The SEEK Podcast
Welcome to the SEEK Podcast – we're so glad you’re here. This podcast is a place of community, collaboration, and inspiration, created to invite and encourage you deeper into a relationship with Jesus. Join these podcasters and many others as we encounter Jesus at SEEK25, Jan 1st-5th. For more information and to register, visit seek.focus.org.
The SEEK Podcast
Finding Jesus Through Goldfish, Baby Cakes, and Milk Fest: knowHis.love x SEEK
Join us for a special episode of the SEEK Podcast, recorded live from SEEK in Salt Lake City, where we dive into the joyous and relational heart of Catholic discipleship. Our guests, FOCUS missionaries Emily and Zach, along with Madeline, Julia, and Izzy from Ohio University’s knowHis.love podcast, share vibrant tales from their experiences at Central Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio. They unfold the transformative power of genuine relationships through the “win-build-send” approach to evangelization.
In this conversation, they share personal stories of conversion and community building. From Emily’s inspirational aunt who introduced her to adoration, to Zach’s realization of living a joyful life free from guilt, and the Ohio students’ revival of a once-dormant Newman Center through authenticity and creative outreach—each story highlights the impactful simplicity of their mission.
Discover the unconventional yet effective methods they use to connect with others, like hosting jean-themed parties, celebrating with unique baby doll birthday cakes, and even organizing a “Milk Fest” on campus. These narratives not only showcase the fun and relatability of their evangelization efforts but also demonstrate how true friendship and joyful witness can break down barriers and foster deep, meaningful connections.
Tune in to learn how embracing authenticity, joy, and community can revolutionize your approach to faith-sharing and transform hearts. Join us in celebrating the ways these missionaries live out their call to discipleship, proving that faith, fun, and friendship are at the core of winning hearts for Christ.
Welcome to the Seek 25 podcast, featuring some of our favorite podcasters recorded live at the Max Studios podcast stage during Seek 25 in Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Noah's Love podcast. We are a podcast started by a priest friend of ours. Welcome to Noah's Love. Welcome to Noah's Love podcast. We are a podcast started by a priest friend of ours. We are three students at Ohio University. We're at a campus without focus, so we're just here to talk about our experience with discipleship and what we've learned as we kind of just figured things out ourselves, and we have two Focus missionaries here today that we're going to just have a discussion with about the differences between our discipleship approaches.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're just going to be talking about the heart of discipleship, the practicals of discipleship, and then, in regards to the win-build-send method, we're going to be really focusing on the win today.
Speaker 4:And Focus thought that Emily and Zach here have some fun personalities, some uniqueness, some good free will you know, and so hopefully we'll be sharing some funny stories about times we've tried to attempt winning students over on campus and truly loving them. With that I'm.
Speaker 3:Madeline, I'm Julia and I'm Izzy and Emily and Zach. Can we hear a little bit about yourselves? What is your deal? What's my deal? What's my deal?
Speaker 5:I'm Emily Heupel. The basic boring information is that I'm a fourth year missionary. I'm the team director at Central Michigan University. Fire up chips. Fire up chips.
Speaker 1:Fire up what they say in.
Speaker 5:Michigan. I spent three years at the University of Illinois in Champaign and I graduated from Iowa State University role clones and was just raised in a cyclone-heavy family. I once spent six hours waiting outside for a basketball game the day after my wisdom teeth were taken out and made it on TV for that. That's my claim to fame until now, wow.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and okay, my deal is. My name is Zach Glass and yeah, I'm a third year missionary with Focus. I originally I grew up in Nebraska, hastings, nebraska, best state in the country in the union and went to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln as a student and then just turned a call with Focus. I spent two years at the lovely University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and then now I'm the team director at the University of Madison, wisconsin. And yeah, I'm a normal guy A little fun fact about me.
Speaker 6:To maybe give a little bit of insight into my character and my personality when I was I think I was a senior in high school, me and my friends got together and we went to like the local Earl May and we found that there was a deal on goldfish. So we bought 36 goldfish and kept them in my backyard in a kiddie pool and just kept them alive for an entire summer. We tried to name as many as we could, those that had unique things to them, and then at the end of the summer, unfortunately, we just kind of killed them Because we didn't really know what to do with them, you know. So, uh, but yeah, so that's my, that's my deal.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:Well, you already heard that we're from Ohio university. Uh, we're all seniors. I am finishing up my studies in public administration, but my deal is that you know I'm I have a lot of city pride. I'm from the great city of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1:I have a lot of city pride. I'm from the great city of Cincinnati.
Speaker 4:Ohio. Let's hear it for Cincinnati, okay, and you know I'm the type of person that you're not going to hear the end of it when I am at some kind of function that's out of the city, and so my deal is that I will always be bringing Skyline Chili in some form to any function.
Speaker 3:So, you know, yeah, my deal I am a senior studying journalism and publication design and my deal is that officially, as of 2024, I'm a beef jerky convert. So I was a vegetarian. I was a vegetarian for like four years and then I walked the Eucharistic pilgrimage this summer and we had every meat on that southern route.
Speaker 4:So Except Skyline Chili.
Speaker 1:Except.
Speaker 3:Skyline Chili. I refuse. That's so sad, but I'm officially a beef jerky commenter Nice.
Speaker 2:As I said, my name is Julia Krauth and my deal is that I study industrial engineering and I sewed this skirt and it's really questionable craftsmanship. So every single minute I'm making sure that it's not falling apart on me. Oh boy, that's my deal.
Speaker 4:Zach was going to wear a jean dress today to match Emily, he didn't.
Speaker 6:But then somebody forgot it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we forgot ours, so I mean your fashion choices.
Speaker 4:Even though it's questionable, I think it's.
Speaker 6:But maybe you could make me a jean dress. Yeah, for the next one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that would be good.
Speaker 4:Well, to get into a little bit more of the content, I wanted to start off by asking us a little bit, or asking you guys a little bit, about the focus method of discipleship. Could you maybe describe a little bit about what discipleship is and I know that most of us are probably familiar with the win-build-send method and maybe focus a little bit more on the win part, because that's kind of what we're going to be discussing a bit deeper today.
Speaker 6:Okay, okay, I would say, how would I define discipleship? I would say discipleship is learning how to imitate Christ in all things. So just like the simple question of like, what would Jesus do? Like in all situations, no matter your state in life or what you're doing, trying to better understand, like, what would he do in every single situation through what we'd call like Acts 2.42, right, so in Acts 2.42, it's like fellowship, prayer, changes of the apostles and the sacraments. So by building a life around those things, we're in a sense getting to know who God is, we're learning who Jesus is, and then we can imitate him and be like him. And so I guess the wind-build-send process of focus.
Speaker 6:I've always said that I think wind-build-send is actually the progression of the spiritual life. Jesus wins you. We see that in the Gospels. Jesus wins us over, whether it's quick or slowly or whatever, but he wins us over. And then, over time, as we journey into relationship with him, he builds us up and then at a certain point he sends us out. No-transcript, definitely in my own experience of relationship with Christ. So I don't know what you would say.
Speaker 5:Yeah, a lot of similar things. I think, just like beginning to take on the qualities of Christ the more that we center our lives around him, like discipleship, I think, is like the process of Jesus being the center of my life. Yeah, sometimes I joke when people start to dress like me. I'm like this is discipleship. I'm passing these things on to you. You're taking on my qualities, so I'm trying to take on Jesus's qualities, I think. Specific to the win yeah, something has to be like attractive about it, Something has to like there has to be a desire sparked in your heart to want something, and like the desire for Jesus is at the depth of every person's heart, but what draws that out is different for every person, which is kind of fun to figure out.
Speaker 4:Okay, that's actually perfect for the next question I was hoping to ask you guys. Perfect which is, I believe, that every campus is very different and has a different culture, and we're all very unique people. So what do you think makes your campus unique in how discipleship looks like on your campus?
Speaker 1:You go.
Speaker 5:Okay, well, central Michigan is a new campus for Focus, so let's go campus for focus. So, okay, let's go expansion fire off chips. Um, so it's been really fun to figure out what it looks like, because we're kind of making it up as we go a little bit. Um, and focus has a great model for it because it's the model that jesus used. Um, yeah, so, honestly, a lot of this semester at central michigan has been learning the culture there and learning what the students are like and growing in friendship, because that has to start first. Like, yeah, growth in relationship with Christ has to come in relationship, and they're not going to trust me if I just come in and tell them what to do. That's not what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 5:So discipleship has really just looked like building friendship right now and beginning to grow in that. And yeah, just take a campus that has a Catholic church on campus, which is a great blessing St Mary's University Parish. Let's go. My priest wanted me to shout it out, yeah, and taking that and being like do you know that this is right at your fingertips to people that don't have any idea Because there haven't been people who are able really to go out before. So it's exciting, yeah, but Zach's situation is much different.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So many fans.
Speaker 6:Yeah. So I would say UW-Madison. I think the discipleship is UW-Madison does community really well. So I would say like there's a winsome aspect to the community and that they're all very welcoming and inviting. We do like morning coffee every single morning for about 45 minutes, so we'll have like a holy hour in the morning and then like after that we'll do like 45 minutes of just like coffee, hanging out, talking, which allows like a lot of that like person-to-person relationship, building the authentic witness of like what's going on in their life and kind of sharing that with like your brothers and sisters, and then like also you know obviously like we're praying before that, so then they're bringing their like prayer life into the conversations that are happening at morning coffee and those sorts of things. But yeah, I think like I think I mean every campus is a little different. Illinois is kind of the same thing where I think like discipleship maybe looks. I think it kind of looks the same at a lot of different places and again, it's just that person to person relationship, walking with people witnessing.
Speaker 6:I've always said like I think discipleship and evangelization is pretty simple. It's like I need to live as close to Christ as I can and then just be very authentic in relationship with everyone, so like be with Jesus and then be in relationship with other people, and then naturally it rubs off and it has an effect on people, um, and that's kind of. I mean, that's ultimately what Jesus did, right, he comes in when he came right. He came into people's lives and he just lived with them and that just affected them. Uh, and he was all about them too. I think that's a big part of like the win aspect to just about being he's so much about us, right, he, um, he's just like whatever we like he likes. I think that's a really big part of the win as well.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, I love that you said whatever he likes, or whatever we like he likes, right, because I think for us our campus is at least we like to think it's very unique. It's very in the hills, very hippie grunge, I think, is what Izzy likes to call it, you know. And so I feel like for discipleship we were really struggling at first. We kind of came into a dead Newman Center. There wasn't very much going on. Covid had totally wiped it out and just through trial and error we have grown to about 80 people, consistently a week, I think. And yeah, I don't know if you guys have anything to say about how you've seen that play out on our campus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say, especially at the beginning. I don't know if you have a similar experience, but when we came into college, like I didn't know what discipleship was or what that meant, but I feel like we were really good at just like being an authentic friend group and like we discipled each other like accidentally. I feel Like it wasn't super intentional because we didn't know that there was like a wind, build, send formula or like anything like that. But we just really leaned into Catholic friendship and like discipleship happened from that.
Speaker 3:Right, like we just really lived out in our relationship with Jesus and we just wanted other people to had what we had and I think it just naturally came through that, yeah, yeah. So, going off of that, my question is before you decided to go, win others over, how are you guys won? Like, how, what did you see in other people that was different about the church and just different about those Catholic people that you were like I want that and like I'm going to live for that myself and invite people other too, um, whenever I think about this, I want that, and like I'm going to live for that myself and invite people other too.
Speaker 5:Whenever I think about this, I think about my aunt. Do you guys say aunt or aunt? Aunt, yeah, aunt, okay, good, I say aunt.
Speaker 1:I think about my Aunt.
Speaker 5:Andrea. She became a focused missionary when I was in third grade and I didn't know what that meant and I didn't really. I don't really remember a time in my life, honestly, before she was like I don't know what she was like, even before that in my brain, um, but she served at the university of Nebraska, lincoln, I know. But it was great for her, um, and it was not far from where I was growing up so she would have, uh, my sisters and I come visit her often and your sister's in the crowd.
Speaker 4:My sister is here Um she'd have us come visit her often and your sister's in the crowd.
Speaker 5:My sister is here. Um, come on, come on, sister. Um, she'd have us come visit her often and, um, we just hang out with her teammates a lot in our house and they just loved being around us and they were so fun and my aunt just had so much energy for life that I just wanted to be her. I just wanted to be like her. I didn't know, like, if that meant focused missionary. I didn't know what that meant, but I was like I wanted to be her, I just wanted to be like her. I didn't know, like, if that meant focused missionary, I didn't know what that meant, but I was like I wanted to be around her. Um, and she was the first person who ever brought me to adoration.
Speaker 5:I was in third grade and she was bringing me into this perpetual adoration chapel. I didn't know what that meant, but she brought me because that's what she wanted to do with me. Um, but she just like wanted to live life to the fullest and did, wanted to do with me, but she just like wanted to live life to the fullest and did. And I felt that way when I was around her, and still do, honestly, and so I kind of like to live that way now too. So I think that is what I think of when I think of, like, the first time I was won over. There were definitely many other little wins in my life. Being invited to my first seed conference is one of them, you know, and just somebody knowing me and choosing me Like I love to be known, don't we all? But yeah, to just like be looked at and known by somebody, yeah, that's usually how I'm won over. Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I would say mine's been like pretty gradual, like I would say like I think my like there's definitely's definitely been like people in my life that have definitely won me over like witness to Christ in deep way. But I even think back, like I'm taken back to. So I went to Catholic school growing up Uh, and I distinctly remember there was a time when I was a sophomore in high school I went on, uh, the March for Life in DC and up until this point I had no idea, uh, Like we'd go to mass, but mass was just like really boring to me. It was like you're just trying to get through it. And I remember we were like at mass in DC with all these like high school kids from across the diocese in Nebraska and we all they have everyone like we got to mass like daily mass. Everyone like knelt forward to like pray before. So I just I knelt down before. Like you know, I knelt down too, because that's what you do. I didn't really know what I was doing, though. I didn't even know what that meant to pray. So I was always just like waiting until everyone else sat back, so then I would sit back. But then I was.
Speaker 6:I was kind of caught off guard because when I was there, no-transcript that I thought were like me, they were relatable, and so I was like whoa. They have something that I don't have, and I think I experienced that a lot progressively throughout the rest of my life. I remember being in high school and there was a couple in town that would like work, a lot of retreats, and I don't know why. It was just like they lived life differently. I think something, too, is like they didn't.
Speaker 6:It seemed like they had a lot of fun in life, but they also had like free consciences. They had a lot of fun in life, but they also had like free consciences and I didn't. I was like still in my sin. So it was like I wanted to have fun and be like them, but I still had a lot of guilt underneath because of the decisions I was making. And so I think that witness there also of them having fun, loving life, being relatable, normal people, cool people that I felt like I could resonate with but that also didn't have the back end of like the double-sided life was like whoa. I think I want this and it allowed me then to be able to take a step closer to Christ, I think in that direction, yeah, the fun.
Speaker 5:the fun is what I was thinking of too, like just when people can have fun and they're not really thinking about what people are. Other people are thinking and there's just a freedom about them. You kind of notice it. Oh yeah, like others' freedom, you'll notice, and I was like I want that. I want to not worry about what other people think.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's one of the two things that like won me over. Just like how fun. I remember meeting like these super alive people my senior year of high school and I was like these people aren't acting too cool about the faith. They're so alive. I was like I want that. I was like whoa, like I was acting too cool. I was like what are we?
Speaker 3:doing, you know, and they were so alive and I was like, whoa, like they think this is cool and I think just like that firmness of it was so cool to me. And then also, yeah, the second thing I think that won me over was just like the way that the Catholic church stands for what it stands for and they don't move the line. I remember my senior year. Julia and I had a theology teacher named Mr Kronholz and he would always be like oh no, mr Kronholz.
Speaker 3:Mr Kronholz. He would always be like Catholicism's the truth and I'd be like your truth, mr Kronholz. And then I remember thinking one day like wow, there has to be a truth. So then, julia and I, when we were 18, we went around to all the different churches and we were like we have to find the truth and it only took us like a month, but then we after that we decided like Catholicism is the truth.
Speaker 2:It was really like the Eucharist that brought us. I would say like originally, it was like the beauty of the Catholic faith that brought us in but tying it more towards like winning. Like we had kind of made up our minds. We went to high school together and then we ended up going to the same college and so we had made up our minds that we were going to seek out the Catholic community, but I didn't know what that was like, I'd never had that. And so when we showed up at our Newman Center, it was small but like the people that were there loved us really well and they were just like so happy to get to know us and like I don't know, we were freshmen, like they could have just cared less, but they really poured into us and I think that the love that they had and the intention that they had really brought me into more of like a conversion of my heart when we came in with a conversion of our minds.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was like a way they were living for us instead of them. That looked different. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:I feel like I can't relate to at all what they say, because I think my story is so much so of like God making something kind of bad good. I grew up in a very good Catholic family, like we were very devoted to the faith, but I was so prideful about it. I remember in grade school I used to think, like all the kids, like we had a teacher that would be like so what was the homily about this Sunday? And no kid would raise their hand and I'm at Catholic grade school and so I'd raise my hand and I'd be like well, the homily was about this and you all should have been there. And I just remember being so prideful about I'm the good kid, they're the bad kid Cause I was taught you have to go to mass, uh, but then I think it was just like getting solely one about the joy of the faith.
Speaker 4:I went to Catholic youth summer camp one summer in high school and then I went to a couple of other just local retreats and seeing young people for the first time who were just excited about things that the world thinks is weird, like weird things. You know, I remember I went to this theology of the body retreat and we're talking about, like sexuality and how to defend the faith. And there's all these freshmen in high school and I was like a junior in high school at this retreat and they're all so excited about it. I was like that's so weird, but it's really joyful and exciting. I kind of want to be like that. So, yeah, god turned a ton of pride in my faith that I just kind of, I guess, developed just from being raised in the faith around a bunch of people that weren't in the faith, and he turned that into just wanting to be joyful and reflecting that to others.
Speaker 2:So how would you say? Your experience of being won over influences the way that you now go about winning others over you want to go.
Speaker 5:I just think it's about being relatable, like I don't know.
Speaker 6:Like, for me it's. This is the thing is like. I think you guys kind of hit on this a little bit like in your guys's own experience.
Speaker 6:But I don't think about winning, like if that makes sense. You know it's not about winning, it's just about uh, just being a friend. You know, like building a relationship, hanging out like uh. But I think that's the biggest thing, like feeling relatable, like I I try to operate under, like if they like it, I like it. You know, like, if you want to do rock climbing, like let's go rock climbing. I've never rock climbed before, but let's go do that. Or I don't know if you're really into Yu-Gi-Oh cards, we'll talk about Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Like tell me why you're so excited about Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Let's talk about that, right, like, so it's just about happened for me. Like again, for me it was just like meeting, because I think I always had this idea in the back of my mind that, like the sportier kids didn't do this kind of stuff or they didn't really get into it.
Speaker 6:And so like to meet guys that just played disc golf or like we're going to go play pickup basketball later today or like, but they were also going to pray their holy hour today and go to mass today and they're going to talk about what's that I have to them in prayer Was like, oh, I didn't know you could like marry those two things together. I thought they had to be like mutually exclusive. Yeah, I think it's just about relatability, like for me, it just I don't even like. I'm just like generally curious. I think too Like. When I think too like when I meet someone new, I'm like like, what's your deal? You know, that's honestly kind of my thing too. It's like what is your deal Like? Why are you here? What's your story Like?
Speaker 6:How do you find yourself in Salt Lake City today? Right, like, uh, which then opens up a a whole can of worms of just who they are. Cause, like, every single person is so awesome and beautiful. Right, like, everyone has this like amazing story. Uh, I don't think it's really fun, but it's a great gift in life that we get to uh, uh, like, learn, like, learn more about someone else's story. Um, you know? Um, yes, I don't know. That's what I would say. How it's like. Like the way that I was one over now influences the way that I win.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 6:What would you say?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think, um, I like to have fun and I like doing like random fun things and inviting people into it. I feel like that's what happened at Iowa State a lot when I was there.
Speaker 4:You guys themed parties right, we're on that wave, we're so on that wave themed parties.
Speaker 5:So one of the missionaries at Iowa State loved themed parties and she did one that was, I think it was like a middle school themed party and you had to dress like what you looked like in middle school. But she was really emo so she had like thick eyeliner on and swept her bangs over to the side and she was like singing paramour all night. It was so funny and she. But she didn't care, she was just having fun and inviting people into it and keeping them away from sin. You know? Um, my favorite is a Jardy. Do you know what a Jardy is? No, illinois knows the Jardy. I brought the Jardy to Illinois. Jardy is a jean party.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, jean dress.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jean dress, wear as much, jean, as you can.
Speaker 5:We had a Jardy for a seat at Central Michigan Fire Up Trips. Fire Up Trips, fire Up Trips, and I wore jeans, jean pants, my jean dress and my jean jacket.
Speaker 2:That's how you journey.
Speaker 5:You just go all out. It's just like how can we invite you into something fun? I think I just like that because the community aspect of it was pretty big for me. Yeah, being with other people in this thing and then I could look up to these other people. I just love seeing the missionaries do random fun things and I think I just have an adventurous, energetic.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, it's part of me that likes that's true, it's true.
Speaker 5:You hear before you sear type of thing, but in the best way. That is what most people say. It's okay, okay, um, which is why I don't have a voice, but so I think like to get to use that and be in that and and like to take it out of the context that I was originally participating in it in sin, you know, and be with these people that I looked up to a lot was cool, and invite people into it yeah, okay.
Speaker 4:Uh, that's so funny, though, because we are roommates, we live in a house together, and when we first got our house, our main goal was we're gonna throw themed parties, and the first party was julia's birthday, it was, so everyone had to dress as something jay and one of our roommates has this long jean skirt. And she comes in and she's wearing her long jean skirt, her jean jacket. She's like, yeah, I'm just jean.
Speaker 5:And then she told me she was wearing gender wear and she was wearing jean shorts under her skirt.
Speaker 4:So it was just like all jean. Everything was jean. Did she have a jerse?
Speaker 6:That's really all out. I don't think so. No, Izzy has a jerse.
Speaker 4:Does he have a jerse? I have a jerseys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, izzy has a jacket. No, I have no jerseys. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Jacket yeah, but Izzy's really passionate about theme parties as well.
Speaker 2:You threw one for me once that was I did. What was the theme of it? It was princess Gender reveal Princess something.
Speaker 4:You had to pick boy or girl. When you walked into the house, you what you had to pick boy or girl and you picked a red or pink or blue hat because then it naturally split everyone into two groups because we had games.
Speaker 3:So I was like do you think it's a boy or a girl?
Speaker 6:and they're like what, okay, boy or girl pick one like whether you were dressed as a boy or girl.
Speaker 5:No, no whether someone was having, just like some hypothetical it was just like except I don't even know how you think of that. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:So I got blue hats and pink hats and everyone had to dress as princesses.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the boys' theme was chivalry for Madeline, and they had to dress in suits and the girls all had to dress as like princesses, and so it naturally split everyone like 50-50. So there was like 16 and 14 for boys and girls, and then there was like three rounds of games.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was Madeline-themed trivia that Izzy had come up with, and then it was a Madeline-themed cheer and then a Madeline-themed rap battle.
Speaker 2:That AI wrote about the.
Speaker 4:AI wrote the raps. Yeah, that was the first time we really used it.
Speaker 6:How do you guys even think of that, like, how does that come about?
Speaker 2:We didn't have class on friday. Do you want to plan my birthday party? Yeah, I would love to great, you're invited. One of our we were going through themes for the cake, and one of the themes that we um talked about was making a cake and cutting out a circle and then filling it with water and putting a goldfish in it. Right, you might like that.
Speaker 6:No, we should do that. I'd be down for that.
Speaker 3:No, my favorite cake of ours was the baby cake. Yeah.
Speaker 4:So I don't know, we were doing a joint party for two friends. This was genuinely. We came back actually we came back from Focus Summer Projects and we were like we're going to love people through parties because we had this one girl who was so passionate about like I think it's St Martha or Martha is the host, I don't know Martha or Mary, I can't remember but she was so passionate about hosting. She's like you guys need a host. It's how you love people best. And so we got into this and we had a joint party. It was right after Julia's and it was two people and I was like how are we going to do a cake for two people? So I don't know how it came about, but we got these two little baby dolls about five inches in size and they were sitting on top of a sheet cake that said Happy Birthday, brayden. Was Brayden real? No, brayden's a guy, he's real though.
Speaker 5:Oh, he's real, it was his birthday. Yeah, it was his birthday, okay, great.
Speaker 6:He's at the Speed dating event right now. Good for him, good luck.
Speaker 4:So then, on top of that was the babies, and they were holding a smaller sheet cake that said happy birthday Amy.
Speaker 5:Was it her birthday too?
Speaker 4:Yes, we wanted to go really far and we purchased for $7 online voice boxes. And we recorded ourselves singing happy birthday.
Speaker 6:Dude, do you guys have too much time on your hands? You should like probably study more, or something.
Speaker 4:Yeah, probably Like how are you? You know media majors, administration, engineering. I'm shocked you're able to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm more of like the. We have class on Friday, they don't, and so they'll plan all day and then all appear, and then we'll help. Right exactly, but yeah so we also.
Speaker 4:This was a really big party. We invited every single person in our Catholic group chat, every single one of them, and so there were probably like 80 people invited. About 20 to 30 showed up and we didn't have enough room and we didn't want to reveal the cake right away when they walked in. So we had this like closet off to the side that has no light in it, but it was totally empty. It's used for the church decorations because we live in the rectory attached to our church. So it was empty for decorations because it wasn't around a holiday and we stick the cake in the middle of this empty dark room and we didn't have any candles. So we just run around the house, grab every single candle there's all these Bath and Body Works candles around it we light them and then we slowly walk everyone into the room and we say, all right, the babies are going to start us off and they start singing.
Speaker 4:They sing happy birthday.
Speaker 2:That was one of our greatest.
Speaker 3:That's crazy.
Speaker 4:I think that was a great win.
Speaker 5:I think it's just a dumb thing that takes down any wall that anybody you invite can straight out to come into, like you can invite anybody to this. It's not a thing at the church. You don't have to know all the Catholic things. You just come and meet other people who are normal and fun, you know Easy.
Speaker 6:It's also just super hilarious.
Speaker 4:I feel like it's really hard to think that you've failed, because when you are hosting just like fun events that are silly and people show up, if anyone laughs, if anything is won over any piece of anyone's heart, it's like so worth it because you know you can just execute it again.
Speaker 6:So and I think the other thing too is like it's just clean, right. It's like there's no like, right. Right, it's clean, fun, you're not having to like. Because I think the modern culture says, like we need to have a drink in our hand to have fun. Right, we need to like. Right, do something like we need to. I don't know, we need to have some sort of substance, we need to have something like that. It's like this is a super random thing, that's super fun. People are going to remember you're going to make a lot of connections because the walls are down, because's did not like it, because they said there were too many activities.
Speaker 2:But, the other half had a good time, so sometimes you know your attempts, they still come to mass.
Speaker 4:So, like you know, we didn't totally lose them, but you tried.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, we just tried. You know, sometimes you just have to go out and do something. I think that's what we've learned a lot of, especially without missionaries, Like it's very student run. You just have to go and start something and if it fails, like who cares, try something else. Um, like, as long as you get like one person, like it was worth it.
Speaker 3:Right, and I think he just like wants us to be like our best, like Julia, loving selves I mean God loving Julia and like through that like he's not concerned about like us following the perfect formula, but he just wants you to be your best like God loving self, and like that all flows, like through that and like all the discipleship does I feel?
Speaker 4:We also have a really good like one-win story. So there's this 12-hour dance marathon that we went to at our campus 12 hours 12 hours. It's a 12-hour dance marathon, fundraising for the Ronald McDonald House, and Izzy had this genius idea. Okay, so normally you're supposed to show up as a color, just a random color, one of the six rainbow colors, and then you join that team. But, izzy, what was your idea?
Speaker 3:It was for the Ronald McDonald house. So I was like why don't we just all show up as the Ronald McDonald characters? So she was Ronald McDonald, I was the Hamburglar, and then we had a bunch of the younger kids. Be all the other characters the Hamburglar.
Speaker 5:I don't even know what that is. He's one of the mascots for.
Speaker 3:McDonald's.
Speaker 6:We had a grimace.
Speaker 3:We go to McDonald's more often Running around for like 12 hours dressed as these characters, with all the younger kids All around campus. And then we're in an elevator in the library and this guy named Keith comes running over because he sees clowns.
Speaker 4:The elevator doors are closing. We don't see anyone in this library. It's like Saturday night 5 pm, elevator doors are closing, and it night 5 pm, elevator doors are closing and it's like a movie scene.
Speaker 3:Suddenly there's this guy, just like parting the doors he's like wait, I saw a clown. And then Keith comes and he's running around the library with us. And now Keith hangs out with us and like, goes to mass every week. He's a random guy.
Speaker 2:I know he lives in our like Catholic men's house. Yeah, he joined the Catholic men's house.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but also I feel like we're talking about like grand examples of like these funny things we come up with, but like also like we would like to hear about like how you make little things like Bible study or discipleship like fun within that, you know, like practical things that can be done.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean for the girls, it's the snacks, it's all about the snacks, you know yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah for the girls.
Speaker 5:It's the snacks. It's all about the snacks, you know, yeah, um, yeah, as I try to be as unhinged and authentic as I possibly can at the very beginning, because the beginning of a bible study or like discipleship or something, when girls don't know each other, nobody's going to share anything, um, and so the crazier I can be, the more they're like. This girl is kind of whack, so I won't be as weird as her. I think I showed the Bible study I lead now a video of my. I made a rap. Well, I didn't make the lyrics, but I made a music video. I made a music video of a Catholic rap to. I'm so Fancy, wait.
Speaker 1:I'm so Fancy. Yeah, is that what it says. It's Fancy, it's Fancy.
Speaker 5:I don't even know the other lyrics anymore. It's, I'm so Catholic and I made a music video with my first year teammate, tessa, and I showed these Bible study girls this and they ate it up and now we're vibing Good, wow, I'm just. I'm just super honest about my life and, um, I think that's what people want. You know, like, um, we don't have to fluff anything up, we don't have to be somebody that we're not, um, and that just makes other people more able and comfortable to do that. Yeah, what about the boys?
Speaker 6:Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm not convinced that guys actually like snacks for Bible study. I'm just not, I don't know. I just I brought them, I brought them before and they don't eat them. Maybe I'm wrong. Men proved me wrong, I guess. Uh, I haven't brought any snacks this year, but uh, the Wisconsin men look angry.
Speaker 6:Yeah, um, I don't know. I think, yeah, the one aspect of Bible study, um, I think I just try to be myself. I also think part of it's too. I would just hang out with them outside of it. A lot of it happens outside of it.
Speaker 6:At Illinois, I remember one of the things we did early on. The guys still give me a lot of. They still joke with me about this all the time. But when I first got to Illinois, I was like so we moved in this house and it was like, honestly, just a pigsty. Like the yard was super overgrown, the inside was disgusting, like it was bad, and, uh, those everyone that lived in the house the year before knows that Uh, so I get there and I'm like, well, this is great.
Speaker 6:Like I want to get a bunch of guys out here, like I want to like build some community. It's like we're going to have a men's work day. I was like it's just going to be like I'll just invite everyone, I'll get all the guys here, get a bunch of tools and we'll just like work on the lawn for like three hours and then I'll like we'll cook some meat and have some mac my house for like three hours, and they left before the meal even because they just liked working, uh. But it was just like like little things like that. And they still joke with me just like, zach, you just got us for free labor, like you didn't even, you didn't even care about building community.
Speaker 6:It was just like free labor for you. I'm like no, I like promised to feed you like I did. You just left before that. Um, like little things like that. It's just like I don't know it's, it's not anything crazy, it's just uh like living life together, uh, just being normal, and I think that just makes people open up. And then, like, when you have events like that, or like one time I think me and a bunch of the guys that we played sardines in the backyard- oh there's a tiny backyard and it was hilarious, you know like, because you would see everyone.
Speaker 5:Like, really, I'm like trying to think about where, in that backyard, you would have gone.
Speaker 6:There's like nowhere really to hide, but like some, yeah, one guy I don't know if Max is out there, but Max like hid in this bush and we're like I think he's not even on the property. We like can't find him.
Speaker 6:But it's just like that would build community so well. And then, like when you get to a Bible study and say everyone's so like open, everyone's so comfortable with each other because we all just feel like we kind of get each other, we feel like we can relate, that's kind of I feel like where most of the win aspect kind of happens, like in the Bible studies and discipleship and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I was going to say. I think what you said really resonated with me, because I remember being shocked. This is like such a random thing but there's this street on our campus called Mill Street and they have Mill Fest every like spring and we were like at a friend's house on mill street one time. We weren't having a party because we're not kind of. It was like really early in the morning when they have the party. So in the evening people were still walking on the street and we were like we have a ton of milk, let's do milk fest. And we just started pouring shots of milk and we not like shots but like little bits, you know, and we're like who wants free milk for milk fest?
Speaker 5:you're not real people, you're just unreal people. Yeah well, I'm a milk we we had cookies too.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we did. It was just the things that you think I'm like yeah, but what zach was saying?
Speaker 4:I was just like people were so nervous to take it because they were like what's in it? And we're like no we just want to give you milk and cookies. And then, when they truly trusted us, they like stayed in our yard for so long and they loved that we were giving out milk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and people were like asking they're like this is so like counter-cultural. What's going on? We're like we're just hanging out, passing out milk, like there's nothing to it.
Speaker 4:We had to go to the store to get more milk. And now it's like I think of that with Bible studies. I'm like what can I just give people that it's going to be like? I feel so just honored that you are giving me something and not expecting something in return, not trying to harm me. So like I baked an egg casserole for my Bible study the other week and I thought it was kind of, but everybody loved that. I baked them a egg casserole.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I feel like the simplicity of discipleship can be so overlooked easily and it's just like when you include people like that, it's so special, because one of my favorite things about following Christ is just being included by Him, just having that place with Him, and I think just the simplicity of just loving someone well and inviting them over it's like that goes so far, not having to like do something crazy, but just like inviting them into your life.
Speaker 6:Yes, and I think something else that I'll try to do, like I just try to, I try to speak to their hearts, like, especially when they're in Bible study too, it's like the one aspect is like doing fun things, you know too, but just also that aspect of like, yeah, my, my goal is that, hopefully, I know their hearts and then, like as we're walking through scripture, I can help them like identify, um where they kind of see themselves in these scripture characters and like kind of almost like giving Christ the opportunity to win them over, uh, and just helping them, helping them understand, like you know, like the Lord understands you, uh, and like he sees you, and like that's a cause.
Speaker 6:I think a lot about a lot of winning too is just like building trust, you know um. So there's definitely like a spiritual element of the win process too, but it's even like outside of like my relationship with them, you know, as I help them build relationship, because that's ultimately the goal, right, it's like I mean I want them to be friends with me, but I definitely want them to be friends with jesus, so much more you know um, and so trying to incorporate that part of the win, which I guess you could also cult build or whatever you want. Again like these all kind of overlap and stuff. But I think that's a big part of it too.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. Well, we only have about three more minutes, I think. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:So on this podcast, at the end, we like to ask how has God been loving you recently? So, how has God been?
Speaker 5:loving you recently. So how has God been showing you his love at Seek this week? I love I've loved Seek ever since I first went Um, but I think, um, getting to come to Seek as a missionary is so fun because I just get to see everybody that I love in one place, um, and it takes me forever to get anywhere because I'm stopped by so many people, and that's just. My favorite thing is to interact with people, um, so I think that's one really basic way, um, that God's been loving me at Seek, and I think, um, there's also, just like always, a lot of restoration and rejuvenation that comes from Seek. Just, I get to be filled again, um, and I I'm pouring out a lot and we want like we always want to be filled again. I'm pouring out a lot. We always want to be a waterfall being poured into and pouring out, but I think I'm just feeling really rejuvenated. The Lord is beginning to heal a lot of things in me. That's pretty fire up chips.
Speaker 4:Fire up chips. So fire up chips. Let's hear from the chips. That's because the Lord's been loving me.
Speaker 5:He's just been giving me a lot of little pieces of healing and, oh sorry, I'm just thinking another one. Um, it's the jubilee year of hope and I've been praying about hope a lot, and I was angry about hope last semester and now I'm excited about it good and so the lord is shifting my heart to hope.
Speaker 6:That's awesome, it's great I feel like jesus is always doing a lot, I think, one way that he is loving me.
Speaker 6:Sister Miriam's talk last night, at least that got to me just like the simple line of just like he's not forgotten you and, yeah, I think, just like realizing, yeah, there's still a lot of parts of my heart and my life where I desire for the Lord to come in and heal me, restore me, make me new, Maybe some parts of myself that I'm not necessarily happy with.
Speaker 6:But just like that reminder of the Lord Jesus just sees all that, he knows that I don't even like it.
Speaker 6:He has more patience with me than I have with myself like the reminder of that and just even just the simplicity of adoration last night and just like getting to sit in a room with the God of the universe is almost just a like the things that happen that I'm not even aware of is just beautiful to me. And I think, just like last night, I was really struck by just the idea, too, of just the when I end here on this earth, like the opportunity of just like getting to see him face to face and just like that getting to just sit in that gaze, like his gaze and me just getting to gaze at him and like the, just the simplicity even of that and how much that actually impacts my heart and heals me in a lot of ways, gives me a sense of freedom, which then allows me to go win, because I feel free and I want to go have fun. Right, so it all comes together, but yeah, I think that's.
Speaker 6:yeah, I think that's what he's been doing this week, so yeah.
Speaker 5:Do we get to hear your guys' or not? Time?
Speaker 4:I think we can go.
Speaker 6:Yeah, please go.
Speaker 4:I was going to say a very similar thing to Emily. I have an incredible memory of remembering faces and so I remember a lot of people from my different summers that I've done summer projects, worked at Catholic Youth Summer Camp and different apostolates. But I don't always get remembered as often as I remember people's faces. But at SEEK it's just so many people that every 30 minutes I'm hearing my name called out behind me and it's just such a reminder through God's people that, like Jesus does truly know me and he knows me through his people as well, that like Jesus does truly know me and he knows me through his people as well. And I feel so loved hearing my name from some random guy I met two summers ago that I don't know why he remembers me, but he does and he wanted to say hi. So that's how I've been feeling loved.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, I would say that God has been loving me and comforting me a lot in like a renewal of the belief of the power of prayer, if that made sense, um, and like just reminding me of like the abundance that he has and having confidence in that. Um, it's been really powerful and just knowing that, like, our prayers are heard and answered.
Speaker 3:I've been feeling really loved by all of our friends that we get to see and then also just feeling like grateful for like the generations that came before us that have put this conference on, like they care so badly, like to go through all this effort to put this on, and I just feel really grateful for like those people who love us well, like our generation. So that's how he's been showing me his love.
Speaker 2:All right, well, thank you guys so much. Thank you guys for coming.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:If you're interested in seeing more, we are called knowhislove, kind of like com, On Instagram, Spotify. We have a website. Yeah, thank you guys.
Speaker 3:I'm Madeline. I'm Julia. I'm Izzy. I'm Emily.
Speaker 6:I'm Zach.
Speaker 4:Have a wonderful week, have a wonderful week, come on, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this episode recorded live at Seek. Miss the conference or want to relive your favorite moments? Seek Replay has you covered Access, powerful keynotes, inspiring talks and exclusive content to take your faith deeper, anytime, anywhere. Head to seekfocusorg backslash replay to download now. And don't forget to join us for Seek 26. Check out seekfocusorg for more information and to register to download now. And don't forget to join us for Seek 26. Check out seekfocusorg for more information and to register.
