Episode 70 |Finding Purpose Through Pain: The Brave Way Home with Ben & Crystal Woods

0:06 Welcome to Lead with Hope, the podcast where we explore the power of hope, leadership, and resilience in today's world. I'm Brandy Kelly, and each week I will bring you stories, insights, and actionable advice from leaders, innovators, and change makers who are using hope as their compass to navigate challenges, create positive impact, and inspire others to do the same. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just beginning your journey, this podcast is here to remind you that no matter the obstacle, hope is the fuel that can drive transformation. So, let's dive in and discover how you can lead with hope. Welcome to the Lead with Hope podcast, the show where we explore what it means to lead with habits, optimism, purpose, and excellence in every area of life. I'm your host, Brandy Kelly, and today I am joined by two remarkable guests whose journey of faith and resilience has touched countless lives, Ben and Crystal Woods. For over 25 years, they've served in vocational ministry in so many ways, from touring musically to campus ministry at the University of Illinois, young adults ministry and local church, and now leading their own non profit organization. They are the founders of the

1:41 Looking Out for the Left Out movement, a ministry that beautifully embodies the heart of hope, inclusion and compassion. Ben Crystal, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. We're glad to be here. So to get the conversation started today, what is bringing joy to your life? Maybe a scripture, a quote as a favorite coffee, something in the simple moments that's bringing joy to your life right now. Joy is is a fun topic for me. I think it's it's I've had a lot of of study about it. And so in my quiet time this week, I've been studying through Colossians. And so it says may be filled with joy, always thanking the Father that he has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people who live in the life. So that's bringing me joy just to think through the fact that God has rescued me, has redeemed me, and has set aside an inheritance for me ahead in heaven that brings a lot of joy to me.

2:43 Yeah, I always think about, well, my mind goes immediately to Hebrews. I love Hebrews and I spent a lot of time in Hebrews because it's it's, it's written to tired and weary wayfarers. And so it's the reminder to keep hope in front of them like a just a holy perseverance. And in Hebrews 10, where it just says, let us hold on swervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. And so that that is language my heart always needs. And it's language that I seek to keep in front of me. And it allows me to see the reminder that joy, joy is a gift, but joy is also a choice because it's so much, it's not like happy happiness, right? Joy, joy is an entirely other category. And it can be found even in the hardest of things. And so I, I would say family, being with my family always, always makes room for joy to be evident, even in the heart. But a little sidebar thing that brings me joy. I love to be in my tree house.

3:52 I spent a lot of time in my tree house. I'm pretty convinced everybody needs a tree house. And, and I hang out with my fish. I have a koi pond and some might think that's absolutely crazy, but I never thought I would be fascinated with just sitting and watching fish swim around joyfully and without a care in the world. And for me, I just love hanging out with my fish. Yeah, Great. Then that's great. We have to find joy in the journey, right? I mean, it is a choice. And sometimes we get so focused on all of the things we have to do and that mindset piece, I have to rather than I get to.

4:34 But just finding joy in the simple things in life, joy in the journey. I love that. Yeah. Because the journey is not always easy. Sometimes it's hard. And I know you have both walked through seasons of deep sorrow, but also seasons of deep purpose. Romans 828 reminds us that God works all things together for good. I love that scripture. It's one of my favorites. So how did that truth shape your story and lead you to the birth of the LOFTLO mission? Looking out for the left out. Well, I mean, I think there's, there's something about Romans 8 that not only is there a lot going on in that, but God works good for those who love him and are called according to his purposes.

5:27 And I think it's important to remember every word of that, but also to remember those seats aren't cheap. Yeah, I believe that with my whole heart. But I also know that you can remember Scripture teaches that God is a God of redemption, and he takes pain and he redeems it. So I can either partner with him in that or I can impede him in that. And so I think Romans 8 reminds us, because it also talks about Romans 8, talks about how we are honestly joining the chorus of creation, longing for Christ's return, for all things to be made right.

6:13 And so it is. It's an invitation to partner with him, to allow the sorrow and the pain and the hurt and the heartache that people encounter here in this journey and set it before him for him to infuse purpose into it, for him to transform it into work that will bring glory to his name and still good to our lives. So I would say that's shaped our life. It's shaped our grief. But you know, like for us, when I think of lookout for the left out, lookout for the left out actually started in prayer on the way to school with our sweet center daughter Kala, when she was seven years old in first grade on Carver St. not far from our house. Just our normal routine of talking about the choices she'd make and the kids she'd be in, the friend that she would be to those who need a friend like her. And honestly, just a simple way of like, how are you going to love?

7:21 Who needs loved well today? And we would talk about that. And then when we turn on Carver St. on the Carver St. we would just pray for God to bear that fruit in her life. And so it was my turn to pray one morning. And we just rotate back and forth and this right before I do, this little 7 year old voice from the back seat just says, Daddy, we should be praying for all these people and all these homes we're driving by every day. And I was just struck by that because sometimes when we're driving, we're not really thinking about praying for other people. Sometimes we're thinking about praying against people when we're driving, depending on the frame of mind you're in. And Kala wanted to pray for people she couldn't even see. And that just it struck me.

8:09 And so the very first morning that it came out of my mouth was in prayer that God would give her the eyes to look out for the left out. And it just stuck. It stuck with her. It stuck with me. It stuck with us as a family. I remember coming home after dropping off Kala at school and telling Crystal like, set a phrase this morning with Kala. And I don't want to forget this because it just felt like a holy moment. And we care deeply about discipleship in our home. We care deeply about the culture of of discipleship that we create in our home. And so we very quickly adopted it as a Teamwoods culture code. And so that phrase just became one of the portable phrases we've tried to put into the hearts of our kiddos so they would know the love of God, that they would know they're loved by Jesus and how to love others like Jesus, to be the ones that like, know the heart of Jesus and the ways of Jesus. And so that phrase has given us a teaching point in the way we disciple our kids.

9:19 And so, but it's always been attached to our calla. And so. Yeah. That is a beautiful, beautiful mission and it provides that purpose for your pain and just a, you know, a wonderful testament to who Calla was. And now she's with Jesus and heaven and her, her legacy lives on through the work that you guys are blessed to do each and every day. And you take this, this mission into schools and churches and communities. How do you how do you share Calla's legacy through this mission?

10:03 I think it's just I'm telling true stories about who Calla is and that the fact that she's just always been known for looking out for the left out, her kindness. We've heard so many stories, countless stories from so many like classmates, parents of classmates who tell us how Calla looked out for their kid or looked out for them has have all of these examples, real life stories of her kindness and inclusion and the impact that she has made on the world. We tell kids all the time, you don't have to wait to be a grown up to change the world. You can start right now and your kindness makes a difference. It can start a wave of a wave of kindness that you never know how big or how far it will reach.

10:46 So we just tell true stories about Calla and we watch it inspire kid after kid in ways that they think, oh, I could look out for the left out in this way, or I could be kind in this way and watch her example inspire them to their own acts of kindness and their own way to change the world. Yeah, and I mean, she's inspired us and I think all we do is share her. We just share her. I think you know, the organization that we lead the Braveway home, I mean it seeks to serve in so many different ways and look out for the left out is one piece under that umbrella. And when I look at all of the work that has been put in front of us, none of it is anything that we sat down with a whiteboard and we're like, let's go do that. But stewarding Calla's legacy is a big piece of the work that we do because God gave her a beautiful calling on her life. And there's ripples of impact coming from that life lived well constantly.

12:07 And so for us, you know, visiting schools and, and churches and conferences and camps and retreats and all kinds of gatherings of, of all kinds. I mean, none of it is anything. We sat down. We're like, let's try that. It's all been. We just go where we're invited. And when we are invited, it gives us an opportunity to point hearts in the right direction. And you know, specifically with lookout for the left out, it was synonymous with Calla way before sickness ever came into her life. And, and, and honestly, just to back up a bit to share Crystal and I've been married for 24 years and we have 3 remarkable kiddos, our Ezra, our Calla and our Lila.

13:02 And we could take all the time that we've got as a dad, I just talk about my babies all day long. But in 2019, as Calla was finishing up her third grade year, she got really sick and as a nine year old entered into a season of the unimaginable. And as a family, we then navigated, began navigating the unimaginable and our world turned upside down as we learned very quickly, very abruptly, she was battling a very rare and aggressive, still yet to be named brain cancer. And so we watched her suffer through pain beyond what I can understand and to literally have a front row seat to how hard that is while her team of doctors are growing significantly because of the rarity of her case and trying to manage her pain and trying to sort through what steps would serve her best.

14:25 But we literally watched. And we prayed and we watched and we prayed for her healing. And we watched people join us. Thousands of people from all over the world fall in love with a girl that we know all the reasons why you would fall in love with her. And she charmed every heart that walked into her room. And they walked out differently because they'd encountered her love and her faith that was that was just fierce. And still that summer, eight weeks after learning that she even had brain tumors, Calla was rescued to heaven and home by her king, right in our arms.

15:15 And so for us, we live life between her rescue and our someday reunion. And we want to walk that out as faithfully as we can. And so Lookout for the Left Out is a piece of Calla's legacy because it was the story of her life Wave for Hard things ever came into it. So, so many people, just as Crystal said, they just started sharing all the ways that their Calla encounter had marked their heart. So when we go into schools, all of that started with an invitation.

15:57 We had no presentation. We just had schools ask us to come talk about Calla and we had to fumble through how do you do that? How do you faithfully, authentically tell her story, Honor all guidelines of how you tell her story, like mindful of you're talking to the hearts of somebody else's kiddos and how do you do that with sensitivity? But all the invitations were, would you just come talk about Calla? So we just started sharing about Calla and her lookout for the left out life. And so we just approach all of it as a mom and a dad, telling true stories about our family and about our girl with the hopes of it encouraging a school family or a church family or just a family family, anyone and everyone that we get to encounter. That if we tell true stories that have inspired us, maybe it can inspire you in the way you demonstrate and live out radical kindness to the people placed all around you. And so it is.

17:05 It's unfolded honestly, one step at a time in ways that we never tried to control or shape. We've just tried to walk it out. Well, first and foremost, I just want to say that I, I'm sorry for your loss, but I also celebrate in the mission that the Lord has placed on your hearts to point everyone towards him. I mean, that's what our purpose is in this life, is to love God and love people. But you were talking about Calla's sickness. And as a parent, I can only imagine you having that tendency to want to fix things, to want to, you know, make it better.

17:46 I mean, that's just our natural human tendency. But again and again in Scripture, it talks about letting go, surrendering to God and giving it to God. And it's hard. It's so hard if you're dealing with the hard things in life. The Lord makes a way and provides you with what you need to get through the heart. And I think about that saying, God does not call the equipped, He equips the called. And that's exactly what he has done through your through your ministry here. And I just celebrate with you that you are pointing so many hearts and souls towards God and they have that that hope of eternal life because of your ministry.

18:37 The Brave Way Home so that the nonprofit that we've started has really just been birthed out of that grief where it's just we're standing broken before God asking if you can still use us. We want, you have our yes already. We want, we want you to work out your purposes in us, even when we don't exactly understand what you're doing. We still, we still love you. We still are called according to your purpose and we trust it that if you've allowed it, you will redeem it. And the Brave Way Home is really a call to remember that this life is temporary and that even the suffering we go through in this life is temporary. That Jesus really is coming back and he really is going to to fulfill every promise he ever made.

19:22 That there really will be a day that he returns and sets all things that are so wrong now He'll set them right and that there will be welcomed into an inheritance and and a Kingdom that we don't deserve, but that Jesus has prepared for us and offered to us through faith in him. What there is no more sorrow or death or crying or pain where all those things are gone forever. And that hope that's set in front of us has really been what's drawn us forward in the purposes he has for us. I think if God had told told me what he would birth from Lookout, from the left for the left out and from Calla's story if he had told me. What we would be doing now, I think I would have just hid under the bed and never come out. But He's been so gentle and so gracious to continue to work out His purposes for us and in US until the day that He returns, Continuing to just allow one step at a time, one day at a time, to just pour out in faithfulness and His strength underneath it.

20:36 And when I look at what He's done, I kind of look back and think, I never would have seen that coming. But one day at a time, He has built this beautiful picture of impact coming from Calla's life and also just continued endurance and obedience in our lives, all because of his purposes working out through through us and are just yielding to what He's doing. Yeah, he's he's sustained. And this is not at all the race we would have chosen like and the beautiful things coming, they don't erase the pain, but they infuse purpose into them. And though it's not the race we would have chosen, it is the race marked out for us.

21:33 And so our choice, you know, run it, walk it, crawl it, but we're determined to finish it. And you know, something Crystal says all the time that is shaped so much of our day-to-day is we don't have a lot of ambition. We are not five year plan people. We are not, oh, hey, where do you want to be at this point? Like, And it's because life does not look anything like what we thought it would, right? And those things can become idols pretty quickly without us even knowing it. We don't have a lot of ambition, but we have a lot of obedience. And so we're just determined to make our our ambition obedience. Yeah.

22:21 And so for us, that's what's I would say allowed us to find ourselves in places we never thought we would be, doing things we never thought we would do, never wondering whether God has his hands on it because we can't take credit for any of it. And so when I look at our calendar, it's just filled with his faithfulness day-to-day from sustaining us and reminding us that getting out of bed is worth it, but also watching from the front row all the good work he's doing around us.

23:04 He's just invited us into it. Now when you take time and you reflect, you look back on where you've been, how far you've come, a lot of the people who listen to this show probably are five year planners. They probably are those people that are striving and and they have ambition and they have this goal out in front of them. Habits. Would you encourage them to implement? First thing I would say, allow heavenly thinking to invade your earthly living. I would say allow the the hard things of this world to point your heart to Him and allow the good things to point your heart to him.

23:52 I would say we're capable of creating really good plans, but they may not be what he has. And I think one of the things that grief teaches us, it's very disorienting, but it's also very reorienting because our eyes are open to a lot of things that we thought were really important that aren't and actually never were. And so it's a very refining thing. And grief has a way of being. I mean, it's universal. We're all familiar with it in some capacity, right? But it's also incredibly unique.

24:34 It's why I would never tell someone even who maybe has a similar story as ours. I would never tell them that I know how they feel. It's universal, it's unique, but it can also be united. And so to me, I would say whether you know all the good or all the hard or somewhere in between, you don't, you don't have to walk through trauma to value mission and the the steps in front of you that are planned out in advance for you to enter into. But if you're going to walk through trauma, you had better value mission. And so to me, the habits come back to keeping the promises in front of you that will pull you forward. Truths like if he will allow it, He will redeem it. Truths like there's no pain that you know that he doesn't and He won't waste any of this.

25:37 So what are the habits that help keep those truths in front of you? To me, I must get to the presence of God quickly before my feet at the floor in the morning because I wake up to two truths. One, Jesus hasn't come back yet. And two, there must be mission at hand and that gets me out of bed. So to me, I want every moment, every moment that I encounter in a day. I want His word being the first thing that washes over me so that I have the right frame of mind to perceive and and to navigate any of my moments throughout a day. So to me, if I'm not anchored in His word, I don't know that I'd have much to offer anyone else.

26:22 That to me is a habit that keeps hope right. Like hope that certain expectation. It helps me keep a firm grip on a a robust definition of what hope is, because I think our instinct is to settle for a lot of insufficient definitions of really substantive words that our hearts need. So that to me would be the primary habit. Yeah, and. I just echo that I think God's Word is such an anchor for our hearts. It's in a world that it's so easy to fix our eyes on ourselves, around our circumstances, or on the things that are around us. The goals even that we have. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we recognize that this world is temporary, that we're just wayfarers wandering, not wandering.

27:10 We are walking through, following a shepherd on on our way to the promised land ahead of us that it it tells us that the things that we walk through, they have purpose. But this is not the end game. This is not the final destination that we have a permanent home set ahead of us that we just walk to faithfully and I think in disappointment with the things of this world, it births this hope in the next and it's what will enable you to walk through even the hardest parts of life in this world. But God's word anchors us with that perspective, an eternal perspective that reminds us that this this world is not our permanent home.

27:54 We're looking forward to a home yet to come. So having your, your hands, your mind, your, your, your thoughts in God's word every day, it, it informs your, your whole life as to how and what direction you are living for, what direction you are pointing your efforts toward. It's it's it's the guide that keeps you going in the right direction. Yeah. And I think as believers, we're called to a forward-looking faith, like we're called to a certainty. And I think that can shape that. I mean, you live here, but you will love there and that will inform the way you live life here. I, I think of CS Lewis, you know, he, the phrase, you know, 'cause sometimes people will say, like, well, don't be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. And I'm, I'm, I'm of the, the camp of what an incredibly bankrupt way to approach life.

29:00 CS Lewis would even say that like the the people who have become so ineffective, the reason why they've been so ineffective in this world is because they've not thought of the next. And his call is to if you, if you aim at heaven, you'll get earth thrown in. But if you aim at earth, you get neither. And I think when you allow heavenly thinking to invade earthly living, I think it allows you to see every parable that Jesus teaches. That's what they are, right? Like, I mean, it is, it is a heavenly truth and an earthly story. Like it all starts unlocking the way we walk out faithfully in obedience.

29:41 Our lives here because we aren't wandering, we're wayfaring. And a wayfarer by definition is someone who walks by foot. So back to that journey that you were talking about in the beginning. There's no other means or mode of transportation to expedite the journey. You walk it out. And I think that's why when you look at Psalm 23, everyone knows Psalm 23, right? Like I though I walk through the valley of this child of death. It doesn't say you run, doesn't say you get to run around. It doesn't say you skip. It doesn't say you get to frolic through it and bebop through it. But it also doesn't say set up camp and live there. It says you walk, but you walk through. And so I think ultimately, some of the habits always #1 being anchored in God's Word so that the promises that He's given are the promises that pull you forward. Because help us, it doesn't mean hopeless and the worst things. They're not the last things.

30:44 And so we have to be mindful of that. But the way we hold on to those habits, we'll begin to see our grammar change. Like you said, we're pretty quick to rattle off all the things we have to do instead of see them through the lens of the things you get to do. And what would that change about your day-to-day if you use language like that, right? So bigger habits, or even smaller habits, they get more habits that aren't all about routines, they're about obedience, and they will shape everything from there. Yeah, and it all starts with your mindset. It's a mission, just as it is written in our church. You know, the the mission statement, Love God, love people, serve all.

31:36 And hurting people, hurt people. There's a lot of people out there that are carrying those scars and that grief and that hurt. And they need a hope that's bigger than what we can provide here on earth. And pointing them to Christ is the way to give them that hope and to help them to heal and, and to take that next step forward in that mission minded mindset. One of the most beautiful parts of your work is how you use your story to help people find belonging. I love that. And I think we were wired for connection. That's how God created us. So what advice would you give to someone who's in the midst of suffering or loss, searching for meaning or trying to build something hopeful out of the broken parts that you talk about? I always think in our disappointment with life, it's really easy to push away from God. But really the answer is not to push away from him, it's to search for him.

32:37 And I think when you search for Jesus, you see the suffering of Jesus and you know the character of who God is that his stuff, his our suffering is not his fault, but that he loves us so much that he would stoop to join us in it, to taste it himself. And so I, I think just searching after the character of who God is to just remind your heart, even in the disappointments that God loves you, that God sees you, that he's not finished with you, that he's not angry with you, that he is a God of compassion and mercy who comes close to us in our brokenness and sits with us in it. He never leaves us alone in it.

33:22 So I think, I think the temptation is to push away from God in our sorrow, but the key to finding hope in it is to come close to him, to really take a look at who he is and and his character and his unchanging love for you even in the middle of your sorrow. Yeah. And I think taking a step like that and reminding yourself he doesn't leave you, he doesn't leave you, he doesn't forsake you, he doesn't abandon you. And I, like I said before, there's no pain that you know that he doesn't, right.

34:06 But I would say another step, building off of that step would be your grief is yours to carry, but you don't have to carry it alone, right? Absolutely. Like you don't have to carry it alone. And I think our culture conditions us downright disciples us to, to white and knuckle our way through something to, to, to the point of we, we will carry everything as if it's all on us to carry by ourselves. And I just, I just don't believe that.

34:47 I believe it is yours to carry you. You have to do your grief work, as people will say, but you don't have to do it by yourself. No. And so to enter into community with others that are familiar with pain beyond their vocabulary, yeah, can be a beautiful way to walk forward, not by yourself, but together. And as hard as it is, it is a privilege to come alongside those people and to help them as they're, they're dealing with those hard times, those difficulties, those struggles. And you know, that is one of the ways I believe God uses your pain for a purpose is by helping other people carry that burden and walk that out. It's hard though sometimes to not push away from God, not push away from people because people are going to hurt you, people are going to disappoint you.

35:46 Sometimes there's betrayal there. You know, even Jesus had a Judas. I'm reading a book right now and it's called Lead Like Jesus and it is such a beautiful book. Jesus Christ gave us the perfect example of what a leader should be. The character is right there in in the text of of that book and also in the Bible. Of course, that's always the best source for our information. As you said, we need to surround ourself with the community, a circle of people that help us to get through the hard to help us to be the best version of ourselves, to be more like Jesus every day. But what advice would you give to people who they've been hurt, they have maybe dealt with some betrayal, and they're struggling to lean into that relationship and that friendship that they need to help them become the best version of who God created them to be? My first thought would be no matter the circumstance, even when we know deep pain, others have betrayed us or have hurt us.

36:55 We all need truth tellers and grace givers. We all need truth tellers and grace givers. I I think trying to walk anything alone is just not what we're designed for. And and even in the pain that we carry from the trail from someone else, we're not designed to carry that by ourselves either. And my guess is if that's where someone is, they already have all the evidence necessary to convince them. This doesn't work to carry it by myself, right?

37:37 I would even say there's an element and it's harder, but there's an element of forgiveness that has to unfold. I'm no stranger to people, but trained me. I'm no stranger to people taking advantage of me and hurting me deeply. I'm not no stranger to that. But allowing, I would say it's possible to forgive someone that isn't even sorry. And I know sometimes we're when we're when we're growing up, we're taught well, like when we can get into a fight with a sibling, right or something.

38:18 And what whatever it is, even at a little age, a young age, sometimes the the pattern is like you say you're sorry and you say I forgive you. And it's like, I ain't sorry, you know what I mean? And then you say I forgive you. But you know, as soon as mom and dad leave the room, it's like, I just wanted you to know, like, I'm coming for you next chance I get, right? Like we follow the routines, but we don't allow the power of them to actually unfold. And I think so much of the time to to forgive someone means to, it literally means to untie them, to untie them. And it's possible to forgive someone who's not repentant, someone who's not sorry or even remorseful, even if they've been caught, right? And that can actually free you because you're not having to hold the rope anymore.

39:14 You're not having to hold the knot in place anymore. It they may stay in the same spot and never walk away in freedom. But the reality is freedom follows forgiveness, but you have to enter into it. And that goes both ways. But reconciliation can't happen until there is repentance and there is forgiveness. The restoration is the whole other process after. And I think what happens is when we are carrying the hurt from other people, what happens is we just try to lump it all into one thing. And we've told ourselves so many times, you say you're sorry, you say I forgive you or forgive and forget. And it's like you're not capable of that. You're not capable of forgetting. Which means that would speak to why Jesus says 70 * 7 when he has asked how many times am I just supposed to forgive? What he's getting at is a posture. Of forgiveness, because otherwise you're going to be holding a whole bunch of ropes to keep a lot of people in knots.

40:20 And they may never be sorry. But the truth is you're the one who's actually being held hostage because your hands are full of holding everyone else. And that makes for the most miserable, miserable way to walk through life. And I'm not saying it's easy. By no means am I saying it's easy, but I would say taking on a posture of forgiveness to those who have hurt us. The only way it's possible is to remember how the Lord has forgiven you, and when you do that, you can forgive people for doing really, really hard things and it will free you. Agree with you.

41:00 It it it's again that act of letting go. It, it's that act of forgiving and moving on and not holding on to those ropes so tightly. But oftentimes when we shift into a fear mode, which when we're holding on to all that stuff, a lot of times that is because we're fearful, fearful of something. And, and that could look different for different people listening to this podcast right now. But if you are fearful and you are holding on, I would just encourage you to let go and to give it to God and that will provide you the freedom that you need to step into your God-given purpose, your God-given calling, which for the two of you is so powerful.

41:47 The mission of looking out for the left out is so incredibly powerful. Can you share a specific story or an example, something you have seen through your mission come to life? It might be a child, a family, a community moment that captures what looking out for the left out is all about. I, I just, my mind goes to the story that God is writing in from Calla's life and and in her legacy, part of what Calla was doing. She started a slime shop to raise money so that she could go on a missions trip to Romania. She learned that they were kids we're living in really dangerous, difficult situations there at a lot of risk and without a lot of people to take care of them. And so Calla just decided she wanted to go to Romania her she wanted her dad to take her so she started a slime shop to raise the funds necessary for her plane ticket and Calla and I built her website together she made all her prototypes together.

43:00 She filled all her orders and and the first day that she put her website up she woke up to like 50 orders for slime. She's totally ready to drop out of school and. Her her eyes were like this is awesome but also very scary. Like I got a lot of work to do. Yeah, so Cal is slimed up. We've we've just always kind of volunteered with her. She and I have made her slime together and she taught us her way to make slime and her way to pack things up and and send them out. And Calla got sick and she was rescued to heaven before she got to go to Romania. But her slime shop has just remained over open. We've just never closed it and we continue to sell.

43:44 Calla's slimes made Calla's way to people who step into this story, who want to be a part of what she had started in Altogether, we've raised over $229,000 through Calla's slime and every single penny of it. It is our privilege to pour that all to the same organization in Romania, to serve the same kids that Calla started her slime shop to serve. It's a reminder that Calla's story is not over, that God has infused such purpose and power into her simple acts of obedience that have resulted in and continued to pour out in this beautiful way to provide for people in Romania, just like Calla's heart was originally pulled toward.

44:31 Yeah, and we've watched. Oh, go ahead. When you go into schools, you share Calla's story and then you make slime with the, the families, the children, the teachers in those organizations in those schools. And you know, you came to our church and you shared the story. And I was so moved by the story, which is why I reached out to you in the 1st place to invite you on the podcast because I think everybody needs to hear this story, this story of there's so much to it. There's there's mission. You guys are so mission minded. You're focused on what is truly the most important thing, which is loving God, loving people and serving all. But it all comes into a culmination when you sit down and you actually make the slime with the people that you're serving.

45:23 And I think that any school leader that is listening to this podcast should reach out to you guys and give you the opportunity to bring this to their school and their organization. Because we need more kindness. We need more belonging. We were wired for connection. And there are so many people out there that are lonely and they don't have that sense of connection and belonging. And we crave that. We crave that because we have. That's how we were created to be. That's what God's, you know, grand plan for us was to be connected first and foremost to Him and then to people. Well, and for us, like, like we've shared before, like we never sat down with a whiteboard and we're like, let's go try and do school assemblies. We just kept getting asked and we were like, we have to learn how to do this.

46:16 And growing up in the 80s, like, I remember dare just say no. And I remember like school assemblies. I remember magic tricks and I remember dudes tearing phone books. Like those are some of my memories. And I remember when the first school asked us, I was like, are we going to walk into a gymnasium with 700 kids that are expecting magic tricks? Like I don't what, what can I say? What can I not say? I can't skip the hard parts, but how do I authentically tell Calla's story, honor her, but also honor all the the obvious guidelines of how you share in a public school and with confidence that it will serve these these kids. And what we learned pretty quickly is that kids don't need you to skip the hard parts.

47:15 They know hard parts. What they need are examples of people who know hard parts and still have a way through. And what we have learned over and over and over again is the simple approach of just being a mom and a dad. Telling kiddos that they are a treasure, that they are a gift, that they matter and so does the person sitting next to them and the way they treat them changes everything. Because the truth is, goodness, we We can all go back to the halls of high school, or the lunchroom in middle school or even the playground at recess in elementary school, and we will not remember all the things that everyone accomplished.

48:01 What we will remember is how people chose to treat us right. That's what we will remember is who was good to us and who wasn't. There's that much power in your choice to to show kindness, to live kindness, and to love people that way. And all we do is just tell true stories of how Kala has done that. And we have that opportunity to remind them they don't have to wait to be an adult to change the world. Your choices now matter now because you matter now. And so all we've done is when we teach, lookout for the left out and then we spend the whole day visiting classrooms.

48:43 I think that's what's been so beautiful. We didn't even know you could do that until the principal asked us if we would. And we were like, sure. And then we were like, we need those are so beautiful. They were like, we need to tell everybody that we're willing to do that, right. We've we've taught 187 school assemblies in over 140 schools and we have been in over 1300 classrooms in the last two and not quite half school years. We have got to teach lookout for left out to over 47,000 students in schools. And one thing we did not, I don't know why we didn't see it coming, but that was the slime days that came after because everybody wanted to work for Calla Slime shop. They wanted to volunteer and they wanted they wanted to be a part of what she'd started.

49:39 So yeah, we, we have learned how to make slime with several hundreds of kids at the same time. And I remember the first school that asked us, I was like, we don't know if this will work. Like if this tanks, we all go down together. That's what happens. Like if we just nobody throws anybody under the bus, we're all in this together, good or bad. And it literally went so beautifully. It became the blueprint for what now has been how we've made slime with over 12,000 students in schools. We've made over 8000 lbs of callous slime written in her handwriting with thousands of kiddos all over the place, and every bit of it has been an example of how it's not about slime.

50:29 Slime is just a reminder about the open eyes, the open heart, and the open hands behind it. Our eyes being open to see the needs of others, our hearts being open to feel the needs of others, and our hands being open to meet the needs of others. That's how you look out for the left out. That's how you love people. Well, and I've learned more about slime than any grown man would ever think they needed to, but I've learned it all from a very very special 9 year old girl. So it's a privilege to work for her slime shop. And you're expert slime makers now, I'm sure, right? Yeah, you can teach people to make slime all over the world. Yeah, we just got home from Egypt and Oh my. Absolutely wild and whimsical and wonderful. And yeah, we, we've made so much slime with so many students in schools in Egypt.

51:25 And and again, just a beautiful thing to watch it serve as such, a reminder of things that matter most. Yeah, I'm in awe of what God has done through callous story and it gives me hope. That is what's giving me hope is hearing stories like this, where God is at work each and every day and the big things and the little things too. So what is giving the two of you hope right now in the world? The vision of the brave boy home is that we are just wayfarers, faithfully following through this world with our eyes fixed on Jesus and our hearts set on heaven. I think for me, hope is always just going to be tied up with Jesus coming back and with all of the things that he set in front of us, that he doesn't leave us alone to walk it by ourselves. He's walking with us, but that he's just given us this heart to run to other people who have been disappointed with things in life and hurt by some of the the brokenness in our world right now.

52:35 To remind them that home is up ahead. That Jesus is not finished with you, That there is great joy ahead even though for now you have to endure many trials for a little while. But that that every promise He's made, he will keep. And so for us, for me, hope is being able to wrap my arms around fellow wayfarers to remind them this world is not our permanent home. We're looking forward to a home yet to come. That Jesus is faithful, that he is close and that he keeps every promise. And he's not finished yet. Yeah. And. When you see people live differently because they've encountered substantive hope, certain expectation, well, that just spurs you on, right? Yes.

53:26 It begets more hope. And so I feel like we have example after example after example of moments where people are entering into things that they never thought they ever would because of a hope that pulls them forward because it's anchored in the right place and it's anchored to the right someone. Yeah, so. Yeah. So for the listeners, if you're going through a hardship, a hard time, you're feeling broken or hopeless, I want you to hear this. I want you to hear that God's not done. He's not finished yet. He is the hope.

54:10 He is the source. And so I want to encourage you to lean into that, maybe dust off that dusty Bible, open it up because the promises are all in that book. Start there. That's a habit that you can count on each and every day. So Ben and Crystal, for our listeners who want to learn more about this powerful mission of looking out for the left out, how can they get in touch with you? Yeah. I mean, I think one of the there's a lot of things that we're a part of. And so maybe the easiest way, the bravewayhome.com is a it's kind of like a gateway to all things that Team Woods is up to our eyeballs in.

55:00 And that's how we serve in a lot of different settings for schools. Look out for the left out.com is a great place to go because that's become its own just movement of sorts. And so that's a great resource if they're looking to get their hands on some slime love like calla.com. But each of those kind of gives a pathway into everything else that we do. So I know it sounds crazy to have three different websites, but they all kind of came about at different times. Love like Calla is the website that that Crystal and Calla built and designed together when she was 9. And so when you when you go there, it looks like a nine year old did it because a nine year old did it.

55:46 And we've sought to keep it that way because that's so precious to us. So, but look out for the left out.com is the way for schools to get connected and everybody else the brave way home, whether it's a church or it's learning about some of the other work that we're doing or even connecting with our podcast and and whatnot. That's the easiest way. It's been a wonderful conversation full of hope and God's faithfulness, and I just pray blessings over you and your ministry. And again, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thanks for tuning in to Lead with Hope, where we share stories and strategies to help you rise, lead, and redefine what's possible. If today's episode inspired you, please take a moment to like, subscribe, and leave a review.

56:39 Your support helps us reach more leaders like you who are ready to lead with heart, purpose, and resilience. Don't forget to visit sparkhopeedu.com for resources, upcoming events, and tools to help you build a culture of hope in your life and leadership. We're so grateful to be part of your journey. Until next time, keep leading with hope.