WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.320 What I love about these initiatives is as, because it's, you've got it digitally, 00:00:07.020 --> 00:00:11.960 this knowledge can be distributed through to our digital churches, but it also can be 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:18.320 distributed through our digital churches to the people that we're connecting with all over 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:24.880 America and the world. And so like we can have a church that's operating in Facebook and they can 00:00:24.880 --> 00:00:31.620 be encouraging their attenders, their members, the people that are connected with the church, 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:36.700 they can be encouraging them to help with foster families in their communities. Like it's almost 00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:43.220 like this idea is getting distributed two times, multiple times, not just distributed to a digital 00:00:43.220 --> 00:00:49.660 church, but through a digital church into areas that maybe even the church doesn't exist within 00:00:49.660 --> 00:00:57.060 that zip code. So we're really kind of breaking a paradigm here of what local ministry means 00:00:57.060 --> 00:01:02.240 through a digital church context. Welcome to the Church Digital Podcast. Through this podcast, 00:01:02.360 --> 00:01:07.560 we'll talk about the technological innovations within the church, but more than tech for tech itself, 00:01:07.660 --> 00:01:14.700 we'll address deeper questions. Is disciple making possible digitally? How should we approach the 00:01:14.700 --> 00:01:20.900 digital mission field? Can a biblically grounded church operate in digital space? Oh, and where does 00:01:20.900 --> 00:01:26.560 the metaverse fit into all this? Whether you're a big or small church, an established church, or a startup 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:32.800 church plant, the Church Digital's goal is to help churches like yours learn to be a multiplying church, 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:39.420 digitally and physically. Our heart? That churches like yours will discover a newfound focus on 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:45.780 disciple making that will revolutionize your church. And now here's your host, Jeff Reed. 00:01:46.220 --> 00:01:52.340 Hey, all right. It's episode 245. Jeff here with the Church Digital Podcast and excited about this 00:01:52.340 --> 00:01:56.800 conversation we're going to get into in just a little bit. I've been wanting to shed light to have a 00:01:56.800 --> 00:02:03.080 conversation with these gentlemen talking about this topic for literally months. I found out about this 00:02:03.080 --> 00:02:08.360 idea and just through scheduling and issues that we're going to have a solid conversation that's going to 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:14.120 open up a whole new paradigm of ministry for our digital churches and churches that are operating 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:19.180 online. But before we get into that conversation, I just want to remind us as we're wrapping up 00:02:19.180 --> 00:02:27.220 2022, there's an opportunity to engage with He Gets Us. And you see with He Gets Us, it's this global 00:02:27.220 --> 00:02:33.320 ad campaign. You may have seen the ads on Major League Baseball, NFL games, NBA. Guess what? There's a 00:02:33.320 --> 00:02:39.040 couple ads coming with the Super Bowl. Like it's going to be this incredible opportunity to connect 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:44.940 lost people, spiritual explorers, people that are asking spiritual questions and get them connected 00:02:44.940 --> 00:02:50.480 to churches like yours. Now there's a phenomenal opportunity to get these people connected to the 00:02:50.480 --> 00:02:56.580 local church, churches that operate in physical buildings. But there's a problem. The demand of the 00:02:56.580 --> 00:03:02.340 people that have these spiritual questions are more than the supply of churches that exist. 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:08.360 And we're looking for churches that can operate in digital space, that can disciple somebody digitally 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:14.680 to really deal with this mass of people that are asking spiritual questions. Literally, there are 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:19.080 people asking spiritual questions where there is not a church to partner with. And that's where these 00:03:19.080 --> 00:03:26.000 digital churches like yours come into play. And so if you're interested, 12 months free. And you get to 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:32.380 take advantage. You literally get inboxed to your account, people with spiritual questions, people that 00:03:32.380 --> 00:03:41.180 you can do ministry with. So for more information, check out thechurch.digital slash he gets us thechurch.digital 00:03:41.180 --> 00:03:49.520 slash he gets us. By the way, he gets us pairs so well with the conversation that we're about to have 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:59.340 here with one more child. And so I want to introduce to the conversation, Robert Zirin. And Panos, I promise this 00:03:59.340 --> 00:04:04.760 is not how you say his name, but I'm not going to do it. So it's Panos, I'm going to say Cortezus, but it's 00:04:04.760 --> 00:04:13.080 wrong. And so Panos, I've known for quite a while, Panos, like I'm trying to think, where did we used to work 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:20.220 together at Christ Fellowship Miami? And I mean, when did you start at Cia? How far back do we go? 00:04:20.680 --> 00:04:29.320 I think almost nine years. I think nine years ago, we would have some Starbucks brainstorming meetings. 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:36.360 I remember those meetings. Just we had great times. So yeah, I remember about nine years ago, we started 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:42.520 with our Starbucks meetings and then also being part of staff meetings. And you were always the digital, 00:04:42.520 --> 00:04:47.580 you were always the go-to for digital and for digital church and for what online looked like. 00:04:47.820 --> 00:04:52.860 And so I'm so happy to see what you're doing now. And the church digital, it's absolutely incredible. 00:04:53.020 --> 00:04:57.380 The whole network and the nonprofit, everything that's incorporated. And we're looking forward to 00:04:57.380 --> 00:05:03.680 working with you guys. Definitely. And so one more child. Well, you know what? I don't want to tell 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:11.020 the story. Robert, would you tell the story, how we got for one more child, what it was, what it is now, 00:05:11.460 --> 00:05:16.000 maybe even start to tease here about some of these initiatives that you're doing every child or every 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:21.020 city. Talk about what one more child, what we're doing in this conversation today. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:27.440 Most definitely. And thank you, Jeff, so much for having us. We truly appreciate it. Love what you're 00:05:27.440 --> 00:05:33.900 doing. Love your podcast. So one more child started in 1904. It actually started in Arcadia, Florida as an 00:05:33.900 --> 00:05:41.280 orphanage. So since 1904, it's really expanded that we're not only in Florida anymore, but we're around the 00:05:41.280 --> 00:05:46.720 country and we're around the globe. So one more child started off as an orphanage, but now we're doing so much 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:53.580 more. We're doing work with foster care, with single moms, anti-trafficking victims, struggling families, and much 00:05:53.580 --> 00:05:53.860 more. 00:05:54.380 --> 00:05:59.820 And so it's been really fun to see one more child, at least where I knew them. It was the Florida 00:05:59.820 --> 00:06:06.340 Baptist Children's Home. And that's what it was in recent years. But there was a pivot to move. 00:06:06.460 --> 00:06:11.600 Did you see how I did the pivot? Like the friends, totally unconscious. Did not mean the accent pivot. 00:06:11.860 --> 00:06:23.800 Pivot. Moving on. But there was this move to pivot away from meeting physical needs like in an orphanage 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:30.560 and actually moving a lot of these services online. So Panos, maybe talk to us a little bit 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:37.000 about maybe what some of those pivots and maybe what some of those services now are online. 00:06:37.620 --> 00:06:42.960 Absolutely. Yeah. So what I like to say is that over the decades, we've always been as an organization 00:06:42.960 --> 00:06:49.280 on the forefront of providing the best services for children and families at the time. So our mission 00:06:49.280 --> 00:06:54.420 being to provide Christ-centered services to vulnerable children and struggling families. We've done that so 00:06:54.420 --> 00:06:59.060 well since the beginning as an orphanage and then for decades as a children's homes. And so we have 00:06:59.060 --> 00:07:04.140 campuses scattered throughout the state of Florida where we had children's homes for decades, 00:07:04.140 --> 00:07:09.220 and that was the best standard of care for the time. And now looking at today, looking at the past few 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:14.100 years, we've seen that there's been a change for the best standard of children in that best standard 00:07:14.100 --> 00:07:18.580 of care where we want to be able to wrap around children and families that are in need. And so it's 00:07:18.580 --> 00:07:24.140 not just children's homes. We're talking about looking at it preventatively, looking at upstream issues 00:07:24.140 --> 00:07:30.120 in terms of being proactive. How do we wrap around a child and their guardians and their siblings 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:36.100 all together? And so what we've done is we've evolved and we've actually somewhat outgrown 00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:39.840 the name. So we're no longer just Florida. So Florida Baptist Children's Home, we're no longer 00:07:39.840 --> 00:07:45.660 just Florida. We're branching out into other states with our programming, both campus and specific 00:07:45.660 --> 00:07:53.260 programming, and then also with our initiatives. But we're also outgrown Baptists. We still have 00:07:53.260 --> 00:07:59.720 strong relationships with our Baptist roots and family. But we are working with churches that are 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:03.840 for Jesus and that are saying, hey, look, we want to provide Christ-centered services to children and 00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:08.400 families in our areas. And so they're no longer children's homes. And so we've outgrown that name. 00:08:08.840 --> 00:08:15.320 And so we are one more child, which is much more appropriate to see the pillars in how we 00:08:15.320 --> 00:08:22.880 work to provide services to children and families. And so what we're excited to talk about today is 00:08:22.880 --> 00:08:28.940 something called One More Child Initiatives. And so what we've done is we have provided for many years 00:08:28.940 --> 00:08:36.000 really great on-site programming with our single moms programs, where we have transition homes for moms 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:42.160 to live on campus for 12 months. They save money in a savings account. And then through the 12 months, 00:08:42.160 --> 00:08:48.860 they are paired with a spiritual mentor, financing classes, parenting classes, they receive additional 00:08:48.860 --> 00:08:53.920 aid. And then that's their one-year transition program for our single moms. Our foster programs, 00:08:54.180 --> 00:08:59.760 what we do is we provide recruiting and licensing to recruit Christian families to enter into the 00:08:59.760 --> 00:09:06.060 foster community to take in children that are in need of a home. Anti-trafficking, we were known for 00:09:06.060 --> 00:09:12.120 being able to provide a safe home. And currently, we have mobile response teams in which 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:18.420 we have teams that go out and work with survivors of trafficking. And we specialize with working with 00:09:18.420 --> 00:09:23.220 children or anyone under the age of 18 in terms of that. And so for years, we were doing these things 00:09:23.220 --> 00:09:29.560 really great as our organization. But we realized that we do things great on our campuses, in our 00:09:29.560 --> 00:09:35.100 buildings, in our programs. But what we wanted to do is we wanted to shift and pluck best practices from 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:41.080 what we've been doing for years and put those back in the church. And so that's what initiatives are. 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:45.460 What we've done is we've taken best practices from each of our pillar programs and we've provided and 00:09:45.460 --> 00:09:50.200 we've created these initiatives. And so each of our initiatives are absolutely incredible. That 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:55.120 mobilizes churches to be able to serve their community in ways that we have been doing, 00:09:55.460 --> 00:09:59.640 but in a way that really takes it away out of our campuses and puts it back in the church, 00:09:59.760 --> 00:10:05.160 in the community. And the church shines as the beacon of hope for their zip code in their neighborhoods. 00:10:05.680 --> 00:10:09.300 And I know Robert can share some more specifics in terms of each of our initiatives. 00:10:10.060 --> 00:10:15.160 Yeah. So I want to drill in and Robert, we'll get to that in one second. But what I think is so 00:10:15.160 --> 00:10:21.460 genius about this, and I love the fact that you said beacon of hope, like that's such an uplifting 00:10:21.460 --> 00:10:29.400 term. But you did this, you put these initiatives, you plucked this out of the campuses and you put it 00:10:29.400 --> 00:10:36.380 online. And so there's an opportunity for a physical church. Like we have, we have a, you know, a mutual 00:10:36.380 --> 00:10:42.180 friend that I know, Dave Lopez and Dave's been on the show at the years ago and, and, and done some 00:10:42.180 --> 00:10:47.660 stuff and talked with us. And Dave's like, you know, Panos, you gave us a local missions department. 00:10:47.780 --> 00:10:55.200 And Dave's physical church now has utilizes some of those, the programming and some of that not tied to 00:10:55.200 --> 00:11:00.380 your, your campus, but it's now doing that within the physical church cornerstone that's, that's 00:11:00.380 --> 00:11:08.120 located here in Miami. What I love about these initiatives is as, uh, because it's, you've got it 00:11:08.120 --> 00:11:14.800 digitally, this knowledge can be distributed through to our digital churches, but it also can be distributed 00:11:14.800 --> 00:11:23.160 through our digital churches to the people that we're connecting with all over, um, America and the 00:11:23.160 --> 00:11:28.520 world. And so like, we can have a church that's operating in Facebook and they can be encouraging 00:11:28.520 --> 00:11:34.620 their, um, attenders, their, their members, the people that are connected with the church, they can be 00:11:34.620 --> 00:11:40.020 encouraging them to help with foster families in their communities. Like, it's almost like this idea is 00:11:40.020 --> 00:11:46.000 getting, um, distributed two times, multiple times, not just distributed to a digital church, 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:52.760 but through a digital church into areas, um, that maybe even the church doesn't exist within that zip 00:11:52.760 --> 00:12:00.560 code. So we're really kind of, um, breaking a paradigm here of what local ministry means through a digital 00:12:00.560 --> 00:12:06.420 church context. So, um, you know, Robert, I would love to maybe unpack here a little bit. What are these, 00:12:06.420 --> 00:12:11.600 uh, initiatives? Like what are some of these areas that, uh, we're now talking about when we're, 00:12:11.680 --> 00:12:14.060 when we're talking about every child, every city? 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:20.100 Yeah. So exactly as Pano said, we wanted to take what the great work, uh, that we are experts, 00:12:20.100 --> 00:12:26.320 uh, we're leading and excelling at in our programs and not to be cliche, but like figure out how can we 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:31.860 even, uh, um, reach one more child. So that's what we always want to do is reach one more child, 00:12:31.860 --> 00:12:36.660 more family. They're not close to one of our campuses or to where one of our programs are 00:12:36.660 --> 00:12:43.220 offered. And so we do that in the areas of foster crew, uh, single moms community program, 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:48.960 a one-time anti-trafficking educational event, a backpack food program that can be one-time or 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:53.600 ongoing and through our meal packing party. So these are the main ways that we're able to come in, 00:12:53.980 --> 00:12:57.140 partner with churches, no matter where you're located, whether that's here in Florida, 00:12:57.500 --> 00:13:02.100 any state across the country, whether you're a fiscal church or you're a church online. Um, 00:13:02.500 --> 00:13:07.980 we recently partnered with one church through our backpack program. Uh, this church operates, 00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:13.580 uh, primarily online. They have, uh, folks that attend all over the country. Uh, we just finished, 00:13:13.580 --> 00:13:19.260 I believe it was 38 events in 17 different States that we partnered with them to make sure that kids, 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:24.460 uh, had food as they were going back to school. So just amazing, just amazing to see, uh, that, 00:13:24.460 --> 00:13:29.980 uh, we can do this. And most of these events took place, Jeff, it was honestly something that was even 00:13:29.980 --> 00:13:35.180 new to us. So most of these events took place in people's homes. So in people's homes and coffee 00:13:35.180 --> 00:13:40.060 shops, different things like that. So it wasn't like we were having these backpack events with 00:13:40.060 --> 00:13:46.020 200 or 300 people in a church and a gymnasium or something like that. It was literally, uh, 00:13:46.020 --> 00:13:51.220 most of these events were at someone's home and groups as small as four people, four people, 00:13:51.220 --> 00:13:55.940 10 people, 20. We had some bigger groups as well too. Uh, but it really just showed us the impact 00:13:55.940 --> 00:14:00.580 that you can make in your local community, whether you're in a physical church or whether you're 00:14:00.580 --> 00:14:05.780 attending church online, we literally just had families like a family of four that packed 50 00:14:05.780 --> 00:14:11.580 backpacks to make sure that kids at locals, uh, title one schools had food. So just some amazing 00:14:11.580 --> 00:14:16.460 opportunities. Yeah. And this is some of the opportunity that, that, that I'm talking about 00:14:16.460 --> 00:14:22.380 where it's a, I think it's a new paradigm when we talk about, you know, digital churches and the, 00:14:22.380 --> 00:14:27.580 the reach, the potential reach that, that we're seeing as a result of this ministry, it's, it's 00:14:27.580 --> 00:14:31.380 reaching different types of people. You know, we, we talked about this, it's reaching different 00:14:31.380 --> 00:14:37.380 people in different environments in, in, uh, in, uh, in, uh, in different spaces. And so you're doing 00:14:37.380 --> 00:14:42.860 that, um, by, uh, putting it online. And really now we're seeing an opportunity for that to get 00:14:42.860 --> 00:14:49.100 distributed out in new ways and getting connected to, to new people and somebody running championing 00:14:49.100 --> 00:14:55.740 this idea for, for foster care in a coffee house or somebody running a mentoring single moms program 00:14:55.740 --> 00:15:01.660 within their, within their school, uh, or within their, uh, their workplace. Well, now because of 00:15:01.660 --> 00:15:07.900 doing digital church and being at more distributed, more decentralized, we're able to see these ideas 00:15:07.900 --> 00:15:14.780 stretch far beyond maybe what a physical locale would look like. Now, maybe the physical locale has 00:15:14.780 --> 00:15:21.180 more, uh, influence at the beginning because now these ideas are small and getting distributed among 00:15:21.180 --> 00:15:27.900 the people, but the opportunity for that to grow, uh, is, is really interesting. And so I, I, I love this. 00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:32.620 So, you know, you've got the, the, and I know the church that's doing it. I, you know, maybe I say the 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:36.620 name, maybe I, it's, it's okay. We can, we can keep it quiet. The one church that's doing this digitally, 00:15:36.620 --> 00:15:42.780 that's doing it really well. Um, but my, my, my question is, is, are you seeing like our physical 00:15:42.780 --> 00:15:47.580 churches that, that are doing this, that are engaging, like what, what stories are you seeing? 00:15:47.580 --> 00:15:54.380 What stories are you hearing? Um, what, what, what good are we seeing this idea, these initiatives, 00:15:54.380 --> 00:15:57.340 uh, happen? Like what, what are happening as a result of it? 00:15:57.980 --> 00:16:02.300 Absolutely. I, one church comes to mind, it's here in Florida. It's in Inverness, Florida. Uh, 00:16:02.300 --> 00:16:06.460 they've been doing our single moms community program. They're actually in their third semester of doing it. 00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:11.260 It's a 10 week program. So as the moms go through this, I just kind of give you a little backstory. 00:16:11.260 --> 00:16:16.700 We provide all the curriculum, a leader's guide, uh, the student's guide, uh, materials that you can 00:16:16.700 --> 00:16:21.420 use to promote it. Uh, we do that training. We can go in in person and do the training to train 00:16:21.420 --> 00:16:26.380 the facilitators and the mentors. We can do that online via zoom. And so we've seen at this church 00:16:26.380 --> 00:16:32.300 in Inverness, um, this in their third semester, just some amazing changes in these single moms. 00:16:32.300 --> 00:16:36.300 So some of these single moms that were being mentored that were part of this program in 00:16:36.300 --> 00:16:41.420 the first and second semester are now coming back and they're mentors themselves. So we've seen them 00:16:41.420 --> 00:16:45.740 get mentored. And then now as the church is continuing doing this, now they're coming in 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:50.940 and they're mentoring new single moms. So we've seen moms, uh, that have accepted Christ through this. 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:55.900 We've seen families, uh, restored. We've seen children that are involved in church for the first 00:16:55.900 --> 00:17:01.180 time. Just so many stories. I remember a story, uh, from a different one that talked about, uh, 00:17:01.180 --> 00:17:07.100 that the, for the first time in the mom's life that she was reading the Bible, uh, that she was, uh, 00:17:07.100 --> 00:17:12.540 trying to, to really seek out God. And she felt like God was working in her life. And she said that 00:17:12.540 --> 00:17:17.180 for much of her life, she struggled with alcohol. And so for the first time in her life, 00:17:17.180 --> 00:17:21.020 through the single moms program, through the support that she has, she's sober, 00:17:21.020 --> 00:17:25.980 she's reading her Bible, she's really seeking the Lord. And so just some amazing stories like that, 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:28.140 Jeff, are happening all over the country. 00:17:28.140 --> 00:17:31.660 That's great. And the opportunities we've talked about this. Thank you, Robert, for sharing that, 00:17:31.660 --> 00:17:36.620 by the way. But we've, we've talked about these opportunities where, uh, online to offline, 00:17:36.620 --> 00:17:40.380 you've heard me say this before, the gospel that we hear in our online world, it has to 00:17:41.020 --> 00:17:46.380 influence our offline world, our offline relationships. Otherwise we're just creating consumers. 00:17:47.100 --> 00:17:52.780 And so many of our churches, we're great at creating consumers in digital space. Listen 00:17:52.780 --> 00:18:00.300 to this podcast, watch this online service, um, read this blog. But what if, what if we actually 00:18:00.300 --> 00:18:06.860 challenged our, our, our listeners? What if we challenged our attenders to do something like this, 00:18:06.860 --> 00:18:13.500 to, uh, feed hungry children using one more, uh, one more child's programming or speak into and 00:18:13.500 --> 00:18:19.900 challenge, uh, uh, the sex trafficking in their locale? Like this is moving far beyond a consumer 00:18:19.900 --> 00:18:26.140 mindset and really challenging, uh, and, and stepping into, uh, some environments like this 00:18:26.140 --> 00:18:31.420 that are actually making a difference in the physical world. We, we, we often talk about this. 00:18:31.420 --> 00:18:38.460 Would our church, it would our community miss us if, if our church shut down and really as digital 00:18:38.460 --> 00:18:43.420 churches, even stepping into some of the space and challenging our people to lead out in this, 00:18:43.420 --> 00:18:49.740 uh, it's, it, this is taking a big step towards, you know what? Yes. Our community would miss us if 00:18:49.740 --> 00:18:54.300 our people were engaged like they would through some of these things that, that one, these initiatives 00:18:54.300 --> 00:18:59.020 that one more child is leaning into. Panos, you look really excited, man. You're like jumping up and 00:18:59.020 --> 00:19:01.420 down here. What, what are you thinking as we're talking about this? 00:19:01.420 --> 00:19:05.100 I'm in agreement with everything. I think it's fantastic that we're, that we're having this 00:19:05.100 --> 00:19:09.340 conversation. I mean, considering that even three or four years ago saying, Hey, we were, 00:19:09.340 --> 00:19:14.460 we're going to take what we do really well and decentralize this to the point where other churches 00:19:14.460 --> 00:19:21.340 anywhere can access, have access to training so that anyone that's at the church can become 00:19:21.340 --> 00:19:26.460 a full advocate as well as just being an informed Christian in that space, knowing how they can work 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:31.020 in the foster community, how they can work to combat trafficking, how they can feed hungry children, 00:19:31.020 --> 00:19:36.380 how they can support single moms. And, um, so just knowing that on this side of things, 00:19:36.380 --> 00:19:41.740 looking at our digital strategy and also our initiatives being offered to churches everywhere, 00:19:42.620 --> 00:19:49.900 we want to be able to mobilize, equip and resource churches as best as we possibly can to work in their 00:19:49.900 --> 00:19:56.460 communities. And so, um, we just, we have these resources that are available. We offer all these 00:19:56.460 --> 00:20:01.980 trainings for free, um, for all of our initiatives. That's because we believe in the church. We know 00:20:01.980 --> 00:20:06.380 the mission of the church. We stand alongside the church in doing this because we want the church to 00:20:06.380 --> 00:20:10.540 be able to be the hands and feet of Christ. And that's what we're looking to do. And so what does 00:20:10.540 --> 00:20:14.380 it look like? I mean, we have tools that we offer as well. In addition to our training, um, 00:20:14.380 --> 00:20:18.620 I have one thing and you can either edit this, or we can kind of talk a little bit more about this. 00:20:18.620 --> 00:20:24.300 This is a church answers report. We've partnered with church answers to be able to work with churches, 00:20:24.860 --> 00:20:31.900 uh, to be able to, uh, create a customized report of key stats in their area. And so we're talking 00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:38.860 about households that are low income or below the poverty level, uh, houses that are on SNAP or food 00:20:38.860 --> 00:20:46.620 stamps, a number of single moms in the area, a number of, uh, households with, um, yes, single mothers, 00:20:46.620 --> 00:20:51.420 uh, married with children, property crime, just different things, number of people that are 00:20:51.420 --> 00:20:56.620 involved in the church. So these are, this is a report that we work with churches as well to say, 00:20:56.620 --> 00:21:01.180 Hey, look, if you're kind of wondering where we start with initiatives, let's generate a report 00:21:01.180 --> 00:21:06.300 and let's look, because what we can do is we can say, Hey, look, we'll pull up the stat within 15 00:21:06.300 --> 00:21:12.060 minutes of the zip code that you're looking to target and say, yeah, single moms is an issue in 00:21:12.060 --> 00:21:17.580 terms of the number of, or the percentage that's there, uh, in terms of children or the households 00:21:17.580 --> 00:21:22.540 that are on SNAP. These are households that we can look at and acknowledge as saying, 00:21:22.540 --> 00:21:28.700 okay, these are households that are stretching the dollar. And we know that there's a situation where 00:21:29.420 --> 00:21:33.660 some of these families are having to either pay the light bill or pay for food. And we want to 00:21:33.660 --> 00:21:38.780 be able to step in as the church to be able to resource our community to let these families know, 00:21:38.780 --> 00:21:42.140 you don't have to pick between both. We'll come in and we'll support you on the food side. 00:21:42.140 --> 00:21:46.700 Um, and so that's just an example of what we're looking to do. So we're, we're really heavily 00:21:46.700 --> 00:21:53.260 investing in spreading, um, and creating as many advocates as we possibly can to be able to reach 00:21:53.260 --> 00:21:57.340 one more child. We spend enough time with Robert, myself, or anyone on staff with one more child. 00:21:57.340 --> 00:22:03.900 The question will always circle back to that very thing. How do we reach one more child in our space? 00:22:03.900 --> 00:22:10.540 The Lord has placed us here at this moment. Um, and so how do we serve? And so I, I'm just, 00:22:10.540 --> 00:22:15.020 I'm energetic. I'm not aligned with everything that I'm hearing because it's so exciting to see 00:22:15.020 --> 00:22:21.340 what's, what's to come from offering this anywhere, everywhere. And our team is super excited to be 00:22:21.340 --> 00:22:25.820 able to do that. At one more child through our initiatives, we want to come in and empower and 00:22:25.820 --> 00:22:30.220 equip your, your church where that's digital, whether that's fiscal, whatever that is. So we 00:22:30.220 --> 00:22:34.620 want the community to see your church. So we come in behind the scenes, make sure you have all the 00:22:34.620 --> 00:22:39.420 resources you need, all the training you need, everything that you need so that you can be the 00:22:39.420 --> 00:22:44.380 ones that the community sees impacting. And so I just really think that that's important. It's not 00:22:44.380 --> 00:22:49.500 like that we want to come in and we don't, uh, want the community to see one more child. We just want 00:22:49.500 --> 00:22:53.020 to equip the church so that they can serve one more child. 00:22:53.020 --> 00:23:00.620 That's fascinating. Now there's a, there's a pivot. There's a pivot here where you, you used to be 00:23:00.620 --> 00:23:09.500 like the, the orphanage and, and instead of being the, the, the product giver, hey, we're doing the 00:23:09.500 --> 00:23:15.260 orphanages. And when we're doing it this way, your organization has shifted. I feel like within the past 00:23:15.260 --> 00:23:20.540 couple of years, like this is a recent shift more towards empowering others. It's more of a 00:23:20.540 --> 00:23:26.460 decentralized movement where you're not owning the locale where the ministry is happening. Instead, 00:23:26.460 --> 00:23:32.700 you're now empowering others, uh, to do the ministry where they are even double decentralized as we're 00:23:32.700 --> 00:23:38.220 talking about, maybe empowering individuals to do this in homes and in, and in workplaces. Um, 00:23:38.220 --> 00:23:43.340 I mean, I would love, and we talk a lot about decentralization here on the podcast. I would 00:23:43.340 --> 00:23:49.180 love maybe to just to talk about why, maybe some lessons that you've learned along the way here. 00:23:49.180 --> 00:23:54.620 What observations are you seeing as you're shifting, uh, through this? Like, tell me some of the 00:23:54.620 --> 00:23:59.580 decentralization story of one more child here. Yeah, I, I can kind of kick us off and then pass it 00:23:59.580 --> 00:24:05.180 over to Panos, but I really see it more as a expansion, uh, rather than, than a shifting, 00:24:05.180 --> 00:24:09.340 because we're still doing our, our programs that we've done with excellence for so many years, 00:24:09.340 --> 00:24:14.460 uh, kind of referencing foster care. We're still licensing foster homes here in Florida. 00:24:14.460 --> 00:24:19.340 We still have foster family homes here in Florida. So we no longer have homes. So that group home 00:24:19.340 --> 00:24:25.340 model is where we have paid staff that go in and they, uh, are there the, the house parents of the 00:24:25.340 --> 00:24:30.060 group home. So now we have what's called a foster family home model. So a foster family home model 00:24:30.060 --> 00:24:36.540 is where we provide the housing, uh, and foster families, uh, get to live there, um, for free 00:24:37.260 --> 00:24:43.500 are very small, uh, very small, uh, monthly, uh, payment that they make, but basically for free. 00:24:43.500 --> 00:24:49.500 And they're just regular licensed foster parents that are in the community, but we provide the housing 00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:55.340 and kind of that, that caveat is that they have to be licensed for five kids. So we're still keeping 00:24:55.340 --> 00:25:01.020 siblings together. We're still trying to, um, make sure that we have homes available no matter the 00:25:01.020 --> 00:25:06.220 age of the, of the child. So we do all that through our foster family home model, but through our 00:25:06.220 --> 00:25:10.860 initiatives, we're able to expand and do far more than that. And through our foster crew model, we're 00:25:10.860 --> 00:25:15.980 able to go in, uh, train churches. We have a model that we've designed to train them to build a 00:25:15.980 --> 00:25:21.180 really just practical ways, Jeff, that they can support foster families that are in their church 00:25:21.180 --> 00:25:28.700 or in their community. So that's simple things like dropping off meals or, uh, uh, babysitting 00:25:28.700 --> 00:25:34.300 or, uh, doing yard work around the house or doing laundry, especially praying for those families. 00:25:34.300 --> 00:25:41.660 So it's just the way that we're able to expand from that traditional program model, um, and reach 00:25:41.660 --> 00:25:48.780 more children for sure. Are you, as you're looking at expanding more areas, I'm just curious, like you, 00:25:48.780 --> 00:25:53.420 you've got the, the five offerings now, foster families, mentor, single moms, feed hungry children, 00:25:53.420 --> 00:25:59.500 stop sex trafficking, sponsor a child. Like are, is there, is there a wishlist for six? 00:25:59.500 --> 00:26:04.220 Is it fine tune and master the five? Like, where are you going with this? 00:26:04.220 --> 00:26:08.940 Yeah, it's definitely a combination of both. I'm always trying to analyze our initiatives, 00:26:08.940 --> 00:26:13.740 see how we can make them better, see how we reach more people. Um, but yeah, one thing, 00:26:13.740 --> 00:26:18.300 exciting thing that we're doing right now is we just translated our, uh, single moms community 00:26:18.300 --> 00:26:23.500 program into Spanish. So all of our training, our facilitators guide, our learners guide, 00:26:23.500 --> 00:26:28.780 everything is now in Spanish. Uh, we have a church, uh, that has already launched that in Spanish, 00:26:28.780 --> 00:26:33.980 our first church. And so that's exciting that we're able to reach even more folks, uh, that, 00:26:33.980 --> 00:26:38.860 that, uh, uh, speak a different language. And so the next step that we're doing, 00:26:38.860 --> 00:26:43.660 uh, as far as translation in the Spanish, the next thing on the horizon is translating our foster 00:26:43.660 --> 00:26:49.100 crew curriculum into Spanish. So we're able to reach even more foster families. So kind of going 00:26:49.100 --> 00:26:53.900 back to the church answers report that Panos did, um, it's great for churches to be able to show 00:26:53.900 --> 00:26:58.140 churches that so they can see needs in their community and how we can partner with them. 00:26:58.140 --> 00:27:01.900 But honestly, it's also great for me to be able to see those needs to say, okay, 00:27:01.900 --> 00:27:09.980 what are we not offering that people really need? And so some things that like here locally at our, 00:27:09.980 --> 00:27:15.180 at our global headquarters in Lakeland, we have a family support program. And so I've seen the need 00:27:15.180 --> 00:27:20.540 of having that same family support program. It's similar to a single mom's program, but, uh, 00:27:20.540 --> 00:27:24.460 uh, you don't have to be a single mom. Uh, you, uh, you could be, or you could be a couple, 00:27:24.460 --> 00:27:30.060 or you could be just the father. And it's really ways too, that we can come in and wrap around those 00:27:30.060 --> 00:27:36.220 families and be able to training on finances and job skills and parenting and different things like 00:27:36.220 --> 00:27:40.220 that. And as they're coming to these weekly classes, we're able to help meet some of those 00:27:40.220 --> 00:27:46.380 tangible needs that they might have, whether that's diapers or baby products or, or food or whatever 00:27:46.380 --> 00:27:51.260 that might be. So that's kind of a little bit of a tease, Jeff, on some different ways that we're 00:27:51.260 --> 00:27:54.300 expanding and some different initiatives that I'm looking at. 00:27:54.300 --> 00:28:00.860 Yeah. In terms of, and also kind of jumping on, and on the tail of what, uh, what Robert was saying, 00:28:00.860 --> 00:28:05.500 in terms of these, the, what we're looking at for the future, what we're looking to do with 00:28:05.500 --> 00:28:11.580 initiatives is we're largely looking to equip and empower the local church to respond to the local 00:28:11.580 --> 00:28:18.780 community. And what that is, is I want to say that for years, um, it almost seemed like, uh, 00:28:18.780 --> 00:28:23.740 it may seem like a ladder was being provided to churches or to communities where you either do, 00:28:23.740 --> 00:28:28.060 you're either all in, or you're not involved at all. What we're trying to do is we're trying to 00:28:28.940 --> 00:28:34.380 lay the groundwork to be able to offer the tools for churches to step into these communities, 00:28:34.380 --> 00:28:37.820 into these areas. And so we're offering the training. We're not saying, Hey, look, 00:28:38.540 --> 00:28:43.740 here's some ideas and go with it. We're actually offering robust training with people that have been 00:28:43.740 --> 00:28:48.780 doing this for decades with X there's expertise. There's great expertise with the people that are 00:28:48.780 --> 00:28:54.860 working on staff at one more child. And so these trainings are robust trainings that really equip 00:28:54.860 --> 00:28:59.820 people to be able to say, okay, I think I can be an advocate now for foster care with developing 00:28:59.820 --> 00:29:05.980 these foster crews. But then also what happens is let's say for example, with foster crew, someone, 00:29:05.980 --> 00:29:10.460 there's a church that's equipped to be a foster crew. They start learning more about the foster 00:29:10.460 --> 00:29:16.620 space in their area. And they want to have a deeper conversation, enter one more child again, 00:29:16.620 --> 00:29:21.900 and we not enter. I'm sorry. One more child stands with you the entire time. But the thing is, 00:29:21.900 --> 00:29:26.140 if you want to have a deeper conversation, we'll have that programmatically. So, Hey, 00:29:26.140 --> 00:29:30.300 you started foster crews and you notice that there were five families in your local zip code that 00:29:30.300 --> 00:29:33.980 needed help. Well, we wanted to have these foster crews because we know one of the number one things 00:29:33.980 --> 00:29:39.100 that we see in foster care is that families burn out from being in the foster community because they 00:29:39.100 --> 00:29:43.820 don't feel supported. Enter the church equipped with one more child training to be able to start 00:29:43.820 --> 00:29:48.460 this foster group. And you notice we're serving five families, but we know there's another 15 that are 00:29:48.460 --> 00:29:54.140 on a waiting list. Well, we've also noticed that, and we've also generated interest in our families and 00:29:54.140 --> 00:29:59.100 our church wanting to become foster families. One more child can have a deeper conversation with 00:29:59.100 --> 00:30:04.220 you as a church, with you in the community to be able to say, Hey, look, these initiatives are great 00:30:04.220 --> 00:30:09.020 and we can expand this. And we can also talk programmatically. Do we want to be able to work 00:30:09.020 --> 00:30:15.260 in this area to help recruit and license more foster families? If you have, let's say your single moms 00:30:15.260 --> 00:30:19.580 program, you're doing it for a year or two and you realize, okay, we have a good hold in knowing 00:30:19.580 --> 00:30:25.740 how many single moms are in our community. We know that there are moms that simply need a place 00:30:25.740 --> 00:30:30.860 for one year for them to live. Well, if there's a church that has a space that wants to be activated, 00:30:30.860 --> 00:30:36.380 we can activate that space potentially as a single mom's transition home. That's where one more child 00:30:36.380 --> 00:30:41.100 comes in for the deeper conversation. So initiatives is really giving you the peace and comfort as a 00:30:41.100 --> 00:30:48.220 church to know, Hey, I can enter into the space. We're seeing that church planters being so stretched 00:30:48.220 --> 00:30:53.580 in so many ways, looking for so many things and trying to, and not knowing really where to start. 00:30:53.580 --> 00:31:00.140 Our initiatives are being offered in a place where church planters can go, okay, I can learn to plant 00:31:00.140 --> 00:31:05.260 my church, but then also learn the community at the same time and serve the community. And I don't need 00:31:05.260 --> 00:31:11.020 this robust training or college certificate. We're able to be able to provide that for you and for your 00:31:11.020 --> 00:31:15.660 team. So does that make sense? It's almost like a, it's almost like a spectrum or where we're going 00:31:15.660 --> 00:31:21.340 from initiatives to programmatic conversations to, again, what we say is that question is how do we reach 00:31:21.340 --> 00:31:27.740 one more child in your community? Yeah, it's just in time training. You're walking along with them as 00:31:27.740 --> 00:31:34.380 they're growing and developing and you're providing the resources when they need it. It's a beautiful 00:31:34.380 --> 00:31:42.140 plan. Now, how much does all this cost? Like the access to initiatives, the training, the reporting 00:31:42.140 --> 00:31:47.820 that you're doing, some of the coaching that you're talking about, like $2.4 million, what's the 00:31:47.820 --> 00:31:53.980 financial outpouring on this? The great thing, Jeff, is it's completely free. So our single moms community 00:31:53.980 --> 00:32:00.380 program is completely free. Our foster crew model and our program is completely free. Our one-time 00:32:00.380 --> 00:32:07.180 anti-trafficking education event is completely free. There is a small cost involved with our backpack 00:32:07.180 --> 00:32:14.780 program and our meal party events that we do. But that's the only cost that's involved is just those two 00:32:14.780 --> 00:32:20.220 kind of covering the cost of the food. But it's very, very affordable. We're able to get some great 00:32:20.220 --> 00:32:25.100 greats and so make it where it's really realistic for the church. But outside of those two, it's 00:32:25.100 --> 00:32:32.700 completely free. This is an incredible opportunity, I would suggest, for a digital church that 00:32:32.700 --> 00:32:37.900 is working with people that are looking for opportunities to connect within the community. 00:32:38.780 --> 00:32:46.380 Realize that as digital churches reach a different type of person, we're working with atheists, 00:32:46.380 --> 00:32:50.940 we're working with agnostics, we're de-churched people, people that have walked away from the 00:32:50.940 --> 00:32:56.700 physical building and are engaging in church Facebook groups and are finding Christ after a decade of 00:32:56.700 --> 00:33:02.460 being away from the building. We're working with people that don't necessarily think like the physical 00:33:02.460 --> 00:33:11.580 church type person does. And a lot of times we're finding high levels of wanting to engage on mission, 00:33:11.580 --> 00:33:17.020 try to figure out what their purpose is dealing with people that want to make a difference in the 00:33:17.020 --> 00:33:25.740 community and have high level of wanting to serve and wanting to engage, but need an avenue to do that. 00:33:25.740 --> 00:33:33.660 And really one of the challenges of digital churches is they really didn't have a good answer for the service 00:33:33.660 --> 00:33:38.700 ideas. We just did a stream on this recently talking about this where, you know, if you're willing to 00:33:38.700 --> 00:33:45.980 serve in a digital church, you can serve as like a chat host or you can serve as a small group leader and that's 00:33:45.980 --> 00:33:55.180 not to diminish either of those positions, but that's more internal focused as opposed to external within the community. 00:33:55.180 --> 00:34:02.300 Utilizing these tools, utilizing these initiatives gives us an opportunity to create whole new 00:34:02.300 --> 00:34:11.100 expressions of physical ministry happening distributed via the internet and the ability for our digital 00:34:11.100 --> 00:34:18.380 churches to empower. I'm in Miami and in a digital church that I'm a part of can empower somebody on the 00:34:18.380 --> 00:34:25.020 other side of America. We can be empowering somebody in California to utilize these tools, 00:34:25.020 --> 00:34:30.060 people to make a difference within their physical community. So much of what we're seeing in digital 00:34:30.060 --> 00:34:40.140 is almost this digital to micro model. And actually we'll have Justin and Janae Klatt on. The Klatt's are 00:34:40.140 --> 00:34:48.060 great examples. Panos, Robert, you would love this couple. They've been running a micro church on Zoom 00:34:48.060 --> 00:34:53.980 for like five years. And what's interesting is the micro church has grown into a network. 00:34:53.980 --> 00:34:59.340 At this point, they, you know, the way that like Rob Wagner, Kansas City underground, Tampa underground, 00:34:59.340 --> 00:35:05.100 the way that they look at their respective cities is how the Klatt's look at, at Zoom. And so they, 00:35:05.100 --> 00:35:11.260 they empower individuals to reach out physically or digitally to own a church service and invite people 00:35:11.260 --> 00:35:16.140 in. And so they've got multiple church services a week. I think they're actually seven days a week, 00:35:16.140 --> 00:35:20.940 they're doing church service on Zoom. Somebody's doing a church service on Zoom and they're inviting 00:35:20.940 --> 00:35:27.580 people in missionally. Well, the ministry has grown so well. I just recently had breakfast with the Klatt's 00:35:27.580 --> 00:35:36.140 or with Justin in Arizona. They've started micro locations. They've started getting into like physical 00:35:36.140 --> 00:35:43.180 micro locations. They've started getting into resource centers. People are actually giving them property and 00:35:43.180 --> 00:35:47.020 saying, do a, do a church. Like, no, no, we don't want to do a church, but we'll do a community center. 00:35:47.900 --> 00:35:54.780 And so we're seeing this start, this digital idea start to grow out into physical, into real space. 00:35:54.780 --> 00:36:02.460 And the resources that you're providing here is an awesome step in helping more churches start to realize 00:36:02.460 --> 00:36:08.220 what local ministry can be even distributed around the country. So this is, this is beautiful. 00:36:09.900 --> 00:36:19.180 I would love to ask this. You talked about Spanish. I'm just going crazy here. Does the stuff that you're 00:36:19.180 --> 00:36:26.300 doing work in Latin and South America, or is it more aimed at United States Hispanic? What's the 00:36:26.300 --> 00:36:31.020 contextualization of some of these ideas? Yeah, definitely. So we're actually, Jeff, 00:36:31.020 --> 00:36:37.740 we're on the horizon of launching some single moms community programs in Latin America. We have a staff 00:36:37.740 --> 00:36:44.860 member that's there that's actually in Costa Rica that shortly is going to start training different 00:36:44.860 --> 00:36:49.900 churches and equipping different churches with this single moms community program. So we know that that 00:36:49.900 --> 00:36:54.860 program fits well. We know that like foster care in Latin America, things like that, it's different. 00:36:54.860 --> 00:37:00.140 You know, it's not necessarily a foster care system or foster children or things like that and in other 00:37:00.140 --> 00:37:07.180 countries. But with our foster crew in Spanish, Jeff, really the heart of that comes from involvement 00:37:07.180 --> 00:37:12.780 that we have with churches in Miami. So not that they're necessary in Latin America, but we know that 00:37:12.780 --> 00:37:17.980 there's so many Spanish speakers in Miami. I know that you guys live in that in Miami. I used to live 00:37:17.980 --> 00:37:25.180 in Miami. I worked in case management and this whole child welfare dependency for many years in Miami, 00:37:25.180 --> 00:37:33.980 and I know there's a great need for that. So really, that's the heart of me seeing that we need to get this 00:37:33.980 --> 00:37:39.580 material translated in Spanish starting from Miami and honestly starting from churches that Panos has 00:37:39.580 --> 00:37:44.780 partnered with in different areas of Miami that I know that if we can get it in Spanish, we can reach 00:37:44.780 --> 00:37:50.780 even more kids. I love, that's just why I love Miami, right? I mean, there's so much, there's so much 00:37:50.780 --> 00:37:56.860 multiculturalism in here. I, you know, I grew up Miami, met my wife Miami. Actually, my parents are all, 00:37:56.860 --> 00:38:00.780 both of our parents are from Miami, both sets of parents. All of our grandparents are from Miami. 00:38:00.780 --> 00:38:05.580 We're like third, fourth generation Miamians. And it's rare to see that down here. 00:38:05.580 --> 00:38:10.460 Just the cultural aspect is beautiful. It's boring. It's boring in other places, man. 00:38:11.580 --> 00:38:13.580 I always say you reach Miami, you reach the world. 00:38:13.580 --> 00:38:13.580 Exactly. 00:38:13.580 --> 00:38:19.980 And Miami is also, if you look at Miami, Miami is almost like a time machine where if you want to 00:38:19.980 --> 00:38:23.580 see a lot of the nation in five years, it's going to look like Miami now. 00:38:23.580 --> 00:38:30.220 And so that, just with what Robert was saying in terms of reaching the churches and reaching 00:38:30.220 --> 00:38:36.620 key cities like Miami and other key cities, we're looking to reach the world with our trainings and 00:38:36.620 --> 00:38:37.820 our initiatives as well. 00:38:38.380 --> 00:38:44.540 That's beautiful. This is a great opportunity. Digital churches, take advantage of this. And so, 00:38:44.540 --> 00:38:48.780 let me ask the question, Robert, if somebody's wanting to sign up, if somebody's wanting to get 00:38:48.780 --> 00:38:53.420 connected, if somebody wants more information, where are they going, where are we pointing them 00:38:53.420 --> 00:38:55.340 at to get connected with One More Child? 00:38:55.340 --> 00:39:00.300 Yeah, they can go straight to our website to onemorechild.org/everychild. 00:39:00.300 --> 00:39:03.340 So you go to our website, onemorechild.org/everychild. 00:39:03.340 --> 00:39:09.020 It's a description of all of our different initiatives. You have the opportunity to click 00:39:09.020 --> 00:39:13.980 on there to learn more, to request an interest meeting. So if you want to request an interest 00:39:13.980 --> 00:39:18.460 meeting, then we will contact you and my team will conduct that via Zoom. We'll tell you more 00:39:18.460 --> 00:39:22.620 about all the initiatives or those that you're interested in and give you an opportunity to sign 00:39:22.620 --> 00:39:27.660 up and to get rolling with it. So it's just as simple as going to our website, requesting more 00:39:27.660 --> 00:39:34.060 information. We'll contact you within two business days, set up an interest meeting via Zoom to get 00:39:34.060 --> 00:39:37.660 you plugged in. Awesome. And so, yeah, we'll put that link in the show notes. One more 00:39:38.300 --> 00:39:43.900 child.org/everychild. These are great initiatives. And Panos, what do you got? 00:39:43.900 --> 00:39:47.260 If you also, if you're having an in-person meeting and you're 00:39:47.980 --> 00:39:52.700 someone who's leading a church network or you're having a community meeting and you need paper 00:39:52.700 --> 00:39:57.260 resources, we have postcards that looks like this. This is foster care. We have 00:39:57.260 --> 00:40:02.540 different postcard size flyers with a QR code on the back to make it as simple as possible that if 00:40:02.540 --> 00:40:07.100 you receive one of these at the meeting or you hand these out, you just simply tell people to scan 00:40:07.100 --> 00:40:11.580 the QR code. They fill out the form of the QR code and they'll have a meeting with one of our 00:40:12.300 --> 00:40:17.980 team members within 48 hours. They'll have something in terms of a communication via email to set up 00:40:17.980 --> 00:40:24.060 that meeting to ask all the questions you'd like about foster care or foster crew or single moms or 00:40:24.060 --> 00:40:27.180 anti-trafficking or any of the initiatives we offer. 00:40:27.180 --> 00:40:33.980 So if you're looking to digitally, if you're looking to strengthen your digital church, 00:40:33.980 --> 00:40:39.980 your fidgetal church, your micro church, whatever, if you're looking to strengthen and really start to 00:40:39.980 --> 00:40:46.780 look at how to meet local communities, physical communities, foster care, mentor single moms, 00:40:47.340 --> 00:40:52.860 feed hungry children, stop sex trafficking, or sponsor a child, you're going to swing over to 00:40:52.860 --> 00:41:01.820 onemorechild.org/everychild and get connected with my friend Panos here, with Robert, or with somebody 00:41:01.820 --> 00:41:07.580 else on the team. And so this has been a great conversation. Thank you, gentlemen, for the time. 00:41:07.580 --> 00:41:11.980 As we're landing the plane here, Panos, let's go with you first. Any closing thoughts? 00:41:11.980 --> 00:41:17.260 Let's see. There was one other thing I wanted to mention real quick. And I don't know if this goes 00:41:17.260 --> 00:41:21.740 into another part of what we're talking about. The child sponsorships that we were talking about. 00:41:21.740 --> 00:41:27.740 As one more child, yeah, we actually specialize in missions trips. And so let's say that you are a 00:41:27.740 --> 00:41:32.780 church or a digital church that, hey, you may have not met in person, you're scattered throughout the 00:41:32.780 --> 00:41:38.300 nation or in other parts of the world. We have mission trips that go to 15 partner countries that 00:41:38.300 --> 00:41:45.820 we're working in: Dominican Republic, Uganda, Nicaragua, Colombia, Costa Rica, Latvia, Tanzania, Haiti, 00:41:46.780 --> 00:41:54.220 Jamaica, Kenya, South Africa, Romania, and Guatemala. And that can be found on our website. And so if you're 00:41:54.220 --> 00:41:59.660 a digital church that's looking to, let's say, sponsor a child, we specialize as an organization that 00:41:59.660 --> 00:42:05.100 if you sponsor a child in Guatemala and you have a missions trip to Guatemala to a partner site, 00:42:05.100 --> 00:42:09.660 you will meet your child, the child that you are sponsoring. You have a pen pal system that we 00:42:09.660 --> 00:42:16.140 provide that you can communicate. You'll receive pictures of the child that you sponsor. I think at 00:42:16.140 --> 00:42:22.220 least, I think once or twice a year, maybe possibly once a quarter, it depends on the child in the country, 00:42:22.220 --> 00:42:28.780 but just know that we offer that as well. So if you're looking to connect the child sponsorship and 00:42:28.780 --> 00:42:34.700 then go out internationally, we offer that, we provide that programming as well. 00:42:34.700 --> 00:42:40.860 Rob, that's a great idea. Check that out. Is that link on Every Child or is that another link to get 00:42:40.860 --> 00:42:43.740 more information on sponsorship? It's on that same website. 00:42:43.740 --> 00:42:49.500 Same webpage on Every Child. Awesome. Robert, as we land in the plane here, any closing thoughts on your side? 00:42:49.500 --> 00:42:53.340 Yeah, I'm just going to leave you guys with this, that our Every Child, Every City initiatives are 00:42:53.340 --> 00:42:58.540 really simple solutions to help you meet the needs in your community and to show the love of Christ. 00:42:58.540 --> 00:43:03.100 So that's what we're all about, to help partner with churches, to meet the needs in their community, 00:43:03.100 --> 00:43:05.900 to share the love of Christ and to reach more children. 00:43:05.900 --> 00:43:13.420 Beautiful. And so reaching more children is the heart. And I love this pairing to help digital 00:43:13.420 --> 00:43:21.340 churches move physical, even distributed across their people and challenging them to do some of 00:43:21.340 --> 00:43:25.740 these initiatives and to make a difference within the physical community. And so, Panos, Robert, 00:43:25.740 --> 00:43:29.980 thank you for the time, jumping here on the podcast, doing this. And prayerfully, hopefully, 00:43:29.980 --> 00:43:34.780 we see some more partnerships and some engagement happen with digital churches reaching out and 00:43:34.780 --> 00:43:40.860 starting to intentionally focus on serving locally within their distributed communities. 00:43:41.820 --> 00:43:45.500 And so this is great. Hopefully, start of the conversation here, but we're going to land the 00:43:45.500 --> 00:43:50.940 plane. And so for Panos, for Robert, this is Jeff with The Church Digital. Thanks for jumping on the 00:43:50.940 --> 00:43:53.420 podcast here, and we'll see you next time on the show. Y'all have a good day.