If There's A Will, There's A Way!

Hey, and welcome back to Journey with Jesus. I'm your host and author, Johnny Sing. And this platform is a Christian platform that's dedicated to your spiritual uplift and encouragement. So grateful that you've joined us today in today's episode. I've got a pretty special guest with us today, Brian Howard. And I'm excited for you to know him and for him to know you. Let's get into it. I'm Johnny Sing and I'm excited to share with you today's guest. And I hope that you get to be friend him as much as I have as well. Brian Howard, go ahead and say hi to the folks, Brian. Hey, everyone. So Brian Howard, I got to meet Brian in passing a little bit as the majority of the guys that I get on the platform thus far. But Brian is the, how would you describe your role at the Florida School of Creation, Brian? The goal is development director, basically a sleazy fundraiser. Basically, it's a better term for development director. And I got to meet Brian through the Florida School of Creation. And I got to say hi to him and people usually say that the world is small and the community of Christians are even smaller. So Brian and I got to say hi to each other. We exchange contacts and I've enjoyed his company. And it's always been fun getting to talk with him and catch up with him. But since you don't know Brian, I'll let him introduce himself a little bit. Who are, who's Brian Howard? Let the folks get to hear a little bit about you. Appreciate it, Johnny. Yeah, I've enjoyed getting to know you as well. Yeah, so who am I? I guess I'm married. I'm a Christian. I'm married to my wife for about 17 years now. We've got three girls and teenage girls, two teenage girls and a 10-year-old. And so life is fun at my house. Lots of girls stuff and so that's good. But also preach the Lake Forest Church of Christ in Jacksonville. So I've very involved in ministerial type of stuff. My passion is evangelism. We do a lot of evangelism type of things here. And so I'm really excited about that. Also, I guess founder and director of mission work called Soaring for Souls. Where we fly into remote locations or that's kind of the goal anyways. But we've technically just gone to the Bahamas and Turks and Kekos. We've also done some other campaigns to Iowa and North Western Canada and some other things. Anyway, my life is ministry and family and I like to travel and adventure and anything that goes along with that. That's basically me and that show. Wow, you know, I didn't even know that. So tell me a little bit about that program that you're doing. What's it called? Soaring with what? Soaring for Souls. Soaring for Souls. I've been in dream of mine ever since I don't know. I became a Christian. I think when I was in preaching school at the Florida School of Preaching, I was thinking about ways to use my passion of aviation and flying. I hadn't become a pilot yet at that point, but I had a passion for flying. And I was looking for ways to use that and preaching. I love mission work, which is what got me into preaching in the first place. First trip over to Tanzania, East Africa in 2004, I believe it was. I don't do that anyways. And so that's once I saw the hearts of those people on the mission field. It's like, man, this is awesome. I need to be, I need to be a, I need to be a missionary. And anyway, so finally, you know, life and life and family and money and all kinds of things got in the way for many years. And finally, I guess during COVID kind of had the time to really focus on planning that. Yeah, so we started Soaring for Souls in May of 2020. It took our first flying campaign, I think in 21. But anyway, it's been good. We go on a couple campaign pains a year. We're going to Tanzania again here in July. Well, it's been a good work. It's been fun. Yeah, I tell you what off camera, we're going to have to talk about that somewhere. I'd like to figure out how to get in board with that man. That's me, so you just mentioned a little bit. They're almost just dropping it somehow. But are you a pilot or have you trained to become a pilot? So yeah, in 2020 during COVID, I got my pilots, my private pilot's license. That's as far as I've gone. It's very expensive and we did have a plane for the mission work for a little while. That was very expensive as well. And so basically, I have a one of our fellow missionaries. Casey Oakley, he's kind of our main pilot. Or when we go over to the islands and he is in a club with a plane and he keeps his ratings up. And he's got his instrument rating. And so he's kind of the pilot that takes us over. And I do more of the evangelism type of stuff. And so we're a pretty good team when it comes to that. But we're going to look into some aviation aspects over in Tanzania here in July as well. Just to see if there's some way logistically to fly over there into the bush, which was kind of always the goal anyways. Yeah, yeah. Wow, that's amazing, man. So now, with that said, I'm sure you've had to travel around a little bit in the U.S. to get your credits up or maybe go to certain places to get your hours in. Are you a native of Florida, Brian? No, no, I grew up in Indiana. But I have, I was just talking to somebody the other day. And it's not boasting. It's a blessing. It's been to every state twice. But when I was working with World Video Bible School as sleazy fundraiser again, anyways, no, that wasn't blessing. I'll probably say more about that here in a bit. But I was able to preach in, I don't know how many states. But I know other guys have preached in a lot more. But it's just kind of a goal. It's like, I'm going to preach in every state. Whatever. I don't think that's a goal anymore. But I think I got about 30 or something like that. Anyways, just, you know, little things, little things to keep going. Well, you know, I am, I got married in 2023. And I've come to realize that even as a Christian and a minister, at least for me, my life felt more completed than not. When I was able to have my help meet, come and be a part of that. If you're not opposed to share, man, would you tell us a little bit about how you met your wife and how all that worked out? Yeah, sure. So you don't know, no, but we met on Church of Christ singles.com. What? So we may want to edit this part out because I should wear seeing really. No, I'm just kidding. Really, I've met a number of guys now who've done that. We did it when it was uncool. But I was in preaching school at the Florida School of Preaching. And she lived in Texas. Yeah, we, you know, we had a lot of time to talk in the phone at a lot of times. You know, you get to know somebody pretty well when you're talking for hours and hours and hours and hours while we didn't get that in person time, quite as much as we wanted. Yeah. We got a lot of time on the phone. And as soon as I graduated preaching school, we basically got married and moved to Canada. Wow, it was interesting. It was an interesting time of life. Yeah, absolutely. When I got married, I had an opportunity to go to freed Hardman to continue my studies. And I sort of prioritized my marriage and I was too afraid to just jump ship. We just got married in June and then to jump ship in July to head out to Tennessee for school. Right. But you said as soon as you got out of school, you got married and then also moved away. Yes. How did that play in a little bit, man? Would you say that was difficult or was it a good difficult that helped to shape your Christianity? Some think it opened my eyes to some things. For sure, I learned a lot. I was pretty naive. I realized moving to another country. I was not prepared to move to another country. Ancheli, emotionally, probably okay. I was young. I was in my 20s. And you know, that was fine. I, you know, I liked adventure. And so that was fine. We were about 20 miles from Alaska. It was a pretty remote place called Prince Rupert. We've kind of incorporated that work into our soul's work as well. We weren't there very long because we didn't have enough support and we were very in debt. Yeah, wow. And so we didn't make it that long. As a matter of fact, if it wasn't for a brother sending some money over. I don't know how we would have gotten home. We were, we were absolutely broke. Our credit cards were maxed out. We were just, we were in trouble. So you mean to tell me that, Indiana, do you mean to tell me that when you become a Christian, you don't just become wealthy overnight, life is just perfect right after that. That's what they sold me on and it didn't happen. No, they didn't say that. Well, no, that's not what Christianity is not about physical wealth at all. It's really kind of the opposite sometimes, especially as a minister. But as they say, the retirement is out of this world, right? Yeah, you know, Paul and the Hebrews writer talks about having a discernment and the ability to discern things in a certain way. And of course, there's a spiritual context to that once you've been learned and trained scripturally. But in addition to that, there's a physical element to that, the conditioning that you have, you're able to see things from a different lens. I'm sure all the things you've been exposed to in your journey thus far have given you some discernments as well. When you became a dad, I'm sure that was another transitional point for you. And unless a mistake, and did you say you're a dad of all girls right now? Yes. Oh, wow. So you're in a home full of women, man. I was raised with two, three other siblings and two boys. So it was my sister alone among three boys. And see the opposite. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Is there, is there a, is there somewhat of a shift in dynamic in your Christian faith? I want to say or even in your ministerial aspect of your faith that you noticed have grown and matured as a result of becoming a parent? Well, starting with, I guess a physical thought of it, you know, I think, I think I thought I would just be, you know, as a baseball player growing up. And I thought, but I thought I'd just be at the baseball field with my kids. You know, that was my picture. You know, I guess girls think about, girls think about, you know, their future with kids and all that stuff, probably a little bit more than guys. But if I was to think about that, yeah, I'll probably just always be at the baseball field and hold that stuff. Well, that's not the case with girls. They're doing makeup and they're doing all kinds of, girl type of stuff. They're very girly girls. Although I did recently get my daughter, oldest daughter in the scuba diving, which that was on that, yeah. And so anyway, she's getting a little bit into some of my hobbies. But spiritually, I don't know if it's changed anything spiritually, but I certainly think about maybe the moral aspect of things. And so that's spiritual, but moral purity and things as they grow. I want them to have what I didn't have. I didn't grow up in the church. And so I wasn't a picture of moral purity when I became a Christian or anything like that. And so thinking about, thinking about that for them, I want them to have, I want to protect them as long as I can. And we homeschool our girls right now. And some people say, tell you all the things wrong with homeschooling, but I tell you what, if I can protect them while their minds are still young and a little bit older, they'll be exposed to things that we all know they're going to be exposed to. But if I can protect them as long as I can, I will because they're my baby girls. Absolutely. Absolutely. I could just imagine a couple years from now, they ever tuned into this into this episode with their dad. They'll see some of that in probably blush. That's awesome, man. Probably so. Yeah, absolutely. So what I think about when I had the opportunity to become baptized into Jesus, I was 11 and I shared that in a couple of other episodes, but you know, I was raised in the church. And for me, it was just a moment of when would my physical maturity kick in and join on with the spiritual things that I've learned? But you made mention that you weren't raised in the church. Was it a gradual thing that you were able to come to that decision of becoming a Christian, or was it a one or two time contact with something and you just knew that's what it's supposed to be? Well, my grandparents were in the church. They were Christians. My mom had been baptized, but we didn't grow up going to church. Maybe we would go on Mother's Day or something like that. So I was exposed a little bit to the church, but really, I was a product of the world. I mean, man, you know, in high school, my life was sports girls' partying. I mean, that was my life. And college, the partying got even more extreme, and so, and it was still girls and sports. And I don't even know how I graduated, to be honest. But about a month or about four months before I graduated from college, my mom got cancer and she died like two months later. So it was very quick cancer. We had pretty big extended family. We were all up at the hospital all the time there, those last couple weeks, and then the preacher came. My grandparents preacher came. And thankfully, my mother was restored before she passed away. Yeah. But, you know, he was a younger guy and a very friendly, kind of a contagious type of person, personality, and just kind of a fun guy. And so we struck up a friendship. And he did ask, I think, at the time, when we were at the hospital, if I ever wanted to study your talk, to contact him. And maybe a couple weeks after my mom passed away, it might have been a little bit more than that. I contacted him. And, hey, are you still willing to study? And I now as a preacher, I realized, man, okay, if somebody called and said that to me, yes, that's wonderful. And, but, you know, I was kind of like, well, is he still going to want to study with me? I don't know, but anyway, we did. And for about six weeks, I guess once a week, he went through the "Fishers of Men" course, and I was baptized. And so it was a fairly quick thing. As a matter of fact, there were some things very, very quickly that I had to get rid of in my life. And, you know, I was just like a sailor. And I had basically like a live-in girlfriend that I had to tell her, I can't do this anymore. You could get home. And a number of other things, I guess I could list that I had the big things that I had to give up quickly and I did, and it wasn't that hard. Anybody can do it. I mean, if I had advice to give it, anybody can do it. If I can do it, definitely anybody can do it. And I have some big things to overcome. I know listeners probably have maybe bigger things to overcome, but some of the things I overcame were big. And it really didn't take that long. There are some things that still work on the day, but some of those bigger things weren't as hard as I thought they might be. And probably for other listeners, they're not as hard as you think they might be. Let me ask you this on that note. There's this notion out there about faith. That faith is almost just an intellectual assessment of God and a recognition of Him in your life, as long as you can intellectually have understanding of Him then you're pretty much good. But just the way you've described it, you would have had to do things in your life to align the way you thought about faith so that they can be in harmony. And I do know there's a lot of folks that's had to do that. You've got to do things in addition to just thinking about what's going to come out of this. When you went through those studies, were there moments where some things just clicked and made sense that told you, hey, yeah, that makes sense. That's why I've got to do this. Or was it one of those things where you were more emotionally persuaded that you recognize the depth of some of the things that's got to be done and maybe the depth of the relationship you want to develop with God? So what I'm saying is, was there a moment or a few moments where the depth of seeking God and desire in a relationship with Him that's different from what you've known before that that calls you to say, I've got to, I've just got to get rid of these things. It's not going to be something I want to mess with. - I think, you know, as I was studying God's word, a lot of things start to make sense. About life, a lot more. I mean, I grew up in a house, we were like, we were good people, right? I mean, as the world would see us as good, kind, nice people, we had a lot of flaws. But then when, you know, once I started studying God's word, things really started making a whole lot more sense about life. I mean, the Bible really does answer those pressing questions about life that you don't even know your, that you need to know, that you don't even know you're asking it and you're like, and I was like a blank slate. I need nothing about the Bible. And so when I came to it, I mean, I was learning, I was learning about how the world was made and all of these things even going through Genesis and even some of those things and it just starts to click and it makes sense. And so I guess that's the intellectual part of it, but you can't take away the emotional part of it too because you're, as you're learning these things, it's these deep, deep questions, as people say, there's a God shaped void in your life, whether you know it or not. And God is the only thing that can fill that. And God was filling it through his word. And again, these questions, I didn't even know that I had were being answered and I was like, wow, yeah, that makes perfect sense. And that happened over and over and over and over as we were going through those studies. And you know, I knew I wasn't perfect. I knew I didn't, I guess as I was being led through those studies, I needed to learn about salvation and I did learn about how to be saved. And I don't remember that specific point where I was like, I need to do this. I'm pretty sure I had it, but I don't specifically remember it. I've seen people now I've studied with and they remember, but I think that was such an emotional period in my life. My mom just passing away, you know, everything going on at one time. And now this big change of life with the gospel and learning the gospel, I think it's a lot of it's kind of a blur to me. But well, now I see that when I study with people and you can see the light bulb go on for them like, oh, I am lost. I am headed for an eternity in hell right now if I don't, if I don't do what the Bible says. And so it is amazing and yeah, I continue to grow every day and it's sometimes I read something and hits me emotionally and intellectually, you know, the Bible does that. Yeah, yeah, on that note, let me ask you a little bit. You made mention of you studying with folks now. And of course you told us a little bit earlier on that you're ministering for what's the congregation? Is it up in Jacksonville? It's Lake Forest Church of Christ. Lake Forest Church of Christ in Jacksonville, Florida. Was there a point where you decided from being a Christian, maybe attending services somewhere that you want to be more than just a listener of God's or that you wanted to tell people about Jesus as well? Or did that sort of harmonized itself with your evangelism desire that you want to fly it? Like, at what point did you say I want to do more than just sit and listen, I want to tell people about Jesus? You ought to think I ever would have thought about being a preacher if it wasn't for, so the man who taught me the gospel, Mark Reynolds, just a really, really a good mentor for me. And he's the one who took me on that first mission trip. I guess it was about eight months after I became a Christian. I remember being there. I'll just tell this short story. It was me and Mark and another guy, Norman Light's his name. And there's getting ready to be a baptism there in Tanzania. And the preacher looks at me who's only been a Christian and really known anything about the Bible for about eight months. And he says, and you will make a speech right before the baptism. And I think deer and headlights look, I looked at Mark and he just laughed. And so, as we're walking to not the baptistry, the river, as we're walking to the river to baptize this lady, Mark kind of guided me on some things to say and it went very well. Yeah. But anyway, Mark encouraged me after that trip because he, because I did want to evangelize. After seeing the reception of those people it was amazing. It was awesome. It's like, Oh, this really does work teaching somebody the Bible and they really yes This is what I need to do. And so he started encouraging me and I never had one thought about preaching the gospel never I I was somebody who would I would I would get up to speak and I would Shake in my boots and my voice would quiver. That is not something I wanted to do at all But he kept encouraging me and he kept encouraging me and I guess it was about a year after I became A Christian that I preached my first sermon and You know, I would say and and I say this when I give presentations really it's a must for congregations and individuals to encourage people to get out of their comfort zone Encourage people to do things that they don't think they can do There's so many men who could probably be preachers if somebody would just push them in that direction and guide not push them unwilling They could just Have confidence and then they can do something that they don't think they can do and it's Those people at town acres church of Christ didn't in Indiana It didn't encourage me the way they encouraged me. I probably wouldn't be a preacher today. So absolutely It's so so important to encourage people to take that first step and maybe lead a devotional maybe lead a prayer or something like that That maybe you just want to be uncomfortable otherwise Yeah, yeah, you know Moses when he got to encounter God and the burn in Bush experience one of the things he did say is that I'm not an eloquent speaker that I can't do this and You know, you think of that for a second about how God didn't take that and say well, you know I guess you're right. Let's just go ahead and get somebody else, but instead though God Understood and was compassionately comprehensive of what he was saying. Hey, I don't think I'm the best and most eloquent speaker God still allowed him to pursue that path and then put people in it had his brother and others to help encourage him along the way And you know even later on in Moses's story You see somebody like Jethro who wasn't a part of you know the nation of Israel But eventually helped Moses with judgments and whatnot So there is that initial contact that you've got to come in you know in contact with somebody that says I think you can do what you don't yet see in yourself and then you have that community around you to stay with that I think there's so many So many situations where people get that thrown out to them that hey, yeah, you know, we would like to We would like for you to give this a shout. We would like for you to consider this, but then it's almost left there That that little spark and fade away, but when you look at the Bible You don't see that you know, I think a Peter and Andrew being called from being fishermen They they weren't just called and then left from their call and they were called and then they were Conditioned from that into being the speakers that they were later on so I'm glad you had those people in your life man I know the the the product of them platinum seed and God allowing the growth to come about is definitely beautiful You've got a great family. You've got a great wife. You've got a ministry that you're working with You've got a whole project that you've been put together with others and not to do a disservice to anyone else, but If those folks didn't help you in the ways that they saw fit You know, you already said you didn't you hadn't seen yourself as a preacher You know, you might not have been where you are now, so there's so many relationships in life that do that for us for sure So you made mention a little bit about your journey with Jesus you come into Christ you come into the gospel You become an obedient to that and then transition in into becoming a preacher now You said something you got to go on that mission trip when you were just about eight months into your understanding of Christianity You know, sometimes Christians make the assumption that I don't know what that is Let's pause for a second. Did you see that just now on the screen? I did not Okay, I saw a reaction so I'll just pause and then I'll recoup and cut that out of something pops up Okay, okay. Yeah, sometimes people make the assumption that when you become a Christian You've got to be perfect in your walk You've got to be ten year in your years before you can do anything for Christ and I just don't see that in the Bible You know, I've seen instances in the New Testament where Paul worked with congregations and then What was it at the church in Thessalonica or Ephesus? I believe just about like two years into their tenure. He started saying you've got to have elders Got to have elders, you know, yeah, and you see other instances like that in the Bible What would you say to somebody out there Brian? If you could somebody that just obeyed the gospel their young and their walk with Christ Maybe a few months like you were and they have a desire to do something, but maybe somebody says That no, you've got to be more versed in the Bible if you or you've got to be more trained in years To ensure that person isn't having their fire quench What would you say to them to keep them encouraged? Absolutely wrong to discourage somebody to do anything for the Lord if you got a passion for something God wants to use you, you know, I think we all Who was it? There was a preacher who said who said it and I'll probably misquote it and I can't even remember Who it was, but he said something to the effect like you will never serve God more effectively than when you are serving him through your Passion if you're passionate about something if you are passionate about some aspect of serving God God will God will be with you in it. Well, if it's all good and moral and if he wants you to if it's his will, but I mean If you have a passion about something you're gonna keep going and going and going and doing it if you're doing it for the service of God and to try to help Convert others or whatever or just to be a good Christian and be a good example to others. You're gonna make it work and So don't get discouraged I had a lot of people discourage me when it when I was talking about the mission aviation type of stuff Well, it's too expensive and it is expensive, but or or that could never work or you know Why would you want to do that and and a lot of people come along and try to that people don't people are not normally Encouragers and I would encourage anybody to be the opposite of that Everybody every Christian or anybody listening to this show if you are an encourager if you encourage others. I mean You're helping people more than you know because most people are not encourages most people discourage people because they're either jealous or they just They don't you know, maybe don't have a good life and they want to you know say negative things But if you can be a positive encouraging type of person you'll go a long way and don't get don't be discouraged when others try to discourage You just just start and if you have a passion just start doing start doing things toward it reading about it getting close to people who are doing that thing Maybe it is that you want to preach. I don't know get close to people who are preaching and talk to them Get into God's word pray find mentors like I had in Mark Reynolds and others one of my best mentors I guess for evangelism, which is now you know one of my greatest passions is Rudy Kane who is the Founder and director of of World Viewer Bible School and working for him for four years was I mean this guy is he is a barn of a type of guy. He is somebody who is an Encourager he is somebody who Gives other people the credit for things oftentimes that he does He's just always pushing people forward pushing people again kind of out of their comfort zone But then pushing them forward and helping them along and he's got an evangelistic zeal like no other And so I learned a lot from him and just get started and you know like he did I think they started World Viewer Bible School in the garage and now it's this big thing that reaches millions of people and So just get started so we're in for souls it started just because I wanted to I wanted to fly and I wanted to preach and And so I got close to people who were flying and people who were preaching I went to the Florida School of preaching and I would definitely recommend that as well. Yeah, I don't get discouraged Yeah, there's there's certainly something interesting about God helping us to us to Grow the passion that's inside of us and make it useful for his kingdom and just to you know, reiterate a little bit Just a reate a little bit that was said about Andrew and Peter when Jesus called them They were fishermen. I mean Peter was so inclined with his fishing that he went out on stormy waters He went out on days that things were not going to be good He went out late in the night early in the morning and I get that was a job for him But you can also tell that he was passionate about that That's what his life revolved around, and it's so unique that Jesus said the words to them that he did that I'll make you fishers of men That's transitional point of taking something you're already passionate about you know preachers said this and Concerned our passions and and he said if you want to know what your calling is with God Then find a thing that you think every other Christian should be doing And usually that's the calling that God is giving you and I think about that for myself as well And I am pretty Enthused about evangelism as well, and I I've got big dreams about creating some You know borders between the Caribbean and the Western world with her in the US and have some evangelistic efforts Go back and forth that way, but that's something that stood out to me And I've seen people in the church like that man There's some members that are just generous with their giving and they want everybody to be overwhelmed Generally generous with their given and I usually realize that if folks like that would be as a part of a benevolent effort That they would be really good with helping people in that way I'd have seen song leaders, you know guys that just want to sing passionately and want everybody to learn these songs and learn new songs and learn music And they can minister through that you know, so it's neat that you've taken the past that you've got and you haven't quenched them but you've repurposed them for the kingdom. That's a beautiful thing. And it's really, we already said, you know, it's kind of hard to stop passion. It's hard to stop that. And it's contagious. I mean, when others see that in you, when you're passionate about using your blessings to serve the Lord, it's hard for others not to be passionate about it. It's not to be jealous about it. And that's another thing I harp on a lot is zeal. I mean, we are called to have zeal for God. And when we do have zeal for God, that's more than just going through the motions. It's, you know, having a passion being on fire, not being lukewarm like those in the way out of Sia. And when we have a fire for God, people will be influenced by that. It's really hard to stop that because others will see your excitement and they will be excited. Now, if you're not excited about your faith, the same goes there too. It's going to, other people won't be excited about your faith either. So, you know, Satan's alive and active and he doesn't want you to be excited about your faith in God and he doesn't want you to think that you can do that next thing for God. But, you know, I love the verse. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And he does. He strengthens me and he allows me and gives me the ability to use my talents and my passions for him. It's just got to go after it. It's going to require work. It still takes work to do those things. It's not going to fall on your lab, but you just got to make that first step. I love the book, the compound effect or whatever. I think it's called that. I think there's other books like it. Tiny habits is another book. Those books talk about the idea of basically the, you know, just like in finances. You invest your money and eventually over time, the compounding effect grows your retirement in a state or whatever. Well, the same thing in your faith and the same thing in anything that you're doing for God, you know, you start little. You start doing little things every day towards your goal of having a stronger faith and using your abilities and passions towards serving the Lord. And over time, those things are going to compound and you're going to be able to do some amazing things you never thought you could do. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's interesting. Your journey has been such a unique one. And I believe that everybody's journey has got some uniqueness to it, though they were shared experiences there. And thinking of a thumbnail. And I want to say from pilot to preacher, but you know, it's really cool. When I applied to the Florida School of Preaching, my email was scuba pilot 27. You did some scuba diving as well, right? Yeah. Yeah. That was actually my minor in college, weirdly. At Ball State University, I had a minor in scuba diving. So obviously I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. So, uh, you went to a venture. It seems like you went all the airy is that adventure. So, uh, that's kind of kind of my passion, I guess. Yeah. You know, Brian, when I think about people journeying with Jesus, when I think about people coming to that realization that they want a deep in relationship with God outside of maybe this, you know, distance and intellectual understanding only it definitely takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of growth. It takes a lot of compromises and conditionings and it does appear that you have allowed yourself to become a vessel of God. And that's a beautiful thing, man. I'm glad that you I'm glad that you shared with us. I'm glad that you took some time to come and let everybody know a little bit about your journey and your faith and your walk with Christ. Brian, if there's somebody out there listening that wants to deepen their relationship with God, they want to make that connection. They want a transition from who they are to who they'd like to be. What would you say to them? Go for it. Pray about it. Get into the word of God about it. Find mentors, you know. I don't know how evangelistic you want this podcast to be, but, you know, if if you're not a Christian, you got to start there, right? I mean, you can't do anything for God if you're not a Christian yourself. Nobody's going to follow you to Christ. If you're not already in Christ, you can't give somebody what you don't have. And so, obviously, you got to start there, become a Christian, obey the gospel, believe, repent, confess, be baptized, all of that, if you are a Christian. Yeah, just take that first step and doing whatever your passion is is what I would say. And I still deal with that. You know, there are still things and ways that I want to use some of my passions, different ones than we've already talked about for Christ. And it's just sometimes it's hard to take that first step. So reach out to somebody, reach out to the preacher, reach out to somebody you know is doing something that you want to be doing. And it's not a shame to ask for help. And then be willing to give others help when you get to where you think, you know, others want what you have already. We don't realize that sometimes, you know, there are people who look at you in your life. And they say, man, I want to be him. And be selfless and be humble and help people along and where they're at too. And people will be willing to help you as well. Yeah. Yeah. Right. How can somebody getting contact with you if they so desire? If they want to learn Jesus through you, if they want to get in contact with your church or maybe the soren for souls that you've got going. Is there ways in which are there ways in which people can get in contact with you or your church that you're ministering with? Yeah. Yeah. So we do have a website as sorenforSouls.org. You can go there. My email address be our Howard [email protected]. Welcome to email me. Of course, you can contact me through the Florida School of Preaching. Then if your listeners, you know, are thinking about preaching, that is one of the best schools in the brotherhood in my opinion. So please reach out to the Florida School of Preaching. If you think preaching is something, by the way, I was fairly new Christian when I went to preaching school. And I was learning the basics as some of my fellow students were learning kind of the intricacies of these stories. I'm learning, okay, there is Adam and Eve. There is a guy named Noah in the art. And so this I was learning kind of the overall picture. And so it's never too early. And those guys took a very inexperienced person. The instructors there took a very inexperienced person in the faith and turned me into a soldier of Christ. And so anyway, wanted to make a plug for the Florida School of Preaching for sure. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. Reach out. Reach out to me. If you have any questions, anyway, I can help you in your faith or anything else. Awesome. Thank you, Brian. I've enjoyed this. I've enjoyed talking to you. And I got to know a whole lot more about you that I didn't know before. And hopefully somebody else out there could find some related ability in it. On that note, we'll wrap a few things up here. Thank you again for joining us on Journey with Jesus. I'm so excited that Brian was able to share his journey with us. And through that journey, maybe you can come to find some related ability and connectivity as well. We'll see you next time on the next episode.