#87 | Hospitality, Modeling, & Taking a Risk for Christ, Pt. 2 | Ruth Ripken

If a large number of women come to faith and begin to come to faith as is possible in our generation, we're gonna see a great persecution of women that we've never seen before. If you go back in history to the beginning of Christianity, it was women who stood in the Lion's Coliseum.

Perpetua.

Yep. Women who boldly have faith. And I think that's what we're gonna see, because I think it's a mighty opportunity for us.

So we have to get out there and begin to learn culture, to learn language, so that we're ready. And I'm on a roll.

It's watering time, everybody.

It's time for Apollos Watered, a podcast.

To saturate your faith with the things of God so that you might saturate your world. Good news of Jesus Christ. My name is Travis Michael Fleming, and I am your host. It's time for another one of our deep conversations.

Actually, it's a second deep conversation with Ruth Ripken. We often hear stories of men coming to Christ in Islam. But what about the women? And why are their stories so important?

What is God doing among the women in the second largest religion in the world? And what can we learn from that in our world here in the West? I'm delighted to have Ruth Ripken here to answer those questions.

If you haven't heard her bio or the first part of our conversation, I would highly recommend you go back and take a listen. You'll be glad that you did.

Ruth and her husband Nick are passionate Christ followers who desire to share the lessons that they have learned from the church around the world with the church right here, so that we might all together win the worlds we live in for Christ. Happy listening.

You've talked about believers in persecution, and we know that you have done so many interviews, and we see that within the insanity of God. What were the lessons that you learned from the women that were leading in this movement?

Because they would have, I would think, different insights and different perspectives than some of the men. What were some of the things that you took away from the women that were living in persecution?

Well, my first reaction to your question is I want to weep. Because for many of these women, in especially Muslim context, they've never had a chance to even hear.

And so to me, they're the most persecuted is someone who has Jesus and he's persecuted. They've got eternal life. But people who have never heard, they are totally persecuted. They don't have a chance.

The story that I'll share was when Nick and I went to interview this man in a Middle Eastern country, he was a very famous man because he could sing and he loved to sing. And when he gave his heart to Jesus, he really had a goal of being on every Arab speaking radio and TV station singing about God, about Jesus.

And he was a little proud, I think. But as we interviewed him, Nick, you know, he did the interview because he was a man, of course.

And at the end, toward the end, Nick kind of patted me and said, now listen, I'm going to ask a question you need to hear the answer to. And I'd been listening all along, but I think he wanted to perk my ears. And he asked this man, what about your wife?

You mentioned that you're married and does she play any role in your ministry and what you're doing? And his answer was, she's just a dumb old village woman. How would she come to Christ?

Well, I was ready to get across the table and get all the way there, added me and calmed me down.

But the reason I share that is men in many places in the Muslim world, they can read, they can travel, they have access to books about Christianity, they can go to the mosque and ask questions, they can talk, they can do all that. And so they have a whole process of coming to faith.

And in this man's mind, his wife could not come to faith because she didn't have those access to all that opportunity. And that pretty much describes you and I.

We come to Christ in a certain way and we assume everyone else will come to Christ the way we came to Christ.

And so how do you break down that barrier to say, God has a lot of avenues for us to come, and you and I come one way, but that doesn't mean everybody comes the same way. And so as I shared before, for women, it's got to be women sharing with women.

And we've got to learn how to do that orally because for many women, they don't have the access to speak and to read like. Like we learned. And so how do we break down the barrier of, you know, everybody has to come to Christ the same way I do.

And for Muslims, the men assume that the wives cannot believe because they don't have access like. Like that. And our sad part is many of these men who believe come home.

And because they have that even though they're followers of Jesus, they still have that attitude that I'm the man and you're the women. And so they come in and declare faith for their wives. And, you know, she was, her father was a Muslim, so she was a Muslim.

Now she's in my house, I'm a Christian. That makes her a Christian. And so she has no opportunity to really understand. And what happens is when he's martyred, this happened in Somalia.

When he's martyred, she goes back to the mosque and tells the leaders of the mosque, all those Christians, all those followers of Jesus that were related to her husband. And that led to the increased martyrdom in Somalia. It was the women who had not had the opportunity to really believe.

So back to your question of what did I learn from these women? I think, number one, we don't really know all that will happen in forms of persecution that will come on women who follow Christ.

We know many of them are ostracized, they're kicked out of their family, they're beaten, those kinds of things.

But if a large number of women come to faith and begin to come to faith, as is possible in our generation, we're going to see a great persecution of women that we've never seen before. If you go back in history to the beginning of Christianity, it was women who stood in the Lions Coliseum. Yep. Women who boldly have faith.

And I think that's what we're going to see, because I think it's a mighty opportunity for us.

So we have to get out there and begin to learn culture, to learn language, so that we're ready when this happens, when a mighty movement of God happens among women. And Nick and I firmly believe that it's not going to be men and women. It's going to be families coming to faith.

And in that, we're going to see an opportunity for Christ to grow and persecution will come. But when a whole family comes to faith, we do see they're stronger, they have more ability to stay even in the midst of the persecution.

And so I think that's my prayer right now, is that we see whole families and both men and women, and not men declaring faith for women, but women really understanding and passing it on to their children. Because in Islam, women are responsible for the education of their children.

And so it's difficult when a man comes to faith, but the wife is still educating her children in Islamic faith. So we need a whole family to come.

Why do you think. I mean, I know that's your hope, but why do you think it will be families and not just men and not just women? I mean, what makes you say that?

It would just be. It would be the family.

I think because admissions, all of a sudden, we're realizing we're going as a family so let's model what church looks like for a family as Muslims or other groups see that. They see that the whole family can be united in serving Christ.

And we're witnessing as families to these families that really need to see a family in Christ. So I think that's what's happening. It's us realizing we've got to do it as a family. And if Nick and I go visiting, we're going together.

And in some places, a woman goes to one side of the house and a man goes to the other side, but we're still there. We came as a family. And our boys are out playing with the children in that village.

A lot of our families with young children are walking the neighborhoods as families. So people see this whole family and they wonder, who are these people? And that opens the door to witness as families.

What's the key then, for really remaining together and having that similar mindset as a family, to model that.

You know, when we.

When a lot of people go to the nations, they worked in the US or in a Western society, they had two jobs, they usually eat maybe one meal together a day.

And so when they get to the mission field and they have to do everything together, they go to language school together, they eat together, they go to the market and try to figure out, okay, if I want to buy a kilo of hamburger, what is that in my 2.2 pounds? And so our first trip to the market to buy meat, Nick ordered five kilos of hamburger. Well, we barely had a refrigerator that could hold that.

I mean, you do it all together, and you really do have to transition. How do you live together when you do figure that out? We're seeing that families you invite into your home. And I think that's the key right there.

Most Muslims who come to faith come to faith after being with a family around the table.

So inviting people to our homes to eat, going to their homes and eating with them, modeling how we worship in our home, around the table, or with our children in the evening is huge in allowing them to say, you know, I can't go to that building with that cross on it, because that will make me a target. But if loving Jesus and worshiping him, it can be around my table or in my living room, I can do that.

And so that's what we're modeling as we go as families. Nick may have another job, I may have another job ministry.

But as we witness, Nick brings a family home, I bring a family home, and we begin to see that Christ can be part of their culture just as much for many Muslims especially, they believe they were born a Muslim.

And the fact that you and I get to choose to follow Christ is a big starting point for us as we talk about, you know, that Christ came for you and he loves you and all that. And so I love being able to model, you know, that we can do this in our home and we do it with our children.

I've also heard that you have created a curriculum. Tell us about this curriculum.

Well, I do.

What I like to do is when people are wanting to go overseas or wanting to figure out who's living in their community, Internationals refugees, right now, we're seeing that happen in the U.S. i love to do what I call a Muslim women's worldview.

And in that, I talk about what is their worldview, how do they communicate orally, how do they dress? You know, And I love that for Muslim women, they dress beautifully in jobs and other things.

And I'd like to say that's God saying, look, there's someone that's different. Go find out who they are. And so I've kind of do the worldview, talk about that.

And then we go into, what are some ways that we can build a bridge to communicate with them? And, you know, they're not a target if we make them a target. That's not what we're doing. We want. We just.

We want to build a relationship, and in that relationship, we want them to see who we are in Christ and be attracted to us. And then we spend time at the end in prayer.

We pray that God will break down the barriers in our hearts against Muslim men, against the Taliban, against all these things that we see on the news that cause us to have hatred in our hearts. And then. So we spend time in prayer, and then I spend time talking about, what are your fears?

What is the reason that you don't feel that you're capable of sharing with Muslims or any international. We can bridge it depending on the community where we're doing it.

And then one of the things I love to do, if we have time and we can do it for a whole day, is we do a Muslim women's tea. And we dress, we put our scarves on, and we sit around and we eat hummus and dates and all these things that are a little different to us.

And we talk about what it's like, and then we learn hospitality, because our hospitality norms are very different than many cultures, whether you're in India or in China or in Russia. And hospitality is huge for them. For us, we kind of let a McDonald's take over and Cracker Barrel and all these other restaurants.

We meet people at restaurants rather than bring people into our home. And so we have to figure that out.

I challenge young women in churches who don't know how to do hospitality to get an older lady and partner with that lady, let her do the cooking, and you be the conversation person and partner with people who have the gifts that maybe you're lacking, so that you can be a host, a hostess and bring people to your home.

Why do you think we've lost this idea of hospitality in the West?

I think busyness. We are so busy, our calendars are packed. By the time we get home, we have no more energy.

What I suggest to women who even want to attempt to do this is put it on the calendar. If you put this on the calendar that you're going to go visit someone or you're going to go meet.

Meet a Muslim family that's flown in brand new from Afghanistan, put it on the calendar so that nothing can interrupt that. Otherwise, we fill our days with things that are important and good.

But maybe God needs some of us to do some outreaching and bring people in, but do it in your home. Another thing, Travis, that we really strive is don't just. In America, a lot of times especially, we say, well, come to my church.

If we meet someone in the grocery, I go to this church. Come with me or I'll meet you there. Don't let that be your initial encounter with internationals.

Let your initial encounter with internationals be in your home or be in a park, be away from a building. Because for Muslims coming into that church, that makes them a target, as I said. And we don't want to be the cause of any persecution.

If they're going to be persecuted, we want it to be for Christ.

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Taking that curriculum and those ideas that you have with hospitality and you've become a person who is you and Nick have become a mentor to so many different missionaries that are desirous to go into the field.

What are the things that you're seeing that missionaries or these younger couples that are dealing with today that you didn't have to deal with when you went into the field? What are some of those things?

Number one is debt. We had college debt, but it was a very small amount that we were paying monthly.

But for many young couples who maybe feel they want to go, by the time they're ready to go, they're 30, 35, and they're in debt for a house and a car. And it's just hard to get out of debt so that you can be free to go. So debt. We challenge young couples if you're really.

If you feel God wants you to go, you know, go early before you get so much into that cycle of credit card debt and all of that. So I think that's something that's huge.

I think couples today, for men, they're dealing with pornography issues and those kinds of things that are pulling them away. And that's a hard one to break to go overseas. That's an issue.

Our idea of what church looks like, we picture it just like the church building that we go to and the structure that we have. And that's not going to. You can't pick that up and take that into an environment where there are no churches and they're going to look different.

Majority of them are going to be house churches or small groups. And I know we're trying to go to that in a lot of our churches where we're going into small groups in our home.

But even that is going to look different when you go to a different culture. And how do you allow the Bible to be your guide and not your American culture or your Canadian culture or your European culture?

I love one family was trying to help a Muslim man who came to faith. And when he came to faith, he was told by someone, you don't beat your wife anymore.

But in his culture, beating your wife was just part of the culture. And instead of the workers saying, no, can't do this, they sat down together and read the scriptures. And she pointed out scriptures for him.

And when he came back the next day, he was broken. And he realized that he had been doing something that was not in God's kingdom, and he was totally broken.

And he went to all the men that he was mentoring, and they struggled with it. And so a whole community changed. But they went to the scriptures. They didn't just say, this is right and this is what we believe.

They said, let's go look at what God says.

And so I think that's where you got to learn is how do you study the Word so that you're not putting your culture, pasting your culture on top of the Bible, but translating that. And I think for many young people right now, they have. They have a lot of heroes in the faith.

People, they love to listen to their podcast and all that. But we have to learn to be in the Word too. We can't just have these heroes, these people we listen to every day or we read every day.

Read the Word, read the Scriptures for yourself.

I like that.

Taking that into consideration with these younger people and what they're learning and all of the experiences that you've had, what is the one thing, just one thing that you really want to communicate to them as they're desirous to go into the mission field?

Don't make the mistakes that we've made. Make your own. Okay, I think that's a good one because, you know, we've done these things. We figured these things out, so let's.

We'll pass these things on now. You take it further than we've ever taken it, and you be. They're doing so much better and so much more than we ever did.

And I love to get their newsletters and their letters and their emails and their texts, and they're figuring it out. You know, for us going into the Muslim world, it was. We were taking baby steps.

We had not done this before in our generation, and now we can take the gospel further.

And for young people who are in training or getting ready to go, I'm excited about what God's going to do in their lives and in the lives of those they connect with, because they're learning to use their children as bridges to finding people and doing things that we didn't get to do because we weren't in that world at that time. And I love that they can take it much further than we can.

And you don't have to make our mistakes, make your own and move further than you did and pass on those to the next generation.

It's amazing to me to see how many missionaries and what God is doing in the Muslim world. I mean, how many missionaries are going into the Islamic world?

I still think many Westerners, while Islam was more of the exotic, faraway faith, now it's become close up, especially in the west, because we see these are become our friends, our neighbors, our classmates and coworkers. And so we want to be hospitable. We want to build these relationships with people. But I find that many still struggle.

What do I exactly say to them?

They want the formula. And there's not a formula in many ways.

But what worked or did you find that was most beneficial for you in sharing Christ when it got to that moment in time? What was the bridge that you used to connect and draw Jesus or show Jesus to them?

And how can people take something similar for themselves and apply that in their context?

What I love to do when I go to Walmart or I go to Target, I go to Costco, I go to. I'm trying to think of stores that I went to in Europe and. But anyway, and I meet and I see someone I love to go up and just say, where are you from?

And then that question always leads to how, you know, is your family still there? How is your mother? How is your father a genuine concern for them? And then I like to say, how long have you been here?

And for many of them, they've been here quite a while. And, you know, we meet a family at the ice cream store. I'm on ice cream today, I guess.

And, you know, we asked them, how long had they been in the city? We were. And they'd been in the city for 20 years. So my next question is, has anyone ever welcomed you to the city or this state or this country?

And their response? I can't think of anyone who ever said yes. Their response is, no.

No one ever welcomed me and you can see in their eyes that they're wondering, what are you getting at? And then I want to say, well, I want to be the first. I want to welcome you to wherever. We travel a lot.

So I usually have to think, where am I to welcome. You know, I want to welcome you. And then that opens the door. They're ready to talk to me and find out who I am and all that.

And then my next question usually, and it depends on where we are in the conversation. Has anyone ever told you about Jesus? And usually they say, no, I've never heard. And you know, they're in. I mean, we live in the South.

There's a church everywhere, but, you know, that's the building, and they're. The people are not coming outside. Do this welcoming. And then that opens the door for me to tell them who I am and tell them about Jesus.

I've had Muslim men say to me, if Jesus means that much to you, why don't you talk about him? I'm humbled by that. Because in their mind, they are people of faith. Even if they're nominal, they're people of faith.

And they assume that everyone in America is a Christian because they've been taught that everybody from their country are Muslims. And so they assume that we would talk about him. So it's not. You're not being hateful or obnoxious.

I mean, you could be obnoxious, but you want to do it in a gentle, humble way. Who is Jesus to you? And then finally, I want to say, I need a friend. Would you be my friend? And here's my phone number.

And if you need anything, if I can help you with anything, I'd love for you to do that. And then I always say, can we get together again and I'll invite them to my home?

And you may, in your conversation only get to where you from, how long have you been here?

But if you genuinely say, I think about your country, I've heard about what's going on in your country, that opens the door for them to realize that all Americans are not the same and we are different. But we want you to feel welcomed here and we're glad you're here.

So that's kind of the introduction that I do when I'm just meeting somebody off the street or in the store.

I think just having a few questions that you put in your back pocket helps you start a conversation when you're scared to death that I'm going to blow it or you're not going to blow it for them.

To not be welcome to our country is really an act of hostility because every place we have ever been across the world, we have been welcomed to their city, to their country. We're glad you're here. Ask us where we're from, you know, depending on the country.

Sometimes I want to be from another country because sometimes we can be pretty hateful when we go somewhere. But I'm from America, and usually the statement is, oh, we love America, but we hate your government.

But, you know, that's not the question I want to answer anyway. I want to get to Jesus.

How you mentioned that Muslims have a different idea of hospitality than we do.

And with so many here in the west now and people wanting to open up their homes, what do they need to be familiar with and how the they might, and I mean they, as in the Muslims, might expect your hospitality to be. And how do you try to diffuse that? Because those expectations can lead to some awkward encounters.

And at our church, we used to end the service, talk to someone. It might be awkward, but awkward's awesome.

I like that. I like that a lot. Yeah.

Well, I think, number one, we're often afraid we're going to offend them, but the fact that you're willing to invite them to their home, there is really nothing that you will do that will offend them. They will be so excited and so blessed.

Number one, if you're going to invite someone from another culture, you might ask someone who knows a little about that culture, are there things that I shouldn't cook or something I shouldn't serve that will help you feel a little more confident? For Muslims, of course, you don't do anything with pork and you don't serve alcohol in your home. Those are two things.

So if you have those things just kind of, especially the alcohol, you might put that away if you invite them to your home, those are things they're not allowed to drink and eat. That's one way to feel a little more confident.

If you're really nervous, ask someone who knows about that culture to come or find someone who speaks Arabic to come to your home and be a guest with these people that you're inviting. It was a really neat thing.

I shared this at a meeting one day, and a lady, the husband, went home and told the wife what I had said about inviting people to your home, about not welcoming people. And the lady, the wife said, you know, there's a lady across the street that we've never met and we have no clue where she's from.

But when I see her get in the car, I notice she doesn't look like us. And so she went over there and she invited the lady to come with her family to dinner.

She was a little nervous, but they came, they ate, they had a beautiful evening. And when the lady left, she began to weep.

And she looked at this host and hostess and she said, I've lived in America 20 years, and no one has ever invited me into their home. I never knew what an American home looked like. And tonight I've gotten to come here and I've begged for a friend in America.

And you are now my friend. And she went home and the couple was just. They sat on the couch, they said, and just wept because they realized this lady had been here.

Now, she hadn't lived in their neighborhood for 20 years, but still, that's what's happening. People are wanting friends. They don't know how. We start conversations, and so they don't know what to do.

And so I think once you try it, you're going to like it. You know that whole saying, and we need to figure out how do we welcome the strangers in our midst. The Bible tells us to do that.

So how are we going to do it? There's a lot of creative ways, and I would love to help anyone who's interested in what they're doing. I'll share this story.

I spoke to a group of ladies older than myself. I'm pretty old, but they're much older. I thought, well, this is going to be a big hit when I tell them this story.

But I told them that one of the things I've learned is to go to the grocery.

And before I go in the grocery, I pray God bring someone in my path who is not, who is needing to be welcomed or someone who needs to tell their story or whatever. And I stop and do that before I go in. Now, I don't do it all the time, if you come and watch me.

And there are days I do the run through the store, but I told these ladies that they can pray that. And then they go in the store and they go to the international food aisle. And in some stores it's a big aisle.

And some stores, they might have three items. But. But figure out where it is and look at, look down that aisle and see if there's any Internationals or somebody that God wants you to talk to.

And then go up, if it's a Muslim lady, go up to the box of couscous, take it off the aisle and look puzzled. And when she walks by you, what you're going to do is say, I don't know what this is. Do you know what this is?

And when she says, oh yes, we eat that at our home, you say, well, how do you cook it? Well, I just told them to do that.

And one lady called me after the meeting and she says, you know, I've gone to the grocery twice this week and I haven't met anybody that looks different. And nobody knows what couscous is. Okay, well let's try it one more time. And I got on my knees and I really began to pray. Oh God, in this lady's life.

Now, this lady is 75, 78 years old. So she called me again a few weeks later and she says, okay, I did what you told me.

I went to the grocery, I went to the international food aisle and I put up the couscous and I held it up and there came a Muslim lady with a baby. She said, I was just in shock. So she said, I took a deep breath and I did it, I held it.

And this Muslim lady looked at her and says, we eat this all the time. I'd love to teach you to cook it. And the lady said, okay, well maybe I can come to your house sometime and you tell me how to cook it.

And the lady said to her, the Muslim lady said, oh no, you come to my house right now and we'll make fish foods.

This 78 year old woman left her cart in the grocery aisle, got in a car with this Muslim lady, had no clue who she was, went to her house, ate the couscous, had a beautiful day. She called me back, she said, ok, I did what she said and she told me the story. She says now she's coming to my house tomorrow, what do I do?

And I said, I am so excited. And she was over the moon excited. And they've got a great relationship now.

They visit each other, they go to each other's house, she cooks American food and this Muslim lady cooks her food. So anyway, I think a little of it is bravery. Are you brave enough to try something different and get out of your norm?

Courage. We all need that little bit of courage to make those connections and connect with so many different people.

What's one thought you would want to leave our listeners? We like to end the show with here's your water bottle for the week.

What is the one water bottle that you would like people to take away from this conversation?

Open up your eyes and your ears and try something new and fresh. Start in God's word and then just step out the front door. And see what God has for you.

You know, a lot of times we go to church and they say, meet somebody you've never met. And the thought of walking across the aisle to somebody that's different, we don't do. And so I challenge your listeners. Do something different.

Go somewhere different. Find what God has by opening your eyes and your ears and learning something new.

A new language, a new culture, a new food that you thought you'd never like to try. An international restaurant is a great place to do that. So, yeah, try something new.

I like that. I like that. And you get to eat and try. I mean, it's fun to meet new people, try new food.

I know it's a little scary for some people, and it was for me.

I'm not a person that really likes different spices and foods, but I found that when you do that, when you take that initial step of faith, you find they are so excited that someone would care enough to come in and ask questions about their culture and they want to share those things. That is just wonderful. Ruth, how can people learn more about what you are doing and your ministry and how they can follow you?

Well, we have a website, nickricipken.com and that has a lot of stuff that Nick has done, but Ruth is all in there. We do a lot together. We travel together, we go to churches together.

Our itinerary of where we'll be is on that website and we can always link you up there. You can write me@ruthcripken.com that's also on the website. I'd love to hear from your listeners about what they've tried, if they tried anything.

How did they meet somebody different than themselves? And if they have questions, I'll be glad to answer. I'm slow sometimes at writing emails, but I do get to them and I do write. And so that'd be great.

I'd love to do that. I've been challenged to write a book, so maybe one of these days we'll see.

We'd love to be able to read it. You have so many different insights, and I've known some of the people that we know in common. They said, you have to talk to Ruth.

There's so many insights, so much, so many jewels and treasures that she's gained over the years. And we've only touched the tip top of it, I'm sure. But I think we would.

We'd love to be able to read what it is you've written because you'd given a perspective that we haven't seen very often. I think a lot of us haven't, and I think it's very important and needed for that conversation.

As you said before, it's these women that we're seeing that are coming to faith in Christ, that are. That are sharing it with their families and.

And it just opens doors that I don't think people often look at or think of because they think of an oppression. They think of it far away, and they just don't think of the relational aspect of things that are there.

So I just wanted to thank you for coming on the show. Ruth, thank you for coming on. Apollo's Watered.

Thank you. I've loved it.

I want to thank Ruth for coming on the show. Her words and insights are tremendously encouraging and also very, very helpful.

It's nice to talk to someone who has been there, done that, and who still has a deep heart and a desire to see God do so much more. I hope that this makes you want to reach out more to those Muslim women in your community who desperately need Jesus.

And not just the women, of course, but the men, too. Or as Nick and Ruth both say, it's the family. May God use our families to reach families.

No matter how broken our families have been, God is there to forgive. And God can make a straight line with a crooked stick.

And the principles that she discussed can be used to reach others from all different kinds of cultural backgrounds. We just need to pray and ask God for that opportunity and take that step of faith courageously.

If this episode has helped you, would you consider partnering with us? We need your help.

We finished the year on a great note, but there's still so much more to do, so much more content to create people to talk to, people to pray for and believers to equip. And we need your help. We're grateful for what God has done so far, and may he receive all the praise and the glory for it.

He's brought some incredible watering partners our way, and yet there are still more who can join our team. For those who have already partnered with us, thank you. And for those who want to join us, go to ApolloSwatered.org and hit that support us button.

And thank you in advance. We'd love to have more people grow from connecting with Apollos Watered.

If you've been impacted while listening to a podcast, would you screenshot that episode, text it to a friend, share it on your stories, or simply share it directly from your podcast platform? Subscribing and leaving a review also puts it out there to more people.

Remember, we have content on instagram Facebook, and our website that's shareable. And there's a lot more to come together. Let's leave a trickle of truth and encouragement around the world and watch people grow.

I want to give a shout out to our team. Kevin, Melissa, Donovan, Eliana, Rebecca, and Audrey. Water your faith, water your world.

This is Travis Michael Fleming signing off from Apollo's Watered. Stay watered, everybody.