🌍 Ever wondered how to build a community that truly reflects who you are?

Announcer/Intro Voice: Control-Alt-Redeem is for anyone called to ministry in the digital frontier. Gamers, streamers, and everyday believers navigating life online. Each episode equips you to live on mission and the real stories of lives being changed. Reset your expectations, reframe your mission, and redeem the space you're already in. This is where digital ministry gets practical, creative, grounded, and hopeful. One episode at a time.

Leighton Seys: Welcome in, welcome in, everybody, to Control-Alt-Redeem. We are looking to reset the culture and redeem the space. And today, I have Chemisphere with me. Am I saying that right, Chemisphere? I mean, there's no H in there, so my brain has problems with that at times because of Greek and Hebrew language problems, so...

Chemisphere: Yeah, it's chemistry, like the you pronounce it like a P for the B. But if it's easier, you can just say Kemi.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I think I usually just refer to you as Kemi, but. You know, everybody has a name. I love the creativity with that, the uniqueness of it. And then your whole character is a whole unique vibe that you have, which was really cool to see you at Reach Conference all in cosplay and looking like a character.

Chemisphere: Yeah, shout out to my grandma who helped me make that coat. She did such an amazing job.

Leighton Seys: Oh, I didn't know your grandma helped you on that. Super cool.

Chemisphere: Yeah. I got the, like... I had bought a blue coat on Amazon, but it was just all blue. And I wanted to change the buttons and the trim and stuff to gold in my drawing. So she took it apart and then replaced it with gold. It took us forever to find the perfect gold that I wanted, but we found it. And yeah, she did an amazing job.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I thought it was super fantastic. There were, I think, at least three or four VTubers that had their costume of their avatar. I don't know if I'm using the right word there. Or their PNG. I don't know how interchangeable they are. But they had that, and I was like, that's pretty cool. I never thought of... know people doing that and i thought it was kind of a really unique twist to be able to bring your whole stream flavor with you as you went to it uh phantom ethos is telling me v-tube model okay vtuber model thank you yeah i've used both model and avatar but i guess model makes sense yeah Yeah, there was a good group of VTubers that were there, which was fun. What made it difficult at some point was there are so many people and so little time to have conversations with everybody, which is great to be able to have you. And we're just sitting here for the next couple of hours chatting.

Chemisphere: Yeah, it's great. And there sure were a lot of people. Some new people I got to meet, some people that I didn't get to talk much, but hoping to talk to more next reach. And also just throughout, even in between, through stuff like this.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, absolutely. It's super fun to continue to develop and grow those relationships. We've got a few people in the chat that I haven't met in person, and it's fun to chat with people that you have met in person and to be able to meet people that, hey, you've watched them on stream and now you get to be in the same place and actually be in the same room with them.

Chemisphere: Yeah, it's a cool feeling.

Leighton Seys: Oh, I know. It's really enjoyable. It's like you've been old friends on some level, and now you're together, and it's just like picking up where you left off the friendship. That's what it feels like in some ways for me. everyone that comes on here, I like to start with, at some point, where did you get started or how did you come across Twitch? So maybe you heard about it and you started watching it, or maybe you heard about it and you immediately went and you decided you were gonna be a streamer. So those could be separate stories, they might be the same story, but how did you come across Twitch and how did you get started as a streamer on Twitch?

Chemisphere: Yeah, so how I came across Twitch, it was 2020 and I was running out of stuff to watch. And then I heard about Minecraft streamers. And I was like, well, I know about Minecraft YouTubers. I used to watch that when I was younger. I guess I'll try out this whole stream thing. So I got Twitch and started watching a few Minecraft streamers. Kind of embarrassed. of like the streamer said i was banned a little bit at the time i was i was a dream smp fan um which kind of embarrassing to say but it brought me to where i am today so i gotta mention it So yeah, I watched them for a bit. My favorite one was Technoblade, although he streamed on YouTube, so I would go between YouTube and Twitch. So that was in 2020. What got me to start streaming, I was really enjoying watching these Minecraft streamers, but... i didn't enjoy how like a lot of times there would be like they'd have like conversations or like uh use language that i just really couldn't like relate to or like wasn't something that i would use and so i was like um dang this is like so cool like watching games live and all that but i really wish there were um there was someone i could relate to more like faith-wise um like i wasn't necessarily wishing for like um a streamer who would like uh necessarily be preaching all the time but just like someone who i could be like this person plays video games like i play video games and they're also a christian right um so i couldn't find anybody like that so i was like all right fine i'll do it myself so i started streaming um because i really wanted there to be a christian minecraft streamer so i started streaming minecraft um And I quickly found out that clearly I hadn't looked enough because there were actually already other Christian Minecraft streamers that I only started discovering once I started streaming Minecraft. So one that I mostly remember is, I don't know if she streams still, but her name was White Angel. She came into my community and she was a Minecraft streamer and she brought in a lot of her community as well. So I think that was the first time I found another Christian streamer. One of the people... she brought on to um to my streams uh his name is ken um i don't know if any if you've heard of him before but he's on a whole bunch of different uh streams stream chats now um he's still in my chat um which is really cool but yeah i slowly started finding more and more christian streamers through there yeah it's it's interesting and i don't know when i don't remember the you know

Leighton Seys: how long ago it was but it wasn't you know always there to be able to have a tag to find christian streamers so it's it's no wonder as you know in 2020 you were looking and it's like you connect with the game but you don't connect with the the lifestyle or the character or the or the language that other people have and rather than you know just saying well there isn't anything so i'll i'll go away and i'll i'll do something different you decide to fill the space that you wanted to be in there? How did that go? Did you immediately start to connect with people? Was it a struggle to find people or to have people come and find you? What was that like when you first started?

Chemisphere: Um, so, uh, I didn't start immediately, uh, when I decided that, cause I was, I was in high school, I think my junior year of high school still. So I was like, I'm probably too busy to start right now. So it was a few months. I waited until summer break to start. Um, and by the time I started, I had already joined a discord community. I don't know if you've ever heard of God and gaming. um but i joined that discord community and um so i had mentioned there that i was going to start streaming i didn't get many people like to join uh the first few streams but after a bit people started coming in and i think that's where i found most of my community for my streams Um, so I did have like that little push there that I know not everybody gets when they start out. I'm really grateful for it.

Leighton Seys: No, but that is, that is a really good point is when you, excuse me. when you're making connections, when you're not online, that you can develop community there, then those people in that community are going to want to support you. So you, you found a community, you were hanging out there, you let them know what you were doing, and then they would come alongside and support you. Now, I would say like any community, not everyone is going to be able to support you in the same way as, you know, like I'm East coast and I stream in the morning. So there are people that are, excuse me,

Chemisphere: west coast night streamers we don't run into each other very often even if we're in the same discord and the same community and and encourage one another we can't be there all the time yeah um yeah it makes sense time zones really are fun um uh i have uh actually that same um father that i told you ken he is actually from like six hours time zone away um like we have a six hour difference which is crazy so um i don't get to see him every stream i get to see him during the morning streams i do never the night streams um but yeah It can be complicated to get into all that. You can't always stream all the time. That's, yeah.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, we've talked about that with a few streamers and how that works or how people's life changes, their moves happen, or even the time change when that happens. When the Northern Hemisphere goes one way and the Southern Hemisphere goes the other way and you're suddenly two hours difference than you were a day ago. It is so confusing. I know. We really should quit doing it to ourselves. Yes, please. We're just going to start the world protest right now that we will stop changing our clocks and thinking that we add more time to our day. I mean, at some point, we're going to stop. Why don't we just stop now? Yes. I don't know if we'll ever stop, but it seems like we would finally decide to quit doing that. It messes a whole bunch of stuff up. It's not good for people's health. But that aside, there is a whole level, though, of having people that are in places that are three hours, six hours, 12 hours different from you and being able to make global connections on this platform that is totally fascinating. Did you find... that you have a community that's mostly, you know, within your own geographic time zone or, or, or like, uh, Ben that you have, or Ken, sorry, you have people that are all over the globe that are hanging out with you.

Chemisphere: Um, most of them are around the same time zone. Um, like one or two hour difference mostly a lot of them the same time zone um yeah i think ken might be like the only one who's like that drastic of a different time zone yeah yeah yeah okay

Leighton Seys: So as you were getting started, you were doing Minecraft. Did you have a whole setup? What did you invest in? You're in high school, so that's going to have limitations. How often were you streaming to be able to try to do this? You said you waited until summer so you'd have more, perhaps, free time to be able to do it. What was the rhythm of that as you got started?

Chemisphere: um so i uh my brother had left for the army that year so i took his xbox and streamed directly from the xbox okay with a really cheap pair of headphones with a really cheap microphone attached to it

Leighton Seys: Well, when you're getting started, what's available is a great way to get started. One of the things that is, everybody understands if you're just getting started that you don't have the best equipment, but you do want to have as good a sound as you can, that's for sure.

Chemisphere: Yeah, I might not have had the best sound. Actually, I've had like not the best sound for a while. I finally got an actual microphone that's not attached to a pair of headset on Christmas. So. Oh, yeah.

Leighton Seys: Do you want to talk about what kind you got and, you know, get a little excitement?

Chemisphere: Yeah, it's the I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right. Mono. It's a pink one. I forgot the exact what the name of the exact model is. I just know I researched it at one point, put it in my Amazon cart and waited until Christmas to have it.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, that is that is a fun thing to be able to, you know, do wish lists. And you can do those with family and they can they can get you gifts that way. You could do them within your community on stream and they can help contribute to that. What's funny is this is not like a new idea. I've worked with churches for years now, and we would do the same thing in a church. Like, here's what our budget's for. Here's what we're going to do ministry-wise. But we'd really like to do this other thing. If someone wants to give to this, then we'll do it. But if no one gives to it, then we won't do it. We won't be able to. So I think that's a fun way to be able to say, we can get by with this, but...

Chemisphere: this would make a great improvement on what we're able to do yeah um yeah their wish list since having help from other people is well yeah pretty helpful i probably wouldn't have half the things i have here otherwise

Leighton Seys: Do you want to share a couple of maybe stories that way? I do like to talk about what are some obstacles you've overcome and what are some blessings. So maybe talk about some of those blessing moments that you've had with people supporting you or someone in the community doing something amazing for someone else.

Chemisphere: Yeah, I guess, well, a lot of tech-wise, a lot of the support I've gotten has been from family. I got my first PC after I had my... which I got a lot more money for that birthday than I expected. So I use that to get my new PC. I've gotten monitors for Christmas, now this microphone. So a lot of that stuff has been thanks to my family. My community has been pretty awesome. It's taken a bit to grow. Part of that being I wasn't always so consistent with streaming. But those who have been here, have been with me, have always been super supportive. I know at one point... This was kind of random, but just something that I remember. I would get subs here and there, as I usually do. I don't remember what exactly was going on in that moment when this happened, but just two people watching just randomly decided to have a competition to see who could gift the most subs. fun um how fun is that yeah that was crazy um the the notifications were just going wild um as like a whole bunch of um names that i didn't even know were popping up like this person just subscribed this person just subscribed i'm like oh my goodness you guys stop it

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I've seen something like that a couple of times of people just going like, I'm going to give subs and somebody else saying, I'm going to give more. And I don't have this on my stream, but some people will put on there just for others to know. here's how many subs somebody has given. Here's place number two. Here's place number three. And so they can see how many subs somebody else has given to try to get that number one spot of being the sub gifter, and they're just giving them anonymously to other people. So not only are they blessing the streamer when that happens, they are blessing someone else in the community too with a sub which gets you emotes and some other stuff, and you don't have to watch ads. So that's really cool.

Chemisphere: Yeah, I always find it super nice when people do that. Like one person starting out like, oh, no, I'm in the middle of an ad. And then all of a sudden someone's like, here, I got you. And then they just give a sub. I'm like, oh, that's so sweet.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, the camaraderie that way, I don't know. I know it's Twitch culture, so there's part of that, but I don't know if it's always as friendly as, oh, man, I got an ad. I wish I didn't have ads. And someone goes, oh, well, I'll gift you one. I don't know if that happens as much in other places as it does in the Christian community, but I see that quite often.

Chemisphere: Yeah. I've had it happen to me a few times. Super nice. Um, yeah, I've generally had a pretty great community. Um, not too many, um, issues there. I've had like, uh, I had this, I've had like one situation with like not the best people coming on. Um, but honestly it's really rare when that kind of stuff happens. Um, And when it does, I usually have other people in my community ready to support me through that.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I think that's really important. And the longer that you are around and the more connections you make with people, the more you're going to have those people that will show up and support you and will also be able to be mods for you and help out in those kinds of ways.

Chemisphere: Yeah.

Leighton Seys: So to go back to, we kind of sidetracked there, but you were talking about you started out by streaming on Xbox. When did you decide you needed to do more than that and you were to do more? And how were you realizing that you were actually fulfilling your desire to create a space that was more friendly, more openly faith-forward, and also having fun gaming?

Chemisphere: um i don't know if i can pinpoint an exact oh that's okay it doesn't have to be exact um so since i like had first started streaming to be honest i was like very on and off because of school and stuff i like i never had a consistent schedule um and like i would see progress sometimes but other times it would just seem very slow it was like very normal for me for a very long time to like have nobody in shop uh sometimes for an entire stream that i know was very discouraging um and um i guess you you mentioned like fulfilling being like a christian streamer well you were talking about yeah creating a space that you were you saw was missing so how did that feel being able to create that space yeah so to be honest i don't think i really started creating that space until about two years ago um i had said that i like wanted to like make a space in a way like that i would enter whenever people would come on my streams i think oftentimes i would introduce them to other communities and be like if this is what you're looking for you can come over here um and it was pretty great to see um people who I would bring over to those community and see them like I guess grow in their faith as well through that and I'd be like oh that's really cool but I'd never really do much myself to like be as open with my faith immediately it would take a little bit What really pushed me to be more open about it and start creating that space a little bit more was actually probably Reach Conference 2024. so i had no idea what that was until um staff assassinator staff invited me to it because i had known her for like four years by then um and she was like hey there's this conference and it's gonna be in your state um and i'm going you should go so she gave me my mom and my little sister free tickets to go Oh, wow.

Leighton Seys: She gave you three tickets for everybody? That's so cool.

Chemisphere: Yeah, for 2024. And so I'm like, okay, I'm going to go just to see Steph. I'm probably going to go for like an hour. and then leave maybe i'll come back the next day to say hi again and then leave so i go the first day and um i stay the entire day um because i'm like oh my goodness there are so many other streamers who are like being more open about their faith on twitch um and like they're still being super fun too like playing the video games and like having this awesome community um so like they're having fun but god is still moving through through them and through their communities um and like it was really inspiring and i guess that was when i decided that i wanted to um not only bring god more into my streams but also actually be a little bit more serious about them like i wanted to get a consistent schedule um put more work into um the things i do on stream try to work on being a better streamer like talking more being more confident. I wanted to better it in every way and I wanted to somehow bring God more into it. So the way that started out was I would do prayer requests and I would collect all the prayer requests and at the end of the stream, I would finish with prayers and stuff. Eventually, I started doing some kind of devotional every week. uh so i started doing devotions trying to do devotional i was not very good at it um to be honest i'm still not that great at it but i have seen a little bit of growth there but um ever since then i've seen um i guess god used my streams a little bit i can't say that there's like a specific thing where i realized that oh this is like this has become what i've won what i originally wanted it to be It's just been like a gradual thing that I have seen happening.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. And I think that when I was asking that, it wasn't like I was thinking, oh, it was this moment right here where it happened. Sometimes that can happen. But honestly, when we summarize our stories, like we go to examples like Paul and we think, oh, it's the road to Damascus and it was over. And then Paul just went preaching. You got to go read all the details. He goes away for two to three years before he comes back. And then he's in the church at Antioch for like two, three years before he's at has hands laid on him, and he's sent out on a missionary journey. So we read that all in about a chapter, and it's like, oh, that happened, and Paul's off doing stuff. So we often skip over all of the boring stuff of the, well, I was streaming for six months, and this was happening, and then nine months later, I still only had three people that were watching me all the time, and I had no emotes in my chat. We skip the boring parts, honestly, when we tell stories. So you don't have to have a story that feels like it's so dramatic, is I guess what I'm saying. But it's becoming what you had envisioned. And if God gave you a vision because something was missing, then I think that's what you're called to move into. And so maybe you can't fully do it until he shows you more of what that's going to be. Like Abraham's told to go to a land I will show you. okay that's real specific how will i know that i've done it or moses that you're going to go lead the people out of egypt and the proof that you're going to do it as you'll worship on this mountain afterwards like god a lot of times just gives you i i i say it this way a really vague notion of go do this and you're like okay i know i'm called but i don't know how this is working or what it's going to look like and when it'll happen yeah

Chemisphere: Yeah, it took a bit.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. And I know you being on the young end of things as well, there's a whole level at which people may not have the same expectations of you or give you the same authority to be able to move into the space. And so that can be intimidating, too, on some level for certain people that might come in and try to troll you because of your age. yeah i still have people calling me a child unfortunately well i don't it's just like the people have been following me for a while mostly just joking around well i on the other hand joke about being an old man all the time so as long as as long as you do that in jest about each other i think it's okay but when they come in and and they disregard and disrespect you for it Yeah, there we go. Phoenix the Vigilant.

Chemisphere: You child. Wait, Phoenix, no.

Leighton Seys: Guessing that's one that gives you a hard time?

Chemisphere: Sometimes.

Leighton Seys: Sometimes.

Chemisphere: Yeah. The model kind of helps because, you know, can't exactly see my face, so not entirely sure how old I am. Maybe I'm actually 100 something, like 190. I don't know. I lost count.

Leighton Seys: Could be. Could be. Maybe maybe you're Benjamin Button and you're just living backwards and you're you're you are 100 years old. You're just getting younger, you know?

Chemisphere: Yeah, exactly.

Leighton Seys: I bring that up on some level about age because I don't know if I've had people or I will have people who listen to this podcast who are in high school, who are college age and are thinking about doing this and don't know if they can seriously do it or more to the point their parents might not think it's a viable thing for them to do. And they're advising them to go get a degree, go do whatever else. And I'm not saying don't do that. But what I'm saying is. Just because you're young shouldn't be the reason that you don't do something if God gives it to you, lays it on your heart, or calls you to do that.

Chemisphere: Yeah. I know my parents were...

Leighton Seys: a little bit hesitant when i first started streaming actually they're very hesitant like how how how how how was the taco are you you're doing what on what platform what is this about is it something like that yeah it was and on top of that um

Chemisphere: I had like a very limited screen time. And they're like, you want to play video games and stream it for two hours straight? Yes.

Leighton Seys: Yeah.

Chemisphere: So this is a hard thing. If I got over those two hours of streaming, they weren't very happy about that. Um, now I'm not streaming four hours. Then again, I am an adult now.

Leighton Seys: but I also still live under their roof. So I try to respect their wishes as well. Yeah.

Chemisphere: But they're more understanding of it by now. It's been a few years. They went, they actually went to reach with me this year. I don't know. Did I introduce you to them?

Leighton Seys: I don't think I, I met your mom. I believe that. And maybe your sister.

Chemisphere: Yeah. Oh yeah. My mom is, you met my mom and sister. Yeah. I don't know if you met my dad though.

Leighton Seys: I did not meet your dad. I didn't know he was there.

Chemisphere: yeah he was there uh not as long because he was working and stuff um he came in for like a few minutes each day okay um he went to the um church on sunday but um now they're like now that they're kind of more open to they're very supportive of it now for the most part um So I'm really happy about that. But yeah, it did take a while for them to be like, okay with it. Well, they were okay with it enough for me to actually do it. And then eventually they were okay with it. A little bit more.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I think there's some level of if you trust your kids, you allow them to do things, even if you don't understand. And then and then when you begin to see and understand, then you're much more trusting to let them do more with it, regardless of whatever it is, you know. On an unrelated thing, I was never permitted to play football in middle school or high school because my mom had three brothers who all messed up their knees playing football. And no son of mine is going to mess up his knees and ruin his life. And I was like, I was always allowed to play the schoolyard, you know, football. I was always allowed to play out in the street and like nobody could tackle me because I was so short and I had short legs and I was fast. And it's like. At least couldn't you let me try, and if I get injured, my career's over, you know? But never allowed that. But like I said, totally unrelated, but there's that level of her level of mistrust of injury and fear of injury prevented her from letting me go into it. uh because it's something happened to somebody else so i say that because the same way would be as lack of knowledge and understanding of what streaming is what twitch is whether it's safe or not safe how do you make yourself safe what what guidelines do you put around things so that you can be able to have a security and a system like that and and not expose yourself to certain things there's there's a whole level of which you slowly can move yourself into those things

Chemisphere: yeah um i think the fact that i didn't have a webcam when i first started made them feel a little bit better about it um um i used to i did eventually get a webcam actually and start streaming with it but i'd have um the mask on for it which uh got pretty tiring which is why i switched over to a png um

Leighton Seys: so ping welcome in hello um so what was the exact question sorry i feel like i keep derailing it a little bit oh no no we're just talking about how you got started some things that happened along the way i will keep sidetracking the conversation or go back to things so don't worry about if you're you're lost where we are we'll just pick up where we are there's no problem uh whatsoever on that we were we were talking a little bit about age and how how how honest was it or with your you know the difficulty of your parents saying yeah this is okay to do and so you're doing that you're now streaming you you're you're adding things you you've got a mask on was that your intention to start with to put a mask on or was was that something that somebody advised you to do what was the decision process around that um i huh

Chemisphere: good question i try to i think i kind of remember um i think at one point i made a tick tock well i had made tick tocks before with clips from my streams with no face cover and at one point i just made a random tick tock like reacting to a trend or something um i was like I just didn't want my face on it. So I put on, it was a mask and sunglasses. I had sunglasses with the mask for a while. So I did that and I'm like, huh, that was kind of cool. If I ever get a webcam, I'm going to stream with the mask and sunglasses.

Leighton Seys: There you go. Fair enough. There didn't have to be a great thought behind it. There are times where you ask me why I wear flat caps. It's like, well, when I first got one, I thought it was cool. Before that, I always liked hats. I tried to figure this out one time. Where's my fascination with hats go back to? I think it is I had an uncle who was a painter. And in his casket, he was wearing a red and white polka dot hat. And I thought that was the coolest thing ever. He is in his casket. He's wearing a hat. I want to get a hat. So I had cowboy hats, other stuff, and that when I was younger. And I didn't find flat caps until I was in seventh grade. And then it was kind of like, this is mine, my style, and this is what I'll stick with.

Chemisphere: Makes sense. Yeah. I had the mask and the sunglasses for a while. The only reason I stopped wearing the sunglasses was because I lost them during band camp. Oh, no. Well, guess we're having an eye reveal now. then i just i wore regular blue light glasses instead which was actually kind of nice because everything wasn't dark anymore um and so uh for like a while it was the mask and then eventually i turned to the png i think the first time i had a png was when i was doing an 11 a 12 hour stream and i before the day before the stream i was like i'm gonna have to wear a mask for 12 hours and i was like i don't want to do that so i took a drawing i made of this character it wasn't this exact one but a different one um it's actually my profile i think it's my profile picture on discord um so i just like made the version with like open mouth close mouth open eyes close eyes that thing to make the png talk and stuff so that was the first one and i tried it out for the 12 hour stream i'm like i really like this i like not streaming with a mask and actually being able to breathe while i stream so i just stuck with it

Leighton Seys: That's fascinating. So were you still, when you were doing that and you're moving over to PNG and VTube, are you still doing Minecraft or have you shifted what you're streaming and who you're trying to reach?

Chemisphere: okay i shifted from minecraft well i used to like i had only done minecraft for a while and then i decided to try out other games um i don't remember exactly what the other games i first started out with were but uh the main one i remember is hollow knight I tried Hollow Knight and I'm like I really like this and I like streaming this so I started doing some Minecraft and some Hollow Knight and my main thing was still Minecraft and then unfortunately December around the holidays for 2024 I think um i started getting really bad migraines and for some reason within like five minutes of playing minecraft i was already having like a terrible migraine and i just couldn't do it anymore oh no so i had to stop playing minecraft and i haven't played minecraft since but that's when i switched over to streaming like mostly hollow knight um and i actually enjoyed doing my hollow knight a lot more because of like the actual story behind it and ever since then i've just been doing metroidvania games um like now i'm on ori i i don't know that one what's that one uh it's uh it's real it's such a beautiful game um it's another metroidvania game but it's like it's still like only with your uh going up down left and right okay instead of forward and backwards um but it's kind of looks 3d um It follows this little spirit character. The first Ori game is Ori and the Blind Forest, where he's kind of just going around an area trying to... restore um the realm a little bit because it's kind of deteriorating and stuff um but it's got like this really beautiful story it's got beautiful music and just the graphics are really beautiful it was easier than hollow knight so i kind of enjoyed that that fact

Leighton Seys: Um, I have, I have not played hollow night. I have watched people play it and, uh, you know, like trying to get through certain things and dying and again, and again, and again, and watch somebody for like 25 tries. And I'm like, I'm done. Like, I'm never going to play this game. Cause I will never, I will never succeed at that.

Chemisphere: Um, have some kind of records for hollow night death.

Leighton Seys: Oh, that's cool.

Chemisphere: Like you can ask Phoenix about that. He he's been helping. He helped me a lot. for trying to get through Hollow Knight because I was not doing well.

Leighton Seys: I love watching the person that's skilled that can make it look easy because it will never be easy. Those kinds of jumping and timing and all of that stuff. Whenever I run into that in games, and I usually do RPGs, and they put those in there. i only will continue to do those if it's required for the main plot you know otherwise yeah no like i've just been uh finishing up assassin's creed valhalla and they've got these training things that you can do to get badges and there's nine medals you can get well the first three i managed to get and then i open up the next six and i go try to do those I got one, and I tried the others, and one is fighting without getting hit, and the other is shooting without people seeing it. The other is stealth. I'm done. I'm not going to do these. Just let me go fight somebody. I'm not going to do things perfectly. I'm going to get hit. I'm going to be down to... Oh, we got a raid coming in. I'm going to be down to one point and, you know, then it'll be what it is. So, hey, Wasabi J coming in with the raid. Welcome in, friend. Hey, Amasta. I hope I'm saying that right. Hey, Amasta. Welcome in. Glad to have you here. Wasabi. Let me give you a shout out here. I always like doing that because then I can figure out what in the world you were playing. And Manai. Is that Manai? My uncle. There we go. There we go. Got to do it the right way. It's been a while since I've had to do all of the mod stuff when I'm doing the podcast. I usually have somebody that's here.

Chemisphere: Yeah. I guess this is a little later than the other podcast.

Leighton Seys: Oh, I... I have had some late ones. I try to remember. No, so don't worry about that. 7 o'clock is not an uncommon time for me to have one. It's just been a while since I've had one, probably before Christmas. But I did have one. Oh, I think it might have been Steph that started at 10 at night. Yeah. Maybe it wasn't 10 at night. Maybe it was 9, and then we ended up going until 2 in the morning. Oh, my goodness.

Chemisphere: She's a night owl.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, yeah, but I planned it, knew it was going to happen. That was definitely the longest one. Wasabi, hey, just did a Bible reading stream, read through Genesis 22 to 28, and talked about Abram's faithfulness and God's faithfulness in all our mess. Dude, that's awesome. That is awesome.

Chemisphere: Nice.

Leighton Seys: Well, thank you for coming in with the raid, friend. For those that are coming in that don't know, I'm Flat Cap Dapper Pastor. This is Control Alt Redeem. And on here, I have a podcast, and I bring in friends who are Twitch streamers, who are Christians, and we talk about what is going on in their life and their stream, how they got started, some obstacles that they may have overcome, and some joys they found along the way. And today, we've got Kemi, who is here. Kemi, if you want to just share a little bit about yourself for those who are coming in.

Chemisphere: Hi, I'm Kemma Spear. I am a Metroidvania gamer at the moment, currently playing Ori. As I always say, I am a Christian, but you don't have to be a Christian to, well, I guess be in my streams. I just love to share the love of Jesus, but anybody's always welcome.

Leighton Seys: That would be a weird kind of thing to make it a requirement to be a Christian. I don't know how you could enforce it. I mean, I guess you could put the band hammer down every time someone said, I don't believe in Jesus or something.

Chemisphere: Band. Band. You're out of here.

Leighton Seys: I don't think that would really, you know, have a lot of the Christians, you know, sticking around unless you were all like-minded, but not the ones I know mostly.

Chemisphere: Yeah, I used to go to a church that would ban people for being a little bit too un-Christian and, you know, not the best.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, yeah. When you are in a church community that way, but I was somewhat thinking that those people aren't going to be on Twitch, so... yeah true they're going to tell you that that video games are are not what christians should play and music is what you should listen to and what movies you can watch and yep yeah ping yes nothing fulfills a great commission like removing non-believers from your life there you go yeah that totally works that's totally how that works yeah the church that i went to um

Chemisphere: would do that a lot. This was a while ago. Obviously, I'm not in that church anymore. We were kind of forced out, which I'm actually grateful for now because now I actually know exactly how Jesus wants the church to treat people and how he loves us and is willing to love. He says, come as you are. Obviously, don't stay as you are. But he's not going to turn you away because you accidentally messed up or something.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I mean, if he was going to turn us away, then he wouldn't have sent his son. You know, God wouldn't have sent his son if he was going to turn us away. And I run into, do you run into this in your stream or your community where there are people who do not believe in a God that's good because they don't have a lot of exposure to good in their life? And when they begin to have exposure to good in their life, they don't know what to do with it, and they don't know if they even deserve that. Do you run into people like that?

Chemisphere: Um, I haven't really run into people like that, so I couldn't say too much on that.

Leighton Seys: Okay.

Chemisphere: I have had unbelievers in my stream, but I haven't had really a specific conversation like that before. Yeah.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. I've just run into a few people that that way from time to time. And hey, one reason. Welcome in. um so it's just it's just one of those things that's interesting that you run into people from all walks of life all experiences all different levels and as you're saying is you don't have to believe you don't have to be a christian to be in the stream like there are plenty of people that come and hang out because it's not toxic like just just being in a space that is not toxic is like a breath of fresh air to so many people

Chemisphere: Exactly. That's why I like to emphasize that, obviously, I am a Christian, but, like, anybody's welcome, and I want to do my best to make sure that they feel welcome, because I feel the biggest, one of the biggest things, you see, that Jesus taught when he was... on earth is to love each other yes um that was um i think i could be wrong but i think one of like the last things he told the apostles to do to love each other um so what i gotta do on my streams i just i gotta show kindness and love everybody obviously i'm gonna say the truth um i am a christian and if they ask me what i believe i'm gonna say what i believe i believe in what the bible says um but that doesn't mean i'm gonna like um hate on anybody because they think differently because that's just gonna push people away from god if anything

Leighton Seys: Yeah, that's a great summary there of I don't hate on people because that's going to push people away from God. How is it then that some people who get the message that hating on people is going to bring them to God? I don't know where they get that from. And I don't know that that really is the right way to think of it either because they don't want them to come to God. They're kind of like Jonah in that I don't want them. that group over there i don't want them to come to god they don't deserve jesus's they don't deserve gods they don't deserve mercy grace love any of that they don't deserve any of it yeah that's that's terrible way to think um right Which, by the way, Jonah is one of my favorite books, and I love how it ends with no ending because you're not supposed to know that Jonah actually changes his mind or not, and you're supposed to be left with, is this a mirror that I'm looking at myself? That's what I think you're supposed to do when you read Jonah.

Chemisphere: I've got to read it again. I haven't read it in a bit.

Leighton Seys: yeah phoenix phoenix saying there are some that confuse true agape love with condemnation boy that is i don't know how you confuse agape love because agape love is the love that self sacrifices so i don't know where you get condemnation from but i'm not disagreeing with you i'm just saying boy that's a that's a reality check to think about that yep

Chemisphere: I'm just grateful that despite the rejection I experienced in the church that I had, at least they did something good and they taught that the people in the church aren't God. So they taught me that God is loving and that the people mess up sometimes. So at least they taught that because when I did... get rejected and went through all that hurt. I was able to keep in mind, I knew that God isn't okay with that, that he isn't the people who did that, that he's actually someone who loves me and that wants me to just keep following him and be with him. He wants me, yeah.

Leighton Seys: Words are hard. Words are hard sometimes, yes. Well, I mean, you're trying to be succinct about something and really precise. Sometimes it's just like, that's what I love at times about Jesus too. He just like gives examples from real life, like the stuff around him. You know, he tells a story of two brothers. He tells a story about someone losing a coin. He tells a story about sheep. Now, I don't relate to sheep very easily. So I have to learn about sheep in order to relate to those stories. But the fact that he just took what was ordinary around in everybody's life, it makes it so relatable. And I think stories are really where you connect with people.

Chemisphere: yeah i love stories um that's actually something that i'm trying to use a lot in my um portfolio as i'm trying to get into animation um for my cover letter i have like a whole section talking about how much i love stories i just think they're like just a really cool way to like visualize thoughts and explain stuff. Because I often have a hard time explaining what's going on in my head. And sometimes in order to explain it, I'll try to use, I guess, symbolism in a way and write a poem that tells a story in a way. So sometimes that even helps me get a better grasp of what I'm going through.

Leighton Seys: Oh, yeah. And we think about Jesus' parables that way, you know, the Good Samaritan. What do we think about, you know? We have the whole story wrapped up in there when we think about what it is. But we lose the shock value because it's become familiar, but we still have the story to grasp a hold of and to hang thoughts and conversations on. What's interesting is I heard someone... who was in another country, talk about that, the experience they had. And in that other country, when the question was asked at the end, what Jesus asked, and who was a neighbor to him, they viewed it as the innkeeper. The innkeeper was the neighbor because the innkeeper took this man in with only a partial payment and no guarantee that the guy would ever come back. and and fully pay the debt that was going to be owed for keeping him but i'm like wow i had never thought about that there was another person who was also a neighbor in that story not just the samaritan that's so cool yeah i never thought about that either yeah but but we already have the story so then you can you can change it you can modify it you can you can move it in different directions and and and still the truth of the story is still there still contained

Chemisphere: yeah stories are pretty great they are definitely i feel like i can understand things a lot better through the parables um sometimes i do need like help from others to like hey can you explain this um i don't get it

Leighton Seys: Well, we all have that at times because it's not our culture and it's not our language. And we miss things that would have been so prevalent and understood to the people that were there. And there's things that have been lost in knowledge and understanding for hundreds or thousands of years at times to even know what no one was talking about.

Chemisphere: Yeah. It's kind of what I'm hoping to do with animation in a way.

Leighton Seys: Are you just, just, are you, when you're putting that together, are you putting some storyboarding in with your story there or is it just strictly story and then animation or your, your cells or whatever you're putting together in your portfolio, totally separate?

Chemisphere: Oh, um, okay. So the portfolio is, um, there, you have different sections. You have, you got a cover letter, two essay questions. Um, and then you have a section with your designs, which, um, I have, uh, 3D cardboard sculpture thing I did a painting and three of my own like digital mostly character drawings and then you have the next section is drawings from life so those are a bunch of charcoal figure drawings I made And the last thing is a one-minute video where you basically just showcase what you're best at when it comes to motion. So it can be live action or it can be drawn. I chose to do a little storyboard animatic. Phoenix actually helped me voice one of the characters, so he did really great for that.

Leighton Seys: Very cool.

Chemisphere: Phoenix is getting shout-outs now.

Leighton Seys: There you go.

Chemisphere: Yeah. It's only the only like portion that actually shows any animation is that last video. And that's if you choose to show that you basically just showcase what your best out there.

Leighton Seys: That's very cool. Yeah, I'm just thinking because you were talking about that and doing it. And in some ways, I think it can still be totally related to what you do as a streamer. And I don't know if you've thought about this, but I like watching artists. There's a whole connection of artists within Twitch that do art and stream it. You've got to get a different setup and different cameras. But it's pretty cool to watch people do art. I find it fascinating.

Chemisphere: Yeah, I've done some drawings. It's hard for me to focus when I'm trying to draw on stream, but sometimes I can. It depends on what I'm drawing. I do somehow want to try to incorporate animation into my streams, or at least storytelling, I think. I'm always like super invested in the stories and the games I play. And I don't know. I kind of want to see if I could somehow incorporate my own stories into it somehow.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Well, like I said, I really enjoy those. So whatever as a chance, I encourage people that are artists to go do that. I've got a best friend from college who back in the day when he was in college, he. was doing the inking for the X-Men cartoon series. So the cartoon series was on TV, and then they made the comic books of the cartoon series that was not far from where I live now, and he was doing the ink for it. So he would ink out all of those drawings that were matching what the cartoon was. He doesn't have his name on anything because he was just an apprentice working, you know, as a college gig there. And I really wish he would have stayed doing that. He now works for the local library. That's not his main job, but his wife is a librarian. So he goes and volunteers and he teaches kids how to draw at the local library.

Chemisphere: Cool.

Leighton Seys: So I keep telling him he needs to stream drawing and bring that on there. But I think it's fascinating. One thing you could think about is doing it as a co-working stream so people wouldn't expect you to talk except maybe top of the hour or something that you would be able to say, hey, what's going on or what you were working on for the last hour so they could watch you work without you feeling you have to entertain them if you put it in co-working maybe. I don't know. Just a thought. And maybe it's not the right time for you to do that yet.

Chemisphere: Yeah, I've learned to like, well, trying to be a little bit more energetic in my streams. But I could try to find more time to do more art. And then I know they love seeing me draw crows. I drew a bunch of crows at one point. That was fun.

Leighton Seys: Okay. Why crows?

Chemisphere: oh because um apparently i'm the i'm the queen of the crows and i'm trying to raise a crow army to take down disney okay um yeah there you go i'll just leave it at that and it'll be a mystery and people will need to show up to your stream to learn more there we go yeah fair yeah that's that's been in the works for a few years now um yeah i love crows um i have like a whole um crow powerpoint that people can uh redeem with points um and then i'll just go over the crows and explain where they came from and if any of them have any lore i'll tell them the stories and stuff

Leighton Seys: Very cool. I have a bunch of crows that have been visiting my yard for the last two months. So yes, but not so nice. So what happened when I was at reach is my pond sprung a leak. And so there was only like a foot and a half of water in there when I got home. So I had a bunch of dead fish. So it was frozen outside, so I couldn't do anything to fix it. I took the small fish inside. The big fish are fine out in the pond who are still alive. But I threw all of the dead fish in my garden. And so... Since then, about every other week, the crows just show up and have a feast on one of the creatures from my pond.

Chemisphere: Oh, dear.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Maybe I should start feeding crows fish. Feed them the fish.

Chemisphere: I'm just going to start writing this down.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, yeah, there you go. Yeah. It's just all storytelling. You know, how did the fish die? You can come up with your own stories. I think the saddest, like, I don't think I've ever shared this on stream. The saddest story I've ever had with a fish that died. And people go, yeah, it's fish. It's not the same as a cat or a dog. And I won't argue that it's not the same. I don't get to pet them. But I get to enjoy their beauty and watch them and raise them just like you would. And, like, all the koi I have now were birthed in my pond. But one of my first three koi we named Grumpy. Because the fins were always tight, and that's a sign of stress. Nothing we could do would make Grumpy happy. And so the aquarium didn't work. Grumpy was always upset, always testing the water, doing stuff. Finally, I got a pond for outside, put Grumpy outside. Grumpy was happy. Well, then I had chipmunks that were digging holes all around the pond. So I put mothballs out there to get rid of the chipmunks. Well, one day when I was out there doing something, one of the mothballs rolled into the water, and I think Grumpy ate the mothball. And so Grumpy's bladder system to float had gone awry and could not swim and could not float, and Grumpy ended up dying. I cried really hard when Grumpy died.

Chemisphere: Grumpy.

Leighton Seys: Yeah.

Chemisphere: I'm sorry about that.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, it's okay. It's a couple of years ago. Well, I shouldn't say it's before I was streaming because, no, I think Grumpy was around on a stream or two. But it's been a few years. Yeah, it is sad. But I didn't cry as much with all of these other fish that died because I had so many I don't have names anymore.

Chemisphere: That's fair. I try to name the crows. But it's just hard to differentiate them sometimes.

Leighton Seys: Yeah.

Chemisphere: I've been able to find Munchkin and Munchette. And there's one other guy who I haven't named yet. He's like a really buff-looking crow. I just don't know what to call him.

Leighton Seys: A buff-looking crow. Maybe Buffalo.

Chemisphere: Ooh, maybe.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Or Buffy. Buffy.

Chemisphere: Oh, that's cute.

Leighton Seys: Buff a crow. Nice. Nicely played there, Ping. Well, to shift gears, what have been some difficulties you've had with being a streamer? And they could be stuff that just happened in life. They could be stuff with tech stuff. They could be stuff that happened of how to schedule things. Just what have been some difficulties you've had to work through and overcome through the years as being a streamer and being a Christian streamer?

Chemisphere: probably def no definitely um school trying to school at the same time like there have been times where i'm like am i gonna have to quit streaming for for school i haven't done that yet but like there's been times i'm like I might have to like, I don't know, set it aside for a little bit. I did at one point, but I was in high school and I was, I think that was the only time I like really set it aside, but it was also like back when I didn't even really have a schedule yet. So it wasn't like, I guess too noticeable. this semester i was really worried because my my class schedule and everything and all the clubs i had and now the portfolio i was worried i was gonna have to like cut down on stream time and stuff um i haven't done that yet so i think we might be good um but yeah it's definitely school trying to

Leighton Seys: stream uh get find time to stream while still like doing all my homework and projects um for college yeah how do how do you manage and set that up is is the stream protected and so you've got to work around it or is it i have to get my school work done so that i can stream how do you how do you approach that

Chemisphere: um i since i have like a set schedule for a stream now that schedule does change like every semester because my classes change every semester right um and i do my absolute best to like make sure i have a stream three times a week and each stream at least four hours um I haven't been able to do full-on four hours since the year started because my grandma's the one who usually picks up my little sister from school, but my grandma's in Colombia right now, so I'm the one who has to pick up my little sister, make sure she eats and everything. So I've had to cut my weekday streams short. The only one that really hasn't changed for a very long time has been my Sunday streams, which... usually are my favorite streams i prefer streaming at night if i could stream at night every stream i'd do that but i just can't because i have stuff in the evenings Mostly the only day that I don't have like something scheduled every single week is on Wednesday evenings. That's where I have like if anybody wants to do something like play video games or something or have a podcast, it's on a Wednesday.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Well, that works. That works good that way to have those openings and have a window so that you can fill it with something if something an opportunity comes up or, you know. But I like this will be interesting in some ways. Like when you have other people in your life, too, you need to work your schedule around. So your schedule has changed because of because of your sister and your your is your grandmother, right? Who is not around. So so that has made a change for you. But when. I was going through seminary. I have three kids and my wife is working and my wife has an hour drive back and forth to work, which meant when she got home and I already made dinner, it was like dinner needed to be ready when she got home. And I already had to have the kids sitting down and doing homework. So like you had this routine and this schedule so that when she got home, she wasn't spending all of her time with kids doing homework. It was, we're sitting around the table as a family. We're gonna enjoy some time together. and then she had to you know at times we would figure out things like all right i have mondays off every week i don't do homework on saturday and sunday because those are the two days that she's home so because i like honestly would study in greek and hebrew i could have buried my nose in a book all weekend long and had plenty to do and it was just like no i i can't do that i'm i'm not going to end up being a scholar in either of those languages that's not what god's bringing me to do so i don't need to spend all of that time uh i have a family so it was no homework on saturday no homework on sunday the exception being of exam week that would be the one time we could didn't have to but it'd be like oh i want to get this done when this is done i'm done um but then i'll have monday so yeah that balance of of different things yeah of being responsible yeah win for being responsible there we go

Chemisphere: yeah i try to schedule um not just around school but around family too um i do i could do a stream friday evenings because i don't have to worry about school or anything friday evenings except um friday evenings are um are not a school night for my family or work night for my family so um if they're gonna wanna do something together it might be friday evenings saturday or sunday as long as it's not too late sunday so i try to keep that time as free as possible um so that if they decide to do something i can be with them um like the only exception is ever like if friends like IRL friends are planning something like there's a birthday or something I'll go to that um but I will like I'll keep it like stream free those times um so that's why i stream sundays later because by then my family is supposed well they're supposed to be getting ready for bed but they're always staying up past past their bedtime they're so irresponsible yeah i'm trying to get them to sleep on time but they won't Darn parents. Anyways. Yeah, I have class Mondays, early Monday afternoons, so I had to move my Monday streams to Tuesdays. Mondays are a day where I would do my homework, but I would stay at my college the entire time to study with friends over there, because I live kind of far from my campus, so... you i can't like go to school and then come back home and then go back so i just stay there the whole day yep um so tuesdays i have stream i don't really have time to do homework between stream and then having to go back to school on tuesdays wednesdays i have school but i can come home right after school and do whatever like homework i gotta do in the afternoon and if i have plans with like a podcast um i'll do that thursdays i have a stream and if the afternoon that's that is kind of um either for whatever homework's left over um I want to try to fit in extra rock climbing time for that. I'm going to see if I can do that. It's kind of hard. Thursdays, because Thursdays are also D&D days. And then, yeah, Fridays are just whatever homework's left and family.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Well, if you wanted to get the mask back out, you could rock climb and stream that. I could.

Chemisphere: That'd be embarrassing, though.

Leighton Seys: I don't know. I mean, it depends on what you're going for. Speed record of something you can already do.

Chemisphere: I spent a lot of time in the air and then on the ground.

Leighton Seys: And then on the ground. Okay.

Chemisphere: Yeah. Not actually. It was just like, I'm not like an expert. at all in rock climbing and um the other day when i was it was actually the last time i went rock climbing usually i do i try to do a lot of bouldering um so that's without a rope and it's up to a certain line because you're not allowed to go above that line without a rope so i decided to climb as i usually do i make it to the top and i'm like okay time to get down so so there was asking about stickers on my mug Oh, it's like nice stickers. So I made it to the top and usually I just climb down a few rocks and then hop off because the floor is squishy. I can hop off, but I'm too scared to hop off from the entire height.

Leighton Seys: Oh, yeah. So I just said either.

Chemisphere: Yeah. Some people can do it if they're taller, maybe. But that's like that's that's very far and scary. So I climbed down a few, but this time I grabbed the wrong rock and just like slipped completely and felt completely on my back. And it sounded so loud. And every single person in that room just like stopped and looked at me. It was so embarrassing. And I just like held up a thumbs up. I'm fine. And then I just found a place where nobody was. And I just stayed there for a little bit.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Yeah, when you do something embarrassing, that's not fun. I think one of the ones that stands out for me of a really embarrassing moment was when I was working in a cafeteria in a factory. So they had like five, ten minutes for lunch break and other breaks that they would come in, and the phone rang. I go to answer the phone. And it was a different phone. It was a pay phone around the corner that was ringing. And everybody saw me answer the phone and there was nobody there. Started laughing at me. Like, just try to answer the phone.

Chemisphere: See, this is why for stuff like this, it's nice to have like friends around because I don't know. I feel like it's easier to be embarrassed when there's friends around and they can just laugh with you.

Leighton Seys: Oh, yeah. Yeah. They laugh at you and then you can laugh with them. That's.

Chemisphere: Yeah. Yeah. It feels a little bit less embarrassing.

Leighton Seys: Yeah.

Chemisphere: Unfortunately, I don't have anybody rock climbing with me. So trying to convince my friends to come with me.

Announcer/Intro Voice: We'll see.

Leighton Seys: Well, if one of them's got to hold the camera, then then they'll be there. I guess. I'm just, I'm just going to continue. Like I do this. I continually give people ideas of what they could do on stream. You know, like I do the same thing. You know, I do one off here or there. I do riding my bicycle streams. I love, I love the exploring what a stream could be and what you could expose people to and you could reach new people. So it's, it's just fascinating to me to think about, could you stream that and what people watch and what community could you build around that?

Chemisphere: Yeah. Maybe if I was better, I'd try.

Leighton Seys: Well, there you go. That's like I said, you know, if you set goals of I'm going to get better and I'm going to be able to do this and you can watch me accomplish that and hang out and.

Chemisphere: Yeah.

Leighton Seys: I don't know. You don't have to. Maybe it just inspires somebody else that's listening. Maybe that's what that's for.

Chemisphere: I would like to meet more rock climbers, see what their, I don't know, what does their rock climbing life look like? How good are they? I don't know. Do they sometimes just fall flat on their back all the time too?

Leighton Seys: Don't know. I say we don't really have a lot of rock climbing where I live unless it's a rock climbing wall. We don't we don't have a lot of mountains. We we got sand dunes and there's not a lot of Florida here.

Chemisphere: So, yeah, we just got the rock climbing walls.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Well, it's about the same. So other have there been other like besides school, have there been some stuff on stream that's been a difficult thing that you've had to overcome?

Chemisphere: um i had this i guess there was this one situation that happened i think it's gonna be a year ago soon or in a few months it's probably gonna be a year ago um with someone who i had known in person like i met in person um but i wasn't like i didn't know this person too well I kind of ended up giving them my discord out of kind of pressure at the moment. and then through that they ended up finding my twitch so they were like at every stream um which was kind of hard for me because um i guess they weren't really in the best uh they did they they were struggling with mental health and stuff which is understandable and like i tried my best to help them but it was like both in person um this person would like show up um at my school and stuff um they didn't go there but they'd show up and so i was trying to like help them through there and then i'd be getting like a whole bunch of calls a lot and i think i guess the heart one of the hardest parts was during stream because it was like in a like in the middle of a live with a whole bunch of other people right and i had um like i was trying to like give the best like advice that I could but there was like also that pressure like there's other people here um and like it's not like exactly the kind of conversations I want to be having live um eventually something happened um this with this person uh I don't remember exactly how it went down but involved a few people and this person was just like really unhappy with us um uh and he ended it up uh i guess going all um like going all out on me like live on stream um oh on his own show huh no on my stream like in my chat okay just in the chat yes okay so um that was a moment where i was like i just i kind of just like broke there so i was like okay guys i'll be right back and i was like on the be right back page for like half an hour um trying to like process things I had like, I ended up calling one of my mods at the time. He kind of helped talk to me, talk me through it and all. And he ended up, I guess, having to ban this person for me because he just wouldn't back off. So that was like a hard situation that I just, in the moment, I really had no idea how to deal with. And it was something that had gradually been happening over a few months that I had no idea how to deal with both in person and online. So I guess it was a really good learning moment. I learned stuff that I could have probably done differently to take better care of myself. And things would have probably been better for everyone if I had done it differently. I still, like, pay for this person. I don't see them at all anymore. I made sure that there was distance because it just was not healthy. It took a bit for me to, like, I guess, calm down from the situation because, like, even after, like, I... put that distance and some people helped me put that distance. I was still nervous because he would show up to a lot of things. He knew where I went to school. He knew where I went to church. He knew a lot of my schedule. He was someone who was, I guess, unpredictable. You never knew what he would say and he would say some really concerning stuff sometimes, which is why I say I should have dealt this differently from the beginning. and that would have been better for everybody. But now I have an idea of how I would do it differently if it happened again. That was probably the hardest thing that happened on stream before.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I can totally see how difficult, how hard that would be. Just to back up there to say this, this is not just about streaming or otherwise, but when someone is pressuring you to do something, your gut is telling you don't do. trust your gut you know like it turns out bad you know like this can happen in all kinds of things not just hey give me your discord hey send me pictures of you hey do something else um if someone's pressuring you then it's not coming from a place of love and i don't mean they're begging you please can't you do it but i mean they're like they there's they're putting a press on you in some way uh manipulation trying to do that like if your gut is saying no trust your gut give yourself permission to do that no matter what it is no matter who that is it could be a it could be a pastor okay like look at the number i don't know these are all related in any way the number of pastors in the last three years that are have been coming out with all kinds of different abuse things in fact the the closest church to my house the pastor had an abuse scandal over there. So it's in your neighborhoods, it's online, it's other places. Do not let people persuade you. It happens to people of all ages. So I'm not saying this because you're young. I'm saying this because it can happen to any one of us.

Chemisphere: Yeah, please be careful. Don't do what I do. If you're uncomfortable... Just trust your gut. Trust your gut.

Leighton Seys: Yep. If later on the situation changed, they ask you nicely and your gut's like, I'll fine with it, then you can do that. But don't let the pressure and the moment give into that because it does not usually turn out good, especially if they are nefarious. If they were just having a bad day and pressuring you in a bad way, they'll apologize for it and they won't ask again, you know. Well, I'm sorry that you went through that. That is a bit scary to think about someone that knew you in person as well as online. And I know for some VTubers, the reason they don't show themselves online is to try to have that protection and anonymity in their own space and community so that people can't find them. i've i've gone the other direction because i've been a pastor and a public figure in many different places and it'd be almost impossible to hide my identity at this point so i so i don't try to do that i also you know do try to be safe about it in some ways and not give too much information but frankly there's so much out there it would not be hard to find out exactly where i lived or anything like that yeah yeah i didn't like start um

Chemisphere: using the png because of like safety or anything but it is something that i'm like consider like i think i would keep for a while for that sake yeah it's not just for like avoiding the mask but also just for safety as well yeah avoiding that's a nice yeah

Leighton Seys: well it's a nice extra layer for it but but also there was that creative side of you as well that by by you drawing that and you creating that you you are expressing a part of yourself um yeah as as you are streaming so i think that's cool

Chemisphere: My character kind of has her own story too. I'm a half-blaze, possibly half-vampire. That's a whole thing we've come up with now. You probably can't see it in the PNG at all, but I got pointy teeth. like part of it like comes from like real life stuff like in real life i am sensitive to the sun like if i am out in the sun for just a few minutes without sunglasses and if the sun's too high i will get a headache and it'll be bad and um i actually do have pointy teeth um which um i really like when i got my braces off the dentist offered to shave them down and i was like no don't touch them i like them um the blaze part i don't know i just like fire and since i started out as um someone who was playing minecraft i kind of took inspiration from the minecraft blaze so yeah i'm Half blaze, which is why my hair is kind of orange in some parts. It's kind of supposed to represent fire. Half vampire.

Leighton Seys: That's, you know, you're talking about lore earlier and talking about telling stories and the creative drawing, all of those things, they come together. That's really cool.

Chemisphere: Yeah. I don't know how much of that lore made sense, but.

Leighton Seys: Oh, I think so.

Chemisphere: Most of it, like most of the things in the room is tied to something. like that I've talked about in Chai or that has come up often, like the Fire Elmo.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Well, even at that, like stuff that is in my room is related to stream at some point in some way, most of it. So it does become part of that lore of your channel when it's there. I don't know if you can see it. It might be off screen for people that are out here. The Helldivers.

Chemisphere: Yeah.

Leighton Seys: The trophy from Reach Conference.

Chemisphere: I got mine. It's not in the drawing. I have to add that in. But I have mine next to my bookshelf. His hand fell off because I dropped him. I'm so sad. I have to glue it back on somehow.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Supersonic. Even at Reach, there were some who were still anonymous because they didn't want their face name out there. Anonymity is fine. You don't use webcam either. But in a VC, you may, depending on who it is. Yeah. Yeah, and you're right. That was another point. Some people did stay masked to keep their anonymity from their character, from their persona, and keep that intact, and others for other reasons. So I don't see issue with that. And you know what? It's one of those things where some people will, but it's like if you spend time – I was having this conversation earlier with somebody this week. pretty much anything that you might judge someone for, if you don't know a person that has it, it's easy to judge people for that. As soon as you have a name and a face and a conversation with a person, there's a lot more grace that you're inclined to give a person about that thing. So, and it might not even have to be something that's their choice. You know, it could be somebody that walks with a limp and you just like are freaked out by that because of, you know, Quasimodo or something. And so, you know, it could be totally unrelated to the person and you put that on them, but then you go spend time with that person and it's like, oh, wait, no, I can give grace to them. And I was the one that was judging. I think that goes back to what we were talking about earlier of non-Christians in the stream and how do we treat them?

Chemisphere: Yeah. um when i first started streaming i actually was like really unsure about vtubers i was like why would why would you do that it's so weird um and i'm like what do you mean it's weird that's so cool so like i don't know like making your own character and getting to use it having it like talk and everything so i think it's really cool i used to think it was weird but not anymore

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Well, so we talked about a couple of difficulties that you've had to overcome. Has there been anything that just surprised you that you weren't expecting to have happen as being a streamer? Because you're a streamer, now you've had a couple of events or you've witnessed something in your community or another community that you didn't expect to have happen?

Chemisphere: I'm going to go back to Reach Conference for this.

Leighton Seys: That's fine.

Chemisphere: uh specifically the worship in region conference um i guess 2024 when they um they had their worship session um and i was there and like i saw a whole bunch of streamers just like not uh like just pausing their like goofy self for a bit to like to praise god um and like they were just like so into it I was in the back when they were worshipping. I think it was the end of the first day. I was in the back. So I saw different streamers. And I think, I don't know why, but I think the one that stood out to me the most was I noticed Kaori worshipping. I hadn't known about her at all before Rage. i like saw her the first day on like the big screens when she had her model and everything i was like oh my goodness she's so cool and so um i don't know i think it was i think it was because like she was a vtuber and like had this like really artistic and fun character but like i saw her in her like mask and cool costume and everything praising god and i'm just like was just like seeing like the two worlds collide except they'd always like been together like in a way right right i think one of the things that

Leighton Seys: I don't know if this is the right word to say, but we've inherited this separation of church and state. And so in our minds, something cannot be both worshiping God and not worshiping God at the same time. So you can't cross over the lines between them. It either has to be of God or it's got to be of the world. And it's like... you know some things are just fun to do and in the fun of doing them you can worship god some things are just beautiful and because god created us to be creators and to appreciate beauty that is also worshiping god so when you you see a group of people that the world may view poorly because they're Christians, and Christians may view poorly because of something that that group of people does. It's fun to see them gather together and be able to worship God together. Yeah, that was pretty cool. In 2024 and in 2025, the number of people that were just... ignoring anybody was there and worshiping in whatever way they felt and then drawing other people into it as they worshiped and and those leading worship was just magnificent yeah um it was really beautiful in 2025 at the end of the worship um when they asked um if anybody there was going to be giving their life to jesus for the first time and there were people there yeah and like

Chemisphere: at a gaming streaming conference i mean like yeah there were like christian people there but it's like it's a gaming conference yeah and that's and god was there and that's where someone decided to give their life to him where multiple people decided to that which is just crazy and like i don't know seeing people just worship god and they're like most like i'd say like kind of their most authentic creative selves.

Leighton Seys: Yes, that's the word I was looking for. They're just authentically being fully present in how God has created them and worshiping God at the same time.

Chemisphere: Yeah, it's just so beautiful.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, Ping was just saying is, you know, think about after TwitchCon, how many people are talking about it and continuing to talk about it on their streams months after TwitchCon. It comes and goes, but we're still talking about Reach Conference, and we're still talking about Reach Conference 24, not just Reach Conference 25. You know, so it is... a thing of its own and those that are involved in it who've experienced it and i don't know if you got to i didn't i didn't actually get to go but i heard there were a couple of baptisms that also happened at reach conference that were were planned so somebody from a streamers community wanted to get baptized by pastor douston and pastor douston was at going to be at reach conference so they planned for the baptism to happen at reach conference and it ended up being a swimming pool at an airbnb or something like that oh yeah i didn't get to see it i like i heard about it after i'm like well i wish i got to see that yeah i i didn't get to go see it but i i was staying with pastor deuston so he he did show me the video of it it was pretty cool oh ping you didn't get invited yeah i'm not salty i'm not salty i'm not salty you're salty yep I get that. But maybe, you know, in the moment, people aren't always considering and thinking about everybody else. So and I think it was in the morning before reach. And I know where you were staying, it might have been difficult for you to make it there, too. But you've seen the video. There you go.

Chemisphere: Yeah, I don't see the video. I haven't seen it yet. I also was like it would have been hard for me to make it earlier, too. I think I made it kind of late the last day.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I believe that was Saturday morning. So that would have been the last day. Yeah. Has there been anything that we haven't talked about that you'd like to touch base on?

Chemisphere: Sure.

Leighton Seys: Not sure. Okay. Well, then let's just try to look ahead because you do have plans for school. You're pursuing a degree. You're putting that stuff together to do that. As you pursue that, do you just hold being a streamer and what it is right now in a holding pattern to just evolve as you go forward? Or is there any long-term new endeavors that you think about trying to do with streaming?

Chemisphere: I think at the moment I'm hoping to keep it at the same rhythm for a while, trying to grow with this rhythm. I do want to definitely keep streaming for as long as I can. And I have seen a lot of, most of the opportunities for things that I've seen have been a cause of streaming. For instance, I... guess i've met i've got like in a way met people with connections to people in the industry right animation like i didn't get that through school i got that through streaming like i streamed and then i met someone and then this person knows this person i'm like wow and this person's like if you ever want to talk to the director of mulan let me know i'm like cool um and then with like reach i got the opportunity to see um the um the animators for um gabriel and the guardians yeah and i also got to um find out about um barely biblical which was pretty cool um so i feel like I should definitely also keep streaming for the sake of meeting more people too. I think it could possibly open up a whole lot of opportunities.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Yeah. I like this is just me. I always love making connections and connecting other people to to someone else. So it was it was fun to to go with Romans because Roman stayed at my house and we went to the Christian Game Developers Conference, which was an hour from my house. And we invited a bunch of the people that we met there to come to reach conference. And so the animators of Gabriel and the Guardians were one of the ones that we invited to come. So it's like, oh, so you're you're connecting with them. I got to connect with them earlier and then and then see them again at reach conference. And I'm not an animator. I just get excited about that stuff and watching people's talents and skills come about and develop. And the guys that were there, I want to say Chris is one of the names that were from France. We also met. Oh, shoot. His name is escaping me. uh but there are at least four groups four four or five that uh romans invited that were all in gaming artists whether they were doing it as animation uh like comic book style or they were doing video games development artistry there was a whole bunch that was just really cool and then to see them at reach was a whole lot of fun yeah it was really cool getting to see those animators there and also other awesome creators Yeah, the cool thing at the Christian Game Developers Conference was talking about, and I talk about this with some people too, there's a difference between being a streamer who's Christian and being a Christian streamer. And when you go into different worlds, like you're going into work in gaming, are you a game developer that's a Christian or are you a Christian game developer? I mean, are your games going to be a Christian-based game? I mean, I can't wait for Gate Zero to come out. I'm excited about it. It's going to be a Christian-themed game. I think it's going to be fun. But I also like games that don't have obvious Christian themes, but you can still hide them in there. You can still have something that's redeeming. You can still have beauty within there. And those are what you can bring as a Christian to places that you're not trying to be Christian forward. You're just trying to be... God honoring in what you do.

Chemisphere: yeah that's that's kind of what i want to do um there's like this there's this story that i've been trying to work on since i was uh i don't know one of the characters was my imaginary friend when i was like four so i guess he's like my first uh oc but um the story that i want to make with these characters it's not i want to make it into a show well first i'm hoping to make it into a web comic and eventually hopefully it'll be a show but um it's not a Christian story, but it's, I want it to have like Christian symbolism or like, I want the, the main character is going to be, I guess, a representation of how it doesn't matter where you come from, what you might've done in your past, what people might've done to you. God can still use you. You can still grow and still do amazing things. and just change for the better um yeah it's just um i don't want to go into too many details of the story it's like don't share yeah yeah don't don't share all of those until you're ready uh yeah well

Leighton Seys: I took creative writing classes when I was in seminary. I thought I was going to do book writing or dramas and plays and like that. So I actually did join the Screenwriters Guild when I was in seminary, and I wrote a screenplay. and one of the things i did to make sure that nobody could claim anything that i had created was i mailed it to myself so i had the state the stamp on there and the date that i you know so anybody that tries to produce that out there uh i i wrote it and nobody else can can you know claim that but um but now you've got digital fingerprints so that's going to be a whole lot easier yeah But I get that you, you, you, when you're working on something that is precious to you, you are careful of who you share that with. And you don't, you want to share it with the world. You want to share it with people that you love, but you want them to love it as much as you do. And so until they're ready to love it, you don't want to share it and have it attacked or you attacked because they don't see the same thing that you do.

Chemisphere: Yeah. I'm hoping to, I've already like started on the script a little bit, but it's the comic probably isn't going to be out for awhile. Cause I'm busy. But hopefully I'll have started by the time I graduate.

Leighton Seys: Very fun. Yeah, I had some different software programs that essentially were designed for you to be able to. take and take a character and answer questions about your character so you could flesh out three-dimensional uh aspects to that character so every time you were trying to write from that character's perspective you had all of your lore down really in depth so you didn't just start writing it and then oops well this isn't consistent with the character you spent your time developing the lore behind every character main character that was going to be in there and the more you could flesh that out the more honest the language would become when you would share what they were thinking and what they were doing yeah so that's i i like i like i wish like this might be one of those things who knows maybe at some point you know when i've got grandkids i'll write stories for them and then i'll i'll go and do that but for now i'm not writing fiction so i'm trying to trying to write this year but i'm not trying to write fiction hair i love writing fiction well

Chemisphere: i did i do i did enjoy doing a lot of uh poems and stuff and and japanese haikus were pretty fun oh cool yeah right i've got i've done like a little bit of poetry um i started poetry i think my first poem was a poem making fun of poems And then my teacher really, really liked it. And then ever since then, I just started writing more poems. Because like, I don't know, poetry is weird. I still think it's weird, but I still write poetry.

Leighton Seys: For some reason, I think I have it around here somewhere. I was just trying to look and see if I could see it. The first poem I ever wrote, like, I don't know, first or second grade was my book, a poem. So you had to, you know, go copy some that you liked and you had different themes you had to put in the book and write them out and do some drawings. And then you had to have an original one. So I think I could remember it without having to go look, look it up. Children's Day is coming soon. I think it's in July or June. if you know please tell me do or i will punch you and you will have a bloody nose i kind of ran out of steam at the end of it um so i was like it was it was kind of like you know a slam poetry you know before i knew what slam poetry was i was writing slam poetry so i love that uh yeah i i've definitely not shared that with my stream uh that'll that'll be a clip somebody's gonna take and share around the internet that's that's gonna be fun guys clip it yeah clip clip it you know what i could have clipped it myself but i didn't i'll have to I love the thought at some point of taking random things that I say like that and just putting a montage together and just putting it on some platform I've never been on and just seeing what in the world would happen from that. Like... you could make a montage of it and use it for next year's reach yeah but i need somebody else to do it there's too many of those all over the place and i don't i forget to clip them so apparently i make really weird noises when i'm streaming like

Chemisphere: i don't know i get scared and like but like i yell really weirdly or something and so i decided to get a random stream and have it be only the random noises and it's it's interesting yeah i've seen people put those together if they play horror games of just them being scared you know over and over and over again and uh yeah yeah it could be a fun thing actually posted it but it's somewhere

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I was just thinking totally unrelated, random things, unconnected, put them on a platform that I'm not on and just see does does this just get buried or does this go viral? But I probably won't ever do it. Yeah. Oh, I have lots of ideas. I don't I don't actually go do most of them. I don't have time. I just I just come up with more ideas.

Chemisphere: So one idea I've had that I've never done is. Have you ever heard of YouTubers like Jaden Animations or TheOdd1sOut at all? I think so. You have? They do story time and they're like little animated characters that tell random stories of their life. I kind of wanted to do something like that but with my PNG a little bit and include a little bit of animation with it but never done it.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Well, to go back in the day, skit comedy, I don't know how many people here will know the kids in the hall, but they were kind of think of SNL, but Canadian. And they had a thing called 30 second story. And I always loved that because it was like, you had to be able to tell the whole story in 30 seconds. So they'd start with a stopwatch, start it, and then they'd tell the story and then they'd come back and the stopwatch would click, 30 second story. And it was like, it's just like a creative little, so like that could be something or 60 second or 40 minute or 40 second or something like that. You could create and do shorts and reels and have an intro outro. And then the whole story itself is, is succinct in a, in a manner like that. And then you're not creating for a long time and doing long form. You just do a whole bunch of really short little, little things that you could tell a story to people.

Chemisphere: I feel like that also would be a pretty cool point redeem.

Leighton Seys: Oh, there you go.

Chemisphere: Say a story in like 30 seconds.

Leighton Seys: Okay. I did have a point redeem for a while, which was tell a mission trip story. So I would tell mission trip stories, and then I was like, I'm running out of stories. So I hid them, and then people weren't using them. I'm like, I'm just going to hide that one. I don't want to keep telling the same five stories over and over again.

Chemisphere: That's me with my bad life advice redeem. I'm running out of them. I need to find more. I have another redeem that's story time, but it's where I read one page out of a book. I'm thinking of trying to write my own page of stories as well. Maybe try to do that.

Leighton Seys: Cool.

Chemisphere: I think that'd be fun.

Announcer/Intro Voice: Sounds like it.

Leighton Seys: There's a whole bunch of ideas that if streaming had been a thing when I was in middle school or high school, I probably would have ended up doing it. I had a character that I, like, confusion, instead of Confucius, confusion. Confusion say, when lost in woods, find way out. And... I just would try to come up with these really pithy wisdom sayings. Like I could have just created a little artistry character and made videos was like there was no method to do that back when when I was in middle school. So I was just the annoying kid in the back of class that would say that stuff. So. Well, I have enjoyed our time together. Those of you who have been hanging out this whole time, Ping, so glad to have you here. I enjoyed having you around and getting to know you a little bit at Reach. I didn't know you before then. I may have seen you, but I didn't know you, and it was good to get to know you. Kemi, it was so good to spend time with you. I do remember you from 24. We may have said hi, but I don't think I talked to any of the people over in the VTube. I kind of maybe was a little intimidated about being there. I'm like, I'm not the gamer. Nobody's here to see me. I'm just a pastor who's over in this space.

Chemisphere: And now it's in a corner.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. So it's kind of like, okay, I've been around. I love these people. I'm going to be at Nerd Culture Ministry Summit as well. So I went and we were showing off earlier. I went to Hope Conference. I'm trying to connect to as many Christian streamers as I can. And so if you are one and you'd like to be on this podcast, reach out to me. I'm planning a mod takeover for March. Yeah, March. I'm trying to plan this for. So if you've got a mod that's super awesome and takes care of your community, but they've never streamed or they don't plan to stream or maybe they tried it and like, no, that's not for me. Then I want to have some of them on because they're going to bring a whole different perspective of what does it mean to be a Christian in the space. Trying to do that, I'll have you on with two or three people so you're not alone trying to hold a conversation because you're not maybe used to doing that other than typing. So those are some things I've got planned for coming up. Anything you've got coming up that we can be praying for you about? um kind of not entirely stream related but my portfolio oh yeah i'm incredibly nervous about that so yeah we'll definitely be praying for that to represent you as well as you can and um that will um allow you to move forward uh supersonic no i forgot you mentioned blanco to me i will reach out to blanco thank you for reminding me of that I think I've reached out to about four or five mods at this point and trying to line that up, which is a lot of fun. And I do have podcasts, I believe, next Wednesday. And this is just for those of you who are live. So if you're watching this later, it'll just be, hey, this will be the next episode. Red Trevor X Fire will be on the podcast. And the week after that will be... That's Slife. So Slife will be on the podcast. And I'm trying to line up the rest of February. So I think I'm just so blessed to be able to sit down with friends, learn about you a lot more than I already do, and just be able to celebrate what God is doing in you and in your community. And I can't wait to see everybody that's there at REACH or NCMS or wherever else I'll see you.

Chemisphere: Thank you so much for inviting me.

Leighton Seys: This has been fun. Good. I'm glad you enjoyed it. And everybody, have a good night.

Chemisphere: Bye. God bless.