical reactions to sand said that.

And he said,

And you could just see his face like,

Who told you that?

That was not like,

No,

You're wrong.

He just basically said,

Who told you that?

And of course,

I'm sitting there at the dinner table.

I'm like,

Oh.

And then,

Of course,

She said,

Well,

DG did.

And he was like,

And he looked at me and I was like,

Yeah,

It was me.

I said it.

And he was like,

What?

And I was like,

Well,

I really was giving her a hard time at first and then it just kept on snowballing.

And then she just kept on telling everybody for the next three years and everyone believed her and I thought,

Hey,

This is awesome.

So I actually had a gag,

You know,

A gig,

A lie that lasted three years before it was debunked by an actual rocket scientist that was going to seminary with us.

So that's the first one.

That's the most that's the hilarious one of talking like my wife does have that ability to know if you're lying or not.

But sometimes it doesn't come across for really close family members,

I guess.

Or maybe it was,

You know,

Maybe God enjoyed it.

You guys like,

Yeah,

Watch this.

She's gonna do it for three years.

I don't know.

But that was not,

You know,

That was just done out of not out of spite.

It was just out of love.

I love giving somebody a hard time.

And the second story is just hilarious,

Because I was just got my first job at the global United Methodist Church.

Wait,

I can't even stop saying global because that's the that's the split that they're saying that the global Methodist Church.

It was globally wide,

But I worked at United Methodist Communications with UM Com.

And they're the ones who do TV ads and radio ads and,

And social media,

You know,

They just do all the communication stuff.

And they provide all the content for websites and everything else.

And they work with an ad agency.

And that's kind of what I was doing when I was at Long John Silver's was working with an ad agency and helping out with,

You know,

TV spots or coupons and different markets and so anyway.

And they hired me to be able to be the social media director of of Rethink Church,

Which was kind of like,

It was still a part of the UM Com,

United Methodist Communications,

But it was like,

It's intentionally supposed to just focus on social media and really work on building relationships with people that were,

You know,

Gen X,

Gen Y,

You know,

Gen Z,

Stuff like that.

So anyway,

I got the job.

I moved from Bernalino,

New Mexico,

To Nashville,

Tennessee,

Because that's what the job is.

It was a decent paying job.

We live in a suburbia,

We had a nicer house.

Everything was great.

But the first week I was there,

The first week I was there,

They had a conference,

They were actually like doing a conference.

And the whole conference was talking about how to help.

And I don't like the term third world country,

But how to help really low income countries deal with whatever their issues are.

And especially when it comes to massive natural events like earthquakes and tsunamis and stuff like that.

But it was all about how technology is used to help support those kinds of things,

Which is a really cool conference.

One of the things that they had at the conference was a fail conference.

And I don't know if you've ever heard of a fail conference.

But the idea of a fail conference is to be able to say,

Here are the ways that we fail,

And we're going to celebrate these things instead of poo poo them and throw them under the rug.

And because the only way,

You know,

It's the whole,

There's a 2020 episode talking about design work.

And they said,

You know,

Our motto is to fail often to succeed sooner.

And that's kind of the model I kind of the term I use when I was doing the church plan stuff,

Which is like,

You know what,

We're gonna fail,

It's just part of it.

But we're just going to fail as often as we can,

So we can actually get to the success piece.

So that's kind of the mentality of a fail conference.

And so they were having a short fail conference.

And this guy was leading it.

And he was telling people,

You know,

Like,

Hey,

Well,

When you're trying to,

When you're trying to teach countries,

You know,

The importance of getting a malaria shot,

When they don't want to do that,

What do you do?

And they were and there's these people were saying,

Oh,

Yeah,

We had a lot of failures in that because it's mostly communication failures.

Because,

You know,

We realized,

Oh,

The only person that they would actually listen to would be like a bishop of the church on the radio waves,

Not just the Methodist Church telling you,

They need to go get,

You know,

A shot or need to wash their hands for Ebola or something like that.

And so they talked about all these,

You know,

Mistakes that they made that were communication errors,

And not being able to those those communication thing,

And they had to fail before they figure what's going on.

So and then the person was like,

Okay,

This is great.

This has been great.

Does anybody in the audience want to share any fail stories,

Maybe even fail stories about communication or something like that,

That,

You know,

That you've experienced personally.

And this is the first week at work for me,

Okay,

And all I was supposed to be doing is live tweeting the conference.

So I'm just looking for good,

You know,

Quotes and putting it in there and saying who said it and sending it out,

You know,

Kind of thing.

And I really felt God was like,

You need to get up and tell them the stories.

And I was just like,

No,

I don't want to this is crazy.

And I just I didn't God's like,

Nope,

Get up there.

And I was like,

Okay,

So I went up there.

And of course,

Now you have to also understand this was a global wide conference.

So we had people from Africa there,

We had people from super,

Super conservative,

Like Georgia,

You know,

Southern states,

Kind of thing.

And so when I got up there and told two stories,

And I said,

The first one was that I had a really good friend of mine in seminary,

He was Korean,

His name is john Choi,

One of the most brilliant people I know of,

Passed away due to brain cancer,

Which was just so heart aching,

Because he was just such a smart,

Smart,

Amazing man.

Anyway,

He and his wife,

Sylvia invited us over to eat because I kept on saying,

Man,

I want to eat real Korean food.

I we were in Kentucky,

I really don't know if there's anything around here that even has that,

You know,

Cincinnati area,

Maybe,

But,

But I just said,

Man,

I want the real stuff.

And he's like,

Okay,

All right,

Come over.

I'll cook you some bulgogi.

And my wife will make you some food.

And he said,

We'll do it.

Let's do it.

I was like,

Oh,

That's awesome.

I'm so happy.

Because I'm the fat white guy.

Like,

Yeah,

Yeah,

I want to eat.

The best way I know of to love another culture is to is to actually eat with the culture.

If you could cook with the culture,

Man,

It's even better.

I can cook with a grandmother of the culture,

And then eat and then be all together.

That's the best way of ever learning a different culture,

I think,

In my personal opinion.

But anyway,

So they made this the meal.

And I was eating foods I had never eaten in my entire life.

I mean,

I'm born and raised in West Texas,

You know,

This is not Korean,

It's not the food you're going to be eating.

And so I was eating it.

And I was like,

Wow,

This is amazing.

And I said,

I said,

This is this is really good.

Now,

What I didn't know was john invited the entire Korean youth group,

The Korean Methodist Church youth group over to that night,

Too,

Because he kind of was like,

Yeah,

Let's meet the white guy night,

You know.

And so Timmy now both went over there because we're really good friends with john and Sylvia.

And I love him to death.

And,

And so he just brought all the youth over there.

He was like,

This guy's hilarious.

He's fun.

He's hanging out fun to hang out with.

You'll enjoy.

So we're sitting there eating this traditional Korean food.

And of course,

The youth are like,

Oh,

My gosh,

I haven't had this since my grandma cooked,

You know,

Kind of stuff.

I turned to Sylvia.

And I said,

Sylvia,

This coachee is the best coachee I've ever had in my entire life.

This is so good.

I was trying to say kimchi,

But it came out coachee.

And it was really good.

And I looked over and Sylvia is like,

And I thought she was being a very typical,

You know,

A very typical No,

No,

No,

I you know,

Humble and sweet,

You know,

Woman.

And,

And I was like,

No,

Sylvia,

I'm not gonna let you take,

You know,

Just the humble road out of this.

This is,

I just want to eat more and more coaching and put more and more coaching my mouth is the best coach you ever had in my life.

And I look up,

And then all the youth that were there are literally on the ground rolling left and silly.

A cap on was like,

Stop,

Just stop.

And I was like,

What?

And john whispered in my ear,

He said,

It's called kimchi coachee means penis.

I had no idea that I was doing that.

But But I told them,

Out with that failure.

The youth actually respected me more.

John and Sylvia love me even more because they knew I was trying,

Even though I've failed miserably,

They knew I was trying.

So I prepped.

So I said that at the conference.

That's what I said.

The second story I have is when I was with my wife.

And I just we had just been engaged to be married.

And Tiffany's grandmother is was born in Mexico City.

So she is full on Mexican,

And as a very thick accent.

And I was trying to show off,

You know,

That I love to speak Spanish when I can.

I'm not great at it,

But at least I'm trying,

You know,

Kind of a thing.

And so I was trying to tell her,

You know,

And she kept and she was asking questions like,

How do you think you're going to live on a pastor salary like that is,

You know,

She was really worried that I was not going to be able to take care of Tiffany.

And that's so hilarious,

Because Tiffany usually takes care of me financially,

That we take care of her.

She's making more I think where she's at right now is the associate pastor in Albuquerque.

It's not him the senior pastor of this church.

And,

And I was trying to say,

You know,

I'm very large.

And so I held up my hand straight in front of my belly.

And I said,

Yo soy muy largo.

And large is grande.

Largo is long.

And I'm holding my hand out as hard as far as I can hold it out,

Right in front of my crotch saying how long I was.

And I had no idea.

I said,

You know,

I and her grandma was like,

And so I told those two stories,

Of course,

Everyone's laughing.

And I said,

But you know what,

I really think I won Tiffany's grandmother's heart that day.

Because again,

She knew I was trying,

And she knew I was not scared to try,

And knew that I was probably going to be able to get through things and support her granddaughter and things like that.

And I said,

That's really the importance of failing often is so that you can be able to,

Number one,

Eat your own mistakes and eat some humble pie,

And then you can move on as you're not as you know,

No nervous about it.

But it really did help me grow a deeper relationship with all those people through my failures.

And then I got down,

And I stepped off the stage.

And I said,

Well,

As soon as I sat down,

The conference kept on going on.

And my boss comes and sits by by me.

And she said,

What part of that did you think was ever even remotely appropriate as being a,

As being a,

You know,

An employee of the United Methodist Communications?

And I was like,

What,

It was a,

It was a,

It's a fail conference.

You're supposed to tell stories of where you failed.

And I said,

And honestly,

I was praying about it.

I didn't want to go up,

But God told me to go up.

And so anyway,

The joke is,

And she said,

Okay,

Well,

You're not allowed to do any more interviews at all,

For social media for us,

It's gonna have to be this other person that we just hired.

You can walk around with him if you want to.

But and now in everything you do in social media has got to go through another person before it can ever be approved to be gone online.

And I was just like,

Okay.

So I was literally written up the first week at my job at a United Methodist Global Communications,

You know,

General conference level thing,

Because I failed at the fail conference.

And I was like,

Okay.