David Valera: When Methodists Make a Home for Each Other

0:00 Music. Alright, welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm Damian, I'm a Methodist, and this is the Holy Club Podcast. Every Monday we invite a United Methodist from all over the world to talk with us about Methodism and their personal faith. My guest today is Pastor David Valera. I'm excited to have you here today. Welcome, welcome.

0:50 So, first question, where did you come from before you joined me for the podcast today? Today, just the last hour or so, I was coming from Great Spirit United Methodist Church. We have a meeting there of many leaders of the United Methodist Church in the western jurisdiction. That's the western hemisphere of the United Methodist Church from seven states or eight states, all the way from Hawaii to the Californias to Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Alaska, even parts of Canada.

1:25 Und sogar in Phoenix, Arizona und Nevada. Bishops, leaders were there. We had around almost 70 people there. So I came from that. But the church in itself is what we call Great Spirit. It's a Native American church. It's one of the few churches which is pastored by a Native American and serves the community of Native Americans in that area.

1:50 So it's actually in a in a downtown and it's a downtown community area. So it's a it's a residential community, very near, not very near, but it's within 20, 30 minutes of downtown downtown Portland. It is pretty what we call suburban or suburban, as most people do. So there's a lot of homes right next to it that are not just Native Americans, but they're white folks, immigrant folks from all over the world.

2:20 Und der Community, die Inherited this church. Actually, it used to be a white church, but the white community church there kind of closed down and this Native American presence is steady. It was turned over to what we call now the Great Spirit United Methodist Church. Okay, wow. So, okay, we're now going already deep into Methodism, but I have a question about that.

2:45 Maybe I should know, maybe I get now in trouble with the bishop because I don't know, but is the The Native American pastor there, is he or she, are they part of the appointment system, so they have to move at one point? Yes, he's an appointed elder, actually. He's actually a reverend and someone who's been ordained and has gone through the process of being a United Methodist clergy person. He also is the chairperson of what we call the...

3:13 With Native American communities, so the CONAM, so not only for the community where he's at, but for the whole Western jurisdictions. We had around 11 bishops with us today, and we had both serving current and retired, and then we also had laypeople who are lay leaders, are also clergy leaders. And so it's this annual meeting, gathering of the leaders to kind of align and look at our ministries and celebrate and also talk into a deeper detail about what's going on in our communities in the world and how can we work together as a jurisdiction.

3:53 Yeah, I love that this is part of, I would call it connectionalism, right? That we, as a bigger jurisdiction, because Europe doesn't have jurisdictions, we have central conferences, we don't need that, right? Like for those who are listening, Germany is a central conference And then the next bigger one is Switzerland, together with Austria and France and North Africa. They built one.

4:14 And so here it's similar, but we don't have central conferences. We have the jurisdictions. So they work together and share ministries and work. So I have a tough question for you, David, before we get to know you more. You said you were being together with 11 bishops today. Who's your favorite bishop?

4:30 Oh, see, you're going to have me got in trouble with this, of course. Right, right, Damien? Well, of course, my favorite bishop, I don't ask of today, as you asked this question, is our current bishop, Bishop Cedric, because I get to work with him very closely and all the new things he's bringing to the table.

4:49 So I would not say he's my favorite, but he's my current bishop I am currently working a lot with, and it's a good relationship I have with him. And he brings in also a different gift from previous bishops, because our previous bishop, Bishop Stanowski, grew up in the Northwest. So she was more of a local community, knew the place.

5:13 But Bishop Cedric is from L.A. He grew up in the L.A. He served as superintendent before he came here. And now he brings all of these questions of, why do you guys do it this way? Why has it always been like this? So just like us, who are foreigners in different places, we sometimes ask, why do you guys do it this way? I've heard you ask those questions of me when we shared a room together at the camp and you were my bunkmate and you were like asking, why do you guys do it this way?

5:38 I'm like, hey, I'm also an immigrant here. Don't ask me that question. Yeah, that's right. Which leads us to, that's a good transition to who are you actually? So I know that you're an ordained elder of the United Methodist Church. You're a pastor. You grew up in the Philippines and you're now in the Pacific Northwest in Florida.

5:57 Seattle, right? That's your home base. But you're not working in a local church, so what is your job, actually? What are you doing here? Yeah, that's a really good question. I work more on the regional office, so I'll try to use language that's less Methodist for those Methodists who are going to hear this, but more towards folks who might be asking, not from the church's perspective.

6:20 So I work in the regional office, which is called the annual conference office. That's usually where the bishop stays. There's an office there, and so we have our divisions or what we call branches, or for our purposes, we have the different sections of ministry, whether it's the financial section, which is our treasurer's office.

6:40 We also have our administrative offices there, where the bishop and all the other superintendents come for their meetings. And then my office is more towards the programming side, or what we call in church, connectional. Because our programs are not done by ourselves, but we're always trying to connect.

6:59 And there's always usually a replication of many of those programs. So when you're talking about whether it's helping ministries for our poor neighbors or ministries during disaster response, when there's a disaster somewhere else in the world, and we all want to respond, instead of just one church doing it by themselves, like your church in Cheney, for example.

7:20 Instead of Cheney's just the one doing it, we have a connectional way of putting those resources together from different churches, from Spokane, from Seattle, from Atacoma. And then we say, how can we pull all our resources together so that it has a deeper and wider effect on what is needed right now?

7:39 So that's the connectional nature of my work. So my work is to make sure those pipelines of how that connectional system or of the railroad system, we're always the one in my office, make sure those channels are open. People are able to have an on-ramp and an off-ramp and how to start this. So we're always dealing with so many other programs or projects every now and then that makes the connection alive.

8:05 There, I hope that helps. Oh, yeah. I mean, I know some stuff of what you do, but now it gets a better picture for me. And I feel like it's something of what I love about Methodism is our connectio-thought or connectionalism that we really try to collaborate together, not just in our little area, like the Spokane district where I am.

8:28 No, we are like the whole state, the whole jurisdiction. And I love that when we had this, or when the fire was going on in L.A. And now still they need help and stuff, how we can address other, we're not alone in this. Not just Genie sends some money down there. No, we talk to each other, we create something, and then we send stuff down there. We have pastors down there, we have coordinate.

8:50 And that's just the good side of being a big church and being so connected. Right, and that's a good example of what you said with the fires, because the same way they send help or we send help anywhere in the world, we're also ready to receive. That's the other hand. So in a way, it's like the heartbeat.

9:11 The Connectionalism, to me, is like a heartbeat. Our ability to breathe in and breathe out, to receive and to give. Man hand receives, the other hand gives. So it never stays with us, whether we are receiving or giving. And that's basically how Connectionalism, why to me it's a very realistic ministry, that real-time ministry that it's not to hoard and keep it here, but it's always going somewhere else.

9:36 It's always, we receive this because we need to send it, not because we want to become rich, you know? Yes. That's why we are a non-profit. I mean, as far as the U.S. Government and other governments are covered, we're not supposed to be making profits of things because what we receive is supposed to be designed to go out.

9:55 I preach that. I don't think that every church heard that before. All right, we have a warm-up question. We are warmed up already, but I still want to ask that question. Sure. And it is, what is your favorite Methodist hymn or favorite hymn in our Methodist hymnal? Wow. All right. Well, I do have a favorite hymn, and it's been something that I always listened to my grandmother sing when I was young.

10:24 And she always sang A Sweet Hour of Prayer. It talks about the Sweet Hour of Prayer and how my grandma used to hum that a lot when we were growing up. Und, you know, when you're growing up in a country that did not have, back in the Philippines, sometimes it was dark at night and she would ask me, I would go from one house of a cousin to go to the other or I'm going to sleep over and we were just going to walk.

10:50 Und manchmal bin ich, oh, ich bin Angst, zu gehen. Ich sage, oh, ich bin Angst, es ist okay, zu gehen. Und dann würde ich sagen, wenn ich Angst bin, ich würde singen Hymns und einfach machen, die Musik werden, die focus auf meine Inspiration oder etwas anderes. Das ist eine Art, dass ich mich zu haben.

11:08 Und so, wenn ich ein Wunder, ein Wunder, ein Wunder, ein Wunder, es hilft, es hilft, es hilft, es hilft, es hilft, es hilft, was in front of mich. And whether it's being grateful or being afraid, it's just a sweet hour of prayer. You know, the way Jesus tells us, you don't just pray when you ask for something.

11:27 Prayer is also something when you are grateful or joyful for something. And so, to me, that's my favorite hymn. And thank you for asking. Yeah, thank you for sharing that story. I will put that link to a YouTube video or something into our podcast description so people can listen to it and maybe feel the power of it as well. Ja.

11:48 Wenn du gesagt, Can I read, or can I share with you the first one? I love so much where it says, the first paragraph says, Sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a word of care and bids me at my Father's throne to make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and often escaped The tempter's snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer.

12:22 That's beautiful, yeah. It is. And I've heard many versions of it, both slow and fast and the way it's sang. And it's just very inspiring. So there you go. Thank you. So David, what would you call home when you said you grew up in the Philippines, you live now in Washington? What is home for you? That's a very good question. Actually, quite recently, my mom died last year, after my dad died several years ago.

12:51 And so you used to go home to the Philippines. And I'm giving you a sneak peek into the answer of when they were both alive, when mom and dad were alive in their later years. We used to say, I'm going home. And we would say, go home to the Philippines. And there was always a reason to go to visit mom and dad.

13:11 But when they passed away last year, when we went home, my wife and I arrived. It was the first time we realized that when we arrived home, it was a dark house. It used to be, there would be light. There was somebody there. And we used to wake up my mom and dad at four o'clock, five o'clock in the morning when we would arrive straight from Manila in the Philippines. and drive up to our city.

13:34 And we tried not to tell them that we were arriving because they would get worried if we had not arrived. You know how older parents sometimes are like, where are they now? Why haven't they arrived yet? They're 10 minutes late. What's happening? We learned not to call them or tell them. We just show up.

13:50 Well, this time around, it was the first time we arrived at that house when nobody was there anymore waiting for us. And what was funny is I was invited to preach. As soon as I got back from the U.S., I was invited to preach in Canada, one of our new churches for immigrants. And the topic that they gave me was to talk about homecoming.

14:13 They were like, what is homecoming to you? And I was like, oh my God, this is so raw. This whole experience, as I was writing my sermon in the Philippines, in my parents' house, I was myself dealing with, where is home, really? Yeah. Because I'm a U.S. citizen now. My wife gave birth to a son. We raised him here in the U.S. So to him, this is home in America.

14:35 But at the same time, we have a house here. But where is home, really? So that's a really good question. I guess for us immigrants, it becomes a real challenge to really name where is home. And then I read, I don't know if this is just AI creeping up. You know, when you have conversations, suddenly it knows your question.

14:53 Suddenly it's out there. Suddenly, a quote came up to my phone that just said, Home is where your loved ones are. And I looked at my family, my wife and my son, and I said, you know what? We can be here. We can be in the Philippines. We can be in another part of the world. But I think my home is where my family is, where my loved ones are.

15:15 And so, to me, that's how I would define it. I think it's where, it's not the house, which I was trying to be very careful. My mom's house is not my home. That was their home when they lived there. That was their house. But now to me, because of this experience of immigrating, it's really where I will find the love of having the most important people in my life. It's my home.

15:37 That's a good answer. As you said, as someone who just moved here two years ago, it's a question I'm still thinking about. Do I go home to Germany or do I go back home to Spokane where I live now? It's funny, right? Because when we were in the Philippines, we're saying, where are you going? I will be going back home.

15:58 No, when you're in the Philippines, you say, we're going back home to America. But when you're in America, you're going to say, I'm going back home to the Philippines. And so, which is which? And in German, actually, there's a difference in a word. So, we have the word for where you're from, where you grew up, Heimat.

16:17 You don't use that. I would never say Spokane ist meine Heimat because that's not my personal home in a way. But then I have Nach Hause, which means I go home to my place where I live. Right, right. You live there. Yes, and so there's a difference in a word we can use. So Heimat is a very, I don't know if that's in other languages, but a very German word to describe this is where I'm from, this is where I spent my childhood or something.

16:47 Actually, in the English language, there's only the word home and house. But in Filipino, we have so many ways by which you can interpret. Okay. When you say where you grew up, that's also a part of our definition. San Kalumake, as we would say it. Or where do you go home now? Where do you live now? So there's another name. I mean, so it's a lot more detailed.

17:09 That's what everyone would imagine in German. It's more descriptive. Because sometimes home is not enough to describe it. No, it's just when people have to raise a home for you, I'm like, I don't know what you want to know by that. Yeah, yeah, because sometimes you're just camping or hiking out in the mountains and you put up your tent and you're going to say, this is now our home base, right? For the next three days, this is home base.

17:30 I'm like, oh, okay, it's temporary housing. That's true, temporary housing. But that leads me actually to the moment where we met each other because I'm going to share something private I didn't tell you so far. But in 2022, when I moved here, a couple months later, I was invited to come to the Christmas Institute CI, and that's where I met you.

17:49 So maybe you can share something about what this is and how that started, and then I explain my little story, which I connect with you, which I haven't told you so far. Oh yeah, you're going to mute that now after all of that. Anyway, yeah, so let's talk about what Christmas Institute is. Actually, Christmas Institute is started in the Philippines.

18:07 The origin is in the Philippines. And what it is, is basically a youth camp. So it is a youth camp, but it's usually the season of where, when it is held that gave it the name Christmas Institute because it's between Christmas and New Year. So it's the 26th to usually the 30th or 31st between those dates, depending on the season of the year, whether it's a Friday or a Saturday, that's what we look at.

18:37 And so it used to also have a different name before it was before even Christmas Institute. For any metal nerds out there listening, it used to be known as the Epworth League. You know, there was... So that's something to research on. It's the Methodist Youth Fellowship in other places. And so they gathered as a time for celebrating a time between Christmas and New Year in the Philippines.

19:03 And you have young people between ages 12 to 21 who come to those events, to those camps. In the Philippines, there are three Episcopal areas. So this is, again, a little Methodist in the way, but there are three Episcopal areas in the Philippines. In one Episcopal area, I got a report for Christmas Institute.

19:27 They had almost 8,000 young people that attended all their Christmas Institute, when you count all of the events simultaneously happening. That's half of the Swiss Methodist people in general, or maybe more, I don't know. Ja, aber das ist wie populär die Christmas Institute ist in den Philippines. Hier in den USA, wir haben rund, ich glaube, wir sind sechs Christmas Instituts in den USA.

19:53 Last Jahr, oder just this Jahr, wir gaben birth zu ein UCI in Canada. So das ist die meisten exciting. Wir gaben birth zu ein neues Grupp von young Leuten und Young Leaders zu haben, ihre Christmas Institute camp. Aber ich möchte, was etwas sehr interessant ist. Wenn ich da der ersten Mal und ich war, ich möchte, und ich war nämlich der only white guy, right?

20:13 Most of them have Filipino heritage who go there, right? Well, our hosts were white, so yes, that's why people work for you. Yeah, and so we shared a room, and I was actually not in a good place. I felt I was very homesick during that time, because it was between Christmas and New Year's, and so I was very homesick, and I was like, Jesus, Damien, what did you do?

20:36 Why did you go to the US, right? I was like, and then we shared a room, and the way you welcome me and introduce me in a way I was in the just be part of that whole group for those days I was there made me feel so being home, And at the same time, I realized that this kind of, not just the faith in Christ, but also the Methodism that from different cultures or areas makes me feel I'm already there, I belong, right?

21:04 Yeah. And that was something very powerful I experienced through you in that case. Thank you. Wow. Even though the nights were short because I think you were snoring. You were too. Yeah, I know for a fact that's true. Ja, es war toll, aber was wirklich mit mir connected, mit mir, mit dir, right away, und das ist true zu mir, das ist die Art, die ich habe, war, was ich immer für was, was das Person hat, was ich kann, was das Person hat, was ich, was ich, was ich, was ich, was ich, was ich, was, was ich, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was,

21:39 was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was. Was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, So we were both immigrants. And to me, I just celebrate that, hey, this guy may look like white, like I said, all the other white people here. But he also speaks funny.

21:54 He also has probably preferences in food that's not the same as the usual places. But what I really found incredibly beautiful from you was you are always blunt. And you are a direct communicator. And I enjoyed that so much with you because you will just go ahead and ask a question. Wenn du nicht verstehst, dann war ich, oh mein Gott, er ist wirklich das Thema? Das ist cool.

22:21 Ja, das kann mich in die Probleme manchmal, ich habe zu beurteilen. Ich denke, es kann. Ich habe schon gehört, das mit den Leuten. Ich habe schon in der Kirche, wenn wir die Fragen, für uns Asians und Filipinos, manchmal sind wir nicht so direct und ich wünsche ich konnte lernen, wie du. Ich möchte, oh, ich möchte, wie Damien jetzt und einfach diese Frage stellen.

22:40 Und das ist ein guter Weg zu tun. Ich denke, Damien würde sagen, ich werde ihn für jetzt nicht imitieren. Aber talking über CI, ich wollte mich über die Frage, was die Ergebnisse der Ergebnisse waren. Das macht CI sehr sehr Attractive. Hier in den Pacific Northwest, in den camps, in den ich in den letzten 20 Jahren, wir haben so viele Pastoren.

23:07 We have become one of the, CI has become one of the best places where leaders have planted the seed for young people, young voices, young hearts to really hear the call of God and say, is God calling me to something else deeper than just going to church on Sunday or even just questioning? Or even people who have not gone to church, suddenly they realize there must be something else that God is asking me to do because I feel my heart strangely warm in this place. So, you know, the whole Aldersgate experience.

23:38 Yeah, das ist ein Westerreferenz, für diejenigen, die nicht wissen, ja. Aber das ist was CI. May 17th? Ja, das ist das, ja. Aber das ist die ganze Ziel. Und ich sehe das. Was mir joy ist, dass die Leute das all über, in den Philippines, ich höre stories über die Leute, die Leute von Leuten, die Leute, die Leute, die Gott, oder Gott, die Leute, die Leute, die Leute, die Leute, die Leute, die Leute, und dann, die Leute, Ja.

24:12 Wir haben etwa 18 Mitgliedstaaten von der Filipino-Clergy-Association hier in Washington. And if you talk to all of us, I would bet maybe 80% of us had CI to blame or took his thing, depending on the version for hearing our call or getting our affirmation for that. I know definitely like five or six pastors I talked to who told me all I went to CI and it was a major change in their lives for that. Ja, und so das, zu mir, ist das drei oder vier Tage, dass wir zusammen haben.

24:51 Some young people, ich habe sie sagen, man, ich wünsche ich find another CI in zwischen den December meetings. Es ist sehr unterschiedlich. Und die principle that CI usually does, weil das ist ein youthprogramm, ist es usually youth-based, es youth-led, und es ist youth-designed. Ich denke, es ist ein großartiges ministry. Und du sang, Man, you sang at that Christmas Institute when you were preaching.

25:19 I didn't know that you were going to sing. You remember you just asked, do we have a keyboard? And for those listening to this podcast, if you have not heard Pastor Damien sing and play the keyboard, you have not heard the full ministry of Damien Karuster. So I would challenge you to look for those moments.

25:36 Thank you for the shootout here. Shoutout, you mean. I think shootout is different. Ich bin ein Immigrant, sorry, das manchmal happens, right? Oh no, ja, ich bin nicht schüttet ihr, man. So, kann man uns ein bisschen mehr für diejenigen, die nicht mehr gehört, von einem anderen United Methodist Church, besides Europa oder sogar Amerika?

25:56 Was man von den Unterschiede zwischen den Philippinen United Methodist Church und den USA, Das ist eine große Frage. Und eine große Unterschiede, die ich sehe, ist manchmal, wie finanziell rich andere Churchen sind. Die Philippines ist ein sehr poorer Land. Ich war in eine sehr poor, poor Community. Wir hatten eine Konzett-Hut für eine Church-Buildung.

26:20 Es war nicht so eine große Cathedral, wie es in Europa, oder hier in den USA, wo es in sehr, sehr prime locations in einem Stadt oder in einem Community gibt. You will see that. And I remember one of my parishes back then, we could barely fit our members in our small, maybe we had 80 people sitting capacity, but I had around 250 to 300 members.

26:49 And they would come on Sunday, around 200 people. They would be outside looking into the window, watching us and listening. There was no air conditioning. Our windows were open, so we would have the breeze coming right through. We had a crappy sound system, but it was loud enough that, you know, when I would be preaching, when we would be singing, our neighbors would be hearing everything. There was no privacy.

27:17 You would not be worried about the number of decibels your church is producing, that they will call the police or somebody else to say you're producing too much noise, right? I mean, those are first world problems. We did not have those problems back then. Oh yeah, also very German, like to call if it's too loud.

27:37 Oh yeah, yeah. And they have their decibel meters outside. I was shocked when they found out that that's a real story here. And so anyway, one of the joys that that brings, though, that being poor brings is we never worried about where we're going to have worship. Whenever we had Vacation Bible School and there was no space and we had a small little hut where we were and there was only space for only 20 children.

28:03 Well, what do you do when 50 children show up or 60 children show up and they don't come by themselves? They bring their parents. Suddenly you have swelling this to like 80, 90, 100 people. What do we do? I would look for a mango tree that has enough shade to cover us because it's 90 degrees. So we go under the mango tree, and that's where we're going to do our work. That's where we're going to worship.

28:27 We never had the problems, oh, do we have a permit to meet here? Do we have a permit? You know what I mean? That was never a problem for us. We would just go and do it. And there was no one who was going to call us and say, oh, you need a permit to gather here, you know, kind of thing. That was how raw my ministry was in a poor community, in a small rural farming community.

28:51 And when the farmers in the morning would go out, the fathers mostly, and the young sons would go out to the farms to manually work on their farms, they would go out as early as 5 or 4 in the morning because it's not yet hot. And then by the time it is now 8 o'clock when the sun is already up and it's very warm, These folks would gather under a tree and just rest, waiting for the clouds to come or something out there, tired after putting in four or five hours of work already into the fields.

29:23 Well, guess what? I saw that as an opportunity to talk to them. So I would be there, bring a bottle of Coca-Cola or something with ice water and just enjoy a time of fellowship with them. That was my coffee hour. That was the time with the Q&A with the pastor. That's ministry, man. And that's how I can't do that here.

29:44 I can't just show up in people's farms or people's workplaces and say, hey, you want to talk about? I have a coffee. Es war sehr raw. Es war sehr humbling zu tun, und du gete zu sprechen und hören. Nicht ein Podcast, aber in der Weg, wir waren Interviewen und getting to know each other. Some of die Leute haben nie been to church.

30:10 Ich sagte, warum haben Sie nie been to church? Ich sagte, ich konnte nicht finden, ich bin sehr mit meinem Farm, weil ich meine Familie habe. Ich lasse meine wife, meine Kinder gehen, und ich here, but on a Monday, when I show up, they appreciate it. And I love that time with that. So to me, I can't do that. When I was a pastor here, I was very restricted by, I need to set an appointment. When can I visit you?

30:32 We spent almost 10 minutes looking for just the time. I mean, before this podcast, we had to like, you can't just call me and say, hey, David, can we do an interview now? It was always scheduled. It's always stuff there. That's a view in the Philippines that I miss, or to me, when I started in ministry, which until today that's still happening I know that's still happening I mean sometimes what people forget is that.

31:00 When we look at the Bible where it's maybe even a little bit more similar that Jesus was walking around and people were sometimes open to just listen you meet them on the street or on the shades or whatever, but now we are in a different context in the US or in Europe I assume the same way how can we approach people and how can we be with them and then sometimes the experience is kind of, did you know they're not coming to church anymore?

31:27 And I said, yeah, why? Do you know why? No. Then I visit them and they tell me, oh yeah I'm working shifts in the hospital I can't on Sunday at the moment. Right? And then instead of like judging them, maybe we should figure out a way how we can minister to them and bring the church to them, right? Mm-hmm.

31:47 Und das ist eine andere Herausforderung hier, als in den Philippines. Es ist eine andere Art, eine andere Art von doing this. Well, COVID, wenn die Pandemie hit, das kind of resette a lot of the ways we thought about church. Es ist wirklich... Because you have to show up at church, wear your best clothes on a Sunday, 9 o'clock, you should already be heading to church and wait for a coffee hour and all of that.

32:10 Well, suddenly, we were now offering church when people were in their pajamas and they're in their living room watching online And that has not gone away. Now that is a normal thing that people do. And so the question of what is the church evolving to so that it becomes relevant to the lives of people, especially young people as they are shaping how the future of the church is.

32:32 So very good question. Totally. Yeah, cool. Were there any theological surprises or cultural surprises like when you became a pastor here in the U.S.? Ja, da waren viele Theological surprises. Wenn du in den Nord-West warst, warst du ein bisschen mehr Progressive. Und ich bin nicht nur ein bisschen, es war sehr Progressive für mich.

32:58 Ich war in ein sehr conservativeem Background. Ich war in den Fellowsen. Ich war mit der Churchen, mit der Campus Christen für Christen, mit der Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, weil ich auch ein Campus Minister war. Aber die Methodist-Church hatte nicht eine sehr starken Campus-Ministrie. back then.

33:18 Maybe we should have chosen a name of war, like Crusade. Sure, why not? And wore a big cross here. And with a helmet and everything. Yeah, sure. Because that's something for the people who don't know. We have this campus movement also in Germany. It's called Campus für Christus, which means like Campus for Christ.

33:40 But here it's still, in Winchini we have one as well. It's called Crusade or Crew, which is a bit odd for Europeans Like, you want to use crusade? Like, Heussel? Right, right. Yeah. It's all very contextual, right? So, yeah. Totally. I'm a history buff and I love history. So, yeah, I know the stories of the crusades and when you start naming any of those.

34:04 But to me, connecting this to the dots with earlier, when the theological, to me, it was not even about the theological differences, but the theological opportunities. That I saw. I told you that in the Philippines we were very poor and even when there's a funeral, when there was no priest or nothing from the other churches because in the barrio where I served sometimes I was the only in-resident minister and the Catholic priest would only come once a month to do communion.

34:33 But then people would die or somebody else family would need a pastoral care or something else and they would call on me and invite me because you're the closest Ja. It was just the field. It was just the tombs where we were at, and people were standing and sitting on tombs, and I would be preaching under a tree.

35:04 And I was like remembering John Wesley, when he was saying that's where he was preaching. And Anthony was like, yeah, this is what makes me a United Methodist. This is so cool, connecting these opportunities to that. And so even in the time of a memorial service, it was an evangelistic opportunity. Totally, yeah. It was the place where you talk about life, not just death.

35:25 Und es wird ein Beginn von etwas anderes das wird ein Beginn von einer Opportunität geben. Und es ist auch ein Wissen, dass du die Funeral für ein Catholic oder eine andere denomination selbst wenn sie nicht in deinem Church sind. Und das ist etwas, was wir hier noch nicht in deinem Church sind. Ich habe das Gefühl, dass Leute kommen und fragen, hey, kann du unsere Service?

35:45 Weil wir nicht zu einer Church sind. Und dann du es. Und dann, die ganze Familie, die sich auf der Church vermittelt. Weil sie fühlt sich, dass sie sich in deinem Church vermittelt. Someone spoke to their needs, they listened, and people feel a connection. Yeah, I think that's a key word to me, is the connection. I mean, when I was part of a team serving in Bellevue First in Washington, all the other pastors were gone, and I was the only one here.

36:11 I was a new immigrant, and then somebody died who apparently was a long-term member of this church. And then they said, can you do the memorial, and we want to interview you, and we want to talk to you. I didn't know what interview meant, only then did I realize that they were sizing me up if I could do the funeral for their parent, for their dad or not, because they had some requirements.

36:35 And one of the requirements was, until later on when we had a conversation more deeper, they said, can you not mention Jesus' name during this? I kid you not. We have all been there. I had that before, too. Yeah, yeah. But you're coming from the Philippines where I just preached everywhere, everything.

36:56 I'm like, what do you mean? I'm like, well, we have members of the family of who are of Jewish descent and would really appreciate if you can honor them by not doing this. I'm like, okay, Lord, you got to help me here. I don't know how to do this, you know? Yeah. So those are some of the deep theological differences I see, I think, sometimes when there are restrictions now on how I do that.

37:16 But what I appreciated so much about learning when I came to the U.S. Was the amount of stretching my theology also was put into, because I said I was conservative. But then when I started to learn about more progressive, or I don't even want to say progressive, more loving nature of being a follower of Christ, that you're not judging people, you're not stopping them because of their gender or their color, their race, or whatever they're doing.

37:43 But you are more of a, we're just going to love everyone. All means all. We're just going to have people show up. And that to me was like, oh my God, I was never taught this before. It was all about either you're going to hell or you're going to heaven. You choose where you're going. It was always just about condemnation.

38:02 Or if you don't pray this prayer, you're not going to heaven. And it's scary. Yeah. And it's a lot of pressure. Right. Also, for the ones who are saved, right, or feel like saved, and then feel the pressure of, now I have to go out all the time because everybody else goes to hell if I don't tell them.

38:22 And they have to, you know, pray that prayer. Otherwise, it won't. And this is, there's more freedom in a little bit of a different thinking on that. Yeah. The other difference from a pastoral perspective was now also the time of Sabbath and rest. That was not a concept we were taught. And maybe it was because we were colonized as a community. We were colonized.

38:47 And so you don't rest. You keep working. You have to keep working. And so one of the things I was asked by my district to pretend it is, what's your day off? I'm like, I have a day off? Like, what do you mean I have a day off? I thought I just work Monday to Sunday, like nonstop. Ich bin ja, ich bin ja, ich bin.

39:06 Ich bin ja, ich bin ja, ich bin ja, ich bin ja, ich bin ja. Ich bin ja, ich bin ja, ich bin ja, ich bin ja. Ich bin ja, ich bin ja, ich bin ja, das concept. Das hat nie been mine. Ich bin ja, wenn man most Filipino pastors oder Asian pastors wird, man will achten, ich meine Koreanans, die sind ja, die off war fast wie ein sinnen. Wenn man sich auf, was eine Sünde.

39:29 Ich habe das mit unseren Klern, Ich habe meinen Kollegen Kollegen einen Tag, und ich sagte, eine der Trauma, das ich mit mir, das ich hatte, war das, was die sagen, dass in order for you to give light, you must endure burning. Und so, es taught mich, dass du nicht restierst, du musst du burning, burning, burning.

39:49 So, ja, ich war burnt out. Und dann, ich realized... Ja, an einem Punkt, die Öl in der Lampen ist weg. Right. Und dann, das ist was Paul gesagt, about for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. There you go, you did it. I'm like, oh my God. This is such a very wrong theology. That's nuts. I mean, it's also against, like, even God rests in a day. Exactly.

40:17 If you, that's just so wrong. Yeah, it's just so wrong. I know, I know. But that's just, I think, the colonized spirit. We just never question that. Und dann später on, du hast, oh ja, aber auch Gott hat einen Tag auf. Er sagt, ich bin jetzt fertig, jetzt. Das ist gut, dass du es gesagt hast. Ich finde, das ist ein sign of good leadership, das ich hier auch erlebe. Es ist wenn die Superintendent, für example, asks dir, wenn ist dein Tag off? Und ich kann es dir, dass du es zu nehmen.

40:47 Und also, unsere Superintendenten currently asks uns, did du take all of your vacation days this year? Oder are du going to? Was ist der Plan? Und ich bin, ja, das ist eigentlich gut, dass du asked das. Because sometimes, church life kann suck you in so fast. Es ist nicht der Fall der Parishonel. Es ist einfach passiert, in einem anderen Weg.

41:05 Und dann wir sind immer immer alleine, so wir haben unsere Boundaries alleine in unserer eigenen Weise. Und da sind keine guidelines für das. Und da sind niemanden in den Augen. Wenn du in den Office kommst, wenn du in den Office kommst, da ist no überpaid für, overnäher hours. Es ist nichts like das. So wir wirklich haben zu haben, wo es uns ein bisschen zu haben.

41:26 Ja, so das sind nur ein paar von den großen Differenzen I really experienced being from the Philippines. And so I'm learning a lot of those. And it's just a gift too, now that I know I can balance. So when I have my Friday off, I try to protect my Friday day off. Your Friday? Are we not recording on a Friday right now?

41:45 Oh, is it Friday today? Yeah, it's your fault. I'm blaming you. You just came from a conference on a Friday. Those are, these are the exceptional days, which is why when you said Friday, okay, I'm okay with that. I'm not on day off anyway. But next Friday, you're not going to get me. So that's just very clear. It's never perfect.

42:07 Okay, one last question, David. It's going crazy in this world right now, as you probably know. All over the place. What gives you hope? You know, it's so true. And I'll just say the meetings I just came from the past two days at Great Spirit, that was the conversation we were actually having. It's not a secret.

42:25 That's what our conversation was about. The changing world, the changing leadership, the changing policies, the changing presidential declarations, all the policies that are moving in. And most of it is designed to favor a particular group of folks, but at the same time, it's also designed to hurt a group of people into which many of us are in that group of who will be deeply affected by this.

42:49 So to your question of where do I find hope, you know what, where I find hope is still going back to the young people, to the young people who seem to, who are able to grasp and see this moment and say, we have to do something. We're not going to sit in that and just be afraid. There was a young person in our meeting who was still in college.

43:08 He was a college student, one of the younger representatives. And he said, I understand and feel what we are talking about in this meeting. But I'd also like you to not forget that we are watching you as young people. And not only are we watching you, we are listening to you. And please do not discount us. Because we were already talking about where do we find lawyers?

43:29 Where can we find congressional folks? How do we work with politicians? and the whole big stuff. But he reminded us, we are watching and we want to continue what it is that you are doing well. So please include us in your plans, in your conversations. I was just like, almost in tears at the back because he stood up in front of me and said.

43:53 Ein african-american college kid who was telling us, we'd love to be part of what you are struggling with right now because we are here. Don't discount us. We are here. And I'm like, man, that's a great reminder. Instead of us trying to look for like, who is the senator we can call? Who is the congressman?

44:14 You know, how do we fight this in the Supreme Court or where do we do with all of that? It's easy to forget that the power is with the people at the end still. And yeah, when we get mobilized, we can do a lot, change a lot. So that's where I found hope this week and I'm reminded of that image of a young person again.

44:36 One thing, that opportunity and I wish I had all the money and all the time in the world to give him and say, hey, can you guys come and talk to us and tell us what we need to do here? I know. David, thank you. We end our podcast with one question and that is, What question would you like to pass on to our listeners?

44:57 Something to reflect on or something to which the answer would be interesting for you. Or be it a question you'd like to ask maybe young people or other people, Methodists, they should reflect on maybe this coming week. That's a really good question to end with. I know, I have a lot of good questions here. Wow.

45:13 I think one of the questions I would, or a question I would like to ask your listeners or those who are, or who participate in this podcast or have a way of listening to me to ask this question is, Where in your life right now are you able to see yourself being stretched or being pulled and invited in ways by which you have never thought possible before?

45:49 So, I lost connection here, but that's okay. Thank you very much, David, for talking with us. And I'm going to see you again soon, hopefully. Okay, soon. Thank you, Damien. All right, David. Bye-bye. Bye. Wow, what a conversation. I hope you all enjoyed this deep dive into faith, culture, and ministry as much as I did.

46:12 I am just, it was amazing. From the vibrant church life in the Philippines to the unique challenges and joys of serving here in Washington, Today's episode reminds us just how beautiful, diverse, and yet connected the United Methodist Church truly is. But friends, this conversation doesn't have to end here.

46:31 The question is, what stood out to you the most? Have you experienced church in a different culture? Have you heard some encouragement for your faith in times of distress and troubles? Let's keep the discussion going. Find us on social media, holyclubpodcast, and share your thoughts. And hey, if you found this episode meaningful and fun, go ahead and hit that follow button, leave us a review, or share it with a friend who needs to hear this.

47:00 Your support helps us keep bringing these amazing stories to light. So until next time, stay curious, stay faithful, keep the holy conversations going. Vielen Dank fürs Zuhören euch allen. Das war der Holy Club. This was the Holy Club. Thank you. And goodbye. We'll see you next Monday. Music.