The Convert Couple Shattering the Catholic Protestant Divide (w/ Caleb and Natali Perkins)

you need to see this interview to watch this video it is incredible I am joined in this episode by Caleb and Natalie Perkins uh a couple of Catholic converts with deep Evangelical charismatic Roots as worship leaders as people who wanted to get as close as possible to Jesus Through worship through a posture of Praise through giving everything to Christ and followed that insane ear into the Catholic faith following Christ where they felt he led them and are now uh as part of a worship kind of collective uh Team working to just tear down destroy the the the walls the borders the boundaries between Catholic and Protestant communities through incredible initiatives through bringing together Catholics and Protestants in worship settings in settings of of C I love it communication that that that just serves not to try and convert or or or steal or or have some kind of uh nefarious purpose to convert the other side but to talk about the issues to do what what this show has always intended to do just dispel those misconceptions to help uh dispel those misunder understanding say hey look this is what we actually believe as partisans here's what we actually believe as Cath Catholics to communicate on on Level Playing Field and also to to Revitalize for those cradle Catholics those who were raised Catholic to understand what Catholics actually believe that at the Heart of Worship at all the worship that they uh worked on Crafting and doing and being a part of as worship Leaders with a deep heart for praising God at the heart of all of that Catholic non-catholic uh is Christ in the Eucharist it's the Beautiful Heart of Worship what so many non-catholic Christians are longing for and when so many Catholics have no idea actually exists right there and if they did gosh golly they would live life radically different this is the a conversation with two incredible Catholic converts who are hellbent on tearing down the boundaries between Catholics and Protestants and bringing us together under our Lord Jesus Christ it's an incredible interview I think it might change your life please watch and enjoy hey friends welcome back to the show thank you for watching thank you for listening if you are listening uh on podcast thank you very much if you are on uh Spotify or apple podcast please subscribe to this uh show where you where you find it on on Apple or Spotify and please leave a raing or review if you can on those platforms those ratings and reviews help to push the podcast out to new listeners and expand the reach for these kinds of conversations if you're watching on YouTube thank you for watching thank you for joining us please subscribe to this channel hit the Bell so you're notified of new episodes as they come out each and every week and please like this video and interact Below in the comments and thank you so much for watching I am joined this week by Caleb and Natalie Perkins they're young couple from Fort Wayne Indiana who are recent converts to the Faith they are passionate followers of Jesus who aspire to build the body of Christ in Ministry of the nonprofit shama culture which was created to teach others a lifestyle of worship revive Hearts to an encounter with the gospel and unite Christians no matter of their background you guys doing awesome work I absolutely love it uh Caleb is working as the praise director uh for youth at St Vincent to Paul Catholic Church and working on associate degree in Theology and Natalie graduated with the Bachelor's of interior design through Indiana University and worked in the field until the Lord called her to quit her job I love that kind of thing and go into full-time Ministry now as the president of shama culture when they're not working uh ministering together they enjoy being with friends family there are two dogs you have two I love that's awesome and enjoy traveling reading watching movies and antiquing together I think we'd be friends like in real life guys those are all awesome interests uh thanks for being here guys welcome to the show and hello hey we're so excited to be be here with you tonight yes thank you for having us oh I'm I'm thrilled to have you guys this is been uh I don't I have the luxury okay luxury of not having to chase down many guests uh for this show because I you know five years doing this thing I finally have a little bit of Rapport out there and people often you know hey I got a guest for your show this is and that's wonderful and I love that but you guys you guys are guest that I was you know I was thrilled to to chase down and just to kind of hound and harass for for a long while to get you on the show uh because you've an awesome story your your ministry is fantastic like I don't know anybody who's doing um work in an area that I am more deeply like just kind of enthralled with and interested in and and think it's such an awesome place to to do something like that than what you guys are doing so that's awesome I'm stoked to talk about that it in a bit and you have an awesome uh story together uh your journey into the faith uh Caleb you I saw you a world Youth Day on the on the big screen kind of behind Pope Francis uh which was amazing uh and incredible we have some some awesome uh friends and people in common which I think is really cool an awesome connection you we kind of met so I've been just thrilled to have you guys in the show and excited to talk to you and I'm glad this is finally happening um so thanks thanks thanks for making it work thanks for being here this is going to be a lot of fun oh yeah it's going to be great we we always love sharing what the Lord's doing and just yeah just giving that to others so they can participate in it as well yeah yeah yeah that's awesome guys okay so I want to kind of get out of the way and let listeners get what what they want viewers get what they want and that's kind of your story so I go back as far as you want to go back uh you know there's two of you so I don't know how you want to spin that but it's up to you guys and no one's going to care and complain if if you do it a different way than than than they want they're going to love it and be enthralled so wherever you want to begin uh you know your your faith Journey what got you to where you are now it's interesting so so I'll shut up right now and let you guys take over wherever you want to begin yeah so well first I know we told you Keith but anyone listen to this we have a dog two dogs one of them is underneath where we're sitting so his tail the tail hitting the yeah the island we apologize sorry but all right he just a love sponge so yeah well my dear it always I always I always say you should go first because it really kind of our journey yes it starts with me as Caleb will say but like the call to the Catholic faith really started with Caleb so but anyways I will let you have the floor and then I'll just kind of jump in and then when we get to my part I'll share you okay yeah so um grew up in right outside of Fort way Indiana and was in church my whole life on my side I'll share and then Natalie can share on her side but um grew up in multiple different denominations um I was a part of a Assemblies of God um denomination I was part of a Pentecostal a Missionary Church um Word of Faith non-denominational so like growing up my parents specifically my mom had me in church like my whole life so she the Lord really used her to plant all the seeds that were there and um when I met Natalie in 2014 I won't give all the details on this because we'll be here forever if we go into everything we could be here for multiple hours yes um I was in a really bad spot um and had been for a couple years my parents went through a nasty divorce in 201 12 um just went down a really bad path for a couple years and then um met Natalie at a graduation party that neither one of us were supposed to go to but we both ended up going to anyways yeah um and just we talked for five hours straight that night and really haven't stopped ever since and um I I I knew what the faith was to a certain degree um and I wasn't really practicing at the time but when I met her I saw what she had in her heart and the intimacy that she had with the Lord I was like I don't know exactly how to get that or what she has but I want what she has and then we dated for three years three and a half three and a half years and um came into the church and I'm always I have always been what did I say see after we got oh sorry we came into the church after we got married but um after we got married we uh yeah like we were we got heavily involved with the non-denominational church that we were part of and if I get off track anywhere stop me here um we got heavily involved and I have always been the type of person that asks the questions why this why that like I I feel like ever since I was younger I've just kind of like had the desire like all right I want to know truth whether I realize that or not um so when we when we got heavily involved with with the youth ministry there and the worship team at our church and we had a really amazing friend of ours who mentored Natalie and I both who involved in like the the ministry and apostolate that we're doing now he's actually like on our board heavily involved with us now and like we're Catholic he's so like he's Protestant like it's it's so beautiful like everything that came full circle from it yeah um we'll there yeah we'll get there but um I being in youth ministry I had the desire to go be a youth pastor and and I wanted to pass on like everything I had gone through growing up and helped the youth and I just started asking myself these questions like I'm hearing this word Doctrine Dogma what the heck is all this stuff because I didn't never heard any of kind of like what you've talked about before Keith like tradition versus like where the Bible come from and just all these different things and um started reading this biography my me a mentor of mine had given me at the time about rich Mullen and reading this biography I grown up listening to Rich mullen's um I still listen to him this day for those of who don't know who Rich Mullen is you want to give a little yeah Rich mands was um kind of like the Forerunner of all the Christian music that we have today um the way that he would like lead at his concerts it wasn't really a concert it was more of like pulling people in worshiping through praise and then he almost like would pasture his concerts with the people to like the heart of the Lord it was beautiful um but I started reading a biography that a friend of his wrote about him and um there was just so many beautiful quotes in the book that were standing out to me and I had grown up hearing all these horrible things about Catholics that the Catholic church is the hor of Babylon they worship Mary they worship Saints statues uh the Eucharist was the death cookie like all I don't know if you have you ever come across no death cookie I love yeah have you ever heard of like the Trick Tracks that got put out yeah like that kind of that's what I grew up with so like as as I'm reading I'm reading this book about rich mullen's all these Catholic quotes are in there and like they're just speaking to my heart and I'm it just to condense it a little bit um it sent me down a path of just looking into Augustine St Francis Mother Teresa GK Chesterton Ignatius all like all the early church fathers and um I I started asking myself the question like okay what do I believe why do I believe it and can I defend it I didn't really feel like I kind of knew what I believed I believed in the Bible believe like what the church was teaching about excuse me about um Jesus's life death and Resurrection but like I didn't I didn't really feel like I had any like grounding to stand on um from like where did the Bible come from where did what we believe actually come from what did the early Christians do so I kind of took a couple years in secret and I didn't really tell Natalie as I was started doing the research because like classic I wasn't sure how she was going to respond and there was one time there was one time I tried I showed her do you it was Tim Staples I'm pretty sure right no it was Steve Ray oh Steve Ray Steve Ray video and it was about the papacy and she was like yeah that's cool but no yeah like I really hardcore was like uh yeah and I was like I'm not saying unbeknown to me that he was yeah been there yeah I told her I was like I'm not saying that I necessarily believe this or this is true I said you should just listen to this and after that it wasn't that hor but I was like okay I'm not going to push it so um eventually time went along and um I would just spend hours and hours like I would listen to uh Redeemer radio and I would listen to Catholic answers I spent hours just listening to apologetics and like Jimmy aen Trent horn eventually eventually came across your podcast came came across uh pintes with ainus yeah all these I feel like FS with kinus was like really yeah like maybe not necessarily foundational but like I remember you sharing a lot of p with the coinus with me and cordal Catholic yeah when we came across you your channel we just started eating up like all the episodes yeah so much to the point where I was thinking about this actually as we were getting ready I was like oh my gosh I remember when we first came across your podcast and it was still in the days where like your intro is hi hey welcome to the cor of catling I so he and I would be like hi hey oh God that was just like a cute little joke that we had for a while like please don't take any offense yeah I yeah am I a meme I love that no it's just we have this thing like on her family if somebody has like a little phrase little like a CP of some sort like we'll mimic it out of like a like an endearment almost I think you're digging a hole deeper now I think it's yes I love that thanks guys yeah um and so yeah I spent about two years and just doing research and my job gave me the ability to just be able to listen to hours of content while I was working yeah yeah and um eventually I came to well as we were this is okay this is something I don't normally tell people um but this is right when right when covid is hitting so this was 20 let me think here is it the summer yeah it was the summer of 2020 yeah so this was like two years after we had gotten married y so we had dated for like almost four years and then this so this was like relatively like what six years into our relationship yeah yeah and at that point you had spent what a year and a half studying cath year and a half fish yeah yeah and yeah about around there um and so 2020 that summer um was kind of like it it was the pivotal moment where I had like the I'm like okay I gotta become Catholic um but what led up to that final like push early in 2020 like right before Co even hit I was just kind of going through after listening to all of um like the church teachings and listening to all these hours and doing research I kind of had this like crisis of faith for like it was almost like it messed with my head so bad I'm like what actually is true anymore cuz I grown up with what I had been given and this I I mean it by no disrespect to my Pro and brothers and sisters but like I had this growing up and then I was reading this and doing all this research and I'm like this seems to be more in line with what the early Christians were practicing which is for me I'm like I want to be closer to the source and but I after listening to all the testimonies of what happened when people would convert like it terrified me yeah yeah and about this time maybe early March 2020 I kind of you ask that like I kind of got to a point I'm like I don't even know if I want to be Christian anymore because like I just almost like it it messed with me that much yeah like I don't even know what to fully believe and came across um or met one of let me make sure I get this right Natalie's Brother's Best friends as we were preparing for her brother's wedding hopefully that makes sense I met him at a bachelor party and just sparked up a conversation and um come to find out like he was doing some similar Research into stuff and for whatever reason that was like the final spark that I needed and it pushed me back into all the research again and um yeah as I Was preparing I actually ended up being the person that got by the state legally ordained and married her brother and his wife before we before we became Catholic wow and as I Was preparing for that and I was just thinking about like the weight and the authority of the Catholic church and like go like I was processing all that as I was like doing like preparing like the sermon and everything for their marriage wow and um yeah I I I ended up listening to this this podcast by father Mike Schmid and um I was in one of the back rooms in our house here and he it was uh the seat conference from I think 2015 with the the message will change your life or something like that and uh he's reading Jesus's words in John 6 yes I know this one y and he he says um if you don't eat my flesh do not drink my blood you have no life in me yeah and then father Mike took it a step for he paused for a minute and was like if you don't want the Eucharist then you truly don't you don't really fully Want Jesus yeah and as hard as that was to hear I just like dropped and in that moment I was like Lord I got to become Catholic I I have to do it I know that there's consequences for this I was like but I can't I can't run away from it um I really believe it to be true and I came to Natalie and I was like this is going to sound weird this is going to be out left field um I said I told her I said I really believe this um I called the local Parish I said I'm going to join rcia I said I am not pushing this on you at all I said if you want to just come to rcia and listen to it from the mouth of Catholics on your own just so you can at least understand um I said I'll go to math Saturday nights and then we'll go to the church we're at on Sunday mornings we'll make it work and then she she said you say what you said yeah yeah so I'll but it little background that just kind of like yeah essentially give glory to God because this response that came out of my mouth was not of me I can tell you that with great Assurance so um yeah so like he was saying like this was all like shortly after covid and kind of like during like still somewhat of the shutdown we are kind of starting getting back to normal people are still kind of like ippy about everything and we just bought our house yeah we had just bought our house like we had a lot of things going on and honestly like before this like I I genuinely thought that he was just kind of like having like a a crisis like a midlife crisis in his 20s and I was like he's must be having a crisis of Faith or something like this will just blow over and then like you know a month or so later then he comes to me and all serious in he's like Natalie like I have to become Catholic and I was like okay because un unfortunately I too um I I went to like a more Baptist background uh like school pretty much from element first grade on until like uh yeah I graduated and so they unfortunately taught that like Catholicism was almost separate from all these other Christian Fai and backgrounds and so I pretty much grew up believing that Catholics was like a whole like separate they weren't even really Christians and like uh some unfortunate misconceptions were just bestowed upon me and so here I am thinking like and also more context we knew no one that was Catholic like literally no one not a soul so we didn't have any family that we knew of that were catholic at least unbeknownst to us not immediate family no friends no no no connections at all whatsoever to the Catholic church so again this is totally from the Lord and um so like the only exposure that I had was from what I learned through school and of course like you trust your teachers and all that stuff and so I yeah I was like okay like Lord give me the words and like what came out of my mouth was like Caleb I don't know if I can follow you where you're where you're going but if this is where the holy spirit is leading you like who am I to tell you no like if this is where the holy spirit is calling you like go you have my blessing like if this is what's going to draw you deeper to the heart of Christ like I want you to go is essentially like what came out of my mouth I I don't know verbatim but essenti like that was pretty close to what I said to him and I think that that was like wisdom beyond my years that was bestowed upon me by the holy spirit because yeah once he started um once he started going to rcia and actually leading up to this like before he went to rcia and after he had told me so kind of like that in between pH we were working on our house cuz we had just bought it and I it was like closer to the end of summer like July or so into August and I remember like since he was you know going to become Catholic I thought okay I should probably learn some things about the Catholic church and so I let him she was helping me with my apologetics yes let's just yeah pretty much because what what would happen is like I would be like well what about this and then he would like we'd almost he was very very calm I will say thank you for being so calm I'm gentle and patient with me because I would be a little defensive and kind of like argumentative and be like well what about this thinking like I cornered him and stuff like that and then he would very kindly very gently like explain to me well actually this is what it means and this is what the Catholics um or this is what the Catholic faith like says about this particular thing like obviously I brought up Mary I brought up the Saints I brought up I don't know maybe a couple oh relics maybe a couple other things purgatory and so like it was like this back and forth for like probably a month almost to two months where I was very much on the defensive and very gently very patiently very calmly like he would share like a podcast for me to listen to that answered my questions or he would gently explain it to me and then even like pull in scripture and like share like oh this is actually how the Catholic like Faith like the Catholic Church like teaches like about this specific passage and like I will say like the more and more that he gently very calmly like shared it like my walls began to come down and so as my walls began to come down like then my curiosity started to get you know intrigued or peaked whatever what have you and so he starts rcia and I think to myself okay so I've heard it from him and I've heard it from you know some podcasts like or like um speakers like Scott Han obviously p with the coinist so Matt Fred you and a couple other people and I'm like okay I need to hear it from like someone who's in front of me like catholic's own lips like I want to hear it from like actual not that you are actual Catholics but like basically Catholics that I can interact with and I'm like I just want to hear it from their mouth and whole deeper yes I know I'm sorry could explain that better but you know what I mean um and so I started going to rcaa with the huge like um oh disclaimer there we go that's the word I want to use huge disclaimer that I'm like I am not becoming Catholic I just want you to know this but I'm interested and I want to hear it from catholic's lips so like and I want to be able to like ask them questions and that sort of thing because it's great to hear all this you know in information about it and like have like um like someone explain it to you but it's like sometimes you just need to stop and ask questions and I loved Caleb but I wanted to hear it from more people and so we started going and again very very slowly like the walls came come crumbling down and the Holy Spirit softened and humbled my heart little by little by little and um I remember I began I remember hearing for the first time like what Catholics believed about the Eucharist and like how essentially was the Fulfillment of the Passover and like the Passover wasn't completed until the Jewish people actually ate and part took of the lamb and that's like essentially like how the Lord fulfilled like the Passover was through his death and his passion and his resurrection and becoming essentially like that bread and and that that that wine that we then consume his his body and his blood and once that connection kind of clicked yeah that's when I was like oh my gosh like this is Jesus like oh my God go like why didn't I see this before why didn't anybody tell me about this and so like I remember having like this Epiphany because at that point I was doing my own research and when I had that Epiphany when I had that like holy spirit like life bulb moment I was like oh my gosh Lord like if if this is true if you are actually present in the bread and the wine like the Eucharist and and the wine like I want that like I I don't know about the rest of it that comes with it but if that is true like I know like in your goodness Lord that you will open my eyes and you will reveal all things to me but if I know this to be true like everything else must be true I'm just at the point where I'm not ready to like receive it Cheo through it and like yeah like accept it and so like that was pretty much my first step and at this point it was like the end of October so I hadn't been very many months like and maybe four I remember you called me I think after youve been listening you were listening to something someone explain it and you were like oh my gosh like it was like the biggest like Revelation for her it was it was beautiful yeah and funny story so a couple weekends before we had went and visited my brother and my sister-in-law up in Michigan and so Caleb was essentially like at this point going to tell him or tell them that um he was becoming Catholic and so like I was prepared he was prepared and so we started to have a conversation and I found myself arguing for like Mary and her validity and like for Jesus and the Eucharist and at that point I had not said that I wanted to become Catholic I like pretty Catholic over there to me I just thought that that was funny that like already my heart and my mind and my spirit was saying yes and agreeing to it I just didn't realize it until someone was pushing back and I was like no actually believe this like but it didn't like register to me until that moment and there was there was one point after um oh gosh I'm trying to leave like the name of I'll leave the name of the church out but like um we the church that we were involved in before we came in to the Catholic Church um there was like some oh I don't know how to explain it there was some like not beef but there was like something with the leadership there that was just not going well it was like like why can't you guys see this and there was like nobody making like a declarative like stance on whatever it was and I remember getting in the car and was like and this is why we need a pope or maybe she I think that's what that you were like um this is why the papacy makes sense like actually have somebody yeah I was just like yeah because for me like the more and more like I let my guard down and I'd be curious like the more and more like things just made sense to me and it filled in gaps that like that I never really questioned um and I still to this day Wonder like why didn't I question that like why didn't I think more about that but it's just because like I think you when you grow up and like almost like this culture or this cultural belief of something like you usually don't like question it question it I suppose um and so I'm very thankful for Caleb and for his inquisitive brain because like he oh iured yes he led the way for this for sure at least for the Catholic part yeah oh yeah I would pesture her all the time with like well how do we know this is true where the Bible come from or who had the authority to put the Bible together how we know these books are the right books like just questions like that over and over and over yeah um and I think they were really good questions and I honestly found myself kind of like wow why haven't I thought of this yeah I don't know these are good questions so yeah yeah and so we went through through rcia and um she finally had the point of which which right was it I think it was like the second or third right we were practicing for at the at the church um I can't remember what it's called anyways oh yes um right of election or I can't remember what it was I I is that the one that happens like early on like a few months after like starts it's like you you come before the congregation and say like I'm like really seriously looking into this I'm not like fully per se like 100% but I'm I'm close and I thought it was like the point where like you basically have to make a decision it yeah I think so because I remember RCI director so I I was there again just out of curiosity you know originally and so I was coming to everything with him and the rcia director um this like practice for this right that we were going to do that coming Sunday he turns to me and he points to me he's like okay yes or no are you in out and and then he like he didn't skip a beat and just kind of kept going and I went to him after like our practice and everything and I was like you know if you had just waited two seconds more I would have told you actually yes I I want to be a part of this so I remember him being blown away and be like oh my gosh even at that point I didn't know that she was in yet no I had I hadn't really declared that until that moment when I was just kind of faced with the decision like do I go with my convictions or do I just continue to live in this like weird not necessarily limbo but kind of limbo experience of yeah what is truth yeah yeah and so we ended up it was really hard because the the church that we were involved with like we were pretty heavily decently heavily involved and like as we were going through the rcia proc process like we tried to we stayed being involved we didn't come out and tell everyone right away CU we're like okay there needs to be people that can at least for where I was at at the time like somebody that can step in and take my spot so we try to strategically and like respectfully I wanted to honor what was there already yeah yeah um someone to come in and yeah and the last thing that because we were like a part of like some like initiatives and the last thing that we wanted was um one of us to be pulled just simply because like we didn't have full agreement so to speak and as soon as we came forward and they found out about it that's kind of what happened yeah and we did our best to respect um the the current beliefs that they had um but always pursuing Jesus um with those that we were leading in that moment or as like essentially in that transition phase so we tried to do it like the most oning way that we could um and yeah it it was sad when when things finally were fully revealed and like we had some some some positive um reactions and then we had some some negative ones and and you know what that's okay because the Lord said like we'll have persecution and if that's the price that I have to pay to receive Jesus and the Eucharist like I'm willing to pay that because I yeah I can't I can't imagine saying saying no to Jesus especially when he called this so very like beautifully and deeply and clearly to both of us just in a different time and I I still like it started with like looking into everything with Rich M but I still blame I'm not gonna say his name but like our worship leader at the time because he really as he was mentoring us he really instilled within us a heart of seeking after Jesus no matter what it looked like no matter what people thought or how crazy it was like when we came to him and told him like what we were doing he's like that's amazing he's like if that's where Lord's leading you he's like go so yeah I he was definitely instrumental I think um in essentially preparing our hearts to receive um the Catholic faith because it was very challenging to both of us as you heard like it took him like you know a year and a half to like fully chew through it and accept it and receive it and I mean I put up some some resistance but I think it was slightly easier because someone else I knew and loved and trusted was you know going through it as well but you know we we both had our hearts softened I think preemptively and so the Lord knew exactly what he was doing and it's beautiful to look back and just see like all of the ways like the Lord like lays out your path before you yeah yeah and how did that how did that lead that into what you're doing now was that did that come directly out of this like right away because you would obviously you left your job like you you would I did yeah so how that got started was as we were coming into the church um one of the things that actually I I honestly don't know why I didn't think about this more maybe it's because I knew the Lord had it in his hands but a little little more background so at the other church that we were um affiliated with I was heavily a part of um the praise and worship team and so every Sunday almost every Sunday like I was on the team whether it be like one of the the the leads for the day or supporting roles like I yeah pretty much I was there um we were there every Sunday every Sunday and so when he says like we were heavily involved we were very heavily involved and so like I like I just felt like the Lord had called me to like step out and use my my gift of singing that he gave me like for him and for his glory and so like I had been doing that for like two years or so at this point and um under the worship Pastor that he was talking about earlier and he really like he really mentored me and um essentially like helped me see like just essentially the beauty and like worshiping the Lord and seeking after the Heart of Jesus and so I fell in love with the Lord even more deeply and um just worshiping him through song and such so anyways all that to say is that that was like a huge part of like my connection my intimate connection with the Lord and so when we were coming to the Catholic church we didn't know or weren't didn't really see much of like praise and worship being involved in um like daily practice of the Catholic faith and so Caleb was worried that like I would have to sacrifice that to follow this path and like I said I didn't really think about it until he until he um came to me one day and he's like have you thought about this as reality and though my heart was sad like it was still like joyful to give up something that I loved so much especially like something that I shared with the Lord like to receive the Eucharist and so I was I was okay I was like you know what it's fine if there anything like that's okay and so we started getting involved with um a couple at um St Charles bour which we now attend and they were like no actually like we do do praise and worship it's just maybe not as frequent as what you guys do but she's like praise and worship is actually a part of what we do and and I was like oh like w Lord okay like thank you thank you for that gift because we were fully expecting to have to leave almost yeah got part of ourselves behind um and then we um got connected with Damascus wasn't it yeah I was just going to say that so shortly after literally the week that we became Catholic so March 14th March 14th 2021 we became Catholic 5 days later we found ourselves at a worship retreat at Damascus which um in cerber Ohio in curg Ohio um and so we were we were our world was totally rocked because it was almost as if our world and our current world were colliding and I was like wow this is my element this is myy oh I'm sorry no do you know do you know what Damascus is yeah yeah but for listeners like like tell us more because that's that's amazing yeah do you want to explain you want me to go for it yeah Damascus is it's a the main thing that it is is a youth summer camp for um Catholic kids that are coming in confirmation and their stuff there for high schoolers too um and then they've over the past I don't know how long they've been doing two years that was the first one they had was it okay um they started doing they started doing uh worship Retreats for worship leaders because they wanted um they wanted to build up and equip like Catholic Worship leaders but they were also like collaborating with um Protestant worship leaders as well and there was like this Unity movement even in what Damascus was doing which is beautiful yeah so and so at at that retreat um um I always forget her name Meredith Meredith Meredith molden molden and her husband from Upper Room came and um essentially like co-led the retreat that was at Damascus is it the songwriting one no maybe maybe it was maybe it was the songwriting one but anyways it was like some sort of worship retreat but I remember distinctly like sitting there and just receiving the words that they were saying and thinking to like Lord like I want to do what she wants to do like or I I want to do what she's doing like I want to equip worship leaders and like essentially like spur them on to like continue to build up like the the church militant and also like unleash and unlock and um like bring forth the the beauty of heaven and like help people like realize that and and also like the Army Heaven's armies because like when we when we praise when we worship and when we thank the Lord like things are broken chains are released bonds are yeah dissipated and walls come crumbling down and because there's power in our words and like our words and like our thoughts and our heart postures are so very powerful and crucial to like the way that we see the Lord the way that we see others and the way that we see ourselves and so I was just looking at her and thinking like wow like I I want to do that I want to do what she's doing and I I just told Caleb this recently like like I hadn't thought about that in a long long time so I don't know if the Lord Was preparing me to share this tonight or not but yeah so he was just planning Little Seeds along the way so fast forward a year and after that experience and during that year we were kind of like asking ourselves like okay so now we have this whole new community and in the Catholic um realm but like we still had a lot of relationships with our Protestant brothers and sisters and we're like okay like what's a way that like we can bridge the gap what's a way that we can create like a space for both of them to come together and both of them to like mingle with each other and like like how can we like then unite and so we actually thought really really small originally and we were we were just going to do like either like a monthly or like semi-weekly like just little praise and worship gathering at um or praise and worship Ministry at St Charles bour which is the church that we go to right now and um the Lord had other plans we'll just say that because um because it that idea was like in our hearts for a long long time but like it just wasn't time it just wasn't time it just wasn't time and we ended up meeting our really good friend and actually one of the co-founders of Shan culture um uh Gloria Corman sorry I almost said Gloria Perkins because okay funny Side Story funny Side Story she is marrying um his younger brother so she will be my sister and then her other sister is marrying my other brother yes and they're doing a double wedding W yes so so extremely beautiful and so that's why my friend was like wait no she's not a Perkins yet I can't own um so yeah beautiful fruit has come from this but we'll we'll get to that um but anyways and so we met her um that following so it was like that fall is it the summer the fall that year that we came in yeah so we met her a couple times and it wasn't until like that fall that like we really began to like get to know one another and we ended up having dinner and we talked until like all of us talked until like 1:00 in the morning just about like like Jesus and essentially the dreams and the things that the Lord had been placing on our hearts and we realized like wow we're we're of the same heart and mind and we need to be friends with you and then they she invited us to lead worship at a youth or not a young adult Retreat and we were during free time in the basement of this retreat center and we just started worshiping together and it was almost as if like like the Lord we never done it made us like one in that moment and like worship and and and song and heart and mind and and strumming and and everything and we were just blown away we were like wow wow that was beautiful and like we had never worshiped with each other like before that and we were just kind of like okay like there's some there's something to this wow and so then we became friends and we started hanging out and we started dreaming and talking about like what we wanted to do and we LED worship like for a couple other Retreats leading up to this and then March of 2022 comes around and at this point Gloria she was going to quit her job in December but the Lord said no not yet and I was actually thinking and contemplating like okay Lord like I feel you calling me to something and at around like December is of 2021 I'm like but I'm not sure what and so I was just open and ready to receive whatever the Lord was was um going to put on my heart so March of 2022 like I said comes along we go to another Damascus Retreat and this was the worship Retreat the the first one was a songwriting Retreat this one was the worship Retreat first ever I just started working at St Vincent where I'm at now yes and um oh my gosh sorry I derailed you no you're fine no I was just thinking like wow Lord like just re reling I'm like wow Lord You're Incredible and so we were all excited to go to this and throughout the retreat the Lord was asking me to give my full self my full yes like wholehearted like he's like I want you to give me everything I want you to surrender everything and throughout the entire Retreat he kept asking me like will you surrender everything will you give me everything will you give me your job will you give me this will you give me that and like every time I was like yes Lord yes Lord yes Lord and so we get to the end of The Retreat where they have what's called an outpouring and it's essentially this big worship night where they invite everybody from the community those who were at The Retreat and they have like speaker Come Share the gospel and like they just like worship and they have Prayer Ministry going on and um I remember like just kind of like contemplating all of this during worship and just thinking to myself I need to go receive prayer and so I go back and I receive prayer I didn't really say what I was exactly like thinking or contemplating about but I just told the people um that were praying over me that like I I just need wisdom from the Lord and I want to hear like him clearly like I want to hear him clearly like I want to hear his voice and I I want to do what he wants like I want my heart to desire the things that he wants for me and so they start praying over me and unfortunately looking back I really wish I would have recorded it because it would have been so cool but um there's only a few words that stick out to me to this day and I think it's for a reason but I remember one of them speaking the word over me like the Lord's going to call you to Ministry and be a missionary and I was just well that's cool and I thought to myself like I've never s seen myself like as like yeah a missionary by any means never really thought that that was a possibility so I was like okay Lord I'm listening and then um the other person that was praying over me like also gave me a word like that like I would be a teacher and be like in the realm of academics or something like that and I was kind of like okay and I could kind of see more of that because I was um before I was an interior design major I was an art education major so that kind of lined up with me I'm like yeah I could see myself teaching people I'm like okay Lord like again I have no idea what this means but all right so I go back up and I get to my chair and the worship leader that was leading like pauses like in like the middle of like the instrumental like a l to speak and he says like I feel like this is for someone in the room and he starts my obviously my Holy Spirit senses were like okay I'm listening I'm listening Lord Spider Sense wasl your spider s was tingling um and I was like okay I'm listening Lord like what are you going to say and he starts describing um like this scene with the disciples where they're in the boat and like there's like the storm raging all around them and he says the worship leader says like I feel like this person like that I'm speaking to is Peter and Jesus is just asking you to step out of the boat step out of safety step out of security step out of comfort and to follow after Jesus with your eyes fixed on him like and you walk on water and I was just thinking to myself oh my gosh like the Lord literally just asked me to step out of like my occupation what I'm doing and follow him and I was just kind of like okay I think that was the Lord asking me to officially quit my job because like at this point I since I he was asking me to give everything that kept coming up in my mind like I need to quit my job but I don't know what that means or what what to do next do you want to share anything before I continue I'm sorry I just got really excited went for I I talk the first half of us the time good but do you want to share your experience I feel like you you give some additional context to the story yeah so like backing up just a little bit so like yeah when we came in like we we had the desire to like we we wanted to go back to our Protestant brothers and sisters and just find a way to have common ground because there's like as you know and as some of other listeners will know like there's just so much Division and so many walls between proant and Catholics because we're we're we're living with consequences of a wound that's over 500 years old yeah and um and being on both sides of the equation I'm sure you can feel this too is like feeling the weight of that wound and people just not knowing what they just don't know and they're going off of either misinformation or unintentional lies that maybe people have spread or whatnot um but yeah we we just we figured out like hey like using praise and worship through a form of prayer and it can be a form of worship like obviously the mass is highest form of worship like there's nothing that Jesus offering himself under the father like you can't that's the only reason we can worship in the first place is because of that and um but finding commonality between our brothers and sisters so we could learn first and foremost with our family before we even like dialogue about like the stuff that is hard difficult to get through um but over the course of like 21 into 22 yeah we just we just kind of um had some like times where we LED here and there and then when we went to this conference I I knew coming it leading up to it yeah you've got to share that part leading up to it uh one of the one of the people that went with us to the conference um had come across like a passage of scripture like I think like a day or two before we were going no it was the the day that I asked if everybody had gotten that's right okay tickets so sorry there's so many stinking details so many details um great and this happened two and a half years two years ago now little over two years ago so sometimes I'm like I remember the big Parts sometimes it's hard to remember the details um but what this person on the when Natalie had reached out asking if we got our tickets for the conference that day this person had read um the passage of go to Damascus and there I will reveal my plans for you I was this I was with this person um this friend of ours before leaving to go to Damascus we were getting gas and he shares this with me and I feel like I'm not supposed to share it and I'm thinking to myself like all right Lord what what do you have for us on this Retreat yeah so he was prepared kind myself and Gloria had no idea and so when he tells us this after the fact that only confirms like more of the things that like the Lord revealed to us I'm sorry sorry I keep rubing my nose I have my allergies are acting up um and so I got this like this going into the retreat and we get to we get to the conference we go through the first night on Friday and um sitting there in the chapel late Friday night and I'm like Lord like I know there's something you have here for us like what what is it like you want to speak kind of like um yeah like Mary's posture of like Lord what is I'm I'm your Serv like what what is it you will for me and um I don't know how to explain it other than just when you know the Lord speaks to your heart it may not always be like an audible you just know he's speaking to you um my word for the year of 2022 was Fiat which is Mary's response um I feel like the Lord told me like I want you to continue to have a heart posture saying Lord thy will not your not my will but your will be done and then you're going to take I thought originally this is temporary but I've over the course of two years learned like it's not it's not temporary um you're going to take the role of St Joseph and be more of a background role and be the support because for the beginning of our marriage Natalie was the interior design she was the one bringing in the money I was planning on going to school to go try and be a youth pastor and I wasn't making squat no because he had reduced his hour so he could start going to school and so like I was basically bringing home the majority of the funds and so like yeah yeah I just started working at St Vincent and everything like all right my thought was like okay I'm going to be doing this for a little bit and then eventually once Natalie and Glory got the call to quit their jobs I'm like all right when do I get to quit to en join and um I found out like Lord's like there there like that's not for you so um but yeah the like the night when Natalie went and got prayed over during like Prayer Ministry and we were having the outpouring um we all three of us that Gloria and I all went and got prayed over individually like separate yeah Gloria had almost the exact same thing as what Natalie had and then when I went back and got prayed over it there was a a guy on my left a girl on my right and had my eyes closed in my hands out just in posture of like reception what the Lord had and um all I told them was I like I feel like the Lord's calling me into something and this I don't actually I don't remember what I said but the guy said he's like I'm just getting this I'm seeing like um you in this boat and like the waves are like rocking everywhere and Jesus out on the water he's asking you to step out in faith and this is before the guy up on the stage had said anything this is before all that yeah yeah and then the girl on my right uh just kept like kept saying like this isn't going to make sense this isn't going to make sense and she kept saying it over and over and in the natural I can tell you none of this has made any sense so um it was amen yes so yeah like we got that like prophesied over and then um do you want to take it from there yeah yeah so he too then hears what the worship leader said and I'm sure that probably confirmed what he start about Peter walking in the water and I'm like I still don't know what this means Lord but I know you're saying something yeah and so after the night we all come together and we all share everything that we received in prayer and like he said we realized that they all interconnected and what um the worship leader had said about us being like Peter and stepping out of the boat and like walking out on faith like resonated with every single one of us like in a very powerful and meaningful way and so we were all just kind of like dumbfounded like whoa and then like glor Gloria I love her so much she was like I'm quit my job like okay so that was she was like ready but um the Lord I the Lord had one more thing in store for us and I think that this is the coolest part because this just kind of just shows you just how well like the Lord knows us it's going to take a little bit of time for me to explain everything but just are we good on time oh we're here I'm here forever you guys okay okay just make sure yeah I I won't drag on but it it is a story worth being told so we so the retreat ends Saturday night we wake up and we drive home on Sunday and Sunday like you know we're just kind of debriefing everything that the Lord did and just like almost like on a spiritual high of like wow the Lord is amazing this is fantastic what's he going to do like oh my gosh like okay Lord like now we need some solidified plans on what we're going to do yeah and so so we we get home we drop everybody off at our house everybody Parts ways I and I was just I felt this urge Caleb actually had to leave to go to work so I just felt this urge to just sit with the Lord and just Journal everything everything that I could like remember like to the slightest detail and so I sit down in my chair that I usually journal in in our home and I just heard the Lord speak to me and he was like wait I want you to actually physically come to me as in like he wanted me to go to adoration and sit with him physically um where we adore the Eucharist and so there was two there's two uh 247 adoration chapels in Fort Wayne one at St Vincent to Paul and then one at um St Jude and I would consider St Jude more of like the the home Chapel that we typically closer to we typically use because it was the first one we went to and also like we're closer to it and so I was just kind of like okay Lord like which one do you want me to go to and he's like I want you to come home and I knew that meant go to St jud's so like okay so I grab everything I like I quickly get to the car and I'm driving and I get there and I I had this thought like two minutes before I turned into the parking lot wouldn't it be funny if Gloria was there I roll in and there is the car that she left in and I saw the her stuff in the back of the car and I knew she was in the Adoration chapel and I was like that's crazy Lord that's funny that's how I go in there I sit down and she just happens to look behind her shoulder and she sees me and I see her and we just we both like just share this like huge grin like oh my gosh this is kind of funny and so I'm sitting there praying and stuff and she's praying too um and then like a few minutes after and they were she and like the other person that we had gone with like we're the only two people in the Adoration chapel and I came to relieve them unbeknownst to me because traditionally speaking like you're not supposed to leave Jesus alone like in adoration Chapel there's always supposed to be someone there um and so like I relieve them they leave and I'm sitting there praying and just again journaling everything and you know I just had of a beautiful time with the Lord and someone comes in to relieve me and then I go home well that next day on Monday um Gloria and I were I lost it when she told me all this I was like you're making this up glor LA and I had plans to um like get together that night for coffee because um that coming weekend we were going to give a shared talk um at a retreat that we were um leading at a youth retreat and so I had the day off because I just needed some time to process and so I ended up going with Caleb to um St Vincent's cuz he had to work later on that day but I think he took the morning off and so we're in the Blessed Sacrament chapel and if no one has ever been into it um it's like pretty much a like a like stained glass mural like almost 360° around you and it was like one of the first beautiful like spring days of the year and so the sun was just peering in the The Blessed Sacrament was there he wasn't exposed but he was there um Jesus was there and um I was just doing my devotions and just having just a beautiful time with the Lord just so thankful and like just capturing every moment and um I just so happened to be in the book of or the Gospel of Luke for my devotions and I was just staring at my Bible as the sun was coming in and like the colors were just all over the page and almost like dancing and I was just kind of like just reveling in just the simple beauties of the Lord and something catches my eye and I started to read it and it said the calling of the first disciples and I was like hm I have a feeling I'm supposed to read this and so I started reading it and it's essentially the story of when Jesus comes to um Andrew and um Simon and he basically asks to use their boat and he ends up getting in the boat and tells them to cast their net out and like you know Peter's like but Lord like we fished all night like we're not going to get anything but because you said so I'm going to do it and so he casts his net out and then he brings up like so much fish that starts to break the boat and then like he's like wow like you you you are I can't remember his exact words but like basically like you're Lord like and then Jesus is like come follow me and then it says in the details like after that like in the the paragraph after that it says like and then um sorry I almost said Peter Simon and Andrew like pulled up their boats on the shore and left everything behind and followed Jesus and at that moment the Lord was saying okay nalie I'm asking you to pull your occupation onto the shore leave it behind and come follow me and I was like oh my gosh Simon and Andrew are Gloria and I and Jesus is asking us to quit our jobs to like leave our occupations and to go follow him and I was like this is amazing like and I was like okay Lord before I freak out anymore I'm gonna read it again and the same things like pop out to me like I know that this is you speaking to me and so I was just asked for the presence of the Holy Spirit I read it again and even more strongly like that sense of like the this is the Lord this is Jesus like asking me like personally like will you quit everything will you put your job aside and will you like leave everything behind to come follow me and what I have for you and I'm like yes yes I don't know what it looks like but yes Lord and so I was so excited to tell goria and so I was just like yeah on cloud n for the rest the day I get there and so we get our coffee and everything and as soon as we see each other we're like oh my gosh I have something to tell you and she's like I have something to tell you and I was like oh no so we sit down and I was like all right Gloria like go first like go ahead or I don't actually yes no she did go first because she told me she's like okay so you remember yesterday when I was at the the the Adoration travel I was like yeah and then you came to reli me and I was like yeah she's like just moment before you came in the Lord led me to the gospel of Mark and in the gospel of Mark he led me to this passage and it was the calling of the first disciples come on and I was like nuh-uh I was like nuh and she was like yeah and then I was like we had like a little freak out moment and I'm like please continue I have something to share with you and so then she like shares that she's like the Lord revealed to me that you and I are Simon and Andrew and Jesus is asking us to quit our jobs to come follow him whatever that means and I was like oh my word like he asked me the exact same thing but in the Gospel of Luke and so I tell her my whole story and we're just like flipping out because like the Lord just knows us and knows each one of us so who whoever is listening to this right now like the Lord knows you so intimately and he'll speak to you in the ways that you need because Gloria is one of those people that she's like just tell it to me straight get to the point I don't need all the flu just just tell it to me straight and that's how Mark is like that whole passage that same story that I described it's so short it's like three sentences and she got the exact same meaning out of like the passage that's in Luke and it's like quadruple the length and the Lord knows that I love detail and it's like I find beauty in the detail and like so much meaning in the detail so he spoke to me in the exact passage that I needed and he spoke to her in the exact Passage that she needed and like but we still pulled like the same meaning out of it and so that's when I knew like 100% for sure like this was the Lord for sure calling me if I had any Downs before like they were gone at this point and then she's like oh yeah by the way I already turned in my um letter of res resignation and I gave them till the end of the month and I was like oh my gosh okay like me sitting here thinking I got to hurry up and so like that's essentially excuse me essentially like the call that we received like Goran I received and as soon as I put in my month notice um like the Lord just began to speak to all three of us about like what he desired what his dream was like what he wanted this ministry to be we were we were debating like is this like is this just something that we're doing on the side or is this like a nonprofit is this just a Ministry attached to a church like what is this Lord and so he led us to start up a nonprofit and um excuse me so that way like we could receive like funding to be able to like teach and equip others excuse me other worship leaders and um also like move forward with uniting our brothers and sisters and creating a place of um United prayer and worship and so like very slowly over the course of pretty much that whole year like he almost like revealed to us like each aspect of our ministry at at a time so like our ministry can be summed up in three simple words teach revive and unite so the Lord revealed to us that he wanted us to teach others how to have a heart posture of Praise because when we live out of that praise like that's when our life is fully devoted like unto the Lord and like thankful and like we're changed and our heart part posture is ready to receive and um like living out a lifestyle of worship like not only through praise and worship but like through the mass and through like our Catholic faith and like essentially letting that bleed into all aspects of who we are um as followers of Christ and then revive like we really like aspire to like create a place where people can encounter God as he truly is like no no no flashing lights like no like you know emotional tugs like you know um oh shoot what's what are those called strob blades F Mach F Mach no fog Mach like we wanted it to be like stripped down and like be like Jesus we want his real authentic genuine heart like that intimacy to be real and so that that that CS us to be intimate and real with like the Lord and like when we're leading um yeah just drawing people to the Heart of Jesus like not to ourselves but to Jesus Jesus and only Jesus and so like we wanted to like just remind people of the beauty of the gospel and awaken Hearts to just that reality and live like encourage them challenge them to live that out and then finally like the Lord revealed to us that he wanted us to be a bridge um between our Protestant Brothers um and sisters and our Catholic brothers and sisters because something that the Lord has revealed to us um and you may may feel it too but like since we've been on both sides like the Lord's given us this beautiful gift of almost like being bilingual so like we understand what like certain language the the Protestant uses like we understand what their meaning is but because like it's different language than what Catholics would say like sometimes there's miscommunication in the like the intended um meaning for what they're trying to express and so there's actually been a couple times where we've been like actually they didn't mean this when they said like a spirit of like religion like they meant like more of like a spirit of like legal legalism which is entirely different but obviously Catholics view religion very differently than Protestants um view um religion MH and if you have anything extra to say to that I realize I've been talking a lot so it's okay I just let you have it it's great yeah and so yeah the Lord has um very beautifully like revealed what his heart is for us and honestly we're just kind of along for the rut um of course like you know we plan and we um we prep everything but we always give it back to the Lord with open hands um just asking him for his final Direction his final guidance and often times like our plans do end up being either majorly altered or alog together like nope that wasn't it we're going to do this and we have to follow once again with full faith and assurance that like the Lord is guiding us like closer to his heart so yeah I think that yeah when we when we started asking the Lord like what what do you want this to look like what do you want this to be um the teach revive unite really came from a heart of like coming into the Catholic church and seeing the beauty of like everything we've had from the foundation of when Christ started Church like and seeing seeing a lot of um Catholic brothers and sisters I mean this is the normal this is the how do I say this this is The Stereotype that it's not like this everywhere but just kind of going through the motions Protestant and Catholic both yeah like we we ourselves included like it's a Temptation for every Christian just to go through the emotions but like we really the Lord really laid it on our our hearts to like like want to lovingly like like guys like wake wake up look at what we have like we have so many beautiful things we have so much Freedom here where we're at and we're g we're given everything and yet often times it doesn't feel like it's appreciated or or understood and um that that's part of where like the teach revive un night we wanted we wanted to teach Catholics how to Worship the Lord through praise and it not just be a way where you you just throw songs together and you sing Kumbaya and it's like no actually there's power there's actual power like yeah there's a story I could go into but I won't like there is power in lifting up praise and lifting up the name of Jesus Jesus yeah um it's not just songs that we sing cuz if that were the like I wish that I wish that this is something that's on our hearts too like people who lead lurgical music to help them understand one day hopefully that like when we're when you're leading music for the Liturgy whether that be nooro TR like gor CH whatever him whatever you're leading you're participating in leading worship yeah like we're yeah I could go on forever with that but um like we are joining in with the angels and the Saints in Heaven's armies yeah and it's it's not contained just at the mass like as you know we're commissioned at the end of the mass like go forth like it's a way to go forth and continue to preach and live the gospel by lifting up praise to the Lord yeah and like what we've been like recently reminded of in this season is that we are living Tabernacles which means that we actually take the living Christ like into the world like we're the light of the world and where there's the Tower of knle there's usually worship and so like we're supposed to continue to stoke that flame of worship and desire for the Lord and like that begins first in our own hearts and we've found that like um sharing the gift of praying and worshiping through like music and song like helps unlock some of those things and unlock some of those desires and like Caleb said earlier like it's not the end all be like cuz every time that like we have a beautiful time of worship like our hearts burn and ache to receive Jesus in the Eucharist Like It prepares our hearts to receive him more fully and more beautifully because essentially what you're doing in that time is you're ridding yourself of yourself and like you're getting rid of the distractions you're surrendering yourself unto the Lord and you are just you're locked in you're fixing Your Eyes Upon Jesus you're singing unto him like if it actually like if the words are truly becoming like the prayers of your heart like they like he said they can just be sing along or Kumbaya or whatever what have you but like when you actually apply yourself and when you actually like contemplate meditate on the words um like it's supposed to lead you and draw you deeper to the Heart of Jesus yeah yeah that's so yeah we could go into more like our heart behind it but we we we worked as as we were laying this out trying to figure what this was we applied for a nonprofit status we were told it was going to take anywhere from like six to nine months we send it in we had a friend of ours a couple friends of ours work with us on sending it in and we got it back in a week and a half and approved and we're like how in the world did that get through um so quickly and all this mess but um yeah we we started um working with a couple different teams the area that were already like established like worship teams um and then we actually helped establish like a full worship team at one of the parishes in the area and worked with them for nine months and it was just it was amazing and then in the process of that we started um this is where kind of where we're at today really at the moment we started doing these things called Unity nights and which you probably heard from some of us from David um and this is the the unite part we we had the desire like finding common ground and we're like okay let's not pretend that there's no differences but let's let's come together on what we unite on and we can unite on the person of Jesus and let's come together and have a night of prayer and worshiping through praise because we can all do that together and we're going to be we're going to come together and be like all right look we know we have differences we're not going to pretend not in the room but we're going to love each other to put those aside for the night and we're just going to be United for a night and let the walls just come down um and we've done how many of them including we've done like four and we're four official yeah four official ones and there was two other ones that were Unity nights but they were like smaller scale before it was flushed out well and it was kind of like the Lord was like preparing us for them like we didn't know what they were they were just like you know hey worship night anybody's and anybody's welcome we had Protestant and Catholics like leading worship that on those events so and the the idea sprung from taking a Catholic parish and a Protestant church and then building relationship with the leaders and like the worship team and we've done it every other so like the Catholic Church will host and then a Protestant church will host and each Community will go to each others and they'll have the night at the church and um yeah it was it's been so amazing we usually we'll put we'll pray the Apostles Creed together we'll pray the Our Father together it's just I've never seen or heard of anything like this happening yeah and it's um from from the union nights uh there was this thing that has recently sparked we weren't in charge of it but we were we were asked to be a part of it and this sprung from the people involved in Union nights yeah yeah um the it's this thing called The Common Table Series M and it was it it was started by people that were involved with the unity Knights and one of a a good friend of ours who's really initiated a lot of the unity movement in Fort Wayne and um the idea was kind of Contin continuing the unity movement of let's all get around like a metaphorical table together and let's based off of like we we we had a whole team that was put together prayed and interceded and it was all about okay let's talk about the actual things in front of people with a panel as Protestants and Catholics like what we actually agree upon yeah and then like talk about like church teaching both sides and then come from a place of like okay before we dive into the really hard stuff we're going to come at this as family We're not gonna come at this as enemies which is often what it has been in the past and the way the knights have progressed is the panel will talk they'll have specific questions they'll talk for a while and then there's a Protestant and a Catholic leader that have been paired at every table in the room that facilitate breakout discussions yeah and those leaders have pre-established relationships um most of them do most of them do yeah or at least that's the intention behind them so that they're they're they're they're coming together in unity and they know who each other are so like they're more able and readily available to um like not only back up each other like if something were to go wrong but also like have that respect and honor because they know the other person in the other person's heart so like and the intention out of like both unity kns and the Common Table is to continue to build relationships between Protestants and Catholics and that was like one of our one of our um desires like through Unity nights and that's why we decided to have like the formula of having Unity nights being co-hosted by a Protestant and a Catholic Church um and like essentially uniting the leadership so that they were familiar and we tried to pair churches that are um close in proximity um so that way like distance isn't isn't a an excuse um and like once they know each other like then they can start you know building that friendship and like maybe doing more events like outside of just like what sha culture initiates yeah so yeah and it's the first one was about the foundation of like what we agree on and com the comment table yeah and like how how we're going to approach like the values as like this movement together um and the second one they they went straightfor it they went on the topic of authority and it was it was I don't know how to explain like the night start off the the the moderator got up and a couple of the other leaders got up and introduced everyone and then us with some really good process ours got up and led a short time of worship and like you could just feel in the room the room was unified even though there's differences and it was a heavy topic the room was like unified our worship was like 10 minutes but oh my gosh was the most powerful 10 minutes well one of the most powerful 10 minutes of my life that's for sure and we've just yeah we went into it and realized like as we're going to the common table and as we're going to the UN nights like um as Catholics having what we have like coming in with a posture of humil and seeking to go and seeking to understand pushing the trying to be understood like yes we all want to be understood but like before we can do that like we have to seek to understand the other first and the night was amazing there was so so much amazing feedback like our each of our tables the conversations that we had like I don't know if necessarily a bunch of walls came down but a bunch of walls were really like in a charitable way like exposed that people didn't realize were there and after the night I I was praying about it I was like Lord like I've given up trying to figure out exactly what you're trying to do in all this other than I know in John 17 you prayed for the body to be one yeah um and um I felt like I felt like he kind of like said that um it was this is an example or like um how do I say it that basically like what what is happening right now is it's like a divorced couple is coming back together to slowly start dating again um and it's like a body that was at one point fully United that because of things horrible things that have happened in the past nobody can deny any of that it's like there's a rediscovery happening of one another and a curiosity of just seeking to know one another again um it's just yeah this is and there's more stuff that we could share but I didn't even share about Portugal or World youth day or any of that yeah oh my gosh like yeah we could be here for hours just telling story after story about how the Lord has moved in such like Mighty ways yeah like even in just like our regular life like because because of all of this like I'll share a little bit like yeah we by our dases we got asked to go um lead all the mass music all of like adoration and some other stuff too any praise and worship any praise and worship at World Youth Day in Portugal so we carried around music equipment our instruments we lug those things I don't even know like it was by the grace of God that all that showed up in the first place like we we got invited to do that um and because relationships we got to actually invite a couple Protestant friends of ours and you know one of them and they got to come with us and as a good friend of our says they got to see a whole lot of Catholic Church um it was just it was beautiful and I know that like in some some ways they felt out of place um but it was just beautiful having them there with us and them being willing to sacrifice stepping into the awkwardness um because of the love and the relationship that we all have for one another of being willing to go be with one another in areas that we feel uncomfortable in it was just and then yeah obviously like getting to meet Pope Francis that was a whole thing and of itself that was not didn't even know that was going to happen um no but you should share your story real quick about how you I'll make it really fast I'm looking at the time like we're in an hour and 22 minutes this is great this is amaz so as as uh we're approaching World Youth Day a good friend of ours who's connected with a lot of people in the dases she uh she she found out along with some other people at the dicese that um for the Stations of the Cross at World youth day they were going to have people give testimonies and they were looking for an English speaker and I don't know if they I don't know if they just sent it to all of the dices in the US can I don't know who all they sent it to but they were looking for an English speaker and um our friend was like hey Caleb you should submit your testimony cuz they're looking for somebody who has struggled with addiction and has a rough past and like has had a conversion I'm like okay I know there's people out there that have way better stories in mine I'm like all right I'll submit it um it was like what two three weeks later I got I think it was four however long it was I got an email back from people coordinating it for youth day and um they ended up I thought it was just going to be an interview and they said well we've gone through all the applicants and we want to go with yours and I was like say that again was wait come in and they said yeah so you're G to be up on on stage with the Holy Father with the other people they're sharing their testimonies um we're going to pre-record you're going to go to Studio in Fort Wayne they're going to send it to Portugal and then it'll be all edited and put together and um I I asked him a couple times I'm like I'll I'm doing it either way I said but am I gonna get to meet the Holy Father I was like what are the chances um and they're like we don't know you'll be about 20 feet from him the whole time and I was like all right kid they wer kid front row we were front row and like yeah right across from the ho the SEC the security behind the stage was I was like I looked at Natalie a couple times I'm like don't do anything like can't do like don't breathe wrong don't look at them wrong like it it was just I'm like if anything I'm like I probably look sketchy being up here but um it was oh my gosh it was I will never I don't think either one of us will never forget that and they and they even told I thought it was just going to be me and they said we want to actually invite you and your wife to come I didn't know that I was going to be invited until like I think a couple weeks before we left for Portugal yeah so it was and then at the end of it so there was um I know people have different viewpoints on it but whatever um there was an interpretive dance done during Stations of the Cross and at the end of it Pope Francis waved because we were right there he waved all of the dancers to come up and it wasn't planned because he wanted to say thank you to all of them and they were just going nuts and then he looked over at at the three three of us that gave our testimony and then our spouses and he waved us up and I looked at Natalie and I was like we're getting ready to meet po we're like pinch me this isn't happening it got to be a dream it was yeah like having having Pope Francis Having the Holy Father shake your hand to say thank you and then I know he says it to every but having the pope say please pray for me that was I know people there's different viewpoints I'm not going to go down it there's different viewpoints on Pope Francis but like just seeing looking into his eyes and just seeing the humility yeah of somebody in his position who could be the most arrogant pompous person if he wanted to be yeah but asking two two people from the United States like please pray for me and then giving us a blessing over our marriage like I was just I was just like I'm never going to forget this the rest of my life it was just so beautiful yeah and there was just something very tender um I'm very caring in the way that like he spoke to you at least he spoke to us I'm sure he probably was that way with everybody but like you could just tell the intentionality it was almost like like he he usually describes it it was like almost like meeting Grandpa yeah like if if that can kind of give some context to how you feel like oh hi Grandpa yeah and like or father it was funny like when I shook his hand he he said thank you and then um I asked him was like could you I said I introduced Natalie and I was like could you give us a blessing on our marriage and he gave us rosaries and then um afterwards he was like it's so noisy it was just funny but yeah it was wow yeah he's human just like us yeah yeah that's where we're at we just got we just got done with um the most recent com comment table series and now we're working towards the next Unity night yep which will be in PT Wayne on um May 30th yeah May 30th at Sunrise Church for anybody from Fort Wayne who's listening wants to come yeah so and there's a whole at 6:30 there's a whole bunch I'm not going to go to it but there's a whole bunch of stuff that's the Lord's doing it where I'm working at to working with the youth and basically like what we're doing with shama equipping worship leaders like I'm doing that with the youth the lead every week yeah yeah it's just yeah so yeah that's us that's that's amazing guys wow we were like six minutes in Caleb and I thought oh no he's talking so fast the story is going so fast we're going to run out things to talk about in like 10 and and here we are much longer and and I am and and nobody at all has tuned out because this is an amazing story I just think like you're there's so much in here that you can see and I can understand and hear this from hearing your story as you tell it like just the position of of humility and of service and of surrender that you guys have embodied in your life I think in the choices you make to follow the lord like to quit your jobs right and and to follow like that not knowing where you're going or anything right that just spills out into the kind of ministry that you're doing right like there's that connection between like how much you're willing to give up for God than what he can do with that that you've given right because I feel like the the the thing you're doing here that this Unity this teaching this bringing that kind of protestant kind of charismatic spirit and heart for that kind of worship into into into Catholic parishes and and using that to unite Protestants and Catholics to bring that together that is so kind of Cutting Edge like that feels like the bleeding edge of the Holy Spirit working here is what it feels like the very edge of things right and you I don't think you could you could get there and work in that if you hadn't surrendered everything right it takes those those moments of surrender I mean you could probably be doing something pretty cool if you'd kind of like half quit your job and did it part-time still right and like like right but like you know it takes that complete surrender to get to where God's taking I think you and the in this really cutting edge thing right this really at what feels like to me and I and I watch you guys and a hear your testimony and I watch you guys on on social media and follow what you guys are doing and speak to people like you know like my wife's cousin David who you mentioned this the connection we have here yeah and what and what you're doing is is is deep and and really on the on the very Ed Ed of that thing that I think like that's where the surrender comes in and that posture like you you couldn't do that otherwise I don't think right does that make sense yeah yeah I don't I don't think so and actually funny thing that you say that um so uh there's been actually a couple times where I've thought to myself because you know financially like Caleb made significantly less than I did um like when I quit my job and so like you know we were living very very frugally and like there was a couple times where we were in trouble and I was like right I don't know how the Lord's going to do this but like I tried to get part-time jobs like literally I've tried like two or three times you'd think that I'd learn after the first time but you know we're human and you know we need we need a couple um a couple instances to wake us up to realities but for me specifically it was like a continuing of surrender um because every single time I would pick up a job and actually the first time that I pick up picked up a part-time job it was like nine months in and as soon as I said yes like I had this like just this is unsettled feeling and it only lasted a month and every single time I would go in like I had that unsettled feeling unsettled feeling until finally I was like shama suffering I can't do this I need to surrender this again and so I gave it back to the Lord I quit and as soon as I quit and I walked out that door Peace just came flooding back in and I was like I made the decision and like there's been a couple other instances where the Lord has allowed me to have like unconventional like jobs or sources of income to like help like supplement here and there but like for the most part like I haven't I haven't worked a full-time job in two years and by the grace of God we're still here and we still have our house we still have our animals we we're on the street we're not on the street like the Lord like has taken care of us and like in that that step of faith and so sometimes because we're walking every single day sometimes I forget just like how how much in and of itself like that is a daily surrender yeah like how faithful the Lord has been up until this point like sustaining us and I do distinctly remember the summer the summer following after um that March that we had quit our jobs Gloria um she's got a really beautiful gift of discernment especially like discernment of like the Holy Spirit and we walked out of um a a mass service that we had gone to and we had all three were kind of like worrying about like finances and how the Lord was going to provide for us at that point and she turned to us and said like the Lord will not let our wallets run dry so and that has stuck with me I'm like yes like if we're doing his work like he will provide even if it's unconventional even if it's like literally swooping in at the last minute to like save us from whatever it is it has happened there has been things where we've literally crumbled and Fallen to our knees and said Lord like we physically have no way to pay for this like we need you and we need we need a miracle here so and he's come through every single time so yeah it's just a continued Testament of like just the faithfulness of God yeah so I don't know where I was going with that other than Jesus that's amazing and we too quit our jobs and and like we have a similar experience we didn't start a Ministry but we felt this strange calling to to move back to my wife's Hometown we had no idea really why our parents are here it's a lovely place but we had no real sense of why like you said before K it nothing makes sense right like this makes no sense but we'll do it anyway right so we did we we quit our jobs we left a place we lived for about 20 years the friends we had there the community we had there and had built up for a long time we left we left that kind of sight unseen and everything just fell fell into place in these crazy you know Miracle after Miracle like this miracle house kind of appeared for way below market value right this miracle job that was Against All Odds to get kind of appeared very quickly you know I ended up being out of work for like two weeks in total I I missed you know salary and like it and we were ready to be like you know working at the grocery store for for years as I built up like contacts in this you know this new city and got back into the workforce like you know full-time all these things we expected just Miracle after Miracle after miracle and we're left with this crazy testimony that somebody asked oh how'd you get how'd you get here well here's how it happened and we have this crazy story to tell that's of us just kind of radically trusting in this kind of weird promise we heard from God to quit our jobs and move you know sell our house with nothing else in in mind and then find a house and find a job and these things with a with a young family right in in tow right but I think I think you know stories like ours stories like yours in an even more radical way like these I I I think I I hope serve for encouragement to listeners and viewers who are like should I do that thing like yes like you know you know yes that that crazy headlong surrender into the unknown like listen to where God is taking you go yeah go go right cu he will provide and and that you know one thing for me that I always was thought of and this has been a Life theme for me is so often in the Psalms it's like remember the Deeds that we that that were done for you like remember these things from the past like meditate on these things it's always you know David or the psalmist like reminding reminding the Israelites reminding the reader of the Psalms of the great things God has done right and and these for me like these are stories that serve as those touchstones right like hey remember when you when you quit your job and began that Ministry like yeah that was 10 years ago now but that was an amazing thing and look where it's taken us look what this is has become like those are amazing amazing testimonies that I think hopefully that's encouraging for many people to listen to right I think it's just amazing that kind of super super headlong surrender into the unknown right yeah I I mean we've lived life in the other way I can tell you like as scary as this is yeah it's worth it yeah and I was actually going to say that like I hope and I pray that this is encouraging like you said for someone to take that leap of faith but like also too and and sharing the the story that I've lived through REM like sharing it and like reliving it like encourages and builds my faith because like how often do we get stuck in our day-to-day lives and we get the very the very Miracles that brought us to where we are today and like actually that's been something that Caleb and I have been recently talking about like like it is a struggle like sometimes living in our world and like like even sometimes it's a struggle in Ministry but like like he said we wouldn't trade it for the world because we know that this is where the Lord has appointed us for such a time as this and especially on those days where we we're overwhelmed or we're tired or we're burnt out or we're just like Lord we thrw up our hands we're like I don't know what to do like the Lord is still good and he is still determining our path as long as we keep giving him our yes even though we might not understand or um yeah know what's beyond I don't know beyond I was GNA say beyond the Riverbend and then my mind went into and the other way that's that's beautiful I think of you know I don't want to keep you guys forever but I think of one one other thing and it uh you know a friend of mine fellow Canadian father Joshua Caswell who's Superior general of the can's regular of St John Kanas in Chicago beautiful Church there who I've met lots of friends who've who've been there and and they've spoken very highly of the beautiful liturgy that they have and the Beautiful Church they have and the sense of the holy spirit that pervades this and he's a convert to the Catholic faith he told the story in this show probably four or five years ago now amazing guy who was his family were missionaries up in the like Northern Canada and they went there to evangelize the First Nations indigenous people that lived there they get there and they were all Catholic who' been whove been evangelized by like the Jesuits when they came in like the 1700s to Canada right the first the North American Martyrs and so Joshua and his family get there and they are like Reverse evangelized by these Catholic indigenous people and ended up converting the whole family my God Catholic and and Joshua and his brother are both Nathan are both now priests younger brother is in charge of the older brother in the same order it's just beautiful beautiful story but they were charismatic Christians and and father Joshua said to me that you know there's nothing and you mentioned this not was why thinking of this there's nothing more like charismatic more at the Heart of Worship than like Christ in the Eucharist right and how how all of the the worship songs we sang as evangelicals all the you know you the the prayer services all the things that we were doing I can think of you know countless Knights laying prostrate during worship on the floor you know these things that we did these these physical things we did and sat and sang right that that wanted more of Jesus well father Joshua goes well yeah well here it is like here's the Fulfillment of all those things I was singing that I never really understood till I became Catholic and could experience that right yeah and I think of like I think of too like the the humility posture you guys have right you're not saying hey Protestants come worship with us and here's what you need like and force feeding them Jesus in the Eucharist right like that's not that's not the thing right I think the thing is like you like you talked about and like what I try and have have had the heart to do for years on on this show is just to say hey here's what we believe like here's here's the thing these walls like you know at at the Common Table these walls might not be broken down in the sense that we're all going to convert to the same thing here and all become Catholic overnight but here's what we believe despite of the misconceptions you might have right here's a center of worship that was the center for like 1500 years right and still is for us despite what you might understand how different that might be from your perspective here's kind of here's this thing right it's such a different I know I I I love it I I love it so much right but I think it's yeah that the Eucharist as a center of that thing is crazy is is beautiful is I I don't know yeah I've lost my train of thought completely Around the Riverbend as well you start seeing the colors and everything now yeah yeah um but what I was gonna say is um I think and um words um an encouragement for and maybe maybe even a challenge for like those of your listeners who are Catholic who are lifelong Catholic and haven't like experienced like some of the things that we've experienced like just like remember that you have the Risen Lord you have the king of the universe like before you you can touch him you can taste him you can like you can sense him you can see him like you have Jesus like you have something that not all Christians have and how much more so should our hearts be burning with joy with praise and with song and like you were saying like how much more should our physical postures be like prostrate before Jesus like our hands raised high and surrender and like essentially giving all of ourselves unto the Lord like it says in Romans like it says in Romans 121 and2 offer your bodies as a living sacrifice for this is Holy and pleasing unto the Lord and is your spiritual act of worship and that's like one of the ways that we get to like like enter into the mystery of the mass is physic giving ourselves unto Jesus um like when we receive him and like that's not just for the bounds of mass that can be like in like you know a time of prayer like in your own home closet or that can be like in a time of worship like with Protestant brothers and sisters or just like worshiping with your guitar or on the piano like or just hick if you don't if you're not musically inclined turning on like praise and worship music and just letting those words sink in and like in response saying like yes Lord yes Lord like how much more so should we Catholics like be charismatic in the sense of like overjoyed and overwhelmed with the beauty of the gospel because we have Jesus yeah yeah yeah it's yeah like you were saying like a lot of times when it's involved with like Protestants and Catholics a lot of times in the past it's been both sides hey you come over to my side hey you come over to my side like it's yes like I mean we believe believe that the Catholic church has a fullest expression of what Christ intended from the beginning like whole heartedly I'll I'll die defending that Lord willing he gives me the grace to die to do like to do that but like um but there's a difference of on how you go about that like we've had conversations before of like like at the last comment table series one of the things that somebody brought up at at one of the tables was like what's one of your greatest fears of um pursuing Unity with your brothers and sisters and or what keeps you from pursuing unity and somebody said the fear that all that they all that they care about is getting me on their side basically yeah and it's like um my friend that was sitting next to me and I was like I looked at I was I was like as much as what you have is amazing and beautiful and that we have as well that we have in common I said as much as I want you to have the other things that I have as well because it wasn't just meant for us it was meant for all Christians said as much as I want you to have that I love you no matter what and like you have to work that out with the Lord and that's between you and him to work out it's not my duty to push anything yeah um that approach is so vastly different than trying to shove anything down anyone's throat cuz like they I mean for me it wasn't shoved down my throat and I had to work it out like Paul says work out your salvation like and and Natalie had to work it out and I know you had to work it out in your own way it's we love our Protestant brothers and sisters and yes we want them to have what US Catholics have but also like we realize like the Lord is the one they have to work that out with we can't we're here to um love and be family and build the bridges and let the Holy Spirit work out what he needs to work out yeah yeah yeah yeah I I laugh when you talked about you know Natalie defending the Catholic ideas right to your this is the exactly the same trajectory for us very similar right Caleb I spent years kind of in secret doing the research mentioned a couple times wife my wife was like wait you're not serious are you oh no no no I'm not I'm not like serious right and then kind of came out no and told her it was a thing and for us it was this marriage counselor we were going to to work out some some like details of that conversion like I was converting she wasn't kind of staunchly and we wanted to find a good neutral marriage counselor to help us to just kind of work out how can we process this together yeah ended up this guy was the complete wrong awful first of all I think he was divorced which was probably a red flag didn't advertise that but I think he was divorced as a marriage counselor not probably the most ideal position but he was he was a a metanite so we thought pretty safely in the middle kind of like not staunchly either side like pretty easygoing but ended up kind of qu like grilling me on aspects of the Catholic faith and it was my wife my wife Maria who was like oh actually like no no they believe this not what you're saying like here's the so when you said that I was like yes Natalie this is the same thing for us right was that and that was kind of the turning point when I began toe and I think she began to realize right wait a minute I I think I believe these things cuz now I'm defending these things right yeah but like you guys say it wasn't something that I kind of had to right she had worked that out for herself right like like I did like you did Cale like you did Natalie it's a it's not a thing you can force somebody to to reckon with like that's between them and the Lord right you can you can help to explain those misconceptions like to help to dispel those Mis misconception misunderstandings you can help you know you can live out your faith right from that praise position and and others will hopefully see that and be drawn in but it's but it's the Lord that does that drawing right there's so there's so little we can do apart from just trust and Obey and live out our faith right and others you know yeah yeah yeah and inviting them in to um not only what we believe but also to partaking in what they can partake of and like that's how Caleb's Brothers ended up yeah they both just came what wait a minute yeah yeah they both just came in last Easter yeah so they've been Catholic for a whole year already and like wow this is amazing but yeah it was oh one of the coolest moments we were leading a um we're leading a worship retreat at at the University of St Francis so the place that David went to and um and we were in the chapel it was the end of The Retreat we were leading Worship in the chapel upstairs in the balcony and um at one point I lean over the edge and I look down and I had my brother he had been there to like videotape and do all kinds of stuff I looked down and I know my brothers they they they've had Faith growing up but like becoming stepping into their Catholic faith like I've never seen them like on fire in the way that they have been but I remember looking down he'll hate me if I for me saying this but I don't care he he was he was down in with his girlfriend now I don't think they were dating yet were they were they dating or his fiance now I think they just started just started dating he's he's sitting down in the Pew and she's next to him and there's I think there wasn't really anybody else down there and he has his head down and he just has his hands like raised towards like Tabernacle and I was just like oh my gosh this is was Jesus exposed no okay no it was just inviting like there's like the whole aspect of like explaining things and tearing down walls in that way but then there's a whole another thing of inviting people in like we've had so many of our Protestant like family come in and like lead adoration and worship with us yeah even Mass music yeah and mass mus like it's just it's so beautiful and it's like inviting those who have come and done it before they're like yeah it like they don't like it's not as foreign to them as like what maybe it would have been if we had enough it's just and then like we've gone and we've LED with them in different different Avenues and it's just yeah and like I'm the Lord's bringing up the I don't know how much more time we have but there's another story that I really think that needs to be shared but you're remember when we invited them to last USF Retreat not this last one one but the one before that just leave the names out okay do you want to tell it then cuz I'll accidentally say it was just yeah so yeah I'll try and refrain so like it was just it was so beautiful because like a lot of times between Protestants and Catholics you don't think of Protestants believing in the Eucharist that it's actually Jesus present um and I feel like in the midst of all of this like we're realizing that there more that we believe in certain circles together than actually what we don't yeah um and this one particular Retreat yeah I'll leave the names out um one particular Retreat that it just it wrecked me as a Catholic watching this yeah so cool we they had come and led worship with us we two two of our Protestant Brothers yeah they we LED like what five sets of worship throughout the whole day and they're both like worship pastors yeah and like even like while some of the students were having a time of confession with priests we were leading in the room as like filling the background music but just like ministering to the Lord while confession was it was just I was just blown away that like this even happened um the end of the night H comes uh father brings in Jesus in the Eucharist and our friends they both drop to the floor facing the Eucharist before all the Catholics hit the floor I was just like what in the world like you just never see anything like that and it's like we got to share that with them and I was like how beautiful well and like not only that but like both of them one of them ended up sitting like almost directly in front of the eucharis and just like staring at it and like just in awe and wonder and then our other our other friend like went to the back of the room he laid prostrate on the floor and was sobbing like a baby and then later texted me and said like that was a like that was like a foundational or like pivotal or core memory core memory there we go like that I had like with the Lord and I was just like oh my gosh they did that in the presence of the Eucharist I'm like wow that's so cool it was just yeah it was blown away it was just so like yeah we wouldn't be able to share any of those moments if like none of this would have happened yeah and the relationships that have been built and it's yeah and we we joke all the time about how like the Lord like multiplied like our community and like the amount of people that we know like going from like we know more people now being Catholic than we ever did being Protestant it's because of all the circles that the Lord's placed Us in at the right time the right place so yeah yeah I don't know if this this kind of stuff's happening in other places I hope it is around the world but in Fort Wayne like there's something unique happening here like there I I heard somebody talk about before Fort Wayne became like colonized and everything there was this uh I want to make sure I use the proper term Native American Indian chief that was here um his name was Chief little turtle and apparently like their tribe lived here and I don't know if it was between two other tribes or if it was like the settlers that came to Fort Wayne area but like peace between two different groups of people and it's like like it's like that's yeah it could mean nothing but it's like that's already happened on the land we're all living yeah um so it's just yeah the Lord's doing such amazing things in this in this city and hoping that it just continues to spread so that's amazing that's amazing guys I I love it I we could talk for obviously hours yes and I think hours more uh this has been this has been amazing this has been awesome I can't even begin guys it's an amazing story uh the work you're doing is is phenomenal just that saying yes to the Lord over and over again and just going where he's where he's taking you I thank you thanks for that um and thank you for what you do Keith like in listening to all the interviews and the people that you've brought on I I think I actually remember the priest you were talking about earlier the friend of yours from Chicago um and like just the yeah being like the name that you have Cal Catholic like every interview you've done every person you've talked to like you live it out yeah so you're making more of an impact than maybe you probably realize thanks you impacted us yeah you did and we weren't like we weren't even I found you before we were because I remember Googling like good Catholic I wanted podcast to listen to I was out mowing the yard I was like what are good Catholic podcast it was p with the coinus and a couple others and yours popped up too and I was like who's this guy so I started listening and it's awesome well thank you that that means a lot like these stories uh yeah I it's mind-blowing when it comes 360 like this and I can and I can invite you guys to to be on this thing so I don't know how this happened but I'll I'll keep it going for as long as the Lord gives me this this crazy Ministry it's pretty awesome where can where can people go uh to find and follow more of what you guys are doing uh though because like you say there's something happening you know in Fort Wayne in this movement that I hope is is spreading and going to spread I mean I can't tell God what to do but I feel like it's a good idea that what you guys are what you guys are doing here and it would be a good idea to to you keep this going so where do you want to point them towards to find and follow your stuff yeah so we're on uh Facebook and Instagram so you can find us uh sha culture just like search sha culture on either one of those and we should pop up um and we also have a website so it's shac cure.org and how you spell shama is similar to how it sounds It's s h m a and then culture everybody should know how to spell that if you don't just Google um so yeah Shan culture. org find us on Instagram follow us um on Facebook as well um either platform and usually we try to be consistent and up to date with um what's going on and what we're doing and um yeah if you're just interested we have a whole lot more information about what we've done who we've served there's even like a cool um video that you can watch on our website to just yeah see a little bit more about how people have been impacted so the Lord has blessed us tremendously just in this small time or short time that we've been in Ministry yeah it's amazing one of the things I'll share it really quick we didn't get to share it but like one of the other things we're involved with too is we lead every Tuesday morning there's a 247 prayer room downtown Fort Wayne that um was initiated by a good friend of ours who's Protestant the idea was Fort Wayne has been known as the city of churches and the idea was um making it the city of the church which is kind of ironic with yeah like um and the idea was the the prayer room would be hosted by all different churches across the city different denominations there would be slots that people would come in and they would be there for if anyone wants prayer they can walk into the building there would be corporate Worship in the morning and evening and different teams lead um so there's information on our website about that it's it's called prayer works so it's it's awesome so so many other things we could throw I'm I'm sure it's it's amazing guys well listen I I want to say part two in the future uh this was hard to get part one down you guys are insanely busy mentioned before like you know five six retreats in like five weeks it's been it's been crazy yes but no we will we will definitely make time for a part two yes it's been it's been awesome guys I want to say thank you I want to say God bless you guys and the awesome work you are doing uh for the church it's phenomenal I love it and thank you for for being here on this show today and giving us this awesome huge chunk of time listeners viewers I think are hopefully going to love this and just eat this up it's been awesome guys thank you yeah a pleasure yeah thank you Keith and anyone out there that is Discerning what the Lord's wanting them to do be willing to go all in no matter how crazy it seems um it doesn't make sense it doesn't make sense yeah he will come through every time and it's worth it Mary Mary Mary and Joseph both gave their Fiat and look what happened they brought the Savior the world not that we like just by a simp end on that note guys way to go just just just by a simple yet like what one yes can do somebody else could be out there and the Lord's just waiting for them to say yes and think about all the souls that can be brought home because of that yes yeah yeah yeah that's that's very good word amen thanks guys thanks thanks that was great to meet you yes wonder you

Channel: The Cordial Catholic

Views: 22,257

Keywords: Evangelical, Exvangelical, Christian, Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, apologetics, Sola Scriptura, Protestant, Pentecostal, Baptist, pope, papacy, Bible, Scripture, Gavin Ortlund, evangelize, Catholic, Catholicism, Rome, Mass, Eucharist, authority, apostolic succession, Bible study, doubts, faith, worship, church history, Shema culture, Damascus, charismatic, Fort Wayne, church unity, worship together, Matt Maher, Chris Tomlin, Hillsongs, Holy Spirit, Church history, praise and worship, praise

Id: p52R1Py-p_I

Length: 123min 24sec (7404 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2024