pod 3 - pt 1

Jesse and Seb are hosting a podcast about being Christian in an un-Christian world. They discuss Trent's testimony, including trusting in God, battling with addictions, and navigating an un-Christian world. Trent shares his journey, starting before COVID, going through family issues, living in a youth home, and struggling with depression. Despite the challenges, Trent's faith has grown, thanks to his involvement in youth group and the support of a friend named Kurt. My name is Jesse, my name is Seb, and welcome to the Sinners But Saved Podcast. And today we're going to be speaking about being Christian in an un-Christian world without God. Go to the front, Trent. The man in the back is here today. How are we doing? Yeah! So good. Yeah, it was definitely intentional. But today we're going to be speaking a bit about Trent's testimony, and Trent's going to be diving deep into some pretty intense topics, but the topics we'll be going over today, there's a few we're going to be speaking about, trusting in God, battling with addictions, and then obviously being Christian in an un-Christian world. I feel like, sorry, I don't want to interrupt you, with Trent, there's a lot of Christians who don't have physical proof in their testimonies of God changing their lives, and a lot more of the time it's a spiritual battle, like in the everyday, but I can definitely see in Trent, there's so much. Trent has come so far, just being an outsider, looking at his life, not even like, because I know, obviously I'm friends with him, but even just seeing how he's gone as a person in all ways of life, especially in the past few years, and what we've learned about it in his testimony has been absolutely amazing, he's definitely, he's a gun for God, and it's so good. But I'm speaking on you, do you want to speak about your testimony, do you want to get an introduction, and then we'll ask questions about it? Yeah, well my name's Trent, I became a Christian about, well I got baptised two years ago, basically two years ago from Sunday, or yesterday, being a Christian for, say two and a half, so, yeah, like I've, so, yeah, like a proper Christian, because I've always known about it, but I was kind of like, dipping my feet in to start with, and by the way, I would say there is a thing, such thing as a proper Christian, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, but yeah, keep going, would you just want me to, yeah, keep going, we'll ask questions with you, yeah, alright, so, I'd say my faith journey started, or my story, started for, it was just before COVID, so, that's when I met you, I met you just before, were you on that youth camp, you were on that, not youth camp, the school camp, there was dirt bikes and stuff, we were at that campsite, I got yelled at by that kid, yeah, yeah, yeah, bro, you were crazy, you thought it was a menace, I was a menace, I was crazy, the first story I ever heard about this guy, was, I was at school, and I was about to go to Wycliffe, oh no, I just leaked our school name, cut that out, cut that out, sorry guys, I leaked our school name, yeah, yeah, I actually leaked like our locations, but anyways, pretty much, I was going to another school before I moved to my current one, and I met Seb and Trent, and the first thing I ever heard about Trent, is that he punched some kid in the face at a youth group, and now that guy, listen, listen to the podcast, so, do you want to say some apologies, no, okay, okay, okay, continue, continue, yeah, so, I'd say my story starts just before COVID, so, at that camp, so I had that camp, came home, there was already some issues, like at home, mainly because I was a rat bag, but, did you have like a crazy mullet as well, oh my, no, no, no, we're not up to that yet, oh, okay, don't wear up to the crazy, we're up to the emo, like, turn around, no, no, no, okay, I wasn't emo, I had an overtone, and it was, collapse, like, collapse, do you want me to get a photo up on this, no, no, no, no, you won't, no, you won't, um, and, so, is this a Kojibob era, oh, sorry, this is Gamertag, Gamertag, um, so, then, um, after that camp, came home, um, uh, incident happens, and then, basically, I was, uh, out of home living at a family member's, yeah, and, um, couple things happened there as well, and then, I finally moved out of there, and I was in a youth home, yeah, youth home era, everybody remembers that, you lose a youth home arc, yeah, bro, crazy, yeah, crazy things happen there, um, like, you know, started getting into alcohol, vaping, how old were you then, like, 13, 14, no, I was, 14, I think, yeah, okay, can I ask you a question, did you have a relationship while you were in the youth home, or not really, sorta, something happens, um, nothing, like, bad happened, like, no, no, immoral stuff, but, um, it was just, you mean relationship with Jesus, yeah, yeah, like, oh, were you, like, in a relationship with Jesus, oh, come on, Alec, oh, no, keep it in, keep it in, keep it in, Alec's gonna be like, is this guy serious, no, keep it in, keep it in, keep it in, no, no, because I just named her, bro, I just named her, I was like, I was like, why is she going so deep, keep that in, keep that in, I might, I might, if you see this, anyway, um, but did you have a relationship with Jesus as well in the youth home, um, sorta, so, I started coming to youth group, um, well, I'd always been going to youth group, I'd always been going to Springwood Burps, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, yeah, so, um, I've always kind of been, you know, I always know about Jesus and Christ, but I went to, uh, I've been, I've always gone to youth group since, like, year five, um, I went to this youth group at, where you guys went to school, they used to do it in the hall there, and, um, didn't a lot of, like, the guys from our class also go there, yeah, it was C3, everyone knows, what, no, dude, dude, I was literally thinking, dude, we can have C3, no, stop, stop, bro, I can say C3, you know how many C3 churches there are in the world, there's hundreds of them, I can name C3, I'm gonna name a lot of churches and stuff, because if I don't name places, it doesn't, true, okay, alright, we'll just, we'll cut part of this out, okay, so, yeah, um, I've always, like, known about Jesus and that stuff, um, that stuff, but, um, uh, you know, I went to a youth group since year five, and I kind of went to, jumped around a bit to different youth groups, yeah, and then I went to, um, a youth group where that incident happened, oh, yeah, the punching incident, yeah, that incident happened, and then, um, they didn't say I wasn't allowed to come back, but they said it's probably not a good idea, so then I didn't go, this was COVID, by the way, yeah, like, 2020, no, no, no, way before that, it was, like, I thought COVID was 2020, yeah, yeah, it was, it was whenever, whenever youth groups used to do it at their houses in lockdown, that would have been 2020, wasn't that just after the first lockdown, because it was, yeah, it would have been, like, after the first lockdown, yeah, and so I, um, that incident happens, I didn't go back to that youth group, and then, um, you know, COVID and stuff, so I was just at home most of the time, yeah, I used to do mountain biking quite a lot, uh, I don't do it in summer, oh, yeah, well, yeah, you'll hear that later in the story, yeah, and then, um, yeah, and then after that had this school camp, yeah, and then after that came home, uh, this incident happened at home, and then, uh, I learned, I went and lived in my auntie's for about three months, I think it was about three months. Wait, did you already say this? Yeah, but I circled back, I went back in time a bit, yeah, and then, um, after that, uh, you know, because I was a ratbag, incidents happened at my family member's house as well, yeah, and then, uh, went to a youth home, and here's where the story will slow down, because there's a lot that happened over there. I remember we called it in, like, our little framework, we called it the youth home arc, because there was, right, it was like this, it wasn't a long period, it was like every single day something was happening, it was crazy, because originally it was bad, like, I was, like, me and some of the other boys were quite young, we used to joke about it a little bit, still do, maybe, maybe a bit, yeah, but then, um, I think it was when we realized, like, some of the other things had happened, we were like, oh, geez, like, it was, it kind of, I, it was eye-opening, but do you, do you want to, like, elaborate on that era? So, um, got there, there was kind of, like, a routine, so you'd go to school, so I had to travel, it was probably about two hours fully of travel to get to school, because I have to walk to the bus stop, get the bus stop to the station, train it, and then walk from the station for about half an hour. That's crazy. Well, maybe not, maybe, like, 20 minutes, but, um, and then they'd do, like, everybody go out and do shopping, like, they'd take everybody out in, like, a van, everyone would go and do, like, shopping, like, not for ourselves, we'd just, like, because they can't leave us there by ourselves, um, we're trying to eat the fake berries, I'm wondering what it is, oh, yeah, keep going, um, and, yes, they had, like, a routine kind of thing, and it was, like, you had your own room, you had to, like, lock your room when you left, because a lot of the kids that were there were pretty rough kids, um, and a couple of things happened while I was there, um, I was very depressed while I was there, in that, in that time period, um. Did you feel, like, at this point, like, God was starting to call you into a relationship with Him? No, not yet, no, because I was still going to youth group, because, Kurt, shout out to Kurt, this guy would drive me, it's about half, or, like, 25 minutes from where our youth group was, um, and he'd drive me every Friday back to, back to the home, and, like, and he lived in the other direction as well, yeah, he lived in a complete other direction, now I live, like, two minutes away from him, um, and, yeah, so he used to take me home, and, like, shout out to Kurt, because if he didn't do that, you know, I probably wouldn't be where I am today at all, because I wouldn't be going to youth group, um, and then, uh, as I said, I was depressed, so there was an incident where I, you know, I don't know if I can say it, because I might get in trouble, but, yeah, you can probably guess what might have happened, yeah, and, um, a couple of other incidents happened, not major ones, just, you know, um, there was a major one where some kid, he stole, like, something from my room, and so, maybe a while, like, some kid randomly, you just come in your room, and it's, like, gone, yeah, yeah, so I was at school, and he skipped school or something, or he got suspended, as he was at the home, somehow he got into my room, and then, I don't even remember what he took, but then, when I got home, I found out, and, mind you, not like this anymore, me, I'm not like this anymore, yeah, I went into his room, and I let, I got it back, I got it back, yeah, but I can remember when this stuff was happening, like, I was, I didn't fully understand it, and that's why I felt bad, because once, I remember when you went through that depressive period, I remember you messaged, you reached out to me and some of the other guys, and that was when I kind of was like, oh, like, I need to stop, yeah, like, I need to stop, like, joking about this, because it kind of, like, I realized that this is actually, like, a lot more serious than I thought it was, um, and then, I was like, oh, damn, but, yeah, it was intense, but, yeah, like, I don't, like, you're stronger, but I don't know how I would have done that, because I, like, struggle to, like, live without my family for, like, a couple days, like, stay on the camp or something, but, like, fully, like, leaving for a bit, and trying to, it's almost like, that, that must have been, like, alone, like, very, very, like, that's why I was so low, like, because I didn't feel like I had anyone, you know. And, especially, like, that wouldn't have helped by us, us making fun of you, either, like, I was going to say, like, younger guys, like, we, we like to annoy each other, just, it's funny, but, but, like, like, if you've got to relate, if you've got a friendship, friendship group that's just built on, on banter, it's not, not a good, it's not, it's not a mature friendship, because you should be able to check up, but if you're just bantering all the time, you know, people are going to get, and keep in mind, we still make mistakes, yeah, I make mistakes all the time with my banter, like, continuously, yeah, I know, and then, but, like, you learn from it, though, it's good, it's good to learn from it, but, yeah, but, so, you were in the youth home, yeah, and then there was a bunch of incidents that happened, and then, while you're in the youth home, did, was there, like, a sense of God yet, or not really? Um, I mean, when I went to youth group, yeah, like, definitely, I was, that's when I started stepping my toe in, um, because, I mean, I'd say, stepping my toe in back when I was still at home and all that, and then, you know, once I got out of home, yeah, went downhill a bit, quite a bit, and then you went back, you went back home? Um, eventually, so, when you were at a foster home for a little bit? No, it wasn't really, um, I was at, um, some people that we knew, they were like, yeah, he could come and stay here, because there's a time limit at the youth home, it's three months, yeah, you can't just stay there forever, um, and I, I, yeah, because that youth home period, there's a lot that's quite blurry for me, because it's been, like, I've forgotten about it, or to do with therapy, or, you know, I'll just take it out of my life, so it's not in my head anymore, which is a good thing, because there's probably a lot more I could elaborate on, but I just don't remember half of it. That's great, though, it's good that you've, like, moved on from a hard period like that. Um, and then, I was at, yeah, these people that we knew, um, this was lockdown, like, peak lockdown, so, yeah, everything was shut down, um, I was still going to school, because it was just down the road, so, um, crazy jump, going from two-hour travel to literally a two-minute walk to school, um, and I was still going, um, I had my boy, Louis, who'd come as well, that was, yeah, that was good times, I won't lie, when I was at school, um, because, let's be honest, at the current school that me and Jesse are at now, yeah, yeah, let's be honest, he did work in lockdown. We were, what, year nine? And, like, no one actually, no one did any work in lockdown, I swear. I joined, I joined a Zoom, and I filled my mic with music, and I had math, and I was like, I said to Sam, I hate math, and my teacher was just, like, looking at me, and my screen was, like, but, you know what I did once, we were in a call, and, um, we were in English, and that was the teacher, and one of my friends, Noah, I kept calling him on Discord, but it was, like, he would drop out of the Zoom call, and, like, Mrs. McKenna was like, why are you laughing, Jesse? And then we said nothing, and then he's like, no, someone say something, and then Noah was like, Jesse keeps calling me over and over in full snitch to me, but, um, it was a good time. Jumping back onto the main thing. Yeah, so then, um, you know, I was a ratbag, obviously, at school as well, so if you're a ratbag outside of school, you're a ratbag in school. Are we up to, like, year nine now? Yeah, this is, um, and then, I don't know if I, yeah, the incident. You don't have to elaborate. No, um, it wasn't, like, it didn't actually, like, I didn't beat up anyone or anything like that, um, yeah, it was, um, yeah, incident that happened, and then I got expelled after that from school. Yeah, I remember that. Mind you, this is in lockdown. I think I'm the only person in history to get kicked out of lockdown. How do you even do that? You're at home, and you're still getting in trouble by teachers. Um, and, yeah, so, I got expelled, and then, because I got expelled, I got kicked out of that place, and then I went to stay at my grandma's, and I got to the point where I was, kind of, like, I'll just have to go home, like, because it wasn't, it wasn't the safest place for me, and, I mean, I know some people might be watching this, like, elaborate, but, um, not, yeah, like, yeah, let's just cut that out. Yeah, um, yeah, so, I got expelled from that place, uh, from school, and then got kicked out of that place, because I got expelled, and then, um, I stayed at my grandparents' for about three months as well, and I got to the point where it was, like, you know, I got nowhere else to go, so I just had to go home, um, even though it wasn't the safest place for me, um, because what was happening when I was back at home was I would be, you know, a rat bag to, you know, a rat bag at home, and then, you know, situations would happen, that kind of thing. Yeah. Um, do you think those situations where you, like, I don't know if you were, like, getting angry or annoyed or something, do you think that opened your eyes to, like, needing Jesus? Do you feel like you were, like, fighting for something that only Jesus could, like, provide? Well, back then, I really was, like, I don't even think about Jesus at all, like, literally zero. Um, you know, like, I wouldn't be thinking... I'd be living like someone who doesn't know Christ, that's how I was living. Yeah, yeah. Um, like, I mean, at all. Like, I went to youth group and that, but I basically just went to hang out with people. Yeah, yeah, because would you say you were, like, living for the world, basically? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 100%. And I rate that into, like, I feel like a lot of people would be, like, yeah, yeah, I think the church is honest. Yeah, I've also dabbled living with the world, like I said before. Yeah, because it's, like, I don't, I don't really care if people know what I've done now, because it's, like... Because you're, you're now a better person. Exactly, I'm not, I'm a different person now. People just move to you, and we've seen that as well. Because I was going to say, you remind me of, um, of, um, we're speaking to this about permissive will, because I know someone else was actually speaking. Yeah, about permissive will. You remind me a lot about permissive will, um, and permissive will, um, if we wanted to jump into it, um, which I didn't even know until a week ago, until this guy asked about it. I didn't know about this until 10 minutes ago. Basically, permissive will is when God sometimes will allow bad things to happen, so that you can grow and become a stronger man and woman of God, and the person that reminded, like, who I'm reminded of in your story is definitely Joseph. So, if you don't know the story of Joseph, Joseph, um, was loved by his father, had a big family of brothers, um, had this massive colorful coat, um, but his brothers became jealous. He got beaten, um, sold off as a slave, um, to, I think it was Egyptians or something like that. And then eventually, um, he went from being the slave and ended up being the king of Egypt. He was enslaved and he got wrongfully accused, put in prison. Yeah, even worse. And then he gets put in second in command of Egypt, which leads to, like, the exodus. Yeah, and then his, um, his brothers pulled up in Egypt, found him, and he doesn't even have, like, anger towards them. But the thing that reminds me of that is, like, you had all this stuff from the youth home, um, from the things at home, from, like, this anger and this built up of mixed emotions, and then we'll speak about, um, addictions later. And then all of a sudden, it was like, of course, like, all this stuff was happening. And it might have felt, like, really sucky that God was just letting all this happen in your life, and it's like, oh, where is God? And it can feel like something like that a lot. Um, but it was cool to see that when you leaned on God, and when you trusted in God, then that's when you saw the things shift. Because you've gone from, like, like, I've seen in the past couple of years, you've gone from, like, this guy that you didn't know much about Jesus, and that you're quite lost, and, like, I remember getting lots of messages from you, and calls from you, like, because you felt quite, like, alone. And now you're, like, at, um, Youth Alive Academy studying. Yeah, and I ghost you now, because I don't want to talk to you. Yeah, yeah, he's moved on. He's, he's a celebrity now, but not, but it's so good. Like, you're now, like, doing everything from God. You're a man of God, most importantly, and that nothing is ever going to take that away from you. And I think that, that is a testimony. That is the testimony. Like, I, like, that is, like, so sick. I think just even speaking about it proves that as well. Yeah. This is so, like, courageous from Trent. Jesse and I have things that we, we, like, we struggle with, and we don't, like, really feel comfortable talking about it yet, but Trent's just laying, like, I mean, I'm sure there's some things, but he's being so, like, so open with it. Yeah. Yeah. I, um, I want to open into the first topic. I want to open to trustfulness in, oh, you're not done? Okay, keep going, keep going, keep going. My bad, my bad. Yeah, so, went back home, and then it, it was very weird, like, a year being out of home, and then you just go back, and it's supposed to be all normal. Yeah. Um, at this point, I, I hadn't quite given my life to Christ. Like, I'd done the thing at youth where people, like, if you want to follow, yeah, like, hand up, and I'd done it, like, three times, and I, what I was doing, I was waiting for something to change, and nothing changed, and I think that's what you're talking about, where God has put me in that year to quit me for the rest of my life. Um, and, because I feel like to get, because we're talking about the armor of God, to get the armor of God, sometimes you're going to have to go through a battle to actually get a good one. Sometimes to have faith means you have to go through a battle of, like, everything's going wrong, I have to build my faith then, so then I can build my faith through everything else, or the Word of God, I can use the Word, the sword of His Word now against all the things in my life, so now I can do it all the time, and not just in this moment, and I feel like, especially with you, um, we'll get into trustfulness, faith, um, so much, like, the sword, um, the chest plate, absolutely, like, I can see in those, um, many years that God was, like, slowly building this equipment of the body, the armor of God, so then that you can go into all of life now, being, like, you've conquered it, you know, you've beat it, you've defeated the devil in those areas of life, of course they might still affect you in some ways, but now you have what God has gifted you through that, and you've grown, and now you're a man of God, um, which is, is amazing, like, that is crazy, like, that is so sick, yeah, yeah. I think, were you saying something, like, you, um, what was it, it was like, you, you were waiting for change, but you realized, like, you have to make the decision as well? Yeah, well, because I thought I was, like, oh, I made the decision, but I didn't change anything in myself, and I thought, oh, no, God'll just, God'll, God'll just do it, you know, I don't have to pray or read my Bible, God'll just do it, um, and obviously He didn't, because I wasn't praying or reading my Bible, um, and then it got to, so I was out of school, like, completely out of school for the last bit of, what was that, 2021? Yeah, it would have been. Yeah, 2021. Huh? All right, well, we'll stop here, and then I'll just cut back to what I'm saying. That's already 25 minutes, that's crazy. I think this could go over an hour, but I don't, I don't want to do, I don't want to do two parts again, I think we should just leave it at, um. We'll let, we'll let, like, we'll do time stamps so people know when Trent's, I mean, it's all about Trent's thing, but mainly when the story ends. Oh, wait, we just need to, we've got, like, an hour and a half still. Oh, yeah. Calm, it's actually an hour and 12 minutes. I don't care, I don't, I don't care. 22, sorry. Oh, yes, I'm fixing this mic up, this is so annoying. Bro, this pillow is doing marvels here, this is a wonderful pillow.