Episode 61 - Trace Hamiter - The Oaks Collaborative

Trace Hamiter joins to discuss The Oaks Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that collaborates with local churches and campus ministries to help connect incoming college students to Christ and to Christ-centered community and where he serves as the Executive Director.

Trace is a husband, father of 5, former college minister, handyman and follower of Jesus.

Transcript

0:37

Welcome back to another Jake and friends podcast today. We have Mr. Trace Hameter joining us today. Uh, trace, uh, graduated from Auburn and is married to. Uh, his wife, Cassie. And you guys been married since 2004, is that right? 20 years in May. Mm-Hmm. That's awesome. Nice. That's awesome. Um, and you guys have five kids and you've been working, uh, in college ministry since 2006, where you, uh, he became the college pastor at First Baptist Opelika. Um, where actually he was my college pastor and Kayla's college pastor while we were at Auburn. Um, and you have, uh, Trace has a master's in divinity from Southern Baptist Theological, uh, seminary and a doctorate of ministry. Which for some reason, I completely forgot that you got that, um, which is awesome that you have your doctorate, um, from Beeson Divinity School. Correct? So, uh, that's really cool. Um, so thanks for joining us. Trace. How's it going? That's going good. Glad to be here. for you guys and what y'all do with this. This is really cool. Well, I'm excited to get to talk to y'all. I actually want to, uh, give credit to Tori Harris first because technically Parker isn't the one who even brought your name up first. Cause I interviewed Tori Harris and her husband Tanner, um, probably almost a year, I guess a year ago at this point maybe, but. I always ask people after we're done, I'm like, Hey, who do you have to recommend? Or is there anybody you would recommend to be on the podcast? And she recommended you. Um, and so I just never followed up with you. So I am going to take credit for this. Grabbing you on that. So I appreciate it. So, um, so trace, um, I know in a couple of years ago, um, you started. Uh, all things ministry, um, and now you've. That you guys have changed the name to the collaborative. Can you tell us a little bit about. What that is about and what you guys do him in and I'll say it this way too. I don't want to make myself look any better than I really should because what we do now is not what I thought we would be doing back when I started the ministry, you know, it's, it's definitely and this is kind of why the name change, but we've definitely been a, um. A walking example of the, you know, a couple different places in Proverbs. It says, you know, the mind of man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. And, um, and that's been a, that's been a key thing for us is that, um. Is it and I, we have we've done. We, we, we walked in a direction that I thought was what the Lord was was pointing us to and he has redirected our steps into what he really wants for his, for his kingdom growth. And it's been a cool thing to just. To see him guide because, um, his ways are much better than our ways. Right? So, uh, so, yeah, so started, uh, it all starts back. We started the retreat at Auburn. That's the 1 of the biggest things that we do and that people know us by, um, started that back in 2012 when I was a college pastor, um, you kind of, you know, essentially some, I guess we call it now as a little side hustle. And, um, and started it, Lord immediately started blessing it in 2014, realized, Hey, this needs to be a, you know, 501 C3 nonprofit for it to not be under any one church, like, you know, like the church I led, but also for it to grow and to, and to be able to flourish. And so we started all things ministries, um, then, because kind of the vision at the time was, I'm going to do, we're going to all these different local ministries that are going to come underneath this umbrella of all things ministries. Um, with the same heart that Paul had from 1st Corinthians 9 of, I become all things to all people. So by all means, I might save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel. Um, and then. It was in 2019 that the Oaks retreat had grown to a point that it really needed to be more directly cared for. And so I felt led to hand off the college ministry that I was leading to. Do, you know, to. Do this full time and to see what all the Lord, you know, wanted to do with it And so started that in 2019 did start up some local ministries, you know along the way that if the Lord's used in some cool ways but his hand was really on those those freshman retreats and so started up in 2019 starting one at Troy Jake your alma mater and And then me 20 at Bama and then ever since then it's just been To a year until this year. We're starting up for this year. So, um, well and yet and and then yeah change the name to collaborative because um well for I mean for a couple reasons for one the the comical reason is that It was really hard to just to explain to people what we were doing because all things ministries sounds Like, like, it, like, it sounds, it sounds like everything and people be like, so do you just like, do whatever you want to do? Then it's like, is that what you mentioned? No, that's that's not it. And it was the frustrating part was I, um, I guess I expected more Christians to be familiar with Paul's approach to missions in 1st Corinthians 9. They weren't whenever I said, you know, like, Paul, I want to become all things to all people so that by all means might save some their response was more in the old American saying of, well, you can't be all things to all people. So you're on a fool's errand. Why would I, you know, kind of? Why would I give it to you? And so, um, no, but at the end of the day, it's. The Lord gave me a vision before we started the Oaks retreat. Um, when I say a vision, I mean, literally a dream in the night I'd been praying for one like Paul had of the Macedonian man saying, Hey, come and help us. You know, he had that dream and for a dream like that and, um, of what he would have me walk in ministry wise. And then I got a dream of a, of a large live oak tree that had grown up all over Auburn's campus and all over. I was in downtown Auburn and it was all over Auburn's campus, all over downtown Auburn. And it was stretching beyond what, you know, where I couldn't even, I couldn't even see where it ended. Parker, you know what, what real healthy live oak trees look like down there in Fairhope, right? Things are huge and they create this massive canopy. And that's what I was underneath. And it was just covering everything and it was dropping its fruit all over. And, um, and that vision, God gave me, He made it clear like, yeah, this is, This is what I have for you. At the time, I thought it just meant the Oaks Retreat, and that's why we named the Oaks Retreat, the Oaks Retreat at Auburn. Um, but now, and, you know, hindsight 20 20 now, I realize he was saying, no, this is, this is the, the name of the, of the ministry that you're going to lead, because this is not just going to be for Auburn. This is going to be for campuses all around the Southeast and honestly, what it's looking like now is all around the nation and, um, and so the canopy is going to keep stretching all, all beyond. And so the, the heart verse behind our name is Isaiah 61, 3 says that they may be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord that his name would be praised. And, um, and so the oaks and then collaborative, because everything that we do is a collaboration of the body of Christ in a city. And so we don't do anything. We don't come in and we're, we're putting this thing on. We, we won't do it if it's not a collaboration of the, of the body of Christ, meaning, you know, multiple churches, multiple, you know, parachurch ministries all collaborating together to make it happen. Um, and so, um, because that's what we believe we're, we're aiming for unity in the body wherever, and unity comes through co laboring alongside each other, not just by talking about unity, but by actually like, let's get in the trenches together type of co laboring. So yeah, that's, that's the quickest version I could give up for you there. Yeah, so that's awesome. So, uh, did, did this start when you were at First Baptist Opelika? Yeah. So it started, or, or were, yeah. You were there in 2012. Yeah, I was, I was at Opelika from, um, oh six to 2019 and so yeah, this started right there in the middle. Okay. Yeah, I remember that because we were, we were in school at that time And in, in, in your college ministry. Uh, and I remember it starting up. I was like, man, what a great idea. I wish I would have had that when I was a freshman, because man, like when I came to Auburn, I didn't, I wasn't a freshman. I came to Auburn, but, uh, like, I just, I knew nobody. I didn't know anybody, any churches. Like I didn't get any contact with anybody. I had to go kind of find my way. Uh, luckily I had people that helped me with that. But if I didn't, I mean, I would have just been lost and in the, you know, the culture. Yeah, really culture and that's exactly why we do this man and it and you know, parker We we are open up to we are these these retreats are we say incoming college students? So therefore, you know freshmen are the are the main audience for sure But they're open to transfer students as well because as you experience I mean it can be harder to start at a new school as a transfer student than as a freshman because You know, a lot of things roll out the red carpet for freshmen, but they kind of just Hey, you know transfer students y'all figure it out whenever you get here kind of So yeah, we're for all incoming students, you know, all of our retreats across the different schools Well, I will say like me being a teacher at fairhope high school Like I have um, i'm the fca sponsor at the school. And so that's why i'm repping fca uh, but I have a bunch of leaders that are going to auburn and immediately when I hear that i'm like I'm like You gotta go to the Oaks retreat. You have to. And before I even say anything, they're like, Oh, we're going, we're already signed up for it. I'm like, this is awesome. Like, this is so cool. But they're like, you know, these kids are like starting to find out way more about the Oaks retreat, not just at Auburn, but like Alabama and all this other stuff, like, it's really cool to see how God's been using it to connect people. Well, you, well, you kind of walk through kind of how it started and what your vision was for it, because I've never been, I wasn't grace enough to walk the campuses of Auburn University from 2009 to 2013. But some of us. Your work, so could you just walk through kind of what it was like in the early days and what your original vision was? Because I know you were talking about how you just thought it was going to be like an Oaks retreat. Will you just sort of just highlight that and how it sort of changed over the years? Yeah, man, so, um, 1st, I'll give credit where credit's due. It wasn't my idea. I, I 1st heard about the concept of, of, you know, retreat for incoming freshmen from the, from 1 that was happening at Texas. A and M. I worked at a camp with a lot of people, they went to Texas and I, I heard about it and just like Parker just said, I heard about this thing and I was like, man. That sounds like exactly what I needed as an incoming freshman. Um, you know, a retreat before classes even start to help incoming freshmen and transfer students. Be rooted in Christ, like, start off college rooted in Christ, realizing that there are people at your school that are living for Christ. Like, you can do it because. I'm sure like y'all I came off to college like wondering if I was a brand new Christian coming off when I when I went to Auburn and I was coming in wondering if I was going to be like, you know, watching movies by myself every Friday night. I didn't know if I was going to have any Christian community. Because that's not what you hear about for college. Right? All you hear about. Is the party scene. And so, um, I, I came in and now granted, I did get, I mean, I, there's a, obviously a strong, you know, Christian, you know, um, community here in Auburn. And so I got, I got surrounded by those people, but I was still very, I was unled and immature in my faith. Brand new believer, very zealous, but immature. Mm-Hmm, and I, I, I spent my entire freshman year bouncing around to different churches, never getting involved, never getting discipled, and just squandering a lot of time in immaturity. And when I heard about that, that retreat of helping freshmen be rooted in Christ and connected to local churches and ministries, um, and living for Christ in college, I was like, man, that is exactly what I needed. And so at the time I knew it needed to start, but you know, I was still a student at the time and I knew it wasn't right. So whenever I, you know, I left Auburn for a couple of years, did some college ministry down in Tampa, and then the Lord brought me right back to Auburn in 2006, I was 23 years old when it brought me back. And, um, And immediately just started praying about when should I start this and it was in 2012 that the Lord opened up all the doors. And so, yeah, from the outset, I mean, the vision is really still the same. We've just kind of refined. To figure out how to do it really well, but the vision is always help freshmen be rooted in Christ, strengthen through Christ centered community and then bearing fruit on their campus. So, the goal is to help them see that. Either if they don't already know Christ to help them, you know, be rooted in Christ through salvation, but if they already know Christ, help them see that Christ is worth living for in college, right? Like, there's a lot of people who are already Christians who are trying to figure out, like, is he worth my college experience? Or should I go try what the world has to offer, you know, you know, kind of decision making. So it's like, man, he's worth Your eternity and he's worth your college experience. And then second is because then we live that out We live for christ in the context of christ centered community. So let's get you quickly involved in local churches And so we try to expedite that process by introducing them to local churches They're hearing from local they're hearing from pastors in our main sessions They're getting to meet them at in the ministry fair or at our breakout sessions or our panels So we're trying They're getting all this. So when, you know, when I was a college pastor before we started the Oaks and people didn't freshman didn't get involved in church early on in the fall. It wasn't until like. January that they really plugged in, or maybe after a spring break mission trip, they were like, really plug in now that the Oaks come around. Like, it's become much more normative for a freshman to get involved, like, by the end of September, like, get really plugged into a church. And that's what we're going for because the quicker they do that, the quicker the whole body of Christ as, you know, as a whole in Auburn grows and is strengthened and, um, you And then, and then the final goal is we want them to catch a vision for coming to college as a missionary. Right? Like, we're so prone to just make college, even if you are going to, you know, say true to your faith in college is still like, college is a very me centered time. Right? What's your major? Who do you want to date? Who do you want to marry? Where are you going to do after college? What are you gonna do with your summers? And we just. We wanted to get like, embed this mindset early of like, man, let's make it about the name above all other names as opposed to just about your own name. Right? Like, um, and so, man, if you wanted to go Greek, that's that's great. Go Greek, but let's do it for the glory of God. You want to get involved in and you want to be president. More power to you. Let's just do it. Not for your name, but for the exaltation of the name of Christ, right? And so all these kind of things you want to kill it in intramurals like Parker Sanders did and where the intro Let's be a life on the on the intramural field, you know I'm saying like that's what we're trying to communicate is that bearing fruit on your campus as well And so that's all those kind of core things have been there from the beginning. Um, we've just kind of refined it. And then, like I said, starting in 2019 started expanding it to other campuses. To where now, you know, this summer, we'll have 13 different retreats all around the Southeast man. Praise God for that. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So, what, you know, some of our listeners don't know that I probably should have said it's from the get go when I introduced you, but trace married my wife and I, and my wife works under him for. A year, I think I tried, uh, and, uh, yeah, we spend a lot of time together. Uh, well, she definitely did with, you know, at work and all that. But, but I guess, like, how was it when you were when you were the college minister, the college pastor at 1st, like a. How was it tough for you? Like when you knew that you needed to do this, like you had this vision that guy gave you, but you still were very like, put all your heart and soul into teaching, you know, your students, um, that came to your church, how was that for you? Yeah, man, it, um, you know, for the longest time doing this on the, on the side, it was just, man, it was just a, there was so much overlap, you know, with it. I, you know, at the time, Parker, our, our college ministry was. I would say was, um, unhealthily popular. You know, we were kind of the hot thing in town. And, and so starting it up those, you know, those first handful of years, a big part of my heart was I wanted to spread the love. You know, I had, we had so many people that were just coming in and out of our ministry just because it was where everybody was coming and brothers in ministry around Auburn that were amazing men of God and their ministries, um, not that they were like struggling, but just they, man, they, they could have done so much more. And so I, I wanted to introduce these incoming freshmen to them because otherwise it was almost like this funnel to our ministry. Because again, we were just kind of the hot, the hot tick and, um, and so that was the heartbeat early on. And I just, I love that. I feel like it brought so much health to, you know, again, just the body of Christ. I've always wanted to think very kingdom minded, right? Like, let's never get locked in our little kingdoms, our little K kingdoms. Let's focus on capital K, like kingdom of God across the world. You know a town and across the you know a state keep going But um, and so that was always my heart there And I thought that brought a lot of health to it And then it kept growing and kept growing and that and that just continued to to further And then I think when it came down to like time Of like okay, this thing is growing beyond what I can do as a side hustle now That decision was difficult, but You know, somebody, I think it was Dawson Trotman who, he was the guy who founded the Navigators, which is an amazing, you know, parachurch campus ministry. And, um, I believe I read it in his autobiography where it said, or not autobiography, his biography that said, um, what are you doing that someone else can do? And what is no one doing that you can do for the glory of God? Go do that thing. And, and that's kind of what it came down to for me is I looked at it and I thought, man. There are hundreds of guys that would love to be able to lead this college ministry, and they could do it just as good, if not better than me. And yet there's nobody that's doing this. That I see that needs to be done. It's not that nobody else can do it. It's just that nobody else is doing it. And so I said, well, then I need that's what I need to do. And I need to fill that gap because, um, because I want to fill that gap. And because, you know, this, like I said, I mean, it is so many different people could swoop in and take over for me and. And that, and that's what happened, you know, I mean, in the ministry, I, I think that the guy that took over for me at FBCO, I think he took it and he, and I've told him this multiple times, he made improvements that I couldn't figure out how to make, but he came in with fresh vision and that I, I told him when he came in, I think these things need to happen and he was able to do them and I never was. So that's the kind of thing we're going for me. And when everybody, I think when everybody walks in step with where the Lord is leading them to and like feel fills the seat. That god intended for them to and his and his kingdom purposes Then it's going to cause You know growth all across the body and that's what we always just It's not about how much can I do or all this kind of thing. It's about faithfulness, man Can I just be faithful do whatever god made clear for me to do? And uh, it might not super sexy at first like me stepping into this thing was really confusing for a lot of people When I when I first did it, um You And I think some people were kind of frustrated with me like why would you do it? Why are you leaving? Yeah Yeah, yeah And like I said, I didn't have this great vision for what i'm doing now I couldn't say to him well guys we're going to start these things up on campuses all over You know the southeast and maybe even the nation and and I didn't have that vision All I knew was what it was the right it was what god was telling me to do and it was the right thing to do so yes, it was hard but no at the same time it wasn't because It just made it so clear You So, how was that for, like, your wife, Cassie, and your 5 children? Like, I know probably the youngest children, they, I don't know at that time, like, um, how old they were at that time, but, uh, how was that that transition? Because I know you're for sure your 3 oldest, like, they had grown up, you know, in 1st Baptist Opelika and you being the college pastor. And you and Cassie, I mean, y'all been doing ministry together for years and y'all still doing ministry. But like, you know, I mean, since 2006, like, that's a long time you served at first. It's like, how was that for Cassie and your children? Yeah, I mean, to be honest with you, it's, it's, it's cool how the Lord works because the Lord had really brought us all to a place of like, hey, our. You know, because we stepped away to this from we stepped away to do this ministry, but we were also stepping away from the church to be from from FBC. Oh, not from the church in general. We're stepping away from to also be a part of the start of a network of house churches around the Auburn area. And so it was a big change going from big established church to a network of house churches when it comes to just stepping away ministry wise. You know, Cassie and I had been praying about this for. Over a year, you know, we don't do anything like flippantly. Yes. It's obedience, but it's not it's not, um, you know, just kind of go by the seat of your pants type of thing. We've been praying about it considering this and wrestling with this and, um. You know, somebody we heard a quote from a speaker, um, a few years before that really challenges. And it says, I said, what are you doing right now? That forces you to have faith. And I really love that question. What are you doing? It forces you to have faith. Like, you have to trust God. Like, if you, it's either God does it or you fall flat on your face type of trust. And, um, and we kind of looked at each other and we're like, you know, I'm not sure. And, and I know there's different things. I mean, like, and Parker, as you know, like we, I mean, My wife and I had always wanted to live a life of faith And so there's a lot of things that we've done that people would consider very like to have to trust the lord for Um, it's one of those things where I think that has to keep growing, right? Like, you know, what what was a big point of trust at one point might not be later, you know It's like walking and walking in um obedience to international adoptions, you know, like parker We've adopted twice two of our five are adopted internationally And that was a step of faith at that time But now it's just like, that's just life, right? Like, I mean, that's just, they're just my boys. They're not like trust the Lord to, you know, to keep on walking in adoption. Like, no, they're, it's just, it's done now. Um, and, and it's beautiful. And so there's those kinds of things that are like different things the Lord has called us to. There's just, there's always this push. Okay, well, what are you doing to force you to have faith and stepping away from, um, such a steady salary. You know and You know don't have to don't have to raise your own funds. It's all you know, all set up for you in the system You know of a large established church is all that's all great and it's such a blessing stepping away from that to raise all your own funds and do something that nobody even Fully wraps their mind around what it is and it has to keep on asking you the same questions multiple times, you know, like all this kind of stuff um, yeah, it was it was scary, but it it was You There's that beautiful step of this requires us to have faith. And so this is good And when you were and you're when you force yourself to trust the lord You you put yourself in a position of getting to see him prove himself faithful time and time and time again And it grows your faith and it it just becomes Man, just the best thing like I can just walk y'all through answer prayer after answer prayer after answer prayer Um That you know, I probably wouldn't have had had I not Put myself in such a place of having to trust the lord. So um, I that's probably a weird turn to that question that you asked me, but You know, that's what Cassie and I wanted. And we've been walking in that ever since. And not saying that it's been easy, but it's been good. It's been so good. Um, for the kids, um, yeah, so it's been, it was five years ago or I guess almost five years ago now. Um, and so my oldest was 12 about to turn 13. I'm very mature. Like, you know, um, has always been, you know, In a really, in a really beautiful way, you know, Jake Parker knows this, but, um, my daughter essentially got, um, discipled by amazing college students and just post college Kayla, you know, I mean, Taylor loves Kayla, so many different girls. I'm just kidding. You know, so, so many different girls, so she was just so mature. And to be honest, she had kind of gotten to a point like. You know, she had just started in, like, the earliest stages of the youth ministry and really had already become kind of disenfranchised with, you know, What you can imagine of like a large church youth ministry in a southern town, very, you know, I hate to say it, and this is nothing negative to First Baptist Opelika's youth ministry. This is true of a lot of kids that come into it. A lot of like, who's who at school, a lot of cliques in the youth group, you know, not a lot of like. Let's run hard after Jesus together, you know, type of thing. And so, yeah, she being our oldest was kind of like, I'm good. Like I'm, I'm, this is, I wasn't really dying to, you know, to get this experience. And so, um, the thought of a different approach to living out our faith in the context of local church, she was not only like, okay with, but, Very maturely excited about and, um, and so that was really good. The boys, you know, my boys were at the time, but like, 987. And like to, yeah, they didn't have much of the context of that. Um, you know, they did like that. There is now 0 pressure to to dress up in any way on a Sunday. Thank you. Yeah, I 1st, they were Steve had him. He, he wore a suit and Todd every Sunday. Yes, I brought the word every Sunday. That's for sure. Whenever, whenever I go to Auburn, uh, shout out to Steve Scoggins, right? Not Scoggins, Scoggins. I think I, I, for the longest time, I was like, I don't even know if there's an R in there or not. But Steve Scoggins, like I went and Parker was like, dude, he's like, this guy's like your old school. Like, uh, he's just got a voice that came down from God himself. And like, I listened to him and I was like, man, this is great. Now that he himself, like, you know, made his words more awesome, but it was just that he's still in the word and preach the gospel and did it with authority. And I was like, this is, this is fun. Uh, well, what I always tell Steve Scoggins is that, um, I learned way more from him just as a man than I ever did from him teaching. So, and most people love his teaching and, and of course, I mean, I don't, I don't disagree with that one bit, but he was, he was a, just an ama and, and is, I mean, he's still alive. I mean, um, I, I, I believe either he has just recently or is about to fully retire. Um, but he mean just an amazing man of God. Loved people so well, loved me so well. I just, I learned so much about man loving people through him and just through his example. So that's, that's. What I always take away most from that man, it's a great shepherd. He's one of these guys right here. That's right And they appear out at you I don't know why I remember that I sat in the balcony like towards the back But I could just see them eyes looking at me That's right. Uh, was there ever a moment, you know, I know you're talking about like how the stepping out in faith and like, you know, asking yourself, like, is there a, is there a moment where, or is there a situation where I'm fully relying on God? Um, otherwise I'm going to fall flat on my face. Um, When did that, not that it changed, I know you said it doesn't necessarily always, it's not always easy, but when did you realize, like, you know, this is like, what's an example of God proving that faithfulness? Oh, man. Or one of your favorite examples, I guess. Yeah. I don't know if it's one of your first ones, or. Yeah. You know, this is, this is gonna be, again, this kind of, here's a story that kind of shows it. Both in the sense that it doesn't always come the exact way you think it will, you know, so, um, I, our 1st year. We, you know, we raised some support, had some, you know, had some funding there, raise some support, but very quickly it was like, hey, the support's not coming in that we needed to and and so it was. And and within that 1st year is like, I need to, I got to figure out something else to help provide for my family. And so I started working. I became a handyman. I mean, like, I was a high end handyman. I worked for interior designers, and then I got jobs with individuals and this kind of stuff. And I did. You know, I'm hanging chandeliers and drapes and I'm installing shiplap and I'm doing all this kind of stuff and um, I know this sounds weird, but it's like the lord In in that season. It was so cool to see He provided and and for the first however many months I think it was like it was probably seven eight or so months that the lord just provided everything that we needed so that I could focus and get the Ministry off the ground full time and then it was like, okay, then let's go That funding that went away and it was like, but here's this opportunity to work in this way. And I still remember that summer, man, the, um, it's the way the Lord provides. In cool ways, because I've been praying multiple things that we didn't have enough money to do a vacation, a family vacation. Um. We, you know, it's. Needing these jobs to come in through, um, this handyman thing and they just kind of would keep coming in randomly. And here's, here's what happens. This was start of the summer. I go and work on this, um, this lake house for this interior designer and, um, that she had, she had most things they're doing. I took 2 of my kids with me, had a couple of jobs to do. And I was like, look, I'd already been there before. So I was like, look, y'all can. And then I'll report swing and read whenever I'm doing other stuff. And because it's like an all day thing, we pull up and my son goes, ooh, dad, this is an awesome lake house. It wasn't that amazing. I've been in much bigger, but it was a really, really nice one because do you think they'd let us stay here? I was like, great. I've worked on many lake houses. No one has ever offered for us to stay here. Right. And that very day. The owner shows up and I didn't know he was gonna show up kind of felt bad that my kids were there He loved it because he was like man. I love that. You're teaching your kids how to work and this is at a young age This is awesome. Sure enough before we leave he goes. Hey, you should bring your family Y'all should come stay here one time like we You know, I'm here in the weekends, but in the middle of the week, y'all should just make a vacation of it. And I thought, you know, I kind of thought it was one of those things like, hey, we should grab coffee. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, and so I didn't really like push of course, and we go to leave and he goes, Oh, wait, hey Come here. Let me go show you where I keep the keys to the boat and the seadoos so that y'all can use them when you come back here in a few weeks. Oh my gosh. And I was like, okay. And so I knew he meant it. And then, so sure enough, we didn't have money for a vacation that summer. Lord provided it that way. We go on that vacation. We're there that week. And it was kind of those things like, Hey, I'll do a couple more jobs for you. It's like a thank you for letting us stay here. And we're there. And at the end of the week, it dawns on me, it's like, man, I, I don't have any jobs lined up after this. Where's the money going to come from? And so I just start praying like, Lord, what are you going to, you know, what are you going to do? So here I am and he's provided this, this vacation opportunity for our family, for free at the Lake in a nice Lake house. The ministry has been rolling along incredibly healthily. Well, I'm there at the Lake house last day. I get three different calls of new jobs coming in as well as, All these different things lining up for the ministry for that week for the next week. I mean, it's just like he just kept providing Time again that that handyman job covered all of our expenses Beyond what the ministry couldn't cover the handyman job covered it for Through covid all that kind of stuff for like whatever it's like a year and a half And then as soon as I by faith was like lord, the ministry is getting too big and too busy. I can't do both I tried to sell it. I tried to, you know, do it, get other people working for me. That never worked. I'm just gonna have to close it down and trust you. And immediately when we close it down, the Lord started giving, bringing in more and more support and we've never lacked. And the ministry's never, never gone in the red or anything like that ever since closing that down. And so that's just, you know, that, that story of that week was this kind of thing. No, it's not always comes in this like beautiful package. It came for me with an opportunity to work hard, but it came with that opportunity that only God could provide. And, and then when the time came for, for me to let it go, he then immediately at that point said, okay, thank you for trusting me with, you know, with letting this go now. And now I'm going to bring in this provision and he just continued to provide ever since then. And so it's just that. The Jehovah Jiva, the Lord, my provider type of thing. Just in all kind of different ways, whether it's a, you know, a, a job to do or, or vacation, a free vacation spot or new, a new ministry contact or whatever it might be. It's, it's all those ways. That's awesome. That's really cool. What comes to mind is, you know, when Paul, all of, when he's going throughout his ministry, he talks about how he worked, uh, and he didn't get anything from anybody because he worked for it. And that's the things that was popping my mind is like God provided, you know, for Paul and his ministry. And then there was a time for him to work and then time for him to go travel and share the gospel. There's a time for him to work and it's time for all that. And he just was faithful. So that's really cool. That's what I was a bougie tent maker. Yeah. A bougie tip maker. That's really cool, man. And that is awesome for your kids to see that too. Like, you know, them seeing, uh, their father, you know, trust in the Lord, like, Hey, I don't really know what's going to happen, but I know God is, is faithful and he's going to provide for us. And I'm not just hanging out. I'm looking for ways, you know, to work and all that kind of stuff. So that's really cool. But. Um, you know, go back to the kind of, like, the, those collaborative, um, you know, I know we've talked about you guys doing the, uh, incoming freshmen and transfer students. Uh, you guys also do other local ministries as well. Can you kind of explain some of those? Yeah, so our next big thing, like, I guess our two biggest ministries, one is, is freshman retreats and we say, you know, the big thing we're trying to address there is one statistic that we hate, and that's that 70 percent of high school seniors that are, you know, following Christ in high school will fall away from their faith in college. That's the statistic. We want to change that statistic. One of our other big ministries is another statistic we're trying to change, and that is that some stats say 65%, some say 70 percent of international students will never enter the home of an American or have a meaningful relationship with an American while studying in the United States. Um, millions of international students study in the United States every year. And so you're talking about so many people coming in and going out. Never being welcomed into our, you know, into our, our, our nation and our culture. That's, that's sad in general for Americans not being any more welcoming than that, because when we go overseas, typically we get welcomed pretty well, but it's a travesty. When you have all these Christians in a place. And you have the nations that are that are coming to our campus and we're missing an opportunity to proclaim the gospel to him. Well, 1st, I'd say we're missing an opportunity to love our neighbors as ourselves. Right? Like that. Let's just start there. We're just called to love our neighbors herself. Here's our neighbor. That knows no one and is in a foreign land, you know, all throughout the Old Testament, God called the people of Israel to care for the sojourner in their midst. And so we're called to do that because we were, you know, we were sojourners and, um. We're sojourners in this world that this world is not our home. Right? And so we're, we're called to do that and we miss this opportunity. And, of course. We're called to reach the nations with the gospel and they're here at our doorstep and we do nothing. And so, um, we call them exchange retreats. It's a, it's a fun cultural exchange weekend, you know, that we put on. And it's about getting international students there, bringing, you know, local, you know, local students that are followers of Christ there. We don't, we don't have a worship service. We don't have, we don't preach. We just have a fun cultural exchange. And, um, And they, they create these relationships that then continue on and end up being gospel relationships end up being studying the Bible together and talking about faith. I mean, these kind of things. We've seen a lot of fruit come out of those. And, and those 2, those are also spreading to other campuses. In fact, Jake, another 1 for your alma mater, just that 1 just happened at Troy this past weekend. Um, that's cool. They did a cool thing there this past weekend with about I can't remember how many they had. Um about 30 30 different Um international students were there. So yeah, troy has a And they're troy is very proud to call themselves. I want to say they call themselves the international university of either alabama I can't remember they they started coining this phrase It's on like all the signs when you go and when you drive into troy, but they're they've always had a a very large International Uh, student base. That's really awesome. Yeah. So that's, that's been a really cool ministry, man. You see, it's, um, very much. So, like, as it should be, we should be bringing the nations together like this. And so, I mean, we, we have these things and we'll have typically 15 to 20 different nations represented at at it. And it's just, you just, you just look at it and you're like, man, this is, this is what. Um, this is what the kingdom is, the kingdom of heaven is going to be like, right? Like we're going to be celebrating with all these different nations. Um, and so that's, that's our like second kind of biggest ministry. And then we have, um, some local ministries, just they're really just in Auburn. Um, it's one is called Bacinos. It's our Hispanic ministry. Bacinos means neighbor in, in, in Spanish. And essentially it's just that in a lot of, in a lot of places, it's Our communities, we do a really poor job of neighboring of being a walk or to the Hispanic community. And so this is this ministry is, um, I really just, um, I say, I just, I really just advise them. This is this is 100 percent college student led and powered. It's really cool. Um. And it was started by 1 of our staff members a couple of years ago, but the students are just rolling with it now. And I just coach them and advise them and come alongside them in some really cool ways. And then with that, we also have a little baseball league. We call it the sandlot development league and it's, it's very closely linked with this. It's mostly the seniors kids, but essentially it was designed for kids that couldn't partake in. Um, city league sports, whether, you know, for financial reasons, or for, you know, parental involvement and transportation reasons. And so, um, we're starting back up this Sunday. Actually, we have to take a break for the winter. So starting back up this Sunday. Um, we'll be out at MLK Park. We, um, which is really like, it's an old park. It's like, it is a sandlot. I mean, it is, it is that it's not kept up well. And, um, we go and pick up the kids and bring them. We have lunch and we do some baseball drills and have a little pickup game and have a, um, we call it a bucket talk where we just sit down on the bucket, have a little devotional talking to them about essentially, like, Character talk, like, but with, with Christ as our example, and so we call it development sandlot because there's nothing fancy about it. Um, it's going to be rag tag. We know that development because it's about. Spiritual development, physical development, social development, you know, moral development, um, and then league because we've done things we've given them jerseys and hats because we want we want to have this element of organization to us is something they can be proud of. You know, because they don't get to partake in the league sports. It's something they can wear the Jersey to school. They can wear the hat and, um, and be like, yeah, this is my, this is my team. So that's, um, that's been a fun thing that we've been doing since, since, uh, 2020. That's awesome, man. I, uh, you know, as funny as my oldest son Beckham started T ball this year, and I'm actually coaching him, uh, with one of my, He's he's he's having a blast. He's having so much fun. But, you know, 1 of the things that I've noticed is that there are, I mean, obviously, there's a lot of. Um, a lot of money and fair hope a ton of money, uh, but there are not very many kids that. Are they don't have money and playing in the red ball league and I noticed that this year and I was like. What are we doing? Like, it, it costs like 90 to play in the league, then the, the rec league doesn't provide helmets, bats, gloves, nothing. Like, when we used to play, like Jake's dad was actually our rec department director. So he like. He like got this whole thing where we never had to buy a helmet. Like you didn't have to worry about a bat. You just showed up. Um, but, and I mean, we kind of, it's probably over like 250 just to play five year old tee ball. And like, you know, I think that's kind of absurd from the get go, but we can afford it. But then like, there's a lot of kids that, that can't afford it. Um, or doesn't have a parent to come pick them up. And so like, I've actually told Kayla, this is a need in Fairhope too, No kids can, not every kid can play this. They can't afford 250 and that realization that you've had is exactly how Sandlot started. I was just looking around my boys, you know, you know, baseball league and going, man, this is not representative of the demographics of our city. Yeah, it's all white to be honest. It's all white people. And just like you, I mean, you know, I grew up in a much smaller town than Troy and everybody played everything, you know, and yeah, I mean, the stuff was provided, but it's just like. Everybody played everything because there was virtually no cost to it and and everything was a lot closer to small town. You know, so it's a little bit different there, but. Man, it it provides opportunities, you know, I mean i'm not one of these people that I think sports is everything But man, I do think sports is an amazing tool. It could be used for amazing purposes and um, and And I believe, you know, Parker, you, I, you know, watch that when I watch Riley talk about just the godly man he saw in you and maybe, you know, I knew that, but it's really cool to hear, you know, to hear somebody come through your school saying that, but, you know, I love what a brother of mine said, this guy. Asked him, you know, how does he how does he approach sports, you know with his kids and everything like that and it um, This guy actually played. Um pro baseball for a while. He had a long career pitcher and um, um, and he's It's scott sullivan. I don't park. I think you might know he pitched for the reds for a while He and he's a member at fbco He's a famous. He's a famous sidearm pitcher really really great guy, too He just loves the lord and I asked him, you know How he handles that with his kids and he had this amazing wisdom that he gave me He says, Trace, we use the rhetoric that sports builds character, and he says, that's not true. Because if that were true, then our professional athletes would be our most upstanding people in society, right? Sports inherently built character. He goes, but sports don't build character. Men with character build character into athletes as they invest in them. Men. And that's what we've got to make sure that we're that we're doing with sports is Using sports as a tool to to build the character into our kids Or and you know, they're not just our yes our own kids and make sure And if you're letting somebody else coach your kid and on through high school, make sure that that their character's growing You know in the direction you want to go in right? um And so that's what you know, that's what's needed for so many of these kids that don't have this opportunity You In sports and um, and sadly we just let You know kind of I think the sports system Run away, you know run away with everything and kind of get hijacked. Yeah I have uh, I have backtracking a smidge, uh about the international ministry. Um, random question do how many of them because I know From going to Troy, like a lot of the Chinese and, you know, uh, Asian students, they come over and they don't speak a lick of English. Um, do you have any people who, uh, are translators or is that even a thought when you're going through this of like, hey, how is our communication going to work? You know, transpire and then 2nd question is, is there any follow up after that? You know, because it's cool to say, like, hey, we hung out with some international students this week. Man. Is there a calling after like, hey, stay in touch with them, you know, develop a real relationship with them. Not just like a fleeting moment. So to speak, so I'll speak to both those things. Yeah. That might have been more of the case, you know, um, you know, back in your day, Jake, but now they, yeah, all international students now are required to pass a pass a basic English competency. And so they're all, all, all the nationals that come are, um, decently conversational in English. Now, you know, some, you have to have a little bit more patience with and. But, um, but for the most part, they have, they're, they're decently conversational. Some are, some are incredible, but most are decently conversational. And then, yeah, as far as the follow up, that's both with our freshman retreats and with our international retreats. Um, I, I'm not an events guy, like, I'm not a, you know, one event guy. I don't, I don't, I think they're good, but I don't think they're really worth all the money that's put towards them if, if nothing is really focused on with, with, you know, what happens afterwards. And so both for our freshman retreats and for our international retreats. We spend more time with our people that we're training for them, you know, counselors for the freshman retreats, and then we call them hosts for the, for the international retreats. You're, you're helping us host this. And so we spend more time on follow up. What is follow up supposed to look like? So, um, for the freshman retreats, it's. You're not this is not this isn't like a high school D. now you're not just. Come into, like, lead this group for the weekend and then be done with them. You're signing up for their entire freshman year. You're, you're, you're signing up to try and get lunch with them during the week, maybe even disciple them. You know, make sure they have a ride to church. Your fault. You're, you're signing up to follow up with them like that. For the international students. It's the same thing. We tell the hosts. If you're just coming to try and like, you know, hit some international students hard with it, with the gospel pitch, and then if they don't respond, you take off, then don't come because we don't even, we don't even want you doing that. I would prefer, I would prefer, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I had to. He had to throw Steven in there somewhere. I I had to, well, we know him. Come on. Hey, we're 51 minutes in. If he's still listening, good for him. Um, but yeah, so we say, look, we want you getting to know him. Um, in fact, like it's okay if you don't share the gospel at all this weekend. That's actually even good because it'd be better for you to go grab lunch with them next week or the next Mm-Hmm. Or keep can go. And, and, and the gospel comes once they've learned to trust you. And then they know they can trust what you're saying to them. And so, um, that is, that's essential. And then, yes, we do, we follow up with our host to see how are you doing on follow up? Who are you meeting up with? You know, because some it's 1 on 1 and some it's these group of 3, you know, American students with this group of 5. Indian students that are all getting together once a week to cook dinner and hang out and um and do something Go play pickleball together. And so there's all kind of those cool things that are happening, but that's where the magic happens, you know, and um those relationships and those those salvation stories that we have Came not because one person Share the gospel with with that one international student, but like I can tell you this one guy named Luis and One of our people tracked down. It was I think he came up with like 17 different purposeful relationships That Luis had with believers that kind of came out of our retreat and then connected through different churches and different ministries That all and we're spending time with him and over time sharing the gospel with him until he So he believed and, and, and repented and was baptized. And so there's all some things like that, that kind of follow up. That's cool. I heard somebody say 1 time. Um, I don't know who said this, but, you know, America, sometimes we can just stay over in America and just stay in our little bubble and not worry about the nations, um, which is obviously unbiblical. So I heard somebody say 1 time. Like, it's like God saying, okay, since you won't go to the nations, I'm gonna bring the nations to you. And it's right here. I got to just be faithful and just, just say something, do something. So that's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Are you. So. I guess, like, I know when we were at 1st, and you were the college minister, we did a missional communities, which I thought was really cool. Instead of doing small groups, you call them missional communities, which the whole point of that was, yes, we are to me together, but our whole goal is to go out and and be missional where we are. Um, do you still kind of carry that idea where you are? It kind of sounds like that, but do you guys kind of carry that idea in the collaborative? Yeah, man, we that's something. Um, I think I don't know when I developed this conviction, but that the conviction that, uh, for most Christians in America, our, um, our knowledge far outweighs our obedience, you know, like our, everybody wants to talk about wanting to know the word better, but for the most of it, we know, we know enough, we need to start doing the right thing. The things that we do know and um, and so yeah, that's that's been just a general conviction of mine as a follower of christ First and then just and then of course as a as a minister and leader As to try and lead others to that to that point. And so, um, yes, you know missional communities Yeah, kayla helped us help just you know, get that off the ground You know when she came on and worked with me It was like all right This is what we're moving towards help me figure this out, you know, and so we started working on that together um, and and so yeah, i'd say that All of this, you know, like I was saying with with our freshman retreats by the end of of the weekend, we had all of our retreats across all of our different schools around the southeast. We're all doing the same thing, which is. Okay, well, you've heard that Christ is worth living for in college. You've heard that you need to, you know, you should live, you know, live, live for him in college and you should do that in the context of a local church. Now, let's talk about how you're to live missionally for him. Like, how are you, how you live missionally on, on campus? Um, because. I'm not, I don't, you know, it's been a long time since I've read this book, so I'm not endorsing it or bashing it, but there's this book that was written a long time ago called how to stay Christian in college. And I don't remember too much about it, but I know that I don't really love that title because it sounds so weak. Doesn't it? Stay Christian in college. I don't want people just to stay Christian. I want them to live vibrantly into all that God has called them to. And that is a missional lifestyle. Like, um, I don't want, I don't want people just to focus on not falling into deep sin and not, you know, not getting stuck in the party scene. There's that, that, that wouldn't even be a worry if you're so focused on living on mission with, you know, with God. Notice I said with God in college, not, it's not like I have to do all this stuff for God. I get to do this with him. It's a joy. It's not a, it's not a, even a responsibility. It's a privilege, right? Like, that's what I want people to get. And, and that's, that's, I would say that's been, At the kind of the heart of of my ministry towards college students, whether that was in the context of a, you know, local church college ministry, or that's that's through, you know, leading these, these retreats. It's it's all about that. Let's live missionally. In every way, that's great. I think that's a great place to leave off to. I mean, um. Yeah, we're, you know, we're super encouraged by everything you're doing. I didn't even realize until like, we started looking at the, or started doing a little bit of research that you had expanded past Auburn. I was like, I just thought this was still an Auburn thing, but that's really cool to hear. That's been at a lot of other schools. Um, so can you just tell people real quick how they can find out about those collaborative and if there's. Anyone who's because I know my high school some of my wife and I help out with our high school ministry our church I know some of these some of these guys listen to this podcast and so A lot of them want to go to auburn. So how can they find out more about the oaks collaborative? Yeah, so main, you know, our website is a kind of one stop shop for everything. It's just called the oaks collaborative. com And on that, you know, it'll list out all the different schools that we're at But You know, real quick, I would just run through those if so, if, you know, somebody all different schools have have retreats, different names. So you can see those on there. So you just, you just. Scroll down that home page, you're going to see a, you know, a map of the lower 48 states and you'll be able to click and see all the different schools. But, and, you know, if, you know, somebody go into Auburn, Troy, Bama. Um, Ole Miss, UGA, Mississippi State, um, Birmingham area schools, you know, we've got 1 for that's kind of for Sanford, all that, um, University of North Alabama. Florida State, LSU, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of Kentucky, JSU, we're starting one at JSU this year, you know, freshmen going to any of those schools, um, and connect them to those retreats that we have there because, you know, that would be an amazing way for them to start off their, their, you know, college experience at those schools. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, thanks for joining us, Trace. I will say. You know, for those that are going that are listeners that are going into college, like, that was the time that I feel like I grew the most, um, in my faith, and it was because I, I was so focused on, yeah, on school, but. But, but trace, you challenged me to, to focus on my relationship with the Lord more and to not be about me and what I'm majoring in all that kind of stuff and just focus on being missional and where I am. So, thank you for all that you did for me and for all those students and for my wife, like, um, you know, I, I truly Jake would, would agree with this. Like, I. I would not be where I am today as a follower of Christ without those years. I was at Auburn involved in your ministry and at first that this, and I know you would say, praise the Lord for that, but thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for, um, just pouring in and just being faithful where God's calling you. Um, cause yeah, just like Jake said, I'm, I'm encouraged. Um, always encouraged by you, but, um, and your family. Um, but I'm encouraged because, you know, I will also say trace might not say, I mean, I'll say support them, give them some support because what God is doing through their, through their ministry is just so it's so needed. It's so needed. Um, so you can go so that you can go on their website. We'll put it on. Uh, on the description box, and, uh, you can go to a donate tab and anything will help, uh, because, you know, you're doing doing God's work. So. Thank you trace for joining us. We appreciate it. Yes, those kind words and appreciate you to be here. I mean, I felt honored and this was this was fun. Thank you guys. No, we'll see you next time.