Q&A with Joel Baker and Pastor/Elder Jim Osman - January 12, 2025

Kootenai Church

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You're listening to the expository preaching ministry of Kootenai Community Church located in Kootenai, Idaho We pray that Christ is exalted and your spirit is blessed by the teaching of God's Word For more information about Kootenai Church, please visit us online at Kootenai church org

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All right.

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Well just a quick word of introduction here regarding Q &A as we did a Q &A last week

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Which was a just a Q &A with me theology, etc if you're here for that you remember that and It was pointed out to me after we did that that we haven't done that since late 2020 so it's been

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Over four years So it's it did a Q &A and I have received your feedback and we are going to do that a little bit more frequently than That probably dropping

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Q &A's into the rotation and adult Sunday school class More frequently probably a couple several times a year from here on out

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If memory serves the last time that we did that we just didn't have a lot of questions from the floor and I thought okay

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Everybody has all their questions answered So there's no need to do another one of these for a while and then four years went by and before we did it again

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So we will we will tackle that again probably in a couple of months to do another one of those our guest today is

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Joel Baker and as I announced in the Worship service several weeks ago. Joel is somebody that I've been in contact with for the last couple of months

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We've been entertaining the possibility as a as an eldership of hiring somebody to come not on staff at the church so much as work with the church as part of maybe on staff with a counseling

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Institute and it would be a it would be a church ministry that we would run as part of Kootenai Community Church And we would need a biblical counselor to sort of work with discipling people biblical counseling couples counseling premarriage counseling grief counseling all of that and with the recent

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Biblical counseling conference that we did here at Kootenai back in October September October in November I was put in contact with one of the teachers at the counseling center in Spokane and I talked with him and said hey

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Here's what we're trying to do something similar to what you have in Spokane because our area has nothing like that If you come across anybody that you would recommend let me know so as it turns out

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He knows Joel's dad and they were chatting and Joel's dad recommended Joel to us So I called him and then we've been having a conversation and this is the next step of that.

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This is not Necessarily. I'm going to introduce Joel because he's coming on staff and you get to know that he's getting to know us

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So we're trying to put our best foot forward here this week, which means I'm keeping as far away as from Thomas Leo as I possibly can and then and Then we're trying to get to know him a little bit and see if our vision for what we could do in this area in Terms of ministry would align so with that Joel Let's begin at the beginning of your

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Salvation testimony. How did you come to know the Lord? What are the details of that and tell us that story?

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So my dad is a pastor So around the age of 10 or so is when the spirit kind of convicted my my soul

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It was about that time Grew up in a family where there were six kids of us In this area of the country, that's not a lot in Virginia.

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That was bordering on a lot Southern California. It was huge But in Virginia, my dad passed it there for about 14 years before we moved to Southern, California and Always had family devotions one night

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My dad was always big into family announcements. We never something exciting would happen. And so one of my older brothers

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Had made a profession of faith. And so my dad wanted to announce that to the whole family During family devotions so that night that was kind of a turning point in my mindset because Until that point

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I'd never really thought about salvation in terms of anything other than yeah, go to heaven when you die So that night that was kind of one of those things just clicked in my head like oh my brother

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Needs salvation. What's the state of my own soul? So I talked to my dad after devotions that night

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That was a turning point for me where he explained the gospel very clearly to me at that point answered my questions

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And I was led to a profession of faith that night Actually, January 22nd of 2000

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If I remember the date correctly, so coming up on 25 years soon Whether that night was a true profession.

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I'm not sure but that was a turning point in my own soul as Over the next few years living in Virginia, the

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Lord was convicting my soul bring about growth in different areas of my life And then the biggest challenge for me after that was the move to California and that's when growth took off Because of a lot of really bad attitudes in my life and and all that regarding the move

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Then in California, what was your dad doing there? Yeah, so he moved from pastoring in Virginia to being a professor of counseling at the

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Masters College And occasionally class at the seminary. No, sir

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Biggest church I'd ever been a part of unto that point was one in Southern, California where we had about 200 people on a

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Sunday morning So always parts of a small church. My dad was always

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Wanting to be involved in as many people's lives as possible and be known and know people who were in the church

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And so the bigger the church got the more uncomfortable He got having his family as a part of a really big church

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And we lived about 50 60 miles away from from grace as well your early theological and spiritual influences

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So my father would be the biggest one Growing up in Virginia. I never really thought outside of What my dad was teaching on a on a

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Sunday morning So growing up through high school and things my father was the biggest spiritual influence I had

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Once I got to college there were a number of other ones Piper Just because I was required to read a fair amount of Piper Desiring God and and that ministry was something that influenced a lot of my thinking as far as the practicality of theology and Applying the way that we believe about God to the way we live life

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So if we're living and believing that God is the ultimate purpose of the universe

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That's going to directly affect the way that we live our lives and and how we live as as worshippers

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Did you ever attend a grace even when you're in college? Yeah a couple of times when

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I was when I was forced to When you say that it makes it sound like you were just trying to stay up far away from grace community church

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You possibly can whereas for probably almost everybody in this building They would love the opportunity that live that close to grace community church.

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Yeah. Yeah, I got In college we had to go for our week of welcome

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And so we had to go for that I don't have anything against grace community church as a whole I attended the master's seminary down there.

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I love the pastors there that I know MacArthur's one of my my influences as well.

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Once I got to the seminary My attitude in high school just towards Southern California in general was about as unsanctified as you could make it

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And I tried to make it that way for a long time and The Lord was very gracious and not allowing that to continue

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Yeah Big churches were intimidating for me growing up in the backwoods of Virginia and so being around a large crowd of people that I didn't know was

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Kind of like this morning Yeah Yeah, I'm popping out of my skin you can't tell

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Have you always had your current theological convictions and what would you call them reformed

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Arminian? Covenant dispensational, how would you characterize your theological perspective?

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Currently I would say I would align more Calvinistically as a reformed

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Reformed Baptist without the the covenantal leanings. I mean just about anything grace community la teaches

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I would agree with I think there's Very I can't think of anything that I would disagree with on their doctrinal statement their statement of faith anything like that If you always had those theological convictions, yeah,

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I know I mean I forget who it was Who's the theologian back in church history who said when I was originally saved and the

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Spirit saved me? I started out as an Arminian and then I started growing in faith and became a Calvinist. Yeah, that was

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Spurgeon He said everything good. Yeah, every yeah, that makes sense. I don't know that was

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Spurgeon I just made that up but it sounded like Spurgeon. Yeah, I said that was Spurgeon you thought yeah, that sounds like Spurgeon And were there any what were the things that shaped you theologically to make that change?

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reading my Bible That was a good answer So my time at the college at Masters College and then at the

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Master's Seminary Ran into a lot of great professors all of them were reformed and the vast majority of what they taught very few of them were four point or less

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Calvinists Actually, I can't think of any of my theological professors who would have classified themselves as anything less than a five -point

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So, yeah, I mean college and seminary shaped me into to being able to put on paper

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What I believed and then just reading my Bible from a straightforward Historical grammatical methodology of hermeneutics.

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I don't see how anyone can come to a different conclusion than that Alright, tell us a little bit about your family. What is your wife's name?

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My wife's name is Jessica. I understand. There's a few Jessica's here so fit in real well with that and I have one daughter named

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Bria and she's 10 and What Well, let me back up.

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Where did you guys meet? So we met at well technically at church as I was making fun of her and her friends so Did not get off on the right foot

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With my wife, but we met at church in Southern, California She was attending the college and I had just gotten back from the

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Israel Bible extension with the college So she got to know my family and my family like that was the longest period

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I'd been away from my family so my family was missing me a lot and talking me up to her a lot and then I Yeah, I'm introduced to her and she's like, yeah, not that So we got to know each other while attending the college and attending the same church

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I stalked her in the bookstore Books are one of my my favorite things in the world and and she worked in the bookstore and I was taking way too many credit hours as a college student and so I Would study in the student lounge and then when

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I got bored of looking at paper I'd go look at paper that I couldn't afford in the bookstore and ran into somebody

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I wanted to get to know better so I did Your father and give us a brief introduction of who he is and how he is connected to the biblical counseling world

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So yeah, my dad Ernie Baker. He got his doctorate from Westminster Theological Seminary in counseling

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Did that under at Welch David Pallison? the old guard for the

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ACBC Nank and CCEF counseling ministries

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Did that? 2001 I think when he graduated with that.

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I remember if my memory serves it's not great these days But he's been a pastor my whole life graduated seminary from Capitol Bible Seminary back in 81 80

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He was 80 you were 10 in 2000 and your memories not great. Mm -hmm

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Yep Says a lot about what you say. Yeah. Yeah, it's worse. Yeah, I've got a lot to look forward to but hey, it'll all be new

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So your father is very well known in the biblical counseling world as a matter of fact a couple weeks ago, we had a couple here from the

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Philippines They were the Pastor and his wife of the Phil in the Church of the Philippines that had Justin and I out earlier this spring when

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I was gone In April they had come over here to the US and they were here with us for a week a couple weeks back

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And we were chatting about you and they said oh We know his dad because Ernie had gone to the

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Philippines to teach a biblical counseling conference at their church So he travels all over the place teaching that very thing

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Yeah, he's a he's a fellow with ACBC the Association of certified biblical counselors Has been for about a decade now and then his biblical counseling teaching at at the

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Masters College and seminary and then he He's part of BCMW biblical counseling biblical counseling ministries worldwide and they do training and get seminaries and schools set up overseas with biblical counseling programs at the

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Masters level and What is the most challenging aspect for you of being a father slash husband?

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Staying sanctified when I feel impatient Yeah leading leading well in a society that that really downgrades husbandry and masculinity well, even now to the point where Biblical femininity is under attack

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Let alone what? Parenthood should look like Yeah, that that's been challenging

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Southern, California was a challenge because I was always on guard there Florida has more freedom than that, but so many people even in the evangelical realm have started to cave and just become lackadaisical with with their the principles that they used to hold so dear near and dear to their own hearts and cultural pressure never under underestimate even your own ability as the most stalwart people to undergo cultural pressure and allow that to shift how you

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How you can give up on some of the things that you hold most dear to you I Would say that okay, you're

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Switching a little bit to your educational background You said you went to College of the Masters College and then attended seminary.

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Yep. Tell us the steps that you went through Well, did you graduate from that get a degree from Masters?

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so yeah, when I started college originally, I was still kind of under the What should

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I call it? Aftermath of Not liking Southern, California still wanted to leave

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Southern, California when I graduated high school My dad would not let me because he was at the college

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I could get tuition remission get a free college degree essentially At that point didn't care still didn't like Southern, California, but was growing and learning sanctification

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And learning how to actually listen to my dad rather than you know great against everything. He said And so the spirit was very

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Very kind and convicting me of that and I was like, well, I don't know how to pay for going to Virginia Tech Where I grew up so I also don't know anything about math

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So me as an engineer would be even more deleterious than anything else I could think of myself doing so sure.

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I'll go to a Bible college instead get a free degree and we'll see what happens from there So my dad signed me up for all my classes

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Signed me up for his intro to counseling class, which was instrumental in just kind of directing where I wanted to go

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I'd worked at Hume Lake Christian Camps and gone as a camper for multiple years in a row as well up in Sequoia National Forest and that influenced me kind of With a love for younger people because they're so malleable.

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There's there's something about that stage in life. That is just rich There's there's something really cool about being able to help people in that that stage of life come to grips with reality and And maturing in life and so that was instrumental in that so I ended up with two degrees one in counseling and then one in Christian education

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So I could start pursuing that and then When I started getting closer to graduating the college

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My dad was starting to push me into a further degree of some sort Because I really didn't know what

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I wanted to do with my life still at that point I just wanted to do counseling help people in the church and do something else and So he started pushing me toward pursuing something further with a master's and so the natural step for me

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Was maybe I'll just do the MABC program at master's get my Master of Arts and in counseling as well And he's now you've got your undergrad in that you know

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You know what you need to know about counseling you should go do an MDiv So you can learn languages learn how to exposit the word learn proper hermeneutics

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And and you'll be a much more effective counselor like okay cool sure and so I did that Got to know

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Ray Merringer Because he was this was at the master's seminary then this was at the college still during a junior year

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I think it was my junior year at the college And so my dad kind of twisted my arm a little bit to go do an

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MDiv at the seminary And so ended up doing that Ray Merringer got me hooked up and and admitted into the seminary

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It's great having connections by the way. It's really helpful and So I got connected through the seminary there we started attending there.

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I say we because as seminarians Your wife goes through everything you go through when you're working on your master's degree

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So my wife ended up graduating when I graduated expositors. She got her What do they call putting hubby her putting hubby through degree her

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PhD? So that was fun So yeah started at them at the master's seminary and then eventually kind of shifted toward Expositors life was getting really rough affording to live in Southern, California And so from a financial perspective we were starting to look for ways to get out of Southern, California From a cultural perspective we were starting to have a more sanctified view of how to get out of Southern, California Rather than just reacting against the place

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And so the Lord opened the doors and we ended up at it expositors seminary and at the

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Jacksonville campus All my favorite professors were there too, which was great they had transferred either from TMS or somewhere else as pastors where I had met a fair number of them previously and That's where we finished up.

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All right, and that was it. That's in Florida. Yep Just on an aside raise your hand here.

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If you also came out of California So, you know, yeah, you're not the only one to flee

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At the expositors everywhere We're familiar the churches most of us here are the Master's Seminary Master College Grace Community Church a lot of people here have been influenced by that and kind of theologically in those circles the expositors seminary different or the same as masters and Theologically, is it the same?

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Yeah, basically so masters is Much bigger much more straightforward from an accredited

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Seminary standpoint, they're much more rigorous on their academic side Expositors is unaccredited technically, but their rigor they tried to keep at the same level academically as as masters

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And so theologically we got the same we got the same theology. We actually took more language courses

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But from a slightly more practical perspective on how it would apply to our ministries and Our theology was never just read these books and take this multiple -choice

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Theology exam and write a research paper. It was write your research paper Take this essay exam and now here's four or five different major homework assignments about people in the church asking deep theological questions and Why you believe that now write a letter to them how you would respond to them from a pastoral perspective and we were graded on on pastoral

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Responses for things like that Masters had very high academic rigor standard and so one of the one of the other reasons that influenced going to expositors was just I Like academia and I like it a little too much and my ministry in the churches

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I was a part of in Southern California was starting to suffer from that and you heard a lot more Greek parsing in my teaching than you did pastoral ministry, so The You're currently living in Florida That's my relocation mistress

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Florida Except for the humidity. I would never want to move there because of the humidity But what do you what do you currently do in Florida?

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You graduated when with your with all of your education? So with all that education on my background,

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I graduated in in May of 2020 immediately took all of that to the bank cashed it in and Joined an ice cream shop

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So currently I run three different ice cream shops in in Florida in northeastern, Florida And that's your you oversee part of a ice cream

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Empire. Basically. Yeah. Yeah slowly. We're taking over, Florida piece by piece and Where do you serve in ministry in your church and what church do you attend?

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So Despite all of my my desire in Southern California to avoid going to Grace Community Church because it was so big we ended up at Grace Community Church in Jacksonville and It was started by Scott Christmas back in 2000 it's been around for a while and now we've got another master seminary guy who is our senior pastor

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Justin McKittrick So, yeah there I serve as a small group leader

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I'm a small group every other week do a fair amount of discipleship and counseling as it comes up and then

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I also lead the parking lot ministry where People need to learn how to drive.

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It's Florida people need to learn how to park. Let's just say that right out That's yeah. I thought I'm out of that. I Know you're not charismatic speaks a man of that.

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Yeah I didn't see a whole lot of parking lines in the parking lot out here, but that wouldn't matter where Yep. Yeah, we don't have potholes and we still have a hard time getting people parked in a straight line.

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So Your family serves there as well

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Yes, Jess serves Jess serves as a nursery coordinator and then I co -opted her into doing the book study with the ladies in our small group every other week or once a month as Well, and your church and leadership knows that you're entertaining the idea of moving and going into ministry somewhere

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I I hid that from them as best of no just kidding Yes. Yeah had a conversation

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With my my senior pastor on Thursday. He's excited Yesterday we had one of our elders in training doing his ordination and so he was gonna talk to the rest of the elder board at that point to just kind of give them an update on Where we're at in the process and that I'm up here right now

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Not at church where they would expect to see me in the parking lots Yeah, if you can't tell that my suit has more dust on it than most evangelical

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Bibles in them in America I haven't worn this in a while because I'm normally out in the parking lot sweating.

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So What let's switch a little bit to the subject of biblical counseling give us a definition of biblical counseling definition of biblical counseling in short intensive discipleship

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It's it's the practical working out of the one another's in the church from an intensive discipleship standpoint so if we take the

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Great Commission and and broaden it out to everybody in the church has a responsibility to minister to one another to make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the

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Father the Son and the Holy Spirit That is the mission of the church is to make disciples Counseling exists as an intensive form of that where the one another's are put into practice in everyday life and Sorry, I'll get my mic a little bit higher make

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Micah happy. Sorry It exists as an intensive form of discipleship so that we can be in each other's lives

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It's the goal of every church from a local level to to be able to perform the one another's love one another serve one another

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And be kind one another forgive one another in a fashion that that works toward walking in life toward one another in a fashion

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That glorifies God and sanctifies one another How is that different than other forms of counseling because often often we think of biblical counseling we just think you're a

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Christian psychologist who has a office downtown and Has people come in and gives them bromides and helps them through their day

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Yeah, so the difference is is that walking together the one anothering aspect a therapist can't do that Or won't do that every now and then you'll see

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Christian psychologist who will Try to be a part of somebody's life But ultimately what they're what they're offering is a solution that is cultural based or philosophy based man based religion rather than Scripturally based so the the biggest difference is is a stance firm stance on the sufficiency of Scripture the efficacy of the gospel to change lives

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So where you have a therapist in the modern world integrated Christian psychology or something else what biblical counseling is is that it takes the truth of scripture and applies it to daily life and And firmly stands on and practices that God has given us everything we need for life and Godliness And that's the major distinction that would set us set it apart

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You and that's that's the type of counseling that you were trained in yes type of counseling that you do.

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Yep Let me just see if there's a before we go on to some sort of some other personal questions there anybody here has a question

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About biblical counseling we could take from the floor Anything we've covered here, nope, okay

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All right, what are your hobbies non ministry interests non ministry interest talking

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I Absolutely love JRR Tolkien. There are some screen adaptations that should be avoided at all costs

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The Jackson films are about as canon as you can get I can go off on on JRR Tolkien Aside from that most fantasy stuff.

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I'm not a huge part of but Tolkien's one of them I enjoy hunting getting outside guns things like that California was very difficult to do any of that with They look down on that quite a bit reading do a lot of reading

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I Mean if you consider audiobooks most of my time is spent in a vehicle

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So I have to do a lot of reading by by audiobook these days And so I consume a lot of literature that way hoopla for those of you who are

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Homeschool moms you probably know what hoopla is and the wonders that it is to have free books at your fingertips is great so reading

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Hunting when I get the opportunity my dad being as well connected as he is has Opportunities to get me and my brothers out hunting in places.

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We've never dreamed. We'd be able to go it's all kinds of fun and then Yeah, and what five books have most influenced and shaped you

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The first one would probably be don't lose your life. Yeah, okay,

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I assumed that okay good 55 more five more Don't waste your life by Piper was one of the first Piper books

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I ever read and that was influential in my my freshman year of college Just thinking about life from the perspective of don't

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Don't treat anything as if it's not God's will for your life. God's doing something through this so You better sit up pay attention and put it to practice for his glory

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My dad's book on marriage Mary wisely Mary well, it was his doctoral dissertation Shameless plug for that you can find it on Amazon for pretty cheap.

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It's really great He wrote it for people who were not in relationships, but I use it in in premarital counseling

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I use it in pre -engagement counseling. I use it in disciples. I use it for just about all kinds of counseling so it works

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It's not a very thick book It's it's worth reading But it was very influential in my life just for its practicality on what it looks like to walk in sanctification

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Not just in marriage, but it's applicable outside of that as well Trusting God by Jerry Bridges very influential for me again on the sovereignty of God and then there's so many books to try and choose from I'd say

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Tolkien again, but Influential A biblical doctrine was really good to read

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It was refreshing to have a simpler systematic theology come out while I was in the middle of seminary

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So that was refreshing Biblical doctrine is the one by Dick Mayhew and John MacArthur big thick theology text.

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It's if you get one Systematic theology text and you had one on yourself. I would recommend that one.

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It's very very good. Yeah, that's the grace La doctrinal statement expanded. Yeah, it's great.

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Micah wants me to remind you to put the microphone. Oh, yeah There we go. Sorry Micah. Have you written any books? No, you have any of the making?

29:48

No, okay What books are you reading right now? Currently working my way through the decline and fall of the

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Roman Empire. That's the main one. I'm reading. It's eight volumes So technically eight books and Then when you read

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Okay. Yeah, I've been working through that one. That one's kind of like my daily drive read

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Again, if you consider audiobooks a read I'm still on that stage of should I should I not? There's a

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David Powlison book on spiritual warfare called safe and sound that I'm I'm reading through and then

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George Zemeck wrote a book his doctoral dissertation tethered to the text and Expositors just started their own publication where they put that in print kind of as his tribute.

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He passed away this past year and And So they put that in print did a really nice version for alumni for the school nice leather -bound so I bought myself a reader's version as far as Professors go he had one of the more profound impacts on my library because I can't read a book now without underlining just about everything that I come across and making notes in every margin and Destroying my books as most book lovers would call it

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All right What books or what subjects interest you today that you have not really looked into that you want to study and say the next five years

31:08

The idea of PTSD has been something I've been wanting to look into and research more

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Greg Giffords done some good work on that being former military So that makes sense

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So PTSD is one of those topics I've wanted to study for a while especially with the current trend in Counseling and especially people who have been breaking away from a

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CBC going toward the trauma -informed therapy mindsets That's something that I've wanted to kind of dive into and tackle a little bit more personally

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In college schizophrenia was something that I enjoyed doing And researching as well.

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So now schizophrenic we Well played

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I Was gonna go somewhere with that the Oh Speaking of Greg Gifford PTSD.

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There is a conference in February In Spokane a faith Bible Church called transformed conference

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Greg. Excuse me, Greg Giffords coming out to speak at that And Greg Giffords done a lot of work on the mind -body distinction and the the mind

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What does he call the mind soul? aspect of us and he's writing a book on that Currently and I forget what the title of that is gonna be

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I Think it's lies. My therapist told me I think is the name of that book when it comes out.

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It's due out this year But anyway, Greg is gonna be speaking on that subject in Spokane in February So if you want to if anybody wants to register for that I think it's 65 bucks or something as two days a

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Friday and a Saturday and Just dealing with that issue of the mind mind and soul mind -body distinction

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What is your ideal vacation if money were no object, you know

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I thought about that question for a while over the last few days and I can't figure it out I'd love to say

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New Zealand but I'd really only want to go for the sites and the Lord of the Rings filming sites for that and Aside from that culturally,

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I don't want to get stuck in New Zealand But it would be gorgeous to go see all of that and just I mean

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I would just nerd out going to the Shire and hanging out in a hobbit hole for for 10 days Is that something your wife would join you she oh, absolutely she'd love it.

33:28

Yeah, we're both Lord of Rings nerds Okay Anybody else here?

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No, no Lord of the Rings nerds. Oh We got there's a few of us. That's awesome. Yeah, I used to have the hair for Aragorn too.

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Yeah used to My dad told me I looked homeless and shouldn't so He didn't know who's up next for church discipline,

33:50

I guess so that was a good question You enjoy football you watch football

33:55

I don't you don't I don't really watch any sports at all. Sorry I don't know where to go from here

34:05

It could be worse, yeah, it could be a soccer fan We've got bad news. I Don't watch it though.

34:12

You know, you are a soccer fan. No, I am a soccer fan I'm not a fan of most actors and so I can't watch professional soccer.

34:19

All right He told he told me he liked soccer last night I was just seeing if he was courageous enough to admit that here in front of everybody.

34:25

I'll say it. Yeah. All right You're heterosexual, right? Yes, okay Soccer fan you gotta ask that All right.

34:35

Are there any questions from the floor that you would like to ask Joel local counseling his upbringing background education?

34:42

Yes, Peter It Gave me an opportunity to run around with my friends.

34:53

I Wasn't very good at soccer. I was a they put me on full back for a purpose I had long legs and I could get in people's way.

34:59

That was about it. That's all I was good for Yeah, many So the question is why would you move from Florida to North Idaho?

35:07

And are you gonna open an ice cream shop here? So theologically speaking if the

35:14

Lord leads us here that that's the main reason Position is something that's been near and dear to my heart.

35:20

I love biblical counseling It's kind of been my bread -and -butter ministry wise for a long time. And so a position like this is kind of right up my alley

35:28

From an ice cream perspective. That would be awesome. I Don't know if I'd be able to consider to rope my founder into doing that.

35:37

He's he's Florida based. He's a Florida local boy. I Might be able to convince him.

35:43

I mean he had a cousin convinced him to open one in Mississippi. So You guys know locally we have that ice cream shop cone and coffee and they have sort of the unique ice cream

35:51

Blends that are custom -made custom design. That's what his ice cream shop is like.

35:56

We just don't make it in in -house So we're a step lower So you oversee three shops how many shops total in the business that you are part of So I think it's 16 ice cream shops across Florida right now

36:13

The gentleman who started it goes our church, he's one of our seminary students at expositors as well, which is how I got connected to it

36:20

So yeah, 16 across the state of Florida plus, Mississippi And then we're about as far away.

36:27

I think we're in Universal out in California with popsicles We also have a small popsicle business as well small.

36:34

It does more popsicles than we do ice cream You're pretty skinny for a guy that has access to three ice cream shops

36:42

Sanctification, yeah Tremendous self -control any other questions

36:49

Atlantic can't get over this. There's somebody who would move to North Idaho from a warm part of the country He's he's he's like, he's gonna lie awake at night thinking about that, aren't you?

36:58

This must be something mentally ill with this guy. I actually like cold weather. Can you repeat that question?

37:03

I don't even know what he asked Do I agree that Tom Bombadil is the most foundational character in Lord of the

37:13

Rings How deep do

37:18

I want to go This deep this deep. Yeah Okay I would say from an in universe perspective

37:30

Yes ish From an outside of the universe perspective. No That that's kind of a weird answer

37:36

I know sorry, but I was told stay this deep All right Yes, Joe, you would accept the position move up here.

37:44

What challenges would be most pressing for you and your family? That's a really good question So far,

37:51

I haven't met anyone. I don't like so that's you haven't met Thomas yet. I told you I've been trying Okay, I'll keep that on Yeah transitions for us

38:02

They're not rough, but we're a little slow sometimes in acclimating to things

38:07

But we acclimate we get acclimated and we begin to fit in wherever the Lord places us.

38:12

I mean Southern, California to Florida from a cultural perspective is quite the quite the shift

38:21

Took us a little while to kind of shift into Thinking like a Floridian and living like Floridians But once we get there we get there takes a couple years sometimes or just a little bit of time we love people and so getting to know people is pretty easy, but Yeah, cultural shifts are are never easy one way or another

38:40

I think it would kind of be almost like coming home for Jessica just because she grew up in Salem, Oregon And so she just kind of that Northwest kind of mentality and feel that she grew up with Brea might have the bigger time

38:53

But then again Brea is just excited to be a part of life And so she'll make a friend anywhere with anybody at any time for whatever reason just because I'm surprised she didn't make any friends in the airport

39:05

But then we didn't see a whole lot of little kids running around because she has done that in the past Just run around in the airport waiting for a flight and she makes a friend

39:15

Yeah, the biggest challenges typically are the cultural side of things Called the human beings and shifting from one culture to another is always a little difficult

39:25

But we're pretty I would guess moving from California to Florida is going to be more of a Cultural shift than moving from Florida to North Idaho.

39:33

Yeah, we actually kind of like the cold weather believe it or not I Grew up in in Virginia and so hunting fishing things like that happened in in cold weather a lot of a lot of Freezing mornings waiting for the sunshine to come warm you up sitting in a tree stand and then you're in the only shadow in a 30 foot radius

39:53

Yeah, a lot of memories of that yeah Joe what temperature do you define as cold? so I Walked out bare barefoot this morning

40:03

If that tells you anything on cold concrete, I don't know what the temperature was this morning

40:12

I Don't I mean just from a Florida mindset standpoint, I would say in the 30s is cold, but at the same time

40:19

Cultural definitions, so that's not cold for here Growing up in Virginia cold was anything below 20 degrees

40:28

Hunting was typically in the the teens or lower than that I remember hunting and freezing cold rain that was sub -zero

40:38

How that turned into rain only Virginia can figure that out So, yeah

40:45

Anything anything less than 70 degrees for a Floridian a true Floridian is frigid weather

40:52

So yeah Kind of a squirrely answer. Yes, Emily.

40:57

So my wife and daughter like playing board games I'm not a board game person, but I'll play because we get to do things together

41:04

There's some card games. We enjoy playing together as well. I don't do games very well. I can dominate that monopoly

41:13

If I'm patient enough for it But I'm not very good at board games they love playing board games,

41:20

I can't figure out why but I'll play with them Bria enjoys playing like Lego video games.

41:26

And so she's been Recently roping my wife and I back into playing some of those and those were some of our favorite pastimes when we first got married

41:33

It's like Lego video games together And then we read a lot of books together as well outdoor stuff hiking

41:40

Yeah Yeah, Florida is hard. My wife is a bug magnet So any bugs within about a 50 600 mile radius?

41:49

Will will find her Which is great for me because they just avoid me at that point go straight for her by getting outside We've done a lot of hiking before in Southern California where there really aren't bugs

42:03

But we enjoy a good walk a good hike and things like that One more question before we're done

42:10

Simon she's smarter than I am No, seriously from an administrative perspective she keeps our life on track

42:21

My my ability to organize my own calendar is clumsy To say the best

42:27

I've had to learn over the last five or six years managing managing a kitchen at Chick -fil -a before ice cream and Then managing ice cream shops.

42:36

I've had to learn how to get more organized from an administrative perspective But my wife is much more gifted at that than I am the research.

42:44

She's able to do on home remedies and home school Things just keeping our life calendared and organized is phenomenal and then someone like me

42:56

Leaves my socks on the floor Consistently, I need that Thank you for listening to the latest podcast from Kootenai Church If you'd like to learn more about Kootenai Church or to donate to our church ministry

43:10

You can do so online by visiting Kootenai church org We hope you enjoyed this podcast and pray you'll join us again next time once again.