Martin County Star Newsmakers
Everything you want and need to know about what is going on in Martin County Minnesota.
We look at the paper and talk to the Newsmakers.
Mayor's, City Council members, Coachs, Police, Concerned Citizens, and everyday folk with a story to tell.
Tune in each Friday for a new episode.
Check it out at martincostar.com
then click on Podcast
Martin County Star Newsmakers
What If The Church Met Kids Where They Are
All right. Good morning. We are back with uh more from the Newsmakers Podcast. Today we're gonna take a different turn. We've been going through the last five episodes. We've been talking about the Joanne Bonkus uh Bonchus murder. And uh, you know, it just saddens your heart. But uh we're gonna move on today to something a little different. I have with me today, actually, it's an old neighbor. You know, I didn't realize that, Hunter, that you were our neighbors until I was I asked uh Liz. She told me you were gonna come in and she told me your name, and I said, Wait, that sounds familiar.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we watched you change the entire house.
SPEAKER_01:It was fine. Yeah, and she goes, He's your he's your former neighbor. And I said, Well, wow, this is great. He was, well, gosh, when we first met you guys, you were probably in junior high?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, somewhere in there, somewhere in high school, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Now you're out of high school now, right? I am. I graduated in 2021.
SPEAKER_01:Oh. Well, you were in high school then when we first met you. So 20 four years. Four or five. Well, well, let me introduce you first. Have with me today the new director of the lighthouse in Fairmont, the Youth for Christ. And this is Hunter Schmidke, who, like I said, former neighbor. Yeah, actually, you're just two blocks down the street from us now, in fact. I I I think we're still neighbors. You're still neighbors, right? And Hunter, it's so good to have you with us today. I'm happy to be here. I'm I'm looking forward to our conversation because uh the lighthouse and youth for Christ is something that, well, the Youth for Christ part, when I was a kid, I used to go to Youth for Christ all the time. On we had them in Wichita, Kansas where I lived. We had a you know, a big YFC group, and uh we'd go, there'd be four or five, six hundred kids there. Yeah, it was like I said, it was pretty good size. We had a ball. Yeah. And so here it is now. You tell me about your transition from from high school to now you're director, right?
SPEAKER_02:I yeah, I I I mean, I graduated high school in 2021. I spent the next four years volunteering in youth ministry and getting my associates in generals, and then I worked at the school, and then out of the blue this last summer, I was handed a note that said Chuck was interested in talking to me. And I went, okay, sure. And then next thing I know, I'm being interviewed for uh the just the drop-in supervisor. And next thing I knew, they're like, we want you to be the area director. And I go, Well, I know better than turn away the Lord, so I just say yes. Good job. So, Chuck, is is he retiring? Chuck is retired, about as retired as anyone can be these days. All right. But he still goes around preaching, we still talk all the time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, he still writes a column for us out the window. Yeah, yeah. And you know, I I read it and I'm you know, being a pastor myself, I I sit there and I a lot of times, you know, you you read some of these articles that people put in the paper under the guise of religious, and I'm going, uh No, Chuck's good. I I appreciate him. I love the way he writes. I like how precise and concise he is. And so uh yeah. Never met him yet. Look forward to it one day.
SPEAKER_02:He's great. He's he's great. He's awesome. He really is good. So he's a he's been around the block a minute for 50-some years.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was gonna say he's a mentor for you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he is, he definitely is. I mean, following him in the ministry that he had, I mean, obviously we're gonna change some things, and there's a 50-some year age gap. But I think for what he when he was 20, he started about when he was 20, if I remember right. So we're kind of mirroring each other in a sense, although he went all over the world, and Lord forbid I get on a plane. Um but you don't fly. I I don't I'm gonna have to fly, but I don't want to fly. But uh no, Chucky's really good. He's really patient. He like you ask him most questions, he's gonna have an answer in some way, shape, or form. So I I have his number. If something really goes wrong, I am a speed dial, whether it's spiritual, physical, or whether something in the building is confusing to me. It happens a lot. Chuck's there. But he's great.
SPEAKER_01:So tell me a little bit about what's a week like for you.
SPEAKER_02:Oh well, so a week can look very different and very same. When you're working with youth, things can hit the fan in like 10 seconds. But a normal work week is I sit, I try to have office hours from 12 to 5 every day, but every weekday, Monday through uh Friday, we have kids from 3:30 to 5:30 where they come in, they hang out, and uh we talk with them, we feed them, and um starting almost the second weekend, I I started questioning these kids about what their purpose was, what their faith was. So they started asking to get in the Bible. So now every day we spend the last 30 minutes reading the Bible and praying for each other. So it's it's been great. I'm so normal work week is I probably spend a Monday shopping to get ready for a week because teenagers eat a lot of snacks. And we we work, if I'm being honest, we work from with third graders all the way up to 12th graders. That was my next question, too. Like on the sign, we have sixth to twelfth grade. But if they come with a friend or if they bring a sibling, I'm not gonna turn any child the way the Lord never did. So I was like, as long as you can I think uh Ryan Edberg, when he came and talked, I I liked his rule of all I say to the kids when they visit is love each other and do what I say the first time. That's that's kind of the rule I sit with. But we do have a swear jar, and I make quite a lot of profit off of a swear jar over everything else.
SPEAKER_01:So hopefully that profit will go down, right?
SPEAKER_02:It is. It does, but it's definitely fun to watch them um look at like keep each other's language in check and they'll call each other out for it. And it has gotten better. It's great.
SPEAKER_01:Good, good. So what do what do you do at first of all? Did I mention that that you're the director at the lighthouse in Fairmont? You did. Okay. I this hit me. I thought, did I even mention that?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you said the lighthouse. I'm actually the area director for all of Martin County. Oh, you are. So we cover the entire county. We're one of the only ones in the region who does where else do you have outlets in Martin County? So our only satellite station is in Fairmont. So that that requires the task of how do you reach the rest of the county if you don't have buildings in the right. And that's where uh when I first started, I was given this vision of well, I can't really I don't want to step on anyone's toes and I can't really kick the door in. But what if we just work with the youth ministries that are already going on in the county?
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And so I, you know, I started, I started my ministry just looking at all the churches and looking for all the youth ministries and all the youth opportunities. And so it's like out of 40 some churches in Martin County, about seven of them have large youth programs. Okay. So I reach out to those like Triamont Covenant. They have a youth group of 70 plus kids. Yeah, they have a good Sherburne, uh St. Paul's Lutheran, I think they have one of 50 to 70 to 100 kids. Um, Donnell has one, and then you have the two in Fairmont and one out in East Chain. And those are the ones I know of. Those are the ones that were easily found out, I guess, as saying. And I I've tried to it was my goal to make it to a new church every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, which the first month that went well. I mean, I I I just liked walking in too. I I didn't say I was coming because I wanted to see how churches would receive random people. Yeah, that's an interesting thing to do if you ever think of that. But right uh I really just want to I don't want Youth for Christ to be the poster card, I guess. I I want Youth for Christ to kind of be a hub of youth activity, but I want it to be able so I can tell anybody where how youth ministry is effective in any part of the county and not just in Fairmont. So it's uh I I'd like to know what churches offer what what kind of kids can they handle? Because I got a variety of kids. I have kids from Martin Luther, I have kids from the public schools, I have private schools, and I think each kid needs a different thing. And I think the churches have a different thing to offer, but ministry-wise, youth for Christ is more just trying to support everything. Like if we see someone as having a youth ministry, it ideally we're gonna promote their ministry. It's it's not that we're here to take over, we're just here to support because it's youth for Christ, no matter how that looks like. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He'll get them to where they need to go. We just have to be the gateway to point them in the direction of that. So we Chuck, his big thing was pancake breakfast. So he would go to all the public schools and he'd serve a pancake breakfast every week. I haven't been able to do that yet, because that requires a different volunteer structure, including interviews, background checks, and just getting that on the road is it's slow rolling. And it's a huge, it's a huge expense. It is, it's a huge expense. And the payout, if you really think about it, it's like the kids do love pancakes, but how much ministry can you get done when you have to flip 300 plus pancakes every day? Right. But uh I I could the vision that was given to me when I took the role was just you are the narrow gate, show them the way to the church and show them that the church is alive. And it's it's my goal to just line the lighthouse with promotion of all the churches, ministries, all their camps, all the things that are going on, and just to be able to be a bridge in between churches, to be to be the middleman between the Lutherans, the Catholics, and just because I think theologically we all have differences, but we all believe that the youth need Jesus. And I I I believe that Jesus will get us to where we need to go. That's the common thing. And like when I say I believe in the church, I'm like, there are people saved in all of these denominations. There are good Christians in every denomination. Yeah. So let's all just work together, put aside the differences that aren't aren't salvation issues, and let's save these kids.
SPEAKER_01:So you're not denominational.
SPEAKER_02:I you know, youth for Christ itself. Youth for Christ is not. It's it's it has its own affirmations, it has its own like if you would the closest thing you'd say is would Youth for Christ probably stand more on the Protestant side, but officially we're no denomination. Right, right. Like if you wonder what we teach there, it's we're reading out of scripture. That's what we teach. There you go. It's we can't you can't go wrong. No, we we stick to the basics. It's by the Bible and our thing. And it's like if you have any questions, the what the way we conduct ourselves is going to be by this book. And it's that's what we do. And we're open to discussing. Like if a kid, like if we when our Catholic kids come, we discuss with them. We're like, as long as you can prove it with the Bible, I don't have an issue with it. And it's just like, we just want to make sure you know who Jesus is and you know how to find him, and I know he'll take care of you way better than I could. The word will speak for itself better than I could ever speak it. So that that's Youth for Christ officially is a non-nominational. It is just there to reach kids, change lives, and develop leaders.
SPEAKER_01:Do you do you now or in the future have any plans for, like maybe during the summer, especially, the church is coming together, the youth coming together into a big uh YFC type of rally? Or do you do that already or anything like that?
SPEAKER_02:I absolutely want to do an all-county youth group, like join together thing. It's absolutely a goal of mine. It's happened before in the past, apparently. Like there, there have been groups. There are this, we are not revolutionary in what we're attempting to do. It's just a different time attempt. There was a group called Merge where they talked with all the youth ministry and they all brought them together and they all used to speak, and apparently they all used to do youth events. And from what I hear, all the youth ministries are open to coming together. It's just bridging the gap and and helping us facilitate communications because man, I think if anything is a problem in the church today, it's communication because we just won't talk to each other. And I'm and I try to help bridge that gap. I help bridge communications, but we absolutely want to just do I'd love for massive countywide just youth events, youth ministries, just let's get these youth bring in some artists and bring in artists, yeah. Have a concert and bring in artists. I mean, some of them have youth bands. Yes. How cool would it be if we had our youth bands playing for everybody?
SPEAKER_01:That'd be fun.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So old people come?
SPEAKER_02:Of course.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, well I'd love to come in here. All right.
SPEAKER_02:I want to establish this off the premise. Um, we're all supposed to have childlike wonder, no matter how old we are. There you go. So as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter if you're seven or seventy, you're still a youth for Christ. Okay. You should all have some involvement in youth for Christ. Okay. You may not want to interact with the teenagers, but you should definitely be helping in some way. Well, I don't want to play any sport against them, that's for sure. I wouldn't want to see you play against Mike. I don't want to call the ambulance.
SPEAKER_01:I appreciate that. Thank you. Well, all right. So you said you've got uh it's you and two volunteers. Yep. Are you open to more? Is someone's listening can you know?
SPEAKER_02:If you want to volunteer, you can go to www.south central Minnesota Youth for Christ, so S C-MYFC dot org, and you can go to contact and then help volunteer. Sure. Okay. Every volunteer has to be background checked. You have to go through, you have to get interviewed, and you just kind of have to go through the process. Sure. And I I will put this, I will put this out there right away. The program can be very frustrating sometimes. So I I would love for there be to be more people involved in some way, shape, or form. I get not everybody wants to be in kids' faces, but I mean I'd love to have people who would make food. I just that was my next question. Make meals for them or make cookies. These kids love cookies, they will eat any cookie, but I'd love just to have volunteers who, even if like you'd prefer not to work, but would be open in an emergency just to come and supervise. I mean, I I do like I've been looking for the younger people who are kind of floating in the wind. So like I have a 19-year-old volunteer, I'm looking for the 27-year-olds, but I don't want any the older folks, the older folks to think that I'm discluding them. It's I'm I think one of the biggest things right now is the youth need to be heard and not taught to. Okay. And I think when it gets to a point like when you're 30 in your 40s, you have a lot of experience that you want to like put on these kids, but they won't receive it. Like I can tell you, even as a 20-some, I look at these kids and I try to tell them exactly what's going to happen with the things they're doing. They don't want to hear it. They just want people to listen. And I think that can be frustrating for some people. Okay. It's like the youth aren't listening. And I'm like, not listening because you aren't seeing them. That's it's a twofold problem. It's like it's not the youth that are the problem, it's not the adults that are the problem. It's a co-problem. It's we're not seeing each other, we're not understanding each other. I mean, you look at the generational differences, we are flipped up. Like I'm different from my my brother, who's 10 years old now. Right. Like, we are completely different. We were raised in completely different spheres and we're only 12 years apart. It's like, whoa. But yeah, no, if anyone wants to volunteer, we are taking volunteers for anything. If you think you can contribute anything, like I work with people who know music artists, I know people who like cooking, I know people who just know who like to decorate things. It's like if you have a calling to contribute in any way, we want you. You just have to go online and apply first.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so let's say I'm a I'm a dad and I've got a a 15-year-old son or daughter, it doesn't matter. And uh, you know, they go to church with me, but they're not they just don't feel like I just don't feel like they're being maybe maybe they don't have a youth director at their church. So they go to church, but uh, you know, there's really nobody there for them. So what if I sent them to the YFC after school, what would they do?
SPEAKER_02:Well, we have let's see, we have ping pong, pool, foosball, uh we have a we. I like to keep them off the screens as much as I can. Okay, but for the most part, it's I highly encourage them to just ask questions, to interact with other kids. Like I'm real big into the face-to-face interaction, and I'm not afraid to ask the question, what's your purpose in life? Like, I I'll do an introduction and say, What's your purpose in life? What do you value? What's important to you? And so I really encourage the open dialogue. I I want to know what they think. Like, if they hate Christianity with a passion, I want to know. I want to talk about it. Sure. Like, I if when you send your kids there, I'm also willing to help with homework as much as I can. Okay. I've learned that uh high honors chemistry is a little out of field.
SPEAKER_01:That's not your thing, then.
SPEAKER_02:Uh no, science never was, but so like you when the kids come, they're just it's a safe place where they can hang out, where they can just so they can do a variety of things.
SPEAKER_01:They can play games, they can hang out with a friend. They can if they want to sit and talk to you, they can sit and talk. Uh if they want to get into the Bible, you're certainly there to kind of guide them a little bit. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, we uh I have a thing going right now where we're trying, I try to commission kids to make artworks of all the biblical characters, so like Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and I have them draw pictures. Really? And every time they draw a picture, they get a can of pop free. Oh, there you go. And I also right now have them working on making posters for the Apostles' Creed and uh the Lord's Prayer, and I'm I'm working through the creeds, and I just want them to feel involved in the church. I I think that's one of our biggest things. It's like we bring our kids to church, but they're not involved. They don't like the main service is barely involving for adults. So for a kid, it's just I was forced, I grew up Luther. I was forced to go to church. I played cars in the pew, but I could sing every choir song because I just was around it. So I'm like, there is a reason for them to be there, but I think what we're missing now is what is the purpose of the church? What is like why is church? What is church? Like those basic questions. Why do I need to be here? Why why yeah, why do I need to be here? I mean, I uh like I could ask my youth what is church, and their answer was we don't know. And frankly, I do get more kids that have never stepped foot inside of church. And it's pretty much that surprises me. Okay, so I I think this is if one statement needs to be taken out of this, uh the church needs to wake up and realize that nobody knows who Jesus is. Like I I thought everyone would have a basis of what Jesus was. Like I'm like At least he died and they say he rose again. People don't even know that. Really? My kids didn't know any of that. I asked them who Jesus was, and they went, um, isn't he the guy who did something with wine or water and he fed people? And I I I was floored when they first started answering that that way.
SPEAKER_01:And I was like, and they go, I don't know. Well, like you, I grew up in church and I was there three, four times a week. So like you. In fact, we considered it an insult if you had to use a hymn to sing out of, you know. We knew all the songs by heart. At least two verses, or two, yeah, the first one and the last one. Yeah. You know, but uh so like you, I'm going, what? I have a I have a niece though who knows one book in the Bible. It's Genesis. It's the only one she knows.
SPEAKER_02:Genesis Revelation.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know if she knew that one. And you know, the average person knows maybe John 3.16 and maybe the 23rd Psalm if they've been to enough funerals.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But uh otherwise, I I love it when I when I talk to somebody about a funeral, they'll say, okay, what what scripture would your grandmother or your your mom or dad would they like? Oh you can use all of them. They're all good. Anything you want. So I always pull out something really random, you know, and say, How about this? How about, well, maybe not that one. I go, well, you said they were all good. But then, you know, but they all 23rd song, yeah, go with that one. That's a good one. And I'm going, wow. I've got a whole list for my funeral uh because I keep saying this is my favorite verse. Then I keep going, well, geez, I like this one here too. That one's a gospel better, huh? Yeah, I got a I got a whole list of probably 30 or 40 scriptures going, I want all these red. And I I don't care. That's what I like, right? You know? So, but that does surprise me. Uh your philosophy, or not your philosophy, but your statement, that they don't even know who Jesus was. I I other than a curse word.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, they only know how to use his name in faith.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_02:That that's that's all they knew.
SPEAKER_01:You're really making me go, wow.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I can make you go, wow, more. The church kids who come, yeah, they don't know much more.
SPEAKER_01:Really? No. So they're in church, but they're not listening. No, they're not receiving it. They're not getting anything out of it. And then you're a 20-ish and and you've been around, you've been in church most of your life, and now all of a sudden you woke up one day, apparently.
SPEAKER_02:I did.
SPEAKER_01:What woke you up?
SPEAKER_02:Well, so being brought to church every day when I was younger, I I can say it gave me a distinct advantage, I would say, when I went into high school. Because I went to church until I was about 13. I did confirmation, and then I was like, I'm done. Grandma said all I needed to do was confirmation, then I could never go to church again, which is what most people do. Exactly. I have my own thoughts about confirmation, how we should be doing it for adults differently. But that's another tangent. But um during my high school years, I was not a good person. I was not a good man, and none of us are, but I was evil. Like I will say, I was wicked in high school. I was hateful, I didn't value life, I didn't care about anyone else. Okay. I I was an abuser and abuser. I would use people to get what I want, I manipulated people to get what I want, and I was really good at it. So like I was not a good person in high school. I didn't have friends or many friends. I didn't I didn't have I lost all of the Christian values when I was in high school. I didn't live by any of them. And it wasn't until by an act of God, quite literally, my sister was finally, she got to seventh grade. Yeah. So she could go to youth group. Right. I went to youth group at the beginning of seventh grade, but that was during confirmation, so I walked away. When my sister went, I was like, well, I'm not just gonna let her go do something alone. Mind you, I didn't care about anything else she did until this point. But I was like, well, if you're gonna go to youth group, I guess I'm gonna go to youth group. And I was just sitting there, and at the first few nights I wasn't paying attention, but I remember distinctly it Jill was preaching on the Sermon on the Mount. And it was the portion on judgment. And it's like I saw myself as better than others. I thought everyone else was stupid and they were getting just at like there was no point to this Christianity. There's nothing that and then all of a sudden it was you judge everybody else for the same things you do. Take the take the log, take the tree, take the take it out of your own eye before you try taking it on it. And for some reason, that was just the verse that made my eyes open and go, wait a minute. That was your that was that was one of that was an aha moment. And then I was like, that actually makes sense. And then I came to the faith by trying to disprove it. I I I started reading the Sermon on the Mountain, and I'm like, Blessed are the poor. No, they can't be blessed. And and and then all of a sudden it's just you're reading it, and then you're and I go, This book makes too much sense. And then I they did a really good job of explaining this book is over 4,000 years in the making, it has 40-some different authors, it's 66, ours is 66 books, and it has one perfect message. I know, right? I I I I read it, and then I was going, it all points to the central character of Jesus. And then you look at Jesus, and then I'm going, I can't prove any of this wrong. I think it was Gandhi who said the Sermon on the Mount was like, no, no one can do anything better with it. That's not his quote because I can't remember the quote, but I know like even the other religious leaders look at the Sermon on the Mount and go, You can't add anything to that. You can't take away anything from that. There's nothing wrong with it. And it opened my eyes to realizing of things like I had turned away completely from love. I, when I was in high school, I dated a girl because I was like, Well, I'm gonna figure out what love is because I know I'm gonna beat everyone to it. I thought it was a race, I thought it was something you're gonna achieve. I didn't know it was a choice, I didn't know it was a commitment. I didn't know that love, that the version of love the world teaches is a very poor mockery of what the full thing is. I spent the first two years of my newfound faith just reading about what the Bible said about love, and then you finally arrive at the conclusion God is love. The verse, God is love. It is literally his being, and then knowing that all falls short of the glory of God, it's like I can't get there without it. And people would not a lot of people don't even believe who I was when I tell them I was I did a full 180. I had to have done a full 180. Like the people who know me now would have no idea who the person in high school was. I don't think anyone in my high school class would have ever guessed this is what I'd be doing right now.
SPEAKER_01:The ones who do see me are like, what happened to you? They're thinking to themselves, I thought you were in jail.
SPEAKER_02:I should have been. I I just I didn't care for anyone until the Lord said the Lord made it.
SPEAKER_01:So he pulled a Paul moment on you.
SPEAKER_02:He did. I I did. I had a Damascus moment. I didn't go blind like Paul, but I think the scales got removed on their own. So that's a great, great sermon, man. Yeah. And it's like I have a big thing. Like I have a lot of sixth graders who think dating is just something you're supposed to do. So I will press them. Like, what is dating? Oh. What is love? In sixth grade. In sixth grade, it's popular. It's new. Like they see. And I don't and people people ask why, but the more I've thought about it, it's what is the one thing everybody wants in this life? Love. So they're all gonna pursue after the only thing they see. It's like that's all they know. So they get confused with love with sex too. Yeah. Well, that I that's what I did. Yeah. I just thought love, like, as far as far as I'm starting, I was like, love is the epitome of like, well, what can you get? It's like, okay, you love each other. Okay, then you start cuddling with each other, then you hug each other, then you kiss each other. And then you get to the point where it's like, okay, well, the only thing left I can think of is sex. And then that's when I realized I was like, I can't get anything else. Like, I can't just grab, I can't take anything else. There's nothing else to benefit from. I I saw it as a transaction. I'm like, you can't give me anymore. Like, I'm I was sick of it. I was like, you just you have the same problems, and I don't feel like the rewards I'm getting out of it are the same. And if you don't have a value for human life and you don't care about anybody else, you're gonna mistreat them. You're gonna abuse them, you're just gonna do that. And that's the that's the version of love I think today kids are kids are pursuing because I didn't care about marriage. I I grew up in a family where marriage, like my mom isn't married, she's a single mom. I was ready to my mom and grandma. And like I did have dads, and I met my dad, and I'm like, dad, like both my dads are great. Like they were great. And but marriage is so important, it's so sacred, and it ruins it. Like, if you sex before if you have sex before marriage, you have completely lost the point. And I asked these sixth graders now, I'm not afraid to talk about sex. Like I will say, so what are you gonna do? I I go, what's the point of dating? And they're like, Well, it's a relationship. And I'm like, that's what friends are for. Like they what they describe is friendship. And then, and then I'm like, okay, so is dating just friendship, but you can hold hands, kiss each other, and snuggle? And then they go, Well, yeah. And then I go, so it's friends with benefits. And you should see the look on their face when I say that. And I go, but how can it be anything different? I'm like, are you dating to marry? They go, absolutely not. Heck, even when I tell the guys when they ask me for advice, I go, You want your first step of advice for dating a girl? Go ask their parents for permission. Stops the conversation right then. Like they will just go, I can't do that. And then I go, then you shouldn't be dating. But this is this is what we're this is what we're actually fighting. Like these kids don't know better. They don't have any idea of who Jesus is, they don't know how they don't what they have a vision of love is just the worldly view of lust and obsession.
SPEAKER_01:So let me ask another question. Then have you seen a difference though with kids from the public school versus the Christian schools?
SPEAKER_02:On their on their values and their I will say that the Christian schools they have better values. They in public schools, I think there's been a lot more like it it just shifts the ages of when this occurs. I think in the Christian schools, it's in senior high when this stuff starts happening.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay. So the it's the same.
SPEAKER_02:It's just it's the same, it's just delayed with different values. If I'm being honest, yeah. I think it it's heavier on the Christian kids when they fall to it because then they're jerked up in guilt and shame. Yeah. And it it's it's almost I don't want to say kids. Public kids have no shame because they don't know they're doing wrong.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:They just uh they just miss it. Uh and that's why I think w we're seeing so many broken relationships. So they don't know better.
SPEAKER_01:Well where, you know, here's my thought, and you can correct me where in the public school, um, the kids, if they don't have any Christian values at home, they certainly don't get it at school. Where if the Christian school, if they don't have any values at home, they still get it in school. So so they are. I think anyway, that's what I'm thinking is so they do have something for the Christian school. That's why it's delayed. Yeah, no, I I'd say absolutely. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I I think I I'll be bold and say Christian schools will make a shallow faith versus no faith at all. I don't think there's any faith in the public schools. Like the public schools will not be anything bad. No, right. But I think we're still having a problem with the youth, even in Christian schools, of what they're receiving and what they're getting. Like a lot of the a lot of the kids who are high in their faith in the Christian schools had an experience outside of school that got them to actually invest in faith. Right. But I know kids like they go to the Catholic school, they go to the Lutheran school, but they don't care. Like they didn't start caring until someone told them this isn't just a fairy tale, this has actual purpose and reason. So I think for Christian kids, a Christian school is definitely better. It definitely you have more chances, a higher chance of hearing moral and value. I think in the public school system, moral and value is abysmal, if any. It's it's sad, but it's also what the public schools have to deal with. Because I know a lot of people in the public school system are of great faith. Right. But they have they don't feel safe to express it in any way because to an extent they can't. Right. Where I I I look at it, and I'm I'm in a position where I can look at laws and stuff, and I go, there is more we could do, but you'd have to be trained to do it. It's like there's nothing that says you can't put a Bible on your desk. Right. Like you just leave the Bible there. I tell my kids, just bring a Bible to school. You don't have to talk about it with anything, just bring it to school. Keep a Bible within three inches of your person at all times, is what I challenged my kids. And some of them took that challenge. Really? Yeah. And it opens up a door of conversation. I'm sure it does. And but but getting back to our point of like relationships and morality and values, Christian school is better than public school, but it's not we can't substitute it for uh parenting and what the church is taught to be teaching. And there's just a disconnect.
SPEAKER_00:It's a tool. It is a tool. Yeah, it's a tool.
SPEAKER_02:But we can't rely on it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. All right. So uh in closing, what what thoughts would you like to share with with our listeners?
SPEAKER_02:You know, invite their kids to come? Absolutely. I mean, if you send your kids to the lighthouse in Fairmont, they will be parent, a mentor, we teach them the faith. And it has nothing to do with us. It is it is the Lord's way all the way.
SPEAKER_01:So you they're not gonna hear a denomination, they're gonna hear the Bible only.
SPEAKER_02:And you're theyar the Bible. If they ask about denominations, I'll give them what my view is. Yeah. Like I I try to learn about all the denominations. That's why I go to every church. It's like, I want to learn what your denomination is, I want to know which ones have closed communion, open communion, what your affirmations are. Like I do. I have a I put a high value on if you have a denomination you can stand by, I want you to tell me about it. And I also want to be able to tell the kids because all the kids see right now is a divided church. And they don't even know what church is, but they know it's divided. So if you send your kids to the lighthouse, I'm gonna just build up the church. I'm I'm gonna point them to the church. I'm gonna encourage them to go to church. I take kids to youth group on Wednesdays. Do you? I do, and we have a full van. Wednesdays are our most popular day. Are they really? Kids are excited to go to church. Oh, good. Good. Like it it it may this may have sound doom gloomy, but kids are excited to go to church once you show them what the church actually is. Yeah. What the church should be. Right, right. And like I'm like, it's a family that'll love you and take you for who you are. It's a hospital for all the broken heart and all that. Like all the things the Lord said, they take that to heart. I I'm I'll close on this. Yeah. My faith has never been stronger because I can see what it's like to believe like a little child now. These kids who have had no experience with the church have been so eager to learn about the Bible and so eager to pray for each other, even though they may not know what they're doing completely yet, they do it completely in faith. I have never seen a stronger faith than the faith of little children. That's right. They are excited to talk about the Bible. They are excited to draw pictures of the Bible. They are excited for Bible time. They take it seriously. They get after each other when someone's not paying attention. That is like I've had a few adults come and observe, like from 5 to 5:30, that's Bible time. I've had a few of the parents walk in and then they go, whoa. I've never seen my kids sit so quietly and so attentively. And I go, and they're like, I've never seen, like, you don't see kids with this much respect anymore. And I'm like, and we're gonna do better. Like this is what at the lighthouse, I don't see the problem, I see the potential. I look at them and I go, God is doing something because he brought you here. I don't care if it was only one kid, I don't care if it was a hundred. I would look at each one of them as individual and say, you are important, you are valued, you are loved, and you are made in the image of the God, of the one creator of the universe. And I'm going, now let's figure out what he's gonna do in your life. Well, there you go. And that's what we do at the lighthouse. We uh we show them the way we we show them the way, we show them Jesus, and we just tell them who Jesus is. That's our whole mission is just to show them who Jesus is, we teach them to pray how to just accept and to believe and have faith, and in the same time, they teach us so much more. Because I don't know. I just there's so much I could talk about. There are so many times I've gone home with tears of just over the brokenness in today's world, but then there are other days where I'm just coming home smiling because of all the joy that they can just bring you because they're just honest and loving. And when you actually can get a kid to look at you and go, okay, I'll just tell you what's going on. That's it. That's the church. That's what we're supposed to do. That full vulnerability within the Holy Spirit to look at each other and to be able to talk to each other and say, I can love you fully. I can tell you what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. I may tell you you're wrong at this instance, but I'm gonna be telling you I'm proud of you in the next instance. And that that is what Youth for Christ is about, preparing the youth to do the same for others too. I I people go, how are you gonna get in the schools? I'm gonna go, they're in the schools. I don't have to do it. I just have to give them the equipment to go fight the good fight. And they are very eager to take it up when you actually show them it has a purpose. So that's youth for Christ. Downtown Plaza. Downtown Plaza, next to Jake's Pizza. Yeah, I was gonna say next to Jake's Pizza is the best fit thing I can say. Just go to Jake's Pizza.
SPEAKER_01:Right next to it. Stop it and see you. Hunter, it's been it's been great talking to you. I've enjoyed this so much. Uh God bless you. He blessed your work. Yeah, I look forward to uh we'll make this an annual thing. We'll check in every year and see what's going on, what's new, what's different. All right, man. Absolutely. All right, all right, folks, that does it for us. Uh this episode should. I forgot to I think this is episode 21 of season two. I'm not even sure anymore. I keep losing track. Anyway, we'll see you next time. Bye.
