Living Boldly For Christ As A Pro Athlete (Part 3) | Katie Cousins
In this episode, Brody and JB sit down with Katie Cousins, professional soccer player and dear friend of the SWO family.
The conversation dives into what it’s like staying at the Holloway house, the authenticity of their family, and the hospitality that fills their home. Katie shares updates on her career, her book, and her experiences living in Iceland. Katie also opens up about the unique culture in Iceland, particularly the challenges of sharing the Gospel in a comfortable society. She reflects on her church experiences, the importance of community, and the role of faith in the everyday.
Katie also talks about her book Just Be Faithful, her journey in writing devotionals, and how she navigates the mundane moments of life with faithfulness.
View Transcript – Living Boldly For Christ As A Pro Athlete (Part 3)
All right, today we have Katie Cousins with us. Katie, say hello to everybody. Hello. And JB is here. Hello. So Katie’s book, we’re gonna be talking about Katie’s book later in the episode. And Katie’s wrapping up her time in the States and she’s getting ready to head back to Iceland where she’s gonna be playing. We’ll get into that. We’ll talk about that. But before we get into an update from Katie on her last year and what the next year is gonna look like, we’re going to do some more casual and fun discussion because Katie lives with, she lives in the Taj Mahal Holloway with the Holloway Nation.
The Taj Mahal Holloway.
Yes.
It’s the eighth wonder of the world. Yeah. So I don’t know, JB, let’s, I want to ask Katie some questions. You know, we did that John Rulo episode where John asked me questions. People really like that. Katie can give a glimpse into what you can give a glimpse into what the Holloway household is like.
I mean, I normally stay upstairs, though. Katie’s Brave.
I go down where the boys are.
She stays down.
What?
Katie, what is our name? What name has Laili and her friend group coined for middle school boys?
Mungus’s. We got the Mungus pack.
It’s the Mungus pack. Katie stays down. But you’re. You’re isolated.
Yeah.
You’re in the original Mungus room, which was Tuck’s room.
OG Mungus.
The OG Mungus. And you’ve spent a lot of time in my house.
Mm-.
So both of y’all have seen behind the curtain.
Yep.
I don’t know. I would love for you. I would love for you to tell people what it’s like at my house.
People ask me all the time. Really? Yes.
What do you tell them?
I don’t even know.
Yeah.
Because you can’t. Part of me is like, do you say they’re just normal people, but we are not.
You guys are normal, but then you’re not normal.
Yeah.
I don’t know. I say it’s fun. Yeah, I love living there.
Really comfy couch?
Yeah, I got a comfy couch. I always mentioned that your wife makes really good food.
She’s phenomenal.
There’s nothing I’ve ever tasted that’s bad.
Yeah.
From her. You know, living with Moses Hallways. Crazy.
It’s nuts.
Oh, Moses.
Insane.
Yeah, I don’t know.
What was Moses calling you the other day?
Oh, so we’re in the car going, we just finished soccer practice. I coached his team. And he goes, I mean out of nowhere, 911, one-shear emergency. Oh, I got kidnapped by a midget from Iceland. I was like, what? And then proceeded to have a whole conversation with the operator.
On his fake phone.
He told me, he was like, I know why 911 is 911 because of 911. And I was like, no, I don’t think.
It’s not true.
I don’t think. I think.
Before 911. Yeah. 911 20 years before.
He thought he cracked the code though.
He thought he had it. That, you know, that was the biggest aha moment in his little 12 year old brain.
Yeah.
He thought he had figured out. Our listeners, they haven’t heard from him in a long time, but they know Mo.
His voice is starting to.
Oh, his voice has been back on. I need to get him on. People will be shocked.
Yeah, it’d be fine. He won’t recognize his voice.
His voice is deeper than mine. Yeah.
Yes.
I mean, he is full-blown puberty. He’s puberty to the point. Yesterday, as we’re recording this, this would be yesterday, he, little went to wake him up. So usually our morning routine, I go wake him up at 6:45 and then little goes down there at like 6:50 to make sure he’s out of bed, which he gets up pretty good. So I didn’t go down there. I wasn’t paying attention to the time. I was reading and I realized she had just gone down the steps. She comes back up and says, Moses said that he got out of bed and walked outside and puked at some point this morning. And so she said, I told him, stay in bed, just sleep it off. So he sleeps it off, but he gets. He’s up two hours later, maybe comes upstairs. I went home. Maybe. Did we go? Were you at the house? Same time. I went home to eat. It was two days ago. I went home and got it. Oh, we were off work that day. Yeah, this was Monday. So we were following a weekend Retreat. Everybody’s gone. So I go down to, I go to take him to school at 11:30.
He wants to go to school. He’s like, I wanna go to school second half of that. He likes school. And they love him up there. Andrews Elementary School, he is the top dog.
He’s the kid.
He’s that kid. He is every teacher, every, I mean, so he’s, I mean, he’s, he’s the bull of the woods. So, We leave to go to go to school and my my truck smells like a freaking red raw red onion. It smells so bad. It smells like you took a cheeseburger that was heavy on the onion and scrubbed it in your armpit.
And then took Malachi’s socks and rubbed it there.
And took Malachi my other Mungus.
Mungus.
So we’re driving to school and I said, Mo, you ain’t put no deodorant on. He said, I forgot. I said, I pulled into Dollar General. So go get some deodorant. Okay, so he gets deodorant and puts it on and takes it to school. Yeah, Katie and Moe are like roommates, next door roommates.
It’s fun though. Malachi too.
Yeah.
Me and Malachi always play sequence.
What’s that?
It’s a board game.
Oh, I’ve never played that one.
It’s a fun board game.
And I love talking trash to him. It’s really fun.
He gets spun out.
Yeah, Malachi’s fun to mess with.
Trying to think of what people would ask about.
Yeah, I don’t know.
A lot of people ask me about you and Little. Are they as cool as they seem? Like on the stage?
Or like, you tell them no? I’m just kidding.
Oh, man, they’re a bunch of goobers.
They are, yeah.
But I’m like, yeah, it’s cool. It’s like what you see on stage is what you get at home. Which is what you want.
Yes, authenticity.
Yeah. Yeah. Or like what you get, what you might see in a setting at camp and meetings and stuff. That’s what you get in the home.
That’s good. That’s encouraging.
Yeah.
It’s encouraging for me to hear that perspective from y’all because I do. People appreciate transparency and there are enough people that are in our home that it would be, it would be so difficult for us to be living a double.
Yeah.
I mean, our house is a revolving door.
Yeah.
And it’s not just people popping in to watch a ball game. I mean, Zay came back, came to the house the other night, Monday night after basketball. You know, a bunch of snowbird people play basketball on Monday nights at a local church gym. And every Monday night he comes in, and every Wednesday night after youth, he’ll bring, he’ll bring the kids home.
Yeah.
And he just comes in and piles. He goes up on the couch and makes food, whatever, you know, whatever we have for supper, he’ll, he’ll heat up leftovers and there and they’re watching the Voice.
Yeah.
I mean, I, I want people to know, I, I had a conversation recently, and this is, we’re not, this is not about us, this episode. It’s about, we won’t talk with Katie, but we talk, we’ve talked on this podcast about how a shepherd should smell like his sheep. You know, the idea that pastors, Ministry leaders should be accessible, and we we really try to. We want our lives to be like that. And, well, I mean, there’s times, I’m not gonna lie, there’s times where it’s stressful. Like, there was one day last week, I just wanted to go home. Little wasn’t home. I just wanted to go home to an empty house and be by myself.
Yeah.
And that wasn’t an option.
Yeah.
So there’s times where it can be stressful, but you just gotta work with it. My truck becomes my Sanctuary. My truck cab, I’ll go drive somewhere up in the mountains and just sit. But I love it. I mean, I think if the Lord, that’s why I hate those church models where, and me and Rob just talked about this in the thing that you, where you interviewed us.
Yeah.
Where the pastor is on a bunch of screens on a bunch of different campuses, and it’s just crazy to me.
Yeah.
Or even, like, celebrity status Pastor, where it’s like he’s so big and, but never really with the body or, you know.
Yeah. But there’s, like, so many of us that have been in yours home and stuff that have just such a good picture.
Yeah, for sure.
Dad’s mom’s marriage. Kids growing up.
Hack is another girl on another lady on staff. But we were actually talking about that the other day, just how open yalls house always is and how appreciative we are. Because there’s been times no one knows I’m coming over and I just show up and no one bats an eyelash or an eye or anything like that.
Yeah.
We, we love that. We won’t.
Yeah.
We want people to do that. And there’s always, there’s always a funny, like, first year staff or people in the Institute.
Yeah.
They, I think they have this sense of it being off limits because it’s kind of like, that’s what’s proper in most circles. But our home is, it’s like going into a 1950s sitcom.
Yeah.
You know, it’s like always something going on.
Yeah.
In a world where everybody’s just kind of like, knows everybody and is welcome. And part of it too, I think, is I live in this little town here where literally everybody knows everybody.
Yeah.
I literally know everybody in town and vice versa.
So I remember one time I came in, it was during the summer, it was late, and a bunch of girls, my friends, were planning to sleep over with Laylee. And so I came in late and I saw a bunch of bodies on the couch laying, and I just assumed it was like, my friends. I like started like messing with one of them and like peeking up and then I realized I don’t know who this person is and it was Juju and her friends and one of them woke up and just looked at me and I was like, I’m so sorry. I like ran back to Lately’s room. I was like, they probably think I’m crazy.
There’s so many times where I come upstairs on the weekends because I’ll get up pretty early and I’m like, who are all these people laying on couches and floors? And I’m like, what?
That’s so funny that I was talking to the twins one day. We have a couple gals, a couple girls, young ladies that serve on staff here now that grew up coming to swoo. You were their counselor, right?
Yeah.
JB was there, worked with them, with their church, was their small group leader. Now they serve here. And we were talking one day. I was, it was like life Council. They were going through a family crisis. You know, their granddad had passed. Y’all know this was a month or two ago. Yeah, we’re, we were sitting on the couch. With Annabelle at my house. And everybody, the house is always loud and busy, and we’re just kind of over in the corner, sitting on the couch. And I said, and at one point we’re talking about, this is surreal to her. This is surreal because she came to Snowbird as a, as a camp kid, as a camper, as a student for several years and never met me or little. Just see us on the stage. Yeah. And it really is a, it’s got to be, to me, that’s what must be weird. It’s not weird to me that people are in our home, but to people. To then realize, oh, these really are just normal folks. Just, we’re country, we’re Southern, we’re normal. But at the same time, there’s a lot of things about us, is it not normal?
There’s definitely some things not normal.
A lot. I mean, a lot of things. It is, it’s kind of a catch-22 or not a catch-22, but like a, there’s two sides to it, ’cause normal in the sense of accessibility, but I don’t think we’re normal.
I mean, I literally just had a memory run through my head when you said not normal of, your wife in her buck boots and, like, some big jacket running through the yard with a shotgun chasing a chicken down the hill.
Yeah.
And I was just sitting at the window watching.
I was like, this is so funny.
She wanted that rooster dead.
Yeah.
And she killed it.
Yeah.
Or she killed four rats in our barn a couple, maybe a month ago and had them all laid out like trophies.
Big.
I’m talking about rats the size of, like, my size 12. And a half, like, you know, like, it’s funny. We, Katie and I are movie buddies and book buddies. So, you know, people have a book club. Katie’s like the long lost kid that. That none of my kids liked the books that I like, and Katie likes them. So we. We read. We’ve. I read all these books by this one author. They’re fiction. They’re historical fiction books. The author’s name is Louis LAmorE. And he, he wrote a series of books about a, a fictional family that settled in these mountains.
Oh, cool.
In the Nantahala Mountains.
Yeah.
In the early, early Colonial America. And I, when she was going to Iceland last year, it was when you were ready to leave last year, wasn’t it?
Yeah. I was about ready to leave. And you were like, wait, I think you like this book. I’ll buy you the first two. Yeah. And so I went over there with them. I was like, Okay, these are great.
Yeah.
Loved it.
So good. And then, so that turned into this homestay, because when Katie comes in the off season, she’s home about three months. And this homestay, we made a list of movies for listeners that care. Jeremiah Johnson.
Good.
The outlaw Josie Wales.
Good.
Tonight we’re going to watch Open Range.
Should be good.
It’s going to be awesome, because it’s got Robert Duvall. He’s my favorite character.
And we did a, I’d never seen Gladiator.
The original, yeah.
Yeah, that was good. We watched Last of the Mohicans last night.
Last of the Mohicans, which was filmed here. Did you know that?
I don’t even know what that is.
So Last of the Mohicans is a book by James Fenimore Cooper. It’s like an American literature classic. It’s about a Native American group during the French and Indian War. And the book setting is like New York, like the Adirondacks or maybe somewhere up in the northern Appalachians. But they filmed all of that movie here in western North Carolina.
That’s cool.
And so it’s cool watching it because we watched some of the scenes getting filmed when they made the most 30-year-old movie. But it’s a really good movie and the book was awesome. Yeah, we watched that the other night. It has Daniel Day-Lewis, who’s as good an actor as anybody. He’s so good.
And don’t forget about the proposal.
The proposal. That was funny.
So, so we’re me, Katie, JB here is over at my house. I mean, I don’t know. It was another one of those nights. We had a house full.
It was a bunch of people piled.
Up on the couch.
It might have been one of the football nights.
It was after a football game.
Yeah.
Like after the Super Bowl.
No, I think it was unfortunately when Notre Dame beat Georgia.
After Notre Dame beat Georgia. So I know that’s hard for you.
Yep.
Jamie’s a Die Hard Bulldog fan. Or Die Hard Bulldog.
Go dogs.
Not a fan, but an actual Bulldog. Right. You identify. Yes.
So.
So you can do that now. We’re over there at the house. I think I was scrolling through. We’re trying to find something to watch, and I went, oh, the Proposal. This is literally my favorite movie. And JB pops up, says, oh, my goodness, no way. She thought I was serious. She’s like, this is my favorite movie, too.
And immediately realized as soon as it was coming out of my I was like, he is joking.
You’re face.
I was so excited. I was like, me too. And then I was like, he is not being serious.
No, I don’t know nothing about that movie.
But rom-com.
That was funny. That was real funny.
So.
Let’S jump into JB, you got some good talking points and questions. So we’ve, I think we’ve, is this the third or fourth time we’ve sat down, Katie? We sat down before you went to LA, right?
Yes.
And then we sat down after that most difficult year when you were in LA and a lot of folks started kind of following your journey after that episode. And then last year we sat down after you had spent a year back in Iceland.
Yeah, a quick little one last year.
So now let’s get up to speed on what your last season in Iceland was like. And you’re going to go back to Iceland. There’s opportunities to play in other parts of Europe, but you just love it there. We’ll get into some of that with JB’s Talking Points, why you love Iceland. The Icelandic culture and people and teams and league and all that. So yeah, let’s just jump into it. Good on your list.
Okay. Yeah, so last time I was on, I was about to go over Iceland again, and I did. And I switched teams though, and went to like the top team that had won the league before that. So it was a pretty big shift, but it was great. I loved my team. I really liked coaching staff. We had a good year. I mean, we, in our league alone, we only lost one game and tied three times. And we still finished second place by one point. But it was a good season. We won the cup tournament, which you guys got to watch on TV.
And that was so cool.
Yeah. So that was, like, the only game y’all got to watch, which stinks that you can’t watch more, but that was a good game to catch. And then we competed in Champions League, which, if you don’t know what that is, it’s like the top teams in every European country will compete in a, like, pretty big tournament. So we’re a smaller country, so we have to play a couple games before going to the higher rounds. So we went to Holland for that and won the first one, lost the second one. So we didn’t make it through after that, but that’s kind of like a A bucket list item in the world of football.
Yeah.
So that was pretty cool to do that. But yeah, finished season there, came back home in October, been here since then. Yeah. And didn’t really want to go back to Iceland. Like I was okay with it, but I keep saying it’s like I’m torn between the two. I want to move on, but I also love it there.
Yeah.
And so waited it out in this winter transfer window. And just nothing was quite, I didn’t feel quite comfortable with the stuff that was coming up.
I think you had an offer from a team in Portugal.
And France.
Team in France.
Yeah, and just didn’t really feel that great about both of them. So I’m going back to Iceland. I’m not going back to the team I played for last year. I’m going back to the team. That I played my first two seasons with.
It’s like. It’s like close, right? It’s in the same town.
Yeah, I’ll live a mile down the street.
Okay.
From where I lived last year.
That’s what I thought. Interesting.
Decided to play my old team. Be good.
That’ll be so good. The team. The city’s called Reykjavik.
Yeah.
And it’s kind of like. It’s one of those deals where maybe like 80% of the population of the country live in or around that city, right?
Yeah, I think the population of Iceland is maybe like 400,000 and Reykjavik kind of the area around it, I think is like 280.
Okay.
And then you just have towns all around the countryside.
Did you ever hear, me and Katie were talking about this the other day. Iceland and Greenland were named.
I did know this. Settlers or colonizers or whatever would like go to Greenland because they thought it was nice and green.
Yeah, but it’s nice.
Yeah.
And Iceland is green. Some of the year.
In the summer. Yeah. It’s not currently right now. It’s not great.
But Greenland’s the colder area.
Yeah.
Yeah. We’ll get hopefully we’ll get a good summer this year. We had a bad summer last year. I think the warmest day was 60. Yeah. Even then it was windy.
I’ve been cracking up because this weather. Katie’s like, oh, this is a nice day. But for us, it’s, like, gloomy and kind of chilly. And she’s like, no, this is a beautiful day.
Yeah. It’s my last morning at work today. And I was like, this snow is awesome.
Yeah.
Sean was like, you’re gonna go work outside? I was like, yeah, I am.
I was sitting on my, in my reading spot. I slept in this morning. Me and Katie have a morning routine. I set the, I set the coffee pot for, like, 5 20. Katie gets up at 5 30. I get up at 5 30. We both get up about 5 30 and she comes right up and goes to the coffee pot. But I get up and I have a little routine ice bath, cold shower out on my back porch to air dry. And it’s really cold, you know, so by the time I go down the steps, it’s about 5 45. She’s already got her coffee and went and settled into her reading corner down in her room. So when I come down the kitchen, I’m usually by myself. I sit down with my coffee and I start reading. So, Katie. So they had caught, yesterday they called two hour delay for school this morning. Like, what the heck? Why’d they do that? I’m sitting there reading, and it had just gotten daylight. And we’ve got two huge 6-0 windows in the corner. You know, those big windows. 6-0 just means six foot, six foot windows. They’re massive.
And that’s kind of like my reading corner. But I have my back to both windows. Katie walks in and goes, have you looked outside? And I look outside, and, I mean, it is just dumping snow, and it’s already white. Everything’s covered. Oh, they’re going to school today.
Yeah. When I left for work, I usually, like, 7 30 and I just stood on the porch for, like, 10 minutes and just watched. I was like, this is so pretty. Yeah.
When I got it in, it wasn’t even raining or anything. And then I went to the bathroom, came out of the bathroom. It was raining. Then I’m sitting in my car reading, and it’s like the sleet starts to turn to snow, and then all of a sudden it’s, like, pouring down snow. Crazy.
I mean, and it dumped.
Yeah.
And now it’s all gone. Yeah.
It turned to rain this afternoon, so that’s fine.
Yeah.
It was pretty well lasted. But warmest day you had all last summer was 60.
Yeah, it was just they don’t get the same kind of weather every year. It’s just a gross summer.
What? What like the previous some two summers you were over there. Did you have some days that got warmer than that?
Yeah. The summer before that, my second year there was the best summer they’d had in like over 10 years. It was great. Now, with that being said, the warmest day was like 67.
But it was sunny.
But it was sunny and it wasn’t windy. And that’s where if you have wind, it’s always never going to feel warm. If you don’t.
It’s cloudy a lot, right?
Yeah. But that wind, because the city’s on a peninsula, so all that winds come. It’s coming right off the ocean. It’s. It’s like piercing.
You go swimming in that ocean, you go cold plunge.
I’ve done it. I don’t really do that much.
Hey, JB went cold plunging with me in little last summer.
Yeah.
In the, in the mighty Nana Halo, the upper portion of Nana Halo, where the cold water comes through the dam. That water’s like 38 degrees. We go down there and cold plunge every day.
Did you see the video last year when I was there running off the dock in my clothes?
And your friends had to think you were crazy.
Yeah. We dropped off her family at the airport. It’s 45 minute drive. And there’s, like, pools of water in the Rocks from the ocean, and one of them had a dock, and I was like, if there’s a dock, I’m going off the dock. So I figured out how to get us around there and it was someone’s house, but nobody was home. And I was like, hey, I’m just gonna run in really quick. No change of clothes or nothing. So I go to run off in my clothes, jumping, shoes on, everything. Because it was like rocks everywhere. I don’t want to cut my feet up. Yeah. And then it was so cold. It took my breath away. I got out and I ran straight to the car, took everything off, and then we just rode 40 minutes home.
What?
Oh, man. Miserable. Laylee’s like that. Katie fits so good into our family because I always joke that Laylee’s my spirit animal. I mean, she is me in so many ways. And Katie’s a lot like that. And Laylee’s, we were, last year we were going to a Virginia Tech football game and we went up a day early. We’re staying on the lake at an Airbnb. Right outside of Blacksburg and the guy took us out on a ponte. He’s like, I’m gonna go ride around. And it was cold. I mean, it was like, it was late, you know, it was up into the fall part of the season.
And.
Liley said, are there any good cliffs that people jump off of here? I mean, we’re, we’re 20 minute boat ride out there on the water from his, from the house. And he said, oh, yeah, there’s a spot over here. I always see people jumping. We, and I’m driving the pontoon at this point. He’d give me the wheel. So we’d ride over to the cliffs and Liley jumps off. These people were in shock. Like, they’re like, oh, yeah. What in the world?
But, yeah, I don’t know who Layla Holloway.
I was about to say, one thing I’ve learned is you don’t joke with Layla. I bet you won’t do this because she will.
She’ll do it. 100.
She will.
Kilby did it last week.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Going on that walk, y’all. We went on a walk through this park, and it goes by here in the valley, the river. Yeah. And there was this new rope swing. We’re like, oh, that’s cool. And Kilby made a comment of, like, how much, like, how much money or little made it or something. And so little was like, I’ll give you some money. And I was like, I’ll give you 20 bucks. It was like, done. No change of clothes, nothing. She goes off of it into that River. She was like, I didn’t think it was gonna be that cold. We’re like, kill me. It’s winter time.
We’re not on the equator.
Yeah, this is not Uganda. Yeah. And, yeah, it’s winter time in that River flowing water, and it was. Cold. But she, I mean, we gave her, like, a change of top and stuff. She wore her wet pants the rest of the, in her boots and stuff for the rest of the walk.
She’s a nut.
The whole time after, she’s like, I feel so alive. And I made some money.
That’s right.
She made some money. Yeah.
She was bragging. I came to the house later, and she was like, let me show you this video.
A bunch of money.
Yeah.
One time, me and little were, we’ve done that a lot in their lives. I mean. I, Littles jumped off so many bridges. We just pull up and literally, I shouldn’t even probably be telling this. Pull up on the, on a main highway and Littles jump off a bridge and, and I’ll pick her, you know, she’ll swim around and whatever. Come up to the road and jump in the car. And we’ve had a couple of run-ins with the law, you know, with our kids in the car.
Oh, yeah. I’ve been there one time.
The bridge over in Graham County.
Yeah.
There’s literally like no jumping off bridge by state ordinance and it’s got the law number or whatever. Littles like, if I go real quick, it was, you know, It was winter or whatever. It was fall, maybe. Nobody will ever see me. She jumps off and then pulls the police, the Graham County Sheriff. He’s like, what are you doing? One time we were in Wisconsin when Mugs and Cara, so Matt Jones, we call him Mugs, he is my executive partner at Snowbird. So Snowbird is led, the day-to-day operation is led by an executive team. Three, three people, me, Matt Jones, AKA mugs, and then Hank Parker Jr. Who’s been on this podcast. So at the time before he came here to serve, mugs was running a for-profit sports camp up in Wisconsin. What’s called. It’s like Iceland. I mean, they have warmer Summers, but he’s right up next to the Canadian border. So we went up to Lake Superior. We were up. We were up there hunting. We’d gone up there. It was like late October on a hunting trip. And I was like, I wanna see Lake Superior. So we ride up there, and there’s a marina, and all the boats are on these lifts up out of the water because the lake freezes over, but it hadn’t started to freeze yet.
But it was cold. And I said, I’m not coming all the way up here, not jumping in this lake. I’m going swimming in Lake Superior. So I. I run down this dock, but I strip down to my skivvies, you know, and I go in and. I did not know there is a restaurant on the marina and you can’t tell. It just looks like there’s buildings.
Yeah.
But, and the parking lot was on the other side of the restaurant. It was hidden. And this place, this Marina looks like a ghost town. And I’m literally doing gainers off the dock and swimming in front. And when I, when I come out of the water, finally get out. Yeah, finally get out. And, and Littles laughing. We realize literally, you can see people’s faces up against the window. They’re all looking out at these idiots from down south, you know, hey, life.
More fun that way. Yeah, I did that when I was in Cleveland, whatever Lake is right there.
Cleveland, Ohio.
Yes.
I went up.
The reason I said that is because there’s a Cleveland right down the road here.
There’s two.
There’s one in Georgia, one in Tennessee. I think that’s Eerie.
Yes. I think. And I was speaking at an event in January, just dumping snow. And same thing. I was like, I’ve never been to Great Lakes. I’m getting in. And I ran into the water, jumped in. Same thing. When I was up in, I was at the Mississippi River. In Minneapolis, and I was about to have that surgery done. And I told my trainer, I was like, yo, I’m getting in the river. And he was like, okay, so we pull over before we go to the hospital. So I jump in, I had changed clothes, changed. And then the surgeon was like, we’re gonna have to clean your leg extra gig because you just jumped in that dirty River. And I was like, sounds good. Do what you want. It was worth it.
Yeah, that’s funny. Katie, I’m always curious about, like, the culture in Iceland and, like, specifically, I guess, the culture regarding, like, Christianity. I really don’t have even a thought of, like, you know, what’s it like? Is it popular? Is it common? Is it rare? Is it hated? What’s the, what’s the deal on that?
Yeah. Their culture, when in regards to Christianity is on paper, they look like a really, really like strong Christian country. Yeah. And it’s because of their national church. So like when you’re born you get registered to church and I mean all my teammates they’ve been registered to national church. So that’s just a stat right there. But if you ask any of my teammates they’ve only been in a church maybe twice in their life. So it’s on paper a very Christian country. It is not lived out and people don’t go to church. They have everything they need in their eyes. Like so many conversations of, why don’t I don’t need Jesus because I’m good. I got my family, I have kids, I have a good job. I like living here. So it’s non-existent there.
A couple of years ago when I was in high school, we went on a mission trip to Montreal, Canada. And I remember we used to go to, like, El Salvador. And so I was like, Canada, why are we going to Canada? My youth Pastor, Jody, was like, I think it’s like 0.2% of people are Believers because it’s very similar. Like, they’re not hungry and they’re not, you know, like, they have everything that they need. And so that’s interesting. I didn’t know Iceland was like that. Yeah, the.
I was listening to a podcast. I mean, not a podcast. I was watching an interview the other day, this guy that we’ve been talking about a lot, Wes Huff, who, yeah, all of a sudden is mainstream because he was on Joe Rogan and just was phenomenal. So I’ve been kind of following his work and, and he was, he was, let’s see, he’s talking with Russell Brand. I don’t remember, I think. Russell Brand was on Wes Huffs podcast, and they asked him about his. So Russell Brand is like a former, you know, movie star or whatever. He’s a big time influential guy, culture shaper, but known as being just a complete hedonist, sex, drugs, rock and roll, addiction. And so his journey To Faith was chronicled very publicly last year, including his baptism. So he’s now a professing Christian. And it seems like it’s very legit, like this dude really made a profession of faith. I think he was married to Katie Perry.
Yeah, I was about to say.
Yeah. And just by his own description, hedonistic lifestyle, just straight sexual promiscuity, he’ll say he was living for fame and sexual promiscuity. And achieving all of that. And Wes Huff asked him, how did you get to this point of faith? And he, and he starts walking through his story. And at the Crux of it, he had a, he got married and started to really feel the need, like, like the longing to settle down with meaning and purpose in a relationship because he had just been so promiscuous. And he and his wife had, I think they have three kids, but they had a kid who was severe. Had some severe medical condition. I don’t remember what it was now, but was like possibly going to die.
Yeah.
And so Wes Huff basically turns to the conversation to, yeah, when people suffer, they’re most ripe to receive the gospel, you know, or just that. So you talk, you compare, you know, the poverty of El Salvador to the wealth of Montreal. And there’s no desperation in Montreal or in Reykjavik, Iceland, where everybody’s comfortable. They got what they need. They got more than they need.
Yeah, I think that’s why it’s so difficult. Yeah. And they, like, I’ve had conversations, too, where so many people are. I’m like, all right, so what’s, like, what’s after this? Like, all right, I know you say your purpose in life is to be a good person you want to do right by your friends and family. What’s after this? You’re like, will you just die? Yeah, I’m like you’re just good with that like just dying and going off to whatever. Yeah, I’m good with it. Yeah, yeah, I can’t do that.
Yeah, you wonder, you know, I wonder what their attitude would be with a terminal illness yous know or if they’re faced when they’re really faced with death you hear a lot of people talk about how that’s when that’s when they really when they’re faced with their own mortality they start to consider those things and But there’s that Jesus tells that story where, you know, guy, he’s so rich. And he’s got all these, he’s got a massive facility where he stores all of his, wealth was measured often not by money, but by livestock and possessions and crops and fields and land and harvests. And this guy has to build extra harvest supply houses, like grain bins and barns to put up. He’s just got so much. And, and then, you know, he makes the comment, eat, drink and be merry. He might die tomorrow.
Yeah.
But then it’s like, oh, tonight your soul’s going to be required of you. And then there’s this sobering moment where he realizes, oh, there’s so much more than what I’ve lived for. And people, people in, in Europe are so post-christian right now. I wonder what happens around the culture of death. You know, like when a person’s close to death, you know they start to consider those things. And that’s where longevity of ministry is so good for when you put roots down in a community or in a certain area. We’ve been doing ministry here for so long. I was talking with Leilie the other day, like, if God gives, I mean, I might die tomorrow, but if the Lord lets me live another 20 years, 30 years of productive life here, And then you minister here for all of your life. Our family will have had a century of ministry impact on this one community.
That’s crazy.
It’s just cool to think about. But when you do that, that’s when you’re going to come, that person that says, Eat, drink, and be merry, or I’m happy or I don’t need Jesus, there’s going to be a point where they realize something’s outside of themselves. And that might be a good transition to the church you’ve plugged into over there. You can talk a little bit about that. It’s a reminder God always raises up a faithful remnant in every culture, society, city, town. That’s what the gospel is doing, is it’s raising up a church that reaches every city and village and country. And so I think you’ve had an incredible experience with your home church in Reykjavik.
Yeah, it’s called, do you remember the name of it?
No. She goes, Schluckerschön.
It’s called Lobster Fun Baptist Church. Means Upper Room Baptist Church. Yeah. What he said. Yeah, I. It’s cool how I got plugged in there. I remember when I found out I was going to go to Iceland. I remember us, like, researching churches. But the church I went to in college also reached out, and they’re like, hey, we support this church. Oh, cool. Because they were a startup. I think they are like. I think they’re 10 years old, the churches.
And I think that when we were looking, they were only one of two churches we found.
So it was pretty easy.
Yeah. English. And in your, your church from Knoxville.
Yeah. There’s another church that’s in English. And they’re a Pentecostal Church in the city.
That might be fun.
I’ve heard some stories.
It’ll be a good time. Yeah.
Should go visit it one day, but, yeah, I got plugged in pretty quick with those guys. I really love that church a lot. It’s a very so it’s an Icelandic church. It’s in English, but I think we maybe have like four or five Icelandic families in the church and then a couple of Americans married to an Icelander in the church. Other than that, everybody else is from somewhere outside of Iceland.
Cool.
I mean, on a given Sunday, we’ll have 16 countries represented of people consistently coming. It’s pretty cool.
Yeah.
We get a lot of refugee families. So we’ve seen people come.
You said most of the refugees in Iceland are from Venezuela?
We’ve had some Venezuelan families, some Ukrainian families. We’ve had a couple of Iranian families. So we actually had a huge group of refugee families the last year and a half, or the last two years now, and we’ve had to say bye to some of them, which was pretty sad knowing what they’re going to go back to. Like, a couple of them are on hit list in their countries, and they’re having to go back. But we’ve had some families get accepted, like, two months ago, which is cool to stay. Yeah, they get to stay.
They get their residency or Social Security numbers.
They can get jobs now. They’ve been living here for two years, not had a job.
Refugee status is tough in most countries because you get to live there, but you can’t work, you can’t take up jobs or. You’re basically just on a basic minimum handout.
And so the church, like, part of the giving that goes to the church, they go get grocery cards and support these families so that they can get groceries because a lot of them have kids and.
Yeah, for sure.
So support them in that way. Yeah. Yeah, I like the church a lot. Yeah, it’s fun.
That’s cool. We were talking earlier before we started recording. About, I feel like, three big stages in your life. College, La, and then Iceland. And you mentioned how it was a priority each time to, you know, find community and find a church. And I think that’s at least the stage of life that I’m in. That’s a huge thing that I see people kind of fall away at or just not be, like, super diligent at. And so would you talk about that? Just like, the drive, like, why it’s so important. What do you look for when you’re looking for a good church home, good Community, stuff like that? Why it’s so important?
Yeah, I think. I don’t know if I was, like, looking for something specific in all those churches, but it was more of, I asked people, like, I can remember asking you about churches in Knoxville.
Yeah.
And then asking people about churches in La. Yeah. And then the church I was going to in college told me about the church in Iceland, so I just trusted. Yeah, the people I was talking to about recommendations. But, yeah, it was a priority when I went to school. Can I get plugged in immediately? One, because I like being around people. Yeah, but two, just, I think the community aspect’s so important. Yeah. Just to be able to have people you can talk to, sit under, get teaching, just being in fellowship with other Believers.
Yeah.
So College, La, all of it, I’m like, I don’t know where I would have been without.
Yeah.
Having the community around me. In all those situations.
Wait, what church did you go to in Knoxville?
It’s called severe heights.
Oh, yeah. I went to. What’s the college ministry that they have?
The walk. The walk.
I went to the walk a couple times. Yeah.
Forrest Carson Newman from that area.
It’s like 45 minutes.
Oh, cool. Yeah.
Yeah. The walk’s gotten big. Yeah. Huge. It’s gotten very big.
It’s a huge ministry. Yeah. That’s cool.
The company we’re using. To do our master development plan for camp as we start this expansion. They are members at that church and they designed and did the campus development design plan for that church. It’s a big campus.
Yeah. That’s cool.
They send a team over every year to do an English camp. That’s so fun.
Yeah. Oh, that’s so cool.
And they just invite local families in the, it’s like in a neighborhood, the churches. And so they just go around door-to-door inviting families. Yeah. Send their kids over. Yeah.
I also am curious, even just, like, in my brain, I’m picturing sort of, like, just the differences of each church, you know, like, I’m sure your church in Iceland looks way different from the church in La from the church, you know, in Knoxville, you know, like, even just worship or, like, how things look. So will you just give us a little bit of insight on that?
Yeah. The church in La was John MacArthur’s church. I remember walking there the first time. I didn’t know I was going to this church. I just knew people that were going to it and just asked my first Sunday, can I come to church with y’all?
Yeah.
So we’re walking up, and I’m like, my gosh, this is a whole village of people here.
Where are we?
Yeah. They’re like, oh, it’s. It’s called Grace. And I was like, okay. They’re like, that’s John MacArthur’s church. I was like, that explains why there’s so many people here. And it was huge. It was huge. And then I went to my church in Iceland, where we have, like, yeah, I think 30 members in the church. We’ll have, like, maybe 50 to 100 people every Sunday. And it’s so different. Yeah. And then you talk about music. Well, they have a whole Symphony there. Yeah, it’s just me and a microphone and piano for our church in Iceland. Yeah. So different. But both churches are singing, like, good biblical songs. Yeah. I know it’s completely different and a lot of people will be like, yeah, this music doesn’t fit me and stuff, but I know for me, I’m like, if you’re just singing good biblical songs and worshiping Jesus with other people, like, it’s still good.
Yeah.
And the teaching’s faithful.
Yeah. Teaching’s good. Yeah.
I’m always encouraged by, like, I remember you showing me some videos of your church in Iceland and just. So encouraged of, like, man, it just looks so different even from, like, Red Oak, but it’s just so good. And, you know, I don’t know. People get so caught up in silly things.
I appreciate that you asking that question, JB. You, you did a good job with that question when you interviewed all the college students on the college episode. It’s so important. I, and it’s important for people to understand. The value of church, fellowship and congregational membership. And a lot of people, there, there’s a lot of people that I know well that don’t believe they’ll say, well, church membership is not biblical, or you shouldn’t be tied to one church. And this is not what we’re going to get into in this episode. Maybe we’ll do an episode about that later, but it’s just not true. And you see the the fellowship and community of the church working together in the book of Acts. And then also in Hebrews 10, that verse that says, Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is. It’s a command and instruction in scripture to meet with God’s people in worship. So yeah, I appreciate you shedding or shining a light on that, because it’s something that people, I think, need to be aware of. I’m not of the opinion that when you go on family vacation, you need to find a church on that Sunday.
I know a lot of people do. When we go on family vacation.
Our.
Family vacation looks different than most. Ours is typically in a secluded, isolated place with nobody except Hallaways, you know? Because what we were saying earlier, we live such an open book life. So typically when we travel and go somewhere, we don’t go to church on this. But other than that, church is priority. For most people, it’s not priority. When it’s convenient, we go.
Yeah.
Which is why I appreciate Red Oak. If I plug and shout out our church, Red Oak, I’d love that. The faithfulness of that community of Believers. And it’s just, it’s pretty consistent. There’s a high value place. Don’t come together to worship each week.
I legit will plan trips. And when I come home, when I leave, so I can be at church on Red Oak.
Yes.
Like this weekend, when they’re like, when are you coming? Because they wanted me there two weeks ago. I was like, I can’t go back until Monday the 24th. I was like, I got stuff to do. They’re like, okay, I’ll get a red oak.
Hey, I get to preach this Sunday. I typically preach the first Sunday of the month, but February got jumbled and switched around. And we are in a survey series of Job. And I get to preach. I didn’t ask Joseph for this, but I got assigned one of my favorite passages passages of scripture in the whole Bible. It’s that four chapter stretch where God speaks to Job out of the Whirlwind. Three chapters, 39-40-41, which says, brace yourself like a man. And he answers him out of the Whirlwind. And then God just goes on this, like, Declaration of his authority and sovereignty. It’s one of my favorite passages. I read it out loud this morning. I was like, everything to this point has been a survey because we’ve done huge chunks. I was like, I need to read all three of these chapters, almost four chapters. So I read it this morning and it took 10 minutes. So I’m starting by reading the whole thing Sunday night, and then I can’t wait.
Now again, I’ve got.
I’m gonna. I’m gonna spend 25 minutes unpacking it. 20 to 25 minutes unpacking it. I’m stoked. Anyway, it’ll be your last Sunday. I’m glad you get to stay.
Yeah, me too. And then back to Lofsdalen fun.
We heart red oak.
In Iceland we say, Ielskítir.
I’ve learned some Icelandic.
Yeah.
Ready? Nay. That means no.
I was gonna guess that meant no.
I say that all the time still.
I know. I started picking it up from you. What’s yes?
Yá? Yá? Yá? Nay.
And that’s it. Nay.
Katie always says, yo, start saying.
Yeah.
Okay, so I kind of want to talk to you about your time here in the states. What is it, like three months, four months that you’re here?
I’ve had almost four and a half months this time. It’s never the same.
Yeah. Yeah.
This is the longest time I’ve had at home.
Yeah, but I know that that can be. Sometimes hard even sometimes when I go home on the weekends, you know, just gearing back up to go back to work or, you know, go back to Iceland. I know that’s a silly analogy that I just used, but I kind of want to just hear about, like, your thoughts about going back. What, like, you’ve been in prayer about how can, like, we be praying for you, gearing back up to go just stuff like that, leaving, leaving this community. Going to a good community still, but just different and might be harder in some areas. So just stuff like that.
Yeah, I think this year is pretty bittersweet because, you know, I love being here. Yeah, it is home. But I am very excited to go back to Iceland because I do have. It’s like a second home now. Yeah. Been there three years. Previous years has been different because it never felt like a second home. So I was pretty sad to leave. I can remember leaving two years ago and I think I cried the first 24 hours. I was like, what am I doing? Why did I leave again? Like. But this year, like, I’m gonna be sad for sure, but I am very excited to go back. But it’s. It’s always so nice to come back home after a long season and just not do any working out or anything for at least two, three weeks and just be here, just be with people, go see my parents, travel around a little bit, and.
And then settle into the Taj Mahal away. And we eat copious amounts of ice cream.
Yes.
Me and Katie have consumed because Greg and Kilby were here. They don’t stay with us.
This has been the worst winter I’ve had.
This has been, it’s the first winter I ever remember gaining weight. Like I’ve actually gained, it’s ice cream weight.
Ice cream weight.
It’s a thing. I’m glad it is. And so, but it’s been so fun.
It’s been so fun. But me and Katie were talking, you know, the days are finally starting to get a little bit longer. Hopefully it’s going to start warming up.
Yeah.
And I’m gonna start. I’ve already kind of made the commitment to scale it back and get back in some sort of semblance of decent physical condition.
We’ll have one last go on Sunday night.
Yes, we will.
One last go on Sunday night.
Choose what we’re gonna get. I’m voting Tillamook.
That orange cream one?
No.
Something else.
Not that flavor. That’s been good. But Tillamook as a brand, because they use Tillamook. When they make their ice cream, they use cream, not just whole milk. They use, like, heavy cream.
Interesting.
That’s good.
Milk fat. That’s wonderful.
Yeah, but it’s always very nice to come home and just do stuff like that. Yeah. I don’t really have to worry about, like, what I’m eating and all that kind of stuff. And it’s just nice to, you know, that church there. I said it like, I do worship and stuff there every Sunday. I can. It’s so nice to come home and. Be in the congregation. Like, that’s a big change. So it’s just.
And because you play the piano and sing there and you’re not. I mean, that’s still fairly new. Like, you’re not an expert piano player, so it’s.
No, I still think I’m a bad piano player.
Yeah.
People work hard at that. I mean, I can’t imagine the stress of that.
Yeah, I. I am not. I taught myself how to play piano so I know all the chords, and I can keep it beat and sing. Yeah. And that’s it. And I haven’t got any better at it. And so every Sunday, I’m still, like, stressed out because I don’t want to mess it up because I’m the only person doing it.
That’s crazy.
So if I mess up, everybody else is messing up with me and, like, staring at me.
When you’re, like, when you’re here, what are they doing? They play a CD or they not have music? Is it acapella?
A lot of times I do Spotify.
Okay.
Yeah. When I first got there, they had two ways doing acapella, and that’s when I was like, hey, I’m learning chords. I can just play the chords and you at least have something to sing to.
That’s bold.
Yeah. So I basically was learning it on Sundays doing that’s crazy.
I remember you would send video or audio. Hey, check this out. How bad is this?
Because then after a couple weeks of doing that, the lady that was singing was like, hey, I’m leaving the country for the next couple weeks. Can you sing as well? And I was like, sure.
Do I have a choice?
See how I get it? So I’ve done that the last couple years, but it’s nice to come home and just worship here at Red Oak and the full band and a lot of people, and it’s just different. It’s just really nice.
Yeah, I think that a lot, even about little, because she does worship all the time for Snowbird and for. Yeah, Red Oak. And so I’ll think that. I’m like, man, wonder if she ever misses, you know, just being a part of the congregation and.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s very rare that she gets to, but she does enjoy it.
Yeah.
It was a couple weeks ago.
She didn’t do it. Yeah.
She asked Donovan, this was at church. And so she could just hold the grandbaby and be with Kilby.
Yeah.
Laila, she’s right back there between Kilby Laila and Juju. Yeah. And yeah.
Yeah. Anytime I can there, like, I will say I do love doing it. Yeah. It’s so, I really enjoy it. So anytime I can on Sundays there, I’m like, yeah, I’ll do music. I’ll do music. Because I can’t do it every Sunday. Sometimes I can’t go to church.
Yeah, it goes back to it. It’s. It adds one more layer to that point we were making about how important, like, you know, when I was saying, I appreciate JB bringing up the importance of finding a church and plugging in, not just finding a church and. And attending three out of four Sundays and kind of walking in, sitting down, walking out.
Yeah.
To the fullest of my capabilities. I want to plug in here and be a part of what’s going on. That’s a word for people that I would challenge all of our listeners. Get involved in your church. There’s something you can do to be involved. Don’t be a consumer. Don’t just be a consumer and a critic. The two c words, people, when people come to church, they’re either consumers or critics or both. Like they criticize the sermon or they criticize the music or they critic, you they’re just critical or they just consume. I just want to come in, get my coffee, sit down, and I want to get there late, so. But I want to get on the back row. But everybody fights for the back row, you know, like, just get out of that mindset, be a part of it, you know?
Yeah. Yeah.
One of the things I love that we do is we’re almost getting to the point where it’s becoming tough now, but we have a meal after our services over there. Cool.
So we’ll meet small enough crowd.
You can have a small enough crowd, and we get a lot of tourists. What do y’all I mean, we eat all kind of stuff. Basically, there’s like a rotation of families all from different countries. And when they’re up, they just make food from their country. So there’s no telling what you’re gonna get on a Sunday. And it’s always so good.
Iranian food. What was that like? What was that? What are they.
I don’t even remember. But, yeah, we’ve been all kind of stuff.
Yeah.
And.
But it’s cool because we get a lot of tourists and we’ll announce it at the end of every Sunday, like, hey, we’re gonna have a meal outside. Hang out.
Yeah.
It’s so fun.
Is it outside? Outside?
Inside.
It’s just in, like, the next room or something.
Yeah, it’s in, like, our Lobby area also has a bunch of tables in the kitchen and stuff.
So what is, what is the Icelandic diet? We’ve, we’ve talked about this a little bit, but not a lot. Like, what do they, they eat a lot of fish, don’t they?
A lot of fish. Lamb.
They eat a lot of lamb because there’s sheep herding on the island. Or the island. It’s not. Is it an island?
It’s not. It’s a big island.
Yeah, it’s a huge island. Yeah, it’s an island Nation.
Yeah. Sheperd everywhere. I mean, it’s not much different from here.
Okay.
They got McDonald’s.
No, McDonald’s. Oh, wow.
They got green beans, but they don’t put no bacon in them. So you can’t get pork. They don’t know what sausage and bacon.
Yeah, you can get bacon.
You said that. But what you were. You can’t get sausage. I was about to say, that’s what they don’t know. What they don’t know what sausage is.
Those people packed up all over sausage.
I know. I’m thinking about taking some.
Hey, we just butchered a hog, and we’ve been eating. That sauce is good, ain’t it? That pig we just killed. Oh, my gosh.
It’s good. So they don’t have that, so I need to.
That’s sad.
Maybe figure out a way to get some over there.
I’m big on the pig.
Big on the pig.
I’m big on the pig.
Kind of also jumping back to, like, serving in the church. I feel like there’s something to say about even using Katie as an example. Like, she’s not fully comfortable, you know, like, playing, like. It’s not something she’s done forever. So I think even that, I think sometimes people can stray away and be like, well, I don’t know how to do it, or I’m not comfortable serving or whatever, but I’m encouraged by that of, like, you know, you’re serving not to flex your abilities to play the piano or, like, your voice, but to serve and to worship and to provide for others. So I think that’s really cool.
Yeah, there’s been so many times where I totally butchered I mean, one time, in Christ Alone song, there’s four verses. I switched two and three, and everybody else was singing something else. When I have the microphone, I start singing. I’m like, I’m not singing the same thing as everybody else. So I backed up and I started laughing so hard. But they’re all pretty great. Like, they just kept going. Yeah. So many things like that.
Yeah.
I rarely go a Sunday without messing something up.
Part of it. Okay. Katie is a published author, and I want to hear more about your book. What is it? Just be faithful.
It’s called just be faithful.
Yes. Available on Amazon.
Amazon.
And in the snack Shack.
Yeah. I think they’re trying to get it onto the. The website.
I think it might be already, but I’ll double check that.
Yeah, I wrote a book. When I came home from LA that winter, this woman, Susan Greenwood, convinced me to write a book. She was like, Hey, you should write a book about your experience in LA. I was like, well, I’m not a writer at all. I literally chose a major so that I didn’t have to write papers. She was like, what about a devotional style book? It’s shorter stuff. And I was like, All right, I’ll give it a go. So spent the next eight months. Writing. It was. It was pretty cool. Like, it was good to just go through some stuff, too. Like, writing it. It’s also very challenging because after about 20 entries, I was like, I’m. I’m done writing. Yeah, but I still had to write, like, 10 more. Yeah. So that was challenging, but it’s out.
That’s crazy.
Yeah.
Already did my forward. That was cool. I’ve gotten good feedback on it. Yeah, it’s called just be faithful because I feel like that was. I’ve heard it a bunch before the whole La thing, but, you know, in my own head, that’s what I was telling myself all the time. But I’m also hearing it from so many people here over there, like, all right, like, just every day, just plug away and just be faithful. Like, just keep your, like, mind fixed on that to just be faithful to Jesus today. Whether you have a good day or bad day, can you just be faithful today?
Yeah.
I love that. I love it so much because we’ve tried to pare down. I want to quiz y’all just a little bit here. We’ve tried to pare down the Christian life at Swoope into a few phrases that will stick in people’s heads. One of them is just be faithful. Can you think of any other ones?
Take a day off, get eaten by the lion. Keep your hands to the plow.
Those are the two big ones. And it’s that, and every one of those carries a simple but life-changing, it’s like a mantra. Take a day off, get eaten by a lion. It comes from a story in the Old Testament where this guy is so faithful, and then just one day he just decides to be disobedient and do what he wants to do, and it cost him his life. And the idea is there’s no days off in the Christian life. And then hand to the plow, keep your hand on the plow. Jesus said, no man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. So just keep your hand on the plow and keep plowing, plow on, plow on. I sign off my emails and letters, plow on, or I’ll sign it off, hand to the plow. So I do like coming, narrowing things down to simple, single little phrases that encapsulate a massive mindset to the Christian life. In every day, in every situation, you can be faithful, faithful to the Lord, faithful to your calling. And that summed up your, your time in La, which, you know, I’d encourage people, Jeby, maybe, maybe let’s link that episode.
Yeah, I was thinking that post La episode for sure.
Yeah.
In the show notes to this episode.
That’S kind of when me and Katie were planning questions and topics to talk about. I was asking her, I told her, I was like, I kind of don’t like the question, you know, what is the Lord teaching you right now? Like, sometimes that’s a bit overwhelming or, like. But we were just started talking, and she was like, I just kind of feel like I’m, you know, kind of in the mundane. Like, you know, I’m not. I don’t feel like I’m in a crazy season of growth or not that I’m walking away or anything. And then we just kind of started talking. Like, that’s. That is the Christian life, though, you know, like, there. There’s going to be seasons of La where you know, every day you’re struggling and having to remind yourself, and it’s hard. And then obviously, Katie has grown so much from that. And then there’s Seasons where it’s this, where it’s like, yeah, it’s good, but it’s just, you know, I still have to be faithful, but it’s not like there’s anything crazy happening or, you know, but it’s just that mundane life, like, day in, day out, just being faithful.
You know, sometimes it’s harder to be faithful in those Seasons.
Oh, yeah.
Because it’s not such a dynamic thing, which is. You know, in Revelation when Jesus is speaking to the churches, and I think it’s the church at Laodicea where he says, you’re neither hot nor cold, you’re lukewarm. That’s that being faithful in the mundane is what keeps you from being lukewarm. And Tuck’s got that tattoo. I think it’s on his thigh. It says highs and lows. I think that’s from a song.
It is. I love that song.
Well, I don’t know if I know that song. I’m sure I did. What I’ve heard that song. Is it one we sing here?
We don’t sing it here, but I think little likes it too. You’ve probably heard it.
Then I probably would have heard it.
It’s an older song.
I always, so this is just the way my brain works. Highs and lows. And we talk about this. I talked about this a lot in this Philippian study we just did in winter slow. Ebb and flow, highs and lows. Most of your life is lived in the and.
Yeah.
Highs and lows. And if you, if you’re graphing High point, low point. You’re looking at a chart or a graph and you’re taking a pen and you’re drawing a high point on a graph and then a low point and then a high point and then a low point. That’s the Christian life. That baseline through the middle is the and. Yeah, that’s where most of your life is going to be lived. That’s probably the hardest place to be really faithful and not grow cold. Because when you’re in the highs, you’re just so on fire for Jesus. And when you’re in the lows, it’s that that Crucible of suffering we talked about. And I think something I appreciate about Katie, about your walk is La. It’s easy to look back at that and go, oh, I see how the Lord was growing you. But a season of life where you go, yeah, I’m just kind of in a holding pattern or I’m just. It’s. There’s nothing crazy going on. Being faithful then can be harder sometimes, I think.
Yeah, I’d agree.
I, after we talked about that, I went in. I remember, like, I say I’m not a rider, but I do like just writing my thoughts and stuff down sometimes. Yeah. I was like, I think I wrote something in December talking about this, and I went and found it, and it was, it was almost at a point where it was like, what am I doing right now? But it was, and then just quickly reminding myself, like, well, it’s just not like a crazy. Time of my life right now, but can I just keep staying in the word, keep spending time in prayer, like just staying faithful?
Yeah. Yeah, that’s good.
Yeah, it is.
Do you have any plans for the future? Do you get that question a lot?
Yeah, we’ve talked about it. I get that question especially every year I come back and I’ve put another year. I get that question so much and I’ve had it. I’ve had it a lot this year. And I just tell everybody, I’m like, I don’t know, because I have played soccer since I was four. That’s all I’ve ever done. Yeah. Is play soccer. So I’m not sure. Yep.
To be announced.
Yeah.
To be decided.
Hopefully we’ll be able to keep playing for a couple more years. That would be awesome. Yeah.
Well, I can tell you when the career ends, she will have a job as well.
I was about to say that.
And it will not be just stuck in firewood. Katie works when she’s here.
She.
She works part a little more than part-time I don’t want to say part-time but you don’t work all day, every day. But you put in a good bit of hours just doing work on our grounds crew. She enjoys it. I think you really enjoy that. But, yeah, we’ll put her to work. We got as long as she wants to be here. If the Lord doesn’t move her somewhere else.
Yeah.
Yes. We’ll see.
Yep.
It’ll definitely be a big life change. Yeah, when I’m done. I know I’ll be good and stuff. Yeah. But it’s gonna be a big life change for sure.
Yeah, it will. Tuck has talked about when his football career ends opening up with a buddy that he’s got a couple buddies. One plays at Michigan, has a national championship ring. One’s now at Chapel Hill. He just transferred from a Big 10 school. He’s gonna go play for Belichick. In Chapel Hill, but they’ve talked about opening a facility somewhere between here, maybe like around Waynesville.
Yeah.
That would be a legitimate training facility for, for up and coming athletes because there’s nothing really like that here.
Yeah, that’d be cool.
That’d be cool. You definitely. Yeah.
I want to stay on that. I definitely want to stay around soccer somehow because I, I mean, I love it. Playing it, watching it, getting that coach most team. Like, it was fun.
You’re here for, you’re here for just enough time to do four or five Mondays of instruction with those kids. And it’s so fun making the most of your time. And it could be cool if you’re here doing that long term.
Yeah. Giving them a different style of coaching.
Yeah.
Yeah.
‘Cause little community like this, very few people ever played soccer. So, you know, kids, you’re just trying to keep them active and be fun to see them get instructed.
Well, we’re gonna miss Katie. I’m gonna miss Katie.
Oh, last thing. Yeah, we have. Katie and I have a plan for August of 2026.
Yes. Let’s go. Okay, so it was the plan for August 2025 until this morning. And I realized we missed the date.
We missed the draw date.
So reindeer hunting in Iceland.
Reindeer. They look like, for people listening. Reindeer look very similar to caribou. So they’re a, they’re a hooved animal.
Like a, this might be stupid, but reindeer are real.
They’re real. Yes, ma’am. I know it. That’s why I said they look like caribou, because people, a lot of times people go, wait, reindeer real? So it’s like in Siberia, there are massive reindeer farms where people heard the things.
I thought they were fixing a little.
Bit of the reindeer.
No, they’re real. JB a dummy.
Look, I’m gonna look it up.
I’m like, but can they fly? And like, do they carry?
Okay, so, okay, now you’re asking dumb questions.
This is when you enter into the Mungus category. So the plan is to do it was this year’s plan. You know, I really want them to come to Iceland. So I’m like, man, I got to find something besides myself to entice them over to Iceland. So hunting, of course.
Of course.
So they have reindeer hunting. So we looked it up.
But you have to go through an outfitter.
Yeah, but the draw was two weeks ago, so we missed it. So now the plan is for next year. Make sure we have everything ready to go.
August 2026.
Enter the jaw.
Put it in your calendars, folks.
Here’s one.
Whether I’m in Iceland or not.
Oh, they’re cute.
Look at that one. That big. That’s a bull. I wonder if I call them bulls or bucks.
I don’t know, but it was.
Yeah, we were looking at Google images, pictures of reindeer.
You see one with a red nose?
None of them have red noses.
So I read that if you shoot one on the first day or two of the hunt, that third day. They’ll take you fishing or you can go bird hunting. They’ll just take you to go do something else.
Yeah. Look, there’s a Caribou. So for folks listening, a Caribou and a reindeer are very similar.
Yeah.
I don’t really see the difference.
Yeah.
So you can hunt Caribou in Alaska.
Interesting.
But anyway, our plan, I’m saving my money right now. It’ll cost, I think, a couple thousand bucks. Hey, I’m gonna. Hey, listen. NSR listeners, I need to go fund me. I mean, Katie.
Yeah, yeah, add me on the list.
So we’re gonna, I’m on a low budget here. One year from now, we’re gonna put in next February for a reindeer license for a tag.
Yeah.
And I’m gonna go over in the next August. If she’s there, if Katie’s still there, then I’ll just travel over. If she’s left and is playing somewhere else, we’ll meet up over there.
Yeah, I’m gonna be like, I’m sorry, coach, but I’ve been playing this for two years. I will not be here for this.
We’re going reindeer hunting. Yeah, that’s in Northern Iceland. It’s gonna be awesome.
That would be really cool.
Next is I want to take my own gun. I gotta see if I mean how hard that is if you got to use theirs or if I can.
No, you bring your. I was reading about it.
You bring your own.
That should be minimum 243.
Oh, that’s not a problem. And I’m gonna bring hand loaded bullets. I’ll load us up some good ammo. I’ll have you.
Oh, my gosh. What if only one of us gets it and the other one doesn’t?
Oh, that’ll be fine. Don’t matter.
The one.
The one outfit said they have 100% success rate.
Yeah.
Because I think the way that caribou hunting works, you’re hunting a herd when they’re on their migratory route.
Yeah.
So you just get ahead of the herd.
That’s crazy.
And if Iceland’s an island, how hard can it be to find? They can’t go to the ocean.
They only go in a circle.
We’ll find them.
They live about eight hours east of the city.
Okay.
You can take an hour flight over there. I’ve seen them my first year there, we went out there and played a game. And we had to drive. And I remember looking in the countryside, and I was like, that’s reindeer. That’s so cool.
That is cool.
We’re doing it a year and a half from now. We’ll do an episode after that.
Yeah, I shot.
I need to do an episode and. And do an update on how my hunting season went.
Yeah.
People like that. Or you’re gonna say you shot one.
I shot my first gun with Katie the other day.
You did?
Yep. It was.
They came over for breakfast.
It was like seven in the morning.
I gave my little 22. It said, shoot it in the water.
And that was the best day of work I’ve had. I was so. That whole day, I was like, whoa.
Yeah, you guys are pretty amped up.
Oh, we’re gonna have to. We’re gonna have to ramp that up.
I was scared to shoot it. You can ask Katie.
No, I had a 243 in the house, too. I was like, I should have gave that to them, too.
It was me and Annabelle. Never. Annabelle shot a gun by not.
My gun’s laying here. My carry gun is laying here on the table in front of us.
Hello.
It’s funny.
Yep.
Took it off my belt and put it on the table. So here we are recording this podcast with a firearm laying on the table.
We’re safe, y’all.
Yep.
All right, well, thanks. I love both of y’all. Thankful for. Thankful for both of y’all. And I hope our folks enjoyed this. Hope y’all enjoyed this episode. It was a little bit longer than normal, but I know I enjoyed it, and I hope you did, too, so. We’ll keep you posted on Katie’s journey over the next year. It’s going to be awesome. And I don’t know if we get a chance to at some point watch games like we did last year, we’ll let our audience know how they can do that. That was fun getting to watch a couple games. It’s not easy because they don’t, the way the rules work, I guess, of broadcasting is very difficult to watch your games, but we got to see a couple and I love that.
Hopefully this year it’ll be more than one. Good. Because last year it was because we were playing such lower teams. They picked the better games.
Okay.
To stream. So we didn’t get it. But hopefully this year it’ll be more than just the final game.
Be fun. All right. See y’all next week. Thanks for listening to no Sanity required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us@swoutfitters.com to see all of our programming and resources. And we’ll see you next week on no Sanity. Required.