Meet the Mods Planting Seeds in Dark Spaces

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 everyone to control alt redeem we are working to reset the culture and redeem the space redeem all of those places where the world has created something toxic and people are there and yet and yet it's still something of beauty and something that's worthwhile and so we are talking most of the time with twitch streamers on this stream That's primarily my focus is to have my friends on who are Twitch streamers, who are Christians in the space, talking about how they got started, what they've been doing, what their experiences have been along the way. And we're taking a divergent little track this time. We're going and we're going to invite some mods and a couple of my friends who don't regularly stream. In fact, maybe never stream. It would be a better way to describe it. and they're moderators in the chat and in the community. And if you don't know what that is, that is one of those wonderful people that helps the streamer to be able to welcome people, to greet people, to manage the behaviors of people in the chat, to enforce the standards, and to generally just make life easier for the streamer. So we've got Yaa Aikben here and Blanco. So we'll just start with Yaa Aikben here. Why don't you just quickly introduce yourself?

Yaa Aikben: Sure. Hello, everyone. My name is Ja, Ich bin hier. It's a German username, which means, yes, I am here, but I am an American just learning German for a hobby. I've been watching Twitch in some capacity fairly regularly since the end of 2020. Um, and I have been moderating different streams in some capacity since, uh, I think it was either late 2021 or early 2022, something like that. Uh, if I remember correctly. Um, so it's been about four years and, uh, it's been fun to see, uh, how God works in all kinds of different, uh, avenues and places and streams and, um, are plenty of places where i'm not a moderator and there are plenty of places where i am a moderator and god still works regardless of what role i get to fit in the different streams oh man that's awesome what a great introduction yeah i've been here not that i would not have expected that one of the other things that

Leighton Seys: Early on, I really, really appreciated, and I love to just praise on people that I have on. I really appreciate about you. I've been here is you were often throwing scripture passages that you knew when someone would bring them up in the community, they'd be talking about it and you'd go, here it is. It's this passage. Here it is. This is what you were thinking about. And it's very helpful at times to have someone who can just jump in and do that. In a my stream, you're not a moderator, but at times you serve in that role and capacity anyway. So appreciate you. Thank you. Blanco, why don't you quickly introduce yourself to everybody?

Guest: I'm Blanco. Been on Twitch since the early 2020s, maybe even late 2010s. I actually didn't start out in Christian content creation. I was just down here for gaming, and I just happened to be scrolling through... one night and looking for streams and i happened to found it find a christian stream i've been a christian my whole life and was like well is is there really a space here for this because up to that point i hadn't found it and i think at that point i kind of found my home ah very cool very cool at some point i will i will go through and ask you both to talk about the different communities that you're in and some of those experiences that you've had but

Leighton Seys: I want to start with, because I usually ask all of the streamers, how did you get started on Twitch? And both of you, since you're not streamers, have gotten started with, well, I'm going to go view and I'm going to watch content on here. So I really want to maybe talk about how soon along that journey did you make the decision around or were you asked to become a moderator? What was it about that that led you to become a mod? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I've been here.

Yaa Aikben: Yeah. So that's really interesting because originally I, you know, was just watching different channels and the first one to like suggest maybe moderation was in my future was Sunshine S Games. Oh, yeah. And she brought it up a couple of times, probably within the first. year of me hanging out on her channel um but i was like i don't i don't think that's you know i i see moderators and other streams and they're these very experienced tech savvy individuals and that's not me right now so i don't think uh that's gonna happen i'm just fine being a viewer um And then what ended up happening was I was hanging out in a totally different stream over on the music side. I was hanging out in the CJ Lasseter's channel and a brand new music streamer was hanging out and was like... watching how i was interacting and how i was helping and then when she started streaming her name is amy gullaby and i went over and watched her stream and she quickly was like you know what you're doing i'm making you a moderator i was like oh uh i've never done this before but okay if you say so And then after moderating there for a while, it wasn't too long after that Sunshine S Games was also like, okay, I think you're experienced enough. I'm just making you a mod, whether you really want to right now or not. And that kind of kick-started getting experience on the music side and the gaming side of Twitch, which are probably the main two places I hang out. And just getting some experience there, it, they weren't like necessarily need based situations. Like sometimes people have toxic, uh, infiltrators that they have to deal with. And so they're, they're looking for mods right away. These were situations where it was like very low key, uh, not a lot of responsibility, just like, Hey, I see you here. You know what you're doing. I want you to be able to help. So I'm making you a moderator. That's how I got started.

Leighton Seys: Very cool. And you mentioned Sunshine S Games, who was one of my OG mods. So Sunshine S Games and Miss Jelly Beans, both as soon as they found out I was going to be streaming, they both said... We want a mod for you. And I went, great. I don't know. That's not a normal thing for people to begin streaming and then have people jump in and say, I want a mod for you. But yeah, I've been here. I know if you were suddenly to say you were going to go streaming, you would have a bunch of those people that would jump in and say, I want a mod for you, because one of the things that I know you have done and I did to begin with was go around and and ingrain yourself in other communities and become part of it. So then people get to know you and they're like, oh, I would want to go hang out with you. They may not stay for a long time, but initially they're ready to go. And I love that aspect of I'm just doing this. I'm making you this. You don't get to say no. You don't get to say no.

Yaa Aikben: I mean, if I really wanted to say no, I could have. But it was like, sure, let's give this a try. Let's see what happens. And I'm happy to help. And Sunshine herself is very much a – almost like she, she streams when she loves to stream, but she also like really loves moderating and helping others. And so when she, it doesn't surprise me that when you were about to go, she was like, Hey, let me jump in there and help you out there.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, absolutely. And she was also one that kept telling me I needed to go stream. So she is so encouraging. That's awesome.

UNKNOWN: Yeah.

Leighton Seys: Blanco, what was it like for you getting started as a moderator? What did you get invited into, or did you volunteer? What was your story like?

Guest: So my story, again, since I started on Twitch with... more of the gaming side. I was previously a moderator for another gaming channel. I had no idea what it was. It was just one of my buddies was like, hey, I'm making you a mod on my channel. And I'm like, okay, what's that mean? He's like, basically, you get to kick people if they're not saying bad stuff. I'm like, okay. And then when I jumped over to the Christian side of things, Donnie Dreams was the first one who actually first made me a mod over here. So one night we were just sitting on stream and several people on here who know Donnie. Donnie's just sometimes just knee-jerk reactions. He's like, hey... I'm making, you know, he's just like, I need mods. And he's going through his chat and he's like, you're a mod, you're a mod, you're a mod. And it was, that's just what happened. And then the Born Again Gamer, who was actually the first streamer on the Christian side that I found and started hanging out with, he a couple months later finally asked me, he's like, hey, you've been around long enough. Like, you want to start moderating? So I agreed. You know, at that point, I jumped in and actually kind of learned the tools and how to do it a little bit better. So that's where I'm at.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. And to be honest, like every streamer has their own expectations and every mod has their, you know, skill set and those things. And... You know what? That's one reason why we have multiple mods. If you don't have all the skills for everything, we don't have to say, well, you don't have enough of this, you can't do that. Like, one of my mods who will be on the next one, Five Looses, is the queen of shout-outs to everybody that shows up. Like, if you happen to be a streamer, you're getting a shout-out. If you're just a regular, you're getting a shout-out. I mean, she just does some of those things on a regular basis and... Another mod is always passing around cookies to everybody and doing those kinds. So it's like you develop a personality, which is one of the things I really wanted to bring out here is while the streamers have their own personalities, so do moderators. And you get to know them in the community and see their strengths, see what they bring. And I think that's just a fantastic thing. And I don't want to just make this a go back and forth, go back and forth with the two of you guys want to set that up. So jump in either way on this. I don't want to just say like, you know, it's kind of weird without me being able to see facial expressions and the two of you being able to see that to know who's ready to talk or not. But you can see that you're unmuting the tab. So if you just want to do it that way, you'll know who's next. That way I don't have to just keep going. Whose turn is it now and whose turn is it next?

Yaa Aikben: Now, I do have a quick question. Yeah, absolutely. Because you aren't just a streamer. You are also a moderator in some places. Do you have a mod origin story of what your experience was like?

Leighton Seys: That's an interesting question. So funny enough, it's a really weird story on some level. It you know, so when I I got started. When I was going to get started, Ukulele for Worship said, if you go live right after I'm done, I'll raid you. And I was only going to go once a week. So it was like every Friday she would raid me. And so I started in August. By the time we got to Thanksgiving, going into Christmas, I noticed all of her mods were gone. And they weren't regularly there. And then my mods were often missing. And I just said to her, I go, hey, I notice your mods aren't there. How about I mod for you and you mod for me? Because we're both in each other's streams anyway. How about we just do that and bless one another? So that really was how I ended up being a mod was because... I saw that hers weren't there and I was already hanging out and she was hanging out with mine and we're like, we're both streamers, you know, and I do not know how to handle half of her lighting stuff and to know the commands. I know how to turn it off and I figured the workaround. This is like how my brain works at times too. So, you know, she's got lights that go up behind her and they'll stay on. Well, I figured out if you give the command again to turn on and then you give the command off, the off will work when it doesn't work at least 75% of the time. So, yeah, my story was simply around the fact that after I started streaming then – but before I started streaming, I didn't get asked to mod anywhere. I think somewhat being a pastor, people might have been, oh, we don't know if we should ask you – to mod or not um but you know that was still you know within the first year of me being on twitch so that's cool yeah yeah that was sorry supersonic is asking it was ukulele for worship not people so uh i've known ukulele a lot longer than than people but she's yeah they're both great Well, thanks for asking that. And I do know that we've been talking about a little bit of being on before there was Christian community. And the reason I say Christian community, because the tag wasn't there. There wasn't these maybe well-developed networks. There were some small networks of maybe some collaborative Christians that knew each other. They played games together, and they might stream together or have a Discord together. but what are some of the things that you've learned over the years that you do really well as a moderator and you're able to bring to the communities that you moderate in

Yaa Aikben: That's a really good question. Um, I'd almost wanna ask the streamers I mod for what it is, but, um, one of the things, um, is that I moderate for a lot of, uh, music streamers. And one of the details that music streamers have to deal with is, um, if they take song requests, they have, they'll often have a song list spot that. has the list of the songs that are upcoming in the queue and if people request a song it goes in there and one of the things that i've been able to do well is um learn how the bot works and manage it so that Um, when someone has a request and then needs to change it and they're like, I'm not sure how to do that. I can step in and answer or help them out with that. And the streamer doesn't have to take time away from singing and performing and, and the flow of the stream to be able to address that sort of thing. Um, also the, the biggest thing I learned, uh, just from watching another stream that I've been able to use as a mod and. and a viewer elsewhere is that the song list bot will every once in a long while, just randomly disconnect when the stream is offline. And there is one specific toggle that you got to go in and hit, and then it works just fine. But if you don't know where that toggle is, you, a lot of streamers panic and go, I don't know how to reconnect it. I don't know what to do. And so just learning that one toggle switch has really,

Leighton Seys: made me a blessing in so many screens that's fantastic um and you say that it's like i know how to add songs to the list i know how to do other things i have no idea how to move them up and down and just another reason why somebody who's watching this who doesn't you know necessarily know that because they're not in the music they're in the gaming sphere uh if if You have a raid come in. Often the streamer will give the person who came in the raid the next song. So they'll move it right up to the top of the list. I have no idea how to do that. I know there's a way to do that. I know there's commands to do that, but it's like I don't spend enough time in there. And I love that you've learned those skills. And not only that, the skills that even the streamer themselves may not encounter often enough. to remember how to do it the next. Cause I know how that panic is when you're in the middle of live and you've got to solve it as quickly as possible. And your brain just freezes. Like I know what that, that terror is.

Yaa Aikben: yeah and and sometimes um just just being present as the moderator like can help calm a streamer just a little bit that they know that okay if i don't know everything at least i got someone in my corner that whether they can figure it out or not like we're all in this together and sometimes just having that familiarity uh the familiar

Leighton Seys: yeah community there supporting uh makes a big difference yeah absolutely we'll come back to the idea of community uh in just a second uh i do want to go down that rabbit trail uh mama brick builds welcome in uh so blanco how what are the what are the things that you uniquely bring to the different places that you stream that are a blessing to the places that you go

Guest: So it's funny that you mentioned tools and bots because that's one of the things that I also do fairly well. Usually a lot of times where stream will be, hey, what was my command for that? Or did I, you know, I can, I remember, you know, where I can go back into the back end and figure out like, oh, what command did we create for that? Or something, you know, keeping a cue. We don't, we typically in the gaming streams that I'm in, We don't typically run queues or anything, but a lot of times it's commands. But also just sometimes the streamer, you know, there could be 20, 30 people in a stream, and the streamer can't get to every message.

Leighton Seys: Correct.

Guest: So just kind of being that second or third or fourth person there that the streamer can rely on, not only in Twitch, but also in Discord. because the streamer's not online to actually answer some questions that somebody might have. There's been some conversations we've had with people where they're like, hey, I'm having a tough time, and we'll jump in, and the streamer might be offline, but it's like, okay, well, I'm one of the mods. What can we talk through for you?

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I think we'll come back around to Discord when we talk about community because there is community that you develop and you bring. And before we go into the community conversation, I want to stick with the – let's just give some shout-outs here. So if you want to do it in the chat, they won't be here. But, you know, if you want to just go through – who are the different places that you regularly mod for or who are some that you really loved modding for that maybe they don't stream anymore, but you just want to give them a shout out. If the two of you just want to give some name recognition to the places where you spend a lot of time, I'd love to be able to shout out those people. Sure.

Yaa Aikben: So besides Amy Gullaby and Sunshine S Games, some of the other shout outs would be Ukulele for Worship. I've been the most active moderator in her streams overall. And part of that's just because how often she streams. Most streamers don't show up every single day for a weekday for years and years. And yet she is faithful to her calling. And so... ukulele for worship um worship music live um hasn't streamed a ton recently but uh when he was getting started i did uh quite a bit of moderating there um as well as with caitlyn loves music who Not only mods while there, but I'm also one of her mods. Another shout out would be Macy Ray 10 Worship. She does music streams from the Philippines. And she... really appreciates me moderating because i was one of her viewers before she shifted just from music in general to specifically worship music a lot of people left her regular audience at that time but i was one of the ones who didn't and that consistency is something that she constantly is grateful for um uh chovy is someone i'm on for but that's the chovy situation is funny to me because he um because he was part of taco and um ukulele for worship was talking good about my moderating he decided to make me a moderator and he said there's no pressure no obligation nothing just if you're in my stream i want you to be able to activate certain sound alerts as a moderator that a regular viewer can't activate and i was like okay i can do that um uh another Uh, streamer would be, I think his username now is Alabama Psalmist. He used to be no name Psalmist. Um, he did music streams for a while. Crusader for him, um, is another one. He will do music streams from VR really late at night. And so I don't get to be in his streams very often, but when I am there, I get to be a mod. Um, Samus 419 is, uh, another one. that because of my connections with taco um she and we'll get to discord later but i'm also specifically just a discord mod for hopeful disasters um which is a totally different situation we'll talk about but um that's that's another community that uh

Leighton Seys: i'm i'm really appreciative of and looking forward to some of the events they got coming up soon cool well we'll we'll talk about community and discord a little bit later uh and we'll definitely want to talk about anything they've got coming up that you want to plug i i love talking about things that are up and coming that people might want to be able to get and take advantage of uh blanco some shout outs you want to give out to places where you mod for

Guest: So Samus, so Yaika and I are both actually one of Samus's mods. There we go. So she's in the chat. The Born Again Gamer and Donnie Dreams, those are actually the only three streams that I actually mod for.

Leighton Seys: Okay.

Guest: Currently.

Leighton Seys: Currently. Well, like I said, you can give some recognition to people that you previously did that even if they're not streaming anymore.

Guest: Right. I just meant currently as in I... I'm always open. Like if somebody needs an extra mod, they can always ask me. It's not a big deal.

Leighton Seys: One of the things that I appreciate is that mods spend enough time in the stream to know what kind of community that the gamer is trying to create or the musician. And so, Eichmann, you talked about being in a streamer when they shifted and they were trying to make some changes and a lot of people did not appreciate that. What have been some... difficulties that you like just one or two examples of it was hard to to be there to mod through this circumstance but you were able to help a streamer uh in the midst of something that was happening either in stream or in the community that was a problem sure um

Yaa Aikben: I mean, some of the some of the difficulties are like in there have been times in ukulele for worship stream because she. She is blessed. uh by god to do what she does there are people who will come in and try to troll in ways that are not um uplifting um and those are sometimes difficult to process and deal with because you want to be able to welcome people in so that they can hear the the ministry and they can, you know, turn to God and receive what he has for them there. But if they are coming in with a blatant like hard heart situation that they are just there to make trouble, then it's best to deal with that so that everyone else is able to still receive what they need to receive. So sometimes there have been some situations where like trying to figure out what the intent behind someone's messages are. Not everyone is the best at spelling. Not everyone is the best at communicating. So sometimes they're just there to watch, but they try to speak up and it doesn't come over right. So recognizing when that's the case, as opposed to someone who's just clearly

Leighton Seys: disruptive yeah it is is it get easier the longer that you moderate or does it get easier the more you go to other communities and watch moderation to be able to start to discern that or is it always just kind of that same thing like okay this person's brand new i don't know them how do i discern this um there's certainly um the the longer you do it the more

Yaa Aikben: you recognize when it's best to be patient a little bit. In James, it talks about being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to be angry. And as a moderator, oftentimes you have to be like, because sometimes that will give an indicator of the the spirit that they're coming from. Oh, wow. That's fantastic.

Leighton Seys: I didn't realize you were doing that. That's a great thought. I'm usually on my phone when I'm moderating. So that's a little gets more complicated to be able to do that. But yeah, if you're on the computer, pull that up on the side, check them out while you're watching and keeping an eye on things. That's, boy, anybody that's a moderator that doesn't know to do that, that's just some really good wisdom here to be able to take advantage of.

Yaa Aikben: And the other advantage of doing that is like when you have a new person come in and you pull up their page and they're a Christian streamer that we don't know, then it's like, hey, maybe we should check these people out. Maybe there's some... collaborations or some community sharing that we can do that helps to welcome them in and also expose the community to some other areas they might be blessed. And that's some of my favorite moments when instead of getting someone who's disruptive, it's getting someone new is like, oh, they've been here the whole time ministering God's word. And we just didn't know they were here. And now they're here.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, those are definitely some fun. How about you, Blanco? What have been some things that you've learned?

Guest: You know, it's very much same thing as the IE. You know, check out the profile pages, especially like you as a mod, you can actually like click on the username, see how old their account is without even going to their channel page.

Leighton Seys: Yeah.

Guest: I think you can even do it as a non-mod. So we've encountered some instances where there's actually been some troll streams, and they are streamers themselves, and their whole stream was, let's jump into other streams and start to troll them. Yeah. And we've encountered a couple of those, and it's like, well, you know, just kind of heading that off right then and there. People jump in. You've also got to know sometimes, like, patterns and whatnot. Obviously, you know, many of us who have been on Twitch long enough, we've seen, you know, there's the standard bot spam messages where it's just one message that they send out. But there's also the ones where it almost seems like there's somebody behind it, and it's like, hey, how are you? You know, how's the game going today? And then they slowly build up to try and build, you know, to make it sound less like they're a bot, but still they're a bot just trying to get you, hey, join my Discord or go to this website.

Leighton Seys: Yeah.

Guest: And so you've got to kind of notice, like, a lot of times, again, those bots, they have a pattern to them. So kind of noticing the pattern as to is this going to be a bot message or whatnot.

Leighton Seys: I haven't seen any of those. And it doesn't mean they're not out there. But there's those streamers that are trying to do gotcha is, I think, one of the best ways to talk about it. They're trying to get you into a moment so they can clip that and they can use it and have a good laugh and those things. But there's also and I'll describe it this way. If you are old enough to remember prank phone calls or you watch The Simpsons and Bart Simpson is always calling Moe's up and trying to get Moe to say a certain word so that he can laugh at you, that's what some trolls are trying to do. They are trying to come in and get you to say something, but they're not as nice as Bart Simpson just trying to get you to say something funny. They're usually trying to get you to say something inappropriate, racial slurs, other things that they might bring in, and they'll type it in a way, and the streamer will try to pronounce it. So I know, yeah, I've been here. We had one of those not too long ago in Ukulele Stream where you saw it, banned it, gone, out of here. And that's one of those times where if it is going to be nefarious like that, then the grace doesn't need to go along with it. Protection of the community is going to be the thing that rules the day.

Yaa Aikben: What's interesting to me is that there... Part of being a moderator is being on the same page with the streamer. And there are streams where it's very clearly like just instant ban, that sort of thing. There are other Christian streams where what they really want you to do is to delete the message, but leave the character there so that they can minister to them or give them another chance. and there have been some situations in other streams that i've seen where someone comes into troll and they are so taken aback by the response that they get that they have a complete change of heart and they stick around and become a positive community member um but then there are are others where they just keep trolling and you have to deal with them. So being on the same page as a streamer so you're not banning too quickly, but you're also taking care of issues as they happen is a big thing. Yeah, I think that's absolutely key.

Guest: Oh, yeah. That feeds right into what I was going to say because I know we've encountered some... people in streams before where they'll jump in they'll be like hey i'm just jumping in all the christian streams to try and get banned and we're like we're like okay why why are you trying to get banned from all the christian streams like is there something you have against christianity and start to have that conversation with them that they some i think one of them came back to us and was like yeah i've got a deep-rooted trauma with christian the christian faith And we were able to talk through it with them. Did they, you know, make a decision? Yes or no? We don't know, but we can at least be that seed to plant.

Leighton Seys: That's an absolutely wonderful point around that because they might be coming in to reinforce a bias they have, and you have a chance to undo the bias that they have built up over years or they've experienced, they've encountered, and you get to counter what their expectations are. It's kind of funny. They're going to try to get banned from every Christian stream. That's going to take a while. You're going to have to do some really bad stuff in some of the streams to get banned. Some of us will just time you out for a long time or delete messages. But getting banned is usually you got to get a little more extreme with some of us.

Guest: Yeah, and usually the timeout is sufficient in most cases. Usually trolls aren't going to generally come back. Now, we have seen instances where we, I want to say it was in Donnystream, we had somebody that came in there just cursing up a storm and was like, I just want to get banned. And we're like, well, we're not going to ban you. Or just, we timed them out for a number of weeks or whatever. And then they actually came back. They actually came back a couple weeks later and started doing the same thing. And we were like, okay, at this point, you know, you're making a conscious effort to just hamper the stream. And we just kind of got to shut it down at that point.

Leighton Seys: What have, let me just go a different direction. Have there been points where you've been in a stream and you disagreed with the streamer on a decision of something that they wanted done or they didn't want done? And how did you address and handle disagreements with the streamer that you're moderating for?

Yaa Aikben: Oh, that's a good question. Blanco, I want you to start with this one.

Guest: okay no that's perfectly fine now so um previously i had served as a deacon of my church so um i know that you know Basically, one of the things in my training as being a deacon was when you go in front of the church, you have to be a united front with the pastor. Same thing like with the streamer. You kind of have to be that united front in front of everybody. But then we go back to Discord or a DM on Twitch and just kind of talk it out. And I might say, you know, a lot of streamers, most streamers that I work with have a mods channel. Yeah. in their discord and it's just like moderator chat and then we might come in there and say you know i might say hey i don't necessarily agree with this for this this this and this reason but you know you get the essentially the streamer i don't want to say the streamer is a pastor but the streamers essentially the brand yes so what's on brand you get the final say in this I'm going to, you know, I'm still going to uphold it, but I'm kind of going to voice my concern as to why I don't agree with this decision. And then we can talk about it behind, you know, kind of back behind the closed doors and then go back out and, you know, again, be that united front for the community.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I love that aspect that you brought in of experience as being a deacon. And it's not that the pastor is the one who is the voice of everything, because the leadership makes decisions together. So you would end up depending on your full system. But if there's a vote and the elders, the deacons, the pastor all make a decision. if it's you know six to four uh you you still go forward with it and those of you who are in the four the minority now that you're together you you do not you know want to talk about all the reasons why it's wrong because you lost the vote that's not what we do so i love how you brought that together and said yeah as the streamer We are on board with the streamer. When we're present in the stream, we don't contradict. We go behind in the manner and the system that we have established, and we go back and we communicate and we talk it out there. That's just really wise, Blanco. I love that. Anything to add, Jaikman, here?

Yaa Aikben: I don't have much to add. I know from my personal experience, the more... kind of having to talk through some things have happened on channels that I've modded for that aren't like explicitly Christian, where I'm trying to be as protective there as in a Christian stream. And some of the times the stream is like, hey, I'm actually more tolerant of some of this stuff that. Like, I see where you're coming from, but in this situation, just let it go. And in that situation as a mod, I'm like, okay, if that's what you want, that's what we'll do. But I'm still ready to step in if they get too far. So it's very important to have communication avenues with a streamer if they're going to be active modding situations like that.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. I will add too, and what you just brought up was a good point to segue into this. So it's just kind of thinking through. So if anyone's listening to this who is a mod, who's like, well, I'm never going to be a streamer, but you like hanging around streamers. Also, you don't have to go and mod for Christian streamers. I've had conversations with a couple different organizations over the years of, could we develop... a system and a training for moderators that would also be focused on sharing your faith, and not that you're going to go into non-Christian streams and share your faith, but that you're going to go and you're going to bless that community. You're going to be a part of it. You're going to be trained to be able to, when asked, give a reason for the hope you have, and so that you're not getting banned by the person you're trying to mod for, but you just go to the places that you love and enjoy, and you look for opportunities to do the behaviors of a mod, be trained by it, add to the community so i've loved that i'd love if somebody would think about doing that but yeah if we could go and bring moderators and viewers who are going to act in some way like a moderator to a lot of non-christians we can make a bigger impact than just waiting for people to come into a christian streamer stream

Guest: Oh, yeah. I know a couple people that actually do that, that actually go. They don't necessarily go into non-Christian streams as a moderator to share the gospel, but they'll go in there as a moderator to fulfill the needs of that channel, and then they actually may be a part-time streamer themselves, and they adopt the Christian tag on their stream. And therefore, you know, if somebody follows them, a lot of times the moderators, you know, tend to be some of the ones that the community looks to. So, you know, if the streamer isn't online, maybe some of the moderators are online. Maybe, you know, they know that some of the moderators might be streamers too, but they'll go looking for them. It's kind of a different way to segue into it.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, it's very similar to the way I was thinking around it. You're training them how to be missionaries, but we have the thought process that a missionary is someone who stands on the corner and street evangelizes. They don't. They go into the community. They learn the needs of the community. They start to address the needs of the community. When people ask them why they're addressing the needs of the community, they say, because I have the love of Christ in me. And would you like to know more about that? or they give a personal story of what God has done for them. So it very much is starting with service up front, which is really what I see moderators as an avenue for, to be able to go further than to try to like, on some level, if we train 10, people to be able to go mod and and they modded in 10 different streams each that's 100 streams instead of trying to get those 10 people to find 10 friends to bring 100 people to watch one person like look at how we can shift the impact by having moderators there's one reason i thought it would be really fun to have mods on and just think through this process of how we can infiltrate twitch a lot faster with moderators than we could with streamers yeah i'm not sure about like

Yaa Aikben: infiltrating you know around necessarily but like if you find yourself in a situation where you're part of a community and you the community isn't explicitly christian but you are there then you're bringing jesus with you wherever you go um you're you're shining your light just by filling the role, filling the need. And that does open doors to other conversations that you just get to be ready for. A lot of times what I've noticed on Twitch is that when people try to force their way in to places, it doesn't work very well. Right. But if they just go about it naturally, like they'll end up in places that they're like, wait a minute, how how did I get here? And how did I, like, it all happens a lot quicker than you realize. And then you're just, well, I wasn't planning on having this opportunity or this platform, but this is what I have. And this is what I can give to God. And this is how he can use me. Yeah.

Leighton Seys: and just to clarify i was trying to use the word infiltrate not in we're going by force but that we are just going to be there and before people realize and know it that we're there which in some ways i don't know if people know this they the where two or three are gathered in my name there i am actually goes a little bit further that jesus was taking a roman saying where there are two and three romans there the Roman Empire is. So where there are two or three Christians in a stream, there Christ is in the stream. So that was the direction I was thinking with infiltrating, that we just show up and people didn't know we were there. We didn't take it by force. We just are present and the presence of Christ has suddenly shown up in the space.

Yaa Aikben: Another thing that I've seen happen is... going to places where like the streamer maybe doesn't have the christian tag on but like they are christian so it comes up but their their primary marketing is is just to people of different interests or what have you um i've seen a situation where i've gone in there and they had a moment of referencing their faith and i got to put some christian emotes in the chat and some of the other people there were like We didn't know there was a Christian side of Twitch, and yet there are Christian emotes here, so there must be. And that all happened just because I used emotes where I was and not, you know, I didn't try to force anything, but it... was an opportunity that was given and I got to take advantage of it. So. Well, that's, that's really cool. Why don't we just blow up the chat right now with, with all your critical emails that everybody has.

Leighton Seys: And those of you who are listening to this, you won't get to see and enjoy any of them, but we're going to all get to enjoy those. But that does shift it to the direction I wanted to go, which is. Where are some moments of blessing that you've seen show up as a moderator? So there you've just talked about one of someone came in, they were able to share their faith and it made an impact. Are there some other moments that you as a moderator have got to see people's life impacted in a powerful way while you were able to be there in the stream?

Guest: So there's been plenty of instances. I won't get into specifics just because of the situations, but there's been a couple people that have just had some major life issues that, you know, had them turned away from the faith. And just through talking to them, being around, you know, if they just need someone to talk to. then they see hey this is the love of christ and they you know started to rebuild their faith and we've we've also had some instances where people have actually made a decision and accepted christ where you know if if we weren't there i'm not going to say i'm the one that did that but if you know if we weren't there to you know if that if that stream or that community wasn't there for that person Who knows? They may never have found Christ.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. And I think on some level, there's a whole bunch of, I'm trying to remember who it was. Anyway, it talks about one watered or one planted, one watered and another, you know, reap the harvest. Like we don't need to have credit for who did it, but just the participation of being there as part of it. Because on some level, if the mods are showing up all the time, you've got a voice to be able to ask how things are going. You've got a voice to be able to hear. You've got interaction going on. And you also have a regular person or two that are coming to the stream. You don't feel isolated and alone as the streamer, like, well, I'm going live. Will anybody show up? The mods are there. So, yeah, you are, in a way, totally part of that watering and planting and harvesting, Blanco. Yeah, to even be able to witness some of those things happening is really cool. Any other stories?

Guest: I don't. I was just going to address something that Sonic had said in chat, where streamer rating out, suggesting non-Christian streams. And that's something BornAgainGamer does. I know some of the other streamers also do that, where they're familiar with those streams, but they... know may be family friendly but not necessarily christian and sometimes that is an avenue because a lot of times you jump into a stream the streamer is going to shout that streamer out they may get a few follows from that community and so um so that's just one thing that we've also done is kind of you know Again, just try to, we're not going to go in and find, you know, some celebrity stream that's doing who knows what.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, there's definitely a level of etiquette that we try to follow. You don't go into the 2,000 member streamer when you have 20 people to raid. You don't do those things. You know, you go within a range or within a friendship level of other people. So, yeah, absolutely.

Yaa Aikben: I just wanted to point out that like Blanco was saying, one thing that a lot of streamers have their mods do is scout out the raid targets and give suggestions for raid targets where they might not necessarily like just accept any raid suggestion from anyone in the chat, but they'll, they trust their mods. So they're like, Hey, if you can find someone for us, um, whether it be someone that is familiar with the community or someone who, um, has like the christian tag on that we've never met before but you go and you look and they seem ready for our community then um that's another thing that uh moderators get to do to be a blessing yeah there's there's a definitely a lot of things and and i

Leighton Seys: I've witnessed a lot of different blessings. And so I know as moderators, you get to be there in those same moments when they're happening and participate in a way, which just kind of ties into community. So let's go ahead and shift into community. I'm not going to describe community. I'm going to let the two of you talk about community in the aspects that you would like to, whether in stream or in Discord, and what is it that's valuable about community and How do you help maintain or create community?

Yaa Aikben: Oh, that's that's really, really good. It depends on like the type of streamer. Obviously, some streamers are so focused on their activity that the community they're going to build is a community that likes that activity. And then there are other streamers that the community they're looking to build are the type of people who will share their values. And so they will approach things a little bit differently. Rather than trying to get the highest score in the game, they're probably going to take a moment and read every single message in the chat and greet everyone as they come in, putting more of the focus on the people watching than on what they're watching.

Guest: I found that I... tend to build community more actually more in the streams or streamers where they're doing playing a game or doing an activity that isn't something that's kind of in my wheelhouse i tell people i'm very much you know a single player rpg person so if i see somebody playing zelda or final fantasy on stream i'm more into the game than the community right but if i jump into a stream where they're you know they're playing minecraft i've never played minecraft i i've wanted to at some point but i'm like it's not my game and you know i can jump in there and you know then help to build the community because it's like okay do i really care about the content at that point to some regard yes but you know it's not my game per se yeah

Leighton Seys: I think that's a great example there of the content being secondary to the person and the community can be what attracts people, which is why some streamers can be decently successful at going and switching categories all the time and switching games all the time, and others can't. Because if you're building it around the game that you're playing and the community is only there to watch the game, when you switch games, they don't want to go. They don't come back. So I think that's a very valuable thing to think about within community. What are some keys to helping community to develop?

Yaa Aikben: I think one of the keys to helping community develop is... having you know a streamer and the moderators and the vips and everyone um be kind of outward facing rather than inward facing because it's really easy for a streamer to stream and everyone in the chat likes the streamer and so they feel part of the community but really they're all just chatting with the streamer and there are other communities where the people in the chat from the moderators to the vips to the the new people who have to the people who have been there and just watch like they're interacting with each other because their focus is on on that community feel rather than just the streamer, and a lot of that depends upon the streamer setting the tone, but then followed up with moderation and VIPs and people who buy into that vision of this is how we're going to have a community feel. And different streams have different focuses, and that's totally fine. But if the goal of the streamer is a strong community that isn't just their them and their friends then you need buy-in from the moderation and the long-time viewers i i love how i just want to piggyback on on what you're talking about there because that's one of my first experiences that really made me understand

Leighton Seys: the depth of community that takes place in streams and streaming. You didn't have to go somewhere else. You could maintain it within the stream itself. And that was when, and I'm trying to get them on the podcast, so hopefully eventually they will be. I went to a community that, well, amber lights they they streamed it and they're from australia and i was in the community and like you're talking about people in the chat were having conversations with one another it wasn't just the streamer you know to the community or the band to the community and back and forth there was all kinds of conversations going back and forth And time change happened in the fall and we're just about to time change again. So this happens to me every year. Well, I have not seen them for like three, four months streaming because they're just down at the wrong time of day for me to watch. I'm in bed. So when the time changed back, I showed up in the community and the conversations in the chat were all in regards to me well before the band, the streamers even noticed that I was there and welcomed me in. The community was engaging me, and I felt part of that community. I felt welcomed and appreciated and missed. And so, yeah, I can hear what you're talking about there of feeling like you belong when you show up in the chat. Such a beautiful thing. If you're old enough to know, it's kind of like Norm. When you walk in the door of Cheers, everyone turns their head and cheers that you're there. I love that aspect that happens in some communities.

Yaa Aikben: And specifically with Amberlights, I really appreciate how they go about it and how they work to instill that community feel in their community. They are not a stream that I've modded for, but there was a time when they interviewed me for a moderator position. Because they're a ministry that ministers to a lot of younger people as well as older people, they have... uh extra requirements that they expect of their moderators and it was really cool to go through the interview process and see what their expectations are and then walk away from it and pray about it and go hey guys uh It doesn't seem like right now God wants me to moderate for you, but I'm still going to be the best VIP that I can be while I'm in your stream. And all the moderators that they have had that have come and gone, like... Their focus is on uplifting the community and not just, oh, I like this band. I'm here to listen to them play. I like the drum stream. I like the game stream. No, it's actually like I care about the people who are coming into chat, and I'm going to make sure that the atmosphere in the chat is as uplifting as it can be.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, 100%. That is how I felt when I was there, which was really, at that point, it was, okay, I know that this is a valuable thing, and this isn't just something that I want to do for a little while and play around with it and then forget about it. It was really, for me, that being one of those moments that the moderators and the community made me feel such a way that's like, I will never forget this. I can't wait to have this happen in more places. And I want to do this for other people. And I can continue to do this. Like, why would I need to stop ever streaming? Like, I could be 95 years old and still be wearing a hat, reading the Bible in my basement with my fish. And who's going to stop me? I mean... Somebody might, but they'll have a hard time. Any more thoughts on that, Blanco?

Guest: No. Well, I don't think I do.

Leighton Seys: Okay. Then let's shift to the Discord community because Discord is also another aspect of community, and it was mentioned earlier. One of the things with Discord is that I can't be live 24-7, and I can't be there. So other people... can be engaged and there's ownership within a discord community even beyond that what you would have in a streamer community so what have been your experiences in discord communities how have you gotten involved if moderator or not moderator and i'll just leave it open-ended and ask more questions as we go along if blanco wants to start with this one i'll let him go i can

Guest: so i and i really i really didn't know discord you know i can discord was just something i i learned about for chat i didn't know about when i first started in it i didn't know about all the the back end tools bots integrations like all those kinds of things that could be used but um keeping the community up there um it just always gives the community a place to be in a sense so when the streamer's not online if you want to build that sense of community that's discord's kind of going to be where they go to yeah and you know just kind of kind of being present there for them can you just helps tremendously how how how are you able to be present there for the community and for the streamer So for me, luckily for me, I work from home. So I've got two computers set up. One, my personal computer typically has Discord, maybe working on a stream at any given time. Then I've got my work. So at any time throughout my workday, I can pivot over. I can see, hey, there's a new message. Let's see what's going on. and can just generally be present in that way same thing it depends upon the community but a lot of some communities will tell the people hey if you've got questions feel free to dm us now if it's a community that we think there there may be some sort of issues with you know children or things like that we have some safeguards in place where it's like hey don't dm me directly but let us know that we want to have a chat and we'll grab a couple different people and start a group chat together so that way we we keep the basically we keep the integrity up um in those types of situations same thing with like men men and women um type of things depending on the situation but you know generally generally it's like hey if you've got a question dm me and then you know if it's a question i'm not comfortable answering by myself then i might say hey let's start a group chat i'm going to grab a couple other people to jump in here with this so that they can put give their input as well yeah or at least just see what's going on with this situation

Leighton Seys: Yeah, and I love what you're talking about, like your availability, you have that availability. It's not you're constantly watching it. It's when you have a chance, you go and you check it, and oh, there's something there, and you can respond. That asynchronous kind of as available, you check in, but if you add your availability... to the streamer's availability, to other people in the community's availability, those two or three that you invite into the conversation, you now have a larger group of people, which, frankly, is way much more contact than wait until you have time to meet the pastor. and schedule coffee with the pastor and do anything like that, which really, honestly, it's very difficult. I'm not a difficult person, but to get on my calendar is a difficult thing at times. And so I know what people struggle at times. And sometimes like if it's the middle of the night because you're around the world and you need a response and you don't have someone to go wake up, Discord's there that might be somebody else that's awake and able to jump in and help you out. I will talk just a brief aside there. Discord is going through a new kind of process affirming ages and all of those things. I don't know how that's going to turn out, but hopefully it will make it more beneficial to know with certainty that people are who they say they are and they're the age they say they are so that we don't have to be as...

Yaa Aikben: uh unnerved at times is this person actually who they say they are and the age they say they are yeah one thing i think is interesting is that there are some communities you know because it's coming to discord from twitch there are some communities where they're primarily on twitch and it's based around the streamer and they're streaming and then they have a discord but like Usually it's not that active. Like everyone will come introduce themselves. They might say hi, they'll pay attention to the streamer alert of new content. Um, but otherwise there's not a lot of engagement there. Whereas there are other streams and discord servers where like the stream is almost just to funnel people to the discord where the discord is the hub and the life and. when the the streamer is that you know active an active member of the discord community then all of a sudden their server takes on a whole new different level of significance and people are more encouraged to um open up about some things that and and share some things some life events that maybe they wouldn't otherwise be thinking of sharing Not every server can be the most active place, but it is really cool to find those that are active and that do stick around for a while because it's almost I think it's it's much harder to maintain life in a discord community than a Twitch community, because when you're on Twitch, like as soon as you're live, you know, there's people there, there's activity, whereas discord, because it's constantly there, you don't always know.

Leighton Seys: when people are there people are responsive and that can affect how people choose to engage with it well and i think i think different different people have their different strengths we're talking about that as mods have different strengths different discords have different strengths i like spend a lot more time in the church digital's discord server than i do in my own for my stream In fact, my one for my stream is basically an archive, if you will. Like I post stuff there. And if you want to know a good podcast I'm listening to, you can go find one there. So it's almost just like an archive. It's curated. There's info there. But I'm also active, more active in Hopeful Disasters, Reach Conference, other places than my own. And part of that is kind of interesting. One aspect for me, I would say, is I'm much more engaging with my voice than I am with text. And so to be more, I would say, open and asking for prayer and praying with people in the moment on stream and getting to know you as I'm reading and engaging. And I don't like it's just helpful for me to have a video of myself, even if the two of you aren't. It just helps me to have a conversation when I'm looking. I know it's looking at myself, but I'm looking at someone as opposed to just I never been able to do phone. Well, I'm just listening to a voice. I can't see the person. I lose interest. I'm distracted. I can't pay attention. And it's even worse if it's just a text message going back and forth. So my skill set leads me towards being the person on stream to hold a conversation or I go, let's jump on a one on one call instead of chatting back and forth. But I think you make a good point there. Yeah, I've been here.

Yaa Aikben: I think that makes sense to me that God would call you to be a pastor with that skill set because he doesn't have typically churches set up where people go up and just... read a line of text that a pastor is typing out into a chat for them or or just listen to an audio call when they're together in community like there's actually someone there and they have all the senses engaged and i think it's really interesting how like there are total there are so many different avenues for god to use the different strengths that we have um but there are certain ones that fit really well in certain environments and then they translate somewhat well to others and i think it's really cool to see how god can use you as a pastor and then say hey there's this streaming avenue that uses a lot of the same skill set that i can just put you in and minister to people here even when you're thinking oh there's this this isn't for me i don't think i'm gonna do this as like well god can still god sees the bigger picture and so he's just like don't worry i got you and I love to see that translation of people going from one place where God uses them to another place where God uses them. And at first glance, you don't think they overlap, but they do because the same God is helping them in the same different spots. Yeah.

Leighton Seys: And I think that's also a valid point there to bring up, too, is there's a lot of people that would never want to stand up in the pulpit and give a sermon. I'm like, yeah, no big deal. I am like... I don't do it regularly every Sunday anymore. I do pulpit supply, so whenever I get a call, I go and I preach. I've got a couple coming up. I did one last month, but I don't do it week in and week out. But when I did, it was like, yeah, drop of a hat. I'd go, you need a sermon tomorrow? Sure, I'll bring a sermon tomorrow. Not a problem. I can do that. it's so interesting at times when you get out of the comfort of what you do to think that this isn't that much different but it just feels different it looks different my opinion of it is different so it must be different and the reality is it's it's not that different in some ways in fact there's some aspects of it that are just in my opinion so much better i like I'll say this and said people that'll just like not grasp it. Like I love having emotes in the chat. I love having that immediate feedback because I've preached in front of some people that sit like this and I don't know that I did anything good. And they'll shake my hand afterward and say, that was a fantastic message. And I'm like, did you let your face know? Like I did, could not tell anything. From any engagement. So the immediacy of people posting in the chat while I'm in the middle of talking is very, very fun for me. And that probably goes back to my theater background of you can read the audience and you can do that. I'm taking that skill and reading the audience through chat.

Yaa Aikben: And go ahead. Can I just build on that just a little bit? There might be some people who are listening or watching that like. they're thinking of whether or not they would make for a good mod. And that's a similar situation where if you have the skill set of being an active participant in a chat as a viewer, you can very easily transition into a moderator role because your focus is not... know on performing it's in participating and a moderator like at its core yes you can step in and and ban people or ban bots as necessary but at its core you are one of the the main pillars of the community in the chat when you are there with that sword.

Leighton Seys: And I think just to kind of rephrase what I think I hear you're saying is, yes, there are functionalities that a mod does. does and you might be good at those but there's also relationship building and community building that a mod can do well so if you just do all of those things that are relationship building you can still be a mod even if you don't know all of the task oriented things that might need to be in a mod and you can split those into two you could just be i know how to do all the task things but i don't know how to build relationships so you can you can be either side of those aspects of it if i think that's what kind of what you were trying to get at I like that. I like that a lot.

Guest: Yeah. So probably most people listening to this are familiar with Christian Ninja, but if not, you know, executive director of Taco. He actually did a... guess podcast or you know episode one time on the different types of mods and you know just figuring out which type of mod you are and how you fit into the community because don't recall all of them this was a year or two ago now but um you know you've got like the police mod which just kind of sits in the background and just you know just the person that's just going to go and delete messages and or the person that's going to time someone out or ban them yeah and you never see them there's you know people that the mods that are in the chat that you just see them welcoming everyone. There's the mods that are going to keep the conversation going. They might come up with, you know, question of the moment type of thing to start some discussions. Modding is not just a single thing. No, not by any means. It's very much you have to, you know, find your place in that community. and how you're going to engage with that community.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. I often have this conversation with people that I know in churches that find out what I do and they're trying to grasp and understand. I have no idea what you're doing. And I describe mods often as just think of all of the roles you have when a brand new person shows up to church. You have the person gonna give them directions of where things are in the building and how to get around the place. You're gonna have the welcomer who is welcoming. You're gonna have the usher gonna help them find a seat. You're gonna have the person telling them about all the activities that are going on in the community before, afterwards, and inviting them along to things. So if there is a role that happens in a physical church, there is a role that a moderator is doing for somebody either in a Twitch stream or in a Discord community where they're actively doing very, very, very similar things and helping the community to function and to grow and to become tight knit the same way that you hope that any community is going to be.

Yaa Aikben: I agree with all of that. Sometimes moderators just being there and being present with the mod badge next to them is, you know, a tremendous comfort to the streamer and a a good symbol in the community that if someone shows up they're like oh there are moderators here there's this is a chat where the streamer knows a little bit about what's going on and there's a little bit of order um a lot of times the most problematic of roles will look for streams that don't have active moderators in the chat and so just being there sometimes that's The like, even if you're not doing anything extra, just being there makes a big statement and helps with the atmosphere of a stream.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, that's that's very good point that just the presence of an authority figure in some way is going to change things. Ikeman here, I know you had mentioned early on about wanting to talk about hopeful disasters and their community. So I'm just going to give you a chance to be able to talk about them and aspects of them. And then Blanco, if there's a community or a Discord server that you'd like to address and talk about some things, whether it's Taco or another one, I'm just going to give you a chance to talk about some of the things that you've done in community and been able to be a part of things. Sure.

Yaa Aikben: So with hopeful disasters, they are structured very well at the top. They have a very strong, active admin team that helps to make sure that people's needs are addressed, that help to make sure that everything is taken care of, that it's a positive and safe space for people to come. because they are looking to minister to a lot of people who are hurting people and a lot of people who are struggling with things. But there was a situation last year where the server had grown and one of the admins had a wedding and all of a sudden all the admin team, except for one, was not on the Discord server. And during that time of low presence of the admins, a group of individuals whose mission was to single out a member of the community of hopeful disasters, track him wherever he went and make a scene to say bad things about him, to try to knock him down, to try to... put him in his place. They thought that by making known this guy's past faults would be a service to the community. And that's not how we saw that hopeful disasters. They were they were very disruptive to what we were trying to do. And so while there was an initial like letting them. listen to our bible study when it was clear they weren't there to study the bible they were escorted out but because there was only one admin there it took a while to get all of them out so what happened was the one admin looked around and picked three people and said hey would you be mods for this weekend while the admin team is away and then know once they're back everything will go back to normal it's like okay i i and and i was one of the three people so i was like not a problem i can hold a mod sword and just be ready And so the weekend was done and the admins came back and none of the mod swords were taken away. And we were looking around going, uh, what's happening. And the admin's like, well, we suddenly recognize that our server is growing. And since we already made you mods, we're just going to institute a new tier of administration called moderators. And we'll let you help out in that way. And, uh, was like okay sure that's fine i can walk around with a sword not a big problem uh yes it suddenly caused me to become more active in ways i was not planning on being more active in but um it was an opportunity to serve that I could do, and they had in the past offered other opportunities for me to serve. And I was like, I don't have time for it. I'm not able to show up to these certain events, so I'm going to pass on it. But this was a situation where it's like, hey, what we really need you to do is just to be present when you are present to be alert on. any kind of problematic situation that might happen here because the discord community is a huge focus for their ministry and i can do that so um there's a lot of Uh, there's been a lot of learning curve, um, with being a, a, a discord mod for a large server. Um, that doesn't necessarily happen in a Twitch stream because in a Twitch stream, you have one chat and discord server, you have a lot of chats. And so it's not just. not just looking at what's going on in general but what are going on in these other areas is it appropriate for that area is it uh constructive is it um you know is the person posting this message are they trying to you know what how are they contributing and is it something that is you know worthwhile in a way that just isn't disruptive. That's the main thing. Just anything disruptive has to be addressed. But if it's not, then we just leave it. And there's still a lot of things we turn to the admins for. But what it helps is when there are situations where because of time zones, the admins aren't there or they're know trying to uh host events and someone shows up in the server oblivious to the event going on like we can help redirect them we can help the situation um but yeah it's one of those things where um i wasn't trying to be anything in that server but because a need showed up and they're like hey who can we call upon it reminds me very much of in the book of acts where the apostles are trying to do their job and there are people complaining because certain others aren't getting fed and they're like well uh we're gonna pick other people to take care of that because we have other things we can't do everything by ourselves because of how we're growing um and that's that's kind of how the the moderator ended up moderator position end up with hopeful disasters just out of necessity and need and growth yeah that's

Leighton Seys: An unfortunate situation, but a great way to approach and handle it. And just for those who aren't familiar with Discord and don't know that, I like how you brought up that there are multiple streams and channels. There's as many streams and channels within the server as you want to create. So I joined one recently, and I mentioned in the welcome... that, hey, I have fish. And they said, well, I tagged you in the pet channel, so you need to post a picture of your fish over there and tell us all about your fish. Okay. So, you know, you can have a fish channel. And this one just, I don't understand. I am the wrong age. It's just counting. so the next person goes in and types the next number and then the next person goes in i just do not understand that channel whatsoever but it's you know it's within the community it's things to be active so you don't know what to say you can go in that channel yeah supersonic putting a one in there yeah let's see if how far this goes let's see how far this is yes

Yaa Aikben: i'm a big fan of the counting channel because it helps make sure that there you see activity even if people don't have things to say there is activity my brain is like why but you you say that uh

Leighton Seys: so two things about the event that you were talking about one that people may not understand is that there are going to be in people who will intentionally show up in a server they might do it in multiple different ways but they their intent is to cause disruption and harm at some point And they're going to start slowly, perhaps, and they're going to have one person infiltrate, and they'll bring others into it. So one person will do the recon, and then others will show up, and they will at some point cause problems. You might have a group of trolls that come together, which sounds very similar to here. There was a particular person they were after. In this case, sometimes they don't have a particular person. They have a particular view. If they find out you're Christian and they're not, or they find out you're Catholic and they're not, they could have other reasons for showing up and causing problems. you know, disruption and things. But I also have run into situations where like you had the leadership that wasn't there. Having backup leadership that's not active in the community, but as a member of the community is helpful. So I am one of those people in a church server. that I'm not active in the church. I am a pastor, but I'm not a pastor in that church. And they had their male pastor on sabbatical. They have a female pastor. And there was someone bringing up stuff that was inappropriate. And they're like, I can't address it with this male. Can you step in? And so I'm kind of like on call at times when they can't reach a pastor who's male to deal with. Young guys who think that they need to go trying to find a, you know, they might not be nefarious, but they're trying to find a date. And everything's about a date. And they're hitting on every woman in the server. It's like, this is not a dating site. You know, it's a church server. It's like, I get invited in. to help have those conversations, to politely redirect or time out the person so that it's not another conversation. And I'm trying to remember if it was Blanco that mentioned earlier, I was just thinking about this too, with the DMs and the having multiple conversations with multiple people. there are there are in some places people that will keep no private messages no direct messages whatsoever to keep themselves safe to keep themselves from harm to keep themselves from harassment it's also a good practice to be able to have in some places have the community conversations in the community you can have private conversations with a group that gets invited to a private setting in the server too so it looks like we're up to seven is where we're at we made it to seven there Blanco, any servers, Discord servers that you've been a part of that you'd like to highlight or talk about experiences with?

Guest: So Taco has been where the vast majority of my time has been spent. More, I think not as much in the Discord community, but the other one is Lux Digital Church. For those who don't know, they are a completely online digital church that programs just like a physical church has in many cases. I don't want to say I don't like the physical church, but it's a supplement to the physical church. Some things that I was thinking about was the digital realm is the tool of the time yes when the bible was written paul had letters we now have webcams and audio equipment and the internet to reach a vast audience and that's just the tool of the time yeah well and we've got to adapt to that and

Leighton Seys: I totally agree with that. The other piece of that is there are many people that will show up to a digital church that cannot get to a physical church. And there's a whole list of things that might be reasons why people might not be able to go. Like you might be a person whose job is on Sunday. Your church meets on Sunday. How can you ever show up if you're a – nurse an emergency responder you work on sunday you don't get a choice i think the last stats i saw were something like in the u.s that 35 of employee employers expect their employees to work at least one weekend a month So if you have those requirements, you're going to not be there for reasons that are not within your control. You have people with physical limitations that we call them homebound at times. Well, they can't show up. We have people with social anxiety and other conditions that might keep them there. So there's all kinds of reasons why people might not be able to ever go to a physical church. It's great that we now live in a space where the church can be in the palm of your hand and you can have relationships connected with those people.

Guest: Did you want to... It's good that you mentioned that. I was going to say, that's something that you probably, it sounds like you had a lot of the same things to say as what Christian Ninja said in his video. You know, we don't necessarily need to pray for those people to go to church. Sometimes we need to bring the church to them because the church is not the building.

Leighton Seys: know we all know the church many of us know at least the church is not the building or the specific community or the church is the group of believers at least as the big c church yeah yeah the church is where the community gathers together i mean that's that's what ecclesia was is that is the gathering together so we have over time morph that into what we gather together in the church building we just called the building the church and we've forgotten that it's wherever we are gathered together we are the body of christ and yeah i love getting to like i got to go to hope hope con with uh yeah ike been here and got to hang out with him for a couple of days and see him in person and it was glorious and i loved every minute of it i've got to see christian ninja and uh pastor mark from Lux Digital Church in person a number of times. So I love every moment I get to spend with people in person, but the relationship doesn't stop when we're not in person. The community doesn't stop when we're not in person. And frankly, there's some people, I don't know if I'll ever... ever get to meet in person this side of eternity. You know, my friends from down under, I don't know if I'll ever get to go to Australia and New Zealand. And I have a growing group of friends down there that I want to get to. Or my friends who are in Germany that I keep growing friends in Germany. I don't know if I'll ever get to Germany. So. yeah so so yeah i totally agree with you that there is a value of in person but if you can't get in person there is so much value still in using the things of the day and like you were mentioning the the um letter was the tech of the day we forget that we're so used to a letter and a book and we have a scripture in our hand we forget that was a novelty for people

Yaa Aikben: I just want to say that it was really cool to find out that Flat Cap Dabber Pastor really does wear a flat cap in real life, not just on streams.

Guest: I saw that in person, too. Comes walking up at the airport, hey!

Leighton Seys: yep yep i i do have a hat and uh half hat will travel did you did you count how many hats i had while i was there yeah i've been here uh i i did not no i did not count how many but there there were some really good ones there Yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, Blanco could find me at the airport with my hat. And then there were other, like, you know, my plan is to wear multiple hats every day. And so when your stream tells me to switch my hat, I don't have any problem with it. I do that anyway. So, yeah, when you have a passion, it's hard to hide, Samus. Absolutely. absolutely and the other side of it is too is without the internet i would not have as many hats as i do because i don't live near anybody making hats or wearing hats that i could go purchase hats but i can have them all shipped to me and i get to have hats so i am so glad to be living as i am now i just wish it didn't i wish i would have started 20 30 years earlier to be able to receive all the hats that I have. And by the way, you can ship them to me. I will gladly receive any hat that you want to send me. I will wear it. Blanco, you were talking about Lux Digital Church and the server there. Do you go over after the church service on Wednesday night and participate over there? If you do, I'd love for you to share more about what happens over there.

Guest: Yeah, so I can't say I participate every week in the post-service just because their service is a little bit late for me, having to get up so early in the morning.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I agree with that, too.

Guest: Yeah, but it covers people in different time zones. So that way, the people that are Pacific United States, it's still after work for them as well. So they're able to participate. And then obviously things are on YouTube and VODs and whatnot. But different things happen. So they've got different what they call tables, just post-service tables. And they'll, you know, one table... Maybe they do a lot of League of Legends, World of Warcraft. Sometimes they've got like a rotation where it might be like Mario Kart one week or Jackbox the next week or something like that. There's a couple channels just to chat, pray, meet the pastor, that type of thing. But it's generally a good time. Generally a good time.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I love how they have some stuff set up. So it's like when the service is done and it's on stream, you go over to the Discord server to hang out. Well, this is just like going to the fellowship hall for those that want to do coffee. If you're going to go out to, you know, if you're going to go do Bible study afterwards, you can go do that. If you're going to just talk and play games and do something else, you can go do that. You have questions for the pastor, you can go do that. It's like... I just want to emphasize that again as you're thinking about being someone who's a person that contributes to streaming or to Discord. If you're doing something in a physical church, you can do very much the same thing in a digital community. You're just adapting. the skills in a new way to meet the needs of a new group of people. And I find that fascinating. And I love the innovation that people are figuring out. Like you're saying, like, we're going to go do this game and then you switch it up and you try another game. You know, I remember being at churches that tried to do a once a month movie night to bring families together. Well, you could do a viewing party in a discord server and those kinds of things. And I think hopeful disasters might do that as well. Yeah, I've been here if I remember right. They've done viewing parties for different things before.

Yaa Aikben: Yeah, they're they're constantly working on ways to have community events of different kinds. And that includes expanding into movie nights and game nights and. even just additional opportunities for Bible reading or Bible study. They're doing... They're trying to make sure that people are being reached. And sometimes the best way to reach them is to have a community event where people can come to, as opposed to just be like, oh, you can ask questions at any time in the chat, because sometimes people are looking for that instant connection that you can get from an activity that you don't always have just from a chat.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, and I think that's an important point that you bring up there. So if anyone's familiar with BLESS acronym and doing that, one of the things the E is eat, or if you're doing it online, enjoy shared experiences together. How do you build relationships? You enjoy a shared experience together. Why is it that guys will go off on a fishing trip and come back together and be really tight-knit together? Because they were doing an activity together. So enjoying shared experiences is one of the best ways to be able to build relationships with other people. And it doesn't always matter the activity. Pick something that you like, something that you enjoy, and that'll be a part of it. Supersonic, you're asking what bless is, so... It's begin with prayer and then listen. So you're going to listen to the person you're praying for. You're going to listen within the community. You're going to hear things that are going on so that you can pray over them. And also because you might have an opportunity to serve. So you begin with prayer. You listen. You listen to the Holy Spirit as well. You listen to what the Spirit's leading is going to be in your life. And then you enjoy shared experiences. If you're in person, eating is a great way. Go have a cup of coffee, bring a casserole over to your neighbor, invite them over for a barbecue, whatever that might look like for you in your realm. And then serving them So what is something that you need? How can I serve you? What can I do in regards to that? And then the final S is share your story about Jesus. This is what God has done in my life. This is the impact he's had. Here's what I was like before coming to Christ. Here's what like afterwards. Or even just, hey, this was going on in my life and God really showed up. I mean, it could be a small thing. It doesn't have to be the story of you coming to Christ. It could just be anything that's about the impact that God has met in your life. So that's what bless is. It's just a way of doing that. But one of the reasons we do it is not to make people a project. It's just a way to treat people. It's just a good way to approach building relationships with people, loving people, and coming alongside of them. The one and only Creepy Pro in the house. Thank you for the look, friend.

Yaa Aikben: I just have to highlight how the lurk command picked up on the first word after lurk and then put that into the lurk message.

Leighton Seys: I know. I know. I know. It's funny that it does that. So those that can't read it, the lurk. said, God bless you and the church. And then Nightbot picked up on the command after lurk. And instead of putting in the name of the person who did it, which is what it's supposed to do, it picked up on the word afterwards. So God settles in with a beverage, a snack, a notepad to enjoy the stream. Isn't that a wonderful thought that God would take note of this little stream that's happening right now? Yeah, so really cool.

UNKNOWN: It's awesome.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, so the E is enjoy shared experiences, Supersonic. So begin with prayer, listen, enjoy shared experiences or eat, serve and share your story of Jesus with them. So anything else that as I was asking you about being a moderator that came to mind that was something you're like, I wanna make sure and bring this up and we haven't touched on it and you'd like to share that.

Yaa Aikben: Sure. One thing that I think, like, I definitely didn't expect it, signing up to be a mod. But when you are a mod in certain communities, when you go elsewhere, there will be people who recognize you. for that community. And so sometimes they aren't going to see you. They're going to see that streamer you mod for. They're going to see that community that they raided into that one time and had a good time at. And so just like you're an ambassador for Christ everywhere, you're also inadvertently being an ambassador for whoever you mod for sometimes when you're going to other places. And I think that's really cool. And also like when you're a streamer picking out moderators, um, you want to make sure that you are picking people who reflect well on your stream when they're in other places too, because there are people who are gonna like see that kind of interaction go, oh, I should check out this other streamer. Uh, if the resulting interaction is a positive one.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, that's a really good point. I hadn't really thought about it the way you were bringing it up is you represent the streamers that you stream or that you mod for and people get to know you and think of you when you show up and you represent them in the same way that you bear the name of Christ when you go in as a Christian. So that's a really cool observation. Yeah, I've been here.

Yaa Aikben: it's, it's happened. It's happened to me like for very different streamers where I've gone to very different streams and they're like, Oh, I remember you from you're the mod for so-and-so let's shout out so-and-so. And it's like, I didn't, I didn't do anything. I didn't mention their name. I didn't say anything, but that's who they thought of when they saw my username. And I, I think that's a really cool aspect of Twitch.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. I think that's definitely one of those things that is a Twitch, um, culture that doesn't does not yet work its way outside of it there's a lot of things within twitch culture that i really like and i would love to figure out how to bring them outside of twitch and and bring them into my community but it's like it would be an uphill battle to to be able to figure out how to do some of those things they just don't translate well blanco anything that you were you were thinking about we haven't touched on that you'd like to share

Guest: No. The biggest thing, and I'm kind of coming at this more from a systems perspective, just there's always new and evolving tools out there for mods. So usually, generally, we have to work with the streamer to install bots and that kind of thing. But just kind of be familiar. For mods, be familiar with what different bots can do. and whatnot um and then you know come up with a plan with the the streamers you work for or volunteer for cool and come up with a plan and activate those things

Yaa Aikben: One thing I've done as a mod is put some of the bots that I use in other people's streams as a moderator, put them into my chat just so that I could play around with them. Even though I'm not streaming, just be able to play around with how commands work and how different... terminology works in setting up a command sometimes. And that can be really useful for helping a streamer in the middle of a stream who's going, I need a command to do something, but I don't know how to do it in this moment. And it's like, no problem. I got you. Yeah.

Leighton Seys: yeah the constant experimentation i love that innovation there of put it into your own uh stream play with it in your own stream even if you're not streaming but your own community channel that you can play with and see what it does that's a cool innovation there man

Yaa Aikben: I mentioned earlier a whole bunch of different streamers that I mod for. I did want to give one shout out quick to DiscoBear underscore PS. He was someone who had, I think it was an appearance on the Blessing Boat coming up. And he was like, hey. I know you're not a mod, but I know you're going to be there and you're a trusted elsewhere. Could you just mod for this one stream when I'm going to have all these people here just to keep ordering the chat? And then I'll unmod you and we'll go on our way. And that's something that happened. And, you know, I still enjoy his streams and everything, but I'm not. his all the time mod, I was just his emergency mod. And I thought that was a really cool experience that we were able to have a modding, unmodding, and it go really smoothly.

Leighton Seys: Yeah. Well, just, just since you brought up a blessing boat there, blessing boat for those of you who are live is going to be next Saturday. And just so happens as I'm trying to work out some things and the church digital is moving forward with some things. We are talking about, we've been doing some training, some different people have. We notice there's a lot of need for care online. So there's things that are addictive. You need care for that. There are people that have had trauma in their life. They need care for that. So we are trying to put together, and we have been working to put together some care systems in place, and we're about ready to launch our care groups and our care community. So Stacey is going to be on the podcast next Saturday, the same day that the blessing boat is going to be. I'm trying to work this out. So I don't know if this will actually work out, but I'm trying to work it out that maybe this podcast here will be on blessing boat so we can talk about it and get it in front of even more people than we would normally have. And since Stacey is not a streamer at all, I thought this might be an avenue that we can look at and we can go in that direction. I'm trying to work that out with Warrior of Light. And so it will be next Saturday. Stacey will be on the podcast. And we'll be talking about care groups and what that's going to look like. I don't even know that I'm using the right language to talk about it. So she'll be on here. We'll talk about those things. And Blessing Boat is coming up. And maybe there's going to be a collab with Blessing Boat and the podcast. which would be interesting because I've had Warrior of Light on here and had him on for the podcast. I've had this channel just on Blessing Boat, not doing the podcast. So this will be the first time the podcast would meet Blessing Boat, which would be fun.

Yaa Aikben: would be fun i'm glad this one isn't on that in that type of situation though because not only is it more people in the chat which is fine but like the time constraint sometimes of being on in in a raid train um there are sometimes when that's really easy and sometimes like tonight where I don't want that time constraint when I'm with you guys.

Leighton Seys: Well, depending on how that works out, if we only end up with a one-hour slot, then it will probably be more of a true podcast style that you listen to where there isn't a chat going on, and it's just the guest and the host having a conversation that you get to listen to. That would probably be what it would need to be if we only have one hour so that I can ask Stacy and she can share and lead us with things. But we would probably do a time of questions. So I'd need to have a good mod to be able to put those questions together for me and help me out. So I love the innovation. I love the collaboration. I am so thankful to have you mods be able to come on here. and and to hang out and to spend some time i can't wait till we get to get together in person again you know what i'm just thinking and uh i will have luces on the the next one for mod takeover and i've met her in person so i have not met i'm watching you people but she's also a streamer as much as a mod but she's everywhere so she's going to be fun to have on next week when we do that so That's a little bit of what I have coming up. Yeah, Ike been here. Blanco, do you have anything coming up that you'd like to share or communities you're in that have something coming up you'd like to share?

Yaa Aikben: First of all, I'm super excited for all of those different podcasts you have coming up. Those are some great guests. The event that I guess I get to promote is coming up a week from today. Hopeful Disasters does their... community read through the bible consecutively event um they did it twice last year they got through the bible in 77 hours the first time and 80 hours the second time um it's not expected that everyone say there the entire time that the bible is being read but whenever people can come and listen to some scripture and maybe even take an hour block and read aloud themselves um that's been a really cool experience for me is getting to to read a little bit as part of this um i don't know for sure if i'll get to do that this time because i i have other things going on. But if I can, like, that's something I want to participate. And the goal is just to get more of God's word in front of people and ministering to people. We've had people show up to this event in the past because it's primarily Discord, but it's also they try to stream it on Twitch. And there have been people who have shown up and rededicated their lives to the Lord or been wondering about Christianity and hearing God's word and it opening the door to other conversations. So at first glance, it might be like, why are we like. reading through the bible as consecutively as a group in the short amount of time like we don't even get to hear all of it because some of us sleep during the time but at the same time it's not just about like us being able to get the whole thing at once it's us getting ourselves in front of God's word and getting God's word in front of other people and receiving things that we wouldn't have otherwise gotten the opportunity to receive because we wouldn't have maybe been listening to that particular part of the scripture at that moment. It's a really good community-building event, too.

Leighton Seys: Yeah, I was going to say there's also the aspect of, if you are a reader, being able to participate in that. I have gone to several prayer vigils that go on. So, like... for instance when when we were at hopeful disasters or we've been at reach conference or we go to one of these things there would be a prayer group that we have a prayer building and prayer would be happening 24 7 during the same time that those retreats are going on i've done that with several different groups so you show up at the beginning they pray over it every time a speaker is going to go the speaker goes in there you pray the speaker up we call it you're praying over them you sing a song with them you send them in they come back afterwards you hear what they did you lay hands on you pray over them again so you pray them down uh back into the the rest of the the retreat and the weekend that you're at and then in the meantime You're just constantly singing, praying, reading 24-7. Somebody is always in that room doing it. And then there's people at home that sign up for one hour prayer time for the entire time the retreat is happening. And I love those kind of aspects because, like, you can be at home and participate. So, yeah, if you're reading the Bible and you just read for one hour, you've got to participate in the whole process. bible reading train you got to show up for now you got to participate there's a community aspect of that that's being part of something bigger that i really love that they're that they're doing in that regard 100%. I was just thinking, like, 80 hours? Could I read the whole Bible in 80 hours? That would be really hard. I don't think I could just read and stop. Like, it might not happen.

Yaa Aikben: That is one thing that some people have pointed out. when they start reading they so much want to dive into what they just read and analyze it and study it and it's like well you can write yourself a note and go do that after the event or do that when your session is done but there is something to be something worthwhile in just reading everything and getting that big picture view of uh how it all flows together, in addition to some of the random moments in between that maybe you wouldn't have picked up on, except you were tuned in at that moment that someone was reading that scripture.

Leighton Seys: Blanco, what do you have coming up, or where your communities have something coming up?

Guest: Oh, you can always check if you're a member of the Taco Discord. They do have a new community announcement section where just any of the community can submit announcements and then they'll post them. But also, I'm sure many of the listeners here have heard already, but the Nerd Culture Ministry Summit in April is coming up.

Leighton Seys: Oh, are you headed to that, Blanco?

Guest: I am.

UNKNOWN: I am.

Yaa Aikben: Super cool.

Leighton Seys: I did not know you were headed there. I will see you there then. The Church Digital is going to have a table there. And so I finally got the code to be able to book my ticket. So I just got my ticket today. I've known I'm going for a long time. I've had my airline ticket, but I got my ticket today to be able to go. And I'm really excited about going and being there and talking with people. and just getting to hang out with with more friends that are doing ministry in gaming culture whether it is board games whether it is card games or whether you know it's uh online in video games and video game community it's fantastic to see what god is on the move doing yeah yeah yay for the ticket yep yep it'll i've had the ticket i haven't made my travel arrangements yet I did mine the other way around. I started with the travel arrangements and got the ticket afterwards. But I already knew it wasn't a matter. I've got my room booked with somebody else, so I'm good to go.

Guest: Yep, that'll be a good time.

Leighton Seys: All right. Well, thank you. Thank you both for being here. I know this is an out of the ordinary thing and you both trusted me enough to come on and say, yeah, I can do this. We can spend two hours talking and talking about things and I'm not a streamer and I'm not used to talking for all this time. And so I just appreciate you being here and your honesty and your openness. And I hope that some of your answers are, I mean, I know some of your answers are just going to bless people. They absolutely are. There's no way that there's not. So just so you guys know, when this comes out, I'm going to cut some shorts and reels with some of the great clips that you guys, or the great insights you guys were sharing. And so they'll be on The Church Digital. And if I find you on social media, I will tag you as well. But I'll put a Discord message to you when the week is that those come out. It'll be about a month or so from now that that'll happen. And I'm looking forward to seeing the impact that your stories make for the kingdom.

Yaa Aikben: Thank you for having us on. And I'm also thankful to God that I was able to be here for this because there was a very real possibility where I could have been here for 15 minutes and then had to go to work. But because of the way things worked out, I got to be here. the entire thing. And I'm grateful that Blanco was here too, because it felt much more active and interactive having more people in this event than, I mean, I would be able to hold my own, but like there are things that I haven't seen or that I don't have perspective on that Blanco does because moderation has different skill sets and avenues. And so being with someone complimentary, to my skill set in this space was a tremendous blessing for me and I'm sure all those who are listening.

Guest: I'm going to echo that because it's been great. Yaik, you know, like he said, we kind of complement each other in different skill sets. He's a little bit more extroverted than me. which is good. And, you know, it's been a great time being on here. Happy to be here.

Leighton Seys: Thank you.

Guest: And I can't wait to see what God does through it.

Leighton Seys: Oh, absolutely. And also, we were talking about, yeah, I've been here, may not have been here. Blanco almost wasn't able to be here, and I'm very thankful that once we went live, you have been stable, you've been connected, it's worked the entire time that we've been here, and we went from start to finish. So I'm very thankful that it all came together, and now it'll just be in post-production if I don't ruin it. It'll be all good.

Yaa Aikben: That's awesome. Would you pray us out with a prayer of gratitude?

Leighton Seys: Yeah, that sounds very, very good, a prayer of gratitude. God, I just thank you for friends that I get to do ministry with and continuing growing friendships. like there are so many and they're and they're they're all growing in different ways and you're piecing and knitting us together and there is this intricate web of christian community that is overlapping in so many places from nerd culture ministry summit to hope con to reach conference to taco and and and um Yeah, Hopeful Disasters with HopeCon and DC4C and I could name even more. And it seems to be growing faster than I can make friends. And that's amazing. And I love to be a part of it. And so I'm just so grateful that you were able to carry us through this stream to the end, that we were all able to be here, that it worked out, and that you're going to use this and multiply it to bless Blanco, and you're going to use it to bless Yai Eichmann here, and their voices are going to resonate in someone's heart and mind, and you're going to use them for the kingdom in ways we will never know or we will never hear, which you will know, and you'll get all the glory for it. So just bless them, and they continue to mod, and all the places you take them this year, may they be a blessing wherever they go, and may you bless them richly. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Yaa Aikben: All right.

Leighton Seys: Amen. Now I've got to find somebody to raid out to, and normally I say, you know, hey, who do you want to raid to the guest, which I still could do, but usually you're both mods, so let's see if anybody you mod for is on right now.

Guest: None of my channels are on.

Leighton Seys: None of yours are on? Okay.

Guest: Nope. I do have a recommendation, though. It would be Mama Brick Builds.

Yaa Aikben: Mama Brickbill? I second that recommendation, even though there is someone else who I mod for who's on. Let's go to Mama Brickbill.

Leighton Seys: She was here earlier and had to leave. Yeah, that sounds very, very appropriate. And by the way, several of the people that have been mentioned tonight, they've already been on an episode. So go back, watch the VODs. Those that don't know, they are now coming out every Tuesday on YouTube, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts. And the old episodes from season one are on YouTube. And they're getting re-released on Spotify and on Apple every other Thursday. An old episode goes up. And they're going up in reverse order because I'm creative that way. So I'm counting down to episode number one going up. But for now, all the new ones will be up. in about a month from the time that we record them. So you get all of the stuff here live. And if you miss it, you have to wait. That's kind of the sacrifice of not being here live.

Yaa Aikben: All right. Thank you, thank you, thank you, everyone.

Leighton Seys: We'll be back on Monday to play games for a couple of hours, and then we'll be on the podcast on Thursday, and then on Saturday, and I'll have more details on that. Or you can check me out Monday through Friday on my stream where I'm reading the Bible, and I'm not reading it through in 72 hours. It would just not work for me. I need to spend more time.