Gaming Wasn't His Purpose Until This Happened

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 everybody to control out redeem uh we are working to reset the culture and redeem the space and people like red fire x trevor have been doing that for years already before even i got into the space so as you were getting started you were saying seven years ago uh coming up in april in the space what were you doing initially to get you exposed to twitch and decide then as you found twitch that hey this is something i could do and then if you didn't start as a christian streamer then then bring that story in a little bit later we'll go back we'll come on that but let's just start up how did you come across the platform what initially was your plan and desire for hey i'm gonna go be a twitch streamer

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, so how I discovered Twitch was I actually, growing up, I played on the Xbox console. I actually, my parents made a promise that if I, back when I was really, really young, if I learned to get potty trained, I would eventually get like the Xbox and all that stuff. And so as the years evolved, there was a year where my... my grandparents from my dad's other family actually uh give this a family gift and it was the at the time it was the xbox 360 um and uh as i uh experienced uh the live gaming and such i just got really in love with it and um over the years eventually uh twitch was like a discoverable um option to use as an app on the on the console and i was like oh you can actually live stream that's pretty cool so i mean i i didn't use it for the for the best reasons to be honest um i mean i was definitely a very lukewarm believer even though i grew up in a christian home and such and i didn't really fully understand um you know the the importance the the vital parts of being a believer and why you know why are all these things uh why do we all all do the things that we do um as believers and as christians and so did it for the sake of curiosity trying to make some friends try to do stuff for fun and that's that's a lot of responses i hear especially when it comes to people streaming and just as i just learn more about streaming i'm like streaming is more than just having fun it's more than just about having community it's it's a part of where you have an opportunity to leave a legacy or just leave something the way that you want people to experience or take away from when they are watching and supporting you And so just as I got older, I took a break from it. I only did it like maybe a couple times beforehand. And by the time I just got over my lifestyle of just constantly being a drunkard, drinking all the time, partying, and just try to be more in the social life of just, you know, just lusting for women, lusting for all these horrible things and being prideful and being good at this, good at that. um as i um i became i became a born-again believer at that point i truly believe that's the time i was saved and um and so from that point on i i wanted to i saw that streaming was a thing that i forgot about and i was like you know what i kind of want to get back into it i just want to see you know maybe i can maybe start building a following and it was kind of that same concept of you know just doing it for fun trying to make some friends and see what happens and a month or two into it i um i was like you know i realized i'm like i really i really want wanting to change not only my life around but also just how i portray myself on this platform and so i was like you know i don't really hear because at the time i had no idea that christians were streaming on this platform at any given point i was like is this even a thing And so I was like, you know what? I want to spread the gospel. I want to spread the faith. I want to be a living example of Jesus to as many people as possible. And from that point on, I had a mentor who I did serving in children's ministry with and eventually did some, I eventually was on staff for an internship at that church for a couple of years. And he just, he, you know, through the work of the Holy Spirit, he, the Holy Spirit just, you know just use this amazing guy who just uh really built that fiery passion of wanting to do ministry wanting to do these works you know like a pastor and when it comes to uh discipleship when it comes to mentoring people and just being a leading example and uh and just that that part of me just really just sparked into my heart of where god was just really bringing this conviction of i want you to i want you to be leading the next generation i want you to leave an everlasting impact and so from that very moment on you know i when i was getting back to it i was really into like the halo phase playing a lot of uh halo 5 and halo eventually

Leighton Seys: Let's just pause right there because, like, you were just, like, on fire going, and I got a lot of questions. Sure.

Red Fire X Trevor: Sorry for the long ramble there.

Leighton Seys: No, no, no. It's all good. But, like, my brain's going full of questions here. And so you said you were just kind of curious, trying to make some friends, hoping for that. So that's your initial piece of it. What were you streaming when you got started?

Red Fire X Trevor: When I got started, it was Halo 5 when it first started and a little bit of Master Chief Collection.

Leighton Seys: Okay. So you're doing FPS and you're in that realm, and you were talking about how there was a lot of toxicity in your life, and so that would make sense on some level then, too, that, hey, just in the gaming realm, it just was a reflection of where you were perhaps in the rest of your life, too. Does that make some sense?

Red Fire X Trevor: Absolutely, yep.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. So yeah, so you're just doing it. Your focus isn't on the people as far as I'm going to bless people. I'm going to influence people, but I'm just going to hang out. I'm going to have fun. I'm going to learn what to do here in the space, but I'm also going to make some friends along the way and see where that goes. So were you doing it part-time or full-time when you got started?

Red Fire X Trevor: When I got started, I would say part-time because I was in that moment where I just wasn't consistent enough. But as I started finding that passion of just wanting to change the way of how I was presenting myself and just the way of how I was doing things on stream, eventually at that point, I wanted to do it as a full-time gig. And even though that I don't have the finances with which I don't need to have those finances, I want to trust what God wants to have me, has privileged me to do in itself. know if he wants it to be a full-time thing absolutely i'm all for it and if not then i'm all for that too and just so just uh just a lot of just is just uh for the sake of just um using one um just using what the lord wants me to do with it and uh and uh from that moment on i basically built that consistency of like how much am i going to stream how much am i going to dedicate to this and that and so that so over the course of time as i grew as a believer and just read more into the word that's when the consistency started to come in because of the passion

Leighton Seys: Yeah. You mentioned a mentor in your life who was helping to disciple you. Did the discipling and the mentoring happen first in your life, or did it come alongside at the same time as you were deciding, hey, maybe what I should do is take what I've been doing online and actually be forward with my faith in it? So you talked about you really came to faith. Maybe you'd grown up with some stuff, but you really weren't living it. It really wasn't your own. And now you're like, no, I'm following Jesus. So was that mentor there right from that start? And how was that process of deciding, oh, I'm going to use what God's given me in this space that I've already been in?

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, it was definitely the work of the mentor. It was definitely the mentor for sure. But yeah, even during my season of where I was just being a drunkard, going to parties almost nearly every day at a certain point, which was really bad, I had a person that I would just continue to serve with, and I would literally serve every service, which was three to four services. throughout the season so a lot of obviously a lot of hours of uh dedicating to serving in children's ministry with um uh third through uh fifth actually no fourth through sixth graders it was um and so um and so at that point when i just decided to rededicate my life to christ and just and take it more seriously and recognize that i need the lord i need to change from the ways i have been and i need to seek for purpose and seek for that you know what what does god want me to pursue and so uh there was uh there was a certain weekend where my uh my mentor at the time was like you know i think it would be really cool and would be really great if you taught this one weekend and i'm like there is i'm like you there is no way that you're going to convince me to teach on a weekend on a platform in front of you know 20 to 30 kids per service to teach on bible scripture because i didn't know a whole lot about scripture at that time Um, and so, uh, and so he was really convicted me of doing it. And I prayed about it. I was like, you know what, I'll just go ahead and do it. And from that very moment on that, that just brought that passion of like, all right, you know, God, I guess you've revealed something that I was wrong about. And, uh, and so, you know, a lot of that just came over time and just that exposure of, uh, just being on the presence of the platform, just sharing God's word, sharing his truth, and just really. taking that notion and prioritization of wanting to teach these um young kids you know about jesus and you know what is what do each of these passages mean and what can we take away from it it just it really just brought that that fiery passion of like man i want to just continue to partner with people on their walk with the lord and uh i was able to do that also through um for just uh just being about uh you know just being a group leader you know teaching on platform um helping out with tech helping out with um the behind the scenes stuff with like the setup and everything and uh connected with families building relationships with the parents and the kids and uh just you know it was it just really just hit just really hit me emotionally um and to just you know the lord um and to the lord just really pressing that you know i he wants me to really just be intentional with each and every single individual that i get to encounter and that i get to minister to and uh that's where a lot of just a lot of that just started to ignite of where, you know, I'm like, you know what, if, if this is something that the Lord is pressing me here, then I, then, you know, why, why wouldn't I be, why would I be any different on the platform that I get to do on here now? And, and just the Lord has just blessed that over the course of time.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, that's really cool. And I myself really attribute where I am in ministry to mentors who came alongside of it. And some are intentional mentors and you set up and say you're mentoring me or you're an intentional discipler and they disciple you. And some just become relationships that you just cherish. And they may not realize how much that they are impacting you. But I think back when I was young, married, and I had a couple of guys that were always inviting me. I was helping fifth-grade boys is who I was helping out with. And they're like... you want to help with this? And I'm thinking in the back of my head, no, why would I want to do that? But they asked me and I wanted to hang out with them. So sure, I'll help out with Sunday school. Oh, you need help on Wednesday night. Why not? Why don't I show up on Wednesday night too? Because I can show up early and hang out with you and I can stay later. Oh, you're going to start a new Bible study for young married couples. Okay, I'll show up for that too. So I understand just how powerful relationships can be when when somebody is feeding you and they don't even have to know it but they're feeding your soul and they're feeding your spirit and they are guiding you to where god wants you to go it's like you just can't hang out enough with those kind of people and it and not everyone connects with the same person. Those same guys may have, like the fifth graders that I was there to help, and then the youth group that was hanging out, they may not have connected with them at all, and they may have just overlooked everything, and I'm sitting there going, wow, I really like these guys, and I want to learn more from them.

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, 100%. And the beautiful thing is that when you have someone who mentors you and just is being intentional with you, it shows value. It shows that, you know, God is wanting you to do something for his kingdom. He is giving you a purpose through the work of someone that he has appointed in your life. And it just it really is just so humbling to experience that, you know, the Lord really wants you to thrive in the relationship that you have with him. And that's and that in itself is a sign that, you know, that God is moving. He is working. And, you know, he has something special for your life and just the everlasting impact you're able to make if you're faithful and obedient to him. It's it's just out of this world.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, it really is those impactful things. And I can look at different places in my life and different places I've lived. And those people that I cherish from those are those ones who were, you know. either I got to be a mentor for them or they ended up being a mentor for me. And they're pretty special, especially when you get to see some, like when you get to do the mentoring and you see somebody else excel at something and you get to be a part of that. And sometimes it's coaching, sometimes it's a pastor, sometimes it's just a friend or someone who's spiritually further down the road than somebody, but those are fun times.

Red Fire X Trevor: It really is. And just as you continue to do those things, you're able to pick up something new. You're able to pick up something different. And the cool part of that journey, too, is that not only the person I looked up to who was a mentor to me taught me a lot of things, but even the kids... or teach me things that I would have never expected. I'm like, wow, these kids are so smart. Some of them are already ahead, already ahead of their lifespan. It's just like, it's unbelievable how much wisdom some of these young kids have. I'm like, some of these guys can be teachers for heaven's sakes. It's insane. And it's so cool how, you know, it's like, man, I wish I was, I wish as a kid, I was some, I wish I had that type of wisdom and I wish I was more obedient in that way. And so it's just, it's so cool how God works in those, in those types of environments. And yeah, and people that he you know just wants to just through the parenting and also just through them in general just see them thrive and grow and so it just it gets you more and more excited when you see those type of moments that you can celebrate you can just continue to um give praise to and just bring thankfulness to god uh through those things and you know you got to celebrate those victories even if even if it's so small

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Are you still working with those kids? And are you still, as that mentor, still playing a big role in your life?

Red Fire X Trevor: Um, so unfortunately I wish, I wish I could say yes, but, um, unfortunately, um, that it's not the case. Um, but I've actually moved on to, um, a different church I'm currently at. Um, and so, uh, but I still, I still love the mentor that I have and we still try to connect, um, every now and then. So we're still good buddy buddies. And so, um, you know, he's moved on to a different season. I've moved on to my different season. And, uh, and so I just parted ways with the church. For personal reasons, unfortunately, that just didn't work out after I graduated from my college that I went to. So, but I, you know, I'm at a church now where, you know, I believe that it's more rooted and grounded into the word of God. And that's more biblically sound and doctrines. And, and just, I've been able to connect better with people building relationships there. I'm just actually about to step into a role of leading a, of a young adult singles Bible study group on Sunday mornings, which I'm very excited for. And we've been going, we just been going through a lot of the book of Romans and we'll be teaching on Romans 12 this upcoming weekend. It's been, it's been so amazing to be able to see the thrive of that based on just the past growth that I've been able to build to be able to build a moment like this for a new chapter. I'm excited for what this chapter is going to hold as I plant myself more into this church.

Leighton Seys: yeah well and you know there are lots and lots of reasons why people move from one church to another and sometimes it's because god has something else for us to do and we've done everything that we can at a particular place and we're moving somewhere else you know so there's there's lots of different reasons why people end up moving from one church to another i mean i don't even know i mean i could probably sit and count them but the number of times i've moved uh you know even as a pastor I've recently had a couple of people that are retiring and they've been at a church for 30 years. I've never been anywhere for that long. I mean, I've never even made a decade in the same place my entire life. Never at the same church, never in the same house. So a decade is a long time. I've never been that far or that long any place. So totally get the moving along and those kinds of things. And then... Taking what you know and bringing it somewhere else. I mean, that's what Paul kept doing. God would call him to a new thing. He'd move to a new place. Sometimes he'd get to settle in for a few years at a place, and then there'd be a time and a season to move on. And that's not everyone's journey. i love when i would get to a church and there'd be somebody who'd been there their whole life and they could tell me the church history and the town history because those people are so helpful to help you know and understand the culture and the vibe and be able to just you know dig in and embrace what's going on and so um but that's not the season you're in now so

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, exactly. And whether the season of change is from a change where something bad happens in your life or if it's something that is a good positive change or maybe a mix in between, all of those happen for a reason and they happen for... And, you know, the Bible reminds us, you know, there's going to be some things that will be there for a long length of time, and there will be some things that fade away. You know, not all things of the earth. There's going to be a lot of things of the earth that will fade away. And so we just got to continue to count our blessings of what is here present now and just utilize whatever time we have in those moments and just continue to do God's work for it. And if it fades away, then we just got to be prepared to move on to whatever that new season is, that new chapter. And we just got to be diligent and just intentional with whatever that may be.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, very true. So with you then deciding to be intentionally focused, how long had you been streaming? Was that two, three years when you were deciding and you said you took a break in there? So how long ago was it when you decided to, I'm going to jump in and be an intentional Christian in the space of Twitch?

Red Fire X Trevor: Um, so, I mean, from when I, when I first started, like before I was like truly, truly saved, this was so long ago. I probably can't even remember to be honest, probably, I would say probably at least like two or three years prior. And it was only maybe a couple of times at that.

Leighton Seys: And it didn't feel like it was actually like truly, truly streaming.

Red Fire X Trevor: It was just there just to, just to do it. Um, but, but yeah, I would say basically, I mean, April, 2019 is, uh, really the year that I remember all of it just coming together and just everything coming to place. And I remember that time. I still remember just the time of just thinking about how I went from having a Dell laptop for streaming and an Xbox 360 console and then Xbox One console. for my gaming and just having that type of a setup that just wasn't exactly the greatest and definitely caused some fits and some problems from time to time it required patience but uh but man the lord the lord definitely provided that patience i can tell you that um

Leighton Seys: I can't even picture streaming from a 360. I can't either anymore. Really? You could stream from a 360? I did not even know that you could do that.

Red Fire X Trevor: It is a thing. Yeah, it was a thing, which is crazy to think about. It's like, oh my goodness. but uh but yeah i remember having that all set up and just try to get everything to work and then expecting my laptop to handle all the obs work and it was just awful and that was just and it had some moments where it worked fine and other moments it just wouldn't want to work at all and uh actually uh during that some part of that season too with the laptop i was used i was living actually in a in an intern house that uh the church provided um uh for uh for like the first or second year um when i uh got into the internship program and literally and uh literally the internet was the worst internet i've ever experienced in my life it was like less than six upload speed and it was like i think like i think it was like 10 download or something ridiculous i'm like what is this internet like not even not even like someone living by themselves in that place just doing regular work was even good it was it was awful and uh and somehow some way made it work with that type of setup and uh and was also working at the time plus doing an internship plus going to school so just juggling all that together is just a mess and a half um but some uh but somehow the lord is like all right we're just gonna somehow figure out a way to make you be able to balance all these things and And Lord and behold, the consistency was there and the grades were doing great. And the internship, I was excelling in different areas that I'd never learned before. And so it's like, man, God, I don't know how you do it, but man, you are so, so good to me. And there was actual growth that was building up. And at that point I was like, I can, you know, I'm really actually still starting to build growth. There's actually, I can notice my average actually going up and people subscribing, like, what is this? And eventually it led to the point of 2020 when the pandemic hit. And that's when I was able to get my first ever gaming PC. I'm like, what is this tech?

Announcer/Intro Voice: This is so cool.

Red Fire X Trevor: And just seeing how everything has evolved from that point to now having the Lord bless with having a dual PC setup, having a DSLR camera, having this XLR microphone. It's like... man, it's so cool how the Lord transforms the work that you do for those who are dedicated to it. And when the Lord anoints you to do those works, it's just truly unraveling.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, it's pretty fun. I can think back at those times in life where if you describe and tell everybody the things that you are doing and the number of stuff that's going on, and they just go, how are you doing any of that? And you're just like... Because I'm not relying on my own strength. Because there's no way I've got strength to do it. I, for one summer, and this was, I was married. I'm still in college. I've got a one-year-old. And I'm working a first shift job, a second shift job. Sorry, first shift I have an internship. I have a second shift part-time job. And I have a full-time third shift job. And I'm taking care of my kid in between. For three months, I never got four hours of sleep in a row. That was it. That was max. That's the most I could get. And I was just like on to the next thing that I had to do, which is like get up, move, do this, go to sleep. Get up, move, go do this, go to sleep. It was just like one thing to the next, doing an internship in a congressman's office while I was in college. And that's back when – Ross Perot was trying to run for president. I was going to go get an internship with him, and then he suspended his campaign, so I had to find somebody else. And then he came back with his campaign, and I was just mad at him because I couldn't get to work for him because he suspended his campaign. But it's like those times, it's like, how in the world did you make it through? Because you had decided you were going to, and you had the power of God blowing through you in what you were doing. And also, you know, it's just for a season. This is not the way that life is supposed to be for forever and ever. You're just going at it, hitting it until you have the breakthrough at the other end of what you're trying to do for a short period of time.

Red Fire X Trevor: so yeah perseverance and dedication jc girl absolutely yeah yeah and that's and that's one of the traits that i had growing up is that you know as a um you know in my family including myself you know we we are we're the type of people who are one of our biggest strengths is dedication we are whenever we're passionate about something we are dedicated to get it done And we don't stop until that work is done. And whenever we just continue to focus, we keep on going at it and going at it. And whenever sometimes people tell me to get a break, and I've had times where I'm just like, I don't want to take a break. I want to get it done. I don't want to take a break. Otherwise, I'm not going to be motivated. And definitely during those times, I'm like, God humbled me in some of those moments. I'm like, all right, God, I'll stop. I'll stop. Yeah, they're definitely...

Leighton Seys: There definitely is a place for rest, and you can't endure it ever if you do not have it. And I like to think that starting from a place of rest is the best way to do it. So the Hebrew idea is that evening and morning were the first day, evening came first. Sleep is the first thing you do in the day. When you get up, the day is half over. Now, I know in Western minds, the day starts when you wake up, and I think that's a wrong thinking. I think we really need to be thinking about I'm starting from rest. God has filled me with rest so that I can make it through the day instead of the other way, which a lot of us operate from is I worked as hard as I could all day, and now I'm exhausted, and I better get refilled because I won't have anything tomorrow. It's just a different shift in mindset of thinking about that. I like thinking about it. If we start from rest, then we're full and we've got everything that we need to have in order to be able to do it.

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And also, DJ, I appreciate you sharing that feedback with me as well. And like you were saying, Seek. the lord the lord is the only reason why i'm doing what i'm doing here and the only reason why i'm even sitting in this chair itself because i had a season where you know i wasn't during my season of drunkenness i had a you know i had a night where i was uh you know i i uh i i smoked weed for the very first time and I I did a couple of dabs from um from the bond pipe a couple times Literally, my friends would even tell me even to this day like dude you were high as a kite Like what are you doing with your life? and uh, and I would I would literally drink like handles of like, um of like captain morgan fireball whiskey and I would just be all in and just go go crazy and so there was a night where i did you know i drank like a whole handle of like probably fireball it was during that night and uh and i smoked like a couple dabs of weed and uh i was and i had to drive home in a in a beat up bmw that was having um that was having coolant and oil leak issues where you have to put an oil and and coolant every single time basically in the car it was so bad and uh i was and uh and from the party that i was at it was literally over an hour away from up north from where my parents lived which was where i was living at the time and uh it was like three or four o'clock in the morning pitch pitch dark no lights pouring down rain fog that was so bad with visibility i can't even see five feet in front of me and it was high as a kite and drunk like nobody's business and and from the grace of god somehow some way the lord provided strength and he was just watching over me protecting me to be able to get home safe um from uh from harm's way from getting an accident because honestly with with being in those type of conditions i shouldn't even be alive that's i'm just asking to put my my name on a tombstone at that point and so it's just it goes to show that you know if god is not um if god was not with me that night i can i can i would say i would guarantee that i would not be sitting in this chair today

Leighton Seys: Yeah, and that's not to endorse that behavior or to say that God wasn't there when other people had accidents and things like that. It's just to say you can look back and feel that God was there with you. Yeah, I can look back at some really dumb decisions I made and came out on the other side, and it's like, well, I really shouldn't have done that, and God was really keeping me from consequences that could have been way more severe for being in the situation that I chose to put myself in and I chose to put other people at risk in. So, yeah, totally know how that is and to reflect with – Thank you, God. And and now incredibly thankful because now I'm in a better place and a better relationship with him than, you know, trying to do things my own way and being far away. So I totally resonates, man.

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, it's such a humbling thing to experience, too, when you reflect upon, you know, what kind of— I was like, man, I am such a wretched sinner for doing all these horrible things and just completely rejecting God and just completely being selfish with how I lived my life during that period of time. And it's just such a humbling thing to experience when you're like, man, God— despite of my just my selfishness and my am i just my my horrible sin nature it's like i don't even deserve to have life based on this i'm like it goes to show how patient he is how love and merciful he is and it goes to show that you know god you know you know that god truly desires to have something in place for us and uh and you know even just growing up too some people don't even know i uh also um as i well um you know as you know as i was born into this world you know i you know i was diagnosed with um an autism spectrum called asperger's syndrome and so for those who don't know it basically associates side effects of you know struggling with social skills comprehension skills and also just being able to know you know being slower when it comes to wisdom when it comes to understanding when it comes to just be able to decipher things and sometimes making life decisions at times and so a lot of that just was something i had to grow up with and just learn and you know i was blessed with the counseling i was able to get through school and i was a terrible test taker no matter how much i studied or try to understand the material unless if i was super passionate about it I sucked at taking tests. That was terrible. But somehow, but just, you know, the Lord just continued to provide in the ways that was enough and that was able to be able to help me to excel in other areas and grow. And through that moment, as I've gotten older and I've reflected on life and just the milestones, I was blessed and privileged to be able to be a part of. To me, a lot of also going back to the streaming aspect of it, is that you know not only has the lord you know provided me a powerful testimony from you know when i was in my drunkard stage i also have another piece of my testimony where i can share you know based on my condition based on my um my journey of walking and being able to be able to have the lord just be my sustainer and be able to have the adulthood that i have living on my own being able to make certain decisions being able to make hard choices based on discernment and having the free will of being able to make these choices by giving it to God in prayer. It's so cool and humbling to see that God is able to work through anyone and everyone and nobody. is disqualified to serve the kingdom of god no matter how severe your conditions may be you know whether you're you know whether you're to serve at a church you know open the door some for someone being like a greeter or maybe uh maybe being a group leader at a you know at a uh at a children's ministry or young adults or maybe you're maybe you're there to help you know give away food at you know one of the vendors or whatever you know there's ways of how you can still make an impact how you can just you know send a kind gesture be a loving person and uh and still just be able to provide something that somebody may need in their life that may be going through such a real life struggle that you never know about until you take that leap of faith being faithful to to god and so you know as i've learned a lot about that i uh you know i learned that you know and i even just created a shirt design that'll be launching soon it says your impossibility is god's ability to use you spiritually for newer and greater opportunities

Leighton Seys: and i marked that based on philippians 4 13. you know i could do all things through christ who gives me strength which is a it's a spiritual thing to remind yourself that nothing is impossible with god for those who are faithful yeah that's that's really powerful and i think i think they're so often because because i did not know that about you i would not have guessed that about you um we look at people where they are now and we have no idea the struggle that they had to go through to get to where they are today We simply look at people, and it's not that we don't want to put our pitfalls out there. I mean, our Twitch streamers often are talking about our problems and things, and Christians, we often are talking about our problems, and the Bible demonstrates that. what ends up getting in front of people in social media it tends to be the algorithm puts in it either the people that are just getting toxic uh you know attacks or they're being elevated as the best person that could be so you never really get to see a full picture of anybody unless you take a lot of time to get to know them so i appreciate you sharing that and and bringing that out and including that as part of your story because that is part of your story Because, as plenty of people were saying, is fearfully and wonderfully made. And it doesn't matter how you were made. You're in the image of God. You're fearfully and wonderfully made. I'm just thinking about, I know I come across people quite often in Twitch space that as you share the love of God with them, they sometimes don't feel they deserve it. And they look at me as a pastor as, oh, you've got it all together. And I'm sure they look at you sometimes, oh, you've got it all together. How do you handle and address people that have a view of not being a deserving recipient of your love or God's love or that they don't deserve anything, that everything bad should happen to them? They have that kind of an attitude.

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, it's a very hard thing to go through. And I still have people that share that same thing all the time. And I've had seasons where I've dipped my toes into that and had some of those type of questions. I'm like, no, God put me in this position for a reason. If I didn't deserve it, God would take it away. And so I didn't do it based on just my own efforts of earning it. It is through God's grace of him gifting that through obedience and just faithfulness that it has allowed me to be able to receive it in that part of earning it. And so, you know, God helps reap and sow the works that you do if you are being faithful and you do it with a passion, a heart that you desire to do it. And so people who are going through seasons of where they, you know, There's a difference between being humble and having that heartfelt check of where you are criticizing yourself to the point where... you were you put yourself in such a negative mindset um and i think it's good to be humble definitely making sure that you are not being prideful the things that you do you can be passionate about you know whatever you're good at or what what you truly enjoy and love as long as it's god honoring and you're you know giving honor and glory to god through it and also and just the difference of where you're making an idol where you know all you think about is that all you think all you um that you give yourself so much credibility of it um and so i uh for those who have this negative mindset of like i don't i don't deserve it i you know i i'm not worthy enough i'm not you know i don't i i shouldn't be in this position type of thing you know so i you know there are moments i share my testimony uh share that piece of testimony with people just sharing about you know if you um None of us deserve as a whole overall being able to have the blessings that we have. I mean, obviously we're sinners. We're not perfect people, but we got to remember. So we got to remember that we always forget. We always tend to forget the word grace all the time. And it's something that. is just something that i believe a word just continues to be passed away and that we just it's in the back of our mind at times that we don't tend to think about very often as believers and sometimes as believers we get so much to the point where we try to get to a point of when we're trying to humble ourselves so much to the point that we are belittling our value but god says you know he that you are enough for him which is why we have the relationship in the first place that he desires a relationship and so You know, a lot of whenever people feel that way, I tell people that, you know, to God, you are enough. All he wants is your heart. He just wants you to follow him and trust in him. And if you can give that to him, that in itself is already enough. He will show you how much he will prove to you how much it is enough for him. He will show you the blessings that you can be a part of if you give that to him. Because, you know, Jesus calls for us to pick up our mats and follow him for the rest of our days. and he will show you the ways of the earth.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, that's a really interesting passage that you picked there because he says, which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or pick up your mat and go? So he even brings that in to that whole story there of the man whose friends bring him, and he's healed. It's like... the the pharisees are all judging jesus on what he's doing and what he's saying and it's like that's not the way of god god god was not judging this person is he worthy to be healed or not be worthy to be healed it was i'm going to heal him i'm choosing to do this and i'm choosing to forgive sins it's the choice of god to do that not our deservingness of it because we couldn't deserve it So yeah, yeah. And I like pointing out also, you know, like the fact that how many, like pick your favorite Bible person. What did they do wrong? Okay, if they're in the Bible and they've got more than their name mentioned and you've got a story with them, they did something wrong. So you've got that in the story. The Bible doesn't whitewash it. It puts it in there. I think I recently saw a T-shirt that's got like this list of like two dozen people in Scripture on it, and it lists their crimes next to their name. And then at the end it says something along, you know, still loved by God or something like that. But it's one of those things that we – We maybe do the same thing as Christians that social media does, and we only want to put our perfectness forward for people to view of, I put my Sunday best on. I go to church every Sunday. I'm there every evening. I'm also there every Wednesday night. I mean, if your church does all those things, not all churches do that anymore, but that's what it was growing up. we called it three to thrive you got to be sunday morning sunday night and wednesday night and and you had to be there and and if you're not well then you're just not as holy as everybody else and well you know we were going to be the ones that were there every time the doors the church were open so but it didn't make us holier than anybody else it didn't make us more worthy Uh, and in fact, at times it really was, do we have to go was, was my thought. Cause Hey, the Superbowl is on tonight. I want to go watch that instead of go to church. Nope. Sunday night, we got to go to church. Uh, since the Superbowl is just around the corner, I'll bring this story in. So the, um, Miami Dolphins were playing the Redskins and I really wanted Miami to win. And so I faked being sick so I could stay home and watch the Super Bowl. And my sister was rooting for the Redskins and she went to church that night. And then she came home and the Redskins won. And I was convinced it was because I skipped church that the Dolphins.

Red Fire X Trevor: Oh, no.

Leighton Seys: oh man like that's that's how much you know works can get in your head of you don't deserve i didn't deserve to have my team win because i didn't go to church and i skipped to watch the game and my sister got home and then they won the game and i was like so i know it's totally unrelated but in my in my brain as a kid yeah it made so much sense

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, the conviction is there, and it makes me feel like it's your fault that they lost the game. It's my fault. It's my fault entirely.

Leighton Seys: Blame me that they haven't won a Super Bowl since 72. Yeah. Oh, man. But that's not that far different of irrational thinking that we get set in something in our heads and we can't understand or we can't comprehend or we can't just accept God would love us as we are, where we are. Yes, he desires us to change and grow. But even if we aren't able to do that because of whatever circumstance, we die tomorrow, he's not going to say, well, until you get to this point, I can't love you. It is there right where you are. And I know you bring that to your stream and your community of the meeting people right where they are. What are some keys to being able to do that for you?

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, I think, I mean, just meeting people right where they are. I mean, you know, examples of that can also be, you know, just within the space of like making videos like on YouTube, on TikTok, on Instagram. You know, you're able to reach untapped spaces based on, you know, presenting who you are, what you're passionate about. What do you want people to take away from watching you and witnessing to you? And so that's part of an example, at least that's been a part of my life as far as this platform. and us you know some and other times it's uh based on you know sometimes with twitch you know you have like your tags that are able to build like the algorithm sometimes of like oh you get to you can listen to these type of people you have these type of tags and this is what they're know personalities about and such like that and so a lot of that has just been a part of that a part of that reach and uh and you know even through uh ministry when i was uh used to do i want to use to do uh children's ministry and um uh and uh and and the the youth ministry for a season of time too i would talk i would talk to some people who i built a pretty good relationship with and said hey you know i'm i'm i'm doing live streaming we have a lot of young kids especially those who you know who are christ who are christ-centered on things and who have know who are really really good about you know getting into the word that they're very uh wise about you know wise about knowing the lord and uh and just you know who are you know who show those fruits of the spirit to those who they interact with and that they game with you know come join for fellowship come join to be a part of what we get to do and uh and so i've been able to uh you know from some of those periods of time especially during covid um i would uh you know i would do some collaborations with some of the youth pastors there and we would just set up like fortnight private lobbies and just play some fortnight together we would do like all these kinds of custom games this is when i was like just streaming fortnight for a season of time because that was like the big thing especially during that time of like people and kids coming together and just gaming and uh just talking about oh let me look at this new emote that i got oh look at this cool skin that i got look at this cool cosmetic that i just bought today and stuff like that and so is a way for people who love gaming who love the lord to be able to have it be a mix together and just it brought so much of people coming together to be able to witness the lord and uh just be able to build sustainable relationships because i you know a lot a lot of what i've noticed over the years too is that through the online space so many people are missing a social life that so many of them are just so kept you know behind closed doors they're not a lot of times they're just not going on they may not be going to a church they may not be you know associating or talking to many people at school some of them are even homeschooled to where there's like next to no social life And in some people, just for those who are, you know, for those who are young adults who I have in my community, some of them just don't plain, you know, try to go out to reach or meet new people. And so, and, you know, I believe, you know, I mean, I think part of COVID has definitely set that sort of impact on a lot of people where people are just more kept to themselves and more shy and not as outspoken and bold when it comes to speaking to one another. you know i personally believe as believers i think it's great to i don't think there's anything wrong with you know me having some people in your life through the online space and i think you know for those who are you know who you can trust who have a good intention of heart and you know what their intentions are based on their beliefs and getting to know them personally But I think it's just as important when it comes, it's just as important to meet people in your IRL space so that you can be able to have that type of fellowship because that type of fellowship is much different than the online space. Not that the online space is bad. It's great for what, with the right people. but it's just as impactful it's just as um the the the potential of growth and also just the the the amazing uh things that you're able to do and just uh what is accessible to you in that environment there's just nothing like it that you're able to get for the online space and so it's so important as you get older i'm like at some point you're gonna have to meet people irl whether you like it or not that's just that's part of reality especially in your workplace

Leighton Seys: Well, in some ways, I think COVID exposed something more than it created something. And I think that's that we lost what we refer to as third spaces. It's the place besides your church and work that you go hang out, or if you're a kid, school and church. We've somewhat, in some places as society, lost church as a third place. So then where is it that you go and find and meet friends and hang out with them? Like, where is that place? Where do you go? I live in a small town. It's not like there's a lot of things that I can go do and meet new people and hang out. And then there's a matter of, do I wanna meet people that are like me? I mean, I got a lot of disc golf courses around. And during COVID, my son and I went and visited as many as we could within an hour radius of our house. Like every Friday, we would drive and we'd start hitting disc golf courses. We can meet a lot of people playing disc golf course. They're probably not the people that I'm going to hang out with all the time. So it's not that I'm going to go develop that or go do that. I don't have a bowling alley in town. When I was a new married couple, we would go bowling and be in the bowling league and join that. And you'd meet friends and you'd hang out every week with people. my wife and i don't have any of those places in town to go to unless we just want to go to the bar like that's it that is the the and then you got to spend money to go do that you know so then if you're economically having problems that's not what you're going to go do so you lose your friends because of economic circumstance it's like there aren't a lot of really good third places out there and i think covet exposed that and the reality is people are finding that third space online because they can go there with ease they can go there regularly and they can build relationships and you're right there is something that is different about being in person and having in-person relationships than are different from online But I like all of them. And I like I mean, I like the intersection of the online friends and getting to hang out and be in that space together. And we got to do that. My goodness. Like when you and I would would just be outside of what was going on at reach, like you and I would be chatting for like two, three hours. and other people would come into the conversation and they would leave and somebody else would come in and you and I would just constantly chatting every time we'd see each other in the hallway. Just wander over to the other person's conversation and then we'd be there for quite a while. That's just, I think, a fun thing of those when you get to. I don't have that with everybody that I meet online, that I get to chat and spend hours talking, but there's a level of deepness that happens there i mean night saber's in the chat he was he was talking about that earlier too and i've had him on the podcast like he and i developed that same thing too like we chatted a few times online or whatever it is but when we got together in person we we really started developing a deeper uh relationship that way

Red Fire X Trevor: yeah absolutely and plus i mean when you connect with some people through the uh through in person versus online i mean you never know what type of people that you can meet over time and and yeah each each different space has its value and it definitely can hold uh um it can hold its different benefits and blessings behind it for sure um and i think just as a whole i think it i think it's good to exercise you know just being out there you know being uh being as adult because as we get older and as we just continue to build maturity and as we continue to live out god's calling you know god is going to call us out to go to different places and you know we gotta you know in as much as it can be fearing it can be overwhelming and it can i'm sure a lot of people including myself get anxiety sometimes when it comes to certain those moments These are moments that God wants us to stretch and he wants us to reach such a potential that is untapped. And a lot of times through that, a lot of times it's through connecting with people. And one of those examples, at least for me lately, has been becoming a brand new group leader for young adults on Sunday mornings. i never met before in my life and who i and uh he saw something to me that um like when it comes to like when it comes to leadership when it comes to knowing biblical knowledge when it came to uh just how i you know communicated to people within you know the bible study that i you know that i shared about not only about myself but basically from the wisdom that i've learned over the years and uh you know it just it goes to show that you know the you know sometimes god connects us with certain people in a way that just really clicks well that really builds such a sustainable new chapter in your life and that helps you to excel in other places to reach other spaces of people that is just it's just so remarkable and so know definitely don't be shy of those opportunities that get put in front of you and you know just be faithful with what where god is placing you so that you can be able to see the fruit out of everything not only through people not only through the the places that you go to for buildings or or jobs or any of that but the people that is behind the the works of that as well

Leighton Seys: Yeah, and it's one of those things where when I was younger and I would read Scripture and it would say, Abraham, go to the land I will show you. I'm like, what? Why don't you give him more details? Help him out. Help a brother out here. Tell him what's going to happen. I'm going to do all these promises. And then you keep watching Abraham, and he's like, it hasn't happened. It's not happening. What is he doing? It's not happening. That was so unsatisfying to me as a young kid. I find that so satisfying now because now I realize, God, if you told Abraham everything that was going to happen, he would have said, nah, I'm good. I don't need to go follow you. I'm not waiting that long. I'm not waiting 25 years for you to finally give me the kid that you're promising me. i'm not i don't want to go through all that hassle i don't want to go through that famine i don't want to go through like that's a lot of times why we can't see where god's leading us and like if if i knew the journey i had to be on to to get to where like to get to this place of doing a podcast which is my mind is like craziness like why am i doing a podcast like that was never a dream of mine to to do that to be that um but If God would have laid it out for me with all the details along the way, I'd have said, nah, I'm good. I don't need to do any of that. And I think that's part of the blessing that he does for us is not tell us everything in advance that's going to be the steps along the way. but he cumulatively is working in our lives and using where we're at. Whether we're obedient or disobedient, he's still using those things to prepare us for the things down the road. So in the same way that Jonah runs away and is disobedient, he was still preparing him to be obedient and to be effective when he decided he was going to be obedient. I like to think of it sometimes that way, that God blesses us by not revealing to us everything that we're going to have to walk through to get to the thing that he's bringing us to.

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, and I love that you brought that point too, because sometimes there's a lot of times where people are like, man, I just want to experience this right now. I want to be able to achieve this dream right now. And we live in such a culture of like, we want this to happen right now type of culture. And so a lot of times we're just like, man, why can't this, why can't we just experience this? Why is this, you know, why hasn't this happened yet? And, you know, why is it taking so long? And I love that you also brought, you know, the story of Abraham because so many times, you know, we get so impatient. We make up so many excuses when it comes to... know wanting certain things to happen and just waiting for something to occur or waiting to when we think that god is actually going to do something when when in fact god has been working the entire time we just get to that point of where we just think that you know that nothing is happening whatsoever and it's never going to happen and sometimes you know we want certain things to happen and god has different plans for it and sometimes it's a matter of just when it's going to happen and so And we always tend to forget, like with Abraham, how patient that God sometimes wants us to be, whether it's a short period of time or an extensive period of time. And we are just so spoiled.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, imagine if God is speaking to somebody who's listening to this podcast right now and is telling them, I want you to stream, I want you to be a Twitch streamer, and you're going to become partner. But it's going to be in 25 years.

Red Fire X Trevor: Like who wants to say yes to that? Like, no. What do you mean?

Leighton Seys: I got to grind it out for 25 years. And then I know I don't want to be partnered 25 years. I want to be partnered 25 days. Can we go with that route? God, can you? And I know you're going to be 30 days, but I'm just saying God's going to make it happen at 25. Yes. Do that. Not the 25-year plan. I want the 25-day plan. That seems to be a thing that we lose at times is when we're striving for something is we get impatient for it. And even if God's called it and revealed it and said, this is what you're going to do, there's a long road. And we sometimes skip over that because we jump 10 years ahead in the story of Abraham. And then we jump again and we get a few little tidbits along the way and pick anybody, you know, David, and he's anointed as a kid. And then we got to wait years and years and years and years and years until he's king. and we just rush through that we just oh yeah he killed goliath and then he's king and it's like no that's not how it was he has to run from saul he has to hide he's got his brothers who are you know downplaying him he's got all these other things that happen uh like even the disciples like Peter is called. But we think of Peter as this really great guy that was on fire for Jesus because he preached at the day of Pentecost and had an awesome sermon. And it's like, yeah, but he messed up a whole lot before he got to Pentecost. and uh like i just find so much hope in that that uh that god's not finished with me and i'm not where i'm supposed to be yet and i'm not where i'm gonna end up with and and maybe there's something even greater like yeah so yeah i would i would love to be a partner i don't know if it'll ever happen but god didn't tell me i'm gonna be a partner he said you're gonna stream Okay, I got that part. I got that. I got it. So we'll see what happens and what God does. And I get to meet really cool people like you that are doing some amazing things and reaching people that'll never come watch my stream because I'm not streaming the things that they're going to watch.

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, and also just going back and forth between that conversation, too, is that sometimes certain things may happen, the things that we've been praying for and that we desire in life. And I think some people sometimes think that... we can't have any sort of desires for our lives and i and uh and there's and there's some there's some desires that we can have that are truly god honoring and that are truly christ-like i mean obviously there's gonna be some things that are just unrealistic and just not healthy of course um but um but you know when it comes to like something for example like a marriage or maybe having you know having certain um you know having a certain having kids being able to have a home or stuff like that you know those are things that those are good type of desires to have um and so you know some and sometimes what we don't realize is that when it comes to the process like you're saying they're just trying to achieve those things and that god wants for us there are always periods of seasons where god wants to reveal something to us that he wants us to see or that he wants us to take action to because you know our you know like paul preaches about you know that our we should apply action with our faith in order to be obedient and sometimes god wants us to learn something he wants us to apply something in life so that we are being faithful obedient to whatever that may be so that that part that stepping stone just continues to get higher and higher and higher so that we can get to that ultimate macro goal of achieving what god has has in store for us throughout this course of the journey and so there's been so many times where i just you know i've just had to remind myself of like you know i need to remind myself that you know god doesn't want i may want this for me later on but i need to focus on what does god want me to focus on right now in this very moment so that i get can get to that point

Leighton Seys: yeah yeah and to to go back to the the the part of you can desire stuff you can also enjoy stuff and god use something you enjoy i remember the the first time that i realized that was when i i did drama when i was in college that's how i met my wife Had a blast doing that. I always like joking around when I tell the story of I knew I was never going to do this in life because the position of Danny DeVito was already taken. And so I was never going to be as good as Danny DeVito. So there's no point in me pursuing that as a career. uh so i'm like i can't do anything with this this is a lot of fun i i enjoy it and then i remember the church posting a position and saying we're looking for a drama director and i'm just like going wait a minute god you've been calling me to do something i don't know what it's supposed to do and now this shows up i'm supposed to do that you mean i can go have fun and enjoy what i'm doing and serve you like i like i didn't know that was a possibility like i i had in mind that it was like no it's got to be drudgery and it's got to be sacrifice and it's got to be hard and and so it's like It doesn't have to. God will use the things you enjoy and turn them into ministry. The same way that we have all of these Christians and Katie Bugs coming in and others who have been on the podcast. You enjoy streaming and gaming, and God can use it to bless others and to show love to them and give opportunities to share his word and his truth with them. You mean God can use gaming and you can enjoy gaming? Yes. It doesn't matter what it is. If you enjoy something, there's a way God can use it to bless other people.

Red Fire X Trevor: A hundred percent. Yeah. I love how you also mentioned the fact that you can connect something like gaming and faith together as a, as a whole. Cause yeah, I mean, like you said, passions can be applied within our, within our faith life. It, you know, as long as we're doing healthy doses of it and not becoming to the point of where it becomes a, a whole part of our life and, and just taking over some things from our life and taking away certain things from our relationship with Christ. Yeah. it's so cool you know how you know what we have learned from scripture what we have learned in our relationship what we have learned through our ups and downs that we are able to share that among people through you know through the aspect of gaming and i love that you shared that too because you know about you know through through gaming you know through games like fortnite like call of duty know like rocket league and all these all these sorts of different games of exposure you know the way of how the way of how you know you've learned the word of god you not only know you not only get to learn and know about different principles different teachings commands that god gives you but also you start to apply apply that character of christ you start to see the fruits of the spirit to be able to be poured out and just becomes authentic it becomes something that is appealing to the eye of those who want to do what is right and it's so cool that we can do that through the aspect of gaming be like you know not When we get to do that, people are able to see and be like, you know, there are some people in gaming. It's not all toxic. There is actual people who are being a positive light. And we get to be that positive light in the aspect of gaming. It doesn't always have to be about toxicity. It doesn't have to be all about being prideful about who's better at making that goal or who's better at shooting this guy faster or hitting your shots. Like it's. It's all about, a lot of it is just, I mean, you can still have fun. You can still have hype moments and stuff like that, like celebratory things. But at the same time, we can still, you know, have ways of how we apply those mannerisms, apply those fruits in the actions that we partake in and still show that we can, you know, we can still be a positive light and be a living example based on what we are passionate and we love to do.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Well, and it's not that this is something new. It's just something that people have not necessarily seen because the, like, people in sports will get done with, you know, whatever, and they win the Super Bowl or they win the NBA championship or whatever, and then they'll say, and I want to thank Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, for all this. We're like... oh great yeah it's a person with faith and oh yeah they're doing that and it's like yeah that's gaming i mean it's sports but it's just a game and and they're doing what they love and yet they're representing in their character in their play in their lifestyle in their words for for the world to see And yeah, there's just as many that screw up along the way as get it right. The same way there's in all of life that that's the way it is. That Christians are bad examples and Christians are good examples. They're just examples. And they're struggling just like everybody else in the world is. They're trying to figure it out and they're trying to be Christ-like. And sometimes they do a good job and sometimes they don't. But it's like...

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah.

Leighton Seys: Why, if it's okay for a Super Bowl champion to be able to be a Christian and play in the NFL and whatever sports league you're in, wouldn't it just make sense that, well, sports leagues and gaming is all the same and we can bring Christ wherever we go?

Red Fire X Trevor: Yep. And it doesn't have to be all about sharing scripture. It can be literally all about it. It literally just be all about, you know, what you've learned for the word and how do you apply it on the field? You don't have a good sportsmanship, having, you know, loving your coaches, showing gratitude to the people that you get to play with, being able to have the privilege of being on the field and just. Showing just that, just showing about, you know, and I love the fact that we don't have to verbally say scripture to share Jesus. We can apply that just as effectively based on our body language, based on how we see someone, how we are looking at someone, based on how we are intentional with conversations, based on how we treat people. And it's just, it's so cool that we get to do that.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, it is really fun to be able to do that and apply it. And having worked with kids on various different levels, whether they were in the church or whether they were in the school, there's always that level of you are representing not only yourself when you're doing things. uh because if it's a school sports league you're representing the school that you're from and you're going to bring shame or disgrace or joy and glory to the school that you represent and and we as christians we do the same thing so absolutely yeah night saber i do have uh a bot that should have taken care of that i don't know why it didn't but uh yeah you're often here i should make you a mod sometime so uh appreciate the offer ma'am

Red Fire X Trevor: I like how he also said, Trevor is toxic when he plays Dr. Strange. Just saying. Yeah, I can be kind of a bully strange in my arrival. So I'll admit, I'll admit.

Leighton Seys: I think there are all of those things that we can do with certain people where outside of those people, it would appear that we're toxic. But because of our relationship, we're not really toxic. And then there's times where we just like to pretend and kind of do that stuff. I mean... I will get my mods, or I should say my mods will get me complaining. I'm not really a complainer, but they just like it when I rant for no reason of something that matters nothing at all, and they'll just egg me on, and I'll just keep ranting. I'm just saying. I'm just saying is all. I'm not really upset. I'm not really angry. I'm just having fun, which is, you know, you've got to read the context sometimes to know the differences between

Red Fire X Trevor: toxic places and uh toxic people yeah exactly and it and the fun thing is i love how god um reminds us that we can have humor i mean god is god is humorous all the time with us and so the fact that we can have this humor we can you know play along with each other you know have some tough love moments joke around poke fun those type of things you know it goes to show you know the fact that we are able to exercise of our emotions and i think also a lot of times believers know um especially you know just a lot of the world will tell you that that uh grown men don't cry like that's such a bad that's such a terrible misconception that that is just like guys come on a real man cries a real man cries when they're actually you know going through hurt or when they're going through something that is just really impacting their heart in a certain way whether it's good or bad like god gives us these emotions emotions for a reason It's a way to express how intentional we are, how authentic we truly are as people. When we get mad, I believe there is a difference between righteous anger and anger that is unrighteous where you're going excessive and over the limit. But also having that righteous anger of like, hey, you know, you mess up in this area. You know, this really upset me. And, you know, there needs to be some correcting in this area. Like, you know, these emotions are there for a reason, for the sake of, you know, for the sake of correction, for the sake of modeling, being more like Christ and to emphasize the importance of things that we may be lacking in and how we need to develop better as we grow and as we continue to live on the earth. Every single day, as long as we are living on earth, God is not done with how we are growing. We're always going to continue to need to find ways to grow.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Maybe one of the most quoted passages, but least actually thought about, is Jesus wept. And it's only quoted because it's the shortest passage. And we just quote it and go on instead of realizing. Jesus was filled with sorrow. And so he expressed his emotions properly in that. And I think really the thing of it is, is we don't need to suppress any part of our emotion because they're valid. but we can't let them control us. We can't let them drive us to do things we shouldn't because anger can lead to things. Jealousy can lead to things. It's okay to have the emotion, but then recognize what it is and then make your decision of what you're going to do about it. so yeah i love that you bring that up uh yeah i i grew up being told that boys don't cry men don't cry um and i i'll tell you what for a long time i bottled that up and uh and then my wife uh was able to get uh behind that uh big facade wall and uh and knock it down um you know after that it's kind of like yeah i i could cry at a drop of a hat in fact in fact Just last month, I had a really, really good cry, and I'm not ashamed to say this. I watched It's a Wonderful Life. My wife does not like the movie. I watch it every year. She just leaves. When I watch the movie, I usually do when she goes shopping or doing something with her mom, and she will walk through the room or when I put it on, did you have your good cry yet? She just pokes fun of me for crying because she knows I'm going to be sobbing over the movie because it's like, It hits me every single time. So...

Red Fire X Trevor: Oh, man, that's awesome, though. Shout out to the wife for allowing me to keep that tradition going. But, man, that's interesting to break that wall down.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, she broke the wall down, and she knows that it's just one of those fun things like, ah, you're going to watch that movie and cry. But, yes, I am. I'm going to have a good cry. As soon as he gets to Zuzu pedals, I'm crying every time. You know, if you know the movie, you'll know what that part is.

Red Fire X Trevor: Absolutely. I mean, I had a similar experience when it came to just watching the movie, the Mercy movie. I can only imagine. Yeah, that movie, that movie hit me emotionally, man. Oh, my goodness. Just thinking about because I mean, not that my dad was like super abusive or anything growing up, but man, he had such anger issues. He just constantly was angry. And whenever he was angry, whether it was my fault or not. it not only impacted me but impacted everybody in the family even my mom to the point where like he would like say some of the most cruel things he would say this and that make me feel like i'm worthless sometimes and just have moments of where like i would even sometimes just get certain beatings what um for uh for most of the time it was for right reasons definitely i had some different moments where i did i i was being bad but that's that's a lot of guys growing up um But also there was moments where, you know, where he went to so much to the extreme to where it really hit me and it really scarred me for a long period of time. And, and, uh, and just, I was like, man, my, my relationship with my dad, it just, I want to love him, but it's hard for me to love him because from all the past history that he has done as I've gotten, um, as I was growing and getting to that point to become an adulthood, you know, I had such bitterness. I had such anger and I was starting to build a lot of those aneurysms that my dad, was having from those moments that i was becoming that type of version of my dad yeah and uh it was such an unhealthy thing to where i was becoming better over the most little of things i was becoming angry for no reason i would you know i would not you know have this humble attitude that i needed to have i would be prideful in certain areas and i would just know be rebellious and have these sorts of things and it just it builds such a horrible sin nature of myself that i was just so disgusted when i you know when i saw that over the years that you know and uh thank the lord that my dad is in such a more better place as i've you know as i've gotten older as an adult and moved um and eventually moved out and uh and just he got himself landed to a church that has been really really doing a work in his life and he's been such a more loving dad and such a more merciful father and just very very supportive and just passionately a family man that you know that i was just looking for for all the years that i was looking for and when that when that moment hit me man it got me emotional and i was just like man thank the lord uh and just you know through that movie it just really hit me hard when uh when i saw that transformation of his dad and just being able to see it like man It's so touching to see how even sometimes it may take years for someone's life to be transformed as they get older. I feel like I can relate to Bart in this scene because just over the years, I just had such a mixed, unhealthy relationship with my dad. And now to see how that has progressed as I've gotten older and as I've started to build more of the fruits of the Spirit in my life and how the Holy Spirit has been in my dad's life, know just the the relationship has gone from such a such a really down low to something that i would have never ever pictured in my life as a kid and it's just it's it's just it's so humbling it just it makes me teary-eyed when i think about it it's just like oh my gosh it's like man if god can move someone like my dad and and and someone like me it's like who can god not impact and transform it's like come on now

Leighton Seys: yeah there we go absolutely yeah you say the the level of where anybody is at in life god can still reach them i mean i i i always enjoyed and would be you know different people would go to prison and you'd say oh that person is worthless and that person we need the death penalty we need to put them away right away and and i'd always kind of be like but if we kill them then there's no chance of them coming to know christ So shouldn't we do something different? And I remember two or three prominent individuals that in my lifetime went to prison and were like, yeah, throw away the key and never let them out. And then you'd hear a dozen years later maybe that... yeah they've come to faith in christ i remember one of them was like manuel noriega he was you know a dictator and and uh we captured him and then i was like yeah we should just get rid of him and well you know he came to faith so maybe maybe there isn't anybody that is beyond that you're only beyond it if you refuse to let the holy spirit work down and soften your heart

Red Fire X Trevor: yeah absolutely i mean i mean paul is a prime example of that too because he was just so much into that he was so much into the pharisaic type of teachings to the point where literally he you know from the book you know just reading just you know just some of the passages you would think that he would just never ever would want to come to the true faith of christ and truly recognize that you know jesus is the only way the truth and the life and you know and just to see how we persecuted family persecuted christians you know separated families to get them um to uh to have them be stoned and killed and just to be able to see you know just this divide when it comes to just the church and just the and just the deaths just tolling up it's it's so amazing to see how you know someone like paul who was feared by many Christians and to come to a point where, you know, he had a journey where, you know, where the Lord had an encounter with him and Barnabas helped him to be able to help see a new identity of just that symbolism of being blind. And now he can truly see the real picture of how faith is really supposed to come on, reveal itself and just see the transformed character of who is new identity truly is and be able to see how you know he has built this renewed relationship this renewed partnership by you know applying the faith through the works that god has put in his heart in his life and just to be able to see all of that just come into place to be able to reveal that type of growth to be able to reveal the type of results of where churches were building where churches were being planted where believers were starting to come together and obviously there was definitely some there's definitely some messy situations with people within the church not doing righteous teachings. It was not perfect when it comes to the building of the church, but... But he was doing church. He was building churches from the ground up, and he was building up leaders to be able to spread the gospel. And that just goes to show that if God deems someone worthy to be saved and he wants to be saved, he's going to make that happen. It's just a matter of when that's going to happen and if there's going to be certain people that will be encountering that will make that happen, who will that be? And it's just a matter of how all that falls into place. Yeah.

Leighton Seys: Well, that's just getting me thinking about another question I like to ask is what have been some just uplifting stories that you've experienced as a streamer, either something that was a blessing to you, something was a blessing in your community, something that just miraculously or amazing that you were able to experience or be witness to as a streamer, maybe two or three stories of yourself or other people.

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, so through this period of streaming and just being able to just over the course of these getting close to seven years, I've had people talk about where I've had some people experience and share with me the fact of, you know, they were dealing with alcoholism. They were dealing with. adultery they were dealing with you know unhealthy toxic relationships and just getting themselves into unhealthy environments and such i've uh i've experienced where people um i've just been a witness of where people have talked about where i've gotten to know them of even having voice calls with some of these people and just being able to hear from where you know they were once this type of identity to be able to see the renewed identity that christ has set in their life like i've I've had so many people talk about stories of like where they no longer are in this addiction, where they are now, you know, thriving in a full-time job where they're able to sustain for themselves, be able to bless their families, be able to having people to where they are finding a church where they can be planted and they're finding ways of how they can serve in the church and how they are on fire for Jesus. Now reading the Bible. know nearly on the daily basis and and uh and also just hearing you know even just being a part of where people have uh you know have heard different um heard a new perspective of where you know for those who are like how do i get out of this addiction how do i get you know does this you know is this actually biblical when it comes to smoking weed and all this stuff i'm like like well you can try to numb the pain all you want when it comes to smoking i mean sure the pain may be temporarily gone for a season but guess what you that pain is going to get come back and it's going to come back even worse than the time that it hit previously you know the thing is is that that is not your healing ailment that is only something to numb it it it doesn't heal it numbs only the pain for a temporary amount of time but where the lord is able to do is that he is able to fully heal and remove that thorn in your side sometimes some of the thorns that we have in our lives are not up there for a reason to not be removed so it's like what paul was experiencing during his time in um on earth But the reality is, you know, through thorns that we are able to overcome, that we're able to get rid of, that we are able to rebuke and get rid of in our life, like alcoholism, like, you know, like being a smoker, all these type of things. A lot of it is based on, you know, just is to change that mindset to, you know, be scripture, to be Christ minded, to continue to have scripture be a reminder to you on a regular daily basis. Because when you meditate on the word, you become that word becomes a part of you yeah and you remember those things and you start to remember the promises that you know god has said time and time again because so many times as christians we forget and we you know and when we mess up we're like oh shoot i forgot that that's you know that's what the word teaches i can't be doing this this is not healthy

Leighton Seys: um and so it definitely the the word is just flows out of you as we've had in this conversation and as we had several others you know at reach it's just that boom yeah this passage boom that that example over here boom this person over here and we just we just flow that all the way through uh i love that that just flows out of you and and that happens in stream it's no wonder that people as they hang around with you are going to go well maybe let me give it a chance if it worked for you to overcome then maybe maybe it's worth me trying it out and seeing if that'll help me overcome too

Red Fire X Trevor: yeah and uh the other thing i also like to add on to that is that also too like you know not sometimes there's going to be some examples of people that are going to go through certain scenes as well where maybe it's not you necessarily that makes the impact when it comes to you know maybe that person having that life-changing decision of their life to change from their old ways to enter to the new ways of christ sometimes it's people who have already been established in your community which is also a cool thing about it is that it is not just a streamer effort it's a community collaborative effort that you can make as you grow and as you build and i've seen so many times where you know shout out to the people who have been moderators for my channel for years and who are still moderators here in this place and you know who have been long friends of mine that have you know that have been able to be blessed with over these years and I can't tell you how many times, you know, so many of those people have been able to share scripture, share, you know, their past experiences, their personal testimonies of how they became to be who they are today. And so many times people, you know, like, you know, like, for example, with Emmy, she, you know, she was in a place where she was just, she was like, she was not seeing the value of herself. She was not seeing, you know, her worth in the Lord and not seeing the value of her life. know just through the collaborative efforts that you know from people from my community and that we were able to do as a collaborative effort together to share you know about you know why this is actually an untrue thing and you know this is what god truly is saying and how we are able to really see that transformative effort

Leighton Seys: i think that's a really really valid point that you're bringing up there that goes past people that all they do is look at social media and social media is content creators and followers and it's yep and and when you get into some places and twitch in particular and discord It goes well beyond the personality that's behind the camera. It is the community that is developed alongside of that person because they can't handle the whole thing by themselves. They can't control the whole thing by themselves. They have to have ownership and buy-in from the community of whatever you're setting up. Here's our guides. Here's our rules. Here's what we're going to live up to. And then you get the buy-in from the mods. And we just had a conversation earlier. Hey, do you need me mod? Because a bot was trying to spam the chat and do whatever else. And it's like, okay. so we need more people the same way that paul never went anywhere by himself he always brought somebody along with him as he was going along he was always finding other people along the way this is not a you only journey that yeah they come into your stream and they spend a few hours with you but you also introduce them to your discord you introduce them to other streamers you introduce them to if you know now within the reach community um Also, Emmy is also over in Hopeful Disasters community. I got to meet Emmy in person for the first time at HopeCon before seeing her at Reach. And I love that collaborativeness. that i don't know that i've seen in my lifetime uh in the same way because you know you're growing up oh that's that church down the road and depending on the size of your community uh you know i lived in small enough communities where we would go get together to do vbs so we weren't competing against each other and so we'd bring three four churches together and we do vbs together or there'd be a couple people that'd be outliers but it'll go we're gonna buy this one program together buy all the stuff we'll use it first and then we'll give it to you but we got to do our own because we want to do it you know as soon as school's out and you want to wait till fall so whatever you you had collaboration but the streaming community is all around collaboration the christian community and streaming is all around that Yeah, you want to go watch Red Fire X Trevor and you want to go watch Night Saber and you want to go watch Emmy and you want to go watch Katie Bug and you want to go, like, I can just keep naming names. Like, yeah, go watch them. I love those people. Like, go hang out with them. And you're going to, they're on at the same time as you. Well, then pick which one you need today and go hang out in that community and you're going to be blessed no matter which your choice is. And then when we can gather together and do collabs and stuff, it's amazing. anyone that's watching this and by the way i don't i don't know if you you've seen this i've shared it in a few places i'm i'm gonna do uh for the podcast a mod takeover for the month of march so they'll come out on the vods later but I want people that are only mods on the podcast, not streamers and also mod, because there's a lot of streamers that mod, but it's like, no, no, no. I want to celebrate those people that help the community become what we're striving for it to become. And they're kind of gatekeepers and holders and they're essential pieces that the world doesn't pay attention to them. They don't see them. They don't know them. Us streamers know them. And I want to lift up and celebrate them.

Red Fire X Trevor: yeah and i love that you also brought that up too because honestly moderators they make so much of an impact more than people realize sometimes they make just as much of an impact as the streamer in certain situations in different moments of life and and what i love that you know the functionalities of the church you know as i've you know gone through those studies and such we all have different giftings in different areas yes It doesn't mean that there is any sort of hierarchy of who's more important within those roles, but we are equally important. We are all part of the image of God, and we are able to apply things that we know that God has blessed us with as gifts and talents in these different methods of ways that we have... um that we've gone to master over the course of these years to be able to use it for the sake of glorifying god and just being able to see such a transformational change over um you know with the people that we are able to encounter and it's just so cool we you know we're the gifts of communication where it could be the gifts of you know serving when it comes to the gifts of you know when it when it comes to speaking life over someone you know there's all kinds of different ways of how people are so good at different things in different ways and also how we can also unify our different testimonies to be able to share among different people because sometimes people can relate to others in a certain way based on people's motives based on people's past and what have people experienced to become who they are now

Leighton Seys: it's so true and you know i i can think of you know more examples too where people are trying to wrestle with something in life trying to overcome it but they like just one streamer isn't going to help them get there i mean maybe the streamer says the right words but the mod or others in the chat are doing the encouragement. They're coming alongside of. They're encouraging to come over to another stream or another community. They're in the Discord. And sometimes you have to hear it again and again and again. before you really realize, oh, it's not just Red Trevor that tells me that. You know, it's everybody around me is now telling me this. Maybe it's true now. Now that I've got six different people telling me, maybe I've got 12 people telling me, now I might believe that I'm worthwhile. Now I might believe that I can change. Now I might believe that there's something worth me pursuing. Now I might believe my life's not over because of whatever the circumstance is. So I love that aspect. I wouldn't give that up to be a partner on Twitch. There's no way I would give that. No, no, no. That's so much more valuable than if all of a sudden I was just making a wonderful income and people knew who I was. That is not worth the trade-off.

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, I fully agree. I would much rather, you know, being able to impact people with the giftings and callings that God has placed in my life to become a Twitch partner any day of the week. And just because you become a Twitch partner doesn't mean it's going to be happy, joy-filled, sustainable life whatsoever. And then plus, I mean, partnership, it's only just at this point with how it's evolved, it's basically just a title and maybe just a couple of additional perks. There's not really a whole lot more meaning behind it now these days, especially with partner. it's a lot of just the sake of just seeking for notoriety and seeking for that you are someone of more importance based on their platform and so and i don't want when it comes to growth if i'm going to build any sort of growth any sort of notoriety as far as being exposed out into this world i don't want it to be for the sake of my glory i want it to be for the sake of his glory and for him to get all the credit not not all the credit for me

Leighton Seys: yeah well there there is a a level of accomplishment because you have you put the work in you've done stuff so i like it from that standpoint of it recognizes your work and your efforts uh and and that's a great thing but yeah from the from other standpoint You're still the stream streamer you were a month before you became partner. I hope I hope it doesn't change you in a way that now you now you're going to step on everybody that you step, you know, to get to that place. It's like, no, I'm going to do what I've been doing in order to maintain and to grow and to become better. And maybe, yeah, like you said, just use that now to have more access to people to point to God and give him glory. So any other examples of blessings you've experienced from being a streamer or somebody in your community?

Red Fire X Trevor: I have. So, I mean, I've definitely had moments of where people have given their life to Jesus and just being able to share about the gospel, pray to them in those moments just to be able to share that journey with them. And, you know, from what I've experienced from past churches that I've been to, there's been some churches that I've been to that, you know, that focus so much on the aspect of sharing the gospel and, you know, helping people and wanting people to, you know, know to become you know to be become followers of jesus which i think is great but they forget that one other step that i think is just as important as becoming a believer which is what is ne what is the next thing the part of my life that i need to do what is next for me in my chapter and what do i need to do next because sometimes there's so many moments of where churches are failing to be like okay what is next what is the next thing i need to do know what where's my calling now that i am now a believer that i know that i need to get into the word i need to you know build my relationship god but where where does that what does that next part of that go to so you know some people so many people get lost in that and that can help make people easily just lose interest if we're not being cautious and careful about that and so i've seen that so much within past churches i went to and so you know over the over these years i've um been you know working on being more intentional about now that you are a believer let's get you connected either to a church that maybe be in your local area if you're comfortable with that or maybe we can try to connect you to um just you know just getting to uh whether it's you know faith-based videos and content they can produce they can watch that is going to be healthy for your growth maybe get you connected to any sort of known bible study groups that we can get you into so that you can build fellowship build relationships get connected with people and you know maybe potentially find an accountability partner for you so that you can have someone keep account of you for your growth and just checking in on you And so those things I think are so, so dire in importance when it comes to building, you know, that that ceiling of growth and really seeing, you know, how can God utilize you for the very things that he has in store for you? I've also had moments where I've had a moment where when I was in college. was uh there was a uk streamer she still streams sometimes every now and then but not as much lately because she's now uh married to her new husband as a part of last year which is very exciting um but uh she you know she was going through a season where she you know she was struggling with you know string quality with string struggling with just being able to um just be able to um be able to do any sort of streaming and just be able to make content and all this um these sorts of things because she was streaming from like a laptop like i was in the past and she was just using that to play fortnite and such and uh you know i got this massive grant that i got from college that i was able to use and even put in my my bacon cat which was amazing and so I was like, you know, let's go ahead and raise some money to do this charity to where we can bless this person exponentially. And so we raised, I think, like around like $500 to $600 or something crazy during that time. And this was only like May, probably like my... and a half or two years into streaming so not even not long into the streaming career and we were able to we were able to get like five to six hundred dollars saved up for this budget for this um for this awesome stream and then i contributed the rest based on the grant that i got and i sure that i think like probably another five or six hundred to get like over a thousand dollars and uh and donated that entire money to be able to bless her on stream and i was like you know we had i i you know expressed her i'm like you know there's something that we that me and a couple of others have been in the works of doing that we wanted to share with you and so Just about towards the end of her stream, I told her, I'm like, I have something that I have to get for you that I think would really bless you a lot, and that would be such a heartfelt moment for me and for many other people. I want to bestow upon this blessing to where we've saved this money up over the course of time and just methodically... know prepared for a moment to where we want to bless you with this money that you can use to buy yourself a brand new gaming pc and uh and when that donation hit oh my goodness the emotions were all over the place yeah i can imagine i mean and i've i've been witness to to those moments uh numerous times uh in twitch there there is

Leighton Seys: a spirit of generosity at times and when you have real needs there are plenty of people who will respond and and i love that you like i have a grant for myself but wait you you can take this And I'm going to help you because I see the need right there. And not only just doing it yourself, you did that quietly and you raised it among other people. And then you brought everybody to be able to go and do the blessing. And then it also got to be a genuine moment for that streamer to share with the community because you did it live. Not, hey, you did it privately. And then they try to recount it and share it with their stream later. I love, I like, that is like, I think one of my favorite things is the, I would just call it unboxing video for lack of it. Because it covers so much stuff. Because it's small things, big things, but it's the communal celebration of something. And so the gifting and the unveiling, what a joyful thing to be able to bring and to show. And boy, moments like that. I would just love to see someone, I'm not skilled enough to do this, just go cut a bunch of clips of streamers being blessed by people giving them gifts. That would just be an awesome stream to watch. Just surprise after surprise after surprise of people being blessed by other people would be a really cool thing to do.

Red Fire X Trevor: Absolutely. But yeah, just moments like those when you're able to bless people, whether it's the gift of giving. And, you know, a lot of us, a lot of us, you know, there's going to be some of us who have that, you know, that financial stability in a way of where we've built discipline about how we delegate our finances. And, you know, as we are being as we're being intentional with it, as we are being. As we are delegating how we are utilizing it, we can have moments of opportunities where we can give, whether it's a small amount or where it's such an extraordinary amount, that God is like, I want you to give this to this person. And just to be able to see just the heart in that and just be able to see the intentionality of like, all right, let's... know let's bless this person in this in this type of way and just being able to see you know how you know what god wants to unveil to this person what what does it look like the end results of all that unraveling together and just seeing everything from the start to the finish it's just like wow God is so remarkable in how he orchestrates everything to come the way it is. And to me, it just feels so much more of a heartfelt moment to me to just be able to give to someone that I'm able to bless with than me to be blessed by someone else.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I definitely like giving to other people more and having those moments. I'm never good with birthday gifts. I can't tell you what to give me. I don't need anything. My kids hate that. Dad, you just go get what you want. Yep, I do. I see a new hat, I go get it. I'm not waiting around. But it's so much more fun to be able to see the look on somebody else's face when you get them exactly what you know they need or they want and they've been waiting for it. Actually, I wish I could find the video of this. I might have to look for it. there was there was one christmas my son was so overwhelmed because my wife and i just decided it was the gaming christmas every gift under the tree was a game and my son opened one video game and then he opened a second video game and then he opened a third video game i think he got the fourth one he starts crying Because he's just opening video game after video game after video game, and he's just overwhelmed with, like, I have no expectations of anything this grandiose. And it was like, you know, we're parents. We're buying used games, and we're buying, you know, games when they're on sale or whatever. But it didn't matter in his mind. It was just like... Another game, another game, another game. And it was amazing to watch him be overwhelmed by that. His brothers and sisters weren't as overwhelmed, although all they got was games. His mind was just watching game, game, game, game, game. And it was pretty fun.

Red Fire X Trevor: That's that is so, so cool. And I love when we get the opportunity to bless someone in such a way that that and like what you were doing there is just it's being personal. It's something that attaches to them and that it goes to show that you value what they're passionate about, what they love, what they want to experience and what they treasure, because, you know, wherever your treasure is there, your heart will be also. And so, you know, your heart was to wanting to bless that bless that child and be able to see them just be so happy and so. joyful and giddy and uh and just being able to see that is just it fills the atmosphere of just getting everyone else you know joyful and just full of positive energy and just the way of just having you know the lore permeate throughout the entire space you know of what's happening in that very exact moment

Leighton Seys: Yeah, absolutely, which to just kind of segue off of that, we've talked about reach a couple of times. We haven't really dove into it, but that's a lot of what reach is. It is the overwhelmingness of a lot of people together, a lot of content that is available, a lot of people doing things for one another, reaching out, blessing one another. and then a lot of fun that's happening all at the same time. Do you want to just share a couple of things that impacted you with Reach? And you've been there both years, right?

Red Fire X Trevor: yep that's correct um but yeah absolutely um i mean honestly the impact um at least from the first year um is just being able to you know just be able to see people in person like to me it just it brings so much joy to be like man i've known you for all these years and now at this very moment i can't believe i've actually seen you in the flesh like it's unbelievable to be able to experience this it's it just gets me so excited and just gets me so just overwhelmed with such joy and just and happiness because i mean the fellowship is it's right there and it's just it's so cool to see that in person and when you get to know the person from the inside out it's it's genuineness it's intentionality it's authenticity that just pours and oozes out and uh i just you know the and as i've gotten to know people who i've encountered reach including yourself it's like man this is a community that loves people that loves each other that is there actually supporting each other it's not about clicks it's not about trying to see you know who gets the better notoriety about who gets the higher viewership or subs or any of that like it's all genuine support for one another which is something that i have such an appreciation and respect when it comes to the reach. And even though that we may have some of our differences when it comes to maybe certain faith-based points, maybe when it comes to certain stances on our faith, you know, and that's bound to happen as Christians. And, you know, and as long as we're doing it in a healthy... genuine way then you know there's i don't see any sort of issue with it as long as we're being respectful minded and doing it in a loving way but also at the at the same time it's all about building the unity of the church which is something that is lacking so much in our regions and and i love that reach is you know is trying to is really working on building such genuine connections genuine relationships and wanting to build a partnership with each and every single person that wants to invest in what is the core mission the core vision of what they have they want to um that they want everybody to witness and what they want people to experience and be a part of and you know from when i'm going to reach especially the first year just so many people were just so genuine they're so loving they were you know they were all about wanting to get to know each other they want to connect with people that they recognize from you know from behind the screen and uh and i just thought that was so so stinking cool And also just be able to, I thought it was cool, especially the first year of when I, you know, even though that we didn't connect so much, very much of the very first year, you know, I remember all those times, you know, just being able to connect with Gary before he got married with Steph and be able to see, you know, I was like, man, the fact that it's able to build, you know, relationship that became. know such a amazing healthy marriage that i hope and pray this continues to be a sustaining marriage it's so cool to see how that has built from the ground up because of reach making that possible and then even just in the second year you know seeing um you know seeing someone like keels who i've you know gotten to know over this um this past year you know she gave her heart to jesus at reach which i thought was so stinking cool to be like, you know, she sees the authenticity of what people are all about. She sees, you know, that this, you know, the God that we serve is real, that he, you know, that what we believe and what the Bible says is truly what we live by. And just to be able to... seems like okay god i need to you know i need to surrender all of myself to you and i want to live a new life dedicated to serving you and now she you know and now she is getting more connected to her church she's going to be baptized later this year and uh and just has this desire of you know getting to the word and she's surrounding herself with the online space of people the community that she met at reach you know for those who are christ-like it's just it's so cool how reach has impacted people from from salvation calls from marriages from you know just connections when it comes streamers with collaborations relationships so much of reach you know has so much in store for everybody i believe absolutely and

Leighton Seys: And I even know some that are just like friendships, like, yeah, I'm a streamer or I'm in this community, but I'm an introvert and it's really hard for me to connect with people and to put myself out there. And then just so much happening at Reach and so many opportunities there of some of those people finding a person that's like... I'm not a soulmate because they're just friends, but that intimate friend that is there that is like, hey, this is David and Jonathan type of friendship. Like you just have a soul knit together friendship that you didn't know each other, but then through reach you have done and found. And now that like the beauty of being digital friends is for people like me. who before I lived in the house that I'm currently in, which I've been here nine years, my average length of stay was 2.5 years in any one place. And my longest was six years. And that was the place I was at before I was here. And that was a parsonage. So I didn't need to move. So it's like, there are people like me that like, I'm never in the same community for long. I keep moving on. I keep going places like to be able to have connected digital friendships means I don't have to ever lose those friendships. I get to have and maintain those ongoing friendships as long as I'm able to hang out and go to your stream when I get a chance to. I'm not usually up late at night and doing that, but I'm more of a morning streamer. I love the opportunities I get to go and see people that I don't normally get to. And it's like, oh, man, it's just so deep and rich. And, yeah, so you've been there the first year. I'm sure you're planning on talking about it already for next year. And, you know, just go ahead. What's your code for if anyone wants to sign up for you?

Red Fire X Trevor: I appreciate it. For those who want to use my code, you can type its code REDFIRE at checkout for your ticket purchase. It's an awesome opportunity to help me as a creator and to be able to get a little incentive as far as getting a discounted ticket purchase. Tickets are selling quickly, so make sure that you guys get your tickets as soon as possible. If you want to meet people like me, like FlatCap, and many other awesome people that are going to be there make sure you guys get your tickets as soon as possible the fellowship is amazing it is a life-changing moment that i encourage anyone to go at least once in your lifetime at least give reach at least one chance of an opportunity because you know the fellowship it is unlike any other thing that i've ever experienced and uh it's just it's so cool how god moves you know not only just through the fact that know that we all love and passionate about gaming but how we can gather as believers to even though that we may not be the most um some of us may not be the most social type of people or social butterflies in our life we are able to still you know have something that we both share together which is loving god and loving gaming and so make sure that you guys take advantage of that if you guys want to get more information at least for those in my chat type in exclamation point reach for the website and also the checkout link

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I don't think I have that on the Church Digital. I have that over on my own channel. So, you know, you can use code FLATCAP if you want. If you've got other people that have been on the podcast and they're in reach, you can check them out too. I don't know everybody's code, but I'm sure that if you're looking for a code and a discount, you know, those tickets, like you said, are going fast. We're over 400 tickets sold. I don't even know what the number's at recently. Yeah, there'll be a lot of fun going on there. Oh, sorry, just thinking about this. I do have to figure out my plans here. So those who are here live, I'm telling you this now. I am planning something, so my... uh, affiliate anniversary is, uh, February 14. So somewhere around that time, I will be giving away a ticket to reach conference. So, so stay tuned into the DMS, uh, to the discord servers, uh, and, and look for that. I don't have it fully planned out, but I'm going to have a way for somebody to win a ticket to reach conference. I'm going to give that away. So, um but yeah you'll have to you have to stay tuned to my channel flat cap dapper pastor not the church digital if you want to win that so that's that's a pretty cool gift right there that's awesome

Red Fire X Trevor: And also, Amatross, you don't have to be a social butterfly. It's okay. I'm not the most social butterfly in the world either. I'm still learning. I'm still trying to get better.

Leighton Seys: There also was a quiet room, too, if you needed to have a moment away. That's true. There is. Because you were overwhelmed by things. There was – I'm trying to remember what the title was of it. I can't remember. Sensory?

Red Fire X Trevor: I can't remember either. Sensory.

Leighton Seys: uh sensory room i can't remember what it was called but anyway like that yeah you could get away from all of the space which i've started to see that more frequently in public like airports i've noticed have those rooms where you can go into and i'm like going That was just something that was never in my realm of thinking about. And I'm thinking about, you know, but I always saw those kids who probably needed it when I was growing up. And they weren't around. And so maybe if they had had those around, we could have had better environments back then if we'd have done that.

Red Fire X Trevor: yeah that makes total sense but yeah i think it's i think it's a cool concept and i would have you know growing up i never would have thought of something of having a space like that and i think it's so unique and so cool and uh you're able to you know have your own space that you're able to go into and if you want to listen to music you listen to music if you just want to rest up and just relax you can do those type of things like i think it's a cool even though it may be a simple concept you know just think um you know just looking at from a certain lens But man, I think it's cool that it can really help calm down the nerves. It can really help people be at peace and just be able to just feel more in a more calm, safe environment. Because sometimes some people, you know, maybe going through certain things or just going through certain emotions to where sometimes people will maybe get like a panic attack or get, you know, be anxiety driven and just have things that are just eating them alive from the inside out.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Yeah, I guess say and we all have our own unique ways of what we need to address whatever is going on inside of us. And some of us need to withdraw and some of us need other people around. And we just need to, you know, I love the fact that that taco, the Alliance Creative Outreach, was thinking about that and provided that room for reach so that we could have it there.

Red Fire X Trevor: A hundred percent. Yeah. I thought, I thought it was a great, great place to be at. And especially with how long, how long the day was at reach. Like, I wish I would have utilized it more because man, I'm like, there's data. There's part of the day, like towards, towards the end. I'm like, I'm exhausted, man. I'm like about to pass out because of how exhausted it is. Cause there's so much walking and you're just going around talking to so many people trying to contain your energy, but also being excited at the same time. It's like, Man, it wears you out.

Leighton Seys: Well, and then I'm one of the I'm the other end of it. I'm extrovert. So like there's a conversation over there. Where, where, where? And I would I would at times like like where I struggled at times was sitting in the auditorium when the speaker was talking. And then I'm going, oh, I'm feeling it. I'm not paying attention. I need to go. I need to go leave. uh in order to to recharge my battery so i would recharge by going having a conversation with somebody and and then i'm ready and then i'm ready to go and then i continued those conversations at the airbnb until two and three in the morning so i i slept very little at reach

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, I was the same way. I probably slept like probably like four or five hours per day while I was there. So I'm right there with you on that for sure. And just like you mentioned too, like I was more into wanting to socialize with people than I wanted to be a part of like listening to speakers. And I love the speakers that I listened to. I thought they were great. um but man just the conversations you get to have with people in person you only have so much time until that time is up and then you're back to living to that other that reality of just talking to each other or seeing each other through the online space you know you got to utilize every moment you can of you know what you truly want to experience because part of reach is what you want your experience to become. You don't have to have it be a set specific type of method or way. You can make your own experience that much more fruitful by setting the tone of what you want it to become.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, there's really a level of choose your own adventure at reach because there are multiple things happening at the same time in multiple buildings. So unlike a lot of conferences where there's just the main speaker and nothing else going on, there is something going on all the time, and you have multiple choices of what you want to do. There's gaming that's going on. There's... breakout sessions that are going on there's there's people that organize their own groups that are going on and then you have main sessions i mean there's there's so many different things like you could not do it all so it really is pick what you want to do next you're going to miss something but whatever you pick is going to be a great thing to do

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, exactly. And I mean, there's going to be some, and I love, I love that aspect too. Cause I mean, sometimes there's going to be certain things that you may not have as much of an interest for that. Maybe you just get a little bit tuned out sometimes. And then there's going to be something else that, that you're able to choose that is going to build more of that, of that, just that, that desired interest. And so, you know, whatever those may look like, you're able to choose how do you want to spend that time that you do have because that time is precious and you got to utilize the time of what you have that is given to you so that it doesn't get wasted away because, you know, we only have a certain amount of time. through the event, especially with the money that we that we put into, when it comes to that traveling and gets reached, you know, you got to utilize it to the best of your ability, so that you can personalize your own experience to make it memorable for you. That's the cool thing about it is that you get to make the experience how you want it to become, whether it's socializing, whether it's gaming tournaments, whether it's the speakers, whether it's being a part of certain TED Talks, asking questions, icebreakers. You get to personalize it the way you want, and that's the part that it's like picking out ice cream flavors at an ice cream shop. How many scoops? What flavors do you want to add to your ice cream cone or your bowl? You can personalize it however you want.

Leighton Seys: Or you can just go vanilla. It's still good.

Red Fire X Trevor: Exactly.

Leighton Seys: Oh, man, that's awesome. We could keep going, but I just want to kind of wrap everything up. Is there anything that you are looking forward to in the year ahead, or are there some things that we can be in prayer for you about?

Red Fire X Trevor: Yeah, and I appreciate you asking this question. For me, a lot of this has just been a season of just where God really wants me to build on my social life, which, by the grace of the Lord, I found a more sustainable church from last year in April that has opened that door of opportunity of meeting more people and building more community and fellowship. so just um honestly just continue a prayer and just um and just building more into spiritual maturity to be living by example not only through that space but through this space and everywhere that i go because you know i want to try to i always want to work on being you know the best living example that i can be for the lord and i know i'm going to mess up i'm going to have moments i stumble but know i always want my heart to be desired to be better each and every single day and that's why my favorite bible verse is colossians 3 23 work everything you do with all your heart mind soul and strength work heartily for the lord and not for people and so and uh it's just it reminds me to you know to work everything that i do all do for the glory of god and give every give my best to god because god gave his best in everything he did for us he deserves our best in everything that we do for him And so it sets a tone for excellence in everything that we do, which is why I'm like the grindy type of person that I am. And I get a little competitive sometimes in certain things. But, yeah, just prayer for just, you know, just continual spiritual maturity, just growth in relationships for, you know, through the online and the IRL space. And I'm just trying to continue to find ways in my content of how I can be, you know, finding more untapped space of how I can best reach people for the Lord, you know, whether it's through gaming content or just sharing faith-based content through the devotionals I do, like on my platforms. and the last thing I'll also share. So it's not, um, is that, uh, you know, I'm just, I'm not sought that season, you know, where I'm almost, I'm almost 30. I'm getting to that point where I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, uh, just can, uh, that I'm just looking through different spaces, looking for building new relationships. You know, at some point in my life, I want to be able to have a family to be able to have, you know, uh, you know, a woman of God in my life that, you know, is really, you know, you know, that is keeping me accountable. That, uh, know that is really helping me to be a better man for christ and so just you know just finding a god honoring partner in my life so that i can be the man that god really wants me to be as i continue to mature and grow all right that's that's a whole lot and you know the the thing is um

Leighton Seys: I really am starting to see, because growing up for me, like so many people I knew would either get married right out of high school or they would go to college and they'd get married right out of college. And it wasn't, it was like the social pressure to go and find that person and then commit and then go. And maybe you weren't in the best space. You weren't the best person to be able to find the person you were supposed to be with. I'm really starting to value and see the value of people like you who are trying to get themselves everything that they want to be and everything that it should be before they go and they find that partner that God might bring to them. And there's also that level of... You're not missing something. You are already fully who God's created you to be. I mean, there's blessing with the being in relationship. We know that. But there's some people that I think when I grew up, it was, I'm not going to be complete unless I have that person. and if you're looking if you're if you're waiting for that person to make you complete that's a failure because they won't they will disappoint you they won't make you complete uh you and god need to work on that um not not plug another person in you that they might be a missing piece in your life and i'm not going to say there's not but you are still not waiting for that person to be who god's made you to be so All right. Well, I do like to... Are you going to stay on? Are you raiding out?

Red Fire X Trevor: I'll be staying out. I'll be staying up, so...

Leighton Seys: Okay, then I will raid out to you. If you were leaving, then we would go find somebody and double raid to, but if you're sticking around, then I will raid over to you.

Red Fire X Trevor: Thank you so much, man. I greatly appreciate that, Black Cab. It means a lot, my friend.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, absolutely. I hope everybody here has had a great time. I know I have. We could have went in so many different ways with this conversation. True. And it's just so much fun to hear what God has done already, what he is up to, and to just be able to have a platform where I can help share what God's done and what he's doing so other people can hear that too.

Red Fire X Trevor: yeah it's been it's been such a blessing and privilege to be able to you know to talk to you to be able to have these amazing fruitful conversations and you know there's you know from even just these conversations we've had you know i've taken some things away that have just really been you know such an attachment to my heart as far as you know how i can better myself how i can apply certain things through the passions and desires you know that i have that is for the sake of the glory of the kingdom and so you know i'm excited for what the lord has for us throughout this year and how he's gonna just continue to build us up to, uh, just to help us to see the, see the results that God has placed in us on our specific journeys at hand. So I appreciate the time.

Leighton Seys: Absolutely. And, uh, I will, I will get to see you for, for three years in a row at, uh, at reach. We gotta wait until, until November for that to happen. So.

Red Fire X Trevor: I know, rats.

Leighton Seys: Man, I wish we could come sooner. But, yeah, and who knows what God is going to do between now and then. It's going to be amazing to see what he does.

Red Fire X Trevor: Absolutely.

Leighton Seys: Thank you. Thank you, everybody, for being here. I appreciate you all. Let me get the raid started, and then I will throw some credits up there so that you can see when the next podcasts are going to be. So I believe it's the 2nd of February, the 12th of February, and then the 19th, but I might have those wrong, so they'll be on the slides, and you can check those out. And otherwise, this podcast will be out about in a month on all the usual places where podcasts go out. So check it out. Check other places out. And since we just got on Spotify and Apple this month, if you can just go over there, give us a like, give us a review. I'd appreciate that so much. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a blessed evening. And let me roll some credits for you.

Red Fire X Trevor: Likewise. God bless, FlightCap. Have a great rest of your night, my friend. Thank you.